be inspried

Good Morning and today I would like to welcome and introduce my guest blogger Ladipo. Click on this link to take you to My Structured Chaos and today's post by Ladipo. Now mind you - she is a college student and might be sleeping in this morning so if Saturday's post isn't up yet check back in a bit.
She is a delight and you're sure to enjoy her blog. Thank you Ladipo for sharing your day and your blog.

Saturday's guest blogger

Just want to let you know that tomorrow Saturday (Feb. 6th) my blog will feature a guest blogger. 
I am really excited to have my first guest and I hope you will stop by to see her post. 
Her name is Ladipo, she is an interior design student, and she just celebrated her 21st birthday! 

I met her via etsy and I'm glad I did.
So stop by on Saturday and I will have the link to her blog post which will be my Saturday blog.
There may be an easier way to do this but I haven't figured it out yet :) Anyway...
she has an adorable blog and I'm sure you'll enjoy visiting.

Valentine Giveaway winner

Thank you one and all for leaving such endearing comments and for putting up with the extra task of finding the pink thistle. You are all so sweet and worthy of winning but alas the winner for this Hello Valentine giveaway is the Happy Cottage Quilter!
CONGRATULATIONS!
I will be e-mailing you so I can get your address to send out your prize.
Also of note, I will be having a guest blogger on the blog this Saturday and I hope you will stop and check it out. Her blog topic is "you inspire me" and I am looking forward to seeing her post. So stop by Saturday sometime and have a look-see.
I am also working on a free pattern for you to download from my website and I will let you know when it's up and ready. It should be soon, but this week has turned out to be crazy busy.

Shibori sunshine

I am having too much fun. Our quilt guild had a guest speaker Carol Anne Grotrian and one of her specialty is Shibori dyeing. I was fascinated with her fabrics and her quilts. Thank you Carol for inspiring me so.
What is Shibori you ask?
Shibori is a Japanese term for resist dyeing, such as tie-dye. Remember all the tie-dye t-shirts - that's just one Shibori technique.
When I got home and kept thinking about the examples I saw, it dawned on me that years ago (about 6-8 years) I had purchased a kit of special pre- treated fabric that you expose to the sun to imprint an image.
Surprisingly I found it right where I had put it many years ago and I have been having fun ever since.
I took some to retreat with me so my friends could play with it too. In fact I had just received the order I had placed for more kits and now they come in more fabulous colors. If you've always wanted to dabble in dyeing fabrics but don't have a place to do it or you are hesitant about working with dyes then this technique is for you too. I now offer packages of 8-1/2" pre-treated squares on my website. The colors available are the original white/indigo and five new colors.
I have a workshop posted at S.E.W. Studio so if you are in the SW Florida area let me know if you are interested in a class.

This is the defining block Karen did at retreat.....



Here is the block that Cathi made... don't you love the bear!



These are some I have done, along with the one at the top of the page.










In case you can't tell, I am so excited about this. I have only wet dyed a couple of times and it was fun, but much more time consuming, messier, and many more supplies are involved. Of course you can't duplicate the unlimited effects and color combining that you get with wet dyeing but if you just want to have a little fun, no mess, and be creative you can't go wrong with this technique.
More to come...........

100 and counting!

Wow, I just realized that this is my 100th blog post!
I can't believe I had that much stuff to share with you, but it has been a lot of fun and I will keep trying to share things to bring a smile to your face or to inspire you to create.

I missed my blogiversary, but I was able to take note of this "milestone" thanks to blogger's data.
This calls for a celebration of some sort doesn't it.
I know!
How about a guest blogger?

If you have a blog and want to blog on one of my next posts leave me a comment and I will link up the guest blog.


(If you are looking for the post to comment on for the giveaway it's the Jan 27th post, you have until Feb 3rd to comment.)

New Giveaway - Hello Valentine

Hello Valentines,

This giveaway is a sampler of sweetness.....
for all of my sweet visitor friends that stop by to say hi and browse a bit even on busy days.
Sweet words, sweet fabrics, sweet tooth, sweet stripes ....

There are eight 8-1/2" pink dot fabric charm squares, a cute pink bookmark that reads "stay calm and have a cupcake", a cute striped zippered (pencil) case, Valentine cupcake papers, pink kitty marshmallow candies and a bag of sweetheart candy.

This time around to enter in the giveaway you need to pop over to my site and find the little pink thistle flower (not the large one on the home page) and tell me where you found it. Post your comments to this posting ( Jan 27th) only.
You have until Feb 3rd to post your comment to this entry.

BTW...Don't count on reading the first few entries to find out where the thistle is because I'm going to move it around. It won't always be in the same place. .....and sweetly diabolical?

The winner will be chosen at random and I'll post the winner on Feb 4th. and then pop your Hello Valentine giveaway in the mail to you.

Good luck xoxo

Veggie town

Yep, I still have my earthbox gardens going and so far so good once I got rid of some critters (caterpillars) on my tomato plant. I am now having a bumper crop of Roma tomatoes and one of my broccoli has finally sprouted a head. I can't wait. See it in the center? It's small but it's there.
I hope the weather stays cool. (it doesn't care for the heat) My friend Karen has already harvested some broccoli from her earthbox garden. I am so jealous.



Last night Jeff & I had a nice fresh, tasty salad with Romaine and spinach from the garden....ohhhh it was yumlicious. I had to plant some more pole bean seeds as we have gobbled up all of the beans, but my bell peppers are still growing like crazy.
We put the caging around the lettuce and spinach to keep the bunnies out. Not that I have anything against bunnies but I think they would make short work of my garden given the chance.



All too soon the hot weather will be here so I need to think ahead to hot weather crops. hmmmm......