True "Sweet" Hearts

I have been so excited to do this post and now I finally can share how touched I was by the generosity of a very sweet friend. (Well, two actually)

Almost two months ago, one of those friends, Suzanne, at Strawberry Patches held a fabulous giveaway.

She was offering this fat 1/8 bundle of the then new line by Pam Kitty Morning.

I fell in love with these brightly colored fabrics with a retro feel, and entered along with many others.

This is the bundle of yumminess.

The next two pictures courtesy of Suzanne's blog.

After a fun video reveal of the winner done by Pam  of Pam Kitty Morning, I was thrilled to learn that my sweet blog friend Annelies of Sew Blessed had won. I couldn't have been happier for anyone (even myself) that my friend had won. I was dying to email her, but sat on my hands for awhile, then kept checking back at Notes from the Patch to see if Annelies had posted that she knew she had won.

You can go to here to read what happened.

Well, guess who really got the surprise when I read her comment to Suzanne.

That "Sweet" heart of a friend talked Suzanne into splitting the prize with me and Suzanne is just enough of a "Sweet" heart of a friend to do just that.

So one of these precious bundles went to Annelies and one came home with me.

So, why did it take so long for me to share this with you, you say?

Well, it was right before Christmas and of course it had to be just the perfect project, ya know.

Annelies and I decided  to do our projects at the same time so we could encourage each other.

I asked her to pick the project. Oh my gosh, she is a quilt teacher and does so many wonderful quilts. I trusted she would come up with the perfect project.  And....she did.

We are joining in with Anne Sutton Of Bunny Hill for her Scrappy Plate Club.

I have always wanted to do a Dresden Plate quilt. I have done a couple of pillows, but never a quilt.

These fabrics are perfect. I love hand work and appliqueing the blocks will be so much fun.

Here are all my little blades cut and ready to go.

Last night, I got one block put together.

I am so thrilled, I just can't tell you...

The background will be a white on white and I am going to SP soon to get the border...oh I hope they haven't run out.

There must be 50 or more different prints in the bundle. I picked out the blues, reds, and yellows because I am making this for the little blue and white trailer we are still in the process of remodeling. It has a retro look and this quilt will be perfect.

There are lots of pinks and greens that I can use for another project.

I must  once again say thank you to my blog friend, Annelies for sharing this treasure with me. Not just sharing the fabric, but sharing the fun of doing this together.

We haven't met yet, but I know we will soon.

Also thanks to my real life friend, (of almost 45 yrs.) Suzanne for her part in this fun ride.

We don't see each other often enough, but I know where I can always find her.

I gave you a lot of links and encourage you to visit those blogs for inspiration and fun.

God is Good!!

Life is Good!!



Valentine Tabletops

A little over a year ago (could it have been that long already?) when we moved from our house into an RV small cottage, I got rid of almost all of my holiday decorations except Christmas.

Because of storage, I could only keep a few things for each holiday.

So when I developed this strange love for Valentine's Day this year, I found a few things to add to my small stash of Red and White.

This is the top of our electric fireplace. (Which we mainly bought to give me a display shelf...LOL...no, really.)

Don't look too closely because you can see, I still haven't replaced the "lodgey, bear, pine tree" looking wall border. After playing with reds the last month or so,  I am now on the lookout for a border with red to spark up my brown and black space.

I found the gerber daisy in the milk bottle at Home Goods.

This cute little round box I found at the dollar store.

The candy jar is one of just a few I kept from my large collection.

This tray sits on our table and I just add a few things for the holiday.

I already had the red candles here for Christmas.

I added the bow to the pitcher and a small candy jar.

Can you believe I found this little heart ceramic dish at the dollar store?

This is the island/bar that separates the kitchen from the main room

I usually have so much here for decorations, that there isn't much room to cook, but hey, what's more important anyway.

I wanted some Valentine cookies for under the cake dome, but had to settle for Chocolate Chip.

I just couldn't get a shot with enough light, but you can see another candy jar off to the left.

The small dome has a cake with a sugared heart on top

Of course I have to have conversation hearts. They don't say the same things they did when I was a kid. Hmmmm!

Recently on a friends blog, I saw some of the cutest cupcake papers, so I went on a hunt.

I found several at Michaels including the rose one below.

The red and pink ones I found at the Dollar Store.

Well, that's the only three spaces in my RV small cottage that I have room to decorate and you can see, I squeeze in all I can for some color.

It's been a long time since I have participated in A Stroll Through Life's Tabletop Tuesday.

I really wanted to participate this week, because it is Marty's 100th one.

Click here to visit her blog and some of the other creative tabletop displays.

God is Good!!

Life is Good!!



It's All About the Red and White (and pink, too)

For the last week, I have been lovin' red and white.  I am really in a Valentine's state of mind.   Maybe it's because I sewed on blue and silver for weeks before Christmas,  but I couldn't wait to put out my little Valentine's Vignettes and did so on New Year's Day.  Valentine's and Christmas both use red as the main color scheme, so it is easy to transition by leaving a little red and white out from the Christmas decorations.

I will post pictures of my little Valentine's vignettes next time, but today it's all about

fabric and my sewing projects.

Of course, I made a trip to my favorite shop for some

fabric love.

I brought home these six pieces to play with.

The love and kisses had some lovely lingerie (bras and panties)

on it, but I managed to fussy cut around it since I'm sewing for little girls.

This red with the little heart is a favorite.

It goes so well with this one

I really love the pink with red lips. It reminded me of the big wax lips we used to get as kids (probably for a penny)

My inspiration was a special order for a Valentine's purse.  So of course I made 6.  I took some down to Strawberry Patches and I'm going to put one in my Etsy shop.

I always have scraps left over from the purses, so I made 6 of these flower hair clips for my granddaughters.

My oldest granddaughter is 15, so she gets a zipper make-up bag.

Staying with the red, white and pink theme, I have to show you my two favorite magazines.

I have read these both cover to cover. There are so many beautiful pictures and ideas galore in both.

Just a sneak peek...

But even more than the pretty pictures, I wanted to point out that one of my favorite blogger friends  was featured.

Her blog is just so pretty and she is so sweet and genuine. If you get a chance, go visit Patty and tell her I said Hi.



Tomorrow, in keeping with my red, white and pink theme, I get to make a Strawberry cake for one of my granddaughter's birthday. Not only is it "pretty in pink" and red, it is delicious. You can find the recipe here.



I am linking to Cindy's Romantic Home for Show and Tell.

I'm also linking to a Handmade Valentine Party@ Summit Street Joy
Click here or on the button on my sidebar.

God is So Good!!

Life is Good!!

Warning!! Another Grandma Brag Post

Yesterday, I took some time out to sit in the sun and watch the grandkids playing and Mr. SS and my son building a fence for the horse coral.

Last week when they moved our RV small cottage back to make room for the horse coral, two trees had to be trimmed.

This was one of them.

From this pile of limbs,

The grandkids figured out how to lean them together  to make a tee pee.

Their Mom gave them some sheets,

and they spread them on the ground and all six, including the baby, drew pictures.

Although from the look of Emmy's brown mouth, most of her drawing was on herself.

They even made a tribe flag.

Today they cut off all the little limbs so there is actually more room inside.

Part of the fence and gate that Mr. SS and son built. You can't see it, but in the far left corner was the Secret Garden I made last spring.

Mr. SS, knowing me like he does, made sure to move all that he could down to the back of our RV small cottage. He will move my white fences too, so I can have my little garden again in the spring.

I had a totally different post planned for tonight, but couldn't resist this one.

God is Good!!

Life is Good!!

Sew Sweet...Sew Soft

Just a couple of projects I managed to squeeze into the busy first two weeks of the year.

I had some scraps from the Dessert Party dress I made, so I bought a few more pieces from of that sweet fabric line and made six of these. 

Sew Sweet

When I took some of these into Strawberry Patches, Suzanne had a new project for me to make from this wonderful line of flannels.

I borrowed this picture from Suzanne's blog so you could see the whole line.

I have sewn on a lot of flannel. These are by far the softest best quality flannels I have seen.

Flannel tends to stretch...not these.

Great for jammies too, or a quilt.

 This is what she wanted me to make and I just loved touching and sewing on it.

Sew Soft

Cute little buttons too!

And of course, I had to add the label and size tag to match.

All from SP , along with the pattern.

Well, that's all folks. It has been a couple of busy weeks, with two days of football (not that I watch anything but the Rose Bowl). A visit from my BIL, sleepovers with the grands, an all day cheerleader competition in Redlands, and a move...not far, just 50 feet closer to my son's house.

When you live in a "mobile" home, that can happen. Even though Mr. SS didn't think it would be much work for me, it was. I have several vignettes in my RV small cottage, that contain lots of glass and had to be packed up. Not to mention all my button and  notion jars...

The good thing, was all that stuff got cleaned before it was put back.

The move was to make room for

Paris

and Belle

God is Good!!

Life is Good!!

Where Did it Go?

Time??

It has been almost 2 weeks since I have posted. I just don't know where time goes.

My Mom used to tell me the older you get, the faster time flies.

I've always heard  "Time flies when you're having fun"

Well...I must be really old and having a ton of fun.

Guess the having fun part is a good thing, but the getting old part...not so good.

I've been reading all over blogland about choosing a word for the year. I see lists of resolutions, and lists of things to do in the new year.

I just haven't been able to get my mind around any particular word. and I haven't made resolutions for a long time.

I always have a list of things to do. I make a list every night for the next day, but nothing world stopping, just my normal chores, and a few things I hope to accomplish. I love checking things off a list.

I did think of a few things today and wrote them down so I can check them off as the year flies by.

On the top of my list this year will be to be in God's Word more. So # 1-3 have to do with that.

1.  Continue to read my Bible in a year (I started in April last year, so I have a ways to go)

    2.   Do my daily devotions from a book called Jesus Calling by Sarah Young.( My friend Gail recommened this.)

3.  Keep a daily prayer journal.  I haven't done this for several years and I think it will help me to remember to pray for those who I promise to pray for.  I also like looking back at the end of the year and seeing all the answered prayers.

I am an early riser, so those three  I do first thing in the morning with my morning coffee when all is quiet.

4. Then there is the usual of spending more time with Mr. SS. and with the grandkids, of course.

5.  Learn something new. I want to learn to machine quilt. Oh, I can stitch in the ditch and outline quilt, but I think I want to take a class.  I am still hand quilting a quilt I started last January. If all my grands are going to get a quilt before I die, I've got to do something different.

6.  Even though I no longer have a large house to decorate, I still love the process and hope to make a few changes to my RV small cottage.

7. Get serious about my Etsy store. I finally got it opened and put in a few things (even had 1 sale), but I really need to put in the effort to make it work.

8. This is just a pipe dream right now, but thought I would add it to my list. Some of my friends have said I could write a book about our experiences during the 6 years we lived in the mountains when our boys were young. I'm not a writer, but I would like to get some of that written down while I still have a memory.

I think I will stop here. I don't want to get overwhelmed. I have never been a goal oriented type person, and these are by no means resolutions. Just wanted to write some things down. At my age, if I don't write it down, I may forget it by tomorrow.

I never got this posted after our family Christmas Eve party, so am just going to leave you with this picture of all my grandkids. They are a precious bunch and I love them so much and each one blesses me in their own way 

Emmy, Drew, Madi

Lexi, Camy, Koby, Jack, Kyle, Cade

Brooke

God is Good!!

Life is Good!!