Football Place-mat

To decorate my coffee table during football season I made a place-mat. Saturdays are College Roll Tide day and Sunday is NFL Cowboys day. 

I started with some Alabama fabric. I estimated how much of my table I wanted the mat to cover. 

Once I determined the size, I added the filling to the mat.I wanted something more smooth so instead of using batting, I added a piece of grey fleece. It was also cheaper since I already had it in my house from other projects. 

I pinned the Alabama print to the fleece before cutting. Once cut I did the dame thing to a piece of Cowboys fabric. 

This is how it is layered and pinned together.

Next I used black bias tape to bind the layers of fabric together. I did not want to make a hem line or turn the fabrics in like a pillow case because this would add a thicker border which doesn't allow the mat to lay totally flat. 

Sewing it together. 

Finished mat. One side for Saturday 

And the other for Sunday!

New Members of the Barber Family!

We have added some new members to the family! 

Home to 19 fish!

Cori asked for a fish tank for her birthday. (see Cori's Fish) It only took her a month to kill all the fish in her tank. So we decided to move the tank to the living room so everyone can enjoy the tank, (and Nate and I can ensure their safety). This has quickly become MY fish. Nate and set up the tank and decorations. I got to pick out all the fish and I am the one who usually feeds them. Here are a few pictures of our new fish. We started with 3 blank molly's, 3 mickey mouse (which are orange and have black spots that looks likes Mickeys face), 3 white skirt tetras and 1 catfish. We have had them 3 weeks and tonight we added 3 more catfish, 3 xray tetras, and 3 black skirt tetras. Nate would not let me buy the sharks I wanted.....

Black Skirt Tetra

Micky Mouse Molly's

Silver Skirt Tetra

Catfish!

Goodreads App

I found this new (to me) app for book readers. The app works great on my kindle and android phone. On the app I can search for books and authors, research other reader reviews, get in group book discussions, and learn about free and discounted e-books. There is a feature that lets you compare prices on a specific book you are looking for. I have gone thru and rated a bunch of books and that has added new books to my recommendations list. My favorite feature lets you make the books you want to read, even pre-order ones. This is a big help when I'm looking for something new to read from my list.


http://www.goodreads.com/

Plants for the Patio

Every year or so I get the green thumb to grow some plants for more that a couple of weeks. I usually fail because there is not enough sun (the case in the trailer), I forget to water them, (the case 2 years ago). So this year right after Mother's day I got a couple of succulent plants in 3 pots from a girl at work. After keeping them alive for a few weeks I decided to transplant them into more pots.

The 2 plants on the far left are the start of my replanting project. It took me a few hours but I had so much fun. 

Here is the one plant I put in a 10in pot all by itself. Its a type of succulent that looks like an aloe plant.

Here are all the plants from the first replant. 

3 Weeks ago I got a few more plants. This time I went with a tomato, basil, jalapeno, cilantro, and gerber daisies to add to the patio collection. 

The pot in the back, we had to tie up with string and a pole because it is getting too tall and starting to lean. 

These are all the ones I have kept alive for over 3 months and counting

This is my jalapeno and basil plants. 

More plants. I have about 20 I'm trying to keep alive.

The start of my first harvests, they are even bigger now but not quite ready to eat yet. My mom mailed me a couple of clippings this week so we will see if they will stay alive as well. 

Surgery coming July 22nd 2013 ~ Prayers Needed

I wasn't sure what to call this post.

April 2012 I started having pain in my lower stomach, after a couple of months of tests and DR visits we found out that I have endometriosis. I had surgery Aug 7th 2012 to remove my right ovary and burn off some of the endometriosis. We hoped that this would fix the problem and remove all pain. It lasted about 6 months.
In February, the pain started coming back. I returned to the Dr and discovered the Dr was only able to remove 30% of the endometriosis and had to leave the rest due to placement so close to vital blood vessels. I have 2 options, go on a medication for 6 months that shrinks the endo  but puts my body thru a fake menopause. After said time frame I have to come off the meds and see how it helps. If it doesn't I would have to have surgery. Option 2 is to just go ahead with the surgery....this is the one we chose.

I'm having a robotic da vinci hysterectomy the end of July. I will be in the hospital for 2 days and out of work for 2 weeks. With out pay....:( You can totally youtube the surgeries if you are That interested in it....I'm not. Nate watched some of them and thought it was cool.

This has been the hardest couple of months for me. I have gained weight, lost muscle mass, can't exercise, walk for long periods, and have been in almost constant pain. I'm on pain meds from the Dr as well as work restrictions to help manage the pain. It is hard to not be active and involved with my family. I am looking forward to being able to get back to my life in just under a month.

Here is a picture of what the endo looks like in the body. It looks like someone took a pepper grinder and shook it into myself....this is not a picture of me...During the surgery the Dr will burn off any of these spots he finds.

This is what is feels like...

Thanks in advance for all the prayers and concerns.
Here are a few specific needs over the next 4-6 weeks.
~ Safe and successful surgery
~ Calm nerves for Nate, who will be in the waiting room by himself
~ 2 weeks of no pay, I'm not salary and have no vacation/sick time
~ Speedy recovery and healing
~ That this surgery solves the problem and no pain after it.

Anyone wanting to send care packages and cards message me and I'll send you my address. Just kidding...prayer are great. Feel free to share with your church family and friends, the more the better. I already have a list of books and movies for Nate to get me, and a couple of crochet projects ready to go. I will send an update as they come. As for now I have my pre-op appt on July 16th.

Toddler Dresses

Two new dresses I made this weekend.

This one is a sleeveless dress, I used a solid yellow for the lining and a hot pink ribbon over the hem.

This is a simple summer dress with biase tape for the sleeves and neck hole. This adds some color and finish to the dress. The below pattern is the one I used for this dress. You can also make the dress a bubble dress with lots of fullness to it. 

Batman Mask

This last week I started a crochet batman mask for my nephew. I found a pattern on pinterest but it did not work to well on my test one. Maggie got that one as her new chew toy. I picked parts from a couple of different patterns and came up with this. Its for a kid about age 4. I thought it was cool to make.

High School hear we come!

When I was growing up you had Kindergarten graduation and Senior in high school graduation. Out here in California any time you leave one school to go to the next you have a promotion ceremony. Its like one school is giving permission to move on to the next school, really weird. Anyway today was Cori's promotion to High School. We had to be at the school 30 min before the ceremony, wait around the corner from the school for 15 mins to be let into the building to find seats to sit for another 20 mins before the thing started 15 mins late. The principle started the welcome speech by listing all the people who had died while the kids were in middle school, some even I didn't know who they were...lol It was very ironic to sit and listen to these 8th graders give speeches about how hard life was, overcoming difficulties, leaving friends behind and so on. I wanted to shout, You have no idea, your life is a dream right now.  After 2 hours of sitting on hard bleachers, sweating to death (if I was sweating you KNOW it was hot), and listening to children give life speeches the Principle presented the kids to the Superintendent to accept them into the new school district for high school. See out in California the high schools are a different district then the K-8th graders.

Anyway, I was able to shout for Cori when she got her certificate, make Nate's jaw drop when he saw his "grown up" daughter walk into the room and become the parent of a high school freshman.

Walking in, she is in a cream dress

She has a dance after the ceremony and then the family is going to dinner. It was her choice till she picked Taco Bell, now its Mom and Dad's choice. Hopefully I will get a family photo before the day is over. 

SisterChicks and Best Friends !

Tonight I am feeling nostalgic and homesick for my Best Friend ! 

Bek and I have known each other for 13 years, since a summer trip in September when we went to the Tennessee Aquarium on a homeschooling trip. WE have been together ever since, sometimes mad, sometimes crying and WAY more laughing and singing than Anything else! 

There are way to many adventures and life lessons to put into my blog today. 

This post is just to tell my Bestie, I love you and miss you! Thank you for always being a phone call, voicemail, or text away! 

We also can never seem to remember to take a picture when we are together (since we live 2,000 miles apart). 

StarCraft Zerg Cake!

Here is the start of Nate's cake. I made a spice cake with cream cheese icing between the layers. I used pre-made fondant (because the homemade was too sticky to use this time around) in 2 different colors. I added the gray around the edges. After pre-icing the cake, I added some pieces of cake to the top to add the bumps and hills to the top of the cake. Then I added purple fondant in different layers for make it look like it is falling off the cake. 

Then I added the modeling chocolate pieces to the top of the cake. Next came the pieces of jolly ranchers to be blue crystals.

This is a screen shot of what I had to work with in order to make this cake. StarCraft 2 Zerg cake with hatchery, drones, and vespene geyser made with chocolate and minerals made with blue jolly ranchers. 

Nate's first time seeing the cake

Nate was so happy with his cake he sent pictures to StarCraft fans at work and the Pres of his company, Blizzard Entertainment!

Close up of the cake