a little bit of me.

{hero!}

can i tell you that i LOVED each and every BB11 comment?!

L-O-V-E-D.  :)  keep 'em coming.  can't wait for sunday night!

...today i wanted to post a little card that i made a while back with some of my FAVORITE products >> American Crafts papers, ribbon, & flair >> and Hero Arts stamps (the alphas for "thank you" and the cutie little owl!)...  (the scallop border punch, circle punches, and "leaf-y" punch are all Fiskars):

Hero Arts stamps are seriously some of the best quality stamps that i have EVER worked with - love their designs and also how crisp my stamped images always look when I'm working with their products...

and.........  i am told that Hero is undergoing a blog makeover next week with lots of exciting new stuff in store....  you can check their blog out HERE...

...i can't wait to see what they have going on!

:)

{BB11}

the BB11 discussion is now "officially" open >> i'll start.

i kind of cheered when jessie came back.  he's entertaining :)

the gamer-guy makes me cringe.

the 40 year old dad from tampa make me laugh.

the bikini model makes me vomit in my mouth (just a little).  ;)

the neuroscientist makes me want to wash my hair.

the football athlete from chicago keeps things lively.

and pregg-o julie chen is kind of fun.

& finally, why couldn't tonite be 2 hours?!  i don't get it.  :(

:)

{at 23 months...}

(could this be the last of these posts?!?!  kind of makes me sad....)

we enjoyed a bit of watermelon in the backyard today while i snapped some belated 23 months shots of ev...

and so, at 23 months, evan...

...LOVES watermelon.  :) >> (some things never change?!)

...repeats select words that i say, all day long - or words from the book that we might be reading.  and tells me stuff NONSTOP.  random stuff like "ereal" (= cereal, which means 'give me some raisins from the raisin bran') all the way to more detailed stuff like "bay-hall" (baseball) and "home run".  and, bc he wasn't even really talking 5 months ago, this is HUGE.  :)

...says "again" after we finish "that's not my train", and then we read it 4 more times.  ;)  oh, and he says "koo-koo" too, (= choo choo).

...runs everywhere.  i have to try to slow him down on occasion.

...breaks out the occasional temper-tantrum, yet also really listens when we "discuss" the option of time out ;) or when i start counting one... two... (we really never make it to three?!).

...points out letters and tells them to me from signs, tshirts, the "mazda" car lettering...

..."talks" on the phone.

...wants to "see" papa on the phone (pics of my dad and him on the iphone).  ;)

...says a few "yeahs" mixed up with the occasional "Ha-Boom".  >>  which reminds me - i need to get him a little tshirt made that says "haboom!"  ;)

...desperately needs his third haircut (appt tomorrow!)...

...hits anything and everything off of the tee with one of his three bats.

...makes do when an actual bat isnt present.  a straw, fork, stick, or even a comb can easily double as a "baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa-t" in evan-land.  :)

...loves it when i tell him that we are going to see "friends".

...and is less than 3 weeks away from two.  insane.

:)

{a sketch}

right now i am finally piecing the backing to the citrus-y quilt that i started over a month ago.  yay.  :)

but i wanted to take a second to post something quickly - so here's a link to my Fiskars July card sketch - click click...

and here's the card - complete with a pocket for a gift card...  love giving gift cards, and i thought it would be so fun to just "build" it into the actual card... :)

& that's it for today tonite.

that and i guess how psyched i am for Big Brother to start on thurs night...  woot woot. ;)

oh, & i've updated some of the recent posts with answers to comment Qs too :)

{the weekend}

was spent with my sister kimmie in naples.

we had tons of fun.

& had great access to the beach with kimmie's condo...

...where evan decided that he loved rolling around in the surf...

...and ended up bringing a good bit of the beach home in his bathing suit :)

and also loved the little 4th parade that we brought him to, too.

and the flag that we brought home.  (thanks aunt kimmie!)  :)

and somehow all my pics are of ev.  but that's ok.

:)

{Baby J's Quilt}

wanted to share my (finished) latest baby quilt...

made for eric's cousin's now 2 month-old baby girl, Juliette...

the color scheme was inspired by the colors that her fabulous new momma picked out for her nursery - and also by the (Prints Charming) butterfly print that i used - Baby J's momma loves butterflies! :)

the rest of the prints were mostly picked from my stash - some newer amy butler, some old school amy butler, some joel dewberry, & some smaller prints that i dont know the manuf's of...

the backing is a pink amy butler motif pieced with the prints charming butterfly print...

and up close...

it was so much fun for me to make something this girly!  :)

ps - just bc i always like to see the whole pattern of everyone else's quilting projects...  here it is spread out on my floor...

:)

ETA >> quilt dimensions >> 5 inch cut squares - 9 squares by 9 squares - 1/4 inch inseams - binding cut 2.5 inches wide :)

{home}

after a crazy week of what felt like a "tour-o-florida"...

we were in Jupiter for Paige's 2nd bday party!

then spent father's day with eric's fam and saw his brother's new apt in Miami...

then said adios to eric & toby who had to go home to work (and toby needed to return to his barking post at the front window ;)

then drove to Naples to visit my sister Kimmie.

then spent a few nights on Sanibel Island with my parents and sisters.

then drove back to Pembroke Pines to visit my parent's house minus my parents - so really just their kitty-cats (that is what i told ev - that we were going to the kitty-cat's house!).

& then we finally made it home to the PVB on fri night.

i took no work related stuff with me, which was AWESOME.

went to bed at like 10:30 every night.

visited 6 different quilting stores (!!!) - with lots of fun new stuff to add to my stash...

and didn't even break out the camera that much...

of the few shots i took - here are couple more faves!

and 2 that my sister kristi took that i ADORE...

hope to be back to blogging this week!

:)

ETA: camera settings >> i know that i still owe a photo info related post, but here's the scoop on these...  i'm more than willing to bet that the shots that i took were ISO 100 (bc we were outside in full light), set to "P" mode (bc sometimes i'm lazy like that!) with a 1/3 overexposure (i like to start a bit bright) >> the last 2 shots were taken by my sister with her FABULOUS 5D and L glass (so don't confuse those for mine!)

{a little share}

i couldn't resist posting a peek and a link tonight to one of my favorite fiskars articles ever...  :)

here is the peek - and the page that i created for the article:

(just a few random shots that i adore all on one page)

and here is the link >> click click click HERE!

i absolutely love all the different and insanely creative ideas for paper piecing with fiskars tools...  & i must admit that i've admired Lisa Storm's ability to put punched and cut and altered shapes together into the CUTEST little resulting projects, for so long...  & i loved seeing what everyone else came up with as well!

and now i'm 2 for 2 on blogging-days-in-a-row.

which i think is already an improvement over last week?!

{at 22 months...}

only one more of these posts after this one - which is probably a good thing since it took me 2 and a half weeks after ev hit 22 months, to post this.... :l

ev's official 22 month (belated) pic - taken today...

(he's all red bc we were outside, in florida, in JUNE...  enough said!)

and so, at 22 months, evan...

...thinks baseball (or bay-hall) is the GREATEST THING EVER.  like there are temper tantrums when i try to put on any other tv show.  we watch baseball games on repeat thanks to dvr.  and then he sets up his t-ball stand in front of the tv to "Play Along" with the actual MLBers.

...has become a pro at eating lunch and/or dinner in the backseat of the car enroute somewhere.  not sure if this is a good or bad thing?!  i do however know that it's our reality somedays.  and that i am quite a good chicken-nugget-hander-outter from the front seat.  ;)

...likes to tell me all about cookie, big bird, eeeeeeee (ernie), elmo, and grover.  but doesnt care to watch sesame street.

...thinks brushing his teeth (himself) is one of the funnest events of the day.

...is still a huge fan of the beach.  talks about the beach.  loves birds at the beach.  and wants us to take him to the beach.  :)

...tells me "poooooooooooooooooo-le" from the backseat each time he realizes that we are heading in the direction of home.  why?  bc he's psyched to see the poodle.  (which is his name, forget "toby").  ;)

...will now sport a sunhat bc i told him it looks cool.  yayyyyy :)  momma loves hats.  :)

...can be won over with a bag of apple dippers from mcd's (minus the caramel).  this buys me a good 7-10 minutes in any store.  i, in turn, have become a great 7-10 minute shopper.  ;)

...loves to read me the grover book about a monster at the end >> and then have me read it to him 3 times in a row.

...dances.  really well.  :)

...thinks its always his turn to talk on the phone.

...and, reminds me to be excited, happy, and thrilled about the little things in life, almost on a daily basis.

****

and with that, hopefully im back in blog-land this week.  last week was rough work-wise.  ;)

{roooarrr...! make-your-own felt animal hand puppets!}

i made these felt hand puppets a few months ago, and couldn't wait to share them here!

the elephant, then monkey, and the lion.  3 of evan's favorite animals!

i love how they turned out...

evan seems to love them too!

you can make your own, and check out the step-by-step directions for each and the downloadable PDF class on the FiskarsCrafts site, here!

:)