Snowman in a Jar

i'm getting my creative mojo back FINALLY!!!



for my quilt class today, i made them "snowman in a jar"
i used "snow" (mica flakes), the ends of skewers painted orange, buttons for his buttons, beads for his eyes, i cut a hat out of black felt, masyn and i picked small (tiny) twigs for his arms, and i added some fake holly for some color.



i stained some tags with instant coffee and a small amount of water. dipped 'um in, string and all, and set them in the sun. i made pam's almond joy cookies and they were DELICIOUS!!! head on over to pam's blog, she has great recipes!



and don't you LOVE the red twine! i got it at anna's shop. yep thimbleanna has a shop.



she posted the great idea of putting it in the sugar jars that you can get at dollar tree! so stinkin' cute!!!

have a happy day!

Civil War Tribute

do you love civil war quilts? i do. i love the history behind quilt blocks, i love the stories that are told and the symbolism that they represent.

barbara brackman is sharing a block of the week along with the history of the block.

you can find the pattern and story here. enjoy!

The Month of the Snowman

monday & tuesday have been sunny and 80 degrees and i decided it was high-time i took my christmas stuff down.
so this morning as the sun was shining, i started to take the wreaths & garland down.
to my joy, within 30 minutes the blue skies turned white and the temperatures dropped drastically...
i was once again in the "wintery" spirit that had previously consumed me and i decided to keep my snowmen up and embrace january as it should be. the month of the snowman! it didn't take long for me to realize that my quilts were not meeting the snowman requirement and i went searching the internet for quilts that i can make for the januarys to come.

here are some of my finds...



this one i found at tickled primitive, they have a bunch of primitive patterns

this is cheri's



and so is this one...

and if want some great redwork patterns or the more vintage look, you MUST check out shabby fabrics! they have a GREAT assortment of the fabulous cold men!

i think i'm good...now i just need to get my sewing room put back together!

Color Me Happy!!!

oh my gosh, how stinkin' cute are these!

go on over and check out this blog. super talented gal = super cute stuff!

She Loves Me

my cute niece brought me this yesterday!

how stinkin' cute is she!
thanks kenz! i {heart} you!!!

in the DARK of NIGHT!!!

it has been the running joke since we first started talking about moving that i needed to move the fabric in the dark of night so noone would see just how much fabric i really have.
so...because margi told me i had to, i am sharing this.
please don't judge me. i know. i know i have a problem and i should get help, but quite frankly, i'm ok with it.
(well, as long as i don't have to move it again, that is!)

so here goes...
last monday, for family night we decided to bring the kids to the old house to clean.
we were thrilled when our friends showed up to help. my friend asked, "what can i do?" i replied, 'let's move the fabric!"
so, while the men were in another room, she gathered all the kids and bin by bin they proceeded to fill up the ENTIRE back of her suburban. once it was all in, we then drove in the dark of the night to the back of the house and unloaded it.
bin by bin the kids piled it into the spare bedroom.
now i just needed to get it back into the cupboards before anyone saw it!


(this is a picture of cute aaron, he was the stacker, organizer!)

so here's my mess. i seriously. can. not. believe that ALL this came out of my sewing room.
*ugh* what a MESS!!!



this is a picture of the spare room with the fabric bins.
this does not include ufo projects, that's another disaster!



honestly, it gave me a headache. my mom kept saying, just put one thing away at a time. so i did. little by little i slowly put things away. i needed to get it done by this saturday because that is when shawn was bringing over the quilting machine.



so come friday afternoon, this is what it looked like.

the quilting machine and rest of the sewing room contents have all been brought over and while it doesn't look at all like the disaster above, it certainly isn't pretty...
moving is exhausting and i for one don't ever want to do it again!



p.s. it really doesn't matter if you move in the dark of night because inevitably the person that you don't want to see your stuff will be the person who goes through the cupboards...

Stuck in the Mud!!!

(if you could hear me now...i'd be laughing. laughing hysterically!)

yes. shawn got the trailer stuck in the mud.

you have to know shawn to know the humor of this. this doesn't happen to shawn. ever.

i found it to be hysterical. so hysterical , in fact, that i had to document it for his posterity! at first his manhood was challenged and he was NOT happy that i found such humor in this. once he slept on it, he was fine. after church he and gavin got right to work diggin' it out. pa came down to supervise. i got a kick out of the one picture, he didn't look too impressed. i, however, am always impressed at the things shawn can do and the way he thinks.

thanks for the laugh honey.

i love you!

New Years Weekend

HAPPY BIRTHDAY honey!
you look gangster in this photo!!!



for those of you who don't know shawn, it is VERY rare to see him dressed like this.
usually he is in shorts, especially considering this is during THE DAY!!!
i say this because of all the years i've been going to the desert (38ish to be exact) i do not EVER remember the desert being SO COLD!!!
it was not fun. i stayed in for the most part and took photos (very few) from the warmth of my trailer.

the kids didn't let it bother them, of course. they had a good time riding their bikes, riding in the golf carts, and playing in the dirt. that's what i love about kids, they don't let anything get in the way of fun.

and speaking of fun...
the older boys decided to have some fun of their own. (mom don't look!)



yes. they were jumping their 50's over fire.
now don't get excited, by the time gavin got to the jump the flame was considerably smaller, although i was screaming at him as i took this picture!!! BOYS. i figure if shawn and craig don't care, i need to relax. *ugh*

but these boys are stinkin' cute and much easier to photograph!



and just to show you how cold it was. this photo was taken at 11:30am
everyone was bundled up, sitting next to the fire. *yuck*



and we can't forget, it was karen's birthday too!
so HAPPY BIRTHDAY MY FRIEND!!!
you are a blessing in my life!

Christmas Time Photo Shoot

cassie & i took pictures of the kids

(cassie's are the good ones...)

chelsie - 21 years

gavin - 15 years

masyn - 7 1/2 years

nolan - almost 3 years

evyn - 10 months