A good laugh!

I got this e-mail the other day and could not stop laughing!

How Swine Flu crossed to humans!

I feel like I'm missing something!

I was getting really sick of the decorations on the shelf in my dining room and decided to redo it.

My silly husband doesn't give me a budget for my random redecorating so I pretty much just used stuff around the house!

It looks ok, but I'm still not wild about it. Those pegs are a real pain. It's hard to find stuff to hang from them. Do people still those candles like I have in the above picture? Do you have any ideas for me? I need some help! I know the shelf is too high, but it's bolted into the wall and I'm not going to ask my husband to redo it. Ya have to pick your battles!

Wow, looking at this picture it really is too high, maybe I will bug him!

Some exciting news.......Guess what came in the mail last week??? My Moda fabric finally came! The poor UPS man probably thought I was stocking him. I now know that he comes between 9:30 and 10:00 almost everyday. My neighbors were even watching out for him for me. Anyhow, the fabric came and I can't wait to get working on some tutorials. I'm feeling a little inadequate, but for all this cute fabric I'll get over it. I'd show pictures but some of the fabric hasn't been released yet so it's a secret, but trust me it's way cute!

Also my friend Felicia, the best quilter on the face of the earth as far as I'm concerned just started a blog for her quilting business called The Quilting bee, go check it out, she's amazing!

"W" is for Woman!

This is my five year old son! He is constantly saying things that crack me up. Friday was show and tell at preschool and he was supposed to bring something that starts with "W". I asked him what he was going to bring. He said, "A Woman." The conversation went something like this..........

ME - Oh really, what Woman are you going to take to preschool?

5 YEAR OLD CUTIE - Buzz light year!

ME - Honey, Buzz isn't a woman!

5 YEAR OLD - Yes, he is, he's a woman and a man!

ME - No, I'm pretty sure he is just a man!

So, I finally talked him into taking a whale, seriously how did I get this kid so confused!!!

So my friend Megan told me I'm slacking at my blog! I told her I just don't have anything interesting to blog about, she gave me a good pep talk and I'm going to really try to do better. I am taking a quilting class to learn how to quilt with my sewing machine, if you're interested I'll do a few posts about that and fill you in on the stuff I'm learning.

Another big thing for me has happened. My friend Megan told me I should blog about it, I was too worried it would sound like I was bragging, but here it goes. Moda (ya know, the coolest fabric line on earth) contacted me about a month ago and asked me to do some tutorials for their Moda Bake Shop blog. I'm just waiting to receive the fabric in the mail and soon I hope to be sewing up a storm of fun stuff for their site. Thanks Megan for the little Pep talk! By the way if your from Utah go and visit Megan's blog she makes the most beautiful tassels and next week she will be selling some at a local boutique, you won't want to miss out!

Super Yummy Strawberry Syrup

Last week when strawberries were on sale, me and my friend got together and made some super good Strawberry Syrup. (sorry, I should have posted this last week so you could have bought them on sale too.) This picture is not the greatest, I'm still having a hard time figuring out my new camera.

Strawberry Syrup

2 1/2 quarts of strawberries

3 cups water

strip of lemon peel

2 1/2 cups sugar

3 1/2 cups corn syrup

2 tablespoons lemon juice

Crush the strawberries, and strain out seeds with cheesecloth. Combine 1 1/2 cups water, strawberry mixture and lemon peel in a medium saucepan. Simmer five minutes, them remove lemon peel. Combine sugar and 1 1/2 cups in a bigger saucepan. Boil to 260 degrees. (we only boiled it until it was between 255 and 260, when we let it get to 260 it crystallized into sugar) Add strawberry juice mixture and corn syrup to boiled sugar. Boil four minutes. Stir in lemon juice. Ladle into hot jars, saving 1/4 inch head space. Process 10 minutes in canner.

Also, a lot of you asked about our carpet. We bought it at a place here in Utah called Buy Direct (no membership required). The color is Pure Bliss Alder. It's called a Solution Dyed carpet, and that why it doesn't stain or bleach!

A little Room Swapping

With a new baby on the way we decided it was time to do a little room swapping, and ever since we moved here we have desperately needed new carpet. The kids rooms were the worst it was this awful cream color that no matter how many times I clean it still looked really bad. We did all of this a couple months ago, but I've hardly hung anything on the walls so I haven't blogged about it. But, I'm just going to give in and then when they are a little more decorated I'll blog about it again!


Here is my daughters room before. People, I don't know what I was thinking painting it yellow. I love yellow, but can I just tell you how hard it is to find a decent yellow!

Notice the pretty stained carpet, nasty isn't it!

She also shared this room with her baby brother. That's another reason we decided to do some swapping, he was crawling out of his crib way too much and we were afraid he was going to get hurt.

Here is her room now. We moved her to the smaller bedroom down the hall that was her brothers. Now she has her very own room.

I tried to pick a color that would work for a girl or boy because when the baby comes this will be his/or her room. My poor daughter we will be moving her once again to the office which after we put a wall up to divide it into two rooms will be her bedroom!

Here is my sons room (that is now my daughters) are you confused yet??? Yep, you guessed it, we moved him down the hall to the bigger bedroom.

Now him and his little brother share a room. I still need to make a ragmuffin for my younger son. We were lucky that the place we bought the bed from two years ago still sold it. The quilt was a little more difficult. It had been discontinued so I searched all over the Internet for it and finally found it at a store in Idaho, but they were out of the pillow shams. I need to make them some matching throw pillows or something.

I have to tell you about the cool carpet. It doesn't stain or bleach. We even took a sample home before we bought it and poured grape juice and bleach on it. The bleach did nothing and the grape juice rinsed right out! Hopefully it will be good carpet and last a long time!

10 Not so interesting things about Me!

I got this from the very cute and talented Mimi Sue, I'm telling you she has the cutest house in my neighborhood! I'm supposed to tell you ten things about myself!

1. I'm a twin, but we look nothing alike. She's blond, I'm a brunet . She's like a size 2, I'm just not. We didn't get along great when we were younger, but now she is one of my best friends, she lives just a few blocks away!

2. The day I came home from the hospital with my first baby, I also received my college diploma in the mail (Bachelor's in Music). After having a beautiful baby girl, the diploma didn't seem so important anymore!

3. My parents are way cooler than me. I'm serious, they dress cooler, they listen to cooler music,

look, I'll prove it here is picture.......

4. I've never had a broken bone, stitches, or surgery!

5. I don't like potatoes in soup!

6. I have 3 kids, and 1 on the way. That's why I've been a miserable blogger, sitting down at the computer for some reason makes me sick!

7. I play in a flute choir with 10-14 other flute players!

8. I love just about anything crafty!

9. I'm a worrier, I worry myself sick about anything and everything. I worry constantly about offending people, I worry about my kids, I worry about my husband, you name it I worry! Sometimes I dread social functions because I worry so much after about everything I said!

10. I love Friday nights, watching a Movie with my family and eating popcorn!

Now, I get to pass this along.....................

Erin from Shades of Color

Carrie from Carrie's Little World

Laurel from Ducks in a Row

Jennifer from Livin with Peaches

Mercy Ottis from The Stone House

Mandi from Misses Canadian Pie

Jeni from At Home in Georgia

Just another day in Paradise Sewing