Got a hot date this weekend ...

With my sewing machines ;) I have big plans for this weekend:

* Alix's bees DreamScape - DONE
* Teresa's California King sheet set
* Finish Virginia's 4 seasons tree blanket
* Terri's vehicles DreamScape - DONE
* Sheilagh's sky DreamScape - DONE
* I have 18 things to dye - DONE
* Mel's soccer DreamScape & gumballs fitted
* Rox's AI2 - DONE - and BedBugs
* Maddie's fitteds - 1 DONE
* Carolyn's DreamScape and BedBug
* Carley's Tri-Tones
* Hanna's BedBugs

Whew! Makes me tired just listing it all, lol! I have fabric prewashing right now and am off to the embroidery machine. Let's see how much I actually can accomplish this weekend! Wish me luck!

Saturday night update - 7 PM
* 1 finished - Rox's fall in the forest AI2
* Terri's 'Vroom! Vroom!" DreamScape is embroidered
* Sheilagh's sky DreamScape is embroidered
* Alix's bees DreamScape is embroidered
* Maddie's natural with multi hearts fitted is appliqued
* Mel's gumball machine is almost finished embroidering

That doesn't sound like much, considering it has been about 8 hours of work (and a trip to the fabric store in my pajamas for spray adhesive). Broken down in parts, it is 6 diapers snapped, 1 finished, 23 appliques sewn on, and 24 embroidery designs stitched out. There ... that sounds better ;)

And on to some pics!

Rox's PRR AI2

Maddie's multi hearts on natural fitted

Alix's bees DreamScape

Terri's vroom! Vroom! DreamScape

Sheilagh's Day to Night Sky DreamScape

Sunday night update:
I am not sure how time seems to go by agonizing slowly and way too fast at the same time. That is how this weekend has seemed! i managed to get Teresa's sheets almost finished today (just need elastic on the fitted sheet) and all my dyeing done, got my orders organized, balanced the books for February, but I didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I had wanted to. I am exclusively working on Virginia's blanket now until that is finished, since I had wanted to get that out tomorrow. It will probably go out Tuesday now, since I still have a few hours left of work on it before I will let it go. Where does the time go???

Yuuuummmmm .... Chocolate ...

Now, I know last week's theme at K&F was "Favorite Things", but this week's may as well be again. Our theme this week is Chocolate, which is certainly one of my favorite things (as long as it is dark chocolate, not any of that milk or white chocolate, blech).

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I'm seeing SPOTS!

Spots, spots and more spots! One of my favorite customers had an idea for a couple of hand dyed brown fitteds with pink spots and blue spots. I played around with spot size for a while yesterday, I had wanted them smaller but they keep falling apart. I think they came out pretty darn cute! The white/multi one will be up for sale this Friday at K&F, and there will be a slot for custom dots as well - any color combination! And I hope Maddie likes her spots!

Every wonder how others see you?

Ever have one of those days where you wonder what you look like to other people? How other people see you? Sure you do. The real questions is - do you really want to know the answer to that question?

This is my 8 year old's reproduction of me. I found it earlier, thankfully when she was not in the room, and laughed for about 10 minutes. I could not breathe, tears running down my face. I think that is the funniest thing I have seen in years.

See? The resemblance is uncanny. Seriously.

Today's soundtrack: Staind, Tangled Up in You, from The Illusion of Progress

Roller Skating!

I have been roller skating pretty much since I could walk. I have very fond memories of going roller skating every Sunday morning with my mom, my aunt and cousins and some friends. I have a tendency to throw everything away, especially when I move, yet my roller skates from 1985 (yes, seriously!) have managed to stay with me through 6 moves and almost 25 years. So once I had kids, I knew they were going to have to love to roller skate. I've been taking Kenna on and off since she was 18 months old, and she has always enjoyed it. We took a long break, having skated last when I was 9 months pregnant with Holden, then not going back until Holden was about 3 1/2. Holden took to it like a fish to water - every time we go, people comment about him. He runs on his skates, does all these jumps and "fancy moves", and started to try to skate backwards yesterday. That's my boy!

Proud mama moment - both kiddos won free passes yesterday in the limbo contest :) Ok, yes, so did about 20 other kids, but still! They "scootered" under that limbo pole like pros!

Top picture - Kenna (in the blue shirt and jeans) and her bestest friend and "sister", Skylar, doing the Hokey Pokey

Bottom picture - Holden "scootering" under the limbo pole

Raindrops on roses and whiskers on kittens
Bright copper kettles and warm woolen mittens
Brown paper packages tied up with strings
These are a few of my favorite things

Now is your chance to find out what *our* favorite things are at K&F.

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What are my favorite things? In no particular order ...

* My children
* The ocean
* Animals - red foxes, chipmunks, hedgehogs
* Lighthouses
* Colors - purple and brown
* Dark chocolate
* Sewing
* BOV bedding
* Clear Hills Honey Company lip balms
* Pottery
* Music - current favorite songs are "One Step Closer" by Linkin Park (otherwise known as "The Shut Up Song" in my house), Safetysuit's "Find a Way", "Burn" by Alkaline Trio, Disturbed's "Stricken" and "Why Can't I?" by Liz Phair
* Belly dancing
* Roller skating (as a matter of fact, I need to shut down the computer so we an leave and go to the roller rink to meet our friends)
* My friends and family
* The author of turret island

The Legend of Turret Island

Legend has it that there is an island in the middle of the ocean, inhabited only by a girl hidden away in a turret. Outside, a sea serpent looms, it's seven heads prowling the salty waters.

But wait ... what's that on the other side of the island ... will the handsome prince be able to save the girl?

To be continued ...

"The Legend of Turret Island" is up for sale today at K&F as part of our "My Favorite Things" stocking. This is a one of a kind DreamScape diaper; this design will not be repeated.

Nostalgia

Since Holden's birthday last week, we have been discussing what he wanted as a present. He is the at the same time the easiest and hardest little kid to shop for. On one hand, he loves and appreciates everything so I can get him a bag of twist ties and a pair of underwear and he is a happy camper. On the other hand, coming up with an idea beyond twist ties and underwear can be a challenge, especially since his birthday comes only 6 weeks after Christmas. So today we trekked on over to Target to let him pick something out. Well, we trekked to Target because we needed toilet paper, rabbit litter, a toy for Holden and a bathing suit for me, and that's the only place we could get everything at once. And do not get me started on the bathing suits - this season's bathing suits are obviously brought to you by men. Almost every single suit in the store was a string bikini.

Stretchy lizard - $2.99
Bouncy ball - $7.99
Package of 4 fake medals to wear around his neck - $1.99
---------------------------------------------------------
Having a happy little guy - Priceless

He gave each of us a medal when he got home - Kenna's, he said, was for being a good "Time 4 Learner" and mine was for being a good diaper maker. He hasn't yet figured out what to do with the 4th medal since there are only 3 of us.

While at Target, Kenna found an Easy Bake Oven. As she stood there musing wistfully, "When it's *my* birthday, I hope this is still here ... " (her birthday is 6 months away), I stood there wistfully remembering the fun I had with my childhood Easy Bake Oven. So under the guise of it being a birthday present for Holden and Kenna to share, we brought home the Easy Bake Oven. They must have wised up since i was a kid to the fact that boys like to cook little cakes with light bulbs as well, because this Easy Bake Oven is not hot pink.

Oh the memories ...

Mixing up the tiny amount of batter to put in the teeny little pan

Let's see if this light bulb really cooks something ...

It worked! On to the frosting ...

Yummy!!

Thanks mom!

Contest Winner Time!!

A big thank you to everyone who provided feedback for the contest!

I used a random number generator to choose the winner, and the winner is Rox! I will be contacting you shortly with details. Congratulations Rox!!

Bugs at Dawn

A more girly version of our Going Buggy DreamScape. This was a custom for a very patient mama. She wanted a peachy-pink color in place of the blue sky color, and it took three tries for me to get the color I wanted, but I am pretty darn happy with it now :) I hope she likes it as much as I do!

Tree of Life - Today at K&F!

Today's K&F stocking theme is "Tree of Life", another winning theme from our Spring 2009 them contest. Here is a sampling of some of the great things going up today at non est on K&F

www.flickr.com mom2kbeth's TOL 2.13 photoset

Another contest!

Taking my cue from our recent K&F contest, I have decided to hold a similar contest for Holden's Landing. To enter the contest, please fill out the following and send it to me at bonnie@holdenslanding.com any time between now and Friday, February 13th at noon est. I will use a random generator to choose one winner from the entries and that person will win a $25 gift certificate to Holden's Landing (useable on customs, HL on HC, HL on K&F, HL on etsy).

Holden's Landing Contest Questionnaire

I am currently shopping for: (Please list all that apply - diapers, clothing, knits, bedding, etc.):


Current sizes I am shopping for (clothing and diaper sizes):


Our favorite themes:


Our favorite colors/color combinations:


Things I would like to see from Holden's Landing:


Any other feedback:

Top o' the morning to you! Don't miss out on K&F's Celtic stocking today at noon! Here is a sneak peek at some of our goodies ...

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Dinosaurs!

I've been thinking of doing a dinosaur themed DreamScape for ever, but I have never made the time. Thank goodness for customs ;) This is for Cassie. Originally it was going to also have dinosaur tracks on the front, but the scale was all off - the tracks were almost the same size as the volcano and looked a little ... off.

K&F Contest Winners!!

Congratulations to the winners of our K&F Spring Theme Contest - Erin M., Melanie D., Melanie C., Ashley J., and sjwhit!! We had a lot of fun reading through the ideas, and a hard time selecting the ones to fill the weeks we had open. I wish we could have chosen all of them!

Here are the themes we have chosen to use, so look for them during the months of February, March, April and May!

Wooly Madness

Underwater Dreams

Shamrocks

All Around the World

Earth, wind and fire

Tree of life

Child's play

What every woman wants

In the garden

Enchanted wood

Chocolate

Sweet dreams