Category: Crafty

Weekend Sewing
Crafty

Weekend Sewing

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I couldn’t sleep on Saturday or Sunday morning, so I ended up sewing on Sunday. Fancy couldn’t decide if she should steal my spot or sleep on the couch downstairs, so she spent most of the morning at the top of the stairs. She would occasionally heave a very big sigh and stare down at me with sad eyes.

I set up a test table for my vending events. I thought it needed more height to draw people in. Here is what I came up with. Please excuse the basement. I didn’t want to haul the table upstairs as I am still using it to sew on. What do you think?

I picked up some more table accessories, such as the shelves and baskets, for under $20 at thrift stores and Target. Most of it was on school clearance. I also padded by pouches with plastic bags to make them poof out. They can get a little droopy otherwise. I didn’t use interfacing, as I wanted them to be flexible, but after sitting for a while, they can deflate. I also added the tea pot to help set the stage for tea wallets. I will have a couple of sets with the a tea wallet in a mug with a honey stick for sale too, but didn’t have everything for the test run.

I made four new hip skirts. I want to keep almost all of them, but will have to sell them. Here’s a picture of all four:

There is one with tassels and three with just trim. I will be making a couple more with tassels before I vend, but have a lot with tassels already made too.

This piece was supposed to be skull tea wallets, but the employee at the cutting counter cut it crooked, so it already had a slight hip skirt curve to it. I figured it was meant to be. It was either that, or get really annoyed. It’s backed with black and has a flouncy little fringe trim on it.

This is the tassel one. It’s grey and black houndstooth, with a purple back. It’s very plain because of the tassels. I love this combination of colors and the purple ribbons were from our wedding.

If this one doesn’t sell, I’m keeping it. The trim got sewn a little uneven by accident, so I could justify keeping it now, but I will be good. It is backed with a black and white diamond fabric.

This purple with grey just makes me happy. The purple accent is a beaded belt that I got from Salvation Army. I sewed in between the beaded parts so that it would drape nicely while it is on. The silver trim is some trim from Joann’s. It’s got little grey and black loops.

I’m in the middle of trying to decide what I’m taking with me to vend and what I need to make more of. I think I need to make some more hair flowers in all the sizes and in darker colors.

I don’t know that I will bring a lot of bags with me. I sometimes sell one, but for a bellydance event, it makes more sense to focus on costume elements. I’ll leave my veils home, I think. They are all much lighter colors.

I have some Halloween fabrics that could be turned into bags. I should be set on hip skirts, but might make a few more with the black and white fabric. I am very well prepared with tea wallets.

My own costume is still up for debate. I am using black Isis wings, which are wings with sticks in the end, so hair and jewelry should be kept simple so that the wings don’t catch on anything. I may wear a belly covering costume too, but haven’t decided completely. That gorgeous peacock fabric I bought really wants to be a vest, so I may make that up to see how it looks.

There is certainly enough to keep me busy in the next month or two. Hopefully I can get a bunch done before the event. Send productive thoughts my way!

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday- Quilty Goodness
Crafty · Wordless Wednesdays

(Almost) Wordless Wednesday- Quilty Goodness

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Kim’s quilt- backed with French landmarks on black fabric

Beth and Matt- backed with red fleece

Stacie and Dan- backed with fall leaves

 

Quilts and Grandmas
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Quilts and Grandmas

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I’ve been thinking a lot about my grandmas lately. (Grandpas too, but they need their own post.) No particular reason, I guess, except missing them. I’m sure it’s a common thing to wish for more time, but I have been trying to remember the time I did have with them.

I distinctly remember one Easter being alternately thrilled and worried that I had to call them by Grandma and their first names. I was probably about four or five maybe and we weren’t supposed to call adults by their first names! They seemed to be okay with it though. 🙂

My mom’s mom was named Florence and she was an accountant. I’m fairly sure she tried to instill a love of math and numbers, but it didn’t work. This picture of Fancy will illustrate how I feel about math.

Grandma Florence had a drawer for both my brother and I where she kept papers and blank account ledger pages for us to play with. We always played store and banking with these. She had the Sesame Street Alphabet books which we would read every time we saw this set of grandparents.

I will also forever associate green jello with her. She always served green jello, sometimes with shredded carrots in it, and we had apple juice out of cute plastic cups. They were colored translucent plastic and in my young child mind, were simply fabulous. She would also make us chocolate chip cookies, which she would bring on visits in Quaker Oats containers. Although I didn’t know it at the time, this was a big deal, as Grandma was not a baker!

I don’t have many things to remember her by, but do have a pie dish, the orange Depression glass bowl, and very fancy china. We haven’t used the china yet, mostly because we just now had enough space to store it safely. I do have lots of good memories though. 🙂

Grandma Florence worked in a radio factory in WWII and measured glass rods to a very tiny and exact measurement. She didn’t really talk about that part of her past though. I do know my Grandpa rode all the way across country standing up on the train, so they could get married.

My dad’s mom, Grandma Shirley, also was involved in WWII as a nurse. She was a little more open about her past, but I now realize, only really about the happier parts. Having been through the war, she was the grandma who would just look at you and laugh if you were being obnoxious.

My love of quilting came from spending time with Grandma Shirley for sure. We used to make quilts together for the church ladies to send to Lutheran World Relief. Let me tell you, church basement ladies can be scary when they are all together. There was always lots of laughter and a lot of jokes I probably wasn’t meant to understand just yet. 🙂

Grandma Shirley did like to bake, so one of the ways I had to remember her was her aprons. I ended up combining her aprons and my aprons from a summer job into a quilt. She made all the grandkids quilts, so I thought it would be appropriate. Now, keep in mind, this quilt was made right when I first started quilting and didn’t quite know what I was doing… (It’s also upside down, whoops.)

I don’t remember if I used a pattern or not. It’s backed with a green and white checkerboard flannel.

Here are some of my favorite squares.

The bottom flower square is actually a pocket! There’s another strip of mini pockets along the top.

After my Grandma Shirley passed away and my cousin Angie got married, I decided that I needed to make family quilts. It would have been something she would have done and I wanted to honor her memory.

I have pictures of most of them, but a few I can’t seem to find. I made a cool guitar one for my younger brother, which I think has fallen apart. Of course, it’s one I don’t have pictures of. Also, two for my dad and my brother and sister-in-law’s wedding quilt.

Here are my cousins’ wedding quilts though.

Split Nine Patch for Angie and Nate with a friendship braid border:

Crystal and Josh got a Friendship Braid Vegas themed quilt:

And cousin’s kids’ quilts too, of course!

Lilah’s quilt is called “Oodles of Owls,” officially. Unofficially, it was “the drunken owl quilt” as I accidentally set the pattern wrong and the owls went flying all different directions. I also got really mad at it and threw it in a box for three months until it could behave.  🙂

Her brother Ollie’s quilt: I can’t remember if I named it anything other than “The Monster Quilt.”

It’s four of these squares put together. It is still the most complicated quilt I have ever made because it has tiny pieces.

And my cousin Kaitlyn’s daughter Maylee’s quilt: A Pastel Friendship braid.

While thinking about this post, I realized I don’t have good digital pictures of either Grandma, just printed ones. I’ll have to scan them one day and post them.

I hope you enjoyed seeing a little of my family history!   I want to start keeping better track of what I’ve made to give away. Half the time, I forget to even sign them! Also, I am not allowed to start any new quilts until I have finished the very late wedding quilts that are sitting a box downstairs. Wish me luck with that!

Sewing and Gardening Update
Crafty · Gardening

Sewing and Gardening Update

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You’ll have to excuse the abundance of Fancy pictures this week. We will have had her for a year on the 17th and since we don’t know her birthday, we have settled for celebrating her on her adoption day. She’s going to get a little spoiled this week. Well, a little more spoiled than she already is. 🙂

I have some great recipes to try for treats and I need to repair her little jacket before winter. Once it starts hitting temps in the 30’s she won’t go outside without a sweater on. Her fur is too short and she gets cold very easily. I’ll make sure to post the treat recipes and her review. 🙂

I realized I hadn’t posted a garden update in a while. The lettuce and zucchini didn’t make it. I got one zucchini from the plant and then gave up. The lettuce got spiders and is apparently more temperamental than I thought.

Most of my other stuff is still growing. I have a ton of jalapeno and they are certainly living up to the massive name in terms of width. I am thinking about maybe canning some salsa on Sunday and making sure to use some of them.

I have one tiny poblano pepper. I had some starts earlier in the summer, but something happened and they didn’t really grow.

My strawberries have some blossoms on them still, which surprises me. I am hoping to be able to winterize them and keep them for next year. I’m going to try to keep them in planters, but get some longer ones or an actual strawberry planter.

There are also a few red peppers still growing. This one has a spot, but I think the rest of it is okay.

My herbs are mostly still going. I’m going to start pulling them and drying them soon. I don’t have a good spot to try to keep them growing inside in the winter. We keep the windows covered during the day and our kitchen window is a bit too small.

In sewing news, I swear the Rainbow Snowball quilt is cursed. The backing fabric is washed and looks lovely, but there is not enough of it to cover the back and I don’t have anything that matches. I am planning to go to Joann’s with supervision and pick up some fleece. The Husband is normally pretty good about reigning me in when I veer off my fabric list. 🙂

I made a new dress last weekend, but hadn’t posted pictures yet, so here it is.

The fabric was a Christmas present from my Mom and I ended up with the perfect pink lace to accent it. Excuse any wrinkles, I wore it and didn’t have a chance to iron it. I plan to wear it today for my intake appointments because it’s cute and comfy.

I am now completely out of black dress zippers. I need to make dresses in other colors to use up my rainbow of zippers.

I also finished a scrap quilt, which will be headed off to a friend for her occupational therapy room probably at the end of the week. I had tried this pattern out and wasn’t happy with how it looked. It looks lovely, but not quite what I had in mind. So instead of continuing, I alternated with the fish fabric squares and made it work a different way.

It’s roughly a 38 inch square with 9.5 inch squares 4×4 across and down. It’s backed with the same fish print and a strip of blue batik, as I didn’t quite have enough fish.

Here’s close up of the squares:

It has no batting, so it should be light and easily washed. This is one more project off my written list, so I was excited.

Of course, I finished one quilt and started another scrap quilt…. This one is another rainbow quilt. It doesn’t yet have a home, but I’m sure it will find a good one.

I still need to make the red squares and have to check how many squares are needed. It will be bordered with a black fabric, I think, unless it turns out looking too dark. My points look nicer than usual because I ironed every piece! I know. Crazy talk. Don’t tell my mother or mother-in-law that they were right…

Next up for quilts, I plan to actually finish one of the wedding quilts that are in a box waiting to be put together. No more new quilts until at least one of those is done!

So there’s my update. I think I am in my groove about being productive with my down time after work. I washed a bunch of fabrics for clothing this weekend too, so I can start on those.

It feels good to be able to work through my scrap and UFO boxes. Maybe one day, there will only be one of each!

Wednesday’s post will be all about Fancy, so be sure to check it out for your dose of cuteness!

Monthly Review
Crafty · Monthly Review

Monthly Review

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Since I am having tea with some friends on Sunday, I thought I would go over my monthly review a few days earlier. I had a bit of a hiccup in my crafting and baking time, due to the paperwork problem, but did pretty well at getting things done.

According to the Husband, I just need a few more cooking techniques under my belt to be ready for Masterchef. He thinks I can get them done in a month or so. (I’m hoping his play will start needing him soon and he’ll be distracted.)

Fancy is hoping I stop messing about on the computer and make her some biscuits and give her more snuggles. We’ve all got dreams…

Meanwhile, my dream is to find my serger pedal so I can start learning how to sew knits and can make myself all the tunics I need. This means cleaning the basement completely. Maybe this weekend I can unpack and reorganize a few more boxes.

So in terms of craft goals, I had set some category goals last month, with only two firm projects. My office art is mostly completed. I need to add words to my “Heavy” picture, but the first one is done and at my office.

I washed the backing fabric for the Rainbow Snowball Quilt and plan to tie it on Monday, when my whole day is free. I also plan to work on my Ren Fest costume on Monday, but we’ll see how much I get done.

I made a pretty dress with pockets! I have gotten several compliments on it whenever I wear it. It needs a neckline fix, but is still wearable.

I made many tea wallets for Etsy, just have to take pictures of all of them and get them posted. You are probably all sick of seeing pictures of tea wallets, so I’ll spare you this time. 🙂

I am slowly working on the basement. We are planning on getting new shelves to give the Husband a way to get his Lego boxes off the floor. Fancy likes to lay under his table and gets a little snappy when we try to get her off the boxes. No new updates since the last big organization effort.

I still haven’t figured out how I want to store the fat quarters, so for now they are still in shoeboxes in the trunk. It works, it’s just not the nicest looking way to do things and I think standard sized boxes would be better.

I didn’t finish anything from the UFO pile, but have hip wraps earmarked for Ooky Spooky, so can maybe catch up then. My teen group requested a pj party for our last session, so I am going to try to get my flannel flamingo pants done by end of September.

I did make two new hip wraps! They are pretty awesome, if I do say so myself. It’s an edgier color scheme than I normally use, so I am excited to see how they sell. I really want to keep both of them, but will have to just make myself one to wear there. Perhaps I can even use it for my costume piece for my own dance.

Here’s the first one:

It has a repurposed belt as an accent and has black and white skulls on the other side with 4 tassels. 

The second one has more embellishments and no tassels. It has black fringe along the bottom and a chain piece along the top.

I almost broke my needle while sewing the chain piece on. There’s only about an 1/8 of an inch for the needle to go and one of the links was just a bit too far over. Both machine and needle are okay, but I definitely need to change my needle.

Food wise, I did not do so well. I don’t know what it was this month, but food did not sound interesting at all.

I used 9 new recipes. 3 of them were also new cookbooks, Cooking from the Gourmet’s Garden, Retro Pies, and The Vintage Tea Party Year. I made 9 recipes by my methods and used 4 recipes from Pinterest or elsewhere online.

Hits were Rack of Lamb with Potato Puree (My Italian Kitchen, Luca Manfe), the Rosemary Bundt cake, and the    sweet cream ice cream from Cooking Classy.

I also made a really good apple pie following a recipe from Retro Pies, by Linda Everret. It has sugar and cream brushed on the crust, which the Husband enjoyed a lot.

Misses were my homemade chicken soup. It came out a little weird and watery. The chocolate cake was not moist enough for me either.

Food hasn’t been a priority lately. I haven’t really wanted to eat, which makes it hard to cook. We’ve been eating the freezer meals that I put together a few weeks ago and that has helped. I’m not sure how to motivate myself at the moment beyond the bare minimum. Any ideas for getting out of a food rut?

The Husband did get me a beautiful Boos cutting board for our anniversary, which makes me want to have cheese plates and other things we can display on it. It’s so pretty!

Maybe exploring some options like that might help. Sometimes the thought of doing all the work to cook is what stops me.

Here are my goals for the month, before I get too philosophical on the subject of food.

Craft Goals:

*Finish at least one UFO project

*Rainbow Snowball Quilt

*Finish Ren Fest costume

*Clean/organize basement

*One item of clothing

Food Goals:

*Try one new technique

*Try a new ingredient

*Meal plan

*New breakfast or lunch recipe

 

Speaking of food, I should probably go eat lunch and get the dog out for a walk. She whined until I got up this morning, ran around like a crazy dog, and then went right back to sleep. Silly dog..

Have a great holiday weekend! Hopefully it’s relaxing and fun!

Things I Could Have Been Doing Instead of Paperwork
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Things I Could Have Been Doing Instead of Paperwork

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Paperwork… Terrible, easily forgotten paperwork. Cause of Fancy’s dismay and tendonitis. I got very behind on paperwork at one of my offices and it was not good. It ate up all my Fancy play time and all my crafting time.

Fancy started pushing the computer off of my lap after a certain amount of time, or trying to sit on top of it. The picture is from one of those nights. I did finish the paperwork and will definitely not let it get that bad again.

I did manage to get some new tea wallets done. I swear I will make other things too. These were the final part of the Hawthorne and Vine order. I also need to make some college themed ones, but they are not there yet.

Here’s picture of the new tea wallets. The Husband picked out the candy corn.

The insides are a mix of black and orange fabrics. And the second row. This one has ones from the last post, but also a picture of the darling pumpkin button I found in my stash. How perfect is that for a Halloween tea wallet?

I also finished the first part of the second office picture. It needs the words still, but I left those at work today by accident. I have some time tomorrow to try to finish it.

The red fabric for the Rainbow Snowball Quilt got washed as well. I have plans for this long weekend when I can use the table to tie it. Then it can be delivered!

Now for the things from my ever-growing project list that I wanted to be doing instead of paperwork…

These sets of bellydance hip wraps.

Finishing these bags…

The top one is one of the 6 pocket bags. The bottom is a market tote that I may have sewn the handles wrong. It’s been in the UFO tote for long enough that I think I need to get another set of directions. There are many more projects waiting as well, but these would be a good start.

I am looking at recipes for tea blends for a ladies’ only tea making party on Sunday the 3rd. I have a few friends coming and need to dry some herbs and get some tea.

Now that my paperwork is done, I can get back to sewing and hopefully have a few more things done before my next review.

Fancy will hopefully stop giving me the look of betrayal soon for neglecting her while finishing notes. It’s quite sad, I’m sure you will agree. I’ve had to give her extra cuddles to make up for it.

Weekend, Where Are You?
Canning and Preserving · Crafty

Weekend, Where Are You?

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I think someone has made time go even faster than normal. I don’t know where any of my time went. I had plans to can all Sunday, but ended up needing more than I thought and had way less time. We did go on a lovely home improvement date to get mosquito killer in the afternoon and picked up a whole box of tomatoes to can/freeze. I made spicy BBQ sauce for the freezer. The rest of the tomatoes will be turned into salsa and dried herbed tomatoes. The farm market we went to had a huge box of them for $8. I will go back to get some this next weekend if I can have the time to  can more things.

I made two new recipe last week. It was the Husband’s birthday on Friday, so I left him Hamburger stroganoff made from this recipe. http://allrecipes.com/recipe/240773/quick-and-easy-hamburger-stroganoff/

Hamburger stroganoff is one of my worst nightmares. The texture and the look… Blerg. I didn’t even ask him how it was when I got home because I was trying to avoid thinking about it. Don’t worry, he knows how I feel. No pictures, as I didn’t eat it.

I also made up a bean enchilada recipe when the Husband was doing theater things. I used canned enchilada sauce. I sautéed onions, a can of black beans, yellow and orange peppers, and garlic. Spices were cumin, garlic and onion powder, salt, pepper, and chili powder. Mexican cheese blend. They were very good. I do have a picture of them.

Fancy decided to make 7:30 AM a good time to wake up on Saturday, so I ended up making my work art. One is completely done and the second one is waiting on getting the words put on it.

I also made more tea wallets. One of these days, I am going to be sick of making them, but maybe after Christmas I can take a break. These ones are Halloween and fall themed for Hawthorne and Vine and for vending at Ooky Spooky in October.

The first set just needs threads cut and buttons.

The second set needs top stitching  and the other finishes.

There are a lot of repeats in this set, but I wanted to do three of each for Hawthorne and Vine, Ooky, and my own Etsy. I have a set that needs orange thread that will be sewn up as well.

Tonight I need to sort tomatoes and probably try to dry some of them. I have this weird block about canning being the only “right” way to preserve items. I decided to freeze the BBQ sauce last night because it was very late and I didn’t want to mess with the canner. I may have to get up very early tomorrow to get some of them taken care of as well.

This is a really short post! I guess I was busier than I thought.  I have two late nights this week and am hoping to get some new recipes up and running. The tea wallets will get finished as well. I have a bunch of work stuff to catch up on though, so my crafting time may be sacrificed for that.

Wish me luck and motivation!

 

Fabric Plans and Completed Projects
Crafty

Fabric Plans and Completed Projects

LSieh2 Comments

Have you seen that meme that has Maury saying “You say you have not been to the fabric store in over two weeks….Store surveillance footage has determined this is a lie!” Well, I admit it. I bought more fabric.

Yesterday I went to Joann’s for a few minutes before driving to work (it was next to the gas station,) since I would have been really early. There were some amazing fabrics there and I made a deal with myself that I needed to sew more clothes, so that I could get more fabric to make even more clothes!

I was also very motivated by my friend, Steph’s, dress this weekend. It was adorable and beautifully made, as usual. I swear she waves her hands around and a dress comes out of nowhere. I am nowhere near that level yet, but I won’t get there if I don’t keep sewing. I have a bunch of unfinished clothes waiting in the UFO box too.

I did make a dress on Sunday, wore it today and got lots of complements. My response was generally “Thanks, I made it!” Followed very quickly by “It has pockets!” This was then followed by gasps of amazement, since not only does it have pockets, but they are not sad little girl pockets… Both pockets fit my phone! (Believe me, this is huge.)

Here is the dress:

The back and sleeve:

This is the same pattern my strawberry dress was made from, so I made sure to take Steph’s suggestion of taking a picture of the pattern with the dress, well, fabric in this case.

It’s view D with added sleeves. I need to fix the neckline, it has this weird gaping thing going on, but it’s cute enough to wear for me. The problem was I had lost a pattern piece and didn’t have the scoop neck pattern, just the high neck. It apparently doesn’t work for me. The strawberry dress has the lowered neckline and works better. As usual, I cut off about 4-6 inches of hemline. It falls right at my knee now.

I also made a bag for Etsy, but it rained and I haven’t taken pictures yet. It’s too pretty for basement pictures. 🙂

For as many fabrics as there were that wanted to come home with me, I was pretty restrained. I bought the materials for this fairy costume for Ren Fest.

I’m using the sleeveless vest and overskirt in the upper right, and attaching the wings. The Husband voted for a dark fae, so I have a red and black brocade for the vest and a red lame type fabric for the wings, with a sequined net as backup. It needs to be done by September 9 and as I am writing this I realized I didn’t get fabric for the overskirt… I’ll have to get more or use one of my bellydance skirts.

I bought Halloween and fall themed fabrics for tea wallets for Hawthorne and Vine.

The one on the far right will be a bag.

I needed a few more spooky fabrics and some glam fabrics for the vending event in October at Ooky Spooky. Here are the ones I picked up:

As you might imagine, it’s a Halloween themed bellydance event. One of my dance heroes, Mardi Love, is going to be the headliner and I’m terrified I may make a fool of myself while there. I am taking the workshop, vending, and performing! I have most of my costume done, but will need to cover a top to finish it off. It should be relatively easy to do.

I’m still working my way through my UFO bins as well. I think I have some hip skirts cut out that would be perfect for this event waiting to be finished.

Wish me continued motivation to getting all my projects done before their deadlines!

Tea Wallet Frenzy and Organization Update
Crafty

Tea Wallet Frenzy and Organization Update

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Apparently cleaning the basement makes Fancy sleepy. She napped for most of the weekend, when she wasn’t running frantically around in the basement pretending to be a shark guard dog. She must have been getting into the spirit of Shark Week, since I’ve been subjecting her to it all week.

She likes to think all boxes are hers and hers alone. And how dare we try to pick them up, or take them away from her! We did manage to distract her with some box flaps so that we could clean the rest.

I took one picture of part of the basement before it was organized. It’s terribly embarrassing, but I thought maybe I would be more likely to keep it clean, if I posted it. Try not to judge us too much…

We were able to recycle some of the boxes and the rest are in the garage waiting to be recycled. The city finally figured out the recycling program, so once we get our can, we can really get it under control. Moving takes a lot of boxes.

The Husband put together two more shelves for my crafty things, so that was very helpful. Now even if the inside of the totes are messy, they will be at least on shelves and off the floor. Here are two after pictures:

We still have to figure put storage for the Husband’s Legos and there’s more craft and general household items to figure out, but it’s nice to be able to fully work in the basement.

I cleaned up and put away ton of fabric. I need to get a different storage option for my fat quarters. They are outgrowing the shoe boxes and all the boxes are different sizes. I’m thinking the bigger shoebox type clear boxes will be the best.

I also went crazy with tea wallets! I kept finding good pieces for them while I was putting away fabric. I did them in color batches again. This time it was reds, browns, grey, and some pinks. I specifically needed rose and fall themed ones, so tried to get those done so I can mail them out.

Here are the groups. Fair warning, there are a ton of pictures. Most of them will go to Etsy, some will go to Hawthorne and Vine, the lovely flower store where they are currently being sold.

Grey batch. Yes, those are shiny unicorns…

Pink batch. This one had a lot of the roses in it. It also has one that looked like frosting, so I used sprinkle fabric s the inside.

Red, brown, yellow. With beer! And rockets!

More brown with fall leaves, tea, and revolvers.

Sometimes once I start sewing them, I can’t seem to stop. I suppose there are many worse things to be addicted to than sewing, but it does make getting anything else done a problem. I’ve put the rest away for now, but do need a few more rose themed ones for my flower store package.

I was experimenting with new Etsy pictures this week. My pictures on the website definitely need an update, so I was playing with backgrounds and props.

I sent the birch tree picture to my husband and he said  “Are you being weird in the front yard?” The answer, is of course, yes, because that’s where the tree is…

I figure the neighbors might be ready for our true selves to come out anyway. It’s been a year and there’s four flamingos in the front yard. So I need opinions on which picture looks the best. I don’t mind being weird in the birch tree and think it looks the best after editing, but want a second opinion. Which one highlights the bag the best? Birch Tree or Trellis? (My pics upload fuzzy on the blog. I haven’t been able to figure out why yet.)

I have a picture of our garden harvest too. It’s not being as prolific as we would have hoped, but we are getting a few things. The pepper had a bad spot on part of it, but was good on the other side.

So that was my week and weekend. Busy and very productive. Now that the basement is a bit more organized, I have more room to get things started down there and be able to work with the bigger projects. We have to get the Husband another Lego table too, so he can have more room to build more pieces. He’s filled the one he has with Lego city pieces.

We just have to keep working on the bits that need to be finished and we’ll be all set. It’s definitely encouraging to see our progress. I know we can keep it up too, if we just do a little bit at a time. Wish us luck!

A Happy Family Time!
Crafty · Simple Sundays

A Happy Family Time!

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We’re back! I have a few posts to catch up on. I had my recipe information with me, but was having way too much fun and it slipped my mind. I’ll do the recipe review tomorrow and talk about our vacation today.

We went up north to see my parents over the weekend and got to bring Fancy to the big lake. She loved it! We had to keep her on a long leash, as she doesn’t always listen to us when we call her. She got to spend time with her secret dog friend, Moose, too. They pretend to ignore each other, but we think that deep down they like each other. When Fancy saw Moose’s Mom, but not Moose, she got very confused and kept looking out the door. There were tails wagging on both sides too, so we know they like each other.

Fancy went right in the lake and discovered that there were rocks in there that she could pick up and bring to shore. She didn’t want to chew on them, but she was particular about where she dropped them. She had trouble with depth perception too and it was funny to watch. She would dig at the rock she wanted until she could pull it up to the shore without putting her whole head in the water. She would also chase rocks when we skipped them.

The Husband got a great video of her jumping off the big rock. It wasn’t a far jump, but she kept going back to it after to do it again. Once I can figure out how to make it play on the blog, I will post it.

There were also chipmunks for her to chase. She was extremely interested in them, which is weird, because she won’t chase the stupid squirrel in our yard when we want her too. This tiny little chipmunk eats my Mom’s strawberries in front of her and chortles while he does it, so she was in favor of it getting scared off.

She loved the whole trip, I think. She slept almost the entire way home and wouldn’t get out of the car when we got home. She was determined to go on another car trip. I had to bribe her out with chicken. She’s currently curled in her new favorite chair recovering.

The Husband and I had fun too. My Mom is an excellent cook, so we ate so well! Breakfast one of the days was pannukaku (Finnish pancake,) with Thimbleberry jam, bacon, eggs with cheese, and cranberry scones. Mmmmmm…. Pannukaku is amazing and I have the recipe in one of my family cookbooks to post.

Dinner was steak, mashed potatoes, grilled veggies, corn on the cob, and salad. The zucchini was from our garden. We brought some fresh herbs too.  Mom made an amazing vinegarette with Meyer Lemon infused olive oil and late harvest Riesling vinegar. I have a Sicilian lemon vinegar and a blood orange olive oil that I am going to add together to see if it is as good.

Fancy very much wanted to join us for dinner. She decided she would rather eat the steak, not her own dinner. It had coffee chipotle rub on it though, so she wasn’t able to eat it.

We went to the gravel pit one of the days to shoot .22s and shotguns. It ended up being a short trip, as it started raining on us. The Husband is a much better shot than I am, even though I have been shooting since I was little. Not that I’m bitter about it or anything…;)

Here are some of our targets. We made them roll up the hill. We got both of these for Dad for Christmas for a couple of years, but hadn’t had a chance to shoot them ourselves. For the shotguns, we used empty coffee cans.

We also went to a lot of rummage sales with my Mom. I may have gone overboard with the books…

According to the Husband at least. I firmly believe you can never have too many books. I’m not aversive to giving away them away when I’m done with them though. I mostly buy my four favorite authors when I see them. They are expensive new! They are all historical fiction, or semi-trashy romance. 🙂 Stephanie Lauren’s, Julia Quinn, Lisa Kleypas, and Eloisa James are the ones I typically keep after I’m done. The others I will read and give away.

The Husband got a few books for himself too and got a fantastic deal on two older drills. We went to a downsizing contractor’s rummage sale and ended up walking out with two of the, for $20. One of them has a tendency to stop working, but it doesn’t do it all the time, so the guy threw it in when we bought the other one. They came with two batteries each and a bunch of drill bits! Now we can stop borrowing my father in law’s drill all the time and maybe get some projects done here. The top book is another quilt book. It had some new patterns that I hadn’t seen. I know, I know… I just couldn’t resist.

There were also cookbooks that looked like they would be very fun. The Husband is in favor of more cookbooks, as it gets him more delicious meals. The “Fried and True,” was one I had previously looked at buying, as it’s all fried chicken and sides. It should be fun.

The Peking Table Top cooking has all sorts of info and recipes for grilling, hot pots, and a “Mandarin Pancake Party.” We’re excited to try the recipes and tips. Soufflés and cast iron recipes will be fun to try too.

There was also a plate, with what we think is my name flower, the Linnea flower on it. It’s a tiny bit different, but similar enough that at 25 cents, we bought it.

I can never resist craft items at a sale. Zippers for 10 cents each? Yes please! Considering they are over $3.00 new, I snap them up. I do need to make some more zippered bags though, to use them up. There was also quilt fabric that was all washed and pressed. I only got a little bit of it though and it’s all smaller pieces. I talked the church ladies running the sale down in price because it was a bit expensive at first. They were quite amazed and happy that I sew and quilt.

For the record, in case my decluttering friends are reading, I have a large box of giveaway items waiting to be taken to the store, so I am ending up giving away more than we brought home. 🙂

It was a long car ride both ways. We had a car scare on the way there. Apparently if the Husband’s car gets over filled, it shuts down until the gas evaporates. We spent about an hour and a half in a dealership with Fancy while they figured that out. Then on the way back, it was pouring rain pretty much the entire time.

We are home now though and sort of looking forward to getting back into the swing of things. Here’s hoping the next few days are gentle to us, as we ease back into the normal routine.

Stay tuned for last week’s Recipe Roundup tomorrow!