New Linky Party & Birthday Celebration!!

You may (or may not) have noticed that I haven't done a Fave 5 Friday in several weeks now. I've discovered that I often forget what day it is & don't realize it's Friday until mid-day. You'd think that would mess with my work schedule, but it really doesn't.

Because of this "problem" of mine I've decided to change things up slightly. You will now have all weekend to link up and there will be a theme. I went back and forth about adding a theme many times, but I finally decided that it would be fun. I hope you're with me on that!

So here are the new rules:

(1) Grab a button from the right sidebar there.

(2) Carry your camera everywhere. Take photos of everything! I often forget to pull my camera out, but we'll try to remember together.

(3) Post 3-5 pictures, current ones are preferred, but sometimes you'll have to use archived photos for certain themes. Please mention this linky party and link back to my blog in your post.

(4) Link back up here before midnight Sunday (Mountain Time).

(5) I will post the next week's theme in advance so you'll know what to get pictures of.

Being that this is the first linky party of For The Love Of... I thought I'd make it an easy one.

HOME!

Interpret that however you want; pictures of where you live, family celebrations, anything that means home to you.

Here's mine:

This guy is my home. Wherever he goes, whatever adventures he takes me on, I'm home!

I love living on the prairie. Mother Nature provides amazing scenes!

Yesterday, after Tuesday's snow storm.

And for more fun... my birthday is Saturday! I'm pretty excited about it so I thought I'd share some goodies with one of my awesome readers. One person will receive a drawstring bag similar to the one below filled with other handmade treasures. All you have to do is link up for the first For The Love Of... linky party. A random number generator will do the rest.

The linky & giveaway are open until Sunday, November 6th at midnight.

If you have any questions or problems linking up just leave a comment & I'll do my best to help you out.

Next week's theme: Animals!

Quilt Tops & Screen Doors

My parents just left today after a long weekend visiting. It was a very nice visit & we had a lot of fun going to the rodeo (more on that later this week), driving around the area, and just hanging out at home.

My mom is an amazing sewist and taught me garment making last year. This year she wanted to learn how to quilt so she was my first quilting student.

Mom's first quilt top. Made with an Etchings charm pack & using the Bennington pattern in Schnibbles Times Two by Carrie Nelson.

I finally finished my A Morris Tapestry quilt. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but it had ended up in my "on hold" pile. After cutting the border twice (short both times) and running out of fabric I had to rethink it a bit. I think it turned out better than my original plan. :)

Since we have moved so much my parents have never gotten us a house warming present. (It wasn't something I had ever thought of, but something my mom brought up recently.) So while they were here we headed over to Menard's in Scottsbluff and got screen doors & a weed whacker! So awesome! Now I only have to fight with the bugs when I'm outside.

My dad played on the riding lawn mower most of the day yesterday and the "yard" looks amazing! :)

They also brought this with them. When my grandfather passed away recently we received a flag for his service in the Army Air Corps during WWII. We also received a flag for grandma, who was in the Marine Corps Women's Reserve and served in New York during WWII. They never received a flag when she passed away, but now that everything's computerized they discovered the mistake. My brother has the other one so this flag is in honor of both grandparents' service for our country.

And see that painting in the upper left hand corner? One of several paintings that I own that grandpa did. :)

Thanks for visiting!

And the Winner Is...

Random.org chose #27! Amy (MamaTea) from A Farmish Kind of Life!

I think it's pretty cool that I won a book from her and now she's getting fabric from me to add to the quilt that she's working on. :)

If you didn't win, don't worry, I am hosting another giveaway later this week. I told Jake that when I reached 25 followers I was going to have a giveaway, well 25 came and went quickly and now I'm up to 30! So stay tuned.

Until then, here's a photo of our new place. We've got a mountain view again! The dogs sure love it. And we do too! :)