Giveaways Galore!!!

Not mine yet! Coming soon though, I promise!

Here are a few awesome giveaways with some time left to enter:

First up: Karen over at Badlands Quilts is giving away a Soiree HoneyBun for her 25th post! Karen's giveaway ends August 5th so head on over!

Over at PS I Quilt, Rachel is giving away a $50 gift certificate to fat quarter shop! Talk about awesome! Seriously! You have to hurry though because the last day to enter is today!

Last but not least, there is an amazing bag giveaway over at Bumble Beans Quilts! The contest ends tomorrow (August 1st) at 9am. Go visit V's blog to see the gorgeous bag and enter the giveaway!

Vacation Re-Cap

Last week, Hubby, me, and Paige took a mini vacation. We went to the beach for a few days...just long enough to get crispy and finish a book or two! Paige normally does not go on vacation with us...and I was hesitant to take her. Paige makes poor choices in our house and even more recently does not go in her crate since breaking out of it a few months back. It has since been put back together but I'm afraid to leave her in it, fearing that she'll try to break out again and hurt herself. So, the crate stayed home. Paige came to the beach and was a very good girl. She cried a little when we left a few times to go to the beach and boardwalk. She was so good, we bought her a baby on the boardwalk since we forgot to pack some for her to play with. Surprisingly the baby has lasted more than 10 minutes (up to 5 days now!) without her shredding it completely.

Paige chillaxing in bed with her new baby! Paige was a tired girl from

all the walks on the beach and the heat.

A view from the bay of our vacation location. This picture was taken during our

crabbing trip the previous weekend. It was my first time on a boat!

I packed my sewing machine and sewing basket to work on a quilt but the sunny beach was too inviting to sit inside and sew! We came home to a defrosted freezer and not completely cold refrigerator. Fortunately, the refrigerator is not broken and the malfunction was a result of someone (ugh...me) leaving the freezer door slightly open. The bad news is everything in my freezer had to be discarded. The good news is a lot of it needed to be thrown out anyway. Before figuring out that the fridge was working properly, we researched buying a new one and looked at quite a few. That, my friends, is another blog post for another time.

Hi, my name is Swedish and I'm an Eco-Sinner!

Another crazy week of classes and sewing, another project completed! Hubby surprised me with flowers from his garden last week. They were so pretty and it was very sweet! On top of classes and sewing, was book club. This month's book was, "Confessions of an Eco-sinner" by Fred Pearce. I still have not finished it (ooops!) but I can already say it is a great read. Fred flies around the world to research where his "stuff" comes from: everything from his wedding ring, to his computer, to the socks on his feet, the coffee he drinks, the fruits and veggies on his plate, etc.

It is by far an eye opening book and as a consumer made me very depressed. Basically I've learned that fair trade anything isn't necessarily fair trade. The farmers growing the crops don't see that additional money we are paying for the end "fair trade" product. The only thing fair trade assures is that the farmers are getting paid slightly higher than the market value which in reality is only a few cents. The only other point I'll bring up for thought, before stepping off the soapbox, is that almost all of our clothes in the US come from sweat shops or are made from materials that are grown by grossly underpaid farmers. Granted this is not my own research, and I'm sure there plenty of online vendors, so don't shoot the messenger! Fred basically tell us that the clothes we buy from Walmart, Old Navy, Gap, etc are all produced in the same factory. They all come off the same assembly line. So why on earth should I pay $58 for a pair of jeans at Gap, when I can buy them for $10 or $15 at Walmart? I would be more than willing to pay $40 for a pair of jeans, if I knew that extra money went to the workers rather than some CEO sitting behind a desk. So needless to say the book was depressing, made me feel helpless in the world I live in, but I need to keep on, keepin' on.

So now that you've digested that (you are still there, aren't you?), here are the chair cushions I made/recovered this weekend. The picture shows the back of the top cushion, because the front was too boring. The strings are to tie it to the chair. I'm pleased with how they turned out, although they don't photograph well and they are super soft!

I'm A Machine

I'm a reading, homework doing, class attending, bbq-ing, book club attending, sewing and soon to be exercising machine. This is probably going to be the busiest week ever! I have something to do each and every night this week and unfortunately none of it involves sewing. Tonight I had class...and I'll have to do more homework once my teacher realizes how crappy my paper is, but tomorrow...tomorrow is going to be AWESOME! We are going to DORNEY Park! Hubby got me tickets for my birthday (great present) and I can't wait to go. We've never been to an amusement park together. I love water parks and am not a fan of roller coasters, but that's ok because neither is here. Although I've got all this crazy stuff to do, I've managed to pick up another project and the deadline is ASAP. My mom's friend's DIL is having a baby girl in about 2 weeks. Her first baby was a boy so everything is blue. Not going to work for a baby girl, right? My mom volunteered me to recover cushions for the rocking chair/glider since they couldn't find cushions to buy outright. I have the cushions, check. I have the fabric and thread, check. I have the time...hello time, where are you? I'm all about upcycling and reuse but I'm a little short on time.

The fabric was an excellent buy at JoAnn fabric. I can't tell you how much, it was that cheap! It's upholstery fabric and it's velvety. It is going to cover the cushions nicely and be really comfy for the new mom. Here's a pic of the fabric ready to be cut... It's very plain and neutral (read: does not photograph well). I'm not sure exactly how this is going to work, but wish me luck!

To make up for the less than quality photo above, here's something I've recently added to my stash. I have aspirations of making a Wonderland quilt of some sort with this (any suggestions, please??), but of course I'd like to hold on to it forever! The jelly roll and patchwork fabric, (1 yard) are from fabric.com. The floral is a fat quarter that I grabbed off the table at The Little Shop during their fat quarter frenzy sale yesterday. 20 fat quarters for $25...I only bought 20....but I'm so going back for more!

The Great Escape

Happy 4th of July!!

I love summer and spending time with family/friends, so this is one of my favorite holidays.

Hubby and I hosted our second annual 4th of July barbecue this year, but on July 3rd! The preparation/shopping was overwhelming and there were some minor fireworks incidents at night but overall it was a good time.

The following day we were sitting (recovering) on the couch before going to a family reunion when I noticed our window was open and the screen was nowhere to be seen. Spike (my kitty) would like to explain what happened from his point of view. At this point in time, Annabelle is pleading the 5th. She's not very talkative to begin with anyway!

"I jumped up in the window to watch the birds and the screen fell out. I tumbled out the window and meowed really loud. Annabelle came to see what was going on and she jumped out the window to come see if I was ok. Luckily I have nine lives! I told Annabelle we needed to go wait on the porch because we aren't allowed outside. She thought the porch was to the right and I thought it was to the left. She wouldn't listen to me and I didn't want to get in trouble! When I got to the porch, I couldn't open the door so I thought it'd be better to wait under the porch for you to come find me. Good thing you found me, cause I was getting really hungry!"

The drop was about 7 feet from the ground. I obviously have no idea what really happened, but I was panicked when I couldn't find my babies. I heard Spike meowing and found him right away under the porch. We searched the house for Annabelle again...and then I started to really panic (and cry). She hides so well and is scared of everything. I searched the back yard and barely spotted her brown and black butt under the deck. Hubby crawled under and pulled her out. She was limp so my first concern was that maybe she got hit by a car. Once I got her in the house she was fine, she's just petrified of everything.

Sleepy Spike laying in Hubby's clothes.

Annabelle cuddling on the couch.