Just because I am awesome

... and you all need more proof ;)

Andi from Jane of All Crafts tagged me in a post asking random questions. I, like Amy (who was also tagged), am a rule breaker, so I'm just going to answer Andi's questions. If you'd like to join in and pick up my slack to move the tagging chain along, consider yourself tagged. :)

1. If you had to eat the same thing everyday for the rest of your life what would it be?

Mashed potatoes and gravy. Or the sweet pork burrito from Costa Vida. Okay, definitely the sweet pork burrito. I could eat it every day and never get sick of it. So, Costa Vida for lunch and mashed potatoes for dinner and... homemade wheat bread and strawberry jam for breakfast. Delicious!

2. If you woke up one day and were an animal, what type would you be?
If nature was judging from my current everyday activities, I'd probably be a cat -- I love to sleep and sit around all day and I think I'm pretty superior to all other creatures. ;) Also, agile and flexible... yup, that's me...

3. If you could pick any profession other then your current one, what would it be?
I would go back to being a technical writer. It's not for everyone, but I love it and still miss it often!

4. How many states have you visited?
Umm... 6? I clearly don't get out much... I'd love to visit more, and have plans to visit Montana (hopefully soon) and Maine (to prove that it exists) someday.

5. Ever been overseas? If not where do you dream of going?
Nope. I would love to! I would truly love to go just about anywhere. Tops on my list are Germany (thanks to Tera), Italy, and England, plus Russia (where my husband spent two years as an LDS missionary). Also Prague, while we're dreaming :)

6. If you had to choose, would you rather be an awesome dancer or an amazing singer?
Tough question... I'm going to say singer so that I would fit more with my husband's amazingly talented family. Seriously, they all have great voices. Also, I would love to be able to sing beautiful songs and lullabies to my kids and actually have them still sound beautiful instead of just a little (or a lot) off-key...

7. What is your favorite beverage? (alcoholic or non)
Strawberry limeade. Add that to the list in #1 because I could drink it non-stop.

8. What would your dream home look like?
Wrap-around porch. Big, amazing craft room. Big laundry room (so that I can hide it all in there ;). Big kitchen/dining/entertaining area for all the people I want to gather there. But the actual home itself can't be that big because I don't want to clean it all ;)


Wait, scratch the craft room and add the craft barn that Debra and I dream of. It has a limeade bar (see #7) and a photo studio, among other awesome features.

9. What trait about yourself do you value most?

Hmm... that is a good question. I am going to say that I have never seen something that I didn't think I could do. Not sure what you'd call that -- maybe hubris? ;) There are things in life that I don't want to do, and there are things I know that I won't do, but I don't know that I've ever encountered anything that I thought was impossible for me to do, if I really tried and made it a priority. I've always been more afraid of not being my best (of not doing my very best) than of failing altogether. Do I sound completely self-important yet? :)


10. Have you ever tasted the rainbow? ;)
Are we talking Skittles here...? Because in that case, yes.

11. Mac or PC?
Currently, PC. But I love Macs. I'm great with either so long as it has internet access ;)

Also... I have been seriously slacking and forgot to share my last few Wednesday posts over at Housewife Eclectic. So, if you feel so inclined, pop on over.

And, since you've read this far, a gratuitous picture of my adorable baby girl -- 6 months old! How time flies.

Photo by my awesome sister-in-law, Dusty, who will very soon have a website of her own that I can link you to :)

Thanks for reading!

Kid's Sewing Kit [Land of Nod knock-off]

It was my niece's birthday back in October, and as I was thinking of what to do for her, I came across this Land of Nod kids sewing kit, featured over at Gwenny Penny. Lightbulb! (Thanks for the inspiration, Gwen!)

As cute as it was, $31 was out of my budget... not to mention that I have no idea if there is a physical Land of Nod location in my state. I've only ever browsed online for inspiration. :) (If you're interested, theirs is on sale right now for only $17.)

A trip to JoAnn's and a visit to my stash produced...

My out-of-pocket cost was around $13:

• snap n' stack organizer, $6
• scissors, $2
• embroidery floss, $2
• measuring tape, $1
• small spool of ribbon, $1
• googly eyes, $1
• needles, on-hand (I ended up including one darning needle and one sharper needle, in a simple felt needlebook)
• felt, on-hand

From my felt, I cut out some fun animal shapes for her to sew together:

The elephant was from this Taffy Talk pattern, and the other shapes were from coloring pages I found various places online.

I also cut out some felt puppets, from She Wears Flowers, and tossed in a few random scraps for her to make her own embellishments.

Just toss the supplies in the tote (or other container), snap it together, and toss a bow on top. Or, if you're like me, skip the bow and make up for it by saying "Happy Birthday!" extra enthusiastically. :)

Diamonds for Piña: a quilting adventure

Looking over my pictures from the last year, I realized that I have a rather large backlog of projects that have never shown up here! And even a few more than I never actually took pictures of... So, it's time to start sharing! Today I want to show off the quilt I made for my daughter, who we (sometimes) affectionately call Piña (since her name, if you slur a little bit, translates into the word for pineapple :)

When I was pregnant with my son, I decided to make him a baby quilt. Something small and easy, and something that wouldn't be too incredibly difficult to also make for future children. As the youngest of 8 children, I am always telling myself not to do something special for one kid if I wouldn't want to do it for 8... even though I have no intention of having 8 children. ;)

I decided to make this Sweet Divinity Diamond Quilt by the Quilted Fish for my daughter. The tutorial is great, and, even though I am an impatient when I sew, the quilt top still turned out great!

And then... my anxiety overwhelmed my impatience with just wanting the quilt finished. So, the quilt top sat neatly folded until my daughter was almost 3 months old. I loved the 3-month photos that Debra did of my son with his quilt, and I wanted similar photos of my daughter with her quilt. But I was terrified of machine quilting!

I had hand-quilted my son's quilt, but I didn't have the time or the patience or the free hands for that now. Thankfully, I have a friend who makes fantastic quilts and she agreed to give me a crash course on machine quilting (thanks, Heidi!). In 45 minutes, she gave me the courage that I needed to dive in to machine quilting... even if I wasn't good at it, I was confident enough that I wouldn't totally ruin the quilt, at least. :)

And you know what? It turned out great. Far from perfect, since my stitching that is supposed to be "in the ditch" actually moseys from one side of the ditch to the other and then back... but a labor of love that I'm happy with. 

I followed these steps from the Aesthetic Nest for making the bias tape (the tube construction makes it so easy!) and then I followed this tutorial for ZigZag Binding from Stitched in Color -- it was fast and easy, even if it's still not perfect since I'm too impatient. :)

It's hard to see, but I love that light blue paisley fabric (like the diamond that I embroidered with her name), and the backing fabric makes me smile every time I see it...

especially when it's accompanied by these sweet cheeks :)

Do you have traditions that you do for each of your children? Or am I the only one with the youngest-child complex? :)

Friday Confessional: Dejunking

I confess that, as I was dejunking this week, I found SEVEN tubes of chapstick in the same drawer. And later added another one so that I always know where to find my chapstick. :)

I confess that dejunking was rather profitable for me. In addition to the several dollars of loose change I found floating around, I also re-found a couple of checks I had forgotten about and my son's birthday money for his last two birthdays.

I confess that my son is a bit addicted to technology. His first words when waking up are either "Play Mario when Daddy comes home" or "Daddy take iPad to work?" Apparently my husband is a little addicted to technology too. :)

I confess that dejunking with my toddler was... interesting. At least as he was pulling things back out of donation boxes, he was entertaining: he pulled out the jumbo calculator and said, "Wow, Mom, cool iPod!" Kids these days... ;)

I confess that one day this week ended in a load of laundry with a pair of poopy pants for every member of my family except me. In my husband's defense, his pants suffered at the hands of my daughter's diaper blowout, not of his own issues. :)

I confess that I know the regular schedule of the UPS delivery truck and I get excited every time it stops in front of my house.

I confess that the UPS truck has stopped by every day this week.

I confess that most days this week I had to think reeeeally hard about what I had ordered for the UPS man to deliver. It's like a surprise every day! :) And probably also the reason that I had so much junk to get rid of. :)