The Bryan Family Sampler: 2018

A Tale of Two Gnome Quilts

Back in February or so I pinned a cute quilt pattern called "A Tale of 2 Gnomes".

I liked it but never thought I would get around to actually making it.

My sister saw it and texted me to tell me how much she liked it.

Well, her birthday was coming up so I decided to go for it!

I had fun picking out fabric for it and went right to work.

I don't think I had ever done a quilt pattern with templates before so that was new and exciting :)

I was so pleased that it actually came together without many issues.

I quilted it in what I am calling my "Random Raindrop" pattern, got it bound and sent off to my sister (just a month or so late for her birthday :)

When I was buying fabric for my sister's quilt I kind of thought I would want to make one for myself as well so bought plenty of everything. Finally, just this week I finished mine up. Took me forever but I'm glad I did it!

I changed up the mushrooms so they were red and more toadstoolish looking.

And where Angie's was more of a cream background/sashing, mine is grey.

For the quilting on mine I decided to get crazy and did what I am going to call my "Fancy Random Raindrops" I like to think of my little gnomes out in a rainy forest :)

Here are the two side by side for comparison.

Super fun! (but I don't think I want to make a 3rd...at least for a long time)

Halloween 2018

Josh's costume this year was kind of a last minute decision. He needed a costume for the youth council activity he was helping with at the elementary school so I went to Halloween City and texted him a list of costumes I was willing to buy.

He said maybe he could do the Bob Ross :)

Matt decided he wanted to be a nerd so that was easy.

The only favorite character of Ben's that he had not yet been for Halloween over the years was Mater.

I finally just decided to do what I had done for Thomas a few years ago and made a quick, felt poncho type thing.

This is Abby with her friends before they took off for the night...

Josh decided he wanted to wear Andy's dinosaur costume from last year to answer the door.

I'm so glad he likes to answer the door for me!

Josh is always a big fan of the dry ice root beer cauldron that Grandma brings...

Andy's Wednesday night class still wanted to meet so he just decided to end it a little early.

Ben was happy to have him home...

It's always fun to have my parents over.

Our parties seem to be getting more and more low key as the years go on but I guess that's to be expected as the kids grow up.

Matt had gone out with his friends and came home with quite a haul.

Well, another Halloween in the books and now we can move on to the real holidays!

Abby's 14th Birthday

This gal of ours...we sure love her!

For Halloween she and her friends wanted to be Winnie the Pooh characters.

She wanted to get the big Eeyore onesie and use it as pajamas afterward so I told her it could be a birthday present. I'm such a cheap Mom :)

Her main gift was a trip to the eye doctor on Halloween to hopefully receive contacts.

She basically boycotted her glasses beginning this summer because she wanted contacts so badly.

At the Dr. we realized her eyesight had gotten quite a bit worse. She couldn't even tell what the huge "E" was at the top of the chart without her glasses! She barely qualified for contacts and has been enjoying them and getting used to them since.

We actually did gift opening on Saturday night because I thought she would want to watch a movie which was one of her gifts and be able to wear her new dress to church the next day.

These two were celebrating off to the side...