Quilt: check.

I managed to finish up the Craft Hope quilt last night! I actually got to bed at a decent hour too. I swear, watching (listening) to Friends while sewing really makes the time fly!

I didn't bind the edges, opting to finish it quickly so I can make another one. (hopefully)I used my new walking foot to quilt around the squares, easy peasy. I loove my walking foot...it makes your quilting lines so much straighter!

The backing is a simple sheet, leftover from this quilt.

Oh so sweet. I thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt and thought about the precious baby it would keep warm during every stitch. What a joy and blessing service is!

They also need pillowcases and hankies...I cut up my odd pieces of flannel for the hankies (although I think I'm going to go back with my pinking shears and use them on the edges), it felt good to use those up for a good cause! I also used my immense amount of that plaid fabric to make a simple receiving blanket. I had picked up some pillowcases at the Salvation Army for random purposes, but this tops anything I could do with them. :)

Top in progress...

The top of my quilt going to Craft Hope is almost done, it's going to have white sashing in between all of the blocks. I think it's called a disappearing log cabin block?

It was quite fun to do! Went pretty quick too. I used this sort-of tutorial for it. I watched Penelope while cutting and piecing it...such a cute movie! Definitely recommend!

la di dah

Guest blogger. Another thing to add to my not-useful-anymore-resume. At least the regular one. Now I have a crafting resume. hehe. I know you've seen the shirt tutorial by now...but if you want to see it somewhere else on the web, go here! ----> www.utahdealdiva.com

If anything, you can go talk about how cool you think I am. (which is waay) and hey, if you live in Utah, it looks like a pretty cool site.

I am in the midst of a new quilt. Yes, another one. This one isn't selfish sewing though. It's for Craft Hope. Go check it out!



Their newest project is making blankets, booties, and hats for orphans in India. I love crafting for a good cause. I'm using all materials I have on hand...great for stash busting.

Don't forget...the drawing for the shirt and bag o' scraps is open until Wednesday!

hot day

Sewing, etc.

It's been like Christmas morning around here. Awhile ago I helped a friend in our ward pick out fabric for a quilt for our then-bishop's wife. She gave me the leftover fabric the other day, woo-hoo!

Of course, I had to make some goodies for her to say thank you. (hope she doesn't read this before I give them to her)

Update to my ribbon shirt giveaway! I am now giving away the shirt AND a (quart size) bag of random scraps from my stash. For those of you who don't have a 9-12 month old baby girl. I recently went through my scraps and folded every. single. piece. There are some cute ones in there!

Finally, a pillowcase dress...just had to make one!

Ezra's birthday presents! (he's opened them by now)

what's this green stuff?

As you can see, the verdict is still out on grass. We'll let you know.

Naptime shirts

Whipped out these sassy summer tops during afternoon nap today. (and yes, honey, I weeded the front yard today) They're so easy and quick, gotta love that.


It's easily adaptable into a dress as well (aka pillowcase dress)....I will have to resist the urge to sew her a dress/shirt in every fabric I have...haha. I got the fabric at this shop, my favorite place for fabric on Etsy.

Sweetie. pie.

Today I attempted and conquered pie crust! Real pie crust, not a graham cracker crust or anything. It was in honor of Rory's mom's birthday today. She is a pie fan and master. So...it had to turn out good! It got rave reviews, so I think I'll make this one again, although it was a little bit runny, I think it needed a little while longer in the fridge. Nothing beats fresh strawberries! I also made a vanilla cake with strawberry cream cheese frosting that was pretty good too! Below are the recipe links.

Strawberry cream cheese frosting
Vanilla cake
Pie crust
Strawberry filling

Yummm

Sadie looked super cute today in her new outfit I made the other day. It fit really well, I didn't have to adjust anything, which was nice! Plans for more shirts like this are in the works. :)

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to Rory and my Dad, and all the dads out there.

You're awesome!

Especially when you wear your wife's apron to grill dinner. (hehe) (on his new BBQ) (YUM.)

can't beat 1.50

That's how much this men's shirt cost me at Salvation Army. That plus an hour or so of sewing produced this cute little number. Alas, I did not think of this cutie pie idea. I got the idea here. This blog is awesome. I can't wait to make some more shirts like this one!

Cassy and I have big plans to eat some sushi tonight and enjoy some quality time without the kiddos. Can I just say I'm soo excited? Well, I AM! Sadie's stirring from her nap, so gotta go.

Surprise!

Well, we successfully surprised Rory tonight! Can you tell? (notice the box of diapers in his hands.) giggle.

I couldn't have done it without all of our friends and family...thanks to all who helped, especially Janae and Joanna, they did all the set up and decorating, while watching Sadie. I got to chill out at Red Robin with my hunny and come home to a party all set up! I'm doing surprise parties from now on! haha. jk.
They did such an awesome job with the balloons and streamers...it was so festive!

We had our table set up with funny pictures of Rory and a jar of Reese's pieces that you could win if you guessed how many were in it. There were 418 (yes, I counted, and it only took like 3 minutes), and Joanna guessed 401, so she won! (Jarom also guessed 401, but there were also 4 other votes with his name on them...so he was disqualified.) lol.

Rory was pretty surprised! I thought I was being so obvious and figured he had SOME idea, but nope. We got him. Woohoo!

Yummy cake...chocolate cake with peanut butter frosting, what else for Rory? Recipe for the cake here, and the frosting here.

Only six candles, but I didn't want to spend the money on 29 of them. Rory is such on old fart! haha.

The cupcakes had R's on them, Janae did the Reese's pieces ones and I did the piped ones. yum! We had a bunch leftover.


Of course after everyone left, we had to have some fun with the decorations!

Ah, my mature husband.

Happy Birthday Rory.

Ni-ice. Sorry Rory, but you know the rule now, embarassing pictures on your birthday are a must! Happy Birthday hun. Every year that goes by is more and more fun with you around. Thanks for all you do! Go buy yourself a video game or something! (Rory is soo easy to shop for) Pizza night tonight, don't be late!

Rory's cupcakes for work...they kinda look like fried eggs, but still yummy. I made the marshmallow fondant, it was way easy! I used this recipe.

Good practice for Sadie's birthday...Oooh. I have big plans. Can't wait.

Busy day....

Today included:

Sadie's first pasta, of which she was a BIG fan. Not.

The ceremonial first mowing of the front lawn! oooooh aaaaah.


Doesn't it look swanky?

Here's the full effect! Super nice, I know.

Also included Stephanie doing my hair! I went back to my blond side! I love it, it's so summery.

A family picture on our front steps...

and Sadie emptied part of our flower beds. Hey-it kept her happy for like 20 minutes. I never say no to that kind of fun.

Up

Go. see. this. movie.

Rory and I enjoyed a trip to the cheap night at the movies ($5!), for his birthday, thanks to Joanna for babysitting! I laughed, I was startled, I cried. It was such a sweet movie and the old guy is such the unlikely hero. I loved the little Wilderness boy Russell too. Loved the friendship between the two and the funny adventures they got into, and the band of misfits they pick up along the way. I guess I'm not much of a reviewer, but it was great! The animation was amazing as well, as usual. Pixar knows what it's doing. :) Let me know what you thought of it if you've seen it!

back in the game

Ahh. It feels so good to sew! Another shirt dress...I hope this one fits, the other one was way too small for Sadie. I love the color combo and mix of patterns. It's not hemmed yet of course.

I've been mostly working on stuff for the shop since I got the sewing machine back so I haven't sewn much "fun" stuff yet. It was nice to kick back with some 30 Rock and make something! Can I just say that show is hilarious? Well, it's hilarious. Gotta love Netflix on demand.

10 months old.

Sheesh. What a drama queen.

All I did was try and take a few 10 month pictures and this is what I got. A full on tantrum.

Luckily, with Aunt Nae Nae's help we quickly got her on her favorite toy.

Soon, smiles were popping up and we knew the worst was past us.

At 10 months, Sadie sure has become a handful. She's so wriggly and on the move! Obviously now she can crawl, but hasn't used that skill to make my life miserable....yet. She loves all food. Especially pineapple, banana muffins, and chicken. She gets so excited when Rory comes home, especially if we're in the kitchen and she can see him on the front porch. Arms waving and smiling and cooing! She loves her new bathroom makeover.She loves to dance! If a beat comes on, she starts bopping along...it's the. cutest. thing. ever. She's still a bit shy at play dates and is wary of other kids. She likes her space I guess. She likes reading her books, she'll sit there and turn the pages...and then turn it upside down and look at it again. She loves the pictures of cats. She says "DA". Which is her word for EVERYTHING. Except for kisses. She loves to give us kisses and says" MAH!" when she kisses our cheeks. I love my morning kisses from Sadie. So slobbery and wonderful.

Oh, and her third tooth popped through. Hooray.

YUmm

Last night we made some awesome chocolate dipped strawberries with the leftover fruit from the tea party. I LOVVEEE chocolate covered strawberries. We also whipped up a batch of kettle corn and drizzled some chocolate on it. It was the perfect movie snack.

What were we watching? (we being me, Janae, and Joanna) Lost in Austen. Which was three hours long but, lovely girls that they are, they didn't tell me for fear that I would not want to start watching it at 8:00 pm. (which would have been right, tricky little buggers) It was hilarious and horrible and totally fun to watch. It's about this girl Amanda (slightly annoying, especially her hair) who somehow switches places with Elizabeth Bennett and how she screws up the Pride and Prejudice plot. Agh! We had fun shrieking when things happened that SHOULD NOT happen. lol.

Tonight for dinner I made chicken dumplings. A fun kind where you wrap the chicken in a biscuit and gravy goes on top. They were so good! I can post the recipe if anyone wants it.


Since this is a food type post, here's Sadie at her bumbo high chair, but the focus of the picture is her hilarious hairdo. She woke up from her nap yesterday with that little curl...ah, perfection. And goodness...the girl is 10 months today! I will have to take pictures tomorrow I guess.

Quick change

So...Saturday after my morning shower I mentioned off-hand to Rory,"we should take down that stupid sliding shower door sometime". It would make giving Sadie a bath in there so much nicer. It's very awkward now, what with my elbow in the toilet and my knee on the plunger. Not so sanitary either. We had talked about it before...but never acted on it.

Half an hour later we were on our way to Lowe's to pick up some supplies for the yard (post coming up), and a new shower rod. Is my husband awesome or what?! Before I was even done cutting up fruit for the tea party, he had ripped down the door and was scrubbing away, cleaning and peeling off the old silicone stuff.

hard at work...what a guy!

Here is the before picture from our walk through last year.

...and the after! Nothing else is done, so don't judge my style (or towel folding habits) on this picture, haha. The shower curtain opens it up SOO much and I love how much bigger it feels, inside the shower and outside of it. Our tub is in great shape, and someday we're going to retile it with some subway tile and paint and put new floors in....someday. Here is where I posted some of my ideas a few months back.