V and Co: pretty sure i've lost my fingerprints

as we round out this week...oh wait it's only wednesday, okay well it feels like it's the end of the week. anywho, as i'm getting ready packing and doing final prep for international quilt market in houston this weekend i can't help to think...what a heck of a ride this has been.

when i started this adventure not once did i set a goal or think "i'm going to write a book."
nope. uh uh. as a matter of fact just thinking about it makes me feel like a bout of hives are coming on.
but putting aside of my own personal hive making feelings i'm here to say i'm pretty proud of the hard work and that yes it really did happen and i will be talking about it at market on friday. you can see me in Room 381AB from 1:20-1:50 i'll be talking a little more about the projects in the book.

 and i'll be wearing these awesome shoes...because they make me feel important and pretty and confident. and trust me i'll need it up there. too bad they aren't comfortable. ha! oh well. it's okay after a little bit of walking in them...my feet go numb so it's all good.

project from my book

 you can now pre-order my book through amazon this wreath is a project i'll be talking about at market

also in preparation i've made 50 of these flowers for the schoolhouse. i figured i would make some to give to those who come to the schoolhouse so they can walk away with a little something from the book. i don't know how many are planning to attend, but i stopped at 50 flowers because i'm pretty sure i've burned off my fingerprints and well that's all i really had the stamina to do! and if 50 people don't come..then i'll have some to giveaway here when i come home. :)

after all this chaos of market, i will be coming back to well...crafting and sewing, and wiping bums...you know all the other normal stuff.
i will be showing you this scarf i made for sure! oh and i made another wreath...i'll show you that too.
but for now, if you don't mind me, i'll be psyching myself up that i can do this. :) and if not, well when they identify the body, people will know me as the fingerprint-less gal that died petrified in front of a class in houston wearing freaking awesome shoes.
we'll talk soon

V and Co: before and after: the mantle

 last week i sort of hinted that i was painting again on facebook. 
this has been an ongoing "discussion" (aka me bringing up something over and over and OVER again and jake sidestepping and dismissing and changing the subject, in hopes that i would just.give.it.up. yeah, ahem, i didn't.)

okay so since moving into our home...i've struggled to decorate it. first off i've not had that much time in the house, and second, i've not had enough extra down time to well...do too much in the decorating side of things.
and to tell you the truth my biggest road block: our current living room.
i didn't like it.
aside from the two big windows...it doesn't have a ton of light coming in. 
and well on top of not getting a ton of light:
the color on the walls. eh.
the mantle wood. eh.
basically there's is soooo much brown and eh.
oh i know "boohoo, you have a new house your husband found a job he loves, and you are complaining about the living room having too much brown?"
i know i felt ungrateful too.
trust me.
and i tried and tried to let it go.
but when you are in a house all day long. somethings that start out as "eh's" turn into "oh my gosh i HAVE TO DO SOMETHING ABOUT THIS!"
and well jake said: "will it make you shut up happy to paint the fireplace?"
he didn't have to say it twice i was out like flash and i bought the supplies i needed.

first i called my next door neighbor and enlisted her help, you know the one that already thinks i'm crazy for taking her out on a hot humid summer's day to take pictures in front of a bale of hay. yeah her. she's real nice and keeps saying yes to my "adventures" so i figured lets give her another try.
she said yes. :)
second, i taped off around the fireplace.
then i lightly sanded the whole thing down.

now the paint.
the husband said to look for trim and door paint.
and so i found it.
(okay so before i go any further i have to say this: this is in no way shape or form a paid post. it is me all me and just my experience and opinion of this paint. okay moving on...)
glidden extra high gloss for trim and door promises no drips and no brush marks.
they are true on that. in the end there are no drips and no brush marks.

with one coat of paint

at the store their little display said "our one coat vs their one coat" and it looked like it would totally cover my mantle in one coat.
verdict: uh no, if i left it at the first coat it would of looked like a 3 year old tried to paint my fire place with Elmer's glue.
but the second coat went on better.
here's the deal though. it's an oil base paint, and its super tacky to paint with.
we waited 24 hours before painting a second coat.

the second coat went on super smooth and easy.
but i had to put a third coat on a few little tricky places.
for this project i used only one quart of paint (and i still have some left over)

all in all the experience was a good one with the paint. totally worth it (it's kind of expensive) and i think it helped with the room. i know it did with my spirits.

and yeah i know i have no "fluff" yet in this room.
it's all kind of boring.
but it's a step in the right direction.

i took care of one my "eh's"

next on the table:
wall paint.
don't know when but i'm thinking soon, as the hours in the day get shorter and shorter and i NEED "lighter". yeah i think i'm going with a lighter tint. :)
thoughts?

V and Co: kid spider craft and other fall projects

 this last weekend we had a four day fall weekend. we ended up spending some time up in des moines; seems like a nice enough place. :) we still had the rest of the weekend plus monday off. saturday was spent doing outside chores and some inside fun. (it got a little chilly!) and then we of course had sunday church and family laid back day. and then monday. oh monday monday. at one point my 9 year old came to me (while i was tidying up the kitchen) and asked (i'm not even kidding) "mom, what kind of insurance do we have?" :/
"whhhhy?" was all that came out of my mouth.
he then said he had seen a certain envelope with insurance stuff and... phew. okay not because "well me and my brothers are up to no good and we just wanted to cover our bases."
but for a 9 year old to be pondering such things in the middle of the day means...we have too much time on our hands so lets get some stuff out to keep you busy.

 i had bought some pipe cleaners, wiggly eyes, and puff balls in black at hancocks fabrics just the other day for such an occasion as this.
and i got the hot glue gun warmed up.

 and i did a model for them to follow.
*place small amount of hot glue on back of eyes. okay lets let mom do that part cause you burned yourself.

*next grab 4 pipe cleaners and place them as a star
*take one of the pipe cleaners and wrap it around the middle once.
*place hot glue in the middle cluster.

*take each leg and bend the ends
*take each leg and bend slightly higher so your spider will stand tall.
*dab a glob of hot glue under the the little fellers body and attach the legs to the body. (that one doesn't have eyes, because i was just doing an example)

my kids had a lot of fun making up their own versions. adding more puff balls making crazy eyes...
and then the boys even made flies for the spiders to suck on for a snack.
eww.
katie on the other hand made a heart for her spider to hold. :)
they all litter my house and quite a few of them hang from my chandelier.

other fun fall crafts of V and Co's past:

crayon fall leaves

fall pine cone wreath

tomato turned pumpkin

and then one last little spook craft:
right click on picture below save image and then print out and put in a small frame

i am working on a new wreath for my door hopefully i'll get that done soon so i can show you, and i'm still painting...need a third coat so maybe monday i'll show you what i've been painting!!! :)
we'll talk soon.

V and Co: proper sewing summit recap

last week i felt like i was run over by a truck. phew! so my recap was pretty lame. but now i have some more steam behind me (and some stolen pictures from here and here love ya guys!) and i feel like i'm getting back on track with life...just in time to yup, do it all again, at fall quilt market...october is going to put me under i believe.
no i can put on my big girl pants and do this.
there's no looking back now.

so here's a little recap of my time at sewing summit:

first off the swag bag was amazing. the sponsors involved did a wonderful job of making it a pretty awesome loot bag. erin wanted me to take a couple more home, but i declined thinking "i'm not going to be able to fit that in!" stupid me. oh well.
only thing not pictured above is the chocolate truffles by utah truffles which btw i ate on the way up to my hotel room, yeah before i even unloaded my stuff.
don't judge. most of you know my love of chocolate and how it makes everything okay, except the waist and thighs. but some of us are willing to take that sacrifice.

anywho, it was pretty amazing to see so many women there all with the same love of sewing. this was the first day which i wasn't even there for, but more of us trickled in throughout that day and the next. it was a pretty impressive crowd

this is me actually teaching a class. notice the clenched face look. yup, pretty relaxed, i was not. but i am thinking of getting a mike for our house, so that i can get my point across to the whole house no matter where the family is trying to ignore me.

in my class we spoke about lighting and setting up shots, props, and other things. when preparing i was pretty sure i was going to blow through it in about 2 minutes. but while up there i felt like we didn't even scratch the surface on so many things. pretty funny how i really don't think of myself as an expert...yet i could talk an hour on the matter and still feel like all we did was cover the tip of the iceberg on the matter and what you needed to hear. :/
 

 i got to meet in person a lot of women who are just blog names or that look like writing on my computer screen one was jennifer of ellison lane quilts. thanks for the picture as well!

while not freaking out about teaching or teaching, there was the opportunity to free sew on like 100 sewing machines. notice how i'm just sitting there working on my "talking".

all was fine and dandy till little miss Leigh (to my right) brought out her grandmothers garden quilt.

they say my kids are kind of theatrical or as some would say "dramatic" i have NO idea where they get this from. must be the husband's side of the family. yup, not us colombian firecrackers. nope. pretty sure not so much. no wonder my kids have so much "personality" sorry kids.

as i was working on my "talking" my roomate finished her WIP. pretty sure she did it just to rub it in my face that i brought nothing. cause that's how amy is...vicious and all. ;)

on the last day the quilt b that amy and erin are in presented them with sewing summit quilts. pretty sure that's when it happened because by then i was a walking zombie, and i needed to find MY bed for the next two days.
i'm no spring chicken any more and it was made even MORE apparent when i apparently was so zombi-ish that i walked away from my camera as i was getting out of the car of a very nice gal i had just met who was dropping me off at the airport. really scary part was i couldn't even remember if it was in her car. i was just hoping. a few frantic phone calls and yes a few good laughs at my expense, and it made it back to iowa with a new good friend.
now.
onto the next adventure.
phew!

V and Co: over at the cutting table

today i'm over at the cutting table talking a little about my new patterns...grab yourself a little hot vanilla milk (nonfat dairy creamer in hot milk) and a lot of whip cream with a dash of cinnamon (yes, i like this better than hot chocolate!) and head on over and read about me and to say hey!. (and also read that pat sloan is creating fabric with them!)

ah and yes, the sewing summit pictures are starting to show up, thank you to those who have sent me some. i will have to add them to my sewing summit post, that way you can see that i really was there!
have a great weekend, kids are out of school over here. so we're going to try to stay busy. maybe throw in a couple of kid crafts in the mix...we'll see you next week. :)

V and Co: home

this picture basically describes the state of the rest of the house. this is my daughter's dresser top that is always cleaned off. it's not so cleaned off right now.

as a matter of fact i had to move everything over just to take this picture of the other two patterns that arrived (and now in my shop as well) while i was gone at the sewing summit. (with my iphone...ahem because i left my camera in someone's car as they were dropping me off at the airport in slc whole nother story. lets just say there was panic at the airport when i realized how "light" i was traveling. eh. but rest assured...my camera made it back to iowa with a fellow iowan friend that lives only 20 minutes away.) thank heavens.

  okay major side note: the houndstooth paper pattern will include all the instructions on how to make the baby quilt (using Creative Grids 90 Degree Strip Ruler for Quarter Square Triangles) AND (yay!!) all the instructions on how to make the larger version (using Creative Grids 90 Degree Double Strip Quilting Ruler) and the sizes on that are from lap size  50" x 62" all the way up to king size 102 1/4" x 102 1/4"

okay so now back to speaking of the sewing summit, ah yes and camera and lack thereof...guess who didn't take a single picture with her camera, so even if she had her camera with her now, it wouldn't even matter because i don't have anything to download from it anyways.but i did in fact take pictures with my phone...yeah a whole whopping 3 pictures people. seriously? first one was of jess doing her awesome improv thing. (up above)

second one is of the miss porkchop herself. it was really fun hanging with her. she's hilarious.

and then with my best buddy for the weekend allison. please dont ask why the picture is upside down. okay i'll tell you anyways. i took it upside down and no matter how many times i rotate it in picnik it keeps showing up like this here...maybe it's just to show how tired i really still am. :)
but really one of the best things was finally meeting this gal. trish you are so sweet and are a really great friend and it was so nice to finally be able to give you a hug in person :).
as well as seeing ALL the amy's (like almost too many to list seriously?!)
and well yes all the other fun laughing and sewing (not done by me because i didn't bring any) so i guess it was more support sewing, and meeting in person a lot of great ladies that normally just look like black and white writing on my computer screen. so very nice to meet all of you. sorry if i was dazed by the end of it!

okay now the winner of the fun happy mail:

random # 405
Simply AJ said...Congrats and enjoy your accomplishments! You are one talented lady and you inspire so many of us to create our own "happy"! AJ

i'm also including the other two patterns as well because it was technically happy mail of last week as well! yay you!

thank you all for the lovely words of encouragement.
yes, pretty happy i am. :)

ps if you have pictures of me from summit...um you wanna send me some? thanks.
now to try to tackle my house.
if you don't hear from me for a while, check under a mountain of moaning laundry for a twitching hand most likely that's me crying for help.
we'll talk soon. hopefully :)

V and Co: happy makers

this last week i got three separate things in the mail that made me super happy.
seriously i don't get a ton of mail.
no, well now wait, i do.
but it's bills, and junk mail, and an occasional Micheal's 40% off coupon but even coupons are email based these days. (which is cool and cuts down on the paper organizing needs)

so correction...it's not that i don't get mail, it's just that i don't get cool happy mail.

what makes for cool happy mail?

well, sometimes its really nice to physically flip through pages in this fast digital world.
yes, i think magazines make for happy mail.
getting to look at pretty things and then add a little "oh look there's my project" into there and i call that a pretty sweet awesome "happy maker" mail.

yeah, that's the kind of mail i got and what i'm talking about.

the beginning of the week i got my Stitch, Craft, Create magazine. and well, first things first i quickly flipped through the pages, quickly passing what looked like a lot of SUPER cute christmas ideas and projects...but i was on a mission.
can you spot on this page (up above) one of my projects? hint it has a # 82 by it. :)

oh yeah, there you go! my shaggy pillows were featured in this season's magazine. you will get step by step instructions to my pillows, and so many other beautiful projects as well...

which by the way i finally checked out after i found my project...um wow. i'm so happy i have it, and can't wait to try out some of the ideas. LOVE this packaging spread!!!!

so after i got my fill (but not yet done with) of flipping through the magazine pages...the next day this wonderful book by martingale publishing called "Sew the Perfect Gift"  that i was asked to be a part of came and made my day. :)

again i totally bypassed all the other cool projects to make as gifts...to check out mine first.
my spray painted pillow made it into this idea book along with 24 other awesome projects by super talented designers.
and then of course i went back and flipped through the book and checked out the rest.
totally cool by the way.

one project i want to make asap is this adorable re-usable lunch sack (oh and a couple of purses, pillows, and ah!!! no time!)

i thought that was it for the week, i mean i was feeling pretty happy...oh but NO wait! one more MAJOR HUGE MILESTONE HAPPY MAKER arrived on my front door step.
dun...dun...duuuunnnnn:

it finally came...


it's official...

my first bonafide PAPER PATTERN.

and stocked in my shop.
and hopefully in a fabric store near you soon as well. :D <-- that's a huge smile by the way not just a normal smile.

so wow. one big post all about ME. well sort of.

and to celebrate all the wonderful physical mail i've gotten this week, i want to give someone a happy mailbox too.
so
one lucky V and Co reader will win all three of these vanessa "happy makers".
all you have to do to get a chance to win...is leave a comment.
say whatever the heck you wanna say.
(just make sure you leave me an email address at the bottom of the comment. and only one comment per person)

have a good rest of the week. i'm leaving for sewing summit tomorrow morning. will try to take pictures of the weekend (i get to room with this gal...yay me!) and if you are coming to my class: i'll see you there. :)
see you next week.