wordless wednesday: {more}

love this.

so much.

(found on pinterest)

push it real good

Lately, I've been hearing a lot about the idea of push presents.

According to wikipedia, a push present, (also known as a "push gift" or "baby bauble") is a present a new father gives a new mother when she gives birth to their child. In practice the present may be given before or after the birth, or even in the delivery room. The giving of push presents has supposedly grown in the United States in recent years.

I have friends who have been given jewelry, mostly. I have a friend who recently announced her pregnancy, and yesterday, we had friends over for Steve's birthday, and a friend's husband told her husband about this trend. He'd never heard of them!

I tweeted about them yesterday, and the opinions were split, for the most part. I personally think they are a bit silly. I mean, the mother "does the hard work," yes, and pushes the baby out, but does she deserve new diamond earrings for this? Isn't the baby the best present of all?

What do you think of push presents? If you have babies, did you get one? If you don't, do you want or expect one someday?

Wordless Wednesday {learning to knit}

books!

Remember the little book giveaway I did a few weeks ago? Well, the winner is Little Miss Can't Be Wrong, so please email me your address! If you don't read LMCBW's blog, you should! She's hilarious and I'll be anxious to read her review of this book ;)

This was a fun little mini giveaway, and I think I will do it again. I like the idea of travelling books and passing along ones that I won't read again! In fact, I think I will post another one later this week, so check back by Friday!

How was your weekend? Anything fun happen?

bookshelf mini quilt!

I'm so excited about this project that I recently finished! It's a mini bookshelf quilt! I first saw it on flickr, a few months ago, and loved it so much and knew that I had to try it. Then I found the tutorial that the quilter typed up, so others could try it! It comes from a fabulous quilter who blogs at Don't Call Me Betsy and she really does some amazing work.

I love the way it turned out! You can see the "titles" of the books, which come from fabric selvages, which are the very edge piece of the fabric that isn't typically used. It usually has printed words on it, listing the name of the designer of the fabric, as well as the name of the fabric line, etc. So, it is just perfect for book titles!

Of course, like all of my projects, there are a few mistakes, but I am okay with that. After all, I am still new at this and still learning! I am planning to give it to my mother, as she's a librarian and a quilter! I think she will like it.

I love it so much, I want to make one for me too, and hang it in my sewing room! It was fun to make, and not too difficult, just time consuming, as it is a lot of small pieces, but that is the fun!

Who knows, maybe I will make one for a lucky blog reader someday too! Would that be fun?

plate: like or dislike?

I've been on the hunt for some fun plates for a crafty project that I found and am dying to try (more on that later!). I saw these at TJ Maxx tonight for $2 on the clearance shelf, and I bought the last two they had. I thought that they were perfect for the project, but then I was thinking that they are really cute and I might want to just keep them and use them! They aren't dinner plates, more desert sized- they're about 6" in diameter. They remind me of the blue English countryside plates. What are they called? Do you know which ones I mean?!

What do you think? Like? Dislike? Keep for use? Or use for crafty project? Be honest!!!

(if you hate them, I won't be hurt!!!)