Give Away!!

Alright, my first Give Away! How exciting! I love making purses and feel the need to share. Here is an Amy Butler Frenchy bag using Joel Dewberry fabric. It is lined with the same upper exterior fabric. It also has a magnetic closure on the inside. It's just perfect for summer! Just leave a comment and how I can get in contact with you if you win. Either an email address, your blog address, or Etsy Shop Name. I'm going to pick a winner on Saturday night (May 3rd). Good luck!

I am also involved in another Give Away through Etsy Homefront Team, which is made of up shops that are either military or military spouses. This give away is currently running through May 15th. You have to contact me through my Etsy shop for a chance to win a felt fruit bunch. There are 19 shops participating. You have to contact each one separately (through their shop) to be entered for their prize. You can see all the prizes and link to everyone's shop here. Good luck to everyone!

April Crafts - Week 4

I've been busy with the felt food this week! Mostly, I've been finishing up some new foods for my friend Chris. I also made a little ladybug purse for Brian's daughter. And do you like the poptarts?! : ) I use to eat them with Brian, a co-worker and friend back in CA, and also with my brother growing up. Good times!

Also, I'm going to be having a GiveAway starting tomorrow and ending Saturday. It's going to be for a finished Amy Butler Purse using Joel Dewberry Fabric. If you are interested in entering for the free purse come back tomorrow (even though I might put it up tonight to get a head start). I'm also going to be doing a GiveAway with a group from Etsy. I'll give you more info about that when I get it, so for now - have a great day!

Sydney

On our way to the in-law's house this weekend, we stopped at a rest stop to release some of Syd's energy (and a dirty diaper). I just took a couple shots and I think they turned out great. She is really starting to get a "little girl" personality these days.

Teacups

We went to Matt's parent's house this weekend to help clean out some stuff from their shed. These teacups are a precious heirloom. They were originally Matt's grandma's grandma's teacups. Does that make it great-great grandma? Ah well. Either way, they are divine. Their are 12 cups and 12 saucers. Not all of them match which adds to the charm, I believe. I better learn to like tea! : ) Sydney, too, for that fact!

Holy Smokes!

Look at this new pattern from (you guessed it!) Amy Butler! Isn't it adorable? And since I know all of you are eager to make it like me, I think it'll be out next week. haha. I don't know how I'm going to explain to Matt how I want another purse pattern. haha. If you have any ideas let me know. Thankfully, he is very supportive of all my sewing but he doesn't understand the need for purses and purse patterns. Hmmm...there is still time! : )

Curious Martha

We have this neighbor cat that comes around from time to time. I don't know what was in Martha today but she was very curious with her new friend/enemy. And for all you who know Martha, I know what you are thinking "Enemy!" haha. I wish I knew what she was thinking.

The cat is on the other side of the fence but still on a post (so you can still see it in the picture, if you look closely).

April's Crafts - Week 3

I know, I know, it's only 6 projects instead of 9! : ) I've actually been crafting a lot. I had a couple custom orders from the tags so I had to spend my time working on their goodies. I also have had a couple of other custom orders that I am currently working on. I'm very excited to show them to you when I finish! So see, I haven't been slacking off! haha. The bottom left picture is my newest felt food - asparagus! We love it in our household so it was only fitting. Have a great day!

Abilene Zoo

On Saturday, we drove to the Abilene Zoo. We were expecting it not to be that great but we were wrong. It is a smaller zoo but they don't spend their money on a lot of small animals. They had lions, giraffes, bears, zebra, bison, rhinos, a panther, a jaguar, and some other smaller animals. It was really nice. Sydney had a good time and that's all that mattered to us!

Here's a peacock showing off.

You could "feed all the animals except the monkeys" is what the zookeeper said. You can buy these rye crackers for $1.50/8 crackers. Good deal! Here we are in front of the bears. It does look a little bit disturbing but you actually have to throw your cracker onto the cement ledge for the bears to reach it and eat it.

My daughter is more brave than me. That's her in the yellow shirt touching the snake.

Chasing the birds.
She was so tired by the end of the day she fell asleep while eating a granola bar! The funniest thing was when she woke up - she didn't miss a beat. That granola bar was in her mouth before she realized where she was!

Happy Friday!

So Sydney's pretty funny these days. She likes to change the diapers on her animals. And I know what you are thinking, "She just needs a little brother or sister so she can change their diaper!" No, no she doesn't! Elmo works just fine. : )

Here she is in action:

In the craft front, I now have stuff going to Australia and Hong Kong! The paper crafts going to Hong Kong are going to be sold in her store there. How fun is that? My stuff is going to all these places I've never been! Well, a random fact, I did live in Australia when I was a baby. Unfortunately, I don't remember a thing. Alright, have a happy Friday!

Cupcakes + Sydney = Yikes!

April Crafts - Week 2

The "create" picture is a book cover I made for a composition notebook. I put ideas and drawings in the book for future crafts - just in case you were wondering! : )

Wii

So we finally broke down and bought one. We actually found it in Austin this weekend when we visited Nonnie and Pa. We set it up while we were there and had the time of our lives with Nonnie and Pa. We stayed up until 11:30 pm playing bowling! Nonnie is an avid bowler and just loved the game. Here's a few action shots!

A Dallas Weekend

We went to Dallas this weekend. It was a lot of fun. Karen and I went to Canton on Saturday. I got some fun stuff! Canton, is a town in TX, where one a month they have a huge flea market. I'll have to share some of my goodies with you all later. I also met up with some of my high school friends, Megan and Shelley. It was such a great time to see them again. It's been way too long! Sydney and Karalyn did a lot of playing together. Again, they are just so sweet together.

Karalyn has this great water table that they played with.

At this point, Sydney has thoroughly soaked all her clothes, so I removed them. Then the girls started splashing one another. I love this picture below. Syd just got splashed, you can kinda see her expression of a surprised smile.

No worries, Syd can splash back! Here's Karalyn soaked.

And my naked baby soaked.

They would both giggle after splashing each other. They are good sports. Then, after we get back home, Sydney comes down with a 102.4 fever and Karalyn (back in the Big D) is throwing up. So who knows how they got that, all I know is that they are obviously great at sharing! : )

Cupcake Week

So, as my friend Katie mentioned it a previous comment that this week is Cupcake Week on the Martha Stewart Show. I have been pretty excited about it. They started talking about it a few weeks ago, so they have a lot of hype to live up to! And no, I'm not sending in any pictures of cupcakes I've made. They are all pretty simple. I am excited to bake some of the ones I've seen on the show. Mmmm, they look so tasty! In my new King Arthur Flour Catalog they had this new item:

Yep, it's GIANT cupcake cake pan! That's my kind of cupcake! I've actually seen the pan here at our local kitchen store and it's big! So when I say I've only eaten ONE cupcake... haha! : )

April's Crafts - Week 1

I'm always busy crafting or making something. Here's the finished items of this week.

One of my newest felt food creations - limes! They go perfect with the lemons.

Finally, Martha receives a handmade toy!

I finally came up with a felt food plum pattern. I am working on a peach right now. Unfortunately, it's not turning out just how I would like it to be. Maybe it'll be done next week.

A couple alligators I made using a Japanese craft book. One is for Sydney and the other is for my niece, Karalyn.

A Little Randomness

Alright, here is a some random pictures of what we have been up to the past couple days. I've been wanting to make sugar cookies for the longest time now. I finally did it. I found some new cookie cutters at our fun little kitchen store in town, that sealed the deal for me.

Joanie, Jean's mom, makes this really great icing that was her grandmother's recipe. It's kind of like making candy so it's tricky. It took me 3 attempts to finally get it right, and then it still wasn't perfect! Ugh. I was so frustrated. If I'm going to bake, it has to be perfect! Anything less is thrown out. It's just a quirk! : ) But after 3 frostings and bedtime approaching, I relented and just used the last batch. These 3 shapes were my newest cutter shapes: a birdhouse, a squirrel, and a strawberry.

Another "Poor Dixie" picture. Yes, she is sitting on her!

Again, Dixie could care less.

Look how long Sydney's pigtails are getting.

Remember this picture from July 20, 2007! What a difference!

Okay, this one is for Jenn. I was talking to Jenn the other night and she informed me that she notices I put paper down under anything Sydney is doing. I thought it was ironic since just that afternoon I made a permanent play/craft mat for the table! Ha! Here's what is looks like. It's made from oilcloth and I sewed a dark brown bias/border around it. There is no more cutting up paper bags or newspapers, and if there's a mess it just wipes right up. Perfect!

Thanks for following along the rabbit trail of my brain! : )

Can you say "Purses!"

Um, a little embarassed to show you all my purses I've made in the past week! The first 2 are my favorite and keepers. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the bottom two. I better start sewing some other things so our closet isn't just full of purses - not that there is anything wrong with that! : )

Our Easter Celebration

I hope everyone had a great Easter celebrating Jesus. This Easter, for us, wasn't what I had planned. Syd had a bad stomach bug in the middle of the week. Matt and I had it this weekend. Yuck - that's all I've got to say. So we couldn't even make it to our church on Sunday! Also, it rained all day therefore Syd didn't have an egg hunt. Ah well, she doesn't even know the difference anyway. She did enjoy her basket and coloring eggs. Here are all the pictures below.

A thanks to grandma Karen for the extra goodies in this basket.

We obviously bought the Elmo Egg Coloring Kit.

The plastic eggs they make these days!