Been playing around with different head shapes this week.
Sometimes it's fun to not have to draft your own pattern.
Excited to play around some more with these and make them my own.
I'm also excited that Garage Sale season seems to have begun! Have a great weekend!
So I have been loving all the embroidery hoop art frolicking around the webosphere lately. It made me want to try my hand at it. Odd Dotty style.
I wanted to make a 3-D effect, like a dolly that's coming out of the fabric, so I stuffed the head. Also, this is my first attempt at scripting in embroidery. It's a simple backstitch.
party girl.
And then I wanted to make something to herald the arrival of spring.
I searched for quotes about spring, and this one by Emma Racine DeFleur stuck out to me. Also, I discovered stem stitch for the lettering. I lurrrv it!
I'm also very pleased with how the happy springtime love couple came out!
It makes me happy to look at, and with the typical Chicago-land "spring" we're having I need all the happy I can get!
And talking of happy, I discovered that the sound of the needle pushing through the taut fabric with the muted hiss of the thread that follows makes my soul sing a little. There's something quite therapeutic about it. I hope to have much more embroidery experiences in my future!
This post is partying over here:
Bananagrams! Do doo da-do. BANANAGRAMS! Do dooo da-do-do da-do-do da-do-do-da-do-do-do-da-do.
Am I the only one that has this run through their head whenever they say, think or see the word Bananagrams?
It fits so perfectly into the song! Try it! It's too fun! Almost as fun as actually playing the game itself! Have you played it, yet? Have you even heard of Bananagrams? If not, check it out. Our whole family loves playing it!
So much so, that we thought it would be a grand idea to host a "First Annual"...you know, coz every time you do something for the first time it's the 'first annual', right?...Bananagrams Tournament. Which we did. We even had a trophy for the Tourney Champ!
I thought it would be nice to have some themed decor for the event. I do loves me a good theme party. We invited a few friends that shared our love for the game and welcomed them with a front door wreath;
See? The 'Welcome' banner is made to resemble the tiles of the game. The colors of the event? Yellow, green and brown naturally.
Once inside they were welcomed again with a little vignette showcasing the coveted trophy of the evening!
The trophy was handmade by yours truly based on these from Shanty 2 Chic.
Okay, so the husband actually designed the graphics, coz he's pretty much full of the awesome. I knew what I wanted, but he knew how to make it happen. S'why I married him, yo.
Also? What's a party/tourney without some banners for decoration? Well, it's certainly not a party/tourney I'd want to be a part of! So, I made banners for the game words 'split', 'peel', 'dump' and 'bananas'. I really did make these...after the hubs taught me how.
Three guesses for where we hung the 'Dump' sign. HINT: We are nothing, if not classy!
For food we had lots of banana-fied treats. Those pictures came out too blurry, though. Sorry! But they were yummy! There was a banana split station, banana bread, banana cake and cookies made to look like Bananagrams tiles. For the non-sweet tooths, a friend was kind enough to bring her 'Bananaless Puke Dip'. I made signs for each station and put them in tiny frames I found at JoAnn for $1 each.
So, after everyone arrived and mingled a bit. Names were drawn and the games were afoot!
Those are my hurrrrsband's hands. I lurrrv them. I have a thing about hands. And I'm pretty sure he has the sexiest hands ever invented. The End.
All games were recorded on our dry erase board.
And, lo! But who should the reigning champ be?
That's right! Mine own flesh and blood! That's m'girl!! I'm so proud. She totally rocked that tourney like an old school jam! Also, she has started her own blog. Check it out!
It really was a good time. We hope to have a re-match sometime later this year. If you love to play Bananagrams, I would suggest having yourself a tournament. If anything, it gives you a chance to wear your cute yellow shoes!
And these three, in particular, are keeping my inspiration tank on full.
Inspired by this.
A lone earring that lost its mate several moves ago, yet I just couldn't let it go for some reason. Well, now I know why.
Color palette swatches for a very special project. Included is a red sequins bracelet from a set of bracelets that have long since lost their elasticity, and again for some reason I couldn't let go of them.
I love it when everything comes together to make complete sense.
This is now a new favorite pattern, by one of my favorite pattern makers, Larissa of mmmcrafts. You can find it here.
I made this as a baby shower gift. It was so much fun to put together!
So soft and squishy and cute and cuddly!
Here's hoping it brings years of smiles and hugs and kisses to Baby Bella!
Just a quick little pop in to say that I'm still here, and I still love you! For the past two weeks, I've been unable to access my sewing machine as we worked on turning our guest room into my own personal Sewing Dream Room Of Love And Inspiration And All Things That Inspire Me And Make Me Want To Be Creative And Fill My World With Art And Love. Or SDROLAIAATTIMAMMWTBCAFMWWAAL, for short. This was the sad state of things before.
Pretty boring and meh. But full of potential. Here it is in the during phase.
Isn't it much better already?! The colors make me happy as does the wall treatment! Am I the only one that kinda chooses paint colors based on their names? Lime Sorbet and Marshmallow White? Yes please!
The full after will come sometime in the new year, after our tax return. But it's done enough for me to move my stuff in and get me some sewing done before Christmas! Woot!
So the first thing I made in the new room? A Monkey!
Please ignore the little black things in the corners. Our stinkin' camera is falling apart, and the lens cap thingy won't fully recede when it's on. And it decided to stop taking good pictures. But I'm workin' with what I got here. The pattern for this adorable Monkey is from Crafting Legend Larissa of mmmcrafts.
I love this pattern! It's the perfect go-to gift for a baby shower, or birthday, or Christmas, or Tuesday!
I made this one for a co-worker of the husband's new baby. He chose the fabric and I love the vintage feel that it has.
Okay, that's it for my quick pop in! Thanks for stoppin' by, I may be on the down low for the rest of the week as I try to catch up on all the sewing I missed over the past two weeks and get all the handmade gifts I had planned to make made.
Love you all!
This past Saturday, my baby turned seven. Seven! I still can't believe it. And usually we like to throw a good theme party that's been planned out weeks in advance. This year, things got a little too crazy busy and themes were changing left and right, and then suddenly the big day was only a week away and nary a guest had been invited, or a streamer purchased! Bad parents!
The boy quickly decided on a Super Hero theme, and invitations were sent out via facebook. *sigh* I didn't even make cool invites this year. Still trying to let this all go. Thankfully everyone was able to make it on such short notice! And then life kept happening. And then it was Friday and STILL a streamer wasn't even purchased! So off to the stores to gather some supplies we went.
And POW! Some card-stock, a little (lot) cutting and a marker! We have instant decor!
Some more card-stock, cutting, marker and brown paper lunch bags and WHAM! We've got favor bags!
Even more card-stock, cutting, marker and skewers and SHAZAM! Instant cake topper! Is shazam a super hero word? Probably not, but you get the point.
I have a little confession. I've been wanting to make a cake banner like this ever since spying this one made by the ever talented Susie Harris. So even if we had planned this party for weeks, I may have made the cake exactly the same way. It was just a bonus that it came together super fast!
We topped everything off with streamers, but I forgot to get a picture of those. We used red, yellow and blue as I'm sure you could have guessed. The boy had a great time hanging and playing with his friends and debating which superhero would win in a fight. And even though he was feeling a little nervous about turning the big SE-VEN...he wasn't sure he was ready to let go of six, even after much assuring that he rocked six pretty hard...by the time the party was over, he was feeling pretty confident that Seven was, in fact, SUPER!
PS Our Advent Activity calendar is being re-evaluated. Hence, the lack of Advent updates. Sorry for the tease. But we are feeling a bit harried and are wanting to change things around a bit to really focus on what Advent means. And why we, as a family, celebrate Christmas.
Nothing says Christmas like Reindeer Poop, right? No? That's not what immediately springs into your mind at the mention of the holiday? Huh. Well, it will be after you've tried some!
This recipe has been in my family for as long as I can remember. I always knew it was the Christmas season when my mom would make these little bits of yum! Only we didn't call them Reindeer Poop. We called them Egg White cookies. Apparently we were boring. It wasn't until my sister and I had kids and started sharing this tradition with them that they came up with the new name. Now, I would like to clarify that this was not my choice. I voted to keep Egg White Cookies, or at least name them something much less poop-sounding like Christmas Snow. But nobody heard my pleas. So Reindeer Poop it was. I don't know. All I know is that I love them. My kids love them. And it just wouldn't feel like Christmas without them. Here's the recipe:
2 egg whites
1/4 tsp. salt
3/4 c sugar (EDIT: I originally had this at 3/4 tsp. It's CUPS!! So if you made these with tsp. I'm sure they weren't very good. SORRY! Please try it again, I promise it'll be so much better!) *
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/2 c chocolate chips or chunks
2 tbs. crushed candy canes **
Preheat oven to 250. Beat egg whites with salt until stiff. Add sugar and beat until very stiff. It will be shiny and should hold its peaks. Fold in vanilla, chocolate and candy canes. Drop by tablespoons onto greased cookie sheet and bake for 45 minutes. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy!
What you will have on your plate will be a melt in your mouth meringue cookie loaded with chocolate and peppermint goodness!
I would love it if you would give these a try and share some with your friends/family/neighbors. Let me know if you do and what you think! Now, I will warn you that not everyone loves these as much as you may. I'm not sure why. I still haven't figured that out. But this is what you will find if that is the case.
Notice the polite "No thank you" bite and the not so subtle shoving of it off to the side of the plate, making sure it comes nowhere near other food that may be left on there. Try not to take it personal...that's something I'm still working on, btw...but if the circumstances allow, it is perfectly acceptable to finish the cookie for them!
Happy Baking!
* It has been discovered if you use organic sugar, all calories will become void and turned into vitamins and minerals making these a healthful treat! ++
** I just crush two candy canes rather than measuring this out.
++ This statement has not been evaluated by the FDA, and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease.
I like to party!
So, many moons have passed since these fingers have even thought about hammering out anything on this blog. It's not that there hasn't been anything happening. It's that there has been so much happening! Some good, some bad, a lot of just plain life. This past year has been crazy for the family and I. Crazy. With a capital "What The Fraggle Rock Was That All About?!". Always in the back of my mind was the lonely little piece of webistate sitting here. No one watching it. No one even flushing the toilets to make sure the pipes don't burst. I thought about getting rid of it. But that made me sad. I thought about trying to post something. But that made me overwhelmed. Where do I start again? How do I try to cram everything that's been happening into a post? How do I share with you all everything that I have learned this past year? Everything that I've made and done?
The answer? I don't. I am just starting from right here, right now. It's time to move forward.
I have found a plethora of fun, new to me, crafty blogs. Blogs that have inspired me with their creativity, their resourcefulness and their simple approach to living artfully. You can check 'em all out on the side there. Under "Blogs I Love to Love". And if you find any new blogs that aren't listed there, I would love to know about them! Shoot me an email or leave a comment. I heart comments!!
One of my newest focuses has been on decorating my house for the Holidays using what I already have. Or spending very little on some simple supplies. We made it through Halloween pretty successfully with some fun decor. I'll have to show you next year as that is past, and we are forward thinkers now. So onto Thanksgiving. It's honestly been hard for me to get inspired to decorate for this one, as I am chompin' at the bit to get my Christmas on. I love Christmas. I will never get sick of it. I don't hate that there have been Christmas decorations out in some stores since September! But! I also don't want to lose sight of the Holiday that we all stop to really concentrate on being grateful. Because I for one, have a LOT to be thankful for! One of them being Autumn. I'm thankful to live in a place that actually has Autumn. It's my favorite season. I love everything about it. The smells, the sites, the sounds, the feel. For me, Autumn is the beginning of a new year. It's always felt that way for some reason. So I thought I could start my Thanksgiving decor off by making an Autumn inspired pillow for the bench in my foyer.
It cost me NOTHING! That's my favorite price tag. I used fabrics that have been sitting around for years to make this. It feels good to finally put them to use. And to feel like I am slowly but surely turning my house into a home.
I love how it turned out! What do you think? Do you heart Autumn as much as I?
This post is partying over here:
Ever since the boy has been in glasses we have been patching him. His left eye is much weaker than his right, and so we must work it to make it stronger. Especially as we would like to do all that we can to avoid eye surgery. Now, when we first started, we used those adhesive eye patches. Are you familiar with those? Yeah, it's pretty much like a band-aid...that we had to put on and rip off every day. Over the eye of our then four year old. It wasn't pretty, and it left its mark in broken blood vessels. Poor guy. Thankfully, our eye doctor then showed us a cheap and easy way to make one out of craft foam that fits over the glasses. Joy!
Can you see the joy? Can you see how much the boy loves his patch? Okay, he really was happy with the foam patch until recently. It is by far much more comfortable than the adhesive one, but its lacks luster. It lacks oomph. It lacks any sort of super heroic vibe. Even if your big sister does draws an eye on it.
Then? The Discovery was made. In the form of this tutorial from LucyKate Crafts. A light-bulb went off! I can sew! I can sew a patch! I can sew a patch to end all patches! And there will be much rejoicing and dancing in the streets! And all will be well with the world!
That was about a year ago. It wasn't until the last visit to the eye doctor when I had to admit that we were non-compliant with our patching efforts. We had succumb to the lack-lusterness of the foam patch, and kept forgetting to use it. Thankfully, however, his eye had actually improved anyway. But we were told that we need to keep patching him indefinitely. Which reminded me of the 'Discovery', and away to the fabric store went I to hunt and gather.
Obviously, I was not going to be making the exact same patch as the tutorial...I didn't think my six year old boy would appreciate wearing a pink flower on his eye for 1-2 hours a day. Instead I thought I would be clever and make a super hero inspired patch, as he and the husband have been muchly into super heroes as of late. I decided to make the eye of one of the many super heroes he had made up, Fire Spider!! Knowing that he was slightly related to Spiderman, I made it according to what I envisioned it as...the boy was in bed for the night.
I think he likes it.
Although he did tell me that Fire Spider is not actually a super hero, but a super villain. In his words, 'He's eviler than Joker and he's more agiler than Spidey and he has the power of fire. And the only one who can defeat him is God. And, he has the power that Spidey has.'
So, look out! Here comes Fire Spider! Occlusion therapy never looked so good!
