Whimsicals Threads

:: Round Robin Rebels - Playing With Crayons ::

It finally came! 

My own copy of American Patchwork & Quilting arrived this week!  Have you gotten yours yet??? 

I am super excited because this issue features the Round Robin Rebels quilts.  And this is the week we all get to share my quilt!

Playing With Crayons....

  

 

If you have not been following along, you may want to go back and read our previous posts, just to get lowdown on the "rules" we set and how we approached this quilt project.

Me {you are already here, but check out my first post on the Round Robin Rebels}

Kari Carr {New Leaf Stitches}

Terry Atkinson {Terry Atkinson Designs}

Gudrun Erla {GE Designs}

My quilt....

When we started this round robin, I had panic attacks trying to come up with an idea for my center block. I felt that the expectations were so high and there was no way I was ever going to live up to them..... I had so many doubts and came close to backing out many times before I finally decided that I could not bail because I had no excuse except my own fears and insecurities. 

So I forged ahead, trying to come up with something that I thought would be worthy.  After several months of tossing around different ideas, I kept circling back to a phrase that I couldn't get out of my head.....

Color outside the lines.

It just seemed to fit the whole concept of why we wanted to do this. As designers, we wanted to do something that was for ourselves.... to create with no expectations and without trying to please the masses....  To stretch ourselves creatively and get outside of our comfort zone.  

My idea was to make a simple center block that could be built upon and taken however the remaining designers wanted to take it.  I knew that I wanted to use brighter colors paired with grays and creams, so I began sorting through my stash, making trips to the quilt shops, buying all sorts of fabrics that caught my eye and were not typically "me".  What I ended up with was way more than the 20 fat quarters I was supposed to have.

 

But because I wanted to follow the rules (oh, if I had only known that no one else was following them!) I whittled it down to just 20 that I thought would give everyone a nice assortment to choose from.

 

Stenciling the center block....

Even though I love applique, I decided to paint the letters on the center square, just to do something different and to avoid applique and turning the edges under on the skinny letters.  For this, I used Shiva Paintstiks, which are oil based sticks of paint that look almost like a huge crayon.  If you have never heard of these or used them, here is a quick overview of how I do it.  

First, trace the pattern onto the dull side of freezer paper.

{ trace the design }

 

Using small scissors with an extra fine, sharp tip, carefully cut the design out.  Keep in mind that you are making a stencil, where the fabric is protected by the stencil (in this case, the freezer paper) and the paint is applied through the open area (the portion of the freezer paper that has been cut away).  Use a warm dry iron to temporarily adhere the freezer paper to the fabric.

{ cut out the stencil }

 

Smear a little paint on a styrofoam plate, kinda like coloring with a large crayon.

Load some paint onto a blunt stencil brush using a circular motion.  (I have a collection of brushes ranging in size from 1/8" to 3/4").  Then, using the same circular motion, apply the paint to the fabric in the open areas of the stencil.  Mix, blend, shade..... you have total control over how it turns out and the look you want.

{ apply the paint }

 

A few things to note..... Because I love to mix colors, I can seldom reproduce the exact color of an area, so I try to paint everything that I want with that specific color at the same time. 

I also like to add shading by using a very small stencil brush and black paint along the edges. Because this is an oil based paint, it takes a while to dry, allowing plenty of time to blend and mix colors to get the effect I want. I start with a light coating of paint and just keep adding colors until I like the way it looks. :-)

The freezer paper can simply be peeled off when the painting is finished and can even be reused several times.

Oh, and in case you were wondering about the peace symbol in there.... if you know me very well, you know that I have this thing for the peace sign but have never worked it into a quilt.  I looked at this as my opportunity to add a little "peace" to the project, because like I said before, this one was for ME!! 

Ok, so enough about that....  I felt that I needed to make it look like an actual center block and wanted to accentuate the lines surrounding the words with a softer, more circular feel around the whole thing. So I drew this cool border for it, only to realize that none of the angles were typical ones that could be cut with standard rulers.  Yes, I tend to make the simplest things difficult, and yes, I ended up making templates and cutting the pieces that way.  Then I had the challenge of figuring out how to line them up to piece them together.  

{ piecing the center block border }

 

But I got it all together and felt it needed a little more color and spunk, so I added a little bird and a flower overlapping the "line" around the words, just to keep with the feeling of coloring outside the lines.  Then I boxed it up and sent it on its' way to Kari.  

 

And so began the wait....

which was longer than the four months that we had originally planned for this project, because we ended up doing the big reveal at Meridith Corp, home of American Patchwork and Quilting.  This trip in and of itself was an incredible experience for me, not only because I got to visit APQ, but because I got to spend the entire weekend with these incredible ladies.  I flew to Minneapolis (being the only one that didn't live in Minnesota) where we all piled in a van to drive and shop our way to DesMoines.  To say that we had a blast is a bit of an understatement!

 

Our first morning there was the big "reveal" when we were each blindfolded while our quilt was being pulled out and held up.  The awe that I'm sure we all felt when we took off the blindfold to see our quilt was far beyond anything I could have imagined!  With no preconcieved notions of what I thought the quilts would look like, I can honestly say that I was at a loss for words.

 

 

I loved what everyone had added to my quilt and was so excited.  But at the beginning of this round robin project we had agreed to work on final borders together, since we each had a portion of ourselves invested in all of the quilts.  Oddly enough, after all of the quilts were shown, mine was the only one that we felt would benefit from an additional round.  The consenus was to add a colorful pieced piano key border with rounded corners and applique a black triangle in the center of these borders.  The idea was that it would pull things together with more color on the outer edge and that the black triangles would mimic the inner border.

{ the original plan for an additional border }

 

We played with the extra fabric we had taken with us.....

...did some brainstorming about how to effectively get the look we were going for and what was the best way to sew the borders on....

 

 

And eventually ended up making a trip out to another quilt shop to add some fabric.  We then spent the afternoon together, cutting and sewing to try to get the borders done.  This was a fantastic exercise for me because like many designers, I work alone, which means that I have very few opportunities to see techniques and methods that are different than mine.  And let me tell you, when four designers get together and all of them are trying to accomplish the same thing, it is amazing how different they all approach it! 

This is what we finally ended up with at the end of the day.  We ran out of time to attach the borders, but we packed up and headed back home with the intention of me stitching the borders on myself.  

 

But after I got home, I sat and stewed about what we had done.... Was it too much? Did it really enhance the quilt?  Or was it just a distraction?  And the more I thought about it, the less I was convinced that I wanted to add it.  I was also very hesitant to actually stitch it on, which is usually my gut telling me that it just isn't right.  So I hung it on my design wall and stared at it for a couple days.  And it stared back.  Until several days later, it just hit me... Why not work with what was already there instead of adding more?  I cut a few black triangles and laid them on the existing border to see what would happen.     

 

Those simple black triangles added between the half circles helped to not only define their shapes, but they also made the colors pop. I felt like it was such a better solution than what we had done together.  But what would the others say if I didn't add the borders we had worked on?  It was supposed to be a joint effort and here I was, changing my mind, making a decision on my own.  So I did what any (in)sane person would do.... I snapped a picture of my idea and sent a message to the others, asking their opinion and how they would feel about it if I didn't use the borders we had worked on together.  And I can't tell you how happy I was to get answers back from all of them saying "Go for it!"   

In hindsight, I think we were all running on adreniline and feeling a bit fried during our weekend together.  And when you add in the pressure of four tired brains trying to come up with an idea and implementing it all in one day.... well let's just say that it may not have been our best plan. 

So I simply added the black triangles as applique and finished the quilt with black binding.  This is the final result....

 

At the same time, I didn't want to just discard what we had worked so hard on together for the borders.  So I took portions of the border strips and pieced them into the back, so it is almost like I have a reversible quilt.... a little fun and whimsical on one side with a little modern twist on the other.   

And to top it all off, it was quilted by the talented and amazing Angela Walters.

I have to admit that this is by far my favorite quilt in the house.  It tells a story.  It has the heart of each of us embedded in every stitch and I love it!  

I would love to hear your thoughts on our quilts and round robin projects in general, so leave a comment if you have something to share.

Now, don't forget to check out the other Round Robin Rebels blogs to see their thoughts and what they each added to make my quilt complete.

Terry Atkinson (Atkinson Designs)

Kari Carr (New Leaf Stitches)

Gudrun Erla (GE Designs)

And don't forget you can see the whole story in the Feb. 2014 issue of American Patchwork & Quilting and check out the video interviews and additional stuff at allpeoplequilt.com.   

 

 Come back next week for our stories on the final quilt in this series!

:: journey of a studio ::

For those of you who follow Whimsicals Quilts on Facebook, you may have seen some of these pictures already, but it's been so long since I've posted anything here, I thought I would share the journey of my studio from one end of the house to the other.

You see, for 10 years I have called an almost 11' x 13' bedroom my "room", my "space", or most of the time, my "cave".  It was cozy. It was familiar.  It was all mine, with as much "stuff" as I could stuff into it.  I was comfortable there.... most of the time.  As long as the outside temperature was between 55 degrees and 70 degrees.  And let me remind you that we live in Indiana, where it has not been above 45 degrees in almost 6 months.  Ok, that might be a bit of an exaggeration.  But believe me, that room is cold.  And did I say that it is small?

To see proof that it is small, see my blog posts from a few years ago here and here.

Meanwhile, this large room that was a living room when we bought the house, but became the dining room when we remodeled our kitchen, which then basically become the shipping room (did you follow all of that?) was not really being used in a good way.

So, for years I've been thinking about moving my things into that large room to create an actual "studio", but there were several things that always stopped me.  First of all and probably the biggest issue was knowing that whenever someone came in our front door, they would basically be walking into my studio.  Literally.  The only thing that is between the room and the front door are two partial walls that are 3 feet long and 3 feet high.  The second thing that held me back was the lack of wall space.  With two large doorways and a huge window, where was I going to put everything?

But after purchasing a Koala cabinet for my sewing machine last year that didn't really fit into the room as I had hoped (forcing me to use my machine on a shakey portable table all the time), I finally took the leap.   After years of waffling about it, I repainted the dining room, and moved my things and created my own studio.

So here we go.... a pictorial tour of the old and the new.

The dining room before the move.  You can see that the table was already being used for cutting instead of eating!  And I found the Ikea desk at GoodWill and stuck it there because I had nowhere else to put it.

The dining room from the other end, standing in the large open doorway into the kitchen.  What a mess!

I didn't make it into this room until my husband had already moved my computer, chair, etc., but this is what I used as a desk in my old room.  I took two legs off of a table and screwed it into the built-in desk to give myself a little side desk which I needed to save my shoulder and arm while working on the computer.

Another view of my old room after things had been moved.  Because I couldn't use the extenders on my Koala cabinet, I took the rollers off and used them to support my ironing board, which is simply a piece of wood covered in batting and duck cloth.  

And this is what it looks like now.... I still would like to add a window treatment, but I love the sunlight coming in from the window and so does the pup!

And a view from the opposite end. Yes, that is the front door to our house, right there.

And there it is!  In the next few days, I will add some detail pictures of a few of my favorite parts of the room.  But for now, I need to get back to work.  Enjoy!

Terri

:: a matter of perspective ::

So, I have some explaining to do because I have been silent for far too long. 

Like many creative people, I tend to expect a lot out of myself, which leads to working way too many hours and ignoring other things that really need to be done.  Like cleaning the house.  And doing the laundry.  Or writing a blog.  And I know that I can ignore those things for only so long before they too start to become another source of stress. Funny how that works.

And my way of dealing with it?  Go into hiding.  Or more specifically, become silent.

But because I have had several people ask where I've been, I guess it's time to come out and explain myself.  And in order to do that, I need to back up to October, when you last heard from me.

As I was frantically getting ready to leave for Quilt Market, my family got some shocking news..... that my younger brother was diagnosed with cancer.  And as you can imagine (or maybe relate to), this was very difficult to absorb.  Tad (my brother) got the news on a Friday that he had cancer, had surgery the following Monday, and started chemo two days later on Wednesday, which was the day that we left for Houston.

So picture this..... I am leaving as Tad (who incidentally lives just down the road from me) is starting treatments, I'm not at all prepared for market, going without my book being done, having planned my booth just two days before and feeling as if a blurry haze had fallen over me.  Not a pretty picture.  So if you saw me at market and wondered where my head was, I can tell you now that it was NOT there.

So, where have I been?  I have been here. 

Spending some time with my sister, who I don't see often enough.  Making trips with my brother to chemo.  Enjoying the time with my kids while they were home from college for the holidays.  Going out dancing with my husband on Friday nights.  And yes, still working on my book and projects.  Basically trying to find a healthier balance in my life, which is not an easy task for me.  But what I remind myself every day is that it's all a matter of perspective. 

I'm still here. 

My brother is still here after 14 weeks and 26 infusions. 

My book is almost done.

And we have another day to live. 

I am blessed. 

Tad, looking good with no hair!

My sister and I with Tad..... all smiling!

Having some fun with family!

 

Now, I can't make any promises, but I am going to do my best to keep you more informed.  There are a lot of other things that have been going on here that I hope to share with you.  I just need to get it through my head that my blog posts don't all have to be a magnificent work of words, and my facebook doesn't have to be all about my work.  Again, it's that perspective thing.

Oh yes, and about that book.....

I hope to have it to the printer next week, so be watching for it!  I'll be posting pictures of the projects here and on my facebook page, so be looking for it sometime next week! 

Thanks for hangin' with me!

 

:: apologies ::

Have you ever done something that unintentionally hurts a dear friend or someone you care about?

Now I KNOW that most of you can relate, so go ahead and admit it.

Well, this recently happened to me and I am so deeply saddened by it.  Even when things happen that are merely an accident or unintentional, I still feel the need to try and make amends.  So here goes....

You see, I just got my copy of Fons & Porter's Love of Quilting (November/December 2011 issue).  And on page 78, you will see a lovely quilt called Winterbury Lane and a not-so-lovely picture of me. 

Honestly, it's been a long time since I've had a quilt featured in a magazine.

You see, I don't submit many things to magazines because frankly I have a hard time keeping up with making what I need to for my own books and fabric.  Even with quilts and projects for myself, I rely heavily on several friends (yes, my  mom is included in that group) and their gifts/talents to help me out.  Believe me, I would not be where I am without them.   I am forever thankful that they are willing to share their talents and eternally grateful that they are there beside me in this journey I call life.

So, you can imagine how my excitement over having a quilt in this magazine was quickly replaced by despair when I realized that I had failed to give the proper credit to those who helped me make this project possible.

Although I did design the quilt, it was pieced and sewn together by my mom, Jackie Conaway, and quilted by my friend Kathy Dye of KD Dids.

Mom did an outstanding job of using the fabrics that I sent to her, conversing with me via Skype, and making it all work. 

And Kathy did an exceptional job of quilting, mimicking the applique snowflakes in the snowball blocks, and making the border print look incredible with the little swirls and snowflakes.  If you are fortunate to have a copy of the magazine, you can see these details.

Although I work alone every day, my work is not done by me alone.  Like many people, I need some help along the way.... whether it is an opinion, someone to bounce an idea off of, proofreading, getting a project quilted, or simply finishing it by sewing binding down.  My friends generously help with all of these things.  There is no way that I could possibly keep doing what I do without them.

So, when you see something by Whimsicals or with my name on it, please don't just think of me.  Think of all those that helped to make it possible.  Think of it as a group effort, a collaboration even. 

If you are one of those friends, I thank you.  And if you know of or see one of my friends, please thank them.

Because without them, I would be nothing.

 

:: a new year ::

Well, I don't know about you, but I feel like 2010 just flew by.  For some reason, I thought that as my kids got older and I got more gray, that things would slow down for me, but that hasn't happened yet....

Ah well.  It's a new year.  A new beginning.  So, I'm headed back into my sewing room.  Time for some serious work now that the holidays are over. 

But as I sit here, I'm wondering how my room suddenly became so full and disorderly.  I work in a relatively small space, and although I think it has personality I am constantly considering how I can make better use of the space I have.  My husband can count on it, at least twice a year..... he'll make his way home from work, hoping that a delicious meal awaits him.  But when he walks in the door, he is greeted not with a yummy smell wafting from the kitchen, but a mess of what used to be in my room now sitting out in the hallway, as I desprately try to find more space where there isn't any. 

And then this morning, it hit me......  maybe I just need a different perspective.   

So, I took some photos of my room as it is right now and will share them over the next several posts, in hopes that you (can you sense my finger pointing at you from your computer screen?) will give me some ideas.  Or inspiration.  Or maybe suggestions.  Let me know what you might do.  What works for you.  What you have done to make your space your own.  How can I make better use of what I have..... so here goes...

The first area is my sewing table.    

I know, it's hard to believe, but I've never had a cabinet for my machine.  It's usually the cost that stops me from buying one.   But I'm thinking that it would be nice if I could find one that fit.  I have only 40 inches between my fabric storage cabinet and that annoying jog in the wall.  Do you see it?  I had a friend make this table for me, and he cut the hole in the top so that my machine would sit down in it, as well as a little jog in the table to fit the jog in the wall.  It works, but I would love to find a way to have some sort of storage underneath.  I guess that's where a cabinet would be a benefit.

You can see the plastic box of thread standing on end under the table, as well as the light box (it's kinda hidden).  Then, I have a thread rack nailed to the cabinet for the threads I use frequently.  And more threads in a couple of the drawers in that old wooden box sitting on the bookshelf.

And many of my tools are on the shelf above the table. I don't mind the shelf, since it gets things off of the table, and although I love the cabinet that is hanging above it, it's not very practical.   The shelves are not adjustable inside and I've never really found a good way to store things in it. Which is obvious in the pictures below.....

Those shoe boxes are the only things I've found so far that will fit inside, but they aren't very easy to get out.  Hmmmm..... maybe I just need to put something different in here, or maybe even move it to a different room. 
 
   

And then there is my table top, which holds a lot of the tools I use on a regular basis.  My favorite thing is this little egg separator that my mom gave me, which now holds my seam ripper, scissors, etc.  That, I won't give up because it just makes me smile! 

And just in case you are wondering, the fabric box is my "beginners and enders", or little works in progress.  You know.... when you begin or end a long string of piecing (what I call "string piecing"), and you just need a scrap of fabric to segway from one seam to the next?  Instead of using a scrap piece of fabric, I've been sewing these little pieces for a civil war quilt together. It's taking a while, sewing them together this way, but it's my quilt-free way of working on something for myself without taking the time to do it.  Hehehe!

So, that's it for that area.  Now, bring it on.  Give me some ideas.  Please?!

 

:: giving thanks ::

It's 5 am, Thanksgiving morning.

As I sit here, listening to the quiet rain, I am reminded of how many blessings God showers me with. 

The house is quiet.  Dark.  Peaceful.

A stark contrast to what it was like yesterday.  I'm sure anyone with high school and/or college age boys can relate....

One was sitting in the family room, happily drawing in iscribble, with his music blaring from his laptop.

The other one was in the basement with several friends; laughing, playing video games, with completely different music humming through the speakers and up the stairs. 

I was in my sewing room, thinking I needed to get some work done (but not succeeding) while trying to drown out all the other noises by listening to my own music..... through my headphones. 

My poor husband took the day off too and was trying to get some Whimsicals work done.  Moving from his usual spot in the family room to the kitchen, he finally retreated to the bedroom to find a little peace and quiet.

Ahhhhhh...... another day in the life.

But this morning, all is quiet.   Except for the rain.  And I woke up with a song running through my head.  One from Holiday Inn, which is by the way, one of my favorite Christmas movies.  In my head I keep hearing Bing Crosby singing....

And I do have plenty to be thankful for.

We have a comfortable house to live in.  We have our health.  We have family and friends around to share in our lives with us.  We have jobs.  We have food on our table (or at least it will be after I make it all!)  And today, just maybe, we will all sit in the same room and listen to the same music, together....  a Thanksgiving day tradition we started several years ago, listening to Arlo Guthrie singing Alice's Restaurant.

Yep.  I am showered with blessings every day.  Sometimes I just need a little reminder.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

 

making progress...

I'm going to let you in on a little secret.....

There are times when I find myself struggling to come up with designs and ideas.  And when that happens, I do one of two things.......

I go shopping, or I organize. 

Believe me, they both can get me into trouble.  The shopping because I obviously am not in need of anything, and the organizing because I usually end up making even bigger messes than what I started with.  But in reality, both are used as a way to avoid doing what I really should be doing, which is working on designs.

So, with that being said, here's a quick update on what I have been doing.....

I had my parents help in going through my leftover sample yardage from my many previous fabric lines and was amazed at how many yards I actually had.  No, I'm not going to disclose the amount because quite frankly I'm embarrassed that I actually had that much! And even more embarrassed that I was keeping it all, like I would actually get around to using it.  I mean, really.  Who was I kidding?!  But to give you an idea of how much extra I had, this is what I decided to part with....

Not the couch.  My family would not be happy with me if I did that. 

But those bins and baskets were full of fabric that I ended up taking to my local quilt guild.  Some of it I was able to sell during our garage sale style meeting, and the rest I donated to the guild to use in the many charity quilts they make every year.  I realize that to some, this may look like a lot and to others, it may seem like a small amount, but when you consider that this was all packed into a few shelves in a cabinet in my dining room.... well, it was a lot to me.

I have to be honest and tell you that it was hard to load it all up and take it away, because I am a "keeper" at heart.  But there seems to be a fine line between "keeping" and "hoarding", and I think I may have crossed it.   So, into the Jeep it went and I'm happy to say that it felt really good to come home with all of those empty tubs!

Now, all I have left to finish the fabric sorting is to take the last two lines off the rolls and put them on the leftover bolts that I pilfered from one of my local shops before they could take them to recycling.  Then, it's a matter of figuring out where to store the bolts since they won't fit in the cabinet that the other fabric came out of.  (This is what I mean about making a bigger mess than what I started with.)  

During one of my shopping days, I came across this really cool cabinet at a local antique shop that I just had to buy.  It seemed like the perfect size for storing larger quilts, and with the two drawers in the bottom, I'm hoping that I can get a lot of my quilts, table runners, and wool projects stored in one place instead of multiple locations around the house.

I know, it's not full, but it soon will be.  I still have more quilts to go through, and am setting aside ones that I've finally decided to part with.  Some will be donated, others given as gifts.  A few may end up for sale on my website, Etsy, or Ebay.  I haven't quite decided which method to use, but I'll keep you posted.

So, now that I've been shopping and done a little organizing, I've realized something.  It may seem like I use these things as avoidance tactics, but in reality, they really do help me.  You see, I've given myself some breathing room.  Taken a big gulp of fresh air.  There is room on my shelves for new fabric to come, and a freedom in my mind for new ideas to be born. 

Now, I just need to get to work on that.....

time for some weeding...

It is time to clean.

Time to purge.  Reorganize.

Time to take stock of what I have.  Decide what to keep, and what I can part with.

Because I'm being over-run by quilts and fabric. 

You see, I've been designing fabric for 9 years, publishing patterns and books for 14 years, quilting for 20 years, and sewing for as long as I can remember.  I've accumulated a lot of stuff.

I spent the last two days out in my yard, pulling and digging out all those weeds that are taking over my flower beds.  It's a nasty job.  The thistles are the worst.  Prickly little things that never seem to go away and will grow anywhere.  And then there's the clover that seem to be choking out the grass in the yard, and the dandelions that are growing between the rocks on the patios.

So, now as I sit inside, trying to straighten out my back and get the dirt out from under my nails, I realize that I really need to do some weeding inside my house too.  To get rid of unnecessary things that are taking over my house.   

There's the stacks of fabric from the fabric lines that I've designed in one cabinet in the dining room (yes, my dining room is slowly morphing into another area of the house taken over by Whimsicals.....)

I mean, really, I can't possibly use all of this fabric!!  

And then there's the fabric from the last two lines that I haven't even gotten off the rolls yet.....

....or the fabric that is in storage bins downstairs (I couldn't even get to them to take a picture).

And I don't even want to talk about the stacks of quilts everywhere.....

I even have some stacked above my desk because, well, there was empty space up there!

....and in this old wooden box.....

And the worst part is that I don't even know where everything is.  So if you were to ask me about a specific quilt, it would take me all day just to locate it, unless it's one that is hanging on one of my walls or on a bed.

It's getting really bad.

Because with each new fabric line and each new book, I just keep adding to the stacks. And now that I'm ready to work on the new, I am so distracted by what I already have. 

So, it's time.  Time to sort.  Time to purge.  Time to make some room for the new. 

And just like the yard work, I won't enjoy it.  But as I sit here looking at it all, feeling very overwhelmed, I am reminded of a verse....

¹"I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. ²He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful."   (John 15:1-2 NIV)

It will be hard.  It will take time.  But it needs to be done.  And the results will be so worth it.

Fun Fall Day...

Fall in Indiana is my most favorite...... and least favorite.... time of year.  I love the smells, the crunching leaves, all the colors, and the little nip in the air.
But all of that leads to something that I really don't like, and that is the need to rake the leaves. It should be easy, right?  All we have to do is get the leaves from the yard to the curb, where the big truck comes along and sucks them up.  But the thing is, we have TONS of leaves!

Our strategy has always been to wait until all the leaves are down, then spend a good part of a day raking.  Here's the drill... 

1. Use the leaf blower.  Watch the leaves fly everywhere.
2. Resort to the rake when necessary.  Watch for blisters to form on the hands.
3. Don the gloves and scoop leaves into the huge trash can.
4. Drag the trash can down to the street and dump.
5. Repeat as many times as necessary.

So, even though all the leaves are not all down yet, it was a beautiful day today, so we spent it outside, raking. Yep, we even pulled the youngest son away from his music and his computer to come join in the fun! 

And you can tell how much fun he was having!  I don't think this is what he had in mind for his fall break!

But, with most of the leaves raked and piled along the curb, it felt good to go inside and work on getting orders for my newest book boxed and ready to ship out.  Yup, it was delivered today!!  Woo-hoo!  We got many orders processed tonight, will finish up this weekend, and hopefully have it up on the website in a few days.