Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Don't Worry, Be Happy!



Be Happy!

Happiest little pillow just listed in the ::SHOP::

My Brother in law & his sweet wife visited this past weekend with their little daughter. We had so much fun visiting with them. Kristin is amazing when it comes to making $. She has a very successful eBay store & has been making a good little side income from it. She encouraged me to give selling online a try again. While she was here we took off for the afternoon & headed to the thrift stores. It was fun to get out & shop just for the heck of it. We both found quite a few things to sell. I will be listing several things into my Etsy shop & my eBay shop all week long. It was fun to see how she buys stuff & makes a profit. She gave me all sorts of pointers. Now all I have to do is take the photos & post the listings. My goal is at least 1 a day until I get good at it again. If I can add more I will, we'll see how it works out. I figure opening my shop back up is a fun way to spend money on things I think are cool & don't necessarily need but can't bare to leave behind. It's a win win!

Tuesday, April 10, 2012

Giant Log Cabin Quilt Finished!


Front
Quilt measures 51"x51"


Back


Well, here she is in all her glory! It only took me a little over a year to finish. I started the top Last March & then set it aside. I sorta have a bad habit of doing this & that is the reason I'm trying to finish up all those projects that have been haunting me. I am happy with it for the most part. A little disappointed that the log cabin part wasn't a little more square. It really stretched even before I basted & quilted the top. I really have no idea what I did wrong. Another thing I noticed is I still had two tiny spots on the back where it pucked ever so slightly when I quilted. I really flattened it out & don't know why that keeps happening when I quilt. You can't tell quite as much once I washed it but still I'd love to get to the point where this isn't happening. If anyone has any pointers I'd love to hear them. 

I used the French General line of fabrics for this quilt with a few other lines from Moda on the back. I also used cream colored muslin on the front & the brown floral fabric on the back I purchased from Hancock. I was super nervous washing this quilt because of the mini quilt fiasco. So I went & purchased some of the Shout Color Catchers & decided to give them a try. Those little sheets were magic! Magic!!!! The quilt came out of the wash perfectly! I was super excited & relieved. This quilt is going to be auctioned off at the upcoming JDRF Gale. All proceeds with go to finding a cure for diabetes. A cause that is near & dear to my heart.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Quiltied Log Cabin


I finished quilting the giant log cabin at the end of last week. It took a few hours over two evenings to finish. Wouldn't you know it has taken me the better part of a week to actually bind the darn thing? It's been busy here. We've been working on several projects around the house & I finally had to make myself sit down last night & make the binding. I attached it all together while watching a movie & pinned it down so it's ready to be finished later tonight. This quilt is going to the JDRF auction. So it has to be finished & ready to take in on Friday. I'll post pictures after I wash it. I will totally be using a color catcher this time too!

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Hard Knocks of the Quilting Kind

I set out the other day to make a little mini quilt for my sweet next door neighbor's baby. I received all this cute printed fabric from a sweet friend & wanted to put it to good use. No more letting favorite fabrics sit in boxes anymore. 

Plus I'd promised her a little something & knew I could whip up something in a day. Sometimes it's just fun to make a little something that you don't NEED to make. You know just for the heck of it. I have a list of unfinished & to do that is a mile long. Seriously. I got it all quilted in just a little over two hours & I bound it while I watched a couple episodes of Bones. I threw it in the wash & then headed to bed. When I woke up in the morning I put everything right in the dryer. I planned on taking pictures a little after breakfast so I could post & then take the cute little quilt over to my friends house.

Picture me with a huge smile on my face only to turn into a super sad look of horror as I realize the bleeding of the back fabric all spotted over the front. I didn't panic. I put it in the wash & thought for sure it would all come out in the second wash. No such luck. It was totally ruined. All that hard work & it looked like a mess. 

 I figured I'd use it as one of those painful learning experiences & know what not to do next time I use red fabric with light colored fabric. First off it was a cheaper red fabric. There's something to be said for spending a little more for the Kona cottons. Next time I'll be using a color catcher whenever I wash a new quilt. Every time.

My only saving grace with this whole experience is that it was a relatively small quilt 27"x27" & I had only spent a day on the whole project. I would have been devastated if it had happened on something I'd spent weeks on. I also had a chance to practice my quilting stitch pattern for the next project I worked on. 

There was a good ending to this whole thing. Even after I offered to make another one for my neighbor she told me she wanted to keep it. Have I mentioned how much I adore her? I foresee a new & improved quilt in her very near future. One that doesn't have pink splotches all over it ;)

Sunday, March 25, 2012

Lately......

I wake up to this little man every morning. Happy smiling & ready for adventure! He's learning to unzip his pajamas. Very pleased with himself too in case you couldn't tell. This morning I walked in his room & what should I see but a cute little boy sitting & jibbering away when all the sudden he opens up his jammie shirt super fast & shows his chest, lol! I couldn't help but laugh & laugh! He knew he was being funny too! He's such a happy little guy that sometimes he will wake up in the middle of the night & laugh for a few minutes while he babbles about something & then fall back to sleep. I love it & I love him more than I can even put into words.

I had a chance to buy a huge amount of vintage Fisher Price toys this past week. I found them on Craigslist & when I called Tim (the Fisher Price guy) he already had someone coming to look at them. They were a little more than I could afford to spend by myself. So I told my neighbor about the deal & she was interested in splitting them if I could get them. He had some things that I wanted & some things she had been looking for also. However things fell through & I was heartbroken. Tim, the Fisher Price guy, knew I really wanted them but his brother had come over to his house after I called & freaked out when he found out he was selling them. Tim told me he'd try to convince his brother to change his mind & I told him to call me.....even if it was 6 months down the road. We really wanted these toys. I know they are just toys but I've been trying to find some of them for years. Years! So you can imagine my surprise when Tim called me a few days later to ask if we still wanted to come & pick the toys up. I went while the kids were taking naps. Tim ended up being the nicest guy. He works for ADT security, so if you ever are in need of a security system in your home let me know, I'll send you his number. Nicest guy ever & I'm not just saying that because we got they toys :) He was glad the toys were going to a good home.

His mom had taken impeccable care of all of them. She even saved pieces of some of the boxes. The lithographs had come off of the airport but she had saved them & I was able to place them all back on. It looks amazing. Melanie & I had a fun time splitting the toys up. I wanted to make sure she felt everything was fair even though I feel I ended up with a little more than she did. Mostly due to the size of some of the vintage trucks I picked for Oblio. She didn't want the trucks (my Oblio loves them!) I did pout a little over a gurney & the hospital scale, lol, & she let me keep them even though she picked the hospital. I told her I'd make her little E. a baby doll blankie in exchange. It all was so silly & it made me feel like I was a kid again. The girls spent the better part of the weekend playing with all of their "new" toys. I'm already on the lookout for other Fisher Price things to add to our slowly growing town. Right now everything sits in neat little rows on top of our piano & computer desk. Ready to play with whenever they want. Eventually the toys will find a home on our bookshelves when they finally get built (hopefully sooner than later ;). 

Sweet little Sloan is almost off her crutches. She still needs them every once in a while but is trying to walk on her foot as much as she is able. She still has a couple of weeks left before the pain will completely go away but we are thankful she didn't break it. She's growing up so quickly! I've promised to show her how to shave her legs this week. Shhhhhh! Don't tell her I told you ;) I'm in a bittersweet stage with her right now. That in between stage, but we are finding our way. Sometimes she needs me, sometimes she doesn't. So the times that she comes to me to talk or confide I hold on & really try to listen. It's a new path for me as a parent. A road I've never gone down before & I often feel a little out of sorts, but I feel like we are setting the stones on this new path together. Sometimes I trip, sometimes she stumbles but more or less we are figuring it out together. We're paving the way for her sisters & eventually her brother. This path is such an important one. It's what will take her & them to all thier new adventures later on in life. My job is to make sure I help her set the stones properly & then we maintain it together. By doing these things my hope is they will have a smoother journey along the way. I have so much to learn as a parent but I couldn't think of a better preteen to do it with. She is so brave & confident. I'm so blessed to be her momma!

We planted our potatoes! Also planted the onions & peas. Really working hard on getting things going this year in our garden. The greenhouse is full of Kale & spinach, lettuce & onions. We have been able to have fresh salads from it all winter long! 


The girls love helping this year too. They are really starting to understand how things grow & how this all works. We are trying to get everything dialed in so we can get bees this year too. Dean & I spent the better part of Saturday taking down half of the carport near our garden. We never used it & now we have so much more room to get some more beds started. It felt so good to get outside & get my hands dirty. I even got a little sunburn on my shoulders & cheeks. The fresh air did me good this weekend. I'm thinking that I may try to work out in the yard a little each day when Dean is at work. He was so happy that I helped him. I know it motivates him to get things done when I take an interest in the projects he's working on. I've just got to find a way to balance it all. There are so many things I want to do & never enough hours in the day. I'm sure I'll find a way though. Three more weeks til school starts again & I want to fit as much fun in as possible!