Holiday Greetings

I love greeting cards. The clever and creative ones impress me the most. I especially love pop up cards. This deer one was my business greeting card last year. I designed and made a few of them. 

Many of you know that I designed 3-D cards way before Hallmark ever made them popular. That was another lifetime but I still enjoy them. I thought that I'd share some that I got this year.

My boys love cards too and I try to get them one each year. 

Don't tell my hubby but he first captured my heart with a simple and modest greeting card that had a very cute saying on it. After all these years he still knows how to capture my heart. I am not hard to please. Just a beautiful card will do.

xo, L

Where Did July Go?

I was out buying school supplies the other day. School supplies! Can you believe it? How's your summer? Mine's a blur! I can't believe that it's August already. I am working on my book and it is killing me. Don't get me wrong, I love it. It's just that I've had a lot of trouble focusing. I am still coughing albeit less so now. The allergy season this year is killing me. I did manage to go into NYC to visit Henry Glass and I stopped by Kinokuniya. I love their books.

From stitcheries to felted wool, I love it all. The layouts are what make the books, don't you think?

I had to pop by Pennington Quilt Works too. These pincushions/sachets caught my eye.

And so did these pillows!

xo, L

What To Do? (Long post)

What does one do when she's sick for three weeks? (and that three weeks started on the very last day of school until today?) What does one do when all four of the summer classes that she's signed her kids up for are cancelled at the last minute? What does one do when she is also juggling some work and deadlines at the same time? Well, she says, let's get creative!

First though, I had to deal with a nasty cold. I have been sick and coughing up a storm for the past three weeks now. I think that I am finally over the big, bad part of this awful cold and I only have a tickle now. Summer colds are the worst. I do recommend Buckley's Cough Syrup but I think it's only available in Canada! It tastes vile but it helps a lot! We had a few visitors and we had some play time with friends.

During this time, my kids' summer plans went out the window. Has this ever happened to you? My kids signed up for engineering, chemistry, DNA and algebra and they couldn't find enough kids for this new program. So I had to get creative. Luckily there were still spots open in the tae kwon do survival camp.

It was fun for a week and then we had to invent some other fun activities. We created our own stuffies by drawing monsters and aliens onto fabric, sewing and then stuffing them with fiberfill.

We made quilts with fabric in Mom's studio.

We visited our family in Canada and did some research on rocks and minerals. Here's my nephew, Dr. J!

 We wrote research papers on the characteristics of the rocks and minerals.

All the while this gave mommy time so that she could work on some magazine and book deadlines. Do you want to see some awesome holiday fabric? I hope that it gets you inspired enough to start some holiday projects. That way you won't be crunched for time later!  First, there's Henry Glass in the stack. Ooooh!

Robert Kaufman's in there too! Awww!

Michael Miller Fabrics does a wonderful job with holiday too! Double ooooh!

Adornit has some holiday cuties too!

I'd say that we made a great recovery! Our summer is well on its way. How about yours!

xo, L

What Are You Doing This Summer?

I've been absent from here for a while and have missed you so. I have been battling a bad cold since the last day of school. Yuck! I still have a bad cough but I am slowly getting over it. Does it seem that colds are worse or last longer when you get them in the summer?

While I was sick, all of the kids summer courses were cancelled!  I had to scramble to get something together so they've been at a tae kwon do survival camp. Are you feeling my stress now? I worked well under these conditions just in case you were wondering about my health and well being.

How do I know this? Well, I added a book deadline to the whole thing. See? It is like Christmas around here because it is a holiday book!

Let me get my thoughts together now. Need to focus. What are you doing this summer? Are you taking any sewing/crafting projects along with you?

xo,

L

The One

Happy Father's Day! Celebrate with your dad today. It is a day to remember the one who inspires you.

The one who holds you, feeds you, burps you and cuddles you.

The one who guides you and sets you off on your journey.

The one who holds you when you need care while you're sick.

The one who plays with you and has fun with you.

Happy Father's Day! 

xo, L

p.s. remember, today is the last day for the Strip-Smart Quilts Blog Tour. Check out details at Kathy's site. 

School's Almost Out!

Thanks for the awesome comments yesterday! I wish that I could give a book and ruler to each and every one of you but Kathy is going to select the winner. Check back soon for that. Today it's Elizabeth's day. Go and check out what she's written for you. Remember to visit all of the other blogs. You can find the links here.

Meanwhile, we're wrapping up the school year. Everything is happening at a frenetic pace but it has been a great year. 

We finished with Chinese school with the teacher appreciation banquet. I think that my husband was having too much merlot. Lovely hat don't you think?

We'll miss school, the egg drop contest off of the school roof [we did it this year!] and the Invention Convention project.

We look forward to more days like the one that we had the other day. We had some outside fun with the boys.

Come back and visit soon! Momma's writing a book this summer so there will be lots of sewing!

xo, L

It's June Already?

Oh, I can't believe that it's June and that school's almost out. It seems that the time between Quilt Market and now vanished into thin air. Lots of things happening. We've been busy with end of the year stuff. Little A is a camper and we made this tent for his play [not quite finished in the photo]. Hubby made a flag pole too. Look who's apparently invented a cure for allergies or so that's what he told his teacher. [There was nothing wrong with him, btw.]

I have started writing a new book and will be working on re-vamping my website. Ooooh, I can't wait to share!

Meanwhile, do run over and check out Aurifil's Designer of the Month. She's Annie Smith and there's another great interview by Ms. Sloan!

Remember to make a project and enter to win some fabulous thread on the Flickr site set up for this event!!

Starting Friday there will be a book blog tour for Kathy Brown's new book for Martingale! Join us, won't you?

xo, L

Traveling and Such

Dear Readers,

We've been traveling. My brother and I are such great travelers so my parents take us on big road trips. We went away and had fun but today it was back to school. Remember, we had all of those snow days to make up.

Speaking of remembering, do you remember this fella? 

Well, Flat Stanley has been around the world. He's been to New Zealand, Malta, Canada and the United States. In North America, we got photos from Toronto, Ontario, Pennsylvania, Utah, Florida, New York and many other places. My mom will post photos on one of her accounts for all to see. Thank you everyone!! My  classmates and I are grateful!

I was so excited with your help with this project. I begged my mother to do something special so I have an announcement. I would like you to come back later this week and download this free pattern as a token of my gratitude for your generosity in hosting Flat Stanley. This pillow was demonstrated on Quilt Out Loud with Jodie Davis. The episodes are live right now! Here's a pic of Mark Lipinski and his crew setting up before the shoot when they were here back in December.

Here's mom with Jodie Davis. We're prepping the segment on the pillow.

Click over and join QNNtv so that you can watch this fun show and come back later this week to grab the pattern.

Thank you. 

xo, Alex 

Mommy's Friends Are Awesome!

Dear Friends,

This is Alex. Thank you so much for helping me and my class. We are so happy! We received notes from about 50 of you and we are excited. Mommy and I thought about what we were going to do and we talked it over with my teacher, Mrs. Adams this morning. Here's our plan.

We have sent out my Flat Stanley to four people who will mail it forward and then back to the school.  They had provided addresses so that made it easier for Mom to send them out today. [She will be sending you an e-mail to let you know.]

For all of the other nice people [ALL AROUND THE WORLD - not just the US], I would love to hear from you! There are two ways that you can help. Either way is great!

1. Print out Flat Stanley's photo, cut out and take it along with you. Take photos of the two of you having fun and send the photograph to my mom. You can post a photograph on Mommy's Facebook page too. The directions are here. [Please note: There was a typo on the first .pdf but this one is correct as of April 4, 2011. The e-mail address has been corrected.]

2. For those of you who don't want to take a photograph but still want to write, Mommy made up a postcard. You can print it out and write me a note and mail it to me. I will share it with my class. Click on the picture above and print. Directions are on the .pdf file here.

Thank you!!!

xo, Alex

Flat Stanley Needs Your Help

Dear Quilters,

Flat Stanley came to visit my class and now he needs to visit America. Why does he need your help? Well, I need to send Flat Stanley all around America and we don't have family to send him to because they're all in Canada. Friends are all around the world and the only one with friends in America are my mom's wonderful quilt friends.

My class is trying to see how many states I can travel to by May 1st. If you have a child or a grandchild who might be interested, please let my mom know. If you don't have kids and want Flat Stanley to visit your quilt shop or studio that's ok too. You can e-mail my mom here. All you have to do is to promise to send the envelope to the next person on the list. You can take pics and e-mail them to me or put them on my mom's Facebook wall and mention where Flat Stanley visited. Let me know asap. I have to get my mom to put everything together this weekend. 

Thanks! Quilters are cool.

xo, Alex