Successful

If you recall, I won some fabric back at the beginning of the year.  Starting in April, I pieced together a quilt top and the project had officially begun!  I hemmed and hawed around debating whether to quilt the quilt or just tie it.  I'd never quilted an entire quilt before but I just felt like tying it wouldn't look that great.  I'd decided to keep this one for myself and I wanted to try quilting out.  My Mom used to quilt a TON and I'd never really gotten into it.  But, I am pretty much always feeling nostalgic so we decided to give the quilting a go.  Jon said he'd help me.  I worried and fretted about what quilting boards to buy and all the things I needed. Finally I got it all together and the quilting began!

 True to his word, Jon helped.  We put it up Saturday afternoon and took it down Tuesday night.  I did NOT expect it to go that quickly!  It was really fun, though.  I'm excited to find a reason to do it again!  As you can see, I still need to find some quilting stands :).  My dining room table got relocated to the living room, but even that wasn't too bad.

 Turns out, I didn't center the backing on very well, but I resewed the parts I saw and it'll still be great.  I'm so excited at how well it turned out!  If I didn't have to work tonight, I'd totally be getting a movie just so we could sit under it and watch :).  I am blessed that I have time to enjoy hobbies and that my husband tolerates them!

To be an Iowan

 Jon has always enjoyed politics.  Thus, I have always been on the fringes; sort of paying attention.  But, when we moved to Iowa, we were thrust into a total awareness of the political arena.  Even if you don't read up on all the candidates or study out their ideas, living in Iowa, you hear all about them (NON-STOP).  Today was no exception.  Mitt Romney had a rally out in BFE Van Meter and Jon and I went.  It was actually pretty fun.  Not as cold as I was expecting and kind of exciting to hear the crowd get excited.  There were some speakers before Mitt made an appearance.  His son Josh being one of them, was one of the better speakers of the "pre-show".  We enjoyed ourselves at least.  Unfortunately, Julianne was ready to leave before it even started.  Poor kid.  She gets picked on a little as she gets dragged around....

At the end of the rally, this plane started circling with a banner that read "Crack down on Wall St. not Sesame St." (or something to that effect), which I thought was kind of funny.  People are so crazy!  They grab on to an idea and run with it, most of the time not really understanding what they are protesting.  It just makes me shake my head in wonder.  In all honesty, I cannot wait for November to come so the political ads will cut down to one every 15 minutes instead of one in every 15 seconds; but until then, we'll take advantage of the opportunities that would not be available elsewhere.  Even if Big Bird suddenly has to be at every political rally.....