Catching Fire

Of course I had to read the second book of the Hunger Games since the first one was so wonderful and of course I loved the book. I was shocked at the twist and how Katniss and Peeta had to go back into the games and I was shocked at the end where (spoiler alert) they both got out alive along with several other contestants.I totally didn't expect that, I thought for sure that Katniss would "accidentally" win as she was trying to save Peeta and that Peeta would intentionally kill himself at the end. Despite what I thought would happen I am glad that is not the end result. I am excited to see if they can defeat the capitol in the third book.

Another thing I am excited about it is the relationship between Katniss and Gale. I like Peeta but I really don't think that is who she is meant to end up with. It was also kind of fun to learn about some of the other contestants in The Games this time as they were working together.

I have heard from almost everyone that has read the whole series that the third book is not as good but I guess I will have to decide for myself and I will keep you posted.

Zig Zag Quilt

So this is my first attempt at any sort of a quilt. I really want to make one for Riley but I didn't want to mess it up so I headed to Joann's and bought some pretty cheap fabric that was even more on sale and started out making the zig zag quilt which I figure Patrick and I can use on our couch when it is done. I got the pattern for the zig zag quilt here and it is a pretty good tutorial.

 I have learned a lot since starting this quilt. Here are a few things I learned:

1. How to cut straight and square lines. After cutting and sewing all of the strips for this quilt I went to my friend Lori's house where she proceeded to look at my work and shake her head. My strips were not straight. In fact I had cut all of the colored strips at 3" and all of my white at 2.5". I thought I was tired when I cut the white but not that tired. So she told me I needed to take apart all of the strips and that it might be easier to do squares, which is what I would have done eventually according to the instructions. I headed to Joann's for more white fabric. I started out with plain white fabric but the second time around I found this cute polka dot fabric and stuck with that.

Finally starting to look like a quilt, laying out the squares for the first time

2. How to use a seam ripper. After Lori told me my lines weren't straight she told me just to seam rip all of them apart and basically start over. In my mind I cried because it turns out I didn't know how to seam rip. I thought that I would have to take apart each stitch one by one as that is how I have been doing it my entire sewing career, all 2 months of it! Ugh to find this out was wonderful and life saving. I couldn't believe it when she acted like it was no big deal but turns out it isn't!

I got to sew when Riley discovered scraps of fabric were fun to play with, this lasted about 2 times!

3. How to chain stitch. This made my life a lot easier, I was under the impression that I had to cut the thread on every single square and that is not the case. Chain stitching made everything go way faster.

4. Speaking of fast I also learned how to sew fast. Yes it is intimidating but it actually is easier. I thought the slower that I went the more precise my lines would be and that is not the case, my lines looked worse than when I went fast, I think there was just more room for error so I now sew fast!

5. Now having said that go slow when you are machine quilting. I also learned that when using this stitch you must use good thread otherwise it will break because the tension is so tight for this stitch.

6. I decided to do the backing a little different than just a plain color and this was the worst idea for a first quilt. I wanted to do a zig zag and have it line up with the front zig zag. Well this didn't work out perfectly at all, my stitch is way off but it is my first quilt so I can't worry about it. All I can say is it is perfectly imperfect!

7. I also learned how to hand stitch the binding which is the only hand stitching I did on the quilt. I found that I love the look of this hand stitch better than if I would have done it on a machine. I learned how to do this at mommy by day crafter by night. I love her website and I can relate because she is a fairly new quilter as well and a young mom like myself.

My mom at one point came to me when I was about half way through my quilting and said "you should enter your quilt in the fair!" I thought this was a great idea and she told me that it didn't have to be taken to the fairgrounds until a day or so before the fair started so I thought to myself I can definitely finish this in 3 weeks...I thought wrong! I had a wedding at the beach that we went to and then ended up working almost every day in between, not to mention I didn't have 3 weeks I had 2 weeks. Needless to say I didn't finish the quilt in time despite me staying up all night long. In the end I got everything but the binding done and then it sat there for about another month before I decided to finish it. Next time I just have to go at my own pace and I suppose next year I can enter the quilt, lets hope it is done by then!

Needless to say I am addicted to quilting officially and am in the process of a couple more already!

Lincoln City

While we were at the beach for Andrea and Greg's wedding we did have a little free time to play around and take Riley to the beach for the first time! It was so fun and Riley love it. We of course dragged Nana and Papa with us and then Uncle Andrew came for a night as well!

The 7 hour drive was something of a worry to me but Riley did awesome. She was a gem almost the whole time and just such a happy girl. This was just a quick rest stop and you can tell that she just loved traveling and being around family. She loved the drivers seat, definitely can wait until she can actually drive though.

She wasn't so sure about Uncle Andrew

 This was the first time that we were all on the beach together. We definitely should have gotten ready before taking our family picture haha. Riley loved the sand. She kept trying to eat it and then realized it didn't taste good at all but then kept doing it, it was just so interesting to her!

Every time she found her toes in the sand she would crack up!

New York came to town!!!

Sorry for the blogging hiatus but I have lots to update you on that I am going to try to do tonight, we will see how many I can knock out!

The end of August was very busy but one of my favorite things that happened was my sister in law and my niece and nephew came to Washington, they currently live in New York, way too far away in my opinion especially since I haven't yet convinced my husband to let me go back to visit.

All the cousins together finally



Swimming in the pool

We had lots of fun hanging out at Grandma Kay's house. We had a BBQ, lots of playing and this was the first week that Riley stood on her own so that was pretty exciting. It was so fun to watch the cousins interact because this was the first time that they had actually met so that was pretty fun. We so wish that we all lived closer together so that they could actually become best friends!

This weekend we actually went to the Benton County fair where Hinder was playing. Patrick and I left Riley with my mom for the first overnight stay which was a bit scary but when I called to check up on her she was sound asleep and had pooped in the toilet for the first time so that made me smile! Megan and Keara and Ethan all came to the Hinder concert as well, they were such good sports, they had their ear plugs and cotton candy and did awsome!

There were a couple of times that I had to work and Megan came down to hang out at our house. One of those times they went to visit Grandpa Bill and went to Dairy Queen. I heard stories about how they were trying to take this picture and everytime Grandma Kay asked one of the kids to look at the camera Grandpa Bill would look to see what the kid was doing. Therefore they got a lot of pictures of Grandpa Bill looking at a kid and the kids looking at the camera. This was the best that they got that day, love the look on Megan's face!

My best friends wedding!

I am very late in writing this blog but I had to share that on August 18 my best friend got married!!! She found a wonderful guy and I am so happy for Andrea and Greg to spend their lives together. It was a gorgeous wedding however since I was a bridesmaid I didn't get a lot of pictures but here are the ones that I did get! It was at the cutest little bed and breakfast on the Oregon Coast and the ceremony overlooked the ocean, couldn't ask for a more picture perfect setting.

Aren't they the cutest couple!

Family photo