Thank you everyone for the birthday wish! You are a sweet bunch. I had a wonderful relaxed Bday and was a lucky gal to received a couple gifts that I just loved…boots. One of my fetishes. Ate one of my favorite Chinese shrimp and lobster dishes. The kids help do a clean down of the house, which was actually the best gift. Then pretty much was just lazy the rest of the day, which I think I needed.

The unbirthday gift give away goes to…….comment numbers 20,17,10. I used Random to pull the numbers out of the hat. Christine, Nancy and Julia please email me your address.  I’m going to address the boxes and then have the kids place the packages in them so it will be a surprise with who gets what. Sorry for the other day when my blog wouldn’t load, it was a server problem so I had no control of that. Thanks jen for letting me know!

Have a super great weekend Everyone!

Give away is now closed. Congrats to the winners.

Thanks to Melissa B at Penguin Publishing, I have a wonderful new Softie craft book to give a way to one lucky winner. I promise you that you’ll love this book. It’s actually one of the cutest plush pattern books I’ve seen. One pattern inpeticular struck my heart. A little happy henny House. I’d love to do a whole row of them for my blog banner.  There was several others that I wanted to try but with longing for spring I couldn’t resist a little beetle bug. Some of the talented crafters featured in the book are, Nest Studio, while she naps, Hop Skip Jump, Bonspiel, Hatch and these are just to name a few.    

Today is my birthday so why not celebrate with all of you. It’s a blessing to have another year to see the sun rise, hug and kiss my children, to feel my head hit the pillow with exhaustion from a busy day. Those are just a few things that I’m so thankful for.

Gifts are not honestly needed but who can resist pulling a beautiful wrapped box open to reveal a wonderful little treat?  So whether you are celebrating a birthday or an unbirthday.  Everyone that writes a comment on this post will be entered. And since I just couldn’t give away one things, there will be 3 winners. Yeap, three of you will be lucky little beings. One winner gets the book and 2 winners for a softie. One will win the spring beetle bug…..

And one will win a “I heart Home” house….

Just a quick little note I thought I’d add.. This book was published in Australia earlier but this is the first American edition just out this month! And I will be leaving this give away open till the weekend. Good Luck!

I think spring is just around the corner. We haven’t seen any robins yet but we have seen a lot of cardinals and bird that seem to be in a loving mood. Yeah, I really hope spring is around the corner soon.

These are my ugly ducklings. I don’t think they have much of a chance as most birds do. No beauty in their future. I do however have something that is very cute and I think you guys are really going to like it. Actually a couple cute things.  A new craft book give away along with a couple softies. Just in time to celebrate my birthday.

Here’s a sneak peek at one of them.  See you tomorrow.

I’ve been having a bit of trouble with machine quilting my last bubble quilt.  It seems no matter what I do, the tension gets all messed up. So, I took a breather from it. The only thing I haven’t tried yet is changing it to a new needle. I’m hoping that does the trick. If not, I maybe trying my hand a hand quilting. I made another small quilt. It’s just a small wall hanging one. I’m thinking a whole wall of these quilts would look nice. The black and white with one piece of pink is an idea that I’ve been wanting to try for a while. It’s been growing on me. The more I look at it finished, the more I’m thinking maybe I do want to make a full size quilt or at least make a large wall hanging.

Then this aqua vintage fabric is calling me to make something with it. I’m not sure just what yet but I’m thinking flowers, linen, something with a gentle feel. I’d love to have a skirt out of this fabric.

Support from others can do wonders! That I’m finding out and I didn’t realize how truly inspiring and down right fun it can be.  Where have I been all these year? It’s also a 2 way street, they’re supporting you and you are supporting them. Our Monday craft date has really changed my way of thinking. I’m loving how it’s making me feel a lot more motivated and optimistic toward reaching goals or just opening up the creativity. It’s like turn on a drain and the water pouring out. I think we are creating a snowball effect on each other. I get all excited about something, which then gets her all excited about something, which then inspires something for me, then of course she gets inspired…Well, you get the picture. One of the things my sister and I have been doing for a few weeks is Illustration Friday. I’ve been drawing mine but haven’t been uploaded or sharing them. We decided it would be a great way to just keep the creativity flowing. The use it or loose it, kind of thing.  It’s also nice to have someone say “Do this”. It’s easy when your a stay at home mom or work from home to just sort of find yourself in left field throughout the day. Please say I’m not the only one! Anyone else out there? Not quite making it from point A to point B because there is no one to answer to but yourself. It’s easy to go slack on yourself. So given a task is actually quite refreshing. This weeks Illustration Friday is “Flawed”  I’m calling it flawed fun. All dressed up and playing in the mud.

This has sort of been childhood memories week for me. This drawing was brought on by a memory of my ornery brother. I don’t remember it myself, but I remember my grandma telling the story on several occasions. We were having a potluck after church and this time it had been at my grandmother’s house. I guess it had been a really raining week and their driveway always floods pretty bad in those weather conditions. My brother evidently couldn’t resist. Dressed up in his crisp white shirt he dived in the mud puddle. My grandma spotted his literally rolling on his belly in it! I can only imagine the ranting and raving that went on as he was pulled out looking like a rooting pig.

I think I’m going to have to make a small coloring book of little girls illustrations for my girls. They keep asking me to draw more pictures for them to color.

 I seen that Holly at Decor8 was doing a creative series on Thursdays. I’ve decided to jump aboard with that too. I guess I’m all about wanting some direction right now. A task. So, to catch up I did my Mind Mappingof my childhood memories. When I first starting writing my memories, they were the big ones but then all these others I had forgotten about starting slowly trickling into my mind later that day.  One was of an older couple that lived down the road. The man always reminded me of a bowling pin. He had a small bald head and big round belly. He always wore overhauls and had one of the most kindest faces I’ve seen. His wife was a thin lady with short black hair but it was the kind of color that came from a box. It had the most unusual color of blue to it. She must have enjoyed that color because it never changed.  One day a couple of us kids were walking down the road and the elderly couple offered us some suckers. I grew up in a small town where you knew everyone and everyone knew you, your mom even your grandparents. So we knew it was safe and they did this fairly often. She handed me blue raspberry sucker. I remember thinking that blue must be her favorite color and it seems so fitting that she gave me that particular one because it matched her hair.

 

Then I starting remember silly little things my brother and I did, like climbing out our 2 story window on doll legs. We had this doll that was given to us by our great aunt. It had to be at least 5 maybe 6 feet tall. I know it was way taller than us. Striped red LONG legs. Keep in mind we were probably about 8 years old and lacked common sense. Well, mostly my brother did anyway.  If any of you grew up with a crazy dare devil boy in your house, you probably have a million tales like this one. He decided he was going to climb down onto our porch roof from my bedroom window on the second floor. It was to long of a drop so he was going to use that weird doll to get out. He talked me into holding it for him so he could shimmy down it’s legs.  I remember holding it by it’s yellow yarn hair and my brother dangling out the window. I honestly don’t know how that one ended.  Next time I see him I’m going to ask if he remembers. I guess no one was hurt or stuck because I don’t remember a rescue team of mad parents so I guess nothing bad came of it. While doing this mind mapping thing, I notice that I remembered the colors of things a lot. The ladies blue hair, my purplish pink stirrup pants I wore one Christmas. Remember stirrup pants?  We usually had thanksgiving at my grandma & grandpas but one year we had it at our house. I don’t remember the dinner itself but I remember the red & white gingham curtain that hung in the kitchen. The color of the white dirty shoe that a group of us kids found in some old barns in town. Our 10 year old minds raced with imagination and we thought for sure someone had been murdered and lots his shoe as he was being dragged away. How green the willow tree looked during summer. The blue T-shirt with the white thread that stood out was what a boy was wearing as my brother punched him in nose and I stood there wide eyed. I loved eating warm chocolate gravy and it always tasted better when it was out of my grandmother pastel colored melmac bowls. The red spray paint all over the box wagon that we played in. I don’t remember what it said but I know it was red. I guess I have always liked lots of color.

I guess nothing has changed.

Next thing from the creative series was about making list. If you could choose a career knowing you wouldn’t fail what would you do.

• Become an profession typist & editor. That way I wouldn’t make so many typos. My mind thinks way faster than my hand.
• I’d LOVE to design children’s bedding
• Fabric Designer
• Design children dishes, lunch boxes, cards
• Design a US  postal stamp

What crazy childhood memories do you guys have? Any silly sibling stories you’d like to share?