May Giveaway Day!

Come join me over at Sew Mama Sew for May Giveaway Day! Starting May 27th through May 31st there will be tons of chances to win some awesome handmade goodies! I am participating this year and will be giving away one of my happy little hand embroidered decorative pillows pictured below! The pillow is made out of linen and 100% cotton Amy Butler fabric for the border and backing. The pillow measures approx. 6"x 15". Lots of color and lots of fun!

The giveaway will be open until May 31. To enter in the giveaway is all you have to do is leave a comment and I will choose a winner at random. The pillow will be shipped by June 3rd...I am willing to ship internationally.

For all of my blog readers I am offering 15% off anything in my store through the end of the month. So be sure to check out the rest of my handmade goodies over in my etsy store here: www.justaddcolor.etsy.com. When buying something leave me a messege telling me that you follow my blog and I will give you the 15% refund. 

Sewing Seeds

"Sow the good seeds of righteousness, and you will harvest a crop of my love. Plow up the hard ground of your hearts, for now is the time to seek the Lord, that he may come and shower righteousness upon you."---Hosea 10:12

Sewing Seeds started 2 years ago when Randi's oldest daughter went on a missions trip to Africa. Bloggers across the country sewed 118 skirts for her to bring to the children! How wonderful is that!....only this time her friend Kimmie has a daughter who is traveling to Costa Rica for 2 weeks this summer. Would you be interested in sewing a skirt or two for these lovely children? Think of how excited and grateful their faces will be when they receive something of their own. They need all sizes for childen 13 years and younger. If sewing is not your thing but you want to participate, I believe they are accepting shorts for litte boys as well. Check out Randi's post here for more details and tutorials for a few simple skirts. Leave her a comment and she will give you the address to mail them to. Below are a few pictures of Bella's previous mission trips and a photo of the town they will be visiting this summer.

Please be praying about this. All skirts should be mailed by June 29th, so Kimmie's daughter Bella can get them ready to go. 

Will is Famous!

Well...kinda. :) When you are a regular at the farmers market this is what can happen. Check out this website and scroll to the bottom. 

      http://www.freighthousefarmersmarket.com/

Wedding Season!

It's wedding season!!! Yay!! I want to give a big CONGRATS to my sister and Josh for their first anniversary this weekend! Wahoo! I can't believe it has been a whole year already...and now they are expecting a baby in November!! :) Here are some fabulous etsy finds I wanted to share with you...so many great ideas I wish I knew about when I got married.

Viva La Violette

the brick kiln

Sara Westermark

Go Make Me

Made Just For You By Me

Home Sweet Walls

Isadora Clothing

...and you have to check out this creative article on making letterpress invitations with a pistachio press. click here.

so much fun! I love wedding season. :)

Daddy Cards In Shop!

Anyone need a Father's Day card?...Homemade is always best! Come check out my new Daddy Cards here.

Wordless Wednesday "Before Bed"

Happy Mama's Day!

Every night while nursing Will to sleep I pray for him and then lay him down on the bed. Tonight after nursing him I just held him for a while thinking about how blessed I am. That I got the opportunity to be a mommy. The day he was born I realized that there was this new love that I had never experienced before. My love for him is so strong, and being a mama is the best thing in the world! I never imagined that it would be as hard as it is at times. I never imagined that I could love and adore him so much. I love what I do, and I could never imagine life any other way. 

Today was the perfect mothers day full of sunshine and flowers and cards and giggles and walks and brunch and church. Thad's parents and my sister and her husband came to visit because Will got dedicated at church. He was such a hoot! Kicking and smiling...making the whole congregation laugh. :)

 We had the priveledge of dedicating Will with our good friends Lincoln and Oliver. (mamas-Amber and Virginia) We have been so blessed with such good friends here in the Quad Cities. A group of "mostly newly weds" got together almost a couple years ago now for a small group study once a week. No one started with kids and suddenly we all got pregnant with in two months of each other. We all had boys! It has been so much fun sharing this journey with them.

I hope all you mamas out there had a spectacular mother's day! You deserve it!

eat rhubarb

Last night my fantastic neighbor introduced herself to Thad as he was grilling out back. She is pretty old and must have not remembered meeting us before, but since she thought we just moved in (we moved last July), she brought over some homemade rhubarb cherry jam. Yummy!! She is super sweet and thoughtful. She also mentioned that she has tons of rhubarb growing in her backyard and we can go and pick our own anytime we want. I was super excited about this and also realized that I have never picked my own rhubarb. I think the only time I have ever tasted rhubarb is my grandmothers rhubarb sauce back in the day, or strawberry/rhubarb pie from Perkins. Oh, I can not wait for the day I can experience my own garden. :)

I came across a website a while back that tells you what produce is in season each month and gives you recipes to choose from with that food in it. Eat the Seasons. -go check it out! It has been very helpful to look at before I go to the store. Why should we eat what is more local and in season?...well it's always good to support our local economy, but it also tastes better, fresher, and is more nutritious. Specifically rhubarb is in season april through july and here is some fun info I found coming pretty much straight from Nick, an editor from the website...kind of fun to know the facts. :)

"The outlandishly colored vegetable that thinks it's a fruit. Rhubarb makes deliciously comforting puddings but its sharpness works extremely well with meat and oily fish dishes (the duck recipe below is a resounding success).Forced rhubarb (grown in the dark) has yellowish leaves. The field-grown variety has greener leaves and is less tender but often more flavorful.HISTORYRhubarb was used as a medicine in ancient China. It was brought to Europe by Marco Polo and has been eaten as a food since the eighteenth century.BIOLOGYRhubarb is a member of the family Polygonaceae and is related to sorrel. It grows best in cool climates and the effect of forcing was discovered by accident at the Chelsea Physic Garden early in the 19th century.NUTRITIONRhubarb is a good source of fiber and contains moderate levels of vitamin C and calcium. Studies have linked the fiber from rhubarb in the diet with reduced cholesterol levels.TIPSBUYING:Choose crisp, firm, plump stalks with good color.STORING:Kept in the fridge, fresh rhubarb will stay in reasonable condition for 1-2 weeks. Raw and cooked rhubarb freeze well.PREPARING:Wash and trim both ends of the stalks, and discard the poisonous leaves. Rhubarb, in particular the later field-grown variety, is very tart and requires considerable sweetening. As with other relatively acidic foods it is recommended that it is not cooked using aluminum pots."

Local Harvest is a great website that helps you search for local produce in season...or click here for another site and information about farmers markets near you. Hope you all had a super weekend...now I must go enjoy some toast with rhubarb/cherry jam. :)

Shop Notes-Sew Busy!

It has been a little over a month now since my store has been up and running. If you have not yet checked it out you should by clicking here. I have been putting up lots of new stuff each week. In my first month I have had 8 sales and 3 other sales from friends in town. Not too bad! It is the marketing stuff that I am not too good at. I need to find ways to get the word out.

...but in the meantime I have been super busy creating! I am on information overload; too many ideas and no time to get them out! Ahhh! So here are some pictures of my recent creations and works in progress....

Some of you have seen my new hand embroidered pillows and wall hangings that I put up for sale in my store last week (see below) and also a couple that I need to finish that will be up in the next couple days hopefully.

...a few more linkys...

I am always looking for new projects to make with all my tiny scraps. I have been having so much fun making these earrings and hair clips. I have big plans for these; there will be a lot more of these to come!

...also a work in progress...I have been using some old children's books (they were my fathers when he was a kid) for inspiration in designing a coloring book. I am super excited about this! So far I have 15 different drawings and I plan to photocopy them and bind them into a fun little coloring book with maybe a felt cover. I haven't decided yet.

I checked out a book at the library called "Sweater Surgery," and it has a ton of different ideas of what you can do with old sweaters. I thought this patched sweater scarf was cute. Maybe if I put it on my list now I could have it done by fall. :)

...and of course lots of mothers day card making. I know LOTS of new mamas this year.

Hope you all have a great weekend and be sure to check out Etsy on sunday. I will be featured in the children's showcase. Smiles.