Happy Holidays

My apologies for being so MIA lately, but let's just say there have been some things that have turned my personal life a bit upside down. There are alot of changes going on right now, and my posting will be intermittent for awhile. Bear with me! I will be back full force soon! And don't worry, I am still sewing, and will not let any of me bees or block swaps down!

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday, whichever you celebrate! Our Christmas was rather nice, we did gifts here at the house, and then went to Shaine's coworkers home for a Christmas dinner. I got to practice alot of Spanish speaking, and the food was great!

Cullen got lots of neat gifts (toys are so much cooler these days than when I was a kid!) but this by far was his favorite:

FNSI Results

It was a short FNSI for me, as I ended up scheduled to work, but I did manage to whip these up before I went in:

The blocks are going to be part of the next fabric box. The boxes are for a friend of mine, who is one of the names my family "pulled" during our secret santa swap (with 6 different couples, and over 10 kids total, that would be alot of gift giving, just in our circle, so we simplified it!). Lisa (I can say that as she doesn't read my blog hehe) is a sewer (sewist?) and used to do a little quilting, but now with working full time and two kids, she hasn't gotten her machine out in awhile.

I am hoping these boxes will inspire her to dig it out so we have sewing get togethers! I originally wanted to make three different sizes, but seeing as the party is in about 5 hours, It is looking like I may have to settle with two :( Although, how perfect is it that when I asked what her favorite colors were, she said lime green, purple, and black?!

I won :)

Almost two weeks ago, I entered a giveaway over at My Giveaway Today. It was for a penguin gift tower from Executive Baskets and I was hoping to win it for my sister, who is decorating her nursery with penguins and polar bears. Well, the way their giveaways work is they run for one day only, and then the next day you have just that day to claim your prize. I won (out of 668 comments! Can you believe that?) on Dec 7th, but didn't even realize it until Dec 10th!!! I was devastated that I missed it. At Shaine's urging, I went ahead and emailed MGAT anyway, explaining what happened and that I understood if it was too late. It wasn't! She said she planned on choosing another winner that night, but she hadn't yet, so I could still claim it!! Right away I had an email from the company for me to tell them where to send it, and I had them send it straight to her! How nice!!

Here is the little penguin in his new home. Pardon the finger, apparently I am not the worst photographer after all ;) I hope you like it, Chelsey, and that little Perry will like it too!

PTS4 Received! (+ some non-quilty-goodies!)

Once again, I am so pleased with my mail lady! I was starting to doubt the USPS after a package my grandmother sent me was M.I.A for about a week (what good is delivery confirmation/tracking if they don't actually update it?), but then yesterday I received a package I had ordered on Monday (only TWO days?!). I ordered these adorable candy cane earrings from The Clay Cafe, an etsy shop owned by a close friend of my sisters, who we met in high school (and her dad just so happened to be the CSM of the basic training battalion next to mine!) It came beautifully wrapped in a Christmas gift bag:

And inside were these goodies:

A postcard with a dinosaur for Cullen, a hairbow for Aubree (although she will have to actually grow some hair first!), and the earrings!

And how gorgeous are they? We have to dress festive at work, and I just now I will get lots of compliments on these, especially when I tell them they were handmade by a friend!

THEN TODAY, I walk to the mailbox, not expecting anything special, and there was a package, addressed to me, with "PTS4" written on it!! I was immediately nervous and excited, and even texted Shaine before I opened it. Inside, it was wrapped in pretty Christmas tissue paper, and even tied with a bow, but I was way too excited to take a picture first!

Oh, I was stunned! First of all, even the little goodies Megan sent were adorable and thoughtful. A note pad (maybe she saw my "make a list" posts!), a patchwork tissue holder, and a keychain wristlet (I think those are called FOBs? I never understood that name), as well as a little card.

Then the pillow... Oh my, the pillow...

She noticed that I adored cathedral windows (but have yet to attempt them myself), and knew I liked bold colors. The red and the black PERFECTLY match my living room! I can't wait for Shaine to come home with the car (mine currently is not running *grumble*) so I can run to Hobby Lobby or Joann's to get a pillowform for it! Thankyou so much Megan, it all is really fantastic! (And to the USPS-- I forgive you!!)

One Flower Wednesday

Here is a little one I whipped up today, out of my scraps again.

It isn't for the swap, so I have no idea what I will use it for, but I think the petals fabric is just so happy! I have some more stuff to show tomorrow, but for now I have to rush out the door for work! Cheers!

Jorie

Make a List Monday--On Tuesday

Surprise, Surprise, I know...
Yesterday I took a MUCH needed and well deserved "Girly Day" to pamper myself! A good friend of mine recently moved back to town (we went to high school together years ago in Missouri, and now both live here in Texas), and she is a licensed cosmetician--and great at it too! She really has a knack for style of any type. She offered to give me a makeover, and here's what happened.

Before:
Hair is long, but unhealthy (from bleaching the black and red I decided to put in it last year) and unevenly colored, as only the fresh, healthy hair at the top holds dye.

After:
About three inches off the bottom (should have taken off a bit more, but I was hesitant to lose too much overall length!), evened out the brown (a few shades lighter than my natural color), and added bright red lowlights. She even decided to curl it and do my makeup. I love it!

Amazing what a little change could do for a girl's self-esteem!

Then today, we got our family Christmas pictures taken! I won't post them all, but you can see them on Flickr if interested!

I made the mistake of scheduling the appointment for right after Shaine's workday ended. I thought it would be convenient to just go straight from work to the studio, but I didn't think about that it would run into dinnertime and Cullen would get fussy :( And of course, it was the one time I forgot to pack a snack while out and about.

So now that you know why my list is late, here is last week's:

1. Make progress on the quilt I was commissioned to make. 4/8 blocks done! I forgot to take a picture though, so I will share later this week!

2. Make my flower for Hanne in the Inchy Flower Swap Done! I need to get it in the mail ASAP though!

3. Finish the gifts for my sister Not done yet :(

4. Make some more self-binding receiving blankets/burp cloths Also haven't gotten to it!

5. Wrap up my package to my PTS4 partner and send it off (with lots of goodies!!) Done today! I know it wasn't done by Monday, but it was done before the list was updated, so I consider it a victory!

And so for this week:

1. Send off Hanne's flower!

2. {TRY TO} Finish my sister's gifts

3. Finish at least 2 more blocks for the quilt

4. Make Block 4 of the LCQA (I might attempt that one tonight)

And I think that's it for pressing stuff. I should be able to get it all done, as I have some extra days off this week! I hope everyone is making good progress on their Christmas projects! I have definitely learned why people start worrying about them in the Summer! Lesson learned!

It's done! (FNSI Results!)

Well, my Friday Night Sew-In turned into a Saturday morning sew-in, due to some unexpected houseguests last night, but I have finished up all the goodies that are going along with my pillow for the Pillow Talk Swap!
There's the pillow, a mug rug, a drawstring bag (I used this tutorial--so fast and easy!), and some leftover triangles cut by my Go! Cutter for my partner to use however they see fit! Believe it or not, ALL of these were made using less than a fat quarter of each of the prints!

Now I am not sure if I am more excited to receive my own pillow or for my partner to receive hers! Making a trip to the post office on Monday! Should be a nice Christmas surprise for her :)

2010 in Status

So, on Facebook there is an application that makes a collage out of your status updates from the last year. I remember for 2009 it was pictures, which I thought I still had but apparently don't. Here is my status collage:

I find it amusing that the majority of them are about food, being tired, or me being a smart aleck! It reminded me of some great stuff that happened throughout the year, like when I got Cullen to flush the toilet while Shaine was in the shower (it makes the water really hot, and no it isn't mean, he deserved it for dumping ICE WATER on me the day before!), funny things Shaine said ("When is cinco de Mayo?" or when asked what his middle initial is he said "M as in Mary" instead of "Micheal" or "Mark" or any GUY name ;) ), or when Shaine won the state NCO of the year competition! It has been a good year, and I am ready for the next one.

And in other good news, I think Cullen is finally potty trained, during the day anyway. Hopefully in the next week or so we will be sans diapers for him all the way! Woohoo!

How has 2010 been for you? Hopefully good. Favorite memories? I am thinking that maybe I will gather up some of the neat partial-FQs I have and get a scrap bundle going for an I-Spy Giveaway at the end of the year! It would be my first giveaway, so what do you think?

One Flower Wednesday

Another for the Inchy Flower Swap:
I wasn't sure at first about the purple and the yellow, but I love how it looks all done. I just hope that the yellow isn't too dark for my partner this month!
I need to hurry up and get it in the mail!

Make a List Monday #7

I thought last weeks list was going to be simple... Let's see how I did...

1. Get 4/8 blocks done for the quilt I have been commissioned to make. It needs to be done by the first week of January. I am a little embarrassed to say I haven't even finished calculating the measurements of the blocks/pieces of the blocks.

2. Do my Layer Cake Quilt Along block Thinking about redo-ing the handle, though. I am really liking how these blocks are coming together!

3. Finish the Christmas gift I am making for my sister and her hubby-- Although I have a feeling a FINISH won't be doable, I hope to at least have it mostly done this week! Halfway done. Had to get some more fabric, which I finally did yesterday.

Suffice it to say, I am determined to make a much better move on this week! Shaine is gone out of town (again!) to Chicago, so its just me and the kiddos. I took off work until Saturday, which is both a good and bad thing. Good because it opens up alot of time for me to get some crafting done--which I really need!! Bad because that means I have no personal income until Saturday--which I really need!! Quite the catch 22, right? I am embracing the time off though, as I can make up for the missed money later, but time you can never get back!

So this weeks list is as follows:

1. Make progress on the quilt I was commissioned to make.

2. Make my flower for Hanne in the Inchy Flower Swap

3. Finish the gifts for my sister

4. Make some more self-binding receiving blankets/burp cloths

5. Wrap up my package to my PTS4 partner and send it off (with lots of goodies!!)

And that may look small, but not to me. Ah well, off I go! How are you progressing on your Christmas crafting?

And just so as to not have a picture-less post, here are two from my trip to Austin Thursday night to visit two friends I haven't seen since shortly after my return from Iraq almost 3 years ago.
Cullen and "Unc Paw" (Uncle Paul)

Matt, Me, Paul, and Cullen
(apologies for the quality. The lighting in the restaurant was horrible, and all I had was my iPhone!)

Pretty Fabric :)

As if I needed any more reasons to love the mail lady...
I am now definitely addicted to the "Stash Builder Bundles" at Imagine Fabric. I'm sure you can understand why :)
I ♥ Joel Dewberry!
Judi, of Green Fairy Quilts, also helps me spend all my paychecks ;) (Have you seen the examples of her long arm quilting? *sigh* When I do get around to making a LARGE quilt, I don't know who I would want to send the first quilt to, Judi or Natalia of Piece N Quilt. Both ladies are AMAZING!)

One Flower Wednesday

Seeing as how I have become quite enamored with these little hexie flowers, I have decided to jump in and share my flower garden by signing up over at Journey of a Quilter, and sharing my progress!

For my first One Flower Wednesday post, I am actually going to share TWO. These are two flowers I made during the road trip back from Kansas while it was still light out enough to do so.

They were made using the 2.5inch squares I cut from my scraps using my AccuQuilt Go! cutter. I have decided I am going to go back to basting them through all the layers though. I feel that it is sturdier that way, especially since Mister Cullen likes to play with them and he knocked the paper out of one of them.

I know I said I was going to share pictures of the new fabric I got, but I decided I will hold that off until I get the other package I ordered and share it all at once :) Happy Wednesday!