State Fair Time

I have always been hesitant to "show off" my work to people. It's not something that comes naturally to me. I have been working on that a lot lately using this blog, twitter, and flickr to show photos of my completed quilts and other projects. It's one thing for me though, to show a photo online and to have people say "oh, how pretty!" and something else altogether to willingly bring in something I have made and have it judged. The thought of someone judging my work terrifies me to no end.

Last year I had a conversation with someone who said to me "you need to put your work out there where people can see it and touch it. You need to be open to criticism and be open to getting you feelings hurt in order to succeed. If you never put yourself out there, no one will ever see how wonderful you are." Granted, this person was a family member so they have to say I'm wonderful, but his words really struck a chord with me. He encouraged me to enter a quilt in my local fair.

Here's the thing about my local fair. It's the Puyallup fair. It's the largest fair in Washington state. It's a tad bit, um, intimidating. I talked to my friend Lizze (who also happens to be my biggest fan) and she encouraged me further. I decided to go ahead and jump in with both feet. I knew right away which quilts I wanted to enter.

I spent the day yesterday hand-stitching labels and hanging sleeves to the back of two fairly large quilts. After church this morning I drove the few blocks to the fairgrounds and my stomach started to knot up. I remembered the message from service and played it over in my mind "Only a fool would wait for the perfect time". I bit my lip, grabbed my bag, and went inside. Phew.

Entry #1 Urban Cabin

Entry #2 Royal Garden

Now comes the nail biting and the anxiousness of waiting to hear how they did. I'll have to keep myself plenty busy so I'm not constantly thinking about it. It's a good thing I have so much sewing to do!

Fave 5 Friday

My friend Sharon started a new linky party! I'm so excited for this one because it's just my favorite 5 photos that I have taken this week. Easy peasy! No expectation to finish projects or anything. Phew. You can link up too. Just head over to Sharon's blog A Prairie Sunrise, and add your link. I love looking at beautiful photos and having a little sneak peek into the real lives of my online friends :)

Without further ado, here are my fave 5 for this week:

Walking the dogs

Apex Quilt

Relaxing and making beautiful things

A tree in a tree

My sweet girl sewing her very first bag for school

Pay It Forward

Here's another post where I talk about my friend Amanda. She is seriously an awesome person. She is always the first person to offer help when it's needed. Just in the short time that I've "known" her (I say it like that because I have never actually met her in real life, but I'd love to meet her someday!) she has made me a fabulous doll quilt for a swap along with a pretty zippered pouch, made quilt blocks for our charity quilt that we sent to Joplin, MO and also provided the fabric for the borders, binding, and gave us the batting. I have also seen her making things for so many others. This is why I wasn't at all surprised to see a post on her blog titled "Pay It Forward".

For those of you who aren't familiar with what that means, basically the idea is that if someone does something nice for you, then you in turn, do something nice for someone else. I decided to jump on this idea for a couple of reasons. One: I love everything that Amanda makes, and I love the thought of having more of her awesome stuff in my house. Two: I like to think that I am a nice person and I enjoy making things for people thinking it will bring a bit of joy to their lives. So, here is how this "Pay It Forward" is going to work:

1. I will make a little something of the first 3 people who comment on this post. It will be a surprise and it will arrive when you least expect it.

2. I will have 365 days to do it in. What's the catch? To get a handmade present from me, you have to play too! This means YOU pledge to send a little handmade something for 3 readers of your blog. It doesn't have to be quilty - just handmade!

3. You must have a blog.

4. Once you comment here, you must post about your Pay It Forward on your blog to keep the fun going - with the Pay It Forward badge.

So if you want a little surprise from me in your mailbox sometime in the next 365 days, post a comment! Even if you post after the third comment, it doesn't mean you can't do a Pay It Forward project of your own. Doing things for others can be a very rewarding experience. Not only does it make you feel good about yourself, but it makes the receiver feel good as well.

Getting Back to Work

I was out of town this last weekend (Yes. Again. It's getting ridiculous, isn't it?). I was house sitting for my in-laws while they went to Canada. Really I was just playing gardener for a few days, which I didn't mind one bit. The weather was perfect and it was a really relaxing weekend. I have been so behind on my sewing so I decided to bring my machine along and a few projects to work on.

The first thing I needed to finish was my little stack of trees. These are for the latest swap for the Misfit Quilters group. I really love how they turned out. I can't wait to get my trees in the mail to put my little quilt together! I used one of my favorite fabrics from the Sunkissed line by Sweetwater fabrics, and Kona snow for the background.

The next project that was overdue was for my friend, Sharon. She needed some people to help out making some blocks for a Project Linus quilt. She designed her own blocks with a tutorial here. These turned out really cute. I'm excited to see the entire quilt top to see how all of the donated blocks come together. Sharon has a fun blog that I really enjoy reading. Go check out all that's going on over at Craizee Corners.

I have been working on a sample quilt for the shop using Tula Pink's newest line Prince Charming. I got the quilting finished over the weekend and got the binding done last night. This was the first quilt I made using my new Bernina. The BSR foot made quilting this so much easier! It was a bit difficult to get used to, and I'm still learning, but I love it.

It is also almost time for the kids to go back to school. September 1st is the big day over here. I don't get why they'd start the school year on the Thursday before Labor day. They go for two days and then have a 3-day weekend... Anyway, I like to send gifts for the teachers with my kids on the first day. Apples are the usual thing and I'm unsure where that tradition started. I think I'll have to find out about that. I decided that teachers are probably sick to death of getting apples so I chose to make something else. Our school mascot is the Scottie Dog. I have been making these little guys for the kids to bring. I hope they are original enough to not be tossed in a drawer and forgot about until it's time to clean the desks out next June.

I am feeling pretty accomplished these last couple days, despite several hours of car travel and having a day job. I have two new quilts to list in the Etsy shop tomorrow too! Yay me! Now if I could always be this productive...

A Little R & R

It seems like I am constantly busy. Cleaning, doing laundry, running errands, cooking, cleaning, going to work, breaking up kids squabbles, cleaning... (I totally meant to say cleaning 3 times, because, well, I clean an awful lot). Every summer I get a much needed break from all of that and I really look forward to it. We load up the camper and head over the mountains and into the sun and water at Moses Lake.

A few months ago, my husband told me we probably wouldn't be able to go. We, like many other people right now, are on a pretty tight budget. It upset me greatly. It's my one week to relax and not have a care in the world. And it was the only week my kids would have any kind of summer at all.

We ended up pinching some pennies to make it work, and I'm so glad we did.

Here's a picture of the wind farm that's on the way to the lake. I love it. I kinda want a turbine of my own, actually.

Bijou was even relaxing in the car on the way

This is what I woke up to see every morning. It was perfect.

Talk about procrastination! I am the master. I was binding the camping quilt while camping. Oy. But I got it finished, and there it is on our bed in the camper.

On one of our vacation days, we decided to drive a couple of hours to see the Grand Coulee Dam. On the way we made a few stops. Soap Lake was the first stop. It's a tiny little town where it seemed that everyone spoke Russian. The lake there is full of all kinds of minerals that are supposed to be really great for your skin. We got in the water and immediately noticed millions of tiny reddish orange things floating in it. I assumed it was just minerals, but we came to find out they were tiny little shrimp. Ew. People were coming down to the lake and going into the water with buckets. Then they would dig down and pull out this tar looking stuff from the floor below. They brought their tar-filled buckets up to shore and started rubbing it all over their bodies. It was a very strange place, and the kids and I are not fans. I don't think we'll be going there again.

Our second stop was Dry Falls. Now, that was something I liked. I think geology is incredibly cool.

We also stopped and saw Banks Lake, which is crazy huge. 27 miles long!

Here is a picture of me with the lake in the background (such a nerdy tourist):

Then, past that, we saw Steamboat Rock (please excuse the cracked windshield!)

Then we finally made it to Grand Coulee Dam

At night, when the water runs over the face of the dam, they put on a laser light show that tells the story of how and why the dam was built. It was really awesome. 

Here's a few more gratuitous lake fun photos. 

I hope you enjoyed going on vacation with me. Washington State is amazing. There really is so much to see and do here. If you've never visited, you should make the time at least once. It's breathtakingly beautiful. But I am a bit biased I suppose. I am a Washingtonian, through and through!

Road Trip!

A couple years ago we had a few family members pack up and move to Meridian, Idaho. As much as I miss getting to spend lots of time with them, I now have a reason to visit a gorgeous state every summer! They moved to a huge home on 10 acres. There are chickens, goats, and a swimming pool with a diving board (that's the kids favorite thing). The big red barn with the rope swing is a pretty big deal too.

Meridian is a small town just outside of Boise. It's a beautiful little town. Not only did we hang out next to the pool while listening to the animals making all their cute animal-ly noises, but we also went to a great outdoor urban market, and my most favorite frozen yogurt shop, Yoyo's.

The balloon lady at the urban market made really awesome balloon animals for all the kids, but she really went all out for Ben. He got a sword, belt, and a hat! He was pretty excited about that.

This was my frozen yogurt from Yoyo's. So good. Coconut frozen yogurt, with graham cracker crumbs, shredded coconut, and sliced almonds. My mouth is watering just thinking about it.

While we were there, we also had a birthday party. They have a Boxer named Ella and she happened to turn 3 years old while we were there. We decided to celebrate and the kids made some of the most awesome cupcakes I have ever seen.

Bijou got to wear a birthday party hat too. Her and Ella became the best of friends during our visit.

I brought my hexagons to sew while I was there, but we were so busy having fun, that I didn't get any done.

I haven't been to any other town in Idaho, but I have heard that it is all just as beautiful. I would love to have the chance to explore more of it someday. If it wasn't such a long drive, I'd visit so much more often. There's also a pretty big bridge to cross from Washington into Oregon and that freaks me out a lot. But seeing sunsets like this make the drive totally worth it.