Ya'll - I made a quilt...

I know what you're thinking.... 'WHAT?  Jaime Mac - who has no creativity gene in her body made a WHAT?'  I know - me too...

So here's what happened - remember my friends Debbie & Rose who helped me make my fabric wall, my curtains AND my cute pillow case covers?  Debbie has been sewing for years & Rose started a couple of years ago.  They get together every now & then to spend a weekend sewing (you know - with no kid interruptions, no husband interruptions, no laundry interruptions, no LIFE interruptions...).  We all don't have a chance to get together much because Rose lives pretty far from us.  Debbie is only 30 minutes from me, but Rose is 2 hours away.  When we finished my drapes, we knew Debbie's husband had plans to be out of town this past weekend & we had put it on the calendar back then to spend the weekend at Debbie's.  His plans fell through but we still wanted to get together so we went to Rose's house instead.  When we came up w/ the spending the weekend together idea, they roped me into doing a quilt of my own. 

Oh, the humanity.

My #1 rule was that it had to be easy enough for me to finish it in a weekend...none of this dragging it out for a year like we did my drapes.  Rose decided I could make a quilt from a 'jelly roll' & told me to scour the internet for jelly roll quilts to find a pattern I liked.  (A jelly roll is a 'roll' of like colored fabrics cut into 2 1/2" x 42" strips all 'rolled' up together.)  I found a few patterns I liked on Pinterest & also looked on fabric websites for different jelly rolls.  Debbie, Rose & I had dinner a few weeks ago & that's when they told me which one I could handle we decided which one would be best.

THIS is the one they we chose.  You should've heard them, "Oh, yes - this will be easy.  Sew the strips together, make 2 cuts, sew on the white & that's it!"  UHM....ok....sure...

Debbie & I got to Rose's house on Friday evening & they wasted no time making me sew getting started.  THIS stalkers, is a jelly roll...

You can see all the fabrics on the outside of the roll.  Remember what this started out as when you see my finished product.  You will be amazed...

The first job was picking out what order I wanted them.  Normally I have NO problem making a decision, but there were like 40 different strips to pick from & how they would go together.  We laid them out on the table... I'm not a big fan of hearts (shocking, I know) so I didn't really want to use those.  

We hung them up on Rose's design board...

I liked the pieces that were white w/ different colored shapes on them but they didn't look right w/ all the other bright colors.

Ultimately I decided I like lumping all the colors together...

I had all the white backgrounds w/ colored shapes together in a section but they got totally lost in all the other bright, fun color strips.  (See the strip between blue & pink?  It's a white background w/ small stripes.  You can hardly see it...but I still used that one.)

The bottom few rows wouldn't fit on the wall...blue & red were going to be at the bottom.

No hearts - see?

After we figured out the order, I had to start sewing strips together - TWO AT A TIME.  Sew 2 together, put them down.  Sew 2 more together, put them down.

I did that until 3 AM Friday night/Saturday morning.  Lord have mercy...

The next day I was ready to start sewing the 2 strips to each other.  Pick up 2, sew them to 2 more.  Pick 2 more up & sew them to the previous 4....

When I was done - this was what it looked like.  Remember this is a very rough draft.  I hadn't evened up the edges yet.  

I love...

After we (& by WE I mean them doing it for me & me taking pics watching) got it all evened up, we had to decide how far over to cut it.  In the design I picked there is a section that is flipped & opposite from the rest.  CUT IT APART?  Didn't I spend practically a whole night sewing it TOGETHER?

And because I'm nervous & they rattle off so many numbers I can't keep up - I wrote.it.down.   We They measured 8 1/4" from the edge & cut.  Gulp.  Then we they measured over another 4 1/2 " & cut again.  Gasp.  

 And just like that - all my hard work of sewing it together vanished...

 

 We put it back on the design board to see what we thought.  And we I thought it was freakin' awesome.  And we I can't believe we I made that.

Please note how bright the colors are.  This was in the daytime w/ sunlight coming in.  (The finished product was at night w/ only room light.  The colors are NOT as bright in that pic...)

Next we cut the white fabric to border the section we cut out & I had to sew all that together.  Then I had to decide how big I wanted it to be overall.  Remember it was 40" across?  That's not an acceptable napping blanket size.  You really gotta be able to roll up ALL in it & be cozy.  I can't remember what measurements I we chose, but they said I needed 5" of white around the edges.  And they know best so that's what I did with their supervision.

Pattern I picked:

My finished product:  

This is where my 'no creativity' comes in.  The colors are essentially the same AND we laid it out practically the same. (grouping all the colors.)  Eh - what are ya gonna do?  Why mess w/ a sure thing?

 All the while they were helping me, they were each working on their own projects.  Debbie was working on putting some embroidery on a onesie for her granddaughters first birthday.  (Yea, her sewing machine is awesome like that.)  She had ordered the design for the number & a crown from a website that needed to be downloaded to a thumb drive & then put into her sewing machine.  She had tried to do it but had run into trouble.  She asked me if I thought I could help with that.  (I'm pretty darn good w/ a computer...)  And when I opened up that computer I was immediately at ease in the midst of sewing machines, fabric & such.  I said, "Now THIS is what I know!"

 I finished my quilt Saturday evening so I had nothing else to do.  I helped w/ the computer stuff & then I was just talking & bothering them sitting.  Rose came up with something else for me to do.  She had me get the strips of fabric I didn't use in my jelly roll & had me pick strips at random to sew together.  Then she had me randomly sew 2 strips of 2 together.  She asked me at one point what I wanted to do & I said, "I don't know - this is YOUR game."  

Ugh, hearts... 3 strips worth...

 Yet again, I had to cut up all my hard work.

 Then we placed them on the board to see what we could come up with.  Rose had the AUDACITY to ask me if I wanted 2 purple or 2 pink stripes in it.  DUH...  

This is what the game master had me create.  She said it would be the perfect size for Sonny to lay on.  (She knows he lays on the back of our couch & gets black hair everywhere.)  If you know anything about cats - you know they never do what you want them to do...  

 Rose was working on a modified 'log cabin' pattern that took her the whole weekend.  She had a jelly roll of the colored fabric but she had to cut hers before she sewed (unlike me).  6 pieces of color & 6 pieces of white for each block.  We laid out the uncut fabric colors on the floor & labelled the pattern by numbers before she cut to get the color wave she wanted.  Then we labelled each fabric color to correspond with the pattern so we didn't get them mixed up. She started & ended w/ yellow & if you look at diagonaly it you can see the colors blending into each other.  She didn't even start sewing until Saturday evening & had 32 blocks to do.  When I finished her the game I helped her iron everything she had sewn.  (For these blocks it worked best to iron after EACH strip you sew.  There are 12 strips of fabric per block.  You do the math...)  She had it almost all done Sunday before we left & we helped her lay it out on the floor (it was too big for her fabric wall).  She sent us a pic after she finished the blocks she was short.  It will have white triangles on the edges which will make it square.  I think it looks awesome.

My quilt is being sent to the quilter to be quilted.  I technically only made a quilt top.  The quilter lady will take the fabric I chose for the back & slap it on & sew it all together.  I will try to remember to take a pic of that for you because the back I chose is almost as awesome as the front.  

I told them that they only let me hang out w/ them if they make me sew... & I said it enough that they started to believe it because Rose said, "Ok Jaime- since you only think we hang out w/ you if we make you sew - YOU can pick the next outing we do."  I'm thinking shopping - I definitely know how to do that...

Summer concert series - Miranda Lambert

If you haven't read the post before this one - I will warn you it is ALSO about a concert.  YES Shauna & I saw 2 concerts in 2 days.  We're crazy like that.

So let me tell ya how this one came about...  

Of course we saw Miranda Lambert when she opened for Jason Aldean last month.  Shauna's birthday is in August & when I was trying to think of a gift for her - going to see Miranda Lambert's Platinum tour made sense.  She'd be the headliner, we'd hear more songs  & it would be another concert under our belts.  

Shauna LOVES Miranda Lambert & I know for myself that I go see Faith Hill anytime everytime she's in the tri-state area (I saw the same show twice in one year once because I'm insane!) so I figured I couldn't go wrong taking her to see her again.

Now-Shauna likes surprises so I didn't wanna tell her what I was doing, but I also didn't want her to make other plans for that day.  I texted her hubby, Brian, & told him what I wanted to do & had him check their calendar.  All was clear so I asked told him to 'think of something & write it on the calendar so she doesn't make other plans.'  And he did...he wrote "family outing".  Imagine the fear that struck my heart when one night we were on the phone & I heard her ask him, "Hey-the calendar says 'family outing' on the 16th.  What is that?"  To which he said, "UHM...I don't remember..."  

Well oiled machine, people... This is why I hate surprises...  :)

I printed the ticket on pink card stock & wrapped it all up w/ some pretty ribbon & voila - a birthday present was born.  We had lunch the weekend before her birthday & B-rad said, "Are you gonna give her the tickets?"  I said, "Uhm - I'm giving her ONE ticket.  I'm not giving her both because she has to take ME!"  I didn't want her to get some crazy idea w/ 2 tickets & want to take her hubby or something.  Nope.

(Hi, Brian!  Love you..)

The concert was at Klipsch up near Indy.  I really like it up there.  It's nice, it's clean & there is a lot of staff to tell you where to park & help you with your seats.  The only bad thing is that most the restrooms are port-a-potties & they have staff blocking the lower sections checking your tickets which means you can't accidentally on purpose sit in the lower section where you see an empty seat.

We may or may not have decided at a gas station an hour away to buy our own drinks & ice them down on the way to smuggle them in in our purses when we got there.  Genius idea, people.  They look in your bags -  but not well.  We put the drinks in a plastic bag & laid our wallets on top.  You open your bag, they look in & in ya go...

Before the show.  Remember these pretty faces...they don't end the night or next day so pretty...

Thomas Rhett was one of the opening acts.  I've seen him 3 times now.  We all saw him at Jason Aldean last year & B-rad & I saw him w/ Brantley Gilbert.

Justin Moore was up next.  I almost got my butt in a lot of trouble over this one.  When I bought the tickets it said the opening acts were 'Thomas Rhett & Jukebox Mafia'.  When I printed the tickets - it said Justin Moore & I was like UH OH.  B-rad really likes Justin Moore.  He was at the Horseshoe Casino back in the spring but we couldn't go because of planting.  I made Shauna pinky swear that we wouldn't tell B-rad he was there because I didn't want him to get mad.  I ended up telling him the next day & he was ok w/ it.  Shew...

Ya'll - this place was PACKED.  Granted I've only been there twice before but I have NEVER seen so many people.  Like I was wondering where the heck everybody was going to fit.  I'll tell you where they fit - the grass field in the back.  It was standing room only.  This was during one of the opening acts.  PACKED.

Jukebox Mafia sang on a little stage where all the computer stuff was set up.  They were really good.  

 Then it was time for the main attraction.  Everybody was on their feet the WHOLE night.

   I know B-rad really likes Miranda Lambert so I sent him a pic when she came out... And this is why I love him - his response below the pic.  He's so funny.

(And yes below that is a pic of my crotch - I'm getting there, don't worry...)

 Miranda got herself a hair cut a while back...she used to have really long hair.  I like it shorter, but Shauna & I decided it kinda looks like a mullet.  Like she needs to either cut it a bit more OR let it grow a bit.  

Just our 'be it ever so humble' opinions...

 She had disco balls come down during one song & it was SOOO pretty!

 OK-so we had our smuggled drinks in w/ us & had finished them by the time the concert was over.  I had a drink w/ dinner, 1 on our way in (there were so many people we had to wait in line a while just to get IN) & 4 during the concert.  (The small cans.)  I'm a light weight so I was pretty toasted.  We decided to sit in the parking lot & just hang out talk & sing until all the traffic was gone.  Shauna kept doing things to make the lights come on in the car which was painful to my eyes so I put on sunglasses.  I attempted to take a picture of myself w/ sunglasses on (you know - for YOU) but I could NOT get the flash to work. (I didn't know it, but my camera WAS taking pics but the flash wasn't going off - I had about 5 dark pics of me when I was looking through my pics...) Since I couldn't get the job done, Shauna held up her camera to take a pic & as I lowered my phone, the flash went off right on my crouch.  We found this hilarious & Shauna snatched my phone & sent it to B-rad.  

Reason #2 I love him:  His response was, "Why are you sending me a pic of your crouch?  Did you pee yourself?"  

 See-sunglasses in the dark.   

 We got back to Shauna's around 2:00-2:30 am... & as if being in the car for 2 1/2 hours on the way up, being at the concert all night, sitting in the parking lot for an hour & driving back home 2 1/2 hours wasn't enough togetherness - we sat in her driveway & talked until 5:00 AM.  

This is what THAT looked like...

I was asked by Gretchen how many concerts I've been to this year...the answer is 7.  Everyone acts like that's a lot??  I love music, I love the energy of the crowd & I'm always w/ good company - what's NOT to love?   And what's even worse is I have no more concerts scheduled for the rest of the year.  Oh, the humanity...

Happy Birthday to Shauna!

Summer concert series - Lady Antebellum

YES, you read that right - Shauna & I went to ANOTHER concert.  I've decided I need to find a way to get paid to go to these things.  I mean-I can scout them all out & tell promoters what I like or don't like.  I think it's genius...

Lady Antebellum was going to be at the Kentucky State Fair opening night at Freedom Hall.  If you're from around here - you know Freedom Hall used to be all the rage but they don't do many concerts anymore because of the Yum Center.  After being there last night I can appreciate why.  The hallways are so small compared to the massiveness of the Yum Center.  You are constantly bumping into people while you're walking.

After the Heart/Journey debacle five years ago (hard to believe its been 5 years & it still pisses me off) I didn't want to take any chances of being late.  The concert started at 8:00 so Shauna & I decided we'd meet at her house at 5:00 & head over.  We were going to eat a healthy dinner of various fair foods & walk around until it was time for the show...as long as we weren't stuck in traffic.  And the construction going on for the bridges was going to make us go out of our way to get to the Fairgrounds as well.

It was a super slow day at work & my boss & the general manager were gone so I figured it was a no-brainer to leave  at 2:00 to go home & take a nap.  YES I DID.  Listen people, I get cranky when I'm tired & I knew there was NO WAY I would enjoy myself that night (not to mention no one around me would enjoy me...)  I took a blissful hour & a half nap & I make no apologies for it.  

(However at the writing of this - it's the day after in the afternoon & I was dumb enough to think I could handle coming to work the next day after getting in bed after 12:30am.  I am tired, my eyes hurt & I wanna go to bed.  Now-you may wonder why didn't I take today off?  Good question.  Mental note for next time...because you KNOW there will be a next time...)

We had no trouble getting to the fairgrounds.  None.  No traffic at all.  The only waiting we did was at the gate because our parking & fair admission was free with our concert ticket.  The little dudes battery died on his scanner thingie & we had to wait for him to get it replaced & re-booted to print us our fair tickets.  We hit up the food booths & Shauna got a roasted ear of corn.  Look at the butter dripping off it.

You always hear about all the 'deep fried' stuff at the fair.  And it is EVERYWHERE.  I saw a sign for something that looked right up my alley...

I paid $6 for a deep fried Reese Cup... & it was gross.  I didn't eat any of the deep fried stuff because when I picked up the stick the melted Reese Cup plopped out of it.  When I tried to bite it I got powdered sugar all over my face & shirt.  Getting food all over me is not my idea of a good time so I ate as much of the Reese Cup as I could with my fingers.  I do not suggest any deep fried sugary treats.  They're FINE on their own - they don't need improvement...  

We walked through some of the exhibits & saw cows & bunnies.  We also went through some of the 4H stuff so we got to see the biggest sunflower, the best cake & other various blue ribbon winners.  We went through the 'equine' section because Shauna used to ride horses but there wasn't much set up in that area.  (The horse stuff doesn't start until Sunday.) We found a display that had home made jewelry & we were all about it.  I found a bracelet that was made of sterling silver & leather w/ some bling.  I am not allergic to any of those things!  They had a few boring colors made up for display but he told us he could make them in any other color from the rolls of leather they had.  We both bought a custom color & he had them done in about an hour.  I'll let you guess which one is mine & which one is Shauna's...

We had floor seats for this concert.  We were maybe 2 sections back from the stage.

Waiting for the show to start.

Billy Currington was up first.

We were in the first aisle of our section right on the end which was nice because we had plenty of room.  We sat next to the technical stuff.

Then it was time for Lady Antebellum (or just 'Lady A' if you're in the know...).  I like them - I don't love them, but they had a good show.  I love the way the girl on the left harmonizes w/ the guy on the right.  They're voices sound great together. 

We took a photo in front of the fountain outside Freedom Hall before we stopped at another food booth & ate cheese fries... on our way out.

And guess what?  We're going to Klipsch again Saturday night to see Miranda Lambert... Anybody know any concert promoters?  Seriously... 

Weekend full of McAfee's

This past weekend was finally the weekend that had been in the works for a YEAR...  The other McAfee's were camping at Rough & they came to hang out w/ us on the houseboat.  (I know the main question you have is, "Does Alicia eat?  Does she let her kids eat?"  The answer to both is yes!  We'll talk about it...)

It's also very sad, but this is the last time we'll be able to hang out w/ them for the next 9 months...

Alicia's sister in law (who is B-rad's cousin) is preggo... And then her OTHER sister in law (who is the sister of the first preggo & ALSO B-rad's cousin) is preggo w/ triplets.  I mean-there's something going on in that branch of the tree & I'm just not willing to take the risk of the pandemic spreading.  

Its been nice knowing ya, other McAfee's...

 Alicia decided to bring an extra child without consulting me first.  Oh, the humanity.  Normally I would NEVER encourage extra children but her logic made sense, 'bring a playmate so they occupy each other'.  And it ended up working out perfectly.  And in 'it's a small world' news, Janelle's (Alicia's bff & the mom of the extra kid) mom was my mother in laws best friend in school AND she was in my in-laws wedding.  I knew they would enjoy meeting him & they're not like me - they always encourage extra kids...

(and if you hear a story about me letting the kids jump off the boat to try & splash me while I was in the water & then when they couldn't - letting them push me closer to the boat so they could splash me - it's lies...all LIES.)

OK-I will start by saying YES all the kiddos were good and YES they all played well together (we had a few issues {Jake pushed Jackson down the slide & Jackson was mad.  Jake said he was sorry but Jackson wasn't feeling that.  I let Jackson push Jake down the slide & all was well in the world.}  UHM I don't know where everyone else was to leave ME in charge but that's how we handled that...) but those stories are no fun to tell so you won't be reading any of that nonsense here...

I'm always amazed at Alicia.  She is a well oil machined, people.  (Which I LOVE.)  I just love to sit back & watch her do her mom 'thang'.  She doesn't mess around with those kids.   First up was an assembly line of sun screen: 

"Stand in a row!"

"Spread your legs!"  

"Arms out!"

"Arms out!"

"Sam - arms out!"

Next was the application of the facial sunscreen.  See Jake all ready w/ his eyes closed?

They were at the boat approximately 3.4 minutes before they were tearing into the snacks.  Alicia was rounding up the kids for a picture & Nora stood quietly in the corner double fisting Goldfish crackers as fast as her little hand would let her until her mom beckoned her for a picture.

The most fun kid attractions on the houseboat are jumping off the back & going down the slide.  Daniel wanted Nora to try the slide...

 Nora did not want to try the slide...  He said to her, "C'mon Nora - we won't make you do anything that's not fun..."

 Daniel rebels a bit against Alicia's 'healthy eating' habits.  B-rad had some Mountain Dew Code Red that he had no problem sharing w/ Daniel.  They called it 'Red 40' all weekend because of the bad coloring in it.  Alicia says Red 40 is the worst...

 Alicia had brought an assortment of the small chip bags (you see them in the pic above) for the kids & small sodas. Yes, she lets the kids eat chips.  Here's what I figured out about her - she doesn't deprive her kids (or herself) of those kinds of 'unhealthy' foods.  She let them stuff their faces all weekend (within reason).  She works really diligently through the week to serve them well balanced, healthy meals, but when they camp they get special treats.  {My FAVORITE line of hers (which she said a couple of times & I laughed every time) Sam:  "Mom, I'm hungry-can I have a brownie?" (after he'd already had several brownies..)  Alicia: "No.  But there's a veggie & fruit tray upstairs.  I'll go get you something out of that if you're hungry."  It's like magic - the kid was no longer hungry...} 

Notice Sam's death grip on his tiny soda while he's on the tube in the water?  

 A couple of girls may have been drinking all day & may have been really hungry before supper was ready & may have eaten a whole row few pieces of this cookie/brownie thingie right after it came out of the oven.  That's the best time to eat it...

 

I also watched her take her finger & scrape melted cheese off a plate that had cheeseburgers on it for dinner. She also told me processed cheese was really bad.... but it's soooo good...

 I was in charge of desserts so I had the cookie/brownie thing AND a Reese dessert thing.  And by in charge I mean I bought the boxes of mix & my mother in law made them for us.  I'm spoiled like that... The boys cut that up after dinner...

 And B-rad was more than happy to share w/ his chocolate, Red 40 deprived cousin...

 My mother in law felt sorry for them invited them to breakfast on the houseboat Sunday morning when she heard that Pop tarts & cereal bars were on the menu at camp... Bright & early Sunday morning the assembly line marched onto the dock...

 After breakfast was over it was time to jump & swim again.  I heard several times through the weekend from Daniel, "Jaime - you & Alicia had a choice... You chose poorly..."

 Let me tell you about this guy right here.  Sam loves me, but he doesn't want to act like he loves me.  Saturday night (after Alicia told them all to go up to each one of us to thank us for having them - which I also love...) I told him I wanted a hug.  He said, "NO!"  So a little argument between us started.  He got down on the floor of the boat so I had him at an elevated position & I pounced.  I hugged & hugged him while he screamed.  Sunday afternoon the tube was floating away.  I said, "Sam - will you go get the tube?"  He did & then he told me that "I owed him $5 for getting it."  I said, "No - but I'll give you a hug."  "NO!" he exclaimed.  I said, "Sam - you like me - you just don't know it yet."  And when they were saying their goodbyes & thank you's Sunday afternoon - he gave me a hug - WITHOUT me begging asking.  Yep, he loves me...

 We decided that the Reese dessert got better after it sat overnight.  Someone was kind enough to bring it out to share with us.  You can see there are only crumbs left...

 But no worries, scraping your thumb along the pan will get all those crumbs up...

 Brady came out w/ an ice cream sandwich & the kids immediately walked over & just stared at him.  It was hilarious.

 And just like that - the weekend was over.  The assembly line headed out & the boat got really quiet...

 I love these people...that is all... 

See you guys no sooner than 9 months...