jump up and down

nie nie day

Oh wow!  Have you seen all of the wonderful things out in blogland that are being auctioned for Stephanie and Christian Nielson?  Check out Design Mom for a boatload of spectacular items!

And now it's my turn.  I'm doing two auctions, one here and one with Leslie at a room somewhere.  She is hosting a whole ton of fabulous auctions there - go check it out!

I donated a Retro Hostess Apron to Leslie's efforts - here is the post if you want to bid on that.

And here, I'll be hosting an auction for one of my latest Happy Birthday Banner creations.  A Friday (8/29) ADDITION:  JoAnn of Wish Upon A Necklace just contacted me and asked to add one of her lovely necklaces to my auction.  Happy Birthday wishes and a wishing necklace - what a great combination!  Thank you JoAnn!!

Please start the bidding at $20 and bid in increments of $1.  The first comment will then be the first official bid. Comments are for bids only please. Feel free to email me if you have questions about the banner (jjumpupanddown at gmail dot com). The bidding will remain open until Sunday, August 31st at midnight PST.  If you win the item I will have you send the money directly to the Stephanie Nielson Recovery Fund at PayPal and then forward me the receipt.

In addition, for the foreseeable future, I'll be donation 10% of the profit from my shop the the Nie Recovery fund.  

Happy Bidding Everyone!  Now I've got some of my own to do....

summer dinner: hummus

With the summer winding down, I'm think about how I'm going to translate one of our favorite summer dinners, hummus with pita and vegetable, into a winter one. I'm not sure I want to go all winter without hummus dinners - they've been such a staple for the past couple of months and we've loved every one of them. Maybe we will just eat warm hummus with toasted pita and add some soup. Whatever we do, we'll definitely be eating hummus this winter as we have all summer. I usually make a double batch of this and we eat it for a week or so afterward for another dinner or for snacks. This is the recipe that came off of the can of store brand garbanzo beans.

HUMMUS

1 can (15 oz) garbanzo beans
3 tablespoons tahini
1 tsp chopped garlic
juice of one lemon
salt to taste

Drain garbanzo beans and save the juice. Combine garbanzo beans, tahini, garlic, and lemon juice in a food processor. While blending, add juice from the garbanzo beans to reach the desired consistency. Add salt to taste.

Tahini is the only ingredient that I have a little trouble finding - it's only in the natural foods section of one store in town.  It's right by the peanut butter and jams and such and it's fairly pricey.  In California, I bought it in the bulk foods section of our local co-op and it was so much cheaper.  But even with the tahini, it's still so much cheaper and tastier to make your own.  YUM!!

School is going well so far.  It felt so good to be in class on Monday night - so right, so that was nice to have that confirmation that this is what I should be doing right now.  I'm taking Anatomy and Physiology and a Spanish for Health Care class - all at night, so Ryan is doing all of the child care and I'll still be on full time mommy duty during the day, with plans to study during naptime.  So far (all two days of it), it's working well.

And just in case you're not keeping track, this Saturday is my run - all 13.1 miles of it!  Wow!  I can't believe I'm actually going to do this.  I'm so excited.  Tricia and I ran 11.4 on Saturday and I just about died, so I'm counting on some race adrenaline to get me through that last mile and a half, but it's going to be good and I'll finish and then promptly collapse:)!

quilt show and NieNie

Thanks for your advice on Friday.  I was worried that no one would find the humor in the situation, but apparently I was wrong.  As I explained to some in my replies, usually this little guy just gets thrown in whatever basket with whatever other toys, but about every two or three months, I go in and really organize.  Today we are back to normal and he is in a basket with all of the other little people - animal and people all together.  But next time I get that extreme organizing need, I'll be able to come back to that post because I will need it!  It's not the first time I've wondered where to put him

On one of our summer jaunts to see family, my mom, grandma and I went to a quilt show.  They were all so amazing and inspiring.  Someday I want to make a quilt to put in a show.

I think this is my favorite -it's a mini quilt and those hexagons were miniscule.  The detail is so amazing in this quilt, the colors are just perfect, and I love the theme.  It's no surprise that this one won a prize.

This quilt top was actually an antique that the quilter had found, added the border and then hand quilted - definitely my kind of project.  I could only be so lucky to find such an amazing quilt top!

This is another one I loved for it's vintage goodness- each Dresden Plate is made with scraps from the quilter's grandma. 

Another shot to show just how yummy those Dresden Plate fabrics are!

And this one is just fun - I love all these little aprons!

And the aprons bring me to something else I wanted to mention.  Design Mom has declared this Thursday, August 28th NieNie Day.  If you haven't heard about the tragic airplane accident that Stephanie Nielson and her husband Christian were involved in, you can go here to read about it here or here.  I have been reading Stephanie's beautiful blog, the NieNie Dialogues for quite some time now and have been truly inspired by her lovely life. Her accident shocked me.  She and her husband are in for months of recovery and the cost will be enormous.  In order to help, Design Mom will be holding a silent auction on Thursday and donating all proceeds to the Nie Recovery Fund.  She will also provide a link to anyone else who wants to host a silent auction on their blog.  And if you feel like you don't have the readership to host your own auction, Leslie at A Room Somewhere will host your item for you - just go to her blog for details and e-mail her.  I'll be hosting a silent auction here, probably an apron, in honor of Stephanie's love of aprons. 

advice needed

You know all that cleaning I was supposed to be doing this week?  Well, I'm getting to it.  It's Friday morning, but I'm getting to it.  And now I'm stuck.  I'm sorting the toys and every time I come to this little guy, I can never figure out where I should put him - with the animal Little People or with the people Little People?  I think because he is wearing people clothes (and none of our other animals do), I have a hard time deciding where he belongs.  Maybe this seems like a silly questions, but where would you put him? 

i heart handmade

When it comes to gifts, I definitely prefer those of the handmade variety, both in the giving and receiving departments.  I do especially try to give handmade, although occasionally it doesn't happen.  But, during my blog break, I was able to make two handmade gifts - one for Peter's best buddy's birthday (sorry, I couldn't help myself - all that alliteration was too tempting) and one for Ryan's cousin for her wedding.

For the birthday boy, I used the serger one last time to whip up an all purpose tote made from red corduroy and a fun sea faring print I got from JoAnn about a year ago.  I filled it with a notebook and box full of fun things - a crayon roll (also handmade - this was my first attempt at making one of these), pencil, scissors, and glue.  I thought the bag can be used to carry all sorts of things to all sorts of places - quiet activities to church, toys to the doctor's office, pajamas to grandma's house, etc.  This was definitely easy to put together - I did it the night before in a couple of hours and the birthday boy seemed pleased. 

 When we got married, I vowed that I would never give any couple a gift from the clearance table.  I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but we had four hand mixers and none of them could be returned - and believe me we tried at about ten stores!  So, we kept them and when we would hear that someone didn't have a hand mixer, we would give one away.  I think it took us about five years to get rid of them all.  Anyway, from then on I decided I would either buy something off of the couple's registry or give something that you could not have too many of - like towels!  Incidentally, we did get about a bazillion towels for our wedding and I couldn't be happier - eight years later and I still haven't bought a single bath towel and probably won't have to for at least another ten!

So, my handmade gift to Ryan's cousin of appliqued towels and crochet dish cloths definitely fits into the can't have too many of category.  I took some of my Amy Butler scraps, cut some pears and apples out of Heat and Bond and put them right on those cotton dish towels.  Then with a little zig zag around the edge, they were ready to go.  This was such a great way to use scraps.  I think I see Christmas gifts in the future and possibly some for the shop. 

one more week...

So, the sewing room is not totally clean yet, but it's time to come back and get back in the swing of things.  Cleaning is number one on the to do list this week, so hopefully I'll come back with those before and after pics that a few of you requested.  I did take the befores and if I post them, you have to promise not to judge - mess doesn't really describe the state of the room, disaster would be more like it.

I've had a lovely little break full of a couple of jaunts away, some fun sewing, a few days where we didn't get dressed until noon, and lots of summer enjoyment.  Peter will be going to a new pre-school starting next week with a new morning time and it's four days a week.  No more lounging around or sleeping in.  Time to get with the program, so we are enjoying now!

And I'll be starting something new too - I'm going to be a taking a couple of night classes at our local university.  This is something that I've been thinking and praying about for a long time and the time is right.  I got the wrong degree when I went to college the first time and I knew it about a year before I finished, but I was so close to finishing and a change seemed like a rash move at the time so I didn't do it and I've spent the last eight and especially the last five years regretting it.  I have a biology degree and I even worked in the field for over five years, possibly just to prove to myself that I really do need to go back to school.  I loved getting my biology degree and found all that I learned fascinating, but I came to realize that most of the jobs in this field are lacking in one thing that I really need and want in a job - people interaction.  So, I'm going to start working towards a nursing degree - just on the pre-reqs right now and nursing school in a year or two.  I'm very excited, a little nervous, but mostly just so glad to have all the support I am receiving, especially from Ryan, to do this.

I'm not sure what this will mean for the blog, but I do hope to keep it going and I will definitely still be sewing and crafting at least a little bit and with the kids, so I'm sure there will be plenty of blog fodder.  It will just have to be something that I'm going to have to figure out as it goes.  As for the shop, that's also something that I hope to keep going, although I do know I won't be able to keep it up at current productivity levels.  The money I make from the shop pays for Peter's speech therapy co-pays and for me to get my hair done (I started going gray at 18 and after two kids, I am probably about 50% gray on top - it's so not fair, but that's how it is), both things that need to keep happening, so I hope I can keep it up.  Also, if you had any thoughts of having me make something to put under your Christmas tree or a stocking for your mantel, you will probably want to e-mail me ASAP and get your order in as finals are a week and a half before Christmas.

And for the rest of this week, I have a few pics of what I did while I was gone: a few projects, a couple of finds, and some summer fun!

eight

Just popping in here quickly to wish Ryan a happy anniversary!  Thanks for all of the hard work you do for our family and thank you for your kindness.  I love you!  We've had eight great years and I'm sure we'll have many more.

And in the spirit of the blog, I'd like to give a shout out to my Mom who made my dress and sewed every single one of those buttons with a smile on her face.  I offered to have a bought dress, but she really wanted to make it and I'm so glad she did.  It's beautiful - I loved it then and I'll treasure it for years to come.  Thanks!

I'm making progress on my cleaning.  I'm taking the clean a little, sew a little approach and it's taking me a little longer than I had wanted but it is moving along.  Hopefully I'll be done by mid week and back here.