Freshcut Boquet for the Bed

This was so much fun to make! A few months ago my mom asked me if I would like to make a quilt for she and Dad! Of course I was delighted with the proposal. Mom chose these Freshcut fabrics, and I added a few others to the mix. What do you think?

(click on the quilt to the left for some gorgeous quilting detail) My personal quilters Pat and Dea at the California Quilting Center are top notch! Go check out their new website!!



I was in a hurry to get the quilt to my mother for her birthday, which was just a few days before Christmas, so I machine sewed the binding on....




Happy Birthday Momma! Dreaming of Springtime, birds and flowers to come.......



A special thanks to Heather Bailey for her gorgeous Freshcut line, Jennifer Paganelli for her gorgeous Sis Boom fabrics, and Amy Butler for the flowery fabrics and stripy binding on the quilt! Love these fabrics! Thanks to Dea for the gorgeous quilting job she did.

To Grandmother's house we go

Have yourselves a merry little Christmas~

Go outside for a walk....bundle up, and get some fresh air.



Happy baking,
wrapping,
unwrapping,
smiling,
laughing,
hugging,
eating,
and
being!

Wishing you the best, wherever you are. Thanks for a wonderful year, my blogging friends. Looking forward to more fun in 2008~

Have a heart

Here's what the kiddos have been up to. Making these little heart ornaments. What a great use for your fabric scraps, buttons, ribbon odds and ends, etc. These are tiny, cute, and they can wrap them on their own with tissue paper.
Just cut out a simple heart shaped pattern, let them trace it and cut it out. Let them stitch the hearts together by hand, or you can sew them together. Glue on buttons, trims and embellishments. Fun, fast and easy. They are cute to leave out year round, hanging on a knob or hook.

Peppermint Bliss

Don't these look yummy! They smell so pepperminty~ Thanks to my friend Sandi for the heads up on this delicious recipe..........and they are so fun to make with your kids and family.



A little side note on the recipe if you get a chance to make them.......we did not chill the dough for three or four hours..... a good half hour in the freezer works fine. Chilling the dough for four hours in the freezer might require a chainsaw or your electric carving knife.

Peppermint Palmiers, go ahead and give them a whirl. Or I mean a swirl.

It's a toss

Here's a fun and easy gift you can make for someone special. Get busy digging through your scraps, lay out some fun and funky fabrics, snip and stitch. Anna Maria has some on her blog as well.



Back to the drawing board~

A forest of trees

Aren't these pretty!!!

Here are a few more little trees to add to my growing collection....I just loved these adorable little trees from Charlotte Lyons, so I made up a few of my own. Then the tree in the middle is something I made from an idea I found in this magazine. You can buy a kit over here. I got my Styrofoam cone from a craft store, and glued the beads and jewels on. I have two more to do yet, but am holding off because the first one took over an hour. Talk about tedious and time consuming. It's worth it though.....so pretty~

And last but not least, these little softies are from last year. They made them selves right at home with my teacups. You can find the pattern for these little trees over here. Oh, and did I mention that Jenny has some cute trees and allsorts of other pretty things over on her blog?!

It's beginning to look a bit like Christmas

Good morning friends......sorry for the lack of posts lately.........we've been hit with a medley of flu bugs for over a week now. Mommy's aren't supposed to get sick, but this one got hit. I was so weak that I could do nothing but lay in bed and sleep for the past few days. I get so frustrated with myself when I get really sick, because I HATE LAYING IN BED. I feel like I am missing out.

I think mother's have an instinctive sense about them that knows they are about to get sick. All day Saturday I cleaned like crazy and ran multiple errands with lightening speed. I think I did the whole grocery store, post office stop and shoe shopping in 45 minutes........and that includes going there and back. Wheweeeee......oh, and did I mention that we got rid of sixteen plastic garbage bags full of clothes and old toys for Goodwill.......by Saturday night it hit me! Oh, and the day before that I was sewing like crazy.....made this cute Christmas-y table runner, and got a good start on a quilt for someone in my family.

Haven't even been to a mall for weeks. AND IT FEELS SO GOOD TO AVOID THAT PLACE. Don't get me wrong, I love to shop, but don't put me in an indoor mall this time of the year. NO WAY. I am all about what brown can do for me. Yup, those guys know my place like the back of their hand........I think they have pulled up here every day this week so far. Is it me, or are there are other mothers out there who hate dragging their precious kiddos through the mall this time of year? Sounds like a nightmare to me!

When I get a chance, I have this huge urge to go thrifting for some silver! Yeah, you know, some pretty candle holders, urns, and platters, to fill with candles and pretties.
Talk soon~

Ahhhh for Autumn

Enjoying a post turkey day walk in the glorious sunshine

Going here for supper on a date........seeing these again (I took the photos at nighttime as we whizzed by in the dark, and decided they look best in black and white, for fun).........

Driving across the Bay Bridge our first time since the new span was redone, this Fall.

Yummy steaks and seafood with a view of the ocean

and just enjoying being together in the City~

Peeling, slicing, smells of cinnamon and cloves

It's almost Thanksgiving!
Wishing you all a very happy day tomorrow, and long weekend. Hope you get lots to eat and stop long enough to put your feet up by the fire. I've been making some of these today.


Peeling homegrown granny smith apples from some of our friends, slicing and sprinkling cinnamon, nutmeg and cloves. Pouring the crumbly oatmeal-y crust over top.........


Pop 'em in the oven and start on the next dessert......... something like that.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Adding to my collection

Lovin my new (old) plates and tole painted trays. I don't know what it is about hanging up plates and trays on my walls.

Something about it makes me happy. Here's my latest collection that came together over the weekend. I found the red painted tole tray and the black and floral painted paper mache tray a week or so ago, so I started with those first....laid down on the bed in the studio, and gazed up at the wall......and then I remembered the blue and white saucers I had stashed away (from my great auntie). So there you have it.....some more eye candy to day dream at and feel inspired. Thats the nice thing about having a room of one's own to play in. Oh, and did I show you my new helping hand? It's an old glove mold. Super cute! She now sits on my work table and waves me on.

Thanks Amy

Well that was fun and easy!


Yesterday was just one of those days where I had finished up my chores and the studio was all tidied up. (we had company, so the house was clean)
Wow, a-mazing for this mom! So as I gazed around the closet full of fabric, and picked up my Amy Butler Frenchy Bag pattern and got straight to work. Mindless fun. Just what the doctor ordered after a busy week. Another first, I followed a pattern. I usually just wing it and make my own patterns up as I go. Amy's patterns are straight forward and super easy!

Now it's back to my next quilting project, and getting ready for Thanksgiving, and.......well you get the idea! ~

Roses in November

Does anyone else have roses blooming this time of the year? We are lucky enough to get them blooming into December.


Look what I found in my rose garden yesterday.......some little gnomes hopping around the rose petals.




I was rummaging around through my fabric last week, and came across the same combo of fabrics as this amazing lady! She inspired me to come up with these cute outfits for the girls. And the suede boots, well we stumbled into those over here.

Thank you Patty for the inspiration for these cute outfits. Isn't it fun to make something fun and creative for your little one's! Oh so fun!!

Ok, now head on over to Anna Maria's blog and wish her good luck in NYC this week! We will all be cheering her on! Yay, Anna Maria!!

I heart these

What a fun, quick, and rewarding little treasure! I made this heart yesterday, and now there are more on the way! A great thing to do with all the scraps of fabric and ribbon we have laying around.






























For more great ways to decorate with hearts, go see Fifi's blog.

Leaves, crunch, rake, crunch, rake

What a glorious Fall weekend. Chilly mornings and warm, balmy, sunny afternoons. We're talking high 70's! Just perfect leaf raking weather.
















Loving this Japanese Maple tree!















These bright, crispy yellowy ochre jewels are so much fun to crunch beneath your toes~


Is this not the most lush purple velvet!
I am so ready to get out my paintbrushes
and paint these rich fall treasures.

*made the ceramic face in art school*
(poor guy has been broken and glued
back together at least once)

Paper Play

Fun relaxing project for the afternoon~






























Isn't this paper gorgeous! I got the bug from my friend Jennifer! Looks like she's gone cone crazy! My little girl and I spent an hour together making paper cones! She is the one who said to me, "Mommy, we need some cupcake liners for the flowers." Thanks for the lovely new paper, Jennifer! You can find it here.
































What a sweet cone made by little girl hands!

A little something for the mommy!

I am so excited to get this outfit finally squared away. I found the fabric a few weeks ago, and finally got the lace sewed onto the hem!
















Now we desperately need some cool rainy weather to clean our dirty air! We are feeling for our friends and family who have had to evacuate their homes. We hope Southern California can safely return to normalicy as soon as possible. It will be a long, grueling road to recovery. Hang in there friends! I heard somewhere that this has been the biggest series of fires in our State, ever!

Sis Boom Baby

Sorry for the lack of posts as of late, peeps~ Just too busy and not in the mood to post. Here's a little baby quilt I made for a good friend of mine. She's expecting a baby girl in a few months, and picked out these Sis Boom fabrics. Don't you think it will look totally gorgeous in the room against a crib and a nice green wall. I hope to get some decent shots of this quilt from her someday. I took these at the last minute before sending it off.