H is for....

Hearts or Hannah or Hannah's Hearts. After Hannah saw Lizzie's L she declared that she needed an H on a shirt. She looked and looked and looked in my fabric stash and found some red heart fabric. It's actually leftover scraps from a Valentine's shirt that I made her and Lizzie in 2005. I'll see if I can find Hannah's shirt and photograph it. It was one of the very first things I ever made. Anyway, after she found the heart fabric we needed a shirt. Last week when we were in Target, she picked out a hot pink shirt. A light pink wouldn't do. It had to be the hot pink. :-) Hannah's very particular about her pink these days. I'm quite surprised but I think it looks pretty good together.

Lesson learned: On stretchy fabrics, a stabilizer really needs to be used when do an applique. I started without it and then ripped the stitches out. Much better now! And, next time I'm going to round the corners of my letters and see if I like that better.

L is for....

Love or Liz or Lovin' Liz. This is for my niece's Valentine's Day gift. Hannah and I have picked out a few goodies to stuff in it. I hope she likes it! And, since Lizzie gets an appliqued bag, Hannah insists on an appliqued shirt. She looked and looked and looked for some fabric in my closet. Just wait to you see her shirt. It's going to be hysterical, but it's what Hannah wants so it's what Hannah will get.

With my new super-dooper serger, I made these 2 blankets in minutes. Bingham Memorial in Blackfoot, Idaho requested some blankets to be included in their donation of bereavement items. I whipped these blankets out in no time. My flannel wasn't washed or I would have made more. Note to self: the second fabric comes into the house....WASH IT!!

Next up...Hannah's H shirt, Austin's carseat cover, Austin's curtains, intermixed with some bereavement gowns. I'm BBBAAACCCKKK!!! :-)

As good as it gets...

This is as good as MY room gets for now....gotta play with my new serger. :-)

And, a shot of Austin in the sweater that Knit-A-Little made for him. It's adorable!

For Emily

My friend's daughter Emily is having brain surgery on Feb 4th. I made this the simple tote from Bend-the-Rules Sewing & will fill it full of girly things for her to enjoy while she recuperates.

Emily and her twin brother were born at 26 weeks gestation. She has chiari malformation which basically means that her cerebellum and brain stem are pushing down into her spinal column causing the spinal fluid not to flow properly. I think I got that right. She's been having debilitating episodes for quite some time now. We pray that the decompression surgery will eliminate them.

Serger

Oh Happy Day! Mr. UPS-Man just dropped off my new serger. Oh Happy Day!! My friend has this exact one and she's going to send me the settings she uses. She says it will cut my sewing time in half! Oh Happy Day!!

Take a look at what I did most all day yesterday. Well, at least all afternoon anyway. The closet is organized. I won't show you the room yet.

Let It Snow - Round 2

Saturday was another fun day in No. Georgia.

Let It Snow!

North Georgia received a rare event yesterday. We got snow!! It snowed big, beautiful fluffy flakes for several hours late yesterday afternoon into the night. Below is a progression of events.

As you can see, we had GREAT fun!

Blue Gown

Bereavement gown #1 for the year! I chose to use one of Care Wear's pattern's found here. To be honest, I'm not real happy with it. The neckline is too wide. I think I'd rather do one of Nancy's gowns or one like this that I've done before. I also want to try a WeeCare gown that is smocked. Speaking of smocking, I have one partly done, but haven't dug it out of a tote. I guess I need to finish that first, huh??

Here's to 2008!!

A few days late...but hey, that's how I do things around here these days. :-) What a year 2007 was! Those of you that know me or are regularly readers, you know that 2007 was one for the record books in our family. To be honest....I don't want to relive it. I thought about re-hashing it all for your reading pleasure, but what's the point. I've tucked it all away in a tiny compartment in my tiny :-0 brain and I'm happy to keep it there. It ended with a miracle blessing and a new home. How we got there doesn't matter.

So......believe it or not, I've cranked out my sewing machine and made this taggie toy for Austin. The blanket really doesn't need a pattern, but there's a taggie ball pattern too found here.


And, I just have to show you this picture. I was trying to capture a pic of Austin chewing on the blanket, but Hannah as usual had to join it. I just LOVE this one, even though Hannah's hair looks like it hasn't been brushed in days. It, however, shows how much they love each other. So much....that Hannah cried yesterday when Austin got his 6 month shots.

My friend Amy (not the author of the book, btw) sent me the Bend the Rules Sewing book for Christmas! I SQUEALED with the delight. She also sent Austin some handmade bibs and Hannah a cute tote full of hair accessories. I cannot wait to get to work on a few things. Check out Angry Chicken blog for some wonderful projects, too.

Cocoa Cones

Kirstin, Cathy, and I made cocoa cones on Monday. Hannah will give them out to her classmates tomorrow at her Christmas party. They were really easy and turned out too cute, I think.

Here are a few other versions that look to take a bit more effort, which isn't something I have time for these days. ;-)

And I can't leave out a photo of our little helper.

John Deere

Finally, Austin has a bedding set and finally, I'm posting about it. :-) The kids and I stayed an extra few days at my mom's house after Thanksgiving. She tended to them while I sewed non-stop for 2 days. I discovered a few things about my love of sewing...

1 - I don't like 2 day sewing marathons.

2 - I LOVE my machine. Like a dork, I ended up leaving my petal and electrical plug and had to use one of mom's neighbor's machines. My mom's machine is ancient and my grandmother's is hooked into a cabinet. Anyway, if I re-threaded the needle once I did it 100 times. Talk about frustration!

I'm not completely happy with the end result. The bumper pad is a bit too long. Since I couldn't talk mom into keeping the kids here at my house, I didn't realize that and just followed the pattern. The bumper is made as 6 pillows. I guess it will be easy enough (if only I could find the time) to shorten them.

The other issue is that the center of the bed isn't a slat, but is the space between slats. If you look at the ties, I've had to tie the top to one slat and the bottom to another in the center of the bed.

All of this isn't really a safety issue right now since Austin still sleeps in her carseat at night due to his reflux. But, I hope to transition him to laying flat after Christmas, so I'll have to fix this in January.

Hope everyone is healthy, happy, and having a wonderful holiday season. We are all doing great, but my computer time is limited these days. Austin's 20 min naps are kicking my rump. :-) Thankfully, though, he sleeps well at night!!

Btw, I didn't make the pillow. It was a gift. Isn't it cute?!?!?!

Just in

A great big thank you to Wool Winder. You have a heart of gold and I'm constantly amazed at your charity crafting. The blanket, gown, and hat she made just arrived. As always, it's exquisite. Please forgive me for not taking my own photo! Check it out here.

Pampered Chef Fundraiser

I've been out of town for a week and am in a hurry right now. I have crazy busy and have forgotten to blog about this. Tonight I'm hosting a Pampered Chef Fundraiser benefitting the EGF. Online ordering closes tomorrow so that items can be received in time for Christmas. So....if you NEED :-) any Pampered Chef for yourself or for a gift here's how to order.

Go here
Click on "Our Products" at the very top
Click on "How to Purchase" on the left side
Fill in Emmazing Grace Foundation in the appropriate blank
Go Shopping

Btw, I had a date with the sewing machine in a 2 day sewing-a-thon. I have a little bit of hand-sewing left and then I'll post pics. :-)

November is Prematurity Awareness Month

Learn the facts:
Prematurity has been escalating steadily and alarmingly over the past two decades. One out of eight babies is born prematurely in the United States. Preterm delivery can happen to any pregnant woman.

Join the fight against prematurity and visit the March of Dimes website. Also help celebrate every baby....those born healthy and those needing help.

Every Baby Has A Story, view Emma's here. My friend set the page up and I hope to get Austin's up soon as a winner of the fight against prematuriy.

Happy Weekend

Another beautiful sunrise this morning. This time with a fog cover below the mountains. I'll never get tired of this view. But, for now.....there are boxes where I should be sitting, sipping coffee, and watching the sun come up. Oh, who am I kidding???
Although, it feels as if we aren't making progress, I guess we are. It's just taking forever it seems. Austin's not being nice to me with his naps. He can't transition through sleep stages at the 45 min mark. Hannah did the same thing and it lasted well until after she was a year old. I don't know how to fix this. If I try to let him cry, he wakes completely up. If I go in to him, he jerks, eyes pop open, and he smiles at me. Stinker!!!

Anyway...just showing off the ever-so-slow progress in MY ROOM. The bookshelf is up and filled.
The old desk put up. I plan on using the spot to the right of the window for my sewing machine and the side opposite that for my cutting table.
And, my fabulous walkin closet. eeekkk...this part is my fav.
Finally, my poor pitiful 8" square for the San Diego Wild Fire Blankets. I'm not at all happy with it, but I'll send it anyway. It wasn't done without much effort, so maybe they can use it.
I'm really struggling these days. I can't seem to accomplish anything. This morning I decided that either I've got to get up earlier or stay up later after the kids are in bed. But, by the end of the day, I'm just exhausted....and the problem with getting up earlier is that I'm soooo not a morning person.

Happy Halloween from My Little Devils

This was taken on Sunday prior to the neighborhood Halloween Festival.

If you haven't seen, GeorgeAnne is collecting 8" squares for the San Diego Fire Victims. I'm sooooo slow, only have about a 1/3 of a square done.

Making a House a Home

Whew!! This is hard work, but it's coming along ever so slowly. The movers delivered our household goods on Friday and didn't leave until 9:30pm. I was about to drop in my tracks. They REALLY should have scheduled a 2 day unload. Mom left on Sunday and really helped us make a dent in the "box neighborhood" as Hannah calls it. Since then, it's only been a box here and a box there unpacked. Austin's doing the famous 45 min naps, which doesn't leave much time to unpack.

Here's my craft room. Do you think I'll be crafting any time soon?


The glorious sunrise from my front porch.

Wave of Light for October 15th

Knitters' Coffee Swap 3

I stumbled upon the Knitters' Coffe Swap 3. Nope, I'm not a knitter, but it's open to crocheters, too. I'm not really sure how I found it. I was just jumping from one blog to another looking for inspiration and couldn't resist. I LOVE coffee. I'm one of those "don't talk to me until I've had my coffee" kind of gals. Btw, I've already spotted the local yarn shot in my new hometown. I'm sure they'll have something fun for the swap.

1. Whole bean or ground? Ground, don't have a grinder yet, but would love one.

2. Fully-loaded or decaf? Fully-loaded. What's the point of coffee if it's decaf??

3. Regular or flavored? Both, but love trying different flavors.

4. How do you drink your coffee? With Half-n-half and Equal

5. Favorite coffee ever? Last year we brought home a REALLY good coffee from Hawaii....it's lllooonnnggg gone now and I have no idea what it was.

6. Are you fussy about your coffee or will any old bean do? Nah, not really fussy, just not a bitter coffee

7. Favorite treats to have with your coffee? Something sweet. :-)

8. Anything else about your coffee preferences? hhhmm...can't think of anything

9. Yarn/fiber you love? I generally work with acrylic baby yarns, but am ready to branch out. Just the other day made some cotton washcloths for the first time.

10. Yarn/fiber you hate? Nope

11. What's on your needles? Preemie holiday hats

12. Favorite colors? Jewel tones

13. Allergies? Nope

14. Anything you really love, really don't like, or just need to get off your chest? I love big, chunky coffee mugs...the ones you can wrap both hands around.

Ok, guys...this is my last post for a while. I'll see you in Georgia.

My Coasters Arrived!

I won these beautiful coasters from Anne during a drawing she had for her 100th post on her blog. Thank you so much, Anne. They are BEAUTIFULLY done and I'd love to have the pattern. Is it online somewhere??