V and Co:reflection

Source: marian16rox.tumblr.com via Vanessa on Pinterest

we are so close to new year.
how did that happen?
we as a family decided to have some time together after christmas and before new years. hence one of the many reasons why so quiet on this little space i call my own.
we had a great time. :)  minus a few "he's breathing in my space." and "are you kidding me? why?"'s that life throws at you with everyone together all the time.

but now we come back to reality of deadlines (yes, i'm in the middle of the second line coming to life (yay!) and all the things that go into the pattern creating process for that said line.)

sorry i've ignored this little spot i call my own.
i have some more fun projects in store for you to add some fun to the continuing winter months. and i want to show you my new quilt i made. oh i'm so excited about it!!
just have to get a good picture.

lots of "just have to's" it seems right now.
sigh.
always actually.
well, so it is life i guess. :)

do you have a new year's resolution? goal? word?

this year, we are as a family making a new year's goal. not a resolution, not a word. but a goal.
we are getting together on monday night and voting but first the husband and i have to fine tune and finish up with the final choices to bring to the table so we can make decisions on what our goals will be.
i am still going to work on my own as well.
my own personal one is a simple one, its the word i've carried over for what will make this the 3rd year now.

HEALTHY.

again not just talking about exercising and food, though yes, i am talking about those things as well. adding more veggies, and water, walking as part of my routine everyday will continue to be on the list. but i am also speaking of emotional, spiritual, and service.
continually and slowly growing to be a better person all around. i hope to come out looking back at the end of the year better than i was at the beginning.
i like having that be my goal because i don't feel that by the end of march i've lost my way, goal, or resolution.
i can always continually try to keep moving forward in my healthy goal.

so far looking back at 2012...i can say i've made some progress. :) i hope to say that again at the end of 2013.

so excuse me for just a little bit.
as i am totally involved in spending time dotting some i's and crossing some t's over here for the next few days so we as a family can embark on our first ever family mission for the coming new year.
life is good.
even when you want to scratch your eyes out when things are so not going your way, or you have deadlines that are pressing, or your kids are fighting, or the bathroom stinks of something even though you told them to clean it...yes.
life.is.good.
with all the ups and downs along the way and weird smells that accompany the boy's bathroom.
we'll talk soon.

V and Co: life

yesterday was pizza day.
every tuesday we do pizza, every wednesday we have scouts, every sunday we do church, every monday we do family night, every friday we go out to dinner as a family.
we are a super scheduled family.
we like it that way.
but with very scheduled families you throw a holiday into the mix and all of a sudden you have your normal full schedule, and then you have a family that is hardly stopping for a second.
yesterday, i felt like i wasn't going to do the normal scheduled program...and the kids and i just had fun doing a few things that had no real purpose except for the fact that it was something everyone thought would be fun to do.
we started off with dyeing the bottle brush trees.

i started with bleaching the dark green trees, and then getting 2 different shades of pink.

the hot pink is fuchsia and the lighter pink is light rose.

we tried a denim blue one and that was a mistake in my eyes, because it turned more purple but not a pretty purple. the kids are fighting over who gets to keep the mistake. 

as a matter of fact the two young ones keep arguing who's trees they really are.

i keep trying to explain i bought them to bring a little cheer into my little corner basement office space...and well that went to deaf ears because this morning i found them on the little girl noisemakers bookshelf.

the purple one is suspiciously missing...i think the littlest boy noisemaker has it hidden from the the girl one. 

i think we'll try to find some more on clearance after christmas and start dying other colors, a few teal, and maybe a few yellow looking ones? i don't know but all i know is that it was fun and it was fun having the two younger kids so excited about it.

 since we were in the crafting mood the third noisemaker has been reading The Strange Case of Origami Yoda and is loving it. he asked me to make the yoda that is in the book...and i got all twisted and couldnt figure it out fast enough...and since the two other older noisemakers have read the book we looked to them to help us, but the second noisemaker said he had a hand puppet version he could do from memory.
the girl noisemaker needed one too (her's the the smiling one) while the one with the goatee is my littlest boy noisemaker's.

something we did get done that i was supposed to do is get our teacher gifts ready.
we are so very lucky to have wonderful teachers that love our children.

we continue to keep our thoughts and prayers for all the sandy hook families and community.
life is truly a beautiful gift.
i am so heavy with grief but i am so grateful for my children, husband, teachers, community, faith, and every day i wake up i give thanks for those things. and every night i give thanks again.

i am also so very grateful for the stories coming out about the heroic teachers, people and parents of sandy hook.  those heroes are what make sending my children to school still okay, it's those heroes that i hope i would be like in that situation.

life is beautiful.
and we will continue to keep our thoughts and prayers for those who have to go through missing those no longer with them.

i hope you have a very comforting holiday season with friends and family and may we remember what really is important in this life.

we'll talk soon.

V and Co: theirs and mine: bernina sewing machines

 the other day the girl noisemaker out of the blue says to me "i want to do what you do." i looked at her and a whole avalanche of things that i do in the day flooded my brain at that moment. what exactly was she talking about.
i think she must of looked at my confused face and then said "you know with fabric? i want to do that with fabric too."
okay little one.
sure.
"one of these days we'll do it k?" hello she's 6.
she persisted "no, now."
me "ok, well i can't RIGHT now, we have to make dinner, but soon?"
"tomorrow?"
"maybe."
that did not go down okay but it did buy me a few days, till the third boy noisemaker (who is 8) came up to me and says in front of the other three "hey, i want to sew."
what the crap is going on here. two of them in the span of days asking to learn to sew.
i gave him a skeptical look to which he said "please? i'm not kidding i want to sew something."
that's when the two larger noisemakers (both boys as well) chime in:
"yeah mom, i was supposed to make my own quilt last summer. what happened to that?" the second noisemaker says.
the third noisemaker is just chuckling as he looks up from his book.
"busted."
so the kids have been sewing on betty.
she is now theirs.
yes, i want them to learn on a bernina, cause personally, when i upgraded to a bernina from my first sewing machine, i felt like i became a better sewer over night. and the last thing i want for the kids to feel is frustration like i did when i started to sew and walked away from it for so many years.

you may think i'm kind to "gift" my betty bernina to the kids...well don't feel too bad for me:

i'd like for you to meet  Bernadette

yeah she's hot. not cute. so bernadette is her name.

she's geeky and hot all at once kind of like bernadette from big bang theory. she can get the work done and she has bite. but she's in a tiny package. (um compared to the BEAST she's small.)

okay, fine. so we started the process.

i thought it was going to be a gray hair experience with me wanting to run screaming to the hills...wait i live in iowa now...running screaming to the cornfields. 

but actually it was all but that. the 8 year old is doing pretty good.

the 11 year old is doing excellent...can do it without my guidance.

and the 6 year old is planning skirts to make for her dolls. :/ uh...not my forte kid but we'll try. 

the almost 13 year old has picked out fabric for his quilt...all before he even touches the machine...well i guess that's one way of learning.

anyways, while they have been tinkering with betty...

bernadette and i have been getting ourselves acquainted with piecing and quilting a new pattern (coming soon) and piecing 2 more patterns as we speak also coming soon.
but not if i keep stalling so back to sewing i go.
:) we'll talk soon.
ps i think the kid's view is nicer than mine...i may have to dress up that wall i stare at all day with some fun colors and fabric. :)

second noisemaker turns double 1

my second noisemaker is turning 11 today.

i didn't get an updated picture of him and this one is over two summers old.
hmmm may need to sit him down and change that.

a few things about this one at this time:
-you love chocolate. probably as much as your mother.
-you are kind, quiet, and pensive.
-you have a very quick wit, and can make your family laugh at the most inappropriate (and sometimes appropriate) times.
-you love school. no really you do it's kind of weird.
-you still love star wars stuff no matter what you say to your friends.
-you love to play airsoft with your brother and friends.
-your favorite color is blue
-you love the art of food, and pretty sure you will surpass your mother on that skill (not that hard but you know what i mean)
-you can get a long with most people.
-you are very smart. and i'm not just saying that cause i'm your mom, the tests show it, and i am sure you will use it for good and not eeeeeviiiiiil.
-you are a good kid. through and through you think of others (yes even the little brother you share a room with that annoys you to no end) and think of their feelings.
-you want to give football a shot. okay lets try it.
-you are the first to say thank you to others.
-you are a peacekeeper
-you are learning to sew. and are really a natural at it. be careful i will use and abuse that talent.
-we are truly blessed to have you, you make us feel like good parents. :)

happy birthday son.  you are on your way to becoming an amazing adult. love you so much.

V and Co: how to make: 3 minute walnut fudge

 so here at V and Co. we've made 3 minute fudge, and then last year we did 3 minute mint fudge, this year i made 3 minute walnut fudge.

still trying to confuse those around me and on the internet that i can actually be somewhat of a cook...well at least in the dessert aspect of things. when in actuality i am anything but a great cook. it's okay i can't be it all...good looks, crafty as hell, and an awesome cook would just make people mad at me. so i'll just go with the reality of short hairy colombian girl that has to wax and shave a lot, likes to sew and makes lots of mistakes to get to the final product but when she gets there likes to teach others how to do it too, and doesnt really like to cook but will, and if it looks good and comes out tasting good? bonus!

welcome to my blog i get lucky 48.8% of the time and this is where i put that 48.8% in pictures.
okay so enough about me. lets talk about this yummy fudge.

ingredients needed:

 2 packages of 11.5 oz chocolate chips (one dark and one milk chocolate)
1 14 oz can of condensed milk
1 small bag of chopped walnuts
3 tablespoons of butter (i forgot to add it to my first batch and it made the fudge kind of dry)

- first place in a microwaveable bowl your 2 packages of chocolate chips, your condensed milk, and your butter.
-next place in the microwave for 3 minutes

 -meanwhile get you bag of chopped walnuts and...chop them a little more.
-put some aside to place on top of your fudge

 -once your 3 minutes in heaven is done in the microwave, stir in walnuts, then pour into a square pan. mine was a 9x9 pan. if you want thinner squares do a 9 x 13 pan.

let it cool, then cut into squares.
do what you want with the fudge, but i suggest you give some of it away...cause it can be dangerous to just have it in the house.
we'll talk soon.

V and Co: around the house

 i've been super busy cutting up fabric

 creating messes

and then sewing up the cut up fabric.
the fabric featured here is the simply color ombre dots in aqua
i love how it looks in a dresden plate.
i'm working on making a few more in the green and the gray. :)
and well...you will have to wait and see what i'm making with the pink. i'm in love with it :)

 we've also been decorating for christmas at our house.
the christmas music is a blarin', the apple spice plug ins are a smellin', and the target store bought perfect fake tree is up and decorated. :)

i did buy these cute little trees for my office space. so i can transform to this:

Source: flickr.com via Vanessa on Pinterest

:) i don't know if mine will look as cute...but i'll give it a shot.
okay back to sewing so i can show you something finished!
we'll talk soon.