Happy Thursday

I had much to be happy about today.

• The winds slowed from their former 60 mph speed to 20 mph.
• I won a paste paper giveaway and am excited beyond words. (Read about Lark Crafts (inspiring ideas. giveaway here. And visit Maurer's site. It's fascinating.)
• The sun stayed out for a few consecutive hours, enough for my solar lights to fire up this evening.
• We carved pumpkins after dinner, which is my entry for Simple Lives Thursday. Some wood carving tools, thumb tacks, a bowl of pumpkin goo. A little radio, replaced by a read aloud book about Catholic Mexico in the 1930's, followed by plain old conversation. Some photo breaks interspersed. Saved some seeds at "I" of GAIN's request. Loved it.

In the words of my older son, my kids are "Gourd Smiths." He's always had a certain way with words :-)

I like the simple activities. No television, very low technology. Kids using their brains to be creative with fine and gross motor skills, listening to rich language on an interesting topic (My Heart Lies South, by Elizabeth Borton de Trevino). No fighting, respectful opinions are asked and given, everyone loves each other. Based on this experience, I am considering having the kids all carve squash for future celebrations.

Home schooling

I haven't posted anything about home schooling for a long time. Home schooling has been very good for our family. One thing they enjoy is the freedom to move around. For example, reading on the kitchen counter or in a recliner.

This is part of Simple Lives Thursday, 11th edition, hosted partly by local mama, Diana.

Flannel it is

I chose to work with my stash and make the flannel comforter that I planned on making months ago. I didn't get all the fabrics in this shot. There are more than what you see here, including a blue camouflage, two dark pink prints, a pastel baby grid pattern, and a darling cow/farm print that was 75% off in the remnant rack at a chain store.

Cutting went pretty fast. I had more fabric than I thought I had. LOL I decided to cut 8" squares for two comforters/quilts. I will sew one and my youngest, "I" of GAIN, will sew the other. They will not be identical.

I thought I ought to start the flannel before the t-shirt quilt top because a baby gift should get priority over something that I want to make just for the heck of it. Also, I have all the supplies for flannel quilt top on hand. I need to constantly reduce my scrap pile. The pile is made of leftovers from things like pajama pants that "N" of GAIN smelted for Christmas 2009, other baby quilts, a Phrygian cap that I made for the fun of it, and jammy shorts from many years ago.

Why am I sewing? For baby gifts. To remain near my children instead of shopping at a store and overspending on an item that I'm not happy about. The act of creating a quilt defines my simple living today.

This post is part of the Simple Lives bloghop hosted in part by A Little Bit of Spain in Iowa.