Lilla Rose Giveaway!

There are days called very bad hair days.
I am talking about my young girls who have long hair. These also happen to be the girls who can never find a brush or seem to remember to use a brush when they find one.

I have five daughters and so brushing and fixing hair is a big routine around here.

Marci Blubaugh of Amazing Grace Farm and Independant Consultant with Lilla Rose must have known that I am always searching for an easy and attractive way to fix the hair in this house because she sent us a flexi-clip to try!

What I love about this clip is that it can hold even the slickest and softest of hair. You can also use it for several different styles. Here I put Rose's hair up in a bun and it took less than 30 seconds!

Ponytails are also more attractive when a flexi-clip is used versus a plain elastic band.

The girls have been using the flexi-clip and love that it doesn't slip out. I like that they actually look like civilized ladies and not wild hooligans:-)

Well, they still look a little wild, but at least their hair isn't in their faces!

Another thing that I absolutely love is that Lilla Rose has a video you can watch to see some hairstyles and to determine what size clip you will need. This is very important because you might not need as large a clip as you think! These clips are flexible and can hold quite a bit of hair, great news for those with thick locks. They also have mini clips for those little girls who have baby fine hair.
You will also be amazed at the huge selection of clips, some fancy and some more plain. There is a style clip for any occasion or outfit!


I HIGHLY suggest you watch this very helpful video so that you can determine what size clip you need.




Would you like to try one out? Do you have a daughter who needs one too?

Marci is giving one of my readers a $16 certificate to her store to purchase a flexi-clip or another hair product.

To enter, go check out Marci and Lilla Rose. Come back and leave me a comment telling me which product or flexi-clip you would want if you won!

Register or open a new customer account and get an extra entry to win. Place an order and get 2 extra chances to win!

Like Marci and Lilla Rose on Facebook and get another extra entry to win!

I think these would make wonderful Christmas gifts too!

So what are you waiting for? Giveaway entry ends midnight Thursday! I will announce the winner Friday!

Have a great weekend! 

***Giveaway is sponsored by Marci Blubaugh, Indepedant Consultant with Lilla Rose. Giveaway open to residents of the USA only.***

What Holds You Back?

My husband said it, and he was right.

This past weekend we had an unusually busy schedule with friends, some we don't get to see often, but we do try and meet up for birthdays and other special occasions. It was a night out or two for dinner and a chance to act like adults sans a farm and large family.

**Devin brought his large, man sized "danger jenga" to one gathering. It's always a hit and a challenge to see how high it can get stacked!**

We had a great time, as always, and enjoyed catching up with so many people we do not see everyday or every week. It's like we have two lives. We have friends who live similar lifestyles to ours with a brood of children and a bookshelf of home school books and then we have friends who live a suburban life with private schools and a couple of kids. We love them both, really.

We were in the car driving home when Devin said, "You know for all of the people who admire what we do and wish they could do it, there aren't many who even try."

He's right.
We have heard from so many folks and friends who say how they would love to have more kids or would love to keep bees or would love to farm and home school.

So why not do it? What's holding you back?

I figure you've got one life. One chance. Go for it.

I personally do not want to look back and wish I had gotten that family cow or stayed home to raise my kids or learned to spot a queen honey bee from a frame of a thousand bees.

I am living it everyday. I wanted to do it and so I gave it a try.

                                   *Amelia Island, FL*

Life is full of possibilities if you imagine it and if you try.

Is there anything holding you back?

I will be back Friday with a post about hair and one way you can get a handle on that too!

The Fabric Stash

Inspired by my cramped storage space lovely assortment of fabrics stashed away in my closet, I decided to organize it all!
That is the one problem with being a quilter......quilters are actually fabric addicts. We buy fabric just because we like it and because we "plan" to make something eventually with that fabric. It can spend years stored away in a "fabric stash."
I have spent the last couple of weekends using up my larger pieces of fabric to make bags and totes and such, but what to do with all of the small pieces can be overwhelming.
Most of the time I throw it all on a couple of shelves or in a box and wait for the inspiration to sew with it all.
Truth is, it can be too difficult a task when you are not even really sure what pieces of fabric are in the bottom of that stash box.

I started by cranking some Fleetwood Mac up on Pandora and sorting all the stash fabrics by color. I have blues, pinks, greens, purples, oranges, and brown and blacks.

Being that I am feeling frugal and I did not want to put appropriate store shopping clothes on this weekend, I found what boxes I had and stacked the fabrics in said boxes. I plan to hit a store some time this week and buy plastic boxes with lids that will stack neatly on the shelves.

Something that is important (I think) when you store and organize your fabric stash and scraps is to fold the pieces as neatly as possible. It will save you time down the road when you do not have to spend so much time ironing out a billion wrinkles. Also, I had a stash of Christmas fabrics and decided to make a separate box just for those. Sometimes it is difficult to decide which color category a piece falls within so it's perfectly fine to have a "pattern" category or whatever fits your groove.

Now that I can see what I have, I can create something with all of these strips, scraps, and tid bits of fabrics!
The time I spent this weekend will pay off down the road when I decide to sew something with some scraps.

In fact, I found a stash of coordinating fabric and made a special little game for the kids.

Tic Tac To, anyone? This was very simple to put together and the kids have played and played all afternoon.

There was no need to sew anything fancy, just some squares with a little sashing between.

You could use more subtle colors too, but I prefer the bright, playful ones.
Wouldn't this make a great gift for a child? It would also be a nice game to take along in the car.

Now that this fun project is finished, I have another set of fabrics that I am cutting to make a quilt.

It will be a bright one! It is amazing what I found crammed on my shelves this weekend!
So these are my new projects for the next few weeks.

What projects do you have going?

Have a fabulous, productive week!

Busy Little Catch Up

As any mother of a large family knows, some weeks are busy, busy, busy!
 We have learned to cope by scaling our priorities a bit and just working to complete "the next task" at hand.
After a busy two weeks around here I rewarded myself with a day to sew.
I am working to use up some of my fabric stash, and I started by making this bag using all materials I had here.

Now I am working to cut fabric for a quilt. I am often asked how I find time to sew. My friend over at Domestic Anarchy was polite enough to cover that topic for me.  Thanks Maddie!

So actually the last two weekends I have been sewing. I like to sew on weekends when Devin is working and I can make something simple for dinner. The kids don't seem to mind free reign to play games and watch a movie either.

It's almost time for Handmade Holidays, and I am working to complete a list of projects to share this year.

On another topic, Quinn won the van design contest!!!!! Thank you to everyone who voted. We attended a press conference where they announced the winners and she was very happy. She wants to use her money prize to buy an electric piano, so we started shopping for one today.

Today the weather has been rainy and it is supposed to cool down some. I turned the a/c off and opened windows, hoping it was cool. It's a bit warm in the house tonight but I have faith some fall weather will be here by morning even if it's only for a few days.

This is my quick catch up! Tonight I am exhausted and need to decompress a bit. I will be back on a regular schedule again now that we are into a full school routine. Thanks for hanging around.

Tell me, will you be making more Hand Made gifts this year? Do you and your kids like to make ornaments? What holiday tradition do you look most forward to?

Have relaxing  and peaceful night!

Being Kind

 It's been circling my brain for days. It's been poking at me to write something...anything. I just need to get it off my chest so here it goes.

Let's say your best friend was upset, or your spouse, really upset. Crying. Scared. Needed you for comfort or solace.

Well, I am willing to bet you would be there. You would offer a hug or a shoulder or an ear.
This is what we do, right? As mothers, as friends, as human beings we help those we love. We even help those we do not know or love. We are charitable, we are giving, we are compassionate.

This quote is one I always think of when I think of our actions in everyday life.

"Be kind whenever possible. It is always possible."  - Dalai Lama


Now here is where my head spins. This is what stabs me in the stomach and makes my heart sink.

I read a story last week about a little girl starting kindergarten. In fact I read a few stories about the scary first day, the crying at drop off (by both parent and child), the sad faces at recess and the crying during class.
I think it's common because well meaning commenters respond by offering encouragement and their own stories of the first dreadful week of school. They urged the parents to press on because this is normal and part of growing up.
They assure that the five year old needs to cry and face her fears because life is hard and there is no need to shelter or coddle the child. Did you read that? We are talking about a five year old!

In the attempt to not tick anyone off I have tried to put myself in their shoes. I know that not every family can home school or would even want to home school. I also realize that a parent might not be able to drop everything to run to a school and comfort their child. I know this. I accept this.

What I do not accept is the belief that a child must be hardened or that a child must learn at this early an age that life is tough and to deal with it all. I reject this notion that it's okay to comfort a close friend but not our own children when the going gets tough.

A best friend called me last week venting about her toddler who has decided to wake up screaming during the night. She's tried most everything you can imagine to get her baby back to sleep to no avail. She even tried letting her cry it out but after  a considerably long time she could no longer stand to hear her child suffer. You see my friend has a mama' heart. She has a strong mothering instinct that her child is needing her. She was advised by many well meaning friends that her child, her baby, is manipulating her and the answer is to just let her scream until she stops. It came to no surprise to either of us that her baby calms down once she is in her arms.

Would we treat our adult friends and family this way? Ignore their needs and force them to comfort themselves?

Again, I reject this idea that a baby must learn to sooth itself. What the heck are we mothers for? I don't recall ever seeing an official job description but I am positive that we are here to comfort our children.

We are to some extent a society that hardens the child and coddles the adult. I think it could explain some of our societal problems, but that's just my opinion. I have no degree in parenting or sociology or even psychology.

What I do have are 7 attachment parent raised kids who are stable, social, confident, smart and above all else......kind.

Here's to a new school year at home and an always available hug!