Monday Mingle May 24, 2010

May 24, 2010

The questions for May 24, 2010 posted by Jennifer Regan at  Eighty MPH Mom

1.  What product (under $100) do you wish you could review on your blog because you honestly just love it to death?

2.  If you were to be reincarnated as an animal, what animal would it be and why?

3.  What is your favorite feature about yourself? Worst?

         

Take a chance at this Apron Giveway!

I love aprons! It's no secret as to why I'm always posting about apron giveaways.  Aprons have a real purpose in my life. I'm either cooking or cleaning;  wearing beautiful aprons not only helps protect my cloths, they also lift my spirits. 
My grandmother was the most awesome lady. She wore aprons all the time. So I'm hoping that by wearing one too, she'll rub off on me. Grandma Audrey was the lady I want to become. She wore a dress and looked nice all the time, she never said unkind words, and was just plain NICE. If she had a bad habit, I didn't know about it. I can't say people don't know mine (I'm working on them!)  So as you can see, I promote aprons! Here's a very big giveaway! It's about aprons! Please go check out Apron Memories and see  everything EllynAnne is giving away. The contest ends May 26th so hurry to be a part of this fabulous giveaway!

Great Website for Cooks

I stumbled upon this tip from a twitter follower, here's a great website for cooks

Convert cups to grams, Fahrenheit °F to Celsius °C etc. - calculator for cooking.

Opps!

On my last post entry, I wrote that the name of the pillow from Moda Bake shop was BLOOM...well...I musta not had my readying glasses on my face...cause it's not called BLOOM, that is actually Roslyn Mirrington's blog!  The pillow is named Aster Manor Pillow.  I'm sorry Roslyn that I opps!  It's a really nice pillow.

Amy Butler's Fabric with a Moda Bake Shop Pattern

I LOVE fabric!

It's really not a secret!  My husband has known for quite a while. 

What do I love about fabric?

EVERYTHING!

• The Color
• The Texture
• The way it feels in my hands
• My imagination of what to make with the fabric 
• The smell of the fabric 
• The design of the print

So in March, I signed up to be in my first pillow swap over at  

Modified Mixed

This brings me to why I'm talking about fabric!   I went to one of my favorite fabric/quilting shops.  Really, any store that sells fabric is my favorite shop!  I needed to pick out fabric for my pillow swap.  It's one thing to pick out fabric for yourself but  to pick for someone else, it makes you pause.  You want to give them the very best.  You want them to love it. So I was very choosey.  I knew that the pillow I was making was for someone who likes blues and purples.  She didn't have any suggestions as far as style.  I spent a good hour just looking and feeling the fabric.  I narrowed my choices down to 4 bundles of fat quarters.  Each one had something I loved about them; whether it was the color or the print.  So narrowing it to just one was really hard!  It's like a kid in a candy store... so many choices... how does one decide?  Well, finally the winner was this beautiful bundle of Amy Butler's fabric from her Love Collection.  I love the bold print and the color selection. 

Aren't these a beauty:

The fabric has both purple and blue so I hope she likes my choice.  Yes, the print is bold.  I hope she likes bold!   I also picked this fabric because of the type of cotton used to make it.  It's just beautiful. 

So without further ado!  Let me show you the pattern I'm using for my pillow:

  
This is from Moda Bake Shop.

Roslyn Mirrington made this beautiful pillow, named BLOOM.  She was so kind to put a handy dandy tutorial together for people like me! I need women like her so I can sew.  I wish I could say that I'm creative but sadly I'm not.  I depend on these creative ladies to provide me with ideas and patterns.  They have a vision that I don't so I need them! Now, with that being said, I can take their creations and make it my creation with flair!  I look forward to see what I come up with.   Please come back here in two weeks, I'll have my finished project:  "Bloom" pillow made with my wonderful, colorful  Amy Butler's fabric.

Sewing Project

Current Sewing Project:

Lately, I haven't posted much about sewing projects I'm currently working on so here it goes:

 I'm still working on The Princess and the Pea Blanket.  Here's a picture of what it looks like right now; as you can see I still have some sewing to do!

In the picture above you can see I have a ripple going through the entire quilt top but it can't be fixed.  I just have to live with it and hope in the end it won't be too noticeable. 

I still need to embroider eyes and mouth to the princess'  face and add a ruffle around the edge.  Then, I'll sandwich the top quilt, batting, and bottom quilt together. 

Here's a picture of the ruffle I'm adding:

I ran into a small problem when creating the ruffle.  I never took into consideration that it would be really hard to pull two simple treads to form the ruffle when you have about eight yards of material!  Sometimes, I feel like a ignoramus!

Of course, this is what happened to my thread when trying to create the  ruffle:

BROKEN THREAD (TEAR, TEAR :(  ...)

So, now I'm going to hand baste with embroidery thread and make the ruffle.  I hope this works.

The end product is supposed to look like this:

By Angela Yosten at
Moda Bake Shop

Angela Yosten created this fabulous tutortial.  I fell in love with this blanket and knew it would be perfect for my friend's first grandchild (who happens to be a girl!)

I also want to mention that there are so many great tutorials and ideas over  at the Moda Bake shop .  If you haven't checked it out, please do.  My new blogger friends who don't sew should too because  I plan to choose my next Moda project on their advice and then have my first giveaway!  They might just win something they like.  So please head over there and give me some ideas! 

Another great Video

I love talented kids!  We hear enough about all the bad things kids are up to and I don't like it.  Why should we hear about the bad kids (in our news every day)  when there are many kids who have accomplished great deeds/talent.  Why wouldn't we promote what's right with our kids.  I'm promoting what's RIGHT with our kids, if you know a child/teenager doing the right thing, let me know.  We need everyone promoting GOOD KIDS.

Video for Monday Mingle

So I realize today is really Thursday and I'm just getting around to posting my  Monday Mingle but I say, better late than never "posted"!  As you watch my video, please keep in mind, I  will get better at making videos!  You have to start somewhere and not be "afraidy cat" so here it goes:  Of course, feel free to leave comments on how I could/should improve; I'm a big girl and won't cry!

On The Rocks - Bad Romance - 4/23/10

This is funny...This is what happens to our little boys...they become teenager who fill their time making us laugh.

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Protect Your Little Ones Against Injuries

I have a safety tip for parents who have small children (really all kids under 10).  As you know, I work at a children's hospital so I  am privy to see what kind of injuries and accidents affect our kids.  Since the beginning of this year, I have seen four kids from this type of injury.  Two weeks ago, an 18-month old boy was a victim of this.  Unfortunately, it took his life.  The culprit is free standing flat screen TV.  Kids are able to wiggle/push on a dresser and the TV falls on top them.  On lower stands, they can push them off because the flat screen TV is top heavy.  The weight of a 42" flat screen plasma TV is about 66 pounds;  a one year walking child is about 22 pounds.  So, even though 66 pounds doesn't really sound like a heavy item, it's 3 times the child's weight.  There is an easy solution to this:

Now, this is just an example of TV safety straps.  I went to Amazon  and typed in "TV Safety Straps"  to find the one above.   There are many different types and styles you can choose from depending what your needs are.  I know that a little boy would be alive for an item that cost about 20 dollars.  Truly, a sad outcome for this family.  Please, don't let this happen to yours.

What kinda day are you having???

SOMETIMES WE NEED TO PUT   

LIFE INTO

PERSPECTIVE

New signature for blog!!

It's always the little things that make me smile!  Today, I figured out how to add my signature to a post!  Now, I know this is nothing for some of you experienced bloggers but for me it's huge!  The fact that I didn't have to ask anyone's advice or call my husband to come help me was such a FREEING experience.  It's like when a two year old goes to the toilet all on their own for the first time!!! My prize is that you get to see my signature!!

Who Would Love this Apron

Kim, over at Calamity Kim is having another one of her famous apron giveaways.  RUN, don't Walk, to check this out.  You need to check it out today....tomorrow is her drawing.  I love her aprons...she is a true artist, who has a flair with fabrics.

I Found Another Awesome Giveaway!

Amy, over at Dealusional, is having an awesome giveaway.  Her giveaway to a lucky winner is a boatload of Newman's Own Organic products.  When I made a video for my blog a few days ago, I mentioned that my husband and I had decided to make some changes in our lives.  The change is about the food we eat.  We sat down and watched a movie titled "Food, Inc."  It has changed the way we think about what we eat.  The movie opened our eyes about  how our food is produced and the unethical practices of both large agricultural  corporations  and our government. We are choosing to go in the direction of eating organic.  This ties in so well with Amy's giveaway:  Newman's Own Organic.   Being that we are new to organic, we can use all the help from other bloggers to steer us to the right products and this is a great start in that direction.  Her giveaway ends Thursday, March 13th with the winner announced March 14th....so hurry!!!

Changes To My Blog....

I thought it would be nice to change things up a bit on my blog.  I need to know do you like the changes or did you like it old way????  I can't decide. 

What Happened to Me???

So, it's been a month since I have written on my blog.  What happened?

In one word, family.

Oh my gosh... I don't really know where to begin but I do know I WANT TO COME BACK!!!

FAMILY
Remember this guy???

MATHEW, MY SON

Well, well, well,  he surprised me in a BIG way.... can you guess?  It was absolutely shocking to me. Well, I won't leave you in suspense any more.  Here is Mathew...

                        

with a new WIFE!  What a surprise!  Mathew called me up while I was working. Here's our conversation:  "Mom?"   

"Yes, Mathew," I say.  He says, "Are you sitting down?  Are you in a good mood?"  Now, all you moms know this isn't gonna turn out good!  I say right away, "Spit it out, just tell me what you did." (as my stomach does the belly flop).  

He says, "Well," (long silence) "I got married."  I said, "You did what?"  (I Couldn't have heard him right, right?)  He said it again, "I got married."  I said, "Are you in Vegas?" He said he wasn't.  I said, "What is her name?"  Now, don't you think a mother should have already known the girl's name if her son was planning on marrying the girl?  Well, as you can tell, I was taken by complete surprise.   This past month I have been taking in what just happened.  The idea that: 

• Mathew got married. 
• Mathew didn't elope to Vegas but had a small wedding in Alabama without me (his mother!).
• I didn't even know her name.
• Now, I'm a mother in law to someone.

IT IS A LOT TO THINK ABOUT!

Kim's first video for blogging

So, Finally, here's my first on line Video...!!!!

Sorry...No Vlogging Posted Today

This is my first experience trying to post a video to my blog and I'm unsuccessful :(  I made a 3-minute video introducing myself to all of you, got it downloaded on my IMAC  and then uploaded it to YouTube!  That's where my problem remains!  It told me that it could take several hours to be posted and I don't even remember what it is named.  In addition, this is my first experience with YouTube so I'm not sure if I'll find it when it is finally posted.  I'll check back tomorrow and see if I can find it... I'm so sad; I wanted to have my first video made and done so I could only get better from that point... well, I guess one more day won't kill me.  Tomorrow, I also plan to post about what has been going on in my life to keep away from here.  So, until tomorrow... enjoy the night; here in Arizona, the night is so beautiful; a night to enjoy a walk with my honey...
See ya soon