one shabby chick

A few quick things

Hope everyone is ready for a fun weekend - we have a few birthday parties to go to and I plan to quilt that custom twin.

I keep getting emails asking about whether people can use my tutorials to make things to sell and I figured I should write something here so everyone will know.

Yes, by all means, you are welcome to use any of my tutorials to make things and sell them (not commercial sales but you know what I mean - ha ha!). I just ask that you credit back my tutorials when you do...thanks!

And I added a little sidebar thingy that will hopefully make it easier to follow me no matter what blog reader you use - let me know if it works ok....I'm not super tech-savvy.

I uploaded some ipad covers and guitar straps into the shop yesterday.

And finished the quilt I was working on. Here's a sneak peek:

and the back:

And I'm so happy - I booked my airplane tickets to go to Sewing Summit in October! I'm actually going to Seattle for a few days first as one of my best friends lives there so I get to spend a few days with her and then fly to Salt Lake - I am beyond excited!! Best part is - I used miles for both tickets - woohoo!!

Any of you going? 

Our Beach

We spent two days at the beach, one at the beginning of the trip and one near the end...

and we called it OUR beach since the name of the beach is Playa Carrillo :-)

(yes, those are horses just running around loose on the beach)

We, of course, can go to the beach whenever we want but our cousins from Missouri never get to go.

Playa Carrillo is about an hour's drive from Nicoya - not too bad. We spent two long days there - taking lunch and staying until it was almost dark.

The kids had a blast - the waves aren't very strong right now and it's shallow for a good distance into the water.

Plus there are coconut trees for shade since the sun is so much stronger there. We had to keep reapplying sunscreen so we didn't get burnt.

There were playmates for everyone - from the oldest cousins to the littlest ones. We played soccer and took turns with the one boogie board.

 

Hubby was standing by the road on our first trip to the beach and a truck drove by and stopped.

Turned out to be a friend that he'd known since they were kids and now he has a surf school right on the beach and rents out surfboards. His wife teaches yoga on paddleboards too.

So on our second trip to the beach, we went down and rented some surfboards and all the older cousins had a blast trying to catch waves (he wouldn't let us pay him though!!).

So if you are ever in Playa Carrillo, look him up - his name is Jon and he owns Chillasana Yoga and Surf School.

(my father-in-law)

Hubby took the GoPro took and took lots of videos at the beach.

 

We all said next time we go, we have to do more "touristy" things and visit places we've never been - like Tortugero National Park. Not sure if that will happen though - we were there 2 weeks and still didn't see all the aunts, uncles, cousins...

(me and my sister-in-law)

First few days

Been in a bit of a funk since getting home. Guess it's just jet lag and reality crashing down at the same time.

I am trying to adjust my attitude today - been focusing on all my blessings. We are all healthy and just got back from a wonderful vacation. I have an amazing husband and 4 great kids....truly blessed!

OK so onto the trip...

We had a long day of traveling. By the time I went to sleep in Costa Rica, I had been up for more than 36 hours. My brother-in-law and I had a little contest going to see who had been up the longest {I won - but not on purpose!}. The day before he had driven to the Costa Rica border {from Panama} and then rode 2 buses to get to Nicoya.

We didn't know if they were going to be able to make it as they had just been in CR for New Year's but thankfully everything worked out and he, his wife and 2 of their boys came for the first few days of our trip {they couldn't stay very long}. It was so wonderful to see them.

My other brother-in-law and his wife came too. They live in Missouri and we all planned the trip so we could go at the same time. They have 3 adorable boys - 10, 7 and 20 months. My younger son and their boys bonded instantly.

We all stayed in my mother-in-law's house. There were 3 bedrooms for the 3 couples and then one big room with a bunch of mattresses for all the kids.

There were cousins everywhere - some of them had never even met before but they were instant friends.

It was so great being able to stay in the same house with everyone and pass the whole day together. We didn't get sick of each other once :-) And the kids didn't fight at all - amazing!

We did stay up late every night just talking....so great to see family!

We arrived mid-day on Thursday and drove about an hour from the airport to my mother-in-law's house.

We spent the rest of the day hanging out and talking. Friday we went to a local "ranch" and there is a pool there that you pay a few bucks to swim in for the day.

We all got pretty burnt - the sun is so much stronger in CR than here...closer to the equator. And apparently I did not take a single picture that day - ugh!!

The kids had a blast....I don't think my little one came out of the pool the entire day.

It was really hot there - in the 90's every day.

Saturday we rented a soccer court and all played soccer - so much fun!

A few more cousins rode the bus from a few hours away and spent the rest of the weekend with us.

The boys played basketball later in the afternoon too and then we had a big party at my mother-in-law's other house (she and her husband own a shooting range and they have the cutest cabin there that they live in).

She owns a restaurant in the center of Nicoya and is a very good business-woman (hence the multiple houses).

There were a bunch of birthdays in the family in January so that was what the party was for. We had chicharrones, yuca, roasted pork, chimichurri and a few other things - all the foods I had been dying to eat.

We took the time and took a bunch of pictures of all the family too.

{missing two siblings - they weren't able to make it}

{missing 2 spouses + 2 siblings}

I handed my camera off to a lady that was there when the time came for a picture of the entire family (there were a few - 15! - missing) but she couldn't hold it straight and ended up taking three of our feet only :-)

I stole this one from my sister-in-law's Facebook page.

Wishing now that I had paid more attention and gotten photos of each family too - kicking myself for not doing that now!

Not to worry - we have LOTS of pictures...that's it for this post though! It's taken me all day to write it.

Been cleaning, doing laundry, making black beans.....off to do more of the same!

We're back!

We made it home safely last night after the most turbulent flight I've ever had.

(Flight #1 of 3 yesterday)

I have LOTS to share and am still exhausted - the luggage is still piled up in the living room and probably will be there for a few days.

(playing soccer in Nicoya with all the cousins)

It's so bittersweet coming home. Feels like we've been gone forever and yet it all went by so fast.

(downtown Nashville)

Can't wait to start re-living the trip here through my posts. Hope that's ok with all of you - there are going to be lots of posts about family, Costa Rica and Nashville.

(cousins)

I want to document it all and this feels like the best place to share it.

(boots at my sister-in-law's house)

I'll eventually get back to sewing and I'm sure I will be itching to start sewing soon...

(the view at my sister-in-law's house - Grano de Oro, Costa Rica)

But until then, you'll just have to go along for the ride {if you want to...if not, tune back in later}.

(Papagayo Beach - Costa Rica)

A few more things

The winner of the StudioCherie giveaway is #37.

Montse!

Congratulations! Email me your pattern of choice and I'll pass it along to Cherie.

Sewed up a couple more things for the trip:

A makeup bag - using this tutorial. (mine is a little bigger)

Some oilcloth bags using my tutorial here.

A book cover....

I saw this amazing list taker on Pinterest and loved her fabric choices. I couldn't find a book cover tutorial I liked so I just made up my own pattern.

I put the corner holders in for hardcovers and the long fabric sleeves for soft-covers.

As you can tell I LOVE this new Melody Miller typewriter fabric.

I also made a passport holder since we have 6 passports to keep track of.

Again, made up my own pattern - It didn't come out perfect but it's good enough to take on the trip.

And Hubby was in need of a new wallet.

He's been asking for a new one for a while. I think it was time.

Made it exactly the same as last time only I used interfacing instead of batting - makes it a bit thinner.

He got out all his "travel bags" so I could show take a picture of them all together.

Here's my purse all packed with handmade goodness....

Really hoping to do some posts from the road but we'll see how it goes...if not, you'll get a bunch of posts when I get back for sure!

I want to try and keep a journal of sorts on the iPad to help us document the trip. See you soon!!

Birthdays, babies and bags

I think I've lost my sewing mo-jo...at least for the past few days.

Who knows...I could decide to sew up a storm tomorrow!

I did sew up some drawstring bags this weekend.

Love Jeni's pattern!

I have 4 "artist" size bags (which are pretty big) and one (very big) laundry bag.

I lined my artist bag with fusible fleece and plan to carry my camera in it so it has extra protection.

Like I said, I used some of my favorite fabrics for these.

This is the last of that robot fabric but what better way to use it than in a bag for my little guy.

We have to get a little fishing tackle box to store all his lego pieces in for the plane too.

I made both the girls one...My oldest apparently does not need a drawstring bag (or that's what I was told) :-)

I also sewed up some oilcloth box bags (need to take pics of them tomorrow!)

They are perfect for storing lots of little shampoo samples that your awesome hairdresser gives you for the trip!

I also have one for all the chargers/cords.

We had a birthday dinner for Baby Girl on Saturday.

And little Parker came too! We all got turns holding him - such a good baby.

(Hubby is one of those guys that LOVES babies)

And Birthday Girl got some new outfits and traveling luggage :-) and an ukulele.

She wanted to take it on the plane but we told her no...although Hubby thought she could make some money by asking for donations to stop playing.

I do have a bee block to finish before I leave and will probably work on a couple quilts. I'm hoping to be able to blog a little from Costa Rica but not sure about the internet situation down there.

I will take LOTS of pictures though....

Travel Handmade

Thanks so much for all the great tips!!

I spent many summers in TN and have visited a few places that you all mentioned but Hubby hasn't ever been before so it will be fun to sight-see a bit.

I think I may even get to meet up with Dana! She was one of my first online friends and in the first quilting bee I was ever in!

I can't seem to stop making bags for our trip!

Actually this pattern had been cut out for a while and I do need a carry-on bag, so I sewed it up.

I did change a few things (mostly because I was lazy). I didn't add a zippered pocket on one end or center pockets. And I didn't have any jute so I just made straps out of .....you guessed it - more velveteen! The straps are so soft though - I love it!

And for a little fun, I made the end panels out of Melody Miller's new Typewriter fabric - which is AMAZING!!! Seriously in love with that fabric!

It's a big bag - I will be able to fit a ton of stuff in it - and it came together really easily - great pattern!!

I also made us all little ipod zip cases for our headphones and ipods {Hubby didn't want one}.

I padded them with fusible fleece and put everyone's names on them (just free-motion quilted the names onto small pieces of fabric and attached them to the front piece before sewing the pouches together).

They are all hand-me-down ipods except for the oldest but I figured it would be nice for them to all have their own little case. 

I also cut out some "artist" size drawstring bags from Jeni's pattern. And one enormous laundry bag since I know we'll need it.

The kids picked out their fabrics (I may have helped "guide" them).

I have a few of my favorite fabrics in the mix on these. I've decided fabric is too fun just to have sitting on your shelf - even if it's some of my favorite fabric and I used the last little bit of it.

Hopefully I'll be able to sew them up tomorrow....although I do have a few things to do as we are having a birthday dinner for this little person:

Sunday she'll be 6 years old....she's been counting down the days - and asking me where I've hidden her presents :-)

oh....and I got the fabric for my new curtains....eeeeppp!!!

Any tips?

So I am beyond excited - we leave in 2 weeks!

{And just in case anyone is worried that I keep posting about us being gone - there are people staying at our house so no worries there}

I think Costa Rica will mostly be filled with seeing friends and family - and lots of driving. Maybe a little sight-seeing and beach-going too. I did tell the kids there's a beach called Playa Carrillo and they were very excited - it's close to my mother-in-law's house too.

But I'm not sure what we are going to do in Tennessee. My uncle lives in Franklin so we are staying with him and then driving to Martin/Dresden to see my Grandpa's house and visit some relatives for a day or two.

Here's my short list so far for TN:

* Chattanooga Aquarium - it looks really fun and is about 2 hours from Nashville which isn't too bad {as I type that I'm totally laughing since we can't drive more than an hour here without having to turn around}

* Adventure Science Center - again, looks cool...

* Parthenon ?

* Anthropologie and Philanthropy - ok that's just on my to-do list :-) along with visiting some quilt shops and meeting up with Amanda

Any other ideas? Good places to eat with kids? We have never been to Chick-Fil-A or Sonic so those might be on the to-do list {even though I know they are both fast food....}

Lazy baking day

I know..no posts for almost a month and then two in the same day. I felt a "little" productive today and since tomorrow we start in to school full swing again I did some baking. I made some pizza dough from this cookbook (which I use a lot) and made mini-pizzas with olive oil and garlic. They had a little too much salt in the dough but other than that they turned out great. I used the Cuisinart and it was really fast. Think I'll be whipping up some pizza dough for some big pizzas one of these days.

I also made some cookies from Giada's cookbook.

They turned out yummy although it called for hazelnuts (which I did not have) and also semi-sweet chips (which somehow have disappeared). So I improvised with a few semi-sweet chunks that I ground up in the Cuisinart and the last two Almond Roca's in the can. The recipe actually made a lot of cookies. The kids were very excited about the "baking" mommy and are begging me to make some more things. I told them two items were enough for one day and we'd make something else tomorrow. My eldest is dying to make spice muffins from this same cookbook and I've put him off long enough. So tomorrow Spice Muffins are on the menu...probably as a mid-morning snack.

I'm waiting to put up photos of the wedding until the photographer puts them on his blog and I can link to that. My sister looked beautiful - like 50's pin-up style glamour. She's so much cuter (and smaller) than me - darn her! It was a beautiful day although there were thunderstorms predicted all day and it only rained a tiny bit as we were walking from the wedding site to the reception tent. On the way to the wedding the groom called us to say it was hailing while they were driving. Crazy weather but in the end it turned out beautiful. Here's a link to a few pictures a friend of ours took of the wedding.....

Let it Snow, Let it Snow

Our Morning Snow,
originally uploaded by MicheKerr.

OK so I know there's no snow in Hawaii (well, sometimes but it's on a different island)...that's kinda the point of this post. I know many of you may find this hard to believe but I have NEVER seen snow up-close. In pictures - yes, or flying over some mountain, but touching it - no, never. None of my children either nor my mother-in-law. So we are thinking about driving to Mt. Hood to see snow...is this possible in Sept./Oct.? I need some ideas for sight-seeing/things to do in Portland. We will have some wedding activities to do and I plan to do some shopping but we want to do a couple cool things with the kids. We will be there for a week. Any ideas will help. So if you can think of anything please let me know. And is it possible to just drive up to Mt. Hood and stop alongside the road and play in some snow? We just want to make a couple snowballs or something. Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!!

Totally changing the subject - the girls are getting better- they beat Sweden 2-0! Next up is Nigeria - will be holding my breath in that one!!