a bag of chips

A Note to my Husband.

When you come home tonight you might notice the big bag of fabric and pillow forms from Jo-Ann's and the big heavy box from The Fat Quarter Shop on your way in. Before you have an aneurism in our front doorway, please let me explain. 

Now I know we've had to tighten our belts a bit lately and I'm doing all I can. I rarely go to Starbucks anymore (and when I can be found there it's because Nadia made me do it - she just loves those Madeline cookies), we're going to start cleaning the house ourselves rather than pay for the service (how much can we make the kids do?), and I'm using up all the ancient things in our freezer (thanks for your willingness to choke down everything I make - have you lost weight?) in order to save on our grocery bills. 

And you've been such a patient and silent supporter of my arts and crafts nuttiness and I hope that you've seen the benefits of the garage full of camera equipment, computers, stamps, paper and scrapbooking paraphernalia, and the skeins of yarn and assorted knitting weapons needles stuffed into the bookshelf in our room. (Are you rolling your eyes at me?) I have made some pretty nice stuff over the years, right?  Even got myself published a few times with some of the things I've made.

Well, my foray into quilting has been no different. You have so far been mostly relatively supportive of the disappearing dining room table and you always manage to make all the appropriate appreciative noises when I show you something I've made, just like you've done with my scrapbook pages, scarves, cards, art canvases, and photographs. And those times when you stepped on a basting pin and didn't bleed all over my latest creation or managed to hear your show over the sewing machine screaming in the next room without giving me any dirty looks, well, you must know how much I appreciate that. 

Have I said how great you look lately? Are you working out?

So, anyway, back to that big box and that big bag in the foyer. Yes, I went fabric shopping. Twice. Without asking. Look what I bought:

Doesn't it just make you smile and lift up your spirits at the possibilities?  

No?

Well, I guess I can understand that. These fabrics are not made of rum or by Rastafarians, at least not that I'm aware of. But this stuff makes me happy. I imagine the gift quilts and pillows I can make and how happy our friends and family will be to receive them. Remember what Annie said when I gave her her going-off-to-college-across-the-country quilt? That it was the prettiest thing she owns? Yeah, that's what I'm talking about. And how about how much the kids like their quilts? Did I tell you that they're all requesting matching pillows now? Like the one I made to match baby Liam's quilt that I showed you just last night:

Anway, the good thing is that delicious rainbow stack of quarters was bought at Jo-ann for half the price I've been paying for quarters at our local fabric store. See? I'm just trying to save us money by buying all this. And a few of the things in that box from the Fat Quarter Shop were on sale. See honey? I'm helping!  I even sewed together batting remnants to complete this pillow and I'll do the same for the next few projects. More helping with the saving of the money thing!

But I promise. No more fabric purchases for a while. Should I define how long "a while" should be? Have I said how great those jeans look on you?

So now that your heart rate is back down into the safe range and the veins are no longer threatening to pop straight on out of your neck, get ready for dinner. Freezer surprise again tonight!

She's alive!

Holy crap. This entire summer has been booked solid and flying on by at breakneck speed. Remember those days when summer days took their sweet time? Yeah, me either.

Here's what I've been up to this past month:

Studio Calico SNEAKS!

The kit and add-ons for September - Cotillion, Foxtrot, Waltz and Tango - are definitely not short on color. Wow! Here's a peekie at what I made:

Write. Click Scrapbook.

Our first few months have been very successful and Marnie, Elizabeth, myself and the entire team are so happy with how things are going. So far this month we've had Sara Winnick, Rebecca Cooper and Beth Proudfoot hosting the blog, and this week features the darling Kim Morgan. We've also had giveaways every Thursday from the likes of www.scraplovers.com, Cosmo Cricket, SEI, and Studio Calico. What will we be giving away this week? You'll have to check it out yourself on Thursday to find out.

CHA - Orlando

I had a blast in Orlando! My husband, my amazing husband, had the kids all week while I was away and they all survived. Yeah!  It's taken me a bit of time to unpack the things I brought home with me and to settle back into life with my brain on scrapbooking overload. I roomed with Emily Pitts and Paula Gilarde, hung out with the Studio Calico crew, ate some awesome food (the BEST Greek food evah!), got to see some old friends and make new ones. 

I was shocked and disappointed at how small and poorly attended the show was compared even to this past CHA-W in Anaheim earlier this year. In some ways it was good to not have such a crazy huge and packed show to get through and I was able to actually get face time with quite a few manufacturers. But it really made me wonder about the state of things. Was it the location of the show this year that resulted in poor attendance? Is it the economy? Is it a result of all the changes in the scrapbooking industry with the closure of magazines and scrapbooking stores? I don't know really, perhaps it's a combination of all of the above. I didn't notice any less enthusiasm for our craft by my peers or by manufacturers at the show which was encouraging. But the small, quiet show was a big topic of conversation and speculation. Hmmm...

My favorites from the show?

Jillibean Soup

My Mind's Eye - Abbey Road

Basic Grey - Especially Nook & Pantry

Cosmo Cricket - love their new mini decks!

Sassafrass - I always love the colorful cuteness!

And there were many others. I won't bore you with the photos I took since at this point, one month later, it's all up there in those links for you to see, without the horrible showfloor lighting.

Tina Cockburn Photography

It was with a very heavy heart that I decided to take an indefinite, and likely permanent, leave of absence from my photography business. My main reasons for doing this, and it had been coming for a while, was to have more time with my family and to take better care of myself. My babes are almost 3, 5.5 and 6.75 and it's just going by too quickly. It's like one day I woke up and I'd aged ten years, gained a ton of weight and had grown our family three times, and felt like I'd missed so much of it. And while I'm very proud of my portfolio and achievements, it was time.

I will always be a photographer. I will always be passionate about taking great photos and I'm always happy to answer photography question and post the random tutorial. I still have a camera and I look forward to pointing it at my family more often.

Quilting

Yes, I've been quilting. A lot. Wanna see what I've been up to?

I made this one for my newest nephew, Liam, the sixth son of my half-brother Mark and his wife, Jenn, one of the most fertile couples I know. (And yes, you read that correctly. Six boys. They tried five times for a girl.)  For this one I took a frugal approach and bought all the fabric at Walmart - one of their strip rolls and several $1.00 coordinating fat quarters. I sewed the strips together and then cut them down to create this simple pattern. I then did some very basic machine quilting. I used a pale blue flannel I bought on sale at my local fabric store for the backing, and used some of the strips for the binding. It washed beautifully and I love how it turned out. It's going out in the mail to Ohio this week.

I'm also attempting a string quilt, using this tutorial. Because I haven't been quilting a long time I don't have a huge stash of scraps for this project so, taking once again a more frugal approach, I raided the remnant fat quarter bin at my local fabric store to supplement my stash. I've made 17 or so squares so far, just a few more to go. I started out thinking this one would be for one of my cousins, but I'm thinking about keeping it once it's finished. I like the granny look of it:

This next one is the second quilt I've made from one Moda jelly roll, and I've still got enough left over to make some matching pillows.  This is a coin quilt which I've made several of so far. They're easy and I love how they look. 

And this next one is for my friend's little boy whose bedroom has a nautical theme.  It still needs some more sashing on the sides, but it's done enough to share. Another Moda jelly roll put to good use. Though this one used more of the roll than the coin quilt, I've still got plenty of strips left for my binding and for a pillow or two. Or three.

And did you know that there are a few other scrappers who also quilt?  Head over here for some more inspiration:

Kim Kesti

Torm

Alison Kimball

Lisa Tutman Oglesby

Jenn Olson 

Family Time

We've also had lots of time with family. A trip to my grandparent's house for a birthday celebration, a visit with my brother and his kids, and my aunt and her family came down for a few days while their high school senior daughter toured San Diego State University. 

My youngest cousing Jojo (I'm the oldest, he's the youngest of the Champlin grands, and there is 30 years between us). We went to the park while the older ones went on the campus tour. They had a good time playing soccer and riding scooters.

Aquaboy Aidan enjoying the pool at my grandparent's house. He's quite fearless in the pool (which keep us all on our toes).

These crazy boys always have such a great time together. There is no end to the goofiness with these two. And that's just exactly how it should be.

And here is my brother with his kids. You have no idea how great it is to see them all together. It makes my heart sing with joy. He loves them so incredibly much and it's so easy to see that they're pretty wild about him. 

School

And school starts in two weeks and I'm mostly ready. Supplies and clothes have been bought. Aidan's starting first grade and Makena's going into kindy. And that's where the "mostly" enters into things. I might talk up a good show about how I'm ready for summer to be over and get the kids on out to school and out from under foot, but I'm sad about what it all means. That they're growing up, getting older, and inching ever closer to not even wanting to hold my hand anymore. *sniffle*

So seeing that I still have a few more weeks of summer left with three kids orbiting around me, it may just be that long before I'll be back here to post again. Until then, enjoy the rest of your summer. 

Cheers!