My husband and I are leaving on Saturday morning for a all expenses paid trip to the country of Panama. 



My loving husband is an awesome salesperson who was ranked in the top 4% of his companies sales force last year and won this trip as a reward for his hard work. 

See you in 10 days!!!

I am still flying about having one of my pillows included in the ETSY front page treasury. 

I have to give a big THANK YOU, to beadznthingz's for including me in her Treasury.  If you get a second, check out her etsy store - she makes the most beautiful polymer clay beads.  I'm not sure how she does it, but alot of them look like glass.  They are very cool!  She sent me a screenshot of the treasury actually on the front page, here it is...



Well, as "high" as I am about this, I'd better get back to work...

   

Only in my wildest dreams did I think that one of my items would be included in a Treasury on Etsy.  A Treasury is a group of favorite items that is selected by members or administrators.  They are usually grouped together by color, style, medium, etc.  The front page Treasury changes several times a day, and is selected by the Etsy administrators from their favorite Treauries.  And for that Treasury to make it to the FRONT PAGE of the Etsy website was not something my mind could even imagine.     I guess dreams can come true...

As you can see, "My Cottage Charm Quilted Pillow was on the FRONT PAGE of the Etsy website this afternoon...

                                

I was not on-line to see it actually on the front page, but my cousin captured a screen shot of the treasury for me before it expired. 

If you want to see the full treasury of Colorful Circles and Squares, before it expires on Wednesday, June 18, 2008 at 10:46 am... , click here.

As I promised, here is week 2 of my summer at the lake. 

Memorial Day Weekend is typically opening day at the cottage, so there is usually lots of work involved, but in addition, we always make time for fun...

 

We got the boats in the water, and Hubby, C and P even went fishing, and caught this huge walleye...

 

Grandma and Grandpa M came for the day on Sunday.  Grandpa enjoys the screen porch and his suduko.
 
            

I made time to get my plants potted...

                

All in all, it was a great weekend...

                 

Thursday afternoon I was working on a pillow top, and decided to try my hand a free motion quilting.  I found out my sewing machine is not designed for this.  It is an older "computerized" machine, and it won't let you sew a straight stitch with the feed dogs lowered.  For those who are confused by this, the feed dogs pull the fabric in to the needle as you sew.  To properly do free motion quilting, the feed dogs should be lowered so that the material is not pulled, and you can move the fabric freely this way and that  - i.e. the term "free motion". 

Well, being the stubborn Irish girl that I am, I decided that this would not stop me, so I did some experimenting and found that if I used an open foot and set my stitch speed to a medium speed, that I could move the fabric freely enough to take a "stab" at it.  I don't use the foot control, I just use the botton on the front to stop and start the machine and set the speed.

Well, to make a long story longer, I was in a hurry, as I was trying to finish in order to get to my daughters school to see her end of the year pep session (she is a middle school cheerleader).  I was rushing, and not paying as close attention to where my fingers were in relation to the needle in the open toe foot, the fabric was being pull by the machine in one direction, and I was trying to move it in another, and low and behold, I did something I did not think was possible...

I sewed right through my finger - nail and all...

                 

It would not stop bleeding, and I was afraid I may have hit the bone, so I wrapped it tightly, and drove myself to the emergency room. 

                

2 hours, and a $50 co-pay later, I walked out with a heavily bandaged finger, but without any stitches and having not hit the bone.  They did notice in the x-ray, 2 very small pieces of metal in my finger - remnants of the needle (which broke into 3 pieces - one still in the machine, and 2 imbedded in the fabric), which they said would "work themselves out". 

                

Needless to say, I missed the pep session, but under the circumstances, my daughter was very understanding. 

Once again, being the stubborn Irish girl that I am, I went down later that afternoon, bandaged left index finger and all, and finished the quilting on the pillow top.  All things considered, I think it turned out pretty good, and not one drop of blood was shed on the fabric.

                

                

I hit my first garage/yard sales of the season this past Saturday.  I love finding a deal and I love turning someone else's trash into my treasure!  I feel it is my way of helping the environment!

Here are a few of my recent finds...



Griffith's vintage milk glass with red top spice jars.  Even with the original holder.  I have actually been looking for one of these in a price I could afford (or more aptly willing to pay) for our lake cottage for 5 years!  I scored this one for only $10!



This great small Fiesta ware black pitcher.  It too will go to my lake cottage.  I scored this in the original box for only $5! 



All these "yummy" home decor and garden books.  I got all of them for $10!  The list prices total up to $200 if I bought them in the store at retail price!!




I also scored this brand new Vera Bradley bag and card holder.  In addition I got 3 new Vera Bradley shirts (not pictured) - I didn't even know Very made shirts.  I got the whole lot of Vera stuff for $30!  The list price on the bag alone was $72 and each of the t-shirts were $28 - they all still had the tags.  Not sure how much the card wallet was - that was the only one without a tag, but I can tell it is brand new too!

I also got an overhead projector for $5 - not sure what I will do with that one, but just couldn't pass it up.  If nothing else the kids can use it to play "school". 

It was a good day!!!

We have a small "summer cottage" on a lake an hour north of our "real home".  We purchased it 6 years ago and have enjoyed it the entire time.  We have "fixed it up" and decorated it on a shoestring budget.  It came furnished, but the majority of the new furnishings came from friends, yard and garage sales, clearance racks, thrift and antique stores.  I love decorating the cottage.  One of the fun things is turning trash into treasure - which I just love.  The other is doing some things there that I probably couldn't get away with in our "real home". 

The cottage is our home away from home.  It is my refuge.  When we get into the car to head to the lake, all cares and worries are left at home.  We have no phones - hit or miss cell service, no internet - we have not even been able to "borrow" wireless from our neighbors (although I have to admit we have tried), and no cable (there is a long story to that which I will not get into here). 

Everything is laid back at the lake.  Friends and family are always welcome, and we love sharing it with them.  It is a ski lake, so the only thing fast there is skiing and tubing.

In honor of the upcoming lake season, I want to share my refuge with you too.  At least once a week, from now until September, I pledge to dedicate my blog space to some aspect of the lake. 

Today I share with you some of my favorite treasures I have found and use to "decorate" my space.  I have many more, but quickly took a few photos as we were leaving on Saturday...



My cousin and his family come up for a weekend every summer.  Lori (his wonderful wife) and I always spend one of those days hitting all the thrift stores, antique stores, garage sales, barn sales, church rummage sales, etc...  A lot of the treasures posted here were found with her.  But this one always reminds me of her, because we scored it together, and she painted the words "Crooked Lake" on it for me.  In another post, you will see the other amazing work of art she did for me at the lake.

     

                         

                                                  

Just a quick post to thank 2 of the most special women in my life.  First is obviously my Mom.  Seen here in between my "baby" sister on the left and me on the right, while we were visiting my parents in Florida this winter.

There aren't words to describe my mom, and her generous heart, her faith, and her everlasting dovotion to her family.  I truely have a wonderful role model in my mother.  Thanks mom, for all you do.

                          

The second is my mother-in-law.  She too is an inspriation to motherhood.  Loving, helpful, and kind.  Raising 6 kids of her own - one of which is obviously the love of my life.  


                           

I am truely blessed to have such wonderful women in my life.

                             Happy Mother's Day to you Both!

Here are the Mother's Day Cards I made for my Two Moms...

                   
                

               

I was wandering though some other blogs yesterday, and came upon this statement... 

                                "Done is Better than Perfect"

That statement has haunted me for the last 24 hours or so.  I am one of those people who will start a million and one projects and complete 10 of them.  That is due in part to a variety of factors... procrastination, lost interest, lost pieces, and just plain poor follow-through.  But one of the other reasons is that when I do something I want to make sure it is "perfect".  The perfect color, the perfect fabric, the perfect pattern, the perfect whatever... 

But the problem with that is that in all reality it will never be "perfect".  And I waste a lot of effort on trying to achieve what I know is impossible.

So I pledge today to make this my new Motto... Done is Better than Perfect! 

I began working on it at about 3 am this morning when I woke up and could not get back to sleep.  I have been working on a  memory quilt for my friend for a year now.  The top has been finished for almost 10 months , and I was originally going to hand quilt it.  But it was taking way to long, so I took out all the hand stitching I had already done and gave it to a machine quilter to do the actual quilting.  When I got it back last Saturday, I realized that she had put the backing on "sideways", so that the sides both had too much backing and batting hanging over the edges, and the bottom of the quilt had a 3 inch gap with no batting and backing.  Needless to say, I was not very happy.  My reaction - the part of me wanting everything to be perfect - was to take it back and make her take out the million stitches and redo it.  But even that would have been action, and rather than take action at that point I just put it away and decided to worry about it later.  But this morning while I was laying wide awake in bed, my new motto came back to me.  So rather than drag this project out any longer trying to make it perfect, I went down to my studio, trimmed the excess batting and backing, trimmed the top and bottom borders down to match the batting/backing and began to bind it.

Yes, it is a little shorter than I had planned, but in the grand scheme of things it really doesn't matter.  Here is a quick photo of the quilt as it is right now - only partially bound.  I planned to finish the binding today, but my lack of sleep is catching up with me, and for right now a nap is calling me - before my kids get home from school.

Well, my first "commissioned" quilt is now finished.  It has been pieced, quilted, bound, washed and dried.  It is so soft and cuddly.  I have truely enjoyed making this "piece of art" for little 4 year old Zoe.  I can't wait to see pictures of her in her new room with her quilt. 



I am actually quite sad to see it go...



Now I am on to finishing my daughters quilt that I started almost a year ago, and binding a memory quilt I started a year ago for my dear friend who lost her husband.  A quilters work is never done!

I am also working on some small purses/wristlets/clutch bags.  Here is a picture of one I made for myself...