Project Progress: Let's Have a Party! The Quilt is DONE!

I am so excited! I did the binding on Wednesday. I ended up taking strips of the leftover fabric to make the binding, since I wasn't too excited about the idea of going back to the store and spending some money.

It's far from perfect, but I still think it's beautiful. I might have slept with it last night and it might have been really comfortable, you know, if I did things like make blankets for my daughter and then hog them to myself.

She likes it:



She's still sick and oh so cranky. Usually when she's sick, she sleeps for most of the day. Not this time. She has a version of hand, foot and mouth disease, so she has sores all in her mouth and even a few on her lips. She's miserable. We are trying to keep her hydrated, which is a chore because she won't swallow unless she has to, which means I've been drooled on all week. This is supposed to last 10 days. We are on day 4. She's also spent a significant amount of time screaming at night, resulting in David and I playing who can stay in bed the longest and pretend to sleep. Getting up doesn't help much, because she is just miserable, even with medicine and I can't bear to turn off the baby monitor and let her cry herself to sleep when she's sick.

Pray for me.

Anyway, a bunch of pictures of Aubrey in her clothes. I wish I had more.

Fruits of the Crop

I guess I need to get scrapbooking, because I only have one layout for you all today. It's super simple, but sometimes I like that. Cool technique (definitely not a new one, but a good one) is stamping tone on tone on a die cut to up the cuteness factor.

This is Aubrey at my in-laws in May. She was none too sure about the pool, but doesn't she look darling? I love her in pig-tails. She had a lot more fun in the pool on our second trip.

Pattern paper is Collage Press, font is Hello Kitty cartridge, flowers are Prima, brads are American Crafts, sun is Graphically Speaking cartridge, cardstock is all Bazzill, stamp is We R Memory Keepers.

Another reversible dress--this one fits Aubrey. I hope.

I sized down the pattern I used to make the reversible dress and made one for Aubriana today. She would model it for you, but she is sick (fever and fatigue is all so far) and so she's been doing this all day:She's content at the moment, so I'm not going to even go near asking her to put on a new dress. Poor baby.

One side. This striped fabric came from my great-great grandma's stash. I still have quite a few yards left.
A close-up of the bow:
The other side, which has to be some of my favorite fabric ever. Picked it up a while ago--I'm pretty sure from Hancock, although it might have been Jo-Ann's.

The bodice, so you can see the pattern on the fabric better:The bow:I can't wait to see it on her! I love this pattern. It whips up so quickly (I think I spent about 2 hours on it this morning, between interruptions and sewing machine problems).

Rainbow Sherbet Digital Scrapbooking Kit Freebie

This kit was inspired by the raspberry sherbet in my freezer. Summer is my favorite season and I love the bright colors and heat associated with it! Gotta design these bright kits while the season lasts. Already, I'm starting to worry about school supplies. Nooooooooooo. I'm not looking forward to an 8:00 am school start time.Click to download.

Includes: 7 Pattern Papers, 3 stitched frames and branches element.

Tutorial: How to Make a Pattern Reversible

Welcome to my new feature! Every Monday, I will be posting a tutorial, large or small, on whatever subject catches my eye. Feel free to email me and give suggestions on what you'd like to see at karah99@gmail.com.

I've been wanting to try to make a few reversible dresses for Aubrey. There are a couple cool things about this. First off, you don't have to decide between two fabrics. You can use them both! Plus, you get two dresses in one. Secondly, it hides all the seams inside, so it looks all nice and neat. Mostly, I just like it because it's cool.

Ok, first off, you are going to need approximately twice the yardage (depending on the pattern). Here are my coordinating prints. One is a pillow case picked up at a thrift store. The other is a seersucker fabric that I picked up on sale at Hancock. There are some really cute pillowcase dresses around, but I cut the seams on mine and used it purely for the fabric.
Step 1: Pick your pattern.
Some tips.

• Pick one that's simple. You can do sleeves, but I think it's better to do something sleeveless, especially for the first time.
• Collars would be hard to make work. So would belts, front buttons, pleats and any bulky notions.
• My pattern has bias tape binding on the sleeves and collar. Makes it much easier.
• Zippers will work, but I didn't address them in this tutorial.

I picked this pattern:
Other than the size being too big for Aubriana, I love it. Bought it from Walmart's craft section. I did size it down to to make this dress, but thought she might have grown into it a bit more by now. But not so much. It ended up being 4T size. I know, because I made Griffin try on the finished dress to check.

I'm going to give the directions for this pattern in particular. With a little thinking, I'm sure you can apply this technique to other patterns. I'm not through with this subject--I have another post planned with another example and a tute for the way I did buttons.

Step 2: Cut out your fabric.
You're going to want double the main pieces. If there are any facings, ignore them.


I cut one set out with the paper pattern, then used the first set to cut out the 2nd set. I hate paper patterns. They tear easily and they are like maps--so annoying to try to figure out how to get them back together. Even worse than maps, because you remove large portions.

Step 3: Sew sides.
Follow the directions to sew the main pieces together. Mine starts with the side seams. Sew the pieces of the same fabric together, as if you were sewing two dresses.
Step 4: The Neckline
The neckline is usually the next part to be sewn. My pattern has them gathered. If you are using binding, you will want WRONG sides facing. This is part of the beauty of using bias tape for reversible clothes. There isn't any turning. A picture of my front gathered and pinned, ready for the binding.
Step 5: Sew binding.
You can buy double fold bias tape at the store, but I was out, so I made my own. It's really simple, just a lot of ironing. I cut 2" strips, sewed the strips together into a very long strip, then ironed them in half, then I made the edges fold into the center and iron them.

Open up your tape and attach to neckline like so:
Another picture of the process. You can see the layers here.
Step 6: Binding tape finishing
Turn piece over and stitch other side of bias tape down, close to the edge.
Step 7: Repeat with back.
It's already starting to take shape! Your finished piece will look like this:
Step 8: Shoulder straps.
Do the same thing you did for step 5, leaving a 12" tail on each side, around the arm opening. Stitch starting at the top of the neck binding.

Turn the binding over, then starting at the top of the tail, stitch over it. Looks like this:
I deny any knowledge of those toostie rolls and most certainly did not snitch them out of the stash my mom keeps for the grandkids. Nope. I have a magic tootsie roll fairy. I swear.

Repeat process on other side.

Step 9: Finish the arms.
Tie knots in the end of your strings. It should end up looking something like this:
The other side:
Step 10: The hem.
I tried sewing wrong sides together and then leaving an opening to turn, but I got some weird Mobius strip that turned and turned and never came out right. That's ok, I unpicked it and figured out the right way to do it.

I think the best way to do this is to iron your the seam allowance for your hem on both sides. No need to turn it under again to hide the raw edge, because it's going to be encased in your hem anyway. You do need to be super precise, otherwise, it's going to affect the drape of your garment. So, iron both sides under, then top-stitch over both at the same time. A picture of the hem turned under.
Sewing the hem together. Sorry about the wonky small pictures. I can't get them to behave.
Step 11: Casing for elastic.
My pattern has a faux drawstring done with elastic. This was even easier to do with my modified pattern than with the original pattern. Mark on the fabric where the casing goes. Sew one long line around the waist of dress, like so:Sew a second line 3/8" or so from the other line.Step 12: Add the elastic.
Using a seam ripper, carefully remove the stitches between the lines on the left side seam, on only one fabric. This forms the insertion point for your elastic.
Add a safety pin to the correct length of elastic and thread it through the casing. When you get back around, sew the ends of the elastic together. Trim. If you stretch it a bit, your elastic should disappear into the casing. Don't worry about the hole. We're going to put a bow over it.
Step 13: Adding bows on both sides.
Cut a strip approximately 15" x 1.4" from each fabric. Using the same method as for bias tape, fold it to hide the ends, then stitch along the length. You can do a tube and turn it, but I'm not a fan when working with such small widths.

Tie into a bow. Knot ends and trim.

Sew to your dress on the left side, using the opposite fabric. The bows aren't bulky, so they won't mess with the drape of the dress.
Step 14: Show off and admire your work!




I can't decide which side I like better!

Since it doesn't come anywhere close to fitting Aubrey, I'm putting this one up in my etsy shop (yep, I have one now! It's not stocked too much, but hopefully more in the future). It's size 4T/5T. You can see it HERE.My niece, Maddy, modeling it for me! It would be so dang cute over leggings. Maddy says she likes the swirly side best.

Oooo, exciting things!

A couple of things.

My blog has a new address. The old one should still work fine, but if you want, you can come in through www.craftastical.com. I've been meaning to do this for months. Finally felt like it was time.

Also, I have an etsy shop of the same name. It's only got one thing in it right now, but I will be adding things as I get to them! I'm so excited about this and I hope you are as well.

Don't worry though, my tutorials and project pictures are going nowhere. I plan to offer the tutorials for free on my blog and finished items in my etsy shop. In fact, a tutorial for how to make a pattern reversible is coming tomorrow.

My sister and I are going to be working together to bring you things in the shop and I'll let you know when I add new things.

Woah, I'm a bit afraid to post this, but if you don't risk anything you won't get any rewards, right? So, here goes!

Project Progress: Baby Clothes Quilt Week 9

Oooo! Almost done.

First off, I have to thank you all for being with me on this one. I never would have finished quilting the top (YEP! It's quilted!) this week if it wasn't for the push of having to own up to you all on Friday.

First up, the slit Aubrey cut in my border. I'm lucky it wasn't worse with multiple/deeper lesions.Here it is, all fixed up. If I was being picky, I would have replaced the border, but I wasn't, so I put right sides together and sewed it up, much like a dart in clothing. It fixed up pretty nicely. My quilt is not particularly flat to start with, so this was no big thing.
Pic of my set up quilting in my mom's kitchen yesterday. My sister and she picked blackberries at my sister's mother-in-law's garden and they made blackberry juice and syrup while I quilted. My mom had her machine set up at her kitchen table, because she is making drapes for her newly remodeled kitchen. It's a bar height table. I think she's crazy for choosing to sew there. It was less like driving a car and more like dancing on point to reach the sewing machine's foot peddle. Still, I managed to finish.One of the squares:These photos really show off the organic lines. I got the idea from this brilliant quilter, the artist behind Tallgrass Prairie Studio. She is a genius. I love her quilts and she is much more talented than I am. Anyway, she warned me that it would be time-consuming and thread-devouring, but I, like a dense dumb-butt (excuse the language), didn't believe her. You should always believe experts. You can read her post with pictures of her absolutely stunning quilt here. It's the second quilt down.

It took me 35 minutes to sew one row and one sash--which makes nearly 7 hours of quilting. Normally, I can quilt a twin in about three hours. It took 9 lines of thread to run out of bobbin thread. There are approximately 10 lines of thread per section and 11 sections, so I changed my bobbin about 12 times. I hate winding bobbins. Someday, I want to pay someone to wind my bobbins and fan me while I quilt. With a palm frond and feeding me grapes. Or M&Ms. Whichever.
Then I trimmed up the edges.
The quilting is finished! The only thing left is the binding. I love the organic lines, as it allowed me to navigate the buttons, snaps, zippers and bows without interrupting my quilting. I still did break a needle, but not too bad for all the lumpies this quilt has. It's worse than a scrapbook page.
I love the warmth and texture it gives the quilt. It really is such a snugly thing. I'm very tempted to keep it for myself to sleep with every night.
Next week, I should have pictures of it FINISHED! I've also been rounding up all the pictures I can find of Aubrey wearing the clothes I used in the quilt, and I have quite a few, so I will share those with finished pictures next week. Then I have to pick a new project for my Project Progress feature. Any suggestions? Another quilt, perhaps? Or a quilt made from my boys' baby clothes? Or a fall clothing collection for Aubrey? Or a special mini-album? A home decor project? What do you all think?

Fruits of the Crop

I'm kinda bummed that I didn't get to go to the crop last weekend, but I'm going in a few Fridays, so I can't be too sad. Plus, last Saturday, I watched Mama Mia on my touch and scrapbooked, which was still quite fun. Anyway, enough of boring you with my commentary. Here are my layouts.

Hunky guy warning! Hands off. He's MINE.The letters, the circles and the hearts are hand-cut. I'm really starting to like that look. Paper is Scenic Route. Buttons are Doodlebug and a few from my sewing stash. Journaling spot is Heidi Swapp.

This is actually one I finished up in that session. I love her tiny little ponytail on top of her head. Dang, she has grown up in the past year. Paper is American Crafts, as are the letter stickers, brads and button. Stamps are KI Memories (I doodled over them). Ribbon from my stash. Cut out the bookplate with my Cricut.

Juicy Strawberries Digital Scrapbooking Kit Freebie

Here's the girly kit I promised last week. It's making me crave chocolate covered strawberries or maybe a trifle. I love strawberries, especially paired with chocolate.

This is my first time creating stitching. I kinda like it. These are picture of Aubriana at about 8 months old. She looks so different to me. I miss her as a baby, but she is quite the character now, as you know from my post yesterday.

Anyway, enjoy!Click to download.

Kit Contents: 1 swirly stitching, 1 scallop mask, strawberry stickers, 1 journaling block, 8 full-sized pattern papers.

She makes bad behavior cute

I don’t know if you’ve met my daughter, but she is a character. I’m not sure if it’s the product of three older brothers, genetics or our parenting, but she is a hoot and a half. Maybe even a hoot and three quarters.

She struts. Once, we were in Dollar Tree and she was walking next to a huge specimen of a pacific islander and she had the exact same strut as he did, arms out and chest puffed and all sorts of tough. Yesterday, we walked into church and I stopped to talk to a friend for a second and she struts past, glances up and says, “I Aubrey.” You know, just in case someone had any doubts. She also does a twirly walk, where she whips her hips around, and makes her skirt twist while she walks.

She seems to have inherited my single mindedness. She also isn’t afraid to barge in and get what she wants. Often, I’ll end up with her climbing into my lap, heedless of whatever sharp needles, crochet hoots or sewing machines may be in the vicinity. Then, if I don’t give her the attention she wants, she gets in my face, following it back and forth, head bobbing like a bird, and insisting that she wants to kiss me. I resist, because she’s usually covered with snot, chocolate or a gross mix of snot and chocolate and of course, since she has me trapped, I have no access to a tissue or a box of tissues and a gallon of soap. She is currently sitting on my lap as I type this, a mouth full of breakfast cereal and trying to feed me buttons she found on my desk and messing with my technology (she already broke my iPod once).

See, she can manage pizza, texting on my cell phone and looking adorable all at once.

She will also insist she’s a baby. It’s one of her favorite games for me to pretend she’s a baby while I rock her and coo at her. She finds this hysterical. “I a baby, Mom. I a baby. Uh, wah, uh, uh, wah.”

The way she holds hands:

Her listening skills are highly developed. She will refuse to hear you if she deems it inconsistent with her current trajectory. This, as a parent, freaks me out. She also likes to stick her fingers down into metal cans. Before we left for David’s family reunion, she stuck her thumb into a can of peaches that was buried in the back of the fridge—I’d forgotten it was there. If I’d had any idea of her coming close to it, I never would have left the lid attached. Anyway, that resulted in a visit to urgent care because of excessive bleeding where they charged me $100 to put a band-aid on her thumb. Then, we had the pleasure of trying to keep a band-aid on a reluctant two-year-old all through our vacation. We finally figured out the right combination of finger-tip band-aid and athletic wrap that befuddled her.

Family picture from the reunion (thanks Crystal!):

Aubrey's thumb:

Back to the listening skills. Saturday, I had mostly finished my can of Dr. Pepper, soda to the gods. She wanted some, so I let her drink the last few drops (this is a long-standing tradition in our family, see layout below). She held onto it for a while, then she and Griffin managed to get the tab off and Aubrey was blithely sticking her fingers down into the can. My no, no, no’s were ignored and I didn’t want to wrench it away from her since her fingers never left the inside of the can. David stepped in and we safely removed her fingers from the can. Somehow, I think that my verbal instructions are enough and I have a body freeze that does not allow me to put down whatever I’m holding and act.

Maxton drinking "the rest" of my beloved Dr. P. From reading the journaling, little sis is just following in big brother's footsteps. We are in for it if she picks up a bad habit from each of them.

This reminds me of a story from the other day. I was in the bathroom, putting on my make-up and she was hanging out with me. She had half an Easter egg. I tend to be super focused, so I was paying attention to blending my eye shadow and not what she was doing. David came in, just as Aubrey dips her egg half into the toilet and brings it to her lips. I start freaking out as I see it go up, but since I’m holding something, I of course, don’t have the mental agility to process everything to put down the make up and prevent her from drinking toilet water. David freaks, knocks the egg back into the toilet as I’m squealing and flushes it. I just sit there in disbelief that a) my child has just ingested toilet water, b) I did nothing to prevent it except stupidly believing that my freak out would stop her, and c) that David just chose to flush an plastic egg down the pipes when I’ve spent considerable time convincing everyone else to flush their pee/poop but NOT flush other things, like whole rolls of toilet paper and stuffed animals.

This whole not listening thing does not bode well for the future. In her defense, she only drank toilet water after asking us for a drink, but since we were both busy getting ready, we both put her off. Is it any wonder that we normally jump when she gives orders, like well-trained troops in the presence of a commander? Otherwise, she gets us back by drinking toilet water.

To counteract her bossiness, she is unfailingly polite. It is hard not to give her what she wants, when she says enthusiastically, “Thank you, Mommy! Thank you!” whenever I get her anything. Sometimes, I go into the kitchen, cut myself a brownie and I hear from behind me, “Thank you, Mommy! Thank you!” and what am I supposed to do? Become a villain from some fairy tale and deny her my brownie?

David is not immune either. You can tell from this picture, she's got him:

Let’s just pray I find the antidote to her cuteness before she enters her teen years. Otherwise, I’m going to be in big trouble with the strut, stubbornness and willingness to drink toilet water to get what she wants.

Project Progress: Baby Clothes Quilt Week 7

Oh, I am so super excited to share these photos with you! Look, a completed quilt top:

Here I am, laying out my backing in a very scientific and precise way to measure, or something like that.After cutting two lengths that way, I sewed them down the middle to make my backing. I looked around, but we were out of batting, so at 8:43 I left in a hurry to get to Hancock before they closed so I could actually start quilting. I made it.

After taking the quilt outside on the driveway and using quilt spray adhesive, my blanket sandwich was ready to quilt. Aubrey came outside with me. That was interesting.

"No, don't touch the spray adhesive."

"Can you bring me back the lid?"

"Stop walking on the blanket, honey."

"PUT DOWN THE SCISSORS THIS INSTANT." Yep, she cut a tiny slit in the border. I was going to take a picture, but I forgot. I guess she really wanted to "help" with her quilt. Ack!

But after sweating (literally) over getting it all prepped, I got to sweat while quilting, so in the end, it was worth it. See:
A close up of the quilting. I'm doing some organic, playful lines. I'm about 1% done with the quilting.

Fruits of the Crop

This is Maxton, have his smile artificially put on by his daddy. I love this Basic Grey paper. Oragne and gray, I heart you. I cut the "smile" out freehand, since this was from the time I forgot my Cricut cord. Maybe it was a case of serendipity after all?This is an older one, done at an Expo crop about 18 months ago. I love the quilling on this one. I believe it was one for my article for Scrapbook Trends, but it's been so long, I hope it's ok to share it here now. Can't remember who makes the paper, but the zig zag rub ons are American Crafts and the cardstock is all Bazzill. Acrylic letters are KI Memories. Thanks to my sis for taking those awesome shots. :) We should probably do that again, they are almost two years old.
I'm going cropping on Friday, so hopefully I will have lots of new stuff to share next week. I'm excited!

The Amazing Patterned Frogs Digital Scrapbooking Kit Freebie

I promised a boy kit and this is it. I still want to do something with flames or something, but I'm also kinda in love with these froggies. The boys love them too, which is always a good sign. This is the boy part of a girl/boy kit that use the same greens. Next week I'll share the girl part.

Here are my froggies. I hope you enjoy them. I've seen a few projects with my butterfly kit and it's a kind of surreal experience. Like, did I really create that? Very cool feeling.

Click to download.

Kit contents: One bracket set, one title block, one set of frog stickers and 8 full-size pattern papers.

More Lassen Photos

Panorama near the summit of the road.Falling asleep after a walk around Summit Lake (which not the closest lake to the summit, but is still very pretty.)
Diamond Peak. I love all these yellow wildflowers. They were everywhere in the lower altitudes.
A closeup of the flowers.
Emerald Lake. I'm bummed you can't tell how green it is, but the reflection of the sky is sure pretty.
Near the sulfur pots. Smells, but it's a great view.
Another one near the mud pots.
A new mud/sulfur pot that's sprung up recently near the road. It's odd to watch mud boil that violently.
The previous mud pot in contrast to the greenery.
A meadow with one of the peaks in the background.

Recap of the San Fransisco Trip (or, what I meant to say eariler)

Ok, this was the stuff I was going to say with my SF photos that I didn't because I pushed the "publish" button instead of the "save now" button in my post-road trip leg- and brain-numbing haze.

We arrived in San Francisco about 1:00 on Thursday. We came over the Bay Bridge, the one in this photo: and headed straight to Pier 39. After nearly dying of shock over having to pay a probable parking fee of $35, we parked the car. We might have been able to find cheaper parking, but you know, it was worth every penny just to be there and get the children out of the metal torture device we call our over-stuffed van.

We walked around the shops at Pier 39 a bit, then decided to take a boat tour. It was so chilly. We knew it was going to be a bit cold, but there was pretty much nothing we could do about it. David told me we wouldn't need the jackets. We finally bought Aubrey this adorable poncho (made in Peru) from a shop at Pier 39, but the rest of us just suffered on an off all day with winds and temps in the lower 60s. Except for David. The man is made from boiled meat or burning coal or has a secret life as a werewolf or something, because he is never cold.

Picture of the boat I thought we were taking. We actually took the boat behind this boat.
The boat had an inside, so that was good. Too bad the windows were basically worthless and so to get a view of anything, you had to go outside (and freeze). We took shifts. Aubrey was really cranky. 90 minutes was probably a bit too long, but the boat ride was awesome. We got to go under the Golden Gate Bridge, which was so cool. David took some video I might share later if I can figure out how to get it to work. He thought he was taking stills, but nope. Still, it's pretty cool. And you can feel like you're bungee jumping off the side of the ship as the camera bounces on the strap.

We ate at Chowder (Chowders?). It was yummy. Clam chowder in sourdough bread bowls. I'd gladly go there right now and have another bowl. After we had cotton candy and ice cream.

We grabbed a hotel for $60 from hotels.com while there. We were planning on driving to Stockton to stay with David's brother, but with the travel time and gas and everything, we thought we'd look around a bit and found a steal. We stayed here. I was so impressed with how clean and well-taken care of it was, despite the 80s wallpaper. It was also on Lombard Street, the most crooked street in the world, but we didn't know that until after we got home. I would to have loved to drive down it if I had known. Driving in San Fransisco was interesting. You have to be rule-conscious to drive in the city. There were all these signs about no left turns at certain times and street-cleaning on certain Thursdays. It's good to have a small car and a small waist if you want to actually park and then exit your car. We had quite the contortionist show getting in and out of our van at the hotel.

Here's the kids at the hotel. They all look exhausted. At this point, they've had too much fun, too little sleep, too much car time and they've been kinda cold all day. We started out with them all on the bed, but Aubrey is not good at sharing and the boys all ended up on the floor and the princess got the bed all to herself. They were full-sized beds. David and I have a King at home. We sure were cozy.

We also left David's cell in the hotel room, but that's another story.

The next morning, we went to the California Academy of Sciences. It was pretty cool. I was expecting a bit more, but it was worth it. The kids loved it.

Aubrey looking down at some sharks and sting rays.

Checking out the stuffed zebras.

Sitting on the front steps waiting for re-entry after eating ham and cheese sandwiches in the car.The roof-top gardens. I was kind of thinking there would be pathways around it, but it was more like a viewing area. Still very neat though. Those guys in the first picture are not tourists. They are workers, doing something to the roof. So, it looks like you can walk over there, but you really can't. There were actually quite a few complaints I had about the experience, but I'm not going to air them out right now. It was a quite neat building and the architecture was stunning.After wandering around for four hours, we were pretty tired and ready to head home. We went over the Golden Gate Bridge, which was neat. I these two shots while driving.
Then we did an impromptu stop at the view area on the other side, which I'm glad we did. Got the previously shared shots of the bridge and a photo of each kid with it.

After that, we headed home, which took about four hours longer than we thought due to all the traffic from San Fransisco to Sacramento. It was like the hive mind decided that they had too many cars on the road and so lets all drive at 2 miles an hour for 40 miles for no reason at all except to enjoy each other's company and drive the tourists batty so they will leave California and never come back and we can have San Fransisco all to ourselves. Pbbbttt. California needs to learn to share.

After getting home and sleeping for eight hours and doing nothing at all for two days, I'm still not recovered. Does tomorrow really have to be Monday?

Whoops. Hit publish. Have some pictures.

Without commentary. After I recover from our 16 hour drive home, I may regain the ability to type and complete sentences. And write blog posts without jumping the gun.

Project Progress=Zero. Vacation=One.

We have been gone for a week attending a very fun family reunion with David's family in California. Since I've been two states over, I haven't had a chance to work on the quilt. I didn't bring it with me, but I don't think David's family would have been all that surprised if I had. I have a reputation.

Anyway, instead of quilt photos, I have these gorgeous photos from Lassen Park, where we went last Tuesday. It's an amazing place. It used to be a huge volcano, but it exploded, sending rocks all over (we started seeing them surprisingly early on the drive). It left behind what is now a beautiful crater with sulfur pots and scenery.

Over by the sulfur pots we visited:

I was obsessed with the elevation signs. I wish I had known how cool the progression was going to be, or I would have started with the first one I noticed at 2,000 feet. Here's 8, 000:
Lake Helen, a beautiful lake inside the crater:
Summit Lake where we stopped for lunch and my camera died. My sister-in-law Crystal loaned me her point and shoot for the rest of the drive, since she was riding her Harley. I'm not telling which pictures are from which camera.Anyway, we are coming home today. We did a little mini-vacation in San Fransisco and today is our last day. I'd better get going. David is starting to hint that he wants to leave soon.

Fruits of the Crop

This week, I have two favorite layouts. The first is of Aubriana on her first birthday. This one is fun I think because I got to try alcohol inks for the first time. I love the saturated colors of this one and the funk and fun that comes from everything being a little off kilter.

This 2nd one is of Aubriana and Griffin. Gosh, they are just so little! Aubrey's eyes are really more grey, but they look so blue in these pictures. The flowers are Cricut, from the Walk in My Garden cartridge. The butterflies are Cuttlebug. This was actually an ansignment for creativexpress.com. Sorry about the "baby" hanging off the end. It got scanned all wonky. I think I fixed it after scanning. I've since purchased some much better adhesive (I have an ATG gun--that thing is permentent!)

Miss Thang Digital Scrapbooking Paper Freebie

This is a quick little kit. I might be going overboard on the flower/butterfly/girly stuff, but after three boys, it's sorta hard not to love all those flowers and fru-fru I had to eschew for so many years. Can you blame a girl? I'm thinking my next kit will be something manly. Flames or motorcycles or something. Any suggestions? What would you like to see?

Those pictures of Aubrey in her hat and glasses crack me up and make me smile.

Click on thumbnail to download.

Project Progress: Baby Clothes Quilt Week 5

I actually made some real progress this week. Hurray!

Black was a bad choice for a shirt to wear while working. I'm covered in lint. My teeth taste like lint and each tooth is wearing a lint sweater. I probably should stop posting and go brush them, because they are driving me crazy. I cleaned up and that's why the lint was really flying. My mom's dining room is looking much better and less like fabric threw up all over it.A few favorite squares. This cardigan was a part of an outfit which was a gift from Natalie ( you can see her awesome, amazing blog here.) I love it's ruffles and the bow in front. Totally cute!
This is another favorite square. The fabric was from a Gymboree dress that I picked up at Saver's (love that place), for like $4. I adore the fabric. Maybe sometime I will do a digi kit in a similar style.

THE ROWS ARE SEWN! Two more borders and I will be able to say the top is done. I'm loving this quilt. It reminds me of Skittles, with some chocolate chips thrown in. I want to eat it (I guess I already have a little bit, what with my lint-covered teeth). It's super heavy, which I love in a quilt. Again, this is taken in my mom's living room. I wasn't kidding when I said she likes Queen Anne.
I'm currently debating how to quilt it and what I'm going to do for the backing. I'm trying not to spend money in preparation for a trip we are taking this summer (family reunion in California), but I might have to break down and do it. I might piece the back from leftover flannel, but it depends on how much is left after I do the boarders. We will see.

Fruits of the Crop--Dressing Up Cardstock Stickers

These two are a bit older, but I haven't shared them here yet, so I couldn't resist. The best thing about these two is that I ran my cardstock stickers through my Cuttlebug embossing folders. I love the distinctive texture it gives you and it really dresses up those plain stickers and makes you different from every other person who has used those same stickers.