Merry Christmas!

From us...

To you!

My wish for you is lots of laughter...

An extra hand...

And undeniably pure love...

Hug your loved ones tight.  Cherish each moment.  We can be so arrogant in assuming tomorrow will come.

~SLBY

I have a new Baby!!

A new BabyLock Symphony that is.

I picked her up at the International Quilt Festival.  It is pretty much the only purchase I made.

I am working my way through the manual right now.  I will take an intro class after Thanksgiving.  I have 3 projects lined up to try her out.  I'm in love.  I might have hugged her.  I might do a detailed review of the machine or I may just display her wonders as I go.  FMQ is a dream now.  So many of the issues I had before have disappeared.

And she needs a name.

I want to be buried with this machine.


~SLBY

♥♥♥Things I'm Loving♥♥♥

My friend Renee at East of Eden is AWESOME at crocheting.  You should check out her blog.  She also occasionally posts about the things she is currently loving.  I have been inspired to do the same.

I'm loving that spring is around the corner.  Our wildflowers and five spots are blooming.  We have a tomato growing.  The kids have been able to play outside a lot.  All of this newness and tired children have inspired my most recent project, a spring time table runner.

On Wednesday, I picked up a new product, when I was buying the fabric for my above project. 

This is NOT your mother's starch.  It is a very light starch that helps give your fabric a little stiffness.  Stiffness isn't the right word, maybe a little structure is better.  Once washed, the only thing left behind is the scent.  The scent is absolutely lovely.  I have Lavender Fields.  There are 2 or 3 scents and also an unscented.  The scent alone makes this product worth every penny. 

Best quilting marker EVAH!  It draws on blue and washes away with water.  Always test your fabric before marking up everything.  I haven't had a fabric it doesn't wash out of easily.  I have used it on flannel and regular quilting cotton.  I love that it makes lines I can actually see.  Every quilter *needs* this pen.

Enjoy!

~SLBY

Valentine's of Yesterday...

Valentine's Day is very different from what it used to be, for me. Heck, every day is different from what it used to be. Kids just do that. It isn't a bad thing. It isn't horrible. It just is. I saw a couple today walking through the store hand in hand. They were young and, I'm assuming, college age. It took me back to when Rick and I were first dating. I remember those days so fondly. We met in college. We would walk around the store hand in hand, all sorts of lovey dovey. Our Valentine's Days were surrounded with as much sappy sweetness as expected. Flowers, chocolates, love songs, slow dances, and on and on and on.

And while those feelings are just as strong now, as they were then, we just don't have the time to display them like we did. *If* we are in a store together, there are usually two small children with us. Instead of walking hand in hand, one of us is attempting to control the children and the other is trying to quickly throw things into a cart and get us the heck out the store, ASAP! There is no more wandering around, gazing deeply into each other's eyes, and dreaming of the day we are married with kids. That day has arrived like a thousand galloping horses!

And while it never quite turns out just like you expect, I have to say Rick and I ended up pretty lucky.

We have this sweet boy who just smiles non-stop:

This incredibly talented little girl is going to do a kick ass job decorating my nursing home room, when I'm old:



Sometimes I feel bad that Rick and I aren't still those two college kids anymore. I definitely long for the pre-kids Saturdays, where we slept in, laid in bed til noon and watched way too much MTV Room Raiders.

Friday night is our date night. Maybe I can find some Room Raiders on DVD or something and we can recreate those Saturday mornings....

NAH! I'm not turning down a kid free meal for lazy bed time.

I did get these beauties this morning:


The colors are perfect. I love purples mashed with yellow and orange. They are quilt inspiring.

And Emma and I turned this:



into this:



We used a Tasty Kitchen recipe. You can check it out here. I used semi sweet/white chocolate swirl chips and coconut creme pudding. And I refuse to admit how much has been eaten.

My Valentine's Day definitely are not the Valentine's Day of yesteryear. And I couldn't be happier about it.

Namaste
~SLBY