You're invited....

to a sew along. Kim at You Can Make This is sewing a scrappy quilt for the bench in her foyer. It's a cute bench with a cute pillow and she wants to add to it. She's posting instructions on the YCMT blog as she goes and has invited us all to sew along with her.

It's a great project for someone like myself who has only made one quilted wall hanging when I took a class many, many years ago-gosh it was right after I got married when I had no kids-too long ago. It's great for two reasons-one, she's giving us the instructions in little pieces each week so it's not overwhelming and very doable and two-you don't have to leave your house to take a class which is next to impossible with all the kids' activities and my husband's work schedule, plus I don't like the cold :) I'm excited to start this project (and complete!) because I've been wanting to learn more about quilting. I'd love to do some projects for the kids' rooms.

Kim decided to just use fabrics from her stash for this project so I thought I'd see if I could do the same and I did!! I had a bunch of fabrics that are pinks and greens so I went with that. Selecting fabric is always a tough one for me-I've never sure what looks good together or what prints go with what prints-that's why I love fabric designers that design a whole group that all co-ordinate-makes it easier for me. Let me know what you think or if any fabric looks like it doesn't work with the rest.

I'm off to iron some fabric and start cutting squares. The girls are out sledding with my husband so it's nice and quiet-can you hear the silence :)

On a not related subject, my team won their first basketball game yesterday!!! They did awesome!

Bananas anyone??

I had the honor of testing a new pattern for an adorable lovey blanket. The pattern is by the very talented Courtney of Sister to Sister. I met her through the Thrifty under Fifty challenge-another great perk of the challenge that I hadn't expected-I met some really great people who have inspired me (sounds sappy but so true). I just think this monkey is so cute and soft and snuggly! What an awesome present it would make for a baby gift! The pattern was very easy to follow and well written. Great job Courtney and thanks for letting me test it out.

Word of the Year

Laurie at Tip Junkie posted today about a Word of the Year-

Can you identify a single word that sums up what you want for yourself in 2009?

Although it's now the second week of January and I haven't posted any New Year's goals like I planned to-I have been thinking about what I would like to work on this year. When I read Laurie's post, I thought of one word and I'm going to make it my word of the year.

RELAX

Now, not lay on the couch in my pj's all day reading a book relax-which I would definitely love to do-but relax in not worrying so much about everything like

if the house is picked up/cleaned if company's coming over
folding laundry right away
if the girls' hair is not brushed or
their clothes don't match
PTO stuff
and a million other probably silly stuff I worry about all day

and just enjoying the days and the kids and the weather and playing and crafting and our happiness and not losing any time anymore to silly worrying about silly things!

So there is my word and I'm going to just try to relax!!

So nice to hear.....

My dd had basketball practice last night and we saw her friend that had the birthday party on Monday. The little girl had the Valentine's Day headband that I had made her in her hair. When she saw me, she came running up, hugged me and said "I just can't stop wearing your headband". It was real cute and I will definitely make tshirts and headbands for gifts again. I think I'm going to make a few more for her too since she likes them so much.

The best kind of snowmen.....

glittery ones! I keep forgetting to post a picture of the snowmen my girls made the day we had no power-now known as the day with the longest morning ever :) I really can not and should not complain though-we had people around us without power for more than a week and schools that just never went back and started Christmas vacation in mid Decemeber. We had a warm spell over the weekend so all our snow is gone now but sounds like we're in for a few storms this week. I found the idea for these snowmen on No Time For Flashcards and just noticed that this project made their top 10 list which reminded me to share. You can find the directions here http://www.notimeforflashcards.com/2008/12/best-of-2008-count-down-3.html They were fun to make and look cute on our window. I did this with 4 different ages-3 to 11-it was easily adaptable. Gotta love glitter!

Birthday Gift

My 8 yr old had a birthday party today for a good friend. I made her a tshirt with her intitial on it using How to Applique the Easy Way http://www.youcanmakethis.com/info/beginner-basics/How-to-Applique-the-Easy-Way.htm Very simple and easy. This is the third shirt I've made and I love to do it plus it makes a special gift. I also made her two headbands using the free pattern for headbands. http://www.youcanmakethis.com/info/free/FREE-Fabric-Headband-Sizes-Baby-Adult.htm Also very easy and simple. I started it all this morning and finished before the 1:00 party-just barely, but I did! And that was in between opening all the Polly Pockets the girls got from my mom yesterday :) I wanted to make a few more headbands and a bag to put it in but didn't have time. I thought I would have more sewing time this past weekend but it was too busy. I had all the supplies except the tshirt and I got that at Walmart for $4.00. I think I'm going to be doing this for birthday parties since buying gifts adds up when you have 3 girls attending parties.

Just want to add in-the birthday girl loved her shirt-her mom did too! She was wearing the Valentine's Day headband when I got there to pick up my daughter and tried on the other one for me too. I'm glad she liked it so much.

My last gifts

I am finished with my gift crafting. I finished 3 frames for our friends' children last night. I used the directions from the YCMT blog http://ycmt.wordpress.com/2008/12/09/7-simple-steps-for-making-your-tweenteen-gifts/ The first two are for girls-an 8 yr old and an 11 year old. The second is for a boy in 8th grade. I was happy with the way they all turned out but psyched that the one for the boy turned out so cool. I went to our local scrapbook store and they had scrap paper for our high school/jr high. He plays on the jr high soccer team so it's perfect. I was very excited. I finished all these in a day and that's working on them here and there whenever I had a free moment. The orange and blue one had some bumps in it and buttons work wonders to cover any problems.

I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas with your family and friends.