"Everybody, I have an announcement to make. I have an announcement."

(Annie)

I have to say that I had fun anticipating the winner of this giveaway, because I know each one of you dearly. I wanted each one of you to win, but of course there could only be one winner. So I woke B up this morning with the honor of drawing one of your names out of a hat.

He chose...

So, Lindalu from Bunko - you are the winner of a new Golden Crow Brag Book! Call me or email me at http://www.adctd2qultng@gmail.com/ and we'll talk about how we can make this book perfect for you. Congrats!

It was a good day ~

Does anyone else feel like screaming from the roof tops after you've finished (the long overdue) cleaning of the bathrooms!?!

Oh, it feels so nice!

Well, I'm not just posting to tell you all that I actually cleaned my bathrooms today. I also:

*made pancakes for the kidlets

*got the kitchen sparkling clean

*showered (that doesn't always happen. But, I realized that I didn't do that yesterday, so figured it was probably best to keep the non-shower days to a one day maximum) [unless I'm camping or sick, which I welcome just for the fact that I don't have to get ready. Does anyone else hate getting ready as much as I do?]

*dropped off not one, but two wall hangings to a fantastic quilter that said she could squeeze me in this week. I am so excited about this (one of the perks of working at a quilt store - "It's for the store." Which it is. It really is.) These two wall hangings are similar to each other, just different colors. The design is one that I'm going to publish along with a bigger quilt pattern that is just about done. (I'm not showing anything yet. Just waiting to get the patterns & covers finished, etc.)

*surprised B, by picking him up from school with Frosty's in hand for him, M and another little friend that I babysit on Tuesdays. We ate our Frosty's while enjoying the warm sunshine and then the kids played for about an hour on the jungle gym outside B's classroom. It was fun watching him play tag with all of the afternooners that were just arriving.

*CLEANED MY BATHROOMS - YAY!

*Folded a huge mound of clothing that was on my bed.

* Now I need to go make dinner and then fold two more loads of laundry. If, my dryer will work properly and actually dry the clothes within the 52 minutes that I have specified it to dry them in.

Oh, I love feeling like I actually accomplished something! Now, let's see if my clean house can last until tomorrow. And (a big bonus) now that I've gotten some projects and cleaning done, I will be all ready to whip up one of my Golden Crow Brag Books for the winner of my Giveaway (see below.) I'll try to get that done before I head off to Montana next week. Today is the last day to get entered into my giveaway. Contest ends tonight at midnight.

Oh, one last thing. I am such a bad friend - I have been meaning to call, write, e-mail, etc. a birthday note to my dear friend Sarah Anne Poyfair Rader. I know it's belated now. I know I am a slacker (and now all of you know too:). But, I am going to call you Sarah. Until then, I just thought I would send out a "Shout Out" to you for turning 31 on Saturday. Hope it was a good one!

Sarah Anne Rader & me. Friends since the first grade. Love & missin' ya Sarah!

From me to you!

Well, I've been thinking it over and yes, I think I'll do it. Since I won the giveaway that was going on over at Fig Tree Quilts yesterday I am feeling a little bit spoiled. I want to give back. So, I am going to do my own giveaway. The prize is one of my "Golden Crow Brag Books" (that name is not official, but that's what I was going to call them if I ever got them up and going on Etsy.)

Your brag book will be completely personalized for you and it's about a $75 value. If you want to see some pictures of some of the other one's I've made you can click here and here. It's a 7" x 5" book with 10 pages inside (5 front and back.) Just leave me a comment by midnight on Tuesday if you would like a chance at winning. That's all you have to do. I'll let you know the winner Wednesday morning.

Switching arms and a contest

I'm just sitting down to get a little moment to myself after a lot of Chaos. I just had 3 extra kids here, making a new total of 5. I normally could have handled it just fine, but the youngest one cried practically the entire time (about 3 or 4 hours, I think.) She was off and on when I was holding her (which was most of the time) and when I put her down she would definitely cry for sure. So when it came time for lunch, B offered to make it for everyone if I told him how to do it. So he warmed up dinosaur chicken nuggets in the microwave for all of them. He's such a sweetie. Later though, I think one of the kids went back for seconds because I found a plate on the floor with two frozen nuggets and about a cup or so of b-b-q sauce piled on it. Gross. Anyways, later I told B, "My arm is going to fall off. What should we do?" He simply said, "Switch arms!" Well, it was a good idea! (I meant what are we going to do about her crying and needing me to hold her the whole time, but switching arms worked too:))

Anyways, I found myself stopping at my computer with her on my lap a few different times throughout those 3 or 4 hours. Do you guys do that too? Do you get on the computer during times of stress or Chaos? Just to get a way for a minute? I do that a lot. Maybe I need to learn how to handle these kinds of moments a little better. Hmm. Something to think about.

Well, during one of my moments of "screen time" (as I say to my kids) I was checking my email and found out some good news (as the chaos was getting started.) I won a contest. And, a very fun contest to say the least. Joanna over at Fig Tree Quilts was having a contest in which she wanted name ideas for some of her upcoming patterns. I'm not sure exactly why I was one of the 5 names chosen to win (because it sounds like she's picking the winning names later), but she's sending out a pattern and all of the fabric for it to the winners.

This is her new line:

Of course I am ecstatic! The funny thing was that I found out that I won from my sister-in-law, Brittany, who wanted to know if she could borrow my lucky charm!?! I was like, what is she talking about!?! I am so not a lucky person. I never win anything (except that other fabricmatcher contest:) Which was wonderful.) So then I remembered that I needed to go check Joanna's blog (I was so anxious the night before. I was surprised that I hadn't yet thought to go check.) But anyways, that was kind of fun news and I can't wait to see all of the beautiful patterns Joanna comes up with next. She is amazing.

Well, I better go back to check on the kids...

Bye!

Free patterns

I was just surfing around Blog Land and found a few free patterns that I had to print and put in my file of projects I want to do. Hillary over at Wee Wonderfuls designed this cute little embroidery pattern which was published in Sew Hip Magazine (which is a UK magazine.)

Isn't it cute? I really enjoy embroidery when I get around to actually doing it. It looked like a small enough project that would be easy to get done in a couple days. She gives you the pattern and the instructions if you click here.

Then, I also found Free block of the month patterns from Bunny Hill Designs. If you click here then you can get the patterns. Fun right?

French Roses Quilt for M

Well, it's finally done. I think I started this quilt a couple years ago and it's finally done! Yay! It's for M's big girl bed (queen size.) Now, I just need to put a label on it, get a new bed skirt, sheets, pillow shams, paint, get a bed, etc. Oh, I know RJ loves me and all of my projects. I tell him that I actually feel cursed having such a creative mind. It kind of poses a problem sometimes...Sometimes I wish I could just let things be...but, I can't. The lists go on and on:)

Oh, by the way, let me get your opinion on this - are any of you feeling a particular paint color for this room? Would pink be too much? Would green be better? And, if you're leaning towards green (like I think I am) read on before answering.

There was actually a little (it seemed big at the time) fiasco when I had this quilt quilted. Let's just say I spent about 5 hours clipping the raw edges that the quilter had sewn over (showing the backside of all the fabrics.) So - word to the wise, if you ever have a raw edge applique quilt quilted, then tell who ever is doing the quilting that she can go over the raw edges, but not to fold over the fabrics in the process. BIG learning experience for me! But anyways, it's done now. It was a big labor of love and M will be able to keep it forever. She was practically giddy when it was time to put it on her bed. She made me laugh when she was sitting on the bed with it and she rolled her hands over the multi-colored square border saying "I love these (skip the green) and I love these!" She's obviously a pink girl. Doesn't care so much for the green. Hopefully she'll learn to accept that it has some green on it as she gets a little older.

Checked binding on the bias...got the backing 40% off (if you know me I am not a sale getter, so I was pretty proud of my purchase. Didn't even have the quilt with me when I bought the back fabric. I think it goes quite nicely.)

Childhood Moments

I just can't stop thinking about M and how much she is growing each and every day. Three is a big age! She's learning so much and so impressionable right now. I keep witnessing her having lots of "Aha Moments" and can tell that little brain of hers running ramp id all of the time. She'll often bring up a subject that we talked about days or weeks earlier and I just think "Wow, she actually heard me (?!?) and was internalizing it." These are just a few of some of the "moments" that I thought were so interesting and cute lately. Maybe it's just the way she said them, but as her mother I think I'm getting little glimpses into the young woman she's going to be... I asked M if she wanted to help me make some soup the other day. She got so excited (it was a little surprising actually.) She then went on to tell me that she wants to be a baker when she grows up. She's already into crafts, cooking, changing her clothes a million times a day, lip gloss (the girl can't get enough lip gloss - and it's always MY lip gloss- it's not like she has her own source.) She is so full of kisses and random "I love you Moms." About a week ago, she was taking a bath and I was doing my hair and makeup and she said, "Mom, what makes you happy?" And I really think she was sincerely curious. I can just see that she is constantly thinking and checking out the world around her. She's tender and strong willed at the same time. She's already into decorating too (I could tell when the other day she told me out of the blue that she wanted flowers on her bed - not a white bed any more. That is actually going to work out because the "French Roses" quilt I made for her is just about done!) She informed me today that she wants TWO pets - a cat and a dog. And, if she's watching TV and sees something fun on a commercial then she'll yell, "Mom! Mom! Come here! You have to see what I want! No you have to come here!" Well, M is a sweetie and a lot of fun (a lot of energy, but a lot of fun.) Oh and she is already talking about what she wants for her next birthday. She did this last year - talked about it for months prior. Seriously. Like 4 or 5 months. She is such a girly girl and she keeps me on my toes.

B is at a funny age too. The big SIX. I have to jot down this story that happened a few weeks ago. It was so great. So RJ is "The Scout Master" in our ward so B totally tags along to lots of the scout activities. He goes as much as he can. He loves it. He told me a few months ago that he is a "scout cub" (for those of you that don't know about scouts, it's "Cub scout." But whatever. It was cute.) So B has been camping in the snow and rain. Can you believe that!?! It's crazy. My little baby! Anyways, so a few weeks ago B goes to this Young Men/Young Women activity where they decorated Pine Wood Derby cars and then had races. B apparently ended up winning the entire race and received somebody's old broken karate trophy for the prize. He was so proud of that thing. He would get the biggest smile any time someone would ask him about winning. He loved it. Well, I think it was the night he won, that I found him shining his trophy. It was after his bedtime and I was like "B, what are you doing?!?" and he said, "I want it clean!" Then the next morning I was making sure his backpack was all ready to go for school and I found the trophy inside! I laughed, "B! Why are you taking your trophy to school?" Well, he wanted to show his friends on the bus. So I let him. But then he wanted to take it again a few weeks later so I had to explain to him about bragging and showing off. But, I just thought it was so funny to see how much that trophy meant to him (and it was actually suppose to be a joke if one of the Young Men or Young Women won it.) He's a good kid and has a really good heart.

I sure love my babies. Thing One and Thing Two. My Kidlets. (Don't ask. Don't know where "Kidlets" came from:) I'm weird.)

Works In Progress

My creative little sister-in-law, Brittany, sent me this cute little card

inside this cute little envelope

just so she could give me a little cash so that we could buy some of this (in fat quarter form)

so we can make one of these

(picture & quilt design by Nettie over at A Quilt is Nice )

for somebody special in the family (I better not mention any names right now:))

Won't that be cute though!?!

And Brittany's card? Isn't it so cute? She totally could have sent that in a regular old white envelope, but instead she decided to send a little extra love along with her Benjamin. She is so sweet!

I've also been working on this:

And this:

These are the first 2 out of 20 blocks I will be making for a sampler I started last month. This is a project that the Alpine Quilt Guild is doing this year. All of the blocks have to do with Alpine in some way. The church is based off of the red brick church that the quilt guild has been meeting in for 20 years. But, as you can see, mine is orange. The star is called The Sherriff's Nine Patch (hey, every town has a sherriff right?) We've also been given patterns for Delectable Mountains (which I am considering tossing out because it is giving me fits) and a Scrappy Log Cabin. I am really excited about this quilt. It's fun picking different fabrics for each block. I just wish they would give us all of the patterns now, instead of month by month!

Another thing the Alpine Quilt Guild has going on right now is a block exchange in blues, browns and pinks. So I hopped on board with that one because I saw some samples of finished products using those colors and blocks and they were gorgeous!

Here are mine for March:

These are the ones I got in February:

"No, I'm not pregnant."

Oh, where do I start?

(And, I have a tendency to regret putting postings up on this blog where I rant and rave about things, so I will try not to say too much:))

I'm just wondering why some people find it necessary to ask someone if they are pregnant when they aren't 100% sure? Why is that? Maybe they feel like it will make them and the person they're asking (if they're right) kindred spirits because they were the first person to know the "secret"? But, if they are wrong, it could really make that person's day go from good to bad. Right? Wouldn't it be better to just wait and let their hunch be verified either way at the appropriate time?

I guess that is all I will say about that.

Oh, but before I go, I feel like I should apologize for not having abs of steel. Sorry people, but yeah, I'm kind of down right now. Guess I really do need to get going on losing those 15 pounds.

Man, some people...what are they thinking?