Valentine's Day Swap

Don't you just love swaps? I get so excited anticipating what my partner has in store for me. And crafting for a swap is such a good excuse to make all those cute little things that only another crafter would appreciate.

This swap was hosted by the wonderful crafter Vivian of http://vivs-whimsy.blogspot.com/. My partner was Shirley from http://zettasaprons.blogspot.com/. She sent me some goodies, don't you agree?

Lots of fun embellishments, including ribbons, washi tape, and scrabble pieces. (Love!)  And look at this sweet notebook and hanger she made with vintage Disney images:

I love this shadowbox that Shirley made. Such sweet images and details. (Thumper is my favorite:)

She also included a box of truffles, but they were gone before I could get a pic of them! Thank you, Shirley, for all of your thoughtful crafting. 

Here are some of the things I made for Shirley. I decorated a tin and filled it with things I thought she could use for more Valentine's crafting.

 

 I also decorated a small box and filled it with buttons, pins, ribbon and flowers.

I love making tags! I had just bought some glitter paper and wanted to use it with this love die. What's Valentine's without glitter and bling.? (I loved Shirley's use of red tinsel on her shadowbox.)

So, what kind of Valentine's crafting have you been doing? I would love to see!

Klaus

Jasper

Please don't blame me for more baby pictures:)

Let Me Present...Marquis Handyman Service

 After almost 30 years as a carpenter with Purdue University (with a short time as a special education teacher) my dear husband has retired. And he is doing something he has wanted to do for quite awhile - he has started a handyman business. He is so happy! And we are so happy for him.

Custom made cabinet for the kitchen.

He can do just about any kind of home repair; doors, drywall, flooring, window replacement, etc. And he can build almost anything out of wood! All I have to do is give him an idea (or picture) and he will build a piece of furniture or garden structure for me. He's pretty handy to have around:)
Check out his website: http://www.marquishandyman.com/ . As you can see, it's a work in progress. We will be adding some photos and text soon. So if you live in the Lafayette, Indiana area and need some home repairs, just give him a call!

New Quilt for Winter Stitching

Even though I am hand quilting my churn dash quilt, I sometimes get the urge to work at the sewing machine. Meaning I want to start a new quilt:) I have so many scraps, I just needed to use them. I chose the brighter pastels. I used a tool to make the wedges - so easy! I am getting them sewn onto the white muslin and tomorrow I'm going to the quilt store for the sashing and center circle fabric. I am excited to come up with the quilt pattern for the corners around the plates.



We have had a crazy couple of months here. If you happened to catch the post I deleted, you know that I was going through a bad time. I don't want to go into to it, but things are much better!And I am ready to get back to blogging. Crafting helps to keep me sane and I have been doing a lot of it! I'll be back to show more of what I've been working on.

Have a great week!

Gourds Galore!

I planted out our gourd seeds after Father's Day, as per a Pinterest suggestion, and didn't get any bugs on them! That's never happened before. The plants were so healthy and as the summer progressed, they kind of took over the garden. And that didn't include the large pumpkins. We put those back near the compost pile. Sadly we only got two small ones. Not enough time to get large.

It actually took several times to harvest all of the gourds and mini pumpkins. We kept finding more hidden under the strawberries and wound around the perennials. I have been putting them all over the house and porches, and giving them away to anyone who wants them. Maybe we should put up a table and "free" sign in the front yard!

A Simple Quilt

Well, it happened again. Just like last year, I got sick as soon as I got settled into the new school year. Luckily it wasn't mono!  But I've been sick with bronchitis for two weeks and I'm just now getting better. I actually did a little work in the garden this evening! Yeah! This fall weather we're having is perfect and I want to take advantage of it. It's supposed to rain this weekend:(

I was at the quilt shop last week and came upon this beautiful floral print by Holly Holderman for LakeHouse. It's so cheerful and sweet, I just had to make something with it. I didn't have anything in mind, but I bought some yardage along with these coordinating tiny prints. Back at home I went through about every quilt book I have trying to find just the right pattern. I finally decided on a simple churn dash with white in the middle.  Easy to sew up and perfect for some embroidery!

Not too long a go I bought this book by Gail Pan. Lots of cute projects using my favorite techniques. I decided to use some of her little drawings for the centers of my blocks. Some needed a little tweeking to get the size right, but it works!

I hope everyone is having a wonderful fall so far. I've been enjoying the autumn decorating on blogs and pinterest. I'm going to get out my Halloween stuff this weekend. And maybe do some crafting. I know, it's only Wednesday, but I live for the weekends now!

Meet the Twins

 

These little guys were born last Saturday after only about 4 hours of labor! Klaus is the oldest, but the smallest and he has red hair. Jasper is about one pound bigger and he has brown hair. They are just perfect! Mom and Dad are doing great, though just a little tired:)

 

 

We took care of Tad for the weekend while they were in the hospital. He was such a sweetheart, but he wore us out. We had forgotten just how much energy a three year old has!

Next weekend our oldest son is coming home so he can see the babies. It will be good to have our family all together for a few days, just the way I like it!

Last Day of Freedom

My summer vacation is coming to an end. Tomorrow is a training meeting and school starts on Wednesday.  Summer seemed to go by too quickly, and I'm really not ready to give it up. But since we are expecting highs in the 90's next week, I guess I don't have to:)

 

This little guy is about 3/4 of an inch long.

We have had such a great garden year, with rain when needed and not too hot. The flower beds are overflowing and keep me busy weeding and cutting back. Along with all the butterflies and hummingbirds we keep finding the tiniest toads and frogs amongst the leaves. They are so cute! This is a little tree frog that probably hatched out in our pond. We've had various tadpoles in there all summer. I love it!

I've been trying to get some craft projects finished up before going back to work. The star quilt is finally done! Yeah! It took me 10 months, but I really enjoyed it. I'm not sure where it will go. I'm thinking the upstairs antique bed with the ruffled muslin skirt and shams. For some reason I didn't get a good picture this evening so I'll take one when I have the bed all made up.

Our twin grandchildren are due this weekend!!! We can hardly wait! Of course Andrew and Alison can't wait either. Alison is doing so well and hanging on till the end with no ordered bed rest. I can't imagine carrying twins.

We gave them our baby gifts last week. I knitted two little sweater and hat sets for this fall or winter. They were so quick and fun to make. We also gave them some newborn outfits just because they are so darn cute! With matching booties and mitts. And of course the most important, a check, which always comes in handy for a young family.

I wish I had taken a picture of the baby card I made. It was so cute too! I used a Papertrey Ink stamp of a onsie and cut out two of them. On the inside it said "Good things come in multiples." Aren't baby things so fun?

Well, I had better get to bed. Have to get up at 6:00 and I am not a morning person. (I have been sleeping till 9 all summer.) Have a great week everyone and I'll be back to share the baby pictures!