an hour well well worth your time!

starting may 14 you will be able to watch "A Walk to Beautiful" online at PBS. i invite you i implore you to watch this amazing film about Ethiopian women with fistulas. a quick explanation of a fistula is a hole between the bladder and vagina and/or rectum made during a long labor. it causes constant incontinence and these women are completely ostracized and made to live alone in a hut outside of their village. no hospital will treat them. there is one hospital that is dedicated to fistulas only and the treatments are completely free. its amazing and heartbreaking and enlightening and completely uplifting. spend 50 minutes and watch this film online here and get involved. i am already planning a showing of the film to my friends and my goal is to raise $450 which is the amount it costs for one woman's complete treatment. 

watch here

50th purchase! who will it be??

i am up to 49 purchases so far at my etsy shop. so i figured that the 50th customer should get a prize! so here's the deal...free shipping! just kidding, that would be super lame if that's all you got. no, the 50th customer will get a free item from the shop (equal or lesser value, please) and free shipping (i will refund this after your purchase)! so buy that 50th item and in the comments section tell me what other item you would like! nothing like free stuff, right!? so shop away, shop shop away.... 

just for kicks...this is a photo of my grandmother from when my grandparents were dating. i think she is about 18 or 19 in this pic. isn't it awesome! (on the texas a&m campus)

the wren's pet bed!

hey check it out! the wren made a suitcase pet bed! how cool is she! check it out

she makes the coolest handbags, and i think its super neat that she lives in cape town, south africa. my idea is traveling the world...

100 things about me

i have some friends who have listed 100 things about them...so i figured i'd join in! sounds like fun to come up with 100 things to write down.  maybe we will all learn something about me (including myself)

1. i was born in new england (new hampshire to be exact) but i was raised in the south

2. i have one brother

3. growing up i had had a rabbit, a couple of hamsters, a fish or two, a cat, and a dog as pets. now i have a cat and a dog

4. the cat was killed by the neighbors dogs, he was only 6 months old

5. the dog lived to be 16 years old

6. my parents have been married for almost 35 years

7. i am kinda a geek

8. i enjoy reading theology and social science books

9. i gravitate to non-fiction more than fiction

10. i usually write in all lower case letters, i don't know why, lazy i guess

11. my first boyfriend was named mike and my last boyfriend now my husband is named mike

12. i had mono my senior year of high school, apparently it was the worst case my dr. had ever seen.

13. princess diana and mother teresa died while i was sick in bed with mono, i watched every single bit of tv coverage including diana's funeral in the middle of the night

14. i love going on vacation but i find it hard to spend the money to go

15. there was a giant flood on my 11th birthday in my town and they shut down school, it was awesome

16. i was a "water girl" for my middle school football team in 7th and 8th grade

17. i never played sports growing up

18. i was in girl scouts for 6 years

19. i played the flute for 6 years

20. played the flute and the piccolo in the marching band

21. i drove from augusta to toronto two times in one month

22. i've known my husband since 9th grade

23. he once dated my best friend

24. i have lived in portsmouth, new hampshire

25. new orleans

26. olympia, washington

27. augusta, ga

28. milledgeville, ga

29, new york city

30. richmond, va

31. i went to georgia college and state university 

32. i have a ba in art from there

33. i went to the fashion institute of technology in nyc

34. i have an associates in accessory design from there

35. i got the associates after i got my bachelors

36. i taught art to homeschoolers

37. i taught art to 6-12 graders

38. i worked at old navy

39. also worked at the gap

40. i was a nanny one summer

41. i designed a tag for a tie/belt that amici accessories sold to wet seal, i did this while i lived in nyc and then found the tag i drew in a wet seal in augusta, ga. i squealed when i saw it.

42. i stole the tag!

43. i was a visual specialist at macy's 

44. i dressed mannequins

45. i was not as fun and glamorous as it looks

46. i learned to sew when i was 12, my mom taught me

47. i used to paint anything that didn't move

48. i have painted bricks, hammer handles, floors, random boxes, tons of chairs

49. i have only flown 1st class once and it was because i was flying standby

50. i have been to two foreign countries...canada and thailand

51. i have been to the seoul, south korea airport

52. my husband and i have stayed at the same hotel and ate at the same restaurants in chiang mai, thailand two years apart. we were with groups of people and we were not in charge of where we went or what we did, so it was a huge coincidence

53. i have never had surgery

54. the only time i have stayed at a hospital was when i had miriam

55. i read all 7 of the chronicles of narnia at least 12 times 

56. i love history

57. i used to want to be an archeologist

58. until i realized that meant crawling around in dark holes with snakes and spiders

59. my favorite colors have always been blue and green

60. i dress my daughter in non-pink colors as often as i can

61. i hate buying clothes that aren't on sale

62. i have never spent money on a cell phone

63. i have never mowed grass, i would but have just never had to

64. i have never been on a cruise

65. i graduated in radio city music hall

66. my key note speaker was anna wintour

67. calvin klein received his honorary doctorate

68. i was once a hair model

69. my hair was dyed ronald mcdonald red against my will

70. i worked at my girlfriend's kitchen for a couple months

71. most of my furniture and furnishings were free (gifts or found)

72. i have a one year old daughter

73. i never exercised until i joined stroller strides (yoga doesn't count)

74. i find the story of amelia earhart fascinating, i wrote a paper on her when i was little and airplane bore me, go figure

75. i hate writing

76. i go through crafty phases

78. it started with ceramics then to weaving, then fabric design, then accessories namely purses, then painting, then bookmaking, then sewing

79. i've been in my sewing phase for a good 3 years or so

80. i got married outside

81. i wore ballet shoes in my wedding (i only took ballet in kindergarten, so i was no ballerina, they were just comfy)

82. i saw my husband in my dress before we got married, we took all our pictures before the ceremony, i loved it that way, highly recommend it!

83. i have been married 4 wonderful years

84. i used to hate running, now its not so bad.

85. i actually ran the entire 6.2 miles of a 10k

86. i had a horrendous time, but hey i ran the whole way...in the rain

87. my brother and i went to the same place for our respective honeymoons

88. it was the same place that the truman show was filmed

89. my favorite food is chef boyardee ravioli 

90. my favorite drink is diet coke

91. i never look at a menu at a mexican restaurant

92. i always order cheese dip and 1, 2, or 3 beef enchiladas (depends how hungry i am)

93. mexican is my favorite type of restaurant

94. i ate mexican the night before i was induced

95. i taught my husband to drive a stick shift

96. i still drive a stick shift

97. i put my child to sleep on her stomach at about 2 weeks

98. i am addicted to buying fabric

99. it has taken me 45 minutes to write 100 thing about me

100. i am a Christian and i love Jesus 

wow, that was harder than i thought. yet now i am thinking of more stuff! 

watercolor minus the water

overspray

Rombutan See-Chompoo

from my hotel breakfast buffet in Chiang Mai, Thailand. it was like a crunchy grape inside, we just called them hairy strawberries! they weren't so good, but really fun to look at.

wire

just peanuts

better late than never!

i am late joining the 30 day macro challenge, but here i am!

disclaimer: some of these were taken by my former art students from 2 years ago. i can't remember who took what. but i think this was taken by sara curtis.

check this out!

huh! they mentioned me on this video! cooool!

tea towel

just thought i would show the tea towel i embroidered with elsa mora's little doodle. elsa is so neat, you should keep us with her blog, she's amazing. i wish i had just an ounce of her creativity and craftsmanship. and she has fun stories about meeting celebrities! 

You will NOT believe this!

I am the queen of finding stuff! I was driving to go get Miriam some Zyrtex (her father passed on his allergies, yeah.) and saw a sewing cabinet chunked in the ditch. I didn't think much of it since the cabinet looked trashed. So on the way back I got a different angle of it and could see sewing machine inside. It was seafoam green and I just about slammed on the brakes! I pulled over as quick as I could and then ran across traffic and checked it out. Well it looked AWESOME! I couldn't get it out of the cabinet without some tools and luckily it was only 2 blocks from the house. So I ran home and ran in the front door yelling for my husband (freaked him out!). We grabbed some tools and ran back and put the whole nasty cabinet in the trunk. We threw the cabinet away it was in horrible shape, disgusting. But here it is...

The tension knob is gone and it would be way too much work and money to get it working again but I just want to display it. I cleaned it up already and its SO pretty! I need to take a cleaned up picture but its in the shed still waiting for the bottom to be cleaned better. Ooooh it was like Christmas finding that thing!!!

You must try this!

I have discovered a new recipe that I must share with the world! Pumpkin is not my super favorite ingredient. I do love a good Pumpkin Pie but pumpkin cakes were never my fav. Well pumpkin cake has captured my heart after trying at a friend's house. I guess anything with chocolate chips helps. That always helps! This recipe makes two loaf pans but I made one of them in a vintage jello mold and it worked. I had to bake it an extra 10 minutes or so and cut off the "mound" off the bottom to make it flat. Oh, and I added some simple milk/powdered sugar glaze. We were having some good friends over for dinner and I figured I would make it 

fancy. So here it is...enjoy! Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread

photo from Cooking Light

WOW!!

Well I am speechless! I don't know what to say!? I guess thank you is a good thing to say. Thank you to all who voted for the pet bed! I have never won anything EVER! This is so cool!

Check out the winning post!!!

Is it done yet?

Well as a participant in March of the Tools I figure I should post one of my favorite tools. I cannot cook without this...

Its my cooking thermometer! This handy $20 gadget that I purchased at Target is the best thing since sliced bread, seriously. I was sick and tired of not knowing when the meat I was cooking was done. I didn't like slicing into the middle of everything looking for pink. This little probe goes into the thickest part of the meat and it will tell you the temperature on the screen. It works in the oven or on the stovetop. You can "set it and forget it!" Instead of waiting a certain amount of time till you think something is done, you set the temperature and the alarm goes off when its done. No more over done or under done meat again! It also has a timer in case you need it. The other fancy feature is that it is a magnet so it will stick to your oven or refrigerator.  But don't try to use it for frying and attach the screen to your range hood over the hot oil. Because it will fall in the oil and it won't work anymore! And that's how my first one died. 

Vote for me, oh please vote for me!

I entered the Design Sponge DIY contest and I made the top 20! Are you kidding me?! Wow! There were over 500 entries too! So head on over to Design Sponge and vote. There are some seriously awesome projects over there so vote for them if you like their stuff. I have some stiff competition, seriously. So check out the entries and vote!

Easter Dress and my first Japanese

I think this is going to be miss Miriam's Easter dress. The one pictured is the one I'm hoping to make. Its just so sweet! I also love the yellow one, its very Annie don't you think? Please God let it be warm on Easter or I'm going to have to scramble for a little jacket for her. 

I bought my first Japanese fabric the other day! Sorry superbuzzy.com I borrowed this picture, I was too lazy to take a pic of mine I'm watching the Oscars hoping to see Elsa in the background. I was in my local quilt store the other day and I heard one of the older ladies working in the store mentioning how they got 3 bolts of fabric from Japan awhile ago and they hadn't sold very well. I was starting to silently freak out! I ran over there and casually asked where they were and there it was! The cutest fabric! Hello! Why didn't I know about this!? I informed the sales lady that Japanese fabric was all the rage and I had NO idea why it wasn't selling!? I got 1/2 a yard in the light blue background. SO CUTE! 

THEN...I was at the Richmond Home Show yesterday where I met the local Bernina Shop lady. I didn't catch her name but she was really sweet. I walked up and said, "Sell me on a Bernina, please!" I could tell she wanted to be my friend! Yeah, my dream machine is like 3 grand. Dream on. Is the automatic thread cutter worth it?  Seams like it to me. Anyways, Bernina lady told me that there is shop in town called The Quilt Man and he is known for carrying Japanese fabric! Why did no one tell me this either!!?? Well, guess where I am going this week? The Bernina store and The Quilt Man! Sorry Joyce, if your reading this don't worry I still love Quilting Adventures more (I just want a Bernina and more Japanese fabric)! In fact Bernina lady said that there is no way she could compete with Quilting Adventures in fabric so she doesn't even try. 

well, it fits the dog?!

i recently made the elf hat from "Bend-the-Rules Sewing" and I thought that my 9 month olds head would be smaller than was called for the pattern and lets just say its apparently not! so it fits the dog. but i also found out that it fits newborns! so i gave it to my friend sher who is about to have her first baby girl any day now. 

thank you to everyone who visited my blog after craft magazine mentioned my suitcase dog bed!! i usually average about 10 visits to my blog each day but this weekend i had 500 in one day!! that's amazing! so thank you thank you for visiting!! 

a couple of you had some questions about the bed. the strap i installed to keep the lid from closing, while your sweet pet is sleeping soundly inside, is removable. i installed a snap to the top and the bottom of the suitcase and then made a canvas strap that attaches and is tight enough to keep the lid from closing. i really should take a picture, that would make it clearer. i'll get on that. promise! 

so, i am training for my very first 10K. now, i have never run any sort of race...ever! so this is getting really hard. i started exercising about 6 months ago and felt very encouraged by my friends and really felt i could do this. so i am working out monday, wednesday, and friday and then running tuesday, thursday, and saturday. which only leaves sunday for my much needed rest! i have never pushed my body this hard and everyone is telling me that its 70% mental. well, its definitely becoming a mental battle!! i have never been a physically tough person, its not that i give up i just don't like to do things that don't come somewhat easily. i never did any sports growing up, just wasn't my thing. makes me sound like a wimp! but, i've just never done something this physically taxing and mentally "pushing through" when my body wants to stop is something new to me. 

fuzzy bunny

today i read miriam one of my favorite childhood books, fuzzy bunny. i always loved this story of a well loved handmade bunny who finds himself feeling threatened by his girl's new toys. he ends up being knocked to the floor and rolls under the bed where he feels he will never be found. his little girl finds him and realizes how worn he is and decides to fix him up. she gives him an "operation" where she re-stuffs him and even "put another stitch in his lips so that he could smile again."

these days "old worn out" aka "well loved" toys are relegated to the trash in leu of new brightly colored factory made toys. how sad! so i just love that this book is about a well loved handmade toy (made by the little girl's mother) being refurbished by the little girl no-less and then given a place of honor among her new toys at a tea party. she even "gave Fuzzy the biggest piece [of cake] because he'd been so brave."