OPAM finish for May

OMG this month has been AWFUL! My camera isn't working, so of course I can't get any of my pictures off of it.  And to top it all off, my Gammill broke! It's been in the shop for a week, and I just BARELY got it back!  Needless to say, I didn't get a lot accomplished this month :(

But, I did finish one project.  I made a quilt for one of my grandmother's for Mother's Day, and even though I got it finished a little late, I did manage to finish it.  Sadly, the photos are on the broken camera so I can't actually post them!  But trust me when I say that it is super cute!!

Best Mother's Day Prank Ever

For Mother's Day, since the quilts I was making didn't get finished in time, I decided to send flowers to my grandmas.

I called the florist on Friday (I know, I know, totally last minute, and I should know better, working at a floral myself), and they were really great to help me out.  The card I had them put with the flowers said:  "Happy Mother's Day! We love you! Love, Mike, Joanna, Marshall, and baby."  hehehehehehe sneaky, huh?

We were planning on telling my parents Sunday night at dinner at their house.  My MIL pointed out though that if my grandma got the flowers, she might call and ruin the surprise, so we had better order flowers for my parents as well.  So I did.

Their card said "Happy Mother's Day.  Congratulations on your new baby! Love Mike and Joanna."  hehehehhee

It was supposed to be delivered Friday or Saturday morning.  By about 2 PM I hadn't heard anything.  I texted my dad.

Me: Hey, did mom get any flowers for mother's day?
Him: The floral just called about a delivery.
Me: OK, cuz I was going to bring some up if she didn't get any. I guess I'll find something else to do now.

(I am sooooo sneaky! and it's a good thing I did it by text, because I couldn't keep a straight face/level voice to save my life! hehehehe)

When we saw them today, they told us how surprised they were.  At first, after the florist called, they said that they thought the flowers were from me, but then my mom pointed out that it didn't make sense for me to send flowers when I work at a floral.  They were so surprised!

This is by far the best mother's day prank ever, I'm sure of it! haha

The Cat's out of the Bag!

So....those of you who happen to read this and/or follow me on Twitter might recall that I had a bit of a minor freak-out on Wednesday.

It all started on Tuesday when we decided that we were finally going to purchase our building plans for our house.  We were toying with the idea of paying the company to do the plan changes, or having our nephew do them instead (our nephew has agreed to do them, since the city engineer has to approve/certify the plans anyway, so why pay the extra $2000, right?)  We were all sorts of excited to be getting ready to buy our plans.

This started the first phase of the freak-out.

How much is building going to cost?

Will we get approved for a loan?

How long will it take to build?

etc., etc., etc.


Add to this the stress of finding a sitter so that I can go to Quilt Market in SLC.  PLUS playing catch up on my quilting after taking a week off in April for my grandfather's funeral (Did I mention that?  He was a great man....will do a post later about him when I have more than 2 minutes)  PLUS! I haven't exactly been feeling well lately.  I've been really tired, like the tired where 8 hrs of sleep still isn't enough.

I went home Wednesday in the middle of the day and discovered something that made me freak out a bit more than before.


I took 4 tests.  Yes, that's right. 4.  I wanted to be SURE.


Well, since pretty much everyone knows already.......


Marshall is going to be a big brother!  He is super excited, as are Mike and I.  We're freaking out a little about where baby is going to go in our tiny little split-level rental, but have already started dejunking and throwing things away in an effort to get the house ready.

Yes, baby won't be making an appearance until somewhere between Christmas and just after New Year's (secretly I'm hoping for December over January - hello tax credit!), but I want to get as much done as I can while I still feel good.....and before I look like a gigantic whale.

I don't think Mike cares what it is, but secretly I am hoping for a girl.  I would love a little girl. And then I could make a TON of cute clothes for her!  Boys just don't look good in cute ruffly skirts/dresses.  haha


Also......shhhhhh! We haven't told my parents yet....we're waiting for this weekend, so if you see them, don't say anything!! :)

OPAM finishes for April

So, I would have sworn I had taken some pictures of the quilt that I finished at the start of this month, but I have NO idea where I stuck them on my harddrive! :(

Anyway, I made this really beautiful quilt out of batiks for my cousin's wedding reception.  I took this pattern and made it bigger (I ended up doubling the fabric requirements, and did a 5 x 7 block layout....even had enough to piece the back from my leftovers!)

It was so beautiful, I really hope I can find those pictures!!  This is really going to bother me that I can't find them....will update this post when/if I do, for sure!

More OPAM finishes for March

Our group, Colton's Angels, made these sweet blankets last year, and we've never gotten the labels sewn on them.  I've had them sitting at my house for weeks, and made a deadline of the end of this month to finish them.  I didn't realize how quickly the month flew by!  So, I quickly stitched the labels on.  Now they are all ready for delivery: all 19 of them!

Here is a close-up shot of our labels.  Aren't they so sweet??  I just love the little angel.

I also managed to finish this Christmas candle needlepoint. Woohoo! I am starting to make quite a dent in my bag of to-be-made-Christmas-decorations.  Although, Mike keeps asking whose home they will be decorating, because there's no way they're going up in our house! haha He thinks they are kind of old-fashioned, and wants a more modern look for Christmas.  Oh well, too bad for him! *evil laugh*

I feel like I have gotten so much accomplished this month, but I still have so much left that I want to do!  It's crazy!!

OPAM Finish - Cherry House Quilt Along

Cherry House did this awesome quilt-along quilt using SOLIDS.  I've never done a quilt in just solids before, so I was really excited to do this quilt along.  I chose not to pick one of the color ways she did hers in.  I chose a purple-ish grey for my background, and different shades of purple for my pops of color.

I had a lot of fun quilting it.  I LOVE quilting feathers, so I quilted feathers going in alternating directions in the long grey columns.  In the pieced color columns, I quilted circles.  I'm really happy how it turned out.  Oh!  And I used a purple thread called Thistle to quilt it with!  I'm really, REALLY happy with it.  It's hanging on the back wall of my corner of the shop, above my bookshelf, out where everyone can see it! :)

Chalk up another finish for March OPAM :)

Going Natural

So, I've been slowly changing some of my personal items over from quick-and-easy-and-cheap to a more natural product.

The first thing I changed was my toothpaste.  I have gingivitis.  There.  I've said it.  The reason why is simple: I hate flossing.  I have a permanent wire retainer on my bottom teeth.  It's a pain in the butt to floss around it, so I don't.  My dentist scolds me.  My periodontist scolds me.  My hygienist scolds me.  Heck, even my mom scolds me!  But do I listen, or care?  NO!  Why?  Because it HURTS!

So, when I found out about these tooth chips by Rose of Sharon Acres, I decided to try them.  Now, they are a little pricier than normal toothpaste.  BUT, you get a lot in the 4 oz tin.  I also ordered some tooth powder.  The blurb on the website said it would "Brighten your smile" but upon reading the label, it also helps fight gingivitis.  Win. Win!

I've been using the tooth chips instead of toothpaste for about 2 weeks.  I don't want to sound like I know much of anything about teeth, but my gums are already feeling better.  I am not sure if I've mentioned it here before or not, but in December of 2009 I had gum replacement surgery.  I was 25.  Not something you'd think a 25-year-old would be having done.  I had the gums along my 4 lower/front teeth replaced.  It was painful.  I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.  I have been going back every 3 weeks-6 months ever since.  I went a few weeks ago, and I don't have to go back for another year.  It's finally starting to be where the periodontist wants it to be.

But my good news?  I checked today, and the spot isn't as red and inflamed as it normally is.  I can't say it's because I've been flossing, because I haven't.  It has to be partly due to the fact that I am using an all-natural item to brush my teeth.  And it rocks.

I'm going to make another confession here.  I have acne.  I have always had acne.  It sucks.  I've dealt with it.  I've moved on.  Except that it keeps coming back.  I am at the end of my rope as to what to do with it.  I've tried Nuetrogena, Pond's, Biore, Clearasil, Stridex, etc, but nothing seemed to really work totally.

I decided it was time for a change.  I needed something that was actually going to work.  About a year ago, I had a sample of Bert's Bees new facial care line.  It was fabulous.  I loved it.  Until it got dumped into the tub by Marshy (did I mention it was open at the time?).  So, when i went to the store tonight, i looked for a new product in the Bert's Bees line that I could use.

Instead of finding just 1 item, i bought 4.  The cleanser, the scrub, the toner, and the moisturizer.  I have oodles of samples of the spot treatment at home, so I din't bother buying those as well.

I just washed my face with the stuff and it feels amazing.  I just hope I can remember to wash at AM and PM!

The moisturizer was the most expensive of the bunch, at $16.  Everything else was around $8.  Woohoo! Good prices for sure.

What are you doing to go natural, or green, or whatever?  I would love to hear about it! :)