Happy Halloween!

Bing Bong! Knock…knock…knock.

“Who’s there?”

“It’s ELMO!!! Trick or Treat!”

This costume is perfect for Anna, since she is love with Elmo. Chardell said she gave her the option between being Elmo or Tinker Bell. Of course Anna said “Elmo!”

Happy Halloween!

Who Wouldn’t Want To Win

So there are a few givaways going on that I’d love to win.  They are so fantastic I’m sure you all would love to win as well, so I thought I’d share.  But please let me win.   

First -  Over at Sew Katie Sew she is in her second year of blogging.  She is giving away free fabric!  Who doesn’t love that.? Go here to enter and check out her blog (it’s super cute). 

Second-  We all know my love all of things baby stuff (which is crazy considering I have no children).  Look at the adorable blanket made by JC Handmade.  She is willing to make one out of any colors for the winner.  If I am the winner, I’d love one in orange and gray.  I'm loving that color combo lately.  Or maybe something in a blue and brown.  Either way, I’d just love one because they are so cute.   Go here to enter. 

Now go enter to win this great stuff!

Home Decorations

 

Look what I made over the weekend!  I have been wanting to make these for quite a while, and I finally got around to it.  I have seen things similar to these in stores and they are pretty expensive. 

Since I have a machine that will cut the vinyl letters for me, I knew I could easily make these myself.   I figure I spent around $3.00 to make this set. That is a steal considering I have seen these priced at around $35.  I still have a lot of leftover materials that I’m going to use to make more….different ones of course. 

 

Scrabble

I finally scored over 200 points at this game.  I have always hated this game because I am horrible at spelling, but the more I practice the better I get.  I’m headed home to play another game of scrabble with my hubby.  Have a great weekend!

Las Vegas Family Vacation

Thanks to everyone for your sweet comments. I appreciate all your support and prayers. The good news is that my finger is going to heal nicely on it's own. Which means, no skin grafts! Yay! No expensive surgery! Yay! I'm very lucky. I go back to the doctor in two weeks to check on how it it is healing. Hopefully it will heal fast so I can get back to crafting.

I didn't get to share the rest of the story of last Sunday since I have a difficult time typing (I am getting better, it just takes me a long time). After our emergency visit to the ER I came home and started taking these pain pills, which make me very loopy. Sorry to all those who saw me like that. Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday are a complete blur for me. Anyway, Dustin was waking me up every four hours to take the medicine and at three in the morning as we were getting ready to go back to sleep, we noticed that Dimitri had an orange string hanging out of his mouth. We tried to pull it out but it just made him gag. When I noticed that it was orange, I knew right away what it was from. The only orange string I had out was on a bobbin. Yes, you guess correctly, Dimitri had eaten a whole bobbin worth (luckily not the bobbin) of thread. Panic kicked in and we called the emergency vet 30 minutes away. We rushed him to the vet and they had to put him under anesthesia in order to pull it out. Of course the doctor had to show us the thread after he got it out and it was gross and huge. Seriously, what was he thinking? Maybe... this thread is pretty, I'll EAT it! Two ER bills in one day.... not fun!

On another note, this past weekend we went to Vegas with Dustin's family. I wasn't going to go since, you know, I cut my finger off and was in a lot of pain. But I'm glad I decided to go. I didn't do much but rest and go out a few times and of course made Dustin drive the full 6 hours each way. Dustin promised me that we would go to the Biliago and get me the BEST HOT CHOCOLATE IN THE WORLD. That alone was enough to get me there. Seriously, this shop in the Biliago has the best hot chocolate ever. It is like $32 for a small container of it. I love it so much! They have this chocolate fountain that comes out of the ceiling. So neat.

And lots and lots of yummy treats!I wanted to take one of each of these home. But I refrained.
You can't go to the Biliago without watching a water show. We actually caught three. Seriously, I'd love to meet the guy who thought this up. It is truly amazing. And I love the gardens inside and how they decorate them according to the season. This year they had all these trees with faces in them and eyes that moved. Creepy! We also went to the Ethel M. Chocolate Factory. Can you tell that I really like Chocolate? I was severely disappointed in this chocolate factory. There were like two viewing areas with a few signs about what they are doing. The silly part was that they were not making any chocolates at all. Maybe you have to go first thing in the morning. I did come away with some chocolate though, and I must admit it is pretty tasty.

They also had a Cactus ....I don't' know what you call it, I guess a garden. It was also not the highlight of my day since I have seen plenty of cactus plants in my life. This is Dustin saying "Look a cactus that is growing in the desert."
We went to the Hoover Dam. Isn't that just an amazing place to visit. It is amazing how big it is.

They are building a highway to help cut down on the traffic over the dam. It was so neat to see them working on it with all these cables. See that arch that they are building out?

Chardell - Do you recognize this? Okay - How about this? Here is a short video of the water show if you want to watch.

On the way home, we stopped at moms for dinner and a visit. Thanks Mom! It was yummy. We also stopped at Keiths grave and put some flowers. He still doesn't have a headstone but I'm sure they will get one for him soon.

Baby Samantha Grace is Here!

She is adorable! Just look at those cheeks!!!!

Congrats Carrie & Zacc.

*This is the new baby of my cousin whom we threw the baby shower for a while ago.

A Small Setback

Lesson learned .... A dull blade is more dangerous than a sharp blade.

Yes, it is true, I am finally a real quilter. Last Sunday as I was quilting, my rotary cutter jumped the ruler and cut my finger instead. It sliced off the tip of my left index finger and nail clean off. It is disgusting so I didn't take a picture. Hopefully it will heal nicely on its own, or I'll most likely have to get skin grafts. Please pray that I don't have to get that done. I'll find out on Monday.

After a trip to the emergency room, several painful shots, medicine that makes me loopy, and lots of rest, I'm beginning to feel a little better.

Needless to say, I can't type so well which means I can't sew, crochet, scrapbook, or embroider either. Snif, Snif. I'll be missing for a while but hopefully I'll be back soon.

Witchy Wall Hanging

I found this free pattern designed by Quixotic Pixels. I figured since my new favorite hobby is embroidery and I am really lacking in the Halloween decorations ... It was obvious what I needed to do. I made her into a wall hanging! I love the way she turned out! I'm just so excited! I am going to hang her with some ribbon but I need to go get some since I don't have any on hand that will work. I'm thinking brown, maybe a ric rack.

I used some orange and brown fabric by Heidi Grace that I got at Joann's. I know that it isn't technically "Halloween fabric" but I think that it works great. I did a free motion quilting on the orange fabric and a double row of stitching around the witch to help give her a frame. I also used my new skill of hand sewing to sew down the binding. I can't believe how easy it is. It definitely is not as fast as the regular sewing machine, but it looks 10 times better.

I will be smiling for the rest of the day!

Thanks!

Wow, thank you all so much for all your opinions on which quilt you like best. I finally decided to go with the orange and yellow zig zag quilt. It was a tough decision since they are all my favorites. But in the end it got a lot of votes and a lot of people have it as a favorite on flicker. It is for a contest that is going on at the Make Baby Stuff website. Go here to see all the entries and vote for your favorite. If you want to give a comment or rating on my quilt, it can be found here. I'd really appreciate it, but I won't blame you if you choose to comment on other quilts since there are so many good ones. I'm seriously thankful I am not a judge, that would be a hard job.

I am so excited to show you what I did with the cupcake that I embroidered. I just figured it would be a practice but it was too cute not to use. So... I made it into a label for the Dutch Pinwheel Quilt. I used an embroidery machine that was donated to the quilting guild (my mom, and two aunts) so I volunteered to be the first to use it. It works great and I love all the fun stuff you can do with it. So on craft night last week, my sister taught me how to sew on a label....by hand! Now I can do all my binding by hand and hopefully it will look a lot better. But isn't this tag the cutest thing ever!?
Over the weekend I got a whole load of baby bibs and burp cloths done. Mostly to stock up for all the ladies that are pregnant, but one in particular was for my neighbor who just had a baby. They named her Grace. Awe! So I used the aforementioned embroidery machine and stitched her name on the bib. I also did a tulip stitch on the green one that has, coincidentally, tulips on it. These are just a few of what I made. I ran out of light to take pictures. But I think I should have enough to keep me satisfied for a while.

Opinions Please!

I'd like to enter my quilt in a contest, just for fun. So, I need your help to decide which one it should be. Based on which one you think is the most modern, fresh, and fun quilt, which of these quilts would be your favorite? Of course, I love them all that is why I'd like to know your honest opinion.

1 - The Dutch Pinwheels Quilt

2 - The Orange and Yellow Zig Zag Quilt

3- The Hugs & Kisses Quilt

4 - The Log Cabin Quilt

Another Receiving Blanket

Well, I'm a little embarrassed to say that I have finished yet another receiving blanket. I think I have a slight addiction. Okay, maybe a big time addiction. The sad part is that I don't even have a need for them. It is almost as if I am collecting them! I know, it is a sickness.

This one I have been working on for awhile now. I just couldn't figure out what to do for the edging. I kept starting a pattern getting almost half way done and ripping it out because I didn't like it. I finally settled on my favorite stitch, the puff stitch around a HDC. Only this time, I did three rounds. First, the round of SC. Second, a round of DC. Third, the puff stitch round. I'm actually quite pleased with it, considering I tried four different edgings before finally deciding on this one. What can I say, I like this stitch and the way it looks.