WIP - A bunch of new projects

If you haven't yet entered my Pezzy Prints giveaway, check it out here! 

Winner will be chosen on 3/23. 

I finished up Sara's Star quilt, so what was the next logical step? Starting a few more projects, of course. At the rate I start projects, I'm going to have 4,302 WIPs by the end of the year but only 12 finishes. Oops.

Anyway, at some point a few weeks ago I put together a bundle of girly prints - flowery things that are all manner of pinks, and some stripes, and that sort of thing - and decided to cut squares from them. It then came to me to make sort-of-4-patch blocks out of them. This is what I've got so far:

There are definitely way more than enough to make two (if not three!) children's sized quilts out of, as I'm planning on putting white sashing between the blocks. I think these would all end up for sale.

I then decided it would be a good idea to do the same thing with my two charm packs of Half Moon Modern and two packs of white Bella Solids:

(Pardon my terrible photography skills! I tend to take photos before work, with the intention of blogging at lunch time...and then I don't. Aww.). Anyway, I think I'm going to pick one of the solid colors (possibly the teal?) from the line to use for sashing, and use all the blocks in the same quilt. Not sure where this one will end up, either.

Then I've started ANOTHER project, out of slightly-smaller-than-charm-square sized squares that I got from a couple of swaps I participated in. It was my first swap, and as much as I appreciate the bargains I can find at Joann for fabrics for myself, I also very much understand why swap mammas say NO to those for their swaps. Anyway, I'm making 16-patches out of them:

 14 out of the 22 blocks have turned out properly, like this (they're still in two sets of eight squares each)

While the other eight have turned out like this! I have no idea where or how they went wrong; I just know I have a bunch of seam ripping to do! Boo! Since my parents are now coming for Christmas, I think these blocks, combined with a cream-colored sashing (tentatively, anyway) will end up being their Christmas present. I think I can handle that sort of schedule!

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In other news - WOW. I joined up with the St. Patty's day giveaway blog hop and have been amazed at the results. 174 comments SO FAR, *and* I now have 100 followers! Whoa! Thank you, all of you, for all the comments. I've defintely read every one, even though I've been overwhelmed and haven't replied to them all. I'll definitely do another giveaway sometime soon for hitting that milestone, probably at the end of April, for my birthday.

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Lastly, if you're as addicted to charm swaps as I've become, there's another one going on over at Adventures in obsessive crafting. Deanna's looking for folks interested in swapping rainbow charms, and she (and I!) would love if it you joined up!

Free jacket!? Yes!

So if you read my blog regularly you've probably noticed the referral link to Crowdtap over there in the sidebar (see it now? hehe!). Crowdtap's a great program that allows you to answer questions and get matched up with brands. The questions, called Quick Hits, allow you to earn money towards Amazon gift cards and to donate to charity - but by far the best part are the Sample Shares! All the sample shares I've gotten so far have been for my favorite clothing store - Old Navy! They advertised Crowdtap on Facebook, and that's how I got involved with the site.

The latest sample share I got was for free outerwear! What an amazing thing to get a free coupon for! It never really gets very cold here in Chico (today it's probably 75 degrees and really sunny!) but I loved the idea of being able to get a classic jacket for free. I also got a coupon to share with a friend, so I took my pal Tamera along with me.

The large fit across my shoulders, but the tummy was too much!

The first jacket I tried on was this one, the Wool Blend Toggle coat in Gray Plaid. I really wanted to like this coat, because I loved the contrasting toggles (especially on the gray one!) but unfortunately, in order to get the jacket to fit across my shoulders, it ended up huge across my belly! I joked that if I were pregnant it would've been perfect, but alas, Jeff and I aren't at the point where we can do that quite yet!




The next jacket I tried out was one of the puffy coats, the Frost Free Midi jacket. The fit was a bit more true to size, but unfortunately...

It didn't have the greatest scent. While the plasticky sort of smell would probably go away after the jacket was aired out for a while, it turned me off from wanting the jacket. I suspect that most of the puffy jackets and vests would have this problem :(

When I originally went to Old Navy I was really hoping to be able to try on the Hooded Twill Jacket. Unfortunately, my local store didn't seem to have it. They did have the Twill Sherpa-Trim Anoraks, but I didn't really like the way either the khaki or the brown color looked in person. I was bummed that they didn't have some of the happier colors (like Parading Peacock!) from the puff coats in this jacket, because that would've been a cool twist on a less-trendy look.

Tamera tried on a bunch of different jackets, including the Wool Blend Double Breasted Coat but she ended up getting the Wool Blend Toggle Coat in gray. She's a bit smaller than me, so she didn't have to go up as many sizes to make it fit across her shoulders.

She was super excited to get a new jacket - she's been working hard to get in shape since having her little girl (who is absolutely adorable!) and she didn't have a winter jacket that fit very well until last Monday! Hooray!!

I decided to go with a classic look for my jacket - I picked the Wool Blend Toggle Coat in gray, which is a longer version than Tamera's that also doesn't have the hood. While I really liked the plum color that the jacket comes in, I figured the gray would be better long-term for dressy winter parties - now if only I had some to go to! :)

I'm not a huge fan of wool, but the collar doesn't really sit on my neck, and the jacket's lined, so it's not on my arms if I wear shorter sleeves or have my hands in my pockets. I think the jacket looks pretty good with jeans, so it's definitely something I could even wear just to work on cooler days!

The best part, of course, was being able to leave the store, with over $150 in merchandise between us - with two receipts that said $0! Thank you soooooo much, Crowdtap and Old Navy!

Want the chance to get in on the great deals from Crowdtap for yourself? Don't hesitate to sign up - here's my referral link again. :)

Lucky Ducky!

Wow! I've found myself on Mr. Random's good side lately or something - first I won the Sewline Trio mechanical pencil from Mauby's and Fat Quarter Shop - then I got the free jeans from Old Navy for chatting with them on Twitter.

Today, I had another win! I scored a bunch of Christmas photo cards from Shutterfly, sponsored by Jen at Crippled Girl - whose blog I definitely recommend following, for her humorous takes on special needs living as well as the thought-provoking guest bloggers she's been featuring lately. Thanks, Jen!The hard part to that will be getting a good picture of Jeff and I - the last pics we have together are from our wedding, two and a half years ago (here's one, just because it makes me smile):

Then (Yes, really!), I hopped on to Blogger to read everyone I follow, and saw that I won again! Quilt Dad has had a series of drawings recently, and I won this book:

Scrap Republic, by Emily Cier. I love projects that use small bits of fabric - fat quarters are my favorite! - so I'm super excited to get this book. Thanks, Quilt Dad!! :D

Wow. That's quite the lucky recap! I'm gonna have to make sure to pay it forward these next few weeks to make up for all the good karma I've been using up with Mr. Random Number Generator! ;)

Twitter - and persistence! - pay off!

So I love me some Old Navy - almost every item in my wardrobe (er...dresser and closet) is from there, including, um, everything I'm wearing today except underoos. I'm the girl who goes there and buys one-in-every-color, please.

And Twitter, I'm hit or miss with, I'll admit. I get into it for a while, then forget about it. One thing I've been pretty consistent about, though, is posting comments to Old Navy - and not always positive things. Their spring clothes this year were dreadful - lots of ruffles and fringe that look like they were swept up off the cutting room floor. And I told them so. I suggested they use bigger models so those of us who aren't size 4 will have an idea of how clothes might - or might not - fit.

Guess what? Those comments paid off! I got an email a couple weeks ago asking for my address because they wanted to reward me for my comments! Yesterday I got a coupon for FREE JEANS in the mail!!!

Of course I headed straight to ON and snagged these, the Sweetheart Boot-Cut jeans in the "Tipai" wash:

After finishing up that great shopping trip - who doesn't love a $0 receipt?! - I came home to more fun news! I won a giveaway from Mauby's for a Sewline mechanical pencil!

Photo from  Mauby's, here

How exciting! I'm always entering giveaways and looking forward to the day I see the "you've won!" line show up about me - and it finally has! I love sewing gadgets, and this will definitely be a welcome addition as I face the daunting task of starting on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler with my fancy vintage fabrics! Check out Mauby's for great tutorials and all other kinds of sewing inspiration :)

How has persistence - or Twitter! - paid off for you lately?

Back!

Back from vacation, and I'm exhausted! Up for only a few minutes before heading to bed before my first day back at work since last Wednesday.

I've got plenty of posts bubbling in my head - including chatting about how well we did at crossing items off the August to-do list before going, how well we did at crossing things off the vacay to-do list, the stack of fabric I snitched from my aunt's stash (okay, okay, she gave it to me!) and my plans for it, and the reading I got done! Hooray!

What a week!

I love getting mail. Always have. From Zoo Books and Highlights magazines as a kid to all the cards and letters I got in boot camp - hell, I even like receiving bills! This week, I got not one but TWO great packages in the mail - both on Friday! Let's rewind, though, before we get there.

I love me some thrift stores. We have a great one here that, three days a week, offers 30% off their whole inventory. They also give an extra percentage - either 50% or 75%! - off merchandise with certain colored tags. This week, we picked up a lab coat for my husband, the budding scientist, for $1 because it had a 75% off tag, and I got myself one of these:  A big ol' pattern cutting board, also about $1! Not a huge deal, since they aren't that expensive new, but I wasn't able to find one this size on Amazon - plus my husband claims they're good for playing RPGs like Dungeons and Dragons because of the grid that's on them. Hooray?

Anyway, the packages! The little one contained this adorable mug rug and some super cute fat quarters from Jan at SewSowinLove! There was a mix up from the mug rug swap I did back in...May, was it?...and the person who got me didn't get my address, so I didn't get one. Boo!

The coordinator took care of me, though, and I got hooked up with Jan, who sent this adorable rug, now on my desk - maybe more for cool drinks than hot ones, but definitely appreciated nonetheless! Check her out on Twitter, too.

I definitely would've called it a great mail day at that, but that wasn't it! I also got this AMAZING assortment of stuff from Renay at And Then We Started Living - all kinds of things, including embroidery floss, a ton of scrapbooking stuff (a hobby I may now have to start!?), cuuuuuute stationery, even a painting!

 I had another painting where this one is, but we did some rearranging so that one was too big - and this one goes perfectly with the girly purples and greens and gray that are my office.

 Scrapbooking paper and doo-dads, stamps, some fabric, stationery, pencils...so much adorable, cutesy girly stuff! I think that's what I appreciate about it so much - it's the sort of thing I'd probably never buy for myself, but I totally love it now that I have it!

 I LOVE these kinds of magnets - I had another one, so now I have five! They've got great sarcastic sayings on them - the top left one says something about being disappointed that the weiners keep getting smaller while the buns keep getting bigger. Teehee!

So thank you, thank you, thank you, Renay! What an amazing collection of items!

If you appreciate good design, like pretty pictures of house interiors or baby rooms or what have you, follow Renay - both her blog, and her upcoming journey to move across country, to get married, plan for children...all that fun "big stuff" one does!