I think it's catching on....

I think we all know my feelings of my husbands growth on his chin.....if not here it is:

I think I had too much fun in paint....

But all the "males" in his life loved it! Since my home is full of "males" I had very little pull. I know that I am a very demanding person in somethings but it's Trav's face and his chin, so he can do what he wants. He knows my feelings on it, but the "males" in his life just encourage him too much. The boys LOVE it, so when they were getting a bath, Trav came and got me to show me this:

 

I think it is catching on.....

I have gotten lucky though...it had become very thin due to trimmings "gone wrong" so he did decide that it needed to go. So now I have:

Picture taken by Nathan

He does say that he will continue to grow out a new one, and regardless of my numerous compliments on how wonderful he looks, how great it feels to kiss him with less hair, how much thinner he looks now, he has informed me that it will not work. But isn't he a lot cuter now? Well back off ladies, he is mine!

Some I-Spy Blocks

I am so impressed on how on the ball people are! I sent out details (okay so my address) on Friday last week and I have already received 4 packages! You impress me people!

Here are some blocks from Group A: (If you are curious what group your in, let me know and I will tell you)

Marti:

 

I am lovin' those tractors! The top navy blue one is stars (sorry I didn't get as good of a picture as I thought)

Amy: 

I love those Wellington boots!! Then the cowboy stuff (a weakness of mine). Just adorable!

Kristy:

 

I love the shelve with all of the cooking items! The red/orange is some cute airplanes and then the blue/white and black are little zebras! (I really apologize my pictures aren't doing these blocks justice!)

Then from Group B:

Wendy:

 

I am lovin' the fish and the owls. So cute! 

You would think that getting packages in the mail of cool i-spy blocks would be awesome enough, what else did I find in them???

A cute and adorable little pouch!!! Thank you again Kristy! It help make my day! 

Then I got to Amy's package and she sent me the cutest thank you card

 

Isn't that adorable? I think it is so cute that I am going to frame it! Also having looked at it for a bit, I think it would be a great inspiration for a quilt! 

I am not posting this to let my other i-spy swappers feel bad for not sending me something, NOT MY INTENTION!! I just wanted to say an extra thank you and frankly I think it is so sweet. I consider myself a rather nice and considerate person, but think of sending some little treat for the person in charge of the swap?? NO!!! I just think it is amazingly sweet! And because I know how much I have enjoyed it, I think I might need to put goodies in all of my swap packages too. 

So I have a SURVEY question (to check if people actually "read" my blog). Since I was so surprised to see these treats I want to know if you have done the same thing? Sent a goody to the person in charge of a swap. I have been in about 6-8 different types of swaps and have never done it. Just didn't cross my mind. 

So do you or don't you???

I want to make sure I continue to have polite etiquette in this area. Or is there a online blogger etiquette class? (If there is sign me up!)

So excited...

Yesterday was just a good day.....

I ran my first ever mile without walking!! Very excited....I am on my way to running a 5k now!!!

Travis let me buy fabric to make some Easter ties and skirt!

Okay so maybe an awesome night!

I got this, from the Fat Quarter Shop, it's The Quilted Fish, Sugar and Spice. I tried to find the link for it but I think I got the last bit of it! Phew! Glad I ordered it when I did! 

I plan to make the boys the ties that I made from the FNSI. Super cute and super easy. For Travis's tie I will just take one of his ties he has and make a template out of it, and make him a regular one.

Then I am going to make myself a matching skirt out of the fabric, and hopefully with the leftovers I can make a cute little fabric flower to wear in my hair.

Example:  Skirt

 

Fabric flower

I am going to attempt to make this skirt with NO PATTERN....I know I can do it, so maybe I will take some extra fabric of some sort and make a "practice" skirt. 

I guess I am just thrilled that I finally came up with an idea that me and my boys will "match" (I can't believe it took me so long to actually come up with this). And Trav didn't care what fabric I chose! He was easy peasy and went with the flow. 

Then I am not sure if you know who this lady is.....

Camille

Even though I have never met her....Travis's aunt who lives in Idaho knows her and her Mommy!! So I feel like I have some sort of connect....even as thin as it is....there is one!!! But anyway, Camille over at Simplify has a theme, or color scheme of Teal/Aqua and Red. She has just turned me on to those colors and I love them! She also has several lines of Fabric through Moda, last of which is Bliss. (I have a jelly roll that I am so afraid to cut into because I like it so much!) 

Back to the main point....I am just excited that I will actually have some cloths with it! And I can see my boys with a tie like it...oh they will look so cute!!! Had to share my good news!!! (Don't worry I will post pictures of them when I am done!! Maybe even some family pics with them!)

Friday Night Sew In Results

Hopefully I haven't posted this too late....My husband had my camera plug in for the computer all day! Oh well...

This is what I made:

These cute little baby ties! Aren't they adorable!! I said I would make some for my friend, for her baby blessing. It's a type of Christening but we (Mormons, LDS) call it a baby blessing. I knew I could find a tutorial online, and I was very happy to find this!! Which makes me so grateful that there are creative people out there that can actually make their ideas...I sometimes have the ideas but have a hard time figuring out how to make it!! So here is the link....Very Homemade.

It is a very well written tutorial, which is a VERY good thing. I made the newborn size, and for kicks and giggles I had Kimball (who is 3) try it on, and it fit fine!!! I think it would be very easy to alter to make it bigger. I think I might find some cute fabric and make matching ties for all my boys and for Trav (I would just use one of his ties as a template).

The other thing that I did last night was start to quilt another quilt top.

I decided to just do a rectangle line/square thing. My seams and lines are not 100% perfect so I thought that this would be okay. It's mostly just free hand, and won't be 100% straight, and I don't want it to be either.

This is the Crazy Mom Quilts, Summer quilt along. I finished the quilt top in August. But just haven't gotten around to actually quilting it. I had other projects to get through and whatnot. I can't wait until I can cross this off my list of WIP (Work in Progress). It is my goal this year to get all my WIP done so that I can actually start some new quilts this year as well!!! Although I already have at least 2 new quilts to make this year planned....oh boy. Will I ever stick to my plans??

**My WIP list is on the left hand side of the blog**

My first I-Spy Swap

 ****Closed****

This Swap is now closed! If you want to still sign up and if by chance anyone drops out, I will let you know. This means that you will less notice to get your blocks out. 

Don't worry I am planning on having more i spy swaps in the future....and possible one in May or June.



After thinking about it for SOOOO long, I have finally decided that I will host my very own I-SPY Swap. I have participated in several over the last year and have LOVED them! So now I am going to host one! 

I want to thank Care from Obsessively Stitching for her wonderful advice and inspiration!! These are her instructions (edited a tiny bit) and I wanted to stay as close to them as possible since hers are always a success!

THE BASICS:

Mail 200 I-Spy squares to me by April 15th.

Get 200 I-Spy squares back, all different, by April 29th.

I have heard that having a tight schedule on these swaps help! But this gives you at least 3 weeks to get the fabric and mail it to me! And you receive your fabric back within 2 weeks!
PLEASE be sure you can meet the deadlines BEFORE you sign up!

THE DETAILS:

(Thanks Care from Obsessively Stitching)

1. The first 38 people to comment are in. [If you live outside the U.S., no problem -- but please mail your fabrics a little earlier so there's plenty of time to meet the deadline!]

2. Cut 20 4" squares out of each of 10 different novelty print fabrics. A 1/4-yard cut or fat quarter will get you 20 4" squares, so you will be purchasing a total of about 2 1/2 yards of fabric. This is NOTHING when you think about all the different squares you will be getting back!

3. In order to avoid duplicates, everyone will need to search out unusual or obscure prints. Look for things that aren't available at chain stores. But, please, pick FUN ones! If you love it, the other swappers will love it too!

4. Remember that we are looking for fabric with objects on it, not printy-prints. (A fabric with FLOWERS on it is very different from a FLORAL PRINT.)

5. No "licensed" prints: No Disney, Dora, L.A. Lakers, etc.

6. Remember seam allowances! Be sure you can tell what you are looking at within a 3 1/2" x 3 1/2" square. Nobody wants only half of an object in their square -- cut them well! (Depending on your fabric choice, you may need to buy more than 1/4 yard in order to get an object into each cut square.)

If you want to join me in this obsession, leave a comment here that
includes your email address!!

Remember: The FIRST 38 who comment are IN!
*IF by chance we don't make it to the full double swap,
we'll do a single swap with the first 19 and save the rest
of the swappers for the next swap.

SERIOUS SWAPPERS ONLY...
Please read the guidelines before signing up!

If you are wondering what you could do with these i-spy squares, check out Obsessively Stitching, there are TONS of wonderful crafts and quilts that Care has created! 

I am so excited for this!!! It will be so much fun!  

Friday Night Sew In

What are you doing for FNSI???? So far NO IDEA!!! But I am excited to have an excuse to do nothing but create!!!!!

If you want to be able to win something (AWESOME) make sure you sign up!!!

Time flys when your having.....

Well my plan for posting the winner of the giveaway.....a little late! But it's fine because I have the winner......(imagin a drum roll).......and the winner is.........

Kelsey!!! Congratulations woman!!! As a mom of a child with autism I am sure this will make her life easier!!

But I encourage you all to continue to spread the word about this awesome autism tool! Because now if don't know anyone with autism, I guarantee you will within a year or two!

Now some may be wondering why the time was flying so fast and where the heck was I?? Good question. I was finishing up on a quilt deadline. Happy to say that I am done with it as of last night! (Halla!!) It is a BEAUTIFUL quilt that I can't wait to share with everyone!!! But as it is for a magazine publication I have to wait! But I will give some teasers... cause I just want to!!

The quilting on this quilt was just amazing....well maybe not my skill, but the time it took. For this queen size quilt...(90"x100") it took me 43 hours to quilt!! 43!!!!! Thank goodness I enjoyed every bit of it!

Each of my stitch circles (I like to call this pebbling) was roughly 1/4" circle, and when doing this you had to go around each circle at least 1 1/2 times to 2 times. Maybe one of these days I will do a tutorial on it. 

This was a very colorful quilt so I had 9 different thread changes!! Well a lot more changes than that since I had to quilt it a certain way, but 9 different colors. Here is a little tease of it on the back. You can just see it better that way. 


For those of you that live close to me, you can feel free to come and see it! It is beautiful and stunning. I just wish that my pictures I took of it gives it enough justice. Although when Travis asked who I was making it for, he got really excited when I told him it was for us to keep. It right now is on my bed! Lovin' it!

Primary Angel's Giveaway!

Many of you that have read my blog and that know me, know that I have 2 boys with Autism. Brandon has Asperger Syndrom and Nathan has High Functioning Autism. Recently Kimball, my youngest was diagnosed with PDD-NOS. PDD-NOS stands for pervasive developmental disorder not otherwise specified. In essence, it's a diagnosis that means "on the autism spectrum, but not falling within any of the existing specific categories of autism." So my family is just loaded with it.

Living with this on a day to day basis is hard, but I have learned skills and techniques that help me. My dear friend Annie Campbell also has a son with Autism. We have grown close over the years bonding over our struggles with our children and have formed a great relationship. Recently she decided that she needed to do something to help the teachers at church work with her son better and to help the other teachers in the Primary ( a children Sunday School) work with other children that were similar. She asked me if I would be willing to help her out in her video, and I thought "Heck ya, I'm going to be famous" and then decided I would go for it. I may not become famous and be nominated for an Oscar, but let me tell you....anyone who has to deal with a child on the Autism spectrum or any child that has behavioral problems needs this video!!

Annie Campbell and Jenn Smith (another good friend)

Over the years Annie has learned many techniques and tricks that she uses with her children to help them focus, stay sitting in their chair, pay attention and over all behave! (I am very lucky that Annie is a good friend of mine because she has helped me out NUMEROUS times with my boys.) In her video, Primary Angels, she is working with children that are on the Autism Spectrum and who have behavioral problems (my boys were in this). She shows how you can work through problems and basically work with any child. This was designed for a classroom setting, but you can incorporate it into any daily activity, from going to the store to visiting Grandma's house.

Behind the scenes on the making of Primary Angels

Here is Annie's blog:. Autism and Primary-making them work together  Here she has posts things that she is dealing with in her own Primary class and also down-loadable charts and things that you can use to help you! Then if you don't want to chance it (or are waiting until after the giveaway) head over to her website to order your own Primary Angels.

Annie has already been featured on Little LDS Ideas Blog, Mormon Times (part of Deseret News Paper) this Thursday, March 10th and will soon be seen in LDS Living. Primary Angles is also available in Independent LDS Book Stores across the US. Annie is also working on more dvd's that will continue to help us with dealing with children with Autism.

I am lucky enough to be able to give it away to one of my followers! Aren't you all so lucky! It is a $15.00 value (okay so technically it is $14.95) and it is worth every penny!! So want to know what you can do to win this??? Here are the details:

1. Post a comment on this post = 1 entry
2. Become a follower of my blog = 1 entry
3. Become a follower of Annie's blog = 1 entry
4. Blog about this post = 3 entry
5. Post about this post on Facebook = 3 entry

After you have done 1 or all of the 5 things, leave a separate comment for each one. Also please leave a way for me to get a hold of you to let you know that you have won! And if you are posting this on your blog or facebook, please leave a link to it in your comment.

How long will this giveaway continue??? Lets give it until Saturday, March 12th at 6pm MST.

I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and He has chosen us to be blessed with caring for these beautiful children with Autism. They are special children of our Heavenly Father and wants us to care for them as He would.