Heather Ann Melzer

Quilting along

Last night's quilting class was so exciting. I arrived with my completed 9 patch blocks (homework) and came home with my star blocks done and sashing complete. Tonight, I'm going to add my border and then in 2 weeks when we have our last class, we'll add the batting, quilt the top, and attach the binding. It's so fun seeing it come together. I'm not sure where I'm going to put my 26" table square when it's complete, but it'll be great to have a completed quilt project.

I'm already dying to quilt something - ANYthing. I might have to squeeze something in this weekend. I'm taking the rest of the week off to make some serious progress on HAD products, including getting my completed CD Calendars in store and finishing up a bunch of things for my Etsy shop. The holiday season is so close and I have so many fun gift ideas that I want to complete in time. Not to mention adorable Halloween treat accessories - all new for this year!

I also *need* to get my haybail and mums for the front porch before I burst. Fall has definitely arrived in Chicago - the air is chilly and I'm big time in the mood for some chocolate chip banana bread. Mmmm.

I recently hung some of the kids fall artwork over Jack's crib and he's loving it. Everytime he sees it he said, "Jack made dat, Katie made dat, and Kenzie made dat!"

It's a true miracle that I haven't swallowed that boy whole yet. He really is the sweetest little bundle of boyness I've ever seen. Sigh.

Petite All Hallows' Eve

I had a custom order request for a petite-sized version of my All Hallows' Eve Banner, and had so much fun making it that I've decided to make some more. I have one in my shop now and will have more available towards the end of the week. This banner is a little over 5.5' long and the flags measure 3.75x4". I love how it looks hanging across the hutch in our dining room.

I haven't even taken out all of the Halloween decorations yet and somehow the rooms are filling up with Halloween goodies. That new framed "Happy Halloween" was a TJ Maxx find and the adorable pumpkin people are from Joann's. I also bought an adorable skull candle holder from Michaels the other day for a steal. I'll have to take some pics once I get everything decorated. I wish Halloween decorating lasted as long as Christmas'!

We had a great weekend away. It's so nice to do things out of the norm for a change. Especially with me being cooped up for so many hours in the house - any change is a welcome change. We headed out Saturday morning for my stepbrother's wedding in Southern IL and came back around lunchtime yesterday. Jack was so funny in the church before the ceremony. He had a feeling something big was going on and kept asking me, "What gonna happ'n, Mama?"

The girls were so intrigued by the ceremony, and clapping at the end was their favorite part...

And Kenzie was thrilled to be handed something to make noise with...

My brother and his new bride...

And the family photo fiasco - why do I attempt these things?

I love how my studly husband is primping while I try to arrange the monkeys. Now I know what he's doing behind me while I scramble!

 

Katie refused to smile once we were finally arranged. What can I say - getting 5/5 is no easy task.

I forgot my flash, along with a million other things, so I didn't get many pics at the reception. We had a great time, though. The kids made friends and ran around and danced all night long. Well, until about 10pm and then we all crashed in our hotel room. Tom woke up with 3 kids on top of him and has had a pinched nerve in his neck ever since. That's what he gets for giving them so many treats that he's become the favorite. I guess being the bad cop has some benefits afterall ;)

Cute alert!

Have you ever seen anything more darling in your life?! I think I need one to use as a pincushion and one to sleep with :)

Heather Bailey is selling the pattern here and the kits here. 

Edna needs to come home with me, although I wouldn't close the door on any of her friends, either...

I've been running around like a headless chicken getting ready for my stepbrother's wedding tomorrow. I scored some cute dresses for the girls at Carter's (along with a bunch of stuff for 70% off, plus my 20% off coupon). And then I couldn't resist an adorable corduroy blazer for Jack at The Children's Place (where they're giving away $20 coupons with every $40 purchase). I'll be going back next week for jeans for Kenzie, who's going through a massive growth spurt right now.

I wanted to post a picture of the adorable patent leather rose heels I found at Payless, but I can't find them anywhere online. They have the most darling shoes right now. I picked these up for $16 and now I think I need these - way too cute. Finding somewhere to actually where them should be next on my list, but there's way too much to do. Off to run some more...

Have a great weekend!

Brownie bites

Have you ever seen the Dinner Impossible episode where the chef catered a Barbie party and had to make everything small enough to fit on a tiny little Barbie tray? Ever since seeing that show I've been enamored with bite-sized yummies.

I made some brownies last weekend for a party we went to and was so disappointed with how they looked once I cut/plated them. Brownies just seem to fall apart and look messy, especially when stacked with powdered sugar. Kenzie had her first playdate the other day and I wanted to bring something over with us, so I whipped up another batch of brownies and then had an idea to cut them out with a small biscuit cutter. I pushed the cutter in, twisted it, and then lifted it out of the pan. Then I carefully pushed the brownie out of the cutter onto a plate, frosted it and added some sprinkles. They were the perfect little sweet treat.

Then you can use the leftover brownie pieces in the pan to make trifles. Last night we had brownie ice cream sundaes and they were soooo good! I found these at the Crate and Barrel outlet near us and I love serving individual desserts in them.

I can't believe it's only 1:30 and I'm already fighting to keep my eyes open. I had a Kenzie wake up call at 4:30am and one from Katie at 5am, and of course was never able to go back to sleep, so I'm zombie girl again today. It wasn't the alarm clock this time, so I have no idea what's going on. I just know that I really want to crawl back into bed about now :(

After school special

Having Kenzie home with me for part of the day has me feeling like I'm an activity director on a cruise ship. She gets home around 4pm, which leaves about 2 hours where I'm still working and she's left bored out of her mind. Computer games keep her busy for a short while, but she'd much rather drive me crazy with requests.

We got a new Oriental Trading Crafts catalog in the mail last week and I had an aha! moment. The next day I picked up a giant stack of construction paper with a coupon at Joann's and I handed it to her with the catalog, a pair of scissors, and a glue stick. I told her to look at the projects in the book and see what she could make with what she had. She spent one day making the pumpkins and the next day making the "boo" bag. It's the longest she's gone without interrupting me, so I hope it holds her interest for awhile. I have a feeling I'm going to need a lot more aha moments before the school year is through.

I had intentions of posting yesterday, but I had a ton of catching up to do from Monday's running around. I made it to my quilt class just in time and really enjoyed it. I have to sew my 9 patch blocks together for homework this week and then we'll start putting everything together next week. I could see it becoming very addicting, since it doesn't seem very complicated, so far. I love the simple look of squares and rectangles and that seems pretty straight forward to me. I was the only student with glittery Halloween fabric, but that's ok. The teacher commented on how "fancy" I was - lol.

Tired

1am - battery alarm goes of in smoke detector, causing Tom to get a ladder out of the garage and take the thing apart

2am - Sebastian starts pacing and panting, wakes me up

3am - pacing and panting again, I get up and get him some water

4am - the girls new alarm clock goes off for no reason, I put Kenzie to bed, shut off the alarm, and realize Tom isn't in bed - hmmm...

6am - I finally fall back to sleep (sigh)

6:30am - time to get up!

I'm tired :(

Plus, Tom is deathly ill today, so I had to get the kids ready this morning and take them all to school, and then pick them up in a few hours. I think I'm running on fumes right now.

Tonight I'm signed up for the first of 3 quilt classes and I really hope I don't sew my hands together or something. I've really been looking forward to it. The table square/runner we're making is a little traditional for me, but I just want to come away with the basics, so I can work them into some things I have cooked up in my head. I planned on using xmas fabrics, but I'm totally in the Halloween spirit and found some fabrics that I just love, so Halloween it is.

Hoping someday I can work my way up to something like this. Yeah, right. Maybe in 15 yrs when the kids have all moved out and I have more time on my hands than I know what to do with ;)

2010 and doing lunch

I'm working on 2010 calendars today (yeay!!) and noticed some really cool stuff. Like...

Christmas 2010 is on a Saturday.

Halloween 2010 is on a Sunday.

4th of July 2010 is on a Sunday.

New Year's Eve 2010 is on a Friday.

Valentine's Day 2010 is on a Sunday.

And 2 of my kids' birthdays are on a weekend day.

Easter is April 4th, which seems mega early. Although I guess is does fall in March sometimes, doesn't it.

I'm totally in the fall/halloween spirit right now. I already have my mantel decorated and I'm thinking about pulling down the rest of the fall/Halloween decorations this weekend. Jack, Katie, and I had so much fun perusing the Halloween decorations in Joann's last week - we must have spent an hour in there. The kids Halloween costumes are throwing me for a loop, though - I really better get on that.

We always venture out to lunch one day during the weekend, and last weekend we tried something different. If you have a Johnny Rockets by you, you must try it. The kids loved the milkshakes, the hats, and the singing/dancing show the waiters put on. It's like an Ed Debevics, but the waiters are really nice instead of insulting you - lol! 

Have a great weekend, whatever you do! :)

Lazy Days Skirts

I made some quick and easy skirts for the girls earlier this summer and never got around to posting them. I picked up the free pattern here and ended up tweaking it just a little. It was my first time using elastic and I've quite a few more since then.

I've actually been totally skirt crazed this past week. I have a few more on my to do list and may even put some up in my shop next week (maybe even some that coordinate with these guys).

The girls prefer skirts and dresses to anything else, so I can't possibly make too many of them. Plus, the whole skirt/legging combo is so hip right now that they'll be able to wear them year 'round. Love that.

It's not all sewing around here, though. I'm taking tomorrow off to work on 2010 calendar designs and hope to have those up soon as well. I haven't been sleeping much lately with so much on my plate, so I'm looking forward to making progress and catching some steady zzzz's - even if that means losing some for awhile ;)

Secret revealed

I managed to get a pic of all of the grandkids at the boys' games last Saturday, and we actually ended up with one of them all smiling/laughing - all thanks to Tom's tried and true technique. Ready for it? Warning: you might regret reading on - lol.

Tom usually stands next to/behind me while I to take pics and he'll say funny things and act goofy to try to get the kids to respond favorily. After several failed attempts, he'll resort to something that works 99.9% of the time. He'll stick his finger in his mouth and then slowly direct it towards my ear as I'm peering through the camera, begging for him to stop. The kids can't resist the hilarity that is torturing mom/aunt and they crack up.  Success! A shot full of happy children :)

Disgusting, right? Now every time you see a picture of one of my kids smiling/laughing their head off, you'll picture me getting a wet willy behind the camera. Way to go, Heather. LOL!

Apptastic

  

BHG Scrapbooks etc. recently put out a really cool little app that I've been meaning to tell you about. The editors asked me to create some wallpapers out of my digital designs and you can get to them via the Heather Ann Designs category under Designer Gallery, along with many other talented designers. I have one of my favorite Halloween designs on my phone now (upper right).

The app also allows you to:

-Turn your iPhone photos into scrapbook designs that run as a slideshow on your iPhone
-Get secret product freebies and deals
-See page sketches for creative layout ideas
-Get sneak peeks of the latest products
-See color palettes that show you eye-catching color combinations

New content and designs are added frequently to keep it fresh, too.

I'm going to need to go to AA soon (Apps Anonymous). Here are some other fun ones I've downloaded recently:

Sheep Launcher - My new favorite game. Be careful, when they shoot up quickly, they fall even quicker!

Frogger - EXACTLY like the Atari game. Makes me feel like a kid again :)

Colorama - The girls LOVE this one.

Sketchmania - Ooh! Need this one, too.

AquaGlobs - A tricky one, but fun to pass the time.

The Find - I love The Find when shopping for the best price on the web, so the app was a must.

Facebook - I have difficulty navigating Facebook on my PC, but I love using it on my iPhone. The app lays it out so nicely. And it's FREE.

Speaking of, you can now become a fan of Heather Ann Designs (and hear about new product releases first!) by clicking the link on the right ----------->

Hope to see you there!