Spoiled Rotten

My hubby came home with quite a surprise today.
He knows how much I love all things Martha Stewart and so he bought me some fun scrapbooking paper, a small scrapbook specifically for my quilting bee quilt, and some fun gift tags. Can you say A-MAZING?!

Weekend Get-Away

The Hubby and I are heading to the middle of nowhere Seymore, Indiana this weekend to stay at a huge cabin with some good friends of ours. It will be a weekend of no computers, no cell phones, and no TV. Oh how badly I need this weekend! I'm taking the fun camera with me so I will have plenty of wonderful photos when I get back!

What are you doing this weekend?

Artsy Clutch for Amy

So I had some left-over fabric from Amy's February block and thought I would make her a fun Artsy Clutch. I found the pattern in this book. I gave it my own "patchwork" twist and absolutely love it. The fabric she gave us to use for her block was from her collection of vintage linens, so it's a PERFECT combination with the the antique button I used from my button collection. I used Amy Butler's Aqua Honeycomb fabric from her Midwest Modern line for the lining...the perfect match! Amy, I will be putting your block and the clutch in the mail by the end of the week. Can't wait for you to see it!

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P.S. I'm coming up on my 100th post! Be sure to stay tuned for a special 100th Blog Post Celebration Give-Away!!

A Notion or Two February Block

Here's my block for Amy. It was a lot of fun working with these amazing vintage linens and I got to embroider for the first time. It's a simple bird, but it was fun to make. AND it's the first time I've ever done a "wonky" log cabin...actually it's the first time I've ever done a log cabin period. I liked being able to improvise with it. I feel like this quilting bee is challenging my sewing skills and it's just wonderful!



March is my month, so I'm getting ready to divvy out my fabric to everyone. Can't wait to see what they do with it!

Book-A-Holic

My Hubby and I are book-aholics. We buy them and buy them and buy them. And being the graphic designer that I am, I am very drawn to beautifully design books...especially craft and sewing books. So I decided I would post my book wish list...for two reasons.

1. So that fellow bloggers can see the amazing books that are out there to fulfill their sewing and crafting needs and...
   
2. So friends and family can see what kinds of books I'm looking for right now. Tehehe! Well, my Birthday is coming up in April. You can't be too prepared!

So in no particular order, I give you My Booklist:

Domino: The Book of Decorating

Craft Challenge: Dozens of Ways to Repurpose a Pillowcase

Seams to Me

Amy Butler's Little Stitches for Little Ones

Creating Vintage Style

The French-Inspired Home

Romantic Home Sewing

Last Minute Patchwork & Quilted Gifts

Doodle Stitching

Sunday Afternoon Naps

Home Sweet Home

Played around with the camera some more.
Here's some shots of my lovely living room. Many of these I've taken before, but they look even better with this 50mm lens!

Just Keep Going and Going and...

Yesterday never seemed to stop.
The Hubby & I had quite a busy day yesterday. To start things off, I fixed a yummy breakfast that would give us the energy (and cholesterol) that we needed to sustain us.



Then we drove 200 miles round trip to a funeral. Once we got back, we had enough time to take the dog out, breathe for a second, load the car up with the camera, and head to a wedding that I was photographing. (It's the second time in less than a year that we have had a funeral and wedding in the same day). Two celebrations of life that are on completely different ends of the spectrum.

It was exciting to shoot the wedding. It was my first photo gig at a wedding, so I was kinda nervous, but I think I got some pretty good shots. I'll be spending my afternoon going through all 300 photographs to see how everything came out. It was a candlelit service, so we'll see!

So yeah...quite a draining day...physically and emotionally...but the weekend is here, which means relaxation, right?

Handsome Kitty

Borrowing a friend's camera for a wedding that I'm shooting tonight and thought I'd get some practice in by taking pictures of our fat Mr. Purrvilous - or Kitty as we call him.

Give-Away Redo

Back in January, I had my first give-away. It was the adorable tote that I made.


Well...sadly the winner of this tote never claimed her prize and seeing as how it has been more than a month since the give-away, I figured I would do a redraw to find a lucky winner. And the winner is...


You can visit her at her blog at Tina 4 Hope. Tina, please be sure to send me your contact info ASAP. I really want you to be able to enjoy this tote!

Craft Time with 3 Beautiful Sisters

If you'll remember, at Christmas time I had an ornament-making party with three charming girls. Well, I promised them that when Valentine's rolled around that we would make home-made Valentine's cards -and so we did! Making stamps from items you can find in the produce aisle, we stamped our way into the hearts of the dear people who would receive our paper creations!


Thanks to Martha Stewart's rose stamp idea that I posted about last week and my mom teaching me how to make potato stamps as a kid, we were able to make more cards than Hallmark!





I also made these cute felt heart candy/Valentine holders for the girls. It's my first time embroidering anything, so I was pretty proud of myself!

All and all, it was quite a joyful time. I can't wait to come up with some fun Easter and Spring craft ideas for April!

Quite the Accessory

My delightful friend Kellie gave me the most adorable sewing tool last week and I must share it with you!

Isn't it just darling! I don't know about you, but whenever I'm sewing, my pin cushion tends to be on the other side of the room when I need to stick a pin in it...especially when I'm using my sewing machine. Well this lovely little ring will definitely keep me from huffing and puffing when I take a pin out of something and realize I don't have a pin cushion within 2 feet of me. It's right there on my hand! Oh the joy!

A Quaint Little Corner

My amazingly wonderful shelf is all cleaned up and filled with pure goodness.

Roses are Red Tulips are Pink

This has been such a wonderful Valentine's weekend. It was filled with grocery shopping with my Hubby where he bought me pink tulips and the newest issue of Do It Yourself Magazine; popping a frozen pizza in the oven and watching "Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist" while cuddling with my Hubby; receiving this fabulous Olivia the Pig fabric from my mom-in-law;



making these delectable Magic Cookie Bars for my Hubby (leave a comment if you want the recipe);



eating Wild Maine Blueberry Pancakes at Cracker Barrel; going to Clementine's and buying this beautiful fabric;




AND the best part of it all was my Hubby buying me a two-month early Birthday present.


It's an incredible antique shelf from an antique mall in historic downtown Franklin. It needs to be wiped down and painted with a coat of acryllic poly and once that's done, it's going to be filled with my fabric stash and sewing books. Oh happy day! I will have pictures to share tomorrow of the final piece. What a B-E-A-UTIFUL day! It was a perfect day spent with my most amazingly wonderful Hubby.