We have enjoyed being outside lately! The days continue to get a little longer and a little warmer which the kids find very exciting and the adult kids enjoy it a good bit as well!

Yes, it is a little known fact about me! The indecisiveness struck again as I was contemplating fabric for the Emmeline Apron for the May Sew-Along. Of course all the fabrics that were being contemplated are Alexander Henry (honest I have other fabrics in the stash they just seldom come out to play). The indecisiveness ultimately led to the making of two aprons…honestly, just couldn’t pick one! I have to admit that Emmeline and I did not get along well. I am not sure if it was because I was making two aprons or if I just was not concentrating but we just could not bond (maybe next time). At any rate I finally finished the aprons last night. The black and red is my favorite and it is the one that I entered into the May Sew-Along! I fell so much in love with the “Diamond Eye” fabric (black and white) that I went back to Joanns and purchased more to make a dress. These two aprons will be boxed up soon and headed out to friends!

Cold Sassy Tree
By: Olive Ann Burns

Yes, it was getting dusty around here! The lack of posting was causing many to ask questions but I am still here just distracted! On to my post…

Photo taken from Edmunds.com.

So the hubby and I have had many many conversations regarding what our next vehicle purchase will be. This will be hard for some to swallow as they are very anti minivan but I have always wanted a minivan, well, there was a while that I wanted a Suburban but I have fears about driving something so large so I down graded to a minivan. I think that I wanted it because of the status symbol that a minivan is, to me anyway it says, I have kids in tow! I have always dreamed of having a family so I just threw the picture of the minivan into my mind as well, thus the debate/discussion at our house over the next vehicle. Brad is very practical, has great discernment and is almost always right! Based on all this knowledge I was ready to put up a fight to get the minivan of my dreams (sounds odd just saying that “minivan of my dream”) being the stubborn strong willed person that I am as the debate was going to be minivan vs. a Prius. Yes, two very different vehicles! So, we went to test drive a Prius on Monday just to see if either one of us even liked it (Brad liked it on paper but had never driven one). I went first and I have to admit that he was right again!!! I fell in love with the silly little car! What is with that!!! I really like the way it looks and it drives great and I didn’t even feel like I was in a clown car! The kiddos would be closer together in the back seat but as Brad pointed out when they can reach each other even a tiny bit there is already a battle raging so a few inches would not make a huge differences. There is a ton of leg room in the back seat as well. I even like the hatchbackness of it! The swoop of the front of the car makes for a lot of dashboard room which is my least favorite part but I could get use to that. The thing that I was totally not expecting is that it made me feel good to know that I was doing a small part by driving that car to help out the earth. That sounds crazy especially coming out of my mouth but it is true it was just like using the reusable bags at the grocery store! WILD!!! At any rate I am SO excited to have a Prius someday! There is a waiting list to get one of course and we found out with a little searching around online that a new model should be released sometime in early 09′. It is hard to admit yet again that the hubby was right but he was and I cannot wait for the Prius to be parked in the garage…someday! Weird to have a Prius as a dream car!

I was really excited about this little project! Last month at book club someone had the wonderful idea of making handkerchiefs out of old flour sacks as we had just read Same Kind of Different As Me which refers to the flour sacks in one of the chapters. Book club has oddly enough become a very real place where hearts are shared even as we discuss books. Being a real place, often tears are shed (happy and sad) so the need for hankies came to be! Each hankie has decorative embroidery stitches around the edges which I think gives it a little bit more of an older feel. I am excited to share these this week!

I finally got around to using Amy Karol’s Bend The Rules Sewing book last week. It has been calling out from the shelf for a very long time. I decided to tackle the Simple Tote as I did not have much time but wanted a little project to finish! I used some of the wonderful Japanese fabric that I had received from Kris awhile back. I am really excited about the tote and plan to use it as a lunch bag!

In other news Blakley has tagged me from Rockin Smokin to grab the nearest book, turn to page 123 and post the 6th, 7th, and 8th sentences so here we go…

Tonights nearest book is Keeping the Sabbath Wholly: Ceasing, Resting, Embracing, Feasting by Marva Dawn and page 123 reads…
“Certainly we can always enjoy other people more fully when no obligations are impinging on our time. In our society it is difficult to embrace people instead of things, to cherish time rather than space. So much of out technologically efficient and materially exploitative culture militates against these values.”
There you have it! Pretty intriguing huh!
I am supposed to tag 5 people but instead I am just going to open it up and if anyone would like to try this go for it! It is kind of interesting to see what turns up!

Katie from See Katie Sew had a giveaway a few weeks ago for celebrating her birthday! You had to guess several fun things about her birthday and the person with the most correct answers won one of her wonderful wristlets! I was really excited to find out that I had won with all my random answers! She has a really fun blog and you can also purchase her wristlets in her Etsy shop! I cannot wait for a date night so I can carry my new wristlet!

It has been a festive week around here! You can never really have to much birthday I have decided! Last Tuesday Brad and I went out to dinner just the two of us to a place that I have been wanting to try for some time now. It was really yummy and being a Tuesday night it was not so crowded at all! That is where the celebrating all began and even now it is still not over so how fun is that! Thursday we had a fun lunch date with my mom! We went to one of my current favorite restaurants and hubby met us as well. I received some really fun rain boots that I will have to post about soon. Friday night we had two couples over for dinner and a “friendly” (not so friendly) game of Catan. I did end up making those Catan cupcakes as well. I copied the resources from the game so we had wheat, ore, brick, sheep and wood. Nothing to fancy just fun! The winner of the game got to take home a pretty cool crown and even though we ended up playing two games the same person won twice (nope, it wasn’t me). Saturday we celebrated as a family at home. Brad and the kiddos sent me on a fun scavenger hunt all around the house to find one most incredible gift at the end….drum roll….a new sewing machine! I was so surprised and a fun surprise at that! The whole evening was just really sweet. My actual birthday fell on Mother’s Day this year (how fun is that) we had fun with our Mom’s and poor Sister was so confused with all the Birthday and Mother’s Day celebrating going on. I think that she finally gave up trying to figure it all out in her head. Birthday’s are very big in my husbands family so we will be celebrating with them this weekend as well. Pretty fun, I would say! Here are a few pictures from Friday nights festivities as well as the scavenger hunt clues!

I forgot to share sister’s birthday outfit with you! It all came together just minutes before the party (thanks to my hubby and a seam ripper) but it was still worth it! Sister wanted a Jay Jay Birthday party so I felt like something needed to be a little girly hence the pink striped airplane on her shirt which she was pretty excited about!

Look what fun showed up in the mailbox today!!! Jennifer shared these bottle cap pincushions that she was making on her blog awhile back. Well, truth be told she posted trying to get us to guess what she was making and I ruined it by guessing on the first clue! Oooops! Even though I ruined the fun for everyone she still surprised me with these! They are so cheery and the hand stitching is incredible on them (I do not have the gift of hand stitching hence the great love for my sewing machine)! Thanks again Jennifer and know that they will be put to much use!
P.S. The background is a work in progress so hopefully I will be able to share that soon!