Finished!

I'm so excited to announce that today i finished the quilt i have been working on!  Hooray!  First quilt ever= complete.  And even though it's not perfect and there were definitely moments of unpicking mistakes (not fun), I am very happy with the turn out.

Here it is:

This is the front.

This is the back.

I decided to make a picnic type blanket because we don't have one and i figured it didn't have to be quite as big as a quilt for a bed.  Seemed like a good starter.  I also decided to do a rag quilt because I thought it would be easier.  It definitely is easy, if you can sew a straight line you can make a rag quilt, but easier does not necessarily mean it takes a shorter amount of time!  I honestly worked on this every day for the past 3 weeks.  But I had a lot of fun!  I chose to do red, white and blue b/c I guess 4th of July makes me think of BBQs and picnics.  Plus I think it's a really cute color scheme.  I should have done some more close up pictures so you can see the fabric better.  I love it.

Now I can say I accomplished one of my goals for 2011.  I wanted to have it done by summer but I got so into it I finished it in 3 weeks.  Now what should I make?

visitors!

This weekend my brother Joel, his wife Becky, and their little boy Mason all came to visit us.  We had a great time!  We sure love visitors and we are happy we live in an area where people want to visit, especially during the winter.  While it was in the 30's and snowing in Provo they were happily visiting us in sunny 60 degree weather.  We enjoyed hanging out, playing games (Joel & Bec always have the best games), taking Mason to the park (actually two parks), eating, and just being together.  Joel & Dan also went golfing while Becky & I enjoyed watching Gilmore Girls :).  We of course took them to the Orange Peel and unfortunately that is the only picture I snapped of our weekend...

Mason loves smoothies!  I guess he liked his dad's the best because he kept stealing it from Joel.  It was so funny!

 

And here we are.  Love the weather here!  I don't think I can even say it enough :)

Mason has now learned my name and calls me "Shel".  He would walk around the house saying "Shel, Shel, Shel."  My most favorite Mason moment was when he sang along to the Beatles.  It was the cutest thing ever!  His favorite song is "She loves you yeah, yeah, yeah..."  he is really good at the "yeah, yeah, yeah" part.

Thanks for coming guys, we had a great time!

I love free

Remember those Lime Ricki swimsuits I like? Well... they are giving away 3 free swimsuits next week! Just leave a comment on their blog about something that makes you happy. I already have one of their suits, but I'd be happy to get another one :). Especially now that I have a pool and warm weather to use it, oh and the fact that it's free is an added bonus too.

Lime Ricki Giveaway

Good luck, I hope you or I win :)

p.s. if i were to win i think i would choose the chloe top with the yellow boy shorts.

quilting

I'm so excited! I have started working on Goal #2 (see below). I bought all of the fabric yesterday and cut it all out today. I was going to take a picture, but I decided to wait until the quilt is finished. My goal is to be done by summertime. And why would I need a quilt for summer you ask? Oh because it's going to be an outdoor/picnic/bbq type blanket!

And p.s.... i'm sorry to all of my freezing friends, but it is almost 60 degrees here today. One thing is for sure, I definitely love winters down here!

Goals

This year I have quite a few goals I want to accomplish... of course you already know my first one (as mentioned before), eating healthy & exercising.  I must say, so far it is going great!  I honestly feel much better, have more energy, and I've even lost a little weight :).  My favorite way to workout is Just Dance 2 for the Wii (so happy I got Dan a Wii for x-mas)... it's this dancing game and I swear I sweat way more doing that game than I ever do at the gym (sorry, maybe TMI).  I love it and I haven't even gotten bored of it, I just keep playing cuz it's fun and a great workout at the same time. 

And my other goals, in no particular order...
1. Read more books (any good suggestions???)
2. Make a quilt
3. Learn graphic design (i've already started learning photoshop for this one!)
4. Grow my own vegetables (so far I plan on growing tomatoes, haven't decided what else to try... and i live in an apartment, so it's not like i have much space)
5. Take a community class... in either graphic design, photography or gardening (i haven't decided which one, maybe all three)
6. Buy a house (i'm really gonna need Dan's help on this one)
7. Along with my scripture study, read a conference talk each day (modern day scripture is important too!)
8. Attend the temple each month with Dan
9. Use my talents to do more service
10. Judge others less (i was reminded of this today when i reread Pres. Monson's talk from the General Relief Society Meeting, it is a good one! One thing that really stuck out to me, he said judging and criticism is the opposite of charity.  Never thought of it that way before.)

I could really keep going, I have more!  Haha... but I think this is enough to keep me busy for now.