Oh My!

I was linked to on Babble!

It was a good 2 weeks ago, and I had no idea. I guess I should be paying more attention... Yay!

Craftaholics Unite!!

Last week, I said that I had some awesome things coming. Well, first was the labels and the giveaway in conjunction with it (you still have the rest of today to enter!!). The next thing I couldn't tell you about until now!


Today, I was given one of these:

because I'm guest posting over at Craftaholics Anonymous! I'm so excited to share this new tutorial with you and all of Linda's readers. So check out my tutorial for my newest creation:

I still have one more big thing in the works, but I'm sure you've guessed at it. As soon as I get a few more things figured out, I'm going to start selling my one-of-a-kind sock animals! Happy Thursday and check back tomorrow for the winner of the custom stamp giveaway from Sima Designs!!

Let the Countdown Begin!!

Well, they are done! I finished the last two today, but they are ready! Here are the last 9 ornaments for my advent calender:

Peppermint candy, a star for the top, bell, and ball ornament.

Santa Claus and a snowman.

A snowflake.

And what kind of Christmas would it be without pumpkin pie? In my house, growing up, we never left cookies for Santa. It was always a piece of pumpkin pie.

 And I'm sure you were thinking, "What's up with the crazy heart?" Maybe this will help:

All done! It was fun to put them all up for this picture.

And also very sad to put them back in the pockets. Anyone else have trouble deciding which pocket to put each one in? I want them all up for the whole month!! Merry Christmas Season!!

the first wave of advent ornaments

Since I had already made the first part, I wasn't paying too close attention to the assignments. 2 weeks ago, when I read, "cut out your tree shape" I moved on and thought I had done that so I was still good. Then this last week the assignment was, "Make another 8 ornaments." 

Um. Another 8?

And then, of course, I was making baby shoes, so here is what I was able to accomplish since I started on Saturday night. 15 of the 16 isn't bad!

Holly Berry, Drum, Mitten, and Candy cane

Gifts 1, 2, and 3

Dove, Buddy the Elf, and Stockings for each kid

Baby Jesus, Angel, 3 Wise Men, The Shepherd's Sheep

There are several I used the template provided at Homemade by Jill, but the ones I made up are by far my favorites. Even the stockings that I used the template, I added little stitched names and it makes it that much more personal. I learned new tricks making these. I've never known how to do the edging called a blanket stitch. And I learned how to do a French knot, which is what I used for all the eyes and for the hair on Buddy the Elf.

Anyway, these are the ones I'm really proud of:

Baby Jesus in a Manger  

The 3 Wise Men

(This is the one that kept me up until 1am last night)

The Angel

(with an Asian husband, my red-headed self will always be outnumbered, 

so I had to do the red hair. . . not to say I think I'm an angel...)

True Candy Cane

(maybe you've heard this story, but supposedly it's only a true candy cane if it has one large stripe for the Atonement, and 3 little stripes for the Godhead, so I added in the little ones)

The Shepherd's Sheep

(I didn't want to make yet another tiny person, so I decided the sheep could represent for the Shepherd in the Christmas story)

Buddy the Elf

(if you haven't seen the movie ELF, you are missing out!!)

This is so much fun! And after pushing through 15 ornaments in 3 days, I think finishing the last 9 in a week is going to be a sinch!

Advent Sew Along

Last year, I fell in love with the advent calender over at Inchmark. And then felt went on sale at JoAnn's and it was decided! I made the calender part, with a few changes.

First, I decided that hand sewing is for suckers. Not really, I just didn't want to hand sew all the pockets and tree on, so I used my machine.

 Next, my pockets are not the small 2.5 in square. I decided to make mine 4 in square. At first, I wanted to do this so that I wouldn't have to make as tiny of ornaments to fit in my tiny pockets. Now, I think the ornaments will still be small; but this way I can put in some candy as well.

Because the pockets are bigger, the tree had to be bigger too. Mine measures 20" along the bottom and the same 20" tall at the point. I also decided on using bright multicolored buttons because I've always been a fan of Christmas lights of the colored variety! 

Last year, since it was already a week into December, I was pregnant (aka TIRED), and realized that I would not be able to machine sew the tiny ornaments and have them look good; add on top that I would have to make up my own patterns for the ornaments and I was out. I used some little candy canes ornaments last year, thinking I would just make the ornaments (by hand) this year.

To my surprise, Homemade by Jill has decided to do a sew along of this exact calender! And she just posted some templates for ornaments that someone else sent in to her! I'm super excited! I may still make up a few of my own, but we will see.

I like how my bigger version has turned out, and I can't wait for the ornaments! Hero's a big fan, too. Since he's still working on number recognition, this is perfect!

Does I still count as a sew along participant when I made the first part last year? :-)

Some Past Due "Thank You"s.

I have only been doing this craft blog for a few months now, and sometimes I feel like I'm just sitting in a corner talking to myself. It's like I'm in high school waiting for the cute guy to notice how awesome I am.

And when it does happen, I am a dork and forget to say something back. "Take Luck!" and "You, too!" and whatnot.

Can you see the visual?

 So that is what this post is about. Catching up on it all. First, check out on the side bar I have a few places that have featured me. AWESOME!!! Some I sent stuff to and asked if they'd share. But some I just got emails/comments saying they'd already done it! WAHOO! I am also listed on AllFreeSewing.com and CraftGossip.com. Thanks to those who linked me up there.

And lastly, I was given some awards by a few of my fellow crafty bloggers a while ago and kept meaning to follow through on it, but alas, I'm still just a dork... :o)  

These three (maybe only 2 since 2 have the same name...) awards were given to me by The Sassy Crafter and Bree at My Crafty Crap.

     

 The conditions of all these awards are:

1) Thank the person

2) Share 7 things about yourself

3) Nominate 15 newly discovered blogs

4) Let the award winners know

So, let me start with THANKS MRS. SASSY CRAFTER AND BREE!!! I feel loved. Maybe I'm not talking to only myself and my dad. HI DAD!

Next, 7 things?

• I was team captain of both the basketball and volleyball teams back in high school, and boy to I miss that body!  Back then it was accepted right away when I said, "I play volleyball and basketball". Now they look at my nearly 60 extra pounds and say, "really?" No, not really, I'm just a pathological liar trying to impress you. YES REALLY!

• I didn't wear the color pink until I was a senior in high school (then it was my sister's old dress...) because I was told red heads can't wear pink. Whenever my mom got my sister and I matching clothes in different colors, hers was pink and mine was purple. Because of this, I'm not a fan of purple, but currently own at least 3 pink shirts (I have a rather small wardrobe).

• When I'm pregnant, I have no mother's intuition. I was sure Hero was a girl and thought Pretty was a boy. My husband, however, was right about them both.

• I'm not a great housekeeper, even though I have worked as a custodian in the past. Knowing how to do something well doesn't mean I like to do it. I feel the same way about counted cross stitch. Shoot me.

• I enjoy doing laundry. The clean scent. The warm clothes. The crisp folded piles. But then I hate putting it away...

• I took a ride on a homemade zipline this weekend and slipped off right at the end, landing on my tushie. I currently have an ugly bruise on my right butt cheek.

As for the 15 blogs. . .

Oh, wait one more thing about me.

• I hate chain mail. If I get an email with a really awesome motivational story in it that I love, but at the end it tells me I have to pass it on or I will "lose my true love and I must hate puppies and kick small children daily", I delete it. If I decide to send the story to a few people I know will like it, I delete the bottom part. Mostly, though I just delete it.

So knowing this, I will still list a few people. You can take one (or all) of the awards and enjoy it without having to pass it on if you don't want.

Aud's and Ends

Made by Heidi

Ruby in the Dust

Make it a Wonderful Life

Kitchen Corners

Pin Cushions!

Today starts the Kid's Clothing Week Challenge. Meet my sewing area where I will be spending at least 1 hour per day making kid's clothes this entire week.

I like how I have it set up so everything is handy. It might seem confining, but it works well and I'm just happy to have it set up all the time and not in the way of anything. I love how it's next to the computer so when I am following a tutorial, what I need is right there.

Here is a quirk of mine. When I  use a new spool of thread, the label on the top ends up peeling up. So I take it off and stick it to the side of my machine. I think I must have cleaned it off at one point, because there are not a lot there.

You should recognize the background here that is my ironing board.  It's where I take a lot of pictures! And this is my vintage pin cushion given to me, with the old pins included, by my mom. I usually pin while standing by the board, so my pin cushion ends up spending a lot of time here.

After I pin, I turn to sew and forget to bring the pin cushion with me. It may be close, but when I am in a sewing groove, I just stick the pins into the pad under the machine. Sometimes, I repeat this process so much that I end up with the majority of my pins here instead of in the cushion where they belong.

My solution: two new pin cushions!

I found the little metal cups at the thrift store for 25 cents a piece. There were 8 of them and now I wish I had bought more than these 2. I could have made more for gifts. They were easy to put together. Just cut 6" diameter circles, run a gather stitch around the edge, gather, stuff and close the opening. Last step is to glue it into the cup with hot glue. Easy-peasy.

But with 2 adorable pin cushions, I can keep one on the ironing board,

and one by the machine,

and just switch them when the machine one gets full. Bring on the sewing challenge! I think I'm ready!

KCWC: signing up with elsie marley

I've had this button on my side bar for about a week now, I don't know how  many of you noticed it:

Click on over to check out the official-ness of it all, but basically, by signing up, you are committing yourself to sew for 1 hour each day working on clothes for the kiddos! At the time of writing this post there were already 335 people signed up! 

I have a few projects in mind, and I'm going fabric shopping tonight to pick up some things for it. I'm excited! I will be sharing my progress through out the week, even if it's minimal. (You may end up staring at pictures of me cutting out patterns. . . I hope that's ok!)

But before that all starts, I have a project I'm going to work on tonight that will help with this upcoming frenzied week of sewing. I'll get it posted as soon as it's done!