hook that book

What was your favorite children's book? Mine was, and still is, a lovely book called Miss Rumphius, written and illustrated by Barbara Cooney. In fact, I have a signed copy! It is a wonderful story of Miss Rumphius, who, as a young girl, says she will grow up and travel to faraway places, but then come back and live by the sea when she is an old lady. She also resolves to find a way to make the world more beautiful.

Look at these illustrations- aren't they just gorgeous? I'd love to have some of these prints in my house! Love them.

above two pictures found here

above photo here

The rest of the pictures in the book are equally amazing. Go out and buy it, and you will love it. The story is inspiring. We can all find little ways to try to make the world just a little more beautiful. It's the little things, remember.

This weekend, I am throwing a baby shower for a friend, and of course, there is a book theme. I asked each person to bring a copy of their favorite children's book for the baby, to begin his library. I am also doing a book-related game. I have a list of well-known children's books and then a list (two columns, on the same page!) of the authors. People will be asked to match the name with the author. Whoever gets the most right will get a prize, which will be a book, natch. Maybe even Miss Rumphius, if I can find a copy (I don't always see it in bookstores, so sad!)

Tell me your favorite children's book, so I can add it to my list! I don't want this to be too hard for people....I know that not everyone follows children's literature as closely as I do ;)

monogrammed dinner!

Last night I made a chicken pot pie for dinner...and added a monogram!

I've made it several times before, and you can find my recipe HERE if you are interested.

As always, it was delish ;)

a little birdie said what?

I wanted to share with you a photo of a recent finished quilt- the little birdie quilt!

special thanks to Steve for modeling the quilt :)

This is a quilt that I began nearly a year ago, actually! I took a class at a local shop called Stitch DC, which is primarily a yarn and knitting shop at Eastern Market, but has recently begun to have fabric and quilting classes too! It's a great little shop, I am a big fan. I took the class last spring, but then didn't finish on time, as I couldn't attend the final class because I was out of town. I planned to go back to the shop and finish there, with supervision, but never had a good time where I could. Then I ran out of the green thread I was using and couldn't find more of the exact color. Then this, then that, and I just never got around to it. Now that I've moved in with Steve and have a room dedicated to sewing, I've been organizing everything, and I found the unfinished project. Then I found the right green thread! Then, a few weekends ago, I finished!

Yes, the birdie is supposed to be off center, and yes, he's appliqued on, which was the first time I did that. It worked out okay, though there is always room for improvement! I think it is cute, and I really like all of the fabrics that I used. Now I am trying to decide what to do with it. I may donate it to a charity. There are many charities that accept quilts for children in hospitals, etc, and I'd really like to do some of that, once my skills improve a bit.

Have you crafted anything lately?

PS. Heidi, you've won the dahl house giveaway! Please email me your address, and I will pass along your info to Victoria!

Thank you all who entered and many thanks again to the dahl house! I am loving their products, so I will definitely keep them in mind for another giveaway in the future!

giveaway extended!

Remember a few weeks ago when I posted a giveaway? No? Well, I kinda forgot about it too. Oooops. I am reviving it, and giving you one last chance to enter, until this Friday.

Go HERE for the rules to enter (easy peasy this time). Just tell me which item is your favorite from the dahl house. With all of their gorgeous handpainted items, it will be difficult! I am loving both the lobsters and the whales.

Tell me your favorite item. Tweet about it (@lexilooo) for a second entry.

I'll post a winner on Friday.

greetings from Washington, DC

Everyone likes postcards, right? If you do, can you help out with a school project for a friend?

My friend Crissy's young cousin is doing a school project (she's in 4th grade) where they have a race to gather as many postcards from different states as they can. She is in Massachusetts and is looking for exotic states that are far from New England :)

Could you help her out and send a postcard from your lovely state? The postcard does have to be postmarked from that state, otherwise I'd send her about a dozen myself! I have the address the postcards should be sent to, but I don't want to put it here, for obvious reasons, so if you want to help out, and send along a postcard, please send em an email (my email is on my profile page), or comment, and I can reply back to you with where the postcard should be sent to.

Also, if you want to blog about this too, I'd love it! I'd love it if she could get a postcard from all 50 states, so if you have friends in hard to get states, please forward this to them!

I should mention too, that this is a race, so it makes it more fun :)

(almost) wordless Wednesday

spring 2001...ten years ago!

Luxembourg, I miss you every day!

being alone

I saw this recently and it really spoke to me. I find it to be so true.

(not sure where I saw it...if it was your blog, please let me know, and what the source might be!)

I love having my alone time. I lived by myself for five years and really adored it. Now, I am living with Steve, which I love even more, but I still need some time to myself.

What about you? Do you find yourself craving alone time? How often?

quilty goodness!

Over the weekend, I went down to Hampton, VA with a few friends for the Mid-Atlantic Quilt Festival! I met them through the DC Modern Quilt Guild, which has been so great to be a part of.

Hampton is about three hours south of DC, so we left really early, but we stopped at Krispy Kreme for a quick snack, and then breakfast at Cracker Barrel, where I had birds in a nest, one of my personal favorites! Once we got to the convention center, we ran inside and found some of the most amazing quilts I've ever seen.

I apologize for the poor quality of the photos- I left my camera at home, so these are taken with my iphone!

Seriously though, aren't these just so amazing!? I can only hope that I'll be half this talented someday! It was really inspiring though, and gave me lots of ideas of things I'd like to try at some point, so that is a good thing.

Of course, there were lots of vendors, so we all bought lots of lovely fabrics. Do you want to see photos of all of the fabric I bought? I'm currently thinking up project ideas for my new goodies :)

PS. Have you entered my giveaway yet? Go do it!