Happy Birthday, Marti!

Happy Birthday to the best sister in the world!! You have been the person who has been by my side the longest. You protected me when I was little, you shared your cookies and cake with me (she would bring home half her treats that she got in school for her baby sister who was still at home). You also tried to drown me on more than one occasion, but I will let that go....for now. As we grew, we grew apart, as sisters will do when one is in high school and the other is an annoying junior high kid. When we moved to Texas, you were my rock when things were tough and whether you know it or not I really depended on you being there for me and love you for that. The college years, well, you taught me how to, ahem, we'll say "enjoy life"!

You inspire me all the time. I used to want to be like you but I know that I can't because you are your own unique and lovely person. You approach life with an open and giving heart, and well, we all know that I'm just too selfish!! Thanks for being my sister and best friend. May we always keep one another in our hearts...and always remember to laugh together!!

Marti - I love you.

Portrait Quilt Reveal

Today is the day that I get to reveal my portrait quilt that I've been working on as the challenge for Art Quilts Around the World. So Here is the big reveal....

This is the front. I took a silhouette of my face and then retraced it smaller a couple of times. I then overlaid them using tulle to get the see-through effect.

This is the back. As you can see, the outline of the silhouettes show through on the back. I then looked into what my name meant by going to Kabalarians.com and did some investigating. That investigation was very enlightening and I took what that provided me and wrote out on the back what my name means and other details as to who I am. I really enjoyed learning about my name's meaning and what the next chapter of my life is meant to represent.

Here is a couple of close-ups of the writing on the back. I used a rubber stamp and fabric ink as well as various colors of Sharpie pens.

Here is a little bit closer on the mesh silhouettes.

I learned a lot while working on this quilt, not only about myself but with some of the materials that I used. I want to do more with writing on my quilts in the future, but the fabric that I use needs to be a tighter weave. I also have determined that wonder-under does not work well with tulle....I'll need to figure out a different way  to adhere it if I use it again in the future.

This was a great challenge and I really enjoyed it and definitely looking forward to the next art quilt that I create. 

Picture Challenge - January 30

So, as I mentioned previously, I went to Sprouts the other day to purchase some produce and where I got the yummy candy crack. 

While there, I purchased some squashes (acorn and butternut) as well some sweet potatoes. I got the sweet potatoes to make some YUMMY  sweet potato, corn, ham chowder, which I have been eating on all week. This is NOT a picture of MY chowder, but is very similar. 

As I stated, I also bought acorn and butternut squash, which I have no idea what to do with, and some pearl onions and zucchini squash. What I am thinking about doing is figure out how to clean the squash, cut it up in chucks, and throw it into a dish with the pearl onions, olive oil, salt and pepper and roast them... Thoughts?

Picture Challenge - January 29

This is my nephew, Colin, preparing to swim the 1000 free. He is a freshman in high school and an amazing swimmer. This past weekend he was in a UIL meet where his relay team, with him, took first and broke the school record by 5 seconds. I'm not a swimmer myself, but from what I understand that is a pretty amazing feat. We are all so very proud and amazed by this kid.

Picture Challenge - January 28

These salt and pepper shaker showed up in my Amazon recommendations today, along with a whole slew of other unicorn stuff. Part of me really wishes that I was a unicorn person, just so I could take advantage of all these wonderful things, alas, I am not....Perhaps I need to just tuck these away in case I need to give them to some unicorn lover in the future. 

Picture Challenge - January 27

Damn You, Sara!! Chocolate Covered Honeycomb was a treat that we had last week at the Bachelorette party. I stopped at Sprouts today and picked some up for myself. This stuff is like candy crack and I'm a full on addict..... Damn You, Sara!!