Stop staring and start sewing!

And now for something completely different.....

A really great give away!

I'm going to be away from my computer for a few days so I thought this would be a great time to do something out of the ordinary.  The kind folks at Shabby Apple have offered to allow me to give away this women's dress my blog.  How fun!

Normally I don't do other folks give aways but I really like their website and heck, it's their dress!  They are also giving my blog readers a coupon code for 10% off any order in the next 30 days.  Just use the code "stopstaring10off"  when checking out.

This is the dress I picked out for you.  I hope you like it!  I adore it and think it would look fantastic with a pair of black boots (you'll have to get your own boots, sorry).

 

This sweet little dress is not part of the give away but it's just darn cute!  I really love the fact that they pick designer cottons for their little girls dress section.

Anyway, the folks at Shabby Apple just ask that you "like" their facebook page and come back here and tell me that you have finished liking them.  :)  You don't have to do anything else but if you want to tell me what kind of sewing project your working on...well I'm curious.  Good luck and have a great week!

Sprucing and stuff

I took 15 minutes out of my crazy schedule and spruced up a chair for Peety.  I think she found this chair in one of the neighbors bulk trash piles (one man's trash....) and spray painted it.  But it's been outside for about a year so the paint is already chipping.  We shall call it Shabby Chic and leave it that way.  I parted with a piece of my beloved Fresh Cut fabric (that's how much I love my daughter, plus Free Spirit just re-released it).

The change isn't huge but it definitely looks cleaner and cuter.

It just took a couple of minutes to staple the fabric in place.  The important part is to really stretch as your going so there are not wrinkles when you're done.  This Stanley electric stapler is so much better than my last one.  It was Black & Decker and was always jamming.  I like Black & Decker's irons though so they're not all bad.

So now she has a cute, fresh chair for her room and I feel like a nice mommy.  Win/win.

I want to show off some goodies I recently recieved.  I asked my friend Thomas Knauer if I could have a few 10" x 10" scraps of his fabric for a project I was working on.  He sent me this gorgeous stack of fat quarters!  Seriously!  Aren't they beautiful?  This is from his Pear Tree collection (from Andover) and it's incredibly soft and the colors are wonderful.  I've already put some to good use but I'm going to have a blast playing with the rest of it (if I can keep the kids away from it).

And I took a little time last week to play with my friends Bari J. Ackerman and Paula Prass.  Paula was in town with her hubby Tim so Bari and I joined her for a fun brunch.  I love these women so much and it was such great therapy to catch up and giggle for a few hours.  Fortunately for me, Bari just moved to the Phoenix area with her family so we are planning lots of shenanigans.  Yay!

I'm still working like crazy here but will soon take a blissful break and hopefully get to see more of my favorite fabric friends.  It's all good.

A Man Cold and a Deadline (pt 1?)

Joey has a man cold and I have a deadline.  I'm grateful that he isn't a big baby about it.  I think he is comforted by this handsome hat that he made for himself.  And that iPad.

I'm also grateful he was able to rally 4/5 of the kids to have a "laundry party".  Here they are having a laugh at the expense of one of the kids (I won't name names but she has a basket on her head).  See how nicely my coffee can collection is growing?  I was worried about it but then started watching Hoarders (it's on Netflix now!) and realized I'm doing okay if the coffee cans are my only collection obsession.

I should be able to re-enter my "normal" life after this week but in the meantime I'm extremely grateful that my family knows how to hold it together and enjoy each other when I'm swamped with other things. 

Things are sort of quiet right now in my sweet fabric community but there are a bunch of exciting things on the horizon so I will be having some fun announcements and give aways soon.  So hang tight!  Or is it hang loose?  How about Carpe Diem?!  Have a wonderful weekend!