Giving this blogging a try...

 I can't believe I am blogging.  It's been like a year.  We are all moved into our new beautiful home in MA.  During football season Steve hung his flag ON THE HOUSE.

 I live right near where they make Yankee Candles...yes my closet is FULL of them.

 We also live near ESPN.  Steve wants to work here!!!

 The fall here was breathtaking.  This is our street.

 These are all the neighbors on the street.  We had a Halloween party. 

 The week before Christmas we went to NYC.  While our boys were off to basketball games in the big city us girls we to see the Rockettes...WOW!

 We rode bikes around the entire 7 mile loop of Central Park.

 These are some wrapped Christmas gifts I gave out.  The pine came from the forest in our back yard.  I loved the simplicity of it all.

 We have a gas fireplace you just switch on with a light switch but with all the birch trees around here I had to bring some indoors.

 On New Year's Eve I went shopping and bumped into these cool chairs for the island...my kids actually begged me to get them.  At first I wasn't sure but they have grown on me.

 I am having a ball in my new house.  I painted the back of my front door blue...

and counted our steps to the second floor.  It's been so much fun.  Well maybe I'll get back into this blogging thing.

Hand Warmers

I have never lived anywhere that is as hot as California.  We have been at 110 degrees a few days and well over 100 for days.  It's a dry heat but boy does that sun sting.  I am more tan this summer than I ever have been.  Even though it's 110 degrees I am getting ready for winter in Massachusetts...I made hand warmers.  So fun, easy and everyone enjoyed picking out their own fabric.  All it was was 5 inch squares of fabric lined with  2 squares of felt sewn together and stuffed with rice.  Heat for 30 seconds in the microwave and there is a cute way to fight off frostbite.

Dresden...

I enjoyed quilting another dresden plate.  They are really fun.  I think they are beautiful.  With this, I made a huge Euro sized pillow case for Madi's room.  I need to go shopping to get the pillow to fit inside.

Needle And Thread

Every chance I get I have been cross-stitching.

Needle book

 I needed a place to keep my needles and scissors...so I made a sweet book to keep them in.  Everywhere I go I take my crochet, cross-stitch, hexagons, stitchery...  And I am constantly loosing my supplies, and everyone else is always finding my needles in the least likely places you would think to look.  Not anymore.

 I used thick wool felt for the page inside to hold the needles and elastic in the back to slide the scissors into place.

 The back has a little patchwork.

I am tickled over the little white button on the front that's used to close the book.  Awww and what a sweet hexagon flower on the front.  I just love this little thing.  It's already gotten some use the last couple of days.

Strawberries For Gifts

 We are gifting delicious California strawberries to Ben's middle school teachers.  Tomorrow is the last day of school!!!

I bought a large flat of strawberries so there were plenty for us to eat too.  The kids sat outside and enjoyed a whole pint.  Now lets get summer started!

crochet rug

I crocheted my first rug.  I LOVE it.  It's so pretty!!!  I can guarantee this is not the last rug I will be making.

A Week Full Of Gifts

 Things around my house have been busy lately.  Last week was Teacher Appreciation Week and I enjoy making a small gift to give each day during that week.  This year we had Madi's teacher and 3 Middle School teachers for Ben to make things for.  To kick off the week we gave these M&M filled jars.

 On Tuesday we gave decorated Starbucks treats followed up on Wednesday with juiced up Hershey Kisses.

 Thursday we gave a healthier treat...an apple.  For Friday a yummy orange creamsicle cookies all tagged and bagged but I don't have a photo.

I would like to know who chose to have Nurse's Week the same week as Teacher's Week?  Madi has the sweetest nurses that help her with her Diabetes during school hours.  So I made them each a bag of "scabs and pus".

California

For the last six weeks Madi's whole 4th grade class has been working on reports about the great state of California. Tomorrow is the big day for the kiddos...all the reports are due. We as a family have learned all about California while helping Madi with her report. This afternoon Madi and I made oatmeal cookies filled with plump California raisins in them, for her whole class to enjoy tomorrow. I printed out lots of little California state flags to attach to each cookie for a great California effect. This was lots of fun!!!!

Basketballs....

We are taking snack to tomorrow's basketball game. So I made the yummiest iced sugar cookies...my Grandma Kiehl's recipe. I juiced them up by sliding the cookies into clear bags and stapled basketball ribbon to them. Ben and Madi are so excited to share these tomorrow.
The 4 little feet that I made...they are getting big.

My First Afghan...

Finally it's done...my first afghan. I have been crocheting this since Thanksgiving. Boy is it a lot of work! It's big, close to a single bed size but not quite. It's heavy. It's cream with a dark plum in colors. I am in love with it. I just finished it this morning but already to start another...hmm, what colors/pattern?

B is for baby, boy....

My brother and his wife have a new baby boy so I thought he could use a set of cute bibs. Before becoming a full-time mother, my sister-in-law taught 1st grade, so I thought she would really enjoy the Dr. Seuss fabric.

I love Dr. Seuss!!! I have yards and yards of Dr. Seuss fabric too. I found this at the fabric market in Dongdaemun, Korea this past summer. It was so cheap, at least a quarter of the price it is in the quilting stores here in America, so when I saw it I knew it was a steal and bought TONS of it. Glad I did.

Winter

My WINTER dinning room. I love how simple and easy to keep clean it is.

Remember my big beautiful pine cones I picked up at Lake Tahoe over Thanksgiving. I love them so much I think they may stay out all year.

Steve got me this HUGE picture of New York City. NYC is our favorite city in the world...over Vancouver, Canada, Tokyo, Paris... I just love this picture of the city with the clouds and the colors. It's on the Brooklyn Bridge and you can see the Empire State....it was only 18 months ago when my family went to the top.

I moved my subway art into our family room. It's one of my favorite things too.

Another new kitchen towel. It's just a cheap flour sack towel with pretty fabric sewn to the end and I did a cute running stitch for extra cuteness. I started another on last night I hope to finish today. I want to make a pretty stack for my kitchen.

"My Room"

Yes, I have my own room and I love it. It's full of all my favorite stuff and even complete with an HD flat screen...I can spend all day in here. My room is also home to the PS3 so often times the rest of the fam keeps me company. It's a regular thing to have the kids ask me to go in the craft room with them...they like me to craft and watch them play at the same time.

This fun print is what welcomes you when you enter my room.

We have only been stationed here 4 months but I sure feel like it's home sweet home.

My Polish Cheese Lady

Isn't she a beauty? I absolutely love her to death. So when I found a stitchery pattern to make I thought it would be so fun to make a pretty towel for my kitchen.

I have TONS of polish pottery. It's all I bake in. It's the best and so beautiful.

My first trip to Poland: was back in April 2003. It was right after the Shock And Awe we had on Iraq. We were living in Germany. My husband was an Air Force Weather Forecaster attached to the Army's 1st Armored Division...who was among the first to drive from Kuwait to Baghdad. 1 week before Steve left he said if I wanted to go to Poland I better just go because the military had no idea how long they would be in Iraq. Steve was on a waiting list to ship to Kuwait...it took way over a week to to send everyone. So at lunch that day I mentioned I wanted to go to my neighbor and she said "lets go!" We made plans to leave that night or the next morning around 3 am. Well we were having so much fun that evening making our lists of what we wanted to get and picking up lists from a few of the girls around us that at 10 pm we were wound up and didn't think we could get to sleep. So we decided to shower and leave. OMG...my neighbor didn't want to drive but said we could take her van. I still laugh. I jumped in her Japanese made van with the steering wheel on the right. Now I lived in Japan and knew I could easily get back in the swing of driving like that but the kicker was the roads, German roads are like USA roads you drive on the right. So I drove around the block 3 times to get a feel for the crazy ride and then we hit the autobahn. So after being up all day taking care of my two babies all day I drive ALL the way to Poland in a Japanese van on the autobahn. We were so delirious by the time we got there. But boy did we shop!!!! We filled that van up! After shopping all day we started feeling sick. To top it off we got lost...they had closed the main road to get back to the border so we had to drive through neighborhoods. It is 3rd world and people were herding their goats. We were almost out of gas. We found a gas stationed with 10 or more cars in line. It was a gas station that looked like something in the ghetto in the 1950's with only 1 pump. The locals were starring at us. I remember I felt so sick and was so hungry. After crossing back into Germany we stopped in the town of Dresden to eat at McDonald's. We did make it home before dark that next night. Steve was so nice and had some food waiting for me so I could eat and he carried in all my boxes of pottery and tucked me into bed.

This little lady makes me happy so she is serving as my centerpiece.

A Few Favorites From 2011

Happy New Year!

We are excited for tonight! 2011 have been very exciting. We were on the go. We lived in 3 different houses...4 months in Megatrium, 4 months in Epyonghansasong and 4 months here in this house in CA. Hopefully we will only live in 1 house in 2012. Wishing for a GREAT 2012.

Merry Winter

Yes, I have started switching over Christmas to Winter/Snowmen/January. Every year at this time I usually make tons of crafts...the kids are out of school and we spend a lot of time at home. This year is no different, I have been decorating and crafting and watching movies and having a great time with my family.

I made myself this new mitten...it's cutest ever.

Floating candles...my new FAVORITE. Every late afternoon I turn them on to make the house look and feel so pretty.