Fabric and Chocolate...what could be better?

We had our little quilt group party last night which included lots of yummy food, laughter, and a gift exchange.  You know the kind where you can steal each other's gifts.  Here's what I brought.  A fabric basket with some fat quarters and some See's candy.
Click on the link above for the pattern.  It's super easy and cute and was all the rage 6 months ago.  Everyone was making them.  I finally found a good excuse to try one.  Thanks Ayumills!
And here's what I came home with:

Everyone was so generous and now I have some fun new toys to play with!

Happy Spring!

We went hiking and geocaching today. It was so pretty out. I love the springtime. Look at all these beautiful wildflowers that we saw on our hike:

After geocaching we stopped for lunch at Panda Express. My fortune was perfect today.

Today is my birthday and it's always fun to have a special day. I came down to breakfast and found this:

Check out all those great patterns on each letter!

Streamers, a banner, flowers, gifts and a yummy breakfast! I asked for a Wii Fit...and it was waiting on the table this morning for me. But unfortunately I don't get to play with it for a little while. Yesterday we sent our Wii off to get fixed!

Check out this cute card Miss K made for me:

She wrote a lot of nice things in it. Including this:

M - magnificent
O - outrageous (?)
T - they make the Earth go round
H - helpful
E - erresistible (a little creative spelling)
R - reassuring
S - super amazing cause they always are!

And check out the gifts she gave me:

She knows me so well!

Photoshop Elements

I just got Photoshop Elements 6.0. I've been playing and trying to figure out what I can do with it. It seems like it is a very powerful program, and I am excited to find out all it can do. So far I'm sure I've just scratched the surface.

Here's a little example of something I've been wanting to be able to do...and now I can! (too bad blogger won't show that the background is actually transparent! Oh I have so much to learn.) This is with just a couple clicks!
It's so much fun!

That's Good Mail!

I won a giveaway over at The Quilt Room and it arrived in the mail today! It's a package of Tri-Recs Tools. The package says it's the easy way to make triangles within squares and divided rectangles. I can't wait to try these babies out! (But alas it'll have to wait, I'm working on an i-pod cover for my son's nano. If it works out I'll post pictures.)

I also received an extra little goodie--some rub-on words. Thank you so much Karen, my quilting buddy in Florida!

UFO or FNT

Here's my latest fun new toy (FNT). It's a lightbox! I've never had a lightbox before. I've always just put things that I need to trace, or emboss, up to the window. Which is always a little awkward. And it doesn't work too well when it's night time.

I had a 50% off coupon and a gift card. So it was a real steal! And guess what, it also spins around. (I'm not sure if I really need that feature...but it sounds cool to have it!)

I know I will use it a lot for tracing templates for applique. I got to use it for the first time today for my Dear Jane blocks. So fun. And it matches my ironing board cover, ha ha.

I'll post later on tonight (hopefully) and show you what I got done today.