a little bit of me.

{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!

:)

{one year}

friday - june 5th - marked a year that we've been back in florida...

& so that was stuck in my brain all day, and i was planning on blogging something related to it at night to mark the 1 year anny and all, until...  evan slipped and fell in the bathtub, and we ended up in the E.R.  >>  and that is how we "marked" 1 year in florida.

all is ok - there were no stitches, just a lot of blood, a freaked out momma, a tooth thru the skin under his lip, and some antibiotics.  we were also VERY thankful for baseball on tv in the er examining room.  evan loves-him-some "bay-hall" on tv.  ;)

he also thoroughly enjoyed the tee-ball set that "pa-pa" (imagine this said with a little french accent) and "maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaw" (maaaaaw = we think - hysterical-ly - named by cousin paige) brought him...

and i'm pretty sure my dining room is the new teeball / ironing-fabric-for-crafts-room.  that's ok right?!

and so that was most of our weekend.  lots of delish food, the grandparents here, oh, and some MAJOR landscaping by eric and me on saturday...  like we planted 97 things.  We still need to mulch (this week!) but here is a little peek at the mailbox - which i did all by myself, woot woot.  and now maybe we need a non-peely-paint mailbox?!

:)

ps - i have some super-fun projects to share this week!  stay tuned ;)

{baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa(ht)}

that is what i hear NONSTOP out of evan's little mouth.  :)

we introduced a foam/padded baseball bat and ball last week (we had been saving it in his closet since he was born), and OMG.

the boy is ob-sessed!

he carries both the ball and bat EVERYWHERE - like i had to seriously distract him to avoid bringing it in Target the other day - and now my child, who refuses to watch sesame street, is HOOKED on MLB.

(we have a marlins game that i DVR'd that's getting quite a bit of playtime in our house)

i know i'm going to want to remember this later - and so this is my way of documenting it all....

he wakes up in the crib saying "baaaaaht".  wants "baaaaaaht" (= baseball) on the tv by 9am.  cries when the announcers come on and there's an interruption in the batting process and swinging.  stands in front of the tv with his bat, and swings it around while the players are.  and pretty much screams in excitement when 'take me out to the ballgame' comes on on his nursery rhymes dvd.  :)

my parents are coming to visit this weekend, and bringing a t-ball stand with them.  i think ev might be in heaven.

;)