April 30

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

(text from Soulemama, which I hope is ok, it seems to be how people are participating)

A Recent Good Day (an out of order post with no words because today isn't quite one of these days!)

April 23

{this moment} - A Friday ritual. {Inspired by SouleMama} A single photo capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember. If you're inspired to do the same, leave a link to your 'moment' in the comments for all to find and see.

A scene from our table after a fun day of projects and crafting from everyone. :)

A little bit of progress...

3 more place-mats to go! It's a simple everyday set, I decided to for-go the lace and did a bit of zig-zag instead, I have no idea what is the standard size, but I cut these at about 16x20 and they are just right for my (slightly large) plates. They are reversible with one layer of cotton quilt batting in between the layers. The napkins are approx. 14" square, and I love that they are pretty from both sides. :) I have tons more of the blue so I'm going to make the blue place-mat set with the same fabric.

WIP Wednesday:: Sort of :)

With all of the sickness in this house I haven't had much time for crafting the last few months. Add to that a complete lack of interest, and you get a WIP post without any Works In Progress. :) However, whether from spring fever, or all of my de-cluttering, or maybe just taking a creative break, the bug is back and I've come up with a fresh new list of projects, to be started at the first available minute. I thought I'd share the list, and then we can see how the items compare once I've finished them. These aren't exactly in a prioritized order, but they are in the order that I'm the most excited about. ;) (BTW the place-mat love is inspired from Here and Here.)

1. Set of place-mats-- tan striped ticking, with a pieced scrap fabric border
2. Set of place-mats-- green gingham with brilliant placement of cluny lace ;)
3. Set of place-mats-- light blue, with navy blue running stitch border
4. 3 sets of cloth napkins (unclear on the details until I check my stash) inspired by this post (I like all three kinds)
5. Curtains for Jenny's room (she's requested green)
6. Curtains for Anthony's room (I'm using either blue or red ticking)
7. Snack bags like these...
8. Bread bags like these...
9. New bathmats made out of old towels like this...(from the book Handmade Home by the wonderfully brilliant Amanda Soule) as a side note, look at the inspiration Here!

I feel like that will keep me busy for a while at least. :) Now, with any luck by next Wednesday I'll actually have something post about! I'll leave you with This really great idea for recipe storage from Stitching Under Oaks, I want to make myself some as soon as I can get to staples!

Happy crafting everyone,

Tilly

You might have wait on that bread recipe...

'cause I have sick babies and they need allot of lovin'

(photos from right now)

A little bit at a time

That's my motto right now. I've been struggling the past few months with our family having seemingly endless rotations through flus, colds, viruses, and all things stuffy, which has led to A-LOT of backed up housework, and a complete stand still with anything even remotely under the umbrella of "creativity". Giving up buying yarn for Lent didn't help with that much, although I did take advantage of the break in incoming yarn to organize what I already had. However over the last few weeks I have been making progress, most of the rooms in my house are allot better than they were a few weeks before that, and I'm continuing to make forward progress there. Dishes are getting done more regularly (although it's only about once a day, it's still an improvement!), what toys we've kept are getting picked up at least twice a day, and bags of donations are still being filled and dropped off.

^ Right Now v

Establishing simplicity and order in our home is my first goal, it's not really very fun, but it is rewarding to see more and more clear, clean surfaces, and my kids (and husband!) are really happy about this new arrangement. Next I will be focusing on our daily and weekly rhythms, which I expect to be much more fun. I want to start documenting my goals and progress here, partly for a bit of accountability, maybe to inspire someone else, and certainly to look back on later and enjoy. So here are my goals for April...

April

Paint hallway & foyer

Finish painting in Jenny's room

Re-paint markered wall in Anthony's room (nothing else worked so that's just going to have to happen lol)

Finish decorating Jenny's room

Plan our garden

Sew a selection of place mats and napkins

Set up back porch for Spring and Summer (involves mending the screen in several places as it is a screened in porch)

There are about a million other things that I want to work on too, but these are the Big Things, I have to do about two things a week to get it done, but that will be a good rate I think. I have next weekend cleared for painting, so that will cover three of the things right there. And some of the things (making place mats & napkins) will be so much fun they wont feel like chores at all. I leave you with a yummy picture, recipe will be coming tomorrow!

Easter Sunday

For whatever reason Blogger wont let me rearrange the pictures today, so you will be getting them in reverse order. :) So first, thanks to the great free pattern at Wee Wonderfuls, I was able to make these two cute little guys for the kids. I used scraps and they turned out so very cute! I made Anthony's like they said too, but I thought that Jenny's was cuter with the "back seam" as a "nose". I stitched them by hand so that they wouldn't be woken up by the sewing machine...I certainly need to practice more, but I had a fun time working on them.

(Jenny has named her bunny "Snack")

My sweet babies all ready to go to Mass. I actually kept Anthony home (I went to the Vigil) because of his cold/cough but Jenny went with Joe. She was very excited to get to wear a necklace that was given to me for my baptism (when I was about her age). Just a teeny tiny gold cross, but she felt very fancy! Anthony sat so nice and still for his haircut yesterday! He likes doing everything "just like Daddy" so he was very excited to show me how nicely he could sit. These two are just the best. :)