Graduation, Honors and a Ferry, oh my!

 Woo hoo, my beautiful, smart daughter has graduated high school! This mom is bursting with an abundance of pride.

And not to be outdone, my son was honored in the same week for achieving high honors for every quarter of his three years of middle school.

He'll be moving up to 9th grade this week, and after weeks of finals and his first round of Regents exams, he'll be happy when summer recess begins.

We also spent some time this weekend in Burlington VT at a soccer tournament for my son's travel team. I used the GPS to travel from Albany NY to our hotel, and funny thing, it took us across Lake Champlain over the Charlotte-Essex Ferry 😳 What a fun surprise! After my initial embarrassment that I didn't realize there would be a ferry ride on our trip, we embraced the boat and enjoyed every second on the water. Our fun story even convinced a couple of other soccer families to take the ferry on the trip back home!

Once back home, and in between work commitments, I started a new cross stitch mystery stitch along. I am a member of Teresa Kogut's patreon, and she's hosting this fantastic mystery for her tier 4 members. Officially it begins on 6/25/22, but I just couldn't wait. Samplers are my jam, and the colors on this are amazing:

 

I am stitching mine on 16 count Aida by LFA Linens in Popover. I purchased mine from Treehouse Fiber Arts and am stitching with the called for colors. I find myself picking it up instead of eating lunch, dinner.....! 😂

This week will also be filled with 8th grade wrapping up and travel soccer tryouts. Also, some college dorm prep for the oldest. Busy busy busy, but it a good busy!

What's kept you busy this week?

Quilt Along Update!

It's been literally YEARS since I had to stop working on the Tips & Tricks Quilt Along. I just updated the blog page and am currently looking for the 11 months of blocks we made so I can design a setting. I may have to make up the December block which was a free choice to add more red for balance - what do you think? Maybe a log cabin would be a good addition?

Here are the blocks I am in search of:

Check out the page HERE and stop back for more updates! 

And she's off!

Pride. A mom's pride. It's fierce and strong and ever-lasting. My daughter has ventured into the awesome world of photography, like her grandfather, her uncle and me. She has a unique look and I am so excited to watch her growth as she studies in college. 

She launched her journey on a blog last month, and it's now live. Please visit her at Jewels Graziano Photography and maybe subscribe so you can watch the evolution of a fantastic photographer. ❤️

You in?

 It's National Chocolate Ice Cream Day! 'Nuf said... 😉

Have you met Pat Sloan?

 Well, I have. 

And she is a wealth of information. And fun. And projects. And community.

And the awesome Pat has the very best quilting community in the world. Yup, your read right, the WORLD.

How can you meet Pat and join her? If you like to share your quilting, ask questions and encourage others, visit Pat's Facebook community page at Quilt with Pat Sloan. 

Do you like to meet quilty friends from around the world? Or watch videos about quilting, say 6 days a week? Or even join the fun of a Block Wednesday or book tours? Check Pat's YouTube Channel and subscribe to her videos. They post at 7:15am Monday-Saturday EST in the USA, but the chat begins about 30 minutes prior to that. I've met friends from Australia, New Zealand, around the USA and just up the street! 

Here are a few of the projects I've completed with Pat and our community:

Main Street Perks from Pat's new book Tantalizing Table Toppers

March Hope Block a Day

Old School BOM

Sweet Dreams Block Wednesday (center only)

Flapjack

When you join the fun tell Pat that Carrie sent you!

Major milestones happening around here!

It looks like I have a habit of blogging for a bit, and then dropping off the face of the Earth. Well, if I am being honest, it's not just looking like that, it IS that. Life has been happening all around, and sadly, my blog has taken the hit these past several years.

My beautiful smart daughter is graduating high school in a few short days, and as we were chatting about her final school project, she mentioned she was using Blogspot for her project website. Ding, ding, ding! Blogspot....I know that platform. Oh, wait, I USE that platform. Or I did a long time ago. Was my blog still even out there. YES, it is!

So, I offered to help her navigate and learn some things about it, but thought first I should re-familiarize myself with the inner workings of design elements and such. Thankfully, not too much has changed. I should be able to look like I know what I am talking about LOL.

And helping her will help me deal with the fact that we went from here:

to here:

in what seems like the blink of an eye.

I live a real life, as you all do, so I won't necessarily apologize for not posting since 2019. I cannot promise that I'll be posting regularly again, but I can try. Everyone's lives are very busy in their own personal way and we all have challenges set before us that we need to overcome to move forward. I know you understand. For sanity, I do try to be active in a couple on Facebook groups, and quilts and cross-stitch when I'm not working or being the full-time mom and dad. I love my kids, and my job, and am always chasing the ever-elusive balance of life. 

Have to run now, my grocery pickup awaits!

What I am cooking tonight

Tonight is soccer practice and that means I pick one kid up from school and immediately need to turn around and bring the other to soccer practice. In the middle of that have dinner ready to feed one early and the other later....whew! Save me from the dinner woes!

Tonight's instant pot dinner is from the foodfanatic blog. I am making the Honey Mustard Pork Chops - sounds yummy!

I will most likely serve it up with egg noodles (kids love 'em) and green beans.

I had planned on using my slow cooker and promptly forgot until I was halfway to work this morning. Oops.

I'll let you know how the pork chops turn out (my first try int he instant pot) and what the kiddos think!

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