Sarah Jane Studios

I can never again say that 'I NEVER win giveaways.' (I've actually won 3 different giveaways in about 3 years or so)  It can seem like you enter and enter and enter and you never win but the more you enter the higher your odds of winning.  I recently won a really fun giveaway over at Urban Farmgirl.  It was for a set of 8 (yes EIGHT!) of the most darling embroidery patterns ever from Sarah Jane Studios.  She has the most delightful stuff GO CHECK IT OUT!! 

It's been a long time since I did any embroidery.  I'm thinking this looks like a really fun project to have to work on in the evenings.  Maybe do the embroidery and then sew the piece to the outside of a bag?  Or make a quilt with several of them?  Oh the possibilities! 

These will be so fun for my girls to work on.  They have been doing some embroidery lately and are enjoying it.  Little Sister espeically is into it.  I show her once what she needs to do and she says 'OH! I see!' and off she goes.  Threads her own needle and knots her own knots.  Even sewed her work to her jammie pants the other night, fixed it herself and had a good laugh over it!

She launched her first fabric line in the spring of last year.  It is darling.  I want some of all of it!

I really like that 'family tree' print at the top left and also that hopscotch print.  L.O.V.E.

She also has some boy prints too.  So go look at all her great fabric HERE.

Her blog is delightful too.  Love her design.  Makes me smile.

Thanks a bunch Urban Farmgirl for hosting the giveaway and Thanks to Sarah Jane Studios for giving the patterns away!  Cannot wait to use them.

Do you do embroidery?  Have any ongoing projects?  Do your kids like it? 

Blessed. Joyful. Healthy. Thankful.

(I wrote this on the first day of the year.  Just didn't get around to typing it into a post till now)

I am sitting here in my warm, cozy living room with my coffee. it is the first day of the New Year, 2012. What used to be the distant future that we thought surely could never come. But here we are. Blessed. Joyful. Healthy. Thankful.

We have just spent a week and a few days with family whom we only see a few times a year. My brother, and my sister and her family. The almost 900 miles between here and where they live makes it that much sweeter when we are together. It's a long trip. 15+ hours with kids. They hadn't been here since last Christmas and we were only out there for 6 days this past July.

(all of the kids during their Christmas pageant and Grandma's.  Don't you love where the quilt landed when they uncovered the 'multitude of angels'?!)

  We were all very ready to see each other again.  my sister has a daughter a year younger than 'The Teenager' and a son 6months older than 'Middle Sister'.  Middle Sister and Little sister stayed all night at Grandma's house on Monday night after the cousins arrived and didn't come home till Saturday afternoon!!  So fun that they could spend all the time possible with them:)

'The Teenager' and Miss R. went back and forth between Grandma's and here.

Tons of fun was had by all!

 My 'little' brother is a highlight for all my girls.  They love Uncle J.!  We were sad when he moved 900 miles away to the same area my sister moved to when she got married.  But we are happy for him because he loves it there.  And we are thankful it IS the same place our other family is so we only have to travel one place to see them all!
We get pretty used to having him around again really quick and it was sad to see him go again.  But hopefully we will travel west this year and see them all again.  As you can most likely tell from the photo above this family is a Colts fan family!  That would be thanks to Uncle J.!!

Fun in the leaves

The Whole Shu-bang!

The plan was to create an online magazine for you to flip through.  However, getting it created was not as simple and easy as the website indicated.  And after spending 15+ hours figuring out how to add clipart with the programs available on my computer (photoshop is on my wish list) and getting all these pics edited I just didn't have it in me to pursue the online mag any more.

So I am giving you all our edited pics in the order I had intended them to go in the mag.

If you are like me you like to see them all at once, in one place, instead of always having to wait for the next one to be posted.  So without further ado I give you the results of our delightfully fun photo shoot!  (wasn't our model just darling?!!)

Her day is filled with laundering textiles; she hurriedly gathers her french laundry basket to collect the linens off the line, so she can enjoy a seemingly simple afternoon in the countryside. She is in a dither over going to the charming brick farmhouse event that is "on the way to nowhere and out of the way from everywhere!"

BRICK FARMHOUSE EVENT

It may be ‘on the way to nowhere and out of the way from everywhere’, but sometimes the out-of-the-way places are the best of all!

This ‘Brick Farmhouse Event’ is set on the lawn of an 1860’s farmhouse and you can be sure the yard and gardens will be a very fun place to be the weekend of September 23^rd and 24^th.  Wonderful, authentic Mexican food will be available along with delicious sweet treats, drinks, and baked goods.  There will be vintage, home-sewn, home canned, home baked, antiques, charming notions, tons of treasures, new and old.

The vendors are wonderful, friendly and fun and are working diligently to make this an event you won’t soon forget.  So come one, come all, and bring a friend.  Bring your friend’s friends!  The more the merrierJ

VENDOR LIST

*McMaster & Storm

*Consider the Lilies

*Josephine Candle Co.

*Sew a Fine Seam

*M. Blooms

 *Latina ~ Fresh Mexican Cuisine

*Market Snacks

*Specialty Sauces & Dips

*Pennywhistle Farm ~ Vintage & Antiques

*Fresh Baked Treats & Sweets

*Graced ~ Vintage Home Touches

Friday, September 23, 10am-8pm  Saturday, September 24, 10am-5pm

1724 Karr Road, Arcanum Ohio  45304

BEEP, BEEP!  More Shopping  a hop & a skip away!

We’ll have maps to the Little Shop, Baltimore Shop, Betty’s Antiques &

Countryside Antiques.

Antiques! Shopping! EVENT!

All the above photos were taken at 'Smith's Coffee House/Merchants'

in Arcanum, Ohio. 

Treasures ~ A Wheelbarrow Load!

There will be so many goodies at this event you will need to shop both days!!

Friday, September 23, 10am to 8pm

Saturday, September 24, 10am to 5pm

BRICK FARMHOUSE EVENT

Vacation in the Heart of Kansas!

When you tell someone you are going on vacation they always want to know where.  When I tell people we are going to Kansas they always look a little blank.  And just a tad bit sorry for me.  As if to say 'that really doesn't count as a vacation'.  I mean, it's in the middle of nowhere right?  It's flat and dry and hot and boring right??  WRONG!  Well, it is hot, and this year Pratt County has been more than a little dry.  But flat?  Not so.  Boring?  Definitely not.  NOT NOT NOT.

Just look at some of the fun we had! 

Water parks are just the best.  This was the first one we went to.  The second one a few days later was even more fun but I didn't take my camera in with me.  And I kept so busy going down super fun water slides and swimming in the big pool to even think about taking pictures.  We had a ball.  No way would a 'typical' vacation spot have been better.  AND we were with my sister,  brother-in-law and their kids, and my brother.   Can't get any better than that(unless of course my Mom and Dad had been along too). 

Break time.  Snacks.  Sunblock.  Water.  Rest.

My sister kids.  So wish we didn't live so far apart but oh so thankful we can get together as much as we do. 

Little Sister was her normal self:)

A good friend of Big Sister and R. went along with us.  The more the merrier!

Middle Sister got to not feeling so well on our first day in the water.  I think she was exhausted (it was the day after we got there) and just a tad dehydrated.  I got her some Gatorade and sat in the shade with her for awhile.  She was back in the water and playing before we left but was still glad to leave.  She got a good nights sleep that night and was fine the rest of the week.

On the ride home. With the temperature at over a hundred a vehicle gets a little toasty inside.  So we always had the a/c blasting.  The kids always got cold way before we were ready to turn the fan down so they pulled out blankets and bundled up.  Every single time.  Cracked me up.

We had a total blast the whole 6 and a half days we were there.  It was NOT long enough.  Next year I'm pushing for 2 weeks.  And I don't care what we have to miss here!

And just in case you wonder - I LOVED the hot DRY weather.  I love to swim and it's so much more enjoyable if it's hot:)  I don't especially love the humidity we have in Ohio, so the hot, dry weather was just great to me.  I'll take 110 and dry any day over 90 with 90 percent humidity!

Mail packages ~ No. 1

I had quite the pile of mail waiting at the post office when I got back from vacation.  As I'm sure most of you do when you return from vacation.  There were some really fun packages waiting:)

crown necklaces from here. Cute and very affordable.

More from the same shop.  For the sisters.

And one more from the same shop!

This was also waiting.  I'll show you what was in the small box, but the larger box contains a gift for little Vivian Miette(she turns one next weekend).  Since I can't be sure her Mama won't come take a peek here I'll wait to post that later!

This is mine.  From Lisa Leonard Designs I love her stuff.  This one is the small pendant.  I added a pendant.  So I have one with a 't' and one with a 'j'.  They are sterling silver.  It's darling.  Little Sister has tried to wear it.  But since she has neither a 't' or a 'j' in her name I just couldn't let her!

More fun mail packages coming up!

Upcoming Event! Mark your calendars!!

I have been wanting Kara to do this for awhile now.  I so miss the brick and mortar shop.

This is the next best thing and maybe even better:)

Also - Sew a Fine Seam will be one of the pop-up shops, sharing a tent with M.Blooms.

I'm getting really excited, tons of ideas floating around in my head, trying to get out and make themselves:)   Stay posted!!

Below is what Kara posted on her blog.  Be sure to head over there and check her blog often for more details:)

MCMASTER & STORM'S

"BRICK FARMHOUSE" EVENT

September 23rd 10am-8pm & September 24th 10 am- 5 pm

Her day is filled with laundering textiles; she hurriedly gathers her french laundry basket to collect the linens off the line, so she can enjoy a seemingly simple afternoon in the countryside. She is in a dither over going to the charming brick farmhouse event that is "on the way to nowhere and out of the way from everywhere!"

AN EVENT ON THE FRONT LAWN OF AN 1860'S BRICK FARMHOUSE

HOMEKEEPING DEMONSTRATIONS

FOOD TO TABLE FRESH GARDEN PRODUCE

SWEETS & EATS

& POP-UP SHOPS filled to the brim with charming merchandise

& one-of-a kind finds.

Event is also in conjunction with the Mother & Daughter team that offer "fun finds" at their historic properties in Verona, Ohio.

The Baltimore Shop {47 years} and The Little Shop {25th anniversary}

4 miles South of our Brick Farmhouse event.

Local Attractions:

Bear's Mill

Smith Coffeehouse & Eatery in a historic building

Restored Garber Homestead Ohio Park District

{Map will be available}

No Entrance Fee--

& more details to come

email us for directions:

mcmasterandstorm@embarqmail.com