New Sewing Goodness!

I mentioned in my earlier post that I had some projects to share, and here they are! This first one is a baby blanket, a gift for my cousin's new baby girl...

Next up is my small tote....this one is a little boring..I think I'll so something to jazz it up...

And last for now, this is the large tote...much more fun than that small tote...wow, I really need to do something about that. Anywho...here it is....

And I am officially exhausted, so I think it's best not to even attempt writing tonight...I'm certain it wouldn't make sense if I tried.

More on Dad..and other stuff

Hello, hello! Thanks for all of the positive thoughts from everyone, Dad is doing really well and is at home now. I think he's already planning what "needs" to be done in the garden.

C. is down for a visit and is staying with Mom & Dad, keeping them entertained I am sure. While she is here I'm quite certain she will enjoy the lack of "jug-handles" and crazy NJ drivers...unless she has become one of them! ACKKK!

We have a few folks coming into town this weekend to celebrate my Nana's 86th birthday (woo-hoo Nana!!). I'm going to try to convince C. to come over Friday night and teach me to make her famous White Chocolate Pistachio cheesecake...we'll have it for the birthday get-together on Saturday. Mmmm, yum.

I have some pictures from Easter, I'll post and share those later...maybe tomorrow. I also have a few purses to share as I am preparing for my first "trunk show" at my neighbors house in a few weeks where she'll invite friends and neighbors to come see all the goodies..and this way they can make custom orders and I don't have to have a ton of inventory on hand. I'm definitely planning to have a little selection of items though that are for immediate sale, just in case.

Oh another thing...I found the most awesome website for design ideas, tons of ideas for re-do's of thrifted furniture. I added it over there in the "Places I Visit" column, it's so inspiring!! I have so many ideas in my head now and can not wait to find pieces to work with!

Dad update

Dad had his cardiac cath procedure today by a doctor who had an uncanny resemblance to Doogie Howser, MD. I thought I'd share the update here since it's so hard to call everyone.

The procedure took a little over 2 hours and they found that this is apparently his 2nd heart attack (he doesn't display "normal" symptoms for whatever reason). They inserted 3 stents into the main vessel leading into the heart to open it back up again (this was where the clot was). He was in good spirits after the procedure - obviously looking a little pale and uncomfortable, but the doctor says he might be able to go home tomorrow. Isn't that amazing...were they not just mucking around inside his arteries?

While your reading this, take a minute of your time to learn how to reduce your chances of heart attack by reading the ABC's of Preventing Heart Disease, Stroke and Heart Attack at the American Heart Association's website.

New baby, Sick parent, Easter eggs & Canopy

Hello! It's been a busy week, and the weekend hasn't slowed a bit.

Friday started off with wonderful news of my cousin's new baby, but quickly changed as my mom let me know that my dad was being taken to the hospital for a possible heart attack...not the best news to end the week. Dad's doing well, they apparently caught the heart attack as it was happening..so needless to say he's in the hospital unitil at least Monday until he can get a cath lab done. For those of you who don't know my dad, he's not happy to settle down and "rest" in the hospital for a few days...so we took him some movies to get him through the weekend.

On a happier note, T. & I dyed Easter eggs last night, which was entertaining to say the least. We have several brown easter eggs and a few that I call "toxic waste green" - those being the eggs that somehow made it into all 9 of the dye cups at some point during their journey.

Another happy note - it seems that Walmart may actually have a relatively nice line of home products out! I was perusing through my newest Better Homes & Gardens magazine, and there was a really nice mini-catalog insert with some nice looking pieces. The line is called Canopy and it reminds me of Pottery Barn, on a major budget. The lighting is especially beautiful...think Restoration Hardware, only at 3/4 of the price. I'm excited to check it out on my next trip to Walmart...I'll let you know if it's as nice in person!

Distracted

Bare with me, I have a lot of craftiness to share from the weekend.

My next project was supposed to be this cute Anna Tunic made with this cute fabric...

Unfortunately, my craft ADD struck again and I wondered off onto several other things this weekend. I've completed a super cute TuTu, which I don't have a picture of yet because I need to borrow the little girl across the street...without a model it just looks like a blob of tulle. Trust me, it's cute though. If I was a little girl I would want to dance around the house (or yard) in it. In fact, that's what I may do later! ;)

Up next are these cute earrings that I'm calling "Spring Trio" and "Blue-Bells" - I may add a few pairs to the Etsy site later this week.




And finally, since I can not afford a fantabulous embroidery machine, I bought these rubber stamps and a fabric marker...



...and then I stamped this for practice...



Not too bad I suppose. I need a better fabric marker and a little more practice and then I plan to sew onto a bib or a blanket, customizing sans embroidery machine. Ta-da! A. if you are reading, Z. will likely be the recipient of some trial pieces...yay!

Saturday was super-beautiful, so T. & I spent all day outside pulling weeds. You may ask yourself "all day, really?" Yes. The weeds were completely out of control, but they're gone...and my fingers hurt. But at least the Daffodils & Tulips and Hosta sprouts are happy again.

Photos from the farm

Today we registered T. for Kindergarten and then went to see Horton Hears A Who...which T. enjoyed...we thought it was slow in the beginning, but once it got going it was cute.

This is a quick post, but I'm going to share lots of pictures. These were taken yesterday at the farm in Warsaw where R. hunts. Oakley had a wonderful time...he would love living on a farm. Turns out our crazy black dog LOVES to swim (surprise, surprise...he is a lab afterall). This was his first swim, with many to come I'm sure. We were also lucky enough to see a beautiful eagle and his/her giant nest...it was so cool!!

Anyway, here are the pictures. Enjoy!!!

Thin Mints & Fun Dip

They're here! The dreaded, can't-eat-just-one Girl Scout cookies are here! T. likes the Thin Mints, R. likes the Tag-alongs & Dosi-Do's, and I like the Samoa's. Needless to say, we have 4 open boxes of cookies that will not stop calling us to the fridge. I do love the Girl Scout cookies, but I must say that our waistlines are glad they only come around once a year.

Remember Fun-Dip? You know, it's that envelope with a candy stick on one side and the flavored sugar on the other side.. R. & I remember eating it at the pool when we were kids. T. got some for Valentines Day from one of his friends and he, as any kid would, loved it. Here's a picture of T. getting a lesson from Daddy on how to eat Fun-Dip.

I did it! YAY!!

I am a PMP! I got up bright and early Friday morning, drove to the testing center and sat for my 200 question exam. I had 4 hours to take it, and somehow finished in right around 3 hours and I PASSED! So, now it's official...I'm a PMP! My friend G. finished about 30 minutes after me and met me up at the Starbucks where I was anxiously awaiting her results (she passed too! Yay us!).

To celebrate we headed over to Kohls to shop for gym shoes (really it was just a way to pass the time until noon...we didn't think it was a great idea to start drinking before noon). After spending what is probably too much money on a pair of gym shoes, we moved on to a nice lunch with our husbands and then quickly moved on to the drinking since it was now officially after noon.

So now that I've finished that, I'm moving on to my next challenge. See the cute shirt over there in the picture? That's my challenge. I have the pattern, and a really cute cotton print just waiting to turn into this top. We'll see how it goes, I have never made a shirt using a pattern before...hope it turns out like this! I think the warm weather is right around the corner, so I need to get crackin'!

I'm still here...

Yes, yes...it's been days..I know.

R. ended last week with a lovely case of the flu, and ended up quarantined in the master bedroom Friday through Sunday. T. & I kept our distance from him, and only sent food and drink up in plastic cups and paper plates...which so far (knock wood) seems to have been a good choice for us. I'm sure it didn't hurt that I completely disinfected the first floor of the house Friday night, and actually used up every last bit of Lysol (don't worry, we quickly ran out and bought more on Saturday morning). So, after several days of Tamiflu and boring upstairs television, R. recovered and has joined us downstairs again.

I've been super busy this week in a class, this is actually the first time I've logged in this week! I'll tell you more about my class later this week...I dont want to jinx myself. I will tell you this...the class is intense, I am in class from 8am-6pm every day, and I am ready for it to all be OVER! It will all be over Friday, so I'll write more then.

Ok, back to studying...hmmmph...