It's Giveaway day!

Today is Sew Mama Sew's giveaway day! I've had fun in the past visiting lots of new blogs and entering for the giveaways. Since I have the worst luck ever I figured this time I would be one of the participants doing a giveaway. You'll receive the following item if you are the winner. It's a chicken pincushion made by me. I'm not sure what color you will get, that will depend on my mood on the day I mail it out. Just leave a comment and I'll put all names in a hat and let one of my helpers choose a name at random on the 6th. I've decided to add an extra entry for followers. Thanks for stopping by and have fun!

An update

It's been a few days since my last update, so here's a little bit of what I've been doing. For some reason I decided it would be fun to go Black Friday shopping with my sister, and she agreed to join me on the trip. I thought it would be just awful, but for the most part we had a great time. We started at the VF factory outlets where we each got a gift certificate to a store there, and all we had to do was be one of the first 500 people in line. We did wait in line for 2 hours, but it was a mild evening so it wasn't bad at all and the free items we got with the certificates was so worth it. I left my house at 9:00 and didn't get home until 6:40 am. I could have gone longer but my sister had to be home to take care of her kids while her husband was off at therapy.

Some store were too busy to even look around in like Toys R Us and Old Navy, but I managed to get some good deals and at least take a good chunk out of the shopping. I went to Target Friday night after resting up a bit. There I was shocked to still be able to purchase some of their door busters even then.

Then it was off to Joann Fabrics shopping with my mom and sister on Saturday after our family Thanksgiving. I bought some thread since it was 50% off and had a coupon from the flyer for 50% off a regular priced item.

I found this pattern to buy with that. I loved the colors of fabric used in the pattern picture, which reminded me that I has seen them somewhere. So back to Fabric Mart to get more Moda fabric for 2.99 per yard. I should have bought it the first time I saw it because some of the peices were gone, but I managed to get several and some that look like they belong. I'll have to go hunting to find a few more that I need.

The project manager stopped by to take a look.

He seemed to like what I bought because he wanted to lay down on it while I was trying to snap a picture. So anyway, I'll just add this fabric and pattern to the pile of "To Do Projects"

Our corn was combined over the weekend. The guy that did the combining is also the big boys school bus driver. The big boy was so excited and rode in the combine the whole time. Today the corn was hauled up to the feed mill to be used to make feed for our cattle this winter.

We also had the boys pictures, as well as our first real family picture in seven years, taken over the weekend. I saw a couple previews and can't wait to get them and share with you. They are going to be really good I am sure!

Happy Thanksgiving

Happy Thanksgiving to everyone!

I decided to write a list of things I am thankful for this year. So in the spirit of the Holiday I am thankful:

• For being healthy. A full appreciation for the gift of life didn't hit me until being faced with the possibility of my death. Now almost 3 years later I am ever so thankful for life
• For my husband who works tirelessly to not only support our family but to keep things functioning at our home. Who without to much complaining allows me to pursue my interests.
• For the big boy who is so smart and caring
• For the little boy who is so loving and funny.
• For the 5000 goofy faces the little boy makes
• For the ability to get my boys out of bed every morning and be at home with them every day, watching them as they grow
• For lots of room for the boys to play and explore
• For cows because I just love them
• for pumpkin, pumpkin pies, pumpkin whoopee pies, pumpkin bread, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, you get the point...
• For Family
• For a coal stove that keeps us very warm in the winter because I really don't like the cold (is it spring yet?)
• For my home
• For eggs fresh right from the chicken
• For friends

I could go on and on, but I need to get back to working on Christmas presents. I hope everyone has a wonderful thanksgiving!

Experimenting

The other day I was looking on the Sew Mama Sew website and saw a tutorial for this bag listed. I thought it was pretty cute and decided to give it a whirl. Thankfully there is still plenty of cheap Moda fabric to be bought at Fabric Mart so it makes trying something new affordable in case you don't like it. However this turned out adorable!

A big thank you!

Thanks to Anya from over at the Hills Creek Quilter! I signed up on her Pay it Forward post. Last week I recieved a box in the mail. Apparently the box alone was enough of a gift because my youngest played in it for a long time.

Anya made me this beautiful bag out of my favorite colors! She also included a pillowcase for each of the boys. They were very excited!

The bag has now become the "Grandmother's flower garden quilt bag". I can easily carry it with me so that whenever i am somewhere and have a few minutes for hand sewing I can work on it. Hopefully it will inspire me to maybe finish it.

So thank you so much for your kindness, it is greatly appreciated.

My Little Cowboy

Finally sewing again

Time to sew just hasn't been plentiful of late due to all the other things going on and the lack of sewing space. Last week I recieved a second email about the quilting fabric sale at Fabric Mart and finally made it on Monday. The sale has been going on for a while so there is much less fabric now then there was at the beginning. I wouldn't know that but I saw a picture on a blog I follow. They still had enough fabric that I was able to find something to buy. The new fabric gave me a renewed enthusiasm for projecting. I tend to go long stretches where I work on nothing because I don't have an actual sewing space. Maybe this winter my sewing room will get started. But anyway, here are my purchases:

a little christmas fabric

and some bag fabric

And look I even managed to knock out a bag in a couple hours. I was pretty proud of myself for actually making something that I bought the fabric for. I tend to have a bad habit of buying something with a purpose in mind and then getting sidetracked by another project. Not this time!