Showing posts with label my puppy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label my puppy. Show all posts

Tuesday, December 16, 2014

Busy Days : :

A Stocking for Grace

This time of year is so busy for all of us preparing for the holidays. For my family December is a month overloaded with the extra celebration of two Cracknell kid birthdays, as an etsy shop owner who receives a much needed high volume of custom handmade orders, and I'm unfortunately adding many doctors appointments and tests to my schedule these days. With each December that passes I promise myself to do better. To not take on so much, to be more prepared and organized. This year, for once, somehow I actually feel like I'm succeeding in that. At the end of each long day spent cutting, ironing, sewing, cleaning, cooking, wrapping, mailing, parenting, etc.. my only feelings of falling short comes from this blog and missing out on my plans for it.Typically I'd simply save all my unfulfilled goals for the slow Winter days of January. But after these holidays I'll be undergoing a Thyroidectomy and possibly a Tonsillectomy, still thinking about that one. While there's so much stress and exhaustion that comes with the crummy health stuff, I'm hopeful that all with be okay and in the end I'll feel much better. I'm grateful to be able to wait until after the holidays and to have all that I mentioned above to focus on and plan for. For once I'm finding these extra busy times extremely helpful for keeping me from worrying about the scary, unknown stuff. Today I thought I'd share a few of my favorite photos from these December days of crown creating, birthday celebrating, and merry making!

On our way to Philly to celebrate our Kaiden's bday weekend!

A birthday sundae for my birthday boy, Kaiden!!

Penny loves snow days!!

The best seat in the house!

🎄😻✨

Today my Haila turns EIGHT!! Due to a nasty cold we're celebrating at home quietly & simply with a special dinner & a beautiful, fancy cake!

Make a wish!

Crown Making!

♡  Maureen

Wednesday, May 28, 2014

Options : :

Yesterday morning, just after I finished up blogging and the day's Esty orders, I grabbed my stack of NouvElle Friendship Diamond Quilt blocks from my wip table and laid them out onto the floor.

Friendship Diamond Quilt beginnings!

Is there another quilter in all of Blogland more in need of a quilt wall than me?!

Before the Storm!

It was getting dark, about to storm, so I snapped a few quick photos, then the phone rang, it was the school nurse telling me that Jacob had come down with the flu. The bad flu. The kind that required me to stay right by his side, watching an American Pickers marathon, interrupted only by trips to the bathroom, popsicles, and little naps. He's still in bed this morning as I write this, I'm hoping after some rest he'll be on the mend today! Having all those little chances to glance into my sewing room, at the floor, to look at this quilt wip ended up being a good thing, as I'm quite liking all the pink happening in the center now!

Loving the pink!

I had originally planned & shared that I would be doing some chopping at this point, adding in diamonds of the NouvElle blues to break up all the pink.

NouvElle Blues

But, now I'm not sure? After sleeping on it, I'm loving the ripple of pinks framed by the watery blues again this morning! Here's another, brighter photo that I recently shared on my Instagram.

Friendship Diamond Quilt beginnings Pat's NouvElle fabrics!

Penny's clearly bored with my indecision!

Penny! What do you think?

Monday, September 23, 2013

Penelope Quilt Love : :

This weekend I finished up two quilts, my Rock 'n Romance Diamond Strings & my Herringbone QAYG! Today, I'm taking them both with me on a little road trip, along with some hope that the sun might shine for pretty picture taking. Wish me luck!!

Throughout the making of my Herringbone quilt I was careful to take lots of pictures for my tutorial, and Penelope was right there with me. Looking through my pictures this morning, they were too cute not to share just a few of them!

Penelope & Quilt

Penelope & Quilt

Penelope & Quilt

She's a little shaggy & ready for a new haircut, but isn't she sweet?! She seems to love this quilt and Lily definitely loves the cozy, Folksy flannel I used for it's backing. Hopefully they'll learn to share!

Well, in addition to my etsy makings and all the quilty goodness I've been sharing here recently, I've also been working on more publication work. This was another goal of mine for this Fall and it's all very exciting for me! So when my friends at Future asked if I wanted to share a special subscription offer to their new magazine Love, Patchwork & Quilting with all of you, I jumped!!

love and patchwork magazine

I have a special UK subscription offer of 3 issues for £5 to share, along with special US launch rates for my domestic friends right HERE! All subscription orders placed by the 27th of September will start with issue 1 of the magazine, where you'll get to see one of my favorite projects in print!

Be sure to stop back tomorrow to see a new finished quilt!!  

Happy Monday, friends!  ♥  Maureen

Wednesday, August 21, 2013

InstaSewing Snapshots : :

This makes me happy! Time to sew!! #butterfly #quilt #pureelements #rainbow

My sweet Penny girl! #penelopedaily #morkielove

I'm not finished, it's not perfect, but it sure is pretty! #butterfly #colorblock #quilt #annamariahorner #pureelements & #valoriewells

My ginormous Indie quilt is back home & is beautifully quilted by Sew Shabby Quilting! And, a new stack of pretties just arrived from Beth @stashfabrics Amazing mail day!!!

sometimes it seems impossible to believe that some ideas and all their separate parts just happen to come together by chance, so perfectly. #sketchstitch #feathers

There's so much handmade goodness happening here, and I love it!! #handmade #love #kaidenlove

Throughout this week I've been sharing little peeks on my Instagram of what I've been working on -- new fabric stashing from Stash Modern Fabric for my next Applique Art Quilt, the Butterfly Quilt I'm making for my niece Molly, and my newest quilt finish -- my Indie Symmetry Quilt! I had made this quilt top almost exactly a year ago today and sent it right off to my super talented friend Pat Bravo to use in her photos and video for her Indie Collection. That was such a dream come true collaboration for me! Indie is one of, if not my most favorite fabric collection. I sent it off to Melissa at Sew Shabby Quilting just a couple of weeks ago to work her magic, and now my Indie quilt is home, bound, and is on our bed!!

Attempting to take pics of my Indie quilt today!! I'm so in love with it! #patbravo #indie #quilt @patbravodesign @artgalleryfabrics @sewshabbyquilting

I plan to share a full Indie Quilt post with all the details, just as soon as I can, I promise! For the rest of the week and weekend it's going to be a little quiet here, besides my Fabric Friday Giveaway (it's a BIG one!), while I soak up these last several days of Summer vacation with my family! I can't believe school starts back up here on Tuesday!

Wishing you all a lovely stretch of days!! ♥  Maureen

Thursday, May 30, 2013

Quilting As I Go : :

Yesterday I had planned to share some lucky finds I thrifted over this past weekend, but right away I got so into working on my ABC quilt, I couldn't pull myself away! My crazy goal is to have it finished Friday night, to be gifted on Saturday, and I actually think I'm going to make it!!

QAYG ABC Blocks

All thirty blocks are pieced, quilted, and trimmed to 10.5" squares!

ready for applique

I'm really glad I spent most of yesterday sewing, only stopping to take care of Penelope and to take & share some photos of our last full school-day as a threesome...

pretty lily

penny cuteness

Here the kids are this morning, humoring me just before they headed out the door for their last day, a half day, of school!

last day of school!

This school year certainly flew by, faster than any year in my life! So much has happened and so many things have changed. It was nice to take a moment this morning to look back at that first day photo, and compare. Wow!!

2012 - 2013 school year

And now, I have just a few short hours to get going on this quilt before our Summer vacation officially starts! I'm using HeatnBond Feather Lite for the first time and so far I'm loving it! I can definitelty feel a difference once the pieces are pressed to my quilt blocks, you can't even tell!

feather lite for applique

There's so much to be excited about today, wish me luck!!    ♥,  Maureen 

And, thanks for all the sweet comments on my latest "stitched sketch" project! I can't wait to share more!!

Monday, May 20, 2013

Spring Things : :

new ottoman fabrics

lily mantel

spring.mantle

ottoman fabric

ottoman fabric
 
cookies

stacked crowns

penny in the pillows

This morning I had Birthday Crown orders to finish up and an appointment, and to tell the truth I am completely out of my regular old routine. I need to figure out a new one now that the puppy is here and I'm getting up several times during the night. After just one week, I went from someone who stays up to on average 1am, to someone who can't keep their eyes open after 10pm! After sharing my wip evaluation post and reading all your comments and encouragement, I've deciding to let the pressure I was feeling go, to enjoy everything including this new pace, which just so happens to be a slow pace right now. Besides, there really is no point in rushing quickly into a new routine anyways. The kids finish up school in a little over a week, and then we'll all find a new groove together!

I can't believe how quickly May is going by! How about you? I love Spring and really wish it was a longer season here. I'm trying to freshen up the living room a little before Summer. I brought in some Forsythia for the mantel, I love the bright yellow! But when the temperature dropped and I was completely exhausted early last week, my living room sewing plans were delayed when I decided to make myself some gluten free cookies, recipe here, for breakfast. I'm sharing because they really were the best GF cookies I've made and everyone loved them! Now I'm planning to make an ottoman slipcover for Lily's new favorite corner of the living room. Penelope doesn't love the hardwood, she just slips all over the place, so Lily has taken retreat there. I picked out this gorgeous Portfolio Capparis print in Sunshine. I love it so much!! Once I finish my little home decor diy project, I plan to host a special giveaway sponsored by OFS right here!

Penelope is doing great! We had just a couple accidents last week, which were contained to her kennel, which kind of threw us, especially since she made them shortly after coming in from outside?  I keep referring to the comments you all left for us in my post introducing Penny for guidance! You guys really are the best!!

This week I'm having a sale in my etsy for 20% off any crown or felt purchase. Just use coupon code Spring20 at checkout.

Thank you so much for stopping by today! And a BIG thanks in advance to those of you who stop by my shop this week!  ♥,  Maureen

Thursday, May 16, 2013

Settling In : :

It's a little hard to type and sew with a sweet face puppy on my lap, but I did manage to get fifteen of the thirty blocks I'll need for my new quilt finished!

making quilt blocks

distracted

sweet face penelope

Ah, to have such problems....! 

I should warn you all now, if week two with Penelope is anything like week one has been, my space here could quickly turn into a puppy blog!

I wish you all a beautiful weekend! Don't forget to stop back tomorrow for a new Fabric Friday Giveaway!!   ♥,  Maureen

Monday, May 13, 2013

Surprised : :

Meet Penelope!

Penelope

Penelope Rose Cracknell 
March 13th, 2013 

Penelope and me -- photo by kaiden

On Saturday my family surprised me with a new puppy, I am still in complete shock! Since we bought our house back in November, the kids have been asking for a puppy almost weekly. In the beginning I was completely against it, but slowly I have been coming around a little more. For about a month now we have been looking at cute puppy pics online, just for fun, and in these last few weeks anytime Holly would share a photo of her Morkie on Instagram I would gush to everyone! Still, I never thought for a second my husband and kids would surprise me with a Morkie for Mother's Day!

the kiddos and penny

This -- already!

penny in the snow

snowy penny

So far it's been going great! Minus that it's snowing here this morning in our part of Pennsylvania, another surprise!

My husband and I are a little tired today, we're crate training newbies. So if you have any tips, we'd appreciate it!

Lily is coming around. She has stayed in the same room as Penelope at all times, always keeping her distance, but I'm taking that as a good sign. 

We are all so thrilled! I couldn't wait to introduce Penelope, Penny for short, to all of you today!!

Happy Monday, everyone!  ♥,  Maureen