While sometimes my blog sits empty of updates I assure you, I'm busy on something. Something these days may just be a day full of cleaning, diapers, feedings and cooking but on some days that something is sewing too! Liam gave me a good nap this morning and I whipped up these purses to donate for my cousin's Bowl for the Cure event to raise money and awareness for Type 1 Diabetes. The Valori Wells pattern, Nested, is great. I can't remember the last time I made something this cute with only 2 pattern pieces. Simple and doable.

I made the small and medium sizes from Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane fabrics and used the craft zipper technique. They turned out rather lovely!

I've had a post on diapers and now we're onto bibs! Bibs for big girls though. I absolutely love these new bib necklaces that are so trendy right now. I've seen them all over in the stores and online so I decided to design one myself! This is a super easy, scrappy project that requires minimal skill. My sample used Nicey Jane fabrics from Free Spirit by Heather Bailey. They were all scraps from another project I just sent to the publisher and I am sure I will be sharing on here soon! Coupled with a simple tank top or t-shirt, jeans or a skirt this little accessory adds some personality and a feminine touch to an outfit as you fly out the door. I could just be speaking for myself on that "flying out the door" part though.

I will be teaching this project at CHA in Chicago the end of July and am very excited to be in the classroom again! Only adding to the excitement is the fact I get to bring my little guy along for the ride. Liam is getting so big and at 12 weeks old now we finally have a bit of a routine. It is nice to have something reliable emerging. His smiles are to die for and when he is asleep I find myself tip-toeing in to just peek at him! He makes fun clucking and cooing sounds now and is very eager to figure out sitting up as well as some way to move. I'm preparing myself for my last summer not chasing this little guy!

We had a massive burst of holiday cheer around the Dennis household this weekend. Saturday morning the cookie bug bit me! After ten dozen peanut butter blossoms were made I moved onto these delicious-even-in-pictures-caramels. I would highly recommend these not only for taste (they are super yummy) but they look great, you can't mess them up and the are very time and budget sensitive. They are an even better project if you have kids that can help you unwrap all the caramels and put the sprinkles on after you drizzle the melted chocolate.

The other holiday surprise was a call from the furniture company Saturday morning. The baby furniture was delivered Saturday afternoon and I think I've gone in every day since just to make sure it is still real! I am so happy with our decision and love the quality that Twin Locust provides. Jeff and I are super jealous of the baby now! We rounded out our weekend by finishing up our Christmas shopping...now I just have a few handmade projects to finish up!

On another exciting note, if you're a fan of Heather Bailey make sure to check out her new fabric line, Nicey Jane. So feminine, light and vintage. Beautiful designs and colors. If you get the QuiltHome.com newsletter you'll see they have a discount on this brand new line as well as 25% off Amy Buter's Midwest Modern and Midwest Modern 2 lines! Yay for the holidays!

Don't forget tobecome a fan of Nina on Facebook. 2010 will be full of fun stuff and we will be running Facebook only ideas, posts, specials and information.

I never thought about that until this week. Where would you turn if you had 17 projects to complete, proof, and send off in 5 days? I didn’t even look around me for help. I flew out to my mom and sisters. Although I felt like I was pushing child labor laws ( Ali is 11) to the limit almost every day I was there one of my sisters said something to me about how much fun they were having. Fun?! Yes, we’re a topsy, turvy group. We had so much fun sitting around sewing for hours on end it didn’t seem like work anymore. The deadlines disappeared and it just turned into being together.

While most of what we worked on I can’t show you yet, the younger girls, Ali, Clara and JoHannah finished up a king sized quilt that we have been working on…

Ali completed two baby sized quilt tops…

And Braeton took naps for all of us. He matches perfectly with Heather Bailey's Pop Garden!

I miss them all already and even the fantastic Japanese Steakhouse dinner wasn't enough to thank them!

With so many fresh, new, wonderfuland miraculous things happening it is hard to confess the bit of cloud that is covering my skies lately. Before you get all sad and down, let me assure you, this is not a storm cloud. I prefer to think of it as a summer cloud. You know the kind. The ones that show up and clutter the sky in the middle of a perfect afternoon of sunshine and Twilight reading. The wanna-be storm clouds (as a side note, yes, I am part of the ever growing crowd obsessed with the Twilight series…began the Breaking Dawn this past weekend).

In any case, there is a situation that has clouded some of our plans and although it is super easy to get discouraged I am trying to will the sunshine back into our family. Little sayings like, “When a door closes...” or “Everything happens at the right time” seem too focused on the unfortunate, the cloudy that has happened. I’m sticking with “Look on the bright side.” Keep focused on the sunshine and it will come back. How do you get past the cloudy times in your life?