Charmed...I'm sure :)

Sewing has been a passion of mine since I was 8 years old. When my children were young, I made all their clothing. They can remember going to my favorite fabric warehouse and me picking them up and sitting them on top of a massive table covered in assorted loose buttons that had an edge all around it so that the buttons wouldn't fall on the ground. I'd give them one button that I wanted and send them out to search for more that matched :)  I thought I knew a lot about sewing. Not so much as it turns out. Quilting is like a whole other animal. (they even have their own language) I'll admit that I've had to google some of their terminology. I have always wanted to learn more about quilting. I mean who wouldn't want to get involved in a hobby that includes delicious fabric bundles called "layer cakes" and "jelly rolls". I know.......right? So I finally took the plunge into the world of quilting and bought my first ever "charm pack".  I also bought this super cute bag pattern to use my fabulous little pre-cut fabric squares! The hardest part so far has been deciding on which of these yummy squares should sit next to the other. I finally figured it out and so today I will sew it together. Hopefully tomorrow I'll have pictures of the finished bag and I'll let you know what I thought about the pattern.  I also finished another Apron Swap and I'm waiting for my partner to receive it before I post pictures of the  finished apron. Hopefully that will be tomorrow too!

I just want to play in the dirt :)

My favorite time of year is definitely Winter. I love sweater weather, rainy days, hot coffee, and all the holidays that go along with the cooler months of the year. But I have to admit, there is something magical about Spring. To see the riot of color in the faces of the opening flowers and even the smell of damp earth waiting to be planted. Every year there comes a day when suddenly I feel the garden tugging at me to come outside and restore the neglected flower beds and hanging baskets. My wonderful hubby bought me a Meyer Lemon tree and planted it for me last week. It has tons of buds that will become lemons soon and I can't wait to go outside and "harvest" them :) We purchased pansies and daisies and azaleas and roses and big bags of potting soil.  My little grandson David is stopping by later and he can help me plant my Sunflower seeds and Sweet Pea seeds too! (After last years attack of the mutant tomato plant that took over the entire backyard, I'm going to stick with flowers and buy my veggies at the grocery store like normal people do) I can hardly wait to put on my gardening gloves and get dirty!

Unplugged :)

The view from the front of the house.

Gabriel was helping Papa start a fire in the fireplace.

Life can get so busy. Even a domestic goddess, such as myself, needs time to "unplug" every now and then. To walk away from Facebook and blogging and cell phones and all of that. We get so caught up in the hectic pace of daily life! I love that our family makes time every year for our annual Family Getaway. The funny part is that as soon as we get home, we start talking about next year's trip :) Normally we go to Lake Arrowhead, but because of the mountain terrain it's almost impossible to find a house to rent that has a large flat yard for the boys to play in. So they end up spending most of their time indoors. My daughter in law, April, suggested that this year we should try Julian. I found this amazing home to rent on Homeaway.com. It'is a truly magical place to take the family. I felt like a child myself when I went inside this beautiful home and saw the backyard through the large windows. There is a tire swing and a zip line! The backyard is massive! Every child's dream yard! The perfect place for the boys to use their new adventure belts! The beds in every room have wonderful plush mattresses with gorgeous bedding!

Our 4 grandsons :)

I felt like we were staying at a friend's home and not a rental. The owner was so wonderful to deal with and she told us about Don's Market in town where they make their own sausage (which we had 2 varieties for 2 different meals....yummo!) and I also tried bacon ends for the first time. Thick chunks of bacon...oh my! Hopefully this home will be available for rent and we will be able to come back for years to come! In Lake Arrowhead, of course, the highlight for the little ones is snow. We were hopeful that we may get some snow in Julian. As it turned out, we were blessed that on Saturday we got our wish. The snow was falling and the boys (OK...I'll admit that I was pretty excited too) were beyond excited! I just wished we could have stayed longer! Our Family Getaway of 2011 is now in the history books and Caleb told his Mommy the next morning that he wished the "brown cabin" could be our home and David woke up from his nap yesterday and told his Mommy that he wanted to go back. Sounds like a good time was had by all :)

The boys found some cowboy hats to play with.

The zip line was a big hit!

Seriously.....who doesn't love a tire swing?

The view from the back of the house.

More zipping!

The boys on one of their many adventures in the backyard!

Checking out the huge front yard!

Elijah was making notes in his adventure journal.

Elijah and Papa adventuring!

Oma and Caleb playing Candy Land :)

Barkley with his jacket and boots in the snow :)

David catching snowflakes in his mouth :)

Elijah making snow balls!

Elijah and Caleb playing in the falling snow!

Adventure is Out There!

As a family, we go on a get-away every year in February and this year is no different. I got the idea to make Adventure Belts for the boys a few months ago and I've been collecting components for them ever since. I wasn't quite sure what material I was going to use for the belts themselves. I thought about felt, but changed my mind because it wouldn't really hold up well. Then I thought about denim and maybe using a heavy iron on interfacing to stiffen it up. Then the other night when I couldn't sleep....again.... (thanks peri-menopause) I started designing the belts in my head and I remembered that I bought a few yards of chalk cloth a few years back to make some chalkboards for the boys and I never used it. I decided that it would be perfect! It has the feeling of vinyl upholstery fabric. I edged the chalk cloth in bias tape with a tight zig zag stitch to soften the sharp edge as well as keep it from curling up and it also color co-ordinates with the accessories that go in the belt. For the actual "belt" I bought one yard of colored webbing in all 3 colors and D-rings to make the belts adjustable. Each of the boys has their own color so that there will be no confusion or fighting later on. Each belt holds a large magnifying glass that has a removable handle so that you can collect bugs inside the tube :) Also an adventure journal with a pen, a retractable measuring tape and a flashlight. Each boy will also have a pair of binoculars, but those will go around their neck and not on the belt. If my boys weren't so skinny, I could probably have fit another compartment on the belt, but I didn't want the belts to go completely around their body :) I'm hoping to have some fun pictures of my little adventurers wearing their belts very soon! My hubby wanted one for himself. So if one of the big boys like the belts, chances are good that the little boys will like them too!

A fun Friday night and a mystery.....

I spent another Friday night sewing with my blogger friend Regena :) Although we live in different cities, with the magic of the internet, we can each work on projects in the comfort of our own homes while we chat back and forth in between breaking needles and ripping out seams gone awry.
I wanted to take a break from sewing items for the shop and decided to make something just for me. A few weeks back I saw the pattern for this re-usable grocery bag over at Sew4home.com and I knew I wanted to try it out. You can find the free download here. It's a great pattern..... easy to follow and fun to make. I'll definately be making more of these. I used sturdy home decor fabric and I love the way it turned out. A bag like this might actually make grocery shopping more fun. (OK....I said "might")


the mystery materials.......


So that was the fun part....now on to the mystery! I've been collecting the items in this photo for a for a while now and today I'm starting the project.  Can you guess what I'm making? I'll show pictures and the details hopefully tomorrow, so stay tuned!

31 and 28....a couple of days late :)

I realize that February 16th was a few days ago, so this

post is a few days late.

Since I was 19 years old, February 16th has been a very special day for me. It was on that day 31 years ago that I became Mrs. Jose A. Torres. There was very little else I wanted to be in life besides Jose's wife and the mother to his children. I got my wish very quickly and our son Brandon was born in November of the same year. Our son was the most wonderful, smartest little boy ever and I longed for a little sister for him. 3 years later on our wedding anniversary we were blessed with a beautiful little girl! I couldn't have been happier!  So every year as we celebrate our anniversary we also celebrate our amazing daughter who is now 28 years old and happliy married. She too had her son born in November and is now expecting their little girl in June! This year for our anniversary, Jose bought me these gorgeous roses and this beautiful sterling necklace with our wedding date stamped into the bead cap. He also told me to pick out new dishes for our home (service for 16 as our family continues to grow :) But no matter what gifts I receive for our anniversary, Kristina will continue to be the best of all anniversary gifts!

Happy Anniversary my Love! I love you more every day!

And Happy Birthday Mouse! We love you and we are soooo proud of the wonderful wife and mother you are!

Rollin' with the Gnomies..... :)

 Yesterday's "Gnomie test run" went better than I expected! Karl found a new home the very day he was listed in the shop :) So I put my hands to work making another Karl and Jurgen, Gunter, and Reiner too! Those are all names of some of the men in my family :) We'll see how it goes. Good thing the hubby was watching "blow 'em up and everybody dies" movies last night. Gave me time to do all the handwork on these 4 guys.

The hubster gave me these gorgeous tulips for Valentine's Day as well as this hilarious card that had me laughing out loud for over 20 minutes! Our 31st anniversary is tomorrow as well as our daughter's 28th birthday. We have sooo much to be thankful for :)