BubbaChic

Our weekend

Some wonderful mail on Friday to start the weekend::

A gorgeous house tape measure made by Patchwork Pottery a seriously talented mama who's work I ADORE! I spotted these tape measures months and months ago and been hankering after one ever since...you can find them in her Etsy store, I believe there is one left, which will not last long!! 

I managed to plod along with some sewing in some down time - work in progress includes::

I pieced a large quilt on Friday night - made entirely out of charm squares from Moda's Blossom line

I am making it to go in our lounge as a snuggle blanket when we need it...

Our weekend was also filled with lots of activity - both indoors and out. The weather was glorious and in the 80's so we took advantage and did some garden beautification:

and got a bit distracted at one point with the ice cream van...

and ended the weekend with a high - with the AWANA awards ceremony - in which both kiddies got to stand on the stage, in front of lots and lots of people and do their little singing/dancing routines that they had been practicing. Josh got stage fright!

Whilst Maddy spilled over with joy of being the centre of attention in front of lots of people and was beaming and chattering the whole way through...she was completely in her element!

Its a funny coincidence that a few hours before her stage debut, we actually signed her up for ballet dancing classes for the first time - I have a feeling that this was the right move for our little star!!

Work in Progress (lots of...)

The last day of school on Tuesday marked the start of a busy period in this house. Whilst Mads and Josh are busy playing, eating, drawing and bouncing (on the new trampoline!) I seem to have a number of ongoing projects that are needing to be wrapped up in my quiet times.

Bar far, the most important is finishing this quilt:

Which is being auctioned off here for the benefit of a very brave little boys family - Samuel Backus, who's 4 year battle against leukemia ended last week. Please please take a look at all the auctions here and seriously, how can you resist not bidding on these!

The auctions end Thursday May 15th 8pm (Eastern)

Other work in progress includes:

quilting...

      

making quilted fabric coasters...

and turning this yard of fabric and charm pack into a boys quilt....

Bread

Since coming to the States 3 years ago, we have been on a quest to find the perfect bread. Bread is very different over here than back in England - and having been used to the bread back home, we always seemed to be on the lookout for something very similar.

We have found a certain type of bread that we make-do with...its bareable as toast and sandwiches, but we have yet to find a loaf which completely hits the nail on the head.

After spending the last couple of weeks seeing this book being tried out thoroughly on Angry Chickens blog and the all inspiring Soulemama's daily bread makings I took the plunge and order it for our family.

The book arrived on saturday and whilst I was eager to give it a try, I quickly discovered that the bread in the book was baked on a baking stone and not wanting to deviate from the recipe - we waited, until today....

I made up a batch of the bread dough this morning, which took all of 5 minutes and left it to rise for 2 hours before putting it in a container in the fridge (where it can stay for up to two weeks) I love the concept of having the bread dough ready in your fridge, and just pulling a chunk off each morning and letting it rise for 40 minutes before baking it...and the taste is...very English! Hooray! I tried the light wheat loaf first and one batch of dough will probably last us the week.

Jason is highly impressed with my latest efforts and we are currently baking our second loaf of the day ready to have with dinner....so far so good!

Our Weekend

This weekend we enjoyed some family time together - both chilling and playing (and a little fabric shopping!)

The kiddies both enjoyed a birthday party of one of their friends on saturday, held at the little gym - where they got to try out a variety of fun equipment and eat cupcakes - could a party get any better!

Yesterday was Mothers Day, over here in the States. The day when I get to stay in bed after the kiddies have jubilently woken up their Dad. The day when I get to lazily get dressed whilst smelling breakfast being cooked...oh the joys, I could get used to this!

Maddy is always really excited on days like today, excited that she has a special card to give me and she remains excited, repeating "Happy Mothers Day Mummy" over the course of the day. Josh is less excited about the special occasion, but more excited about the bountiful delicious food which seems to be served on days like these.

We pottered around all day, enjoying a day of relaxing after the illness and high emotion of the week before!

Along with breakfast, Jay served up a treat at Dinner - Beef Wellington a la Gordon Ramsay, it was quite possibly the most wonderful and tasty thing I have ever eaten, made even better by the fact that it was prepared entirely by my wonderful hubby.

I think this sets the precedent for Fathers Day next month!

Brace yourself Betty..

Oh Oklahoma, beautiful, sunny, warm Oklahoma - how you surprise us with your extremeties...its a good job we love you.

After a day of relaxing and re-cooperating and enjoying some very English-like weather (except it was still 75 degrees whilst it was raining!)

Maddy enjoyed dancing in the rain, whilst Joshy was happy to sit and watch it all under cover::

We checked on our little strawberry plant - which we are hugely proud of and were looking forward to eating the 3 strawberries that we check on daily...

and quickly discovered that something has already eaten 1 of our precious strawberries!

We chilled, played, did jigsaws, drew pictures and generally relaxed....until tonight that is::

when a severe storm hit us - tornado sirens once again were sounded over the course of an hour signally that we needed to take cover on the lowest floor of the house, in the most central room...so kiddies were woken up and brought down to the bathroom, where they were covered with blankets...(circles on the map are areas of rotation within the storm, where tornados can drop)

Mads thought it was hilarious and chattered her way through the hour long ordeal! Josh, who is intensely sensitive, was much more pensive and quiet and jumped at the chance for a cuddle from Mummy or Maddy at every available opportunity.

Mummy had to work very hard not to throw up and to try and keep a somewhat balanced attitude on the outside, even when the inside was petrified!!!! Daddy managed to miss the whole event because of a business trip - but was on the phone continually being the calming influence which Mummy needed!!

Things seemd to have calmed down for now - the kiddies are in bed, the bad storms seemed to have passed us and I am no longer feeling quite so sick!

Oh Oklahoma, its a good job we love you...

The rough with the smooth

Yesterday I was treated to some pampering by Maddy and her preschool, who put on a party for all of us Mums for Mothers Day (this weekend honey ;o)

We enjoyed cookies and punch, whilst beautiful (matching) bracelets were created by Maddy.

And hand made gifts, which just melted my heart.

On returning home from our wonderful morning, Joshua promptly threw up all over me and has been doing much of the same ever since!

Today the plan is to stay close to home, whilst Oklahoma gets rattled with thunderstorms and dream of spring and some new additions to our spring nature table...

Quilt Along Block No. 2

Quilt block no. 2 completed....slightly unconventional colours!!

I am hoping it will all come together eventually!

Phew!

Life has been crazy around here in the past week - hence another improptu blogging break. In addition to the deep cleaning of the old house, ready to hand it over to its new owners on wednesday - we also experienced our fair share of unexpected dramas events which have just swept us along.

The business of the start of the week, was overshadowed by a trip to the ER on Wednesday morning with a dazed and confused Joshua who just had Maddy and a chair land on his head (whilst he laid on the floor) a cat scan revealed no major damage except a shaken up Joshy with a sore head.

The house is coming together slowly - we added something new to our bare walls this week with the addition of this:

A re-print of a WWII propaganda poster from Britain - I think it it encapsulates the Great British stiff upper lip perfectly - and just makes me smile. The history of the poster can be found here.

It is placed perfectly on the first wall that you see, when you walk through the front door:

I just love it.

On a different note, I have managed to squeeze some craft time into this week, to keep me (a little) sane...some very special and secret projects are on the go:

Along with some other wonderful (and not secret) projects like Crazy Mom Quilts - Quilt-along

The directions for the construction of the quilt block are really clear and simple and I am looking forward to getting out of my quilting comfort zone and learning some new things from a true pro.

Relaxing and growing..

A wonderful weekend was had all this weekend - the kiddies because they got to spend some quality time with Daddy, doing Daddy things like trips to the zoo, ice cream shop and the home depot(!) and wonderful for Mummy because I got to spend 2 nights away with some amazing women, in peaceful tranquil surroundings - a complete contrast to the rollercoaster of activity that has swept us along in the past few weeks.

Our time was spent learning and growing in our faith, with a large dose of some unadulterated *girlfriends* time, with a little eating thrown in - and of course, some hardcore sewing was undertaken!

Inspired by my time with some wonderful friends and a very cute pattern from Easy Quilts magazine - I worked on this baby quilt - whilst chatting and drinking vast quantities of diet coke (they offered it free - all day and night...how could I refuse??)

I am a big fan of any Heather Ross fabrics - but I think that the Matreshka fabric is particularly girly and adorable and I have been eager to immortalise it in a quilt. I liked the pattern very much, it was quick to sew up the main bulk of it - and a little trickier to sew other bits - but I can see it being a good pattern to use up scraps in the future.

Regardless of the fact that we have ALOT on this week with the final deep clean of the old house needing to be finished and more upacking to do here, I am eager to join Crazy Mom Quilts Quilt-along and determined that I will be able to fit it in somewhere!!

And now, back to reality!

Winner!!

Using a random number generator, I am pleased to announce that:

Kari - from Alas three lads is the winner of the mini quilt from the bloggy giveaway!! Congratulations, it will be winging its way to you imminently!!

Spring has sprung...

Maddys beans (or are they triffids??) are growing...

Spring backdrop for the nature table has been sewn - courtesy of the new stitchette pattern

...and the Oklahoma sunshine looks like it is going to give us a fabulous weekend on mama's first weekend away without her babes or her hubby!

Banana + Walnuts = Yummmmmy

What better way to show our appreciation to our wonderful friends (and their help with our move) than to try out a new muffin recipe and take advantage of the cute martha stewart boxes that I have been wanting to use!

I stumbled accross the new recipe, whilst at a book sale at our local library -  I found this book: Mary's Bread Basket and Soup Kettle, by Mary Gubser - and whilst flicking through it, I found a number of hand-written comments like 'Excellent - easy to ovenbake!' next to recipes, and that sealed the deal for me.

The recipe was easy and really tasty - always a good combination methinks!

Our first baking session in the new house - its certainly starting to feel like our home...

Transitioning

We moved a week ago today - and have just, in the past few days, started to settle down into life in our new home. We still have boxes to unpack, curtains and pictures to put up - but we are now in a livable condition, without obstacles blocking every hallway and room.

The move seems to have taken it tolls on Joshy, who seems to be very mummified and clingy and is more prone to meltdowns right now than ever before. He has started to sleep better through the nights (thank heavens, I was struggling with him regressing back to newborn sleep!) and we are hoping that more one-on-one time and endless cuddles and reassurance will help ease the transition for him.

Maddy is taking everything in her stride still - although, she does seem to have become a bit more of a drama queen (or DQ as we now refer to that behaviour!) but she seems settled and happy in our new home.

Because of the number of times we have moved over the past 3 years, we are very aware of the drill now - and all the stages which come with moving. There is the inevitable packing up stage and moving day, but there is also a stage in between your whole home being in a box and being completely unpacked - and thats where we are now. This stage is usually defined by a number of things:

1. You know what items you are looking for, but (annoyingly) have not yet located them yet

2. You are able to cook a meal with the minimal cutlery, plates and cooking implements that you have managed to find - but its still not easy!

3. You are having to wash underwear everyday because the location of the underwear box is still to be discovered

4. You are wearing new combinations of items in your wardrobe, because *old faithfuls* are still packed up

5. The kiddies have not even noticed that 2 whole boxes of toys are missing (and don't seem to be missing them one bit!)

6. You keep going to the wrong cupboards to retrieve items you have managed to find a home for

Its starting to feel like home thats for sure - especially after an afternoon of cozying down with the kiddies yesterday and watching the spring thunderstorms - just to remind us that we are still in Oklahoma.

Catch Up Time!

Whew!! Its been a crazy few days!

The move went (pretty) smoothly - but we are still trying to catch up with the dirt and grime, not to mention cobwebs and invasion of ants that we left by the previous renters of our new home - so still lots to sort out.

We have the main rooms of the house starting to get somewhat organised - and everywhere else is filled with boxes and bags, just screaming to be unpacked. In the midst of all the moving mess, I checked the mailbox to find this wonderful little package - and even grabbed an hour of down time on saturday night for some theraputic hand sewing -

The kiddies are enjoying the new house and particularly the garden which is a lot more practical for two active little ones who love to explore. Joshy seems to be having a hard time adjusting to his new bedroom and we have had many a sleepless night since moving in - but I am sure it will settle down soon (this too shall pass, this too shall pass....)

Maddy has just fitted right into her new sourroundings and keeps saying 'Mummy, thank you for my new house!' Adaptable as ever, our Mads!

Well, I better go and continue unpacking, so that walking without sustaining an injury in the house becomes possible!

Giveaway!!

As part of the Spring Bloggy Giveaways, I will be offered a hand crafted mini art quilt to be given away on Monday 28th at 1pm (central)

Just leave a comment and you will be entered into the competition!

Good Luck!