Craft-y Break

So ... this week is my crafty break week. Unplanned for sure, but still needed. Colton woke up Friday with a slight cough, that quickly morphed into a 101+ fever and nasty runny nose/wheezing by the end of the day.
They've placed him on antibiotics (and Savannah as well) and breathing treatments ... so this week will be all about the babies in the house and taking care of them. Movies, popcorn and rest for all of us ... not a bad way to spend a week. :)

Gotta wake up

So I have nine more weeks until my due date. And oh my goodness I am tired all of a sudden! I'm taking naps in the afternoon while the baby sleeps and still want to be asleep by 8 o' clock at night ... but there's only NINE more weeks! Which means I gotta get some more projects out of the way ... or they may NEVER be touched again. LOL. So I present my latest purchase of fabric ... so cute! Most of it's from that new funny baby line & I have already started cutting out the fabric for a cute little set of squares ...

Thrifty Thursday

I have been going to the thrift stores, but been very exact in my wants ... we're trying to not spend anything extra ... the economy in Vegas is BAD and you never know, you know? So, I have been looking for thrift stores sheets to finish up some blankets and not letting myself go over to the other sections. So I'm afraid I have nothing really to show for the visits (although Savers is having a 50% off sale on Monday! I'm saving my pennies for that!!!).

But I wanted to show an old thrift store purchase (that is still one of my favorites).

I always wanted a doll house like this and now Savannah has two in her room ... one as a bookcase and the other her Daddy did for her. The best part was, it was new in the box and only $15! I was going to take a picture of it in her room, but it's a M-E-S-S and I need to hurry up & post this & get on with my day. This still sells at Target and was an obvious knock-off of the one they have at PBKids. It was missing two of the screws for it, but a quick visit to a hardware store & $1 later and it's perfect! :)

I call her ... Lonestar Cowgirl

So I like the idea of naming quilts, only I never can think of anything "original" or something that fits. But! I like the name, lonestar cowgirl for this quilt. I started it too long ago and just slowly would pull it out at random and work on it. It's a light quilt and for some reason, the white seems to make it too shiny for my camera this morning. But I love it! Now to figure out the backing ...

Drats & Double Drats!!!

So I worked a lot on the simple nine-patch for Savannah's room. I'm so close to done too, but I used a fabric in the squares that I shouldn't have and now I don't have enough of this fabric ...which was to be a fat/chunky border around the blanket. It's a busy blanket & that will definitely help it calm down a bit ... after several calls to several stores here in town I am now going to put the blanket aside, until I can make an order ... for a half a yard of fabric. Ugh.

So I already caved ...

You know how you have this great idea ... like, "I'm going to HAND MAKE my Christmas this year?" And then you tell your husband. Who (mind you he's VERY supportive) looks at you like you've gone on crack or something. Then he looks at your ever blossoming belly and back up at you (a couple of times). And in the end tries to point out the insanity of it, but says he'll "support you" in whatever crazy thing you decide to do next (I added that last part of the sentence).

So next up comes the planning, and the list writing and realizing just how MANY people you give things to:

• school teachers
• church teachers
• family & extended family too
• the co-worker gift exchange that your husband loves to sign up for every year (even though you tell him not to each year & he agrees ... only to casually mention afterwards that he did anyways, ha!)
• his employees
• his bosses (definitely can't leave them out!)
• the people in church that you've been assigned to home & visit teach (all 8 families)

Then the list is BIG (and still doesn't even include your kids or husband!), and now you're looking at your ever expanding belly & the three kids already here and starting to think maybe you are nuts. Is it just me that this happened to?

And then I noticed that Deseret Book was having a 75% off sale, with free shipping and for a little over $100 (with free shipping on that order mind you!), I decided handmade is nice ... but consumerism/the easy way out was better (this year). And since I *know* you'd all *LOVE* to see what $100 bought me, I'll show you the stack of delivered boxes .... (10 animal nativities, 10 fleece blankets, 8 "Our Home Believes" blocks, 8 Jesus is the Reason for the Season statues & 2 holy family statues - so cute, I wish I had known!-), Their customer service section sucked though & some of the items that came didn't match the picture on-line, and the best part was for some reason they didn't put in basic information (like how many were available) into their system, so a lot of my order wasn't filled. I love what I got, but after the headache to get it, I don't think I'll use them again. Maybe next year (2010) will be the handmade year ...

Thrifty Thursday

Well, I haven't done much the last two weeks. The kids have been playing a lot in their new backyard w/ swingset & yesterday we did venture to the park (high's have been 68-70 degrees!). But I did have something "thrifty" to show you! First off, a disclaimer. I suck at decorating. Suck and make collossal mistakes. There are no mistakes in decorating you say? I beg to differ. I remember when I was pregnant with Hunter & I was DEVASTATED that our walls in our home weren't painted. I cried (I was pregnant & very sick mind you) and finally hubby agreed to paint. I was so excited ... I picked the most horrible neon blue and he actually painted the kitchen walls that hideous color for me! I loved it, it was bad, bad, bad. Oh how happy it made me at the time though. LOL. If only I could find a picture of it ...

So, I don't decorate much, it's intimidating! But I knew I hated these pillowcases on my new (gift from some awesome friends) couch. Then I remembered some pillowcases I had picked up at Pottery Barn Outlet years ago. I pulled the stuffing out of the hideous pillowcases & stuffed them in there & was able to find enough stuffing in my craft closet to even fill up the third pillowcase. Today I need to go pick up one more bag of poly-fil. It looks so much nicer now ... for only $2! :) Oh! And that cute little brown knitted throw blanket on the side was another thrift store find a couple of weeks back, I really like it ... hubby says it hideous. Is it another neon blue type love? For $1.50 I'm keeping it.

Wow-sers!

Okay, so I totally don't think myself in the same league as a lot of crafters ... for starters they seem to finish things ... I am always *trying* to finish things. And most of my ideas are BLATANT copy-cats. But I still got nominated for an award. :) Totally made my week. Thanks Robin! **BTW - You should TOTALLY check out her blog ... she does amazing applique & quilting. I always feel inspired after seeing what she does & think I should try to learn some of her techniques, but then I look at my unfinished projects & tuck that idea far, far away.**

So I'm supposed to nominate seven others, so here goes:

Mati- Seriously her quilting rocks & I just love her funny sense of humor too.
Lisa - She comes up with the most amazing ideas! And she is the sweetest person I know.
Amanda Jean - I think she has probably already gotten this, like ten times over. But she has taught me so much thru the quilt alongs ... she rocks! :)
Lera - She has a family to care for and still manages to be an awesome momma & sew too! Such an inspiration.
She Does Hair - Seriously girls! I know everybody is always asking me about my daughter's cute hair ... and I've also been surprised at how many other Momma's already read & will mention they remember that hair-do from her blog, fabulous! :)
Old School Acres - She does amazing things with felt, her owls are to die for fabulous ... and she actually motivated me to try some stitching ... and I love it! :)
Inspireco - I am sure that most of these gals have already received this nomination & she's no exception. I love her huge heart and fantastic & funky ideas! She always presents such eye candy thru each blog post and I always walk away wondering how she comes up with it all!

The rules are:

1. Copy the award to your site.
2. Link to the person who nominated you.
3. Nominate 7 other bloggers and link to them on your blog.
4. Then leave a message on their blog notifying them you have nominated them for this award.