full of family

The beginning of October was so busy for me. We had a nice big family get together, most of which was spent at our home, which was fine with me....I would not have wanted it any other way. My oldest brother turned 40 on October 1st and for about a year we had been chit chatting and planning all of my family to be together for the weekend of his birthday. (my nephew Garrett wearing a shirt that his FAVORITE Auntie (that would be me) gave him that says "my aunt rocks".

Little did we know that during our earlier chit chats and planning that we were going to be blessed with a very special guest that weekend. My 91 year old Grandpa from Florida. (My oldest brother lives in Portland, OR the rest of us live in the Spokane area). My Grandpa had been the only care giver of my Grandmother for 10+ years and she passed away in the beginning of August...after she passed my dad asked my Grandpa if he wanted to come up for the "Birthday weekend." It was the best gift ever.

Months ago I saw a quilt pattern and I immediately had my brother in mind for it, he had no idea that I had made him his own "Auntie blanket" (as his family calls them) Christina from "The Sometimes Crafter" did the quilting on it, she did a great job, as you can see my brother loves it. (I also just won a book from Christina's blog, yeah me).
(not the best picture of my brother, but this is what he did after opening it, wrapped himself up in it. :)

The label :)

Michael's 40th Birthday quilt

up close of the stitching

So here is a picture of my Grandpa, I just loved the time we spent with him, I was so, so sad after everyone left on Monday, my house was so quite....during the weekend it was loud with laughing, stories, kids running around but like I said earlier I would not have wanted it any other way, I too was bursting at the seams but with happiness.

sweet girl

Today is my little EmJem's 7th birthday...how time flies......we had a little family party last weekend, it was strawberry themed, she and I were really happy with how it turned out (I don't think anyone else noticed, ha ha!)
We found a little strawberry necklace at the mall, so cute!

She wanted pink (of course) cupcakes so we did 1/2 pink and 1/2 white and had little "7" flags and strawberry picks in them and some of the food trays. I had also found some fake strawberrys at Michael's so we put those out on the table too along with some strawberry candy and strawberry gum.

Here she is with her DS (enter singing of angels here)

Last but not least I took Emily, her brother and my niece to Build A Bear yesterday so she could pick out a little something for "Cutie" her cat...oh to be 7 again.........

berry birthday

We have a berry special birthday in the house this month....Emily will be turning 7. My hubs happens to be out of town on a business trip on her actual birthday so we will be celebrating a little early this year...just decided this a few days ago...the date...that was it....until Monday night when I stumbled up some berry cute strawberry and gingham paper napkins and cups for .60 cents for each package at Michael's! I was so excited, they are so stinkin cute....I ran the berry idea past Emily and she loved it. Also while at Michael's I strolled through the clearance isle and what do I see? Two darling packages of strawberries (see below in photo) for 1.99 each....adrenaline is pumping, ideas running through my head, fun fun fun!!!

Up until last year for Emily's birthday we always had her parties at home, simple, had a few friends over but the $$ always adds up so fast for the gift, goodie bags, decorations, food, invites, the time, energy...it can get a little crazy....last year we let her have her party at Chuck E. Cheese :/. I will admit it was nice having someone else do the party, tell the kids what to do, where to go and the little goody bags were included so was the hefty price attached with it for food, etc. Emily really, really wants a Nintendo DS this year, really bad....so I told her she could have a friend party or a DS...decisions, decisions....she settled on the DS...we still want to celebrate her and her day so we are having just a small family gathering to celebrate her with some family goodies from Grandparents, Aunts, Uncles and Cousins....keeping it simple and small along with the price tag for the theme....so far so good....I have also picked up some darling cupcake wrappers, happened to see some cute "berry sweet" ribbon on an end cap (once again at Michael's) and used a 40% off coupon for the paper/envelopes for the invites, these cost me next to nothing!

We are leaving Sunday for 5 days to Seattle then her party is a few days after we get back so I am trying to get it all out in my head what we are going to use for a little decor here and there and the goodies and food but I am keeping it simple and inexpensive, still gotta get that DS!!

she liked it!

My BFF Cheyenne opening her birthday present I made her. :)

She loved it!

I finished another quilt top yesterday, this one is a special gift for a special someone in May. I am going to meet up with Christina while in Portland this week and she is going to quilt it for me. I know it will be a hard one to give away but I can't wait!

don't look!

I made another one of these lovelies, "French Roses" soft edge applique quilt by Heather French. This is a birthday gift for my BFF Cheyenne who the title is written for. I told her not to look at my blog until after I see her on Saturday unless she wants to spoil the surprise....she won't look, I know it. :)
This is the 2nd one of these I have made. I made another one in August for my friend Nissa's birthday as well. They are SO easy and after several washings and dryings the edges of the raw applique just look so vintage and cozy. I still need to make one of these babies for myself.

All of the fabrics are from Heather Bailey's "Freshcut" line that is being discontinued, it is made up of lovely, feminine prints....all of Heather Bailey's fabric lines are lovely and feminine. :) There is also an Amy Butler dot here and there and a few other miscellaneous prints from my stash for the leaves, LOVE using stuff from my stash!!

Another raw edge applique quilt on my "to do" list is here. Isn't that awesome? I have a baby quilt to make for a former co-worker having a little girl in August, I have another raw edge applique quilt pattern up my sleeve for that one too...more on that later.......

one for me, one for her

I have mentioned this wristlet before....this is such a quick, fun little project....the top one is for me :) made out of my Flea Market Fancy stash...pretty pretty....

This one is for another friend with an October birthday, the back fabric and the front fabric with the aqua apples are made from vintage feedsack fabric given to me or swapped with me from online bloggers....it will be filled with some fun little birthday goodies :)

Happy Birthday

Today is my dad's 64th birthday....last night we had my parents over for dinner and dessert...of course Emily and Jack had to help Granpa blow out his candle on the yummy "dump cake"