One more Moore

30 down, 10 to go...

Weeks that is. Okay, so this picture is only slightly exaggerated. In real life, I can't actually see my feet. I mean I have to really lean forward. Chris said it makes my feet look like Alice in Wonderland, so very far away.... "Is that taken with a fish-eye lense?" he asks. ha ha. You so not funny.
It's been a very, very crazy time here. Chris officially started back at DWTS last week after a 10 week stint at "Trading Spaces." (I know, your thinking what I thought, "Is that show still on the air???" Yes, yes it is.) I offered up my mac for him to take to the dance rehearsals and on location so he wouldn't have to rent one, which leaves me without my lappy-top during the day. His PC is here, but I'm just kinda connected to the mac, Ya' heard? Anyway- really sporadic, crazy schedule so we are trying to adjust here, as much as you can when everyday is different.

This week started out with a bang, literally, when early on Monday morning we heard someone calling "help me! help me!" from outside our front door. Chris leapt up and found our 81-year old neighbor laying on the ground. She had tripped and fallen and was pretty banged up. We got her settled and a few hours later, the 74 year-old neighbor came by. You know, word travels fast in little apartment complexes like ours. Everyone's got to know what's going on with everyone else in a very Edward Scissorhands-ish kind of way. So I'm telling her what happened and she starts to not look so good. I bring a dining room chair out into the hallway and she sits down. Then, passes out. I'm holding her up, calling her name, trying to get her to come out of it. She does. I call the ambulance. They come and haul her off. She calls today (3 times actually) from the hospital and says, "weren't those ambulance guys soo cute??" Then proceeds to make some joke about getting 'fresh' with one of them, in said ambulance. I think that was the drugs talking...
Henry's Pal, Shea, came over this morning around 6:45. His Mama was being induced today and I'm very sad to say, 15 hours later....still no baby! What's all this talk about second deliveries being quicker?  What a bunch of bologna.  The morning was a bit slow. 'It's only 9 a.m... really?'  'It's only 10:30?' 'It's only 11!' But they ended up doing really well together and we spent almost the entire day outside. It was so beautiful here today. I'm happy to say, they are snuggled up and officially passed out for the night! I think I'm going to be joining them real soon.

Betsey & Richard came over Sunday night for some low-key Oscar action. They brought 'themed' treats. Aren't they hilarious? I think my favorite is the "No Country for Old Men". Actually I think this is my favorite:

Brilliant. I mean what else can be said?

Just finishing up Jennifer's quilt block and getting ready to send that off in the next few days. I've got a few new etsy idea's that I wanna run by you guys, I'll try to get on that this week. Hope your having a lovely one!

xoxo

Quilts...

I've got lots to say about the subject, but before I go any further...I have to give the biggest warmest, smooshiest THANK YOU to PKM for the most adorable baby quilt she made for ME (okay  for the new baby.) Pam, I've already 'ooohed' and  'ahhed' to you, but I just had to post about it for all to see. I just LOVE it and cannot believe the amount of work that went into this beauty. We all just love it. Henry has already used it as a cape and run his trains around the border. Pam made me promise to 'use' it- which I can guarantee we will. She also sent an autographed copy, (with my very own name on it!!) of "Alex Anderson's Baby Quilts with Love"  CRIPES! I am so so so so grateful. Thanks, so much Pam!!
Back in January, I was asked to be part of a year-long Quilting Bee. (thanks for the invite, Jennifer!) So I agreed, of course- but you don't think I actually admitted to anyone that I had NEVER done anything like this before do you? Or that I have ZERO quilting experience. In the words of Henry "Zip, Zilch, Zero...Zooks!" I'm just figuring that I can wing it and hope I don't royally screw this up for all involved. I'm not gonna lie, I'm a little scared. Okay a LOT scared.  Every month we each make (1) 12.5" x 12.5" quilt block. For February, we are making Jennifer's quilt. She sent all 11 of us inspiration for her quilt (which is the above photo) and we can then use our own interpretation for what we want to create. You can follow it on Flickr and see what's been submitted so far here. This is one talented group of gals and I'm so excited to be on this year long journey with them (and hoping some of their talent rubs off!)
I pulled some fabrics today, that I'm thinking I might want to use in my quilt block (and of course, I'll be integrating Jennifers.) So there you have it. There's a lot about quilting that's standard, that I've recently learned, i.e,. that you don't press open the seams, rather press them down, or that you sew with 1/4" inseam not the 5/8" that I usually do. So I'm learning. Slowly by slowly. Any tips you experts can suggest??? I think if the end product comes out to the correct measurements, I'll be okay. Eeek! I'm going to a little beginner quilting class tomorrow, so I'm hoping to learn lots there.
I ordered some great Japanese fabric from Judi's etsy shop and she included this adorable fabric for the new baby! Thank you so much, Judi! Now I'm dreaming up all the things I am going to make with it!
Here are some of the Valentines we've received! They are still coming in the mail everyday! So fun. Thanks again for doing this- I hope it was as fun for you as it was for us!

xoxo

It's how I spent Valentines...

681 miles, 11 hours (darn you LA rush-hour traffic!!) 2 little kiddlets, a great friend, diet coke and lots of "I want to go to California" being called out from the back seat. 
We came home to a slew of WONDERFUL Valentines. You guys are too much! Thank you so much for swapping with us. We loved everything. I'll take a pic and post more tomorrow (this Mama is very tired and going on day #11 of being sick. Blah.)
Hope you had a wonderful Valentines Day. It's good to be home. Be back tomorrow.

xoxo

It all started with the lame fortune...

If you can even call it a "fortune." Who gets a fortune like that? Henry did. Yesterday at the Chinese restaurant. And oh, the alien did "manifest" itself in the form of a bad stomach bug that hit around 7 p.m. and caused the little guy to throw up 12 times in 8 hours.
We have this book. It's about a boy named Henry. The more books he eats, the smarter he gets. So he keeps eating more and more books until one day, it starts to make Henry sick. He turns green, greener, greenest and then "bokes" (throws-up). At approx. 3:36 a.m. and just after finishing the 12th time 'boking', a very sleepy Henry turns to me and says, "Mama, I don't want to boke anymore." "I know, sweetheart, I don't want you to either." I just kept praying and praying he would keep something down. Every ounce of water came up. He was so dehydrated, he had dark circles under his eyes. It must have worked. He woke up  feeling much better and although his appetite hasn't quite returned, he is drinking fluids, and they are staying down. I'm so relieved.
On Sunday, we had a 'family party', or so I thought. It turned out to be a surprise baby shower for me (you turkeys!!!) Dustin, who was my sisters wedding photographer  and my other sisters beau, was there taking gorgeous photographs as usual. I actually had no idea he was taking so many pictures of Henry and they just turned out so very, very lovely (and how about that crazy quilt that was my great-grandmother Ava's?)
See what I mean? Thanks so much for capturing this, Dustin. We will love and cherish these forever.
The reason I'm telling ya' all this is because he is coming to Southern California the end of March and has a limited ammount of  photo shoots open. He is offering them at a ridiculously good rate (seriously, I think he should be charging 4x the ammount.) So if you are interested, e-mail him at dustin@dustinbradbury.com. He'll send you the rates and availability (and I know there are lots of you moving away this summer...sob!!- this would be the perfect opportunity to get some family pics in CA!) He can do bridals, new babies, family sessions, pregnancy, ou name it. He is amazing. Definitely don't miss out!

Happy Tuesday!

xoxo
 

Love is in the air

Valentines: Check! Thanks for all of those who wanted to be our Valentine! We have ours done and they are in the mail. I think we ended up making about 25! If I was better organized and it wasn't so close to Valentines, I could have divided it up more so everyone received more than  1! Next year. There is always next year. If you are looking for some great craft idea's, check these cutie patooties out. Free down-loadable pattern. Very cute!
I hit some thrift shops with Mom on Saturday and had some good fabric scores. I hit the breaks on thift shopping for the last several months because I am in the 'getting rid of stuff' mode not 'acquiring more stuff' mode. But fabric, I mean fabric. I already have a spot for this. And I can always use it. Isn't the fabric under the Valentines to die for? The second pic is a table cloth with the most hideous blue fringe. But when I saw this fabric, I knew exactly what I was going to use it for.
Aren't the sheets groovey? There's always room for these. They make perfect liners for bags, or bags themselves. We scored a handful of old children's books which made for a great day of shopping.

We've read these 3 books at every nap and bedtime, since they were purchased (you can't go wrong at .25 cents per book.) I think Henry's favorite is "Bobo" which is about an elephant whose Mother makes him a blue jacket, but he falls in the muddy pond and needs to have it washed. They take it to the old Monkey who lives under the tree to give it a wash. But the monkey is hard of hearing, and puts "shrinko" in the water and now the jacket no longer fits Bobo. So he lets all of his animal friends try it on and the hippo stretches it out and then- voila. It fits the elephant once again. He is so happy he goes to bed in his blue jacket.

I love the illustrations in "Bunny School." Aren't they sweet?

I b-lined it to my sisters salon the second I got here for a long-overdue haircut. I think she cut off about 4"? I so needed it. I hadn't cut my hair in about 6 months and it was getting pretty bad. This ought to last me a while, so thanks, Annika! I love it. I can't rave enough about what an incredible job she does, so if you live in Utah, b-line it to her salon, Aerolab 217 E Broadway, SLC UT 801-364-4092.

And the winner is...

Meredith!

"i love this apron!! please, please enter me in the giveaway!

i am curious whether your apron pattern in the book is anything like this?  i'd love to learn how you made this, it's gorgeous."

E-mail me and I'll send your package asap! Thanks random number generator : )

We are still on for the Valentines swap! We'll be making ours on Thursday.  I'll be e-mailing everyone tonight that was interested,  so if you don't get an e-mail from me by tomorrow, send me your address so I can make sure you are on the swap list.

We've arrived- we are sick and yucky- but we are here and so happy! Will post more soon!

 

Happy February!

Hi, guys! Happy February! Kind of glad January is over and done with, aren't you? I think it's my least favorite month of the year. Anyway- I whipped this apron up last night for this round of Tie One On. The theme is polka-dots and we all know there is no shortage of that stuff in my fabric stash. I was also realizing that it was last February, I think, that I gave away an apron that looked oddly similar to this one (I'm so lame- can I not think out of the polka-dot/paisley box???) So I've officially decided to kickoff the 2nd annual February Apron Give-away! And just incase you want the deets- it's a half apron and every other panel is polkies. The waistband is paisley but the apron strings are polkies, too and depending on size (my very large and growing belly make for poor judgment) strings are probably long enough to wrap around to the front. So there you have it. Leave a comment- I'll draw a winner next week. And oh yeah, and I'm including a little something special in the box, too. A little baking something. It's tradition.

Speaking of Aprons...I wanted to let you in on a little project I was involved in last Spring: An Apron Book! I was so thrilled to be one of the designers for this book. I designed one of the 25 aprons featured, along with a pattern. You can pre-order now (and so funny- it comes out the day before I'm due!) I give birth to books, babies, you name it.

So does anyone want to be our (Henry's) Valentine? He's kind of obsessed right now with getting a valentine. In. the. mail. I though it would be fun to have a few of you (i.e., your kid) make a valentine and then we could swap with eachother. I mean what little one doesn't like getting mail? It can be all about crayons or markers  or glitter & glue.  Just a valentine- no major packages here. E-mail me if you are interested (morganautumnmoore@yahoo.c0m)  I thought we could mail out our Valentines end of next week.

So tomorrow's Groundhog's Day. We are celebrating it with Richard & Betsey (okay I'm not even sure if they know it's Groundhog's Day...) Maybe we'll bring these . But then again, if I eat too many of those, I may have to get this. Or maybe we'll watch the movie, Bill Murray is always good on a Saturday night. I'll be sure to fill you in on all the deet's.

I'm heading out for a road-trip to Utah on Monday with one of my hilarious girlfriends. We can't wait. It's going to be a hoot. See you next week!

Happy Weekend!

The Hawaii Chair.....(we can't stop singing it...trust me, you won't be able to, either. I can't stop thinking about how totally unatural it all looks....balancing books????)

(Melanie just sent me this link- hilarious.)

xoxo