Last month two of the kids and I took a quick trip to the mountains near the Georgia / North Carolina border. After a few days we headed toward the Atlantic coast and stopped in Charlotte, NC and St. Augustine, FL for before heading home.

While we do still have our pop up camper we opted to do tent camping and hotels for this trip. We were going to try mini-van camping (it's a real thing ... facebook groups and all!) but Kadedn thought that was too off the wall so we tented. And can you guess which child ended up sleeping in the van while River and I were in the tent??? Go figure :)

We did a lot of driving on this trip and very little picture taking, but it was still a much needed respite. I don't think I'll ever get enough of the mountains and waterfalls.

Stopping by to let you know that Because I'm Me and Jude Harbor are both having storewide sales this weekend. Save 20% on everything through September 7, 2021!

Four or five months ago our cat (and model) Hippo got out of the house "somehow" (ok, he's overweight ... we allow him to sneak out in hopes that he'll lose some weight). He came home a few hours later with a friend. 

His friend was an adorable, small, vocal gray cat. This fellow was immediately named Buddy, because he's Hippo's buddy.

I posted pictures of him on our local facebook groups and no one seems to know anything about him. So for the last few months we've been talking to him, trying to get a little bit closer to him, and feeding him each evening (he mostly comes by after dark). Years ago Hippo put a hole in the screen on our porch so Buddy uses that to get onto the lanai where his food is.

For a long time I wasn't seeing much of him but the food was gone in the morning, so I'd just set some out before bed.

That worked really well until one evening I walked past the lanai, checked for Buddy, and saw this instead:

Opossum was much less concerned about my presence than Buddy ever is and ate the whole bowl of food!

Now Buddy gets fed only when we see him!

Recently some decadent dinosaur flannel fabric magically appeared on my doorstep, along with a whole bunch of other fabric from Ziggie Lane Fabric. <- she has great sales, worth checking out and then I won't be alone in my fabric-aholic-ness.

Back to the dino fabric. I had to make quilt from it right away.

I opted to use the yummy dino flannel as the backside and created six appliqued dinosaurs for the front, on a white Kona cotton background.

The quilt is quilted with lots of straight lines 1" apart and sewn on the diagonal. I also quilted around each dinosaur.

 The binding is the yummy coral / sherbet print.

After sewing the top I shared a picture of it on my personal Facebook page and immediately sold the quilt to one of my favorite mamas to my most favorite eight month old (currently, by choice, my one and only daycare baby).

There is a second quilt in the works, very similar to this one, which should be finished in the next few weeks.

It feels like for-e-ver since a new bow tie line was introduced (fact: it has been forever, since before Covid was on our radar), and I'm extra super excited to introduce you to our seven print Liberty of London cotton bow tie collection.

These prints were culled from Liberty of London's Winter Flower Show and High Summer Flower Show lines, in 100% woven cottons.

I'm so in love with these prints! I can't even begin to express how pretty and fun and versatile each of them are. They coordinate so well with a black tuxedo or a trendy blue suit coat, and stand very well on their own with a coordinating shirt (and maybe add solid suspenders?).

Right now these prints are available in men's sizes only, and there are only eight bow ties in each print. If you need a child size or more than eight reach out to me and I'll see what I can do.

These ties are available while they last in the Because I'm Me etsy shop or through Jude Harbor's shop.

 Two months without a post but with very, very good reason.

 River needed to perform community service for a Boy Scout merit badge he was earning. Given his age (12) and Covid restrictions finding a place to volunteer wasn't easy so he got creative and suggested fostering kittens for one of our local shelters.

In no time at all Quebec and Romeo were at our house, two less than four-week old kittens. While they are both black and about the same ago they were not litter-mates, we got Romeo first and Quebec a day later - they do so much better when they're not singletons and the two bonded immediately and were so good for each other.

 

A day after getting our kittens Cassie decided she'd foster as well and she's now temporarily rearing Duck and Goose - who are absolutely adorable. Duck is slow to gain weight, having a metabolism I can only dream of, so she's had hers a little longer.

When Q and R first arrived they were syringe fed every 3 hours, moving to every 4 hours after a week or two.  They did not "relieve" themselves on their own and had to be stimulated with a cloth to go. They were given every hand towel in our house and we still had to do their laundry 3-4 times a day between pottying and bathing (because of pottying).

As they got older they got so much easier! By the time they left us, at about 8 weeks old, they were eating soft food and kibble, and using a litter box like the big cats that they were.

Romeo was always a little bigger than Quebec, but each of them more than tripled their weight while they were with us.

Big question ... how did we tell them apart? Quebec has a white stripe on his belly. But to be able to tell them apart without flipping one upside down Quebec wore lipstick on the back of his left ear ... without that we'd have been lost. As they got older it got easier - Romeo has bigger eyes and Quebec's eyes were more blue-green than Romeo's. Quebec was a bit smaller. One of them had a few white furs on his legs, the other on his ears. And their personalities were different. By the time they were about 5 weeks old I could tell them apart, River never mastered that.

We loved having them with us and can't wait to foster again after summer. Quebec was adopted by Mia and he and Linc are best of friends. Romeo went back to the shelter and was adopted within three days of being there.

I'm not really sure how many hours River put in in the six weeks we had the kittens. Definitely enough to meet his requirement.

A few last things:
* foster if you can ... the need is great
* if you see a kitten in the wild watch from a distance for a few hours, Mom is likely getting something to eat

The blocks on this stunning toddler or baby quilt were so much fun to make and the end result is just fantastic!

To make the blocks a Moda Woodland Secrets charm pack was coordinated with some other simple prints to create six 9-square blocks. The blocks were then cut on the diagonal, mixed up, and sewn back together. This block is known as a Disappearing Nine Patch.

White Kona cotton provides the sashing and border. The backing fabric is a fun dotty coral, and the binding is a coordinating green print. The quilting is done with meandering loopy lines.

The toddler or baby quilt measures 38" by 51", long enough for a small sofa throw quilt if desired.

Available at either our website or Etsy shop.