Oh my word…it’s actually been a whole week since I had the excitement of opening up my box that contained my mug from the Mug Swap.  I can’t believe I haven’t taken time to tell you all about the goodies I received (notice the “s” on the end of that word…”goodieS”).

We were pulling out of the driveway last Saturday to go to church.  My eyes caught a package sitting on our front porch as Jason was getting ready to pull away.  I made him stop so I could quickly grab the box.

I knew instantly that it had to be my mug and I couldn’t wait to open it, so as Jason pulled away from our house, I got a finger nail file out of my purse and opened the package right up.  Forgive my pathetic pictures (which do not do this package justice at all).  I quickly took pics in the car as we were driving to church.  I just couldn’t wait to unpack it all when we got home that night.

Oh the goodness!!!  I was in heaven!  Jeanette made an amazing box for me full of so many fun things!  I could tell she put a lot of time and attention into her package.  There was tea (for the days I’m into drinking tea), there was coffee (for the days I’m into drinking coffee), and there were chocolate covered sunflower seeds (which are obviously for every day, because who can’t eat chocolate each day).   She also included a really pretty hand towel and wrapped my mug in a beautiful tea towel tied with a pretty pink bow.  My guess is she made the hand towel and tea towel after checking out her fun Etsy shop, full of wonderful goodies!

You’re just dying to see the mug she got me, aren’t you?  It says, “Live well, Laugh often, and Love with all your heart” all over it.  The colors are great and I love the writing all over the place.  So fun!  Thanks Jeanette!!!

Be sure to check out Jeanette’s blog.  She has some GREAT recipes posted (several I can’t wait to try).

No worries…my gal should have received her mug by now.

I spent a couple of days trying to get to know the person I had to send a mug to (via her blog).  Nothing popped out at me (as for her style or favorite color, personality, etc…).  Sometimes this is a good thing.  It makes me think that she would be thrilled with anything (making it easy for me to just choose something).

Well…I’m a people pleaser (so just choosing something…anything isn’t easy for me), so I read her “about me” page several times, looked at different content, pictures, etc… that she had posted on her blog and then searched online for various key words.  Then…I saw it.  The cup that I felt would fit her well (not a clue if it will, but I felt good about it). I liked the design on the cup, the size, the colors (or lack thereof) and the verse it said.  Perfect!

And, since I’m a people pleaser, I don’t want my person (Melissa) to feel like she got gypped if she doesn’t like the cup, so I threw in a $5 Starbucks gift card (this much I was able to get from her blog…she likes Starbucks). I then went another step and made her two gift card (or business card) holders using this tutorial.  I didn’t think to take pictures of them (made them at the crack of dawn and was ready to just seal up the box so it was ready to ship out).  I was able to use my new sewing machine (new as in I got it back in December, but just opened the box in July and just used it for the very first time while making these gift card/business card holders).

Let’s just say that I’m in love with my new sewing machine. It’s a slight upgrade from my last one (even the same brand), but it has some great features that my last one didn’t have (like telling me when my bobbin thread is almost out and an even easier, fool proof way of self-threading the needle, and the list goes on).  Ok…got off topic, didn’t I?

Ok, so on to the cup (mug).  What did it look like?  This is actually something I did remember to take a picture of.  The outside is grays, blacks and a light green.  The inside is this green color (not sure why I didn’t get a pic of that…oh well).

What a fun swap! I love the excitement of waiting to see who you get (and who gets you…can’t wait to find this out). I had fun trying to get to know my girl. I will definitely do this again next year (Kim…you ARE doing this again…k).

Is it just me or does anyone else have a fascination with washi tape? Seriously…this stuff is SO awesome!  I am having so much fun with it (sealing envelopes, decorating cards, putting it on wrapping paper…the sky is the limit).  It’s so pretty, easy to use (love that it doesn’t have to look perfect, just tear and stick) and just brings a smile on my face when I receive something with it on there (thanks Joy!).

As I was going through my RSS feeds tonight, I ran across a site advertising a new website who is selling washi tape.  A ton of different and fun styles in various colors.  And get this…each roll is only $1.99. What’s even better, is that there is a flat rate shipping of $2.95 (so get as much as you want).  SCORE!  They even go as far as to put the amount of each roll they have left in stock (I find this so helpful).  I hate when I click on something and it says it’s out of stock.  *sigh*

One of my favorites is under their “randomness” section.  It’s called, “Light the Tree in Rockefeller Center” (shown below).  How perfect this would be to seal each of your Christmas cards with this year (tear off the “Merry Christmas” and put it on the back to seal the envelopes).  Super cute, huh?

I just had to share my latest, fun find. If you love washi tape like I do, I’d love to hear what fun ways you use it. Oh, and for some more ideas, check out their Pinterest page (and no, I’m not getting paid to say all of this, just excited to have stumbled across this company).

I missed out on a very cool swap last year all because I let life get too busy. I wanted so badly to do this swap because it would have been so fun to get to know people, buy something fun to swap and get something in return.  I let the swap pass me by, yet read all about everyone else enjoying it.  I know…whoa is me, right?

Well, this super cool swap is back again for the 2nd year and I’m not missing out this time.  I struggle with putting me first sometimes (putting my desires first and doing things that I think would be enjoyable for me).  Sometimes, we just have to make time for ourselves, ya know.

Want to join in on the fun?  Whether you like coffee or tea, hot chocolate, or just a fun mug to drink out of, you’ve got to check out the details on Kim’s blog for her 2nd Annual Mug Swap.  It’s super easy to join and you’ll automatically be entered into her giveaways (she has several great things to give away).

Thanks Susan for making sure I knew about this swap again this year and for encouraging me to join in and not miss out on all the fun again.

I finished the last of the three quilts last night.  This quilt is going to one of my closest friends who just had a baby boy a month ago (I can’t believe he’s a month old already).

I saw this fabric almost 6 months ago and knew from the start that I was going to make a quilt for my friend using this fabric.  The problem was that it wasn’t due to come out until mid-to-late March.  *sigh*  That is the only reason her quilt was the last to be made (I had to wait for the fabric to be released).

I LOVE the bright colors, the fun patterns, and the classified ads just make me laugh.  It’s totally boy!  So cute!  I even found ribbon that goes with this fabric line (who does that?) so I HAD to buy it, knowing I was going to roll it up and tie it with a ribbon (stole that idea from Andrea).

And now I’m done with my sewing machine for a little bit.  It’s actually moving on to my niece this summer.  Jason got me a new one for Christmas that still needs to come out of the box (yep, I’ve been that busy that it’s still in the box…seriously).  I know, I know…it would have made much more sense to have sewn three quilts with the NEW sewing machine.  Don’t think I didn’t think about that.  I’m so overwhelmed with several things that the thought of unpacking a sewing machine and learn something new right now just might send me over the edge.  LOL!

Side Note:  The fabric is a Riley Blake Design called “Peak Hour” by Kellie Wulfsohn.  If you’re looking for fabric, check out Fabric Seeds first.  Her prices were more than $3 less per charm pack than anyone else that was selling it.  She wasn’t selling any yardage of this fabric, so I just emailed her.  I found out that she has a Riley Blake store near her and has access to many of their fabrics and  was happy to get what I needed for a very reasonable price.  Everything shipped in one envelope, so the cost of my shipping didn’t even go up even though I added two whole yards to my order.  She was amazing to work with and I will definitely buy from her again.

I finished my second quilt this past Thursday night and took it to my friend on Friday morning.  She requested that it wasn’t all pink.  LOL!  She has three girls now, so you can imagine how much pink she’s seen over the years.

I made her first daughter (Nina’s) quilt (it was actually my VERY FIRST quilt EVER).  Here’s pics of that quilt from six years ago.  It was purposefully purple and green because her room was purple and green at the time.

Her second daughter (Selah’s) quilt was made by someone whom I admire so much.  She is one of the most creative people I’ve ever met and I just love checking out her blog to see what new creations she’s made.  Click here to check out the quilt she made for my friends second daughter.

And now for the latest quilt I’ve created, for my friends third daughter (Eliana).  My friend didn’t want purple or pink, so I went with the fun teal color and ended up loving the Riley Blake Designs Verona by Emily Taylor fabric line.

I’m very pleased with the way this quilt turned out.  It was such a fun fabric to work with.  I know she’ll treasure this for many years to come.

I am in the midst of making three quilts.  I just finished one this past weekend, am halfway done with the second one and just received the fabric in the mail today for the third one.

The first one is going to my dear friend Elisa. She is the Nursery Coordinator at our church. If it wasn’t for her, we would have stopped going to church all together until Brody was old enough to understand that we would come back for him. It was so hard to drop him off in the nursery those first few weeks several months (and I mean several).  Elisa was so comforting and caring.  She would email and check in with us if we missed a week.  She would always peek in on Brody to see how he was doing and come out to where we were volunteering and give us a thumbs up, sideways thumb, or thumbs down depending on how Brody was doing. It was so reassuring to know that someone was keeping tabs on him (it meant I didn’t have to worry).  She was so invaluable!  She was (and still is) amazing!

Brody no longer is in the nursery hallway at our church, so we don’t see Elisa as much.  He’s now graduated to the preschool hallway and is starting to do better with drop offs at church.  When he first transitioned to the 2-year-old class, Elisa would email and see how he was doing. When I mentioned that they weren’t as comforting as the nursery volunteers, she took it upon herself to start walking down the preschool hallway and peek in on Brody to give me updates on him.  How in the world does God orchestrate such a thing (something I so needed in that moment).

Elisa has recently given birth to a son of her own.  As soon as I found out she was pregnant, I knew I wanted to make a quilt for her (a tummy time quilt for her little guy).  Thanks Elisa for all you do!

My sister celebrated her 40th birthday this past week (Happy (belated) Birthday Sis!).  I wasn’t able to go home to celebrate with her, but wanted her to know that I was thinking of her and wanted to do something special for her from afar.

Thanks to Pinterest, I came across a birthday idea that someone had done for their Dad’s 70th birthday.  I figured it was perfect to do for my sister’s 40th birthday, so I put the plan in action.  I contacted two of my sisters closest friends and they came up with 40 of my sisters friends and their addresses for me (taking a HUGE piece of the puzzle off of my plate).  All I needed to do was create the mailing and postcards and get them sent out (easy enough).

I copied (almost to a “T”) the colors and designs this girl had used (each postcard had the numbers 1 through 40 on them in different colors).  I found an idea for address labels on Etsy and created my own.  I then found discount envelopes on Paper Source.  I love this website and their products are top notch quality.  I came across the discount envelopes page and found the prices of these envelopes to be super cheap.  When I got the envelopes, I honestly couldn’t tell you what was wrong with them.  They were in perfect condition.  They only have certain colors and sizes available (whatever they have that they feel isn’t perfect enough to sell at full price), so I had to go with what was available and fell in love with the “pool” color.

Here is the end result:

My sister LOVED this gift and enjoyed getting postcards that had wonderful things wrote about her.  Something she can read on days she may feel down to lift her spirits.

Some other fun things I got my sister were Cake Pop Truffles from JensCakePops on Etsy.  I was able to choose 3 flavors, so chose Red Velvet Cake, Coffee Cake, and Reese’s Pieces.  They were packaged nicely, gave instructions on how long they would last and how to store them if you weren’t ready to eat them all in one day (like I would have). My sister said they were really good too.  I will certainly buy from her again.  What a fun gift to send to someone.

And the last fun little thing I got for my sister was a miniature birthday card from Leafcutter Designs.  This was so worth the money (reasonably priced too).  I chose the birthday cupcake card and wrote my sentiment. These miniature cards are actually hand written (see video below…so cool).  It’s put in a coin collector holder to keep it nice and clean and mailed to the recipient with a magnifying glass.  My sister’s kids had fun taking turns reading the card.  There are other fun things to send from this site too.

I’m co-hosting a baby shower and was in charge of creating the invitations.  We’re having an airplane theme.  Here are the invitations I created along with the envelopes I made (I found the paper at Archiver’s).

A couple of months ago, I ran across a blog post about covering your mouse pad with fabric.  I have a plain black mouse pad (boring!), so was instantly excited to do this.  I used fabric that I already had on hand, laid my mouse pad out, traced around it and cut.  Super simple!  I did use the heat bond mentioned.

For some reason, the tutorial I used is missing all of the pictures, so here is another tutorial that shows the same thing (her mouse pad just happens to be round) in case you’re interested in trying this yourself.