It's a Mystery - Week 2

So I have been so excited waiting to see what week two of the spring mystery quilt would bring me. Package arrives, fabrics look promising. Sewing technique for the week is paper piecing. Fun, love it.

Look at the instructions...hum...paper pieced baskets. Not my favorite, but hopefully there will be some cute embellishments to go with these baskets. Once sewed, feel the blocks are a little bit cuter then originally expected. Cannot wait to see what next weeks mystery brings. Strange thing is, not all of the fabric was used from this weeks mystery. They said to hold onto it for next week.

Only three weeks to left to go! Here are photos of the fabric that arrived and the finished strip of blocks.

House Elves

For the past two years, my house has remained pretty clean due to House Elves. Each night or so, the House Elves come after we go to bed and they pick up whatever has been left out around the house. The agreement is, whatever is left out especially on the floor, is theirs to take...forever.

Big Buddy doesn't like it when the House Elves take things he has left out, so he keeps his things picked up. We never know which night the house elves are coming so it is good to always put things away.

This past week, Big Buddy has been asking me about the House Elves. Are they small? Yes. Are they nice? Yes. Can they come into my bedroom? No. Where do they live? In the house elves village. Do they have kids? Yes. Do they like toys? Yes. (As you can see, I try to keep my answers to a minimum.) Big Buddy is smart though. It is hard to get anything past him for too long.

He has been wondering if I could take a picture of them so that he can see what they look like. I have just been letting this one go as I do not want to scare him. I really like the mystery of not knowing what they look like. He asks me how I call the house elves to tell them to clean our house. I tell him that they just know when to come.

So the other night, Big Buddy started asking Mr. Big about the House Elves. Now I could hear them talking about it and figured that Mr. Big would also give short answers to any questions that came his way. Well, surprise! Big Buddy asked him what the House Elves look like, and so Mr. Big showed him. Before I could stop what happened, Mr. Big showed him this picture.

The look on Big Buddy's face, although priceless, was that of utter shock. I had to pull him aside and explain to him that this House Elf was old and friendly. That his name is Dobby and he won't hurt him.

For the last 3 days now, Big Buddy has been fascinated with Dobby. And the questions just keep coming. Why are his eyes so big? Why is is nose pointy? Can he do magic? How does he pick up big things and take them? If he takes the clothes I leave on the floor, how can he wear them? I just keep answering the barrage of questions in hopes that I can keep the House Elves around for a little bit longer (I love a picked up house). In the car on the way home from school, Big Buddy told me he has decided that he would become a House Elf knitter. He is going to knit little hats and sweaters for them to keep them warm. Big Buddy is the cutest!!! He also drew this picture that he has left out for the House Elves to take, to let them know that he is friendly. :)

It's a Mystery!

So I received an email from a long lost quilting friend of mine from Arizona. She turned me onto this really cute little quilt store in Logan, called My Girlfriends Quilt Shoppe. The coolest thing about this quilt shoppe is that they have really fun projects and you can even sign up for them if you live out of town...they will just mail the project to you. Get Out!!!

My Arizona friend told me about the "Spring Mystery Quilt". With just a little peek of the adorable spring fabric, I was totally sold! We both signed up. Now how this mystery quilt works, is each Tuesday, I receive a package in the mail with instructions to sew a portion of the quilt along with the fabric not knowing what the final quilt will look like. We must have our blocks sewn by 6pm on Saturday night and send the proof of our sewing via email back to the store. Once they receive the email, they ship out the next weeks block. There are 5 weeks of sewing total until finished quilt. I am sooooooo excited! I feel like a kid with a decoder ring.

For the next 5 weeks I will show pictures of what I am sewing. Here is what I received in the mail to kick-off my mystery quilt! This week we used fusible web to appliqué these flowers onto the background. Then we made these cute Yo Yo's for the centers. Super fun! Luckily, I was able to email my photo right before the deadline. Phew!

Announcing the Birth of my 4 month old daughter!

I have finally gotten around to making Little Lilly's (my four month old daughter) birth announcement. Yippee! With five spare minutes, I was able to take a few snapshots, and pop them into Shutterfly (Oh how I love you) and presto, birth announcement completed!

"Hey Everyone...In case you didn't know...I had a Baby Girl four months ago!!!" LOL!

Here is a sneak peek of the announcement. Hopefully, I will get them mailed out later this week. :)

Making Valentines

Tonight, Big Buddy and I decided that we were not going to go and buy some generic valentines from the store, but instead, we would celebrate Valentines Day with homemade valentines for the kids in his class.

So we both sat down tonight and created this super fun Valentine to share. We had a ton of fun making it. Once we designed the photo, we developed it at Walgreens and then punched a hole in it to add the Tootsie Pop. Then he cut out card stock to glue to the back where he signed his little name. So cute!

Happy Valentines Day Everyone!

A Special Surprise!

The day before Big Buddy's birthday, he and I checked the mail together. Now if you know Big Buddy, he asks me every time I check the mail, if there is something for him. Well, guess what! Today, there was finally something for him. As I handed him the colored envelope, he recognized his name right away and got the biggest smile ever. He then proceeded to ask me, "Is this really for me?". I smiled and told him it was.

Inside, he found the cutest card for his birthday from our California Cousins! The whole rest of the night, Big Buddy had the biggest smile on his face. This adorable birthday card made him feel so special.

Thank you California Cousins for thinking of Big Buddy on his special day! We love you!

My Baby Turns 5!

This past Friday, my first baby turned 5! I still cannot believe it...where has the time gone?

As I sat and watched him open presents and marvel over his party decorations, I flashed back to the past five years of his little life. As if just yesterday, I remember the first time we laid eyes on each other. The cute little roundness to his face and the dimples on his cheeks and chin. I can remember the way his skin smelled and the way he would wrap his cute little arms around my neck to give me the sweetest hugs (I will do anything for this little man in my life). I feel so lucky to be his mama. :)

Here are a few pictures of the birthday cake and the party decorations that me and Grandma T put together (don't judge me on the cake though, I am just glad I was able to make one instead of buying it). With little to no sleep, I feel lucky that I was able to pull off a successful birthday for Big Buddy. We blew up tons of balloons, had a twinkling birthday banner and a fun table setup with confetti and the works.

One of the gifts Big Buddy got was a new Spider Man costume. As you can see, he really loved it! We also took a few shots of all of us wearing our party Transformer masks. :)

Happy Birthday, Big Buddy! I love you! I hope that you can remain a little boy as long as possible. Enjoy everything you can with your pure innocence and love. You are an amazing little guy with so much to offer the world.

The End Of The World Is When?

I am a mother of two little kiddos, two senior doggies, and work full time outside of the home. I am married to a hard working, snowmobile loving man whom I shall affectionately refer to as Mr. Big. I love to cook, sew, quilt, scrapbook, crochet, and knit...yes I live in Utah.

We have all heard it...the end of the world is December 12, 21, or 22nd of this year. With only 10 months left, I got to thinking. What are all the things I would like to do before the end? Well, for starters, if the world is really going to end, I had better start living like it right! So moving forward, I am going to record all of my experiences for the next and final 10 months (you know this will be interesting!).

Part of me feels like I should set up some guidelines for this blog (my inner control freak speaking) however, I will refrain.

Let's begin...February. I love this month, not only because it is the month of love, but because there are also several birthdays to celebrate, including Big Buddy's (my 4 year old son). If you know me, so far each year of this childs life, I have created an amazing cake of sorts. Last year it was Spiderman. This year he has requested Transformers. With just being fresh back to work (I had a baby several months ago) I literally feel like I have a ton on my plate. Here is hoping I can pull off a super fun cake by Friday of this week. Wish me luck!

With a huge Transformer cake on my mind, tonight I thought I would whip out a fun little dessert for my family (you will see that when I feel really stressed out, I turn to cooking. For some odd reason, it relaxes me). Back story: As I strive to further my cooking/baking skills, I have been trying to follow a new recipe each week to expand my culinary abilities. Tonight, I found a recipe off of Pinterest (I love you) for little blueberry turnovers. They looked quite easy and were! Did I mention they were a hit with Mr. Big (my husband) and Big Buddy (my son). I took a quick photo to share. Feast your eyes on these little dessert bombs! I wish I could say they were fat free, but who cares right!