Life! What A Trip!

Life! What a trip! That was the theme of our Women's Event at church tonight. We celebrated the different stages of life that we all go through---the bumps, turns, green lights and destinations. Several ladies of our congregation spoke about their life experiences and all were wonderful! Always good to have a reminder that others are going through things in their lives, too, and God will see us through them all!

Our Women's Team did a great job with the decorations and details.We also highlighted a group called Rubia. We had lavender sachets for purchase that were handcrafted by women in Afghanistan. They are beautiful and the profits will help sustain these women and their families. Check out their website.

Buttons and Birds

Have I ever mentioned how much I love buttons? Yes? Well, how about birds? Oh yes, I guess I have mentioned that a couple of times, too. This evening, I began putting some things in place in the new-to-me buffet that we moved to my house a week or so ago. In addition, I decided to freshen up my sofa table display for the Spring/Summer months.

After washing and dusting and storing away the tired old candles, I brought out a Mason's jar and tucked in a few hints of nature. I decided to add this vintage doily that belonged to my mother (made by one of my ancestors--wish I knew which one), the little vase that I purchased last year along with the dome that displays some tiny egg shells.This is what I came up with. That's the Tussie Mussie that Callie and Jordan gave me at their wedding and a tiny book that was a gift from my mother a while back.And since you asked to see more, I have to show you some of my favorite little buttons on the tray. Most of these were in my grandmother's sewing stash that I inherited. Most of her life, she removed the buttons from each outfit when she was finished with it so that they could be used again, so I have a great collection of pretty little things!

Dan's Weekend

This was Dan's weekend! I drove down to his group home after work on Friday and picked him up. He really seemed to like his new room at my house and by the second night, was feeling comfortable enough to lay around in there watching a new movie. Despite being such a short time together, we managed to cram quite a lot of activity into it:
-we shopped for clothes,
-exchanged clothes,
-watched a movie,
-prepared and delivered soup to elderly neighbors as part of our church's Souper -Saturday program,
-worked in the yard, -(how about this giant vine that ran across the yard?!?),
-played with Emmi, -made a trip to the ICEE store,
-bathed Emmi (I taught Dan how to use my camera to take this picture), -ate dinner with our step-mother and
-went to Sunday School.
Whew!
Now we're looking forward to a vacation this summer to visit the rest of the family.

I Wish I Could . . .

While Jana and I were visiting together during Spring Break, more than once we talked about how much we wished we could take several different types of art or craft classes. One that both of us wished for was some sort of photography class. We both have some basic knowledge, but feel like we could really step up our skills if we had the time to really practice with our cameras. Since right now our budgets won't allow us to travel to some of the amazing courses that are offered our the country, we began brainstorming about ways we could improve our skills, have fun and still stay within our budgets. SO. . . .stay tuned for the plan we've cooked up. Hope that you'll join us, too, as we learn more about our cameras together!!

Dan's Digs

It's a tiny space and there's a lot of stuff packed in there, but the room is at least presentable now. And just in time to go pick up Dan tomorrow and bring him here for the weekend. I hope he likes his new "space". As I look at it now, that dust ruffle looks all wrinkly and crooked, but I doubt he'll notice. If I get up extra early tomorrow, I might even be able to clear a path from the door to here! :-)

And if you click on that link shown below . . . . . .
This is what you get.So I guess I will. (try to do something productive, that is)

Google Reader

Ever since I discovered Google Reader (via Heather's post), I've enjoyed going through my favorite blog list so much! It is so easy to check and see when a new post has been added. Then, after downloading the "next" button to my Bookmarks Toolbar, everything is so easy! I just click from one blog to the next and I love it! Of course, I keep adding more and more blogs as I discover them, so the list keeps getting longer. One of my favorite things . . . when I've finished reading all the new posts, there's a screen that pops up and congratulates me for reaching the "end of the internet". I know I'm such a dork, but that always makes me smile.

Office Re-Do . . . The Saga Continues

On my lunch break today, I stopped by Joann's and got pillow forms that are on sale and a few fabrics that I could use to embellish the bottom of the bedskirt. Combined with ribbon, this turned out really nice (I still need to iron it)Inspired by the pillows that Jana made for her bed, I thought the striped fabric would make a really great design using the Amy Butler Hourglass pattern. I carefully lined up the fabrics before cutting and sewed the pieces together. Oops! Obviously I didn't think that through very carefully. Well, I can use this piece for the back and cut out a couple more to complete the pattern correctly. Wow! That looks much better!Until you see the bottom. What in the world happened?!?My mind apparently was on other things and not thinking very clearly at all about the pillow!!! Well, until I decide to take the time to fix it, this one is just going to have to do (sorry Amy). I guess you could say it adds character?!!?

Office Re-Do

The bed frame and mattress set that I ordered for Dan arrived this morning. In less than 10 minutes, they had it set up in my tiny office space. I want to be able to store boxes underneath, so I just picked up a set of bed risers. Only problem is the feet of the bed frame do not fit into the top of the riser. Why do they make the tops of those things square when all bed frames have round feet or casters??? Jana warned me that I would probably have to trim it. Hmmmmm. . . . She used a dremel tool, but since I don't even know what that is, I'll have to find another way. Well, after some major elbow grease using a hand saw,I made it work!!!I ordered a navy blue quilt and shams from J.C.Penney, but haven't been able to find a bedskirt that I like. Plus, the bed is now taller, so the standard length for bedskirts just won't work. I remembered that I have some fabric that I purchased a couple years back and never used, and I think that it might work.There's still so much to do before Dan comes this weekend, but at least he'll have a bed to sleep on!

Quilt Festival

While checking out some of my favorite blogs, I ran across Sew Take A Hike's entry in the online Quilt Festival. Her Fruit Salad quilt is wonderful!---I love the colors and the shapes of her squares. My first real attempt at quilting was last summer. I ordered a couple of Anna Maria Horner charm packs and put together this quilt. While the colors don't really match my house, I LOVE the fabrics and since it is my first quilt, I decided to keep it. Perhaps one of these days I'll redecorate a room to match it! :-)

I've made a couple gift quilts since then, and have one "in the works". As soon as I can get this office/guest room under control I want to get back to working on it. In the meantime, I'm going to go throw my turquoise quilt into the wash to get that crinkly goodness!!

Project Three: Pillows

I visited Jana and Rob back at the beginning of November and was one of the first people to get to see their new home. We spent the weekend sewing and getting some things ready for their move-in. Then, I packed up some of her fabric and brought it home with me to complete pillows for her living room. Unfortunately, life got in the way and I never even started them.

So this week, we made pillows. Jana had a sub job on Thursday, so I spent the afternoon in her craft room cutting and sewing. This is what I had to begin with. I love the texture of the copper colored fabric, but as I began measuring, here was my dilemma: Not enough fabric to make the overlapping closure I had planned. So, this is what I came up with. Another example of a bad thing turning out good! I really liked how the "back" looked with the ties and so did she.

The two ready-made brown pillows had become frayed around the zipper, so I cut them down to make smaller pillows. This one was inspired by Artsy Craftsy Babe's post last week. We already had all the fabric that we needed, so the only cost was the $4.00 pillow form. On the other brown pillow, I appliqued a "B" in a coordinating fabric. Now, their wonderful new leather couch looks all comfy and happy!By the way, in case you were wondering what Rob was doing while Jana and I worked on all these projects, here he is in his "man-room" (the loft) playing video games and hiding from my camera, hence the very poor quality of the photo!

New Background

I just returned from Atlanta and decided to try out a new background on my blog. I'm not sure yet---part of me really likes the white, sparse background that I've had. But, on the other hand, this one is fun and makes me smile, too. Hot Bliggety Blogs had a lot of free backgrounds, so I think I'll try this one out for a while. In the meantime, perhaps I'll try another, too. What do you think??

Project Two: Bamboo Hanger Knockoffs

Yesterday, Jana and I went into Atlanta and spent the day with Sally and Camille. We ate lunch down in Virginia Highlands at Murphy's and then shopped a little bit in that area. One of our favorite stores, Paper Source, is always a place for inspiration. In one of their displays, they used these bamboo hangers to hand banners made of their specialized papers. They were so pretty and would be the perfect accent in Jana's living room "nooks". However, at $39.50 for the large and $34.50 for the small, they were out of her price range.So, we took a trip to Michael's and came up with these.
After measuring, Jana sawed them into the appropriate lengths and I wired them together. Here's the finished product.Total cost of for 3 bamboo hangers . . . . .$12!! Great deal. Now she just needs the paper.

Project One: Baby Shower Gift

Jana needed a baby shower gift for a friend that will soon be having a baby girl, so we decided a diaper bag and accessories would be the perfect use of these samples that we picked up at a local decorating store. We used my Diaper Bag Tutorial (which is now available on Craftsy) and created this cute bag. I ironed and supervised and Jana did all the sewing.Then we decided to use the scraps to make a Quick Change Pocket (The directions to make this packet are included with the Diaper Bag Pattern on Craftsy) to hold a change of clothes. I took pictures along the way and plan to have a tutorial ready soon. We made this version to hold a couple of onesies and tiny knit pants, but it could also hold a pack of baby wipes and a couple of diapers. And check out the disposable bag holder. I used pinking shears to cut a strip of fabric and then attached it with clear packing tape. We added a tiny fabric loop on the inside to clip it to.