Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!!

We sure had a great Christmas, and boy has it been busy around here. I hope you all had a great Christmas too - and if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope that you at least enjoyed some well deserved time off.

I am not going to be around much for the next week or so. We are off to Ottawa for a hockey tournament. The bags are packed, and we are ready to go.



I thought I would show you a picture of our bags, so I have something somewhat crafty in this post. I used the Amy Butler "Weekender Bag" pattern to make that top one.

I just love that bag!! I made it about a year ago, and it has even gone through the wash (hence the reason why it slouches). Overall, it was a fairly easy pattern to make - although there were a couple of spots where you had to sew through MANY layers of fabric and interfacing all at once. I know that I broke a few needles along the way, but other than that, there were no major mishaps.

The house is a pure disaster, and at this point, we have no time left to worry about it before we go! Kinda crummy that we will come home to a messy house ... so perhaps I should go and clean a little???

Anyway, Santa was good to all of us, and since I made one more last minute gift, I will show you that too. A camera strap for my SIL. She is an AMAZING photographer ... and she has one hefty camera that she lugs around everywhere. Now she can have a little more comfort around her neck.



Anyway - all the best to everyone for the new year ... and we will chat again in 2011!!

A last minute gift, and the realization that minkee is messy

I decided earlier this month that I wasn't going to sew a ton of Christmas gifts this year. BUT, a couple of days ago I saw a really cute dress. I would love to give credit for where I saw this really cute dress ... but of course now I can't find it : (

Anyway ... it was from a pattern made over here.

Of course, one thing led to another, and the next thing you know, I had purchased a pdf pattern! I have a neice who is 1 and a half, and I thought this would be so super cute on her.

I started this last night, and to be honest it sewed up really fast. I used a 21 wale courdorouy for the outside, and a minkee type fleece for the inside. I had no idea how messy (aka evil) that minkee would be. I am literally covered from head to toe right now with white fuzz. So is the outside of the vest! I took pictures so you could see what I mean.






I am about to throw it in the wash to get rid of the fuzz ...

Now that I have been sidetracked, and have successfully completed the project, I am going back to the quilt a long : )

Happy Birthday to me : )

Today is my birthday : ) YIPPEE!! I like my birthday this year - next year, perhaps not so much. This year, I turned 39. I have no idea why the idea of 40 kinda freaks me out, but it does. I am full of great food, and ice cream cake, and almost ready to snuggle in for the night with a good book!

I actually did not sew today ... I was a cutting and crocheting fool.

I cut out all the squares for Cara's quilt a long from these:



and from these:



I now have 42 squares .. one step closer to starting to sew. I still need to cut the lattice strips and the background.

I have to tell you, I had a hard time when I thought about cutting them. I have been collecting (or rather hoarding), and these are some of my most sacred beauties. But we buy fabric to use it right?? I am still telling myself this over and over. It was a little liberating to cut into it. AND I still have tons left, so I will have more to use for lots more projects.

I will tell you more about the crocheting another day : )

Have a great night!

It's time to pick a winner ....

So, before I actually tell you who the winner is, I just want to say again that I am so super pleased that so many people came by and gave some pillow love. I started blogging not realizing what it would do for me. I have met some great people, I have sewn things that are totally outside my comfort zone, and I have had sewing encouragement and support!

So, without futher ado, the winner of the pillow is:

comment #136: Maxwells



The winner of the Nicey Jane fat Quarters is:

comment # 384: Anne



And, the winner of the Sanctuary half yards is:

comment # 95: Barncat



Thanks to everyone that entered!! I am off to email the winners now, but if you see your name, please feel free to contact me with your mailing info.

I had a couple requests for a pattern/tutorial .. and I actually don't have pictures to make one up, but maybe we can do a new pillow loosely based on this one in the new year?????

So ... I am well over 300!!

458!!!! That is so far above my expectations. I wasn't even really sure I would hit 300 comments to be honest. Thanks so much for showing my pillow some love.

Since it is more than 50% above the 300 comments I was hoping for, I am going to give more away than I had planned. I am also going to leave this open until midnight tonight ... so the winners will be announced sometime tomorrow. Likely not until the afternoon.

If you haven't entered yet, please scroll down and make a comment on the post below (not this one).

So - here are the other two (you heard me) prizes I am going to add to the pillow, so we will have 3 lucky winners.


(3 fat quarters of nicey jane)


(2 half yards of Santuary)

Talk to you all tomorrow!!

Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day!!!

Sew Mama Sew was the reason why I started blogging. I really owe a huge thanks to them! I have met some wonderful people through blogging, and it all started because of Sew Mama Sew!

Anyway ... on to the good stuff! I am giving away this fabulous pillow cover. For ease of mailing, I am not going to send the pillow form, but they are easy enough to pick up on your own.

All you need to do is leave me a comment (international peeps are welcome too). If you want an extra entry, you can become a follower - but you don't have to. If you are already a follower - then just let me know!



I will leave this open until December 17th, and then Mr. Random Number Generator will pick a lucky winner.

If I get more than 300 comments, then I may just have another little prize since I already feel bad that not everyone can win. Perhaps some fabric love????? I haven't got a picture, since I really don't know if we will reach 300, but I promise I will pick out something nice.

Now, please make sure I have a way to reach you if you win. If you have a no reply comment, then just include your email. Thanks for dropping buy and GOOD LUCK!

A discovery!

Our family lives in a house that was built in 1849. It has been slowly updated over the last 12 years. Room by room.

A couple of weeks ago, we decided to re-do our son's room. We had painted it before he was born, but there was a blue carpet in the room that looked to be in okay shape, so we left it.

Well, this past weekend, we repainted his room, and we decided to replace the carpet with hardwood knowing that the hardwood under the carpet was probably in pretty bad shape.

My husband ripped the carpet up tonight and look what was underneath!



Someone spent a ridiculous amount of time hand painting the floor! Now, we are still going to replace it - it is totally not something that we would keep = but I thought I would show you all just for fun. Here are a few more close ups.





Each one of them is different! Crazy! Now, please excuse the dirt - I wasn`t going to clean before taking the pictures knowing full well it was about to be ripped out!

Now, I haven`t done a whole lot since the last time I posted. I had to finish up the secret santa project - and I didn`t really do anything else until it was done. I told you about that I think. Here is the finished project.



Now that it`s finished, I am ready to start Cara`s quilt a long!!! FUN!!
If only the fabric I ordered had arrived ....