Changes and Changes...

Wow, its been months absolutely months since I have posted anything.  Truth be told I wasn’t sure I wanted to keep blogging.  My blog hasn’t gotten the response I thought it would.  I’ve been doing some soul searching and decided to give it one more shot.  We changed a few things around as well.

First…  Welcome to Anna Noelle Designs!!!   Yes, I changed the name.  The name now reflects the combined efforts of me and my daughter.  It will also be easier to link it to our Facebook page and upcoming etsy store.  I also want to let you in to our lives a little too.  Our struggles and our successes, as we work towards our dreams with lots of fun and Craftiness along the way.  Feedback is requiring if not necessary.  How else can one improve if we don’t receive feedback?

Now let me share what we have been up to lately.  We have been involved in several swaps mostly from Instagram.  Check out our Instagram @kraftykat16.   I was also a winner of a blog post, my first ever.   I won  a copy of Lori Holt's  new book  Great Granny Squared. Debbie from a  Happy Little Cottage blog hosted the giveaway.  I was thrilled absolutely thrilled.  If you have time hop on over and check them out.

On a sadder but more inspirational note, I recently lost a very dear friend several months back.  My friend left behind many loved ones, but the most tragic is her 5 children and husband.  I have taken on the task of working on picture quilts for these amazing little people.  It has taken much longer to complete this task, simply because I did not realize the magnitude of emotion I would be feeling.    As the quilts get closer to completion we will be sharing.  In the meantime, please check out the fundraising page for my Amazing friend    http://www.youcaring.com/other/loving-support-for-megans-children/140432.

Screen This Too!

I want to take a moment and use my blogging site for a very important service announcement.  I want to address a topic that is very near and dear to my heart.  October is Breast Cancer month … and all the pink is popping up.  I am in no way demeaning breast cancer or those who suffer from it.  I am a survivor myself but not from breast, from Colon.  I was diagnosed 5 years ago this past August with Stage III Colon Rectal Cancer.  During my journey I blogged about it at www.mymomhasbuttcancer.blogspot.com .  It was awful experience, however its one that I am eternally grateful for.  Nobody wants to hear the big C.  It changes your life, you can never return. Even when they say its gone, the thought never is.   I was so embarrassed when I found out.  We called it Butt Cancer as a way to make it seem more light hearted for our young children.  So as we enter October with all the pink ribbons and breast cancer awareness, I  would like everyone to  to join my friends at the Colon Cancer Alliance with another mission..

Please DO NOT DIE from EMBARRASSMENT.  Nobody wants to talk about their butts, several  years ago women did not want to talk about their breast.  Look at the response now.  I can only hope that we will be able to bring as much attention to Colon Cancer as has been brought to breast. 

Kat

Post Cards

I am so excited to tell you about a new activity the kids and I have been participating in.   I am a firm believer in writing.  Writing stuff and then actually mailing it.  We all remember the best part of the day was opening the mailbox to see what came, well at least me. I worry that with all the electronics we lose the sense of connections that items use to travel, that we would actually mail letters.  I wanted my children to have the excitement of letter writing and getting something in return. 

With all that in mind, I reached out to my friends and family that are FAR away, at least several states away and I have wrangled them into a letter/postcard writing campaign.  We are lucky ( for this project)  that we are on the West coast and most of our family is on the West coast.  To my sons, the west coast is a brand new world.  This past weekend we created

and printed our post cards and off they go. It was super easy too.  We searched Google images for images we liked and printed them on card stock.  Cut it down to 4 x 6 and there you go.   I cannot wait to get the responses and see the excitement on the kids’ faces when they get mail from them.  Do you have a favorite childhood activity that you would love to pass on and share with your kids.  Anyone looking for a faraway pen pal?  Hit us up, we love to send and receive mail.

Playing with scraps..

I recently signed up for my very first block swap.  The swaps we were making were scrappy string blocks. We all used the same tutorial from Bonnie Hunter, who is amazing.  The string blocks were paper pieced, another project we jumped at trying.  I love them

 I can't wait till I receive mine in the mail.   The best  part is I get to send 2 of these all the way to Australia.  Now how cool is that. Scrappy String Blocks  are the coolest way to reduce your stash.  If you decide to make some, I would love to see the pictures.

I am not Martha Stewart

  but I want to be!  I would love to be the queen bee of crafting and have tremendous ideas with gorgeous results. I want to have a billion dollar craft business.  What a dream if my real life full time job was to craft all day long? In reality that is not the case. I do more  fails than successes , in-completes vs. completes and have to have a real office job to pay my bills.  For instance, I decided to make a clay impression of my grandson’s hands and feet with salt dough.

 That was an epic fail.  The dough didn't set correctly and the foot prints were recognizable.  It was a waste of salt,flour and time.  The only lesson I learned was maybe this is not the craft for me. Do you have an epic fail?  My list of craft not’s is a lot longer than my list of Yes, I did it’s.  My list includes Mosaics, glass etching, glass painting,  anything involving dough or plaster is not the medium for me.  My completions are a much shorter list to date, how about yours.

The point I am trying to make is that while I am not a Suzy homemaker, I am a crafty queen with ideas that sometimes turn into successes and some days even amaze me.   I ask you to come on the journey and dig deep, create and find your Crafty queen.  

We didn't know!!!

It amazing how you can complete something when you don’t know that you can’t.  For instance, we didn't know how to quilt and we did.  We didn't know that Free Motion quilting was hard and we did it. We didn't know that sashing was supposed to be difficult but we did it.  We didn't know all those things but did them and ended up with a very impressive quilt.  There are still something’s to be done, but I feel it is gorgeous and will be loved by my niece, I hope for her whole life.

The binding still needs to be completed, which is not something I am a big fan of or enjoy doing.  I think that is because I have not figured out a easy way to do it.  To this point I have only machine quilted binding.  However on the majority of blogs, I see that a lot of quilters, hand bind.  This may be something I do next.  So let me ask all you out there, do you machine bind or hand bind.  Which do you prefer and why? 

I am also honored that my NON crafty daughter, said to me the other day .”Mom, I think I might want to make a quilt, on my own.”  All because she doesn't know.

Hexagon Crazy

Yes. I the queen of unfinished projects has taken on another task.  I found this  EPP Tutorial which made everything so clear and so easy.  I just knew that I had to try it out.  I also had the perfect fabric.  Here is my shot at hexagons, thanks to Sarah!

 I also recommend you check out the entire blog as I am now a big fam.  So as far as what I am going to make with them... well check back in a few weeks and I should be done.  They will be quilted into a gift for my niece.