oh random number goddess, who will you choose?

happy halloween!  that means it's time to draw a winner for the $45 gift certificate!

drum roll, please...

sarah, that's you!  send me your email addy, at tammieschaffer@yahoo dot com.  i'll forward it to csn, and they'll send you a code to use!  csn has always been super speedy, so you may be shopping by this time tomorrow night!

there's still time to enter to win the book star struck quilts!  and great odds - no one has entered yet!

show and tell!

looking for the giveaways?  scroll down to the next two posts!

i made this fun wreath out of the box o' gingham from granny marie's stash.  i will probably try to sell it at the craft show, but wouldn't it be too bad if no one buys it, and i have to hang it up next easter?

i started another wreath out of some 4th of july fabric i found while sorting.  i may not have enough so i need to get creative for filler ideas.  linen?  hmm... linen always helps, doesn't it?  it's getting close to finished.

i've been playing with some ispy quilt layouts, and some gathered notebook covers.  nothing finished to show yet...

also, head over to see nikki  to learn how to make these fun trees.  i am making a bunch to create a garland!

i've been itching to do some hand sewing, so i may break out my embroidery hoop soon.  thinking of this cross stitch for my sewing room.

thanks for stopping by!  happy sewing!

cent, cien, cento

however you say it,  i hit 100 followers on twitter, yay me!, and i wanted to celebrate with a giveaway!

csn has offered up another gift voucher for any of their 200+ online shops, this time for $45!!  you could use it to get a jump start on your holiday shopping.  or buy me a birthday present.  whatever you feel like, no pressure. 

to enter, tell me what's on your wishlist!  would you buy something for yourself?  i'd love new dining room chairs.  ours have been reglued so many times, and the paint needs touched up.  in a fantasy world with no cats and kids, these chairs would be awesome.  or uncomfortable.  i can't decide.

for another entry, become a follower!  just look to the left and click on the follow button. do it in public or private, it's a free country.  then leave me a comment telling me you did.  if i hit 100 followers on my blog, i'll have another giveaway!  i'll leave it open until halloween, then randomly choose a winner.  i'll also do a birthday giveaway next week, if i were you, i'd stalk my blog daily so i wouldn't miss anything.

and since i hate posts without photos, here's a quick peek at a wreath i rehabbed.

the leaves are from a mobile i got in elsie marley's swap a few years back.  a breeze snarled the filament so badly i had to cut the leaves loose, and i wanted to save them so i added them to an old wreath.  it used to have fake berries on it, but they weren't weatherproof and exploded in the rain.  so i made it new again with my glue gun and these leaves!

my scrappy mug rug

i received my package all the way from australia!  i love getting goodies from around the world, and she did a wonderful job!

the mug rug is so cute with the pieced mug and lots of dots - my fave!  and check out that great asterisk block.  some cute scraps including a birdhouse print, adorable card with a recipe and some yummy tea.  what a fun package to get!  thanks susan!

i'm a kcmqg member!

i have a birthday the end of the month.  so, besides getting furniture for our upstairs, i also got an evening out by myself.  i attended the kansas city modern quilt guild  last night!   i met up with nikki from the bee vintage group on flickr, who was so nice.  we had planned to meet for dinner, but you know how things go when you've got little ones at home, never as planned!  i ran into camille,  a lady i worked with at the library in lawrence, nice to see a familiar face.

the guest speaker was cherri house.  she was so unexpected real, and genuine.  she shared her personal story, which was inspiring and emotional, and i won't go into details because it's her story to share.  she is also really funny, and her quilts are just amazing.

each one she showed, i thought THAT one is my favorite!  until the next one.  i'm a little unsure of myself when it comes to solids, but her use of color is fabulous. the quilts are from her book, city quilts. i didn't buy a copy, since i spent my money on a guild membership, but someday i think i'd like to make city circles.

it was a great night out.  but i have to say - sawyer cried the entire time, so a huge thank you to my mom for dealing with that.  he has been fussy in the evenings, i walked the floor with him wednesday night.  thank goodness i had the neighbor girl come watch the older kids!  and, 6 hours is a wee bit too long to be away from a nursing baby.  i was sporting some humongo tatas by the time i got home!  we're going to relax today, the kids don't have school and we have to get ready for the carnival party tomorrow.  have a great weekend!

blog action day 2010

water.  necessary to all forms of life.  we take it for granted, because it's just there.  you turn the faucet on and there it is.   but what if it weren't just magically there?  what if you had to work really hard to get it?  some places in the world, that's a reality.  and other places the water isn't safe to drink.

my household is a little different than most.  we live out in the country, and we haul in our water.  meaning, there are no water lines on our road, so we don't have access to any water unless we bring it in.  so we do.  every other day or two my honey drives into town and plugs quarters into the water machine.  and sticks the big hose in the big tank in the back of the truck.  drives home and sticks the smaller hose into the pipe that leads to our cistern.  and repeat.  right now, it's not that big of a deal, but once these four kids get older and are taking one or two showers a day, this could become a big pain in the patootie.

water has recently become available to us.  we'd have to pay to run the water lines through rocky ground, buy a water meter, and then pay $50 a month for the luxury.  approx. a $12K project, from all estimates. so not really feasible.  i'm not complaining, we chose to move here and we love it.  i'm just reminding you of the things we take for granted sometimes.  like readily accessible, affordable water.

To get the conversation about water started, we wanted to send out five facts that illustrate the severity of the global water problem, and why we think Blog Action Day 2010 is such an important opportunity to raise awareness about the issue:

1. Unsafe drinking water and lack of sanitation kills more people every year than all forms of violence, including war. Unclean drinking water can incubate some pretty scary diseases, like E. coli, salmonella, cholera and hepatitis A. Given that bouquet of bacteria, it's no surprise that water, or rather lack thereof, causes 42,000 deaths each week.
2. More people have access to a cell phone than to a toilet. Today, 2.5 billion people lack access to toilets. This means that sewage spills into rivers and streams, contaminating drinking water and causing disease.
3. Every day, women and children in Africa walk a combined total of 109 million hours to get water. They do this while carrying cisterns weighing around 40 pounds when filled in order to gather water that, in many cases, is still polluted. Aside from putting a great deal of strain on their bodies, walking such long distances keeps children out of school and women away from other endeavors that can help improve the quality of life in their communities.
4. It takes 6.3 gallons of water to produce just one hamburger. That 6.3 gallons covers everything from watering the wheat for the bun and providing water for the cow to cooking the patty and baking the bun. And that's just one meal! It would take over 184 billion gallons of water to make just one hamburger for every person in the United States.
5. The average American uses 159 gallons of water every day – more than 15 times the average person in the developing world. From showering and washing our hands to watering our lawns and washing our cars, Americans use a lot of water. To put things into perspective, the average five-minute shower will use about 10 gallons of water. Now imagine using that same amount to bathe, wash your clothes, cook your meals and quench your thirst.

While these facts may be grim, there is hope for real solutions as more and more people around the world are waking up to the clean water crisis. Earlier this year, the UN declared access to clean water a human right and groups like charity: water and Water.org continue to work tirelessly to bring water access to the developing world. 

(excerpted from an email i received from the blog action day team.)

amazing that i didn't know any of that.  why do i know more about celebrities and their shopping sprees than that women are having to walk carrying 40 pounds of water?!  shameful.  and i know that our household is more conservative than most about wasting water.  we don't let the faucets run.  we don't water our yard or wash our cars.  because when we run out, we run out.  we don't plant a garden because the cost of hauling in the water to sustain it is more than the savings on fresh veggies. 

but there's more we can do.  like rain barrels to catch water for the plants.  and wearing our clothes another time before tossing them in the hamper.  simple things.  i hope you will challenge yourself to try to make a difference, no matter how small.

in the mail

here are the party invites, cute, huh?  idea is from martha, of course.

confession.  my sis-in-law volunteered to make them.  and me, being so completely psycho, had to remake them because they were sort of, well,  messy.  she handwrote the backs and used construction paper (just like the instructions say to), so it was flimsy and sort of, well, not the way i wanted to do it.  in my defense, i only made four new ones.  two for friends, and one for each of my kids' birthday book.  i totally didn't tell her either. 

so wendy, hope you're not reading this, but if you are, it's me.  not you.  i think i need more medication.

i hate glue guns.

i have never mastered the skill of using one without burning myself horribly. i have three smarting fingers - one is missing skin! all from hot glue gone awry. i was making rolled fabric flowers, thank goodness that's over.

except i keep seeing cute wreath ideas, like on the cover of woman's day it has a candy corn wreath. and i love the gumdrop wreaths for the holidays. maybe i need to wear gloves while glueing? anyone have tips for me on how NOT to burn myself?  because i have lots i want to do with them, but not at the risk of bodily harm.

i got a teeny bit of sewing in today, but no pics and nothing to share tonight. except this.

my new hairdo!  so far, loving it.  not sure if i'll keep it this short, but it's fun to try new do's, isn't it?

bingeing

seriously.  i need to figure out how to become addicted to working out and proper eating, instead of sewing and baking.  but what if there were no tomorrow, and i didn't eat this?  that would be a shame.

look at that crumbly deliciousness.  those are two little pieces of apple bars from the recipe i shared last post.  oh em gee.

i also made a cake for zach's birthday, so i'm trying not to eat any of it, but come on.  caaaake.

so today, troy took the older three to a 40th birthday fish fry, and i am hoping to burn some of those calories sewing. wouldn't that be nice?   hmm, maybe i'm on to something there.  they have shoes that tone you while you walk, after all.  i'll let you know what i come up with.

meanwhile, i'm going to try to complete a few crayon books and stuff for the craft show.  which is dangerously near for me not having much to sell.

the opposite of dieting

yesterday was a baking day.  troy brought home bags of apples from a coworker, and so far i've tried two new apple recipes.  one for crock pot apple crisp - it was good, but didn't get crisp.  it was good for breakfast.  i added a cup of oats and it was a little like oatmeal.  

the second recipe was for glazed apple bars.  they are sooo good.  super sweet and simple, too.  you should definitely try them.  basically, it's shortbread with an apple layer and more shortbread on top, drizzled with icing.  like i said, sweet.  i am going to make another pan to take to a fish fry tomorrow.  later tonight i'm hoping to use the rest of the apples in a freezer apple pie filling recipe. 

and another must try recipe is the coconut-lime banana bread over at made.  holy cow, this is delicious.  the tangy glaze is great.  i ate two huge pieces before i could stop myself.  i substituted sour cream for yogurt but otherwise made as directed, with applesauce.

next in the oven is an ernie birthday cake for our little zach dylan. 

he turns three today.  we are celebrating with a trip to the pumpkin patch.  have a great day!!