july recap

How on earth is it the last day of July?? 

CRAZY. 

 so here is what happened in the lovely month of JULY. 

Maddie grew up and stopped fitting in her car seat. 

this was her last ride. before the booster seat went in. 

I made a cute tunic. (well at least I thought it was cute) 

and I saw this picture and proceeded to do a major clean on mu very messy room. 

that is horrifying.... 

My brother turned 40.... (my much older brother..) 

and they had this party for him at some friends house.

they had this awesome pool. 

the kids had a blast. 

Dom got the Jeep towed back home and 

thus began the next chapter of 

getting the Jeep road worthy. 

Lots and Lots of sweat, grease and love have been poured

into his jeep. 

i finished my wonky star quilt hanging. 

and made one travel wee.... 

thanks Pam for the thousands of altoid tins.  : ) 

lots of swimming and hanging out with my sister

and the cousins. 

oh, sweet days of summer. 

went to see my nephew Ben play some baseball. 

my washer quit working so I had to visit the laundromat. 

the kids thought it was fun. 

God then blessed us with a brand new washer for $203.00

YUP. he sure is good. 

we went down to Newark with my ENTIRE Family 

for Portuguese Food..... mmm mmm

So glad we live close to the iron bound

where else could you get a delicious chicken dinner for 6 bucks? 

and be stuffed? 

while we were driving there I was remembering

how beautiful Newark really was in its day. 

We ate out far to much this month... but

HOT GRILL was so worth it. 

Dom worked security in Times Square and Elmo and Cookie 

forced him to have his picture taken. 

Maddie LOVED it. 

Emily turned 19. We went out to lunch and she took this picture of Sara and I

we got a pop up camper. 

 lots of camping in our future.

WOO HOO.

(i will be pretending she is a canned ham or an airstream travel trailer....)

I got to shoot some beautiful maternity photos at an amazing spot

in Wayne NJ. 30 acres of ponds trails and gardens... lovely. 

Here I am taking my picture with my phone. 

my garden looked great the 2nd week of july. 

the eggplant made a delicious eggplant parm. 

my moon glow went crazy. 

shasta daisies were lovely. 

and I had one lovely little cone flower... that the deer left alone. 

thanks dear, deer. 

and that about sums up JULY. 

welcome August. 

S E W I N G - Quilting

I have been so in l o v e with sewing as of late. 

I mean, I always love to sew but lately 

I feel extra creative and  really 

enjoying the entire process. 

from picking out the fabric to 

laying out or designing the pattern, 

(almost feel like a designer)

maybe I missed my calling... 

although I am only Thirty Something, 

I probably haven't missed anything

We are supposed to design a name tag to wear at 

our guild meetings... 

Hello my name is...

So here is mine, 

I used fabric from my stash... 

It is only 4 x 3 so it is pretty small. 

I am going to put a grommet into it and

and stick it on a silver chain. 

This is the back. 

It would be my nod to 

the wonky log cabin

I LOVE my my little VW vans.... 

These might just be the worst photos in history....

The other thing that I made was this AMAZINGINGLY 

HUGE wonky Star wall-hanging. 

I saw it somewhere on Pinterest and decided I needed 

to make that. 

I am actually going to be entering it in the Sussex County State Fair. 

(If I get it done) 

I still have to back it and bind it and quilt it. 

When it is complete I will get some close up shots of it. 

It has a Star in a Star in a Star. 

The original I saw did not have the tiny

star in the middle square.

I also Made a Quilt for my Mom and Dad for their Anniversary. 

I made that in 2 days.

I planned on taking about a week, 

but life happened and I needed to get it done in a hurry. 

I captured the goings on with my phone...

Here I am piecing away.

Stitching on the very adorable binding... 

(and if you don't know how to make your own binding, 

please tell me, I would love to teach you how.) 

I adore pieced backs... 

So here is the back 

Sorry, I should have taken it outside and hung it on the clothesline but

I was on a very tight time schedule...  

The Front. 

I used Cluck Cluck Sews

Stars and Stripes Quilt and made it a Throw Size

My Mom and Dad really liked it. 

I was  pleased that I finished it. 

and even got it quilted... 

I just did a simple line quilting. 

anyway, I have been busy sewing all summer, 

what have you been up too? 

t h e S h o r e

Just about 1 hour from our house is the 

beautiful east coast. 

We call it going down the shore here in New Jersey. 

We took our 2 girls and our 2 adopted girls (our nieces)

for the day and headed to the beach. 

There is just something about cousins.... 

they are so close and it is wonderful to see them growing up together. 

Really a blessing. 

The water was so lovely the day we went. 

68 degrees and we were in it just about the entire time. 

it was a wonderful day. 

the "big girls" As maddie calls them would guard her

from the waves breaking... 

arn't they sweet. 

What a great start to the summer... 

Fun with the cousins. 

in the Beautiful Atlantic. 

Lots of day trips planned to the Jersey SHore. 

and no, we didn't run into to Snookie. 

hehe.