Feeling Overwhelmed

There is so much going on in life these next few months, and so much I want to do around the house, with just no time to do any of it. So, I am making a list of things to get done, and I am making it a personal goal to get this list done before moving on to new projects.

1. Finish Diaper Bag Pattern and make another using the pattern (and email to testers).

2. Finish decorating/putting together my sewing room.

3. Make header for my Grandma's blog.

4. Get the rest of my stuff unpacked from boxes (it's been a year, it's really time to get everything unpacked).

5. Finish my Hour Glass quilt (I'm almost done!).

6. Design & make stuffed animals - giraffe & elephant! ...with pattern...?

I'm keeping it simple and attainable. None of these are a drag to do, everything is quite enjoyable, I just need to set the goals to get them done. As I finish each, I will blog about it to keep myself accountable to someone out there. That is after all why I started this bloggy thing. But this will take some time, i'm sure. Baby is only entertained and sleeping for about an hour at a time, and we are traveling a lot these next few months. I did get some help this weekend. I spent time at my moms on Friday and Sunday and she entertained Brice while I worked on my hour glass quilt and quilted Brice's quilt from her. Turns out the HQ only needed a new needle - thank goodness! We were worried the machine needed to be taken in.

On a sadder note, my computer decided to reformat my CF card from my camera the other day. It had new pictures of Brice and Colin on there...amoung other photos...like photos from Brice turning 3 months. A big milestone to me. Husband, and his infinate knowledge of all things computer related, is rescuing the photos for me. But it's taking time. I hope to post those soon.

Doodles

Trying to squeeze in a little craftyness on a hot (104 degrees) and humid day.

All Sorts of Adobe!

I am slowly teaching myself Illustrator, just by doing tutorials I find online. I'm giong to look at books today at Barnes & Nobel to see what I can find. I love learning a new tool. Today I utilized my Lightroom, Photoshop and Illustrator to create the picture above. I edited this picture in Lightroom to have that aged effect, then I created the rough edges in Illustrator and made it all come together in Photoshop. I've always wanted to know how to create borders like these for my photos. I used this tutorial. Have you noticed my other photos and their border with dropped shadow recently? I also taught myself how to create a command for that in Photoshop. It's about a dozen steps to create the effect, but all I have to do now is press F4! So nice!

An Award!

I've been given an award! Katie of And Sometimes I Quilt was kind enough to include me in her 7 choices - I feel very honored. Thanks Katie!

The rules are as follows:
1. The winner can put the logo on his/her blog
2. Link to the person you received your award from
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs for an award
4. Put links to those blogs on yours
5. Leave a message on the blogs of the people you have nominated.

My winners are: Oh, Fransson!, Chickpea Sewing Studio, Cornflower Blue Studio, UK Lass, Greeting Arts, Giddy 4 Paisley and Mama Sarah Bear. As always, it's hard to choose just 7 - I have so many I would love to give this to!

New Hair!

This is my husbands idea of taking a picture of my hair. A little distracted, maybe... My hair is getting to be a very dark blond, so I had some lighter color added in and got some bangs, as well as shortened some of my layers. There's more pictures here.

I started a new blog for my family to keep up to date on Brice, but you're welcome to view it, too! I have a link in the side bar as well. That way this can be more about crafting and I can go on and on about my adorable little boy in a blog of his own. Of course, i'll still do updates here. Like this: He's 11 weeks old now and so darn cute! He smiles all the time and is laughing, too. I just love seeing his dimples as he smiles. He definatly recognizes dad and gives him the biggest smiles.

Fabric Finds in Bandon

This is a lovely stack of 30's prints that I picked up while "camping" last week. I went to Forget-Me-Knots Quilt Shop in Bandon, OR. Bandon is such a cute little town and the shop was full of fabrics. Not many designer fabrics, though. And, as with Coo's Bay's shop, I noticed the prices were slightly higher than I would find here in the city. I've wanted some of the older prints for awhile now to add to the stash, and this was the first time i've seen them available in fat quarters. Perhaps I just haven't been paying much attention else where.

That Dog!

Oh yes she did! Thankfully, it was "craft" size and originally bought at 40% 0ff. It's not entirely her fault. I was dumb enough to leave my craft room door open and this is what seizures do to her. Oh well. She's okay and that's what matters.

We had our first spill over of tears. The poor guy was very upset about something. We couldn't figure out what, but it was so sad to see the tears on his face. 11 weeks tomorrow! Can you believe he's already 2 1/2 months old! So big!

"Cheep-Cheep"

Some more Illustrator. Kind of cute. Needs some work. But what do you expect for 10 minutes of fiddling with a program I don't know. I have some fabric to show you - my favorite thing, a stack of new fabric. I'm too tired to go downstairs and off-load the pictures from the camera. You'll just have to stay tuned. A Brice photo is long overdue, too.

Illustrator Doodles

Look what I made in Illustrator. I'm slowly getting it. Now, if I could just draw a bird...i'll get there. I bought some cute fabric yesterday - and even got 5% off since I bought my Bernina at that shop a few years ago. Bonus! I had no idea. Pictures, you ask...maybe tomorrow. I still have my new shelves sitting empty. I need to get some fabric unloaded onto them.

Fabric and Antiques

I made it to the quilt shop in Coo's Bay yesterday, Threads That Bind. While I did find a fabric that i've been wanting, but seems to be sold out of in town, I can't say I was overly impressed with the shop. It just lacked ambiance. But they did have a large selection of fabric, just not a large selection of the major designers. It's not just about the fabric selection, but how the shops feels. I did walk away with these cute fat quarters, though. The brown Joel Dewberry on the right I also got 2 yards of. I want to make a blanket for Brice out of this, backed in cloudy comfort.

After looking at fabric, I walked down to an antique store and found these old wooden spools of thread...

and a neat button. A good shopping day, wouldn't you say. I'm thinking of going into Bandon today to the other quilt shop. Everyone is out for a ride right now, so it's probably a good time to go.

Someone is a talker today! I swear, he changed over night! His face looks a little different, he is smiling even bigger at me today and is really starting to laugh. He's laying next to me on the bed and if I'm looking away at the computer screen, he talks to me to get my attention and then laughs when I look at him. It's amazing how quickly they change. After nursing today, he popped his thumb in his mouth! He just can't be out done by his "cousin" Colin.

And the Winner is....

Terrible image, I know. But I can't get it larger and viewable. As you can see, I went to Random.org and have found my winner - #8! Congrats, Dawn! I'll be mailing your winnings out when I return to town (Saturday if we get back in time)...I just need to know which bag you would like to own.

I want to say thank you to everyone for submitting your favorite blogs - I had so much fun reading them and was glad to find new blogs to enjoy. I also enjoyed seeing some new names on my blog comments. I like this contest stuff, and I think i'm going to do one again real soon. Stay tuned!

Yesterday, while the family went out on the quads, Brice and I hung out in the trailer. This is what I worked on. It wasn't a tangle when I started...but of course, I made sure it became a huge mess. If it wasn't expensive, organic yard...I would have tossed it out. But, I persevered, and it's now a nice, pretty ball of yarn. Brice slept.



I'm going to start on a hat for Brice today. He's almost out grown the other one I made him. I didn't get to the quilt shops yesterday, but i'm going to check them out today when the others head in to town to dump/fill the waste/water tanks. "Uncle Boopie" (brother-in-law) had a little too much Yeager last night...it was good times. He got some permanent marker on his back - "Tramp Stamp". He still doesn't know it's there. We are all having a good laugh over that. Last year he passed out while sitting on a parked quad while we were out at the campfire. He fell off it. Quite funny (since he didn't get hurt). That's what happens when you have a high blood sugar and drink. We were kind enough to give him some insulin after we were done. I'll be posting photos to the Flickr album throughout the week. You'll see our pictures of "Boopie" there.

Hurry!

Tomorrow morning I draw the winner of the 100th Post Giveaway. If you haven't commented with your favorite blog (here) yet do so by midnight tonight for a chance to win. Be thinking about which of the three bags you would like to own - because winner gets their pick!

Today is day 2 of camping. Brice did SO good last night. No body enough knew he got up for a 3am feeding. And he slept until 7am after that. This morning he is talking to his Grandma Bonnie and laughing for his Auntie Annie - it's so sweet! I found some quilt shops in the area...so I just might have to check those out today!

Camping Week

This is our "camping" week. I say "camping" becuase we'll be in my father/mother-in-law's toy hauler...so that technically isn't camping when you're sleeping in a 5th wheel. We're still making our way down to North Bend, OR. Yes, i'm in the car. I love technology. Thank you Verizon! I'm hoping we get signal at the sand dunes...if not, i'll be calling my mom and having her draw the 100th post winner on Wednesday. But, I do hope we have signal so I can post about all the fun we're having. I haven't been on a quad in a year (pregnant)...so i'm kind of looking forward to going out on one again. Our last quad "camping" trip was in January to Glamis, CA. I was in no shape to be on a quad at that time. I'm in the backseat with Brice - I have a comfortable back seat in my Element! ...never having ridden in back before. "Uncle Boopy" is in the front seat with husband (yes, we call my brother-in-law Boopy).

Sadly, my craftroom is a bit of a mess again. But for good reason. Look what hubby did for me! (After months of nagging.) I can't wait to get home and put all of my fabric away on these new shelves. It will be so nice to see what I have quickly and not have to sort through rubbermaids.

Friday husband brought me home a little gifty from my Grandma - fabric! It's a "100th Post" present. Wasn't that nice of her! She went to Stitchcraft to pickout these great fat quarters! Thanks Grandma!

This weekend found me hemming pants. Easy enough to do, but hard on my nerves. I'm afraid i'll mess it up and with what I spend on jeans, i'm not wanting to mess up.

But, I got two hemmed, and they seem to be just the right length for the shorter shoes I now wear. Somehow I just can't see myself wearing my high-high heels anytime soon. Just doesn't seem like good shoe to wear when toteing a baby. But these darling wedges (soon to be joined by brown and red) are just perfect for just that!

My mom's Westie, Lady, while sometimes jelouse of the attention paid to the baby, seems to be warming up to him. She gave him lots of kisses yesterday.

Birdy Bag Tutorial

Finally - it's finished! You'll find the pattern here. I've made three so far and think they are so cute. Winner of the 100th Post Giveaway get's to choose which bag they would like. Enjoy and send me links to pictures of your creations!