Happy Thanksgiving!

November 22, 2012March 19, 20131 Comment

In our family, we have a tradition of running a 5k in the morning before we celebrate the rest of the day with thankfulness. This tradition was started by my mother-in-law at least 10 years ago (or more)!

Last year, we simplified things and hosted our own 5k around our neighborhood instead of running a more formal organized Turkey Trot.

This year, friends and family showed up to run, bike, scoot, or walk around the block. My oldest son won last year’s race so he was the “turkey” to beat this year.

In addition to an active lifestyle, I have so much to be thankful for. Here are just a few on the top of my list:

My Family – Jason and I both run our business full-time from home and we also homeschool our kids. We figured as long as we were going to have a crazy lifestyle, we may as well throw that into the routine, too! It allows us to spend A LOT of time with our children and have some wonderful non-traditional education experiences, too.
My Faith -If the above didn’t keep us busy enough, Jason is also a Bishop for our church. What that means is he spends countless volunteer hours with members of our congregation as an unpaid clergy member. It has really helped me learn the value of service and how much Heavenly Father loves each of his children on this earth.
My (Quilting) Friends – I didn’t realize how much I needed friends, both to sew with and to share with. As a mom of teenagers with middle age in the not too distant future (I’m 39 & holding!), I appreciate the value of connecting with other women, both young and old who love to share my passion for art and creativity.
My Drive to Succeed – The number one thing I love about having my quilt shop is the satisfaction I get from seeing a happy customer. People often ask me how I have to time get everything done that I do. My answer? I don’t watch much TV and don’t spend a lot of time cleaning my house. I’d rather be doing something more productive! Nothing beats receiving a friendly email from a customer showing me their latest finished quilt. It makes all the hard work worth the effort.

I hope you are having a wonderful day, too!

Color Run and Christa’s Quilt Links: Shop Hop and More

November 17, 2012March 19, 20132 Comments

This morning I ran a super fun 5K with a couple of my friends. It’s called Color Me Rad and it was basically a crazy color-soaked extravaganza. While we ran the race course, volunteers were standing by throwing bags of colored starch onto us and our white T-shirts. At the end, we looked like a tie-dyed mess! I sure love color even if it gets all over me!

Now onto some other cleaner things to share with you.

The FabShop Holiday Hop is going on now through December 15. Browse through hundreds of fun online stores, sign up for their newsletters and you could possibly win a fabric shopping spree. How cool is that?

Don’t call Me Betsy is starting a brand new quilt along kicking off on Monday, Nov 19th.

It’s an original pattern of hers called Sea of Stars.

She’s a prolific designer, teacher and blogger so it should be fun!

Thanks to one of the blogs I follow, Quilt Story, I found a new fun blog this week: Sew Sara.

Sara has an adorable Applique Letter Tutorial that she posted earlier on her blog.

You could use this technique on items like boutique clothing, baby onesies and of course, quilts!

I didn’t have quite as much time to browse through my huge list of blogs I follow so these are just a few highlights.

Remember, if there’s a cool blog or nifty technique out there that you run across, feel free to share it with me. If I’m not quilting, I love reading and dreaming about sewing fun new projects all the time!

Happy Halloween 2012

October 31, 2012March 19, 20133 Comments

From our family to yours – Happy Halloween! This year we dressed up as Star Trek cadets. Yes, I’m in a red shirt so that doesn’t bode well for Halloween night, LOL!!

I actually dressed up twice this Halloween season. A friend of mine held a Witches’ Brew for all of her friends. We each dressed up in our scariest witchy frock and enjoyed some devilishly decadent desserts! There were about 30 witches in attendance but I could only get a few of us to stand still under the light long enough to snap a picture. As you can see from our scary eyes – it was a very low-lit party.

Here are a few more fun pictures of costumes from Halloweens past. We love to dress up!

I made Thing 1 and Thing 2 costumes for Jason and myself in a rare attempt at creating something other than quilts! I sewed the pants using Dr. Seuss’ The Cat in the Hat fabric. I purchased red shirts and then appliqued letters onto circles that I cut out of fabric. I found the wigs for $3 each at Target which inspired the costumes to begin with. What a deal!

Our Toy Story debut was actually part of a previous Christmas dress-up scavenger hunt. But now these costumes have done double duty for Halloween, too!

Hmm, I wonder what improvements I could make using Mr. Potato Head fabric now??

Weight Loss Journey – Taking a Break but not Stopping!

September 17, 2012March 19, 20133 Comments

I haven’t posted about my weight loss in a couple of weeks and rather than giving it up entirely, I’ve decided to take a break from obsessing about it and blogging about it for a couple of weeks. I’m very pleased to have lost 20 pounds but have sort of gotten stuck there. You can read my post where I show my before and after pictures (or more like before and during!)

I’ve been super busy training some new helpers in the shop, and going out of town for a family vacation. Plus, this weekend I have my guild’s annual retreat to look forward to.

So, while these are not excuses to give up and go crazy with my eating, I’ve tried to simply maintain good habits during this fun but busy time, but not stress about counting calories or stepping on the scale for a little while. This will also be a good chance to see if I can maintain my weight loss without having to monitor it every day!

The scary thing about this is that I could gain a lot of weight very quickly if I’m not careful – but I am NOT going to do that! After all, the weather is finally starting to cool off a little and I can finally enjoy running outside again!

UFO – Hand Pieced Winding Ways

September 14, 2012March 19, 201311 Comments

We are headed home soon from our vacation and while I will miss the tropical weather, it will feel good to get back home and back to my sewing machine!

While relaxing pool-side, I worked on my hand-pieced Winding Ways quilt that I began about 15 years ago. I’ve finished the blocks and am now slowly stitching the rows together. I’m undecided yet if I’ll add borders or not – that may take another 15 years!!

This is my vacation quilt that I work on every time I’m out of town and do not have access to a sewing machine. It is entirely hand-pieced so far and I will hand quilt it, too. I guess I need to go on vacation more so I can get it done, LOL!

I have learned a lot about hand piecing over the years and my techniques have improved. I have found I get better results when I use lots of pins and do not sew over all the seam allowances like you would when sewing by machine. Plus, it’s much easier to hand-sew following marked sewing lines rather than raw edges.

Now it’s time to head home and put this quilt back in the UFO pile until next time!

Mexican Art

September 13, 2012March 19, 20131 Comment

We are having a blast here in Mexico! We have zip-lined through the jungle, snorkled in the Caribbean Sea and taken in some Mayan ruins. Most of our locations were too difficult to take pictures in without a waterproof camera so I will have to leave that to the imagination.

However, I did get a couple of photos of some unique Mexican art when we were once again dry and safe. This vendor sold Calaveras (Sugar Skulls), ceramic sculptures which remind me of the Alexander Henry Dia De Los Muertos fabric that we sell!

He explained that every November 1st, Mexicans honor their ancestors and those that have died by filling up these containers with treats their loved ones would have liked.

I came across an industrious young man who was weaving his own cloth into Mexican blankets. Too bad I didn’t ask him if he had any finer threads to make some soft fabric!

By a very cool coincidence, my mom, sister and aunt were taking a Caribbean cruise at the same time Jason and I were near Cancun on vacation. We met up with them in Tulum, an exotic place filled with ancient Mayan ruins.

We had some laughs about the fact that this was our shortest family reunion ever, a 2 hour long excursion that was totally unplanned. The ruins were awe-inspring to see, and looking closely, we could even make out some of the original stone carvings on the building exteriors.

I am enamored with all of the beautiful people, places and things I have seen so far in Mexico. I definitely want to come here again!

Viva Mexico!

September 10, 2012March 19, 20132 Comments

This week, Jason, the kids and I are on a beautiful Caribbean vacation near Cancun, Mexico.

It’s a beautiful time of year for a fun family getaway. Our family motto is “work hard and play hard” and that’s what we try to do!

With our work and school flexibility, it’s nice to be able to take off in mid-September and do a little traveling.

Thanks to great helpers at home and modern technology we can leave our shop in good hands while we are gone!

We arrived at the international airport this weekend and got right to work relaxing.

We are staying with some of Jason’s family at this cute little time-share resort.

The gals (Jason’s aunt, grandma and I) got to start off with a little spa day while the guys and kids did a little snorkeling on the beach.

Almost as soon as we got here, the kids started chasing these huge lizards that are everywhere! (Maybe they are Iguanas?? I don’t know my reptiles very well!) We are in the jungle by the beach and it looks like a scene right out of the movies.

I did all of the hard before we left, like preparing my next quilt tutorial and scheduling my weekly specials and daily deals ahead of time. This leaves me free to relax – which for me is all about dreaming up the new quilt projects I will start when I return!

I read oodles of quilting magazines on the plane ride over and am now sorry I didn’t pack a sewing machine. (Though I did bring some hand work! Hmm… sewing by the beach, now that would be fun!)

Sew and Tell – Jenna Quilts!

September 7, 2012March 19, 201312 Comments

My daughter has been bitten by the sewing bug. Today’s post reminds me of the late cartoonist Bil Keane of Family Circus. He would occasionally let his sons publish some of their cartoons in their dad’s place in the Sunday Funnies, and now his son Jeff continues the work. I, too am encouraging my daughter’s artistry, and she already wants to take over the family business!

Jenna got a sewing machine for Christmas, has already made her first quilt and is working on a second one. This week, she put together a cute little project following directions from this fun book, “The Best of Sewing Machine Fun for Kids.”

She knew I was super busy with work and getting ready to go on our family vacation, so she rummaged through my scrap pile, found some fabrics and leftover pieces of batting and set to work!

I helped her with the ironing and taught her how to sew the buttons on by hand. But she cut, sewed and stitched everything herself! The book had easy instructions to follow.

At a young age, she’s already taking the pattern and making it her own. She added some extra fabric and buttons to the cat and attached a bow. Jenna puts bows on everything and I love it! Now she wants to make one for her best friend’s birthday. Way to be crafty, Jenna!

Weight Loss Week 18 – Birthday Treats

August 21, 2012March 19, 2013Leave a comment

I started off my week great since losing 20 pounds last week. I was eating healthy and keeping up with my exercise habits. Jason grilled a nice steak dinner one night and instead of loading up on potatoes and bread, we added lots of veggies and fruit to our plate.

Eat This…

Not That!!

However, by the end of the week my eating took a turn for the worse. We celebrated my birthday, so that night I had cake and ice cream for dinner, and one night of indulgence quickly lasted all weekend…

I gained a teeny tiny 2 tenths of a pound this week which wasn’t really all that bad, considering. But, I would like to have another big weight loss soon.

For my birthday, my younger son and daughter made my favorite cake, German Chocolate, and my oldest son whipped up the home-made chocolate chip ice-cream. I loved the sentiment and the treats. Yum!

I was also very impressed with my creative husband, Jason. He assembled the “Christa Art” and framed it for me all without me knowing! All that graphic arts web design is paying off. 🙂

And, my crafty friend Alexis, who blogs over at Persia Lou, made this adorable crocheted pincushion for me. How sweet!

So, this week’s goal is to get myself back on the right track, (including anyone else who’s following along and is hopefully inspired by my journey).

To do this, I will remember who I’m getting healthy for and why I am doing it:

1. To have enough energy to get through my busy days.

2. To live long enough to make all the quilts I want to create.

3. To be around for my family for a long, long time!!

Here’s to a great week ahead!

Weight Loss Week 17 – Another Milestone

August 13, 2012November 28, 20137 Comments

20 Pounds Weight Loss

I can’t believe I have been working so hard for so long!

It’s been 4 months, but I have finally hit the 20 pound weight-loss mark.

I lost what I gained last week plus a little bit more to reach a total of 20.2 pounds gone forever! I still have about 16 more to go.

It took me only 5 weeks to lose the first 10 pounds, but then more than double that time to lose the next 10.

One thing I can say for sure is that I’ve learned how to persevere! Here are some “before” and “during” pictures so you can see how far I’ve come.

I’ll show my progress again in another 10 pounds.

Week 1 – The Start

10 Pounds Gone

My favorite shirt is fitting better and I had to switch to some smaller sized jeans. Whoo-hoo!

You can also see I’ve finished up a couple more quilts in the meantime.

My hair has grown a lot so as a little reward I’m getting it cut off again tonight.

Here are this week’s tips on how to continue to persevere and make it to the next weight loss goal. It will take awhile but it will be worth it.

1. See yourself in pictures. Taking pictures along the way is keeping me motivated. For a long time, I had up a “fat” picture on my fridge which made me pause every time I wanted to raid the fridge for a snack. Sometimes you can’t really tell how you look until you step back and look at those photos. Like, was I really that fat? Or, hey I look pretty good in that outfit!

2. Share With Others. If nothing else, consistently keeping up with my blog keeps me accountable. My mom has promised me a shopping trip when I get to my goal. Now she can see how hard I’m working to earn it! Plus, when I have other things to blog about, like the quilts I’m working on, it helps keep my mind off food.

Hopefully it won’t take me as long to get to the next 10 pounds….