Whats Up???

I'm still here.........sewing like a crazy woman!!!

I'm participating in a craft show for the first time, starting tomorrow.  It's been super fun getting ready for it but my crazy life makes it hard for me to give as much time as I would like so I have been pulling some serious late nights lately.   

Wanna see what I'm making???

Cuuuuuuute kitchen towels...pretty sure i'll be replacing the ones in my kitchen with some of these ;)

Aprons

Camera Straps

Doll Bedding  (i wish i was a little girl!)

Tote/Scripture Bags

Burp Cloths

Ruffle onesies  (i have some boy ones too....minus the ruffles ;)

Little Ties

Headbands

....and a few other things I don't have photographed.   I can't wait....hope it goes well!!!  So come buy my stuff k!!!!  If you see something you're interested in and can't make the show let me know ;)

Here's the link to the FB page with all the info if you wanna come by,  there is TONS of awesome stuff for sale!!!

Paper Garland

Since we are on the birthday theme around here....
I thought I'd show you how I made the garland for Kristen's party.


Did you know you can sew on paper?????
It's super easy, easier than fabric!



First off... I cut bunches of circles with my circle punches

One is 3" and the other is 1"...i think, i can't really remember what size they are.

And I mean a bunch. I should have taken a picture of them stacked up, it was several inches high ;)



I started by laying them in order by size and color, the way I wanted them strung. (though in this picture I was mostly through my piles before I thought to photograph it ;)


Then I just sewed down the middle, leaving a space between them (sewing nothing, basically)
I did a straight stitch about 2.5 in length. Nothing fancy.


These are my circles piling up behind the machine.


All done, I laid it all out on the floor for you to see.
I had no idea how long it was going to be, I just punched circles till I was sick of punching circles and had used all the paper I pulled.

Amazingly, it turned out to be the perfect length to string above the table.

I also taped a few strands of ribbon from the center to add to all it's cuteness.

There are loads of ideas you could use for something like this.

I've seen paper, crepe paper, tissue, fabric.

You could use anything you can get your hands on for cheap {or free!}

I've also seen them done in squares too.

Totally random shapes are cute too.

Just have fun with it.

A purse and a little tutorial.

So part of that big pile of fabric I've been collecting includes some destined for purses.

I found this cute pattern and decided to give it a try.



Our ward is having an auction this week and they were looking for donations.

I decided to make a purse (for the first time ever!)

Hope it goes for BIG MONEY!!!!



This fabric is one of my favorites.

I have enough to make one for myself still.

(If I ever do it again ;))))


A close up...but don't look too close k.

In all my years of sewing I still haven't mastered a curved stitch!

The inside.

With a little surprise.

A pop of color in the pocket.

Hence, my reason for the pink in the added flower.

I decided it would be fun to add a little pop to the bag with a flower.

I've never made one like this, and I'm sure others figured it out long ago.

But this was my first attempt and here's how I made it.

***********************************************

1. Rip 3 different fabrics, at different widths.

I didn't measure this at all....(good tutorial hu??..but i didn't decide to document it until this point:)

But it was maybe 12" long. I would have like it to be a little longer, but oh well.

2. Sew a long gathering stitch and pull up to desired gathered-ness (is that a word???)

I pulled it just a bit more than this before I rolled it.

3. Next, I just kinda rolled it together and glued with a hot glue gun as I went.

Here's what the bottom looked like when it was done.

4. Glue a pin to it. (i just got a pack of these at Michaels in the jewelry section)


And Wallaaaaaa!

I just kinda squished it around to flatten it out a little.

My first tutorial EVAH!

Is that just what you've all been waiting for????!!

Now GO...run, make your own....you know you want to.

Boo to You

A few more crafts for your viewing pleasure (i hope)
I'll give a shout out to Jen for hooking me up with these super cute
BOO letters. I painted them, sanded a bit...and put them out till I figure
what else to do with them. Think they need a bit more, maybe sanding,
or some ribbon tied on somewhere. For now this is it!
Oh and they are HUGE!

Gotta thank Heather for this little class. We learned how to
make pumpkins at a little enrichment get together.
They were so cute, and SO easy that I went a little overboard
and made SIX of them.
But you can never have too many pumpkins...RIGHT!!!!????

Happy Fall Ya'll!

as promised...

I made these little draw string bags for the girls
to hold their dance shoes.
Kristen's old bag was really sad,
and Samantha just started dance this year.

Good reason to go to the fabric store and let them pick
out some cute fabric!

I also learned how to make these super cute fabric flowers.
I've seen them all over the web and am totally in love!

Now I just need to go back to the fabric store and buy
broadcloth in every color of the rainbow!
and attach them to EVERYTHING!

I'm really looking forward to this weekend and watching conference.

It seems the older I get the more I enjoy it and look forward to

hearing the words and council of our leaders.

Hoping to do a little of this at the same time!

I've never scrapped a collage of photo's before.

It was fun, and I love being able to show the whole story

on one page. I kinda just threw some random things on there

(now, when I say random...what i really mean is I poured over

ALL my supplies for far too long trying to find the perfect group

of eclectic items!) I really like having a bunch of odds and ends

pulled together in a fun way. To me anyway ;)

Hope ya'll have a great weekend!

Next week (or maybe this weekend ;)

I'll be sharing some fun Halloween crafts.

Apron Find...Lost Mind

Remember that apron i bragged up making a looooooong time ago????
Well, here she is.
I love it.
It's so me.
I love this lemon fabric so much i must
find something else to do with it.

Thanks to Heather for finding the pattern and having an enrichment activity to make it.
All us girls who signed on for this had such a good time!

...and I actually do wear it :)





As for the lost mind...that would be mine!
Really, i am clearly getting older and I should find some magic pill that aids in memory. Anyone know what that is...i can't remember!

After having the lens in my old sunglasses fall out at Womens Conf. and walking around for a moment or two before I realized something weren't right...(can't image the retard people thought i was when they saw me)...anyways...I bought a new pair and within a week they were lost. Had NO idea what happened to them, was so mad cause I liked em. So, I bought another pair.

As these types of situations go...y'all know what happens next.
I found lost glasses! Duh!

So now the girls are fighting over my second pair cause bug eyes are SOOOOO cool ya know!

the serious....sassy supermodel look (or at least the attempt)

too cool for school YOU!

The Story of 3 Trees...

These are the trees...and this is their story.

Styrofoam cones were in abundance at the Monson house {that's ANOTHER story}

lets make more trees thought my friend and I.

Just use what we've got around the house

Simple and quick!

Took some styrofoam glue...it said it dried clear.

Painted the cones with glue, covered with glitter and set out to dry.

Worked on our music paper cone to bide the time.

Checked on our cones and what did we see????

Streaks of glue that did NOT dry clear!

Ugghhhhh! Now what are we going to do with these things????

Ok fine, lets run to Joanns (well not really run, it's like 20 minutes away) with like 4 kids between us.

see if we can find some fabulous things to spruce up these sad trees and find some new glue and glitter!

SPRAY styrofoam glue! That should be great.

Home again home again, now with more kids running around between the 2 of us.

Decided to paint the cones green to cover up the last glitter nightmare.

Went to spray the glue and it came out like SILLY STRING!

I laughed so hard I nearly wet myself.

At this point this quick and easy project was taking All. Freakin. Day.

Sanded off (kinda) the silly string and went for good old mod podge!

Covered my little tree and SMOTHERED it with new chunkier glitter.

At last....SUCCESSSSS!

Ended up ordering buttons online {that's another story too!}

cause Joanns had crap for cream buttons! and wanted a million dollars for them!

Although we did find that fabulous green trim on Mr. Medium tree.

Me thinks it was like 8:00 at night when my little friend left.

We had a totally fun and crazy adventure of a day

making our quick and easy 3 trees!

Oh and we just finished off the button (for real, did i just use buttons) portion of the tree.

But hey, me thinks they were worth it, eh!

Oh ya, and I have unfinished actual button trees awaiting some attention too.

A Week in Review

This week has felt super busy. Have been gone a lot and working on some projects. Haven't seen my soap all week! But I feel pretty good about the things I've accomplished. Lets lay it out, shall we???

MONDAY...exercised! Whew, that was a good one. Took Sam and Jack on a bike ride for quite a while. I love being out on my bike, why don't I do it more often? We actually loaded up the trailer and took some deliveries around to people. Finished up my auction dresses and delivered them to Garaghty. They turned out SO cute. Loved the fabric she chose and the skirts are so full and twirly! The two kids plus the stuff made for a rather HEAVY trailer and a harder work out. It was so exhausting that even Jack fell asleep on the ride home!

TUESDAY...Field trip with the 5th graders. Got to ride the stinky ol' bus with em too. Woohooo! We had a good time. Went to a 51's baseball game.

Doin' the YMCA; obviously he needs more practice with his moves, just a little unsure of himself!

Shovin' that popcorn in two handed! Hopin' to get a ball tossed his way, didn't happen

The pitch!

All the kids had a lot of fun and they were able to get some autographs too. Nathan took his dads mit and got it signed. When they all came bouncing back to their seats shouting that they'd gotten autographs I asked who signed it, and he said "I HAVE NO IDEA" with total excitement!

WEDNESDAY... Busy with errands and then spent the entire afternoon editing and downloading prints to Costco. Got Kristen to dance then met up with Doug to take some pictures of one of his clients scars and deformities from an accident. They were hoping to get some really good shots that showed it all well. I must have succeeded because they were all impressed with me. :)

THURSDAY... Take your kids to work day. Yay. The 2 older got to go to court with dad and sit in on a hearing and speak to a judge. They love it! Me, I lounged the whole morning in bed nursing a bad headache. Me and the little ones met up with the workers for some lunch at Johnny Carrinos. Delish! We were waited on by some adorable middle schoolers who came to work with their mom. We never had such good service! They refilled our drinks and bread without us hardly having to ask. I then spent another afternoon downloading photos to Costco. Their quick-up load won't install on my Vistas so it takes an ETERNITY!!!!

FRIDAY...Ya know that urge that we all seem to have right now to stock up on some food storage? Ya well, I took the proceeds from our garage sale a few weeks ago (and then some) and hit Costco today. We have a sorry supply of food storage and I'm feelin' the heat. Bought a bunch of canned goods and baking supplies (from walmart). Wanted some rice, but alas, there was NONE to be had. I know, can you believe it. The rationing they are talking about is true. It was all gone! I could hardly push my cart it was so full and now I don't even know where to put all this food and ya know what...it's hardly a dent in what we should really have. Quite frankly I don't even know what we should really have. But I intend to spend the next few weeks really trying to get a good supply going.

Also picked up my picture order while there and I'm pretty excited by some of them. Got some sepia ones enlarged to update my wall and did an 8x8. I really stocked up on some scrappin' pictures so I can't wait to break into those!!!

Now for the weekend, where to begin, what projects to do!

Oh "JOY"

After chasing around all morning looking for supplies

Samantha asked me this

"Mom, are we going to be busy when we get home?"

Me "Yes, very busy"

Her (acting very annoyed like she likes too) "What do we have to do?"

Me "First we'll eat lunch then I have to start sorting all this stuff we bought. Are you going to help me?"

Her (big sigh) "I guess"

And what is all this "stuff" you may be wondering, let me spell it out...

126 wood blocks (cut and painted)

126 squares of paper

168 die cut (by me) letters (3 HOURS at Pebbles)

168 jewels

25 yards of white ribbon

2 spools of red ribbon

42 tags, flowers, jump rings, etc.

18 pkgs. of buttons (totaling 1134 buttons!)

plus a bunch of other stuff

Equal one out of control Super Saturday project that I am in charge of!!!

Really, I'm not complaining. I'm just stunned at the response to this craft.

I guess I should be flattered that people like it.

Oh and by the way, Samantha ended up finding a friend and left me to fend for myself!