Calling all Wantobe Quilters!!

Just found this awesome Wantobequilter campaign through Amy @ http://www.diaryofaquilter.com/2011/07/quilt-stuff-giveaway-palooza.html. This was all put together by the wonderful Madame Samm  at Sew We Quilt@ Stash Manicure. Truly amazing site. I can't believe all the giveaways. What a wonderful way to welcome new quilters into the sewing world. Her blog Sew I quilt is pretty awesome too. Check her out!
A very wonder lady and quilter. Her quilts are amazing. I love her hand quilting details and her foot pockets.

If you are a new or old quilter you should check this out. Tons of giveaways for everyone and I am sure more quilting knowledge than you can shake a stick at. All the information you need is on the first page (can't stress this enough...MAKE SURE YOU READ THE RULES). So go forth and quilt.

Make sure to read the rules if you are a first time quilter looking to win some giveaways. You will need a blog sponsor. I believe there are 49.  Again Amy at www.diaryofaquilter.com sent me. (Check her out too ...awesome blog). You will need to follow the want to be a quilter and a sponsor blogger. You will need to include there blog names in the giveaway comments you enter to be eligible for the prize. Again, if you are interested please go check it out and read all the rules. I may have left something out and wouldn't want anyone left out because of my error.

Happy Quilting!!!

Super heros and Sewing shows...you know life as we know it!

It has been a busy week. Not to mention the NEW PROJECT RUNWAY SEASON!!!! It started thursday and my hiney was happily planted in front of the tube.  "Make It Work"  "Where's Andre" .... I love me some Tim Gunn. Who doesn't!?! Anyway, aside from that I have been busy with everyday life, you know, grocery shopping, sitting for a friend, playdates, teething and more teething.  E is having a horrible time with his teeth right now and this mom isn't getting much sleep. I am taking advantage of their daily naps and napping with them. I usually use that time to finish up chores or sew. Not this week. :((

New news on K's big boy room. It may have a change of scenery. He is in love with Iron Man and Mr. Wonderful purchased two  wall hanging for K. He was thrilled when the ups lady had two packages just for him(we have a UPS woman not a UPS man). One is a door hanging ....

Pics courtesy of amazon.com

The other pic is kind of this Art Deco framed print I actually love...

So my dino/paleontology theme may be changed for a comic book and all things boy theme. Right know he is really digging science fiction like star wars. I just saw some really cute star wars pop art on the crafty travelers blog. So I may look into that. I think I saw it on the crafty traveler.  I guess I am off to research comic book art and all things science fiction.The artsy pic will probably be my color palette with some pops of yellow here and there. Hopefully I will have a few concrete ideas soon. If you have any feel free to share!!!

~Music and Movies.... great medicine~

I don't know if this is true for you guys but it is for me. I can be having a horrible day, hear an awesome song, and get completely lost in the music. It is the same for certain movies. Right now I am really loving Adele's voice. That girl has got a set of pipes on her. I love really sultry sounds like hers. You know who else has a wonderful singing voice, well what I like anyway, Zooey Deschanel. I really enjoy her music. I know the late Amy Winehouse had many personal problems and addiction issues but I loved her sound.

I am a total 80's music girl. I was in love with Rick Astley and George Michaels (who wasn't)...I know I am a total dork. Oh and not the 80's but ...The Cranberries can put me in a most blissful state. I also have a love for all 80's bratpack movies. To name a few of my fav's...Breakfast Club, Welcome Home Roxy Carmichael, Pretty In Pink, Sixteen Candles, Weird Science, Love Don't Cost a Thing, the list goes on forever. Not a brat pack movie but one that I can watch over and over...The Burbs! Love it!  You get the drift. I also have a thing for You've Got Mail. What is better than a romantic comedy between Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks!?! ~Don't you love New York in the fall? It makes me wanna buy school supplies. I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address. On the other hand, this not knowing has its charms.~

Anyways these are just some of my favorite down time things when I am feeling blue or in a freak of nature when I have no kids, no house work, and no energy to sew. When I want to be totally lazy and relax. What are some of your Great Medicines?

Food for my little foodies!!

So my little ones are on opposite ends of the stick when it comes to eating. My 2 yr old K is so picky and my 9 month old would eat the dog if she stood still long enough. Ha! I am not a short order cook so usually they get the same nutritious meal that Mr. Wonderful and I get. On the special occasion they get something they both love....these....

This pic is from our pancakes and playdates day. K had his friend A over one morning and K requested Mickey pancakes. Now they wouldn't be Mickey pancakes without chocolate chips! My boys love these little suckers. Of course E is only nine months so I hold off on the chips in his. He loves them nonetheless. They are quick easy and the kids go bananas  for them. It is nice to have a treat every now and then. Plus I love all the mommy love I get for preparing such a treat.

E has moved on from baby, baby food....well except for the baby food I produce. He is still breastfeeding, with EIGHT teeth I might add. Trust me it can be ugly business if he get distracted while nursing. Sorry if that was TMI. Anywho, I made baby food from the start, even with K. It is so inexpensive and I know exactly what my boys are eating. It is so simple. Just buy fresh fruits and veggies and bake or steam. For the puree I used an immersion blender and icecube trays. There are endless options and combinations. Anyone interested in making baby food should check out wholesomebabyfood.com. It will tell you all the Do's and Don't  in making baby food.  Now that E is eating better I have stopped the puree and we are working our way up to big boy food. Here is my latest batch....peas, carrots(check on cooking carrots. There are special instruction for the cooking process due to nitrates), green beans, and peaches.

For whole food like this I like to freeze them on a cookie sheet first and then put them in freezer bags. It makes it easier when trying to get your servings out of the freezer bag. Now I need to get in gear and bake those  sweet potatoes on my counter. :))

~Music is the best Medicine~

I love the way a song or a piece of music can

Dr. Seuss Nursery!!

So here it is as promised....my Dr. Seuss Nursery. I knew I wanted something different and original for my babies. As a child Dr. Seuss held such a magical quality for me. I knew I wanted my own children to have those feelings of wonderment and imaginative creativity. So I was on a mission. I needed a jaw dropping room on a not so jaw dropping budget. I went to Michael's craft store and found these two items. I know they look very juvenile and unable to achieve such a task. 

Well guess what....they were just the ticket! Plus it was less that 50 bucks for both items. I did get quite a few more colors. Oh and did I mention the paint pens are non-toxic! I had tons of Seuss books to use for my murals. I sized the down the pictures on my printer, put them in my tracer jr. and went to work. I used a pencil for the first outline and when all was painted I outlined the whole pic with a fine point sharpie to give me clean edges. Here is my hard work....and yes it was very hard. Try painting in odd positions 7 months pregnant. It is tricky let me tell you.

 This was an old dresser repainted and painted to look like Mr. Brown Can Moo! Can You?

How do you like the hot air balloon blowing out the window. I put crazy patterns in the turtle shells for added pizazz. Oh and for added cuteness I took some of the up close photo pages from the books and framed them like they were real pictures.

In this pic you can just see the turtle tree on the back wall. Well that wall is where the crib is so I tried to incorporate sleeping pics in there. I got the turtles and the two yellow creatures in pics below.

I didn't want the same old pic you always see of thing 1 &2 so I decided on this one. I love hair!

Can you see the outlet? I modge podged all the plate covers in the room with pages from the book.

Sleeping yellow creatures! Oh and Sneetches...The Sneetches is my all time favorite Dr. Seuss book. What is yours?

Oh an for the walls I made sure of where all the furniture would go first. Very important step. You don't want you beautiful art work covered up by a dresser. Then I just did some freehand landscape with a sharpie that resembled the landscape in the books.

This little guy is my favorite. I thought it would be so cute to have him racing along the baseboards.

So do you have any creative room ideas for the little ones? Feel free to share. I am going to try to get into gear with K's big boy room. Hopefully I will have a fabulous Dinosaur/Paleontologist room to share with you soon. Until next time....

"Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You." ~ Dr. Seuss

Linking Up!!

Dr. Seuss quilt top!!!

So when we became pregnant the first time we decided we would have one nursery for the kids. When our second was born we just moved K to a big boy room instead of a new nursery. I have known since I first thought of having children that the nursery would be a Dr. Seuss nursery. I will share those photos in another post and how to achieve easy, inexpensive wall murals like I did.

Well Now that E is almost 9 months old I started thinking about his room. Soon he will be too big for a nursery and will need a big boy room. *boo hoo* Now E won't be moved into a big boy bed for quite some time but I thought I would get a little ahead. He will stay in the Dr. Seuss room. It will just me big boy modified. Here is the chevron quilt top that will be for his big boy bed. I also have a trick I learned in the  process. Now I am no pro quilter...so if you are and see areas where I am doing something wrong please let me know. I am all for constructive criticism. Just go easy I am learning. ;)

Here you can see where I need to improve on my corner skills. E won't care that it isn't perfect.

For this quilt you place two squares right sides together and sew on either side of the middle diagonal line. Instead of taking each square, measuring, and marking I did this. I folded the square in half from corner to corner.

Then I ironed one of the squares to give me my middle mark. It was so much faster and seemed to work quite well.

So this is what you are left with.One folded square and on flat square. 

 Ok so I forgot to get a pic of this but you unfold the pressed square, line it up right sides facing with the flat square, pin, and sew on either side of your crease.  Like this...

After you are finished sewing all the squares you cut the square right down the middle. You can find an awesome tutorial for this quilt here...

http://thecraftytraveler.wordpress.com/2011/06/23/chevron-quilt/

Awesome blog by the way. You should check her out!

Here are my squares mid quilt. It is coming along. Now I bought this fabric before it became popular with the pottery barn collection so it was hard to find. Not to mention super expensive because it was out of print. I worked with what little Seuss fabric I had and just added to it with solids to get the size I needed.

Hope you all like it. Now off to see if I have all the photos for the nursery post. When I finish K's room I will have a post for a big boy dino/paleontologist themed room!

Total Chaos......

I have been so busy with the craziness we call life. My blog has suffered in the process. As of right now a dear family member is in critical condition with very little signs of a happy out come. We are praying but it may just be time. In the midst of that I have had play dates, birthday parties, and a little babysitting for a friend. My poor sewing machine must grow lonely in there all by herself. I have used her a few times this week but only in short spurts. The chevron, zigzag, whatever you call it quilt is still very much a wip.:( I did manage to crank out some darling mug rugs for a belated wedding gift to a friend. Leave it to me to forget to snap a photo. Oh well, hopefully she will get a picture I can share. In the mean time I am still here just trying to keep up. Hopefully my next post won't be so far from this one. I have no idea why but as I sat down to write this I totally heard the Doogie Howser theme in my head (hence the font). I haven't seen that in ages no idea why it is fresh in my memory. It is only fitting to end this post like this........... 

The stuff dreams are made of...

Love is in the air the past couple of weeks. I have seen a couple of blogs that I follow with  love post. Well cupid takes no prisoners. Last friday was the 9 year marker for the first date I went on with my Mr. Wonderful. While starting a new job 9 years ago I walked in and was introduced to this brown eyed hottie. He hadn't had a hair cut in a few weeks and looked like Patrick Swayze from Dirty Dancing. I swear I heard hungry eyes playing in the background as he walked up and introduced himself. The music stopped with the tire screech sound you hear in the movies and I thought to myself.....surely this guy is married. He was very cute, smart, polite, and everything I had ever hoped to find in a man. Well I left it at that and just assumed he was married... I mean I was sure of it. Who wouldn't snatch up a guy like that. We had a very nice friendship for a couple of weeks and then I found out he wasn't married. You better believe I turned on the charm ;)) It wasn't long before he finally asked me out. We went on our first date and the rest was history. Turns out he liked me too and assumed I was taken. Nine years later, 2 dogs, 2 beautiful baby boys, a wonderful home, and I think we are more in love than we were when we first said I Love You. Like I said .....the stuff dreams are made of. At least mine anyway!!   I thank my lucky stars everyday to have such an amazing, supporting, loving husband. Here's to hoping you all have or find that special someone in your life

YES! I 'm getting my sewing groove back!!

Since E was born sewing has been almost non existent :((( It is not easy trying to sew with a 2 year and I added a newborn to the mix. HA! So now E is almost 8 months old and I feel like I can focus a little more on my craftiness. I am still nursing so he still gets allot of my time. Half of my time goes to K and dear husband...plus the dogs but there is a small window that is slowly opening just for my sewing machine. YAY!!  This past week. I made a motorcycle hat for my dad, started a dress for my mom, made a slip cover for one of hubby's big garage tools, and almost finished a chevron (zigzag) quilt top for E 's big boy bed. Not that he is ready for it but that is another post in itself...soon to come I promise. The boys are finally old enough to sit in my craft room with me and play while I sew. Let me tell you that is so nice.  I can't tell you the joy and relaxation crafting gives me. Not to mention the added satisfaction of something I made from scratch without purchasing. I have a very long to do list but the soonest  ones will be ones of necessity. Pot holders are high on the list. Right before E was born I took all my old ones threw some out, took some apart to be up cycled. Well that fell by the wayside when E came 2 weeks early. I have yet to make them and I am sick of burning myself using a tea towel. I also want to do an art tote I promised K some months back when I made his custom car crayons. I should blog and put up a tut for that...easy project and great gift idea. I have a few quilts I want to get in the works and some early Christmas sewing. See I do this with everything ...I want to do too much.  This is my mid year resolution, lol, I will  stop saying and start doing. Lets see how much I can get done. Any who it is nap time so I must go be the bearer of bad news and tell the troops playtime is over!

Tent Adventures with Mom!!!

So K discovered the living room blanket tent and loved it. Being who I am I ran to my computer searching for ideas to make a DIY tent. I would have tried something on my own but I am just not that comfortable (confident) with wood yet. I came across this wonderful blog...mycakies.blogspot.com. She has some brilliant ideas. I found a dyi on A-Tent frame that she posted with instructions. I was so excited!! So off to the hardware store we went.

Sorry I forgot to list the supplies but you can find them on mycakies blog.

      K and I measuring our wood. Sorry for the craptastic photos but trust me, cutting wood with a two year old in 90 degree weather is no easy task. Not to mention trying to keep him in the garage.

He felt the wood needed a more weathered look!

I was scared to use the hubs power tools even though his saw would have cut the wood in 2 seconds flat. So I stuck with what I was comfortable with ...the lovely hand saw. He is suppose to give me some lessons on the big girl tools since I have quite a few wood working projects bookmarked.

 Alas the finished frame!!! With the help of my wonderful husband it stand straight. I think I may add some slats of wood from side to side for added stability.

 I am going to sew a cover for it but K couldn't wait. Decked out with a sheet and blanket the fun began.  In mycakies tut she does give instructions on a very easy cover. I want one a little more structured so I need to draw up some sewing plans for it.

Here is K checking out his tent! Thanks Mycakies for the wonderful tutorial!!!

Swooning over Christmas in July!!

I just finished browsing various sites at all the Christmas in July fabric sells. EEEKKK!! I feel like I have a school girl crush...only the object of my affection is fabric. LOL!!  I am really loving "Jovial" by BasicGrey. I have always had a thing for all the fall holidays. Christmas has to be number one. The morning after Thanksgiving I get all warm and fuzzy with holiday cheer. My house is buzzing with Christmas music and specials from my childhood. This year in all my Christmas euphoria  I really hope to get a few things made for the home decor. I want to do a quilted tree skirt, table runner, and the piece de resistance .... the advent house from Christmas Vacation. I have had the wood and a billion ideas put together since before K and E were ever thought of. I am not sure why I haven't made it yet but I really want it to grace the center of my dinning room table. Anyhow I just wanted to cast my excitement into blogland......"Aunt Bethany does your cat like Jello".... Sorry I couldn't help myself. Can you tell what my favorite Christmas movie is. ;)))


P. S. More coming soon on some home projects and tent building!!! Family has been in town so not much time for blogging. ;))