Goodbye 2008, Hello 2009!

I can’t believe that another year is over! Time sure does fly.

2008 has been good to me and hopefully so will 2009.

There have been many fun, exciting, and new things happen in 2008, and many scary, upsetting, and sad things happen. I am choosing to focus on the good things. These are a few of my favorites:

*Laughed with my hubby (we did this a lot).

*Dustin graduated from UVU!

*Went to a new city I’ve never been to before (San Francisco, and Loved it)

* Moved

*Learned to applique, and made a quilt with applique.

*Grew my hair out, and then chopped it off

*Spent time with my adorable niece

*Celebrated a 3rd year anniversary

*Was interviewed by Carina.

*Cheered for the Jazz like never before (we are bigger fans now then we were last year – Go Jazz!)

*Attempted to learn to knit (I failed, but will try again one day)

*Learned to sew things besides just quilts (like curtains, bags, and baby bibs)

*Became a licensed appraiser

*Took a maximum adventure to California to purchase a 4-runner (where we saw a horrible wreck, broke down on the side of the road, and stayed in some pretty sketchy places – wouldn’t trade this experience for the world).

*Learned to embroider (and LOVED it!)

*Adopted a stray cat, who in return had three adorable kittens

*Finished several quilts (all of which I am super proud of)

*Survived another year of Black Friday shopping.

*Had several “mini-adventures” with my hubby! (we laugh about these adventures all the time)

*Participated in a 5K Walk for charity.

*Cut my finger off, and then let it grow back on its own (No skin grafts – oh happy day!).

*Became addicted to Sudoko.

*Purchased a new ~FANTASTIC~ mattress (now I can sleep at night)!

*Managed to accomplish a few of the goals I had set for myself at the beginning of the year.

*Finished 92 projects! That’s right! NINETY-TWO! (this makes up for all the unfinished projects I have laying around.)

All in all … 2008 was a great year! I hope that 2009 brings new and exciting adventures my way and that I’m ready for them.

I also want to thank all of you who leave comments and suggestions on this blog. It has been fun and I love hearing what everyone thinks. For those of you blog stalkers ... please say Hi! I’d love to hear from you. Thanks for all the inspiration and encouragement you have given me.

Have a Happy New Year!

Handmade Christmas Gifts

I only had time to make a few Christmas presents this year.  I wish I could have done more, but I guess there is always next year.  Cutting your finger off doesn’t really help in the process of getting Christmas presents done on time. 

I was able to make some dish cloths and hand towels for my sister and Dustin’s cousin.  I really like the way they turned out and hope that they like them.

 

All of the fabric I bought at Joann's.  I ended up purchasing enough of the red polka dot fabric to make some of these for me.  I just love this fabric so much.  And I also bought more of the waffle weave muslin.  I just love this fabric.  It works so well for washing dishes.

I didn’t have enough time to stitch all the binding down by hand, so I just did it by machine.  It definitively does not look as nice, but I think it might hold up a little better in the washer. 

 

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas from all of us!

We hope you have a wonderful holiday season and a very Merry Christmas!

I Borrowed It Fair and Square!

 

Dear Previous Owner:

If you want this beautiful antique pin back, you will have to pry it from my fingers.  I love it so dearly and don’t plan to ever return it.  I guess you could say I stole it, but I prefer the  term “borrow”.   I am going to wear it to all my Christmas parties!    Thanks!!!! 

P.S.  If you ever do manage to get this lovely pin back into your possession, I know where to come looking to get it back ;-)

More Dish Cloths

I warned you! It is just another kick that I’m on. I’m sure I’ll be done in a couple months. Until then, I am just making sets of two dish cloths that match and keeping them on hand for whenever I need a quick gift.

I did the same patterns as the yellow ones I made for a house warming gift. These patterns are just simple, easy, relaxing, and fast. Maybe that is why I love them.

This is a simple shell stitch. I got this pattern from the Crochet Stitch Bible. Love this book!

This pattern is just a simple alternating rows of DC and SC. It goes really fast. Then I just did a border on it in SC.

Just In Time For Christmas

  I didn’t think that I was going to be able to get the elf stitchette I  have been working on done in time for Christmas.  But I did!   I love, love, love  it!  I’m thinking of making one of these for every holiday season. 

I got the pattern for free here.  I love all of her designs. 

I used the MacKenzie Christmas fabric line by Anna Griffin to make this stitchette into a wall hanging.  I then quilted it in free motion (more practice) and I stitched the binding down by hand (more practice).  I think these wall hangings are perfect for practice.  I even had time to make a tag for the back. 

One more item to check off my list of projects to complete.

House Warming Gift

 

Tonight we are going to a house warming party for some of our friends.  I made them some dish cloths for a little gift.  I hope they like them.  It was all I had time to do. 

I just did two simple and fast patterns.  One is a shell stitch with DC.  The other was just alternating rows with DC and SC.  As always, they are both made with Sugar and Creme Cotton Yarn on a G sized hook.

I haven’t made any of these in a long time and I have forgotten how much I enjoy making these.  I think I might be starting a new kick for a while so be prepared.

Happy Monday!

Christmas Cards

I finally got all of my Christmas cards done and mailed out!   Yay!One more thing to cross off my super long to-do list.  Christmas is coming way too fast.

My sister and I hosted a card party for friends and family so that we could get all of our Christmas cards done in one sitting.  Each person came with an idea for a card and the supplies to make them.   This was the card that I did. 

We ate yummy food, had lots of laughs, and after a few hours we had 20 homemade Christmas cards (four of each card style). 

Happy Birthday Kathy!

Happy Birthday to my step mom, Kathy. I hope she has a great day!

I made her these for her birthday. Dustin loves the ones that I made for us and thinks they are the greatest things ever. He thought she might like them too. I think it is the waffle weave muslin that is the secret that makes these so fantastic. They really are so scrubby, and they just get better with time!

I also made her a couple of hand towels to go with the dish cloths. I just used a regular muslin and doubled it for extra thickness. Last time I made the hand towels out of the waffle weave muslin and they were so rough on your hands. So I switched to just regular muslin.

I love this red polka dot binding. I think I might go get some more of this fabric and make some for me (because we all know that I need it!) This is probably one of my new favorite fabrics.

Oh – if you wanted to make some too, I got the pattern from here.

My Weekend!

You know, most days I wish that weekends were 5 days long and weekdays were 2 days long. Why isn’t it that way? I know I’d be able to get more done.

I did get a lot of stuff done this weekend, just not the things that I would have liked to.

Friday I went to Chardell’s to have craft night. We sent the boys to the Jazz game. I even helped Dustin to make some signs. Since the game was going to be broadcast on ESPN, he wanted to get noticed. But I really hope they didn’t notice that we spelled Deron’s name wrong. Oops! They didn’t make it on TV but Dustin said they had a good time. And bonus, the Jazz won!

While they guys were at the game, Chardell, Anna and I watched the puppies movie, or 101 Dalmatians. Anna loved it! She watched the whole thing and didn’t want to go to bed until it was finished. She moves too fast, I can never get a good picture of her. This is why I need a new camera. Donations are accepted!

Saturday, I spent all morning decorating the house for Christmas. I usually do this the day after Thanksgiving, but I was too tired from all the shopping. I love having the house decorated for Christmas. It really makes me excited for the Christmas season to begin. I just wish I could have done it sooner.

The best part, I finally got a new mattress. I have been sleeping like a baby. More about this later. I want to wait for my bed frame to come before I tell you all about it. I love it!

Saturday, I went to a work Christmas party. Any one who says appraisers are dull, should see our team. We are quite the bunch of characters!

That was about it for my weekend. I did get a lot done in the craft area, but I’ll post about that later. It is hard because a lot of the things I have been working on are for Christmas presents and I’d hate to spoil the surprise.

My Newest Addiction!

When I was taking time off from crafting (remember this was because of injury not because I wanted to), Sudoku filled up my spare time. 

It is now my newest obsession!  I can’t get enough of it.  Anyone else in the same boat?

Give-Away Day!

Sew Mama Sew blog is hosting a Give-Away Day. They have a list (a very long list) of all the participating blogs. Each blogger is doing a giveaway of something handmade. The best part is that it is a great way to find other bloggers who are super creative. My inspiration juices are already flowing! Now if only I had more time.

Go check it out here.

Oh- Also check out this blog, Handmade by Alissa. I am a frequent reader of her blog. She is also doing a giveaway but didn't make it on the list.

Black Friday Deals

Yes, I am one of those crazy people that race out to the stores super early in the morning to get the good deals on Black Friday.   And boy was it worth it! 

We woke up at 2:30 on Friday morning to go get in line.  Dustin’s brother came with us so we were able to hit twice as many stores.  I went to Wal-Mart (Yay for waiting indoors instead of out in the rain and cold!) while Dustin and his brother went to Circuit City.  I probably should have known better than to send those two shopping alone because Dustin came home with a receipt for a 42” plasma TV.  It was so big they couldn’t fit it in the car!  When he told me that he had bought it, I thought he was joking.  I guess they had such a great place in line, by the time they came around with the vouchers, there was still tons left.  So he bought it, figuring that he could always return it if I said no.  Well, I said no.  So we returned it and probably made someone day. 

We also we to Target and got lots of new bedding stuff, movies and games.  A lot of this stuff we took back later that day just because we got duplicates… or we already had it… or we only needed one.  I guess when you get caught up in all the rush of things you just buy stuff because it is such a good deal and then return it all later. 

While Dustin and his brother were at Target, I headed over to Joann's!  They had flannel on sale for $1.47 a yard!   How can you beat that?  You can’t!  And for a flannel addict like me, you can’t pass this type of a deal up.  Just think of all the great blankets I’m going to make.  I stocked up on flannel and most likely won’t have to buy any for years! 

Nothing makes you smile like a screaming deal!  In the end, it was all worth it.