jonsing

When you give something up for Lent, you're supposed to be real cool about it. You don't brag or complain or talk about it at all. You just graciously make the sacrifice to mirror the ultimate sacrifice that was made for you. You grin and bear it.

That said...

I'm seriously jonsing for a Coca-Cola. Seriously. Deliriously. I nearly have the shakes from it.

Okay...I'm ready to go on with my day and suck it up and do this thing.

p.s. Did I mention that I gave up ALL sodas...not just Coca-Cola? Oh man is this hard. Okay...back to it. For real this time. Silent enduring sacrifice. Tiny insignificant sacrifice. I can do it.

candy necklace making kit

I was so happy to find this at Michael's...we couldn't wait to make them today.

I put the candy beads in a mini muffin tin lined with bon-bon wrappers. Alfredo helped sort them.

We started out threading them with just the string but it is easily frayed. I found a blunt tapestry needle with a large eye and that seemed to be easier for him to use. After about 20 beads he stopped and said "You know, making candy necklaces is making me tired!" So I helped a little more to speed it along and before you knew it, we had a candy necklace.

Best of all, the kit makes 8 necklaces. We have 7 more to make!

rabbit, rabbit

I'm so excited that March is here...my favorite month of the whole year. Spring is right around the corner and pretty soon the big thaw will happen and birds and flowers will reappear. It's such magic.

Every day this month I will celebrate my birthday, which I consider my own personal holiday. I'm kicking off the celebration with two sweet buys from the dollar spot at Michael's.

Have you seen these?

Ingenious paper placemats by Mary! Aren't they delightful? You get 6 for a dollar!

And look at these fun felt coasters. I don't know yet what I'll do with them but I really love the pattern.

I stitched my first square and posted it over at the 39 squares blog...It's a festive little bluebird! Check out the blogs listed on the side to check out all the first squares...

39 squares

Here's my freestyle sampler that I'm stitching along with Teresa. As you can see, I went a little overboard in this one little patch. Hopefully as I fill in other areas it will balance out. We'll see.

My birthday month starts Monday and I really do want to do the 39 squares project. I even started a blog for it. If you want to play along, click over there and leave a comment in the first post and I'll add you to the blogroll. It's just one tiny little postage-stamp square a day...you can do it! (Even if you've already commented here that you want to play along, submit a comment there too so I'll have it all together.)

I've been gathering some pictures of past grid-samplers and I found these taken of the one I made for a friend as a swap. I'm thinking that my birthday sampler will have this same look and feel...fun, light, bright, super happy.

Are you inspired yet? I can't wait to do my first square!

stamp sets

I love all these stamp sets I just added to the shop. I'm thinking about stamping them onto tea towels and embroidering them. Can't you just see this on a pretty tea towel, with a pom pom fringe. Oh yes.

Wouldn't it be fun to do a whole series of them?

Click here to purchase any of these stamp sets.

I'm on a bit of a stitching kick, aren't I? And I am seriously thinking I'll do the 39 squares for 39 years sampler. Want to do it along with me? We could do a group blog or something. Let me know if you're interested. Otherwise, maybe I'll just do a little widget to the side of my blog that shows each square each day. Starting March 1.

hope's sampler

I was thinking about the sampler I made for Hope's wedding last fall and I realized that I never showed you pictures. I had the idea that I wanted to make it the biggest grid sampler I could manage. It ended up being 60 squares and boy did it ever take some time to finish.

Looking back at these pictures, I'm remembering how lovely it turned out. I toned down my usual bright palette to match Hope's more sophisticated tonal palette and I used some of my very best buttons and buckles and lace and such.

I'm thinking about starting a new one of these extra large samplers and just tackling one square per day. If it's a busy day, maybe it's just a button sewed into place. Less busy days get more elaborate squares. Doesn't that sound fun? I'm thinking it would be a fun project for my birthday month. Next month I turn 39. I can't believe it. This will be my last year as a thirty something. How about that?

book report

I was at the bookstore the other day and just about fell over myself when I spied this book on the bookshelves. Have you seen it? It's amazing...

This is my very favorite of all the pictures in the book (although this isn't a project in the book exactly there's a template to make this same cottage into a pillow)

All of the projects have detailed templates in the back, color on one side and line drawings on the other. I love this rose template and the project that uses it calls for layers of applique. It looks like a paint by number to me...love it!

And just look at this sweet design for a baby's hooded towel. Wouldn't that make the sweetest baby gift?

This book is pure eye candy and even if I don't do a single project, I'll pore through the pages and soak it all in.