I love Lowes!!

So.... I know the hummingbirds won't show up till next month... BUT..... Steve got me the prettiest hummingbird feeder and I just couldn't wait until then to put it up. :-D

I love, love, love it.
But mostly I love the man who got it for me. :-)

And then today I couldn't resist walking around the gardening center at Lowes "just to browse". Yeah, right.
I found 9 snapdragons, 1 rosebush, a bag of topsoil, peas, green beans, squash, and allysum seeds all for $18. 61... not too bad.
Now if I could just get rid of this migraine, I might actually get some stuff planted this evening. Maybe coffee will help... hmm....

Luckily, I have a little helper to assist me with the gardening. If she can squeeze me in between naps, that is. :-)

Nice weather.. but only for a day...

The weather on Friday was A.m.a.z.i.n.g.
Unfortunately, it didn't last. But at least we all got a taste of things to come, right?

I was thoroughly bitten by the gardening bug and spent the day planning imaginary gardens. I say imaginary, because there is no way I will have time to do very much gardening this summer with a part-time job and full-time classes. But someday.....

On a random note,

Our addiction to coffee has gotten a little ridiculous. As proof, I decided to post a pic of our Coffee Counter, where I make myself at least 1 latte per day... but it's usually more like 2 or 3.
Ah, coffee.... how I love thee......

Not a lot has been going on at our house this week, which is fine with me. Once school starts boring days will be few and far between, so I plan on enjoying them while I still can.
Like Alice, for example...

Somehow, she just keeps on getting cuter and cuter...

Our new addition

Well, here's our newest addition to our little family. The animals now outnumber the humans. Isn't she adorable?

Sweet little Alice

Alice has been keeping me pretty busy, but I've still managed to do some massive cleaning on my house (thank goodnesss!!) and turn a few of these...

Into these:

Just a couple more days at the sewing machine and all my blocks should be finished. Which means I get to start sewing strips!! And then I'll get to try some applique for the first time... hmmm... this might end up looking pretty interesting..... :-P

Wish me luck!! :-D

Sewing... & more sewing....

My little guy likes to spy on me while I blog...

My life has been a little consumed with sewing lately...I started on my jellyroll and it's slowly being turned into blocks for a quilt. I love the colors! I'm trying to make myself not get into a hurry, because if that happens then I'll wind up back at the fabric store buying material for a new project... and that doesn't need to happen for a while... :-)

My 2 new quilt patterns finally came in the mail today. Woot!! I've been waiting for them all week. They came on the perfect day, too, because I woke up this morning with a migraine and the beginnings of a cold, so I got to sit around reading them and drinking the yummy coffee my sweetie made me. He's so amazing... :-D

I also made a table runner a couple of weeks ago and I'm currently waiting for it to get back from the quilter's, so I don't have a picture of what it looks like finished. But I love the way it turned out! It will add a lot of color to our very black-and-white kitchen. Plus, it was a lot of fun to put together, especially with Sable helping out. :-)

Well, all this talking about sewing is making me want to work on my quilt again... so... I'll probably go do that.... but slowly, so I don't finish too quickly... :-D

Random projects

I've finally gotten a few things done around here. Last week was crazy busy, but luckily this week has been a little more relaxed. I had the chance to make a new ironing board cover, which I've been meaning to do for a while now.. as you can see from the picture, it badly needed a new one...





So, I found fabric, backing, and batting, roughly traced the shape of the ironing board (plus a few inches), and cut it all out. It was pretty easy, except for the fact that my sewing machine doesn't like to sew thick surfaces, which made it rather slow going and practically impossible to get a perfectly straight stitch. But I finally finished it... It looks kind of lumpy in the picture because I was still in the process of tightening the ribbon that gathers the edges.








Today, after signing yet more papers at Everest, Beth and I stopped by The Quilt Sampler in Springfield. We were supposed to be looking for material for HER so she could make pillows, but somehow it was ME that walked out with a jelly roll.... hmm... not sure how this stuff happens.... luckily, I have an exceptionally sweet husband who puts up with me. :-D I spent the evening with my rotary cutter, hacking away at all the gorgeous colors... tomorrow I'll start sewing. And now I'm going to bed. Because, as I'm sure you've figured out by the way I'm rambling, I'm a little sleep-deprived. Hopefully I'll be more coherent tomorrow. :-)

College!!

Remember how I went on and on about hopefully pursuing LPN training? Well, that's changed. But for the best, I think. Just when I was pretty sure LPN training was right for me, stuff kept coming up that seemed to lead me in a different (but similar) path.

So... I'm now planning to go into the dental assisting program. More good news? So is Beth! :-D

We've been making trips to Everest College this past week to meet with our admissions adviser, take qualifying tests, and get enrolled. SO much paperwork! Unfortunately, we don't qualify for any kind of government assistance, so that's adds to the stress level. But I'm feeling extremely optimistic, and I think it will all work out if we're careful.

The program we're enrolled in lasts for 9 months and involves a lot of hands-on work in the lab, which I'm very excited about, because it means we'll already have lots of hands-on experience when they send us to a dental office for the 160 hours required during our externship (yes, it really is called an externship instead of an internship).

I'm SO excited, but definitely nervous, as it's a huge financial commitment, but it would mean being done with school by this Christmas, since the program starts March 26... so soon!! The college had a 100% success rate for finding graduates jobs directly out of college last year, which is yet another incentive for me to get going with my schooling.

Please pray that things go smoothly for us.... :-)

(And if anyone knows a dentist that would be interested in hiring... lol....)

Valentines Day

Ok, it's official. I have the sweetest husband in the world. :-D

I woke up to my husband standing over me with a red rose and starbucks in one hand, a slice of red velvet cake in the other. Can I just say it again? I have the sweetest husband in the world. He'd even arranged for me to have a massage, but the place called him back after he scheduled to say that they were actually booked up. Who cares? Just the fact that he thought to do something like that for me was adorable. :-D So instead, he took me fabric shopping. Yep, he read my blog last night (I didn't realize it till later, but my post almost sounded like I was mad at him... which I was NOT!! It just sort of came out that way... I'll pay more attention to how I word things from now on lol). After we got my fabric, we headed over to Best Buy and emerged with a 32" TV for our bedroom. Woot!!

I don't know how I snagged such an amazing man......