Our New Year Started off with a bang! We hosted at our house this year (the first time since having kids!), so I had to dig deep to figure out a way to include the kids. I made a ton of confetti tents which the kids pulled down. It was the best countdown ever!! Then we watched the countdown on TV. After spending a few days meeting up with friends and shopping during the holidays, I can’t imagine trying to do Time Square for the ball drop.

Before the kids started their vacation, I managed to knit my husband a pair of mittens. I started fingered gloves but he made the request for the mittens saving me lots of work : )

I FINALLY got the chance to get some jewery together from Artistic Works by Lu!! I saw the jewelry at a craft show a few months and couldn’t stop thinking about what I had seen. I missed all of the open houses that the rep here hosted : ( Right before Christmas I was able to catch up wit her. She helped me put together a few things, all of which I LOVE!  The pieces are hand crafted and the  jewels and trinkets can be mixed and matched. I’m already been thinking about what colors to add to my collection!!

With all of our Christmas decorations down, the house is feeling bare, so I made a new Love Pillow. I’m not a big Valentine’s person. It’s always been too commercial–overwrought with false expectations– for my taste. All my experiences with Valentines day have actually been good, but I remember feeling guilty (a lot) either for the amount of money that was spent on useless things or the guilt of listening to helpless romantics blather on about how awful their valentines days are. I disliked it even more after seeing the Sex in the City Movie when Carrie and Miranda get into a fight during their Valentines dinner. I know, I dislike valentines day because of a movie and characters who aren’t even real…it’s true.

Regardless, I need a theme for my pillows so hearts and love it is!!!

We’ve been getting together once a week for a hobby day where we knit, sew, talk and really have time to just be out of the house with other moms. Amanda, who organizes our hobby day is an amazing talent when it comes to knitting. When she finished this shawl I HAD to photograph it!!

She always has something working on her needles. I’m excited to see her next finish!!! One day I’ll have to dedicate a post to her quilts too, which are equally amazing!!

This same

I was anxious to take in what I’ve heard described as a lingering scent of angel’s breath.

***EDIT***

I actually wrote this last week and never managed to post it *sigh* so I’m throwing it up early this week!!!!

WHAT??????????????? Get the heck out of town!!!!!!

It KNOW!!! It’ been FOR-EVER since I’ve done a WIP Wednesday post. Not to say there aren’t a million WIPs waiting their turn.

I started a new Christmas quilt. I was on a mission to make it all wonky stars, but that enthusiasm quickly faded. I don’t have a plan B as of yet….but so far I’m happy with what I have. I started this “Odds and Ends” quilt doing a block in block and somewhere during block 1 and 3 I forgot that was the plan and started piecing randomly. I’m happy that regardless of where my thoughts were (clearly not on sewing), my subconscious was still hard at work making the blocks look decent.

Finally, one of my neighbors showed me how to knit continental style. So all these years I thought I wasn’t very good at or just didn’t particularly enjoy knitting, I was simply taught the wrong way. I think I’ve had more knit finishes in the past month than I have in 5 years combined!!!

The upper west side?? Far to fancy to be hindered by the storm. I took my girls to watch Fancy Nancy (one of their favorite books). It was a cute show. The highlight was getting a bag full of goodies from Fancy Nancy her self (The boa, head bands, wands, journal, stickers and a bunch of other fancy stuff AND a copy of the book the musical was based on, signed by the author!!

I was sitting across from my girls on the train…..as little as they are, they sure are picking up a lot of big girl mannerisms.

I’ve been able to take advantage of photographing some beautiful families during the AMAZING fall. Being from the Pacific NW I used to think the most amazing falls were found there. Boy was I wrong. Fall in NY is unbelievable! I’ve now seen fall in every region and the East definitely takes the cake!!

The storm was rolling in (the day after these photos), so we stayed close to home. This reservoir is about a mile from the house and just beautiful!

But here’s ONE THING!!

I’ve wanted to make a Washington quilt for quite some time. What pushed me towards doing it was the BIG sale I found on collegiate cottons. As much as I love my Alma mater, I just couldn’t find myself spending large amounts of fabric money on purple and gold. A sale was perfect!! I got my quilt and I feel ZERO remorse for the cost of it : D

As if the UW Alumni gods wanted to reward my dedication to my school, I got an invite to attend a DOW (Dawgs on Wall Street) event. Retired 4 star General Peter Chiarelli was the Alumni speaker. 

He is the current CEO of One Mind for Research which was founded by Patrick Kennedy. I encourage you to read about what they are doing at One Mind for Research. It’s such a progressive and smart way to move research on PTSD (Post traumatic Stress—which I also believe should be re-named as Post Traumatic Stress Injury….it’s NOT a “disorder”) and TBI (Traumatic Brain Injury) forward.

The NYC Chapter of UW Alumni did a wonderful job of hosting the event. It was held at the Park Avenue Racket Club, which is just beautiful. There were the perfect number of people there. Everyone was able to mingle comfortable with out it being under or overwhelming.

If you’re in the NYC area, UW NYC has a ton of events and a really great crowd of people who participate!

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I’ve also been giving some of my free time to Team RWB, another AMAZING organization!!

I’m not an avid runner, so they get my photography skills in lieu of a sad, sweaty SLOW Susanne. I first heard of Team RWB a few years ago when my friend Lisa (who is the CEO or Wear Blue: Run to Remember) and Mike Erwin, the founder and CEO of Team RWB ran an ultra marathon. I’m constantly amazing at the character, drive and dedication of the people I’m surrounded by. It’s no different with the people I’ve met who run/volunteer for Team RWB.

I didn’t take this photo below, but Elizabeth Hasselbeck (from the View) dropped in to run the Team RWB 5K last month. She also mentions it on The View.  How AWESOME is that???

Finally,  although I didn’t walk it, my little friend Abigail was in town for the NYC Buddy Walk.  Once I was able to steal away from work, I was able to meet her (and her mama of course!) for dinner and a walk in the park. The morning of the walk, Miss Abigail graced the main screen in Time Square for a promo for the walk! Her mom’s dedication to Down’s is just phenomenal. She definitely goes above and beyond parenting a child with special needs.

 ANOTHER “first” occurred for me this week. My girl is riding the BUS!!!! It was THRILLING for her!!! The ride to school is with her classmates, but the ride home she rides with all of the neighborhood kids. I had ZERO issues with dropping her off at school, but I got choked up watching her tiny self bouncing down those bus steps, when it was time to pick her up!! 

She picked out this fabric and I kept it tucked away all summer because I had NO idea what on earth I could do with it. I love that she picks fabrics that I would never think to go near. I was hoping she wanted flowers or her initials on the shirt, but she opted for fish?! Go figure. 

She also made sure she had the biggest purple head band on: )

She’s something else!!

The week BEFORE school, I was finally able to finish  her room.

I didn’t want to paint, but also didn’t want blank walls. My options came down to wall paper or decals. In the past, I’ve found decals in kids rooms overly commercial and uninviting. I was searching for decals with out characters and I wanted decals that were large enough to actually look like decor. I was THRILLED when she picked out this paris/hot air balloon theme!!

The decals are designed so that they actually look like paintings on the wall. I’m SO happy with them!! 

Lillian went for something a bit further away from my taste. I was REALLY grateful that she allowed me to give her a little direction with where the decals could/should go.

There are little “paris” details all around the base boards and on the doors! Directly across from the girl’s room, there is a closet with an odd shape. It’s over 6 ft deep and a little over 3 ft wide. As you can see in the photo the floor of the closet is raised. I decided to take the door off and turn the closet into the kid’s reading nook. There are already shelves built and a linoleum floor. I put in our down mattress pad and covered it with a BIG mink blanket.

It was difficult to photograph all of the decor in that little space, so I’ll just show my favorite! This from one of the kid’s activity books and pinned it up.

What a fun little space to have!!

I didn’t. I knew I didn’t have time for baby anything.

I spent nights laying in bed, wide awake, envying all of the other pinners who were sewing the most perfect baby hems while I continued to sew big, gross, geriatric hems.

I couldn’t take it any longer!!

No, I didn’t cave and try Burda’s baby hem tutorial. I spent $10 bucks and bought an adjustable hem foot. Not only am I sleeping better at night and heming the snot out everything, I don’t have to deal with little plastic fibers in my hair. In addition to that, I can still sew my gargantuan hems with the spin of a dial!! YES!!

Eat your heart about Burda!!

We didn’t realize we were going to be out of a house for SOO long, but the time left to travel afforded me a chance to visit one of my favorite quilters, Becky (My Fabric Obsession.) I did a mini session with her darling little boy….

AND!! Managed to come home with this AMAZING quilt!!!! Becky was showing me some of her finishes and I practically stuffed this quilt up my shirt so I could bring it home for the girl’s room!! Of course everyone who has seen their room has commented on just how gorgeous the quit is!!  I really dislike the over sized old school moda pillows, but my girls have become attached to them, so they stay.

My son started his first week of kindergarten!!!! I probably should have been little more emotional, but after a summer with very few group activities, on account of the move, I was ready to have some down time. He did perfectly and we are incredibly lucky that all of our neighbors on our block, with the exception of one, have children his age walking to and from the bus with us.

I wish I had a 7000 square foot, historic home over looking the Hudson to show you ; ) but making what we make and being in NY we are beyond thrilled that we have the space that we DO have!!! (And the neighbors we have!!) I was a little concerned that we would have to get rid of, or store some of our furniture because we were moving in to a smaller house. Thankfully, just about everything has found a place. We do have a few things in storage, but for the most part we’re happy with what we were able to keep in the house.

I’m not very happy with this corner, but I needed that mirror in the room to bring in some more light (the room isn’t very bright) and it’s SO heavy I was nervous to mount it on the wall. I guess not being an interior design sort of gal, It’s the best I could figure out. Any ideas or suggestions??? I’m all ears!

I used a couple swatches of the ridiculously expesive london of liberty prints I bought to fill some of my frames. I’m still working on finding fillers for the empty frames.

This particular corner had me stressed because the desk, the piano…actually nothing fit in that bizarre and random L. Thankfully, the couch at an angle fit perfectly. We lose a little space behind the couch, but it’s completely worth it!

As I start to manage getting the rest of the house dressed, I will hopefully post more photos for you.

Instead, I ended up at Frankly Wine
 and since I was in the neighborhood…. : D 

I DID make it home with a decent stash of London of Liberty. I guess I’d better get busy making some work clothes ; )

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