This-is-so-COOL: Happy Birthday to ME!

Forgive a little self indulgence today.  This has been a month to remember already and I have no idea where time has gone.  I woke up this morning and realized that I hadn't posted since the first of the month.  Yikes!

Last night I came home from work and Rhett showed me our new cabinets.  This was an idea I saw on Pinterest a while back and pushed for in our bathroom remodel.  There's a couple of more things to work on, but here's a preview:

Last year Rhett took me to Best Buy for my birthday.  I know ... woohoo, right?  Well, you know, not really.  He's the best husband ever, but definitely has a one-track mind and uses special occasions to try to keep me more up-to-date ... ANYWAY, he bought me a Kindle.  At the time, I indulged him as he let me browse the various readers and make my final choice, but I've always thought of myself as a traditionalist--smell-and-feel-the-pages-of-the-book, look-at-the-glossy-pictures-in-the-gift-books, rip-articles-from-magazines-I-want-to-keep, always-carry-a-paperback-in-my-purse kind of gal.  And I am, but ... I LOVE MY KINDLE!!  It's like the gift that keeps on giving.  It's small enough to fit in my purse even with the case on it.  I always have several choices of books to read from.  I can read it in the sunlight and there's no glare to worry about.  Even my eye doctor extolled the virtues of this e-wonder when I went in for an eye exam.  When I'm finished with a book, it stores away nicely in a folder and I can easily get the next gem over our home network.  What used to take up two double deep shelves of my bookcases, now takes up six lines on my Kindle.  Don't misunderstand ... I still steal away to B&N every chance I get and I will always keep certain books (Narnia and Green Gables, for example) on my shelf (there are just too many memories and too much sentiment to let them go,) but I have a new tool in my shed that is better in so many other ways.

This past year has also been so full for me.  I've gone new places and learned so many new things.  I started this blog in earnest and I'm really enjoying it.  The original intention was to have a family-share forum as well as  a place to share my love of crafting.  I think most of all its become a way for me to process and evaluate.  This works for my craft projects, but more especially for LIFE.  There is a magic to writing that helps clarify the thinking process.  There have been many posts I sat down and worked out, then never published just because I needed the therapy.  Maybe I'll get better about sharing more, but for now the process works for me.

Since I was a teenager, I always wanted to learn to quilt.  I'd check books from the library and read them and look at the old quilts in the pictures.  I even went to see a play called Quilters with Grandma Heath as a teen.  I loved that you could tell a story with the fabric and construction as well as through its life and lineage.  But no one in my circle quilted and I'm too timid to try something that grand on my own. Well, about two years ago, I decided it was time to bite the bullet.  I had one of those chain mail things were you send the first two people blocks then forward the letter and wait for your blocks to come in the mail ... Well that prompted me to my first basic project (below).  I bought a couple books from JoAnn's and off I went.  I won't tell you how long it took, but I was LEARNING!

I also got the idea for Sam's Trek quilt about that time and went to town on that.  I'm not very patient with the hand quilting, but I can do it and I get better each time I work on it.  This year I plucked up the courage to start machine quilting.  I've got the basics down and love to spend time practicing.  I've got a long way to go, but am loving the journey.  I can totally see how this hobby can become an obsession.

All in all, I can look back at this past year with a deep sense of accomplishment.  I'll never get to everything I want to get to, but I've kept it all moving right along.  I've focused my priorities into taking care of my family and eked out time for other things I enjoy.  I hope you all can feel as blessed in your own endeavors!