Put Some Clothes On!

I finally got a picture of my alien with his new jacket and scarf! I wanted to make him a hoodie, but it turned into a really cute jacket instead. He's going to live in Wisconsin on Monday!

The Aliens Have Landed...

It's crochet season!

Every year when it starts getting cold, I stop sewing for a while and start crocheting more. This year I didn't get much of a choice since my sewing machine is broken again. I knew this would happen if I kept forcing quilts through it, I could just tell that stitching the binding with that machine would eventually be its demise. It's only injured as it still sews a straight stitch and will sew through 2 pieces of fabric just fine in a zig-zag also. But satin stitching? No way. I'm glad it's only halfway broken... however I managed that.

It's cold and I can't just sit here not making anything so I made this little guy. I could probably clean my house... oh well. I've got another one in the works also. One of them is going to Sheboygan, WI to live with Jen's (from jennadesigns) son Isaac. I hope he loves it!

I think he needs a hoodie. I've never made a hoodie for an alien before...

...but it's cold in Wisconsin!

Oh Boy Sheboygan!

Sheboygan you are so lucky. You're just across the pond (Lake MI) and I've never seen ya. But you have the coolest things. #1 is Jen from jennadesigns. And her cute kiddos. Someday I will go out there and meet them! I know I've said it before on here, but I'm saying it again. Jen is the bees knees. That was super nerdy, but I'm running out of ways to express this since I've probably blogged about her 4 times already. I can't help it, she's my favorite Twitter pal. And that's not just because she sends me awesome things like these:

It's like Christmas in my mailbox!! How great is that quilted List Taker?! I'm in love with the fabrics! Especially the yellow and brown one on the bottom right corner of the List Taker. She sent me a cool chunk of Robert Kaufman fabric with fun turtles on it too! I may make one of my Itty Bitty Snap Pouches with it today. I saved my very last frame for it! The card with the flower on it is a photo she took herself as well. I know it's basically a business card, but I'll probably frame the photo to add it to my collection. In the past year I have really expanded my collection of art from people I know. Every single piece in my living room was made by a local artist or good friend of mine.

And the best part of this awesome gift! 60 minutes of crafty music! When I opened this package I showed my son the CD. He insisted that I turn it on right then. Within the first minute it had his approval. "Oh Mom! This is a brand new song, thanks for giving it to me!" and then on to "Who sings this song?" whenever a new one started. So thank you Jen for the other gift that came with this, the great big smile on my beautiful boy's face :)

Check out this fantastic playlist! Get out your magnifying glass... I'm no computer whiz here.


This CD hasn't left my CD player since I opened the package! I'm looking forward to listening to it while I create today. Thank you so much Jen!! I love it all so much!!

What are you creating today? I've got the Ugly Quilt to bind and a dress to alter for a wedding on Saturday on my list . It's a former bridesmaid dress, so I'm crossing my fingers that the wedding party will not be in chocolate brown. A big pot of chili is on my list of to-do's today also. It's a perfect rainy and cold chili day here in MI!

Tags!

This post is dedicated to Jenna from jennadesigns. She is so sweet and talented, always inspiring, motivating, and sharing great ideas! She's one of my fave Twitter folks and I love her blog (even when she's not blogging about me haha!). She has a fabulous Etsy shop and a great eye for fabrics and detail. I think if there wasn't a big lake separating us, we'd probably hang out everyday. :) Go check out her shop... then come back so I can brag about her more.

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It was great wasn't it? I especially love her sachets with the little birds on them and her photography - it's absolutely stunning! She recently posted a great tutorial for fabric tags that I HAD to try! My tags turned out great! I was able to make 600 tags for a mere $6!! I've also developed a serious obsession with printable fabric. I'm even researching printers since mine is broken and I MUST make more tags and design my own fabric. I've always have a billion ideas for fabric I want, I just have never had the means to print it myself. I changed a few things when I made mine. I used Microsoft Word instead of PS, had a different brand of printer fabric, and didn't set it like I should have. Luckily it's not too late to set it! Also, it says on the back of the printer fabric to only use one sheet at a time. For whatever reason all of the printers I tried said they were out of paper with only one sheet in there. Seemed to work out fine with 2-3 sheets in there. So if you try this and have the same problem, stop following the directions on the packaging and do as I say. :)


The awesomeness doesn't stop there! She also pointed me towards a blog tutorial to make awesome fabric baskets. See Jenna's here. I've been wanting to make these since she first showed me, but just got around to it yesterday. I should really not be sharing this since they are both gifts to a couple wonderful pregnant friends of mine. I'm going to stuff them full of baby goodies. I changed the pattern a bit by enlarging the squares to 3"x3" and making 3 rows so they turned out more like tote bags than baskets, but oh well. I have to be able to fit a large gift I'm making (that I can't share quite yet) in there!

I just love how they turned out! So bright and cheery! I might make a couple of the smaller version for them too so they can serve the original purpose I had in mind. A basket for all those little baby things that tend to get lost if not kept in one place. Nail clippers, butt cream, extra pacis, thermometers, etc. I'd have lost everything without a basket for it all. Lack of sleep makes me forget where things are. Babies cause a lack of sleep. It's a downward spiral from there. lol.

Enough about me and what I've made lately...

I was lucky enough to meet my husband's nieces from TN last week. All 4 girls are so sweet, it was nice to meet them! The oldest is 15, and loves to draw. I didn't know she was drawing me till she was almost done, but she did, and it's AMAZING. I oohed and ahhed over her whole notebook for a while. I so wish I could draw!! Here is her version of my son and I:


It's pretty accurate too considering most of the time her family was here David was hanging on me and crying. I think she wanted to keep it in her notebook but I shamelessly begged for it. It's framed on the wall in my living room right now, I had to get a frame that night! I also realized that I don't have any art on my living room walls that isn't local. I know the creator of each piece I have and it makes me happy to know so many talented people that have given/sold me pieces that all mean so much to me. I am a lucky lady. :)

It's Showtime!

I've got another show coming up tomorrow! It is Milham Art in the Park held at Milham Park in Portage. I hear it's a HUGE show! I haven't actually ever made it to this show in all the years I've been in Kalamazoo, but I sure have heard about it from damn near everyone. It was a major PITA to get into, mostly because of the booth sharing confusion my partner and I caused, but I was finally confirmed yesterday and will be there bright and early tomorrow morning! I hope it's as good as I've been told! Wish me luck!

I've blogged about JennaDesigns before, but man, she just gets better! I met her through Twitter and a mutual love for fabric and sewing machines, and look what she sent me the other day! I had complimented this fabric on her blog, but I never expected her to send me some! AWESOME! I don't know what I'm going to use it for, it's so neat I don't want to cut it up! Whatever it is that I end up doing with it, it really made my day. So thanks Jenna! Hope you are having fun with your new serger!

Technically Challenged.

I'm a technical nightmare today! Earlier I couldn't add an image to my blog post. Then I couldn't add a Byhand Spotlight. Then I couldn't add an Etsy Mini. THEN I couldn't use Twitter to contact Byhand to find out what I'm doing wrong!

Is it so wrong that I just want a clickable showcase to show off all the things I want to buy for my pregnant best friend? That's right- my very best friend - my BFF if you will - is knockered up! I love her to bits and I can't wait to spoil her little kidlet rotten! It's close to my only chance to be Aunt Lainie. Took me ages to pick only 9 items, but here's my top favorites! I bought the 1st one already in green, I just couldn't wait! I got it in a 3T for Ali though, not for my BFF. I think I should wait on some of my shopping till she's more than 7 weeks along!

And since I couldn't get any sort of clickable showcase to work, here are links to each shop I featured here!

#1 Aliyah'sHopeChest

#2 AmyRoseDesigns

#3 2CraftyChix

#4 PieceUnique

#5 happyfamily

#6 TidaBellaMonkey

#7 jennadesigns

#8 MomNMiasQuilts

#9 THEMONKEYSHOP

Let's hope tomorrow I can work a computer better! I'm going to eat a caramel chocolate marshmallow from firstfruitsllc and pretend that it didn't actually take me 10x longer than it should have to get things done today.

Yeah I called you a Twit...

Ok, so a while back I joined Twitter. It was all the rage among the Etsy forums and I thought, hey, what the hell? I only have 768976098707 things to do each day, what's one more? I don't regret it! Some days I'll send a Tweet asking a question to my 200+ followers and get zero answers. Some days I'll get a bunch of responses. It's an odd little social community. Today I lost more than a handful of followers and was left wondering if I need an e-shower or something. Do I stink? What's the deal? Then as I was clicking away on links my fellow Twits posted (yes I call em Twits, everyone else seems to avoid that word, though I don't know why since you're limited to 140 characters) and found this gem of a blog post from JennaDesigns! I've met a few sweet, talented crafters on Twitter, and Jenna is definetely one of them! She's uber-talented in many ways -- photography, sewing, sometimes even sewing photos she's taken onto other things! Not to mention, she's friendly, beautiful (not that that matters, but check out her avatar, I'm not lyin!), and sure knows how to pick em - like me! haha! I've had a long, loooong day and finding this blog sure was an excellent way to end the night! I sure hope Jenna digs that serger out and gives it a shot. I remember when my stepmom-in-law got a new sewing/embroidery machine even though she hadn't used one before. She kept telling me that it was sitting in her dining room still in the box and I couldn't help but have a physical reaction to hearing that. TAKE IT OUT! USE IT! If ya don't want to, I will! Well, my stepmom-in-law finally took my advice and she made me a lovely 12 Days of Christmas hanging that she quilted all by herself - AND she had a great time once she got over her fear of the machine. I did have a little problem with taking the first item she had made, but maybe that's just because I want to keep everything I make, especially if it's the first of its kind! :) So Jenna, I say to you, keep your fingers away from the blade and stitch away my dear! Because I'm itchin to see what you create!

I whipped up a huge pile of wallets this weekend... sleep is entirely overrated. So far I've only numbered them instead of named them. I really want to name them Fred, Joe, Bob, Sue, etc. I can't explain why. Sometimes even I think I'm too weird!