Quilt from Italty

My best friend is named Erin. I probably talk to her on AVERAGE once every 2-3 months and I can't remember the last time I spoke to her on the phone. But I know it was when I had a landline and that's been gone for awhile now.

She and I met in Tucson when we each lived in one side of a connected duplex. She is awesome. I told her that if her husband died I would welcome her to be my sister wife.

The offer still stands.

I lived with her for a couple of months before we moved her because she was pregnant with her first child and her husband was deployed. She held my left leg when I delivered Lizzie.

She also took Lizzie's first pictures moments after birth as well as professionally when she was 8 days old.

I really, really, really miss Erin.

She and her husband and their two kids currently live in Italy on a military tour and I am insanely jealous.

She also has a William which shows her obvious good taste.

She is possibly the most creative person I know and she quilts. I adore Erin's artwork.

She made Kylie a quilt to her specifications when Kylie was 9. It's black and green and Kylie still sleeps with it.

She made Lizzie a quilt right when she was born that is the most beautiful blue and yellow and totally matched the duck theme I had going on at the time.

Today I received her quilt for Will. I honestly wasn't expecting a quilt because usually Erin's process is to know the child a little bit before quilting for them and she's never met my Will.

I think she nailed it though anyway.

It's called the Bear Claw and it's a little bigger than a crib quilt.

A little too close Mom......

Plenty of room to roll around on.

Both of my boys liked the quilt. This was taken a split second before one of them tried to shove a corner in his mouth. I'll leave you to guess which one.

Valentines plate

I like making stuff with my kids hand prints. I look at the stuff I made with Kylie's little hands when she was a year old and I'm amazed that now she's talking about college and majors and purple hair dye.

Thanksgiving of 2008 I made this plate with both girls hand prints. I figured I wasn't having anymore kids so it was okay.

I was wrong. Obviously.

(And yes, I made their hand prints look like Turkeys. It's hard to see the beaks and feet unless you look at the picture up close.)

Earlier this week I had this brilliant idea for a Valentines craft plate that would use the kids handprints but I sadly didn't have the kids. And oh, I had jury duty and went back to work this week. So my time was slightly limited.

Lucky for me Brian had to work Saturday and his girlfriend is out of town so the kids were essentially home and doing nothing today. With that in mind I borrowed them for a couple of hours so we could do my awesome craft.

I love going to this particular pottery painting place. I drive almost 45 minutes to get there but the people there are awesome and I consider it worth the drive.

It's Arts on Fire studio in Highlands Ranch and no, I'm getting nothing for mentioning them in my blog. They wouldn't know me from Adam and they certainly wouldn't know about my blog. David the owner is so friendly and nice and his wife remembered us when we walked in, even though it's been over a year since we were there.

Today Kylie painted a fairy, Lizzie painted a small unicorn and small turtle and I made this awesome plate:
It's isn't glazed or fired yet, they will do that this week. So the colors will be a little brighter when I actually get it back but I love it overall. It's a pale pink and it says "Love is the" and then I used hand prints for Kylie and Lizzie and Will's feet since he still keeps his hands clenched in little fists to make hearts and then on the bottom is says "Of this home".

The meaning is of course "Love is the heart of this home".

I meant for it just for a Valentines decoration but I'm kinda thinking about keeping it up all year round. Because it is the heart of our home. And it just looks awesome.

Sometimes I really think I'm the craft queen of the world. Then I remember I'm really lazy and relegate the title to someone with a little more spunk.