last week

This past week my husband was out of town visiting his mother out of state. The boys and I had a regular kind of week...homework, appointments, laundry...you know the drill. But there were a few exceptions!

My 12 year old had a major accomplishment! He reached his goal of saving his own money to buy a Lego Death Star. Now if your household is anything like mine, you'll know that the Death Star is the Holy Grail of all Lego Sets. He saved birthday money, Christmas money, allowances and even did extra jobs to earn enough over the past months. It was a great exercise in planning, will power, delayed gratification, and math. Plus now he knows what he can accomplish when he puts his mind to something! What can I say, the Force is strong with this one. :)

"Sno-da"

We also had a bit of snow...or rather icy snow. Finally! The first of the season! I know the boys were hoping for another blizzard, but they made do with what we got and enjoyed it anyway.

And me? I'm just plugging away. January is/was my month to get organized (eeep! I've only a week left...), finish up a few book proposals (that have been in work since early last year...), line up spring workshops and plan out the year ahead. Stay tuned, I've also got some surprises in store for celebrating my fabric line, Stitch! I know, I know, you already saw my Stitch booth at Quilt Market, but the line started shipping in November/December, so it's out there in stores now! More on this soon...

How's your 2012 so far?
(P.S. thanks for entering last week's give-away! The winner has been notified!)

Vintage Notions Give-away!

I've had the pleasure of meeting Amy Barickman a few years ago at Quilt Market. She and I are also what I call "book buddies", as we were both featured in the Country Living book, "The Mom's Guide to Running a Business". If you are not familiar with Amy, she is the driving force behind the company Indygo Junction, authored a fabulous book called Vintage Notions and now has her own fabric line with Red Rooster Fabrics. Check out her new video, below, to get the back story on her book.

Isn't she awesome?! That's how she is in person too...full of energy and passion about what she does. Inspiring, right?

Her fabric, called The Dressmaking Collection, has all sorts of detailed imagery taken from vintage illustrations, labels and trims. And guess what? Amy has graciously allowed me to give-away a copy of her book, Vintage Notions, to one of my readers as well as a full set of Fat Quarters of her fabric collection!

All you need to do is comment on this post before midnight EST on Sunday, January 22. In your comment I'd love to know who you sew for and what types of things you love to make. I'll contact the winner (be sure you leave contact info!) on Monday January 23.

In other exciting news, Amy's got a design challenge happening right now called the Vintage Inspired Modern Style Design Challenge. And there's all kinds of prizes involved! So visit Indygo Junction to find out all of the details.

I hope you are as inspired by Amy as I am....good luck and have a great weekend!
***UPDATE: Comments now closed, thank  you!***

Valentine Dreamin'

Do you use Pinterest*? If you frequent it like I do, I bet you're starting to see lots of pretty Valentine's projects popping up all over! I thought I'd go through my blog archives and share some oldies, not-so-oldies, but hopefully all goodies!

First up is a free tutorial that I did last year for Craftzine. You can visit there to get the full tutorial for this felt heart garland as well as a fun no-sew paper version for kids!

The Lil Sweetheart Purse is a PDF sewing pattern available in my etsy shop. These are made with felted wool sweaters but regular wool blend craft felt can be used instead. Whip one up and fill it full of sweets for your sweet!

These mousie friends are two peas in a pod...or rather two halves of a heart! They are made from the "Squeak" pattern from my "Squeak and Spike" mouse and hedgehog pattern. Also available as a PDF pattern in my etsy shop.

 Have you taken your Christmas wreath down only to have a sad lonely blank spot to look at? How 'bout putting a Valentine Wreath in it's place? I made this woolly creation a few years back, modeled after a my multicolored Christmas wreath. It's a lot of work and felted wool, but the result is so rich and full of texture!

And finally, you may remember my Heartfelt Scarf that I made for the Martha Stewart Show back in 2008! You can find all of the instructions on the Martha site, including video how-to's.

I hope my projects have inspired you to get started on some Valentine crafting. Last year I made my boys a pair of Mimi's Owls, which they loved and I love making. Especially because I got to to add a tag to them saying "Owl be your friend forever". Corny's how we roll around here. :)

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*A word about Pinterest: I love Pinterest! It's a great way to make virtual inspiration boards. The downside can be when photos get pinned without linking back to the proper source giving credit. This happened to me this week when I came across my heart garland (top photo) mis-credited. My photo was stolen and labeled with the offending site's watermark. The image got pinned innocently on Pinterest, then proliferated exponentially on Pinterest, linking to the meanie-head's website. There have been several articles written about the proper and courteous way to use Pinterest, in case you are interested. In the meantime, feel free to follow me on Pinterest {betz white} and have fun pinning away!

stitching and sketching and loving

In a new year it's easy to get caught up in the should-do's and the need-to-do's...like organizing, planning, evaluating, etc. It is important to do those things and it feels good to analyze and get one's ducks in a row. Balance your life. Calm the chaos.

But what about the want-to do's? And the love-to do's? Do they get bumped to the end of the long list of to-do's, because we think of them as not reeaally necessary in the grand scheme of life/business/future plans?

Life is now, it's precious and it's short. I'm reminding myself to
Stitch more. Play more. Sketch more.

Do what I need to do. Do what I should do.
Do what I want to do. Do what I love to do.

In no particular order. For no particular reason.
Just for the love of it.

 

What do you want to do more of this year? Are you going to do more of what you love? Even in the busiest of days, if we do at least one small thing that brings us joy, wouldn't that be amazing?

10 years? Arrrgh!

One sunny winter day, between Christmas and New Year's, me littlest scallywag turned 10 years old! In celebration we flew the great Jolly Roger and hosted a band of buccaneers for an afternoon of merry mayhem!

 

Guests arrived while the movie Pirates of the Caribbean played in the background. Then they began a craft: making compasses. I purchased plain wood boxes with hinged lids at Michael's. After they were decorated with paint and sharpies we hot glued a working (sort of) compass inside each one.

Afterward it was time for the treasure hunt! I bestowed upon them an ancient treasure map of our house, "Captain's Cabin" and yard/park, "Pirate's Park" as well as the first clue...all written on brown crinkly craft paper. The clues had them running outside all over the place as they found each clue and respective "booty" (bandanas, spy glasses, and skull rings). Finally, the last clue lead them to...

 ...the amazing treasure chest! (made out of gator board by my husband)

Behold the riches lying within! Gold bar boxes filled with Skittles surrounded by foil wrapped chocolates and pirate coins!

 

Next the rowdy swashbucklers were ready for some good ol' pirate rum (root beer and birch beer with brown paper labels made by the birthday boy) and pizza...

 

...and of course a big slice of Compass Cake!

As crazy as it is to wedge a birthday party in between the holidays, it is a nice thing to do with the boys over the winter break. My youngest loves to plan a party and delights in every detail. Sometimes I have to apply some gentle breaks on his runaway party plans, but I know our days of theme parties are limited. (Do you recall last year's Harry Potter Party?) 

Ten years old, oh my! Happy Birthday, Matey! You are one of a kind. :)