Can you tell?

That I have SPRING FEVER in a major way?!

LOL

Almost done with the blog overhaul.

Still want to add button headers.. or whatever you call them.

This is a major accomplishment for me :)

What do you think so far?

Now if only we could get some cool handwriting fonts on blogger!

Kids are going camping with Grama & Grampa today.

It's 70* outside.

Hubby and I are running AWAY!

Yiiippppeeeee!!!!!!

Help? Minima?

Help?! I am messing around with trying to update my blog backgrounds and stuff. Anyone know where the "minima" tab is for the background setting? LOL this is HUGE!! I'll be your best friend forever! xoxo Bren

Did you know about this shop?

Ok, you guys just have to go check out Kelly at I HAVE A NOTION!

First of all, I never knew of her great shop - and now I will be going there all the time!! (uh oh lol)

Second of all, she is doing the mother of all give-aways - soooo many neat wonderful products that us crafters and seamstresses can use to make our life/joy/passion easier!

Third of all, she's hilarious! You won't be bored reading her posts!

There is a new product being given away (and many times several products) each day. She has opened my eyes to many many possibilities that I hadnt even considered before. FUN stuff!!!!!!

Have fun reading and entering to win some of these awesome goodies!!!

xo

Work in progress

Sunny

Happy

Spring

OZ by Sanae for Moda

Happy Place :D

Hoping to have the top done tonight

Sewing therapy :)

and yes Joanne... those are POLKA DOTS! LOL

Blessed

Outside yesterday, in the sunshine.

Snow has melted already.

My treasures are in heaven. But I have many treasures here!

Here are two of them ;)

Absolutely LOVE the smiles on both these girls! :)

I am blessed.

And I know it!

Even though I have sounded so very cynical through this last trial,

that is not who I am.

But yes, right now I am an emotionally tired woman.

I am surrounded by love, and am ever grateful for that!

And the cynicism is just a passing thing.

Praise God!

:)

Well, they found the van! It was found the other night abandoned and towed to police impound. This morning we have been on the phone with insurance and police department. And will be on our way to go get it out of impound. I'm having severe mixed feelings on all this. On one side, I am exstatic that they found it, and I will have my car back!! On the other side, I am feeling VERY uneasy, unsafe, and invaded. :( What cracks me up, is that they DONT dust for prints!? They DONT do anything but tow it for you, and then charge you for the towing and storage! ??? That's a CSI gig they said, and since they cant prove it was used in a crime - no need to dust for prints or investigate. I'M SORRY? STEALING A CAR ISN'T A CRIME ANYMORE??? "Too bad Ms. Citizen, this happens everyday, and we don't have the time or inclination to do anything else" is what it feels like they are saying. So of course you have your insurance deductable. After paying for police towing and impound, and then having it towed to the dealership to be fixed - i'm thinkin that will just about top off our deductable! (because it makes sense to charge the victim in the crime?! instead of looking for the thief!) The ignition was busted and damaged, the steering column was broken, emblems taken off - and that's all we know so far. What else got broken or tampered with? How safe would you feel getting into that car right now?? Not to mention they stole it from our DRIVEWAY - so they know where we live, and now know how "easy" it is to take it, if they ever choose to do so again. After we fix it - will this happen again?? So am i happy? Yes, quasi so. (sp?) Am I nervous about it all? Definitely. Am I feeling confident in our legal system? Absolutely not. Am I feeling protected as the victim? Absolutely not. Am I feeling taken advantage of, and invaded? Yep. I know people go through this everyday. It stinks. And it just seems to me that they would figure out a better way of handling it, instead of further taking advantage of those that were taken advantage of in the first place! BLEH! This too shall pass.

So our car was stolen last night. yep. locked in our driveway. in a nice neighborhood. not ritzy, not drug lord central - just a nice family suburb where kids play and dogs and families are workin in their yards. makes no sense?! the police just left. not much they can do. if the van is used in a crime and they catch them, it will show up as stolen. if someone joyrides and are caught it will show up in the system. that's about it. and insurance covers a whoppin $15/day for a rental. which is laughable. I'm just stupified over all of it. It's just a material item. my family is fine. we are not harmed. but its our transportation that is paid off and that makes me mad. when we are totally broke to boot, because of all the issues that have come the last few months. This is probably the LONGEST spiritual attack i have been thru. Since the end of august this has been going on. One thing after another. Big things. Satan doesn't want us to inherit God's blessing... obviously a good'un or he wouldnt be fighting so hard. He wants us to throw in the towel, and mentally quit. Well, that's not gonna happen. I just have to keep my mind focused on the reality of WHAT this is, and stand firm, clothed in the armor of God. Romans 8:31-39, Ephesians 6:10-20 But... i is tired. :( I recognize i am being worn down. And i am still shocked by the things that are happening! Each one! Still shocked. I know i shouldn't be, but it just slaps me in the face every time. I have to keep remembering that there is a war going on... more persistant and hard core than ever as the end days approach. Trying so hard to stand strong, but i feel like i am losing the battle in motivation and energy. Pray for us. Please. Maybe get us on your prayer warrior prayer chains!? I need as many supplications to the Father on our behalf that we can get right now! And maybe that's part of it. Maybe because I dont reach out and ask for prayer is why we are still going through this? I tend to be a very private person, and dont want to burden my friends or those around me with our troubles. Everybody's got troubles, and no one wants to hear it. But i gotta tell ya... the way things have been going... these are big things... Satan is kickin us where it he thinks it counts.. he obviously doesn't know me or my family very well! And maybe it's time I open up and ask all you believers to take a few moments and pray for us, for our strength and faith to remain high, LOL and for mercy! I know we have a HUGE family out there, and maybe this is one of the lessons I am supposed to learn? Not to be too proud to ask that family to go to bat for us and help us stand strong. So, brothers and sisters... we could use your help! I have a ton of nervous energy. Just cleaned the heck out of the kitchen. All the windows, and nitty gritty crud out of the corners of the appliances, movin onto the laundry room/bathroom now. LOL At least my house will be in order! xo agape, Bren

Spring Fever!

This has been me all winter...

Forecast for this week:

Tonight Lo: 31° Clear Tuesday Hi: 58° Lo: 35° Sunny Wednesday Hi: 63° Lo: 36° Sunny Thursday Hi: 60° Lo: 31° Mostly Cloudy Friday Hi: 37° Lo: 22° 50% Chance of Snow (this is soooo colorado norm! 65* one day, and snowing the next! lol) Saturday Hi: 45° Lo: 26° Partly Cloudy Do you see what I see?? Could it be?? Will it actually hit 60* this week?!?!? (granted only for a couple days before more snow lol) I have spring fever sooooo bad!! Danny has the scooters charged, primed and ready to roll the minute it hits 60*!! Woohooo!! I'm thinking they are going to make their spring debut this week!! :D Oh my gosh, I don't know if i can wait that long! LOL!

Fun Birthday Surprises :)

A couple months ago, several online friends from An American Primitive Gathering (AAPG), and I came together to make a special birthday quilt for our dear friend Kelley.

She had her big 5 0 birthday in Feb!

11 gals total, including me, - each one made an applique block of wool on cotton - of anything they wanted and thought would be suited to Kelley. They then sent me the blocks, and I got them sewn into a quilt.

This was so much fun! Seeing all the different blocks as they arrived. And trying to keep the secret for 3 months as we were doing it! Ack! That was HARD!! Emails were flying back and forth - checking and double checking the "to" line to make sure we hadn't accidentally included Kelley in our emails! LOL

The back was pieced in a scrappy way - i love how it turned out. Some people sent labels with their blocks, and I stitched them on behind their block. Just made for a more scrappy/patchy old look. Love it!!

Trying to remember everyone that participated in this... hopefully i get all the links right!

Debbie St. Germain - of Woolensails

Deirdre Wilson - of The Old Rose Cottage

Ginger Jackson - of Primitives By the Light of the Moon

Pati Jane - of Pati Jane's Primitives

Jacque Anderson - of The Doodles of My Mind

Jo Leland-of Cotton Eyed Jo

Kathy Harris - of Rugs of Mine in Time

Sharon Bennett-of Moosecraft

Pam Cannon - ihook2 on ebay

Merrie James Bell- of Maggies Farm

Now the crazy part, is that 12 or 13 other gals were hooking a rug for her at the same time! Ohh... and this rug was fan tas tic! Each gal would hook a portion and send it on to the next gal. Maria Barton drew the pattern up and got that part of the train going.

And as you hookers know... finding time to sit down and hook a bit, and get it sent on can take a bit of time!! This one was down to the wire time wise, and we were all having little panick attacks! LOL We so wanted Kelley to have a wonderful SURPRISE FILLED

Birthday!!! Joanne got it last, and did the steaming and binding and labeling - she was working like a madwoman to get it finished in time! ;D Didn't it turn out absolutely gorgeous?!

Well, we all made it in time, and they arrived on her birthday and the next day, I think. She was pretty surprised ;)

Things like this just make my heart all warm and fuzzy, and fill me with so much joy!

I am so very blessed to have such good friends, and belong to one of the neatest groups of prim crafters around!

(and they haven't kicked me out because of my new love affair with hot pinks and limes! LOL!!)

Hope you have a very blessed day!

xo

Bren

What's been keeping me sane

This is what i'm in the middle of right now. Just finished this little baby quilt for a friend...

the back and this one is on it's way to being finished. very girly :) I love it! Simple patchwork.

this will be the backing material

and two honkin huge blocks that i just keep adding to and wondering if i'm crazy for making them so big!? 4 of these honkers will be put in a twin size girl's quilt.

I think i'm on a pink tangent!

but when your friends have babies, it is the perfect reason to make sweet little baby quilts!

since i wasn't able to do this for my own bebes... i have to adopt other's!! LOL xo

Yes, I'm alive ;)

But keepin it real... I choose not to blog about negative things. There's enough negative in our lives, you don't need to read about more on someone's blog!

And we have been under attack since about September. Wearing the armor of God full time. And it's hard.

Many of you know exactly what I'm talking about. Many of you are going "huh?"

When that happens, I go into silent mode - as I am having to stay focused on the most important task at hand, protecting my family. Making tough decisions, and standing firm.

And yes, it is a battle.

And we're still in the thick of it.

But praise God... He is righteous and truth, and His mercy and grace endure forever!

Ok, so enough of that.

There have been many bright spots that I would love to share with you!

The awesome Doll Quilt Swap over on Flikr is coming to an end - and yesterday was HAPPY MAIL DAY!!!! :)

My doll quilt arrived from Kelly (scrapstudio) !!! Isn't it gorgeous?!?!? Her quilting is supreme, and this bright happy quilt is now sitting in my home! I LOVE it!! Thank you again Kelly!

And that gorgeous yellow pitcher? It's a prize I won on Michelle's Musings blog -and it came yesterday!!! Still pinching myself that I won!! She did the neatest kind of giveaway on her blog!! She hooked up with CSN stores, and said "if you could go shopping with a $50 gift cirtificate, what would you buy?" - so of course you have to go shop their store to see what you would buy! LOL I chose some very baking dishes from Rachel Ray, and they were $35 so I stopped there. Well lo and behold I WON!!! So I won the baking dishes!! How totally cool is that?! And then Michelle says.. well you have $15 left - go shop! LOL!! And I found this fun and funky pitcher. I think i am just having a major case of spring fever! But that yellow really spoke to me and said pick me! pick me! :) My kids had dropped our other pitcher - so i was trying to be practical. LOL Practicality and gorgeous design all rolled into one and i couldn't resist! Sooo anyway, these both showed up yesterday and it was present day! :) I had a smile plastered on my face all day!! And knowing the baking dishes are still due to arrive - still filled with fun anticipation! This is the doll quilt I made and sent to my secret partner. I called it "the dots have it" all about circles and polka dots.

She got it yesterday so I am free to show you . It was tons of fun to make and I hope she likes it!

That's it for today.

I will try to post a few more pics tomorrow :)

xo

Bren