Tuesday, June 26, 2012

Quick Shred Update

Day 3 is complete.  I'm a little sluggish today - possibly (but hopefully not) due to the two margaritas I drank before seeing Safety Not Guaranteed last night - so I kicked it down a notch and revisited Level 1.  My shoulders still burned like hell, but the cardio sections were much much easier.  Good to know.  I was feeling good upon completion so I thought I'd do a mile on the tread mill to put a little icing on my workout cake.  Not a minute in, my right foot started hurting and I couldn't shake it.  Nuts to that.  But I still say I can put this workout in the W column.

Monday, June 25, 2012

My 3rd Quilt - from way back in the day





Pulled out a blast from the past this weekend and grabbed a few pics of it.  This lil guy doesn't really have a home.  Between being made with not the most beautiful fabric in the world and being too small to be a lap quilt but too big to be a wall hanging, it has been doomed to spend it's days folded up on my bookshelf.  But for a first time out with the flying geese pattern, it's really not so bad at all.

Today was Day 2 of my attempt to complete Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred (cue buzz marketing).  I am making the somewhat small concession that this will have to be mostly a weekday activity since weekend go by in a bit of a blur and even carving out 20 minutes for a fitness routine can be an impossible dream.  Day 1 was Friday - I took a chance and started with the Level 2 workout.  Lo and behold I was able to complete it and even felt great afterwards.  Apparently my daily encounters with the Rupper have built up some decent strength.  So 2 down, 28 to go.  We are a far cry from marathon training... but it's something.

Wednesday, June 20, 2012

MouseRat no more

Given that I've been doing a lot of thinking about my darling mumma this week, I came up with a blog name that I'm very happy with.  It works on so many levels.  First of all, who doesn't like candy?  Besides being a wonderful teacher, she was always very popular with the three year olds at Acorn School because of her sweet name.  And the pieces refers to the pieces that she left in all of us who loved and knew her.  The memories and the craft work that live on in her absence.  My hope is to incorporate some amount of fabric from her (quite impressive) stash into each project I make in the future.  I've started with the Bad Idea Quilts... which, as of last night, are done done done!  Well, I need to sign/put labels on them.  And photograph them so I can stop teasing them here and actually show the goods.


Tuesday, June 19, 2012

One Year


There's something so weird about days that have meanings.  It seems like those are the days where you are constantly being confronted with the date, without even meaning to.  Usually, they are nice little reminders - Oh, it's my brother's birthday today - Oh, it's my friend's wedding anniversary - and you feel warm and fuzzy about the people in your life who are so lovely.  And then there are days like today.  How every time I remind myself it's June 19th, my stomach twists and my eyes sting because I remember where I was a year ago.

I was sitting with my family eating lunch in the conference room we had taken over several times as a cafeteria.  The hospice nurse silently got my attention, took me aside and said, "Honey, she's gone."  I went back in, collected everyone and we made the wordless trek back to her room.  One last trek.

A few weeks ago my mother-in-law asked if there was anything special I wanted to do to remember my mom.  I thought for a few minutes.  What else could I possibly do.  I will do the thing that was her passion, the thing that she passed down to me (seemingly through her DNA), the thing that I wish we could do together still.  I will sew. 








Monday, June 18, 2012

Weekend Tidbits

I managed to not give two thoughts to my blog name over the weekend.  I did, however, go to a crab fest!  And Father's Day Brunch, and a Bayside Tigers softball (playoffs!).



The Rupper was a superstar.  We try to make having a baby look like the easiest thing in the world - hoping maybe our friends will have some kids themselves.  The Rupper gonna need some playmates once he understands how to play with other kids without just lunging at their eyeballs.

Crafting was kept to a  minimum - despite the fact that I had both Friday and Saturday nights to myself.  I finished the binding on 2 of my 3 Bad Idea Quilts.  So close.  So freaking close.  I'll explain more about these quilts later.  I have dreams of finishing BIQ #3 this evening.  Maybe just writing about it will make it so...


Friday, June 15, 2012

Identity Crisis

I need a new name for this blog.  "Ali Does Stuff" leaves me a little flat.  So for now I'm just going to leave it as MouseRat and try and come up with something better this weekend.

Thursday, June 14, 2012

Quilt Received!


Here is my Uncle Jim modeling the quilt.  Waiting for him to receive this was like reverse Christmas - I was so impatient!  He and my Aunt Paulie gave me a call to thank me and Paulie said that when she opened the box and saw the quilt, her first thought was about my mom, how much she liked batiks.

While my first instinct is to hoard any and everything that ever came into contact with my mom, I am so happy that this quilt could be with people who loved her - hell, they knew her longer than I did.  It was hard to let go but I know that this is the best place for it to be.

Paulie posted this photo to Facebook and a lot of people I don't know made some very nice comments about the quilt.  But my father left a note that sums it up perfectly:

"Even almost a year after her passing, the beautiful, loving spirit of Candice continues to shine through her handwork and through the thoughtful qualities she instilled in our children."

My dad is awesome.

Thursday, June 07, 2012

Ali finally finishes something

2 things, actually.  Here's the first:

This here pacifier clip is going to go with the blue and yellow quilt currently in progress for the yet to be born Swets Thing 1.  Progress on that quilt and the pink and green quilt for Swets Thing 2 has been laughably slow.  They were starting in April.  They are not complicated. Ah well.  I'd been wanting to make a paci clip for a while, since it is one of the most useful inventions of all time.  It took some doing to figure out what I could find to make the loop.  Since I don't get out to brick and mortar stores all that much anymore, I relied on internet descriptions and ordered a few products that weren't quite what the doctor ordered.  Finally I happened upon some silk rat tail cord which seems to be doing the trick.  Unfortunate name for a nice product.



Before I share the 2nd thing I finished, above a few happy pics of cute guitar fabric that I Amazon'd while working last Saturday (Treat Yo Self), a few scraps thrown in by the good folk at ShuShu Style, and Angry Cat making use of The Rupper's playmat.












This item can be filed under the good new/bad news category.  Good news:  I finished this beautiful quilt.  Bad news: The top to this quilt was created by my mom and left unfinished.  It's just one of so many projects that I found in her craft room after her memorial service.  Half a dozen were in progress, and she had bought fabric for at least another dozen projects of various sorts.  I remember one day hanging out with her in that room (which used to be my bedroom, before that my brother's room, before that my parents' bedroom) and she said half joking, this will all be yours when I'm dead.  And so it is.  I've committed myself to finishing each and every project she set out to make.  An honor, a legacy.  This is the second thing I've finished - for Christmas I made a little cupcake mini quilt for my sister-in-law.  There was no indication that she had meant it for Kim, but there was no doubt in my mind.  So back to the good news: I had an epiphany today that I would send this quilt to my Uncle Jim (my dad's brother).  Bad news:  I thought of sending this to Jim because he's stuck in the hospital with hepatitis.  Dragsville.  But hopefully the quilt will cheer him a bit, and it makes me feel good that it will go to a good home.

I'm new to the quilt labeling game.  Needs improvement.  A well placed little star helps balance out the poorly centered inscription.