2010 - a Year of Photos

A photo of my boys from each month in 2010.

31

Happy Birthday to my wonderful husband!

Love you!

Quilt Group Gathering

In September, our quilt group member who was suppose to host wasn't able to do so and nobody was ready to move up on such short notice so we had the gathering at my house and worked on some baby quilt tops for Project Linus. Everyone was asked to bring some boyish fabric and some girlish fabric cut into sizes indicated in this tutorial at Cluck Cluck Sew. Some people used scraps and some bought new fabric so in the end we had a huge assortment of fabrics. This is what our group has decided to do next year since we've all had our turns and we weren't really wanting to do another round for ourselves quite yet. We'll meet once a month (as we do now) and work on tops, once we have a bunch of tops done we'll have a day set aside to get them all tied. Here are some pictures of our day (which started at 10am and the last to leave my house was near 5pm):

Calvin Turned 2

My littlest baby turned 2 back in September. I can't believe how quickly children grow up, and it seems like once there is more than one it is even quicker!

Calvin hadn't taken a nap so he was definitely not in the partying mood. We lit the candles twice so he could blow them out - it was his favorite part and he had a meltdown when we told him he didn't need to do it again after the first time.

Hunting

My sister and I took our Hunter's Education back in August. We took a class that was a couple hours away from home so we went the day before and stayed overnight. It was fun to spend some time together!

(us in our fabulous -and safe- hats we got upon completion of our class)

I've gone hunting a few times, no luck with the big game but I did get my first grouse. The hubby and I went up for a long weekend without kids and it was fun to spend such quality time together.

(Had to get a new hat - couldn't do the orange, sorry)

(my first kill - tastes like chicken)

(Travis)

Bees

After seeing many online quilting bees, I started a quilting bee group for some of my local friends back in January (you can see my post about it here). I've been posting pictures of most of the blocks I have done for the other girls, but I never posted a picture of my finished quilt made from the blocks they did for me (in January).

I finished the quilt September 12th (yes, it really took me that long to finish it, not that I was actively working on it all that time) while my husband was away hunting one weekend. I decided I wanted to machine quilt this one - I had tied my first (and only other) quilt (pictures here). So I "stitched in the ditch" around each block and then connected each block at the corners with straight lines as well. The floral print of the quilt is from a vintage sheet, I ended up using a second sheet as the backing and binding for this quilt. The quilt is far from perfect. Most of our group members were very new to sewing/quilting (including myself) and my accuracy and technique for piecing the blocks together, quilting and the binding are definitely not the best, but I love it!

I just decided to join an online bee (see the new button on my sidebar?) and am really excited for it to start in January. It will be fun to 'meet' the people as they could be from anywhere in the world. I'll be sure to be posting lots about this bee in the future so stay tuned. I promise to be better about blogging - such a slacker I've been!

Spice Turn-About

Among other things, I'm an Independent Consultant with The Pampered Chef. When I got my new paperwork and catalogs for Fall /Winter 2010 and saw the new Spice Turn-About, I knew it would be something I'd have to get for myself right away (because my cupboard looked like this, only worse):

When I got it, my intention was for it to sit on the counter next to my Tool Turn-About - not a big deal, but I would rather keep my stuff in the cupboard if possible. Imagine my surprise when I loaded up my Spice Turn-About and thought "hmm, I wonder if this will fit in my cupboard?" So I try it, and it did! The cupboard that I have it in is only 12" wide so it really doesn't take up much room at all.

Not only does it perfectly hold the yummy sprinkles, seasonings and rubs from The Pampered Chef, but it can also hold many other brand spices as well:

(PS I was not paid by The Pampered Chef to do a product review, just wanted to share my love for a great product - let me know if you'd love one too!)

Quilting with Curves

Oh boy, it's been awhile again!

I saw a post awhile back on Ryan's blog to visit Elisa's Backporch Design blog and store. Then, go to her facebook page and "like" her and she was going to be doing a drawing for $100 worth of merchandise to her store for one of her fans. So, I though, that's easy enough (some of those giveaways where you are asked to jump through hoops drive me a bit bonkers after awhile) and I headed over. A few days later, I came home from a hunting trip (more on that in an upcoming post) and was checking my facebook and was so excited to learn that I had won the giveaway!

To be quite honest, I hadn't yet looked around her shop to even have an idea of what I would get. So....I headed right over and, to be even more honest, I was a bit intimidated. I can barely sew straight, let alone attempt something so round! BUT, I love the idea of a challenge and I'm so excited to start sewing curves!

My prizes arrived today, here's what I chose (all photos from backporchdesign.com):

Small Paths 3 1/2" Template

8" Rainbow Block Template

Crazy Curves 7" Template

"Only Nine" Pattern

"Friends & Flowers" Pattern

"Chocolate Go Round" Pattern

"Berry Strudel" Pattern

"Sew Easy Tweezers"

(because I'm going to need everything I can to make this easier)

PLUS: 3 additional patterns that came with the templates!

As I said, my products arrived today and I was so excited to cut something round and attempt to sew it up. I got some scrap fabric and my rotary and mat out and used the 3 1/2" template. Right away I slipped with my rotary while going around the curve and sliced my finger open...nice, real nice! A dab of new skin and one bandage later I was back to cutting (more carefully this time). So, they were cut. Now, to the machine! Elisa's patterns have wonderful sewing tips for sewing with curves. It says, at the top, "Sewing Curves is Sew Easy!" And it was! Easier than I would have thought, but I know it will take awhile to perfect.

I'm ready to go buy some fabric and get one of these quilts going! Which pattern is your favorite? I don't know which one to start with!

Go visit Elisa's store, it's fabulous and everyone that I dealt with via email was fabulous and so very nice! They offered up advice at any time during my quilting with curves experience. Don't forget to like her facebook - you never know when she'll do another drawing for her fans!

Thanks, Elisa and staff!

Do Fun Stuff!!!

I started to follow this blog when he was taking weekly photos of his wife throughout her pregnancy (how cute is that?!).

Their oldest son has Smith Magenis Syndrom. Have you heard of that? Neither had I. Click on the links within the widget above to read more about SMS, the charity, listen to and buy this fabulous kids album (though it's the type of album that is TOTALLY tolerable as an adult too - great tunes!). "Do Fun Stuff - A Kids Record for Parents!"

Help spread the word, get your own widget here and post today!

CSN Stores/KidKraft Primary Sling Bookshelf Review

It took me awhile to decide what I was going to get and I went back to the CSN website many times to browse. They have so many great items, it was getting hard to decide because I kept finding something else I wanted/needed!

At one point, though, I went to the site and at the bottom there is a section called "See What Customers Are Buying From Our Stores!" and it must feature 4 products that are top sellers, or on sale, or maybe even just recently purchased. When I saw the KidKraft Sling Bookshelf on there I decided that is what we (my kids) needed. The fact that it was on SALE was even better!

Pros:

*List price: $66.99 - Sale price: $39.95

*I placed my order on 8/19 and received it on 8/25 - 6 days is great if you ask me!

*Easy to assemble - all screws and wrench were included. The kids were very excited to get it put together.

*Sturdy - right now we have 36 books of various sizes and I think we could safely add a few more.

*Organization - before we had a basket for our books and they rarely made it back in the proper place. So far, and maybe just because it's still new, the books are going right back in the bookshelf.

*Variety - they come in other colors to match your needs (the one we got is Primary, there's also pastels. You can also have them personalized with embroidery.

Cons:

*I'm glad that CSN Stores had this on sale, there's NO way I'd spend $66.99 on this item.

*This isn't a huge con really, but I was a little worried when I ordered because it didn't say how many books it would hold.

I'm trying to organize a lot of different areas in the house so I may head back to CSN Stores and see if there are any other great deals in the storage and organization area. Tell me, what's your best/favorite organization tip?