A Fabulous Find

my quilty friend denise sent me the link to these stinkin' cute stuffed paper hearts made by michele at the scrap shoppe

and i just had to share!

it's a perfect project to make with the kids!

go on over to here for the tutorial.

CRASHED!

last monday was not the best day for gavin...
for most guys having their truck towed home is their {LEAST} favorite thing.

and by the look on his face, he's just like most guys.

the story goes like this...

he was on his way to pick up his cousin when his steering {something} broke and he lost the steering in his truck. he spun out and hit a guard rail. no one hurt, thank goodness and after a {2 hour} trip to the local pick a part and a few hours of sweat and grease he and his dad had it up and running.

i am SOOOO very grateful to have a son who is mechanically inclined. it saved us a TON.

and i have to say...i didn't mind the wait as he picked apart a salvaged truck, i got a lot of stitching done!

January's Midnight Madness

this month we made this quilt called millenium prarie garden from the april 2000 edition of BHG Quilt Sampler. yep. 2000! i've had the green jacquard waiting that long!

yeah for quilt classes!

i love, love, love the gals who come to these classes! they all have the neatest needfuls!

so here's a quick re-cap...

{the gals}

{the goodies}

{the quilts}

thanks ladies for giving me a reason for staying up late and loving it!

A Fantastic Gift Idea!

one for me...one for you!!!

i found this {helping hand} apron at domessticated and absolutely LOVE the idea.

thought you might too!

go here for the tutorial.1/

Fit for a Queen

and what a great, great idea for that special princess!!!

i found this wonderful tutorial over at girl. inspired!

enjoy her blog, i do!

Monday's Best Class

yesterday was the first of the {monday's} best classes.

i'm teaching old, out of print patterns from cheri's wednesday's best patterns

masyn and i made cookies for the class. i made winter snowflakes and she made her own valentine versions. her's are wayyyy cuter than mine!

we both made a disaster by spilling sprinkles all over the place! lucky dogs!

nolan did help, but all he wanted to do was eat the dough and use the rolling pin to do things other than rolling out cookies! {boys}

and with the cupcakes made and the cookies packaged, i left gavin to watch the children. and as you saw in the previous post, that went well!

i was so happy that the weather permitted my {winter wonderland} theme for the party...i mean class! after a few weeks of 70 - 80 degree weather, we got rain!

roxanne had hers already done and shrunk and it was super cute! she even shared the smaller pattern with those who wanted it. loved it!

it was a wonderful group of ladies! can't wait for next month!!!

and again...thanks cheri for letting me teach these oldies but {GOODIES}

we love them as much as we {LOVE} you!

maybe one day you'll join us...{wink, wink!}

My Poor Girls...

shawn came home tonight to this...

gavin was babysitting.

huh?! who needs to pay who???

"All...Aboard!!!..."

that's what she hollered out.

wrong mode of transportation, but who cares, she was bound for hawaii and the plane was ready for take off. passengers boarded, luggage was stowed away in a picnic basket located at the rear of the plane and they even took their "surfboard" with them...

people often ask me what my kids do while i quilt. here's a perfect example.

i'm a FIRM believer in not entertaining my children 24/7.

it forces them to be creative thinkers. this goes for video games and the like. my kids have always loved being outside, building things, creating, and generally making a mess, but they play independently and well.

of course, we provide the ground for creativity, i mean who else has buggy seats lying around hahaha. they are bubs and he has no idea what they are being used for!!! lol

the plane is ready to take off and there is one {very} unruly passenger!

she has no intention of removing herself from the cockpit!

as you can see the pilot has told her to move and she {hands on hip} is NOT budging!

so the moral of this post is let your kids be kids!

let them make messes, let them create & build and they will grow into independent, thoughtful people and you will have some time to do something you love!

My {real} Day - For Linda

this post is to give you all a glimpse into my day. a {real} day

because behind the pictures and quilts i'm just like everyone else, struggling to make everything come together and just trying to get through another day smiling.

so let me begin...

my day started out in nolan's bed with a sinus headache and sick kids. shawn's out of town and last night masyn, nolan and evyn were all sick with colds. at 6:30 pm i had given all of them medicine, put vicks on their feet and started the vaporizer. i was hoping they would all be sound asleep by 8 so i could watch ncis. {2 out of 3...not bad}

around 2am i decided that i couldn't take the coughing, snoring and kicking so i left my bed for nolan's. i was still awake as the sun started to rise and at 6:45 evyn woke up. i sent her into bed with the others and masyn turned on cartoons. that bought me about an hour.

at 8:30 we headed out to get my diet coke. my sinuses were killing me and i needed to get rid of that sick/cold taste in my mouth.

we came back home and i put the snotty nose kids in a nice warm bath as i cleaned & vacuumed up my bathroom and bedroom. that's when i noticed that nolan had wet my bed. and as you can see in the picture below, as of 6:30 tonight the bed was still unmade. guess i should go get the sheets out of the dryer and make the bed...

and note that this load of laundry that i started putting together before i noticed my wet bed is still lying on the floor with shawn's flip flops that have been there since sunday.

i did get this quilt, that i've had {forever}, loaded and started. i'll be honest. i have been really nervous about quilting it. i've searched the web trying to decide how to quilt it. i hope its {owner} likes it when it's all done. if i remember, i'll show you how it turns out.

i quilted, did some applique, got lunch and continued to take down christmas.

it's piled on my dining room table.

oh. and my mother in law brought over a {fruit salad} bare root tree this morning and it's still sitting where she put it and the kitchen has been neglected.

but here's the good part...

after lunch i decided to take a late nap with the kids {all feeling much better, minus coughs}.

when i woke up, i finally got a shower and checked my voicemail.

it was now 4 and i thought i should get out of the house.

i set out for walmart and patti's. i needed to bring her a quilt that i had finished yesterday.

as we leave her house, evyn who had been coughing, threw up all over herself.

i take her home, clean her up and leave her with gavin and take the others to go get dinner.

gavin requested jack in the box while nolan put an order in for chicken, french fries, ketchup and sweet & sour...

i get mcdonalds and head over to jack in the box. as i pull up to the drive thru nolan decides that he needs to pee NOW! i dump out masyn's lemonade and as i order he pees. i'm laughing and masyn is not impressed.

after we eat, i thought i'd better clean the car seat. while i'm at it, why not clean out the car and clean nolan's seat too.

for those of you with a mini van and an extra seat, this is great.

shawn took out the bucket seat and layed down carpet. i LOVE it!

so now it's 8:30. the kids are laying down. the bed is made. the room is picked up. the load of laundry that was on the floor is now washed. the car seat covers are drying. the car is clean. the trash has been taken out. i did a bit more quilting on the quilt and stitched on my prairie garden quilt. {i never did make it to walmart, the flip flops are on the floor and the kitchen looks the same}

i've said goodnight to chelsie and shawn and now i'll say goodnight to you.

and linda, if you're reading this...

lots of love.

hope you enjoyed my day!

Quilting, Quilting, Quilting...

i love it. but...
there are just too many quilts and never enough time...

here's a quilt i just finished piecing. it's an old wednesday's best pattern from cheri.
i'm teaching it at fat quarters next monday.

i'm also working on finishing up this pattern from a APQ magazine dated april of 2000! i'm teaching it at the end of the month. i often hear "i think i can, i think i can" in my head. i am soooo behind!!!

and i forgot to show you a few of my christmas quilts that i {finally} finished this year {season!}

enjoy your day of rest!