Life Planner

I ordered a Life Planner from Erincondren.com!  They are a pretty penny BUT soooo worth it!

This is the box that came in the mail!!! So pretty!

I felt sooo special with wrapping like this!

There's weekly sections plus monthly one. This is where I write all my lists! It has extra pages to write my quilting lists and book reading lists too. I seriously love this and will buy one every  year, even if I have to save my pennies. Seriously it's worth it!

Swing

Glo bug and Bee wanted to swing together in the baby swings!

Bee loved it!! Glo Bug LOVED it!! They could spend hours on swings. Seriously hours.

Free Fabric

Fabric.com had a glitch in their website. You could get some free fabric if you knew the trick. Well I took full advantage of that!!

But this is even better!

I used a code and got $20 off. I bought more than $35 for free shipping. They emailed me, saying they didn't have some of the fabric I ordered in stock and I had to contact them within 24 hours. While that was the day I was packing and driving to Vegas. By the time I remembered, it was too late to submit more fabric to the order.

So they shipped what they had, still giving me free shipping because my original order was over $35. And still giving me the discount I had in the system....therefore giving me FREE FABRIC!!!

LOVE IT!! Thank you fabric.com.
This makes up for the fabric I received with a stain on it last year.

Lindsy quilt

I made this quilt back in 2009 for Lindsy. I can't find any pictures of it on here so I took more when I was there.

The back is a brown sheet with the leftover triangles.

I quilted words in her quilt that reminded me of her.

This is the whole quilt. I used a jelly roll of L'Amour. It is my favorite line and Lindsy's favorite colors.

Folded fabric

I folded my fabric around comic book forms and now have a mini quilt store on my book shelf!! I love it!

Grass

We stopped at Luke AFB to refuel and to stretch the legs. I thought what better place then a base playground. And this one had GRASS!!!

SERIOUSLY GRASS!!

This is actually the first time Dragonfly has seen grass. He laughed and wiggled and loved it!

Glo Bug still doesn't like it. I think he doesn't like that it tickles his ears when he lays in it. Something I hope our new base, whenever we move, will fix. I'm hoping for grass. Maybe some water too!

Don't you just want to kiss on those cheeks?? Don't worry, I got ya covered!

Trip home

We had a potty break off the side of the road in Arizona. I've seen cacti before but never took a picture

This is Lake Mead. When you live in the desert, you forget what lakes look like. Heck, we get excited over puddles here. So seeing a HUGE lake was soooo fun for the boys, and me! I miss water.

This is my side kick on the way home. So much for keeping me awake!!  He actually got a sunburn from laying like that.

The distance to go through Phoenix AZ or back through ABQ was almost exactly the same...within 15 miles of each other, and no time difference said google maps.

So I decided it would be fun to go a new way home through Phoenix and Tuscon, which I've never been through. It might also keep me awake better if I don't know the road.

It proved true. I made a slight stop to try and find a sign for a friend with no luck just outside of Tuscon. Then drove on home from there. We got in around 2:30am. I enjoyed that ride much better than the road from ABQ to here. There's so much construction and slow speed limits, it just drags on forever. This way was definitely an adventure!!

Finger

It doesn't look as bad as it felt in the picture, but it hurt something awful!!

I was teaching P how to thread her new sewing machine. She had her foot on the pedal, I had my finger near the needle and ta dah... I sewed through my finger. It wasn't the actual sewing that hurt, it was the pulling the needle out and THEN the thread. AND trying not to make a big deal out of it because I didn't want P to feel bad.

Seriously... don't sew your finger. It still hurts a week later.

Vegas Strip

We went to the Strip one day, while in Vegas!

This is Bee in the M&M's store. They have a 3D movie that you can watch for free. I can't watch 3D movies because they make me dizzy and I think Bee inherited that trait. He had his glasses off the whole time and was tracking out the walls instead of the movie.

 All along the strip there was characters from different movies. These guys were one of Bee's favorites until he actually was suppose to talk to them. He didn't like that they were kind of human. But he was fine from a distance.

This is all the C kids. P in purple, L and T. T was just as freaked of the guys moving as Bee was. So we didn't stay long.

Trip to Vegas

We saw this part of the road and Bee screamed, CARS!!!!!!

The Cars movie is actually based off of a town in New Mexico, Radium Springs. And other places along the Route 66. This happens to be a hour or so outside of ABQ.

We stopped at a truck stop to have a potty break and this guy pulls up next to us. I love that he's towing this car. He said it worked great and I assumed it did since he was filling it with gas. What you can't see from the picture is a car is towing it. I'm not sure what kind but it was really funny to see.

Vegas

The boys and I went to Vegas this past weekend. My best friend, Lindsy, lives there. It was her birthday!
Her hubby is not home and they are moving to Guam in May, so I figured this was the best time to go visit her!! So saved my Christmas money and off we went!

I brought a huge coloring book that Bee got for Christmas from Ompa and Grrma. CARS!!! It was a total hit!

It was NASCAR weekend in Vegas! (Who knew there was such a thing?) There were trailers and cars everywhere. What 4.5 year old boys wouldn't love that?! This one happened to be outside the chocolate factory we went to so we stopped and played. This is T and Bee.

Inside this chocolate factory, they had a self guided tour. This guy was standing there, unwrapping sticks of butter! Seriously he had even more then you can see in the picture. They were making peanut brittle that day.

At the end of this tour, you get one piece of chocolate! It was really good chocolate. Then you file into the gift shop. Upon which Bee promptly knocks over a box of chocolates off a stand. I go to pick it up and notice the price tag... $45!!!!!! It had MAYBE 20 pieces of chocolate in it. I was soooooo grateful I didn't have to buy it.

Then I walk around the corner and there's a whole counter full of chocolates. I'm thinking, hey I could get some for the birthday girl.

No.

Even the individual pieces of chocolate were $2.50 a piece. For a piece of chocolate no more than an inch squared!!

So after that, we carefully walked out of the gift store and walked around the desert garden they had in front of the factory. We saw a couple bunnies and even a tank of what we believed was water. (it was covered with a fancy trap and wires)

So after that, we went home to get the girls from school. It was an adventure for sure!!

Anna Reese

I have a friend that lost a baby at 30 weeks. She has a horrible day every Feb 26. She doesn't talk about Anna Reese much. But every year she takes out Anna's belongs. This year I wanted to make her something for Anna.

We all know I've lost my fair share of babies, but none that far along. I can't even imagine my friend's heart ache so has for her little girl.

So I decided that I was going to make Anna a Anna size quilt. I took the measurements of a baby quilt and the size of an average newborn. I proportioned it out to how long Ms. Anna was. Then designed the quilt from there.

I found that perfect piece of fabric with a bird on it. I just screamed to be in Anna's quilt. The big eyes I think are what made it.
Then I bordered it and bound it. I wrote Anna Reese on the grey so everyone will know that Ms Anna was here.
Even though I was a horrible friend and didn't get it in the mail on time for Anna's birthday, my friend forgave me. She said she loved it and even her hubby loved it. That's big.

So I hope that this quilt will do some healing. It's not much in my eyes but I'm hoping that it helps my friend. At the very least, her brothers will now have an idea how little Ms Anna was. And in years to come she will be remembered.

I love you, my friend. Here is a HUGE hug for your awful day.

Miles per gallon

I took this picture at a gas station in ABQ. My truck STINKS at gas mileage. Seriously stinks. Around town we get 12 MPG usually. On the highways, maybe up to 15 on the way to ABQ. The only time I have EVER seen the truck higher than 16 was on our trip down here from Alaska, on the Alacan. There is a HUGE pass that is downhill for miles. We had the trailer pushing us and we put it in neutral. I think we got it up to 19 or 20.

I reset my MPG button on the start of the trip and I actually got it up to 22.4 MPG on my trip to Vegas. Yes I did around 55MPH. (It was crazy windy and honestly 55 felt a little fast at times.) It wasn't great in time to get to Vegas but with gas prices at $3.89 per gallon, I was willing to go slow. Bonus to going slow, no speeding tickets to pay!!!

Giveaway winners!

Lindsay from "for the love of cotton" won the jelly roll portion of the giveaway!!

She said, "I have all my squares cut! I have finished three blocks and eight more are partially pieced and up on the design board. Hoping to finish this weekend!"

She has been busy this week!!



For the giveaway to Dana's shop...

Sarah said "i am eagerly awaiting some rainbow charms from a swap i'm in to hack up and then get going on this quilt along. so, nothing but ideas running around in my brain to show. soon. very soon. can't wait. "

She blogs at two little lid kids


I have emailed both girls but if they don't get back to me by Monday, I'll draw new ones!

Thanks for all of you that played along!

Granny Squares giveaway!

Hey guys!!

It's that time!!

Tell us what you have done towards your Granny Squares...

Whether it's just bookmark the page or finish a quilt...



You will be entered to win a Jelly roll of your choice

and a gift certificate to Old Red Barn Co

If you missed the tutorial on Jolene's blog... here's the link



So spill your beans!!

Yum

Dragon's mcFatty legs.

LOVE.

(There's nothing on his arm, just a corner of the towel.)

5 months

Glo Bug's Birthday present

Auntie Kassie sent a HUGE box to Glo Bug. See the little chair?! He didn't even wait to open the little presents before sitting in the chair!

Already comfy!!

Honky HUGE box! He could soo fit in it.

The wrapped presents were clothes. I didn't get pictures cause I was laughing at the crossed legs! :)