Favorite time of Year

Yes, Halloween and the Fall are my fav! I love to dress up and I love the crispy weather. Makes for good snuggle time, hot cocoa or tea & indoor crafts, of course! 

Today @ work quite a few of us dressed up! I posted to FB , too! Here's one of the pics of us, I was a gangsta! LOL It's fun to dress up. Don't forget tomorrow is the Monster Mash Myster Quilt event on the blog. You can join me at 10am Central @ Stitchin' Heaven Howdy for hourly instructions, sales, giveaways, games and photo sharing in our Flickr Group! Its gonna be wicked fun! (tee hee)

Um, ok I have to admit that I am kinda getting nervous about mine & my sister's choice/quest to lead healthier lives. I mean this is really serious. This means changing the way I eat and then excercise. Thats a lifestyle change.  I went to Wal-Mart tonight and spent way too much money on replacing some old foods and buy for the new way we're gonna eat. Ya know, it's really gonna be a change for my whole family, not just me....I mean, right now I have no regard for what I eat and drink nor how much. I'm careless with my body and I have a ton of things going on that are really going to effect me long term if I don't make a change like NOW.  My sister is always getting on to me about "Niki you need to do this or you

need to do that" my reply is always "I know" and she follows with "Im serious, Neck! You need to listen to me". This time Char, I am!

As I mentioned last post Charity & I are gonna blog our progress, making our blogs like our journals of progress. I made a list of all the health issues I am concerned about along, with a "do" & "don't" list. I will take a before pic now, sorry I WILL NOT be posting it until I get to where I want to be....Then I will do the before and after. I'll also share what I did and ate each day. Day, because I need to start a routine and if I commit to this daily, then I'm probably gonna be more likely to stay with what I'm doing. I'm a person that gets comfortable doing things a certain way but when Im ready for change, I can just change...I'm ready!

So, we officially begin November 1st. Yes, Sunday! I'll be blogging from here on out and so will Charity. You can follow her too on her blog. We just made it today, so she doesn't have any posts yet and I'm her only follower :o).

A Day Well Spent?

I had the day off today. While I was home alone and had made so many plans of what I wanted to accomplish...I did none of it. I really needed to go to the DMV, changed my mind....Was going to shampoo the carpets and rearrange the living room...I just didn't...Wanted to sew a couple of things...Nope....
Hey, but I did go to the post office and to my suprise I had a package!! It was from SarahBeth, my awesome book swap buddy!  She sent me some Montana Hucklerberry Tea and some Chai Green Tea along with the book The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society and a cute little note! I got about 20 pages into the book, but had to set it down because this book needs my full attention...I just got too excited and wanted to read it like NOW. LOL  Got her a great book, I hope she loves and some "must haves" for reading! (Can't tell you what it is..She might be reading this ~wink~).

Ok, in all seriousness, I've been wanting to lose weight and just make healthier choices...Yeah, doesn't everyone, though?! My sister and I have decided to start our new way of life Nov. 1st...Yes, like this Sunday!  This is probably the best time of any meaning it's going to take extra dedication and dicipline to get through the holidays! Just what we need! If we can make it through Thanksgiving and Christmas making good choices in eating and physical activities, then we can do anything. We're trying to convince our childhood friend, Jake, to join us, but he's being a weirdo (love ya)...We'll get him in on it...Anyway, we're going to blog our progress, using our blogs, Facebook & Myspace to log our progress, revelations and tribulations.  I'm serious, I've been saying I'm gonna do this every single day since I had the twins, but always tell myself "I'll just do it tomorrow", I dont know if I'm afraid or what....Anyone got any advice before we make the big plunge?  Let me quit going on...Maybe if I publish this post, the actual public announcement of wanting to make this change will motivate me to actually do it...I'm not saying my husband and kids aren't motivation enough, but I don't know, ya know?
I can do this...Oh, did I mention that Twinkies are my best friends? I can do this.
So, yeah, I did get some sewing done this week....See my cool tablerunner?
Talk to ya soon!
xoxo Niki

On A Sunday Afternoon

It was a pretty productive day today considering I woke up late and then took an early nap! :o)  But, I got these two bags done today. The one with green is for my little sister who's birthday day is this week and the other will probably go to my realtor. She just had a baby, so I think she'll like it!  I designed them myself. I can do so much better when I sew on my own rather than follow a pattern. I can pretty much look at a picture and then recreate it. I guess I'm cool like that! (wink)

So, I'm getting addicted swaps now. LOL I just recieved my book swap partner today and am joining in on the Secret Santa Swap. These are kinda fun!

Swap - Meet

OOh! So I got my swap bag from my swap partner. Isn't it great?! I'm already even using it! Thanks, Erika!  OOh and you know what one of the most amazing things about working in a quilt shop, but not just any quilt shop...Stitchin' Heaven?  Not only is Deb a celebrity in the industry, but she knows other celebrities in the industry. LOL Today, Jamie Kalvestran owner of Scrap-Bags came by to see us! She was so neat and I just love the techniques she uses in her patterns. She also, taught us today how to make fabric beads. How cool, right...I'm gonna work on making some of those and come back and show you guys.

I don't think I've mentioned this before, but I'm hosting Stitchin' Heaven's Monster Mash Mystery on our blog on Halloween. Gonna be a lot of fun, with the mystery, but hourly coupons, giveaways & scavenger hunts! Please join me there.
I'm off to go tend to my farm on Facebook, now! LOL Priorites! :)

Grab Bag

I got my swap bag finished and mailed yesterday....I just finished another of 6 Perse Anality Grab Bags for Stitchin' Heaven....These little bags are kinda like mini hobo/sling bags, so neat, I thought they'd be perfect for my little trick or treaters...

Oh yes, and I finally got an armoir...I have always and forever wanted an armoir. I love bog furniture, well, a neighbor of my BFF (Trish) had one she was getting rid of for $70!! How great is that, right??!! So, I had talked to her back in August, and what's today? October, 6th!? Yeah.... I still don't know where it's going to go, but for now it's residing in the way of things LOL.

I receive e-news and have a login for allpeoplequilt.com and they have the greatest free downloadable projects. You should check them out, from bags to quilts to clothing...Good stuff...Check it out and then let me know what you think. They also, have a quarterly challenge, I participated in the 1 challenge, but my partner left me so I was solo....This last one is a quilt, go check it out, I think there's still time to participate.

I find myself writing these entries late at night....And apologize, but I promise these posts will get better!

Toodles!

It's About Time

Well, I am finally complete! Well, my Bag for the swap is complete, at least. I made this for my swap partner, really hope she likes it... Was easy to do, although, I made about 3 bags before I decided this was going to be the final...I need to quit being so critical of myself, and slow down, too! That's why I have trouble quilting, I think...I want to hurry and see the end result!
This little bag (below) I used charms squares and out a chain for the handle it was also one of the runner's up in choosing for the swap. :)

Do any of you visit Craftster? That site is so addicting! If you're wondering how to make something or learn how to do something, this is the place, with tons of links, tutorials and photos! I learned how to put in a zipper from this site! Check it out!

I can't believe it's October, already...I just love the Fall & Halloween, don't you?? Hey do you have plans for Halloween Day? Stitchin' Heaven is hosting an in store and online mystery sew along! Check out their blog for all the details or check out the website. I will be there hosting the online event so make sure you stop by and say hi and share your Monster Mash pics. There's going to be games and giveaways along with the mystery quilt! Hope to see ya there!