Been working like a busy bee because the holdiays have crept up on me!

Where have I been? Well lots of places really. The past month has been a blur of surgery, making presents and being extreemly busy at work (when I usually take a couple minutes to post). So my mom made it through her surgery with flying colors and is doing wonderful and even already driving (mom please be careful when you are taking medication).

Although with that good news also comes bad news… our dog Kaylee passed away a couple weeks ago. She was a tea-cup Maltese and even though it was really her time it was way too soon. That dog was so good to us. She was born back in 2001 and was born breech. If not for my mom’s friend being right there, she probably wouldn’t have made it. When she was born we knew she had a breathing problem (a collapsing trachea), but we wanted her. So at only 8, Kaylee passed away. We aren’t sure exactly what from, but you could tell that she was ready. We do still have Kami who has been much more loving than ever before, but it is still sad.

Anyways, today is my last day of work until next Monday and I don’t know how much I will post. I have been so busy making gifts and have really just been exhausted from the whole thing. I still have (3) more shirts to embroider, a couple mugs and a wrap towel thing for my sister (her extent of use for the internet does not involve checking my site, so I am safe with this one), if by remote chance she does check it… she still won’t know what it looks like so it will be ok.

I have completed a denim rag quilt (pictures later), (3) hats, (3) golf towels, so many bags (embroidering names on) I stopped counting, (5) mugs, and other small things I forgot to count. Me and my sewing machine have come good friends. I feel like I should give it a name. If I do this would it be a boy or a girl? Hum, I find I get along better with men when working with them... so lets have it be a boy. It is a Topaz 30, so how about Topie, or Topher, or Taz (it is rather fast). I will keep thinking about this.

Ok well here are a couple things I have done in the last month or things that make me happy anyways…

The one that makes me happy is Starbucks… I LOVE Venti White Chocolate Mocha’s…. mum thinking about them makes me warm and fuzzy!


Things I have made are (sorry the pictures are from my phone camera so they are terrible)….

Jake’s Hat back with his name on it.


Mom’s birthday present bag


I made three apron crayon holders but here are two.


TTFN~

Please think of me today...

I know I have been lacking in the posting area. November was such a stressful month for me. I had projects to finish and worked probably close to 50 hours of over time during the month. My in-laws came in town, I have been sleeping terribly and to top everything off... my mom is having surgery today. I know everything will turn out ok, but still I just hate it when she is in surgery. So with that said, below is the last picture from Tuesday night taken of Laci and my mom making her candy hosue. I know it won't be the last, but still I just couldn't imagine my life without her. I love you mom! As long as everything comes back normal today I will probably start my normal posting next week. I have so much to share and also want to do a tutorial of the candy house so that you can do one with your kiddos. Have a great day, and if you could just think good thoughts for me today.

Hugs!
Julie

Sew Excited!!!

Ok, so pun totally intended! I think I am going to be getting the Viking Mega Quilter next weekend with the frame and cruise control.

I know I just got my other machine last year, but I LOVE sewing and after the quilting I did on Saturday night I can't help but love quilting. It was AWESOME! I am really excited. I am not quite sure how I managed to talk the hubby into it, but I did tell him that I would be willing to pimp out my quilting skills so that I can make some money back on the thing. I just need to get the word out there once I have done a couple and feel comfortable taking on other peoples work. I mean if I screw up my own stuff that is one thing, but I hate to screw up someone elses stuff, you know!

Anyways, I know I have been sparse on here lately, with work and trying to get this gift done I am just fully exhausted. Although I do have LOTS of photos to share and am planning on doing the Take the Time Tuesday tomorrow so that I can share the best ones from just this past weekend.

TTFN,

Amazing & Exhausting

These are just two of the words that I would use to describe my last week. I am entirely exhausted, but completly amazed by all that I have learned and now know that my career path is taking a different turn than I originally anticipated growing up. With this will come A LOT of hard work, and dedication, but I am ready, willing and prepared to take on this challenge. What is it you ask? Two years ago I started working in the Loss Prevention department for a national company that sells beauty supplies. In this last week I have decided that I do want to become an investigator (to which level is still to be determined), but I want to do this more than anything I have ever wanted. Will I have a hard time? YES! This is expected as it is a man's field and I am a female that is 5'4" and may be seen as a push over. Why do I want to do this? Because it will be a daily challenge to better myself. Anyways, I will do my take the time Tuesday tomorrow and talk more about my amazing week, Halloween and I will also work on addressing a question from a reader I got last week.

TTFN,
Julie

Day 5 of the 13 Days of Halloween Giveaway

Ok, so not my best photo I know, but this was so much fun learning how to do. It started out as wood blocks. Then I put the scrapbook paper on top with glue and cut around it. Then I modpodged it on the top and sides to secure it. Then I used Diamond Glaze on the top of it. Last I glued the pendant charm thing on the top back of it. It was so much fun to learn how to do. You can do it with pictures too. I did one of Laci and it was super cute!



TTFN,

Day 11 of the 13 Days of Halloween

So Day 11 was the most special, not only because I took so much time to make it, but I know that she wanted to put this together and I hope I helped jump start the process.

So my swap partner has a site off of her blog called 101 things she wants to do in 1001 days. #36 said she wanted to put together a family cookbook.

Well with that in mind I started working and I came up with a really cute three ring masterpiece. I loved it and wish I could make the time to make one for myself. Below are some pictures and the others are all on my flicker page. What do you think?

Tomorrow I will be back with a couple of the other days I didn't post pictures of and maybe some office photos of the Halloween Costume Contest.

TTFN,

"Sense"-ational Tuesday also known to me as Take the Time Tuesday (Wednesday this week)

"Sense"-ational Sundays came from Emily Adams an old co-worker who used to blog her senses every week. She always started with this... "Our senses tell a story. I've committed to recording my 5 senses for the past week - every week - as an exercise to explore my sensory world. I challenge you to do the same. If you choose to do so, just blog your 5 senses every Sunday (or Tuesday [This week delayed to Wednesday]for those of us who are a little lazy on Sunday); let me know - I'd love to read along!" I find that it is a great way to share with my family and friends some of the highlight of things that I have done during the week that mean the most to me.

See:
This week while sick I completed the 121 blocks for my denim rag quilt. I love looking at the massive stack and feeling so accomplished for what I have already done. I appliquéd hearts on 60 of them and did a star design on the other 60 and then on the middle square did the home is where the heart is design. I can’t wait until I have class this Saturday to start putting this thing together.



Hear:
Tons of kids running around the party, and “Why don’t you decorate cookies.” As you can see from Laci’s lip she did as much eating as she did decorating.


Touch:
Laci just loved the dog at the party we went to on Sunday. We had such a great time and as you can see, she was so happy to play with Tigger the schnauzer.

Taste:
Laci had her first pop up ice cream this week. You can see from her expression it was cold. Ok, so I know I am dating myself, but do you remember when these used to be Flinstones pops? They aren’t anymore or not where we got this one. I was kind of sad. I always liked seeing Fred on the side. Ok, I am so totally over that and can’t believe I just actually said this.

Smell:
The weekend before we got sick we went to Owen’s farm for the pumpkin patch. We smelled the animals (yucky), but as you can see I got a good picture of Laci with the animals and with the scarecrow set up they had. It was so much fun, and let me tell you… the seeds that the hubby made from the big pumpkin we got were so good they were gone before I could take a picture!



Tomorrow I will upload more images from the 13 Days of Halloween Swap of the things I sent, I can't wait to post day 11's item that I made. It was made with a lot of TLC!

TTFN~

Giveaway Project Finished

In what I would say was probably record time, I managed to buy fabric just Tuesday, and managed to get the project finished today, Thursday. It turned out great. I must say, trying to find that robot/gear fabric took a little while since it was hidden in the apparel section. Not sure I would want to make a skirt or shirt out of the fabric, but it sure is super duper cute for this. So

what do you think?

Well Rita, I can say it is done, now I just need to get to the post office to mail out the masterpiece for your little Daniel.

TTFN,

H1N1 / Swine Flu - Day 2-4 of the 13 Days of Halloween

Ok, so I promise I am not being a bad blogger this week. Laci came down with the H1N1 and has been taking medication since Monday night. Me? Yup I got it too... I have been taking medication since yesterday afternoon. Compared to yesterday I feel a little better, but I really can't wait until I feel 100%. My babys voice is awful, very scratchy, mine is getting that way too.

Oh, before I got sick I went shopping for the fabric for the winner of my first blog contest. Lets just say I think I nailed it on the head with what I got for her son.

So for now, I am going to leave you with Day 2-4 of the 13 Days of Halloween Stuff that I made for my partner AJ. This week I am skipping Take the Time Tuesday and will start up again next week.

Cute Lollipop for Day 2

Cute Bucket with Candy inside for Day 3

A lanyard I made for keys or something else that she would need to keep track of for Day 4

TTFN,

13 Days of Halloween Swap - Day 1

Today marks the first day for the 13 Days of Halloween Swap I am participating in over at Koala Fuzz. Although I still haven't gotten my package from my partner, I am going to post the pictures of the things I made/bought and sent to her.

The first day I wanted to do something that she could display during the rest of the month and just loved how this picture frame turned out. It was an acryllic frame that I painted around the edges and added the ghost on the front with some E6000 (best glue ever!). I am sure she has some pictures of the little tykes that she can pop in there and display really quick. This was an easy project that I enjoyed doing and probably only cost around $3.00. I wish I had bought more frames to make a couple for myself. Next time I am at the store I am going to get a couple to do these for me for the different seasons. So quick to do and pretty to display.

What do you think?

TTFN,

WINNER of the GIVEAWAY!!!

Below is the picture of the random number that was pulled over on Math Goodies. We had 30 comments and the first time doing the random number was 22.

Our winner is Rita who left this lovely comment.

Rita CopperDay said...
I saw you over at Chica and Jo and everything is super cute! I would love to have a taggie blanket for my little boy in red, blue, yellow and green with Daniel in the middle. If you can find robots or gears etc, so much the better!
October 11, 2009 8:05 PM

Rita - look for an e-mail from me in the next couple of days to get the info about where to send the taggie. Congrats and to everyone thank you for entering. Look for the next giveaway which will probably be when I hit 100 posts.

Hugs & TTFN -

Winner still TBA - Tomorrow Morning or Later this Evening PROMISE

I have been super busy at work today and didn't get to enter the info into the random generator for the winner. I promise I will do it either tonight or tomorrow morning! Can't wait to see who wins. I am off to a fancy dinner. Will post pictures later!

"Sense"-ational Tuesday also known to me as Take the Time Tuesday (Wednesday this week)

Ok, so I know I am a day late, a dollar short and no plausible explination except for the fact it has been a long week at work and it is only Wednesday. I swear I have been working on the dress tutorial (been working on it here and there and seriously – writing a good tutorial is difficult – I just want to do a good job, so it is coming) So here we go…

"Sense"-ational Sundays came from Emily Adams an old co-worker who used to blog her senses every week. She always started with this... "Our senses tell a story. I've committed to recording my 5 senses for the past week - every week - as an exercise to explore my sensory world. I challenge you to do the same. If you choose to do so, just blog your 5 senses every Sunday (or Tuesday [This week delayed to Wednesday]for those of us who are a little lazy on Sunday); let me know - I'd love to read along!" I find that it is a great way to share with my family and friends some of the highlight of things that I have done during the week that mean the most to me.

See:

The excessive enthusiasm for Halloween as displayed by our neighbors. It is no secret that we aren’t a fan of the graveyard that they display for over a month. Remind me when I sell my house to start selling in November so that the potential buyers aren’t scared away.

Hear:

The video of me singing karaoke from Saturday night. It was disco night. Although I do have that video I won't scare you with that, but I will leave you with just a picture and tell you that the first song of the night “These boots are made for walkin’” by yours truly was awesome!!

Touch:

Laci’s new big girl bed for Grammy’s house. It is super cute and looks perfect in her room. I only have a picture of the bed, but will take a picture of the bed in the room later this week to share. I got it for a steal of $50.00 for the bed and mattress.

Taste:

Cupcakes, again. To my disappointment they didn’t turn out like I remembered them being, then I go to look at the picture again and realize that I missed a step. Eh, they were still super tasty, although I am getting complaints that the office is going to start gaining some serious weight (who said this wasn’t part of my evil plan j/k)

Smell:

Rain (come on, you know you can smell rain - just like you can smell snow)… it has been rainy and muggy for days and I dislike it. Today it looks like this and was a fun drive into work.

TTFN,

GIVEAWAY

Ok, so to celebrate me being featured on "Feature Friday" one of my favorite websites/blogs ever Chica & Jo I have decided to do a giveaway.

What to giveaway? I decided I would let you choose you can either get a small taggie blanket or (1) burp cloth and (1) diaper wipe holder or a copy of the book Hello, Cupcake (where the butterfly cupcakes came from) with tons of cute cupcake ideas.

For the taggie blanket the finished size is roughly 15 x 15 when it is finished with the name embroidered on the middle block. I will let you choose the color style and I will do the rest. Because I do have other things to do and will be doing this custom it should go out in about 2 weeks after we come up with color scheme. For the custom burp cloth and diaper wipe holder you can pick the color style and I will work with you on what you would like for the custom part on the burp cloth.

Lets see, how to get entered:

* (1) Entry if you start following my blog (leave a comment saying you are now following)

* (1) Entry if you leave a comment telling me which one you would pick and the color scheme or idea if I made one for you (leave a seperate comment)

* (1) Entry if you post about this on your blog (leave a comment with the link back to your blog saying you posted about it)

You can get a total of (3) entries and really it isn't to hard to get entered. Right? Right! I will leave this open until next Friday (seeing as how my blog is still new and I want as many people to see this as possible). On Friday around noon CST I will close it off and announce a winner.

Yeah!!! I am so excited, my first giveaway! ENJOY and come back to look for my tutorial on how to do a Jack-O-Lantern pillowcase dress early next week (sorry I have been really busy with work and haven't had a chance to put it together).

TTFN!