Giveaways Galore!!!

Not mine yet! Coming soon though, I promise!

Here are a few awesome giveaways with some time left to enter:

First up: Karen over at Badlands Quilts is giving away a Soiree HoneyBun for her 25th post! Karen's giveaway ends August 5th so head on over!

Over at PS I Quilt, Rachel is giving away a $50 gift certificate to fat quarter shop! Talk about awesome! Seriously! You have to hurry though because the last day to enter is today!

Last but not least, there is an amazing bag giveaway over at Bumble Beans Quilts! The contest ends tomorrow (August 1st) at 9am. Go visit V's blog to see the gorgeous bag and enter the giveaway!

Vacation Re-Cap

Last week, Hubby, me, and Paige took a mini vacation. We went to the beach for a few days...just long enough to get crispy and finish a book or two! Paige normally does not go on vacation with us...and I was hesitant to take her. Paige makes poor choices in our house and even more recently does not go in her crate since breaking out of it a few months back. It has since been put back together but I'm afraid to leave her in it, fearing that she'll try to break out again and hurt herself. So, the crate stayed home. Paige came to the beach and was a very good girl. She cried a little when we left a few times to go to the beach and boardwalk. She was so good, we bought her a baby on the boardwalk since we forgot to pack some for her to play with. Surprisingly the baby has lasted more than 10 minutes (up to 5 days now!) without her shredding it completely.

Paige chillaxing in bed with her new baby! Paige was a tired girl from

all the walks on the beach and the heat.

A view from the bay of our vacation location. This picture was taken during our

crabbing trip the previous weekend. It was my first time on a boat!

I packed my sewing machine and sewing basket to work on a quilt but the sunny beach was too inviting to sit inside and sew! We came home to a defrosted freezer and not completely cold refrigerator. Fortunately, the refrigerator is not broken and the malfunction was a result of someone (ugh...me) leaving the freezer door slightly open. The bad news is everything in my freezer had to be discarded. The good news is a lot of it needed to be thrown out anyway. Before figuring out that the fridge was working properly, we researched buying a new one and looked at quite a few. That, my friends, is another blog post for another time.

Hi, my name is Swedish and I'm an Eco-Sinner!

Another crazy week of classes and sewing, another project completed! Hubby surprised me with flowers from his garden last week. They were so pretty and it was very sweet! On top of classes and sewing, was book club. This month's book was, "Confessions of an Eco-sinner" by Fred Pearce. I still have not finished it (ooops!) but I can already say it is a great read. Fred flies around the world to research where his "stuff" comes from: everything from his wedding ring, to his computer, to the socks on his feet, the coffee he drinks, the fruits and veggies on his plate, etc.

It is by far an eye opening book and as a consumer made me very depressed. Basically I've learned that fair trade anything isn't necessarily fair trade. The farmers growing the crops don't see that additional money we are paying for the end "fair trade" product. The only thing fair trade assures is that the farmers are getting paid slightly higher than the market value which in reality is only a few cents. The only other point I'll bring up for thought, before stepping off the soapbox, is that almost all of our clothes in the US come from sweat shops or are made from materials that are grown by grossly underpaid farmers. Granted this is not my own research, and I'm sure there plenty of online vendors, so don't shoot the messenger! Fred basically tell us that the clothes we buy from Walmart, Old Navy, Gap, etc are all produced in the same factory. They all come off the same assembly line. So why on earth should I pay $58 for a pair of jeans at Gap, when I can buy them for $10 or $15 at Walmart? I would be more than willing to pay $40 for a pair of jeans, if I knew that extra money went to the workers rather than some CEO sitting behind a desk. So needless to say the book was depressing, made me feel helpless in the world I live in, but I need to keep on, keepin' on.

So now that you've digested that (you are still there, aren't you?), here are the chair cushions I made/recovered this weekend. The picture shows the back of the top cushion, because the front was too boring. The strings are to tie it to the chair. I'm pleased with how they turned out, although they don't photograph well and they are super soft!

I'm A Machine

I'm a reading, homework doing, class attending, bbq-ing, book club attending, sewing and soon to be exercising machine. This is probably going to be the busiest week ever! I have something to do each and every night this week and unfortunately none of it involves sewing. Tonight I had class...and I'll have to do more homework once my teacher realizes how crappy my paper is, but tomorrow...tomorrow is going to be AWESOME! We are going to DORNEY Park! Hubby got me tickets for my birthday (great present) and I can't wait to go. We've never been to an amusement park together. I love water parks and am not a fan of roller coasters, but that's ok because neither is here. Although I've got all this crazy stuff to do, I've managed to pick up another project and the deadline is ASAP. My mom's friend's DIL is having a baby girl in about 2 weeks. Her first baby was a boy so everything is blue. Not going to work for a baby girl, right? My mom volunteered me to recover cushions for the rocking chair/glider since they couldn't find cushions to buy outright. I have the cushions, check. I have the fabric and thread, check. I have the time...hello time, where are you? I'm all about upcycling and reuse but I'm a little short on time.

The fabric was an excellent buy at JoAnn fabric. I can't tell you how much, it was that cheap! It's upholstery fabric and it's velvety. It is going to cover the cushions nicely and be really comfy for the new mom. Here's a pic of the fabric ready to be cut... It's very plain and neutral (read: does not photograph well). I'm not sure exactly how this is going to work, but wish me luck!

To make up for the less than quality photo above, here's something I've recently added to my stash. I have aspirations of making a Wonderland quilt of some sort with this (any suggestions, please??), but of course I'd like to hold on to it forever! The jelly roll and patchwork fabric, (1 yard) are from fabric.com. The floral is a fat quarter that I grabbed off the table at The Little Shop during their fat quarter frenzy sale yesterday. 20 fat quarters for $25...I only bought 20....but I'm so going back for more!

The Great Escape

Happy 4th of July!!

I love summer and spending time with family/friends, so this is one of my favorite holidays.

Hubby and I hosted our second annual 4th of July barbecue this year, but on July 3rd! The preparation/shopping was overwhelming and there were some minor fireworks incidents at night but overall it was a good time.

The following day we were sitting (recovering) on the couch before going to a family reunion when I noticed our window was open and the screen was nowhere to be seen. Spike (my kitty) would like to explain what happened from his point of view. At this point in time, Annabelle is pleading the 5th. She's not very talkative to begin with anyway!

"I jumped up in the window to watch the birds and the screen fell out. I tumbled out the window and meowed really loud. Annabelle came to see what was going on and she jumped out the window to come see if I was ok. Luckily I have nine lives! I told Annabelle we needed to go wait on the porch because we aren't allowed outside. She thought the porch was to the right and I thought it was to the left. She wouldn't listen to me and I didn't want to get in trouble! When I got to the porch, I couldn't open the door so I thought it'd be better to wait under the porch for you to come find me. Good thing you found me, cause I was getting really hungry!"

The drop was about 7 feet from the ground. I obviously have no idea what really happened, but I was panicked when I couldn't find my babies. I heard Spike meowing and found him right away under the porch. We searched the house for Annabelle again...and then I started to really panic (and cry). She hides so well and is scared of everything. I searched the back yard and barely spotted her brown and black butt under the deck. Hubby crawled under and pulled her out. She was limp so my first concern was that maybe she got hit by a car. Once I got her in the house she was fine, she's just petrified of everything.

Sleepy Spike laying in Hubby's clothes.

Annabelle cuddling on the couch.

Just A Glimpse!

This is where the magic happens! My sweet little Kenmore from my grandmom has been a dream. Grandmom recently told me the only reason she got rid of it was because my pop-pop wanted to buy her a new one. She ended up with a Singer and I got her Kenmore. I think I ended up with the better end of the deal :) You can see my essentials nearby: Sigg bottle, cell phone, and house phone! Someday when I'm brave enough or clean well, I'll post pictures of the rest of the craft room.



My first row is finally assembled for the quilt along. I have 6 more left (I think!!). I'm waaaay behind but I've got way too many other things to focus on right now!

FO- Plastic bag holder. Hubby has been bothering me for months (or a year) about getting all of the plastic bags out of our kitchen drawer. They just took over one day so that we can't open the drawer above without a hassle. So here is my solution:

The top is closed and has a handle to hang it. It is a straight seam and the bottom has an elastic casing. The fabric is from a swap so I have no idea what it's called. It probably only holds 10% of our plastic bags so I'll take the rest to be recycled. I know what you are thinking....yes we use cloth bags for shopping when we remember, but we need the plastic bags for cleaning the litter box too. We definitely don't need the 5 bajillion I just took out of the drawer though! Next time, I would make the bag holder more curvy rather than straight seamed and Hubby suggested an open top.

My next post is either 99 or 100! Look for a 100th post giveaway!

Edited to add: This was only my 96th post! Sorry, I can't count!

Summer, Summer, Summer Time!!!

In the past week, I've added so many blogs to my reader I can't keep up! It's great to see the projects everyone has been working on.

Here's what I've been up to:

Finished Object - Frenchy Bag

I enjoyed making this bag! The fabric was cute and the pattern was super simple, especially since this is the second one I made. The only pattern alteration I made was I made the 2 pockets into 4 so they would be more functional. I think now I'll try the handbag (smaller) version of this bag!

This week has been incredibly busy. I had a whole bunch of things to post, but not enough time! School started Monday, the world lost Farah and MJ on Thursday, and we experienced a loss of our own the same day. Our neighbor's dog Larry got off of his leash Wednesday night and was hit by a train. It was horrible. He was one of four dachsunds that our neighbors rescued. Larry left behind his mate/wife who was just rescued by my neighbors not too long ago. Paige lost a very good friend that day.

Race Against Time

Looking back this time a year ago, there was no way I would be able to spend an hour (or 2) a night sewing. I was planning a wedding, working full time, and taking classes. I never had time for hobbies, other than pottery. Now that the wedding has passed and I've stopped taking classes, I've had so much time to spend on hobbies. The problem is I have too many hobbies!

By the end of the work day, I'm usually so tired and frustrated that all I want to do is go home and veg...which I do...ALOT! Not to mention all this weight I have gained since the wedding. Who has time (or energy) to work out after working all day, and then even more energy to create? Not me! I can't even imagine what having kids will do to my "me time".

Well I have bad news...classes start on Monday. Yes, classes, plural. The good news....they are online. My hobby time will be gone once again. It's time to prioritize and make some cuts. Scrap booking has been long gone. I'd rather spend $300 on fabric than on a Cricut. I'm sure I'll revisit scrap booking later, like when I have kids to take pictures of. Pottery is on hiatus too. It's too expensive and in this economy it's all about saving money. Besides, how many bowls or cup-like things without handles do I really need? Knitting and cross stitch are good traveling crafts so they'll probably survive the downsizing (at least this time around). It looks like sewing is here to stay! Goals of the week, by Monday I need to finish AB purse #2 (fabric is cut & ready to be sewn) and ORB quilt. I'm still behind in the quilt along. I have one strip set left to complete. Hopefully I'll finish the top tonight :) Then I'll need to pick backing and batting up from the store.

Wish me luck!