wasn't it just monday?

Gracious ... how time flies when you're having fun!  Mom and dad headed back for Maryland this morning -- we had a great visit and I hope you'll indulge me as I share a little lot!

I'll start out with my 'crafty' things.  I found a new blog (that's in Malaysian, but what's a foreign language between crafty people -- especially when there's google translate?!) called Diari Ann.  She had instructions for a darling ribbon flower that I wanted to try and copy . . .

I didn't read all of the instructions until too late (which is typical of me), but I loved how it turned out in spite of myself!  I see lots of uses for these ... little girl barrettes and head band embellishments, for starters!

I also finished up the "C" stitchery for the little mug rug for my mom . . .

She was tickled with it and it made me happy to make her a little happy!

I also gave both my mom and dad their Christmas presents (don't ask), which included these fun Christmas tree napkins I'd made . . .

I'm going to make a bunch of these for the coming Christmas, I think.  They're easy and look so pretty!

And in this week's mail was a happy, too.  I'd won a Connecting Threads gift certificate from Doniene, over at Now It's Just Quilts . . . 

And finally decided to but some crib batting with it, for June's quilt!  It was actually a nice blessing -- I needed batting for her quilt ... I've got some, but I hated to chop up a full-sized batting panel (which I hope to use for a different quilt) to get the crib-sized, but I really need to finish June's quilt up!  (Sheesh, right?!)

It arrived in the mail yesterday -- speedy service.  Thank you, sweet Doniene!

And of course, the week was a family-filled, action-packed, on-the-go adventure! I took Sawyer out on Tuesday (which was his birthday) to pick up some rain boots. We went to Tractor Supply.  

He was so excited to find boots his size!  According to Kim, it's been particularly difficult to get them off of him.  I think on Tuesday, he actually wore them to bed for his nap!  Now that's a gratifying gift to give! 

He also tried on this cowboy hat (which was WAY oversized):  

He put that hat on his heat and let out a very LOUD, "YEEHAW!"  Of course he's such a charmer that everyone in the store thought it was cute ... including his Neesey!

Wednesday night we had a big fish fry up at the camp.  Unfortunately it was quite cold, but that didn't stop us from having fun!

James had my mom and dad pose "American Gothic" style - 2.0 camp version. They're such good sports!

And really quite happier people than you'd surmise from the first picture!

Time to eat!

I love how Kim was "hands-free" wearing June ... who seemed quite warm and snuggly and content to watch the party from her 'papoose'.  She eventually conked out, right where she was!

I asked everyone to lean in and give me the ol' "Cheese!"

If you look closely, you can see that even Ellie -- down there on the left (middle) leaned her little self in.  She was quite taken with the fish and kept a filet in her little fist for most of the night, nibbling on it at will.

Evidently she kept a little in both cheeks, too.

According to Sawyer, when you're the 'cool breeze', you wear your shades regardless of the time of day.

Haha! (Notice his footwear.)

Did you see the fancy place mats we were using?  Here's a close up:

Aren't they darling?  My mom and dad brought them for me!  Such fun -- perfect for up at the camp!!!  

And finally . . . we spend a lot of time as a group, parked in Joc's home.  

As you can imagine, Leia wanted to be in the midst ... but managed to stay out of harm's reach (for the most part)! Linking her up to the Feline Friday party over at Sarah Did It!

We have two big groups coming into the camp this weekend -- in fact, this weekend pretty much kicks off a run of weekend events up at Camp MACOBA for the next couple of months!  Spring has sprung!

Plus ... tomorrow is National Quilting Day!!!  

How are you going to celebrate?  I plan on eating/serving  pancakes at Applebee's tomorrow morning (an event our guild is hosting) and then heading out for another guild event -- a quilting scavenger hunt!  I *might* even get a little quilting in.  Who knows?!  

TTFN and TGIF!

:)

i'm a winner in so many ways . . .

First -- quick question . . . I've noticed that the 'search on this blog' feature is not working on my blog and several other blogspot blogs.  Has anyone else noticed this?  Anyone know why it's not working?

Now onto the good stuff -- my stash *enhancement* report this week reflects some happy little wins!  My first win was a *sweet* bundle of Happy Town fabrics (by Jacquelynne Steves of The Noble Wife) . . . compliments of my darling bloggy friend Teresa, from A Quilt and a Prayer!

Isn't this the cutest line??!  What happy, bright colors!  And the little scenes are just precious.  Teresa's doing some fun things with it for her little grandson.  I can think of another grandson who'd enjoy it, too!!

I also had a fun Facebook win from Shannon Fabrics -- a giveaway they did in conjunction with APQ.  I won a super-soft and cuddly strip quilt kit in Dr. Seuss fabrics!

I can't wait to stitch these strips together.  But I'm not sure where it will end up! Perhaps it can be the 'snuggle quilt' that Neesey keeps here, for curling up together and watching a movie or after a cold ride on the golf cart?!  Haha!!

So those two wins constituted my only additions this week ... and nothing in the 'going out' column, so here we are:

Used/donated this week: 0.00 yards

Used/donated year-to-date: 10.5 yards

Purchased/added this week: 6.5 yards

Purchased/added year-to-date: 37.0 yards

Net used/donated for 2013: -27.5 yards

Linking that up with the week #9 stash report at  Patchwork Times!

I had one more non-fabric win this past week ... a $25 Amazon.com gift card from a promotional giveaway Cross Reads was doing!  I do love Amazon!  I had fun perusing my choices, and here's what I came away with . . .

A rather eclectic grouping, to be sure, but that's how I roll.  I'm really looking forward to delving into the pages of A Christian Woman's Guide to Hospitality.  It came highly recommended to me by my dear bloggy friend Melissa, of The High Altitude Tea Duchess.  In fact, her blog post today contains a reference to said book! The Clever Banners, Panels & Postcards book is filled with some darling motifs that will make perfect quilted postcards . . .

Aren't they fun?  The "cream tea" motifs are the most fun ... wouldn't it be cute to invite a special guest to tea using one of these?!  I know I'll find lots of uses for these over the years to come!

I've been busy working on my CQ course ... I finally finished up all the required bead embellishing on my thread roll-up . . .

The dragonfly (which I'm really proud of -- those wings take more than a little patience) and the button cluster finished up my exercises in lesson six and now I'm on to lesson seven -- ribbon work!  Now I'm *really* out of my comfort zone. I've never, ever done any ribbon embroidery work, so it will be interesting to see how this pans out.  First I've got to get my silk ribbon in ... then I can proceed with the lesson!  Still, it looks like I'm definitely in good shape to finish off the course before the end of March!

I also whipped up a cute set of coasters for Jocelyn -- they match the napkins that we made for her a couple of months back. 

I think I was supposed to make six of each, but for now there's two -- that'll tide her over!

And yesterday, for the second time this week, I got to spend time with all three of the grands under one roof!  Aunt Jocelyn and Uncle Jason took Sawyer to dinner and his first movie theater movie last night for his birthday!  Kim came over to drop him off and play with Joc's Cricket -- and I came over to watch Ellie while her mommy and daddy were out.  It's so funny to seem how they all interact with each other . . .

Sawyer is the doting big brother and love his "Baby June" -- but I'm not sure what June thinks about the attention, based on her expression here!

Ever the clown.  How does he do that with just one eye?!?  (By the way, he was thrilled with "the biggest TV screen ever" and especially the POPCORN!  Score one for Aunt Jocelyn and Uncle Jason!)

Ellie's already wanting to share with June -- so sweet!!

Yup -- I'm blessed three times over!!  

:)