Love for Anika craft night.

Last week Leslie and I hosted a Love for Anika craft night.


Is there a better way to spend an evening than with sweet friends, unbelievable food, crafty crafts, all for a purpose?
Our friends can bring it!  The baking !  The cooking!  Are you kidding?
When guys get together they bring a bag of chips.
When girls get together it is a wonderland of deliciousness.
Not just yummy, but adorable.  
Cupcakes in a jar + Drew + her new sunny flower = happiness.
Erin's Meyer lemon cheesecake in mason jars just might be my new boyfriend.
Mique drove one billion miles through holiday traffic to join us.   Love her.  
The fave craft of the night were the leather cuffs that Leslie taught us.  She even brought her own Thor hammer.  It was legit!

Through the laughter, eating, more eating, then some more eating, with a side of crafty thrown in, we made silly memories, new friends and raised lots of money to help Anika come home.

If I could have one of these nights every week I would be one happy girl.

Thank you sweet friends for helping Anika come one step closer to her family and for filling my house with so much love.

(Thanks Angry Julie for being our photographer for the evening!  I am so bad at taking pictures while being a hostess!  You saved the day.)

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Congratulations! You survived!

Do you ever get tired of yourself?
Or is that just me?

Last week during the great Blogger Catastrophe of 2011, I looked at it as a huge break.
Yay!
I don't have to talk about myself for two days.
Blogger is broken?  Cool.  Free pass from posting.

But apparently it was much different for most people.
It just took one peek at my Twitter stream to see the hordes of despondent and disgruntled bloggers whose LIVES WERE RUINED BEYOND REPAIR because they couldn't publish their posts.

RUINED.
Like sharpening their pitchforks and lighting their torches, in preparation to storm the offices of Blogger, ruined.

Really?  Is this what it has come to?  Really?

I was over it.  A little sassy even.  Sassy enough to tweet this:


I lost a post.
One single post.
Out of the nearly one thousand that I have written.
Ironically it was the NBD post.

NO BIG DEAL.

Because it was really, truly NBD.

So enough about me.  Tell me about you.  What is the latest and greatest in your life?

Can you believe that you lived through the Blogger catastrophe?  What stories will you tell your grandchildren about where you were when it happened?

P.S.  If Blogger could break at least a few days each week I wouldn't be mad.  Just saying...

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A happy, happy weekend.

Not many things could get me back on Sketchy Air.
But the thought of a weekend away, crafting, chatting, antiquing, laughing, eating, and relaxing with new and old friends, was just the lure I needed.

Meg was our hostess with the mostess, and each and every minute was so fun, so special, so perfect.
She summed up our adventures beautifully here.

If you have ever thought of getting your friends together, local or far away, for a happy girlie crafty weekend, stop thinking and start planning.

There are no words to describe how amazing it is to get together and share life.  Share stories.  Encourage.  Laugh.  Grow.

If only Kansas, Oaklahoma, and Alabama were closer.

Thank you girls for spending the weekend with me.  Thank your husbands and children for letting you go.  Thank you Meg for being so, so fabulous.


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Pretty up your blog.

Today I am taking a little diversion from the usual
fabric/ girly/ sewing tutorial and attempt to explain 
something so over my head.
But if I can do it, so can you!
If you are an awesome HTML whiz please leave.
Certainly don't mock.
This is not for you.

But, if you want to update the look of your blog in a
few minutes for free, I have a few tips.

Mind you, I am no blog designer.
That is what the amazing Marina is for.
But for many of you, paying for a blog 
makeover isn't in your current budget.

Boo economy.



We are going to use my neglected Aqua Apron Sisters blog 
as an example.  I mainly just registered the name for the
future, so there isn't anything to read there.

Anyway, this screen shot above is how it comes courtesy of Blogger.
Yawn.

Here is where you start:
Sign into Blogger.
Go to Dashboard
Then Layout
Then Edit on the Header section


Here is what it looks like with a picture uploaded 
straight out of my camera into the header section,
shrunk to fit and with the picture placed
behind the title and description.

Better, but still... meh.


Now, I took that same picture, uploaded it to Picnik,
messed around with the exposure,
added a frame and
used the text feature for the title.

I then came back to my blog,
uploaded the new and improved version in the header section,
checked both
shrink to fit as well as
"instead of title and description."

Much better.

Next, add some fun buttons from
Seriously, Cathe is one of the most
talented and generous graphic designers out there.

She simply explains how to add each gadget.
You will wonder how you lived without her!

You can see the full version here.
I spent about three minutes on it.
For reals.

No go cute up your blog!
Please.  
No more ugly font stock Blogger yuckiness.  
Think of how fancy and nerdy you will feel!

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