Thank You, Thank You!

So things have been pretty slow around here on the crafty side of things. I didn't even get a chance to work on my sewing machine since Sunday's crafty day at Nic's. I came home Sunday evening and both my sons were now feeling feverish and sick with colds. :( And then the rest of the week, there my sewing machine sat with the cover still on. :( As I was busy with the boys, taking them to the doctors, cuddling, and babying each of them at their times of need, I have neglected my Google Reader during the week. And didn't even know that I was selected as a WINNER for the Quiltstory Block Party Contest! Seriously!! Remembered when I entered in my three blocks over here.. Well the Modern block style won the runner-up and I won $25 towards Fresh Squeezed Fabrics. (Which I LOVE this shop and just bought some fabrics last month from them!) There were 73 blocks total in this category, with three winners selected. So flipping cool! And I get this cute little badge to put on my blog as well. :)

And the winning block(s):

I, in fact, still need to make two more squares like this to complete my pillow front. Hoping to finish this up early next week and bring it to our Ann Arbor Modern Quilt Guild meeting on Wednesday. :)

Rub-a-dub-dub

Lukas and I sat down and did his Valentines. We cut out the squares of all the kids names. (What a BIG help it was for his teachers to have these pre-printed for us to just attach!) We glued them to the Valentines. Lukas wrote his name on all the valentines. And we stuff some candy into them as well, after folding them. :)

I was able to go to Lukas' valentines party at school :)

Baby Girl Catherine

I received these pictures from one of my Etsy customers almost 2 months ago, and can't believe I forgot to post these. Allison was so nice in sending me these pictures of her beautiful baby's room all put together. I have to share not only the pictures of the bedding and curtains that I did for her, but ALL of the bedroom decor. Allison did all the Wall Art herself too! I'm thinking SHE should be opening her own etsy shop! ;)
But I'm also sure, baby Catherine is keeping her busy right now too.

Look at this ABC art closely... The letters spell Catherine in pink... How cute is that?!? :)

Is this not a cute butterfly wall art? Great job on this Allison!

Thanks so much for sharing these with me Allison! The room is beautiful, and Thanks for letting me be part of helping you decorate it. I'm sure Catherine will love her room. :)

Its a BLOCK party!

I've been working on some more Bee Blocks lately and decided to enter a couple of them in this Quiltstory Block Party.




The first one is using Christmas fabrics selected by one of my bee members. This actually was put together using scraps from another blog that I first did for her. This block measure 10.5 x 10.5".

This next set of blocks is for the Modern Block. This is from Oh Fransson's Mod Mosaic Pillow. 

These blocks are 11" each.

 This next block I did for a different Bee member, using the Sunkissed line by Sweetwater for Moda fabrics. This is a 12.5 x 12.5" block. I like that the fabrics are simple, and keeping the house and block simple as well.

Click on the Quiltstory badge to go over and check out the other blocks as well. :)

SE Michigan Crafter's Meet-up / Etsy order Crib Skirt

I've been reading made-by-rae for awhile now, and have heard recently that she actually lives in MI. In the late fall she started up these crafter's meetups, where her blog readers would get together and work on their crafty items. The meetings that they have had so far have been a little more out of my way than I was willing to drive. But there must have been enough input, including myself, that she wanted to venture out west a little more, and planned a meetup in Ann Arbor. So I met Rae and Karen and these other blog crafters at The Blue House in Ann Arbor on Monday night. We all brought sweets, snacks, and of course our sewing.
I invited Brenda to come along, and we got to chat to a few girls about the new Modern Quilting Guild in Ann Arbor as well. Im excited to see this guild grow as well. One thing that happened that was pretty neat, I was talking with a girl at my table, Emily for a bit. About our kids, crafts, new house stuff.. and then we exchanged blog addresses so we could stalk read up on each others blogs. When she handed me her blog address, I got excited and said, "OMG, you're EmmmyLizzzy!! I read your blog!" And then she replies, "Oh, you're THAT LeeAnn!" LOL! It was too funny.. Such a small world in the blogging world. What threw me off is, there is a picture on her blog of her as a blond. Its a small pic, so you can't really see her face to be recognized in person. But she acknowledged, that yes, she used to be blond. lol. Anyways, I met some really great girls there and look forward to meeting up with them again.
I won't be able to make it to the March meeting, since its on a work night. So hopefully the April meeting will be doable for me. :)

During the night, I worked on an Etsy order for a crib skirt with this fabric: 

It is Timeless Treasures Organic Cotton “The Mighty Jungle”

 I was able to start and finish it completely in the 3.5 hours that I was there. Although I'm sure it doesn't normally take me that long, but when you are sewing with company... well you know.. its just more fun that way. :)
So I had to model the crib skirt on my coffee table this time. My son was sleeping in his crib for the night. And I wanted to get this packaged up and shipped out on Wednesday morning. But wanted to take pics of it before it left my hands.

 This is the Simple Box Pleat Crib Skirt listed here in my shop.

 Thank You Jennifer for your business! :)

Another cool thing... At this meet up, the girl that was sitting in front of me was making a baby quilt for her new nephew thats arriving soon, and she was using this fabric, along with the other ones in the collection. 

We were fabric twins for the night! lol.

Brady @ 18 months

My oh my.. 18 months already??
My letter to Brady:

Brady B,
In the words of Black Eyed Peas, "I'm having, a good, time, wit-choo". I have forgotten how fun this age is. The amount of communication that we have between us is very pleasing. You've just started talking more in the last month than we thought you would pick up on. Some of the words that I can recall that you say are: mama, dada, 'kis' (Lukas), 'cease' (please), cheese, all done, uh-oh, all gone, night-night, bye-bye, papa.
When I tell you a word, you sound it out for yourself, such as today I showed you a green apple, told you what it was and you said it very clearly. Great job in your efforts on trying new words. For the last couple months, even though you weren't talking, it was very clear that you knew what I was saying. Maybe it was time to brush teeth, eat lunch, tell dada night-night, even would squat and grunt when I told you Mama had to go potty. LOL. You just seem to know what Im saying, which helped me understand what you needed or wanted, even though you weren't talking as much. Now I think we are getting over that hill, and you are trying to communicate to us.
Your daily routine consists of waking up around 7:30, because you hear Lukas getting ready for school. Nap time is right after lunch around 12:30. You still have a good nap, sleeping about 3 hours. And then its bedtime between 8:00/8:30. You love following Lukas around when he comes home, but you are also great at playing by yourself when he is at school. Naturally you've grown to love the General Lee. I don't know what it is about that car, but Daddy sure has passed that gene down onto you boys. That car seems to be a favorite one, just like Lukas'. You love watching Mickey Mouse Clubhouse, Chuggington, and Thomas the Train. Even dancing at the beginning and ending of the shows is a must for you. I love the way you squat your body down just a little bit, enough so that you start to get a bounce in on your dance routine.
Jackson, MI has had a rough couple of days with the recent death of a pregnant mother, then birth to her unborn child, now three days later, the baby has passed on to be with her mother and Jesus. Such a hard time for the family Im sure. Thousands of people prayed for this little girl and the family. Tonight as she passed away in the arms of her daddy peacefully, I held you in my arms while you slept peacefully. While I held and rocked you, It was so hard to imagine what that father is going through. I could not even imagine not having you the next day. I just stared at you, you're perfect baby skin all smooth, and tears filled my eyes. I sobbed until I couldn't see you clearly in my eyes anymore. It made me want to hold you all night, to keep you close to me.
I know that has nothing to do with your progress or your landmark of 18 months, but it will forever be remembered, the moment that I had those feelings and held you so tightly.
On a lighter note, Im looking forward to seeing Spring soon and for you to venture outside in the green grass. I'm sure you don't remember what that is like, and can't wait for you to explore the outside world. Im sure you will have that smirk on your face, almost trying not to smile, because you wont be sure what to do. Do you run? Do you stay by my side? It will be a great time for you regardless. :)
Im wrapping this up for now Brady. I've been meaning to get better about posts with you and Lukas and the things you are doing. And to be honest, Im glad that I sat down in the wee hours and did this one up now. Its not perfect, and its not going to be revised, re-read, and all that jazz. Its simply my letter to you.
I love you Brady B. You make me so proud to be your mom, the mom of those beautiful big brown eyes. :)

Archiving the blog

In an effort to reduce the memory space that i have taken up on this google account, I have decided to archive my blog posts prior to 1/1/11 over to HERE. Sooo.... I will have a link on the right side, if you ever want/need to visit my old posts. And from now on, I will make sure my pictures are sized at 640 max width when putting them on here. Lesson learned.