Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Christmas Ornaments

Last year I got a box of Christmas ornaments from my Mother In Law. 
I finally pulled them out and started painting them, Im hoping to finish them this week! 
The detail in them is pretty small, so it's not something I think would be great to do with kids. The paint dries fairly quick, and the ornaments seem to be well made - although I do recommend a different paint brush, a fine detail one of better quality to get in all the little spots. 

here' what the box looks like:
 here's the paints that come with it:

I'm not sure where you buy it from - but if you stumble across it, I would suggest you pick it up!!
I have a post to put up tomorrow about my grinch quilt - super excited about it! It's the first snow today, I'm for sure into the winter spirit now! Time for some peppermint hot chocolate!

{Wendy Wendy, lounging in the sun}

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

Clearance Deals

i l-o-v-e love discount and clearance sales.
I recently made the dinosaur pillow case for my son and did a post about it.
I also have started a part time job (on top of my photography business), and grabbed these deals from the bargain & clearance bins!



the best part? they were only $1 each!
you read that right - ONE DOLLAR. O-N-E!!

I feel guilty buying myself items sometimes, but for $1 - I couldn't pass it up! and I totally don't feel guilty for these! 

Friday, November 11, 2011

Lest We Forget

In Flanders fields the poppies blow
      Between the crosses, row on row,
   That mark our place; and in the sky
   The larks, still bravely singing, fly
Scarce heard amid the guns below.

We are the Dead. Short days ago
We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,
   Loved and were loved, and now we lie,
         In Flanders fields.

Take up our quarrel with the foe:
To you from failing hands we throw
   The torch; be yours to hold it high.
   If ye break faith with us who die
We shall not sleep, though poppies grow
         In Flanders fields

"...Cpl Pinksen bravely served with his comrades to help build a stable environment to support a better and brighter future for Afghans. This tragic passing illustrates some of the many risks that the men and women of the Canadian Forces face every day in carrying out their duties..." R.I.P 08/2010


Thank you to all of you brave soul's past present and future that protect the values we hold so dear.

I wear no uniforms, no blues or greens.
But, I am in the military, in the ranks rarely seen.
I have no rank upon my shoulders. Salutes I do not give.
But in the military world is where I live.
I am not in the chain of command, orders I do not give or get.
But my husband is the one who does, this I can not forget.
I am not the one who fires a weapon, Who puts his life on the line.
But my job is just as tough, I’m the one who is always left behind.
My husband is a patriot, a brave and pride filled man.
And the call to serve his country not all can understand.
Behind the lines, I see things needed to keep this country free.
My husband makes the sacrifice, but so do my kids and me.
This is the man I love. The military is his life.
So I pledge to support my hero and stand among the silent ranks known as THE MILITARY WIFE!



Monday, November 7, 2011

Bargain Fabric

In between packing to move to a new location (hello bigger yard!), working two jobs (part time retail - and I run my own photography business), plus being a mama and a wife and my own self - I got in some time to raid Fabricvilles bargain bin: $1 for any piece of fabric, at whatever size it is! I whipped up a dinosaur pillowcase for my son with the bargain fabric and an old basket liner that had broken. 

LittleMan is now asking me over and over to make him a dinosaur blanket! I plan on making him a plaid one that goes with the dinosaur theme done by pottery barn once we get into our new house. and the best part? I still have some dinosaur fabric left over to make into something else for him :) 

Have you checked out your fabric stores bargain bin? What did you purchase and make?

Thursday, November 3, 2011

Ruffled Streamers

streamers are a quick and easy "must-have" to really turn the house into party mode for kids. 
But they've been done before and I'm always looking for that extra little easy detail to kick it up a notch!

I made these for my sons halloween party...
(but really - any color combination would make this great for any party!)


totally cute right? two colors and ruffells! and they were so easy! It took quite a bit of thread, and this was about a whole roll of streamers - but considering streamers are from the dollar store, you can't beat it! here's the link to the tutorial for them: { Dana Made It }

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

Block-a-day Quilt-Uberfest

have you heard of Blue Nickel Studios Block-a-day Quilt-Uberfest?
check it out [here]!

I've got two blocks done so far...

block one: 

 block two:
+

They're terrible pictures - sorry! they were taken with my iPhone. but now that I'm going to tackle blogging again (and I'm back to work part time), I'll start using my big girl camera for blog posts :)

I'm a day behind on the blocks but I've got a few days off so I'm tackling two blocks today so I will be all caught up! Are you doing the quilt along? Let me know! the flickr group is [here] as well! 

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

book talk


Have you checked out the scholastic page(s) lately?
littleman is participating in the summer "Read To Me" program at our local library which encourages reading every day with him for at least 15 minutes - more on this in a later post!

Scholastic has a blog called { Book Talk }
I'm jumping on the bandwagon late, they are on book three but we're going to follow along anyways.

So tomorrow while we're at the library, we're going to pick up the current book they are reading:

I'm not sure if we have LMNO peas at our local library, but we may pick up frog and toad are friends to read together as well.

are you doing anything for summer reading projects? leave a comment or link to your reading activities! :)



Monday, July 18, 2011

Color Samples

I've started a series of Color Sample's
These are colors from a particular photo that I've taken, with colors that I think flow well together.

You can download the photos if you like, and use them in photoshop to sample the colors.
that way you can use the photos in scrapbooking layouts, blog layouts, party ideas, etc. 
just please give credit and link back to the Q farm if you re-post the photo!


Let me know if you use these color's in a project - I'd love to see links and photos!

Sunday, July 17, 2011

Nephews Quilt

We have a Super Little Man in the family now - my nephew! Born on July 1st, 2011 - canada day!

Here's a quilt I'm whipping together to bring out for our visit in august when I get to meet him :) It's just the top so far, its going to be reversable, with back being tie-dyed flannel and having appliqued words: 
eat. sleep. play. repeat. 

I'm also going to make him some taggie animals!

with only four shifts left of work, I've been thinking about blogging more
I've been thinking of easier ways for me to get photos, what I can post about, etc. especially since money will be super tight until I can find a job!

Leaf Prints

It was a bit of rainy day here, so to keep little man busy I pulled out the paints!
We went on a quick walk and chose three leafs to print with.

LittleMan painted them then I helped him stamp them on the paper - quick and easy :) 



 


Saturday, June 25, 2011

Pinterest

I've become addicted to Pinterest
Addicted!
I love the easy access to all the food recipes, the design ideas (we're looking at buying a house!) and all the DIY ideas. You can check me out by clicking on the above picture, or the link that will remain to the right! Let me know if you follow me, so I can follow you :)

Here's a few of my favourite things I've found so far:
and

Happy Pinning!

Thursday, June 23, 2011

Back from some R&R

last post published may 19th.
that's over a MONTH ago!
I needed a bit of a creative break, I had been overloading myself with 
wanting to do too many things at once.
I've started doing some things again, but I'm taking a different approach.
I'm making it fun! I know - crazy thought, right?
It doesn't need to be fancy expensive fabric - as long as it's a quilt made with love.
It doesn't need to be fancy ever-lasting crafts - as long as little man had fun making it.
and I recently found out that I've been laid off - four of our offices are closing. the real kick in the teeth? they announced that they've just hired another 1,000 new employees over in the Philippines. 
*sigh*
but that's okay - because when one door closes, another one opens. eventually. right?
So back to crafting and happier notes...
LittleMan did a painting for BigMan for fathers day...
LittleMan is really into painting and colouring, etc so I'm going to work on this more over the summer with him. I've been worried lately about him being overly hyper and having some behaviour issues. Right now we are working on a sugar reduced diet and it seems to be helping. Having lots of calm talks before we go into soccer and swimming practice are helping as well!

I also made my first wonky star block!
(dont look too close at the left hand column...hehe)
I sat down and did it in a few minutes, and I was relieved afterwards. and proud that I had done a new block without being stressed out about making it into a big quilt. if I can tackle quilts one block at a time, without a deadline I think it will make it much easier and relaxing for me.

I'm also going to pick and choose a few things off this list 
 

today, LittleMan and I are going to make some {boats} and float them down at his new favourite location - the little creek, which we *just* found and it's only about an 8 minute walk from our house :) Look for that past...whenever I can get it up - it's the summer of no time lines and no stress!


Thursday, May 19, 2011

iPhone

Bigman and I got iPhones. And the camera isnt too bad. I'm testing out this blog app so I blog on the fly. More updates to follow, more frequent!

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Terrible-ness

 

How terrible does this forecast look for next week? perfect time to do some sewing :)

 How terrible does this look? yup - those are my bobbins. 
up until last night, I was having some SERIOUS issues with my bobbin winder on top of my sewing machine. but I'm pretty sure I've got it figured it. I've seen alot of people complaining about the bobbin winder not winding tight enough, so I'm thinking doing a tutorial on how to solve the issue. Hopefully that will go up this weekend. I've also got a cute scrapbooking project that will be uploaded this weekend! in the mean time...check out {grace is overrated} for some super cute journaling projects!

I got a pile of more blocks sewn for BigMans Quilt, and I've decided to a Zig-Zag quilt instead for my parents quilt instead of a modified bento box. Lots of sewing will be going on, now that I've solved my little issue and LittleMan seems to be okay if I sit down for a few minutes and sew now. whoo!

I`ll leave you with this happy picture up our pup Elvis!

p.s. is terrible-ness a word? I'm declaring it a word :)