Today it's my turn to show off my part of the world for the Traveling PicStitch Blog Hop! Unfortunately, my lovely ASS Guru counterparts (and leaders of this fine hop), Laura of Quokka Quilts and Katy of The Littlest Thistle, decided they would show you MY BACKYARD for their big blog hop trip last month. So, what's a girl to do? Show you the same dirt other people already showed you? Yep. That's what's up.
I live in Gilbert, Arizona as previously mentioned. While I can find oodles of pretty pictures of our town, most of them are heavily edited and lack the overall haze of dirt that covers everything in the desert. Our skies look more white than blue and the beautiful purple/orange/red sunsets are caused by the sunlight trying to pry it's way through the pollution. We have snakes and scorpions and black widow spiders and lots of coyotes and mostly, lots and lots of dirt.
My area is densely populated with an overabundance of track homes and subdivisions. My house looks like every other house on my street. Boring!
But really, we have loads of wonderful people living here. Great schools. City center only 40 minutes away. Tons of shopping. Bike trails. Hiking trails. I couldn't ask to live in a better place.
BUT... since SOME PEOPLE decided to use MY HOME as their "exotic location", I've decided to show you a place we like to visit around the holidays and is "exotic" to me:
The American Midwest. :)
It is straight up ridiculous how GREEN everything is there!
I took these photos while on our October family trip to Missouri/Illinois/Indiana. Seeing family is great, but I get especially excited about the change in scenery!
We visited Aunt Brenda's farm where Clara worked on her walking skills:
And we made ourselves some homemade ice cream, just like every year!
We took advantage of the weather and played outside as much as possible.
And since we were in the area and the St. Louis Zoo has free admission, we decided to take Clara to see some animals! Animals not hiding in the shade to stay out of the heat. Real animals, like bears (which she proudly screamed when she recognized them!) and seals and penguins. Not the coyotes and cows we show off at the Phoenix Zoo. Oh no. These are animals that you WON'T see walking to your mailbox at night.
She was especially thrilled to see the elephants, since she knows "what the elephant says".
And also, she liked picking the gorilla's nose. Save your parenting comments to the end, thanks.
Imagine. Unique homes made with bricks. Lawns that are made of REAL grass (yeah... we have quite a bit of fake grass here). Trees that don't fall over when the wind blows because there has been enough water to help their roots grow deep. Weather cool enough to wear pants AND a sweater! Paradise.
But enough about our vacation. You will be wanting me to get on with the color selection now, I suppose.
I chose the picture of the donkeys, mostly because they were being
I chose a few fabrics from my stash:
...and got to work.
I decided this should become a pillow and a Christmas present for someone who shall remained unnamed. I didn't actually get around to whipping up the pillowcase, but after more than a week with the flu, I was proud of myself for even getting off my duff long enough to get my hand sewing kit!!
This little flower is super easy to make and is comprised of 2" diamonds from paperpieces.com who, luckily enough, is offering a little discount for anyone joining in the hop! If you haven't already, head over to paperpieces.com and enter code PAPER20 for 20% off your order.
And please don't forget to play along. This is a blog hop WITH PRIZES! Head over here to check out all the details. The short of it: you follow along, you stitch up some EPP inspired by your home/favorite location, you win prizes. That simple!
Thank you again to my lovely friends Laura and Katy for letting me join them on this great little adventure! These two really are the best people ever. Make sure you take the time to thank them too!
Adios!
