light bulb

I had a light bulb moment 

(man I wish I had some more of those) 

My husband thoughtful and kind 

gave me for Christmas another camera. 

I thought it would be great to have 2 camera's at shoots so I 

wouldn't have to stop and change lenses as much. 

He was sweet.

but i couldn't figure it out.

 I could not.

 and do you know how annoying it is when  

you just pick something up and expect it to work 

like something else and it doesn't. 

and you take it on 2 shoots and are unhappy with the results... 

(that was a bad day in our house) 

I kept reading the manual and playing with the camera 

but I COULD not get the focus to be sharp and clear. 

it was a soft focus at best with a lot of noise. 

not good. 

anyway, today I figured it out. 

OH HAPPY DAY. 

so I ran around my house taking 

tac clear \ sharp \ focused 

photographs. 

This camera has some pretty neat features. 

and I was unable to have fun with them being that I 

couldn't take a good photo. 

but now.... well the world is my oyster. 

So some random shots that i took 

This is one of my Grandpa's camera's. 

(don't mind the dust) 

Maddie 

 

have a great weekend. 

xoxo

amy

Joy

my friend Jen shared something with me last week that she just 

randomly scribbled on her black board .... 

Choose Joy. 

Man. Sometimes, Some moments, 

it is so very very hard to Choose Joy. 

why is it so dang hard??

I looked up this verse..

and made a little reminder that God wants us to choose joy. 

no matter what. 

and after i made that I got a little carried away with 

some choose joy 

prints. 

I LOVE FONTS. 

I have a lot of FONTS. 

(and all of them were absolutely free.)

Go check out my pinterest and look under 

digital and lovely little letters. 

and you can have lots of free fonts too.

you can also take these files and print them out and hang them on 

every wall in your home.

 Its fine.
Plaster them all around you so you remember to Choose Joy and be Cheerful. 

because, well, its our job. 

God told us to do it 

NO MATTER WHAT. 

Have a great day. go and choose some JOY.

xoxo

amy

falls

I have not been out in a long time to just take 

photos for myself. 

Its awful. Just terrible. 

But I am going to  be working on that. 

Work on my craft. 

so I grabbed 2 of my daughters and 2 of my nieces 

and set off to take some. 

Have I told you how much I LOVE these girls. 

I do I LOVE them. 

they make me smile and Laugh hysterically. 

I love that they are all best friends. 

and that they all LOVE the Lord. 

Man. I couldn't ask for anything more......

(that's another post) 

I took them to  

The Paterson Falls

It isn't too far from where we live and it is just perfect for

telling the girls the history of our families and surrounding areas.

I Love giving little tid bits of information  as we drive. 

They all laugh at me... and I tell them

one day I will be gone 

and going with me  will be 

all my information.

I heard things from my Gramma and Mom that I want to 

pass on to my kids so they can tell their kids.....

anyway. they will one day appreciate me.

It was bitterly cold this day. 

there was beautiful ice on the falls. 

there is just something about ice, water and sunlight.

 magic. 

 

anyone who knows me would know I 

have a horrible fear of bridges. 

this bridge goes over the falls. 

Maddie begged to go over...

Linnea took her. 

I followed behind. 

and I was okay, 

until I looked over the side.....

lets just say my children were walking (meandering) across...

I pushed them over to get across....

glad I went because I wouldn't have been able to get this...

and I took this on my way back... I actually looked over and saw this...

I thought, oh man I have to get that..... 

So I prayed, that the bridge wouldn't collapse and I wouldn't go plummeting to my

death in the icy waters below... 

and  I began to shoot. 

 and I am glad i did. 

and I am glad I drug my girls out and told them stories and

 took some photos of God's beautiful creations. 

verses

If there was ever a verse I felt was written just for me it would be

proverbs 31:13

I looked it up in many different translations. 

this one is my favorite. 

It is the Darby Translation. 

If you are ever interested in reading a verse in all different translations

Bible Gateway is an awesome reference .

I also thought this one was neat as well

She hath sought wool and flax, and hath wrought by the counsel of her hands.

that is the Douay-Rheims 1899 American Edition

oh well.  I find these things interesting. 

Is it just me? 

Tee shirt Quilt

I made this quilt before Christmas for a customer. 

It was a whole lot of orange. 

They are Philly Flyers fans. 

Not just regular fans... like super duper HUGE fans. 

This quilt was a gift to their son for Christmas. 

It was going to be a twin, 

but when she dropped of the tee shirts to me

she had a story about almost every single one.

So when I went to make it 

I felt I had to include all the shirts that she had 

special memories of. 

anyway, I was a little hesitant to make this quilt.

1. because I have never made a tee shirt quilt before. 

2. It was a  ton of orange. 

3. I had never made one of these before..(oh did I mention that)

I ended up Loving the process of this quilt. 

and let me tell you it was a process. 

it first began with cutting all the shirts apart. I think there were some 50 to 60 shirts. 

then I ironed a very very light weight fusible web to each. 

then I cut out all the shirts with special  rulers I had made. 

I took a list of sizes i wanted down to the local hardware store and 

he cut them out of plexiglass for me. 

that was about $30 for 10 rulers. 

not bad considering what you spend on 1 ruler... 

anyway. 

If you do ever make a quilt like this, I strongly suggest backing each shirt and the cutting it 

out. If you do not it will be awful to sew,

It will not be straight. No matter what you do, it will not be straight unless you take the step

to iron on the back. 

this process of ironing and cutting took me 2 full days. 

I am talking 8 hours a day people. 

 

then came the job of laying it out. 

It turned out to be a tiny bit smaller then a queen size.

It was HUGE. (did I say that) 

It actually sewed up very quickly because they were such large blocks. 

I did row by row and then sewed them all together. 

I used a light cotton batting in between. 

I recommend a light weight batting 

because this quilt is extremely heavy.

I toyed with the idea of free motion quilting this, 

but I am very glad my Mom talked me out of that. 

I ended up hand tying it with pearl cotton. 

I backed it with  Kona White and added a panel 

of the extra shirts I had. 

I bound it in black. 

 I thought it probably needed a label. 

So this is what I came up with. 

 I loved making this quilt. I am finding such joy in making quilts for people. 

Especially when there are stories that go along with them. 

My customer was overcome

she was speechless when she saw it. 

I almost had her in tears... 

Her son Loved it when he opened it on Christmas day.

that made me smile. 

I need to make a quilt like this for my kids. 

and my friend PAUL. 

(he has more tee shirts then anyone I know)

Christmas past...

    Feb? How can it be February. Is it me or do the years just seem to be flying right on by??

Well since I took a few moths off from Blog land I guess there is no better time to post some Shots of Christmas. Jen, if your reading this hopefully you still love me and know that Christmas in February is not the norm and  I hope you and your daughter will forgive me on getting your gifts off so late.... YIKES.

                         Without further ado my lovely girls. (okay they are not just mine) 

OUR lovely girls. 

We always cute our tree down. 

It was my year to pick the tree. 

Yay me. 

 

We went to a new tree farm this year and it had a fancy

wagon to pull the tree back on. 

Madelyne insisted on pulling. 

Here they are. 

getting too big. 

Sara always the goof ball. 

and our very good friend has connections with Santa. 

He Swooped Maddie up and she got to meet Santa. 

(anyone who knows this child knows she is not a fan of anyone swooping her up) 

There was a look of sheer terror and horror and panic all at the same time. 

Brian didn't give her a second to even consider not going up on the fire truck to meet Santa. 

This picture best shows the look I was speaking of earlier.... 

and I got all choked up and started to cry.... 

I am an emotional sensitive hot mess. 

The look on Brian's face was priceless, you see he was so 

thrilled to share this experience with Maddie. 

it was an awesome memory. 

and Santa got to ride on the vintage fire truck.... 

maddie kept asking where the reindeer were..... 

and one from Christmas morning.... 

Santa brought Sara the NINJA. 

seriously, this kid has been asking for this blender for years... 

what 13 year old would be this thrilled to get a blender for Christmas... 

Sara. That's who.