And the Giveaway Winner Is...

Carrie A.!!!!  With help from random.org, the number 21 was randomly selected, which corresponded to Carrie's name.

She selected for me to make her an apron...which tickles my heart because they are fun to make and seem to please their recipients.

My sister's apron

Carrie says, "An apron would be awesome!!!!!  I'm so excited!!!!"

And she is letting me pick out the fabric entirely with no parameters of color or pattern. Sweet.

Thanks for playing along, everyone who commented, and I am sorry for everyone who wanted to comment but couldn't for some technical reason.

I know I have said it before...but I think you should be able to comment just fine now without having to scroll down or type in any odd letter combinations.

And in case you need it spelled out for you:

TO LEAVE A COMMENT ON MICHELLE'S BLOG:

1) Type comment in comment box at the end of the post
2) In the drop down box located next to "Comment as," select Name/URL.
3) Type in your name.
4) Click continue.
5) Click publish.

That should do it!

Running Out of Time to Do All of the Things I Want to Do with Eggs by Easter!

Phew!

Live your life first.  Write your blog later.

Those are words from Jon Acuff, a real funny guy I follow on Facebook, Twitter, his blog...wherever...too many places!  (You can find that post here: The Greatest Danger Bloggers Face)  I find myself liking the above words often!  :-P  Yes, I do like sharing on my blog...but I also just like living my life without thinking about my blog.

I remember the first time I went some place significant and fun with our children, and I purposely did not take my camera.  Woah.  Sometimes we get so occupied with capturing the moment, we miss the moment.

Anyhoo...haven't "blogged" for a while, and although I am fine with that and I don't feel like I have to explain myself every time there is a large break between posts, I just thought I would share since Jon Acuff hit the mark when he posted that this week.

So yeahhh....I am running out of time to do all of the things I want to with eggs this year before Easter!!!  I haven't even blown out our eggs to paint, yet.  I guess one week of nice weather can really throw you off your rocker. :-P

We did take the opportunity to do some messy eggs outside while it was warm.

You can see it was very sunny.  :-)

We cut strips of paper towel, dipped them in watered-down glue, and pasted them on to plastic eggs.  The result when dry is a really cool textured egg that  reminds me of the burial cloths that Jesus was buried in.  Not that I ever saw these burial cloths...but you know...

We then painted them with acrylics.  We paint shirtless in this house.  It's a party, let me tell you!  ;-)

We did this last year, too:

Quilty Post - Happy National Quilting Day!

I finished up the blocks this morning for a granny square quilt just in time to share with you on NATIONAL QUILTING DAY!  :-P  You're celebrating, right?  ;-)

Since it is soooooo beautiful outside, I ran out to take these pictures in the sun.

The wind would not cooperate, and then this little lady came over to investigate...

...And then stepped on it with her muddy shoes.  :-/

I am so excited to have all of these blocks put together.  I will add white sashing between them and a white border.  Not sure what I'll do for the backing fabric, yet!

I'm also unsure what quilting design I will do for this.  The normal meandering pattern might be a bit overwhelming for this...but I feel I definitely need something to go over the seams for security, as I kind of goofed and did an 1/8 inch seam allowance instead of a normal 1/4 inch.

I got my own sewing machine back from the shop yesterday and started playing around with free-motion quilting patterns.  I have a free-motion foot for my machine that allows you to move the fabric any which way your big heart desires.  I have an idea for a quilt for Evander's bed...but I will need lots of practice.

The bottom right is the meandering (I think it's called "stippling?") motion that you see often in home machine quilting.  I'm a big fan of those circles, flowers and vines, but definitely need to work on them.

Look at my awful attempts at making stars!  Terrible.  That makes me not even want to try them again! ;-)  I love the scallops on top and the S pattern on the bottom right.

So my idea for Evander's bed is to make an ombre quilt, with different free-motion patterns for each color.  What is ombre?  It's the graduation of a color, like that of a paint chart.  I've been seeing it a lot lately in hair color but look here...

We call this "Anna dress" as it was Marin's cousin's, and now she wears it. :-)

Here's the fabric I have for Evander's quilt:

OoooOooooOOoooOOooo!

I just love color.

Since painting Marin's room, I no longer have the green in my house.

Bye Bye, Crib?

I've been putting off writing this post for some time now because it makes me sad.

I'm thinking about taking down our crib.  :-(

And not just take it down...I'm thinking about getting rid of it.  Giving it to someone...lending it out...selling it.

This is what happened at our house yesterday...

"Let's do that again." Blurry, I know. :-(

Now, apparently I don't have to worry about her safety...she seems to get out just fiiiiiiiiine.  In fact, she repeated it for me three times yesterday afternoon and once again last night after I put her to bed.  She's pretty tickled with herself.  But I guess that seals the deal for putting up the toddler bed.  :-/

But...TAKING DOWN THE CRIB is way too symbolic.  My kids are getting older.  Time is moving too fast.  There is no baby in the house.  There likely won't be another baby in the house.  It makes me cry!

And of course thinking about the crib sent me back looking through old photos of the kids in the crib.  Man, was I organized with Evander's baby pics!  Each are labeled by description of what is going on in the picture, and I have them filed BY WEEK.  Oh my, how it changes the more children you have.  :-)

I couldn't just pick one or two or three...so here's 13 pictures to look at!

Scrap Map

With the sewing machine down...I needed to think of another project that didn't need to be sewn.  Scrap map!  Why didn't I think of this 12 days ago when I was really mourning the loss of my sewing machine?

Turns out, I ended up top stitching this with a sewing machine...only with help from my mother-in-law, who helped me figure out my sister's machine and got it running efficiently.  :-)

I've had the background fabric for half of a year to do this thing...now it was game time. I picked 50 scrap fabric pieces and used Heat N' Bond Lite to iron the pieces on some pretty purple flannel fabric.  Each state got a top stitch with my temporary sewing machine.  :-)  The original project can be found here: Scrap Map

If I had to pick some favorite states from this project...they'd be...

Washington.  I dig batik fabric.

California.  Another batik fabric.

Colorado.  Because I love all things birch.

Missouri.  Just enjoy the pink.

Musical Louisiana.  :-)

Wisconsin cow fabric. 

And more pink for New York.

This project was fun to do at this time because Evander is really getting into the states lately (I like geography, too!).  I love it...he is at the stage where learning is so fun and new and exciting.  I hope that never goes away.

I looked for some printable flashcards for him.  I ended up printing these Fifty States Flash Cards because I wanted part of the map printed along with the state, so that he could identify in what section of the country the state belongs.

Did you know Crayola has SUPER awesome states coloring pages and flash cards?  I didn't: Crayola States Coloring Pages

Nick Jr. even has some: 50 State Fact Cards

And check this out!  50 State Quarters On pages four and five...Printable 50 State Quarters collection!  Droooooooool.  My mom was able to collect the whole set.  I tried...but ended up desperate for laundry money in college and blew my quarters on the washer and dryer.  That was *before* swipe card access on the machines.  Ancient, I know.

 And who could forget the 50 Nifty United States song?

 

And all sorts of awesomeness of Animaniacs!?!?!??!!!

What a pretty sight. :-)

Difficult Things to Do With a Cat Around

Brush your teeth and wash your face

Wrap presents

Clean windows

Peel off painter's tape

Wash Dishes.  "I'll clean up what you don't eat!"

Go to the bathroom.  Sigh.  She even jumps up on the seat when you stand up.

Print something.  "It's moving...it must be alive!"

Select fabric.  "Brown...brown...everything goes with my brown fur, right?"

Sew anything

Scrapbook...because she always sits in my recycle basket

I love this cat.  :-)