Green Grocery Bag Challenge

After hearing about the possible link of lead in reusable grocery bags made in China, my heart just sank.  After finally getting so many people on board to shop with cloth bags it seemed to be a slap in the face for all the efforts.  However....there is a better way!  I was privileged to learn about the Green Bag Lady from a friend's blog about a year ago.  And now, Sew Mama Sew has put a challenge on the table...the sewing table that is.  Green Grocery Bag Challenge is a way for each of us to really use our resources and abilities to help out one gift at a time this Christmas season and beyond.  Check out all the highlighted links and learn more about this great idea.

ps.  I was fortunate enough to win a Green Bag Lady bag (#8321) for myself and one to give away to a friend last year. 

13,445 Green Bag Lady Bags Given Away!

Green Bag Lady bags are being used in 2415 cities in every U.S. state

plus 349 cities in 206 territories/provinces/countries world wide

It really has made an impact on me and my family to reuse bags and take along our own whenever possible.

DQ Night was So FUN!

 This was after we had already eaten our fill of yummy Dairy Queen Blizzards!

 The place was packed with dear friends and others that had no idea why it was

so crazy for a Thursday night.

Good friends and yummy treats...what more can a girl ask for?

 It took a while to get these guys to stand still for a picture, but how cute are they?

 All pink and smiles and filled to the brim with ice cream.

 Brothers bonding over Blizzards, ahhhh.

 Do the WRIGHT thing.  Thanks DQ and Leanne!

On our way home, one more photo to remember this amazing night! 

Friends are Awesome!

Tonight we are headed to Dairy Queen for a special event set up by our wonderful neighbors.  Our local DQ is generously donated some of their profits to help with our medical bills for John.  I want to take pictures to share since I forgot to do that for the Chick Fil A fundraiser last month!  That was an incredible event too.  Some other neighbors spearheaded that crazy day and it was a blast!  Thank you Larkridge Chick Fil A!  You are an amazing resource for our community.

a winning prize for JoJo

Oh My Handmade Goodness is a wonderful blog that gives great advice about running a small business.  Lots of successful business owners offer tips and tools on how they have made it to where they are today.  I really enjoy reading this blog because my heart is still in the entrepreneur mind set.  I love reading how others have taken something they love doing and turned it into a business.
Their tag line is... 

Oh My! Handmade Goodness is a community for independent children’s retailers and the hip parents who support them.

So I entered a comment to win a birthday shirt for JoJo and what a wonderful surprise when I read email the other morning and saw my name in print on the blog.  


The winner of the Little Cupcakes Company birthday shirt is:
Comment # 46 from Stacy (inspiredtosew.at.yahoo.com)!
Congratulations and thank you to Little Cupcakes Co. for another great giveaway!


She is going to love it!  I picked the Polka Dot Princess Tee - in Lavendar and Pink

New Curtains?

Here's a wonderful blog I enjoy reading called i have to say.  Randi has a fabric store on Etsy called  Fresh Squeezed Fabrics.  She's having a sale and a giveaway for a $50 gift certificate to shop in her store.  Well I'm sharing the good news in hopes to be a winner!  I love these two fabrics by Laura Gunn and thought they'd make some beautiful new curtains in our kitchen.

Pictures Are So Precious!

Our Mac was having trouble and John took it in to have it looked at.  A couple hours later he called with good and bad news.  Good news...the computer was fixed (or so they thought). Bad news....we lost our hard drive!  Including 3 years of precious pictures of birthday parties, trips, every day silliness etc, etc, etc.  I cried and cried remembering all the beautiful memories.  Then I realized that I still had so many pictures from so many other special times.  It made me realized just an eensy, weensy bit of how it would feel to lose everything to a fire or other natural disaster.  Thinking of Katrina and Haiti and Chili survivors....wow, I'll take some pictures being lost anyday.  I pray I can remember that when I'm so caught up in my selfish little world.  In honor of the "lost" pics I'm posting some incredible ones we still have of wonderful memories to cherish.

Good times, good times!

For you Grammy!

Looking through old pictures on the Dell computer and found this treasure from last summer!

It feels just a tiny bit like spring is here and then summer is around the corner.

The whole neighborhood is coming out of the winter hideouts of our homes.  I love to see the kids riding bikes and playing at the park.  The bummer is with all the beautiful sunshine coming in I really see the dust on our shutters!  Spring cleaning time would be about right.

Valentine's Extravaganza!

Here are some fun pictures from Valentine's prep, off to school to share goodies with friends and Valentine's morning too.

 

  

  

  

  

Quinn and JT gave these fun treats out to their friends and teachers.  I got the idea  here   and here .

They love music and playing guitar hero too, so these seemed a great match for them.

  

  

  

  

JoJo LOVES cotton candy and I found the perfect idea here to make goodies to share with her friends and teacher.  She created her own stamped cards and wrote Love, JoJo on each one!  

She was very proud and excited to get to school.  

  

  

  

  

  

  

Peyton was so excited and prepared pink heart pancakes for the little kids and even 

had gifts for each of them.  Misty got into the spirit of the day too!

I've been wanting to cover our couch pillows for quite awhile and took advantage of the beautiful red print fabric I got from you mom at Christmas.  I made the cover double thick and added some cotton batting to camouflage the pokey feathers that are in the stuffing. 

  

I appliqued felt hearts on the back and added buttons to help secure the ties.  I wanted it to be zipper free and it has been fun to have something cute on the back when I find the pillow on the floor!

Getting ready for Valentine's Day was so fun and celebrating the actual day with the family was even better!  I had a couple other things I did to decorate and celebrate the kids. I post some pics when I snap them up before the decorations come down.

 

Remembering Hawaii 2 years ago for our anniversary.
 

Our anniversary this year, all about the Colorado snow.