I don't know if I'm officially participating in this or not, since I'm a month behind, but I wanted to try at least from here to do it.  I came across a blog, The Outnumbered Quilter, here.  About a month ago he had a Pay It Forward Post.  This is how it works: 



1. I will make a little something for the first 3 people who comment on this post. It will be a surprise and it will arrive when you least expect it.

2. I will have 365 days to do it in. What's the catch? To get a handmade present from me, you have to play too! This means YOU pledge to send a little handmade something for 3 readers of your blog. It doesn't have to be quilty - just handmade and you don't have to make it, you can have someone else make it if you want to.

3. You must have a blog.

4. Once you comment here, you must post about your Pay It Forward on your blog to keep the fun going - with the Pay It Forward badge. Also, feel free to join the Flickr group to see what else is being sent!

I'm going to follow Paul's slight change:  The first three to comment will receive something from me regardless of whether or not you have a blog. If you don't have a blog, agree to make something for 3 charities. Or 3 things for one charity. (Project Linus Quilts, Quilts for Kids, Your local homeless shelter, etc.) In order to adhere to the rules set forth by those who started this, I will make something for 3 bloggers. So, if the first three are bloggers, then I've met the obligation. I just don't want any non-blogging followers to feel like they can't participate. So, will I make 3, 4, 5, or 6 items? That depends on who responds to this post!

So what do you think?

I have three more blocks done!  They're pretty wrinkled as I didn't take pictures of them until after they'd been packed into a bag for a bit, but here they are:

Pink

My kids favorite.  You can't tell in the picture, but at the top the fabric second from the right is dragonflies that sparkle.

Red

I love that little frog with the umbrella

Green

My favorite block so far.

My favorite Tiny quotes of late:

"I'm right here Babe." She said this randomly as we were walking out to the car.

"My color is yellow."  Someone had asked Mowg what his favorite color was.

Happy Easter!

I love Easter as the quintessential harbinger of Spring

I love the remembrance of the Holy Week

I love the whimsical springtime baby animals

I love colored eggs

This is the first year that is was simply fun to watch my kids dye them

First eggs

The thrill of the first view of color on the egg

(don't mind the morning hair and the candy encrusted face.  The Easter bunny visited us this morning.  Don't come between this girl and her chocolate!)

See?

Sometimes a big brother needs to help his little sister.

Organizing the eggs

Pose by the eggs



Happy Easter!

In my blog reading this morning courtesy Soulemama I came across this quote.  It's lifted my spirits even though there's not much sunshine this morning:

Hello sun in my face.
Hello, you who made the morning and spread it over the fields
Watch now how I start the day in happiness, in kindness.

M. Oliver

Here are the blocks.  I like them much better in person than I've been able to photograph.

Here's my first block

And my second

Here's my handsome assistant.

Our camera is having some trouble with the auto focus at the moment--which is tricky for a blind girl that's been heavily relying on it.  For now I'm off to make paper mache bowls and more blocks!

Notice my new button above.  I've joined my first ever quilt along.  I made two 11 inch squares tonight using her crazy scrap method.  The cool thing is now I have something concrete to show my dearest when he looks at me like I'm crazy when I get more scraps from somewhere.  I don't know why, I just love other people's scraps of fabric.  They have things I would never dream of having and suddenly there it is under the needle in my sewing machine making something I really like.  I didn't try really hard to make things match--other than sorting my scraps into color piles.  They turned out!  I like them.  I took pictures tonight, but I don't like how the pictures turned out so I'm going to try again in the daylight.  Some of the fabrics are light and they've faded to white in the picture.  Anyway, tommorrow then I'll show.  Tonight I just had to tell! :)

Celebration-the pictures

On the platform waiting for Traxs

And waiting

Here comes the train!

Mowg is his most excited when he's just looking about

Tiny on the other hand is much more expressive

"We riding the train!"

Visiting the Museum of Church History and Art

The quilt piecing wall

Catching fish always holds the greatest appeal

"Look what my got!"

Trying some traditional Mexican dancing

Can you beat a skirt like that?!

They had a mirror that you could watch yourself in, but for some reason neither one of the kids wanted to see themselves.  I'm still puzzled by this as they are usually looking into any reflective surface at themselves when we're at home.  Perhaps it was the lifesize adult strangers in the TV screens behind them.

Wood dolls with clothes to go with them.

Pretend food to "eat", a garden to pick carrots and onions from, and chickens to collect eggs from.

At the end of the visit a lion to rest on

And stand by for a brief moment

The single picture I got of our cougar experience is a blurr of mountain side, not a lion in sight. 

That is still surreal.