Jump, Ride, Spin!

Let me start by saying how excited I am to be doing this blog hop and post!  My wonderful, sweet and super talented friend has the cutest fabric line and I got to sew some projects.  Tracey Wirth and I met at a sewing retreat a few years back, and then again the following year at the same retreat.  We are sisters from another mister for sure!  I just lover her to pieces and am so happy for her.  She has a lovely fabric line with Paint Brush Studios called Jump, Ride, Spin. Please check it out; it is just so cute and fun.  I made a couple of lovely baby projects.  One thing I was just totally in love with is that it is pretty gender neutral. Bombshell, we are having a baby and not finding out the gender until he/she arrives, so this line was perfect (more on the baby news later).  So lets look at how this fabric plays well together.

 

I made a super puffy and smushy baby quilt, just simple patchwork and a lovely basket (it is a pattern from Crafty Gemini and is one of her club patterns).  I can't wait to put these in the baby's room.

I mean look how sweet!  I can just see a sweet baby playing,  rolling around, and resting on this colorful and happy quilt. 

 

Look at how all these bright colors work together!  I just can't wait to fill this basket with all the cute baby things.  I will be making a few more of these with my left over fabric.  I see diaper storage and bath items. 

I can't express how happy I am for my wonderful friend and her so fun and happy fabric line.  I can't wait to see what everyone makes with this collection! 

Room Make Over

So there is this spare bedroom, and it has turned into sewing overflow and well everything overflow.  I walk by it and sometime I walk into it and then I sigh and walk out and close the door.   Like for a year now that is the routine.  Well there are pressing things on the horizon and these little details have to be handled.  So today is the day!  I am starting with this book shelf that is like so packed you could not slip a piece of paper into this thing.  To say it is out of control is a complete understatement.

Then there are these totes with bags (wonder where those came from), and clothes that need to go to consignment.  A random piano, guitar (that no one in this house can play.  I took like a half dozen lessons maybe 8 years ago), and music stuff.  

Then this still in the box serger that I had to have on black Friday last year cause I was gonna make all my clothes.  I have not made one article of clothing since getting this serger.   And this tub is full of destash fabric along with those two trash bags (oh and the bolts on top of previous book shelf picture).  

Then this closet, Oh sweet Lord, this closet.  I really don't have words.   I think I will just leave this picture here and let it speak for itself.  

So let the purge begin and in about 6 months I might make some progress for an update.  uggh!  I hate doing this stuff, because at heart I am cheap and a hoarder.  I don't want to throw stuff out I spent money on, and what if one day I might need this exact thing.  Its not logical I know but it is what it is.  Its an emotional roller coaster to go through things that you have had forever and a day.  These items can bring up not so great memories and well great memories that are equally hard to process.  I will be using my Valor and Stress Away young living oils to assist me in getting this process on the roll!  Wish me luck and maybe now that I have blasted myself out here I will tackle this in record time! 

Its nice to meet you...

I am participating in a post challenge on Instagram where we post everyday for 30 days.  Today's prompt was introduce yourself and I thought it might be a good idea to do that here as well.  So here we go:

Well this is me.  I have a super distaste for photographs of myself and especially selfies so this was way way way out of my comfort zone to say the least.  I am Stephanie and I live in Arkansas.  Me and my family live extremely rural, like total middle of nowhere.  We have a working cattle farm, my husband and I are both wildlife biologists, and we all hunt.  My daughter is 15 and she also hunts.  We have a large garden every year and preserve all we can.  Basically we live of the land at any and every step we can.  I am a quilter and bag maker (DuH right!) 

I am a chronic migraine sufferer and have been since I was 17, which is a long time ago.  I have been to countless Drs and on so much medication I am embarrassed.  Nothing helped.  I began receiving botox injections (27 shots in my head every three months).  This helped but it was not at all pleasant and not something they recommend for more than 3 years as it can really affect your muscles.  I kept going to headache clinics all over the place and they kept shutting down.  I was finally recommended to a Dr. that did functional medicine.  Without getting to deep I basically did a lifestyle change and diet change, and I am 1000x better.  This is where I started using essential oils as well.  I am now an all day daily user and use "clean" products on my face, body, and in my home.  I can not even begin to tell you the difference in all of us since we changed our diets and started really looking at the chemicals we used.  So that is how I got started with Young Living.  Feel free to ask me how essential oils, gut health, and clean products can help you.

Well that about sums it up.  We are pretty basic, trying to get by and live our life right ya know.

Oh super side note I am in the middle of another sewing room purge so I will let you know when ebay will be back up and running with fabric listings.  

June

June is a big month for us.  My lovely baby's birthday is in June and she is now 15 uggh!  All the church camps start so running around crazy.  The heat and let me just say that again THE HEAT of summer is here.  The garden starts producing, and the animals start with babies.  Just all the things.  I have managed to get some sewing in.  We are Dave Ramsey followers so we do the envelops and are on a budget.  This means handmade gifts (good thing I can sew right).  I made some father's day gifts this year.  I did a shave kit for the hubs.  He got a promotion and travels a bit so he needed one.  I did 2 of the minikins patterns from Sew Sweetness.  I did the Binary and Zeppelin pouches.  I used brown cork also from Sew Sweetness and a quail print for the lining that I have had for ages.

I also made the Crimson and Clover Train Case for an oily friend who signed up with me for Young Living.  I made this as a thank you for signing up.  If you are interested in signing up with oils please let me know or click here.  You don't buy oils from me its just showing you how to get started, and you buy directly from Young Living.  I will be glad to send you a thank you gift as well.  Message me for details.

That is all for now on a June update.  Have big things happening and will be sharing in the future.  I have a retreat coming up in November and I am really trying to sew more and share more about the country life and healthy life.  Don't forget I am on Instagram so hit me up over there.

Have a blessed and amazing week!

Hello friends

Hello friends!

It has been well over a year since I have made a post on my blog.  Life is Life ya know!  Like there is only so much time in a day to get all the things done.  I have actually missed it.  It surprised me to have these feelings.  I do post on Instagram still and share my sewing stuff, but I feel like I can share more here. 

We are in full garden mode around the house here.  We are even gonna start a 2nd cattle herd here at the house and have been setting up for that.  A good place to start is or weaned calves.  Our main goal is as always wildlife so we have it all set up with that in mind.  I will have to get some pictures and show you what I mean.  People think we are crazy how we do things, but proper grazing management is all it takes and we can run just as many cattle as those who just have an open continuous grazing system.  That's a whole other discussion and if you would like to have it shoot me a message. Anywho...

One thing I am supper proud of myself about is I finished all the projects in this years Bag of the Month club.  I have been a member since forever and have made some of the projects.  This year I got it in my head to actually do each bag each month and finish them all.  Yeah Me!

I even used cork for the 1st time and as you can see I really liked it and used it on 4 out of 6 bags.  I also sold my very 1st bag this year.  The top left to be exact.  That felt good.  

Another newish thing for our family is we are making a huge effort to clean up our products we use.  I know I have mentioned it before but I am a migraine sufferer.  I did the functional medicine program and all I know to say is life changing.  Ever sense I have really been trying to do better with things we use and that can affect us internally and on a cellular level.  I used essential oils a little within the program, but I have really gotten serious about them, and better cleaning products and skin care.  So I went crunchy and am now all in with Young Living.  I can't tell you what a difference.  Like I am not a person who is at all someone who is into something on a whim.  I am a scientist and I study and need the proven facts.  I am also a biologist and understand how things work with each other in nature.  I also Hate going to the doctor with such a passion lol!  Anyway if you would like to know more about my oils journey please feel free to contact me.

 

Oh I am now a mother of a 15 year old.  Not sure how that much time has passed but it has.  I needed some calming oils to get my head around that for sure!  I guess that about catches you up on things.  Until next time....

 

Quilt Con post 2

It has been a heck of a spring break.  If you follow my Instagram you saw that my lovely child and I went to DC.  It was both of our 1st time and it was just wonderful.  My girl was among 3 other students that participated in the wreath laying ceremony at the Arlington National Cemetery.   Words can not describe the pride I felt at this event.  I may do another blog post on it but this one is quilt con 2, so on to the display quilts.   The 1st one won and the people's choice award is the Lincoln Quilt.  The pictures that are side by side are the same quilts just close ups.  Enjoy!

Quilt Con post 1

My 1st Quilt Con was an overwhelming success!  Me and my bestie Brandi went together.  We met up at the dreaded Atlanta Airport (I can't with that place always a delay, like a 4 hour one).   So it was late when we arrived in lovely Savannah, GA.

 
So this was us when we arrived at what is quite possible the best hotel in the world the Marriott!  I mean we loved it there and it was not that it was the nicest place the people that worked there were extraordinary!   We arrived on Tuesday night and we worked as volunteers on Wednesday for 8 hours.  We helped with the goodie bags and hand quilts.  Volunteering was great fun and we met a lot of folks that way.  It was a lot of work though but we are hard workin girls so it was fine.  So below are some pictures of our time.  I will post pictures of the actual show quilts in another post. 

Charity quilt

lots of charity quilts

our quilt hanging friend Sonaleeteena

It rained!  Alot!

From our place to the convention center

huge barge

HUGE!

registration line on Thursday

blue means volunteer!

I think this was northcott booth, maybe

I made a block

 We ate like champs!  I mean like sumo wrestlers!  I have to say we had the best girls week ever!  So much fun and so relaxing!  Stay tuned for Quilt Con post two and oh I have some HUGE news!