it's my birthday!

 And YOU get the gift! 

Since it's my birthday and I missed my blogversary last week(6 yrs!!!!), I thought why not do a little giveaway? 

What can you win? Well, let's start with a variety of cards made by me.

Some patterns,

And this cute stack of  8 fat eights 

Simply leave a comment on this post to enter. Easy peasy.

Please make sure I can contact you if you are the winner. 

Contest will be open until Sunday evening. I haven't decided yet if I'll do 3 winners, 2 winners or 1 winner. Let's see how many entries we get.

how is it

The last week of summer holidays already? With how yucky our weather was in July, it seems like we had such a short summer.

I know it's been quiet around here; last Sunday I got hit with a sinus infection and an ear infection. Thankfully I am feeling better now but I was in a fog for most of last week. I didn't realize how sick I actually was until this past weekend. So not a lot of productivity here. I did finally get working on my Birdie blocks. I am so far behind; thankfully it doesn't take long to get a block done.

Here's June's block.



I still have the beak, legs and eye to finish.

July's block,


And August's,



Heehee! I told you I was behind.

I did do some sewing one night. I wanted something mindless to do so I started an hourglass quilt.


I'm really liking how it's turning out. I have the blocks all together now; just need to start assembling the rows.

Now it's off to work. Just a few days this week then I'm taking some time off to finish a few things around the house. And enjoy back to school lol. I will be back later today for Quilt Monday.

time flies

Today marks the one month mark since my surgery. I've been feeling pretty good up until Saturday when I was hit with a sinus infection. With that and the antibiotics I am now on, I've basically been sleeping since Saturday. I'm frustrated because I was just starting to feel 100% again when this hit; sometimes it feels never ending.

I was surprised, and disappointed, to look at my sewing table yesterday. I had a few projects planned to do while I was recovering. And I haven't completed one of them yet.

They aren't huge projects; I just need to get my butt back into gear and get working on them. Have you guessed yet that I am not the most patient person?

Today I'm sewing my zig zag quilts together. And I'm very glad I took a picture of this one since I noticed a mistake and was able to fix it before I sewed the top together. And I even retook the picture ;)


Now the sun is coming out and chasing the rain away. That's a reason to smile. Another reason to smile? Jim finished off our bathroom renos on the weekend. All 3 bathrooms in 3.5 months. Totally gutted and redone. Every spare moment he's had, he's been slaving away. And the results? Outstanding. Here's a peek at the main bathroom, I loves it.

today

I wrapped up work for six weeks.


Tomorrow, I am having surgery. It's very routine surgery; but the recovery is going to take six weeks. Six incredibly loooooooooooong weeks.

I have finished quilts to bind,


Some new embroidery blocks to play with. And lots of secret stuffs to show.

I figure I'll be bored spitless within two weeks; we'll see how the recovery is going.

Blogging over the next week(maybe a bit longer) will be sporadic. I'm doing last minute baking/laundry/cleaning and spending time with the kids; don't want to spend that time scheduling some posts.

See you soon.

happy birthday

To ME!
Today was my 37th birthday. Yes I said it. And even out loud lol.



The celebrations started last Wednesday with lunch out with my friend Deanna. She took me to my favorite restaurant and we had a lovely time. And she found the perfect card for me.

Yesterday I was treated to aa lovely afternoon at the spa. I had a pedi; Peace on Earth by China Glaze




And a fabulous facial. Love those!

Cindy made me this fabulous scarf,


Jill gave me these goodies and made the lovely card. Than she treated Cindy and I to lunch at our favorite place. We really do need our own parking spots there ;)



Dinner out with the family tonight; so good!


And home for presents. I was really spoiled this year.


Best gift ever


Best cake ever

ladies who lunch

It's been way too long since I've gone for lunch with my besties. And yesterday, we finally got to again.

We meet up at our favorite spot, Appledorns.



Today was a little more exciting. The TV show Eureka was filming again. The parking lot across the street had a *new* building in it.


And the bowling alley at the end of the street no longer existed.


Inside, we all had tea,


And as always, admired the beautiful decor.


Kim surprised us all with little gifties


We in turn, had gifts of our own for Kim and Andrea; both of whom just had birthdays.


And as always, it was a wonderful day.

i feel boring

Boring because this has been the busiest July we have ever had at work. Because of that, I've ended up working 4 days/week the entire month. That is good and bad; it's good to be busy, but it's not good when you want to spend lots of time hanging out at home and being with your kids.

Saying that, I was looking yesterday at how much we still got to do as a family in July and was pretty impressed. I'm also impressed that I have quilted 12 customer quilts since returning from holidays on the 10th-wow. The other day at work, I went through the quilts we have in to be quilted and discovered that we are now booked until October and I took in my first 2 Christmas quilts already. eek!

What's funny is I wanted to spend this summer discovering/learning custom quilting. There are not a lot of quilters in our area that will do custom; it's time consuming and you don't really make money off of it. Instead, I have 6 quilts in for September that are all custom. And today I am finishing off the second custom quilt I've done in the past week. Both of which I will show you tomorrow.

Now back to being boring; this feeling has gone back to before summer started. I do love my job; I feel very blessed that I am able to work hours that I mostly set. And if I have a sick kid, I can bring them with me to work(many of you probably don't know that our quilting studio is at my parent's house. Mom and I have worked together for the past 4yrs and for the most part, it's been awesome. We truly get along fabulously). But I have been wanting to make some changes; changes that enable me to get to spend more time with my kids and fingers crossed that the changes I've made actually work lol.

Back in June, I did something a little crazy. I dyed my hair pink.



It's not the best picture but I like my hair in it. And I'm surprised I don't look as hot/sweaty/exhausted as I felt when the picture was taken during a family hike on Sunday.

Having pink hair is fun; the reactions I get from people are priceless. You can easily tell who doesn't like it; they don't comment on it AT ALL. And you can not miss that my hair is pink lol! Thanx to Cindy for keeping me pretty ;)

Now how about a quilt? That's what you've all come here for right? lol. I do have a few projects of mine on the go that I will probably be able to show you next week; I have been keeping busy with my own stuffs.

I've never seen this Poky Puppy fabric before; who remembers the book?



There's a funny story behind this quilt. When we got it, the fabric was a bit stinky. So we put it in a separate closet than where our customer quilts normally go. And we forgot about it until one day I went into this closet to get a bigger bag for another customer quilt when this one fell on me lol. Good thing too since it was the day before the customer was expected to come pick it up.



Quilted with Cotton.

home alone

This weekend was nothing like originally planned. I was supposed to be taking a custom quilting class this weekend. But sadly, my teachers sister is horribly sick and not expected to live and the class was cancelled. Jim had planned on taking off with the boys to go wilderness camping since I was going to be busy all weekend. Instead, I encouraged them to still go(a weekend home alone? yes please!) Oh wait, as #3 keeps reminding me, I'm not actually home alone. #3 likes camping like me, with showers, flush toilets and beds. So he stayed home with me too.

He and I went out to dinner on Friday(subway as he requested lol) Than I got pretty little flowers painted on my freshly manicured toes(I highly recommend not enlarging the picture. feet are simply not attractive!)


Saturday, a quick trip to the local garden store.



Than Bag Ladies descended for a sewing day.

Cindy and Jill arrived first.


Jill was working on a coin quilt and Cindy was starting a pretty quilt for her kitchen table.

Than Sarah.


I had told everyone I didn't want posed pictures and Sarah did this lol. She was working on a very cool raw-edge bag. I totally forgot to take a picture of the finished product so check her blog for it.



Sarah also brought us these neat thread boxes. Perfect timing since my other one was overflowing!



Than Andrea and Kim arrived.

Andrea was working on some applique


And Kim on some seasonal stitcheries.


I got an amazing amount of sewing done.
The binding on this.



I finished my pinwheels sampler.


I absolutely LOVE this quilt. Fingers crossed I can quilt it this week.

And finally did the custom quilt I was hired to make; it's being picked up on Wednesday lol.


She wanted a picture of Edward in the center of the quilt so this t-shirt gave it's life up for the quilt.

I wasn't sure how it was going to turn out due to a very limited budget my customer gave me but I think she'll like it. I'm quilting it up on Tuesday and will show you what I ended up doing than.

Today was spent working on some applique,



While lounging by the pool.



Tonight some moving watching. I never know who might show up ;)


But first, I'm hosting my Splurge group tonight and tomorrow off on a big city adventure with #3. And tomorrow come dinner, we'll all be home again.

I love summer.

it's today! it's today!!!!!

Going with a group of my besties tonight to the Eclipse opening. And we aren't just seeing Eclipse. We get to watch Twilight, than New Moon THAN Eclipse!!! 7.5HOURS of movie enjoyment!! WOO HOO! And tomorrow we leave bright and early(lol!!!) for our holidays-fun times ahead!

a thank you

To all my readers for your comments and emails on my blog post last week.

I am going to keep blogging. And if that turns into once or twice a week, than so it does(I don't think it will be summer is coming!)

So a big THANK YOU. Just keep in mind if your favorite weekly feature isn't posted one week, it will more than likely be back the next.

And like I said above, summer is coming. I have a list of fun stuffs I want to do with the kids this summer. I'm planning on blogging as usual but that may change. And if it does change, I will let you know!

:)

a confession

I thought long and hard over the weekend of continuing with my blog. To be honest, I've felt pressure to blog; I love posting things almost every day and lately that has just seemed like too much to get accomplished. I've felt guilty for not having new things to show you and I wondered, should I continue with this?

The answer is yes, for the main reason that I do love doing it; when I don't feel guilty lol. Why did I feel guilty? I hadn't touched my sewing machine in 5 weeks. Yes, FIVE weeks. Yikes. Course I was away, I was sick when I got back, my machine was in being serviced(I did bring a spare one home from work but never unpacked it).

I was hoping on the weekend, since the kids had no school on Friday and with Monday being the holiday, I would have 4 days of sewing bliss. That was not meant to be and you know what? It's all okay. We had a great weekend; some surprises that weren't that pleasant(it's all good, no worries). I got our dining room and hallway repainted; so glad that is finished and I do love how it turned out. Even though I'm still not 100% sold on the dining room paint color.

We went on some family adventures.

Come back later today to see a picture of the goat that tried to eat me.

I also played in my garden.






I got 15 of these beauties for $20-what a bargain! Dahlias are one of my absolute favorite flowers.

Yesterday I took off of work as well. And I finally fired up my sewing machine and got working on my last two(well four) blocks for my Pinwheel Sampler.

Block 7


And Block 8. I went with the Mosaic Block.


Than it was on to the mini pinwheels. Rachel didn't put them in with the sampler but once I saw them in her original quilt, I knew I had to have them.

I had started some a few months ago, teeny tiny pinwheels.

Too small for my sashing. But oh so cute

These were too big.


Still too big.


Just right!!!