Sunday, February 28, 2010

Here Kitty Kitty....

Game cam pics! Wow...it's been awhile!

The weather in Oregon last weekend was GORGEOUS so we went on a 4-wheeler ride for this first time is almost a year! It was Sam's very first ride too!


When we go out and about, we always check for animal tracks and point them out to the kiddos. Ali is getting pretty good spotting them =D


Well, last weekend I saw I pretty good sized paw print that was fairly fresh (within a few days). I thought it might have been a cougar, but Rik said he saw claw imprints...which means it would be canine. (cats have retractable claws, so the claws don't show in a print. Dogs claws don't, so you'll see them in a print).


I didn't see what we was talking about, but he's more experienced then I am...so I didn't argue.



Today was the first nice say we've had all week, so the kids and I trekked up to get the camera and look around after all the rain. There were lots of deer tracks and the dogs had a hay day with all the smells!



Well, check out the first pic off the camera.








Yea, that's a cougar. I was right.





A few shots of a buck.








And a bobcat.







Apparently the felines are really out and about right now!

Green Soap and a New Soap Challenge



See, See!





I DID make green soap!

Lovely hemp butter and hemp oils in this bar of Nag Champa soap.

Did you get any green soap made this month?



For next months challenge, I'm thinking SPRING!
Come up with something that says 'spring' to you.
It could be a scent (flowers, rain, green grass) or colors, whatever you can come up with. I think this one will call for a giveaway.


SHOW ME JUST HOW CREATIVE YOU CAN GET!

And speaking of Spring, the frogs around here are out and about. We've been hearing them every night! We even had a visitor in the house!




He found a nice damp home in the kids' bathtub!

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Quilt-A-Long

Since I was soooo wrapped up in quilting last month, I thought I would do a little quilt tutorial! Yay, so exciting....really!


Excuse the horrid photos and messy bed :)




For this quilt I used:

1- Moda Jelly Roll* (Bistro Line)
3/4yd coordinate print (Cut into 2.5" squares)
3/4yd black
2yds coordinate strip



*A Jelly Roll contains approx. 40 - 2.5" x 44" strips. If you want to cut your own strips, go ahead. You're crazy, but go ahead =)




Open up your jelly roll and group 10 clusters of 3 strips



I like to lay them out in the order I will assemble them;
it makes it easier down the road






Start sewing each set of 3 together into strips.






Press



Cut each strip in half





Now you have 2 half lengths of each set of strips.






EVERY OTHER set (5 total) will need ONE half cut in half again.

Giving you 3 pieces total






For the other 5 sets, cut 3" off each half

Still leaving you with 2 pieces



Set aside.

(I like to stack them in the order I had them layed out in)






Next you need to assemble your 9-Blocks.



Using your 3/4yd of coordinate, cut into 2.5" squares




I like to lay my 9-block out before sewing







Sew 3 rows of three blocks.





Then sew the three rows together.



Press.




You will need 25 Nine-blocks.


Before assembling, I lay everything out again.







Lay out Row 1 like so:

9-block
1 strip (from the 2pc set)
9-block
other strip
9 block.




Lay out Row 2 like so:

Small piece from 3pc set
9-Block
Large piece from 3pc set
9-block
small piece from 3pc set

Repeat these two alternately until all blocks and strip sets are gone (5 times)



Make sure you like the way your patterns and colors flow


Now assemble your STRIPS


You will have 10 complete strips.



Now you can sew your strips together





With the 3/4yd of black, cut it into 2.5" strips

( I had a black jelly roll on hand and used 8 strips)


You will need to attach two strips together, making 4 really long strips.



Center the seam on your strips to the center of the long side of your quilt and attach.



Repeat for the other side.

Trim excess on all four corners.
Repeat process for other quilt sides



After this step, I was waiting for the stripe coordinate to come in the mail...and then I forgot I was doing a photo tutorial *hehehe* So you'll have to use your imagination a little bit here...



I used 2yds of this fabric and cut three 4.5" strips and one 6" strip

(what the pattern on the fabric would allow)

Attach a 4.5" strip to each long side of the quilt.

Be sure to watch the direction of your print, if needed.

Trim off any excess from all four corners

Measure the total WIDTH of your quilt.

Trim last two stips of the stripe corrdinate to the width of your quilt

For the top of the quilt, I used the 6" strip and attached 4.5"x6" black blocks to each side.

Again for the bottom, but using a 4.5" strip with 4.5" black blocks.


Attach top and bottom


Yay! You're done! Wasn't that fun?


(All pretty on my bed)

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Just a Little...

Downsizing... Again SALE

Yup, it's time to downsize again.
I haven't worked with my MP soaps and molds in a really, really long time. So they must go.
All mold orders will get freebies!!
So go check it out here

Friday, February 12, 2010

I Made Soap!

Green Soap!
Green Hemp Soap!

Photos soon, but it's really not that exciting.
I did however have a soaping first. This soap did a weird, liquid like gel phase. It was strange. I'm blaming that fact it was a new recipe (I've never soaped with hemp oil/butter before).
Old FO...Nag Champa.
Anyone have something like that happen before?