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Friday, August 28, 2009

My Review of Stroll'r Swivel'rs

Toys R Us

Holds purses, diaper bags, shopping bags and more! Swivels 360 degrees. Great value - 2 hooks included! Very versatile! Can be used in the nursery, bathroom, almost anywhere! Colors and styles may vary. Style selected at random when shipped.


ATTN -Moms who shop with young twins!

Bonnie Minor mom of 2 yr old b/g Twins Orange, TX 8/28/2009

 

5 5

Pros: Practical, Easy to Set Up, Conect cart to stroller, Durable

Best Uses: Travel Strollers

Describe Yourself: Parent of Multiples (Twins etc), Parent of Two or More Children

I've had a set of these stroller hooks for over a year and JUST today 8/28/09 discovered I could use it to hook my shopping basket and double stroller TOGETHER and it was A*W*E*S*O*M*E! From now on it's the only way to shop!

I fell like all moms who have small kids in a double stroller MUST have this! Today was the bestest shopping day at the grocery in 2 years! I felt taller and like a huge weight had been lifted from my shoulders! No more pulling one in front & pulling the other behind me while I'm stuck in the middle of the train with arms streatched out and back bent over... EVERY mom of twins should have one of these!

They are sold in a 2 pack at BRU. I can't believe all this time I've not used them like this before...they are not just for hanging bags on the back anymore! :) OHmyGosh - LOVE it.

I'm right handed so I stood behind my double stroller and pulled the grocery cart up beside my left side and placed the hook on the stroller's left and shopping cart's front right corner. Actually the 2nd metal wire from the front right corner.

Worked perfectly! I could keep BOTH hands on the stroller and the cart went smoothly everywhere I did. Only have to think ahead and not cut corners too short and hang into end of the idle demo racks. :P but that is not hard to get use to. You will love these hooks!!!

I tried to take pics of my set up in the grocery with my cell phoen and will post later on my Facebook wall if you want to see...

Love from texas! ~bonnie

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Monday, August 24, 2009

Announcing another Blog-give-a-way!

Why can't I get back into the blogging mode??? perhaps it's b/c my laptop is still broke down and the Dell guy came last week and was gone in less than 10 minuites not fixing anything but then "closing the work order" and we have had to give Dell another big ear full! urgh!

it stinks not being able to post with photos so perhaps that is why I've been away... also it doesn't help that one day last week while the twins and I were at the park with some other mom friends... while I was taking Olivia to the water fountain, Paul Thomas got into my diaper bag and grabbed my digital camera and dropped it. I'm afraid this was the final drop of all drops... I admit to dropping it myself at least a good 5 or 6 times this past year and the side that had the wrist strap had already completely fallen off months ago... but this drop last week resulted in the camera powering on but never letting the blue "Cannon" screen to ever leave... :(

but on a good note this is Nora's second week of school and she is loving it just as I knew she would ;) and I'm for the first time ever holding a home party at my house this Friday night - TUPPERWARE anyone?? :) LOL I haven't had a party for them in 10 years! gosh I feel old typing that... but I recently went to a show and looking thru thought there was so much I wanted but didn't want to pay full price so I offered to host ;)

I'm hoping on at least 8-10 guests to show up... but so far no word yet.

Oh and I'll leave you with a link to go check out Elaine's Blog-give-away!!! Do you love Civil War fabrics??? You do? Well this is your kinda giveaway! :) You have until Thursday, August 27th to enter and the winner will be announced on Friday, August 28th.

Love from Texas!

Monday, August 17, 2009

Youuu Whooooo Anyone home???

oh the memories of calling out Youuuuu WHOoooo everytime I visited my "Momma Newt's" home as a kid ;)

I bet a few of my readers have been wondering the same thing about me too?

Well a week ago my laptop CRASHED again - out of *nowhere*!!! Called Dell and apparently all they could come up with is that either my Operating System is corrupted or my mother board... or both. :/

Either way, I've been without a computer for a week - however thanfully I can use the desk computer - which hasn't been back from getting fixed itself long enough to have the drivers and other techno stuff reinstalled - so I'm not able to download photos to the computer yet :/ boo hoo!

Because I have photos that I can't wait to share with you and also over on the family blog... finished quilt, a block I'm making for charity, a start of a new project, and...

Today was Nora's first day of Kindergarten! :) and she was thrilled! :) and I did a great job I thought on putting on my game face that said "I'm so proud of you but really secretly, deep down inside, my heart is breaking because I feel like this is the beginning of the end for me... that I'm no longer gonna be your #1, your hero, your favorite person in the world, your bestest friend, the one you ask...Momma, how is it you know everything about everything??" Some other little school friends are soon gonna become more important to impress... sooner or later.

gulp. Did I just write all of that out loud? yep I did. No wonder on at least 3 ocasions over the weekend as I've thougth about today I've ended up with tears so big in my eyes that I couldn't see to hem her school uniform jumpers.... Yep, I'm sitting here in *purple puddles* :(

OK. Back to business - where is that dang cable cord thingy that came with the camera? so Maybe I can figure out how to post photos?????? :/ Stay tuned. I'm still sewing and also blogging.... :)

Love from Texas!

Monday, August 3, 2009

Houston we had a problem...

Well for the second time in my hostess history I had the big "OUGHT OH! Where did I put those blocks???" moment. Yep, this weekend I was all set to start swapping when my last package of scrappy 4-patches arrived on Saturday... and when I spread them all out on the Dining Room table (which is still sitting in the computer room - don't ask!) I counted all the packages on the table vs. my spreadsheet I was missing one!!!

the one missing was my blog reader Elanor S who was the very FIRST swapper to mail their blocks to me the first week of July. I looked. ... and looked.... and LOOKED and finally decided to just grab some noodles and start making up some more so that I could use those new 5 sets on behalf of hers that she had sent in...

It didn't take me as long as you might think - as using the strips really goes fast and thankfully I only needed 5 sets of 10 = 50 blocks. During making the 4-patches, I used the gold corner star blocks as leader/enders as I already had them at 3 rows waiting to be set together...

and just as I was turning of fmy machine and lights, WOULDN'T YOU KNOW IT, I found Elanor's swap package! (in that larger basket just behind the yellow embroidery hoop)

Yep, there they were just sitting there minding their own business...

right where I had put them, in a "safe spot" when I was rushing to clear out the dining room so that the repair man could come fix the drywall and ceiling. How come i didn't notice it all day Saturday?

Oh well, this now means I have an extra 5 sets of blocks in addition to the 7 sets I already made up to go with the swap...... hum... I have an idea.

Please pardon the messy room - there is a dining room table in the middle of the computer room! STILL... the repairs have been completed for 2 weeks now... but getting my husband motivated to help me move a table is more trouble than it's worth so anyway...

Here are all the blocks laid out. My smallest swap that I've ever hosted only 10 swappers including myself. This is only just under 500 blocks on the table..

Since I only found the missing blocks around midnight I saved the swapping to do for the next day (Monday) while kids napped. and Since I had the 5 extra sets... I decided to give all of my swappers each 5 extra blocks back with the ones they had mailed in ;)

As a hostess I always gift my swappers with a little something "extra" from me... so this worked out perfectly I think. I really hope everyone likes the scrappiness of their blocks.

I'd love to host this same type of swap as an ongoing thing - maybe bimonthly? or quarterly? Because there are several Quiltville patterns that use up scrappy 4-patch units.

above photo I spread out a few of the blocks that were for me... the rest of my 7 sets are upstairs already in the sewing room.. don't they look great just laid out randomly? ;)

So after loading up my chore basket and ready to go to the Post Office I also grabbed the Priority Mail box full of over 100 string blocks to be mailed to Sue at HeartStrings Quilt Project on behalf of all of us "Sunshine Quilters" over on the HGTV Quilters Message Board.... I know they will be happy to receive them. This was my 3rd time to collect from all of us and mail in and we had our best ever participation!! ;)

above photo is a Birthday gift for my friend Heidi who helps me out so much with keeping my kids. She has even offered to let me drop off my 3 on the way to the PO ;) so today I'll take her Bonnie Hunter's Scraps & Shirttails Book that I wrapped in a SHIRT ;) Only thing missing is a bow.

So now that the swap is over with - I'm looking forward to completing Part 2 of "Christmas Lights" as SOON as my magazine gets HERE!!!!! I'm so impatient I really thought it would have been here by now since others started getting theirs on Wednesday last week!

I have the gold cornered stars done, but will have to wait to look at directions for the other block as I have no idea how many individual scrappy blocks I need... I sure hope my mail carrier brings my magazine Monday!

until then -I'll get back to working on making up more Star Struck blocks.

Love from Texas!

Sunday, August 2, 2009

Show-N-Tell starstruck blocks

Every weekend on the HGTV Quilter's Board Holly in South Jersey starts a topic thread for the weekly Show-N-Tell... well since I've already shown you what I've been working on this week in my previous posts... how about I show you what I've worked on tonight?

Since I can't decide on which "RED" to use for the Christmas Lights... and I'm not ready to swap the 4-patches this late tonight... and I'm itching to do something but can't sew on the mystery until I have swapped blocks and also decided on the red.... what is a girl to do?

Pull out an "UFO Project Box" of course! Actually I was in search of another "leaders/enders" to work on ... but to cut up something all new??? Then it dawn on me that I have these blocks I won a couple years back and want to make up some more so I pulled out the pieces and can begin working on these until I'm ready to move on with Christmas Lights... and then can use them in-between blocks.

"Ready, Set, SEW!"

I cant' believe I just stuck these into a baggie after they arrived over 2 years ago! Did I mention lately that I'm loving having a design wall in the sewing room? I can tell that I've become a lot more productive.

Hummmm... Bonnie Hunter shows her Star Struck set as 8 blocks X 10 blocks... so that means I only need about.......humm 80 minus the 29 on the wall and minus another 22 ready to go for leader/enders.... only another 29 after that. ;)

oh and I did cut into one of my reds... after consulting with David to get his opinion. He didn't pick the one I would have but I laid it out on the design wall to see if it will "speak" to me... stay tuned!

EDITED TO ADD: Boy was it fun to take a look back at my previous posts for these blocks - click here to take a walk down memory lane and just LOOK at those teeny tiny twins at the bottom of the page!!!! Boy how fast 2 years has flown by! ;)


Love from Texas!

decisions, decisions!

I knew that it wouldn't be a great idea to cut up everything in part 1.... and boy am I ever so glad I listened to myself. I told myself "Wait until I need the red before I cut it!"

Here is what I had picked.... but when laid out with the blocks... the print was too distracting. I really like the shade of red... and tried to find something similar in that color.

Wow, this one would really be a "stashbuster" look at the selvage date "1994" ....and there is enough, over 2 yards... sorta looks like snow falling with the scattered dots. Already prewashed too.....

But then I saw on my shelf this other red (below photo at the top of the pic) - it's leftover fabric that I used as a backing on a string quilt... perfect! But wait.... NOT ENOUGH :(

What else is on the shelf? Hummm... this red tonal with holly leaves printed on it. It seems a bit BRIGHT -is there such a thing as "Royal Red"? If so I think this would qualify.

Hummmm.... what to do? what to do? I really don't want to go shopping - I'd rather get to cutting... but am not in love with either of the 3. Maybe I'll ask David for his opinion? but what does he know? LOL :P
Love from Texas!

Saturday, August 1, 2009

HGTV 2010 RAFFLE Quilt Group Project:

Each of the years I've been a member of the HGTV Quilters board... the group has contributed blocks to make up a charity quilt and sell raffle tickets for to raise money for some great causes.

Usually our coordinator, quiltaholic requests needle turn applique which is something I don't know how to do... but boy do they make up some BEAUTIFUL quilts! So anytime I get the chance to make a pieced block I'm all over it ;)

She's already calling for blocks for next years group quilt that will be called "Feathered Flowers" and while all of the flower blocks will be needle turn applique, she did ask for tonal blue and red 9 patch blocks. :) That I CAN do!

Here they are nothing spectacular ......yet! Just wait and see what they will grow up to become... link below.

Are you curious to see what our finished quilt will look like next year. ;) Here is what Quiltaholic posted about how she thought up this project and the link is below. What do you think?

So, I googled raffle quilts and found this photo! It is a raffle quilt that was designed by Linda Yokelson, Oriene Springstoh, and Helen brady, all from the Riverwalk Quilters Guild in Napersville, IL. I spoke with Mrs. Yokelson this morning and she has graciously given me permission to show their quilt and to use their idea for the 2010 raffle quilt! You can visit their website at: http://www.riverwalkquilters.com/rafflequilt.htm

RAFFLE INFO: The ticket sales for this quilt will begin April 1st 2010 and go through September 15th, 2010!!

100% of the funds will go to the Ronald McDonald House of California.

Love from Texas!