And we are back!

**Edit: I wrote this on Monday, but just now got around to putting pictures in and posting. Just so you know.**

Hey world,

I had meant to get another post finished last week, but life just got going a little to quickly with the holiday weekend.

Tuesday finished wonderfully after my post. Because I had taken some time to nap, I didn't feel exhausted when I got home from work. I even got to sew! It is such a crazy concept of having that time in the evening to myself. I got to cut and put together the first of three quilts that I am making with hand print squares from a non profit with which I am associated.

The non profit is Mercy Project, and they are working in Ghana to free child slaves who have to work 16 hour days on the main lake, fishing for their masters.

The idea is to focus on improving the villages with business knowledge and the start up for cage fishing, something that is sustainable and will supplement (not replace) the village fisherman's income enough to not need the children to work. Last summer, I had the opportunity to travel with the program and visit quite a few different places in Ghana.

The hand prints in these quilts are handprints from the first group of children rescued through the fish cages from the village of Adovepke.

The first group of FORMER child slaves!

Leaving the village for GOOD.

While these are not all of the children rescued from the first village as some had already been integrated back into their original families, these represent the first children accepting freedom through the program.

It is exciting. The first quilt will be going to the Mercy Project Art Auction early this summer, with the second going to the family that runs Mercy Project as a surprise. The third will be sticking around my house for me :-). I know, kinda selfish, but I really enjoy being a part of this organization, both through traveling with them and supporting them here at home.

In addition to working on the quilt, there have been lots of swaps coming in! Yay for swaps!

In addition to working on my swaps, I finished all of the assembling of the squares for my 2.5" Royal Squares quilt. Woohoo! (It was sometime last week, but who really cares as long as they are finished?) Now comes time for all of the quilt as you go stuff before I can finally assemble it and then sew together the back and bind! It feels like it actually is getting closer to being done. I can't wait!

And last, but certainly not least, is Easter! It was a good, if challenging, time for me. My father was in town, which led to some tension, but I was able to say what needed to be said on my part. I got to dye eggs with my "adopted" family on Saturday.

Yes, we are all adults. And we are dying eggs. We have to get like six or seven different egg kits just for the fun of it. We ended up dying five dozen eggs. It was so much fun. These were the ones I did! Yay!

And of course, we had to have an Easter Egg hunt on Easter. There was only one person under 25 (who was 3), but it is the tradition. It was lots of fun. The guys hid the eggs, and then walked around the property while the women hunted.

We found all but three, two hard boiled and one plastic, but out of 95 eggs, that's pretty good!

I hope your Easter went well and you are starting to recover from the holidays!

A Second Post? Really?

So, today is a slow day at work. Or it could be the fact that I took a nap today instead of going to the class I have been auditing. I made that decision because it needed to be done. The upside is that I got to see what was in my mailbox before I went to work this evening. It was quite the exciting box. Set a new standard for me. I definitely want to start following T's lead with how she presented this wonderful swap. Everything was wrapped in tissue paper and labeled so sweetly. I didn't get any pictures of her gifts pre wrapping paper being ripped off, but I do have pictures of all of the wonderful little goodies.

This swap is so much fun! You pick three holidays that fall within the month you are swapping for (typically the next month) and then come up with something that is representative of it. We each picked four holidays. Represented here are April 17th, Pet Owners Independence Day; April 22nd, National Jelly Bean Day;  April 25th, World Penguin Day; and April 30th, Hairstyle Appreciation Day. My swap partner also sent me some wonderful fabric as a bonus gift! I'm so spoiled! I think I should even be able to use some of the hair accessories, even though I have dreads. Carefully, mind you, but it should work!

And honestly, short of my stories about my crazy students and how the full moon is affecting them, that's all I have to report for today. If you look though, I'm in the process of getting other pages put together for my blog. So exciting!

Where has the time gone?

Hey crafting world out there. Life has been happening way too fast for my taste. I had this wonderful vision of posting as I got packages in from swaps and as I worked on cool projects in my evenings and on the weekends.

That hasn't happened.

A lot of my evenings have been spent cleaning up from the day or trying to go to sleep early since I have been so tired. Thank you concussion. And my weekends have been more of the same. I'm going to keep trying though and putting one foot in front of the other, getting things done, taking pictures as I have time, and posting when I get a chance.

So, on to funner things (and yes, that is a word. It's in the dictionary.) Swaps! I have been getting a lot of packages recently, which means that I have all sorts of awesome stuff coming in! I have loved the fun of opening up my mail box, which I used to check maybe once a week (maybe) for junk mail that my mom ended up forwarding to me that she thought I needed. Yep, really exciting. But now, I am getting all sorts of awesome fabric and postcards. It makes me excited to come home!

This was what was waiting for me in my mailbox today. A total of six fat quarters, 98 2.5" squares and two wonderfully cute tea packets.

There also were multiple wonderful postcards. I love to see what people can find and what they choose to send.

So, I finally folded all of my laundry that has been needing to be folded and found these gems in the laundry. I think these were some of my bargain bin finds from a few weeks ago. The rest have already been sorted into my stash yesterday (I sorted my stash!). I also feel like taking pictures of what is going directly into the stash may not be in my best interest if my long distance significant other decides to follow. He already rolls his eyes at the quantity of fabric and other craft supplies I own. I don't think I need to give him the blow by blow accounting of it.... But I probably still will post pictures as I remember to take them of what I bring home. I have been trying to do a little bit better of maintaining my stash and then using it in projects (gasp!). We'll see how that actually carries through.

And with that, I bid you all good night! I either need to sleep or read, but whatever I do, it will be relaxing so that I can try to start bouncing back!

Are you sure it's Monday?

So, I have been letting myself sleep. It's a good thing, right? Well, true, but then my days start getting all wonky. Like the fact that I woke up and finally got out of bed to be productive at 5 pm. Don't judge me. I guess I needed the rest.

In other news, I got some awesome mailbox candy today! This envelope is amazing! It was for one of my note card swaps (Fast and Easy Notecard Swap), and I am just floored!

She was amazing. She sent some really cute fabric and a sheet of stickers, in addition to answering one of the questions I posed on the page. I really think I am going to send her something back. It just seems right.

Also in the mail were two postcards. Yay for postcards! One is for 2013 PC Swap #10 and the other is for 1 postcard to 1 person USA swap

Also done today was putting two packages in the mail for swaps. One for the Bandanna Rama Swap and one of two for the Take a Break swap. Yay chocolate! Didn't take pictures though. I'm waiting to mail the last one until tomorrow. I feel like making sure it gets the correct postage. I need to get a scale or something so I can measure how much a package weighs.

Dinner tonight will hopefully be the butternut squash gnocchi that I have been working on for the past, oh, three days? It takes a lot of chilling time. I know that sounds like an excuse, but it is what it is.

And it has turned out well! Yay! And I have leftovers for tomorrow. All in all, a good day.

So Much Fabric!

I have a problem. I admit it. I am a fabricaholic! And to help assist in my addiction is the wonderful stores of Walmart and Joann Fabrics. Walmart has wonderful remnant prices, discounting fabric, including 100% cotton, either 20%, 30%, or 50%. Then, Joann Fabrics comes along with sales combined with lots of 50% off coupons. In my defense, I have swaps to prep for, which are, officially, prepped. I have a ton of envelopes floating around this place.

So, Walmart. Lots of fun fabric in good sizes. Almost everything is over a half a yard. I'm also signed up for a bandanna swap, so I got some really fun ones.

 

The center photo is of fabric that I am going to use for clothing. I don't know quite yet what I am going to use them for, but I like them. Fun, bright prints. The photo on the right are all of the cotton fabrics that are going into my stash. I am going to cut a few strips for postage stamp quilts out of it, and then add them to my stash. 

These are the fabrics I purchased at Joann Fabrics. I spent a little more than I had planned on, but I ended up only paying half price overall. 

Well, everything but the shirt in the center picture was from Joann's. I'm making a quilt for Mercy Project's Auction this spring. I'm excited. I'm using shirts from the kids race this past year for it.

I also picked up some other pieces from Joann's for swaps. The drawing pack is for one of the swaps, and then the thread is for another swap. Yay for getting everything put together for swaps. 

I think I have a few packages to send out in the next few weeks. :-) See you all in the marrow. More stories of getting everything put together for swaps, sewing, and taming the mess in my house!

PS - I got more postcards today! Lots of fun. I especially like the octopus one.