Notes from the Patch

Love thy neighbor

  Valentine's Day has gotten to be a bit, er... trying for me. You see we share a parking lot with a very popular local bakery and although we have five plainly marked parking spots reserved for Strawberry Patches employees, finding a spot to park at 9:00am on Valentine's Day is next to impossible.

I always know it's coming, and I know it's only one day, but I must admit it gets my panties in a wad when I drive up in the morning and there are dozens of cars EVERYWHERE including in our five PLAINLY marked RESERVED spots.

My first instinct upon discovering a Volkswagen Bug in my spot was to park behind it and block it in.

Mean. I know.

But then I got a grip and found a spot down the street. After all, who am I to stand in the way of love? Men, frantically rushing in before work for chocolate dipped strawberries, moms picking up cupcakes for the school party and that single young man picking out just the perfect chocolate assortment in hopes to woo his girl.

Valentine's Day. Gotta love it!

Speaking of love...

this is Les Amis de la Foret - Friends of the Forest by Patty Sloniger for Michael Miller Fabrics.

See: creatures great and small, parked there under the huge oak tree, living in perfect harmony.

Encourage one another,

My Funny Valentines

I'll bet I'm the only one you know who received a mini bottle of milk as a valentine

and it couldn't have been more perfect!

Thank you Barbara. You totally get me.

Speaking of perfect, this is the card I found for Bill this year.

Pretty much sums us up.

I hope your day is filled with love and some sweet surprises.

Encourage one another,

Sharing and caring

Gosh, here it is the weekend again. This week flew by for me (which is good because with all of the short holiday work weeks we've had recently I was worried I wouldn't be able to get back into the grove of a five day work week again - those three and four day weeks kinda spoiled me).

This week was Bernina Club. For those of you who are local, we'd love for you to come. It's basically a sewing club because you don't have to have a Bernina sewing machine to attend. We meet on the third Wednesday night of the month and the following Thursday morning. There is lots of show and tell and a brief program. Mostly I think of it as a friendship group where we share sewing projects that we've finished and encourage and inspire one another. For me, it's a time when I realize more than ever what wonderful women (and men) quilters are. I'm sure coin collectors and gardeners are wonderful people too but Bernina Club just makes me glad I sell fabric to all these exceptionally wonderful folks! Oh, and you need to know it's free. Your smiling face is the only price of admission, although some finished projects to show and tell are certainly appreciated and always rewarded. = )

Anyway, I wanted to show you some of what I've been up to now that I don't have to worry about spoiling any surprises.

Since Christmas, I've dedicated a little more time to my Pinterest Boards and have gotten so many fun ideas from other people who are eager to share. Here are some of the fun projects I (with the help of my team) made for our January club.

This was an idea I saw on Pinterest and since I already had the tiny milk bottles knew I wanted to do it for our ladies.

What's better than milk and cookies?

Milk out of your own personal mini milk bottle with heart shaped cookies and arrow straws. That's what!

So fun.

This idea came from Pinterest too. Dove chocolate hearts instead of Hersey's Kisses on peanut butter cookies.

I showed you this before Christmas. Remember?

I whipped this one up so I wouldn't forget my idea.

Last week we "whipped up" fifty of them to give as favors for everyone who attended.

Whew.

And because everyone is encouraged to wear a name tag, we started out the new year by providing everyone with a Name Tag Starter Kit

to make these.

Except theirs had their name on them - not mine. = )

We're hoping everyone will return next month wearing their new name tag. There may or may not be prizes for the most clever ones. Just say'n. Oh, and if you're new next month we'd be happy to provide you with all the fix'ns for a name tag too - just let us know you're coming. K?

I couldn't wait to start brain storming for next month's get together - February 20th & 21st. Here's a hint of what you might expect to see.

What have you been up to? Do tell.

Have a terrific weekend everyone.

Encourage one another,

 

 

 

Let there be light

I bought myself an early Christmas present.

Grey skies and dark of night can no longer stop me from getting my shots.  I'm so excited I doubt that I'll ever sleep again!

Bill went off to bed so I thought I'd set the thing up and take a test shot or two to give it a  whirl. I ran upstairs to get the camera and AWK! Bill had bought me a new computer and printer and secretly got it all set up while I was at work!!! My old desk top was seriously about a hundred and fifty years old and soooslow. Well you can bet I'll be up all night now snapping pics and checking them out on my new GIANT monitor!

Merry early Christmas to me. I'm calling in sick in the morning. Just want to stay home and play with my new toys. Can you blame me?

Encourage one another,

Count down til Christmas or How do I love thee? Let me count the ways.

I've wanted to make an advent calendar for as long as I can remember but to be honest, the thought of sewing twenty five little numbered bags has always stood in my way. I'm basically lazy like that, so this year when I found these

I took the easy way out and opted for a bottle of Elmer in exchange for my Bernina.

I  pretty much just used what I had - various left over mismatched chipboard numbers and some stickers. The frame is a picture frame from Michael's.

I stapled chicken wire to the back and added baker's twine with mini clothes pins to hold the tiny bags.

I'm happy with the way it turned out but the best part is now I can say I've finally made an advent calendar. 

I put little treats in each bag for my sweet husband. He has a bit of a sweet tooth so I thought I would surprise him with a little treat on his pillow each night for the first twenty five days of December. Awww. (I know).

Like my mom always said, Sweets for my sweet.

You're never too old to make a little Christmas magic don'tchathink?

Encourage one another,

Thankful

Wishing you and yours a Happy Thanksgiving! I am so blessed to be able to meet with you all here and am thankful for your encouragement.

 

 

Here's hoping your leftovers are plentiful.

Encourage one another,

 

 

It's all but a memory

The house is so quiet tonight. Our family flew back to Kansas today .

Tonight we're high on sweet memories.

This house was such fun - huge by London standards: four bedrooms, three and a half baths - five stories. Vertical living at it's finest. Wait until you see my gluts! I swear if I have to go up on more flight of stairs...

Tonight Bill and I had a quiet dinner alone and lingeried over a bottle of wine reminding ourselves that Michael is only ten (that boy can negotiate a deal like you can't believe) and discussed Sarah's fierce need for friends and staying connected to them night and day. This trip confirmed that our baby boy is the most loving husband, patient dad and thoughtful son we could ever hope for and that our DIL is perfect for him, them - and us!

We are so proud of our family!

So glad we came.

Encourage one another,

Trick or Treat!

Some of you asked me to show you the other side of these and asked, what's up with the paper straws?

Since I made them to give to my team tonight during a staff meeting I didn't want to reveil to much, but now I can.

They are made from plain black and orange bags that I purchased at Michael's.

Although each is slightly different I made them all the same way.

Here's the schematic:

I just glued on some of the doodads that I'd been collecting (for years!). I especially love the dimension that the crepe paper gives. Love that I can gather yards and yards of the stuff in mere minutes on my sewing machine! The little round cardboard circles had sticky backs so the gathered crepe paper stuck really well without the need for messy glue.

I buy fun paper clips like these when I find them and then stick them in my little jars so I can find them when I need them. These black and white ones are perfect!

The fun flags are made from paper straws (very popular right now -  I'm pretty sure I have every color) and Washi tape. Have you used that? It's a great decorative masking tape from Japan. I just wrapped the ends of the straws and cut flag shapes. So cute and affordable when doing lots!

This is a great time of year to stock up on Halloween stickers and stuff because most places have them marked down 40% to 50%.

I filled the finished bags with mini candy bars and Halloween goodies. I just wanted to show my girls how much I love and appreciate all they do for me. Truth is, I always love an excuse to heat up the ol glue gun!

Happy haunting!

Encourage one another,

Fatal attraction

Part two on Tuesday with a somewhat disturbing ending!

Stay tuned.

Decorations and confessions

Isn't it amazing how the simplest thing can make you so happy?

I love any excuse to decorate. Case in point, the stairwell which leads to my happy place.

Actually I can't think of a better place to decorate than the place that makes me the happiest. I guess you could say it's my "happiest place on earth"! Who needs Disneyland when you have your own personal place where you can go to dream, create, write, meditate and refuel?  

I love walking up the stairs seeing these popcorn filled votive jars and those paper silhouettes, which are apparently attracted to popcorn.

The LED candles have timers which I set to turn on when I get home from work.

To me they say, "Welcome home, come up and play - here, I'll show you the way".

While we're on the subject of happy places, I have a bit of a confession to make. You know how I've been on this creative roll - making dozens of  the same project week after week?

Well. I didn't do it all by myself.  I had some help.

Meet Bianca.

At first Bianca was the perfect assistant. She was productive, quiet and didn't eat much.

Bianca, can you say hello to our friends? (She's painfully shy).

One day last week I came home early from work and caught Bianca on my laptop, spread out on the couch watching The Addams Family.

The night I found her in bed with Bill was the night she gave me no choice.

I fired her skinny arse!

Yup, packed her up and sent her back where she belonged...Costco.

Ba bye Bianca.

Today I am linking to my friend Beverly's blog. It's Try Pinterest Tuesday where we actually try a pin we found on Pinterest. I found the inspiration for my stairwell there. Pop over to My Sew Sweet Studio and see what great Pinterest ideas Beverly has linked up.

Paper mice - Martha Stewart.

Candle jars - Strawberry Patches

LED candles - OSH

Bianca - Costco (I know they have at least one left).  = )

 

Encourage one another,