Happy Belated Valentine's Day

Yesterday Donna (from Donna's Lavender Nest) and I met up for lunch!  I was so surprised when she gave me this:

 Isn't this the sweetest box . . .

filled with homemade sugar cookies and . . .

these lovely pins that she made!

I love all the little details on the box!  I'm pretty sure I came out ahead yesterday as Donna also insisted on paying for lunch!!  Wow!  I was treated like a princess . . . and it's not even my birthday!!  Thank you so much for the wonderful lunch and laughs, Donna!!

Next time, it's my treat . . . seriously, don't make me hurt you!!!!

Who Knew . . .

that a few new markers and some watercolors could make me so happy??? 

Today is President's Day and it turns out it's a holiday for me.  Yay!  So B-guy and I had to take the car back into the shop today (3rd time now) and on the way home we stopped in at Hobby Lobby.  This is what I came home with.

And this is what I did with them:

Man, oh, man, why do I have to go to work tomorrow?  Can't I just stay home and play??  This is too much fun!!

Yesterday I took some scrap fabric, a cereal bowl, a pen and a pair of scissors and made this little project:

This is what leftover yoga bag material can be turned into.

And then I went on to finish the top of my scrap quilt. 

I used the remainder of the 5" charm pack to piece a backing and it is now loaded onto the longarm and ready for some quilting.  That'll have to be a project for another day as tomorrow morning is bootcamp and 4:30 a.m. comes pretty early around here!!

I hope everyone had as wonderful a day as I did.  Happy sewing!

A Prolific Day

Yes, I have a day job . . . ugh!!  I should quit saying that; the job isn't bad and it pays the bills.  It's just that the grass is always greener, you know.  I work with numbers all day long and all I really want to do is play with fabric and draw!! 

So today I made a start to get back on track with my envelopes.  I've been somewhat remiss in completing an envelope a day.  I haven't been slacking off, though, as I have done at least a drawing a day and my stack has grown quite large.  I was thinking I could just use some gel medium and attach them to the envelopes before sending, but then I thought maybe I'll just keep my collection.  So I'm back to drawing envelopes.  Here is today's batch that I drew at lunch:

This envelope has a little story that goes with it.  A few years ago I made cards with clay faces and fabric clothes and on the backside I included a story about the person.  They were all very humorous (at least to me) and so I decided that this little person needed her story to be put out there in the world!

After I drew my envelopes, I started drawing on my small squares and this is what I came up with :

This is what I drew yesterday:

I'm just experimenting with all of these pictures, but I like almost all of them because I'm constantly learning something.  I think these squares are 4"x4" (I'm to lazy to go look at one and see what size it is!!)

When I got home from work tonight I had this at my door:

This is from Creative Thursday and the package included postcards, fat quarters, valentine's day card and a print.  I have a new grand nephew that will be born soon so I think I will frame this print for him.  I had purchased seven of the fat quarters earlier so I will add these to those and someday soon I'll get busy with making a quilt out of them.  This is my second set of the postcards; I just love them.

It's been a good day . . . hope yours was also!

Oops . . . I Forgot The Title!

My niece brought me this sticker for my car and I'm loving it!  So far I've run 5 half marathons and that makes me happy!

My little brain is always thinking up interesting things so yesterday I made these:

I was going to add popsicle sticks for their legs, but I haven't done that yet.  The idea was to make bookmarks.  The one on the left is open at the bottom and B-guy thinks I should leave them that way and they could be finger puppets.  I was really interested in the process.  Instead of using paints I tested six different brands of markers to see which ones would bleed once water was introduced into the equation.  Three of the six brands were doable.  I used fabric that was made specifically to be painted as it has a paper backing on it.  Then I drew the "girls" in pencil and used my markers to color in the details.  I layered batting and backing and sewed around them and then cut them out.  I like them, but I know I can do better.  Stay tuned. . .

This was last weekend's project.  It just needs some binding added to it.  It's all about the scraps!!  I was in a hurry to quilt this guy as I liked doing the random straight line quilting.  It looks good in person.

And this was tonight's project.  Another "use up the scraps" project.  I think it'll turn out okay.  I'm putting green squares in the corners.  I didn't know what I was going to make when I started sewing the blocks together so I'm not exactly putting this quilt together the easiest way.  It's okay though; I don't let the quilt police in my home!!

All righty, then, let's just get out there and keep on sewing!!  ENJOY!!

Valentine's Day Goodies

This week I devoted my free time to making valentine's day cards.  I sent 22 of these beauties to the NY Citymeals-on-Wheels and they will be delivered on Valentine's Day.  I hope they bring some smiles.

Work is not always fun and this week seemed annoyingly stressful.  What's up with that???  This is supposed to be my sit back and relax stress-free time, but that just wasn't to be this week.  Oh, well, I'll try again next week.  Luckily I have tomorrow off so tonight I packaged up my gifts for the kids at Texas Children's Hospital.



They will be delivered on Valentine's Day.  I hope they bring some cheer.

Last weekend I finished another small lap quilt.  It just needs some binding and I think I'll call it my first charity quilt of 2012.  Maybe I can crank out a couple more this weekend.  And maybe I can try to take some pictures this weekend of the quilts!!  Until then, I hope that your days are filled with lots of crafty goodness!!

Spread the Love, Baby!!

The other day I went to Etsy and caught up on its blog entries and I found this.  It's a project whereby creative people send in Valentine's Day cards that will be delivered with the CityMeals-on-Wheels lunch to the elderly in New York.   I think it's a fabulous idea and I immediately had to go make some of these:

These are my versions of fabric Valentine's day cards.  The back (or in some cases, the front) has a writeable space for a Valentine's day message.  I will be adding some pink or red ribbons so they can hang from a door knob or elsewhere.  They were fun and easy to make and I plan on making a few more.  I have lots of ribbon and buttons and beads that I can add to these.  And I think the scrap rosettes look nice.  I hope I get enough made that I can also give some to The Texas Children's Hospital here in Houston.  Feel free to make some of your own (fabric or paper) valentines and either contribute to the CityMeals-on-Wheels program or one of your local charities.  I think it's a good thing.

I also sat down over the weekend and made another scrap quilt.  I had all these larger pieces laying out on the table and I decided to sew them together instead of putting them away.  The pieced top is nothing special, but I think once I get it on the longarm and quilt it, it will make a great lap quilt for those nights curled up on the couch watching television or reading.  I plan on giving this one away if it turns out like I think it will.  Fingers crossed.

Okay, it's time to go and make some more lovely valentines . . . 'er, wait a minute . . . I think I have to go to work first . . . hmm . . . that's a bummer!! 

And We're Off . . .

Yes, 2012 is off with a bang.  First up, remember these (from Donna)?  I'm referring to the dishcloths.  Well, they came in handy when this happened . . .

Yes, the dishwasher crapped out and we had to resort to the old fashioned way of cleaning our dishes.  Yikes, that brought back some memories!!  Not to worry, after much trouble and aggravation, we finally got this puppy installed.  (and by "we", I mean B-guy - bless his heart!)

Then there was this fiasco . . .

A little fender bender . . . ha!  The cost to fix this mess could feed a small African country.

A few days later this happened . . .

This is looking across the street from the front door.  Unfortunately because of my crazy busy season at work, I was unable to get a rental car after the accident and definitely unable to get one after the flood.  I'm still without a car and the wreck happened a week ago.

But, all is not gloom and doom in the month of January.  On Sunday, this happened . . .

 My family and I at the Houston Marathon Expo on Saturday picking up our packets.

And on Sunday proudly wearing our medals.  We all ran the Half Marathon except for my brother in the middle with the big medal - he ran the Full Marathon.

It was an awesome weekend because on Saturday we trekked downtown and watched the elite athletes vie for our 3 coveted 2012 Olympic marathon spots.  These awesome (and very, very fast runners) ran within feet of us.  At the end of the day, we saw Meb, Ryan and Abdi place 1st, 2nd and 3rd for the men. 

And Shalane, Desiree and Kara place 1st, 2nd and 3rd for the women.  It was probably a once in a lifetime deal as what are the chances that Houston will host the men's and women's Olympic trials again?  I was totally in awe.





Shalane Flanagan in the white socks streaking by on her way to 1st place victory. At this point, she had approximately 1/4 mile to go.  It's unbelievable how fast these runners run after 26 miles.  Yikes!  I'm so happy and proud of all of them.  Good luck!!

And so January has basically been a sew-free zone what with all the hoopla happening.  That does not make me happy.  But, if I can survive until Thursday (the date the auditors have to sign off on our year end audit), then maybe, (cross your fingers) just maybe, my sewing machine will be humming again this weekend.  So far, this is the only creating I've done (besides my daily drawings).

 This is my niece's college graduation quilt that my SIL asked me to quilt for her.



Hopefully January will calm down and February will be the month that I get to jump start my new year of creative happenings.  I guess we'll just have to wait and see . . . 

New Beginnings or The Same?

2011 wasn't so bad so I'm not sure that 2012 needs to represent new beginnings. I'll be happy with a year filled with more sewing and crafting goodness. This is what the end of 2011 looked like for me.



I love these little zines from Linda at Tortagialla

 She included a couple of her postcards along with the zines

 which inspired me to create my own little journal

 in which I'll be inserting some of my drawn pictures.

 voilà - here's my version which is now ready to start adding other ephemera and journaling.

 There were more aprons

 More gadgets (there was also some fabric purchases and as soon as the package arrives, I'll post some pics of the beginning of the 2012 stash!!  Okay, hopefully, I'll get my butt in gear and use it as I do have plans for it, but life gets in the way sometimes . . . )

and the coup de grâce - I snagged a couple of mannequins from a store whose last day was Dec 29.  Bad for them . . . good for me.  These little guys were US $9 each. 

Today I've loaded a large queen sized quilt on the longarm and I'll be quilting that puppy up as soon as inspiration hits me over the head.  My SIL has asked me to quilt it as she made it as a college graduation gift for her daughter.  I'm sure I'll get inspired right after I take my nap!!  Priorities, you know. 

So, I have one more day off and then it's back to my real job and the stress begins again . . . can't wait.  Happy New Year!!