Hey brother

Yesterday my brother Ryan came up and interviewed for a job at the company Geoff and I work for and he got the job! I am so happy because Ryan has been a little stuck living with my dad and really needs to get the heck out of there. So he is moving up to Madison with us. That's right! I just finished unpacking and now we are moving into a bigger apartment in our building so that my brother can have the spare room for a little while he gets on his feet. I'm really excited about having more space and eventually a room to put all my books and craft things in.

After the interview we went out to the Terrace and had a pitcher of beer and a little dinner. It was perfect in the shade and we feed the birds until one of them pooped on my head.

 

The terrace is one of my favorite places to hang out in Madison. Afterwards, Ryan headed back and Geoff and I had a lazy day off. I'm a little at a loss because I have finished my triangle quilt-top and at the moment have no quilt projects! Basically I want to go fabric shopping because I have roughly 500 ideas and am not inspired by the mostly basic fabric I have now.

I am not a weekend warrior

As stated earlier, I've been feeling a little gross this weekend. I've got a headache I cannot shake and I am really loathe to lay down and rest. But there are some good things about my weekend too. Such as:

I have two of thirteen rows of my triangle quilt-top done! I'm hoping to have this one set to go by the time I see my gram next when we are planning on going over the next steps in turning these suckers into actual quilts. I want to note that while I do have a sewing machine ( Bernice!), I have been doing all of my quilt piecing by hand. And god help me, I think we are going to do the actual quilting by hand just like my gram did back in the day (last Tuesdayish). But I am going to fire up Bernice to work on a couple of projects this summer, including a Batman costume for my cat.

We stopped by the local Half-Priced Books in an effort to get me moving around and maybe knock my headache out. I love that the women's bathroom is wallpapered with the covers of old pulp novels. Adorable! Looking at this photo makes me realize that my hair is fading and I'm not sure I was as much in love with the blue as I was the purple:

And so next week I think I'm going to get a trim and then dye it again.  Not sure what color yet, but it will be awesome.

And finally, Geoff busted out his ukulele to serenade me with such hits as "Dancing Queen", "MmmBop" and my fave, "Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard." He's pretty great. When we were in different states he would often send me songs he had recorded for me and they would make me swoon every time. Even after living together it still has the same effect.

Anything exciting happen for you guys? Hope no one blew any fingers off with fireworks!

Weekend in Photos

This weekend has been nice and relaxing. Yesterday Geoff and I went down to my family's and visited with my Gram and my siblings.  I got to show my Gram my quilt top and we had a good chat about the next steps and brainstormed what color should be the border and backing.  My dad (and Rachel) made us homemade pizza and we were able to grab more of our things from the garage.

My dad got a box of old wines at a garage sale for a few bucks and gave it to us. The labels are very cool and most are from the 80s and 70s. We tried to open a few and they had gone bad as expected, but the rest are just making the empty wine rack look classy. He also got me a box set of the Laura Ingalls Wilder books which I am super excited about. I adored those books as a kid and can't wait to re-read them.

My sister, the chef. She loves helping in the kitchen and made delish pizza dough!

Board games are a huge part of how my dad, brothers and I connect so of course we had to play one this weekend. Settlers of Cattan is known for driving my brothers from the room, but we talked Ryan into playing and he even won. If you like nerdy games that focus on dice and trading sheep for bricks, this game is for you. Also this set-up might be inspiring me for a new quilt design, possibly for my brother's Christmas present.

I've been doing a lot of work on my new Matryoshka doll quilt and have been brainstorming so many crafty things I want to do. Out new apartment has so much more space than I am used to, and I want to fill it with pieces that are handmade. 

And finally, a childhood photo of me with my peers.