A Good Day at La Poste

I have a friend named Stephanie.
We went to school together from elementary through high school.
Then we each went away to college, got married, had babies, blah blah blah and met back up on Facebook a few years ago.

A lot of our conversations are about sewing and quilting.
You see, Stephanie and her mom make some stunning quilts.
Me? I’ve never made an actual quilt.
I started one about 8 years ago, but I was in over my head and never finished it.
Then I made what could loosely be called a quilt a few years ago. 
But it is more of a blanket than a quilt.
I had mentioned to Stephanie that if we lived closer, I would have her teach me to make a quilt.

Well, she didn’t forget about that and this week sent me the best present.
I mean, like, the best present evah.

This here is all the fixins to make my very own quilt.
A for real quilt, not a pretend one like I made a few years ago.

She included all the fabric, detailed instructions and even a spool of thread.
My job is to put the quilt top together, mail it back to her and she will piece all the layers together and do the fancy work on her very fancy machine.
I mean, really.  I’d be telling a lie if I said that I didn’t cry a little when I opened the box.

And then I cried a little more when I read her note, because besides being a quilting maven, girlfriend is funny.  She even included a Ryan Gosling bit and you all know how funny I think Ryan Gosling is, right?

 
I did have some trouble actually receiving the package because of a little snafu with Customs.  I got a letter saying that my package was being held and that I needed to provide specific documentation within a fortnight (yes, it actually said fortnight) or else it would be returned to the sender.

Apparently, one mom sending fabric to another is suspicious activity. 

Luckily a local Luxembourgish guy at Shawn’s work helped me sort it all out.
Then they tried to deliver the package to our house and no one was home to claim and sign for it.  So the next day I was able to pick it up at la poste, the post office.  I may have squealed when the woman handed the box to me.  And I think I skipped down the steps on the way back to my car.

So, thank you, Stephanie.
You are beyond sweet and generous and thoughtful.
You made my day, my week, maybe even my year.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have a quilt to make.

I’ve Joined an Abbey

In the last two months, I’ve gotten to be friends with a couple of other moms that I met at Hannah’s school.  They are a great group of girls, the kind that I could totally become good friends with.

Anyways, they’d been talking about a TV show.

Have you heard of Downton Abbey?
Even though I hadn’t watched it, I was just eh about it.

Actually, I thought it was called Downtown Abbey and that it was about nuns living in the city. 

Then I started seeing stuff about it on Facebook and other blogs.
So last Saturday I pulled it up on ye old Netflix and watched the first episode.
(It was not about nuns living in an abbey in the city.)
And then I watched the second episode.
After Hannah went to bed that night, I watched two more episodes.

I simply cannot get enough of Maggie Smith as Violet Crawley with her sideways glances and snarky one-liners.

Shawn watched with me, although he is pretending not to like it.
(But I think he likes it almost as much as I do.)

By the middle of the week, I’d worked my way through the first season and upon further research I found that you can visit the castle where the show is filmed.
And get this - it’s only a seven hour drive from Luxembourg.

So I sent a text to Shawn to tell him.
His response?
If m’ladyship wants…
(That won’t mean anything to you if you haven’t watched the show.)

Because season 2 isn’t on Netflix, I searched the web and found it HERE.

Then I learned that season 2 episodes are only available for viewing online until March 6.
I knew it was time to get down to business.
I was on a deadline.
And I met it.
 
Now, what will I do until season 3 starts?

Hey Girl. This is Funny.

A friend recently hipped me to a new website.
Handmade Ryan Gosling.
(You know, Ryan Gosling the actor.)
Go there.
It’s fall down funny stuff.
If you like sewing and crafts, that is.

This one’s my favorite. 
Did you know that my first job out of college was at JoAnn Fabrics Corporate Office?
That makes it even funnier to me.

Don’t tell anyone, but I totally checked to see if JoAnn’s really has an app.
They do.
I’m going to install it as soon as I get my laughter under control over here.

Pinterest

Have you started a Pinterest board?  I did and I lovey-love it!
In the past, if I saw a project, recipe or sewing tutorial online that I wanted to try, I bookmarked it.   Before long, I had a jumbled mess of bookmarked items taking up space on my navigation bar.

Now? All of those earmarked things are nicely displayed in one pretty place.  It’s like a virtual bulletin board, really.  Here’s mine.  I’m just getting started, but I have big plans.

As you can see, there are lots of skirts and dresses that I want to make this summer. You can follow your friends on Pinterest and see what’s inspiring them.  You can also see when others “pin” something from your own blog or website.  It’s easy – just type in the following:

http://pinterest.com/source/   and add your blog address.

Here’s what others have “pinned” from my blog.

It looks like there are a quite a few dads who may be getting a photo frame for Father’s Day this year!

Happy pinning!

Our New BFF

 

When you have hair like this:

   

You need a BFF like this:

Thanks, Aunt Chris!

I’ve Been Featured! And Keep Calm!

I had so much fun making this project and taking pictures of my cutie pie showing off the finished product.  What’s more is that this week, it has been featured on not one, but two other blogs.  Check it out here and here! 
Imagine that.  Little ole me being featured…

In other news, I’ve found another Etsy shop that I heart:
The Keep Calm Shop. 
During WWII, the British government produced this propaganda poster but they never used it.  It was rediscovered in 2000 and has recently become a decorative theme. 
Recognize it?

The witty owners of the Keep Calm Shop put lots of creative twists on the Keep Calm theme.  This one now hangs in my kitchen:

Remember when the hubs was stuck in London during the volcanic eruption?  Yep, I got him this one.  Big Ben and all.

I hung it on the wall between our master bathroom and closet so that he can see it everyday when he is getting ready for work.   Cracks him up every time!

I’ve got my eye on this one:

But probably not this one. 
I’m saving it for someone who can actually sing.

Happy Weekend!  Keep Calm!

So that you keep the square

My husband travels internationally a lot.  One of his favorite things to do is find signs, hotel and tourist literature that are poorly translated into English.  When he is traveling abroad, I totally look forward to text messages containing photos such as these:

The other day, I was checking out the stats on my blog and I was surprised to see that I had over 160 hits from Turkey.  The country.  I asked Shawn if he knows anyone in Turkey and he said no.  So I started linking back to the information provided by StatCounter and found this.

Yep, it's the jewelry board that I made from a t-shirt, and it was featured on a Turkish craft blog.

Since I don't speak a lick of Turkish, I clicked on the "translate to English" button so nicely provided by Google to be able to read the post title and comments.  The post featuring my jewelry board was titled, "So That You Keep The Square."  And underneath that?  "I was nice to hang jewelry projects."

It was rather nice of me to hang jewelry projects, wasn't it?  I guess. So long as I keep the square.

Extreme Makeover: Blog Edition

My blog has a new look! I've been reading Diana's blog, The Girl Creative and I thought she had great style.  Last week she made an announcement that her blog design waiting list had opened up, so I contacted her.  She was a delight to work with and has very reasonable prices! I had only some sketchy ideas of what I wanted and she went right to work to create something that is totally me.  Diana has a lovely portfolio showcasing her shabby chic and modern designs and will do a complete blog makeover or just spruce you up a little.
You likey?  Me likey!