Ornament Exchange

Come and join in the fun over at The Benner Daily! Shealynn is hosting an ornament Exchange, and it is going to be loads of fun.
Will you join in? I will hopefully see you there.

Thanks for stopping by!

Baby Showers

I Co-hosted three baby showers this year for three close friends. I will probably be doing at least 2 more next year! Not to mention the countless ones I have been to and am invited too! It's a baby boom. So Since I haven't shared any of these pictures yet,(1.May 2.October 3.November) I thought I would do it all at once.

1. My Best Friend had her little man on July 20th, and he is a heartbreaker. Her Baby shower hosted 70 guests (her husbands family is huge) and was at her parents beautiful home.And this is her stinking cute baby! He's 3 1/2 months old now : )

2. My Awesome friend Ronda had her showers (that's right) in October, Family and close friends on a Saturday at her cousins, and Church and friends the next day Sunday at where else Church. : )This is the only picture I have of the shower. My co-hostess has more I just have to get them! She is currently having contractions that are getting more regular so we are hoping this week.

3. The last shower was just a week ago, and super fun! It was for a good Friend Sarah. Sarah and her husband Jason are missionaries in the Phillipines, and are on sabatical from there first two year term. They had Baby Ezra 6 weeks early in the Phillipines and he had a rough fight for his life including a serious staff infection and heart surgery. He is doing great and is a super alert and cute 5 month old.
And the Happy Family! Aren't they cute. Ezra is so funny because he is so tiny still but sits up on his own and is so alert. He is so much fun!

So needless to say as much fun as baby showers are, I am a little spent for the year. I am hoping I will just be attending them for a little while.

Thanks for stopping by!

Sunday Favorites

This week my sunday favorites are focusing on baby related items. I have oodles of friends getting pregnant and having babies right now, not to mention our own desire to have a baby not for lack of trying. : ) So here are the baby favorites from etsy this week!

Pink Perch

SmidgeBox

Sewn Natural

Deer Dane

Brittain Road

All I can say is that I am going to be in BIG trouble when I get pregnant.
Thanks for stopping by!

Spotbot

Lots of baby boys are being born lately, so I needed to come up with something that isn't girly to give as gifts when they get older.Meet Spotbot! ( verdicts still out on the name ) : )
I came up with his pattern a couple nights ago, and sliced off a piece of my finger in the process of making him. But he is pretty cool, so I think it was worth it. I think I want to make a few adjustments, especially to the way I constructed him. But I think he's cute and boy worthy so I'm happy!

Thanks for stopping by!

Gifts

A couple of gifts I made for my pet project From:Me To:You

A framed embroidery and fabric collage

A wool felt leaf garland as seen here.

Thanks for stopping by!

My Creative Space

I have been seeing lots of people doing these "my creative space" posts lately, and kootoyoo is having a link party so I thought I would join in. My creative space these days is full of piles.

Next to my sewing machine is a pile of quilt squares for a christmas present quilt! ;)
On my cutting table is a pile of felt leaves sitting with an already made felt garland like this one found here and here. One is for a gift the other is for me. : )

The last pile (I am sharing at least) is crocheted circles. They are being made while in bed at night watching movies, but I figured you don't want to see my unmade bed. They will be fashioned into a blanket. I need to make LOTS more circles first though. : )

So that's my creative space today, make sure you stop by the link party.
Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Halloween

I just thought I would share a couple pictures that make me think Happy Halloween thoughts.

Pumpkin FireplaceOwl CostumeMy Hubby : )A Felt Pumpkin I made!
White Pumpkins
Halloween LadiesGhost Earrings

Thanks for stopping by!

Shop update

Hi everybody! I wanted to let you all know I put some new items in my shop.
I thought I would show you some of my favorites on etsy in honor of the shop update.
chalkboard owl bird painting cowl whale I make things trash can ghostie

I love etsy and try to buy any gifts on etsy that I don't make myself. : )

Thanks for stopping by!

Fall Craft Show

Saturday marked my first craft show of the year. It went very well. I made some handy new displays for everything and stream-lined my booth display from the past two years!
It was a fun, productive, and flattering day! I am going to have to do it again soon. ; )
Thanks for stopping by.

Bruce

Sunday night left me with time to finish up one of the animals in a pile I discovered last week in my trashed sewing room (it's clean now).

Meet Bruce!He's charming!He's mischievous!He's Sweet!He wears his heart on his sleeve......

He is hoping for a new home so if anybody would like him to come live with you please let me know! Otherwise he will be up for adoption in my etsy shop soon. : )
Thanks for stopping by!

Bib Me!

Tonight I had some time to make a couple bibs for all the babies in my life right now. : )Tomorrow I will stop by the fabric store to buy some snaps so I can finish these babies up!
Thanks for stopping by.

Woodland Quilt

Okay so Amy over at Park City Girl is having a Fall Quilt Festival, so I thought I would join in with my round 2 quilt from the awesome Old Red Barn Co. Quilt Along, we all decided to keep the fun going after round one and start round two with a zigzag quilt.
I starting with several fabrics that I had laying around and order a couple online.I decided to make it a little bigger than a baby quilt size for one of my best friends who is expecting her second little girl in 6 weeks. YAY! So now that the shower is over and she loves it, I can post it here.
I am really loving the zigzag quilt style, it is so fresh and modern with white stripes in between the patterned ones. I am going to have to make more of this style.And since I wanted to do a simple back, I decided on mostly white with a small strip to anchor my handstitched trees. I love the look of this. I will be doing this alot more on Quilts.
I do believe that Round three of the Quilt Along is just wrapping up (wonky log cabin style) I wasn't able to join in, but I definitely have been visting frequently as there are loads of beautiful quilts being made. I am pretty sure Round four is looking to start soon too, so check it out and join the fun. I may be able to hop back in this round.

So check out the Fall Quilt Festival, it's amazing! Last I checked there where 400+ quilts linked to the Festival and growing everyday. it's a great way to connect with people and new blogger/crafters. I love this community!

Patiently Waiting

This is what I saw everytime I walked up my stairs today.

Some critters and crafts patiently waiting for tags and the journey to my next craft show! Hopefully some of them will find homes.

The Bandit

What have I been doing lately.... not a whole lot besides working.

It's gorgeous chilly fall weather outside so I have been knitting while watching this show that I am hooked on.
I am putting the finishing touches on favors for the baby shower I am co-hosting this weekend.

Tonight I took a break from sorting piles of stuff for my garage sale next weekend and taking loads of pictures of all the vintage and handmade items I must list on etsy this week.

I got the pattern for him in the new Stitch issue, and added a few touches of my own. I think he makes the perfect fall companion.

From:Me To:You

My new pet project.So I had this ephiphany today while driving. Why not GIVE away items I make, and not necessarily to people I know. So I started a facebook page to try this project out.
This idea is you become a fan of the facebook page "From:Me To:You" and then you can nominate one person each month to receive a handmade item. The nominations will happen the month prior to the giveaway month. i.e. October's winner will be nominated in September. Then on the first of the month I pick a winner and contact the nominator for the winners info. I then proceed to make a handmade item for the winner and mail it to them before the end of October.

I am also opening this up for others to contribute by volunteering to make a gift and mail it to a winner. This way we can have more winners receiving handmade gifts each month.

My main goal for this project is to spread my love of making things and giving gifts around the nation (someday hopefully the world). I extremely enjoy the process of making something crafty and very much enjoy giving handmade items to people. And I thought who says I have to know the receiver of a gift. So "From:Me To:You" was born.

If you would like to see more of what I am doing or join in the fun please visit my Facebook fan page for more info.

Procrastination

Yesterday I procrastinated all afternoon by making these!Today I procrastinate by posting about it. : )
(p.s. I did work all morning both days, sooo....)

Lisa Leonard Designs Jewelry GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!

Lisa Leonard Designs Jewelry GUEST GIVEAWAY!!!!
Kathleen over at Grosgrain is having a wonderful giveaway. Check it out if you can. Lisa Leonard has fabulous jewelry designs that I must get my hands on.
This stump necklace is my favorite.Thanks to Lisa and Kathleen for the giveaway.

Cubed

I found two of these upholstered cubes maybe about a month ago on the curb. They were not very pretty but seemed in good condition and I knew I could do something with them, especially since they were free.So I first started by stripping of the old fabric and covering them in a simple aqua cotton as a base.Now they are fresh and clean and ready for some bedazzling.
I have two ideas. One involves lots of crocheted hexagons, which I had already started crocheting in hopes of making a blanket. But after recovering the cubes I thought it would be super cool to make them into a cover instead.

My second idea involves loads of doilies. The other cube is showing you the look of stitching doilies together to make a cover. I am loving this look also but I feel it is less likely to happen. This is almost my whole doily stash pinned on the cube currently and I use them for many other projects. Also I think that the hexagons are more versatile. I have visions of these two cubes in my playroom or family room someday and so the doilies don't quite fit the style bill. But I do love the way they look.
So if anybody has any input they would like to throw at me. Let me know I am all ears. : )

Flea Market Saturday

Hi All! My parents and I met up this Saturday at the Pecatonica, IL Flea Market for the day. It was huge, and loads of fun. We saw lots of interesting people and things.

Two person bike

Cool photography

A christmas sewing kit

Oh and my loot! : ) (click on the picture to see everything)
I purchased some lovely goodies. Stuff for display, stuff to join collections, stuff to use in crafting, and stuff just because it was cute. Ahh...... what a great day.

Feeling put together! Not.

( A fun little package that will arrive shortly at it's destination)

So I feel the need to write a post about how I constantly feel behind in my work, up to my knees in housework, and never as put together as I would like to be.
I am going to share with you how my house looks on a daily basis. I pick up probably once a week or as I have time. So often our bed is unmade, (those are clean clothes on the floor)
our sink has dishes in it, and there is STUFF everywhere. I constantly have stuff piling up that I want to get rid of, sell, is for clients, or I just don't know what to do with. My sewing room/office is always crazy messy unless I am starting a big client project because I can't sew clients stuff in a mess, it just doesn't feel right.

So I would like to know if you feel the same, what you do if you don't and what you do to combat it if you do. I am trying slowly but surely to develop a schedule, an organizational system, little things that help me remember things. I need to figure out a way that I can do things around the house throughout the week so I am not doing everything at once and get overwhelmed. I must find time and a way to clean daily, spend time with God daily, get my to do list done daily, and not feel like I didn't get any fun time. And I don't even have kids yet. Although I do hope that once I have kids and am a stay at home mom I will only have kids and house to worry about so maybe things will happen. But who knows. : )

I leave you today with a couple teasers of projects I worked on this week, and what I did all day today. More to come tomorrow. : )