I love October.....

I love October for many reasons... first it means that all the Holidays are nearing, then it means Balloon Fiesta here in Albuquerque, then it's my Birthday, then Halloween, and so on and so on...

Balloon Fiesta started on Friday and I love it, it's absolutely my favorite time of year here and it's so nice to be able to go on the weekend and take a million pictures of the beautiful, colorful Albuquerque skies.. It is the most photographed event in the world and I am one of those photographers. I got about 400 pictures on Saturday morning, woke up my family at 5:00 a.m. to go to the mass ascension and it was great, a little chilly but overall a great experience as always!

Here's a few pictures to show you what I'm talking about, I know I posted some a few weeks ago in anticipation of Balloon Fiesta, but here are Saturday's pics. :) Enjoy!

Aren't they gorgeous?!?!

My blog is on the verge...

It seems like it's really on the verge of not being a crafty blog anymore, this saddens me, mostly because that means that I am not being as crafty as I once was. Truthfully, I have been so busy and when I'm not busy I'm tired, trying to recover from the busy part, and so on and the cycle continues. So, my question is, what do I do? Do I continue this "crafty" blog of sorts and hope that one day I will have something to add or do I delete this and start over?

I'm really unsure, mostly because I seem to have got 10,000 hits on my blog out of nowhere and now they are at a standstill again, I'm sad... I have not comments, nobody is barely acknowledging that they stop by here, yet I blog hop, I read all day and I get nothing in return.. So sad... poor... little ole me...

Facebook is my social life... sad....

okay... losing it.... now.... today... not like all the other times..
I am just so messed up, I can't remember what day it is, who has an appointment with which doctor, what I'm doing at work, forgetting school fundraiser stuff.
I think that most of it has to do with Facebook, it has consumed my life. It's really sad first off that Facebook is my only form of a social life. It's not blocked at work, so it gives me adequate time to fiddle on it EVERY DAY! I can keep in contact with people I normally wouldn't see or hear from. I get to see pictures of my family alllll the time! :) YAY!

So when does it become too much? Does too much Facebook consist of me sitting at work or at home or in my car (using my Facebook Blackberry application of course) and hitting REFRESH, REFRESH, because I just know that any second someone will add their 2 cents to something or update their status. I allllllso like to create topies on my Facebook that will create lots of comments. I like to see exactly how many comments I can create on one post. Yesterday I think I got 26 comments on one post.. yay me... Where's the trophy? Where's the money prize?

LAME, I know, but really, I think I'm losing it and I owe it all to Facebook... blah!

Am I old?

Wow... Me and the husband went to a concert lastnight... Blink 182, Fall Out Boy and All American Rejects, it was fabulous. I love all their music and I think they are all really good. So why did I feel soooo out of place there? Maybe because out of the 15,000 kids that were there I definately felt like the oldest ones there!

Everyone was like 15 to 17 years old or like 50 years old chaperoning their 10 year old! I literally could have taken my girls to this concert and minus all the cursing, would have felt more comfortable. Is that odd, am I old? Or am I over-reacting. I think I may have lost my sense in music, or maybe I'm just old... Have I mentioned... I FEEL OLD???

Feeling a little UNbalanced....

Okay, so I cut my hair back in February or March or something and I miss it... *tear* real bad...
So I'm letting it grow out again and it does all this funky flip up, don't stay straight, looking crazy stuff.. I decided to go a little crazy today and part my hair on the OTHER side... yes, more volume, a weird flip thing goin on with my bangs and I think I'm unbalanced now.

It feels like I'm walking around with my head tilted to one side.

It feels like when people look at me they are saying "OMG, she totally parted her hair on the other side and now she's wayyy off!"

So I'm staying in my office today, feeling awkward and I'm okay about it. I guess.... Needless to say I don't think I'll be parting it on the wrong side in the near future anymore...

Well in other news, I got all the processing of Senior Pics done this weekend, I'll be adding some to my Photography Blog tonight.
I'm also planning to go back to the gym this week to see if I can beat my times from last week.
I'm also reading a very good book, titled ESCAPE, google it. I read a quarter of the book lastnight so I can't put it down.

I hope to be out of work early today.. yay! Have a good one!

A little more soreness...

I went to the gym 3 days in a row, ran a little more than 3.5 miles a day and I'm paying for it... waddling like duck, in pain like a 90 year old and hoping this soreness goes away soon and the weight starts coming off...

I got a ton of wedding stuff and pictures to do this weekend, meetings, running around, processing, busy, busy, busy weekend. Somewhere in the middle I have to find time to keep up this workout schedule or I'm going to fall off real fast!

In other news my 7 year old decided that 2nd grade isn't challenging enough, she apparently needs more work to do, so yesterday I enrolled her in an after school computer class. She's such a brainiac, not that I'm complaining but geesh, sometimes she needs to take a rest! :)

So I'm sore today.... and the Balloon Fiesta!

Okay... I'm really sore, why you ask? Cause I finally got my lazy butt off the couch and went to the gym two, say again TWO days in a row. Why? Because I'm sick of being a hefty 5'2" woman with too much meat on her bones! Andddd I got a wedding to be in, in May and I really would rather I wasn't "the big one" of the wedding party! :) Just sayin', I think that's how "other" people that didn't know me would refer to me as... They'd see a picture, be like oh yeah but who's that "big girl"? That would be ME!

Anyhow... I'm gonna try real hard to get this weight off, even if it hurts like hell to walk for another 4 weeks, I'm going to get it done... finally!

In other news I thought I'd post some pics. In about two weeks is the International Balloon Fiesta here in Albuquerque and honestly this is my favorite time of year here. I love it! I take pictures almost every day of Balloon Fiesta and this will be the first year taking pics at the Fiesta with my Nikon so I CANNOT WAIT! Can you feel my excitement!?! You can check out more info at Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta.

This is amazing and I have got my girls to enjoy it just as much as me, so they don't mind waking up at 430 in the morning on a Saturday to watch the balloons! :)

The skies are so colorful for 2 whole weeks and it's amazing!

I love all the balloons but there are special character balloons too, over 100, and I just saw Smokey the Bear rolling into town 2 days ago.. They have trading cards for all the balloons and me and the girls are on a mission to someday get them all :)

I am counting down the days!

These are all pictures I took last year but I'll be posting more from this year in a few weeks. I can't wait!!!!!!!!

Humm... 2 in a row :)

Sounds good to me, I'm also still trying to figure out the whole 12,000 visitors to my blog, and about 9,000 of them in the last month or so. If you know, let me know, then we can know together and I won't feel like such a moron because then I'll know what's going on, on MY blog. :)

If you don't know me, I'm a procrastinator, I'm also crazy, why? Well I insist on being busy every waking second of my life, which means I get little sleep because I'm always catching up on all the stuff I was procrastinating on. :) Ya see how that goes hand in hand. :)

I overwhelm myself completely because I work well under pressure. I enjoy having the feeling that I may or may not make a deadline but you will always get my best work. I recently started a photography business here in Albuquerque NM, it's called elizabeth poe photography. I am trying to work on my website, so don't ask... :) or not yet anyway. I'm also doing wedding planning, I fell in love with planning my wedding and I'm addicted to anything wedding related, movies, shows, cakes, favors, wedding styles, dresses, you get the idea. I'm addicted!
So it doesn't feel like much work to plan a wedding for me, while brides get stressed to no end, I'm their reliever, or I would love to be the relief they are looking for.

So while I'm still working a full time job, doing just about nothing from 8 to 5, Monday through Thursday, I'm still booking weddings, photo shoots and consultations. I love it. The busy life I'm living now is what makes me happy, I'm glad I can be of anyone's assistance. :)
I'm figuring I will be creating a new blog... my photography blog. I hope you enjoy it, I hope I can stick to it and you'll be able to see all my work. :)

I think I'm losing it...

Either I'm losing it or my eyes are deceiving me....
Last check up on my blogger I had about 3500 views on my page, which was probably my loyal few friends and family :)
I logged on about a month ago I think was the last time, I log on now and it's past 11,000!!! Can this be right? The less I blog the more viewers I get? haha....
Okay well I'm gonna see what the deal is and I'll be back :)

Wow...

I have been totally out of the internet blogging loop and ohhh do I miss it...
I miss blogging everyday, letting you all know whats going on. Yes all two of you that actually read this! :) I've been Facebooking like a crazy person because it's the only thing that's not blocked from work, I've been working at my regular job, going on vacation, and working on what seems to be every day that I'm off on my business. I wish I made enough on my side business to quit my other work. Unfortunately I think it's going to be a while before I can do that. So I'm taking pictures every weekend, planning weddings, processing photos and still trying to maintain some sort of sanity. In the meantime I have NOO time for crafting, scrapbooking, sewing, nada! I feel bad because I really want to scrapbook but I really have no energy for it. I have my mind racing all the time thinking about weddings, planning, my schedule, photos, and trying to figure out how or when to find the time to work out and lose some weight...

Anyhow I hope to keep up this blog better than I have been. Maybe I can start blogging from my phone, oh how I love my blackberry :) Yup.. I think that's the solution.
So to all my blogging buddies sorry but I'll catch up one day! :)

new post coming soon!

Promise! Give me a couple hours! I'm downloading pictures and running the girls around. :) Be back later.

A weekend ful of birthdays!

Geesh! How I cherish sitting on the couch and doing nothing! But... I can't remember the last time I had a full day of NOTHING! Saturday had a birthday pool party for the little ones to go to and another one on Sunday. So besides running around buying presents and packing, washing and repacking swimsuits and towels my weekend was full and over rather quickly...

I must say that First birthdays are a joy to go to, you know it's going to end up with a baby face covered in cake and frosting.. so Happy 1st Birthday Ava! She is too cute! My daughters got to do a lot of swimming so that ended up with a few good nights of sleep for them and they hated waking up this morning.. Sorry girls!

This picture is my favorite for the weekend... :) Nevaeh finally had enough of my pictures and was yelling, stop taking pictures of ME! So I took a picture!
Mikayla is trying to smile and show off her lost tooth all at the same time, it's almost working for her.. haha :)

It was a great wedding...

I have been so busy lately that I completely forgot about blogging. It would help sooo much more if blogge wasn't blocked from my work computer :) but it is.. so I'm left to blog every other week or whenever I remember. I tried to do it every Friday but apparently my Fridays are more full than I thought. I haven't had much time to craft, but that's because I've been busy doing a wedding... Doing, as in I did all the flowers, bouquets, buttonierres, centerpieces, invitations, favors, decorations, and photography all day. So yeah, I've been uber busy with this and I love it. I really enjoy weddings so I hope that I can be very successful at it. :)


My company is Made By Liz, this part of the company includes anything and everything wedding related. My photography is elizabeth poe photography and I'm working on a website and an Etsy site so when they're done, you all will be the first to know.. or one of the first to know. As for now I'm pretty busy just by word of mouth and considering I still have my full time job I'm more than busy enough. :)


So I thought I'd share my favorite pic.. so far from this last weekends wedding. I am sure that I will have tons more favorites since I still have about 600 photos to go through so this one is my favorite soooo far. :) Hope you like it.

She was a beautiful bride and I loved helping her for her big day! You can see the bouquet I did for her too... Can you believe it's 3 dozen roses??? haha

I'll be back later, until then.. happy crafting... happy photography... just be happy.. :)

Mondays stink!

Now that I'm on a 4-10's schedule with every Friday off it's great to always have a three day weekend but it makes Mondays going back to work about 10 times worse! I'm slow, driving in to work late, getting to work and realizing everyone gave me a pile of stuff to do on Friday while I was gone... and then putting everything off until Tuesday.. .So really, someone please, remind me why I even come in on Mondays???

To top it off, today I have a headache that won't go away.. it's lingering... telling me to go home.. and rest.. and sleep.. and leave the kids at daycare.. :)

Anyhow, if you didn't know I'm also doing wedding planning on the side, wedding planning = doing everything for the bride from start to finish, I think my job is to eleviate most or all of the stress from the bride. I do invitations, flower arrangements which includes bouquets, corsages, centerpieces, etc., favors and photography when needed... So far I LOVE IT! I wish I made enough money from weddings that I didn't need to come to my actual job... But I don't..

Well the only thing that hurts is that on my days off from "work" I'm still working... which means I get to stay up late and sit at the computer editing pictures and doing wedding stuff all weekend. I'm not complaining, this is my choice and I love it, I love being able to help a bride on the most important day of her life... but I'm tired... pooped, my arms hurt from tying little ribbons.. my head hurts from staring at the computer (facebook might also be to blame for that) and I just want to sleep all day.. :)

Anyhow... since I'm here and I haven't taken pics of all the wedding stuff I did this weekend. How about a picture of my gorgeous niece and nephew.. :) yeah that'll work. :)

Yay.. I {heart} them! :)

What'd you do today?

How was YOUR Sunday? Cause mine... well it was nuts.... First I delivered my first "wedding package" with all the pictures and CDs. Very exciting! I cleaned and cleaned and well cleaned some more.

When we first bought our house about 5 years ago the first time I walked in it, I noticed there was a little closet under the stairs (think.. Harry Potter) and I immediately said, THE GIRLS PLAY ROOM! Now I'm wondering... what....was... I... thinking???

It's always a mess and I'm the one that has to clean it up. It's insane, not a little mess. A mess like this!!!

A mess so bad that they can't walk in, they have to jump in and over stuff and hope that they don't step on something that stabs the bottom of their feet.

I have to admit that I'm partially to blame since I over-indulge in their toy buying and I get them things even when I know they have something similar or the same already... so I take that blame but really it was out of control. Soooooo, 5 trashbags later, and much more trash that didn't fit in the trashbags, which ended up filling our trashbin for the week (they don't pick up trash til Friday!)... I got this!
I've never arranged for the kitchen in the back but it's nice... it gives them a little cooking nook, and over on the left all the way between the kitchen and the white drawers is their tea set with the trays that are hidden away... AWWW it's nice, but I'm bettng it doesn't stay this way for long.. my fingers are crossed but I know it won't help much!

2 post in a row... geesh

I'm back, can you believe it? Well it surely does help to have a new computer... I still have nooo time whatsoever but I've given up sleeping so I'm alright. :)

Well today I wanted to show you a pic of my new neice, Shea Marie, she was born on June 2, 2009 and she's adorable. I didn't get a chance to share these earlier so here they are... With a little of my craftiness. Here she is.. She's a doll!

I also made this blankey for her. I hope she likes it. :) I got some good Chenelle blankets at JoAnn's for Christmas and they were a great bargain and I couldn't pass them up. I bought them because we knew we would be expecting her soon so I saved it for this occasion.

The grey part that lines the sides of the front and the back of the blanket is the Chenelle part, the front is a yellow solid fabric and I picked out the animal print in the baby section of Hancock Fabrics.

It should fit the size of the crib easily and I hope she likes to snuggle with it later. :) It's very soft and comfy.

As you can see above I got the animal printed fabric and cut it in strips, wide and narrow and anything in between and I sewed them with a zig zag on top of the yellow fabric letting some of it show through randomly.

This is the final product, this isn't ironed and was straight from the hours on the sewing machine to taking this picture so forgive me that it's all wrinkly and a bit crazy... :)

I'd like to chat longer and post more goodies but I'm off to the gym. :) Happy crafting!

A Father's Day Card

Well last post I showed you what a great gift my husband got me on a whim the day before Father's Day. It was great, it is great and I've got to use it and I'm estatic! So I thought I'd show the first card I made with it.... his Father's Day card :)

I wanted to do something other than Happy Father's Day or You're Number One or whatever... so I chose this. Thanks and Love... Thanks because he is truly the best father I could have imagined for our kids and love because well... we love him tremendously. I always have a hard time doing masculine cards but I don't think this one is too bad... :) I got a couple green papers and slapped em' together with love.. I traced the THANKS with a black sharpie to make it stand out more and I distressed some of the corners with some tearing.. I put the cursive love on top to make it stand out more in black.

I rounded th corners and in the inside I added anther green paper to the top inside to cover the sharpie tracing that came through and I added some of the same stripes from the outside paper for the inside to jazz it up.

Here's an up close of the THANKS and some of the tearing... Daniel said, ummm did you mess up, I said no I meant that... hellooo duh! haha :) just kidding, he doesn't always "get" my card style. :)

Final product - TA-DA!! Happy Father's Day Daniel and to all the father's all over... :) Hope you all have a great weekend! I'll be back soon.. PROMISE! :)

My husband is AWESOME!

My husband is awesome... The End...


Father's day is tomorrow and he came home with this today...

I think I'm in shock still.. I almost cried... I can't believe it! I think I'm too cheap to buy it for myself but he TOTALLY suprised me..

I love you!

I'll be blogging more by the way, got a new computer too! YAY! :)

I'm an auntie again!

Well I missed a few Friday's I know, but it wasn't without good cause. I became an Auntie again on June 2nd, my sister had a little baby girl, Shea Marie, she is lovely and I got to spend a week with my sister and her family and it was great. No work, no driving an hour to work and back, no pick ups and drop offs, it was lovely. Here she is :)

I was gone last Friday because I've also been super busy since getting back from my sister's house. I did photos at a wedding on Wednesday and I've been computer shopping and going to birthday parties and having a major migraine for 2 days. Before I knew it, it's today, SUNDAY and where did my weekend go??? Yikes.

I will have tons more pictures but I have to go through them, hopefully I'll get my new computer, set it up and have it running it's rounds soon! :) Until then, happy crafting!

I'm here, like promised!

First of all I want to say be safe this weekend! I know there will be tons of bike riding, bbq's, drinking and fun, but please be careful!

Also, please don't forget what this weekend is all about and what Memorial Day is really about. There are thousands upon thousands of Soldiers that have given their life for our freedom, and there are still thousands that gladly sign their life away to continue that freedom. So please remember our Soldiers, past and present, Army, Navy, Marines, Air Force, and Coast Guard, Active, Reserves or National Guard!

Now on to crafty stuff... Today is the last day of school for the girls and I thought it would be a good thank you to the Mikayla's teacher if I made her something. I really liked her teacher, she helped her excell beyond what she could have done on her own or with my help. She pushed her and she motivated her and she was a good supporter of helping her get into the excelerated classes. :) Way to go!

In my many visits to their classroom I noticed that her teacher didn't have a nameplate on her desk so I thought I'd make one for her. :)

Here it is. I really liked it and she said she thought it was great and sooo crafty!

It was originally the top to a photo box, I cut the ends off the short side, bent it in half and began covering it with paper. The paper is from Paper Studio, called Oops-A-Daisy.

I got a pack of these big cardboard, glittery letters on clearance and I don't remember what brand they are, sorry, but they're self-adhesive and worked great for this.

The little letters are from a letter stack I found on sale at JoAnns for Christmas. I roughed up the edges with an Xacto knife and then with sand paper. I roughed up the edges on everything this same way.

The flowers I put together with a little lime grommet and roughed that with sand paper too. I used some swirly templates from a few cutouts in the Cosmo Cricket line for their Christmas pack. I used the Oops-A-Daisy papers for them too so everything would match.

It's simple, not too crazy but yet it's teacher-y, I think she liked it and I hope to make another in the future, maybe for another teacher or maybe for me for my office at work. :)

So be safe, be healthy and be crafty this weekend.. :)

I'M HERE! And with a card too!!!

I know, I know, don't pass out; I'm blogging and I got pictures of a card I did! WHOA! I told you I'd be here on Friday's to blog and I try not to make a liar out of myself so here I am! I didn't post last Friday because I was on my way to NMSU to go to my cousin's graduation. Congratulations Hannah, college is a crazy thing to get through and you did it! We're all so proud of you!

NMSU's colors are red and gold, so I tried to keep with the theme, the colors are a bit off but I think I made the point :) Here it is :)I use the Cricut to cut out the big "C" of course, and I freehanded the "congrats" on the bottom of the C. I used some red patterned paper and crumpled it to break up all the solids and tore the edge of the red paper to create an edgey feel. I also sandpapered some of the yellow/gold paper too.
Here is a little up close, not in focus picture... :) I inked black around the "C" to make a definate outline when it met back with the yellow card part. I think it came out cute. :)

So here's the happy graduate, way to go HANNAH! :)
This was us, the family, in the crowd, do you think she noticed us??? hahaha... By the way this lady in the blue, she's not with us... But I decided not to crop her out, just because she's so happy!
There were 6 signs total but the pink and the green holders on the end were slacking when I took this picture! :) P.S. I made the signs too, so this is a double crafty post today! Way to go me! LOL. Oh yeah you see that guy in the black and white shirt trying to figure out his camera??? That's Jeremy, shout out to Jeremy and his honey Emily (she's hiding behind the congrats hannah sign) since they gave me hell for not posting to my blog in a while! haha

I'll be back next Friday and maybe even again this weekend, you never know!

oh how I miss you blog world!!!

I have been so out of the blog world I think I'm lost! Help me find my way back!!
The good news is that I haven't been gone for no reason. I got this new job in September and I've been unable to log in to the blogger! Which I really can't complain about since, at least I have a job in these tough times.
Other reasons I haven't had time to check in on the weekends is that for one, it's birthday season in the house and so my weekends have been full, two, graduations are coming up, and three, I've been working another side job in my off time.. :)
I'm taking my hand at wedding planning, making invitations, flower arrangements, bouquets, and taking photos of various things. I really am enjoying it, it's tiring but it's something that I really like to do. I'll be posting some pictures soon and giving the link to my Etsy site. I just really have to get a new computer because the old 2003 laptop that I'm using isn't cutting it! Matter of fact, I'm lucky it's still turning on!!! haha...
I miss you all, I haven't deserted you, I check in on your blogs thru my blackberry sometimes and although I'm a lurker I still see all the fantastic and crafty stuff you're all still doing! I love it and I'll be back soon! I PROMISE!!!

NEW CAMERA!!!!!

I can't believe it! I've bugged my husband for over a year for an awesome camera, one that could replace my 4 year old Kodak. Don't get me wrong that camera has got me through thick and thin over the past 4 years and has literally taken over 10,000 pictures! So thank you Kody! (I name the objects that I love most-duh) But move over Kody, Niki is here and she's gonna stay!!! Yes! I got a Nikon D90 and I can't believe that I actually own it! Its the greatest thing ever! Well besides my family of course, but really its insanely nice and if I weren't in the parking lot of the movie theater waiting for the rest of the family to get out of their movie I would actually have a piucture of my camera to show you. But if you want you can just google Nikon D90 and check out how cool it is!!!
I'm sad that I've been pushed out of the blog world by my job, but I will be posting once a week at least, its my emotional release and I need it back! So on my day off I'll be posting and catching up on everyones blogs! Love you all!

Has it been a month already???

I have neglected you my poor blog, my bloggy friends, my internets! I'm sorry.... I can't believe it's been a month since I posted anything, I would like to say I've been way crafty in that month and bombard you with all these new pictures of crafty stuff... but guess what!?! I haven't done much... booooo I know, I know. I'm ashamed too. I did do a Valentine's card for my husband that I never posted. So here it is. :)
Cosmo papers of course, this was part of the set that I won last year and I love them! I used the large X and O of course, I think the greenish hue broke up the reds and organges so it wasnt so bright and girly. It's still girly but I loved it. I did a torn piece of the same stripe paper, alternate side and added it to the bottom. Used some wavy scissors to cut around one of the hearts and popped it up with a lift sticker and ta-da....

For the inside I used one of the word strips and cut it into a few pieces to add my statement. I also cut a strip of the love birds and centered them so they bent in the center of the card. It's too cute! And below I don't think I ever showed you the awesome Christmas card that my daughter Mikayla made for her teacher in December. :) I know I'm extremely late!

She picked all the papers herself and decided how they would be decorated and put together. She had me cut out the snowman with an Xacto from an old card that was in my stash, added a red square for some pop, used the threading waterpunch for one side and picked out some green buttons to top off the flower and add some spark.

She found a little plastic rose in my button jar and used that under the sentiment. She wrote the Merry Christmas in white pen and ran out of room ma little but that's alright :)

Her teacher loved it of course and I thought it was fantastic! She is really creative and does her own little scrapbook journals that I love and I'll have to get permission to share those because they are a bit more personal. :)

I really hope to get back to posting every day or at least every other day! I will I promise.

Things here are crazy as usual, working, the girls, the husband and dealing with this darn economy! I'm changing work hours soon so I will have an extra day off in the week to hang out with my girls. I love it! It will be OUR craft day! I can't wait... :)

Lent? Anyone? I'm doing pretty good actually, I challenged myself to give up Soda, Chocolate, Iced Tea and Meat! I haven't slipped yet and I don't intend to. I have to give props to my husband too, he gave up MILK! If anyone knows him you'll know it's a great feat for him to give up milk for so long. Lets just say that he drinks so much of it that we should own a cow! :)

That's all for now, I'll post soon, promise! Until then Happy Crafting!

Happy Valentines!

I just wanted to say Happy Valentines Day to you all. I love a day that celebrates LOVE but I really do think that you should celebrate it everyday. I have to say first and foremost that I have been lucky enough to have found the love of my life and I really don't know what I would do without him. He is truly the most wonderful man, and I guess today is a reminder for me to tell him how much he means to me since I might not always tell him. Maybe that's what Valentines Day is all about??? Either way I hope you had a great one.

P.S. Congratulations to Hannah and Henry. They got engaged lastnight! Woohoo!!

It's been a while.... but look what I got!

Well I know my blogging has been scarce! I miss the BLOG WORLD! Instead I'm forced to actually work AT work and apparently someone in our computer department thinks that Blogging leads to bad things so the Blog Network has been banned from our computer! Way to go smart guy! Way to ruin the ONLY social life that I actually have!

So anyway, I've been cleaning the office/craft room/sewing room and I purchased some fabric and a NEW SEWING MACHINE that I love! I looked all over the place for a cheap one, they usually range from $300 to $400, well I found it on ebay for a whopping $71 and that included shipping so I bought it immediately and it's great! I LOVE IT, and I plan to make many more quilts and I'm venturing in making some dresses for the girls for the upcoming summer. It should be interesting and fun! I can't wait to sew, sew, sew!

Here's the new machine....

It's the singer 7442 and it's fully electronic and has 80 different stitch functions!

Here is a pile of about 150 5x5 squares of jeans that are for my next quilt for my little girl Nevaeh, then it's Mikayla and then Alex. I let them each pick out the colors and fabric they wanted to match the backing of their quilts and they did a good job, I can't wait to see the finished project and neither can they!

Here is another pile of about 35 squares and the pink material that I've cut to add to the squares for Nevaeh's blanket. Her favorite color is pink and this was one of the fabrics she chose. I love it!

I'm sorry for the lack of blog comments I've been giving, I haven't even had time to blog hop on my phone... I will catch up someday and I will be back on track in no time!

Remember the Christmas Secret I had.....

I know... It's been a while, but it's been crazy around here these days. I mentioned that I had been working on a special, secret project for Christmas. They were the gifts I gave to my sisters and my best friend. It was a huge jump out of my comfort zone of scrapbooking, taking pictures and doing easy crafts.

We had the unfortunate event of losing my grandmother in October of 2008, she was a great person, one of the kindest and happiest people that I will ever know in my life. I will be eternally greatful for being able to know her and love her and be loved by her. She was a crafter, she crocheted, she knitted, she sewed and she always had amazing works of art in her house that were all done by her. She was and will always be an inspiration for me. One thing that I will always remember is going for sleepovers at her house and she had these huge jean quilts on the spare bedroom bed and they would be so heavy and I loved to sleep in them because it was so comforting for me.

Well, a few months ago while cleaning out an extra garage, my grandmother found three boxes full of jeans. They had been there for decades I'm sure and I'm also sure that my grandmother had ideas to create these jeans into more quilts. Although she wasn't able I thought I would take a try.

Although it was an ambitious venture I knew that I could do it, I gave myself a short deadline, a goal and I was inspired by my grandmother. I knew that I could do it. And I did, I created 3 blankets for my very best friends in my life. Two of which are actually sisters and the other was for my best friend that I've known for over 15 years. All three have always been there for me and they were always comforting to me just like my grandmothers blankets were so I thought I owed them something.

So I knew the top would be jeans, the bottom I bought a fleece in the color that I thought represented each of them. Purple for Lena, Blue for Yvonne and Black for Ramona. The two for Lena and Yvonne have the same design over the jean because it means a few things, the tree of life and family tree. I got the idea for the tree design from a stamp I saw on a stamping blog, if you recognize it let me know so I could give credit for it. However, it is modified so it was a mirror image and easier to cut.

You can click on the images for a bigger view, the one above is turned to the right. The bottom is a full view of the tree as it was on the blanket.

This was the purple/flower cutout for the first blanket, I don't have a picture of the blue cutout, only after it was on the jean top.

Above is the picture of all my rectangles pinned together as I get to piece them and start sewing.

Above is the beginning layout of how I started to piece them together over the fleece to make sure I had the right size.

Above is the jean peices all put together to creat the top of the quilt.
This is the blue quilt for Yvonne, don't let the pattern of the tree fool you, I'm not THAT good, it's a pattern that looks like patchwork and it's only a full piece.
This is the completed top of the purple quilt for Lena, the pattern is purple flowers.

Yvonne's blanket had a different layout of jean squares and rectangles but the top tree is the same. I had drew the trees on the back of the fabric and cut everything by hand and sewed them with my mom's sewing machine. Here they are together, it's not a great picture but you get the idea.

This is my friend Ramona's blanket, it was also inspired by a stamp, it's random and I'm glad she liked it. It's a pale pink with black flowers on the fabrick but it looks almost white here.It's backed with a black fleece and I added two hearts to the right top side, I used to sign these little hearts with my name in high school and I thought it was a good memory for us. We're both only 28 and we've known eachother more than half our lives.

Here is an up close of the hearts.

And here is an up close of the stitching and the fabric. I hope you like them, I hope they like them. They were worth every minute of making them and I'm glad that they have a piece of me and my grandmother with them, keeping them warm, comforting them and inspiring them for new creations.

Happy crafting... :)