winners of sparkle power giveaway

thanks to all who entered and played in sparkle power's giveaway!

random # generator picked
#25 natalie marie
and
#189 brumacd

congrats to the winners your info has already been given to candace, and she will contact you to see which poster you chose.
stay tuned for a holiday tutorial.

V and Co. sponsored giveaway: Sparkle Power

well here we go. our first sponsored giveaway for the year.
if you haven't heard of candace's etsy shop sparkle power, you are in for a treat! if you have heard of sparkle power you are already excited.
candace is our sponsored giveaway this month and i am just giddy to share all her lovelies with all of you.
are you ready?
enter here to read more about sparkle power and a chance to win a pretty awesome giveaway.

in my studio

i always love when women call their sewing room their "studio". well i've never had a room to call a studio before now. so why the heck not call this thing i have just that?
i mean it's better than calling it what my husband calls it "the receptacle of crafting messes."
while the kids are away at school, i get to work, and work, and work, and work.
i really enjoy my little bit of time to myself. but i'm glad it's still just that: a little bit of time. at some point i'm going to have "LOTS of time" to myself...and well, i'm sure i'll be able to fill it with a lot of working...but for now, i'm enjoy my happy medium.
and anyways i don't think the dog, cat and i can handle any more away time from the kids. the animals come and hang out with me in my little studio as i sew and cut, and listen to music. i think they freak out with all the non noise going on while the kids are away as much as i do. we need a slow moving towards that goal i think.
okay back to the studio:



i love these containers from ikea. they make things so uniform and some day i'll actually put labels in the little slots... i need more of these. (mental note made for next time i go up there)

i use mason jars to keep all my "this and thats" in place. i love that they come in different sizes.

because i do most of my fabric shopping online, i have one of these color cards, and one of these color cards so i can tell for sure EXACTLY i need in the fabric dept.
and as much as i would love to say that these pictures depict what my whole "studio" looks like all the time, or heck what it looks like right now...that would be a complete and utter lie. as a matter of fact i should probably change it back from "studio" to "receptacle of crafting messes"...because lets be honest, i like to organize, but this room is always in utter chaos because i'm always in between like a bazillion projects, and when i'm in there i usually get more ideas that need to be drawn up before they leave my head so i leave whatever it is that i'm working on behind for a little bit, jot down whatever it is going on in there, then pick up another project i was working on before the first one. (after reading that last sentence it appears that i may need to look into ADD meds.)
there you have it. my receptacle of craft messes pretending to be a studio.

if you'll excuse me i'm off to use that little bit of time that i have till i have to go and get the littlest noisemaker from pre school and maybe at that point the dog and cat and i won't feel like we all need to hang out in the same small room together...it's a little bit of an adjustment but we're all doing okay i think.
happy week to all.
we'll talk soon.

two years in a row

well i don't know if you saw, but my baby life quilt made it on U-Create's top ten list for 2010's most popular tutorials, ahem... this is my second year on that list. yeah, cause i'm cool like that. HA! kidding, i was floored when i got the email. mainly because this last year, i've backed off my main focus of being a craft blog, and going back to just being a blog of a gal who likes to sew, create, dabble in trying to decorate, spew off about stupid things that happen in my life and laugh at them.

and well, thanks for sticking around.
also thanks for supporting my shift in trying my hand at being a pattern seller. i really appreciate the love, the emails, the stories, on how my patterns and tutorials effect your daily lives, whether it be "i haven't sewn in years, and you inspired me to do so again!" to "i'm a beginner and your pattern was great to start off with! thank you!" i appreciate them. a lot.
(btw if you scroll down in the comments section of the tutorial you will see some pretty awesome stories of people making this quilt. and really, that just makes me want to smile, laugh, beam, and cry all at the same time. so really thank you.)

sometimes i still dabble with stopping this whole thing.
but i know i would miss it, and i would still do what i do so might as well write about it right?
and when you think about it, i'm just a mom writing from her lap top in bed in her pjs, after she helps her kids do homework, help them clean their bathrooms, take them to scouts, help clean little bottoms, wash away sad or angry tears of the day, and yeah even clean up throw up when they don't feel good... and lets not forget i'm also the wife to my best friend that makes me laugh so hard i spew diet dr pepper out my nose, and who takes my "issues" in stride... but mainly remember i'm a real person, with a lot of ups and downs, just like everyone else, and i'm grateful for the lovely comments, the lovely emails, the wonderful friendships, and the awesome opportunities this blogging thing brings.
i'm super excited to start sharing some of the "opened doors" with all of you starting at the end of this month.
so stay tuned...
and once again...
thank you so much for reading, because without you, i wouldn't still be here.
we'll talk soon.

edited! holy smokes it's been a while and i'd not checked it out. but check out the flicker group! lots of you posting them there!!! thank you!!!
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before and after: the basement and boys' rooms

well hello there! happy new year! we are starting our new year with a bang, i have three out of four of the noisemakers home from school due to a little bug they've managed to pick up from...yup you got it, from the only kid that made it to school today. i've so far have managed not to get anything probably because i have 409 in my blood system and i use Lysol for deodorant and hairspray...knock on wood. but i think i paid my dues a few weeks before Christmas. here's to holding my breath...okay so i promised a while ago a few more before and afters of the house.
okay
before of the family room downstairs:
after:

keep in mind nothing has been bought for the downstairs, so it's a hodgepodge of things. someday maybe yes, but for now we are good with what we have. the couches were free (left with the house, whoot!) the rug and the star were in the boys' room before i changed it to star wars themed.

on the other side, when you come down the stairs there's a kind of awkward little under the stairs area...i turned it into katie's kitchen. i've still got some work to do in there in finding a few more kitchen decor like things...and i've even dabbled with the idea of making the husband make her a fridge. he will be so thrilled. >:P
one of my favorite things of this room besides it being big and downstairs, is it's closet with shelves. i spent part of my vacay with the kiddos home organizing their toys and closets. i don't know if it was a good thing because when we got it all organized the boys kept looking at it and kept saying "we really don't have a lot of toys." i guess when things were just being shoved in there it looked like a lot more. my answer was "nope we just have a lot more room now. and anyways, less things means less to clean up." that got me some dirty looks.
whatever, water rolling off my back.
i still want to have a more "pretty" system for the organizing in the closets but that will take a little more planning and sewing than what i have on my hands right now.

the downstairs has three bedrooms...if each of the boys wanted their own room they could have it.
large bedroom before:

large bedroom after:

now noise maker #1 and noise maker #3 share a room. they tend to be more on the same wave length when it comes to personalities. they tend to be the pack rats, and uh...non stop activity ones. their room looks like this after i make a sweep of it after they "clean" it in the mornings. normally there's dirty socks in a pile by the door or papers airplanes strewn about, but not much worse then that...because remember they have the crazy lady...i mean me as a mother and i make everyone put away their rooms before going to bed every night. i still need to get a poster framed for over the other bed, but i can't seem to find a "train your dragon" that the loudest noisemaker loves.there's this one, but i don't think he loves it enough to have it in his room over his his bed...i'm trying to convince the husband and the boys that we should get a huge world map from ikea and put their initials over their beds like my EAT in my kitchen. but the husband thinks it's stupid (well, that the price of the map is stupid,and that it's 73 inches long...and he already thinks the EAT is ridiculous), the boys don't really care. i may have some convincing still on my hands but at that price i'll have to sit on it and really think it through. or heck maybe i'll just let the boys start all over again...who knows. i guess i'm up for suggestions. just remember i like rooms really plain that's all i ask. anywho...these two didn't want their own room, so they were placed together...

next...before of one of the smaller bedroom:
after of smaller bedroom:

this one's noise maker #2's room, and yes, it usually always looks like this without my help. i went with a really light gray for the both room's walls. i'm not a huge fan of dark colors in general for walls, and plus it being in the basement with some light but not a ton... this color was perfect. and of course you can find the vader poster here. oops i guess they are currently out of stock. but it's a good one so you might want to check later.

okay that's it for me right now. i have to take care of sickies.
and i need to explain that for this next 2 months my blogging will be shotty here and there. oh i'll pop in and i still have some tutorials i want to share... but i have some "things" i have to take care of and i'll be trying to focus mainly on those. you'll soon find out what they are. ;) have a smashing good week, till we talk again!
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