Gift sets

Hi all!

Is your weather as schizophrenic as ours?  I was wearing shorts in February and March and this weekend it was SO cold!  I was planning on getting my veggie garden in since I missed it last year and it hasn't stopped raining long enough to get anything done!  The local store had seedlings out over a month ago - I don't know that there is anything left to buy now!

I wanted to post some little gift sets I made for my closest mom friends, I don't know what I would do without them!  I worked for the last 8 months at our local quilt shop which I have been shopping at for years and I saw some great fabric that I just HAD to use for my friends.  I decided to make them each a set of 2 potholders and made some big gift tags like my Mother's Day cards to go with them - easy to do in Design Space.  I just kept the flower design, popped in some tags and cut:

In addition to my paper crafting I absolutely love to sew/quilt!

I made 5 of each style - I have 2 other friends in mind for the last 2 sets.  The first style has this amazing wine themed fabric on the bottom and a strip of fabric with corks across the top.

The backing fabric is pretty awesome too!

The second potholder is beer themed - I couldn't decide between 2 different ones so I used both.  Then down the side I added some peanut fabric.

They were a hit!  Do you have any other hobbies in addition to paper crafting?

Some sewing projects...

Hi all!

I LOVE to sew, I mean I love it!  I suck at making clothes but I love to make other stuff.  Awhile back I made a cute little stuffed owl for my step-mom.  It was meant to sit on her sewing table to keep her company and hold her sewing supplies.  When it arrived and she called me I could here my dad being silly in the background and whining about how he doesn't have an owl friend so:

I enlarged the pattern pieces by 50% and made an owl for him to hold his remote controls :)

You can get the pattern and make one yourself: Handy Who

And for my step mom - she requested a purse for her birthday:

I am quite pleased with how it turned out! This is my favorite purse patterns of all the ones I have made so far.

This purse is packed with pockets which is what makes it so fantastic!  There is a large one on the front, A roomy zippered one on the back and 1 on each side with magnetic snap closures.

In addition there are 4 more pockets on the inside!  Now all those pockets make this a fabulous purse, they also make it tricky to put together!  But it's worth it.  If you would like to try it grab the pattern: Sandra Sue

What are you working on today?

Velvet Pumpkins on the cheap!

Hi all!

Happy Halloween!  Boy is Pezza excited!  We are having a few neighbors over for pizza and then heading out to load up on candy.  It's a strange phenomenon really - I just threw out the last of her Halloween candy from last year BLECH! 

Today is one of those days when I realize I have far more on my to-do list than is humanly possible!  I got all of your bday party invites done so we can hand them out at school when we go eat lunch with her today, then prepping for an Origami Owl party tomorrow, my kids mixed media class after school, home for dressing up and off to trick or treat and SOMEWHERE in there I need to go into town and buy a big table.

I wanted to put up a quick post though - awhile back my friend Suzanne posted a link on Facebook to some velvet pumpkins and I about died when I saw the price!  A set of 3 was like $78 or something ridiculous!  Especially ridiculous because I knew how easy it would be to make them myself and so I set about doing that and am just now getting around to posting it!

One important thing about the pumpkins - they had REAL actual pumpkin stems so that was my first mission.  You can buy them on Ebay (can't you buy EVERYTHING on Ebay?)  But I was not going to pay for that either!  I got lucky, hubby makes fun of me because I always just kick our rotting pumpkins right off the porch into the flower bed behind the boxwoods - so guess what I found back there?  Dried pumpkin stems!  Yea baby!  I also went up to the nursery that had a pumpkin display and asked for stems that had fallen off - the guy thought I was nuts.  He kept saying So you just want the STEMS????  Then he turns and calls his buddy - HEY!  This crazy lady wants pumpkin stems!  I told him it was for a project that was really popular in blogland.  He said he didn't even know what that was.  BUT he said I was welcome to walk around and collect any pumpkin stems I found so I did.  I also thought I would make it to a pumpkin patch and get some more there but that has NOT happened.  BOO.

Next the velvet.  Now real actual velvet can be pricey and to be honest the fabric stores near me are quite lacking in the velvet department - NO good colors.  But they did have this velvet knock off stuff at Joanns - only three good colors and I didn't make it the hour to the good fabric store to look for more colors either.  So I made do with what I found cheaply and easily and here ismy little set:

SO EASY!  I just cut the circles - didn't even try to make them perfect - and then stitched a large stitch around the cut edge.  you want big far apart stitches not close tiny stitches with a good heavy thread.

Then I just pulled the thread on one side so it gathered up the fabric, stuffed them and pulled tight so the opening was small.  I knotted the string and glued the stems on with a hot glue gun.  Start to finish it was probably a 30-40 minute project!

I hope you all have a great time tonight whether you are collecting candy or disbursing it!

Cute Purse Day!

Hi all!

It occurred to me when I was contemplating how much better I have been feeling and how far I have come that I should share it with y'all.  I have been off my meds about 9 months or so now I think it is.  I am happy to report that I am feeling much better and far far more stable!  And happy!  And lucky.  I know not everyone will have the same road and I do still have to be very aware of my thoughts and perspectives and how I react to the things around me but I am doing well and feel much better physically as well! 

I still have some struggles though and one of them is balance - wow do I lack balance in my life!  I also struggle with having reasonable expectations on myself - Pezza is in school right now and I don't work so I should be super human and be able to do everything plus more right?!?!?  I seriously don't know HOW I raised my 2 boys ALONE while working AND putting myself through college full time!  Of course I was younger then!  I spend a lot of times feeling like I am running in circles and not accomplishing as much as I'd like to (or those around me would like for me to!)

Most significantly - I have not been crafting nearly enough BUT I did take some time recently to get a little sewing done and made a purse for my step mom!

 

 The pattern is really easy and for such a little purse it is very roomy!  I have made it a couple times but Pezza keeps on stealing mine!  The pattern is called Patty's Bag by Sewphisti-Cat and goes together fairly easily.

I just LOVE both the Daisy fabric and the pale orange butterfly fabric and they went well together - all from Joann Fabrics.

Do any of the rest of you sew at all?  If so, what is your fave thing to make?

Not scrappy but still a crafty post....

WOW!  Did I drop off the face of the earth or what?!?!?!  I guess I just needed a break - not that I have been keeping up with this blog the way I used to anyway but....It's been going strong for 6 years!  Of course, entertaining the ever adorable little daughter can really put a dent in your time to play!  We opted for no summer camps in an effort to save money this summer so that means it's mommy time ALL the time!  And also means not a whole lot of crafting has been going on.  Because if I am in there she is in there and if she is in there I am not getting a heck of a lot done.  But we HAVE been busy.

So what's been going on?  ALOT.  As y'all know (if anyone is still here reading this!)  I have been really battling health-wise with getting off of my medications and dealing with my struggle against depression and borderline Bi-polar disorder.  Well, it's gotten alot better.  The meds are out of my system and I am slowly normalizing - to what's normal for me anyway - and learning to accept myself and rejoice in my facets!  Because I am not broken I am just unique.  And that can be ok.  I had a HUGE wake up call this summer when an old friend of ours who has long struggled with depression killed himself.  I have always seen suicide from the view of the person who is suicidal - I know the pain he was in.  But I have never seen the aftermath or felt how completely flooring it is to be someone left behind.  To be so completely filled with the WHY of it.....  Steve was mutli-faceted and profoundly interesting and I believe these things often go hand in hand - the mad scientist and crazy artist types you know?  It gave me a new perspective and has helped shift my thinking back towards a healthier place.  But the road is long.....

Our very sick litter of foster kittens with the horrible eye infections - they all survived AND no one is blind.  However, it is a lifelong ailment that may require future meds and treatments and vet visits so it will not be easy to find adopters for them.  Especially my little Bun-ny, the boy.  He is SO stinkin' adorable but his eyes were the worst and he really struggles.

Bun with his "Big Cat" buddy Bubba

"Jungle Bun - he single-handedly destroyed this plant for me...

"Ferocious Brioche-ess" - in my old purse

Baby Baguette - the runt

We have been on lots of trips too - out with the camper to Myrtle Beach, Luray Caverns and soon Lancaster PA to name a few.  We also went to Utah to see my Dad and Step Mom and I strolled CHA which I have not done for several years.  It was SO SO good to see friends I only see during the show.  Nothing bowled me over as far as products but I think I have gotten a bit jaded to it all!  The highlight (other than my awesome awesome friends Terri and Nadja) was meeting Anna Dabrowska - Finnabair - and watching her demo while I worked in the Splash of Color booth.  She is so chock full of talent plus super sweet and fun to boot!

So what have I been crafting?  Not a whole lot I have to be honest BUT I have been doing a bit of things here and there outside of paper crafting and mixed media.  I pulled my sewing machine out of the disaster that is my studio and laid it out on the sunroom table (my hubby loves when I do this sort of thing and begin taking over the whole house) and I also FINALLY got back to my dollhouse I had started 2 years ago (HOLY CRAP TWO YEARS!) 

So while I know y'all are all papercrafters, and I WILL have more of that coming,I wanted to show y'all the purse I made:

 

Now even though this is fabric and it's a sewing project it's still relevant!  For one it's crafty - HAHA!  But I often stroll through my {incredible} local quilt shop and think how adorable some of the fabric collections would be if they were translated into a papercrafting collection and this collection is definitely one of those!  My papercrafting/mixed media stuff has been filled with this great color combo - Turquoise with Terra Cotta or Coral - and I even did a post about why it works so well together HERE. And of course the OWLS - holy cow I cannot seem to get enough of the owls.

Anyway I made the great big boho-esque bag.  Then I realized the lack of pockets (I normally only use patterns with lots of pockets) would be a problem so I had to make a zipper pouch and sunglass case from the extra fabric.

They both gave me problems though since it was my first time for each so the extra fabric turned into a trip to get even more fabric BUT in the end I am pleased.

It was important to me that my pouch have the little fabric end stops on either end of the zipper and I found the PERFECT and perfectly FREE tutorial on Flossie Teacakes.  Now I want to make more but I don't have a reason to....YET...but I am sure I will think of something!

Some little matching fabric Kanzashi flowers, yoyos and buttons were the perfect finishing touches.  Now if someone would just make me some paper to match this collection......!

I better scoot - I have lots to do before we can get out of the house - heading to the local county fair to look at the booths and then see a truck & tractor pull and ride some rides!  Hot dogs and funnel cakes here we come!

What is YOUR favorite color combination OR scrappy/paper collection right now???  I want your input!!!!

a sewing project today!

hi all!

gotta love a 3 day weekend!  happy birthday MLK!  we have been spending alot of time on the house lately and yesterday was one of those days.  when we built the house we really enjoyed decorating and upgrading from what the builders put in and stuff like that.  then we had pezza.  after that all of our time, energy and space went to baby things - and boy do babies require a lot of things....alot.  to top it off this has been far more house than i have ever had to take care of and it can be overwhelming.  before this i had an apartment - 4 rooms total and 2 small bathrooms - i could scour it from top to bottom before the kids left for school :P  and because we had so little space AND moved at LEAST every 2 years there was very little accumulation.  now that pezza is getting older we are trying to reclaim some of our space and get things cleaned out at the same time so yesterday we tackled the family room.  i had cleaned out her toy area not too long ago but the whole room was just a mess of piles of stuff plus the carpets looked like h*** and our couches look like they are crying..  won't be getting new couches or flooring anytime soon BUT we decided to do a major clean out/overhaul, rearrange things and furniture and steam clean the carpet and couches.  we hauled out SIX kitchen garbage bags of crap - magazines, old kids books pezza was done with and all sorts of other things.  now it is SO SO nice in here!  all the stuff we had moved up high and out of reach can be brought back down now which helps the look of the room too!

now onto something crafty - not papercrafty today though.  i love to sew things as y'all probably know if you have been reading my blog for awhile.  i made myself the most beautiful purse awhile back out of gorgeous fabric but it was becoming increasingly apparent it was not what i wanted anymore - it was ONE big pocket so i could never find anything in it.  i finally got fed up and set about making a new one last week - it only took 2 days (not entire days of course!) 

i found some really pretty fabrics at my local quilt shop, WebFabrics.  the 2 dark ones are part of the new Northcott Stonehenge collection - GORGEOUS.

the light blue fabric is part of the Fairy Frost line - it has SHIMMER!

and now i have lots of pockets to keep things find-able!  a large pocet on the front, zipper pocket on the back, a pocket on each side AND 3 pockets on the inside perfect for my wallet, cell phone and notepad i always keep handy!  the purse is much smaller BUT so much better organized - i love it!

bubba has a new fave spot - he has discovered pezza's old boppy pillow:

i swear he is so adorable - the pics can't do him justice because so much of his adorableness is his larger than life personality - so glad he found us!!!