I'm Back! New Look! New Purpose!

My goal for 2019 was to be authentic as my husband and I found ourselves at a crossroad that would find us making an intentional, major shift in our lives both emotionally and physically.

Life's journey is full of hills and valleys and it was just time for a change.  

  I'm rebooting my blog after almost a year long sabbatical with a new face-life and mission. Physically, my husband and I spent the last year downsizing. Gotta tell ya...we love it! The simplicity is wonderful!! We think of our new home as our "transitional" housing until we retire in a few years. 

Creatively, I've just been thinking...gaining a new perspective of myself and what I want to do with my time now that I don't have a large house and yard to manage. Kinda time to follow my bliss....

Curious to see how much the grands have grown??

Here's our daughter and those little guys now:

Our big guy is six now and started kindergarten and little Jack is two.

Okay, I'm literally teary eyed posting that pic....I mean look at those smiles!

They too have conquered life's challenges with love and joy.

2019 blessed us all in so many ways that we only end such a rough patch with gratitude.

Oh and what about Jackson??? I'm sure he will continue to photo bomb my posts.  He's getting a bit grey and is now ten, yet continues to be a loyal companion on walks, hikes and in the sewing room. 

Join me for my 20 in 2020.

Okay so my life isn't what I envisioned for myself when I reached middle age...but regardless of this, I'm ready to be the one to decide where my life will bring me instead of the other way around. I know we're all crafty, quilty folk, but I challenge you to also be thinking of the kind of goal setting that is more about WHO you want to be, what you want to do. 

 WHAT KIND OF GOALS can GO IN A 20 FOR 2020 LIST?

Your list can be anything...challenges, adventures, personality goals, dreams to chase, projects to finish, hobbies to try. There is power in writing things down and then making them happen. 

I'm PLANNING TO DISPLAY AND CHECK OFF THESE GOALS through the use of a Travelers notebook and here on the blog! 

Christmas Day will find me "unwrapping" all my supplies and playing.
With SMILES! Val

Also linking with my quilty friends at:

Another Year Older....

...and got to celebrate it a little early when our two favorite little guys visited!

That is our little guy's "CHEESE" smile and big brother's "Smile nice for the camera" grin" as I begged him to "Just do one nice smile for Meme bud." LOL!! I  really didn't want one of his "funny" faces he humorously enjoys flashing in practically every picture taken lately!  Hard to believe he starts kinder in the Fall! Anyhooo.....Celebrating 54 couldn't get any better than this! 

When You Can't Reach the Peddle....

While visiting our grand guys this past weekend, knowing I made quilts and after inquisitively watching me stitch during movie time, one of their friends really wanted me to teach him how to sew. My daughter didn't hesitate to unpack her sewing machine and we let the boys dive into a box of fabric scraps. As I sat and worked on some binding, I taught the oldest, who is nine, how to use the machine. I taught him the main parts of the machine: foot, pedal and the ol' 1/4 inch! 

 He was very focused, detailed oriented and caught on quickly. Well, before I knew it...

.

..he was quickly on his way to making all the younger boys their very own blankie, even

seeking their help when he couldn't reach the pedal himself! (Look at how focused they are!)

After busily rocking a teething baby,

...I soon returned to the kitchen to find all the older boys giving sewing a team effort!

(Is this just not adorable!!) One at the machine, another at the pedal, and one

guiding the fabric. I was so happy my daughter caught these moments for me!

By the end of the day, our guy had made four blankies for all the younger boys.

He spread them all out and I was flattered when he insisted that I join him for his finale! 

(As you can see,  I was busy giving our little grand guy a bath...and well, 

you know how one year olds LOVE to splash and play in water!)

As if the story can't get any better....we soon realized he can earn a Boy Scout patch for his efforts!

I truly had the best weekend with these guys and loved sharing our hobby with them.

Best of 2018 Linky

I like participating in Cheryl's "Best of" Linky Party as it creates the opportunity and motivation for me to look back and see how my year of blogging and quilting has been. 

 My "word" for 2018 was CREATE. But....in reflection, well, THAT didn't really happen now did it. I find myself wondering, how can so much happen in a year, and yet, so much not. In review, I did finish seven quilts, but if I were to be honest, it was more a year of self growth than creative expression. It's not the details that matter so much, but truly the lessons learned. My lesson being that of acceptance and choosing to move forward and authentically begin to creatively define myself not as a teacher, or even as a mother, but a creative women who's esteem is independent of these outgrown roles. So today, I reflect upon 2018, grateful for my lessons learned but planning to be more authentic in 2019.

#1: My little buddy asking to teach him how to sew.

I cherish my relationship with this little guy and am so grateful for his presence in my life.

As I move forward, I will continue to cherish the fact I am a grandmother and value that I have grown to understand my role as such. I offer my daughter and grands comfort and wisdom. They need that kind of grounding in their busy, busy lives. I offer that. Lucky me.

#2: Hubby and I discovered a new hobby we  really enjoy together. As I move forward, I'm so grateful we found Golf as it challenges us and finds us laughing a lot. But most of all, I've grown to appreciate that the one childhood wish I had, that came true, was that I married my best friend. This man truly completes me. He is so patient, so kind, so wise. He makes me a better me. 2019 will find us selling our home and downsizing and really just having fun within that process. We're excited!

#3: Our Annual Piggy Bank Challenge continues for it's 6th year!

As I move forward, I'm grateful there are still a few others of you that like to save spare change as much as me. I'm grateful that even though I haven't been really "quilty" this year, that you continue to follow and join in on the challenges and linkys I offer. Thank you!

 

#4: Our Eye Spy Swap was a huge success.

Receiving 1,758 views, this was just so much fun! I move forward, valuing the community we have in our blogging world and commit to continuing to be an active part of it.

 This swap lead to...my favorite finishes of the year. They all make me smile as I think about the five energetic boys they were each created and gifted to over the past year.

#5: Career Transition. Retired Quilts and yes, Jackson.
As I move forward, I'm so grateful I had the confidence and opportunity to move into a mentor role at work and thus, start to value the time this has created for me to perhaps expand myself creatively outside of work. Time has been presented as an opportunity to embrace new found freedoms as for the first time in thirty years, I'm truly living without the obligations of children. I'm liking it. And, of course, there's always comfort found in having a loyal companion like my Jackson by my side.

So there you have it: The 5 Best Lessons learned here at Val's Quilting Studio. I want to thank all of you who have become my blogging friends over the past years.  I also want to welcome you if you are new to my ol' spot here in blogland. Please take a look around, and if ya are even a little bit inspired by what ya see, I hope you'll follow too. In the meantime, happy holidays to you all and thank you Cheryl for hosting this party. Click on the picture below to check out everyone participating and celebrating:

Christmas Wishes...

"Dear Santa, All's I want for Christmas is a mini drone."

What's even more adorable about this picture is, you can't see it, but Santa is using his right hand to  show to our grand guy "how" to fly a drone as he patiently demonstrated the "trick" is in a slow liftoff. Our little guy literally skipped away from Santa with the 

biggest smile on his face exclaiming to his mom and me: 

"I can't wait for Christmas!"

Welcome Christmas!

Wishing you a holiday month filled with the same joy and excitement found by our five year old grand guy.

A Birthday Celebration!

Our little grand-guy is five and we celebrated by treating him to his first college football game!

The pre-game "kid zone" events were full of fun! Bouncy houses, "cool" cars and big foam hats!

Boise State is know for it's BIG BLUE...and they didn't disappoint. By half time we had scored four touchdowns to the opponents one, each filled with fireworks, loud cheers and music.

He and Poppi spent quilty time together as he taught him the "ins and outs" of football. 

...and his day was made when Poppi even wore his funny hair!

A much needed family day was had by all and I'm so grateful for the fun had.

Plus, you know it's good when you have two very exhausted little boys by day's end!

 

Tuesday Archives #196: Guess it's time for a break...

Wow! Okay I missed my own linky party. 

Seriously....if that's not a sign I don't what is.

It's May...and May is always full of surprises for a teacher.

Personally, I've been thrown off course this past week.

Too many changes at work and at home...all at the same time.

Nothing bad. But never-the-less change and adjusting to the fact things will be different.

June first I'll also be on summer break...which means yet, another change. 

 I find myself tranquil on my days off as I enjoy mornings of movie watching, afternoon walks, and evenings sitting on the patio with a glass of wine having BBQ dinners with my hubby. No sewing. 

See...all good, but sometimes it just takes time to find your balance of things once again.  Butttt....

while establishing new routines, I did randomly finish my sixth stash busting project for the year.

Another square in a square quilt as I de-stashed a cute little bundle of fat quarters:

This finished as a 36"x 48" quilt top that I'll complete into a cute little baby stash quilt. 

And right when I thought my Mother's Day Weekend would be spent alone (due to the change in my husband's work schedule) I was completely surprised by a visit from our two very favorite little people in the world! I truly had what I would describe as a "perfect day".

Our new grand guy is a very happy six month old.

And I spent the entire morning "playing" with this special guy.

I biked as he enjoyed his new "Spiderman" scooter...endlessly. 

We talked. We shared. We laughed. We played.

Our daughter knew exactly how to spoil me this Mother's Day.

With all that said,  I'm going to take a little blog break as I allow myself time to wrap up my 29th year of teaching, adjust to my husband's new work hours, and look forward to my upcoming summer break. I can't wait! I am going to put together an eye-spy swap in June and we'll also be celebrating our 200th Tuesday Archives Linky Party with a $25.00 Gift Certificate from Fat Quarter Shop! How fun! I'm still set on meeting my May OMG and will busy myself making this fun baby eye quilt as I set out to establish new routines.  Sometime this kind of easy, fun sewing is exactly what we need. Anyhoooo....
Thanks for visiting and for your continuous support as bloggers and quilters.
I'm looking forward to catching up with all your blogs and going on's as June arrives, and hope you'll think about joining in on our Second Eye-Spy Swap this June here at Val's Quilting Studio.

Click over to here to read the details about this unique, weekly linky party. (You can also check out all our past Tuesday Archives themes by clicking right here.)

The linky party that let's you rejuvinate OLD blogging posts.

I specialize in edge to edge pantographs with over 100 designs to choose from.

Check out my Long-Arm Quilting page for details.

I offer FREE Return Shipping on all quilts in the U.S.A.

A Springtime Walk??

Noooottttt exactly. I spent the weekend visiting our daughter and her family. We awoke to a skiff of snow yet had already had signed up for a Saint Patty's Day 7k along the Snake River Rim Trail. 

So we bundled up and conquered the cold below 32 degree weather.

I wasn't so bad once we got going and the sun peaked out every now and then from behind the clouds. We gradually got to the 2 1/4 mile turn around spot: Evel Knievel's Ramp.

My grand-guy and I even conquered the "mountain" that was built as the base for his ramp.

With a four mile walk behind us, Dad took the boys home and my daughter and I took advantage of no kids to get our Easter shopping done...and well, enjoy a green beer just for the fun of it! 

Oh Guess who is already four months old!? THIS little guy!

And big brother continues to grow like a weed:

It was a relaxing weekend just spending time together.

I have a quick four day work week ahead then can look forward to Spring Break! I'll  be spending more time with these two grand-guys and of course, enjoy some R and R as I catch up on my sewing.

Wishing you a great start to your week and look forward to sharing some projects with you soon.

I specialize in edge to edge pantographs with over 100 designs to choose from.

Check out my Long-Arm Quilting page for details.

I offer FREE Return Shipping on all quilts in the U.S.A.