aaaaaaaaand we're back.

Yes, that was a very nice blog-cation. It was nice to just make things and not worry about blogging them you know? But now I'm good and blog rested and I want to blog them. Do you ever wonder if bloggers are just people who are really needy for affirmation in any form? The answer to that is probably yes :)

Did I finish my first quilt? No. But I finished all the quilting which took me a really long time. But I made it, even with two bouts of machine troubles (much cursing.) At least I didn't sew through any of my fingers or anything. Just needs binding now. This will be a busy week, but we are making it happen people.


Did I start another quilt just for fun? Yes. Here's the quilt top I made using Rachel's Loulouthi tiles instructions. It's baby sized with Moda Bella Green for the sashing. (Which looks more like mint green or sea foam to me, but they just call it green.) Nick is attached to those feet, rolling his eyes.

That quilt top came together really quickly with those big pieces. Perfect for the AMH collection. Late that night I decided to have fun with the scraps and made a wonky log cabin block for the quilt back. I love little surprises on the back of a quilt.

I really never expected to like quilting this much. I'll probably just make one for everyone I know now.



I also made some little boy clothes and some little girl clothes that I'll show you soon. And we took a whirlwind trip to Boston. It was fun, but a bit of a cluster-cuss at times (airport times.) I could formulate some great parenting post full of wisdom about traveling with two small children, but I still don't have any of that wisdom. So I'll just tell you a little about it so you can laugh at my misfortunes. Those are really the best kind of parenting posts, the ones that make you really glad it didn't happen to you, or really glad your children are always model citizens and better than everyone else's. Until they remind you that isn't true...ten minutes later.

Blog Detox

I'm taking a little vacation from this blog. Or maybe it's more like continuing a vacation :) Anyway, I just need some time away from the interwebs. Though I love it so, as we all do, sometimes I feel like the interwebs are scrambling my brains and eyeballs. It's summer. I need to go outside and play in water hoses and eat fresh guacamole. Computer screens aren't the most summery-ist.

Plus, I want the stuff I share here to be fresh and interesting and I don't want to ever feel like I have to post anything because of "the pressure." I never intended to make money or anything as a blogger, so when I start feeling pressure to post something just because I haven't in a while, well, that's dumb. There's really no reason to do that. I think we'll all enjoy this more if I never do that.

And then there's the whole blogger's inner dialogue thing. Do you ever start writing posts in your head during the course of your day? Like when something happens I sometimes start figuring out how I would write it for the blog. Then I immediately think to myself, "What is wrong with me?" Also dumb. Please tell me I'm not the only one who does that though. I don't know, maybe it's not dumb for bloggers to do that, but for me, I don't want to take this thing that seriously.

I'll come back in a week or two or whenever I miss you guys and share what I've been up to, including my finished quilt.

Just a couple things before I go...

This gorgeous Loulouthi spread came in the mail today. Yes, I already have plans for my next quilt. This might get addicting, which would make my mom oh so proud :)

If you're into getting gussy for the holidays, or just really like jumbo ric rac, check out this pillow tutorial I did for Sewn, the fabric shop I work in. I'm looking forward to the Fourth... We're free!!! (Picture me yelling that while running around with sparklers in each hand.)

And lastly, Project Runway begins in one short month. Then we'll certainly have something to talk about. Who's with me?

Joining, sharing, swapping.

Suddenly, I have an overwhelming urge to join in every single project I see people starting on their blogs. I don't know why this is exactly, I'm just being a bit of a joiner right now. Well, I do know a couple of reasons this could stem from. The first is a (somewhat reasonable) fear that once baby #2 arrives I will never be able to make or do anything I want to ever again. Well, that's not really reasonable, but I'm sure creative endeavors will be few and far between for a while. The second is that I have a lonely mom thing going on here lately. I don't think it's any secret that this is a reason for a lot of us being joiners in an online creative community. I'm at home with kids during the day, and then my husband takes our one car to work at night so I'm usually home some more. So what do I have to do after bedtime but sew and then talk to people about it on the internet? (Lord knows I'm not watching The Bachelor.) I'm thankful for that, but I know the pre-kids me would have thought this kind of sad. Maybe it is in a way still, but I don't care. I like you guys and your blogs and I like my blog. So there.



Anyway, at the risk of my blog becoming completely over-saturated with sugary-syrup little girl dresses, I'm really excited about Vanessa's project going on this very week:





She's heading up an effort to send a ton of pillowcase dresses to an organization that gives them to girls around the world who don't have 28 dresses neatly hanging in their closets. This is a good thing. You have til next Wednesday to finish a dress or five, and pillowcase dresses are pretty quick, so join in!





The other project I heard about from Angelina's blog and of course decided to join, in my join-iness. It's called 30 Days of Lists.  Not much to explain there, but I thought it would be fun to get back into regular bite-size writing. I'm not a journal-er, but I love making lists, though I go through phases with it. They give you a different topic each day, and they've been pretty good so far.

I stole a little moleskine from my husband to designate to the task. I won't share all my lists here, because you don't care, but they will mostly be on my flickr. Did you know I had a flickr? Let's be friends there too.

The list topics have been fun so far, but today's is "What's in Your Bag?" This is the first one I think I will need to change. No offense to everyone who blogs about what is in their bag, but those kind of posts generate zero interest in me. We all have basically the same things in there, and besides, I don't even carry a purse any more, just a lovely utilitarian unit they call a diaper bag. It's got diapers and wipes in it- not an exhilarating show and tell. Maybe I'll change today's list to "What's been on your living room floor for 3 days straight?" or maybe, "What simple things are becoming impossible due to your ginormous belly?" Those seem more applicable to me right now.




Since this has seemed to become kind of a rambling post, let me tell you what else I have become addicted too. Swapping. That random old photograph up there came from Janee in a package she sent me full of random things in exchange for a load of wine corks. She asked about my corks, I said let's swap. Ever since Tara's scrap swap, this is my first thought about any of my supplies. Yesterday, someone commented that they liked my yellow nursing cover fabric and I offered to swap them for what I had left of it. There might be something wrong with me... I'm trying to think of a way to turn swapping into a more regular event around here.


Anyway, Tara's mug rugs that she made with my scraps inspired my grandmother in Florida to make some of her own. (I love it that you read my blog Nanny!) She emailed me these pics yesterday. It just goes to show that not only do people's creative blogs inspire other bloggers in our own little pat-each-other-on-the-back online world, but also people who are observing from afar and we have no idea about. I love it.

So I hope you don't mind you are famous on the internet now Nanny :)

To Do List... with a juicy tidbit.

To-Do-Along.


So honestly, I'm not a big fan of lots of those "link parties" people do on blogs. There is nothing really wrong with them, I've just never felt the need to participate.

BUT I do like a unique idea that involves getting to know other bloggers, not just promoting yourself. Carmen is starting up a little to-do list blog along, and I thought it would be fun to participate this week. I always have a long crafty to-do list that is very satisfying to chip away at. But lately, due to having some very big projects to tackle, and the fact that I haven't been feeling myself, well, you've probably noticed I haven't sewn many new things lately.


To Tackle This Week Month:

1. Finish crib skirt (so close) and changing pad cover for my friend's nursery, start curtains.
2. Make at least 2 pairs of PJ pants for Hendrix. (His are so small, it's sad.)
3. Write 3-4 blog posts for Fyrefly.
4. Sew 2 Louise bags for Fyrefly and 2 to swap with friends. 
5. Sew wristlet for a friend to match a bag she bought.
6. Design and make 8 (!) new monsters for a family who has commissioned me to make one for all their grandkids.
7. Add some things to the shop.
8. Finish reading Chocolat. (I know, I'm like 10 years behind.)
9. Go to the Dr. on Tuesday because I'm pregnant.
10. Buy more fabric.

Happy Labor Day everyone, and I hope we all get to make lots of check-marks on our lists this week :)

Makeover

As you can see, I did a little work on the "aesthetics" of the blog this weekend. (Seriously, if Gretchen on Project Runway says one more thing about her aesthetic I might reach into the screen and flick her on the nose.)

I've been meaning to do it for a long time, because I've never loved the way anything looked before. But I was discouraged because my old computer, which is the only one we have photoshop on, likes to randomly turn off every few minutes. Also, it cannot type several important letters which is more than a little annoying. While the good computer was being fixed after HG's coffee spill, I actually did a couple posts on here copying and pasting every single T, G, and B.... son of a  i ch.

So I decided to try Picnik.com. I have heard a lot about the free photo-editing site on other craft blogs, but I was very skeptical that anything it could produce wouldn't look a little cheesy. Turns out, it was pretty good for a free service. I wish there were more fonts to choose from, and I wish you could overlay pictures as layers somehow like in photoshop. But really, there is a lot you can do on it- including, um, make fun of really super talented people. Totally worth using if you don't have any editing software, and you just want some basics, and you enjoy belittling reality TV stars.

Anyway, grab my new button-thangy over on the side bar if you'd like to say to everyone on your blog, "Hey everyone! Come read A Little Gray! It's super fantastic!!" (this is kind of a weird practice in blogland- but I'm in.)

My last little addition is a sign-off for each post. I made three. Let's try them all right now....

You can tell me which you like best. Or I might just switch between all three.

P.S.- does anyone on blogger know how to get rid of that little shadow thing they put around the images? I don't like. 

100 Reasons

This is my 100th post here! I've been looking back over some of the things I've posted since November when I started, and it occurred to me that for my 100th post I wanted to honor some of my most faithful and encouraging blogland friends- the ones who have supported me from the beginning. I really didn't know when I started this thing that the most fun part of having my own crafty little nook on the internet would be making friends. In fact, I really didn't know what I was doing, or why.

But when you put just a little bit of yourself out there in cyberspace, it's the easiest way to connect with all of these people who have similar interests and who you would not be able to connect with otherwise. So I want to introduce you to just a few of my best cyber-buds. The funny thing is, I knew all these people just a little bit before, but not as great friends. Now, we look out for each other because we're blog friends, letting each other know about things we know the others would love, encouraging new endeavors, and just plain being interested in each other's creativity. I love it. (And by the way, if I heard someone talking about their "internet friends" like this a year ago, I would have totally made fun of them. Ha! I'm such a snob.)

This is Olivia (and her adorable family.)

She blogs at The Saturated Palette. I hate to over-use the word "lovely," but her blog is just lovely. It feels all warm and homey and happy when I read it. She is a fluid writer, a coffee/ book/ all-things-French snob, and a great wife and mommy. (and babe #2 is on the way-yay!)

I knew her only because she went to college with my husband and I think I met her once. But she was definitely the first person to start commenting regularly on this campy little site I started. I think as a seasoned blogger, she knew how much the creative encouragement meant. :) 

She is also a very talented artist, and she sells both originals and prints of her work in her Etsy shop, Palette Theory. She is pretty much the reason I started my shop. I thought, "Well, Olivia is a person I know, and she has a shop. And she's awesome. Maybe I can do it." I have sound reasoning like that for just about everything. 

This is Carmen.

She blogs at Life Blessons. Her writing is always inspiring and encouraging. She writes about everything in life, from cooking and decorating, to her marriage and her faith- I love the variety. And this girl is living on purpose- everything she does is striving to be a better wife and Jesus-follower. You should probably follow along on her journey. 

We used to go to church together but were never really friends- then we became blog friends and we both wondered why on earth not?  But she has always been an encouragement to me and my pursuits, which is the coolest. And she is adorable. And she has weaned her hair off of shampoo, which I TOTALLY want to try. 

This is Wendy.

She has started her own beautiful photography business, and of course an accompanying blog called Anwen Elizabeth Photography. It's so cool to follow along as this girl follows her dreams. You can almost taste her passion for photography as she writes about growing her business and talents. And her work is gorgeous eye candy. 

Pre-blogging, I had not talked to Wendy since my senior year of high school, when she was a freshman on my volleyball team. I have a horrible memory when it comes to high school, so I sure hope I was sweet to the younger girls back then :) Wendy always acts like everything I make is the most amazing thing she has ever seen, which is hilarious and totally sweet. I'm glad we are cyber-buddies.

This is Erin.

Erin blogs here about her life as mom of a four-year old girl and 18-month-old twin boys- crazy! I love this picture because I imagine it pretty much sums up her life trying to wrangle them. Oh yeah, and most of the time she is single-mom'in-it with her husband deployed overseas. Amazing! Whenever I feel frazzled as a mom, I just think of her and feel better :) I seriously can't imagine how she does it, but she is an awesome mom. And she even makes time to squeeze in a little sewing- like making approximately 139 sock monkey favors for her boys' first birthday. (Not really, but it was a lot.)

And that's just the beginning really. So many other "casual friends" have now become blog-buddies. 

-Courtney takes great pictures and has the most down-to-earth writing voice.

-Stacia is a seriously good cook. I want to eat everything she makes. One time she wrote about this recipe that took 2 days to make. What?!

-My good friend Jessica started blogging about her beekeeping adventures in her backyard- how cool is that?

-Kara is so cute and stylish and always has great tips. (and she just got engaged! Yay!)

-Katie is super crafty, has a sweet humble writing voice, and an amazing story.

-Sarah is an amazing homeschooling mom who just had her fifth kid. 

Anyway, I think I'm done gushing, but I just wanted to send back the love to all these ladies who have encouraged me in large and small ways. So, you should check them out. Also, if you don't already, start blogging and make new internet friends- accept your dorky fate.