Stained Glass Octopus.

I'm sure everyone has gotten the memo: I LOVE Octopodae. (Octopi if you MUST, although it's from the Greek so really it should be Octopodae)

My mom got the memo. Look!

I don't know the name of the artist who made this, but God Bless them! It never occured to me to dream of a stained glass octopus. I wanted to hang it in a window, but it simply didn't work out on any of mine, it would be hidden behind blinds, or curtains, or it would hit right there the latch is, making me fear for its life all the time. So I tried it agains the paint in my bathroom and loved it. And now it hangs there.

And I love it.

I got a rediculous amount of stuff for Christmas. I cannot even try to list it all. I'm almost ashamed! I will share one cool thing, My mom found a vintage turquoise (love turquoise) sewing box. Like a tackle box, only made for sewing stuff. Anyhow it's pretty large and I totally needed one, I had all my notions in a cookie tin and they didn't fit. But that's not all, it was STUFFED with all sorts of fun stuff, trims, ribbon, binding, zippers, snaps and so on! WOOHOO. And my mom's good friend Patricia found me a lovely cordinating silk scarf and tied it on for maximum cuteness. Oh I also got Amy Butler's In Stitches. EVERYONE is getting pajama pants next year. HAHA.

PS CHARLANE (sp?) I can't find your email! Brian LOVES the Kinder Suprise Eggs. He was TOTALLY suprised and he's only done one because he's making them last. The one he did was a puzzle inside, which he told me is one of the stinkier prizes, but he's so happy to have them he doesn't really care. Thank you a million times. I was so pleased to see him so suprised.

Hello Wonderful.

I got lovely new stamps from Pink Poison. They are Alice In Wonderland. And oh so kawaii.
I made this fun card. The paper is by K. And Company. I colored with copic markers and copic specia glitter pens.
This next pic actually shows the colors the best. I'm still learning the new camera.
And you can see the glitter in this one. Everything has glitter though, from her eyes to her hair to the white dress. It's hard to take a photo of glitter.

So there we have it, my new Alice in Wonderland stamps! I love them to pieces.

In other news:

I have a cold. I am sick for EVERY holiday. It's crap. My friend Tracey has a theory that it's because on some level holidays stress me out and that gets me sick. She's probably right because I've been sick the past 3 holiday seasons. I didn't even exercise today. :(

Stephen got up before 6am today. Unacceptable. He's rambling on right now about how orange is his sidekick color but yellow is his sidekick color too. He's pretty weird. Today I take him back to the allergist for his one year checkup. He's deathly allergic to peanuts. There is an outside chance he will grow out of it though, so here's to hoping. (I'm not terribly hopeful)

If I don't post again,

MERRY CHRISTMAS

Kim's Disappearing Nine Patch

Well Kim and I opened Christmas presents on the phone today. I'll show you what I got tomorrow. But now I can finally show you what I've been working on for Kim.

I did an orange/tan/brown quilt. I used Disappearing Nine Patch for the pattern.
You start with a standard nine patch like this: Then you slice it in quarters like this:

Rearrange and sew back together like this:

Repeat a bunch so you have a whole quilt's worth. Then lay them out to see how you like them best like this:
And sew them together. You will see that I didn't end up staying with my original layout. Very close, but I made soem changes.
Then quilt. Sorry I don't have better pictures. I did a free motion random pattern.

This pic sort of shows the quilting better. I backed with this off white color. I did bind it with the dark brown. I guess I forgot to take a photo of that though. The finished quilt is 60x60 inches. Kim said it goes well on her couch, the colors are right and all. So she's using it to cuddle in to watch TV. It's good because apparently they had a HIGH of -2 today and that's just sick! You NEED a TV quilt with that kind of weather.

So this type of free motion quilting is my new favorite, I plan to free motion quilt everything now! No more pain in the butt stitching in the ditch for me.

I blame YOU.

Yes YOU. Over there, with the computer, and stamps, or maybe a sewing machine.

I am a diehard library girl. I pretty much don't buy books unless they have patterns in them ie, craft books. This isn't because I don't love books. I LOVE books. I check out about 20 library books a week. And yes, I read them all. Well unless they suck.

But everyone went on and on about the Twilight books. Oh they are so good, Oh they suck you in, Oh on and on. I'm a HUGE vampire fan. I wondered if these would be too light for me. I like my vampires sexy, dark and dangerous. Stephanie Meyer is Mormon, which is cool, I'm Mormon too. But I don't want Mormon vampires ya know? Vampires are my total dark indulgence.

But you kept going on and on about the stinking books. So I requested them from the library. My library system has like 60 copies of Twilight but it never sent one to me. I don't know what's up with that, maybe I'm on a huge list. Finally I got sick of waiting and bought the first book at Costco. (I *heart* Costco)

Well dang you all! It's really good. I mean not super dark and stuff, but really good. Mom said I will like the next one even more. I can't wait another who knows how long for the stinking library to get it.

So I ordered all three of the ones I don't have just now on Amazon. It was only $29 including shipping for all of them, so that's cool. Two are in hardcover, maybe they are not in paperback yet? I have this thing where I actually prefer paperback. I know it's weird. But whatever.

I guess it's ok, I mean it's been ages sense I purchased a book. Why not buy four all at once and just a week before Christmas?

I don't have any photos. Just me rambling about Twilight, just like I read everyone else doing a few weeks back.

Hanna Stamps

Ok I resized the pics this time. Hope it helps.

I was just playing with coloring today and made these.

The yellow one is colored with watercolor pencisl and blended with dove blender pen. This is my favorite coloring technique.

And red is colored with copic markers.

well I'm off to bake a ton of cookies.

Little notebook/pencil holder thingie

Ok first do I need to resize all my photos now? I got a new camera (still figuring it out) and it's 10mp from my old 3mp so if that makes the blog take forever to load tell me and I'll resize everything. Kim says she does have to. I don't wanna, but I will.

Ok. So Kim and I were chatting it up and we decided we need holders for art supplies. She because she's a real artist, me because I'm a poser! haha. Anyhow I decided to whip this up. What do you think? *it's for me*I should have done this inside stitching before putting the outtermost fabric on so you'd not see the brown thread across the outtermost front. Or bought turquoise thread. Anyhow. My sketch pad is super fat, so I had to put tiny pleats in the pocket for it. I think for normal sketch pads I'd not have to do that. And no I don't normally sketch with a pink marker, Although I do love pink.

Well feedback welcome. :)

Warning to Moms. *maybe Dads too*

No matter how much you love your kids. And how much you love being funny with them.

Do NOT take a bite out of the play doh sandwich they make you to give them giggles. You may think you can take a bite then just spit it out. NOPE. Play doh sticks to teeth something awful. Also it tastes HORRIBLE. Like almost instant "rejection" horrible. And even after you brush your teeth your mouth still tastes funny.

It DOES make your kids giggle though, so at least we have that silver lining.

Christmas cards

I got a brand new camera today. It has all these manual settings. None of the pre programed ones are "taking photos of cards at night for posting on your blog" so I had to play around. I'm not sure I'm thrilled with this quality. But I'm sure I will get the hang of it.

So anyhow here is one Christmas package tag and some Christmas cards.

This one isn't hazy. It was one of my earlier photos. I should have redone it. And "tis the season" for baby pigs I guess? I eat ham at Christmas, so maybe it really "tis the season"

This stamping of the snowman really is super light in real life.

Most of these stamps came from a package of stamps I picked up at Costco. The Alice in Wonderland is by Red Eowyn And I tell you I LOVE these stamps.

Speaking of Alice in Wonderland I found a new-to-me stamp company. Pink Poison's Splended little Stamp Company. It's a mouthful, but right there on the main page they have the most Kawaii Alice in Wonderland set EVER. Thanks to Kim and Thanh for getting the info to me. I ordered those puppies first thing this morning.

Doll Quilt Swap 5 Received

I can't get a good enough pic of this for you to know what it's like. I received this in the Doll Quilt Swap 5 swap. I'm FLOORED. It's from Kellie of Don't Look Now! She has better pics of it over there.

I'm floored. The whole quilt is lovely at a glance, but the detailing on this is AMAZING. I'm a HUGE fan of lots and lots of really tight quilting and believe me this has it! I'm truly gobsmacked to think that this was made for me. Serously this is the type of crafsmanship you see at a quilt show and there are 30 ladies trying to look at it all at once and you want to weep because you can't touch it. But I CAN touch it, I can touch it all I want because it's MINE!!!

I love the kid's art smocks too and now I have a pattern! :)

Alice in Wonderland Christmas

I made a few Christmas cards last night. I used my Alice in Wonderland stamps on them. It's so icky out that this pic is the best I can do.

That scribble you just see a corner of is my newest obsession. Basicly I'm drawing patterns that I might later like to quilt. I'm talking about the actual free motion quilting. That one is just actually what I automatically do I think. But I'm trying to force myself to do some other patterns.

In other news: I am published in the current issue of Just Cards magazine. It's volume 12. I have six cards in there. TONS of my Stamp Shack friends have stuff in there too! How fun. I'm such a twit I see the magazines come out and think, "oh THAT'S what I did with that card!" like I forgot I sent it out.

I took the boys on my power walk today. In the stroller. It worked totally different muscles for some reason and I'm sore. POOP. But at least I'm sticking with it so that's happy.

Well back to cleaning. I'm trying to do lots of that today. I don't love cleaning but I love a clean house. I need a cleaning service... No just need to be less lazy.

Glasses or Contacts

I know this is mostly crafts here but I need some help from my friends with an eye for what LOOKS good.

It's time to update my glasses perscription. I'm considering going back to contacts. I could keep my current glasses for when I don't feel like contacts. I have no problems with contacts, I switched to glasses just for style's stake. So here goes.

Glasses

No Glasses

In case you are wondering yes, I have lost weight. About 5lbs. Also this is the best hair and makeup I ever wear. So this is pretty much me at my very cutest.

Crafty Secrets

Well I have all this stuff I've made. But it's all secret! Can you believe that?

I made a really cool mini quilt for a swap. A really cool totally secret project for Kim. A really cool shopping spree for a Secret Santa swap with a group that swaps quilts. OH wait!!

I made these:

Couple of Super Hero capes. The "E" one really is that wonky. I do'nt mind, Ethan doesn't mind either. Oh and Stephen refuses to wear pants. It's not like I can force him. Well I could but I'll save force for more important issues.

I'm stalking UPS today. My purse from Macy's is out on delivery. I wish my driver all saftey and Godspeed. But he needs to get here RIGHT NOW. I'm going out tonight and I'd LIKE to use my purse. Every car that goes by I jump up!

Buttons. I like 'em.

I already had a nice collection of buttons. Maybe a canning jar's worth.

Then I had a gift certificate from the very generous Gina K. I decided to get some buttons. Well I couldn't decide... So I got ALL her buttons. (these are Basic Grey collection packs)

Then I found this box at a thrift store. I had to bring it home of course...

And look what was inside:Now I have a serious button collection.

And a bit of a button storage issue.

In other news:

On my vacation I was royally spoiled. I purchased myself these buttons and some fabric at Urban Outfitters, as well as a mini shopping spree at Ikea, mostly fabric. My mom gave me TONS of thrift finds, her friend Patricia gave me TONS of cleaning out her fabric room finds. Seriously I'm talking like 5 trash bags worth of craft stuff. And I already looked at all of it, it's all cool. I have no idea where I'm putting any of it. I need to clean my craft room before I do anything. That's all I know. And also my dad and stepmom did order me that amazing purse! And I got new jeans that fit great. And a chococat mirror, oh crap, better ballance the checkbook! haha.

Thou shalt not covet

Oh but I do.

THIS purse, in the blue multi, is the single most perfected item for carrying things I've ever seen. I have never even remotely considered buying a hundred dollar purse, not even on sale for $75. I am DIZZY with my desire for this purse though. It will haunt my dreams. Can I make a purse anything like this? I do not know. Can I do it for $75 I do not know. There must be a mile of interfacing in it, it's so sturdy, then there is the leather, real, nice leather, and those little metal feet things on the bottom... and all the pockets. I think I'd need 4 yards of fabric to make it.

Crap, I should have gotten it. My dad was there, he's looking for a Christmas gift idea. CRAP CRAP CRAP.

In the mean time go view it's lovelyness. The black and white is nice too, but it's the blue that is breaking my little heart.


ETA> Crisis is over. My stepmom is buying me the purse. Swoon.,

Maxine and Earl. A Thanksgiving Story

Maxine or "Aunt Max" is my dad's wife's aunt. Max has Alzheimer's. Her late husband Uncle Bob also was afflicted. I'm not sure why some people are so peaceful in the disease and some are so... unpeaceful. Uncle Bob was no picnic. Max is a dream. She's happy, cheered by all things. She doesn't remember us from one visit to the next, but she doesn't mind, she's happy as can be to see us anyhow.

So Max, understandably, missed Bob a great deal when he passed away before her a few years ago. But now to the part I'm thankful for.

Max has met Earl. Earl I don't know his story as well. Just as the Godsend he has been to our Max. The two hit it off right away at the assisted living facility. They are actually in thier second facility, as the could not be seperated. Earl is more mentally present then our Max. They are in a quiet peaceful love too. Max doesn't remember much from before Earl. I'm not sure if he does or not but he's happy with Max. They spend thier days together. They are quiet. The live quiet lives, they go to the Bingo, and other activities. But they do it together.

I can't tell you what it means to me to know that even in the late winter of life new love can be discovered. They don't have passion, they don't have even memories to draw them close, but they have comfort and recognition. And they have love.

And that's what I'm thankful for most today.

That and the fact that neither myself or my children have any idea what it means to go without food or love. We are so blessed it's hard to believe.

I hope whatever you do today you have food and love. And if you are in your life's winter I hope you have enough love and comfort to keep that winter warm.

First time being pulled over... how's your vaca going?

Today I was pulled over for the first time in my life.

Me, Brian, the boys and my dad went to Duffy's for dinner. Got some wings to bring back for Gramma Sue. I had to stop at Publix for that sore throat spray as I STILL have a cough.

Suddenly lights in my rear view. I was barely speeding, like 2 or 3 over. But whatever, I pull over. Now, never having been pulled over I start to get out of the car. Brian and my dad, pros at this, yell at me, "Don't get out of the car!" and "What are you doing?" Apparently you do not get out of the car here in FL.

I also realized at this point that I don't have my license. I didn't plan on driving, but as I had to pop out to get the throat spray and I was otherwise goign to be jammed in the back with the kids I drove that short leg of the trip for convience. So you see it's all because I need a minivan that this happened.

Ok so she comes up, it's a girl cop. OH lights on her car are SO bright I can't see anything in my rear view so I have no idea where she is until she appears in my window. She says, "I pulled you over because I ran your license plate and it doesn't match this car." Now this is a shock! I give her my registration. Explain that I don't have my license due to my being a spaz. (don't say it like that) She checks it out and it is all good. Then she tells me that I really should have the license on me, but to have a good Thanksgiving, and also that my car smells like chicken wings. (I assume this is better than it smelling like beer or pot right?)

And that is the exciting story of my first time being pulled over. :)

Thanksgiving.

First I'll share the "scarf". stupid scarf. I did all this fancy quilting. I'm actually really happy with this quilting, no threads broke and it was fast, fun and easy. More quilting.

Here is the whole thing. Well turns out Brian loves it. He wants me to keep it as a table runner, he thinks it's the coolest table runner ever. I personally think table runners are super lame and I don't get the point and they annoy me. But I love this piece and I don't feel like doing any more work on it to turn it to something else, to it's a table runner.

I also made cards! With paper! And stamps! SHOCKING. I got a new stamp set and had to use them!

Inside view. (did cool insides on all of them)

Another

Inside

And one more

close up of the words, I did the glitter painting too soo and blurred the large leaf, it saddens me.

Inside

So there you have it!

Did I tell yall I'm having a garage sale Saturday? I'm way excited. We have CLEANED OUT the house. My closet is only half full, BUT it's all stuff I really like and that fits. It's awesome. Kids cleared out a ton of toys too. I love clearing stuff out.

And the winner is!

jules p said...
this is a cute bag. you sew so well. I wish I could sew like this. thanks for such a nice blog candy.jules p

Jules, I've emailed you requesting your address so I can send you your new bag!

Hugs everyone!

A look into my mind... and Blog Candy.

I thought I'd talk you though how I design a sewn item. First I think about it. In my head. I'm not a huge sketcher. (can't draw very well) I wanted to make a curvy bag. With a single wide strap. That's all I knew. So I started.

This is art paper. I use whatever random scrappy paper I can find that is big enough. I need to buy some big cheap paper, this wasn't cheap.
First drawing was too boring. Also really wide and short, I find that shape is weird in a bag.

I liked the look of my second drawing, but it was still really wide (this is only half you see here)

This third drawing is a winner. (I mean I think so I guess you decide)

Here it is cut out. The curves are exagerated because I find they are less abrupt when I sew them.


Here's a lining. (this fabric by the way I got like 5 yards of, It's shirting, I got it all for a dollar!! at my thrift store)
Here's a strap accent.

Here's a whole fat strap.

And the finished bag. (lost steam on taking pictures for you). I ended up adding a layer of thin cotton batting inside the bag for stability (I'm out of interfacing), I did some hexagons for accent as well. The strap is interfaced (I had just that much, glad I saved that wonky long scrap!) It has a fabric covered button and grosgrain ribbon closure.


I love hexagons.
There is a little pocket inside. It's not the best pocket. I'm not sure what happened. it works though. (it's sewn a little crooked)

So I'm giving this bag as a blog giveaway. To play you have to just enter a comment on this post. Your comment has to have a way I can reach you. (click back to your blog, or list your email or whatever) If I can't reach the person within a few days I'll have to give it to someone else. I'll pick a winner on Wednesday. Wednesdays are sort of boring anyhow, maybe this will brighten it up for someone.

There is, however one rule. The bag is navy blue and orange. I love this combo. But I live in Florida. I graduated from Florida State (GO NOLES). Anyone can win the bag, BUT do NOT use it as a Florida Gator bag. Don't wear it with all your horrid Florida Gator clothes and let people compliment you on your great Gator bag. Dont' do it! If you wear it with your Gator Gear and anyone says anything you must say, "Oh it's not a Gator bag, it just happens to match" Got it? Understood? haha (this part is all in jest... sorta)

ALSO: I'm tired of storing the stuff I have listed on Etsy. So I took HUGE price cuts on all of it. If you thought you might want something I had take another look because it's all cheap now. HERE. I think I'm tired of selling on Etsy, I just have so much more fun making stuff for gifts/giveaways. I'm looking into some things I could do for charity too. So I think I'm going to sell this stuff and then be done.