Meet Peter

Between Quinn's Green Trip Around the World and the Drunkard's Path Turtles, I think I've pulled out most of the green fabric in my stash.  It's all in one place...and having a big stack of one color makes it really easy to start a coordinated scrap quilt.  While I was working on Priscilla, I started to wonder what it would look like without the white backgrounds around the pinwheels...

So this is Peter --

He's made up of 2 1/2" squares, sort of a postage stamp quilt with some pinwheels thrown in. Like Priscilla, he's assembled in twelve inch-blocks.  I thought he'd go together the same way Priscilla did, but there turned out to be a much easier way to do it.  I'll have the tutorial ready for you on Saturday.

This post is linked to to Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Link a Finish Friday, and Freedom Fridays.

eight books...

These days, you can have up to fifty items checked out on a child's library card. When I was a kid, the limit was eight. Didn't those librarians know how quickly a girl could get through eight Nancy Drew books?! At home, I had a whole shelf full of books to read, but if we were going someplace, I'd have to choose and pack carefully.

On the boat, I was probably reading Alfred Hitchcock and the Three Investigators. Does anyone else have vivid memories of reading specific books in specific places?

Be sure to check out today's other Nancy Drew blog hoppers -- Rose Prairie Quilts and Farm, Quilt ‘n Queen, Our Busy Little Bunch, Just Quilt It, Hilachas, Loves to Quilt, Sew. Darn. Quilt. From This To That, LynMarie At That Other Blog  And if you haven't already read my Nancy Drew post, the giveaway is open until the 18th!

{Yarn Along} Stone the Gargoyle

I wanted to cast on a project this week that fit in with the whole Nancy Drew theme. After lots and lots of Ravelry searching, I decided that this little fella would be suitable. The pattern is Stone the Gargoyle, an online freebie by Devon Monk.

He still needs both his arms knit, but he's gone together quickly.  I love the little details to this pattern. The muzzle is  shaped with short rows. He's got little actual heels and his toes are formed with a picot bindoff. Which makes them look really twisted and uneven the way I do it, but they're gargoyle toes. I'm sure they're supposed to be that way.

The wings gave me a bit of trouble, but a whole slew of friendly Knitlist members helped me figure out what I'd misread. Now I've just got to do those arms and find the perfect buttons for eyes.

The book is One Hot Murder by Lorraine Bartlett, the third Victoria Square Mystery. I'm thoroughly enjoying this series. I think it's because it lets me vicariously live out my fantasies of having a booth at an antique mall.  Back when Grandma still owned hers, I had a newborn and a fifteen month old and even managing to visit was an adventure. Now that my kids are a bit older and the mall is gone, I've decided that I really wish I could've spent more time there...

In the books, Katie Bonner has found herself the unwilling owner of Artisans Alley, a failing craft mall. Shortly before his death, her husband had sunk all of their savings, monkey that had been intended to purchase the dilapidated Webster mansion and  convert it into a bed and breakfast. Now, Katie is trying to get Artisans Alley back on its feet so that she can get on with her life.

In this latest book, there's arson on the square and a body is found in the smoldering remains of Wood U.




For more fun knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.  And don't forget the Nancy Drew Blog hop! My giveaway for a vintage Nancy Drew book is still open, if you haven't entered already.  Today's bloggers are Gracie Oliver Arts, Life In Every Breath, Made by Me in Red, Dachsies With Moxie,
Words and Stitches, Rose Creations, Retired to Quilt, Leslie Tucker Jenison, Feathered Nest Studio. 

{Whatcha Reading?} Secondhand Shoes

I've discovered yet another thing I love about my Kindle -- the ability to send myself a sample of a book  before purchasing it. I'd read a discription of Secondhand Shoes by Shelly Arkon and was intrigued, but not sure if it was worth buying or not since I didn't know anything about the author and there weren't many reviews.  Then I saw that I could get a sample, so I decided to give it a try.

The sample is automatically delivered to your Kindle the same as a regular book  and, in this case at least, it included ten percent of the book. That was more than enough for me to decide that I wanted to keep reading. At the end of the sample, is a link to buy the full book. My only complaint is that it didn't save my place -- the sample and full book are different files on the Kindle, so I had to find the point where I'd left off.

Despite that, it's not a bad system, and it's one I'll definitely use again if I'm iffy about buying a book. I'm not normally a fan of excerpts, but reading the first few chapters and then being able to download the rest of the book immediately works for me.


Would I reccomend this one?  I honestly can't decide. It wasn't what I was expecting. I've been reading so many cozies lately that I think I'm a little sheltered. If I'd been expecting a horror novel, I wouldn't have been so surprised by the characters and events, but this isn't a horror novel. I'm not quite sure what category I'd describe it as.

The shoes didn’t fit. It was an omen.
Eighteen year old psychic-medium-germ-a-phobe Lila should have listened to her ghostly Gram’s advice the morning of her wedding, “Take off that dress and those shoes. And run.”

Back when I was writing romances, we'd sometimes describe heroines as "too stupid to live." It was a trait we tried hard to avoid in our own characters. Lila seems to fit into that category. I still can't wrap my head around how she wound up even dating Max, let alone engaged to him. But she gets smarter as the book progresses and I definitely wanted to find out what happened next. The best comparison I can come up with is when you're watching really trashy reality television and can't turn it off even though you're not sure why you're still watching.  It's definitely some entertaining escapism.

Disclosure (in case anyone actually cares) -- I paid for this one.

This post is linked to Whatcha Reading? over at Patchwork Times.

getting nowhere fast

I expected to have this baby quilt done last month. There's nothing complicated about it. There aren't that many pieces, not by my standards....and three weeks later I've still got four more blocks to go.

How can it take so dang long to assemble squares into four patches and then those into nine patches?

I swear, I'm going to make a second one to prove to myself that this doesn't take as long as I think it does! To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times.

my mysterious nail art

When I was trying to come up with a post for each day of the blog hop, Teenage Daughter offered to design me some Nancy Drew nail art. That girl is always up for a challenge -- she's done Green Eggs and Ham nails, along with Rudolph and his friends, the sailor boy from the box of pilot bread, and the Ferocious Beast.   

 

So I've got fingers painted in different shades of blue because the colors of the books in my collection vary and the design from the old book spines on my fingers...

 

And Nancy and her flashlight on my thumb.

 

I can't believe she does this all freehand, and usually on her own nails. If you want to see more of her work, or the details of the polishes she used, you can read all about it on her blog.

Have you checked out today's blog hop posts yet?

Dancing thru-threads, Traveling Quilter, Jane’s Quilting, More Stars in Comanche, Moose Stash Quilting, Quilt Doodle Designs, Cate’s Linens, Sew Incredibly Crazy, Grandmama’s Stories,
Judy At That Other Blog

little picot bind-off toes!

I've got a fun new knitting project that's sucking up all of my creative time. Two more arms, then I get to see if it all goes together the way it's supposed to....

Just look at that little foot!

I've got a new bag of scraps this week, some new dies for my Sizzix (which I'll show you tomorrow), and a new skein of yarn -- which is half gone because I've been making little feet and wings and ears...

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 2 1/4 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 25 1/2 yards
Added this Week: 8 yards
Added Year to Date: 37 1/2 yards
Net Added for 2012: 8 1/2 yards


Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 230 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 250 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 3650 yards
Net Added for 2013: 3420 yards

To see more weekly stash reports, click over to Patchwork Times.

{What's Cooking?} Honey Walnut Shrimp

I was so excited when Judy picked honey for this week's challenge because that meant I had an excuse to get into the honey from our very own bees. We only got a couple of jars this year, so it takes a really special occasion to justify using it.

And then I needed to come up with a really special recipe. Teenage Daughter came to the rescue and suggested I try to make Honey Walnut Chicken. Have I mentioned that my girl is an absolute genius?

I did some searching  and there are quite a few different interpretations of the Honey Walnut Chicken from Panda Express. Most are fairly similar, but I didn't want to start with raw shrimp or deep fry it (we've had enough adventures in our kitchen with boiling oil this week), so I tweaked them and came up with my own version.

Start by mixing 2/3 a cup of granulated sugar and one cup of water in a small saucepan. Add 1/2 cup of walnuts. Bring to a boil for a couple of minutes then drain and spread the walnuts on a plate.

In a small bowl, mix 1/4 cup mayonnaise, 2 tablespoons honey, and 1 tablespoon sweetened condensed milk.

I used a bag of cooked frozen shrimp. Once they were thawed and I'd taken the tails off, I dusted them with corn starch and briefly cooked them in the frying pan with a couple of tablespoons of olive oil.  When they were hot, I poured the sauce and walnuts over them and cooked the whole thing for a couple more minutes, just until everything was heated through.

Alex and I both thought that it had a definite mayonnaise flavor to it that I don't remember from the shrimp I've had at Panda Express. We may have to go out to lunch soon  to compare our results. And I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do with the rest of the can of sweetened condensed milk.  Can you freeze that stuff? If not, I guess I'll have to make another batch of those peanut butter biscuit mix cookies.

This post is linked to  What's Cooking at Patchwork Times and WFMW at We are THAT Family.

Let's Make Baby Quilts {week 10}

I finally got last week's quilt quilted and bound. Amanda uses the same fabric as Annabelle did, this time in rail fence blocks.

 

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a baby  quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt related posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.

Meet Amanda

Blame it on Nancy Drew!  I've been seriously distracted by the Nancy Drew blog hop -- and busy making my project and writing my post. (If you're as crazy for vintage Nancy Drew books as I am, make sure you check out the giveaway!) That's why this top sat for a week before I got it quilted and bound.

 

Then I realized that making excuses for not having a finished baby quilt for a third week in a row when I'm trying to motivate others to make baby quilts just wasn't right. So here she is --



 

This is Amanda, and she's made with mostly the same fabrics I used for Annabelle. There are a whole lot of "what was I thinking?" fabrics here, prints that I bought brand new and later decided didn't work with my style of quilting. Thank goodness they make such cute low volume baby quilts!

 

There will be lots more of these.

This post is linked to to Finish it Up Friday, Can I get a Whoop Whoop?, Link a Finish Friday, and Freedom Fridays.

more clues and mysteries

I made the rounds of the local used bookstores yesterday, and look what I found!

Seven of the original text Nancy Drew books (they were revised for the ones with yellow covers) and six of them have dust jackets! I'm still just a little giddy, especially since I had credit at both of the stores where I found them.

Don't forget to check out Friday's blog hop bloggers --

That's So Julie, Scrapbook-ChickADoodle, Lily Patch Quilts, Cherry’s Prairie Primitives, The Thimble Room, The Treehouse, The German Mom, Stitch, Stitch, Stitch, Quiltin’ Jenny
Blackberry Creek Home Arts

And if you haven't already entered, check out my blog hop post. I'm giving away an original text version of The Haunted Bridge.

I've always been a bookworm

I think this is my favorite picture from my childhood -- it's either this one or the one of me as a baby floating in my inflatable tug boat with the squeaky smoke stack. Don't you just love that carpet? I think it rivals that flooring I found under the carpet in the boys's room last summer!

 

This bookcase has been in our family for years. Mom kept her Nancy Drew and Trixie Belden books in it when she was a kid. Later, it got used for encyclopedias. I'm not sure which room of our house this was taken in -- maybe the living room?  When we moved to another house, the bookcase was in my bedroom closet and once again held those same Nancy Drew books. And now it's in my sewing room...

 

 

 

There are a lot more books in the collection than when it was Mom's, quite a few added since Moda came out with the Nancy Drew fabric. Somewhere in our house is a whole box of Trixie Belden and Nancy Drew books that I packed away so they'd be safe from my kids. When I finally remember where I put them, they're going on the shelves, too. I posted about my vintage Nancy Drew collection last year, when I made the big quilt.

 

The Nancy Drew Sleuth blog has lots of information about the different editions -- covers, dust jackets, endpapers....everything you could ever want to know! And she's having a great giveaway right now.

Have you checked out today's blog hop posts? Simple Sew, Sewing By Moonlight, Beaquilter, Pat Sloan’s Place, A Stitch In Time, Judith Handmade Treasures, Gingersnaps Fabrics and Quilts, Judy At That Other Blog, Fabric-ating, Melinda Quilts Etc

This post is linked to Time Travel Thursday, Ivy & Elephants and Vintage Thingie Thursday.

{yarn along} in search of mindless knitting

I might need to give my projects just a little more thought.  As much as I still love the Rose Ribbons Shawl, it has charts. And that flower lace pattern requires concentration that I can't manage unless I'm alone in the room. So I decided to start something easier.

My Ravelry queue didn't have anything that fit the bill. I'm still trying to figure out how that's possible, but nothing in that list of 893 projects was what I wanted to cast on this week.... There was a project I've had in my shopping cart forever that I thought would tie in perfectly with the whole blog hop, but I took another look at it and it didn't appeal to me anymore, either.

More searching and browsing and I decided on a pair of Entwined House Socks. They're worsted weight, they've got cables, and I can use a skein of that Wool-ease I bought a couple of weeks back. Perfect, right?

Cables are fiddlier than they used to be. I can do them, but not when little boys are jumping over me, screaming to be rescued from whatever sibling is in hot pursuit.

Any suggestions for a really, really easy project that I'll actually want to knit? I've got plenty of boring, unappealing ones already.

While I've been waiting for that elusive stretch of peace and quiet, I've been reading. Wave Good-Bye is the fourth book in the Southern Beauty Shop mystery series, by Joanna Campbell Slann writing as Lila Dare. She did it to me again. But this time there's not another book in the series to run out and buy. I'm going to have to wait.  Luckily the second book in her Jane Eyre series come out next month and the next Kiki Lowenstein book comes out in May. (And I just saw on her blog that she's working on another new series -- woohoo!)


I'd already read the first three books in this series, and I thoroughly enjoyed them all. This time, Violetta's salon in in jeopardy. Lisa Butterworth, the social media consultant that Grace Ann hired in an attempt to boost business has stolen their client list and passed it along to Snippets, a rival salon that just opened a new branch nearby. When Lisa is found dead in the salon, Grace Ann is a suspect.  She's also out of a job, along with her mother and their friends, partly due to Lisa's treachery.

I love that there was so much going on in this book besides the murder. It's not until 3/4 of the way through that we even find out exactly how Lisa died. And who did it kept me guessing until almost the very end. At that point, I had an idea, but I still wasn't quite sure.

I highly recommend this one if you like cozy romances with some romance thrown in.

Another book I highly recommend, but only if you read horror novels, is  Heart-Shaped Box by Joe Hill. When I read it a few months back, I kept feeling like I was reading a Stephen King novel. It wasn't until later that I figured out Joe Hill is his son.

I'd borrowed it from the library, but I've been wanting a copy for myself. This is definitely one I'm going to reread when I'm in the mood for something creepy. I saw yesterday that the Kindle edition had been marked down $1.99 -- cheaper than I could get a used paperback, if I could find one. (Do watch the price if you decide to order it, since the prices on Kindle books can fluctuate wildly from day to day.)



Here's the description from the book's Amazon page:

Judas Coyne is a collector of the macabre: a cookbook for cannibals . . . a used hangman's noose . . . a snuff film. An aging death-metal rock god, his taste for the unnatural is as widely known to his legions of fans as the notorious excesses of his youth. But nothing he possesses is as unlikely or as dreadful as his latest discovery, an item for sale on the Internet, a thing so terribly strange, Jude can't help but reach for his wallet.

I will "sell" my stepfather's ghost to the highest bidder. . . .

For a thousand dollars, Jude will become the proud owner of a dead man's suit, said to be haunted by a restless spirit. He isn't afraid. He has spent a lifetime coping with ghosts—of an abusive father, of the lovers he callously abandoned, of the bandmates he betrayed. What's one more?

But what UPS delivers to his door in a black heart-shaped box is no imaginary or metaphorical ghost, no benign conversation piece. It's the real thing.

One of the many things I love about my Kindle is the ability to read late at night with no lights on -- but I've managed to really scare myself a couple of times, once in the middle of the afternoon on a dark and cloudy day!

For more fun knitting projects to drool over, check out On the Needles at Patchwork Times and Work in Progress Wednesdays at Tami's Amis.  And don't forget the Nancy Drew Blog hop!

Nancy Drew is a Clue -- and I've got so much to show you!

I've been waiting for this blog hop for months -- and today's the day! If you're a regular reader of my blog, you've seen a few of these projects before. But there's a brand new one at the bottom of the post, and a giveaway for my followers. Did I mention that I'm excited?!

For as long as I can remember, I've been crazy for the Nancy Drew books. As soon as I saw that Moda had a line of Nancy Drew fabric coming out, I knew I had to make a quilt with it. I didn't go to bed that night until I had my pattern idea written up and submitted to Moda. Then I was on pins and needles until I heard back from them.

I stayed on pins and needles until Nancy's Mysterious Quilt was quilted and bound and looked just like it had in my head at 2am when I was trying to quickly draw out the pattern with felt tip pens I'd stolen from my kids.

The back up plan for this quilt was to buy the panel of book covers and make a two color Irish Chain to applique them onto. As hard as the fabric is getting to find, I still think that's a decent option.

 

While I was waiting for Moda to publish the pattern so I could actually show it to all of you, I kept myself busy making a protective sleeve for my vintage Nancy Drew books. It also fits my Kindle Fire -- and I wrote up a tutorial, if you want to make your own.

 

I had extra blocks from the big quilt, so I made the baby version.

And now for my blog hop project!

When I was working on the big quilt, I knew that I wanted to save some of the book spine print for a tote bag. I did wind up buying yardage later, because the spines on the layer cake weren't complete and I wanted full books on my bag.

 

The blue fabric is from one of my thrift store scrap bags. I love the way it looks like the blue tweed book covers. And the red lining -- that's a sheet I bought at Goodwill last week. I wanted it for the background of some quilt blocks I've got planned, but it was the perfect color for this project. Maybe I've got enough left for the blocks, or maybe that quilt will be smaller. I'm flexible!

I love the way this bag came out! Thanks to the boxed bottom, it stands up by itself and it's big enough and sturdy enough to hold a ton of books.(There was going to be a tutorial, but I had problems with the measurements. If anyone wants a sort-of-how-to post without exact instructions, let me know and I'd be happy to write it up. I've got measurements, but not a lot of progress pictures because things kept changing as I went along.)

I did straight lines of quilting between the book spines and meandered the rest. All in black thread, because it reminds me of the black details on the blue tweed spines.

I've still got a little fabric left, and a few more ideas. I made myself a camera strap cover and used some of the blue on blue silhouette print to make a Kindle cover with an applique typewriter for Teenage Daughter after she tried to swipe the Nancy Drew one from me. (I would've given it to her if she actually liked Nancy Drew, but she doesn't, so I made one that was more her style. Then she picked the Nancy Drew fabric for the background -- I'll never figure that girl out!)

And now for the giveaway! I've got a blue tweed copy of The Haunted Bridge to send to one of my readers. Why that particular Nancy Drew book? It's the one I could get my hands on. I'm not an expert on dating these books. This one has a blue tweed cover, no dust jacket, and is in pretty good shape considering its age.  That's about all I can tell you.

To enter, be a follower of my blog and leave a comment on this post before 11:59 PST March 18, 2012. I'll notify the winner then.

Don't forget to visit the rest of today's Nancy Drew bloggers -- Life in the Scrapatch, Debby Kratovil Quilts, Selina Quilts, Meadowbrook, Hilltop House Creative Works, My Sister Made Me Do It, Whims and Fancies, Pieced Brain, & Just Let Me Quilt!

{What's Cooking?} Orange Juice Bread

Judy's challenge for this week was to use orange juice. Teenage Daughter wanted me to make smoothies -- which was what she wanted me to make when the challenge was to use berries. Smoothies seemed too obvious (and I'm pretty sure I can't find the plunger for the Vitamix), so I decided to try this Orange Juice Bread recipe from The Menu Mom.

Because the first recipe I found, the one I couldn't find again when I actually needed it, called for orange zest, I added zest. I do know how to bake, but the directions for this one confused me -- "alternate liquid with dry ingredients until a creamy mixture?" I wound up throwing it all together and mixing and hoping for the best.

It seems to have worked. This is seriously yummy and I'd definitely make it again.

Tonight, I'm making the Thai Peanut Chicken from the peanut butter challenge.  And I'm wishing I had a copy of The Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion to read -- in the 1971 version of that one, Nancy Drew is trying to clear the name of a man accused of shipping a truck filled with explosive oranges to NASA. Wouldn't that be a perfect read for today? At the very least, it might keep me busy while I'm waiting for the blog hop to start.

This post is linked to What's Cooking? over at Patchwork Times.

{Whatcha Reading?} Bowled Over by Victoria Hamilton

Since I got hooked on cozy mysteries a while back, the series I read have mostly fallen into two categories -- the series where I might or might not read the next book when it comes out and the series where I start waiting anxiously for the next book the second I finish the last page of the one I'm reading. 

 

The Vintage Kitchen Mysteries by Victoria Hamilton are definitely on my "must read" list. I've been waiting for Bowled Oversince I finished A Deadly Grind, the first book in the series.

 

Jaymie Leighton collects vintage kitchenware and cookbooks. When she makes potato salad for the Fourth of July picnic, it's made from an old recipe and served from a depression glass bowl.

Everyone in town knows that Jaymie and Kathy Cooper have been enemies since high school, and quite a few people heard Jaymie warn Kathy that she'd be sorry if she didn't stop being so mean... So when Kathy is found dead at the picnic and the bowl from Jaymie's potato salad is the obvious murder weapon, Jaymie is anxious to clear her name and finally discover what it was that brought what was once a deep friendship to such an abrupt end and why Kathy was still so bitter after so many years.

There are so many tangled relationships among Jaymie's friends and neighbors that this one will keep you guessing until the very end, not just who the killer is, but what secrets everyone else in her life is hiding.

And now I want to know when the third book in the series is coming out... I'll definitely be watching Victoria Hamilton's blog  to find out.

This post is linked to Whatcha Reading? at Patchwork Times. My copy of the book was provided by the publisher, but I would've bought it anyway.

low volume squares

 

I've got a whole pile of squares cut for Alex's quilt, but not a single pair of them stitched together yet. Mostly because I was too busy putting together the baby quilt that I cut out at the same time from most of the same fabrics.

This quilt is going to be the grown up version of this one --

To see more design walls, head over to Patchwork Times.

backings!

Teenage Daughter needed felt for a project, and I had a green baby quilt and a pink baby quilt in the works that needed backings. With Snuggle Flannel 60% off and a 20% off fabric purchase, it was just easier to buy new fabric than to ransack the sewing room.

Yup, I was being lazy. I also have a couple of nice baby quilts that I didn't want to skimp on by using something totally inappropriate. If I dug deeply enough into my stash, I'm sure there would have been a good choice, but I decided to spend five bucks instead of waiting.  And it's not like I don't have other pink and green quilts in my near future.

I'm glad I gave in to temptation. The Snuggle Flannel was completely picked over, but the Quilter's Showcase was on sale for half off -- nice enough cotton for two dollars a yard after I used that 20% off coupon. In addition to the fabric for the baby quilts, I got a nice green print for the turtle quilt, and a nice light print for the big girl version of Annabelle.

Backings are one of my big quilting dilemmas. I hate spending four or five dollars a yard on a fabric I don't love, to back quilts I don't love, just because it's the only choice that'll work. If I've got an appropriate sheet, or big pieces of fabric to piece into a back, I'm in absolute heaven! 

Weekly Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week: 2 1/2 yards
Fabric Used year to Date: 21 yards
Added this Week: 15 yards
Added Year to Date: 29.5 yards
Net Added for 2012: 8.5 yards

Yarn Used this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Used year to Date: 230 yards
Yarn Added this Week: 0 yards
Yarn Added Year to Date: 3400 yards
Net Added for 2013: 3170 yards

To see more weekly stash reports, click over to Patchwork Times.

Olay Total Effects Moisturizer With Sunscreen {product review}

A few weeks ago, the folks at Olay asked if I'd like to try Olay Total Effects 7 in one tone correcting moisturizer with sunscreen and share my opinions with my readers. I've used other Olay products over the years (the In-Shower Body Lotion is one of my favorites), so I happily accepted their offer and they sent me a gift pack.

 

Teenage Daughter and I both had the same reaction when we opened the box -- How do they get the cream to do that neat double helix looking thing inside the bottle?! But none of us is going to buy a beauty product just because it looks cute in the packaging. I've been using it for about a week now, and I really like this stuff. I can see myself using it every day.

I don't wear makeup. Other than an occasional tube of lipstick or mascara which dries out before I use it more than a handful of times, I don't even own makeup. It's never been part of my routine. When I read about Olay Total Effects, it intrigued me. Moisturizer and sunscreen sounded like a good idea....and if it covered up some of the blotches, too?

I was definitely willing to give it a shot!

I've got a long history of weird skin problems and although I know that I could wear foundation and cover up all of the blotches and imperfections I have now, I don't. Honestly, after years of really truly awful skin, I don't lose any sleep about the wrinkles and uneven skin tone that I've these days. After years of bleezing ezcema, I'm happy to have the skin I've got. A long time ago, I decided not to borrow trouble by covering my skin with heavy makeup. And I don't like the feeling of stuff on my face.

The Olay tinted moisturizer goes on quickly with no "foundation lines" to worry about.  After the first time I wore it, I haven't noticed that sensation that something was on my skin. It doesn't cover up every blotch and blemish, but it definitely makes my skin look better.  And it seems like the bottle is going to last a long time. I expect to buy a replacement when it does run out.

The Olay Total Effects product, information, and gift pack have all been provided by Olay.

Let's Make Baby Quilts! {week 9}

I finished a new top this week, a rail fence in the same fabrics I used for Annabelle. I cut the pieces while I was cutting squares for Teenage Daughter's big girl version of that quilt and sewed them together last night.

 

Today, I'll be fixing the blocks that are twisted the wrong way.

 

 

Let's Make Baby Quilts Linky Party Rules:

I don't want to overwhelm everyone with a huge list of rules, but I do want this linky party to stay on the topic of baby quilts. They can be for donation, or for your own baby, or just because you think they're cute and want them in your sewing room, but they've got to be baby quilts. Link directly to your post or specific Flickr photo. Your post can be about a quilt that's finished, or in progress, or you can be writing about what you have planned, but it's got to be about baby quilts. While we're still gathering steam, you're welcome to link to baby quilt related posts that aren't brand new, but please don't submit the same post more than once. I'd love it if you linked back to my site, either with a text link or the Let's Make Baby Quilts! button.