Quilt Retreat in Honor of My 35th Birthday!

My friend Dear Gina is hosting a wonderful Quilt Retreat at her Bed and Breakfast the weekend of my 35th birthday! The AMAZING, FABULOUS and MULTI AWARD WINNING Rhonda Beyer is going to be teaching her quilt "Spanish Rose." Not only will you be piecing a feathered star but getting time on a long arm machine!


There are only 9 spots open for this wonderful weekend. The price is only $475 and that includes lodging and most of your meals. What a deal!

Gina is the hostess at the Pickford House Bed and Breakfast in beautiful Cambria, California. Morro Bay is a short drive away for shopping at the Cotton Ball for wonderful quilt fabric, I almost filled my punch card in one trip last year. Hearst Castle is just up the road. I would recommend adding on an extra day, for only $99, to catch some of the sites.

Now you are wondering how my birthday ties into this. If I can make it, 8 months pregnant and all, Gina is going to whip us up a delicious birthday cake. For those of you wondering what you can get me for my birthday, this would be it! Contributions of any size would be wonderful.

I want this KIT!!!

I love this Christmas quilt. It is called "Twas The Night Before Christmas." Helen is the wonderful designer and she is giving away a set of patterns for her quilt. I hope I win.

I may have to order this one if I don't win.

Friday List

Betcha didn't think there would be a list this week. WRONG!!! We have much to do around here this weekend. We have 3 BBQ's planned for this weekend. One is at our house for Scott's friends, one is at my parents house for Father's day and my family to see him, and the third is at my friend Nathan's parents because Nathan and Brian are here for the weekend from Austin. So here we go!

1. Finish Andy's Wedding Quilt ( I hate Binding, Andy will be at a BBQ)
2. Finish and mail Red, White & Blue Swap DONE
3. Finish this weeks 9-patches, I need 5 2 of 5 DONE
4. Finish cleaning Kitchen DONE
5. Finish cleaning Entry Way DONE
6. Buy Food DONE
7. Figure out what to BBQ DONE
8. Buy Scott some shorts (he lost 55 lbs!) DONE
9. Change sheets DONE
10. Hang Towel Bar in Bathroom DONE
11. Hang Curtain Rod in My Living Room

Looks good for now! We have already been to the bank, the Farmer's Market, WinCo, Trader Joe's and JoAnn's today. What are your plans this weekend?

I Need Your Help! UPDATE

As you know Scott is supposed to be home tomorrow. In order to make his flight out of Dubai he needed to fly out of Baghdad yesterday. When I went to bed last night he was waiting for the next flight list to be posted. Also when I went to bed last night there were only 2 more flights out of Baghdad before his flight out of Dubai.

So here is where I need your help, pray to whoever you got that he made it to Dubai. I currently don't know if he got a flight or where he is. I know that sounds bad. I can't call him to check and I have already sent an e-mail, still no reply. I am sitting here waiting.

*** Scott just got to Dubai. It is 11pm their and he will be getting on a bus for the airport at 6am, their time, for San Francisco.***

It's REALLY A Monday!

I have been going all day. So we are going to try to quickly catch up on things around here!

First Gina is the winner for the Weekend List drawing. Gina and Lisa your prizes will be dropped in the mail on Friday when I brave the Post Office again! I hate that place!

My camera crapped out again this weekend so I can't so you pictures of the cute glam bag and lunch bag I made. What sucks is I love them both and I gave them both away! I am hoping H will get me some camera help, read your e-mail H!

My wonderful friend Kymn took Delaney for a long time on Saturday and I got so much done! I know I only got 4 things off the list but I got more than what was on the list done. In 3 hours I sat down and had lunch at Subway, one of my favorites and not so much a favorite of Scott and Delaney. I did some major shopping, first World Market for a gift, Home Goods for Scott some coffee, JoAnn's for fabric and thread (I got a killer deal on thread), onto Ross where I got a set of Mommy and me aprons for $14 (so cute!), next was Kohl's for 2 pairs of Nike flip flops that were on sale and last was Target for new work T-shirts for Scott that were also on sale. It went so quick when you don't have to do a car seat at each stop!

Sunday Delaney went to church with my mom. I went to pick up my cousin Jake to be some manual labor. We hit Costco for 2 cases of Beer, 2 cases of Juice Boxes, 1 case of diet Pepsi and 1 case of water. Jake's job was to push the cart and then load it into the truck. Then we went to my house where he got to load it into the Beverage Entertainment Center. Later we went to have dinner at Linda's for father's day, which we'll do all over again next Sunday with the whole family. Delaney stayed the night and I came home to finish the lunch bag.

Today has been a Monday! First 45 minutes at the bank, only 2 tellers open and 20 people in line. Then to the gas station, what a fun way to spend $100. I did watch the lady in front of me put diesel into her gas car. Yes the helpful man in front of her told her. ***PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT*** The GREEN hose at the gas pump is most likely not the one to use in your car. It is NOT gas it is diesel. Then to the post office. Again only 2 windows open, but not as long of a line. The crappy part is BOTH of them left the lobby to go get change at the same time and were gone over 10 minutes! Give me a break. Then it was back home to clean my living room, take a nap and make 3 9 patches before I went to pick up Delaney. Now we are home and making dinner.

Saturday List

Thank God for Auntie Kymn!!! She volunteered to take Delaney to her house to play with the kids for a few hours today. She said so I could have a break. We all know better than that! I now am making a Saturday list to add to the Friday Weekend list.

1. Get Scott's Living Room Clean DONE
2. Grocery Store DONE
3. Make Eggplant Parmesan DONE
4. Clean Kitchen
5. 5 Loads of Laundry DONE
6. Clean Bathroom

Looks good for now. Let's see what can get done!

You Know What Time It Is...

It is time for the Friday List!!!

1. Order new baby a pair of Heels from Heelarious DONE
2. Bury threads and bind Red Quilt DONE
3. Bind Andy's quilt
4. Teach Delaney how to cook Squash, Thanks Mom! DONE Zucchini Bread
5. Work on Red, White & Blue Swap DONE
6. Ketchup May and June Calendar Quilt June DONE
7. Finish this weeks 9-Patches 3 of 7 DONE
8. Clean off another shelf of baking rack
9. Go To JoAnn's DONE
10. Make Glam bags for Nik and Annastasia DONE

Okay I think that is enough for now. I am still waiting to hear if I am going to Old Sacramento with some friends, which also means a stop at IKEA.

Only 7 more days until Scott comes home. Which means another giveaway. Leave a comment with your weekend plans and you are entered.

What Did You Do Today?

Well I have a list, go figure!

1. Had brownies and a Diet Pepsi for breakfast

2. Eliminate 2 yards of fabric from my stash

3. Cut out a pattern with Delaney

4. Did the Cha-Cha to Handy Manny

5. Made several generations of Irishmen spin in their graves

6. Sewed up said pattern

7. Made ham sandwiches for lunch

8. Made plans with friends for train trips in October and December

9. Scrubbed markers (thanks H!) from small child, including face and teeth
10. Took photos of finished product

Okay you guessed it, this is dress B from the Portabello Pixie pattern Claire. Like none of you figure that it was going to be the next thing I made! The amazing part is all of the fabric came from MY stash! Yup I had pastels, go figure!

A few years ago Sew Many Quilts in Tracy did a trunk show at our guild meeting. I actually won a yard of Robyn Pandolph's Butterfly Kisses, large pink floral on the skirt. So in winning this fabric I needed stuff to go with it, I purchase 5 yards more to go with the 1 yard I won. Makes total since to a quilter. At the time I was pregnant with Delaney and I was going to do these fabrics in the nursery, change of plan. I figured I would last a week and then hate it. Into the stash it went.

Some of you are wondering about the Irishmen. Well, I don't use the button hole stitch on my machine often, maybe 5 times in the 7 years I have owned it. This darling dress requires 2 one inch button holes, to slide the straps through. CRAP!!! I had to figure it out, AGAIN! So unlike my legacy suggest I do, poke buttons until I am too drunk to remember what I am doing, I got out the book to the machine and read it first. DID YOU READ THAT MOM, FIRST. Which has resulted in the spinning Irishmen.

It's HERE!!! It's HERE!!!

I ordered the Claire pattern by Portabellopixie last week. It came in today's mail!!! I have been stalking the USPS website since they sent me the tracking number on Friday. I am so excited. I want to stop everything I am making and make one of each from the pattern, 3 dresses and a shirt.

This is the front and back cover of Claire. Look at the quality!

I have to tell you they are worth the price for the pattern! Each pattern comes with a BOOKLET with COLOR photos of each and every step of each item in the pattern. The booklet for Claire is 20 pages plus the heavy duty cover! On top of the awesome booklet the pattern starts at 6 month and goes all the way to 8 years old! Tons of use, especially if your kids have a gap in age, like mine will be 6 months and 4 years. The pattern itself is heavy duty tissue, not that cheap stuff you find in other patterns.

I have some Sushi fabric I am pre-washing right now to make one of these with this week!

Winner is...

6. Lisa

I will be getting a package in the mail later this week for you. Thank you all for stopping by and sharing your weekend with me. Come back next Friday to see my new list.

For those of you wondering MASH last night was the episode where Hawkeye was doing the Times crossword puzzle and needed the Yiddish word for bedbug. Yeah I stayed up and watched it.

Today I have been working a little more on my door prize gift for Thursday night. I still have a long way to go! Right now I am hoping to get it done in time! Dinner is at 6pm but I have to drop Delaney off to my dad first. Should be a challenge.

Never Miss An Opportunity

Yesterday while floating around blogland and catching up on last weeks blogging, I found an AMAZING opportunity!

I was reading a blog of a famous fabric and pattern designer and she had asked for people to e-mail her if they might be interested in sewing samples of her new patterns for her. She needs 9 people to help her. Then I read she had already received over 500 e-mails responding to her request. So I sat here and thought about it.

Some of you know that I went to school for fashion design. My favorite part of the whole thing was sewing samples. With that you are testing the pattern to see if it will work for production and where changes need to be made. I loved it. This past year I have also had the wonderful opportunity to sew samples for Ladybug Quilts in Manteca. As I have made samples for the quilt shop I realized the ultimate job for me would be sewing samples for designers and/or fabric companies.

So as I sat here and thought, I figured one more e-mail to the list couldn't hurt! Everyone keep you fingers crossed that I get to be one of the nine.

Weekend List

Okay you all are keeping me accountable for getting stuff done. So this might become routine to post my List of Stuff To Get Done on Fridays.

1. Clean off Air Hockey Table (this is also an OPAW) DONE!!!
2. Trim Andy's quilt, I picked it up today! DONE
3. Clean out toy basket DONE
4. Clean out Truck, why do I drive a Suburban and not a Corvette? DONE!!!
5. Sunday breakfast alone, Poop is going to my parents DONE
6. Easy Up to Heather DONE
7. Grocery shopping, we can no longer live off juice and popcorn DONE
8. Shopping at JoAnn's, need Red, White & Blue stuff DONE
9. 3 Bags of Stuff to Goodwill DONE
10. 9-Patches, I am behind again! 8 Done (where I need to be)

This list sucks but it MUST be done. I am hoping to at Coffee with my friends this weekend too. Friends I am waiting to hear from you! My goal is to have 2 Things done tonight. I guess I need not to sit and watch SpongeBob. Getting up and getting to work.

What are you doing this weekend? Leave a comment and I will have a drawing for a prize!

Scott comes home in 2 weeks.

*** It is 10pm on Sunday night, I have JUST finished the list! Suicide is Painless is playing in the background, MASH is on. Night***

Are YOU Kidding Me???

Delaney has finally crapped her way through enough diapers and wipes to earn me a free Starbucks Gift Card from Pampers. Guess What? Did you guess?

THEY RAN OUT OF STARBUCKS GIFT CARDS!!!

Yes Delaney has been 100% potty trained for a few months now. She even stopped wearing Pull Ups at night two months ago. I just got around to entering the last of our Pampers Gifts to Grow points today. SUCKS!

Pampers has a GREAT program call Gifts to Grow. There is a code on all of the diapers and wipes that you go to the Pampers website and enter. Depending of the size of package of the product you purchase is the value of points you earn. Once you earn enough points you redeem them for free stuff, toy, pictures, gift cards, ect.

We started earning points when Delaney was a newborn. Our first batch of points earned her some great toys for her second Christmas, I got legos, a reading system and 3 books. I figured since I am the one who buys the diapers and changes the diapers I should get something. So I started saving for the Starbucks Gift Card. Really don't I deserve $10 of free coffee?

Good news is, I am having another kid and the program is continuing until March of 2010 at this time. Maybe they will get more gift cards in and I can have two.

Baby Stuff

Lord know that I had everything under the sun for Delaney and then some. I still have most of it. But I have found some new Baby Stuff I think I may need.

First is from Baby Sock Bouquets. They have some GREAT stuff! As much as I would love the 3 tier cake, I would be just as happy with the Baby Socks Box.

Another thing I found today that I love is from Smart Mom. I WANT the Rainforest and Onyx gift set. It will be awhile before I am ready to wear my jewelry again what a perfect alternative.


I really love this! Scott.

These are a total need for the new baby! Everyone knows I wear flip flops or high heels. I didn't find Heelarious until Delaney was too big for them. New baby needs a pair, actually she needs this pair:

So Cute! They are the She's A Lady style and they are on sale right now!



I also found a Sprout Shell. I love the Black Swirl one. It would be perfect for winter.

Red, White & Blue Swap

I joined another one. I know I said one at a time but this one is too good to pass up!




I have been in the Red, White and Blue mood so this swap is perfect. If you want in you better hurry over and sign up. Click on the picture above to get their!

Monday, Monday

A new week is here. What to do, what to do? I look around and the list is long. We are going to have to take it in baby steps.

Today has been spent running ALL OVER Stockton. First stop AAA to pay membership cards. Then to Costco to get gas and to the vet to find out if we ever had Jack micro chipped, they're in the same parking lot. We talked about it but the lady said we didn't do it. City of Stockton is now requiring your pets to be micro chipped to get their licenses. Then to Custom Creations, they are going to fix my plexiglas quilting table Delaney broke. Last stop was City Hall to pay the water bill. We were going to stop at the bank and Home Goods too but after the steps at City Hall I was done!

Tomorrow is back to swim lessons. Then we are picking up Linda and the girls to spend the afternoon at Modesto Mall. Linda and Scott need something from the Apple store and I wanted to hit a few more stores in the Mall I missed on Saturday. Delaney wants to take her cousins to play in the water at the Mall.

I am working on my mini groups door prize exchange gift. We agreed that we would make something using Red, White and Blue. It could or could not be patriotic. I can't say what I am making since they all read my blog. Last time we met everyone went home with some great prizes. We have agreed that each of us would make something from our stash with a if needed spending cap of $5! I might have to spend $5 this month.

I did get Andy's wedding quilt top finished and to the quilter. It is a queen size quilt that measures about 90 x 110. I had a lot of sewing still to do on it Saturday morning. I am amazed that I even got it finished let alone to the quilter. I am hoping to get a few more small projects done this week. I only have 16 days until I pick Scott up at the airport.

Weekend list

I know I usually post this on Friday but I wanted to make sure everyone saw Delaney swimming. She LOVES it!

So this weekend the list is shorter
1. Finish Andy's Quilt DONE
2. Get Andy's Quilt to a Quilter DONE
3. Clean under couches (I have laminate floors Delaney can move them)
4. Work on mini Quilt Group exchange gift DONE
5. Bee Inspired quilt block DONE

Andy's quilt is going to take most of my Saturday. I am hoping to have it done early enough to get it to a quilter today. If not I will have to wait until Monday. Then I am cutting it REALLY close to having it back in time to give to him. I have stayed caught up on my 9-patches this week. I only have to make 2 today and tomorrow's blocks!

Let's see how I do!

Swim Lessons- Week 1

Today marks the end on the first week of Delaney's swim lessons. So here are pictures of how the week went.

Day 2 kicking

Day 3 kicking on stomach and back (also blowing bubbles in the water)

Day 4 Jumping off the Diving Board! She was 1 of 2 kids from her class to do it!

3 Weeks and Counting

Scott will be coming home in 3 weeks. I have started his list of things to do. I am on the second sheet of paper already. Wont he be surprised! Think painting hun.

I joined another swap. I am doing better on these. I only join one at a time and the first one has to be finished before I can join the next. I just finished an Annie Doll Swap, mine was mail today. So I joined Jane's Spooktacular Halloween Theme Block Swap. She still has room in Group 4. You have to make 12 Halloween 9-patch blocks and 12 Themed blocks. My theme is Ghosts. I already have 8 of my 9-patch blocks done and I am working on the last 4 blocks. I am trying to figure out how I am going to make my Ghosts.

Delaney's swim lessons are going well. She is learning to float on her back and kick her legs and to blow bubbles in the water. She already could float on her stomach and kick her legs. With any luck I will have pictures to post tomorrow.

What Happens When...

You finally get to sign up the kid for swim lessons, mom can sew and mom decides to spend 2 hours over the weekend making something for fun? Give up?

You get cool matching accessories to haul your stuff to the pool. I made Poop Amy Butler's Birdie Sling and Pink Sand Beach's Glam Bag. Instead of using the batting on the inside of the lining of the Birdie Sling I used Iron-on Vinyl to the right side of the lining. I figured this would be better to clean up sunscreen and wet swim suit. I am hoping to make a matching hooded towel in the next day or two.