to tell you the honest truth

collecting {and a giveaway}

Recently we took a quick trip downtown to the antique stores where I know I can find a few pyrex dishes.  I started collecting several months ago, typically just picking up one thing at a time.  This last time, I noticed the pyrex options very scarce so I snagged up these last couple pink and aqua cuties.  My friend, Jeni, is a queen pyrex collector, and has definitely inspired me to not forget about collecting.  I do that.  I start something, but then get so busy that I forget!  How silly.  I met Jeni in the 3 x 6 Sampler Mini Bee on flickr.  She is just darling!  (Hi Jeni!)

I had my eye on both of these the last time I was there, so I was happy to see them still there.  A couple times I have passed up buying the pink ones because I have just been focused on the aqua.  Then I regret not getting one!  Even though they don't match my red and aqua color scheme, I figure they will be great for Easter and for girly parties for Ava.  Plus, pink is just plain cute. 

I love the daisy pattern and the divider is so handy!

These are the aqua ones I have so far. 

I've had one mishap with a lovely large mixing bowl, so now I am a little protective of my pyrex!  They sit on the counter top until we get some child proof locks on the cabinets.

Pink and Aqua....so cute!

 

Last night my hubby came home with some chocolate for me.  I love any reason to use my tiny dish!

I hide it near my sewing mess.  :)

 

The other thing I have been collecting up.....slowly.....is the Martha Stewart kitchen items.  So far, this is what I have.

I love them because they aren't breakable!  They are melamine....kind of like hard plastic.  I also love them mainly because they are red and aqua.  Of course!

I also like to think of any reason to use these!

 

mmmmmmm!

 

Okay, one last thing I am starting to collect. 

These.

I love putting things in this too, but they are also so beautiful empty sitting in the window because of the perfect aqua coloring.  There are plenty in the antique stores downtown, so I know I can get several pretty easily.  Isn't the lid just cool?

Perfect. 

 

What are you collecting?

Tell me in the comments what you are collecting and I'll draw a name late tomorrow night for free embroidery patterns!  Whatever ones you want up to $20.  The sets are fine too!!  

Have a wonderful day!

Tasha

not the norm

Orange and Green!  So, not the norm for me!  I joined the 3 X 6 Mini Bee on flickr and have color requests other than red, pink and aqua.  Imagine that.  I was surely not prepared for green and orange, so I went a looking.....oh, dear....poor me...had to buy a little fabric.  Plus, I thought it was great stash building for anything I might make my boys in the future or for swapping or other bee's or whatever.  And it's already growing on me!!   

I came across Ruth's Sewing Room on Etsy where she is selling 2 yards of Katie Jump Rope for $6.99.  I thought it was a great deal so I snatched some up.  A couple of these are smaller amounts.  She has a few others that are sort of odd amounts of fabric for like $5.  I don't think she has a lot left, but I asked on one fabric that was in one of her pictures, but not listed in the shop and she had just a 1/2 yard left.  It was the orange flowers.  So, if you're interested in some KJR, head on over! 

Other excitement in the house today....

Star Wars speeders in space made with cheese.  mmmmm!

 

C-ya!

Tasha 

today i am.....

....doing this:

 

hopefully I'll get it done this week and then I'll list the pattern in the shop!  so far I like her.  :)

 

i'm totally excited to have finished this quilt.  like i said before, i started it FOREVER ago and then pregnancy and newborn life took over.  so, here it is, in all it's red and aqua glory!  i really do love it and had a great time making it.  weirdly enough, i did enjoy the stippling process and for some reason, like the binding process.  and i might add, that nothing is better than pulling a freshly laundered quilt from the dryer to see the new crinkly look the quilt has taken on.  oh, and finding a place to display the quilt is pure happiness!

 

This quilt was inspired by one I saw on Etsy in THIS SHOP.  I contacted Nettie and asked her if she would put a red and aqua scrap pack together for me and I told her I trusted her judgment of fabrics to include.  She did not disappoint, as I received a wonderful collection of popular designer fabrics and super cutie Japanese imports.  I also had several red and aqua's of my own to add to the mix.  Even though that was a LONG time ago, I still like to follow what Nettie is doing on her blog, A QUILT IS NICE.  It's always inspiring.  Thank you Nettie!  :)

 

The wind blew the quilt just perfectly so you can see the backing.  Because I work within a (small) budget, I usually have smaller amounts of fabric in my stash.  Even though I would have loved to go purchase the new fabric that I had envisioned being the "perfect backing" or what I wanted for the binding, I used what I had on hand.  The pro to this "being on a budget", is that it forces a little more creative thinking on my part, which has always led to, in my opinion, a more interesting outcome.  The rest of the white, the aqua polka dots and the cherries were cut into different widths, for a striped, pieced backing.  The binding was also pieced and I love it! 

 

 

Now, I need to make another to keep the house extra cozy for the winter months ahead!

Tasha

halloween '09

This year my kids really did look pretty cool, but some of my pictures totally stink.  I wanted them to all stand nicely together, but would they?  of course not.  My boys are the "fiercely independent" type and for surely not the "stand around and take cute pictures for mom" type.  They run their own race on Halloween....the bigger ones, not Austin YET.  Caleb, Taylor and Isaac were equipped with pillowcases, 2 pairs of rollerblades and a skateboard and they were off!  They unloaded once at home and then took off again for round two.  The end result was A LOT of candy! 

We also greatly enjoyed our company on Halloween!  Pete's sister, Katrina, (just moved up from Arizona) her husband, Miah and their darling little boy, Adin along with Pete's other sister, Maria and her husband, Sheldon, were all able to join us for some pizza, "spider cider" and trick-or-treating.  (I know that was a long sentence).  I invited my brother Jeff and his family also, but they had a grandparent visiting town and no car big enough to transport them all to my house!  :(  I talked to Julie and it sounded like they had some fun plans though. 

I have to say, I totally loved dressing up my little girlie for Halloween!  It's a different experience than dressing the boys.  Thankfully, she had a darling hand-me-down mermaid costume, from her cousins, that fit perfectly.  I bought some ribbons and made a big bow to match.  It was my first and it ended up a little big, but I think it was okay for Halloween.  She was adorable, if I do say so myself!  :)

 

Caleb happily posed with her, and I thought the ones of them turned out great.  Caleb absolutely adores Ava!  As you can see, Caleb was a "freak" for Halloween, and he LOVED his look.  Is that good or bad?

 

 

Taylor was Elvis again and my pictures are terrible, but really, he looked awesome.  Especially with his rollerblades on.  He has such a great sense of humor and somehow this costume just works for Taylor. 

 

 

Isaac was Prince Caspian.....and oh, a handsome Prince he was!!  He was DARLING and I am angry with myself that all I have of him is this: (a neighbor friend joined the picture too)

Austin was a red Power Ranger.  Hey, honestly, it was $10 and I just really didn't care that much.  He DOES NOT watch Power Rangers!  He just happens to know what they are because his friends have the action figures and therefore, we have purchased a Power Ranger action figure before.  (He does like his action figures!)  Anyway, after we sprayed his hair, we actually loved his little look!  Again, not a terrific picture.  :(

 

Hope you all had a fun Halloween!

a collection started and FYI

I've started a collection of vintage pyrex in the prettiest of colors....AQUA!  I know of a couple secret places that have small stashes of this stuff, so I've been going every couple weeks to snatch up another dish. Time to go again!  It sure has made it a little extra fun to do some cooking and baking!  The other day I made a couple things:

Chocolate Chip Cookies!  YUM!

 

And a chicken salad recipe from Pioneer Woman!  mmmm.

There is a similar post on my NEW BLOG, so if you go there too, don't be surprised to be seeing double...sort of. 

Which leads me to the FYI part.  You know, For Your Information.

Basically, To Tell You The Honest Truth will be my personal, family style blog.  I'll probably update it every couple weeks or so.  You know, the Birthday Party, the Pumpkin Patch, etc, etc....stuff like that.  Anything that has to do with my crafting, sewing, etsy shop, collecting, baking, photography, etc., or anything that is cute or fun to look at, will be posted on my new blog, A Little Sweetness.  An occasional post of family will probably occur as well.  This blog will be regularly updated at least 2-3 times per week.

Pretty much what I'm saying is, I'll mostly be posting on my other blog, so if you want to see what I'm up to on a regular basis, especially in the crafting realm of my life, go there!  :)

Hopefully you'll all pop on over! 

Tasha

a little sweetness

Today I'll be directing you to my MY NEW BLOG so you can see what I've been up to lately!

 

"i have my cake! i'm 4 now!"

When we brought home a big cake from Costco for Austin, that's what he said...."i have my cake!, i'm 4 now!".  Even though his birthday wasn't until the next day.  It made us laugh.  He had been talking about his birthday for months and months.  Every toy or lego magazine that came through the house was repeatedly looked through as he pointed and explained to us the things he wanted for his birthday.  For literally months he did this.  No other child of ours has ever been so obsessed about a birthday.  Not like this.  Austin is hilarious.  He says very funny things all the time.  He also throws some pretty awesome tantrums that usually test our patience skillz to no end.  Nevertheless, we love him to pieces. So, we couldn't help but go a little "all out" for his birthday with how excited and eager he was to turn 4.   We didn't have a big party, it was more about the goods and the cake for him.  We had a few neighbor kids over and kept it simple with cake and ice-cream.  We had a couple tears from the birthday boy with so much excitement, but other than that...a great little party for our little man. 

The cake idea was inspired by my sister's awesome star wars cake she made for her son and Austin did want one JUST like it.  I had all the good intentions in the world to make him one just like it, but I copped out in the end and snagged a cake at Costco when we were there doing the shopping.  When I brought it home, Austin did say to me, "why didn't you get me a star wars cake?".  I felt like a terrible mother even though I did have plans to decorate it with star wars action figures like my sister had done.  I was so worried about it, but he seemed pretty happy with the result.  Austin LOVES clones and Darth Vader!  We found the cool Vader candle at Party City which I think was the perfect touch to the cake.  Anyway, enough of the cake saga!

Here's Trista's homemade Star Wars cake!  I love the glowing light sabers! 

Here's some close ups of Austin's

C-ya!  Me and Aussie are off to get some of that leftover cake!  mmmm!

discovery

ava was so cute yesterday playing in the grass and discovering the little yellow flower there.  basically she wanted to eat it and i did have to take it out of her mouth a few times between taking the pictures.

i love her little hair sprout she has....see, it's growing!  yay! 

Pete and Tasha love the 80's

For all of those that are living lost in the land of the 2000's. Poor Poor souls. Here is some real music that does NOT swear every other word. YEAH!!!!!

a-ha - New Music - More Music Videos

This is Pete, hahahahahahahaha. Hey Ninzel, this is for you also, my 80's lovin sista, lol. BOOOOOOYA

little tote

I'll be teaching a little sewing class for a mid-week activity at church.  It was suggested to me that a tote bag might be an item of interest.  I guess I'll find out!  The class isn't until October, but hopefully it won't be a total flop!  Either way, I love my new little tote!  If you do want to know about how to make the tote, it's just a tutorial I followed on The Purl Bee.  Totally easy.  I was excited to find that Pacific Fabrics is now carrying a selection of Japanese Import fabrics and had this cute Red Riding Hood one I have seen online before.  It was fun working with some new colors, not that I don't still love my pink, red and aqua friends. 

The tote is magazine sized.  The tutorial would be EASILY altered for bigger or smaller. 

 

ttfn!