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.