Happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there!  I would like to say a very special Mother's Day to my mom, who has been an amazing rock in my life for the past 37 almost 38 years, especially the last two years since I have become a mom.  She has shown me such love, compassion, strength, courage and a belief in myself I didn't know was there!  I know this time of year is hard on my mom, especially since she has lost her mom...my Grandma Angel!  Yesterday my parents, Emma and I spent a great day at the zoo and on our way home I decided even though mom said it was ok...I decided we were going to stop and take some flowers to Grandma Angel.  Thats just what we did...here's a picture of us throwing flowers out to my grandma...wish this could have been a 4 generation photo, but unfortunately Emma was not able to meet her Great-Grandmother's, so she will know them both in spirit.  My mom is going to hate that I put a picture of her here, but mom, I love you and please know that I did it to tell the story.  The last picture we have here is the 3 of us when Emma was about a month old introducing her to Grandma Angel.  Emma has been such a huge blessing in my life, she has given me such great joy and a love I never thought possible.  She makes me laugh, there were times she made me cry too...but she has been the greatest gift in my life.  She makes me want to be a better person, to teach her all the things my mom has taught me, most importantly to grow and be a strong, independent beautiful woman.  I want to teach her to never, never, never give up even when things might seem tough for her, keep going the reward will be amazing and she will be so proud of her accomplishment.  I will continue to teach her right from wrong, and how to treat others in her life the same way she would like to be treated.  These are things you can't learn in a book, these are things that are taught from the heart!  So Emma, thank you for teaching mommy some of these things as well...and mom, thank you for loving me...loving us!  You are an amazing woman and I am proud to have you as my mom!
Xoxo, Emma's mom

Yay!  Yippee!  Yahoo!  My mom and I worked our tails off on Saturday in the garage to organize my 5, yes I did say 5 cabinets of fabric…we started at 7 am, took a little break for lunch and to pick up some supplies for the t-shirt quilt and finished at 8:45 that evening, the last hour with my little Emma under foot.  I had to give her some of her own fabric, so that she would stay out the completed cabinets…she likes to help (which consists of pulling it out, unfolding, throwing on the floor then jamming it back into the cupboard and goes uh oh when it doesn’t fit).  But the goal was to get all my “quilt” store fabric together and color coded and keep purchased projects together instead of little bits here and there and we accomplished that goal!  I admit, there are still two cabinets full or “other” fabric that needs to be tended to, but taking Emma for a walk sounded much more fun and she appreciated it as well.  It looks great and now if I am looking for a piece of fabric at 3 am I know exactly where to go and don’t have to open 5 sets of doors to find it and come up empty handed.  It was almost like Christmas, finding pieces that I haven’t seen in forever…loved it!  Inspired lots of new projects in my head but I need to finish the ones that are already started…at least I know the fabric and the ideas are there when I am ready!  Here are a few before, during and tadaaaa….the finished product!  Thanks mom for all your help, I couldn’t have completed it that quickly without you.  I know you slept well that night!

Xoxo, Emma's mom

Ugh…I have been so negligent with my blog, I set a goal and I failed…miserably!!!  So I will try again with May just beginning.  I don’t feel like I have accomplished much, but I know I have been diligently working.  Where does the time go?  I have completed a few unfinished projects, started a few more and currently working on a T-shirt quilt ( actually 2 T-shirt quilts one for each son).  So far so good, it is looking great.  I tried a new pattern with this one and I just have to figure out to make the center blocks tilt the opposite direction…wish me luck!

Easter was great!  Emma was so much fun this year, took her to an egg hunt with my neighbors and what a treat!  What manners my girl has, she was going after the same egg as a little boy, she got there first and turned to him and shared!!!!  What a proud mommy moment!  Even though, the whole way to the egg hunt, Papa was coaching her in the back seat…”don’t stop and show your eggs to Mommy, Nana or Papa just go, go, go!” She had that down pat, but again…she stopped to share an egg with the little guy.  Fun- filled day at the park, some quality time with Auntie Lynda and early to bed to wait for the Easter Bunny!  Easter Sunday was spent with family and friends, a good time had by all. We decorated Easter cookies in the morning when we got up, I think there was more icing on Emma than on her cookie…wish I had a video of that(but mommy only has two hands) so it is forever preserved in my mind and in my heart….and the quick cell phone picture I managed to get.  The first egg hunt she found 78 eggs(I made sure to count so no egg was left behind) with a little help of course, who knew the bunny left so many.  After dinner, mommy got a text message from the Easter Bunny saying he dropped more eggs off in the backyard because he saw that Uncle Clyde had arrived…so off we went again!  Needless to say, Emma slept good that night!  The next morning she woke up asking for more, more!  Gotta love it!!!

This is the big weekend that I tackle a job I am really excited about and dreading at the same time, but I know that it desperately needs to be done and I will feel oodles better when its completed…the fabric cabinets in the garage.  I am finally going to organize and get all my quilt shop fabric in some sort of color order, rolled onto cardboard and looking nice and neat for once!  There is fabric hiding in there that I know will make it like Christmas morning and make me say…remember when????  This way, I can keep making bags, quilts, all my fun little things without having to purchase more fabric…because as we all know funds are a little scarce these days!  I can’t wait!!!  Will let you know on Monday how it goes.

Xoxo, Emma's mom