Will Be Missed

We had to say goodbye to our puppy yesterday. He was far from a puppy - actually - we don't know exactly how old he was since when we adopted him 7 years ago, the rescue organization said he was anywhere between 7 and 10 years old. That puts him at the youngest around 14 years old.

He was such a good dog - the epitome of the lazy, droopy-eared basset that you picture when you think of the breed.

75% of the pictures I could find of him have him sleeping ... he could sleep anywhere.

One of the hardest things is how much I think Mason is going to miss him. He knew how to open the sliding glass door to let Newt in and out, he was always looking for him when we got home to say hi to, he would open the office door in the mornings to let Newt out.

Newt was Mason's caretaker from the very beginning, hanging out and sleeping in Mason's room before Mason was even born.

They were great friends and even though I had Mason say goodbye to Newton and give him a hug and a kiss, I know he is not going to understand where he went when he inevitably goes looking for him.

He did get into his share of trouble - like the many times he'd "open" up his Christmas presents when we were silly enough to leave them under the tree thinking his amazing nose wouldn't sniff them out.

There was also that little incident where his love for cupcakes caused him to start our kitchen on fire - yes, billowing black smoke and the fire department called and everything. Crazy dog.

He gave us many laughs and giggles, too, like when he'd try to run and chase with the other dogs but was always to fat and slow to keep up - so he'd just pass out with exhaustion and his little cheeks would poof up with air.

And one I know Marc's family will never forget is when all the dogs were running in a circle at my in-laws house, through the kitchen, dining room, living room, out the slider to the backyard, into the other slider back to the kitchen ... well Newt was trying to chase and keep up with the other dogs in the circle but in typical Newt style was running about 200 yards behind everyone - someone thought the dogs were done running and so they went and closed the screen - then came Newt barreling at 100 mph - oblivious to the screen door - so he just went tearing right through the screen without even stopping to think - leaving a huge, gaping Newton-sized hole in the screen behind him. We still laugh to the point of crying every time we hear remember that story.

We'll miss you so much, Newt. You were my best friend and always there to greet me with a wag no matter what kind of day I had. I'm just happy thinking that now you're able to run around again with Photon, who was your best friend and who's been waiting for you for 2 years now in doggy heaven.

The Nameless Quilt

I had been posting about my sewing and I can FINALLY post that I have this quilt done. It's very satisfying to go from cuts of fabric purchased at a quilt shop, to planning, cutting, piecing, basting, quilting, binding, and washing to a finished, honest-to-goodness quilt.

I loosely followed Crazy Mom Quilts tutorial on her Flea Market Fancy measurements quilt, but I ended up tweaking it a little bit to make it work for me (meaning: I had to account for my errors and miscalculations!).

All the fabrics are from Amy Butlers Daisy Chain line. Green has always been my favorite so I knew the first quilt I wanted to make for myself had to be green. I love the way it goes with the white and the gray. All the solid colors are Kona Cottons.

The back is pieced with white rectangles that I mistakenly cut an inch to short to use in the sashing on the front - oh well, happy accidents.

I quilted it all on my machine doing a random all over stippling pattern. It was SO much easier than I thought it would be - previously I had only done stippling on smaller doll quilts and coasters. At times it was a little fussy having to maneuver the big quilt through my machine, but nothing a little creative folding and pinning couldn't manage.

I didn't prewash any of my fabrics on purpose because I wanted to end up with the great crinkly, shrinked up look the quilt would get after being washed and dried. I washed it on cold with one of those color-catcher sheets (which I basically didn't need, it came out white) and then dried it on high heat. It did shrink up quite a bit - the finished size is 75x57 - it's a perfect size for me, but I must have lost about 2-3 inches from the width and the length in drying. I forget the dimensions it was before washing.

The dark gray binding is my favorite, I was afraid it was going to be too stark of a contrast but I really love the way it turned out. I think it makes the squares on the front really pop.

And one last thing, I wanted to do something special on it (I'm still debating on if I want to do fabric labels on my quilts) - can you spot what I worked into the quilting in this picture?

If you need a closer look:

It wasn't too difficult and I thought it was a sweet little way of working a little more of myself into it. And Mason loves to search around the perimiter trying to find it.

Lastly, I can't think of a name for this quilt! It's kind of the "thing to do" to name your quilts but I am SO not creative in this department. Right now it's just "The Thing That Follows Erin Around From Bed to Couch to Table". Any ideas?

Let me know if you have any questions about making a quilt, I'll try to answer them in the comments.

Coming soon to Utah!

I've written before how one of the things I miss most about living in Southern California are certain restaurants they have there ... well Utah is finally getting on board the In n Out bandwagon ... last week I was ecstatic to hear they are planning on opening a Draper, Utah location (by VF Factory Outlet for you locals). This was AWESOME news because we are huge In n Out fans - in California we never lived further than a few miles drive from one and it was a weekly (or sometimes daily) lunch or dinner for us.

Mason spent many trips there as a baby where he couldn't do anything but munch on a few cheerios and wish longingly for the day when he could get his own Double Double:

No trip to the beach was complete without stopping for some french fries and a chocolate shake on the way home:

And even on Mason's first birthday - he and I celebrated with a trip, just the two of us, to In n Out in Laguna Niguel where he got his very first own meal - a grilled cheese - just for him!

Well today I read that they are also planning on opening a West Valley location (by Valley Fair mall) and a West Jordan location (by the Target in Jordan Landing!). The latter is only a few miles away - certainly close enough for weekly visits!

You do not know how happy this makes me - a little something to make me feel back in California - even though next winter we'll be eating our regular meal with snow falling outside - instead of on the way home from Disneyland, which will be a little weird. But yummy!

Fun news -

I have been keeping a secret for MONTHS and I can finally spill the beans! Back in July you might remember I got Mason's pictures taken by the very talented Michelle of Little Dreamer Studio - see the blog post here - and I got tons of great images of him from the session.

Before Michelle was an amazing photographer, she was (and still is!) an incredibly talented digital scrapbook artist and designer. She's got her own company and is pretty well known in the digital scrapbooking industry.

Well, Memory Makers Magazine (a scrapbooking magazine - both in print and online) saw some of Michelle's awesome photos and asked her if they could use one of them for their cover.

One of MASON!

For their COVER. Excuse me a proud Mama moment for a minute here, but my son is on the cover of a magazine! So cool.

I've known about this since September and I haven't said anything to anyone! It was so hard to keep the secret. The past few days I've been stalking the Memory Makers website because I knew it was getting close to the time that they would post the preview of next months issue.

It really just is a silly little thing, but it's very cool to see a picture of your child on the front of a magazine, even if I've only seen the cover online as of yet. The magazine won't be out on newsstands until February 17th - I'll definitely be going to the store that day to buy a few copies! :) It will be something fun to show him when he's older, that's for sure!

More sewing & a swap

I finished the quilt that I have been working on that is for ME! I love it. This is only a sneak peek because the weather outside the past few days has been rainy and snowy and I don't want it to get wet - but I do want to try to take pictures of it outside somewhere! But I couldn't wait to share.

Also, if you're a fabric lover, you should go sign up for Darci's fat quarter swap - it is only sending 2 fat quarters of fabric to someone and getting 2 in return. Very easy and it's open to anyone (international or local).

There are already more than 100 people involved - tell her that I sent you!

What We've Been Doing ...

... while I haven't been blogging!

Mason is taking a Gymnastics class and he LOVES it. There are only 2 kids in his class (his adorable little friend Aubrey and him) so the coach really gets to help them out. They walk on the balance beams:

jump on the trampolines:

climb over the tunnels:

learn to do cartwheels:

and possum-hang on the bars:

They also climb through tunnels, do forward and backward rolls, play with the parachute, color-sort balls, and throw footballs through the hoops. It's so cute to watch their little 2 1/2 year old bodies try to do all these coordinated things! They even have a little gymnastics "meet" at the end of the semester! Ha!

We also went to the downtown Salt Lake library with our friends to see the cool kids clubhouses they have and spend a rainy day inside:

It is the coolest library, they have this courtyard inside with little shops and restaurants, before you get to the actual library part. It has SO many windows and then the library area is all open air to the courtyard. They also have a roof garden, but it was too rainy this day to go up there.

The kids area has these little rooms where they can climb, bring books to read, and explore. I didn't get a good picture of the Ice Cave room, but it was all crystal and white with a little cave they could climb up and in to. This was what Mason did when I told him to smile as he was peeking out of the cave:

They also had a Treehouse Cave with a big deck they could climb up to and tons of carpeted stairs to climb and slide down:

After we stopped at the cutest little bakery for some lunch and cupcakes. Mason picked one of these out and the other is mine. He picked the pink one!

His was called "The Diva" and mine was salted pretzel with caramel. YUM!

We've also been:

Sewing - capes, quilts, squares for quilting bees, and other little projects here and there.
Reading - books for my online bookclub and my neighborhood bookclub.
Cleaning - spring cleaning and/or getting ready to turn the office into a nursery.
Researching - preschools for Mason to go to in the fall. Yikes!
Traveling - Marc's been gone for work two weeks in a row - to two different places (with 6 days in between at least!)
Resting - I am lucky to not get any morning sickness with my pregnancies (knock on wood!) but I get devastatingly exhausted. Falling asleep while standing at the kitchen counter exhausted. Thankfully that is subsiding a little so I can get some more stuff done!