freedom

Bloggy and technology freedom that is.

I've enjoyed being away.  I missed all the market posts and the ones I did see I wasn't wowed by.  Maybe some Etchings will work it's way to my stash, maybe not.  I can't say there's too much I saw that I had to have. My wallet is thankful :)

I got my phone all figured out.  Apparently you have to dig to find the 'sync picasa' part then uncheck it and yay! no more picasa pics.

I didn't feel guilty for clearing 160 unread items out of my reader without looking at them.

I actually have made some progress on a couple quilts I want to get done sooner rather than later.

I unsubscribed from some blogs that weren't worth my time (read overly popular crafty recap style blogs).

I had my computer away for a week, didn't open it for anything, the last time I opened it was for my previous post.  

I kinda like it.

I'll go be creative on my own, I've got plenty of fabric to keep me company :)

And my kids, my kitty, my family, and my boyfriend.  

technology!

Really sometimes just sucks!  Everything these days is linked.  Use your facebook to sign in here, link your yahoo to your google.  Does is ever end?!  Now my biggest beef is that I got a new cell phone, ALL of my blog photos are now in my phone AND I DON'T WANT THAT!!!!  I can't figure out how the heck to get them off there because of course, it won't let me delete them.  My old phone and my new are both android, my old phone didn't do this.  I'm beyond frustrated right now.  I want my blog photos deleted off my phone.  I want to delete my yahoo account but can't because it'll delete my flickr account so I'll lose ALL my contacts, photos, favorites, groups, etc.  Yahoo is the devil, now I'm stuck with it because starting over would just suck. WHY WHY WHY must everything be linked these days?!

ISO of mini charm packs

First off, holy cow!  Has it really been almost two months?!  Sheesh.  Well, obviously not much sewing or quilting going on.  I did make some leg warmers once I got my serger back.  Needed a tune up and now works flawlessly!  Still a major PITA getting tension right and such but I think I got it figured out.  

Here is where I need your help.  I'm looking for mini charm packs, the 2.5" squares, of LITTLE APPLES and RUBY.  I'd just like one of each and am willing to pay $5 each plus reasonable shipping.  If you can help me I'd be SOOOOOO appreciative!  I'm wanting them for my hexagon quilt.  You can find my email in the 'contact' box above or if you're reading this in a reader my email is audreyj84 (at) gmail .

In some personal news, I have a new nephew!!!  Oliver Matthew was born 9/11/11 at 11:11am, weighed 6lbs 11ozs, and was 20 inches long.  I think someones lucky number is gonna be 11!  I finally got to meet him this past weekend and he's just as sweet as can be.  And he's got the tiniest little hands, reminds me of my daughter when she was a baby.  Here he is with my son and my daughter.  They finally have cousins!

My boyfriend and I are doing very well.  We met each other just over a year ago, never thought I'd find someone so awesome so quickly after leaving my knucklehead ex husband.  I can't say enough about how awesome he is.  Such a huge difference in how a relationship works when both people involved work at it.

And I will definitely be back with some Halloween pictures!  My daughter is going to be a bumblebee(or bunglebee if you ask my son) and my son is going to be a horse.  

accountability...aka WIPs

I'm sure I'm not the only one with a bucket load of WIPs, or UFOs, or dust catchers, or space eaters.  So, in my quest to be a little bit more frugal with my craft budget I've decided to face the projects that are WIPs.

So here goes!

This one I've grown to hate.  I love the Plume by Tula Pink but have grown to hate the pattern, the squaring up of the edges is just tedious.  I pull it out to work on it and get so bored/disgusted with it that it just goes back into it's box. 

This one I still love but assembled the first block wrong and just put it away.  I'd love to get working on it again.  It was supposed to be last years Christmas quilt but didn't quite make it.  Maybe this year? 

Oh, the Dresden!!  I used my 3 stashed Bliss charm packs for this one.  I love it!  I really need to get a Kona color card because choosing the solid backing is what has thwarted progress on this one, plus pressing all the itty bitty petals!  I bought some Kona Celadon to audition, not sure if I want to do green or aqua or red or pink or white or...well, yea you get it, I'm indecisive!

Farmer's Wife, I've abandoned.  I'm wanting to try Lori's  rotary cutting tutorials and maybe that'll kick start my desire to finish it.

Tumbler quilt.  I used Hideaway for it and my son has told me he loves it and wants it to be his.  I smell a Christmas present!

Then there is this one.  It's a double hourglass that I started really just to try out the pattern and I have to say I kinda like it even though I only have 2 blocks done.  I used a honey bun for this so they squares are on the smallish side.  This really has no priority just a fun one.

All the photos are projects in their present day state.  It's embarrassing!  Although, being that I have no a/c in the majority of my apartment and Chicago has been nearing the 9th circle of hell heat wise all summer sewing has been the last thing on my mind!

And please ignore my ironing board cover, I know it's just wretched!

I also tried my hands at paper piecing and these are the results. 

The top is obviously the circle of geese and the bottom are mini paper pieces from Artisania.  I'm going to do the gnome and mushroom again but have the gnome on the right side and make a pillow or something.

Oy vey!

No blog posts because not much has been going on!  I finished a quilt but it's been repossessed by my daughter so no pics just yet.  I had to replace a brake caliper on my car because it seized up and started smoking.  Yeah, wonderful.  Just thankful it's something the boyfriend and I could do so it cost me a whopping $60 for the part.  Not complaining here! 

School started and my sweet daughter is now in 3rd grade!!  Seems like just yesterday I was sending her to preschool :( 

I have plans to do the Saltwater Taffy pattern from Fig Tree in Curio by Basic Grey for Moda.  I had planned on doing it in Fandango but it just doesn't seems like the right fit.  Lots of HSTs and pinwheels to start so should be relatively easy. 

And I realized I don't have a Halloween quilt!  I have a bunch of Halloween FQs so I'm going to do a 2x2 layout of the Swoon blocks and make a throw.  Just waiting for the Kona Charcoal I ordered for the background. 

My boyfriend is going to Mexico for his sisters wedding in October so I need something to do.  Wish I could've gone with I just couldn't afford it :( It'll keep my occupied so that's a good thing!

I also have a little nephew on the way that can make his appearance any day now!  My sister is due 9/10/11 (how awesome would that birthday be?!) and wanted me to crochet some things for her so that's the number one project on my list.  Baby stuff whips up quickly so they're almost done :D

Going to finish the baby stuff up tonite so hopefully I can ship it by the end of the week.  That would be absolutely awesome!

Winner!!

Totally forgot to draw a winner!  So sorry!!!

Random.org has chosen #3 which belongs to Deborah in Atlanta!!

Deborah was my partner in the H2H charity challenge and I couldn't think of a sweeter person to win!  Congrats Deborah!

**GIVEAWAY** EXTENDED 1 WEEK!

The wonderful people over at My Memories have graciously offered to give away a copy of their My Memories Suite v2 of digital scrapbooking software!  I've loved scrapbooking for a while I just don't have the drive to do paper scrapping anymore so honestly it's been pushed by the wayside and with a couple hard drive failures, a nasty divorce, a couple moves my digi stuff just hasn't made it's way to my new awesome computer.  I love my adobe CS4 don't get me wrong but there are times when you just want to quickly make a page and it photoshop is over kill.

I've had the luxury of playing with the My Memories software and I must say, it's awesome! Since I like lists when it comes to new things I'll just do it that way :p

Pros:
-Tells you areas of your page that might be cut off when bound into books
-FULLY customizable pre loaded templates
-drag and drop photo additions
-Customizable embellishments
-LOTS of preloaded goodies
-Ridiculously easy to navigate
-Previews of all changes
-COLOR PICKER!!!!  I don't know about y'all but that's one of my very favorite tools in photoshop, it's not as sophisticated but it works very well for matching elements on your pages.
-You can design your own page from start to finish using all your own elements.
-'Album Check' feature checks your pages for errors, including spelling!
-You name your album from the start, no naming it at the end.
-Loads all the fonts you have in your computer to the software for use
-Has a share option, you can print, export to jpeg, print professionally, or share on a variety of multimedia devices. 

Cons:
-Some of the elements are cartoonish
-You must still use a photo editing program to edit your photos before hand, this only gives you a red eye fix, any other issues such as brightness, contrast, b&w, must all be done in a photo editing program
-Can't change the sizes of photos to a specific dimension, it's a transform style box where you drag the corners and sides.
-I'm not finding a way to change the sizes, the only options are square, portrait, and landscape, for the create your own page.
-I'm not a fan of the export to .jpeg feature.  Way too many steps and it saves a duplicate in it's own folder.  
-Not really a con but you have to make sure your photos are rotated before you add them to your layout.  You can rotate it on your work 'surface' but when you drop it into a a picture template it'll flip back to the original angle.

Overall this is great digital scrapbooking software and I'm happy I've been able to give it a try.  This would also be a great way to get kids into scrapbooking, so super simple for them to create albums of their very own!

My Memories has a bunch of awesome stuff too.  They have guestbooks, quick pages, dollar stuff, calendar elements, and not to mention FREEBIES! The page above was created using all pre loaded stuff and took me about 7 mins to do.  The only thing I did was drag and drop my photos. 

I realize this is mainly a quilting blog but this is a great way to showcase your completed projects.  Create a page with all the details add a few photos and print!  It can be as simple or as complex as you want.

Now for the awesome part!

You can enter to win a copy of My Memories Suite scrapbook software!  You may enter up to 3 times, you must leave a comment telling me you have done each step, one comment = one entry so don't leave one comment telling me you've done all 3 things because then you'll only have one shot at entering!

So, to enter:
1) go to the kits page at My Memories and tell me your favorite kit!
2) blog about this giveaway and be sure to leave me a link!
3) tell me one hobby you have that you have neglected!

It's that simple!  And, if you don't win, or don't want to wait around to win, or would just like the software they have a coupon code for all of you as well.  It will save you $10 off the cost of My Memories Suite AND you will get $10 in store credit!  Add the software to your cart and at checkout enter the coupon code STMMMS43707.

I will use the wonderful random.org to pick a winner on Wednesday night 8/17/2011, all comments *MUST* be received by NOON CST on 8/17/2011 to be eligible to win.

NOW OPEN UNTIL 8/24/2011 11:59pm CST