ten months

Charlotte Gray Hess is ten months old today...and is she more fun than ever before.

Our trick to getting great pictures every month is to take them after Charlotte has taken a good long nap. She took a three hour nap this morning and then we ran some errands so we decided we'd take her pictures after her second nap this afternoon. She slept for about 90 minutes, we got her dressed, plopped her in the same spot we always do and this is the first shot we got.

but she slowly started to warm up...

and a little bit more...

here's a full length body shot so you can she how big she's getting...

and check out these thighs...

we moved the photo shoot to the floor, so you could see the new way that she gets around the house...

playing a little peek-a-boo between mommy's legs...

I'm not sure what they're looking at on this one, but I thought it was cute...

standing tall...

doing this new tilt her head thing...

trying to eat the camera...

and playing with one of her favorite toys (thanks aunt Jessica!!!)

Happy 10 month birthday Charlotte Gray! You are the best little girl on the planet.

-jay & melissa

rough circles quilt along part 1

I have been an admirer of quilts, quilting stores and quilting blogs for a couple of years now.  I have spent hours meandering through quilt shops, touching all the fabrics, matching fabrics together and buying more than I care to admit.  I have always wanted to have a blog that I share all of my craftiness and I have decided that this year I am really going to go for it.  So, drumroll please................ introducing my first Quilt Along!

For those of you who do not know what a quilt along actually is, it is a step by step guide on how to make a quilt.  Many times people will post it in real time, so we can quilt along with each other.  I decided to make this my first quilt along, because I have recently had a good amount of people ask me to help them make their first quilt or to teach them to quilt.

This quilt that I am working on is fairly time consuming, not difficult at all, and really a high impact quilt.  You do not need many skills to complete this quilt, but you may need some time and some stamina.  I first saw this quilt on one of my favorite blogs.  I showed it to Jay and he loved it and decided that was the quilt he wanted.  I have devoted one hour a night after C goes to bed to work on it.  I really want it completed in time for Jay’s birthday, and I think I might get it done before!

So....Sewers, grab your scissors, load that machine up with thread and get started.

In my version of this quilt we Jay has chosen 41 different fat quarters. (This is one of the many reasons that I love my husband, such a great designing eye.)  The original quilt calls for at least 20, but we want it to be a larger quilt (7'x5.5') and want it to really have some diversity in the fabrics.  If you do not choose enough fabrics the quilt will not have as much visual interest as it should.  For this quilt we were sure to have plenty of all colors represented.

Quick Hint!  Fat quarters are those square folded pieces of fabric.  They are precut for you and generally fold up to be about a 5 inch square.  At bigger stores like JoAnn's, they are kept on the wall with all of the fabrics.

Once you have all of your fabrics chosen you need to cut, you are ready to begin!  Many people wash and dry all of their fabrics first to avoid shrinking.  I have never washed and dried my fabrics first, and I have never had any shrinking with cottons.  (If you are sewing clothes, curtains or pretty much anything else, I would suggest a W and D first.)  Before you start cutting I would recommend that you iron all your fabrics to get the best cut.  (V, that is for you!)

Okay, now you are going to cut a one square to one circle ratio.  I was able to get four seven inch squares and four five inch circles out of almost all of my fat quarters.  To cut the squares you will want to use a rotary cutter (pizza cutter for sewers), a cutting matt, and a clear acrylic ruler.  You really need to cut straight, and if you try doing this by hand, it will take a really long time and your results may not be that precise.  For the circles you can do one of two things: grab a cd, large cup, bowl from around the house and trace the circle onto your fabric and then cut these out with scissors by hand.  Your other option is to have a GREAT husband that buys you a accuquilt for Christmas.  I used my handy dandy machine to crank out my circles.  At the end you need roughly 160 squares and circles.  It seems like a lot, but I promise you really get into a groove and will have everything cut out in no time!  Cutting is the worse part of quilting, once you are finished it is all downhill from here!

Part two of the quilt along will be next Saturday morning.  We will start to do some major sewing.  I will also share some of my best tips for sewing circles on your machine.  In the meantime get to your fabric store, pick out some great fabric and get cutting!

charlotte's 2012 resolutions

In 2012 I resolve to:

→gain 10-15 pounds—I know it won't be easy, but somehow I'll get there.

→not get poop on the back of my shirts—This will be hard to accomplish, but I'll strive for a lower frequency of this event.

→take my first steps—If I ever want to get anywhere faster, I really need to figure this out.

→eat my first chick-fil-a nuggets—Daddy keeps telling me about his place and I've been there, but this year I will taste and see just what he's been talking about for months.

→learn how to speak english—For some reason my parents don't quite understand my language so I guess I'll give in and learn their language.

→don't pee in the tub—I'm the only one who knows I do this, so it's more of a personal goal more than anything.

→get more spiritual—I go to church every week, but so far all that means is that I get to play with new toys. I think there's more to God than that.

→make some more friends—My parents are great and all, but who wants to hang out with their parents all the time?

-charlotte

ruff ruff

A guest post...written by Abby. On Saturday Jack and I started to get that feeling that something was going down and when Jay grabbed our leashes from the coat rack we knew we were heading somewhere great! Jack thought maybe it was just a walk up to the baseball field to run around, but when I heard Jay click the car doors open I knew we were in for at least a car ride and probably more. After a short drive, we arrived at the park and made a straight path to the trails in the woods. After walking around the trails for a while, I heard Jay mention something about a new dog park. A few minutes later this is what I saw...

Finally a great use of Jay and Melissa's tax dollars. This place was ginormous. One section for small dogs and a whole other section for big dogs like me and Jack. There's a grassy section, a mulched section, trees and all sorts of toys to play on.

Like this low table that we can jump on and sit.

I even found this great tunnel to jump up into and run through. Man it was fun!

I tried to get Jack to jump through these set of hoops, but Jack was a little distracted by all of the other dogs.

Then I looked over and noticed that Melissa was cheating on me with another dog. Jerk!

After a while I got tired and just laid down to take it all in. Finally a great dog park that the whole family can enjoy!

Jack even found a bloodhound that drooled all over his head. You can see how excited he was.

I found a lovely collie that was beautiful. We thought this tree smelled really good. Jack thought that something else smelled really good. Gross.

You know Jack is tired when his tongue almost touches the ground, so we decided to head home. But I'm sure that this will be the first of many times we head to this wonderful place. So I'll be looking for Jay to grab to leashes some time soon....I hope.

-abby