april + jody

Our neice April is marrying Jody tomorrow! Since I'm sure she won't have time to be checking out blogs today, I'll post a picture of the apron I made for her a couple of weeks ago to send along with their wedding gift. Best wishes for a blessed wedding day and many years of love and happiness, Jody & April!

I found the tutorial for the apron at Cicada Daydream. Love the Dogwood fabric collection Michelle designed and the apron design, which features French seams. It's always fun making things and learning a new technique at the same time. BTW, all the fabrics I used were from JoAnn's.

pink week :: day 5

a herd of stick horses that Ms. Ginger turned into circus ponies for "bareback riding" dancers

pink week :: day 4

a few of Emily's favorite books from her childhood

pink week :: day 3

a little ballerina fairy enjoying the sweet smell of

blooming ligustrum

pink week :: day 2

Ballerina Princess

(or is is Princess Ballerina?)

pink week :: day 1

In honor of my daughter, Emily, turning 21, I had planned to celebrate pink week last week. But I got sick and wasn't able to make that happen. So today is the first day of pink week. Having a ballerina in residence for 16+ years will make pink week a breeze!

21!

It's Emily's birthday today! We had a great weekend, partying with two other birthday girls at Dave & Busters.

Birthday girls Stephanie, Aunt Carolyn & Emily.

We had lots of family at the party- Aunt Carolyn, Uncle James, Dana (& MacKenzie), Toby, Jeff, Steph, Teagen, Aunt Deb, Judy, Mom (me), Dad, Noah and Emily. It was fun! Lots of games, gifts and good food. Oh, and you get to go to the prize room at the end. Emily bought a little stuffed Reveille dog (TAMU's mascot) with her prize tickets. She was happy! Oh, yes, and she got some candy.

The birthday weekend was topped off with lemonade birthday cake and Blue Bell Homemade Vanilla and Strawberries ice cream. Yuuuummmm!

Happy Birthday, Emily! Love you!

Happy Easter!

He is risen indeed!

thursday pics

Noah and I took a trip to REI this morning to buy some hiking boots for his trip to Philmont this summer. It's time to start training! Then while waiting at a red light, I noticed I could see myself in the hub cap of the tractor/trailer truck next to me.
Update: Noah noticed if you click on the image to see it enlarged, you can see my car reflected in each lug nut too.

When we got home there were some beautiful yellow roses greeting us from our neighbor's yard.

I found these pics on my camera today. Emily dances with Chara Christian Dance Company, and a couple of weeks ago two of the dancers secretly tagged everyone else's car during rehearsal. They all got a kick out of it and I think her car looks really cute. BTW, "chara" means "joy" in Greek.

Palm Sunday

I wanted to share with you the crosses that were made by the jr. and sr. high youth at our church. They were given to the congregation at the Ash Wednesday service, and there's a surprise on the reverse side that will be revealed next Sunday.

Today is Palm Sunday and that means another awesome Easter Cantata performed by the Chancel Choir. Noah and his best friend Kevin (the redhead) were once again asked to participate. This is the second Easter Cantata they've done, and they've also done two Christmas Cantatas. The Cantata features wonderful soloists and an orchestra. Always beautiful and moving.

Have a blessed Holy Week!

springtime view (and SMS! giveaway)

Over at Sew, Mama, Sew!, they're having their Free Fabric Friday. Today the giveaway is a fat quarter pack designed by Alicia Paulson of Posy Gets Cozy (she's also the author of Stitched in Time). Posy Gets Cozy is my all-time favorite blog. Alicia is a talented writer, artist and crafter. You don't have to be a crafter to enjoy her blog. She writes so beautifully about everyday life and everyday experiences, and her photographs are gorgeous.

Alicia's inspiration for designing the "Oregon April" fat quarter pack was the springtime view from her window in Portland. To enter the giveaway, you're asked to include in your comment what the springtime view is from your window. My springime view is the squirrels and birds enjoying the bald cypress tree just outside our living room window. We've got some ninja squirrels out there. They're quite the acrobats and so much fun to watch. What do you see from your window this spring?

Bald Cypress Playland for the birds and squirrels in our backyard

stitches and scissors - a giveaway

Darci at stitches and scissors is having a giveaway - some really neat fat quarters. I just discovered her blog this week and really like it. She's got great photos, tutorials and fun projects. It looks like there's lots to learn from her blog. Check it out!

my flickr debut

Great-googuly-mooguly! I'm excited! Another blogging first for me. I just posted my Pleated Beauty Bag on the Bend the Rules Sewing flickr group. I tried a few days ago and it didn't show up. So I tried again today and it worked! I modified my bag and replaced the little red buttons with wooden ones, and I'm very happy with the change.

I've got some new fabric to make another PBB for me, but I've got to finish up some gift projects first. I did take a few minutes last week to make a wrist cuff for Noah (inspired by these). He loves wearing terry wrist bands, but I thought he might like something a bit more refined. This was a fun, quick project, and we will definitely make more.