My Quilts

A while back, my sister-in-law Jenn posted a blog about all the quilts and other projects she has done with pictures and all. I thought it would be nice to do something similar. I just finished a quilt that I am so excited about! So, here they are:

I already blogged about my Fall Quilt...

This is the first quilt I ever made. It is called "Turning Twenty"

This one is called "Sunbonnet Sue".

I hand-embroidered all the "Sues"

Had a couple extra "Sues" so my mom pieced together the back for me

My mom calls this one the "Pottery Barn Quilt" because she saw a quilt like this in the Pottery Barn catalog and rather than pay the hundreds of dollars they wanted for it, she copied it. hehe.
So then I copied hers but used very different colors than she did.

This one is called "Bric-a-Brac" - you may recognize it if you have been on Jenn's site ;-)

You may recognize this one too - it's called "Hearts in Bloom" - this is the one I just finished and I am in love with it. It turned out so beautiful! (if I do say so myself!)

I hand embroidered all the flowers/stems and also did a blanket stitch by hand around each heart

Also hand embroidered the vines and blanket stitch around each of the small hearts

When my mom quilted it, she wrote in the border "Made by Kristie Metler 2009 Quilted with love by Mom" Isn't that sweet?

I did a Christmas quilt too but it is packed away somewhere - I'll have to post that one later in the year!

Also, fyi, I can make super cute "Hooter Hiders", aka Nursing Cover Ups - and would be willing to offer my services for a small fee (and I mean small) - if you want to give one at a baby shower or whatever.

Surprises

Just wanted to show some love to Eric today. The girls and I were gone all week visiting my sister-in-law Launa and having super fun girl time while my brother is away at the fire academy. She has two girls, Shea and Remi, who are so stinkin' cute and sweet. Shea and Haylie are about 2 years apart and played so well together it was almost unbelievable. We had such a fun time that it was hard to come home.

Anyway, I had mentioned to Eric that I really wanted to put a security door on our front door so that in the Springtime we can enjoy the nice breezes and pleasant weather, etc. I've been wanting one for a couple years now but it just hasn't been a priority. We sorta' went back and forth about some other things we need/want but never came to an agreement on whether or not we'd get one this year. So, when we got home yesterday, I found a beautiful door already installed with a SHMILY heart attached. SHMILY stands for "See How Much I Love You" - it's a little game we play to try and do special things for each other. And, he had also been working hard on building a chicken coop for our little princesses. It was so nice to come home and see that he had been doing so much to make me happy.

I'm a very lucky girl.

Say Hello...

...to the new me. A little over a month ago - I started experiencing severe headaches that could not be treated with the usual 400mg of Ibuprofen. Then I began to notice that these headaches were occuring with a certain degree of regularity - i.e., every 2.5 days. It would hit in the evening and the only way I could get it to go away would be to put a hot rice bag over my eyes and go to sleep. By morning I'd be fine, the next day I'd be fine, but on the 3rd day in the afternoon/evening, it would start up again. That is when I realized that there was a good chance I needed my eyes checked. Sure enough, I had an eye exam and was told that my headaches were very likely being caused by eye strain. It was recommended that I wear glasses full time. I can see fine, but my eyes are having to work just a little bit too hard to make out the details. And boy oh boy, when I put the glasses on for the first time it was like switching the TV to the HD channel (as Eric would put it). I didn't realize that my vision had become so blurred. Yikes.

So, I couldn't resist picking some frames that were a bit bold...I figured if I was going to have to wear them full time, I'd make a statement. So, here I am.



And because I can't resist being a little bit silly...

Why Did the Chicken Cross the Road?

To get to the Metler's, of course! So, remember Clucky? Well, a few months ago, she ran away. There are a lot of stray cats around here who enjoyed sitting in our back yard and taunting her. One afternoon I let her out to roam in the back yard and didn't catch her before the sun went down, so she had already jumped up into her favorite sleeping spot - the mulberry tree. Well, in the morning, she was gone. So either a cat got her (which quite frankly I think would be difficult cuz she was pretty big), or she ran away, or someone got hungry...sorry - that was not nice.

Anyway, we actually kinda miss having a chicken around - she was such a good pet. So, here we are again - but this time, one was not enough...allow me to introduce you:

This is Cinderella

This is Ariel (Haylie's personal favorite)

This is Snow White

This is Haylie after getting pooped on by Ariel. She didn't even cry - what a good sport!

So all three chicks are different breeds, and according to the lady at the feed store, Snow White will lay blue eggs. Cool, huh? They're so cute and so fun.

Allergies...Ugh!

It is such a beautiful day today, but alas, I am confining myself to the indoors because the moment I stepped outside this morning, I started sneezing, my nose started running, and the roof of my mouth started itching like crazy. ALLERGIES! UGH! I took a Claritin, maybe I'll be able to enjoy some of the afternoon outdoors.

Anyway, I figured while I was in here I'd catch up on a few little things I've been wanting to post lately:

Eric caught another gopher in a trap the other day - see how happy he is? Meanwhile, Anna points at the fuzzball and says "NNNDAT?" (What's that?)

I hesitated to post this but it's just too funny. Haylie was having a little trouble going #2 yesterday and sat on the potty for quite a while. I found her like this...she actually fell asleep on the toilet...she was even snoring. Poor thing. Oh yeah, and notice the pile of toilet paper on the floor? Any time the bathroom door is open, Anna is sure to unroll the entire roll of TP. Fun stuff.

Last Sunday after church, Anna wandered into the girls' bedroom and after a while we figured it was a little too quiet and when we went to check on her, we found her sitting in Haylie's drawer. She is quite the little climber. She pushed the rocking chair over and climbed on in - then proceeded to empty the drawers!


Doesn't she look like she's thinking "what's the big deal?"

Now that Anna is walking she is ALL OVER THE PLACE! I find paper plates from the pantry in the bedroom and stuffed animals in our bedroom. It is like the house gets turned upside down each and every day and I have to put it all back together every night. It's a good thing she's cute. ;-)

Daylight Savings Time

Last night Haylie wanted a snack just before dinnertime - here's how the conversation went down:

Haylie: Mommy, I'm hungry.

Me: Hi Hungry, I'm Mommy

Haylie: May I have a snack please? (We've been having this conversation for days now - she is slowly learning her manners)

Me: No, you may not have a snack - it's almost dinnertime

Haylie: *looks outside* It's not dinnertime - it's not dark yet!

How do you explain daylight savings time to a 3 year old? Then later, after dinner:

Haylie: Mommy, are we going to go to bed in the morning?

Me: Huh?

Haylie: Are we going to go to bed in the MORNING? (Sounding frustrated with me)

Me: No, we wake up in the morning

Haylie: *looking outside* But it's morning outside - we're going to go to bed in the morning!

Me: Well you see Haylie, somebody once upon a time decided that he wanted more sunlight in the summertime and decided that if he just changed the time on the clock then everything would work out just fine, so every fall and every spring we change the clocks and voila! It's called daylight savings time. Makes sense, right?

Haylie: Can I take a bath?

Our Living Room: A Work In Progress

We've lived in this house for a little over 3 years now. We've been slowly but surely making it our own. The house had been completely remodeled before we moved in so we had a blank slate: white walls and beige carpet. Our living room has been the slowest room to get done. We replaced the carpeting with laminate 2 years ago and I FINALLY just painted. So, it is still a work in progress as I am still working on getting frames for pictures, etc, but here is the progress we've made:

This is right after we put in the laminate flooring - we have since rearranged the furniture and the piano is now in the spot where the TV was and the TV is now where the couch was.

Getting started with the primer - Eric caught me writing love notes

This is red primer left over from painting our bedroom - I figured it would work just as well as any other primer and I'm cheap so I just used what I had!

This is after I got a bunch of the trim done with the "Deep Garnet" color that is to be the final color: Haylie wanted to help so I gave her a little brush and let her go crazy - she wanted to be naked so she wouldn't get paint on her clothes. Smart girl.

Here's the final color - 2 primer coats and 2 main coats later! I only painted one wall because the color I chose is very dark and the room is not very big.

So this is about the same view as the first picture. Like I said - it's a work in progress - I'm gonna have a few picture frames on the piano, I'd like to get a BIG plant for the corner - and I'm probably going to have a series of framed black and white pictures above the TV. Some day we'll be able to afford a nice flat screen for that wall, but we'll make do for now. ;-)

A huge thank-you to my friend Jennifer for teaching me how to quickly and effectively paint a straight line down my bullnose corners (the rounded corners in the doorway) and along the ceiling, walls, and baseboards. It involves painters tape and caulk! If you do not know about this little trick, ask me or Jennifer and it will change your feelings about painting forever!!! It is especially useful if you have textured walls. I'm thinking about re-painting my bathroom just so I have an excuse to do it again! hahaha!

I am totally open to suggestions for hanging pictures on the walls, etc. I'm interior-design challenged so if you have a good idea, please share! Also tell me what you think about the paint on only one wall - should I do more?

Miracles

We had the unique opportunity this past weekend to travel to Klamath Falls, Oregon, for a very special event. An event that I have heard several describe as "a miracle". Eric's maternal grandfather, Claude Olson, was baptized a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. He is 96 years old. Eric's grandmother passed away several years ago, but she is the one who brought the gospel to the family and raised their 6 children in the church. Those children (including Eric's mom) all went on to have several of their own children, all raised in the church, and so on. Grandpa was extremely supportive, drove the family to church, donated time and money to the church, etc., but was not interested in becoming a member. We found out recently that the reason he did not want to be baptized was that he was not ready to obey the Word of Wisdom (for those of you who are not Mormon, this entails avoiding things like smoking, drinking alcohol, coffee, tea, etc.) and he did not want to be a hypocrite. He had given up drinking and smoking a few years ago, and really was just drinking coffee each morning. He recently decided that he could do without that as well and asked to have the missionaries come and teach him about the gospel. At this time, Eric's mom, Jane, had the opportunity to stay with Grandpa and care for him while his wife was in the hospital. She was able to have many spiritual discussions with him, to pray with him, and learn that he has always had a testimony of the gospel. The family had all but given up hope that he would accept the gospel in this life, but as she stated at the baptism, miracles do happen. I feel honored and blessed to have been a part of this event.


I had only had the opportunity to meet Grandpa Olson once before this - a few years ago at the lake. But from what I hear, Eric gets a lot of his mechanical talents, or as I like to call it, his "MacGuyver-ness" from his Grandpa.

He has a hard time getting around these days, but as you can see from the pictures, he was positively glowing that day

This is at Grandpa's house, which by the way, is a beautiful old house. Eric's 2 brothers and 1 of his sisters were also able to attend.



Here's our little family with Grandpa. Haylie was too shy to talk to her Great Grandpa, but I hope she will be able to remember this special day.


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Linda, Maryann, Laura, John, Jane, and Barbara with their father



These are all the family members that were able to make it to the event.


By my count, he has 6 children, 37 grandchildren, and at least 69 great-grandchildren. Wow!

This experience taught me a few things: 1) there is always hope 2) prayers do get answered, even if it is not within the timeline you hoped or anticipated 3) it is NEVER too late to change your mind!