settlers peace

Maybe it's the.......

book I'm reading, maybe it's the economy, maybe it's a simple justification, but I found myself patching sheets today!  They are really cozy and fit the mattress nicely, and......it removed any guilt over what the mailman brought!

New Amy Butler solids and two new quilt books.

So, I guess that this also doubles as a confession that I wasn't completely off the computer last week!  Oh, I am SO supplied and inspired and ready for school to start next week!!!!

I completely missed the fact that the last post was my 100th post!  So in the spirit of a celebration, I am going to do a give away!  Leave a comment on this post and I will draw a winner on Monday, August 24.  I will ship internationally, so speak up.

I will be giving away 2 garden inspired quilt books.  "Through the Garden Gate"  by Jean and Valorie Wells,  and "My Garden Best" designed by Cheri Saffoite.  I wish that I could say that I've made something from either of the books, but the best I can say is that I liked them both enough to buy them twice!!!  Best of luck and please post a comment!

Fear or Freedom?

Mixed emotions going on here.  We finally got a car for O.  She's had her license for months, just not the car part.  While I am doing cartwheels inside over the idea of no longer having to play taxi all of the time, my stomach is also doing flips at the thought that they are growing up!  Not to mention the fact that they are on the road!

Ahh, I best go use this time creatively!  How exciting!!!!?!!!!

Life Rocks On

Back in December, I gave O. the job of downloading all of my music onto the computer.  In an effort to keep the cd's organized, I had her put a dot sticker on each case after downloading.  I decided that I would be kind and clean them off of each case as I took them in to resale, and began sticking them on a journal page.  I stopped after one page was filled, and inked over the dots, and removed them once again!  I wonder wether or not I can maintain my kindness effort with the ones remaining?  

Wow!  What a difference having all of my music in one place and so accessible!  But I must confess that I could NOT adjust to the earphones and had to get a dock.  The ability of surround sound in my ears, left me twisting and twitching trying to figure out what was making the noise around me.  Quite the site, I'm sure, but peace is in place now that it is  coming from a central location - not my head!  I've never understood the desire for surround sound, I once gave Dean an old drive-in movie speaker and told him that was as close to surround sound as I wanted.

Life has been busy with physical therapy for O. and surgery next week.  Both of the girls have 'friends' of the male gender that have been visiting frequently and that keeps me on my toes.  In an effort for some family bonding, we had them both over last weekend and we all paired up and decorated Easter Gingerbread Houses.  It really was a lot of fun and plenty of laughs to be had.  

I discovered that boys like to throw candy at icing and see if it will stick, they will eat the pieces that don't, and everything is a race.  I'm thinking that God knew what he was doing by giving us girls, but what a blessing to get to spend time with them all having fun.  Hope that your days are full of blessings and a little spring colored sugar!

It's Almost Over

This year has been a very good year for me.  I have grown in ways that I could not have imagined, and I feel so blessed to be able to continue on a path of growth.   I am anxious to see if 2009 will bring more of the same.  Oh, I hope and pray that it does, I don't want to be stuck ever again!  I have a few pictures to share of what we've been up too.

We attended an Ugly Sweater Christmas Party.  Wow, it is amazing just how many ugly sweaters are out there, but we couldn't manage to get one over O's head, she wasn't having any part of it!

Making and eating Crock Pot Peanut Clusters!

Layer in a crock pot

1 jar salted peanuts

1 jar unsalted peanuts

4 oz. German Sweet Chocolate

1 1/2 packages Almond Bark

1 pkg. Semi sweet Chocolate Chips

Cover and cook on low for 2 hours, do NOT lift lid or stir.  After 2 hours, stir and drop by spoonfuls onto waxed paper.  Trouble is, waiting about 2 more hours for them to set!  YUM!

S. has been busy working on art projects, I seem to be contemplating the ideas, and enjoying time with the camera!

O. has been downloading my 20+ year collection of cd's to the computer, I refuse to buy an ipod until I'm ready to use it, and the task has just been too daunting for me.

I've been getting some work done in my art journal, but realize that I have failed to take any photos of the pages, hope to share some next post!  May your new year be blessed in every way possible!

Sew Sisters

I have been in the party prep mode lately.  I wish that I could manage to simply clean house when company is coming, but I seem to have some sort of disorder that does not allow that.  I always seem to find myself creating more of a mess by doing some task that has been nagging me for ages, that will be completely unnoticed by the guests.  This time it was filing papers and dealing with mounds of things that have been in the mound shape for quite some time.  Okay, maybe that did notice, and maybe they noticed the dust and dirt, too, but the best thing about friends is that they really don't care!  My Second Saturday Sew Sisters came over for our Christmas party this past weekend and it was so much fun.  We have been meeting the 2nd saturday of each month for 7 plus years now, but the bank that we had been renting was having renovations and we missed the last 2 months, so it was super fun to catch up with everyone.

They will probably object to the photo that I posted, but it best represented them, or so I thought.  We are all really good cooks, too, and what's a party without food?

There were treasures and gifts all around, even though I didn't get mine done because of this disorder that I have, and I will be finishing them up and getting them to them soon.

Here is a fun link to an amazing LITTLE quilt shop  done in polymer clay!   I like small things because I can get them done, but this small project is too amazing to get done quickly.

Ok, hopefully some creative photos from me soon.  Have a blessed day.

The Friendly Village

One thing that I love about the fall, other than Thanksgiving, is getting out our fall/winter dishes.  I am a dish lover, and could find myself with multiple sets if allowed.  So to offset the limits of how many sets I can store, most of our dishes don't match.  The exception being in the fall.  Several years ago, we were at an estate sale and I came across a set of dishes that I knew I could love for years to come.  Very natural colors, each plate depicting a different barn/house/building.  All of the trim was in brown, which I love.  I happened to flip a plate over and it was made by Johnson Bros. and called "the Friendly Village" so I figured that it was meant to be mine.  The girls came into the room of the sale and began choking on the thought that they would have to eat off of such ugly plates.  They were pushing every button that they could, trying to get me to not buy those dishes, when in walks the owner, yep, it was a living estate sale, oops, for them!  Fortunately, she had not heard their comments and went on to tell us about her adventures of collecting the set of dishes and her memories of having family meals from them and so on.  They gradually came to appreciate what something so ordinary can mean to someone, and agreed to occasionally eat from the dishes.  As time goes on, I believe that they, too, will come to appreciate the memories that are talked about over our meals served on those very dishes.  So it was a very good time unpacking them and getting ready for the long days ahead and home cooked meals served on coordinating plates.

Luckiest Girl

I must say, I am the luckiest girl in the world.  Not only does my husband support my creative adventures, he buys me cool gifts while I'm gone!  I thought that it was generous enough that he let me be gone over our anniversary (22 years, yea!), but he gave me this awesome colored pencil display case when I got home

It will come n handy as I begin organizing my art space, maybe that is was he was thinking!  I have tons of pictures to share, so grab of cup of tea, and enjoy a long post of show and tell.

First up, these are from the inchie swap done at AFF, hosted by Marylin Huskamp

What amazing little pieces of animal fun, all in a one inch square!

Then I was in the plushie trade, as well.  Remember the little guys jumping on the bed in an earlier post?  They were my offering.

And these are what I brought home.  So much personality in that bunch, and what creative ideas!

The only thing that has, so far, found a home, has been the banner from the banner swap, hosted by Heather Bluhm , mine were the elephants, posted about here.

So, all of these swaps happened on the first night!  My head was spinning with inspiration and joy, to have so many new treasures to take home.  But don't think for a moment that it slowed me down on vendor night!

Rug hooked chicken pillow and cell phone cozy by Mary Stanley  

Bird art print by Tracie Lynn Huskamp  

Floral images on fabric by Carol Strand-Siebers  

Painted clutch and fabric panel by Alisa Burke  

Odd Ball Charm Zine by Alma Stoller  

Box of hand stitched cards by Tammy Gilley

Tiny House ornament by Syd McCutcheon

But the real reason that I went was to take classes with awesome instructors, refuel, reconnect with and meet new artist friends and to reveal in the creative energy and spirit that ArtFiberFest is.

I took the Book of Intentions class with Lisa Engelbrecht

All painted on unprimed canvas and will eventually be turned into a fabric book.  What a wonderful class.  Lisa is such an awesome instructor and really gets you to dig into you own art.

Next up was Nature Inspired Fabrics with Tracie Lynn and Marylin Huskamp.

THIS was my favorite class!  Maybe because I am so proud of that bird!  This started with a piece of very white fabric, and I painted the bird and dyed the background, with much help and lessons learned from the teachers.  Thanks for all of the pushing!  I have been wanting to get into painting more, but the idea of canvas' wasn't doing it for me.  I may have found a perfect combination!

The last class that I took was Little Things To Wear with Mary Stanley.  It was the perfect saturday class.  There were only 4 of us in the class and we were able to sit and stitch and enjoy all of Mary's stories.  Pure bliss.

Much to add to these as time goes on, it was a wonderful class and so many ideas to try.  Mary is a very generous person and so creative, wish we were neighbors!

I think that about wraps up the photos.  What a blessing from above to be able to experience such trip, I cherish all of the connections that I made, the goodies that I brought home and the inspiration that just seems to be percolating through my veins!  Have a blessed day and do something creative!

At a turtles pace

That's how I feel I have been moving.  The above are inchies that I have made for a swap, Animal Parade is our theme.  I'm also working on some plushies for trading, too.  It has been hard to get going in the mornings with the sun coming up later and later.  But it makes it easier for me to enjoy moments like this.

But, fall is finally here and I have been getting some of our decorations out.  I LOVE holiday decorations, I just mostly refuse to buy and store them when I can't seem to get them out and enjoy them for more than two weeks before the holiday passes!  I tend to decorate more for the seasons by simply changing a few things out.  But here are some of my very favorite pieces, worthy of storing!

They are carved and stained gourds.  We bought the two on the left when the girls were small and they used them as their trick or treat buckets.  So cute and such fun memories, and it limited their candy take, too!  The cat and pumpkin gourd is electrified with a small bulb and I love the glow that it casts at night.  The pumpkin table runner I made some time back, the girls loved the fabrics, and the crow was carved by folk artist Joe Mason.

On the home front, the Homecoming Dance went well for the girls, and Dean survived chaperoning.  I was out of town on a quilting retreat, enjoying my friends, working on more old projects and managing to NOT start anything new!  Note the shoes for the dance!  She's got a style all her own!

May your days be filled with personal style and joy in your heart.

It's here.....

And Oh how time flies!  Both of the girls are now in high school and it is so hard to believe.  Look what a difference 4 years can make.

There just isn't much effort that goes into getting ready for the first day of school, when your first class is athletics.  But they have grown into amazing young women, and it KILLS me to say that, women, and yet I know that they are growing up.  I best make use of what time I have and get creative, have a blessed day!

Bonding Time

Well, the schedule is a changin'.  I'll be blogging again soon, but taking a break from the computer for a bit.  It's time to for cloud watchin'!  Enjoy your days.