Well, my hand hasn't been this sore since the time I used a circular saw to cut up a 6x6 to make a platform bed. But it was worth it because we're now home mortgage owners! The closing actually went off without a hitch. We met at 4 and at about 5:15 I started to breathe again for the first time in a month. Chloe spent the time getting acclimated to her new school and when we picked her up we got Chinese from the place next door and went back to the new house for a carpet picnic.

Here are Daddy and Chloe (and her huge bunny) heading up the walk to our new green door!

The most common view of a toddler, walking away from you. Here Chloe and the bunny are off to explore her new room (also her new closet, her new bathroom sink, her new a/c registers, Mommy's closet, and several light switches).

We have a bona fide ornamental cherry tree in our front yard and it's still got some blooms on it. Steve and Chloe stopped running around long enough to pose in front of it. Kinda. She's halfway through struggling her way out of his grip and off to the rest of the back yard but we held her still long enough to snap this.



And here is the intrepid suburbanite himself, bringing in the necessities. MREs, caffeine, and the binoculars so he can see if the zombies are invading.

During the closing the lawyer brought out the documents where they detail any aliases you might have. Usually it's just middle name and middle initial and stuff but Steve has the same name as his father and a name with a couple of common spellings so his was a bit more involved. They even presented him with a spelling we'd never even dreamed of.

Lawyer: So I'm assuming based on the paperwork that your name is not spelled Steven.
Steve: No, it's not.
Lawyer: And you're not Steven R. either?
Steve: No. That's my father.
Lawyer: How about Stehin? Does anyone ever call you Stehin?
Steve: Nooooo. I have occasionally wished to be called Allejandro, but no one ever took me seriously.
Lawyer: *confused blinking*
Me: *pleased I married him*

Now it's time to start moving the fabric! Also, making a thank you present for our darling loan officer who made this a smooth transaction for all. Yay!

We had a super productive weekend. Got most of the big basement cleaned up so that we know what to put on craigslist, what to give away, and what to trash. There are even some things going with us. I got tons of boxes packed upstairs but until I can get them staged downstairs I won't really know what's left to do.

The allergies kicked my butt in the basement, though. And I think that knocked down my last defense against the Spring allergies. I woke up Sunday feeling like I'd been hit with a brick. Steve was an angel about getting Chloe out of the house for a while so I could keep being productive. Got some cleaning done upstairs and some more packing and even more packing.

Chloe and I took a three hour nap (not together, that would have been nice but she's not much of a snuggler) and then after we got up I set in to finish some stuff. I finished her Easter basket (plan from Moda Bakeshop), I finished my first Million Pillowcase Challenge project (adorable, still needs the threads snipped) and one other one that we'll get to in a minute. I made good progress on a couple more blocks of Chloe's fancy schmancy quilt, that's lots of hand sewing and very relaxing. And here's the little darling herself:




Barefoot and wandering around the backyard at Grammy's house. I love that dress on her, it's smocked and I have a serious addiction to smocking.


And here below is the other project I finished:

I taught myself to do Cathedral Windows after Mom and I got frustrated at not being able to figure it out (I don't deal well with that, it becomes a matter of principle at that point!) and made a 14x14 pillow for the spare bedroom at the new place. I think it's 4 windows by 4 windows. It turned out to be a GREAT way to use the Delft Remix stuff from Studio E that I got for Christmas. They're all such wonderful prints but hard to put together because they all blend into each other. I love how they're displayed in this pattern. The pillow needs the threads clipped, I hate that job, but I'm really pleased with how it turned out.

The other thing that happened this weekend is that I got sucked into Knockoff Wood. I spent hours on the site, on the Facebook group, and in the Flickr pool. I've decided on my first couple of projects, and to support me my husband got me this:

That's right. In my family we say love with nail guns. Three of them. And an air compressor. Nothing says love like a gun capable of firing a 2 and a half inch nail.

The good, the bad, and the toddler.

After reading a completely familiar account over at Amy's place about taking her boys to a quilt shop, I got to thinking about the last time I took Chloe in to a quilt shop. She's pretty good in the Joann's because we're mostly only there for supplies so it's a short trip. Actual quilt shops? That's another story altogether. I suppose it's unfair of me to even hope she'll behave. She's two. She's not a bad kid, she's just two. And when you're two you don't look at baskets full of jellyrolls and charm packs and think "My, aren't those pretty. Perhaps I will just admire them from afar." No, you think "Oooh! A basket!" and then you grab it and carry it around with you, putting things in and taking them out as you go.

C-'s local quilt shop is the completely wonderful Webfabrics.net (I know, I'm horribly jealous too) and we paid a visit the other day. The first half of the trip was a nightmare. Chloe was just a total pill. Grabby, knocking things over, struggling so hard I couldn't hold her, all that good stuff. C- said "She's being a good girl." I said "No she's not, she's being a butthead. The fact that she's so cute is the only thing keeping her from being nothing but a strange smell coming from the attic."

The staff was horrified. Either that or deeply amuse, I couldn't tell. Anyway. The second half of the visit was a dream. Why? This:

Coloring books, Lego's, little chairs, lots of books, a little kid haven. I still couldn't leave her completely alone but at least I could scan the nearby pattern racks without wondering if Chloe was pulling the rotary blades down on top of herself. Thank you, nice ladies at Webfabrics.net for making it a little easier to be a quilting mom. (Thanks also to the ladies at Artful Quilter who have a comfy couch with a Mr. Potato Head and a gigantic stuffed iguana that Chloe loves to cuddle).

In an environment where it is so easy to just stay at home and order off the web and lose the great tactile sensation of a brick and mortar store, it's things like this that keep me coming back.