Blogger's Quilt Festival

So fun to be able to participate in this year's Blogger's Quilt Festival!  Thanks to Amy for hosting!  Be sure to visit The Quilt Festival to see hundreds of beautiful, inspiring quilts from all over the world.  Just click on this button to see them all:

The quilt I'm showcasing for this event is one of my most absolute all-time favorites evah!!  When I first saw a circle quilt like this, I was stunned.  So beautiful.  I love, love geometric shapes, especially symmetric geometrics.  Yeah, that's the math geek in me, but that's the way God made me, so there.  Then.  Oh, then!!  Stephanie at Make It A Wonderful Life posted ::gasp:: a tutorial.

Eeeek!!!  I had only made one quilt, but I couldn't get this one out of my head.  'I must, must, must find a way to make it.  I can't not make it.'  Compelled is far too plain a word to describe the longing that I had for this quilt.

But what fabric??  Once I spied Patty Young's Mezzanine line - done.  That's all it took.  I ordered a fat quarter bundle of the entire line from Sew Love Fabrics on Etsy.  When it arrived, there were a couple of fabrics that I wasn't crazy over - army green and pink??  Really??

 But I had already committed to myself to be bold, so I started cutting away.  I used only half of each of the seventeen fabrics in the line.  Score!!  Enough to do a second quilt!!  {{Which, by the way, has already been created ... just waiting quietly in the closet to be quilted.}}  I mean, just look at those beautiful fabrics.  All together they are  quite spectacular.  I even got a shout-out from the fabric designer Patty Young herself.  How cool is that??!!  {{She probably tries to comment on everyone who uses her fabrics and uploads to her flickr group, but it still made me feel special :) }}

I seriously ::heart:: this quilt.

P.S.  This little beauty was wrapped immediately after I took these pictures and became a gift for another little beauty - Miss Rachel Grace M. who was born a few weeks later.

The Bravest

“The bravest are surely those who have the clearest vision of what is before them, glory and danger alike, and yet notwithstanding, go out to meet it.” Thucydides

For them the dawning of immortal day!, originally uploaded by bkburns.

Shall We?

HUGE turnout for our garage sale today!  We have a PRIMO location, so we've had lots and lots of traffic.  Randy was turning people away {and making them mad} at 4:00 today.

We brought in over $2300.  We are stunned.  Amazed.  Blessed.  Exhausted.

Let's do it again tomorrow :)

Garage Sale Today & Tomorrow!

Well, technically it's not a garage sale.  I mean, the stuff was all crammed into Julie's garage.  But now it's mostly in the yard.  {Dear God, Please no rain. Amen.}  So maybe we should call it a yard sale?  Martha Stewart would call it a tag sale, but since we didn't tag anything, {That's right folks!  See something you like?  Just make us an offer!} we can't really call it a tag sale either.

I prefer to call it our 'We're trying to raise a ransom to bring two sweet babies home' sale.

In just a few short hours {yes, I need to go to bed!}, we're having our mega blow out garage sale for babies!  100% of the proceeds will go directly to funding our adoption.

Madison and Mark are also running a concession stand, so if you come by after 10:30, you can enjoy a delicious grilled hot dog and a cold beverage.  Maybe even a cupcake :)

Friday & Saturday
7:00 - 2:00 (or later if we need to)
31 S. Mendenhall

P.S.  We still need helpers :)

Crafting for Ethiopia!

We have been busy, busy, busy!  School is out for summer, woohoo!!  Softball is {mercifully} almost over.   Ballet recital was last weekend. Our Adoption-Fundraiser-Garage-Sale is rained out this weekend, so we'll try again next weekend.  If you're still cleaning out your closets, THANKS!  Give me a little ringading, and I'll be right over to snatch your stuff.  Poor Julie's garage is stuffed to the gills, and our carport and living room are quickly catching up.  I think a lot of my friends cleaned out their closets a couple of weeks ago when we were all hiding from the tornadoes in them.  I'm constantly being asked if I'm taking clothes or carpet or all kinds of other {weird} stuff, and I say 'yup.'  You just donate whatever your generous heart desires, and we'll let God sell whatever He wants to sell.  Amen.

As if all of that isn't keeping us busy enough {Now you understand why Randy did what he did last week?  We're tired!}, our city-wide homeschool association is hosting a Children's Marketplace this Tuesday morning.  We're frantically trying to finish up our {many, many, many} crafty projects.  Madison and Mark are trying to raise a total of $5000 so they can travel to Ethiopia with us when we go to meet our babies.  Feel free to make a donation and give them a head start on their Marketplace sales :)

If you see something you like, just click on the 'Donate' widget over on the right ----->

When you make a donation via Paypal, please specify which of the kids' crafts you would like and what style, color, etc.  To do that, just click on 'Add special instructions to the seller' on  Paypal's 'Review Your Donation' page.  Besure, besure, besure to leave us your address and contact info!  We'd hate to not be able to mail your things to you!

Here's {some} of what they have to offer:

Mark

Mark has worked diligently to create a very cool Memory Match game.  There are 10 pairs of matching colors {red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, white, pink, black, brown} for a total of 20 1 1/2" wooden discs.  The discs are made with kid-safe materials, but I wouldn't buy this for any baby who still likes to taste things :)  Suggested donation:  $15.00 (Please specify which background pattern you would prefer.  We only made two of each pattern, so please give us your first and second choices in case one is sold out.)

Hey, Mom, this is a lot of work.  Can you come help me?  Sure baby.

This is the complete Memory Match Game.  

It's simple and fun to play, but Sarah will beat you every time. 

These are the background patterns available for the back of your Memory Match Game.  Please specify your first and second choices in the comments on your Paypal transaction.  Mod Blocks, Camo, Gears, Transportation, Super Stripes, Black Swirls, Red Gingham, Green Gingham {Mama's favorite!}, Blue Gingham, or Pink Filigree.

Each game comes in a sturdy, muslin, draw-string bag.  They're just the right size to toss in your purse and would be a great busy toy for waiting in restaurants, doctor's offices, etc.

Mark is also working on some homemade cold process soap.  They smell fabulous, but they look terrible!  We're currently hand milling those and hope to have  them listed here soon :)

Next is Sarah Bear

Sarah will not be travelling with us to Ethiopia.  She's six.  Hauling a six year old  picky eater half-way around the world and back does not sound like fun to me.  But she soooo wanted to 'make things to sell' just like her big brother and sister!  So ... Sarah is offering Bottle Cap Magnets.  Suggested donation:  $8.00 for a set of 4 magnets.  Please state your choice of designs. 

Too cute!!  And these suckers are strong, too!  One magnet can easily hold five regular sheets of paper - perfect for all of those refrigerator masterpieces at your house.

 Please specify:  Cars, Cupcakes, Happy Faces, Retro Butterflies, Animals, Baby Monsters, Girl Assorted, or Boy Assorted in the comment section of your Paypal transaction.

Last up is Madison.

Madison has probably been working the longest on her projects.  There are many!  I'll update this post with more of her crafties when she wakes up in the morning and tells me where they are :0  But for now, I can show you her Lip Balm.  We had a TON of fun making these!  She saw the empty tubes at the warehouse when we bought the supplies for Mark's soap and insisted that we find a recipe to make our own!  Each scent is made with coconut oil, beeswax, sweet almond oil, olive oil, vitamin E, and food-grade flavoring oil.  I can tell you that these lip balms are fantastic!  Suggested donation:  $6.00 for 2.  Pick any two flavors!

Choose from:  ChocoMinty, Pina Colada, Very Cherry, Lemonadie, Groovy Grape, or Strawberry.

Thanks for looking!!

Cinco de Mayo Traditions {according to Randy}

It's Cinco de Mayo.  Not a huge holiday in our household.  Although, we did have quesadillas for lunch {pronounced 'case-a-dill-a' ala Napoleon Dynamite}.  

Oh, and we also are participating in the traditional Cinco de Mayo going-to-bed-early.  Yup.  Randy told the kids that it is actually a tradition to go to bed early on the 5th of May.  Something to do with how the Mexican people could rest easy because they no longer had to worry about being attacked by the French.  No lie.  Randy really did tell them that.  And the best part is - they totally believed it. 

I don't know what's scarier:  that our kids are that gullible or that we homeschool.

Dear Future History Teachers of our Children,
I am so sorry.
Love,