My Loss, Your Gain: Free Christmas Goodies

A few weeks ago I entered a contest for Becky Higgins free Christmas card templates.  Unfortunately for me, she didn't choose my cards as a winning template.  But, fortunately for you...I am still going to give them away.

Feel free to use these for personal use.  

The size is 6.5 x 7, the Costco size.  The best deal out there...I say.

I hope you have a very very very very Merry christmas.

Go here for the card above.

Go here for the card above.

Another One Bites the Dust

Yes.  Another fine person accomplishes their dreams.  Oh...okay, maybe not their dreams, but my sweet sister in law finished her quilt.  GOOD JOB!  She came to my house last Wednesday to quilt this sucker.  I am amazed.  She worked hard pinning, quilting, and binding this baby and she did it all in 3 or 4 hours.  WOW!  

She is even pregnant and has a 2 year old in tow.  Seriously, WOW!  See, you can do anything if you put your mind to it.   Do you have a project you want to finish?  Just do it!  Don't be afraid.  You can do it.

Who cares if the project takes over your house?  That is the fun of it.  Then everyone knows you are being productive!  See....you can spin it.  It's not messy....it's productive.  (I have had a little practice at this, and my dear lovable and wonderful hubby has totally bought it.)

 Go QUILT!

What have you been up to?

So, what have you been up to lately? 

I have been working on some Christmas goodies.   It has been fun working in a Christmas theme, preparing for the fun in the next few months, but making it a little spunky.  Who knew that bright pinks and funky greens could look so festive.  Loving it.

I am also enjoying the straight line quilting thing.  So easy, so fun to look at.  And as you can tell, I am no perfectionist.......but I think the imperfections bring a little something extra.  Really. I am all about imperfections.  Maybe it's the crazy lady in me, but imperfections make me smile.

Only a couple more hours until my box is off to the post office, and a little stress can leave my house for a minute.  I love it when stress takes a vacation.  

Classy, real classy.

As I lay in bed last night, my mind was filled with my to do list.  The majority of my to do's have to do with quilting.  I have a deadline, which is today, for a book with Martingale....which I will not meet (luckily, they extended the deadline 'til Friday for me....ya hoo!).  

Anyway....this got me thinking about this blog.  Yep! I realized, the blog readers here don't really know me.  I post random stuff.    

So, here is the first installment of "get to know me" moments.  It is just a snapshot of a moment in my life.  I hope these little snapshots will help shed a little light into my life as a momma and quilter/creative lady.

So, the picture above is of our house, the morning after.  After what?  Soccer practice until all hours of the night.  Bj (my one true love), stops to get everyone a drink on the way home, and we all chow down on the dinner I have made (and salivated over) while they've been gone.  Then in the morning, it seems I have this huge pile O'garbage to clean up.  However, I try to make my garbage pretty, if I can.  

If you pay attention to detail, you can see pillows stacked on the rocking chair, and you will have a tiny clue as to what I have been working on lately.

Inspiration

What inspires you in your art?  Is it nature?  Is it architecture? Is it other artists?  There are so many ways to be inspired.  As I started making sketches for the quilts in my book, my eyes were opened to the world around me.  A motif decorating our local library helped me come up with my bird quilt.  Flowers in nature, inspired charming gardens....the brick pattern, helped set the background for the cocoa cakewalk quilt.    


The unnoticed things in the world are some of the most extraordinarily beautiful things we see. I encourage you to open your eyes, in a way you haven't in the past.  Notice walls, freeways, architecture, the texture of leaves, flowers, colors, the way the leaves swirl in the wind....Anything, and everything can be an inspiration, if you let it.


Be inspired.

Oops I did it again...

I am going to be on the Morning Blend on Tuesday, Nov. 2 (yes, voting day...I voted early) to discuss the joys of my book (again).  Join me, it starts at 11:00 a.m. on channel 9 (in Tucson).  Don't live in the sunny land of hotness?  Well, just go to their website, and catch a glimpse of me by watching one of their videos.  Party on.


Luckily, I have a couple friends of mine going on with me.  I am excited to have them come with me.  


And, side note, to those of you who think I might be the worst blogger ever.  You might be right.  However, I anticipate being far less busy in the upcoming weeks.  I have been working hard to be a good(ish) mom, fair wife, moderate friend, and have been developing some patterns for a book for Martingale (a book with many contributors).   So, hopefully, I will have fun things to look at, cute ideas to spur your own exciting projects, or something interesting to you.  We'll see.  I know the holidays are coming up, that means a mad dash to try to make cute things for neighbor gifts and the yearly insanity that comes from designing my own Christmas cards (I really do love it).  We're all in this together... the holidays bring such fun to all of us.


I'm off to work....the best hubby in the world just took all 4 kiddos to soccer practice so I can have an hour and a half to get busy.