Morning sillies.

haha, very funny, a photo by valerie-in-wonderland on Flickr.

My sweet husband knows me all too well.

This morning he took the boys to breakfast so currently I'm enjoying a quiet, quiet, Q-U-I-E-T house. I decided to go in and steal the last of the chocolate cupcakes for breakfast.

Oh yeah, that's how I roll. I totally keep the last of any chocolate or sweets for myself. Selfish, I know. Bless their hearts, all my boys are used to it.

Anyway, imagine my surprise when I opened up the container and found this little remnant.

Guess my sweet husband beat me to the punch...

Thriving.

calla lily, a photo by valerie-in-wonderland on Flickr.

I'm not known for having a green thumb.

I'm trying to remedy that this summer, although I'm doing so on a very small scale with a few hanging ferns and a little container garden. So far, so good. (Except for the poppies which basically ditched me a couple of weeks ago. Seriously, they went from gorgeous one day to brown and all withered up the next. Guess they don't care for the crazy Oklahoma weather either.)

A month or so ago I noticed a little green poking it's head out of the flowerbed in the backyard, so I started watering it every day. I honestly thought it was more than likely another weed (the only thing I'm good at growing), so imagine my surprise when this little sprout turned into a ginormous plant with three gorgeous calla lily blooms.

Someone else obviously planted it, but as the flowerbed was very unkempt when we moved in, I hope they'd be tickled pink (or rather, a luscious deep purple) to see how she's faring now.

...and the back.

baby quilt back, a photo by valerie-in-wonderland on Flickr.

(Just in case you wanted to see the back.)

I wish you could see these pictures up close. The fabrics had lots of flowers, trees, and birds in them. Completely adorable. And I loved the chance to do one of my favorite color combinations -- pink and orange.

Happy babies...

baby quilt front, a photo by valerie-in-wonderland on Flickr.

use happy quilts!

This was a baby quilt I finished up a couple of weeks ago. The fabric is "Happier" by Deena Rutter. Pretty cute, no?

Normally my "go-to" method for a quick baby quilt includes strip piecing the front, but this time I had purchased a fat quarter set instead of 1/2 yard cuts, so I couldn't do that. On the fly I came up with my own version of a stacked coin quilt, and I'm pretty happy with it. I used all the leftover strips to make the binding which I rarely get to do, but I absolutely love the look of patchwork binding.

All-in-all a very cute and easy quilt. My only regret is snapping a quick photo with my smart phone instead of my fancy-schmancy camera. It was bright outside that day so the colors in the picture aren't near as vibrant as in real life.

See? I told you I've been cranking 'em out. I have so more quilt pictures to share once my husband gets the ol' iPhoto relaunched on my computer and I can download everything off my camera...

Quilty-quilty.

plus quilt, a photo by valerie-in-wonderland on Flickr.

I promise I've been making quilts. Lots of them actually, although they were all gifts. Except for this one -- it's all mine.

I started this one on our Tulsa Modern Quilt Guild quilting retreat last month, forever to be known as the "Rapture Retreat" as there was a good chance according to that old spook that we were all going to be raptured sometime that day. Awesome. Actually, it made for lots of funny jokes all day long.

This is a "plus quilt" top made mostly with fabrics from the "Farmdale" line by Alexander Henry along with a handful of random prints and solids thrown in for good measure. I followed a tutorial very loosely, making my own measurements up so I didn't waste too much of my fabric. It's a generous lap quilt size.

So now to pick out some backing and get this baby quilted before I procrastinate...

Best souvenir EVER.

shatto milk, a photo by valerie-in-wonderland on Flickr.

Those that know me in life either already know or won't be surprised to know that I pretty much eat ice cream every day.

EVERY day, people.

It's my vice. But I don't smoke, drink (okay, I take that back -- I enjoy one or two margaritas a year), or drink pop, so I figure a little ice cream every day shouldn't hurt anyone.

Being such a lover of ice cream and most things dairy, there is a dairy farm in Missouri that holds my heart -- Shatto Milk Company. We took a tour of the dairy farm two Spring Break's ago and fell in love with their milk. Unfortunately for us, they don't deliver to anywhere outside of Missouri.

So it is now imperative to stop at a grocery store and load up whenever I am passing through Missouri. And this is exactly what we did. Two glass bottles of whole milk and three glass bottles of root beer milk later -- I am a happy, happy girl.

Root beer milk = perfection. It tastes just like a melted root beer float. And that, my friends, is the best vacation souvenir EVER.

Come and find me!

Just when you thought I'd probably never post again, I'm guest blogging today over at the RHOK.

That stands for REAL HOUSEWIVES OF OKLAHOMA.

Ha.

We don't need no stinking reality show here in the heartland. A website will suffice. And I'm pretty sure there is less silicone and less whining and more intelligence and hilarity than those dumb reality shows anyway.

So go check it out.

I've never been a guest blogger before, so this is exciting stuff, folks. Exciting stuff. Well, at least my friend Jonni Baloney thinks it must be exciting stuff since she asked me to guest blog. Bless her heart. If only she knew...'cause her own blog is seriously one of my faves. She keeps me in stitches with her hilarious stories.

In the meanwhile, stay tuned for some posts here next week regarding our little family's own personal National Lampoon's adventures.

Seriously, the Griswold's have nothing on us.

Meet "Dolly".

"Dolly", a photo by valerie-in-wonderland on Flickr.

What's summertime without a fun little project to work on? ;)