I'm Finally Back

It's been a long long time. Too long. Things have been crazy in the Polk household in the last few months. I found out I had one stage before cervical cancer and have been having biopsies then surgery. It's been a week since my surgery and hopefully it'll be my last!! If you have children please talk to their physician about the HPV vaccine. It can end cervical cancer. I will be taking my children to get the vaccine.

I am starting to feel normal so I'm back in the saddle and ready to get my craftiness on. Spring is here, the sun is out and I'm in a very good mood. I have a lot of things planned to post this spring so bare with me and sorry for disappearing for a while.

Pillows

I finished a wonky block pillow for my daughter. She thinks its great. I think I need to learn to do a hidden stitch something awful.

I have finished a few different things, but my camera is again acting up and I can't get a clear picture to save my life. It has this mist in the lens and I don't know what to do to get it out! I'm thinking a new DSLR camera would fix it!

I have been going through some medical issues lately and it has prevented me from being able to post as much as I want. My stress level has been at an all time high! I will be spending much of this week back at the doctor and when I know more, I'll tell you more. Prayers would be great appreciated.

Goings On

It's been a while since I've posted. Winter has hit the plains and down here, all hell breaks loose when it snows! Kids have been home, their mom has been going crazy!
I have been doing a lot of different little things and will show pictures as soon as there's a day of even partial sunshine outside. I made my daughter a wonky block pillow. I've started making coffee cozies. I love cozies!
I've opened an Etsy shop. It's empty right now, but I'm hoping to fill it soon with a variety of different stuff. Please bare with me, I will be posting more often. Now it's back to yet another snow day with the kiddos. Hope every ones winter is going great!

Summer Quilt

It wasn't on the first half of my 2010 list, but I had to make this quilt. It only took me a few hours to cut out the pieces and about two hours to sew it together.



I am SO happy with it. This is the fabric that I won here . Since the colors were so rich and dark I put white with them to make them pop. I think it turned out great. I can't wait to get it quilted and binded.




It's a bad picture, but it's cold and windy outside.

My daughter can't wait to use it on her bed. I told her it will be a summer quilt. I'm going to put a thinner batting in the middle and it's not full sized. If you've ever been to Oklahoma in the summer, you know there's only so much an air conditioner can do so thin is key!

Help me name this quilt. Under the Sea just doesn't fit to me. What do you think??

2010 To Do List

This year I plan on doing a lot of different things. I plan on finding a job also so this should be interesting!! Anyways, here's what I have so far and trust me, it'll grow.
1. Make a star block to go in a frame for my daughters wall.
2. Finish all three of the girls quilts that were supposed to be done by Christmas.
3. Finish editing my book and get it turned in.
4. Paint the kitchen walls and our bedroom walls.
5. Find a wing back chair to redo! (This one I can't wait for)
6. Make the girls clothes for spring pictures.
7. Learn to knit! (I have the book, just haven't opened it)
8. Silhouettes of all of us. (Already finished one of the youngest and I LOVE it)
9. Make a postage stamp quilt.
10. Make a wonky block quilt.
11. Do some embroidery.
12. Redecorate just about every room in the house.

That's what I have in the thirty minutes I sat down and made myself commit to something. These are the things I want to get down and I will do them I'm positive....well, pretty sure, that I will. As a matter of fact I'm going to start working on the first one on the list here in just a minute.

Sorry I don't have any pictures just yet, but I will. What's on your project list this year??

Four Dollar Find

Today my sister-in-law called to see if I wanted to get out of the house with her and go to our local resale shop. Of course I wanted to go! I love our resale shop! It's CHEAP!! Everything was on sale!! Lillie and I attacked. We went straight to the house stuff and ended up with great buys. I don't remember what all she bought, but it was a lot and only cost her three dollars!

This is what I found... A wine glass rack, two small shelves that match what I already have, two decorative balls, and the molding thingy. All for $4.00!!!



I have already started spray painting the molding thingys black and they look awesome! I can't wait to hang them in my bedroom. The wine rack....I have no idea if it will work in my kitchen, but at 75 cents I had to try!

Nothing like good finds to brighten my day!!

Bathroom Curtains

This was what the curtains looked like in the guest bathroom aka kids bathroom. They were HORRIBLE! I hated them as I put them up, but something had to go up there and it was all I had at the time.

I found this fabric that I fell absolutely in love with and their bathroom was the perfect place for them. I will admit, their bathroom stays a disaster 99% of the time so normally I don't even think about doing anything to it. Here lately though, I've decided I'm going to redo their entire bathroom and they are just going to have to live with it!



Here is what the curtains look like now!! I LOVE them. Since it's a tiny window I made them larger so it gives the illusion that the window is bigger.

I am going to be putting a little yellow throughout the bathroom. I picked yellow for the bottom because for some God awful reason the builders put a yellow bathtub in there!

I will be putting more pictures in the coming weeks of the transformation of their bathroom. This is just the beginning. Before long it will be my entire house getting overhauled!

Four Days of Freedom

I must say, this Christmas has been the best I have had!

There were a few bumps and screams, but it turned out to be wonderful.

I was able to have all the kids and my Army Man so I am more than grateful.

First we went to my mothers for Christmas lunch with all the trimmings. It was our first time in years to have Christmas at my mothers. Usually, we have it at my place or at my sister-in-laws. We knew a winter storm was brewing so we hurried from my moms on an hour and a half trip to my mother-in-laws. Surprisingly, the kids didn't fight....much!

Once at my mother-in-laws it didn't take long for the weather to start turning. It was time to make the forty-five minute trip home if we didn't want to get stranded. As soon as we crossed the border of Arkansas/Oklahoma, the Oklahoma side was a BLIZZARD!! I'm not exaggerating. We couldn't see. ANYTHING...except white. White road, white sky, white windshield! So bad that on a four lane divided road, people were driving on the wrong side of the highway. Scary stuff. But, believe it or not, driving twenty miles per hour and an hour later it was just barely snowing and we made it home fine.

Christmas Day we took the only kid to get to stay home, my oldest, to watch Avatar in 3D. Let me tell ya, that movie is awesome, and the 3D is unreal!! Since then I have been able to read a book for the first time in a very long time. It's called The Lightning Thief, a Percy Jackson & The Olympians by Rick Riordan. I saw the previews watching Avatar and knew they were books. I LOVED this book! Very very good imagination on this one and if you like Greek mythology, you'll like the book.

So, I'll shut up now, but what did you do on Christmas vacation??

My Loot

This is my winnings from Elaine's Crafty Corner.
I Love Love L-O-V-E the fabric! And much to my surprise she sent me two extra pieces of fabric to go with it! I would have a picture of the wristlet to go along with it, but the batteries went dead on the camera and I forgot to pick up more today.

Thank you so much Elaine!

Because my camera is dead, read above, I took this picture with my BlackBerry Curve. I made this for my daughter to hang on her wall. That girl is always making something, drawing, or asking for pictures of people, so I made her this memory board.

My camera is HORRIBLE! I bought it years ago when digital became really popular. Back then it was awesome. Now....not so much. The megapixels are really low and as the years have gone by and the many falls, it takes more blurry pictures than any other kind.

I want a new one and hopefully will in the new year. I don't just want any camera though. If I'm going to spend anything, I might as well spend it on something I really want. So, my dear sweet wonderful Army Man, if you happen to read this..... Oh nevermind, he's not gonna read this!!

My Christmas to Myself

Today I went Christmas shopping for 15 kids. Yes, that's right...15 kids! By myself I might add. I drove the thirty minutes to the nearest decent sized town (people around here call it a city, but it's an overgrown town) and fought with bumper to bumper traffic and people So not in the Christmas spirit. I walked aisle after aisle trying to figure out what to get who and I'll admit, half the time I was in this eyes glazed over daze at everything. People kept running their carts into mine, not getting to one side of the lane and knocking things in the aisle and NOT PICKING IT UP!

After a good three hours in one store I am happy to say that I have almost completely finished my christmas shopping. I still have to finish out my sister-in-laws (both of them) and buy for my parents and my husbands parents, but still.....I'm almost finished. I was so proud of myself for this wonderful feat that I decided I deserved a little Christmas cheer myself. hehe

I allowed myself twenty dollars for myself for Christmas. Here's what I got!

This is from Amy Butlers Nigella line. I got a yard a piece.

This is Joel Dewberry's Ginseng Collection from Free Spirit and I got a yard of each.

Now, did you pick up that I only allowed myself 20.00? Yep, I got EVERYTHING for 19 and something cents. The fabric was only 3.95 per yard. I about peed my pants. Theres tons more there, but I can't allow myself another 20.00 for a week or so!

I have no idea what I'm going to do with them, but I love them and can't wait to figure it out. I'm thinking of redoing a chair for my daughter in the Free Spirit.