A rather blustery day today

Custom Guitar Crib Quilt

So, it's been a very long time since I've posted, I know. Life just gets in the way of blogging. Here we are TWO weeks from Christmas already...how did that happen?

Life has been very busy for us the past few months. We said a sad farewell to the glorious weather we had in November (seriously, I can't remember having such mild weather in November before - we had several 60 degree days). We celebrated Turkey Day with family up north, traveled across the state to visit my grandparents, and drove home on the last 50 degree day of the year. Last Friday we were (ahem) gifted with 18 inches of snow . . .yes, really, 18 inches. Everyone else around us had between 3 -5".

I've been sewing like crazy. I am happy to say that I hit my goal of 1500 sales before my birthday (which is tomorrow . . . hint . . . hint) and am now trying to complete no fewer than 8 custom quilts before Christmas. Why do I do this every year??

Here are some of the fun things I've finished and shipped out the door recently:

Contemporary "Wave" Quilt Top

Custom Twin Baby Bedding Set

Etsy Front Page

Thank you to Peg from abacusbeadcreations for curating this beautiful treasury that was featured on the front page of Etsy this morning (3am early).

http://www.craftcult.com/vault_list.php?list=6525

Apparently the widget doesn't want to work for me . . . arg, but the link will take you to it.

Thanks Peg! Check out some of these lovelies from Peg's shop:

Christmas Tree Earrings - what a great little gift these would make for the holidays!

I'm a total sucker for anything aqua - I love this necklace.

Fabulous Fall Finds

I love the colors of fall - I only wish we were having fall weather right now instead of jumping right into 40-degree, winter-like days . . .brrrr

The Holidays are Coming . . . the Holidays are coming . . .

Do you realize we are barely more than 2 months away from Christmas? Seriously?!?! You have fewer than 70 shopping days left - better get a move on!

Here are some of the fun items I've found lately that I've added to my shopping list -

For Max, the ever-busy, 100% boy (who will be 2 only two weeks before Christmas):

I'm loving this Magic Kingdom Set of wooden toys from dadswoodentoys

and these Dino Adhesive Wall Stickers from lovemaestore look like lots of fun, not to mention they'd go great in his room that I am redoing in a dinosaur theme:

For Katie, the princess of the land, this adorable felt castle cake is definitely on the must haves list

super cute! Back to browsing for now!

Has it Been 4 years?

It is hard to believe, but in 3 short weeks my baby girl will be turning 4! Where did the time go little Katherine? Wasn't it just yesterday we were bringing you home from the hospital?

Still one of my favorite pictures - picking the giant peonies in our old back yard.And your first steps, on your 1st birthday!

So what will we do for a girl who's turning 4? A princess party of course! Here are the fun invitations I got from annamadeart:

Some artsy fun with sidewalk paint sets from SidewalkSensations for your guests:

And can't forget the goodies, these cookies look delicious (and pretty sure they will be as I've sampled others from sugarandflour):

What do You Get When you Put me and Batman fabric together?

I love doing custom work as it gives me a chance to create things I wouldn't be making in the normal course of my day. I love making bibs and burp cloths, which I can't keep up on these days, but I love the chance to work on new things too. I currently have no fewer than 10 custom qults to work on. I just finished up 2 monogrammed baby quilts for a customer (which I need to get pictures of), and am moving on to the next on my list, a very basic twin size quilt, then I have 2 wedding dress quilts to make - those should be fun!

One of my current custom orders is for a Batman themed quilt for a little guy in Canada. The request is pretty simple - a "simple twin size bed quilt incorporating classic Batman colors, and these 2 fabrics":

Here's the 1st draft of layout:

Gotta love Batman!

Busy Busy Bees

*Pausing to take a breath* and finally posting to my blog. I think I'm the only one who reads it anyhow.

The past 2 months have been a whirlwind of activity - lots of orders, keeping up with the kids, visiting with family, and on and on. July was a bit slower than May & June in my Etsy shop (both of which were record-selling months for me!) but I don't mind as I've had plenty of other projects to keep me going. Here's one of the latest - a custom bedding set made in all sorts of lovely green, brown and teal fabrics - I love making stuff like this but it is so hard to package it up and ship it off!

I just love the way this turned out - not too shabby me thinks for a quilt designed and made completely with no pattern. The back is pieced too, but I don't have the photos on this PC.

Back to work - doing a show in Holland this weekend with dear Karin of awindowintowhimsy.etsy.com - looking forward to it!

Long Weekend Ahead

In case you haven't figured it out yet, I am bad at keeping up on posts (not that there are many people out there reading this anyhow). I am presently wating for the last hour to tick off the clock before it is time to shut down the office and go home - for a 4-day weekend! Yay!

I can't do much crafty-related stuff at work, but I do manage to shop during my lunch hour! I bought these cute cards today from KTPaperCrafts. I love those little birdies!

And this adorable sheep is on his way to my mom for her birthday (shh! don't tell!). I am a huge fan of all the little critters designed by Nancy at motleymutton and when she posted this little guy today I snatched him up! Happy Birthday Mom!

Oh, Friday! and wonderful deliveries

Hurray for Friday!  What would have been a long day at work ended up being a long morning and a work day cut short by a call from daycare to pick up Max who was not feeling well.  Mysterious symptoms: extremely sleepy and fussy, refusing to eat, but no temp.  Wrapped up work project to go get him and take him home, only to spend the remainder of the afternoon with a wild monkey on my hands . . . certainly doesn't ACT sick!  (But I'm not complaining - dealing with sick kids is not how I want to spend the weekend.)

On to the "wonderful deliveries" part - The mail held a fun package today with 2 pairs of kidlet size ninja pants we ordered from delainie.  If you are looking for some super comfy, cute and fun pants, you should check these out and get yourself a pair (or 2 or more . . . there are 7 days in a week after all and you need one for every day):  

 "oooh comfy" said Katie!

Fabric Fun Finds

Busy working on a few custom projects lately, which is a great excuse to spend lots of time hunting the web for unique fabrics. Here are some awesome fabric finds that I thought I would share:

Unikko (Poppy) of Marimekko fabrics- designed by Maija Isola in 1965. Available from maili.

I just love these fabrics - and the colors are fabulous! I want them all.

Original fabrics from daisyjanie:

Mother's Day

Mother's Day has come and gone. We had a great weekend! I started it out by treating myself to a day off on Friday (well, a day off from my 8:30-5:00 job anyhow). I spent Friday visiting the kids' daycare for an hour, armed with donut holes and yogurt. I spent a leisurely 2 hours at the greenhouse picking out flowers and plants for our yard. And then I cleaned out the garage. Perhaps not the most relaxing day, but it was nice to get those things done! Saturday was spent mostly out in the yard digging, hauling dirt, planting flowers and spreading mulch. Sunday we went to church then joined my brothers and parents in Lansing for a Mother's Day lunch at Olive Garden...yum!

Thank you to my mom for being a wonderful mother and for teaching me to appreciate the ability to make things with my own two hands.

Front Page of Etsy 2 times this week!

Wow!  After an entire year on Etsy, I had not only ONE, but TWO items make it to the front page of Etsy.com this week - super exciting!

This gorgeous treasury was put together by Celene of MariaSoleil - I absolutely love it, and am honored to keep such fine company - was featured on the front page Friday night (4/24/09):

Here is Tuesday's (4/21/2009) front page, curated by Etsy admin:

Front Page of Etsy

Getting Ready for Easter

Now that the spring weather has arrived, it's time to start picking up goodies to fill the kids' Easter baskets, and I am trying really hard to keep the sugary candy to a minimum, so I've been hopping around shops on Etsy.com looking for goodies. First, I am making each of them a homemade basket, using my Creative Kids Art Bucket design:

I got these super cute Circus Rice Mice from worksofwhimsy:

And I LOVE these crayons from kittybblove:

Off to do more browsing and shopping!

Happy 1st Weekend of Spring

The first Saturday of SPRING is great so far. Fairly warm (for Michigan) and the sun is shining!

Just finished designing the center of a princess-themed wall quilt . . . need to add the borders and such, but here is the work in progress, below:

While watching the basketball games last night I finished the binding on a fun springy quilt - a Butterfly themed quilt using my original multi-sensory baby quilt design.  It shipped out this morning to its new owner.

Back outside to enjoy the sunshine!

Oh, the Blog

Dear Blog - I haven't forgotten about you! I promise. I'm just really, really, really bad at finding time to post to you. I still love you all the same....



So after a long hiatus I thought I better post something (September was just a few weeks ago, right?!?!)



So here we are, more than halfway through February... I celebrate my one year Etsy-versary on March 4th, and what a year it has been! Lots of fun. I met and far exceeded my sales goal for the year of 400 sales . . . as of right now I'm pushin' 550 - yay! http://momnmiaquilts.etsy.com/


Now until March 4, you can take advantage of great savings - spend $30 or more in my shop, and get $5 back!