Life is Like a Bowl of Chocolates

.....you just never know what you're going to get, do you?  This has been one of those weeks where I've gotten a lot of things, and some of those things were things that make a mom's heart sputter.  I'll get to those in a minute.

First was some framing.  I didn't know what I was going to get with this white frame.  I wanted something that would go in the room where it's intended as it's a very light room, but....

My Quaker House

Blackbird Designs

40 count French Vanilla 

I sat on this piece forever (since July 2008) and didn't know if I wanted to make a needle roll out of it or frame it.  I think I want to take the frame off and paint it and sand it down and have some of the white show through.  What do you think?  Also, the matt is not quite that color - more of a green blue - don't know what is up with the camera!

I started a new project because I was getting a little tired of Adam and Eve's, so I kitted up a few things and started on this:

Susanna Lane

The Scarlett Letter

This is really a lot of fun to stitch.  I couldn't get a closer picture of it because it's fairly wide, but I managed to get that done in the past week.  It's the one of the things that calmed my nerves.

I also got four more of the As Time Goes By quilt finished.  It helps when they're already cut out - just sit and put the pedal to the metal:

Now eight down, four more to go.

Calm nerves are just what I need right now.  It's really been a week - starting off with a visit to my front porch by the men in blue - well actually, one man and women and they were dressed in brown - Oakland Country Sheriff Deputies.  Kind of a scary thing when they come knocking at 12:30 at night.  Well, it wasn't anything too terrible.  Just an incidence of some eggs being thrown at my son's friend's neighbors and my son's car being there and the license given to the police.  Since my son didn't have the common sense to leave the scene of the crime, he's on a few days of grounding.  Now, I've been known to throw a few eggs in my time (it was always a big High School Senior Skip Day thing - rite of passage), so I kind of have to smile.  If that's the worse thing that he gets wrapped up in, I think I'm blessed.  But the grounding should serve as a gentle reminder to tow the line.  Whether he had an egg in his hand or not, throwing at people (if that's exactly what happened) is not a good thing.  He's had Physics - he knows the consequences.

But then two days later, I'm in and out of hospitals with my daughter and then my son.  Possible pneumonia with DD and possible fractured leg with my DS.  You have to love a good time, don't you?  No pneumonia for DD, but possible asthma.  UGH.  And DS - huge collision on the soccer field during his summer gym class.  Diagnosis - badly bruised and sprained ankle and leg - not broken, thank goodness.  Of course, all of this with my son has to happen while I'm sitting in a car dealership across town with my tires and brakes lying on the floor!  That's enough to frazzle a mom's hair.

So to calm my nerves in between all these fun events, I stitched and fiddled around in the craft room, unloading shelves, going through things.  Physical activity is a sure fire way to calm myself down.  And I found another pizza box treasure.  An I Spy Quilt that I started for my kids.  It was part of the reason I saved up to buy an embroidery machine just so I could embroider the words on the side.

Did I ever do that?  Of course not - this is what it looks like:

Two rows put together.  And my favorite blocks so far:

My sister and my son when he was smaller, and for some reason that zebra driving the car cracks me up. 

And, of course, we have to have a block that has something to do with sewing:

I've pulled this quilt out and am going to try to finish it up.  My kids are both older now, but I still think it will make them smile.   Everything is cut out and ready to go, so no excuse not to.

Well, that's all the news that's fit to report this week.  What a week!  Dear sister is coming in tomorrow and I can't wait.  But I've got a ton of things to do before she gets here though and haven't been a very good blog reader this week at all.  I don't know how much time I'm going to have in the next few weeks, but I'll at least look, if I don't comment.

Have a wonderful weekend!!