Quilting with Kiek

The past couple of months I've been doing some quilting with one of the clients of The Chappell Group.

She's so good and has made some amazing quilts!  Here she's showing some of the fabrics she's gotten recently.

She sews everything by hand which is very different for me.  She's very precise and detail oriented which I like.

I'm making an "I-Spy" quilt.  There are lots of dark ones around the outside and it gradually gets lighter as it goes in.

I was trying to set some things out to see how many more I need to cut.  A lot, I suppose.  I'm doing sort of a tropical theme!

I've had Collette come with me the last few times and now she's hooked.  Kiek is a great lady and we both really enjoy being around her.  Collette is making a beautiful sampler quilt - also by hand.

Kiek has an amazing sewing room with this awesome shelving unit to hold her fabrics and threads along with some tins she collects.

She's got everything color coded which makes me like her even more!  I hope I can get this quilt done! 

Vandalism

On Wednesday nights I work at the temple and usually stay at Katherine's house afterward so I don't have to drive all the way home and all the way back the next day for work.  I park in the street in front of her house where her roommates park and we've never had a problem.  

Thursday morning when I went out to get in my car and head to work, I was shocked to see this sight!

My windshield was almost completely shattered and had a huge hole in it!  Nothing had been taken from inside and there were no foreign objects inside minus a bunch of glass.

This is the view from the inside.  I was thinking that someone took a bat or crow bar to the windshield.

Side view with some of the little shards that were all over the dash board.

It's kind of pretty in this picture . .  .

As I was driving (carefully) away I saw this brick on the road and figured that this was the culprit.  I figured it was thrown from a car, that it shattered my window then bounced off into the road.  That made sense until I got a  text from Katherine with the picture below.

Katherine's roommate had this sort of stamp on her window.  Nothing was broken so we're not sure if it just bounced off.  I talked to Katherine today, though, and she found a cinderblock in the ditch in front of her house, so it looks like my windshield was broken by something even bigger.  Today I also found a little dent and scratch on the hood where it looks like the cinderblock bounced off before heading to the ground.  I'm just glad that it didn't get inside the car and damage anything in there.  I was able to get in to a repair shop that morning and get my windshield replaced.

Maryland Trip

Last weekend I took a trip out to Maryland.  My cousin Jason picked me up from the airport and took me back to his house in Hagerstown.  I flew in on a Thursday evening.  I had a great time visiting and watching youtube videos with Jason and his wife Dadra.

The next day, they took me all around.  We went from Maryland to Pennsylvania to West Virginia in the space of a few short minutes.  We stopped at this park along the Potomac River.  

Nolan was a cute little guy and is the one who gave up his room for me.

Here's Landon with Dadra.  Abby, their oldest was at school so I only got to see her that morning.

This trail was awesome and was called a "tow trail" because horses used to tow boats on the river from this trail.

This was a shot of us leaving the trail and walking back over the bridge to the parking area.

Despite Hurricane Sandy, some of the trees still had fall leaves.  This beautiful tree was at City Park in Hagerstown.

I've never seen a squirrel chilling out like this, but it was pretty cool.

It was a very pretty park.  After the park, we went to this cool Amish market where we had lunch and looked around.

We then headed out to a really cool farm/dairy where they make their own ice cream.

I got some chocolate peanut butter ice cream and I was not disappointed!  It was AMAZING!

Landon was quite the little singer.  I had never heard this song, but he did a great job at it!

 I then borrowed the Call's car and headed down to Ft Meade to visit Robert.  It was a really great to see him.  I didn't take any pictures Friday night - we only had one photo shoot on Saturday right at sunset.

 Robert found me a place to stay Friday night so I didn't have to drive back up to Hagerstown.  I stayed with someone in his ward that actually lived on post so it was really nice.

It was refreshingly chilly up there.  Besides getting to spend time with Robert, which was great, it was also fun seeing what life was like on a military post. I went back to the Calls Saturday night then I headed back home Sunday morning.

Secret Admirer

Brent has a pig roast at his house every year.  I was excited to get to go this year.  The pork was really good!  I asked what I could bring and Brent's wife was ready for a dessert!

I headed to Pinterest and found a recipe I had pinned for an oreo cake.

It was a big hit and I don't think this will be last time I make it!

At work a few days later, the office brought in some BBQ from Rudy's.  There was a lot of bread leftover and was just in the kitchen waiting for someone to eat it.  I came in after eating my lunch and saw this sitting at my desk.

When I opened the note, I couldn't stop laughing!  I work with some funny people . . . Jake!!!!

Wicked Whisk Again

I've posted about Wicked Whisk before, but it's been awhile since I've been able to have it.  My mom really wanted to try it when she and my dad were in town, but they were too busy catering private events, so they hadn't been out and about in their food truck,

Luckily Jake had been checking on them via Facebook or Twitter and saw that they were coming to The Woodlands from 5 - 8 one evening.  I told Collette about it and we all decided to head over to grab some dinner after work.

Michelle was waiting for Jake to bring dinner home so he headed straight home after he got his food.

I talked Collette into getting the Bolillo and she was pleasantly surprised.  

I also got one of those.  This wasn't the best shot, so .. .

I got a better one.  Here's the description:  Santo Pulled Pork Bolillo - friend plantain/smoked white cheddar/ancho chili.  I saved it for lunch the next day because I wanted to try something I hadn't had yet that night. 

This is their version of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  It's on a cheese roll, has amazing peanut butter sauce, fried plantain, and jalepeno jelly.  FANTASTIC FOOD!

Halloween

I had a few fun Halloween items I thought I should post.

A few days before Halloween I got to babysit my friend, Jen's little girlies.  They had just gotten these cute Halloween outfits.  I got Evie pretty much the same thing as her littlest one - Ellie.  

We had a ward truck or treat.  This was my trunk.  I ran out of candy pretty quickly.

We had it in the parking lot of our new Summerwood Stake Center and was a lot of fun.  I went to another party that night, but didn't get any good pictures.

On the actual Halloween I went over to Katherine's mom's place to celebrate Katherine's birthday.  She bought some adhesive mustaches that cracked me up.

Katherine had also made these nasty looking finger cookies.

I made Katherine a hat like I made for Evie and Penny.  Here she, Erin, and I are sporting our mustaches.

Katherine changed into her 8 ball costume to hand out candy to the trick or treaters.  It was a pretty clever costume.

Katherine is definitely a master of dressing up.

She snapped this not so flattering picture of me as I was sitting out on the steps.  I was a dunce again when it came to dressing up.  The past two years I haven't come up with anything good.  I need to start thinking for next year!

Warr Visit

I couldn't wait until Christmas to see The Warrs so I headed out there last weekend for a short little visit.

I made the girls some hats and here they are sporting the fall colored ones.  

Evie does these cute little fake smiles when asked to smile for a picture.  They crack me up.  This is the first of quite a few in this post.

Here's example number two.  She is a cute little thing!

Penny has grown so much!  I guess the last time I saw her in real life was just a couple days after she was born.  

She's just recently learned to roll over and is a SUPER smiley baby!

I was excited to hear that we would be visiting a corn maze during my visit.

The Griffins got tickets for it.  It's always great to see them!

Some of the corn was pretty tall.  It was hard to navigate around.

Erika held Penny in Susannah's little sling so she got a good nap in.

Susannah had to carry Evie for most of the time we were in the maze because poor little Evie got sick on the way over to the maze.

She was wearing a cute Halloween outfit I brought her, but she threw up all over it so Susannah put her in one of Penny's onsies.  Luckily her vest was unscathed at this point.

Once we got out of the maze she must have been feeling a little better because she wanted to walk around and look at the rides and games that were going on.  I got a kick out of how she was walking around.

We did a little hay ride around as well.

The weather was really nice, but it was SO dusty out there!

Here I am with the Cute Warr family.  Evie's wearing the other hat I made her.

Her stomach had definitely settled because she showed me her mad scooter skills when we got back.

Sunday between conference sessions we went for a walk to the park.  I loved the view of Penny in that little carrier.  

I love her smiles too!

I miss them already!

We then went to look at some of the houses Adam and Susannah were looking at.  I had to get an aunt/niece picture since Erika was with us.

Loving Evie's smile in this one!

One thing I loved was that Evie would hold Penny's hand or arm - especially in the car where they ride right next to each other.

It's too bad that my phone camera is so slow.  I couldn't quite get the kiss in time!

This pic of Evie reminded me of pictures of me at this age.  Evie's mouth was full of chicken nuggets at this point.

A cheesy breakfast smile!

Susannah got her Halloween outfit all washed so she could wear it before I flew out on Monday.  Cute smile on a cute girl in a cute outfit!

You can see the skirt better from this angle.  Evie LOVES books!

Here's Susannah making Penny laugh.  Sorry these videos are on their side.

This is part one of Adam playing with the girls.

Part 2.  I was super sad to leave!

I had a long layover on my trip home, so I arranged to meet up with Jinny, my best friend from High School and we had a great time catching up!  Not he best picture, but it's the only I had! :)