Eye Candy

Head on over to my post on the Lick Skillet Quilt Guild if you want to see some delicious eye candy like this:




or this:




Happy New Year! We're eating unhealthy snacks (twinkies, red vines, cookies, soda, and pretzels) and watching Harry Potter until Midnight.

~ Norma

Random facts about... Me!

(and the winner of SMS giveaway day. Yeah, it's about time.)

This morning as I was browsing through the posts on my Google reader I a came across a fun post from Amy at The Idea Room. I had so much fun reading her post and feel like I got to know her just a tad bit more. So here's my attempt at bonding with all of you. Good, clean, not in a weird way bonding :)


- Don't ever try to scare me in a dark hallway. I've taken too many self defense classes and my gut reaction is to kick or punch the living daylights out of anything that jumps out at me. Mr. PD can vouch for this fact. Just ask him about the time he tried to scare me at church. His shins were not happy :)

- Hates squashing the big giant southern cockroaches. Just thinking about it makes me want to vomit. I usually have to call my kids or Mr. PD to the rescue. (Just so you know cockroaches are a fact of life in the south especially if you live on a wooded lot and are not necessarily a reflection of cleanliness, oh and those suckers can fly.)

- I studied Industrial Design in college with a double minor in Spanish and Manufacturing. What? Basically industrial design is product design. Designing the way things look not necessarily the way they work, that's for the engineers and smart people. Spanish, because I grew up speaking Spanish and I love my heritage. Manufacturing because my counselor said that an Industrial Designer who designs things that can't be made is useless.

- Sadly I left college without my degree. Someday I will return to finish up 1 more year of college and graduate!

- I got bucked off a horse once. Oh and there was another one that tried to roll over on me once... maybe I should stay away from horses.

- I have a perfect driving record. Not even a warning.

- Has been tossed out of a raft in class 4 rapids and lived to tell the tale.

- Sometimes I wish I could write blog posts anonymously because there are some funny things that happen to me but I don't want to offend people (people I actually know in real life) with my tongue in cheek thought process.

- I can read (or at east I used to be able to) ancient Mayan hieroglyphs.

- I'm a Mormon. No we're not polygamists. Yes we are Christian.

- Hates math with a passion and is envious of my human calculator husband who can whip out fabric yardage requirements and can run circles around sales people trying to con him into a "deal."

- Loves to compete in triathlons and got first place in the women's division once. Ok so there where only 3 women. It was my lucky day!

- Set new personal records this year for a 10k and a half marathon.

- Loves to do anythign remotely crafty: cooking, sewing, quilting, building furniture, painting, etc.

- Hates to do the dishes. They often pile up in both sinks.

- Loves to be active (a big plus in avoiding quilter's butt) : running, hiking, swimming, biking, scuba diving, racquetball, tennis, volleyball, horseback riding etc.

- I love to read. Anything and everything! I don't know how many books I've read but surely it must be close to a thousand by now.

- Hates living in the south because they have tornadoes (among other things.)

- Loves animals! Cats, dogs, horses, rabbits, chickens, goats, hedgehogs... maybe I should live on a farm.

- Loves to cook and eat international. Mexican, Chinese, Japanese, Thai, American, Indian. I love food! Being active also helps with this!

- Loves to dance. Mr. PD does not dance :(   Thank goodness for Zumba!


ok that's probably enough for now! I wonder how many of you are still reading. Let me know if you write your own post. I'd love to read it.

~ Norma

and the winner of the SMS giveaway day Portrait silhouette is:

#39

MJ said... 39

My favorite decoration is the brass Christmas ornament from every year, that my grandmother gave me. I'll cherish those forever!

Sugar Cookies

I recently found the awesomeness that is Sweet Sugar Belle's blog. I was so inspired by her creations that I went ahead and made my first batch of sugar cookies. Ever.

It took me a while to make these and my hands were tired by the time I was done icing 30 cookies. Not too shabby for my first batch. My kids were gone while I decorated these but I did save one for each to decorate! My kids and husband have gobbled these up, I've only had one. Honestly I prefer my sugar cookies plain. The icing on these puppies (royal icing) is sugar overload for me.

These were so fun to make and I think I'll be making them again. I learned a few tips and tricks that made these easy to make. Like rolling out your dough between wax paper and then popping in the fridge before cutting. Putting your flood icing in a restaurant squeeze bottle. Putting your icing in saran wrap for easy clean up. There are lots of helpful videos at University of a Cookie. In fact here is a video featuring Sugar Belle making the snowflake cookies.

Do you like to make sugar cookies this time of year? Do you let your kids help or are you a cookie Nazi?

~ Norma

Giveaway Day

Petit Design Co. is joining in all of the fun of Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day.

Make sure you hop on over to view the 3 master lists (yes 3!) of everyone joining in for the fun giveaways.

I'm giving away 1 free digital Portrait Silhouette to one lucky winner, like these here:

I can make them of kids or adults. I even do pets, but not for this giveaway. You can see my full range of silhouettes at my shop. You can use them for prints, note cards, greeting cards, birthday invitations, t-shirts, scrapbooking, or whatever your heart desires as long as it is for personal non-commercial use. What's that mean? basically it means you can't use them to sell products, or put them on products to sell, or sell prints of my images. You can however make prints for everyone in your extended family including your great aunt Sue, the mailman and your kid's bus driver {if you were so inclined.}

If you don't win you are more than welcome to purchase your own silhouettes which make great presents for Mom's and Grandparents. Just hop on over to my store over there on the left. Keep in mind that I'm only taking Christmas orders until the 17th.

So leave me a comment telling me what your favorite Christmas decoration is. Giveaway is open until Friday the 17th and is open to the whole world, even Canadians. If I get lots of entries I just might draw a second winner. That's it, only one comment per person {strictly enforced with a paddle.}

Of course I'd be thrilled if you would take a look around and if you like what you see, I invite you to follow my little blog. I love to quilt, cook, craft, hike, run, swim and bike (among other things.)

Here's my latest finish:

Isn't it cute? You can head over to my other blog Quilty Giveaways for the pattern review and a chance to win a bag pattern of your choice.

~ Norma

Swamped

Over the last few days I've been swamped with Christmas orders for my Profile Silhouettes. I gotta say I just love my job! Each silhouette I make is so unique and different, it never gets old. The best part is "filling" in the outline and seeing the silhouette come to life!

Here is an order I finished up today:

Don't you just love the little girl second form the right? I love her to pieces she just seems so happy! Sometimes I want to take my favorite silhouettes and display them around the house. {wondering if that is bordering on creepy, displaying other people's kids on my walls}

Have you heard about Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day? It's Monday, I may or may not be giving away a custom portrait silhouette on Monday. But I'm  not telling.

~ Norma

ps Heidi, I think that the first little girl is a grown up version of "E"

Slacker! ...and a winner

Yup, that's me. What can I say, when the weather turns cold I turn almost sloth like and wish I could stay in my warm cozy bed all day long. In my defense I did run a really, I mean REALLY good race on Saturday. At least it was good for my short 5'0" self. I know I'm not gonna set any world records with these short little legs of mine, and just thinking about 9 minute(or less) miles makes me want to hurl. I'll gladly take my 10 minute miles any day.

This was my second half marathon. After the first one, in 2008, I promised I would never, like EVER, do it again... I wonder what happened. I'll tell you what happened: CORRIE! Yup, that darn Canadian BFF of mine let me talk us into doing a half marathon. No wonder I dislike Canadians so much. Well folks we ran our little guts out and managed to set new personal records. We finished right at 2 hours and 11 minutes (and a couple of seconds) a whole whopping 27 minutes faster than my first half marathon! {Can I get a woot woot?} We were so super excited to cross that finish line and be done so that we can "never ever do that again" {...until next time I suppose.} After the race came the pain, oh the pain. 13.1 miles will do some funny things {so not funny ha ha}  to places you never even knew you had! I was finally able to climb my stairs without any problems on Tuesday morning.

So in summary:  pain + cold weather = total slacker

Without further ado the winner of the $15 Walmart Gift card is  

Lucky #23
Maralyn who said:
I would LOVE to get the apple/cinnamon one for the holidays!!!
Then I wouldn't have to make so much pie??? NOT!!!
hahahahaha
Thanks!

On the not so slacker side, I did manage to deck my house out for Christmas, get all the Christmas shopping done (I love the internet) and I even managed to sew a cute bag (pictures coming soon I pinkie swear!)

Holy Schmoly I just realized I haven't mailed out my box of scraps for the scrappy giveaway. See, total slacker. The box is at least packed up and waiting for my next trip to the post office.

~ Norma

ps blogger spell checker really needs an update "Holy Schmoly"" "woot woot" "BFF" those are all legit words!