Sunday Stash: Orange & Turquoise Edition

This past week we went on a road trip to Arizona ... there is nothing Marc and I like more than to get in the car with a vague idea of where we are going and a map and a week or so away from life to just go somewhere ... not a lot of people like doing this or can stand long amounts of time in the car - but we love it. It's interesting and exciting and we always discover little hidden places and have adventures and tons of fun. I'll do a real post about the trip in a day or two but today it's all about the FABRIC!

One of the places we took a side trip to was Sedona, Arizona. We managed to find both an amazing hidden restaurant (aptly named The Hideaway) and a not-so-hidden but amazing fabric shop! The Quilters Store Sedona was so cool! The women there were kind and very interested in me - a young(ish) girl coming from Salt Lake who wanted to make a stop at their quilt shop on her vacation with her husband and toddler waiting out in the parking lot. I could have spent lots more time there, but I was starving and just wanted to take a quick peek.

It was a very organized store with lots of selection. They had fat quarters of most of their fabrics - which I love because I don't have to wait in line to get fabric cut.

I've been wanting to see the new line "Fresh" ever since my BFF Darci showed it to me online the other day -- and I was so happy to see that they had it! I was drawn to it even before I knew what it was because of the bright oranges, greens and turquoises ... and the prints are so pretty. This line looks 1000 x's better in person - it just doesn't do it justice online.

I got a big selection of the greens and oranges and turquoises and blues ... but today for Sunday Stash I'm just showcasing orange & turquoise - because this is the beginning of a new quilt I have in the works for Baby #2.

Fresh is the 3 prints on the left (the circle/diamond print is my new favorite!) then there is a Soiree print and a Katie Jump Rope print. Can't wait to get more colors and prints for this quilt!

Diminished: week of mornings day 7

The state of the pantry is dismal. A reminder that it's Monday, and I have tons to do this week. Starting with going grocery shopping so that we have enough food to last us until next week when we go out of town.

no, this: week of mornings day 6

I was trying to get a picture today of that stack of mail there in the background ... to say that I was excited that Marc was going to take Mason today to breakfast like he does every Sunday morning and then to get the oil changed in my car and run some other little errands ... so that I would have a few hours of uninterrupted time to work on my quilting bee blocks (that's what's in the envelopes) so I could get them all mailed out this week since we're leaving on vacation a week from today.

BUT ....

I bought Mason these little craft pom-poms the other day so he could have something to play with while he's "helping" me in my sewing room - something that were all his and that I didn't have to be constantly worrying whether he'd ruin or not or stick himself with a pin or play with the rotary cutter or something. He LOVES them and carries his little sack for them around with him all the time now.

So when he saw me setting up my envelopes to take a picture this morning, he dumped out his pom poms in front of me and said "no, this".

Ok then, I guess you're getting a picture of pom-poms.

chores: week of mornings day 5

Saturday mornings are chores day. I clean a different room in my house every day but there is just something about waking up on a Saturday morning and giving the house a good once-over that is satisfying.

That Method cucumber all surface spray is my FAVORITE. I love the way it smells and cleans. I use it on everything: countertops, bathrooms, walls, floors, furniture. Now everything smells cucumbery. Yum.

week of mornings: day 4

Dishes washed & my reward for doing so. What? A pregnant girl can have whatever she wants for breakfast as long as it's washed down with vitamins and OJ, right?

breakfast, uninterrupted: week of mornings day 3

week of mornings: day 2

Mason loves to paint and it's just easier sometimes to cover his whole little table with a big piece of butcher paper and leave the watercolors + paintbrush out for him.

A Week of Mornings

If you haven't heard of the website (or the book, or read about it online, or seen them on Martha Stewart ...) A Year of Mornings, you are missing out! From their website:

3191, A Year of Mornings began on January 1, 2007 as an almost daily photo conversation, in blog form, between two friends that live 3191 miles apart. It lasted the entire calendar year ending on December 31, 2007 and was followed by 3191, A Year of Evenings which ended on January 15, 2009.

They took beautiful pictures and posted them to their blog every morning (and then last year, every evening). Their pictures were eventually turned into a book which is wonderful eye candy and a great coffee table book.

My best friend Darci and I are going to do the same thing - but on a much smaller scale - A Week of Mornings. Here's my first entry and visit Darci, at Just a Peek, for hers. Our only rules are that we both take, edit and post a picture within an hour of waking up & that we can't cheat and use our iPhone cameras - good cameras only. :)

A Quilt Swap

As if I needed something ELSE to keep me busy ... I've joined an online swap for Doll Quilts - Doll Quilt Swap 6. It's basically a swap where you are assigned a partner who you then scope out, figure out what they like, and then make them a doll quilt/mini quilt to mail them.

We all received our partners this evening and I'm so excited for who I got. It's someone I already know a little through blog land and I can't wait to make her something. It's a secret swap so you don't know who your partner is until they send you your quilt in the mail and reveal themselves!

I've been surfing around Flickr all day getting inspiration for what I want to make my partner & also letting my partner know what I like (tee-hee). There are so many beautiful quilts out there that people have made - I didn't have any trouble finding tons of inspiring images.

Can you tell I'm in a rainbow kind of mood? I kind of need it after the crappy week I had last week and this long winter that seems like it's never going to end. I can't wait to get started on this project and then get my quilt in the mail to see who had me!

Sunday Stash: Green Edition

Thanks for everyone's kind emails and comments about Newton. It's getting easier every day but it's still so weird to not have him here by me. Every once in awhile I'll get a thought of "oh, I need to let Newton in" or think I see him out of the corner of my eye and then get sad when he's not there. At least Mason has stopped asking me every few minutes "are you happy now, Mom?".

I decided to join in this week in the "Sunday Stash" meme. It's fun going around to different members of the group and getting a little peek at different peoples fabric stashes. Everyone usually just shows one or two great fabrics they currently have in their stash - and it's a great way to see new fabrics you may not have seen before!

I LOVE this green pair from Denyse Schmidts' line "Katie Jump Rope". It's an oldie but a goodie for me -- and it seems like everyone and their dog has these prints in their stash but I just can't help it - green always has been and always will be my favorite color.

The plaid one reminds me of golf shorts -- I would love to have a pair of shorts in that print to wear when I go golfing!

I was doing a bunch of sewing today and had my new Orla Kiely cup close by with my standard lemonade inside. It kept getting condensation on the outside from all the ice and getting my sewing table wet - so what else could I do then reach into my scrap pile and whip up a cute little coaster in just a few minutes?

It seriously took me just a second to make and it turned out SO cute. I can see making a bunch of these for a cute and personal housewarming or birthday gift.

The top is some orange flowers and the bottom is some green polka dots. Technically it's reversible, too!

I just cut 2 squares about 6" x 6" and sewed them up on 3 sides, turned them, then stuck some batting in between, folded in and stitched up the opening, then did some crazy zig zag quilting to keep them together. SO simple.