Sending Out An S.O.S.

I'm sending out an S.O.S. because MAN DOWN!  I repeat MAN DOWN!

Actually, my husband has a man cold.  It's ok.  The rest of the house has a/the same cold for a week.  I'm sure the only S.O.S. that needs to be given is to my husband.  I just roll my eyes at his whining, then blow my nose, and continue on with cooking, cleaning, laundry, taxi driving.  LOL.

Here's to surviving our first man cold of the year.

Grow With Me

I made one weighted blanket.  And since then, I've gotten several requests for them.  Here's the problem with weighted blankets.   They get outgrown.  And fast.  So I got creative.  Or lazy.  But I'm going to go with creative.  I decided to do a rag quilt so that the rows can be added on when the kiddo grows.  And it is so much easier to fill the blanket with the weighted pellets.  So here's how it ended up.  And for once, I got to make a blanket for a tween girl.  Something more grown up.  But still girly.

And I think it looks great.   So here's how I did it.

First I cut all 96 blocks in 6" squares.  I was giving myself half inch seam allowance.  So my ending square size is 5".

Then I sewed around 3 sides of the squares.

So they looked a little like this when I was done.  I did one row at a time.  For me it was easier that way.  I also cut my edges after each row.  

And then I filled the squares with the poly pellets and sewed that side up.  

This was the much easier way to do these blankets.  Last one I did I was up and down and up and down.  It took an empty wrapping paper roll and funnel to fill it.  And then I had to worry about the pellets moving around while sewing up the whole row of squares.  No messes or mishaps.

And then I sewed those squares into rows.   And then sewed the rows together.  I did one row.  Then after the second row, I snipped the edges.

Because it's been so cold and windy and rainy, my wrists hurt.  I'm sure it's the weather.  So I stood my scissors up and held my wrist straight.  Less pain for me.  And by snipping after each row, I was able to be sure I got every single square/row/edge.

So this is what it looked like after it was all said and done.  I love the color choices.  It is for a tween.  And I figured a little bit grown up would be better than little kid fabric.  And this way, they can add on.  Or I can I add on as she needs it to grow.  I'm not sure I will ever find that same fabric.  But it could easily use plain pinks,blues, greys, and creams.  

The Pain That Nobody Should Have

I haven't posted anything in a while.  Today is the 13th of January.  And my heart has broken more times in the past week than it ever has before.  My friend lost her precious baby girl at 39 days old.  Then a few days later, 3 friends lost their mothers.  Their mothers who are the same age as my mother.  And even though I don't have the best relationship with my mother, I couldn't imagine losing her.  I had a hard enough time with the death of my grandmother.  And I don't even want to think about losing one of my boys.  The pain that nobody should have.  I tried to write a post about resolutions.  And a couple about word of the year.  And somehow, none of it seems to matter anymore.  That's not important.  I think that the best thing that I can do is to live my life.  Enjoy my family.  And not take any of that for granted.  Here's to hoping that this year gets better.

Twelve

This week my first baby turned twelve.  These past 12 years have been interesting.  To watch how a person grows up in a world.  How a child clings to his parents for every move only to grow up and become his own young person.  It's definitely been an emotional roller coaster.  And I've loved it.  Sure he's thrown us for a few loops.  Some days I feel like a first time mom again.  This tween business is serious.  But I wouldn't change it for the world.  He's made me a better person.  Especially when I gave him my heart.  My whole world changed.

So here's to my first baby.  The first boy that stole my heart and kept it.  I'm looking forward to the next 12 years.