wip december 30

working on a little quilt for a little man!



my favorite cousin had a baby boy, Jude, and this little gift will be for him. I just love working with soft flannels for babies gifts. I am going to work off of the baby lattice pattern from Moda via Amy Smart. Love the soft colors in her pattern!! Mine are a little brighter, but still perfectly baby boy-ish!

first granny square!!

Okay, so it's not finished yet. But, it did take me 90 minutes to get to this point and be happy with it :/. I am working off of the Sunshine Day Baby Afgan pattern from Rosy Little Things. Isn't it going to be adorable!?

presents!

merry christmas to my two beautiful neices, haidyn and bella!

merry christmas!

merry christmas all!

silver bells

stocking stuffer - last minute!

I told my boss I would make her son something cute with some of the Timeless Treasures Owl fabric I had.



True to form, I waited until the last minute to even think up an idea for it. So I tried some of the homemade handwarmer tutorials that are all over the web...

I almost caught the microwave on fire... More than once. Still have to figure out how this project works. I had 100% cotton materials - but the rice still kept smoking! Not instant rice either. Either way, I didn't feel safe giving something like that to a 7 year old...

So I went with this. A Tooth Pillow. Here's hoping he likes it.

and I'm spent.

Just finished the game quilt!

SO happy to be finished, but I kind of think I will be sad to see it go! I haven't invested this much time in one thing in a long time...

white elephant exchange!

I am such a Grinch when it comes to holiday work parties. It has something to do with the awkwardness of getting together with people you work with that you don't spend time with outside of work... Nevertheless, they are going to happen, and they are still a lot of fun ;)

I realized at the last moment I didn't have a gift for our white elephant exchange...somehow slipped my mind. So we had some beer bread mix from Grand Tetons Brewing Company (GREAT place, by the way) when we were there in September. So I threw in a Blue Moon and made some bags. *Hopefully* it goes over well!

wip december 21

Well, it's almost finished. Just in time. I am turning the last corner of the binding for the game quilt I started wayyyy back in the spring. It's coming together well. I still have to finish a few of the accessories that go with the quilt, but here are some pics of the main attraction.

Tic-Tac-Toe board and part of the Twister side of the quilt...

Scrabble...

Candyland and the quilt tag...

...just testing out the cuddliness of the quilt - my sleepy husband and our favorite pup.

Now, on to the last corner of the binding and the accessories... T-minus 48 hours 'til gift giving time!

happy thanksgiving!

How was yours? Good, I hope.

Ours was interesting.

We spent 5 hours in the pet emergency room. Yep. Tyson impaled himself with a metal rod while running through my in-laws yard (within five minute of getting out of the car).

6 stitches later...



We can say we're most definitely thankful that he was not more hurt!

halloween feast of ideas

From my previous post, you can probably figure out that I had very little time to even decorate for Halloween this year...sad I know. So I've been coveting some of my favorite blogs to see what ideas they've collected with for Halloween parties and decorations. Here are a few of my faves!

From Bunny Cakes




From Carrie Mae at Creepy Cupcakes




Alexa at The Swell Life




Ahhh. Such wonderfully enviable Halloween decor ideas! Next year, next year :)

busy october

Without a doubt, October is my all time favorite month. It has my favorite holiday, my wedding anniversary, fall foliage that never disappoints, pumpkin coffee, pie, muffins, cookies (anything with pumpkin), and it's the beginning of sweater season (I love the cold!). Unfortunately, I have not be able to enjoy most of it. I started the month with a new job (yay!). However, that new job required two very strenuous weeks of 16 hour-a-day training sessions. By the time I was finished with the training, all the leaves had changed an many of them had already fallen. Boo! And now, there is snow on the ground...in October. Hm. And this past week, I have barely had time to catch up from being away for over two weeks and our house is a DISASTER. Anyway, I did have a chance to throw together some trick-or-treat bags for some friends of ours, Hope and Ben. I hope they enjoy them and have a wonderful night of Trick-or-Treating!





Happy Halloween!

moonstar love

As of late, I have been obsessed with rose gold jewelry. It's just so classic, I can't get enough. And, whilst browsing the oh-so-wonderful Etsy, I found this gem. Slighty Halloweeny, too, don't you think?




Here is the Esty seller's site.

halloween date night idea

I just think this is so cool! It's the 25th anniversary for The Phantom of the Opera, and to celebrate, a live show will be broadcasted to movie theaters around the world from London's Royal Albert Hall.

The first showing will be on October 2! Now, how to dupe my hubby into taking me to this...?

halloween bug show!

The Agricultural Sciences School at my Alma Mater is opening up an insect zoo for Halloween - how cool is that?!

Chinese Mantis image found here.

More on the insect zoo here. There will be Black Widow Spiders, Chinese Mantis, the Death Head cockroach and the Emperor Scorpion. That's definitely on the to-do list for this Halloween!

halloween/second anniversary quilt - binding finished!

I'm on travel this week, and the co-worker I am traveling with LOVES to drive. Good for me, I can sit co-pilot and get a lot of hand-quilting and crocheting done! One of the things I was able to finish was the Halloween quilt for our second anniversary this year.

This was my first sampler quilt. I have to say I love the idea of different blocks, but the lack of uniformity in the quilting because of the different blocks drive this little OCD quilter a bit nuts...

I free-motioned (or at least, I tried to) the spiderwebs. The effect is pretty cool, but I wish I had worked a little harder to make it cleaner. I still have some practice at FMQ before I feel really comfortable with it.

First time with applique...

My favorite block...

Despite my original uncertainty about the hubs fabric choice, I find that I LOVE the way the fabrics came together, and I don't think the other options I was originally considering would have turned out quite as well.

The back.

Overall, I am pretty happy with this. There are definitely some minor errors (some of my blocks didn't turn out perfectly 9"x 9" and there are pinches on the back from trying to force the fabric tree flat...), but I think this is definitely a big step ahead with my quilting. And I am enjoying it more and more as time goes on, so bring on the next challenge! Now...how can I hide the neverending fabric purchases from the hubs...

;)

halloween decor for me!

I went to my salon this week, and they had this at the counter!




I bought everything they had! Love this stuff - too bad I can't wear it at work...I see a lot of nail polish remover in my future! There is a glow in the dark polish and the OPI Shatter collection just screams for a Haunting Halloween!

happy birthday, miss Hailah!

So it's my neice, Hailah's birthday. And, she's One! How exciting. I made this for her first bday gift - since it is such a special occasion!


Happy Birthday, sweet little girl! I love you very much!!

contemplation

...thinking about joining my first QAL. This one seems like a good starter. Hmmm...what to do, what to do.


I could make a quilt for my neices 3rd Christmas using one of these palettes...



Floating Hues

Glazed Hues


Sweet Hues


Hens and Chicks


Water Colored


Cabbage Hues


Color Pick


Or I could devote it to the gray and yellow guestroom...


Charred Hues


Decisions, decisions. Either way, I might just have started a new obsession browsing the palettes over at Design-Seeds.