Friday, January 30, 2009

Girl Scout Cookies!

I just had to share.  Today I placed the cookie order for my daughter's Girl Scout troop, and it just seemed amazing to be placing an order for 198 cases of cookies.  That's 2376 boxes of cookies that we are expecting to sell both in preorders and in boothsales. 

 Just as an interseting aside, did you know that ThinMints are #2 in cookie sales for the US, following Oreos, and that they are only available for 3 months a year.  See what I learned in the training to be the troops Cookie Mom.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

One World One Heart Giveaway


Update:  I reposted the picture of the fabric so it can be clicked on and you can see the fabric better.

Photo

Last night while I was surfing around I found a really cool blog.  It's basically a worldwide Blog Open house with door prize drawings at each blog.  What an amazing way to find new blogs, meet new people and maybe win a prize or two.  This is it's third year and I knew I just had to be involved in the Gypsy Caravan this year.  To see a complete list of all the participating blogs go to http://oneworldoneheart.typepad.com/


Since I'm so late joining up, you will get to customize your prize.  I'm offering to make you one of my favorite bags.  They are about 14" x15"x 4".  It will look like these, but you get to choose the fabrics. (sorry these bags were all Christmas gifts so none of them are available.) 

So if you have an active blog and would like to be entered, please leave a comment on this post, and only this post. Make sure you include your fabric choice, from the ones pictured above, by February 11th, and I will draw the winner on February 12th. 

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

My Family Birthday Banner


Just in time for Daphne's birthday I got out the Birthday Banner I made last year, based on a pattern from one of my quilting magazines.  Since we only have a daughter I didn't worry too much about how girly the colors are.  Daphne loves it.  It even has buttons on the centers of the bows that I thought would be cute to hang a gift tag on with the birthday girl/boys name on it.


Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Look at the cute invitations I made!!!


These are the invitations I made for Daphne's sleepover.  They turned out really cute and were sooooo easy.  I bought blank cards, with envelopes.  

1 - I trimmed about a 1/2 an inch off the open side of the card to make it closr in shape to a sleeping bag.  

2- I decided how much of one corner I wanted to fold over and using a ruler and the dull edge of a butter knife I scored the fold line.  

3 - Then I took the card to my sewing machine and starting below the score line I sewed about an 1/8 of an inch from the edge down the long side and across the bottom.  You could use double sided tape!  

4 - Next using a basic word program I printed the invite info on colored paper.  The only things to figure out are how wide a piece of paper will fit into the sleeping bag.  If you use double sided tape it will be thinner.  You also need to figure out how low the words need to be so they don't show above the bag.

5 - And finally I found a free clip art image of a pillow, but you could just draw a simple pillow shape, and printed it onto another colored paper.  Cut it out and using double sided tape I attached it to the top of the insert.  Just make sure that it all fits into your envelope.

A couple opinion questions

Help, what do you think:

Okay #1  -  The young girls that I've been teaching to sew are going on a Disney World/Caribbean Cruise vacation and I offered to help them make light summer nightgowns for the trip.  Here's my dilemma.  I bought an easy nightgown pattern (on sale of course) or I found a tutorial for a pillowcase type dress that has elastic at the neckline so it wouldn't need tie straps, that I thought could make an adorable light and easy nightgown.  Which do you think?  The nightgown would start teaching them about patterns, but it would take much longer to make, or the pillowcase dress which would go faster but isn't a real pattern.  I think I'm leaning towards the pillowcase dress!


Now #2 - My daughter is having her Birthday sleepover this Friday.  Everything is fine for the actual sleepover, but my friend is talking about leaving her daughter with me the whole next day also because they need to leave at 7:30 in the morning to drive to Sacramento (a 2-3 hour drive) to pick up a friend at the airport.  I have told her to let me know what time she wants me to wake Sandia up by and we'll have her ready, but she just says oh that's okay Sandia doesn't need to come with.  Then she proceeds to tell me though that they will be gone all day because as long as they're in Sac. they'll want to do some things there, and they'll need to eat lunch there also before heading back.   Am I being unreasonable in thinking it isn't a good idea to keep two tired girls together all day, when they have issues about getting along even when they aren't tired.  They really like each other, they are just very different.

 

Monday, January 12, 2009

Janet, for your curiosity


Here's the fabric I was telling you about!  This is the pink background, there was a purple background and matching stripes.  Remember, in the picture you can't see the sparkles!

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Here's my Dad's quilt


Here's the quilt that I made my Dad for his birthday!  I'm really happy with how it turned out.  Now he just needs to get his new office to hang it up!

This pattern is from the book, Skinny Quilts and Table Runners.  Mine is a little simpler than in the book, and I also used raw edges instead of the finished edges they showed in the pattern.

Thursday, January 8, 2009

Starting a new year!


Alright I'm a little late getting out a new post.  Somehow I just didn't have anything to write, but today I'm just going to type.  Hmm, let's see.  

We had a good visit with the families over Christmas, the dog and Daphne even did great in the car. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised about that.

I finished several more projects, 2 stockings, 3 more bags, another pincushion and a wall quilt for my Dad, and of course I didn't get pictures of any of them.  (hint, hint Janet if you'd send me pictures, yes I know that you've put the stockings away, but what about the bag.)

Now I'm thinking about clothes.  I'm going to be teaching my friends girls (9 and 11) how to make nightgowns.  I was also thinking about all the clothes I'd like to make for Daphne and my niece.  We'll see what I actually get done.  I shouldn't start any projects right now though, because my parent's are coming to visit this weekend and I don't need to make a bigger mess to clean.  

It's hard to believe but my baby is turning 7 this weekend.  Where has the time gone.  I've noticed that there are fewer and fewer things about her that remind me of that baby.  Now I only really see that when I check on her while she's sleeping.  Otherwise she is seeming to grow up more almost daily.  She's only a foot shorter than I am, I don't even really have to lean over to give her a hug. (yes I know not hard when your as short as I am, but it just seems momentous).

She even wants to have a sleepover this year.  We reluctantly agreed, but limited it to 4 girls.  I'll let you know how it goes next Saturday after they have all left.  Even the goody bags for the party are different.  Instead of toys, they are purses with bracelets, lip gloss and sparkly powder makeup. (no color, just sparkle)

As much as I miss my little baby sometimes I can't wait to see what her next adventure is and how she grows in the next year!