Week 2 Crafty Sewing Mama's Sewalong - Complete!

I was finally able to come up with an idea for the sewalong challenge! Two of them actually.

I had some scrap Valentine's day-esque fabric so I decided to make a key ring. It came out OK, although I think I probably needed a bigger D-ring.

Then I saw a tutorial on making cards by sewing on them. SO EXCITING! So I made this. I had two pieces of card stock. I sewed a heart onto one of them and then sewed them together to create the card. Love it!

Thank you for looking!

A Day for Hearts

Monday, February 14th is A Day for Hearts, 

a day to help promote awareness about Congenital Heart Defects.

 

 

To most people February 14th was just Valentine's day.  Until my youngest son was born on July 4th, 2008 I was one of those, and then it all changed.

 

Less than a week after my son, Sean, was born we found out that he had a hole in his heart.  By the time he was two weeks old he had been to the ER, had seen a cardiologist twice and was now on medication to help keep him alive.  He had a type of defect known as Ventricular Septal Defect (VSD).  Most of these holes do close on their own.  Unfortunately Sean's was too large to do so.  On January 14, 2009 my six month old son had open-heart surgery to repair the hole.  Sean may never have a 'normal' heart, but he is alive and living quite an active life. 

 

Unfortunately, for many children this is not the story.  1 in 100 children in the US are born every year with a Congenital Heart Defect, where autism affects 1 in 110 children and cancer is diagnosed 2 in every 1000 children a year.  Yet we hear nothing about Congenital Heart Defects. 

 

February 14, 2009 was my first "Day for Hearts".  I would love for you to help show your support and spread awareness about Congenital Heart Defects.  Let February 14, 2011 be your first "Day for Hearts". 

 

How can you help? 

 

Tell others - friends, family, everyone - about "A Day for Hearts" 

 

Here are some websites to learn more about "A Day for Hearts" as well as more about Congenital Heart Defects.

 

http://tchin.org/aware/

http://www.chdinfo.com/chdaware/index2.htm

 

 Sean, Dec. 2010

 

Thank you for your support!

Week 2 Crafty Sewing Mamas' Sew-along: Suggestions Needed!

We are now in Week 2 of the Crafty Sewing Mamas' Sew-along. Our project this week is to make something for Valentine's day or a pair of PJ pants. I am leaning more towards doing something for Valentine's day, but I need some suggestions please!!

Some ideas that I came up with, but am not sure on yet are:
-Handmade Valentine cards (scraps of fabric sewn on cardstock)
-Heart pillows
-Valentine's day shirts for my boys

Ok, that's a short list.  What do you think I should make?


Thanks in Advance!

Week 1 Crafty Sewing Mama's Sewalong - Complete!

I was finally able to sit down and make my crochet hook case for the Crafty Sewing Mamas' Sewalong! I was originally going to make THIS type of case. But in the mail today I received a fabric order, including a scrap grab bag from The Quilt Shoppe. In my bag of scraps was this most BEAUTIFUL fabric that I just had to use. So I made this instead.

 

Outside

 Inside

 And it's all for me!  I love being able to make stuff for me!  Check out all of the finished projects at our Linky Party!

Look What I Won!!!

Ohmygosh! I can't tell you how excited I am to have won THIS!

I can't wait to get it in the mail!! Many, many thanks to Sew, Mama, Sew!

I'm not going to know what bag to make first....decisions, decisions.

Great Organization Giveaway from A bowl full of lemons blog!

Look at this amazing bag!  I could do so many things with it!

And drool!  I would love to have something like this for all of my grocery shopping!

Enter here to Win!!!

Pick your pattern from these great Spring choices to make it just the way you want it

Then stop on over and take a look at the incredible catalog to show you all the things you can do to make your life more organized and look so classy while doing it.

at Thirty-One

Crafty Sewing Mama's Sewalong

Woo hoo! Back to blogging! I know, I do that a lot...leave, come back, leave, come back. My blog and I have a torrid love affair going on here. But alas, I am back.

AND I am back because I am taking part of a Sewalong! A group of people from an online board from Babycenter has decided to create a Sewalong. I am SO excited to be a part of it!

YAY! We even have our own logo! It was created by Cheryl of Cheryl's Creative Crafts.

Our first task is to create either a sewn crochet case or a sewing machine cover. I am going with the crochet case as my sewing machine has a nifty hard case cover already. I just have to pick the perfect fabric and pattern...I did already make one a week ago for a friend's daughter. I'll post that picture for now. But I still plan on making one for me!

Happy Sewing!

I LOVE giveaways! Can you tell?

Here is yet ANOTHER giveaway! This time it's for a quilt. Not just any quilt, but a BEAUTIFUL quilt!! From Chelsea at Pink Fig Designs.

You can check out her blog by clicking this button:

And just look at this beautiful quilt!

 Ohmygosh!  I think I'm drooling!

Please check out her awesome blog and even more awesome giveaway!  But if you win you have to share ;)

So many giveaways, so little time!

I LOVE this time of year! It's when all of my favorite blogs do such awesome giveaways! I have listed some of them below. :)

The Idea Room is giving away a Silouette machine!



How Does She is also giving away a Silhouette machine! (I want one so bad!)


Yet another giveaway featuring a Silhouette machine from Infarrantly Creative!





A great giveway from Grosgrain...and yes, you guessed it, for a Silhouette machine!
Silhouette Machine Giveaway




I think everyone is giving away the Silhouette machine! This one is from Thrifty Decor Chick!




Happy Entering!

So, I decided to make a confession. I have not been able to find my camera cord for a few months now. ACK! I have SO many pictures on my camera that I want to post but I can't! And I don't really want to go out and buy a new one because I KNOW the old one is in the house somewhere. Grr...

In other news, Sean is in a big boy bed for the first time tonight! So far so good! And no, I can't post a picture...because I can't upload it. But for pictures' sake, I will post one from when Sean was an itty bitty. I LOVE this picture. Maybe one day I'll post the story behind it, lol.

I can't believe my baby is 2!

That's all for now. Hopefully I can find the camera card and get some real posts up here. I have so many different projects that I want to blog about!!

Watch out, I kick!

Can I just say that I LOVE kickboxing! It is such a fun time and an awesome workout. I haven't been in quite some time due to work issues with my husband (he works too late). But my friend Becky (who I go with to kickboxing)had her oldest son come watch my boys.

I am SO thankful! I haven't worked out in over a week and was really getting antsy. If you have ever considered taking it, but haven't, I say DO IT! But watch out for my ninja like skills! I have a lethal kick!

Losing weight is not good for the wallet

I have lost quite a bit of weight since February. I am almost down 30lbs (those last 2 lbs are being VERY stubborn). But with weight loss, comes clothing...loss? I have shrunk out of pretty much most of my clothes. Yay! But also Boo! Yay because, well, it's a good thing! Boo because I don't have a lot of clothes that fit me anymore. The clothes that I have (had) that are the size I am now are from when I was in college. They are outdated and way to 'young' compared to how I dress now. I can't really wear a low-cut sparkly Superman t-shirt to work.

So now I need new clothes. Problem...clothes cost money, lots of money. That's something I don't have a lot of...money AND clothes that fit. I have decided that I am going to try to refashion some of my old clothes so that I can wear them again. Last night I took a pair of shorts and made them into this really cute shirt. It was simple really. I used this tutorial from Crafty Pirate as a guide. But didn't add the ruffles.

(Check out her blog by clicking on the button above, she's pretty awesome!)

So I'm sitting here trying to think of what I can do with this dress. (don't mind the roundness...I was pregnant with my youngest)

Maybe I can make a top out of the bottom part...hmm....decisions, decisions :)  Any suggestions are welcome!

Yes, another great giveaway!! :)

There have been a lot of awesome giveaways out there lately. And this one is just as great!!!

Happily Domestic was able to review an electric yogurt maker from Cuisipro!

Click the button below to visit Happily Domestic and enter the giveawy! :)



PS: You're welcome, lol.

I'm a sucker for GREAT Giveaways!

I love giveaways! Even more, I'm a sucker for GREAT giveaways. Check out these awesome giveaways! Come on, you know you want to enter them too! :)




Go to Craftaholics Anonymous by clicking the button above. She has a great giveaway from My Gypsy Cottage, an adorable shop on Etsy. I highly recommend that you check out both.





Ucreat has another awesome giveaway! They are featuring The Freckled Flower Shop. The jewelry there is AWESOME! Go to Ucreate by clicking the button above.

Good luck to all! (Don't forget to share!!!)

Because I don't have enough to do :)

I was perusing craigslist tonight, as I always do, looking for something to catch my eye.  Then I saw this!

Isn't it beautiful!  (The window, not the flower)  This guy has 14 of them for sale for just $5 each.  I am purchasing 2 of them.  What am I going to do with them?  I'm so glad you asked!  I am going to make something like this!

Well, obviously not exactly like that because the windows are different.  I'm so excited!  I am thinking about putting nice paper in the window part maybe...or maybe pictures of us or the boys.  I can't wait to get started. :)

Romeo the....goof.

My husband is such a goof. Monday night he decided to clean out the pantry and fridge. He does this every few months go get rid of expired food and make room for the astronomical amount of Gatorade and Snapple that he buys. I guess he was really bored and decided to make it more entertaining for himself. He started talking with a Latino accent. No, he was not talking to me....he was talking to the food. Yep, he was discussing with the food what their fate was (trash or stay). I love my goofball.

Friendship, dissected

So I have (or should I say had) this friend. We'll call her Mabel*. Mabel and I became friends in college. Sometimes I think it was out of necessity, but alas, we were friends. I was there for her through thick and thin, she was there for me through...well, some thick and thin. (Get where I'm going with this). Anywho, I got married and had kids and my priorities changed. She did not, and her's did not. So we grew apart. Stuff happens. You don't always have the same friends. Friends come and go, yadda yadda. Long story short (because it's a super long story and would take me days to write) Mable decided that it was my fault and that we were no longer friends. She informed me of this via good ole Facebook. Nothing like a break-up on facebook, right? Then she promptly deleted me...and my sister...and my mom. What?! Yeah, that's what I was thinking.

Anywho, when one door closes, another opens, right? In steps Amy (and yes, that is her real name). Amy and I were friends all through school, up until 11th grade that is. Then something stupid happened and we were dramatic and immature and stopped talking. Believe me, it was stupid. We both agree on that part. BUT (getting to the door opening part) she contacted me via Facebook. Yep, Facebook can tear you apart or bring you together. We actually hung out on Saturday and it was like nothing had changed. Those 11 years that we didn't talk seemed like barely a week. Yes, a lot had happened and we did fill each other in on the details. But we started right where we left off (minus the stupid argument from 11th grade). It was awesome!

I am glad we got back in touch. She came back into my life right when I needed it. We have both definitely matured and I'm sure we won't be deleting each other on Facebook over stupid little things anytime soon. :) Happy day.

*Names have been changed to protect the innocent, or those who *think* they are innocent

Awesome Giveaway!

Check out this awesome giveaway from Crataholics Anonymous blog!

They are giving away a custom portrait from Modern Bird Studios.  What is Modern Bird Studios you ask?

Check them out HERE!

The hard part is going to be deciding what picture to use if I win! ;)

Um...so it's been a while?

Yeah, so, I guess I haven't blogged in a while.  Oops.  Well, there's been a lot going on.  For starters, I lost almost 30 lbs!  Woot Woot!  Here are a before and after picture.

And After

Second...I started running, a lot.  Hence the weight loss I suppose.  I ran a 5k back in June and actually have two more that I am signed up for.  One is in October and then I am doing the Free to Breathe 5k in November.  The Free to Breathe run is for Lung Cancer Research and Awareness.  I am raising money for the race.  If you would like to help by donate, please click the link below. :)

Free To Breathe

Other than that I have been doing a lot of sewing.  I have made dresses for me, bags for me and my sisters among others.  I just made a lunch bag for myself using a jellyroll from Moda.  I love it!!

So that is it really.  It's been a busy year.  BUT I am hoping to get back into blogging.  Thanks for reading!!!