Fall Vacation: Washington DC, Virginia

Part One of My Journey: 

Virginia 

We drove down from Washington, D.C. to the beginning of Shenandoah National Park.  

Skyline Parkway

This park ends where the Blue Ridge Parkway begins.  469 miles of winding roads through two States (Virginia and North Carolina); it is  one of the most spectacular places in America.  The weather was so beautiful; cloudy with a temperature around 69 degrees and plenty of humidity (which is a bit chilly when you actually have humidity! Something AZ doesn't have!)  Coming from the west, this part of the country looks vastly different.  There are rolling hills, green pastures, forest, fruit growing on the side of the roads:

 Looking down from the Blue Ridge Parkway

Wild fruit growing on the side of the road 

Me!


We took a few small hikes to enjoy the fresh air.  It had rained during the night so you can imagine how everything smelled. It had such a wonderful fall smell with all the damp leaves on the ground.

One of the hikes we took was called Fallingwater Cascades Trail.  In the description of this hike, it mentions that the trail drops 260 feet below the the trail head and hikers should be prepared to climb that elevation on their return.  Really!  260 really isn't that long but I can tell you from my own experience it feels REALLY LONG when climbing up!  Here are some pictures from this particular hike:

The beginning of the trail

Walking on the trail: Color Everywhere

The Cascades

Me just being me!  Aren't these leaves big?

Fall colors

The reason for visiting!! FALL

Honestly, I didn't want to come home.  We had only two days to spend on the parkway which wasn't enough!  We only traveled about 200 miles total;  driving through the Shenadoah National Park on the Skyline and the first 100 miles on the  Blue Ridge Parkway.  That leaves me 369 miles to explore when I come back to visit.  Believe me, I will be coming back!  It's truly one of God's best places!

Next blog post will be:

 Part Two: Washington, D.C.

Two Products for Laundry Room

There are two products that really work for me in my laundry room:

according rack 

instaHanger

Both these items get a lot of use in my laundry room.  I used to hang my wet wash cloths outside on a wooden rack holder and the wood would (wow!) seep into the cloth and discolor it.  I would be so mad about it.  The according rack isn't made of wood so I no longer have that problem.  Plus, since it's indoors, I no longer have to worry about the wind knocking it over.  I love the fact that I can push it close and it's not in my way.  I also like the fact that it isn't on the floor taking up valuable space.  Altogether, it's makes my "Love It" list of products.  I like the 2nd product as much as the first.  As I would hang my cloths from the dryer, I would put the hangers on the door knobs.  Well,  you can only hang so much stuff on those small knobs and I would have to stop hanging to put the already hung cloths in the closet, which isn't near the laundry room.  I solved that problem with the instaHanger.   I love that it can hold many cloths at once, it's very study on the wall , it closes up and takes no room at all!  Who doesn't love that!  My husband said that they were pretty easy to install.  I can't imagine doing laundry without these two gadgets.   I bought them from the Container Store locally but you can also purchase them online.  Below the pics are the links to both items.  No, they didn't ask me to sell their products!  I just want to share what really work's for me.  Please, if you have an item that works for you, won't you share it with everyone by leaving me a comment.  

Location, Location, Location...

This is where I want to be today:

Where would you like to be today?

My Progress: Sewing

 My Pillow is Finished!!!

This is the pillow I made for the pillow swap at Modified Mix.  I have never made a pillow so I was a little nervous about making one for someone else.  When I read about the pillow swap, Jamie, the organizer of this pillow swap, said this was the time to try out any skills you wanted to work on.  So I said, "What the heck, not only will I make a pillow, I'll try adding some embroidery to it" and I did!  Originally, I had a totally different pillow in mind but when I looked at the many different colors of fabric purchased, I decided against the original design (although, I still plan to make this pillow in the future).  However, I did incorporate the back of the pillow just like the one (in the original design)  in this picture: 

(picture by Moda Bake Shop)

 I think I got scared when I saw that the fabric I purchased just wouldn't look right for this pillow so I made up the design of the pillow you see in the first picture.

Here's a look back at the fabric I thought would work (but didn't):

  

I'm sure that I will do another pillow swap and will become more adventurous with my design.  As far as the pillow I made,  I wished I had used a dark solid blue for the closure.  Even though the dots are the same color as in the outline of the flower (I think  it is) it just looks a little weird when I look at the finished pillow.  Hopefully, the person who gets this pillow will know it may not be perfect but it certainly was made with love!

Capri pants Rock

A blogger friend of mine, Sara of Saving for Someday, wrote a blog post about Capri pants; go check it out.  I believe most women in their forties that had children can relate to her and most woman's dilemma of what to wear.  I certainly relate.  I have decided to post a pic of me in capri pants and people don't have to like it.  I have seen many worse fashion no-no's then this pic of me.  Women can wear them and still not look bad!  Here's to all the women who wear them! Cheers!

Mini Vacation:Lake Powell

This is what I've been up to:

My honey and I went to Lake Powell for some down time!  It's been a while since we've gotten away from our homestead so we decided to go camping.  It's 280 miles from our house and it took about 4 hours to get there.  I love that we traveled through so many different topographic areas.  So here are some pictures of our final destination:

Our Home Away From Home!

Sleeping Arrangements

My Honey... Being his usual Neat Freak!

View from our Campsite: Priceless

Morning Coffee....
A Necessity!

Lake Powell Dam

Beautiful Scenery
while Rafting

Causing Ripples in the River

US!

Now all I have to do is unpack, clean up and get ready to start my work week... hey, no problem!  Remember, I'm now rested from having downtime!

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!!