Valentines Day.... yesterday... and WIPs

My family is sick.
Courtesy of mom! I got a bad cough that developed into bronchitis last week, and now all three of my girls and I are vegging out on the sofa, with our quilts of course!

So for Valentines Day, I woke up at 1 am, feeling awful! Saw my husband had written a sweet Valentines day note on the mirror (dry erase) and I felt guilty because I had done nothing for him. I spent a few weak moments writing a long note to him on his mirror. He had a card for me with an amazing personal letter, and a bag of chocolates from the kids. He feels like he didnt do much, but WORDS mean so much to me!! I really felt loved. He also came home and made dinner, that was major brownie points for him.

Did I mention that he walked into the house with an arm FULL of packages and said they were for me? I felt like a kid in a candy store! I got my polka dot charms from a swap, AND the fabric I won from Sunny in CAL..

Polka Dot Charms!!

There was also a bonus piece of GORGEOUS fabric!!!

I have not gotten much done, but I did finish a small token for the girls for Valentines Day. I had planned on bigger pillows but ended up with just enough strength to manage these. They must be a hit, even the oldest is still carrying hers around.

I used a tutorial for a start, but ended up having to make my own pattern for these.

Well, the old body is crying for some rest. Im off to the sofa for more healing.

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Progress:
Blocks for February NuBee's (1 of 5 completely finished)

FRMQG Adventure Swap Block (Januarys done, February's wip)

No progress:

Craftsy BOM class blocks - need to do 2nd January block and February's

Sabryna's Crazy Improv quilt

Piecing brown/aqua/orange quilt

Birdie Stitches Block of the Month - on April
Doll quilt for niece

piecing yellow/grey/black quilt

Christmas Improv quilt

This week's stats:
New projects - 0
Completed projects - 0
Currently in progress -9

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WIP - #30

Ahhhh... the nice June days...


Finished: Well I did manage to finally finish this quilt!!! Yeah and a month early too!

In Progress:
Birdie Block of the Month   On March and it still looks like this:

Marshmellow Brochette   Quilt Along (for Angelique) on to the next step, made the strips.
 Decided i needed to do some planning for step 3 and did so much math my mind is spinning. However, here is a picture of the pink we chose... what do you think?

New This Week:
  I need to figure out a way to take these old quilt items and make them into a pillow for my mother in law... not sure how to do it or even how to fix the one... any thoughts? ideas?

I also am going to start a quilt with this group:  (fabrics are sort of selected using a ton of 5" charms that are kinda random)

My other daughter has fabrics for a quilt for her.. i need to pick a pattern or idea and get cutting soon. These are her fabrics... Puncuation (i think) and a Robert K solid:

WiP Wednesday #30 Recap:
Last week's total: 3
Finished this week: 1
In progress this week: 2
New this week: 2
This week's total: 4

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A Derby Tale

The morning started out dull. We arrived way to early at the Palmer Lake Kids Fishing Derby. Rather than sit around we helped the people set up. Once 8 am hit we were on our way down the lake with our new poles!

The morning got even rougher with a mom and papa who were trying to remember years ago how to put a pole and line together. After a few funky and very funny attempts at casting, we finally figured it out! But before we could start fishing, we had a few neighbors join us and these little guys swam by to say hello....

Then we were down to business. Each of the girls were told to be patient, quiet and to not give up. The older two were allowed to experiment with casting and learned quite quickly....

Zoey was too little to really trust with the hook, so papa and mom helped her out the best they could. However, when her line came in... she cried out "they took my corn and gave me seeeeeweeeed!" followed by a disgusted look on her face. She did not like that seaweed one bit.

As the day progressed, it was funny to watch what the girls did. Sabryna thought that it would just be easier to sit on the ground... with a perfectly good chair next to her....

The one I worried the most about not liking fishing, is my active and fun child Angelique. I didnt know if she had it in her to be that patient. She handled the day super well, even when she got the hook on her finger! She didnt give up and had such patience! By the end of the day with not a single fish caught, it be came a game of learning how to cast out where they wanted it to be. They  sure did try to perfect their swing and aim!

It was a great weekend... NOW... I need to quilt a good comfy blanket so when we fish again, I can lay back with a good book and let them catch me some DINNER...

Anyone have a suggestion for a quilt for this??

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speed crop layout for today!

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Minne "SODA"

Converastion last night.

Angelique "Daddy what is Minnesota?"
Daddy "um, its a state"
Angelique "Is it where soda comes from?"
Daddy "um, no, soda comes from everywhere"
Angelique "then why is Soda in Minnesota?"
Daddy "Angelique, are you done eating?"
Angelique "Is soda older than Minnesota?"
Daddy "No, i think Minnesota became a state in 1850's, Soda more recent."

And then began a big discussion on looking at a map of states that includes statehood information!

LOL!

Thought ya'll would enjoy that.

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Working from Home - All is better!

Its been a bit since i posted. Such a hectic life i now lead!! Im so glad summer is here.

Where have i been you ask? Well besides the end of the year with MOPS, end of school year and a rather interesting vacation (from which im writing from)... I have also been glued to a new book.

Some of you, my friends, have heard me already sing the books praise since i started reading it a few weeks ago. I was only on chapter 3 when i knew it already changed my life as a "WORK AT HOME" mom. So now i want to share this book with all you my friends.

The book is called "Making work at home work" and its written by Mary M. Byers. For such a long time i struggled with fitting how to be the stay at home mom i am, with the fact that i do have a part time job. I have been trying to juggle in things like volunteering and being at the kids school, with deadlines. UGH! Its just too frustrating. One of the things i have learned from Mary is to no longer look at myself as a stay at home mom.

While some of her book was hard for me to relate too, I don't fully own my own business, there were many points that has helped me tremendously with my job at ScrapGirls.com - Like: How to be systematic, take a break, how to face a dinner dilemma (neat recipes included) and getting past the guilt of working from home.


If you work from home, either working for someone else or running your own business, please go get this book. I plan on going out to purchase a few copies to give as gifts to a few friends i know could use it!

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Lessons from God - part 1

One thing I am learning as I walk with God is that His lessons are never ones you would expect.

Recently things in my home and around me have fallen apart. Literally! One thing after another is breaking down. Does this mean I live in a disaster? Not at all. My home is one of pride for me. One of joy.

Lesson 1 : Contentment

I enjoy learning how to be content with my home and after the 2nd break down (water heater then closet) I thought God wanted me to learn even further contentment. Why would breaking things mean contentment? That is because I walked into my Husbands home, then fiance, with distaste in my mouth. The thought of lowering myself to live in a trailer was awful, but I looked at myself as a martyr for sacrificing myself for him. What a horrid way for me to think. He felt it, he heard it, he saw it... my disgust. My poor dear husband, I am so sorry! Then he got a job where he was not home for 2 weeks at a time. During his periods away, I was being changed by God. God was showing me, telling me that what a blessed person I am to have a home such as I do. A safe haven. A protector for my family. My husband did not see this change.

So when the water heater broke down, and it was my almost nagging that made him check on it. He was sure that I was rubbing in what a trash of a home we have. Oh, he was fustrated, so angry at me. I tried so hard to be nice, to be extra helpful, not quite sure what was making him angry. My works were against me. Everything I did only worked further against me. He saw it as me rubbing it in. God finally showed me a time where I could show him my hurt and speak to him. My husband told me how I made him feel. I was so aghast at myself. That my cold curt comments from over 4 years ago still hurt him.

I pray: "God, please help me to show him the growing contentment you continue to nurture within me. Please also help me to learn how to communicate with my husband, as easily as I can talk with you. Thank you for this lesson learned."

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52 layouts in a year.

I am one of the masterminds at scrapgirls.com who came up with Scrap Girls 52. We (myself, Becca and the SG team) came up with a way for our members to do something like Project 365, but in a way that did not feel so overwhelming. A way that would be more forgiving if you say... got crazy and forgot to take a picture. While we are trying to take a photo a day, our main goal is to get 52 layouts done. You should check it out:

Scrap Girls 52 Thread

Here is the first week of January.

















Products are from ScrapGirls.com: 1 Scrap Girls Refresh Collection Biggie (FREEBIE); Yesterday's Child Collection; The Secret Collection Mini'; His and Hers Collection Biggie; ScrapSimple Digital Layout Album Templates - Layered: 12x12 Album Series 5

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What is Love?

Ephesians 5:25 - Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the church, and gave himself up for it
Titus 2:4 - that they may train the young women to love their husbands, to love their children

I have just learned what LOVE really is. Its not an emotion of passion, yearning, and joy. Its instead an ACT. If God commands husbands to love their wives, and he instructs women to learn to love their husbands, then it cannot be an emotion.

I get the weekly newsletter from Dr Gary Chapman, and he went over this. And its TRUE. I have spent the last week coming to my husband in a new way. I know his love language is acts of service, so he has come home to a clean house, home cooked meals, even his work clothes washed (ugh). The joy it brought him for me to do those simple things for him is indescribable.

I honestly will admit that I was worried about us. We have gone through so much since November, and I was so scared he was starting to hate me (My issues with the fact he was divorced, deep down Im afraid he will do the same with me, gotta get past it!). Instead, with my small selflish acts, he is now responding to me in a new way. I can almost cry right now thinking of it. I feel more LOVE from him now then ever before.

Wives - Learn to love your Husbands!!!!!

















Get Dr Chapmans newsletters here: http://www.fivelovelanguages.com/

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Drugdery and Creativity

I keep seeing my blog and keep thinking. I need to post something. Most of you know through the message board at ScrapGirls.com that i recently lost my grandmother. I think I am doing fairly well with my grief. But what has really had me out of it is the fact that I am once again sick!

This is the 3rd time this winter that i have fallen sick. I am just astounded! I get mini colds, and maybe one bed ridden physically sick illness a year. But this year ive been badly sick 3 times.

So. Hang in with me. Im here, hiding, feeling guilty about the fact i have not updated in so long!

:)

Here is a layout i did recently to amuse you! I didnt have a red-nosed deer in my stash, and I wasnt too interested in the one at ScrapGirls (mind you its a VERY cute one, just not what i was looking for right then) So.. i thought why not make one? Im getting very good at making brushes. Ive always been able to sketch and draw in black and white. Color gets me though.. im artistically color blind. Anyways. Here is my little red nose's.






















Products used all come from ScrapGirls.com: Christmas Past Collection Biggie ; Basic: Brown Paper Mini ; Merry Memories Paper Solids Mini ; A Joyful Season Collection Biggie ; Make a Wish Collection Biggie ; Lettering Delights Martian Mania Font
Reindeer I created myself!

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Refrigerator Box

This is part of a Story experience, going back to my roots and remembering my stories:

It was summer, hot and boring in the then very small town of Moab, Utah. My mother worked full time, and we were left to our own devices. I was about 8 years old and my sister 6 or 7. One of those summer days my sister and I were playing in a large field near our house. When we got to the far end of the field we found the most wonderful things ever made, a refrigerator box!! While my mother was still at work, we managed to drag the huge thing over the field, across a street, into the house, around the hallway to our bedroom.

Now our bedroom, it was a disaster! We never cleaned it, it would have been my husbands worst nightmare for our kids to have a room like I did. The addition of that box only made it worse! Or maybe better? We had decided to make that box into a fort. But to do that, first we needed to clean up a spot on the floor for it to sit. Once we had done that, we decided we needed to equip our fort with toys and comfortable blankets.

My mom came home that night to find us still in that box. I don’t remember how long, but I know that box lasted for several days and became many things, sky rises, houses, school and even church.

Thinking back, I remember so many days where one little thing entertained us for hours. I know times are different now for my kids, I can only hope that they get a little of my imagination and know how something simple can be awesome!

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Silly Mom

I was waiting patiently at the checkout in Wal-mart when I saw it. A can of silly string. My first thought was to buy it and attack the girls when they got home from school. My second thought was about how I dont have time to play games. My third thought was that I need to do more fun things with my girls. So I bought it.

Zoey and I had hid in the hallway, ever so quiet, as we heard the gate open, and shut.... a foot step on the stairs and .........

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Broken

Driving home on Monday night, a conversation with my 2 1/2 year old daughter.

Daughter: Its broken mommie.
Me: Whats broken?
Daughter: the moon mommie, there
Me: Oh my heck! How did it get broken?

Daughter: The little girl at my church picked it up and went (ugh sound, and uhh sound with hand motions mimicking someone throwing something down)
Me: Why did she do that?
Daughter: I dont know
Me: Can we glue it?
Daughter: no, i cant see the pieces.
Me: Poor moon

Thankfully the 1/2 moon became full and she was very happy that night because someone glued it!

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Heights

I am deathly afraid of heights! So much so, that at times its a chore to even stand on a stool! My dear family just does not understand.

Though I do have to say, there is nothing more exhilarating in life than challenging your fear and go for it! There is such a natural rush of adrenaline, excitement, and fun. Just be careful how you go about challenging it.

About a week ago, my girls, myself and my mother in law, decided to go to the "North Pole". They get to brag about having the "highest" Ferris Wheel in the world. Course the thing is sitting on the side of a mountain! My mother in law was not one to ride rides, and this one required an adult. Of course I'm such a sweet mom, gotta let the girls experience this ride, right?

Needless to say, I was scared outta my mind! There was also a thunderstorm near by! I wish i had taken my camera up with me!

See me?

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