one shabby chick

Blogger's choice bundle

I stumbled upon this contest via Flickr...

Such a fun idea!

So I set about making my own little fat quarter bundle and here it is:

Fabrics are:

Hall of Fame Yellow Game Jersey

Taza Fushia Geo

October Skies Rosehips Pinstripe

Get Together Pink Squirrels and Nuts

Farm Fresh Yellow Plaid

Children at Play Pink Hopscotch

Hoo's in the Forest Pink Plaid

Domestic Bliss Pink with Cream Beaded Curtain

Get Together Gray Birds and Flowers

Children at Play Yellow Making Hats

Domestic Bliss Pink Time for Tea

Children at Play Soft Pink Meadow

Solids:

Bella Solids Peony

Free Spirit Slate Grey

Bella Solids Butterscotch

Go enter for your chance to win too - plus it's just fun designing your own fat quarter set!

A new year

I've been busy doing some serious cleaning.

Moving furniture, cleaning windows and screens...you know, the big stuff.

I guess it's because we have our windows open all year round but houses sure get dirty/dusty in Hawaii...red dirt too - ugh!

I love this kind of cleaning though...makes me feel organized and ready for the new year.

I've been thinking of goals for the new year too.

Sewing goals and personal goals.

I thought I'd put a list here so I can remember them and hopefully cross them off by the end of next year.

Sewing goals:

* Make a quilt out of the Material Obsession 2 book (any quilt but preferably one of these)

* Make larger quilts (see above)

* Take more risks - submit projects to magazines, etc. - I am a bit of a baby when it comes to this...probably because I don't like rejection and worry my work is not good enough.

* Push myself in the Ringo Pie Bee - I have to be honest...we are starting round 2 and there are some mega-stars in this bee. And I am just not up there with them. I have thought about quitting a bunch of times. But I'm sticking it out and want to try and learn new techniques and broaden my creativity.

* Finish my ufo pile

* Try new styles of free-motion quilting.

* Add new products to my Etsy shop on a regular basis.

Personal Goals:

* Read my Bible and pray more.

* Lose some weight :-)

* Save, save, save - I'm such a spender and really want to break that habit in 2012.

* Finish painting the kitchen - cause 2 years is too long to have it half-way finished, right?!

* Paint the living room floor (it's concrete) and walls - I'm over the red...I'm thinking a pretty grey (to go with this fabric for the curtains - I absolutely love the Drawing Room fabric I have now but they are old and one has a big rip in it...so time for some new ones)

* Finally get caught up on the laundry...oh, who am I kidding, that will never happen - lol!

How about you all...got any New Year's goals?

Year end sale

Hope everyone had a Merry Christmas!

Is it wrong that I already want to start taking down my decorations? I actually want to re-paint my living room too but the Hubs stopped that crazy talk.

I'll have to wait until we get back to do that!

Just wanted to drop in here and let you know I have everything in the shop 25% off for the next two weeks...

Ok off to straighten up a bit and maybe do some sewing? I want to clean but Hubby has the day off and I don't want to spoil his relaxing day with a massive cleaning effort.

Snapshots

No sewing happening around these parts.

{little succulent garden in our kitchen window}

Maybe tomorrow? But probably not.

{velvet pumkins I made last year}

Lots of goodie-making though.

Candied orange peels

Dipped in dark chocolate

Caramels

Vanilla fudge

with pecans from my Grandpa's yard (sad to think we will eventually use the last of them and never get more...)

most delicious cookies ever (well, the dough is so far....it's chilling in the fridge now - seriously...SO good!)

Got some gorgeous fabric in the mail - new Velveteen from Anna Maria Horner:

Dying to make something out of it for the trip...passbort book? messenger bag? something!

No nephew yet but it's any day now - forcing myself not to start a new quilt until I finish his.

Most of all I wanted to drop in and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend filled with family and friends, laughter and cheer!

Is it January yet?

Let's just say the Hubs and I are WAY more excited about going on vacation then Christmas this year.

I want to start packing now!

And we have to pack for two totally different climates. Costa Rica's climate is pretty similar to Hawaii's - cool nights (you know, 60's - ha ha) and warm days.

But Tennessee in Feb.? I don't even know how to prepare for that.

Especially since the Hubs has only been in snow 2x in his life.....me and the kids - yep, just once! But don't get me wrong - I'm hoping for lots of snow. Well, you know, some snow.

I have a couple gifts I need to make still this week.

A few of Jeni's bags for my friends - filled with some elastic headbands, potholders (which I bought since they were a great deal) and a Starbucks card.

And the quilt for my coming-any-day nephew.

I forgot to show my awesome swap package from Jen in the Twitter swap we all did.

She sent me a gorgeous doll quilt...

some pez..

and a beautiful Black Apple print. So fun!

And the other day I came home to a big box of Laurie Wisburn's new line - Brrr! It doesn't come out until this summer but I get to play with and make something fun - I'm thinking about a Swoon quilt. I was SO excited when Laurie emailed me...

And I even got a FQ bundle to giveaway on my blog too...so stay tuned for that!

My poor mom has been sick with a cold and is now in the fog stage but still needs to go Christmas shopping so I'm off to help steer her around the mall...

ok a few more

So Quiltdad was on Twitter yesterday writing a bunch of "hey girl" quotes that were hilarious.

I was reading them all to my hubby and apparently he came up with a few of his own. {It's been a big topic around here lately, as you can tell}

He posted this one on my FB this morning and then thought of a couple more so I decided to post them here.

His are a little more sarcastic then I'm sure the real Mr. Gosling would ever be - ha ha!

Oh and one more thing, if you have a moment and feel so inclined...

you can head on over to Pink Chalk Studio and vote for me! Eeek - I'm one of the finalists in Kathy's Handmade with Love Tutorial Contest.

I entered my iPad tutorial and it's one of the top five in the Gifts for Friends category.

I'm pretty excited!

OK Hubs and I have another fun night - he's a youth group leader at our church and all the leaders/wives are going to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory {I know - CF...but it's a night out with no kids and a free dinner!}.

Indulge me for a moment

OK so I pinned this a few days ago and have been following their blog ever since. So funny!

Didn't realize they had just started it! Just thought it was something I hadn't seen before.

Then last night I told Hubby I had an idea for one.

And I told him - I'm just going to put it up on my blog with a picture of you.

To which he replied, "He's way hotter than me. He has huge muscles." {We just recently watched Crazy, Stupid Love and yes...he's pretty ripped in that}

I assured him he was just as hot and so here's my take on it:

Sorry - I just had to.....

OK so now back to sewing things.

The {ahem} craft fair on Thursday was a bit of a let-down. I actually had a sale as one of my customers saw my FB post and came by specifically to get some things (thanks Heather!!).

But there were probably less than 10 shoppers {browsers} all night - and I'm not sure how many vendors actually sold things but the three next to me didn't sell anything at all.

I felt so bad that I had a sale and they didn't...plus I had a long drive home and still haven't unloaded the car :-)

I finished up the little bear (pattern can be found here) and my littlest is asking for one for Christmas now.

I have two more cut out and think I'll work on them this week. I was even thinking about sewing up one of these to go with her bear too.

(and yes, I am so lazy I machine-stitched all her features)

I sewed up a project yesterday which I'll give you a sneak peek of...

It'll be up this week sometime and I'll link to it.

And have you guys seen these? QuiltDad posted a pic on Twitter this morning and my hubby got so excited - called the Lego store but they aren't in Hawaii yet so I ordered a couple online. Guess they are hot sellers!

OK hope everyone has a wonderful weekend - I'm off to unload the car :-)

Back to the living

Oh man...the stomach flu hit our house good this time.

Two people managed to escape - the hubs and son #3 but I'm just waiting to hear one of them in the bathroom.

I got it the worst but luckily it was a quick one...Now I'm doing tons of laundry and trying to take it easy.

Not too easy though as  I am doing one last craft fair today.

It's at Waikulu Community Center, 5081 Bingham Way, MCBH (Kaneohe Marine Base) from 5-9pm.

I made a few little aprons and am attempting to finish this darling bear before I have to leave...

I had planned a few more things but that didn't happen!

Oh well, that's life.

OK off to try and sew up a skirt for the craft fair organizer!!

Busy weekend

We had a busy weekend filled with lots of fun parties and Christmas-y things.

Friday night was our town's annual parade...waiting for my friend to email me some pictures from that as I totally forgot my camera.

Saturday we had Hubby's work party at a bowling alley.

(the drive)

The kids had a blast.

And Sunday was a cookie exchange party I help host every year.

(I made these)

My house has gotten too small for it so we have it at a friend's house and it's a lot of fun.

I make prizes and we all vote on our top favorites in a couple categories.

We were supposed to go to our Homeschool Christmas party last night but Baby Girl came down with the stomach flu....ugh!

She seems to be on the mend now and I'm washing a ton of blankets and cleaning their rooms out today in the hopes of killing any lingering virus....I really, really hate the stomach flu.

Hope everyone is having a great week!!

Random stuff

OK first of all - the winner of Nova's awesome pattern is.....

Liane!

Congrats - I've emailed your info on to Nova and we'll get you that pattern!

Have you guys seen this?

How awesome is that? There's a library one too but I love the craft one - so funny!

And since there's a little more time to ship things off before Christmas, I've decided to have a little Christmas sale in my shop.

So from now until Friday, Dec. 16th, everything is 15% off with coupon code Christmas2011.

Have your eye on something? Get it now while it's on sale and I'll ship everything as soon as possible to make sure it gets there in time for Christmas!

I can't guarantee anything for you international folks but I will ship it the same day you order it whenever possible.