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.

I don't want to talk about it

There will be no update on the scarf. It's done. It's totally stupid. It's too short AND too wide AND batting inside is stupid because it's too stiff.

I just realized all this I was so happy because it looks pretty cool AND I tried all these different free montion quilting patterns inside the blocks, just totally freehand and it rocked, there are stars, squiggles, little flowers, big flowers.

I have NO idea what this item could be used for. It's totally stupid. Does anyone have a small table they need a runner for?

I'm going to go cry now.

WIP and feeling pretty.

Inspired by THIS, I felt I needed to try a patchwork scarf. I wanted to use my awesome Japanese scraps. They all were tall skinny, so I did this totally different design. I'm not done, of course. I'm not sure what I'm going to do with it...

Does anyone need a funky scarf?

I'm going to use cotton batting inside. It will be really warm.

Also I felt cute yesterday in my hat and scarf. (see I have a scarf so I don't need another, what with it being Florida and all) I don't know why I didn't smile, but here I am:

Gram's quilt is done.

I finished Brian's Gram's quilt yesterday. I really am happy with how it came out. I wanted to bind with blue, but I didn't have enough left, so I used the white. I like it though. Here is a closeup of one of the blocks.

Close up of my binding. It's not ruffled, it's just crinkled from washing/drying it. Another view.

I totally cheated on the binding, which I'm sure you quilters already noticed. I machine sewed the back on too instead of hand sewing. I just didn't want to spend more time. I know it's lame, but some times you have to just cheat a little. Well at least I do!

It feels so good to have this one. I look forward to my next project, which is a secret project.

Kinder Suprise Eggs

Thanks everyone for the offers to get us some Kinder Surpise Eggs.

I'm going to suprise my husband, (who doesn't read my blog) with some this Christmas.

I've made arrangements with Charlene to get some, so I rekon I don't more than that.

Thanks again, you all rock! :)

cleaning out our attic

We are having a yard sale in a few weeks. So we cleaned out the attic and I found this painting. I painted this when we bought our first house and I was trying to decorate on a budget. (that's as opposed to now when I'm NOT decorating because I have NO budget for that) I painted this, with, get ready, wood stain. Some of the paint, the black and green are acrylic, but most of it is wood stain. According to the book I got them out of the words are "Loyalty" and "Forever" Or the other way around, I don't know. Anyhow I wanted a huge artwork, but very large canvases are way more expensive than 4 medium ones, so I got 4 and used them together.

I rekon I won't sell it at my yard sale. I have this large wall next to the computer, might as well hang it there.

In other news we were in the attic also looking for cool stuff to give our boys from Brian's stash. Have you heard of Kinder Suprise Eggs? If I by chance have any Eurpean readers who have access to these and want to trade... I'll sew you anything...

Babies Everywhere.

Brian has a baby shower at work this week. His coworker is having twins, one girl one boy, how adorable is that? (I mean adorable for HER, I'm happy with my non-twin-having-self) So we got her a HUGE box of baby wipes at Costco and Brian wanted me to sew something too.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to do monkies, or bibs, or burp cloths or what. Then I decided to do a changing pad. I made a little bag for it too. The bag is SUPER simple, just a quick bag, only big enough for the changing pad I made, one of those travel boxes of wipes and a few diapers. My idea is that she can leave this in her car for emergencies. I know I've had my share of emergencies! OR she can pack the whole whole thing in her larger diaper bag and then when she takes a baby into the changing area she can just grab this out. (I use a gallon zipper storage bag and a disposable changing pad for this, haha)

And here is the changing pad. It's got vinyl on the front and back for easy cleaning. Not my favorite ever Iron ON Vinyl, but regular ole sew on kind. (I'm trying REALLY hard not to buy anything for a while) The plaid is some home dec weight stuff I got on crazy clearance. I have like 3 yards of it. It's padded too, so no babies will hurt their cute little heads on it. It really is this shiny, I guess it's just for butts though, it doesn't have to be the MOST lovely thing ever...
You may be interested to know I won my OWN eye cake at the cakewalk! Which worked out perfectly. My Stephen is allergic to peanuts (and a handful of other things) so I cut a few slices out of my cake for us at the dinner, then put the rest on the dessert table for everyone to enjoy. It got all eaten up. Oh and it was REALLY good too, the cake was super moist. Stephen was thrilled. (He doesn't always get to have dessert at these things because I can't tell what ingredients people use)

Happy Halloween!

I did some fun makeup for Halloween:

Then I remembered I have to wear my eyeglasses and that sorta messes up the eye look:
But let's pretend it doesn't ok. :)

I wanted to dye my hair red red, but I never found the dye I wanted, so I went with creepy makeup instead.

I hope you have a fun Halloween. Unless you don't DO Halloween, then have a fun Friday. :)

Oh and Dana, I don't know if you will see, but yes, I bought the large assortment. I've also gotten them individually too. Oh and that company I linked is a great company to buy from. :)

Random Promotion (Miracle Tape)

So adhesive. If you are a papercrafter you need some good adhesive right? But you hate to spend tons of money on it right?

Well I use the fab ATG by Scotch for most of my normal adhesion. I think that has been talked to death on the message boards so I'll leave it be. I do like it.

But I use something else too. Which I LOVE. Miracle Tape. Miracle Tape is double sided tape. It's STRONG. As strong as that "red liner tape" that is so popular in my opinion. And WAY cheaper. I get it HERE at Viva Las Vegastamps. Seriously it's great. the rolls have 50 YARDS on them. I think that red liner crap has like 15 FEET. The reason I bring it up today is that I got an email from Vivia Las Vegastamps and there is a special on it! I've bought this special before. I'm not buying it this time because I still have plenty left! But Here is the special. It is a TON of adhesive. Including the sheets which are SO fun. I like to do an image, color it and all, then cover it with one of the sheets of adhesive then dump clear glitter over the whole thing. Maybe I'll make a sample of that later.

Also I used this for years before I got into ATG. The ATG is cheaper over time, but this stuff is really affordable and very strong. Also if you are freaked out by the size of ATG or anything then Miracle tape may be easier for you to use.

So there you have it, a random promotion by me.

Creepy Cakes

So this is how it happened. Brian wanted me to make baked goods for his office. His company cut VOE spending which is how they fund goodies and Pizza Friday and such. So I'm going to step right in and bake for those guys once a month. It's the least I can do.

So I wanted to make some fun cupcakes. I wanted to make them this week because Brian's big boss is in town, and I'm a kiss up even if Brian isn't. haha. I originally wanted to make either a pizza cake (to morn the loss of pizza friday) or to pipe "VOE" on the cakes. But then I was afraid the boss wouldn't see the humor. Although Brian did say he's cool and would think it was funny.

So I decided to go with eyeballs instead. I mean it IS Halloween this week. I was going to pipe the colored part of the eyes, but I figured if I did the candies the boys could help me. So here they are. (I made 50, not 4, these were the first decorated)I also needed a cake for a church function on Saturday. It's our Fall Festival, which is really a Halloween Party, but being church we call it Fall Festival. Being a Halloween fan myself I made this: Because eating eyes is yum.

The cakes are all deep dark chocolate cake. Want my recipe? Ok then:
2 cups brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
two sticks butter
4 eggs
2-3 tsp vanilla
1 to 1 1/4 of the DARKEST baking powder your shop sells. I used Giradelli dark for a while, but this time I used Hershey Special Dark as it's all they had and it worked. The point is get dark, and then we are using WAY more than any other cake recipe I've seen.
tablespoon baking soda
some salt (I don't measure, about half a teaspoon maybe?)
about 1 1/2 cup sour cream. I used to measure not I just dump the whole thing of sour cream in.
1 1/3 cup boiling water.

Mix that up (you know, butter and sugar and eggs together then add the other stuff) and bake at 350 until done. (different for different cake pans/cupcakes and what not)

The cakes are really dark, almost black. They are not very sweet. I like to top them with a basic buttercream for sweetness.

Oh and it makes a TON. I made 50 mini cupcakes AND this large eye cake with one batch. I adapted it from a recipe I found on allrecipes.com called "Sandy's Chocolate Cake" But with my adjustments. Click HERE for the original, which is delicious too, I basicly just made it darker.

And to see even CUTER creepy cupcakes check out Lulu Carter's post HERE. I love creepy cute food.

Window Clings

I don't have anything really crafty to show, but look at this: A while back my kids got this HUGE HUGE box of toys at yard sale for one dollar. They used all their cute adorable powers to get this deal. Inisde the box (it was one of those HUGE storage boxes you put you Christmas stuff in for storage) was all sorts of stuff, some Thomas the Stupid Engine stuff, an army of dragons, seriously so many dragons, Like 15 of them, controllers to heaven knows what... anyhow also inside was a kit to make your own window clings. A few weeks ago we made cherful ones for Brian's Popa who is in a nursing home (yes, it's sad) to have on his window. But today we made some just for us!

Ethan directed me in the tiger and fish. He did some of the stripes but mostly he just rested his hand on mine, they are really messy. Stephen wanted "Dinosaur He Stomps the Floor". So there is a large dino and a remote controller. I didn't look at a photo of the dinosaur in question, and mine really doesn't look like that one, but whatever.

So they take one to two days to dry then you peel them off and they will cling to the window. How fun is that? Oh and if the yellow one explodes in your hand when you squeeze it and the tip falls off and you get yellow paint all over your dining room table and floor it DOES wash off if you are quick.

I think I'm gonna sew up some dummy projects so I have something to blog! haha. STill sewing Christmas stuff.

Treasured

Etsy user CoffeeAndCream created a tresury of cool things on Etsy. Guess who has something in it?

ME!! I'm so honored.

Look HERE to see the treasury. Then buy the item. (haha)

Still working on Christmas stuff, still can't share any.

The Holidays

I LOVE me some Holiday Season.

We go to our first Halloween Party tonight.

Wanna see what my boys will wear?

I also got a swap package in the mail today! Oh yeah baby!

I'm gobsmacked. Anna, my partner, spoiled us silly. Three backpacks, two pillow cases, a book for the boys, a magazine for me. YUMMY!!! THANKS ANNA.

In other news:

I'm sewing the coolest project EVER. I'm in love with it. I want to keep it but I can't it's for my friend Kim. So I can't show you because Kim reads here. But I emailed it to my mom and Jennifer, and Patricia, and Lani... If you wish you could see the coolest thing ever drop me a line and I'll show you too! haha. (not you Kim)

I guess that's all for now.

I wish I had more cool pics to show you but everything I make right now is for Christmas.

Foundation Piecing

I've been skeptical about foundation piecing. I though, what's the point. Um... the point is in the POINTS for me! I was reading a library book on it I accidentally got (tricked me, lovely blocks looked traditional pieced to me) and I realized that foundation piecing might help me with my sloppy points.

So I went on the net and printed THIS pattern and gave it a go. I used some horrid scraps I have because I was still not sure and didn't want to waste any of my good stuff. But look: It did work, and look at those crisp points:
(yes, I see the humor in displaying "crisp points" with a blurry photo)
I didn't leave some scraps big enough I see now, but still it was super fast and easy to get this block sewn up. I'm sold!

In other news:
Me and the boys have colds AGAIN. Honestly we are not sick that often, but I only write about our health then it's poor. Because I'm human I guess. Anyhow it's just colds but you know a cold can make you so miserable.
My mom has given me hope of a visit from her. I LOVE LOVE LOVE my mom and the idea of her coming here for a week is enough to lift the fog of my cold and make me giddy with excitement. I hope it does work out and soon.
Can't remember any other news. blah head colds. Someone get on a cure quick!