The Color Run: Salt Lake City

Have you heard about The Color Run? I did it in Salt Lake City last August and it was seriously one of the most fun things I've ever done.


I signed up with a few of my friends from my local sewing group, some of whom were runners & some of whom had never done any type of race before at all - this was Sukie's first 5k ever! If you haven't heard of The Color Run, it's a super relaxed and fun race where the only "rule" is that you have to start the race with a white shirt - because by the end of the race it's going to be anything but white.

I wore my white Color Run shirt and my pretty Team Sparkle skirt!


This was us before at the starting line:


The race itself is like a big party - lots of people dress up in fun outfits & it's super colorful & loud. You run or walk the course and disbursed throughout there are different color stations - this is where the fun is! It's really about being healthy & having fun!

Here's my view as I was coming up on the blue station:


The color is actually just a cornstarch type powder that's had dye added. You don't want to take a big breath of it, but the color throwers at the station are really nice about not throwing it in your face, or just throwing a little bit on you if you don't want to get completely covered.

Then at the finish line it's really like a big party! They have music playing & everyone has been given a color packet to throw up in the air, throw at your friends, or throw at yourself. :)


This was us after the race: (We're all still smiling!)


In case you're wondering, the powder comes clean pretty easily, I was able to brush most of it off my skin, brush it out of my hair, and it all came out in the wash off my clothing.


I had the best time doing the Color Run & can't wait to do it again this August. I'm working with the people at The Color Run & they've offered my readers a special $5.00 off discount code. It's only good for the Salt Lake City Color Run, and will take $5.00 off the price of registration (if you sign up in a group you can get an additional $5.00 off). Tickets are limited & they'll sell out quickly, so if you're thinking about going then you should sign up asap!


Hope to see you there!

Ruby Star Advent Calender & giveaway

The holiday season is always fun with little kids around, but this year I'm really looking forward to Christmas because my kids are finally at ages (6 and 3) where they're really looking forward to all the activities & fun stuff we're planning.


I've been wanting to do an advent calender tree for awhile now, but I haven't gotten around to it in Christmas' past & haven't known exactly how I wanted to do it. When Sukie invited me to the Ruby Star Wrapping blog tour & I saw the cute 5 minute party pouches project in the book, I knew they'd work perfectly for the project I had in my mind.

A word about Sewing Summit 2012

With just a week left until Sewing Summit 2012 happens, I wanted to share some thoughts that have been in my mind recently. I've written before about why Sewing Summit is important, but I have some other thoughts I want to get out.

Most of you know how Sewing Summit came to be. Maybe you don't. It truly is an event that was born out of a genuine love for this online sewing community. A lot of us have known each other "through blogs" for years. Years and years. We've swapped home made items, we've commented on each others pictures, we've welcomed each other into our lives through Skypes and texts and even in-person visits. We've cheered each other on through book deals & fabric lines & online campaigns. We're friends of the most genuine kind.


follow #sewingsummit on instagram!
And we wanted to meet in person. So Sewing Summit was created as that place to bridge the gap between online friendship & in person friendship. I've said it before, but one of my favorite things about Sewing Summit last year was hearing people exclaim "Oh! You're so much taller than I imagined!" or "I never knew what your voice sounded like!" as they give hugs & laughs as they meet their friends in person for the first time.

That's the payoff for me. Helping people build lasting friendships. Helping brands build meaningful connections to influential bloggers that can help them engage their community with their products. Providing a place for people to not only learn how to sew better, but to get inspired & refreshed so they can go home & be a better parent, blogger, sewist, worker, whatever it may be for them.


my UPS guy & I are BFFs
Not to say that it's not a lot (A LOT) of work. It is. If you follow me on Instagram you've seen pictures recently of pallets of boxes arriving at my house, my living room full of supplies & notions, me saying how I'm staying up late to cut fabric, write blog posts, plan printing, etc. I am so grateful to have an incredible husband that supports me 110%, nearby friends that will bring me cupcakes & diet Coke & make me laugh when I need it, an amazing mom & dad that watch my kids multiple times a week, a staff that puts up with my indecisions & last minute changes to make every detail just so, not to mention my online cheering squad that sends me texts all day long with their support. I could NOT be doing this alone, and I'm not.


I love my boys
But don't think FOR A MINUTE that this is not worth it to me. I can't express in words how much Sewing Summit means to me, and I hope that those of you coming next week will feel that in the details & atmosphere. I hope that those of you that aren't coming next week will feel it in the pictures, Instagrams & Tweets that you'll be following. Sewing Summit is the hardest & scariest thing I've done in my life, but also one of the most rewarding.

I'm a quiet person, but I'm not a weak person. I'm detail oriented & organized & sometimes borderline OCD about my methods & systems & plans, but I'm not stupid or oblivious. Sure, the complaining & negativity gets me down momentarily, but I am SO DANG EXCITED to meet all of you next week that I try to ignore the negativity. I will not allow it into my event that I've worked so hard to make a positive & uplifting place. If you are going to backstab & be negative & whisper behind peoples back, please let me know now, and I'll buy back your ticket & give it to one of the 300+ people on the waiting list.


SS 4 Life
I also want to let you know that even though I'm just a blogger, just a mom, not a professional event planner with formal training, I take Sewing Summit very seriously & am not just throwing together a haphazard event. I have my name on the line of a very large venue & catering contract, I have relationships with brands, I have 250+ people coming in from all over the United States & world to something that is a reflection of ME. Sure, I'm not perfect, I had a really rough summer (my dad just finished 6 weeks of radiation treatment this week, yay!), but I'm also not one to make excuses. If there's anything you have a problem with, or want to discuss, please email me. I will do anything I can to make it better for you.

The bottom line is I just wanted to let you all know how much I love you, how much I am excited for next week, how much I wish that I could make Sewing Summit a 5000+ person event so that everyone that wanted to could attend, and THANK YOU. Thanks for all your concerns, texts, emails, offers to help, everything. I will gladly accept any donations of Starbucks cards or diet Coke (kidding) (sort of).


Guess where I am?!
See you in a week!

(If you want to read my recap from Sewing Summit last year, it's here)

Farmer's Wife for the Home Collab - grocery bag holder

Hi everyone! It feels so good to be back blogging & in this online space again! This summer kicked my booty in more ways than one & I ended up taking an extended blogging break! I'm looking forward to this change of seasons going on right now - getting back into a good routine & schedule - blogging included!


Today I'm super excited to be kicking off a really fun blog collaboration - the Farmer's Wife for the Home project! I know lots of you have seen the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt Book or some of the amazing quilts in the Farmer's Wife Quilt Along Flickr group. If you haven't - just know that it's a super intense sampler quilt with over 100 individual 6" blocks - some of which are really difficult! It's basically a long & involved quilting project, with gorgeous results, but still, a big investment of time!


Andrea from Knitty Bitties decided to put together a collaboration challenge featuring some really fun bloggers doing projects featuring just a few of the Farmer's Wife blocks. I jumped onboard immediately because even though I'd been admiring the finished tops & quilts from the Farmer's Wife group, I knew right now wasn't the best time for me to try to complete such an intense project!


The challenge was to take a charm pack of Robert Kaufman Kona solids, along with a few larger cuts of grey & tan solid & make a project for the home. I thought & thought for weeks about what to make - and found the answer staring back at me every day from inside my pantry! Years ago in one of the first swaps I had done, I received an awesome pieced & quilted plastic grocery bag holder using some of my favorite fabrics ever (original Flea Market Fancy & Katie Jump Rope!.) I still have that holder hanging up in my pantry holding plastic bags & the little flash of pretty fabric in my otherwise dull pantry makes me smile almost daily.


Making the blocks themselves was something I initially was pretty intimidated by! I read lots of information in the threads in the Farmer's Wife Flickr group (a GREAT resourse for anyone doing this project - started by the adorable Amanda & Angela), and ultimately decided to paper piece my blocks. With the small size of the blocks (they're just 6" squares!) I decided I wanted mine to be accurate & the best way you can achieve that is with paper piecing.

My Purse Palooza pattern review post

As I blogged before, When Sara first asked me to be part of Purse Palooza I was SUPER scared! I don't really do patterns, let alone purses or bags. I'm pretty terrified of them, in fact. So I really scoured around and tried to make sure to pick a pattern that I KNEW I couldn't fail at, and Keyka Lou patterns (which have recently been re-branded as Michelle Patterns) came pretty highly recommended wherever I read about them. I picked the Bucket Bag with the idea in mind of making kind of a trinket/treasure bag for one of my little boys. Read what I thought about the process & what I thought about the pattern over at Sara's blog, Sew Sweetness.

Announcing Purse Palooza 2012

A few months ago Sara invited me to be a part of the Purse Palooza blogging event she's doing during the month of June. I accepted on the condition that she knew I don't sew purses OR really use patterns - ha - but I was willing to try one out for her. :] She said that was OK and so I agreed to do it.



Now I'm listed among this who's who of super star sewists wondering exactly WHAT I can bring to the table in terms of pattern reviewing or advice giving - eek! I hope that there's some other beginning bag sewists out there like myself who can benefit from another beginners perspective - because that's pretty much what I can offer! I'm excited to be reviewing the Bucket Bag from Keyka Lou patterns - it's a cute bag, & from what I've checked out of the pattern, it looks really detailed while still being clear-cut & easy to understand. I'm excited to make it!



Some of the fabric I may be using - I am planning on making it into kind of a knapsack / boy bag for Mason & all the stuff he seems to accumulate in his pockets over the course of a day - so I'm searching my stash for some sturdy boyish fabrics. So far I've got some boyish quilting cottons but also some fine wale corduroy & some pretty wool. I can't wait to start working on it!

Sara has two guest bloggers posting pattern reviews each weekday in June (I'm on June 13!) - that is crazypants. Each review will contain detailed information about what we thought about the sewing pattern, modifications we made, what kind of interfacing we used, seam ripping we did ;] It will definitely be a great way to get an inside view of a pattern you might have been wanting to try or get inspired to try something new.

There will also be giveaways - of course! Also each weekday in June there will be a giveaway, as well as a linky party at the end for you to show off a new purse you've made for another chance to win a great prize.

For the full line-up of guest posters, details on the prizes & sponsors, all the rules & the full schedule of the event, check out the official Purse Palooza 2012 post on Sara's blog, Sew Sweetness.

It should be a lot of fun & filled with lots of great information!

10 on 10 - May 2012

The 10 on 10 photography project is one of my favorites - ten(ish) photos on the 10th of every month. Here's how our day looked on May 10th, 2012, Instagram style:



9 am - making the beds




10 am - new contacts: the best!




11 am - cuddles with a little guy that needed some Mama time




noon - off to run some errands




1 pm - refueling




2 pm - organizing some washi tape




3 pm - computer time for some Sewing Summit business




4 pm - there's 4 sticks of butter going in these puppies!




5 pm - chalking outside




6 pm - cookies out of the oven




7 pm - doors closed means bedtime for the boys



8 pm - watering my front porch flowers




Do you do any monthly photo projects?

Last minute Mother's Day gift ideas to sew roundup

Mother's Day is in less than a week & if you're a last minute shopper / sewist like I am, I thought you might like some ideas for cute, quick & easy gifts you can make in the next few days for your mom or a special mom in your life. I rounded up a few great sewing tutorials for Mother's Day gifts that you can make with minimal time & fabric - but they're all super cute, fresh & fun.



Below find links to 9 great tutorials to fun & useful things like mug rugs, coffee cozys, aprons, towels, pillowcases or cute t-shirts! Happy Mother's Day!



Linen napkins, from Penny at Sew Take a Hike.



Selvedge mug rug, from Angela at Fussy Cut.



Embellished T-Shirt, from Darci at Stitches & Scissors



Coffee Cozy, from Jeni at In Color Order



Patchwork greeting card, from Megan at Canoe Ridge Creations



Pretty, quick pillowcases, from Ashley at Film in the Fridge



Floursack patchwork towels, by Heather at House of A La Mode



Quilted iPad cover, from Amber at One Shabby Chick



Zig zag apron, from me!

my SNAP! conference recap

As I said in my last post, this past weekend I had the chance to attend the SNAP! Conference! I was so excited this event was happening right in my backyard (seriously Thanksgiving Point, where the conference took place, is about 10 minutes away, which was great because I left the conference on Saturday morning to go see Marc finish the Salt Lake City Marathon!).

SNAP is a conference for DIY & creative bloggers - the same type of event for the online crafting community as Sewing Summit is for the online sewing community. There were so many amazing bloggers & crafters there & I had a fantastic time. I was on Instagram most of the weekend, posting pictures of all the amazing details of the event. Here's some of my highlights:



I brought my Sewing Summit lanyard to use for my name badge | Standing room only at the blogging panel (you can read a great recap of the panel here)



My favorite type of swag: sewing stuff from Pick Your Plum! | You know you're at a blogging conference when ...



The conference founder Tauni telling us her blogging story | Meeting Ashley of Lil Blue Boo was a highlight of my weekend!



The Queen Bee Market was held on Friday night & Saturday, lots of amazing shopping to be had! Plus Mique & Jessica are two of the sweetest girls, ever. | A selvedge globe. I mean really, how could I NOT buy it?! I'll be blogging about this awesome thing more later this week.



The closing dinner & on Saturday night | Goodbye SNAP - you were so fun!



The fun girls I hung out with most of the weekend, Melissa from Polkadot Chair, Amy from Diary of a Quilter & Traci from Amazing Mae. | Saturday night I came home & I was dead tired - spent the rest of the night with my frozen yogurt & all my new business cards!


I had the best time this weekend & it makes me even more excited about the plans we have in place for Sewing Summit! Thanks to the amazing SNAP! team that made this weekend go off with out a hitch & lots of fun for everyone!