Fru-Fru Tutu

I enjoy a good tutu every now and then.. but this.. this was HUGE! It was so poofy, that even I was a little concerned. But, every little girl needs a little poofy, tulle-(y)?, pink, sparkle in their life.

Cute, no? I hope Becca really liked it. She was having a Fashionista inspired birthday party.

Thanks Laura for taking all the pics of the tutu. What with limited space in the new place, it's hard to get a good photo now.

A little tribute to Fall

A few months back Laura asked me if I would make matching Fall outfits for her cousin. (If I'm correct it's second cousin?) Anyway, I of course agreed!

Becca is this teeny tiny, rail thin, little girl, and from what I can tell from good ol' facebook pictures, is full of energy! (yes I know this sentence makes no sense, what with all the commas and all.. get over it!) Laura and I found the teal leaf fabric down in Jonesborough one Saturday. I knew that I wanted to slap a pumpkin on something, just once.. and hence these outfits were born!

I found cute little Fall leaf buttons and added it to the pumpkin's stem on her shirt. After making this skirt, I will definitely alter my pattern. It wasn't exactly what I had in mind, but it turned out cute in the end. I just hope it fit Becca! I always get really nervous when it comes down to the actually fitting part. It's hard to make something to fit someone when you don't have them here to try it on. Especially when someone is paying for it!!

So in the spirit of Fall and pumpkins... Bodie, the new baby brother got one too! His however ended up on his butt. Amazing what a pair of plain Carter's baby pants in Brown will get you, no?!

I can't wait to see what they look like in them.. fingers crossed it all turns out to fit!

Oh, and guess how difficult it is to find quality baby onesies in 0-3 months.. ya FRIGGIN DIFFICULT!!!

Life as I know it

Things have surely changed in the last 6 months. They have changed more than I ever thought imaginable. But, needless to say, I'm alive and kicking. I won't say alive and well, because let's face it, life it hard and has smacked me around a bit.

For those of you who haven't heard from me in the last few months, I have a new house where Tuff and I are decently happy. He has a nice sized yard to play in while I'm at work and school. Ya, that's another thing. Im currently working 30 hrs (3 - 10 hr days) and taking 18 hrs of class. Such a smart idea, let me tell you. Except the only other issue is, I need a second job. Lovely, I know. Wait, this isn't suposed to be about how much life sucks right now, it's a happy post about everything I've done since starting over. So, here goes!

I made a list of the things I'd like to do before the end of the year. Now some of them were totally feasible, others were such a shot in the dark. I have even done a few things that weren't on the list, that I never thought I would experience. I went to a NASCAR race back in July, let me tell you something about that.... It was insanely fun, yet rediculously loud. You have to experience this at least once in your life... preferably in Bristol. But then again I'm sure all NASCAR fans are the same in every town, so your local track will do just dandy. I also was invited to the beach, yes a real BEACH. Not something that looks sandy/muddy on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico (which is what I'm used to). I also spent a few days in Myrtle Beach! It was so pretty and I decided you havent lived until you've layed on a beach ALL day, possible with a beer in hand and did a-b-s-o-l-u-t-e-l-y nothing. This will, from now on, be something I do every year. This weekend I'm venturing out for a weekend in the mountains! 4 days in Gatlinburg is what I need. The leaves are changing and it's perfect weather.

I've tried to stay as busy as possible without really overdoing it. But, let's face it. I've overdone it on numerous occasions. I'm ok with this. It's one last thing I really have to worry about in life. I have since had a 26th Birthday and officially been divorced all in a 7 day span. I am now a statistic, one in which I never thought I would be. But, if there is anything I have learned from this it's that you can't control what someone else does/wants, whether it's right or wrong.

As for this blog, I want to start over with a new one. Quiltsnhorses just doesn't resemble my life anymore. That goes for my Etsy store too. So I'm taking suggestions for a new name. I'll try to continue to post on here until I come up with something new. I have been working on a few sewing orders/projects. I will post them soon. Sewing unfortunately hasn't been priority, I mean what with all the work I have to do now. But, i really do miss it. SO IF YOU NEED SOMETHING OR KNOW SOMEONE WHO DOES, LET ME KNOW... I'd love to get back into it full force.

I will now leave you with this. To make a long story short, Laura entered me into a contest for someone who is oging through some sort of a transition. Well hot damn, I won. What did I win you ask?.... Dinner with friends at a really neat place, hair, make-up, and a limo ride. It was lots of fun, but this photo is down right SHOCKING... and not in a good way. So giggle your little hearts out and enjoy this!

To the friends that I have here, I love you all. I would be a huge pile of blonde mess if it weren't for you all. So, thanks... you're the best.

Festive 4th Attire

I've been away, to say the least. First of all, there has been a lot going on in my life in the last couple of months. I'm not ready to talk about it.. so in the mean time you can check these out!

With the 4th coming up, I firgured the Twerps needed patriotic outifts.. courtesy of their Auntie! They turned out really cute. Although, I'm a little partial seeing as how I did make them. Riley's skirt turned out much better than I envisioned I'll say that. I'm sure their mommy already has 4th of July outifts for them.. but that's ok.. it eas therapy and it forced me to pull out my sewing junk again.

I am excited to be going home for the 4th and by home I mean Texas. I get to spend the weekend with my entire side of mom's family on the lake. I need to get away. The twerps will be there and you better believe their feet will never hit the ground! ;)

Pink Lemonade

I love these flowers, they are SO easy to make and not one ever looks the same!

I've made another one. Except this one is on it's way to Florida for Easter. I mean how many 2 month olds do you know that DON'T have a tutu already. Since it's her first Easter, I figured it should be huge, poofy and remind me of pink lemonade! She should be able to really wear it and love it when she's older, so it will grow with her. I like the tieing in the back ideas, MUCH better than any sort of elastic or button concoction.



So Lily, when you're old enough you can call your Aunt T and tell her how much you despise your pink lemonade tutu and she will gladly make you another one! Complete with matching headband, which I didn't get a photo of.

A tutu

to call her own!

I've wanted to make one of these since I heard I had a niece.. and well that took over a year.
It was very simple and I should (could have) have done it a long time ago. Either way, here's girl twerps new tutu.


My favorite part is the fabric flower! and after seeing it in photos, I'm pretty sure girl twerp will be getting a matching headband. I mean really, don't all tutus come with one?!



I made the back fasten with a bow. It's just easier that way and she'll be able to wear it much longer too. That's if she decides she'll keep it on.

And you're lying is you act like you don't want one. I sure as heck do now!

I bought this

but not for myself...
It's a bit small, Id say.
I did however buy this for girl twerp...
You see, it's the only way I can live vicariously through my 1 yr old niece.
I had to. I was forced to. I've been eyeing it for her for weeks now, so I took the plunge and just did it!
Sorry Leslie!

I'm Alive!

I've been absent for over a month now. I know, I've heard it from several people already!!

I've been 'busy' with so many things it seems, and yet most days I feel like I didn't accomplish much.
But... I have thrown together a photo montage of what I did do for the past month...



I flew to Florida to see my best friend from college.. who coincidentally had a baby back in January


Since it was such a tiny plane, we didn't fly very high and I was able to look at the snow on the mountains as we went over.. I left snow, cold and rain in TN....

only to find rain and clouds in FL... bummer. I can however cross seeing the Atlantic Ocean off my list of things to do. Oh, and visiting FL. Bethany and I had lunch at some seafood place on the beach and we would have walked longer, but the wind was SO cold.

(this consists up a chocolate cake, cool whip, Carmel syrup, Chocolate syrup, and crush up Butterfingers... and you have to eat it warm, or else it doesn't count)
We ate lots of junk while I was there.. and by junk I mean so much sugar that my stomach hurt. Since she does have a newborn, eating schedules and everything else was thrown off by 4 or 5 hours, which I was okay with.
She was on a baking kick, so we ate dessert before every meal.. I mean that is how it should be.. if you can hold your sugar anyway. ( I CANT)

And the best part of the trip.. Lily Kay! She's so cute and lots of entertainment while I was there. It was one of those vacations where you stay inside the whole time and do nothing but hold the baby, feed the baby, change the baby and play lots and lots of Mario Kart on the Wii!

Oh, ya... it's like two holidays too late.. but Happy Valentines Day..

After I got home, I had to get started on these.

The TWERPS turned 1 at the end of February and as their auntie, I am supposed to make them (horribly) cute birthday outfits... right???? So, here is my attempt at sock monkey first birthday attire. The skirt for Riley turned out really cute, I thought.

The shirts, however... well the monkey's seem to look like they got their heads stuck in a vice grip.. I'll try to work on that next time!

AND, these two had their first birthday... Wow! a Whole year man!

Don't worry, there will be another post all about them! THEY'RE WALKING PEOPLE!. well girl twerp is anyway!

I made this quilt for Gia, a new baby who belongs to one of Brian's best friends.

Front Back

So Brian, the hunter, decided Gia needed a pink camo dress... I was not about to let him pay $30 for something she probably will never wear. So, I opted to make it. I can honestly say I didn't think it would turn out near as good as it did.

So it looks like girl twerp may be getting one!!

Lastly.... Duke has been getting a little thick, chunky, chubby.. whatever you want to call it... here is the proof.
Also, check out Tuffy... he's such a goober and the devil of the two of them!

Ya, I gave him a halo... it's fitting

Congratulations... you actually check out the entire month I missed!! Wow, you are either a sucker for pictures of my life, have no life of your own or must have a lot of free time on your hands! Either way... you are now up to date!

VROOM.. VROOM..

These two are ready for Daytona.. they don't need candy and heart shaped paraphernalia for Valentine's Day. No sir... they need racin'!

If couldn't already tell, these two have parents (and a grandfather) who are obsessed with Jimmie Johnson .. Mr. #48

It's going to be a long season folks.

Tiny Love

Today is the day. The day I get to pack my flip flops and catch a plane for sunny Florida! I'm excited for several reasons. The top 3 being:

1. We have snow on the ground, and I am so OVER IT!
2. I get to see Bethany and pretty much do absolutely nothing for 5 days!
3. Lily! Remember a couple months back when I was making this, well she's finally here! (3 weeks on Friday)

So, of course hubs will be spending his Valentine's by himself. I'm sure he's okay with that. Although he's getting company, don't think I'd leave him to a while weekend alone!!! His parents will be staying til Monday.

In honor of Valentine's day and sweet baby Lily, I made this for her first one!

.

My favorite part is the little ruffles on the legs! It was entirely too easy to do. And since she's only 3 weeks old and Florida isn't THAT warm, I made her a few pair of baby leg warmers!

So two things I can cross off the list of things I'd like to learn and master. The leg warmers by the way are SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO easy.

Anyway, I'm off to breakfast with the hubs! With all this snow, ETSU has canceled classes today so Im taking him to a truly traditional college student breakfast! I should know, I was one for 4 years prior to my recent attempt at returning. So off we go to breakfast in our JAMMIES!!

Snow Cream

This past weekend Brian's brother and his wife stopped in on their way home from a friends house. Since we obviously had snow on the ground, they suggested we make Snow Cream.

Actually we had about 5 inches of snow and an inch and a half of ice on top of that. So technically this could have been called Ice Cream!! Before I show you the goods and how easy it was to make, I'll make you sit through these photos.

Brian and I kept thinking how eerily quiet it was before, during and after this snow storm. The skies looked different and absolutely none of the animals were moving.

It was cool to see the snow falling over the mountain into NC

SNOW CREAM!!

It was like the consistency of homeade ice cream... well to me anyway. We made so much of it that of course Brian was the only one to finish his.

The ingredients were simple:

2 eggs beaten

2 Tbsp Vanilla

1 can Evaporated Milk

1 C Sugar

1 Gal of Snow, CLEAN SNOW!!(which measuring this was awkward)

We took ours off the car since we have way to many animlas running around here

Mix it all together and you get Snow Cream!

John Deere Green

Well, kind of anyway...

Sara, a friend of mine from when I was a kid, has a little boy who is turning 1. And, he's having a tractor party. I hope this goes along with your tractor theme Sara! If not, well... I'm sorry!!

Just kidding! I hope you like it, and if not let me know. There is still time to change something!

Itty Bitty

Pieces...

Seriously, I hate small pieces. I never thought this quilt would turn out with such teeny, tiny pieces of fabric. Those little pinwheel things, the whole block is about 3", the other squares are 2" each.. but still, that's small to me.

If and when I'm done, it will go to Gia. Gia Harper... She should be here on the 27th, or so I'm told. Let's hope I finish it in time to get it there before she makes her debut.

So, it's coming along.. I guess.

Tuff

Meet Tuff.

As in Tuff Hedeman, World Champion Bull Rider.

It was simple naming him really. Tuff 'Poncho' Hedeman Schwartz. See this is why we can't have kids. They will end up with names that either make them look awesome, or completely stupid.. and mostly the latter.

He is suposed to be a Lemon Beagle... which I have my doubts. We were thinking Lemon Beagle mixed with Spaniel.. makes more sense. Anyway, he's 6 months old and totally sweet! Duke didn't exactly LOVE him at first. He stood his ground and stayed on the couch.. and watched from a distance.

Things are getting better though. He now allows Tuff to hang out with him on the couch.. although Tuff is only allowed to play with him unless he (duke) initiates it.. I think it's his top dog in him.

We have nicknamed them Poncho (Tuff) & Lefty (Duke)

Don't worry Duke, you're still king of the castle!

1st Birthday

with Mickey!

This was taken with the camera on my phone, so it's not so great.

Well, kind of.

I made this for Owen, yesterday. His 1st birthday is next Monday and his parents (Brian's brother and sil) LOVE Disney World. It turned out much better than I had anticipated, but still not perfect. Hopefully he gets it in the mail before the big day, would probably defeat the purpose!

C.O.L.D.

Today is cold.

Probably the coldest I've seen since moving here.

I mean cold, as in 6 degrees when I woke up this morning, kind of cold.

The snow we received over the weekend is still hanging around, but since it's been below 20 degrees for so long.. everything is ICE.. and I.don't.like.ICE!!!

Duke and I ventured out this morning to show you what cold looks like. See Duke, he doesn't like the cold. He prefers that I turn the heating pad on for him to curl up on.

I went down to see Shiner earlier. He wasn't happy either. On one hand he gets double the hay, on the other.. he has to constantly wear an ice cycle mustache for a while.

Meet Ollie, he's pretty sweet. He's more of a dog than Duke.

Come on Ollie, let's go to the house.. It's WAY too cold out here.

What, you're leaving us? Seriously!!? So this is how it's going to be.

Well fine then!

I wonder if his tongue had any ice on it after this. He kept sticking it out and licking the ice off his lips.
So, until it warms.. Duke and I will stay shut up inside the house. But with all the drafts in this house.. I get the idea of the temperature.