With a toddler in the house (or is he a preschooler now? he sure does talk a lot..), aside from when he's asleep, we pretty much do everything together. I try to split the day between stuff he wants to do and stuff I want to do.
thankfully he was patient with me yesterday, and I definitely appreciated his meticulous nature and attention to detail.
2010-08-11
the tedious part
Posted by
Jessica
at
3:16 PM
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comments
2010-08-09
It's good to be home
so good it seems, that I'd rather be cleaning, sorting, playing, sewing, cooking or just enjoying my home and my family than playing catch-up in blogland. you know I haven't even signed into facebook in weeks? Some times real life is just too much fun..
Posted by
Jessica
at
7:37 PM
2
comments
tags: appreciating what I have, family, George, spiderweb
2010-06-18
Vay-Cay
Posted by
Jessica
at
2:16 PM
2
comments
2010-04-07
Video
In case you were wondering what we do in Greece for Easter..
And our cousin said, "Just don't make him a real Greek, ok?" I guess he meant one who dances traditional dances? It's strange though, because I know a lot of very real Greeks that don't do that.. hmm.
2010-02-06
need help with that quilt?
So maybe you, like me, have been inspired by quilts like these, but weren't really looking forward to removing all of the paper foundations.
Well.
Let me introduce you to a very practical and cheap source of help for this tedious task.
Find a toddler:
Hard at work, the little monster...
If you want to try this method but can't find your own toddler, email me, maybe we can set up a playdate..
Posted by
Jessica
at
10:03 PM
6
comments
tags: George, januaryweekend, video
2009-12-23
More holiday cheer!
We were invited for dinner at the home of some new friends. I thought it would be a fun activity for the kids if we decorated a gingerbread house...
Before we left home, we had to mix up the frosting and assemble the house. George helped with the electric mixer:
George even helped by piping on the icing for the door. I think if I would have given him the icing bag the whole dining room would have been covered. Well, it was a good activity, the kids liked it, and I can't wait to do it again when George is older.
Christmas is almost here.. are you squeezing in every last bit of holiday fun while you can?
2009-12-20
Snow!
Posted by
Jessica
at
9:22 AM
0
comments
tags: George
2009-12-11
Low Budget Holiday Cheer!
I had this idea when I went to bed the other night. (still playing with the handprint idea, like on mom's wall hanging..) I didn't know how it would work out, but it was actually a lot easier than I thought it would be, and as a result,10-12 lucky Christmas card recipients will also get a bit of original artwork this year (or maybe I'm just prepping him to become a Sumo wrestler..)
- washable poster paint = $3 at Target
- cardstock = I had some left over from my mail art days. You probably have some lying around too.
- wax paper covered cutting board
- silicone basting brush
- newspaper to cover your work area
So easy! Minimal mess! Big score on cuteness!
So of the 45+ Christmas cards we send, a few will be a bit more special this year.
Hope you're having as much fun with your holiday crafting!
Posted by
Jessica
at
10:07 AM
2
comments
2009-11-16
A day in the life
Amy invited us to play along and tell about our daily schedules.. here's what a typical weekday looks like around here:
7:30 George wakes up. He has probably started to stir about an hour earlier, but I pacify him with a boob and we all get more sleep. We know he's really awake when he starts poking our faces or trying to dive head first over us to get out of the bed. Lately I've started putting him down on the floor and trying to get a few more minutes of rest. He likes to play with the sock bin in my closet, but he also gets into things he shouldn't too, like C's glasses, or this morning when I found him crawling underneath our bed..
7:45 Sneak away while George is playing to brush my teeth. I can't do anything in the am until my teeth are brushed.
7:50 Pick up the munchkin and head to the kitchen to make coffee for Costas. He gets tempted to stay home and play with George so I try to give him a push out the door- on good days I make coffee and lunch. On bad days I make him hold George and make his own coffee.
8:30 Breakfast for the 3 of us. Usually cereal for the adults, yogurt with fruit and/or oatmeal for the kid. C and I use this time to chat and catch up on the day's plans. I really like that we have breakfast together.
9:00 George and I head out to Stroller Strides or a playdate. Today we went to a music class at Orly's Treehouse. After class we have snacks (read: coffee) with other moms & babies.
12:00 Naptime. I try to plan to be on my way home from somewhere around noon so he can fall asleep in the car. Once we get home I make a pot of coffee, check my email, and try to get some school work done. I used to sew during naptime, but now it's coming down to crunch time in the semester-- I've got an exam on Thursday so i shouldn't even be blogging now.. I have quilt projects all lined up for winter break though.
1:30 Lunch for George, when he's done we play for a while. If I was lucky, I threw in laundry before breakfast so there'll be a load to fold together in the afternoon. He's getting really good at laundry. While he plays I can usually sneak off and check my email. I may get 10 minutes before he's banging on the office door. We catch up with family and friends with phonecalls in the afternoon, and in general just hang out around the house. Twice a week though the babysitter comes for 2 hours so I can get some more focused studying done. Thank god for that!
5:00 Start dinner. Depending on the meal, I usually start chopping and measuring while he's naping so I can saute and throw stuff together once he gets up. We eat all of our meals at home (Costas takes left overs or a sandwich 5 days a week for lunch) and I'm getting much better at meal planning, shopping for what we need (less frivolous purchases), and using what we have. This is a huge step for me as a housewife.
6:30 George gets dinner and I'll probably get a snack. Then more playing (and some mindless tv) til Costas gets home. Twice a week he gets a bath, but no more than that due to pretty bad excema.
8:00 Costas gets home. He plays with George for a while and then maybe we'll have dinner as a family, but if George didn't get the second nap, I'll let Costas eat first while I put George to bed.
8~9:00 Bedtime for the monster. Definitely flexible, depending on when he got up last and when C gets home from work. I hate to put George to bed without seeing Daddy, but sometimes Costas has to work late..
9:30 Unwind in front of the TV with C. Sometimes I try to study, sometimes I go hide out in the sewing room, sometimes I do both. Lately I can't handle more than 1 hour before changing activities so if I have more than 2 hours to myself I tend to bounce back and forth between sewing and studying. Of course I can also blow 2+ mindless hours playing on line, but then I go to bed feeling more tense (neck soreness) and very unproductive.
12:00 Bedtime. Sometime around midnight George will wake up and I'll go get him and bring him to bed with me. I let him nurse as much as he wants through the night and we all sleep better.
Our days are long and it's often exhausting keeping a 13 month old stimulated, happy and safe all day. But he's a happy kid and these days I'm usually a happy mom. There are ups and downs of course, but I'm thankful for the recent upswing, especially during crunch time at school.. This week has been unbalanced in terms of school work to sewing, but that's ok. Overall, I'm really glad that I found a good balance this semester-- taking time to sew keeps me more focused on schoolwork when it's study time.
Posted by
Jessica
at
10:42 PM
3
comments
tags: appreciating what I have, family, George, keepinghouse
2009-10-28
10/28/09
Playing around with the timer on my camera...
I hung it from the knobs on the cabinets while George and I were making dinner.
Is anyone planning to do NaBloPoMo? I don't think I'd have enough to say, but I might try it anyway..
Oh, oh, and Jackie is having a giveaway! You've got 4 chances to win some Moda, Kona or a magazine, so go give it a shot!
Posted by
Jessica
at
10:06 PM
2
comments
tags: George, Greek food, selfportraits
2009-10-24
My Jet-set Baby
From our recent trip to Chicago, this is George's 8th plane ride, all before his 1st birthday..
Posted by
Jessica
at
4:20 PM
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comments
Beautiful weather
beautiful slightly-rainy, very windy-yet-warm weather today so I took George for a stroll just before noon, hoping he'd fall asleep for his nap. We switched from the infant carseat to the convertable this week (Britax Marathhon, what kind do you have?) and I'm still feeling a bit helpless when it comes to naptime-- driving him around the neighborhood had been my go-to nap routine for the last 2 months. Thankfully it wasn't too cold today and he didn't seem to mind the 3 raindrops that fell on him. We made a loop from our house down to the main street, checking out Halloween decorations and watching the grade-school kids play soccer in the schoolyard. He fell asleep in less than 10 minutes. Great, but what am I going to do when it starts snowing?
Once inside I thought, "Blogging or sewing?"
I chose sewing because it calms me, lets me find my place in the world (which has seemed a bit chaotic lately).
I trimmed up the triangles for 4 new spiderweb blocks that I pieced last night. Then I cut more paper templates and light blue kites. I also drew up a 2nd draft of the potential layout.. this one calls for only 30 blocks with light blue background, but 26 blocks with medium blue background, which I don't have in the stash. I was hoping I could go through the rest of the year without buying fabric (ok, without buying anything really), so we'll have to see how far I get. I'm now up to 15 blocks and still loving it.
I thought this pattern was supposed to make a dent in my scrap stash, but it hasn't really. Scraps beget scraps, right? No complaining. I'll find the ideal scrap-busting project one of these days. Suggestions welcome, of course~
I find that piecing the spiderweb units has helped me sort through my scraps with a fine-toothed comb. Any strip more than 20" long gets set aside for another strip quilt project. Chunks and triangles get tossed into the triangle box for the corners. When I find squares, I separate them and toss them into the square drawer. This part of the project has been very satisfying. Sure, I love sewing and quiltmaking, but I think what I love more is playing with small pieces of fabric. Just touching them, sorting them, moving and collecting them. And when I trim up a triangle the trimmings have to be really small for me to part with them. I've started a pile of "too small to sew with but too pretty to throw away"-- greeting cards maybe? We'll see.
Posted by
Jessica
at
3:12 PM
1 comments
tags: George, neighborhood, scraps, spiderweb
2009-10-20
Birthday!
Not much sewing around here lately-- with the exception of George's halloween costume which he wore for his BIRTHDAY PARTY!
He was a scarecrow, easy-peasy except for the hat which I ended up making out of craft foam and stitching by hand. He wouldn't keep it on -- not even for a picture..
My sister has been here for the past week and there is NO WAY I could have pulled off the party without her. It's great to spend time together and the extra hands/eyes are a Godsend!
We went all out for the desserts-- cupcakes (idea came from a family magazine I read in the Dr's office waiting room last month, snapped pics of the recipe with my camera phone, but I don't know which magazine it was, sorry!), an eclair cake, and a birthday cake:
George enjoyed it all, and so did the rest of us.
And thank you for the many peaceful wishes.. My mother has been in the hospital for the last 2 weeks and it got quite scary there for a few days. She is doing better day by day though, came off the ventalator yesterday and may move out of the ICU this week. She has a long-term illness which I'm not quite ready to answer questions about yet, but thank you, thank you for your prayers and good thoughts.2009-09-24
Dinner with Librarians
The first night of our road trip we spent some time with Joanna, her boyfriend, and two delightful librarians. Good food, stimulating conversation, and nice people genuinely interested in keeping George happy.


Highlight of the evening= George chasing Joanna's cat. Kitty ran behind the couch and George climbed right in after her. Yeah, he gets a little excited around animals.. 


Posted by
Jessica
at
9:07 PM
1 comments
2009-09-23
Asian Pears
The first thing we did when we got to Boston was collect the Whites and head to Lookout Farm to pick some apples. You take a "train" into the orchards and it lets you off at whichever type of fruit you'd like to pick.
We didn't have a lot of time so we headed straight for the asian pears. This was George's first time apple picking and at first he didn't know what to do. But after I put a few pears on his stroller and didn't stop him from putting them in his mouth, he was soon chomping away..
Next stop, Joanna's..
Posted by
Jessica
at
11:24 AM
2
comments
2009-09-22
road trip
215 photos are now downloaded onto my computer. when i find the time, they'll get uploaded to flickr. we had a good road trip. lots of quilt-related soul-soothing fun. george traveled really well too. sorry i'm too tired to write more. quilt pics will come soon though, promise.
Posted by
Jessica
at
11:15 PM
0
comments
2009-09-17
Today I:
+Interviewed a babysitter for George (finally!)
+Ordered a subscription to Quilter's Newsletter Magazine (do you read it? do you like it?)
+Organized photos in my little "Quilting" photo album
+Started packing for our road trip to Boston
George and I will head up to Boston tomorrow to visit friends and then on Saturday we'll go to the Silver City Quilt Guild's QUILT SHOW!! yay! A whole day of quilting, catching up with friends & maybe a little shopping too (I've got a $50 budget, is that ridiculously inadequate?). Sunday we'll drive further north and go see my Aunt Cathy in NH. Monday we'll head home again. It's a lot of driving, I hope George cooperates. We're trying to squeeze in a lot in just 4 days, I hope I remember to take pictures..
Posted by
Jessica
at
9:53 PM
3
comments
2009-09-10
September 10th
So I started machine quilting. I'm doing a very thread-intense pattern which I've been calling "snaily-Q's". It's a lot of fun, and now I finally understand all that talk on quilt blogs about curved safety pins, garden gloves, thread tension, stitch regulation, and running out of bobbin thread. In one length of quilting I used up 5 bobbins, is that normal? Anyway, I'm having lots of fun with it and now have great dreams of making tons and tons of quilts, just like all the other machine-quilting quilt bloggers.
You might be wondering why, out of the blue, i decided to pull out this UFO and teach myself to machine quilt the same week I went back to school. See, after my dismal post last week I had a small breakdown-- Costas asked me a question about future home remodeling. "Future" as in our 5-10 year plan, whether or not to knock down a wall and... And I felt myself crumble. I held back tears and tried to explain to him that I didn't have the mental capacity to have that discussion right now, that I was trying as hard as I could to deal with school and George not sleeping and adjusting to a new schedule. I know daydreaming about "fixing things" is one of his hobbies so I apologized to him and told him I didn't enjoy thinking about things like that (usually because we disagree and end up arguing about things that haven't happened yet), and he said,
"Then what do you enjoy thinking about?" (as previous discussions that day involved how stressed I was thinking about school and scheduling for George)
"Quilting." I answered.
And then it hit me. Thinking and daydreaming about quilting is stress free. It is calming, soothing. I can do it anytime, anywhere, and I almost immediately feel better. So I realised I need quilting in my life. For my mental sanity, for balance. In order to hold me together; so I can function, so I can cope. 
That's why I started working on my "1994" quilt and why I have put my Travel Quilt kit on the shelf in George's room. While he sleeps I split my time between studying and quilting, and now while he plays I can sometimes stitch 2 or 3 diamonds together. I'm not in any rush. I'm striving for happiness, peace and balance in my life. I think I'm moving in the right direction.
Posted by
Jessica
at
8:32 PM
3
comments
tags: 1994, George, machineQ, one stitch at a time, school, travelquilt#2












