It's snowing again here for the third day. Most of the accumulated snow (less than an inch) has melted off, but I'm SICK of it...it's the END of April for heavens sake! My lovely lilacs are blooming and they are alternately covered in snow and freezing. UGH! Well, this had better be gone by next weekend or....well, someone will pay (doesn't it feel good to threaten, even if you have no hope of winning?).

I found this link for juice pouch purses ages ago, but really liked the idea of recycling an they are pretty cute.

Things are calming down today. Matey Moo seems to be feeling better - the worst part is just how hyper he is because he's still on the steroids. It's an amazing thing when you take an almost 3 year old and give them something that makes them MORE hyper!

Anyway, here he is running around none the worse for wear:


Hard to believe he just got out of the hospital yesterday, isn't it? I guess it's true that kids bounce back - I'll just be glad to get him off of the hyper drugs! :-)

As for me, I've cleared off my desk, finished a book I started in the hospital and even took a picture of my round robin which I hope to finish today:


Mine is the feather stitching with the yellow and pink flower beads and the pink row of stitching (pedal or pendant chain stitch - it's a new one I just pulled out of a book) below. I'm also doing that green corner, but so far hate it...I may just pull out what I've done so far and start over. Isn't Leslie's brazillian embroidery lovely? And I adore the seam with the flower/bead pattern. I think this block is going to be really lovely when it's done. Round robins are a lot of fun, I'm just not sure I love the deadline pressure.

Ok, off to read a book and enjoy (NOT!) this weather....brrrrrrr!!!!! Stumble It!

I am completely exhausted. I went to post 3 days ago and got as far as putting up my "unkymoods" icon with "worried" on it (I'm now Zombified...I like this new tool!) Matey Moo had gotten really bleck. He woke up cranky and got worse all morning. By the time I took Missy C to preschool at noon he was out of it and clearly not feeling good.

When I got him home and in bed for nap I realized he wasn't breathing well. With a call to the Dr. and an appt for an hour later (that's when I posted the "worried"). She gave him a breathing treatment, followed by some xrays (to rule out pneumonia) and then another breathing treatment and then into the hospital. We just got home this morning. 3 nights in the hospital and I'm exhausted, emotional and feeling BLECK.

Anyway, more later. I did actually work on my round robin at the hospital and have a bit more to add, but I"m glad to have that at least going! :-) I used a bunch of the beads I bought at the bead show, so that was good timing.

Alright, I'm off to read a mindless book and relax. Stumble It!

I was a little bored today and so redesigned my blog. Funny it's like rearranging the room or something, just a little cleaning lesson. I don't have all the crazy quilting links I used to have, but since I'm in charge of the site for my Rocky Mountain Crazy Quilting group, there are heaps of links there...all of the ones I had and more.

So is it me or do you all spend hours and hours organizing all of this STUFF?????? I decided to put my beads away...HA! I ended up totally reorganizing my bead storage and my craft area.





So, that's an improvement. Pretty much everything handy. My fabric is in a file cabinet, but I can't imagine how you gals keep storage for heaps and heaps of stuff more than I have!

So, these are the curtains I did for Missy C. Nothing fancy, but I'm pretty sure she'll hate them in a few years anyway, so why worry too much, eh?



Then the other project I did was these:


Since the table and chairs are new and I wasn't about to put booster seats on them, I happened to have some 4 inch foam that I cut squares out of and covered with this fabric (from my mother in law from Malaysia) - the bottom is felt so they don't move around. It's sloppy but I was fairly proud of the box corners.

Ok, and a final picture of Matey Moo - mostly for the grandparents who religiously read my blog! He's holding still for once!
Stumble It!

Well, the bead bazarre was fantastic! AND I spend more than I planned AND I came home and my hubby had a late birthday party for me with presents and a quiche. We went out to dinner that evening too! Aren't I spoiled?
I got this fantastic lot of stuff from the bead bazaare:


Great bead haul! I'm so excited that I've expanded my collection this much. I wanted more "organic" stuff to do flowers, etc.. Yesterday I worked and worked and worked doing icky home sewing. I made 4 curtain panels for Missy C and covered some pillows that I made for our swanky new dining room chairs. The pillows are to boost the kids up a bit so they can see over the table, but (thankfully) aren't booster seats - hooray!
Well, I'm off to get work done this morning. I'm hoping to organize my new beads and do something creative this afternoon. I have GOT to get my round robin done. Stumble It!

Hey all, I'll take my camera, but I'm off to the Bead Bazaar put on by our local Bead Society...can't wait. Missy C's going to go with me and "The boys" are going to hang at home!
I'll have a full report later! Stumble It!

So, ever proud that I can actually start and finish something, I not only finished it, but this was literally a two day project! It's fun when something is so inspired that it comes together that quickly! Oh, and all of that fabric came from Rhonda's fabric from her mother.
So, without further ado - My recycled MONSTER!



Hmm, so now, what to name her (we decided it's a girl with green paisley eyes!) and will Matey Moo like him? (or will I keep him myself, note the position by my computer!) Stumble It!

So, last night I got inspired to do the month of softies. It would have been finished, but I don't possess any fiberfill, so off to buy some today!


I was mainly inspired because Missy C got the cat and I thought Matey Moo would enjoy a monster...we shall see! He's not really a stuffed animal kid!

So, I had to send a friend an ecard yesterday and came across Hoops and Yoyo at Hallmark - I haven't watched thier little mini movies, but the cards are absolutely adorable.

So (beware), a little bit of a mommy brag here...Missy C, while we were out yesterday showed an amazing aptitude for Jenga...(ages 8 and up...ahem! She's 4!!) and so Rex went and bought her the game yesterday and here's how well they were doing...just the two of them! And nope, she didn't cheat, she really got that far and YEP, Dad lost!


That actually brings me to my favorite room which I GUESS is the living room. In this house I more have most hated rooms (the laundry and upstairs bath...both because they need remodeling) but if I had to pick, it's the living room. The large window (behind Rex) has a view of the mountains and the back yard and it's a really big open room. We punched a hole through the wall into the kitchen, so it's all kind of one big space. Anyway, I do love it out there, althought I don't spend as much time as I did when my computer was out in the middle of it!

Ok, well, I'm off to be productive again today (yesterday was a banner day!), so I can't ruin my burst of energy.

I'll hopefully have a finished picture of the monster tomorrow. Stumble It!

We've been out enjoying the spring weather. Today was even more gorgeous so we walked down to our little shopping area down the street and met Rex for lunch. It was really nice. Looked in a lot of cute little shops and enjoyed the sunshine. The walk back home is uphill and so I got the kids home by singing "We're off to see the Wizard" from wizard of Oz. Funny how kids have the energy to skip, but not to walk!

This is how my little art quilt is coming along. I think fairly well. Where there are a few beads I hope to add MANY beads, so I started with larger ones and I'm using seed beads around them. I think it still needs more fibers too, but still working out the details on that.

This is mostly what I've been doing...household sewing! This is a patch that Leslie whipped up on her embroidery machine and the only good way I could thing to attach it to Rogers pocket to cover up a huge hole was to stitch all the way around - by hand. Now I'm sure you machine folks will laugh at me, but I had no idea how to do it on machine so it was faster just to do it by hand!
I did however, overcome my fear of the machine and sew up some buzz lightyear curtains for Matey Moo (pictures are on webshots) and mend a futon cover and now I just have to do My Pretty Pony curtains for Missy C. Ah, the joys of motherhood!
Shhhh, don't tell anyone - I haven't even STARTED the round robin I have to do...UGH! So, that's the next project. I must get it done! I promise (and I'm putting it here in print so I HAVE to! :-)) Stumble It!

I can't remember where I ran across this link, but Poscards from the Attic has some wonderful designs for crazy quilting....imagine them on silk? I think they would be great!!! Stumble It!

Hmm, lets see, there may be too many!

Working on a new quilting/fabric project when I have MANY other things to do.
Watching "The Apprentice"
Coffee and reading blogs in the morning
Long hot baths - with two kids under 5 a VERY guilty pleasure (no idea how the hubby keeps them at bay!!) Stumble It!

My entry for illustration Friday...it's a photo I took with the digital camera, enhanced in photoshop with some drawing over the top. I might play more with this image...I kind of like it. Stumble It!

So, I have a feeling there are heaps of you who would be amazed by this:

Okay, so far away it looks like a nice quilt, interesting patterns, pleasing composition! Here's another lovely photo of it:

However, when you see the close up! YIKES! Can you believe those prints? Funniest thing we ever saw!

Being the trouble makers that we are (I think this was Holly's suggestion) we thought Rhonda should have it finished off and entered into a quilt competition!
Can you imagine piecing all of that stretchy fabric!
Ok, so that's a good laugh for today!!! Stumble It!

So, this BETTER be the last snow of the season...can you believe it? Debra is the one who said "There is an old tale that as soon as the forsythia (or as a good friend says: for cynthia!!) blooms, the last snow fall will come... Hope it's true for you. " - so Debra, I'm REALLY hoping too! :-)

At the back of the yard is the peach tree...I may have to go out and knock snow off the branches...gotta love spring in Colorado!!!
More later...I'm sure I'll have plenty of blogging time today! Stumble It!

Well, the forsythia is in full bloom and 6 inches of snow is predicted for Sunday. this had better be the last snow. My husband, being from balmy Sydney Australia is NOT used to winter here and whines pretty much the whole winter about the snow (we don't even GET that much!). However, this year, I'm ready for spring!

As I was loading my "progress" on the fiber "crowded" art quilt I realized that there really wasn't enough progress to show off, so this is a mere hint of it! (kinda cool shot, eh?). Anyway, I'm working away at it today, so we'll see. I should be working on web design stuff, but UGH...the needle was calling!
Tomorrow is our Rocky Mountain Crazy quilters meeting and we're having a class discussion/sharing session about transfer methods...should be really cool! Oh, and I've been working on a flickr album for our crazy quilting group so hopefully I'll come home with LOTS of pictures of everyone's work tomorrow, so that should be ultra great! Stumble It!

I found this on the artquilts list and WOW! There are some amazing things here: Thread Spool Works by Devorah Sperber, New York City (NYC) . Don't miss the stuff she does with map tacks and other things. I'm totally impressed! Very cool! Stumble It!

Well, what was clearly a spring day yesterday is rapidly turning to snow...believe it or not, we have blizzard warnings for tomorrow.

My biggest worry is the peach tree at the back (with the pink blossoms)...isn't the forsythia bush in front gorgeous...we have two in front of the house. However, the peach tree hasn't borne fruit in two years, so this storm better NOT kill my blossoms!!!! (hear that WEATHER!)
Blossoms close up!

Anyway, wish me luck...I'd hate to have this all ruined with one silly snowstorm...it may pass south of us, and I really hope so.
I haven't gotten much needlework done recently, been working (I HATE that!), so maybe tomorrow! Stumble It!

So, do you think I've brainwashed my daughter? I'm not sure if she's exactly having fun yet, but she tried!

I spent yesterday cleaning up my personal photos because I need to add a heap of clip art to my computer, so thought I'd organize what I have already. I use Webshots for my personal and my craft/needlework photos and realized I hadn't updated it in a long time. So I got that all organized yesterday.
I've put the border around my illustration Friday experiment and kind of like it:


I'm now going to string fibers and beads across the middle and onto the seams in crazy quilt style. Kind of an experiment in art quilting meets crazy quilting. We'll see! :-)

Today I'm digging out all of my scrapbooking stuff. I did scrapbooking before there were "rules" and before it was cool, so I have 3 HUGE scrapbooks full of stuff from High School and College. I think I"ll put those in a big bag in the closet and then PURGE a heap of stuff I've been saving.

After all of this, I may attempt the new style of scrapbook (ala neat and cute) but maybe throw in a bit of me too...we'll see. Anyway, that's the goal today. That and sorting through heaps of the kids artwork...UGH...I hate to throw it away, but there is HEAPS of it!



Okay, just one cutsie picture of my pets...Pascal and Harry....aren't they cute? Stumble It!

I'm not sure how all of you will feel about this, but I think it's hysterical - as reported by the Wooster Collective this article about Banksy is really pretty funny.
I guess if you can't get your work into the major museums, well, it's an option! Stumble It!

I have no idea where I found a link to Velda Newman's quilts, but WOW! Love em! Definately worth a browse! Stumble It!