Category Archives: Family

Day 29: Art Journal Page On Gratitude

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Yesterday I blogged my thoughts on resolutions for 2016. I’ve got a general sense that I want to focus on being social, creative, and healthy. But why wait? There’s no rule that I have to have it all figured out or begin on January 1st.

So today I started a page in my art journal. It’s going to take a while to fill in all of the things I’m thankful for because it’s list-style. That leaves room for a LOT of things. It’s great to have focused on something positive and visually interesting.

I also started working out. My sister and I have a goal to work out at least five days every week through January. I watched the last half hour of the Lego Movie (which is hilarious) while strolling on the treadmill. Day 1, check!

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Day 28: Thinking about 2016 Goals

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Do you have a new year’s resolution yet? I’ve been thinking about what mine could be for the past few days.

Some of my family members have a Facebook group devoted to physical challenges, mostly related to food and exercise. It’s a great way to check-in and support each other. We’ve done several 30 day challenges. One was to cut out sweets for a month, another was to walk 10,000 steps a day, and we had veggies daily. Last month I tried to drink 80oz a day. I didn’t make goal most days but definitely was more hydrated.

Monthly goals are great for me because they help me stay consistent without getting completely overwhelmed by the thought of doing this for an entire year. 365 days is a big number!

The creative introvert who wants to be physically stronger in me is thinking of categorizing goals.

  • Creative goal: try something new every month. This can be learning to knit hats, designing a quilt, making a new page in my art journal, trying a new recipe, or a myriad of other things.
  • Social goal: something. I don’t know what I want this to look like yet. Touch base with each member of my immediate family? Make new friends? Invite people over? Initiate conversations? Join a quilt guild when I move? Teach classes?
  • Health goal: continue with monthly challenges. Get stronger. Stronger than what? How strong? Concrete numbers are good with goals because you’ll know when they’re attained. With my water challenge, drink more water is vague but drink 80oz is trackable.

So that’s where I am so far. How about you?

Day 27: Magic Dishes

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There’s a special dish that’s part of every holiday meal. You can see it in the food photo from our Christmas meal on the left and Thanksgiving on the right.

 

christmasdinnerjoethanks15

Here’s what it looks like empty. What is it? It’s a large platter that I decorated and had guests sign on our wedding day. I have the guest book from my parents’ wedding. It’s pretty and interesting and…. sits inside a box. Our dish gets used 3-4 times every year and is on display the rest of the time.

weddingguestbook

Why is it magic? Because of all the love that went into making it. I started at one of those stores where you can paint ceramics. They’ll fire them in the kiln and you come back to a finished glazed piece. This time I wanted it sign-able so I did most of the decorating in-store. Then I borrowed a black glaze pen and had wedding guests sign with it at our reception. Returned the platter to the store and picked up our finished piece post-honeymoon. Cool, huh?

 

Day 26: My Secret Santa gave me…

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Each year at Christmas my dad’s side of the family does a Secret Santa gift exchange. The idea is to do something creative and hand make a thoughtful gift for one person. Another person gets you and this counts as your gift from the whole family.

The gift I made this year didn’t make it there on time before my person went away for the holidays. It should be waiting when he returns so I’ll blog about it then. No need to ruin the surprise!

Kacee was my Santa. She made me cupcakes! Sorta. They’re pieces of fabric folded and set in cupcake wrappers to look like sweets. How cool is that! The colors she chose are from the state flag of Colorado, which we’re moving to soon. Creative, thoughtful, fun, and useful. It’s the start of my next quilt! Thank you Kacee I love it.

cupcakesitsfilledwithfabrics

Day 15: Born a Girl

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“Dear daddy, I will be born a girl. Please do everything you can so that that won’t stay the greatest danger of all.” Grab the kleenex and watch this video.

Okay. There are LOTS of horror stories to be told. What I want to hear is examples of when men in your life stood up for you as a girl. Will you tell me? Comment below or email if you’d like more privacy. mrs.megan.null at gmail dot com.

I’ll share some of my own experiences in another post.

 

Still looking for tree blocks for the camp quilt. Click here more more information. Thanks!

Day 10: Love and Loss

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It’s the 10th day of the #31dayblogchallenge and #throwbackthursday too. So I’ll send you guys to a guest post from February 2015. It was written by my teenage brother Jim. Here are his thoughts on love and loss, in his own words, “I Was Never Alone.”

Day 9: Repurposing Mom’s Tree Skirt

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A #31dayblogchallenge post.

It’s a little embarrassing that I’ve got a blanket wrapped around my Christmas tree stand, Linus style.

linusblanketaroundtree

Thing is, the tree skirt my mom made didn’t survive the wash. It was smelly when I took it out of the ornament box so I tossed it in the wash.

momstreeskirt

I knew it might fall apart because of the materials she chose to use at that stage of her quilting journey. Plus the ties weren’t close enough together. Mom’s later quilts were better but this skirt is beloved and has been used under my tree for years. Well, it got all lumpy in the wash.

momstreeskirtlumpybit

All is not lost. I’m redoing my childhood reading quilt and I can do something similar with the fabrics from this tree skirt. So I cut it apart and set the fabrics aside to repurpose into a couch throw later. They’re a little threadbare but with the right interfacing it won’t be a problem. For now they’re in a UFO box next to the reading blocks.

cuttinguptreeskirt    christmasskirtprints

Will you please help? The turtles quilt still needs more pieced tree blocks for the final border. Click here for more information and here for the tutorial.

Day 5: My Kitties

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Check back all month during the #31dayblogchallenge for daily posts.

This one happens to be about cats. ‘Cause I like cats. Chances are, if you post a photo of your cat on Instagram I’ll heart it. (I’m quiltartbymegan on there.) I might also like your quilt or landscape pictures but the furry felines will almost always get my attention. So here’s a few pictures of my four kitties for your enjoyment.

Let’s start with the youngest, Wormy. She’s difficult to photograph! Wormy’s a squirmy little runner but does enjoy drinking from the faucet. She’s very talkative when my husband and I wake up in the morning and likes to be pet inside her box on top of a dresser.

wormywaterzoom

Next is LokiBear. She’s my sewing buddy and president of my husband’s fanclub. Seriously. If I’m petting her and he walks in she’s by his side in a flash. LokiBear loves to be snuggled under the covers and can be territorial. (I get to snuggle my husband too! Sheesh girly!)

lokipurrsnuggles

Velcro is so named because he stuck to everything as a kitten. He has a bit better claw control now but still makes the velcro-ripping sound when he runs across carpet. Silly boy! He’s our gentle kitty. When he wants to snuggle he waits for you to look over at him before jumping up, like asking permission. Want him to love you forever? Bring beef jerky.

Velcro on sink

Here’s Milo. He’s a stubborn boy who thinks he can do whatever he wants. Thankfully what he wants to do is usually acceptable, like curl up next to my head to sleep. Or clean behind the other cats’ ears. Sweet stubborn kitty.

Milo hears a noise

Day 2: Chopping Firewood

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I love having a fire in our fireplace! We had an outdoor fireplace at one of our houses growing up and a wood stove at another, plus I had lots of campfire fun at summer camp. Maybe those memories contribute to my love of fire now. It’s a full sensory experience: the woody smoke scents, cracking and settling sounds, and all the pretty colors are comforting.

biglogburning

We have some logs leftover from when the gigantic pine trees in our yard were cut down. So my husband and I have been chainsawing them into manageable lengths and then chopping them into firewood. Fed up with chasing the pieces across the backyard as they were cut, Jeff discovered the tire method. The uncut log goes inside a used tire (we have some leftover from growing potatoes) and gets chopped there. The tire contains them and we put ’em in the wood pile from there. Cool trick, huh?

splitwoodinatire