Happy Last Day of September!
30 Sep 2010 Leave a Comment
in Creative Space, The Juice, Threads Thursdays
Because we’re nearing the end of September we have been super busy enjoying Fall, getting ready for Christmas, and preparing for Baby J’s second birthday (2! I can’t believe she’s 2!).
My creative space has been mainly filled with birthday preparation. Last year, I made Baby J’s birthday dress – I just didn’t feel that ambitious this year. I found an adorable dress on the clearance rack at JCPenney (it’s a nine months – yup, my two year old is that tiny). It is white with pink, green, and brown polka dots on it. I made a headband last night to go with it, but alas, did not take any pictures. Don’t worry – you’ll see her two year old portraits and be able to oooo and ahh at the adorable headband then!
Making the headband did a good job of taking my mind off the pain from starting the braces process (I have separators on my back teeth and I just don’t think there is room in my mouth – it hurts a lot) so I may have a sudden influx of seriously cute headbands in my home. I even measured my head so I could make some for me.
Because I am so proud of how cute they turned out (and how ridiculously cheap they were), I thought I would share Baby J’s birthday invitations with you as my Creative Space today. We are doing an old fashioned ice cream shop theme and serving ice cream sundaes! I have white disposable table cloths I am going to draw red strips on. We have Hershey’s Chocolate Sauce in the old fashioned can (that was a cool find at the grocery store) and caramel sauce in a jar plus some Rhubarb Strawberry Sauce from a Tastefully Simple in a nifty jar (yes, I bought it for the jar it came in). We also have the necessities – sprinkles, whipped cream, cherries, bananas. I have cute signs to put up and word searches to put out. And of course, everyone gets to watch Baby J dive naked into a big sundae! I’m going to have one sugar crazed kid!
Anyways…the invitations look like this (with my address and phone number where the black lines are):
So cute!
Check out some more great creativity at Kootoyoo! I mean, who doesn’t want great creative inspiration just before Christmas?
Challenge Fabric Square
02 Sep 2010 1 Comment
in Creative Space, Quilting, The Juice, Threads Thursdays
I will regale you with everything we have been doing the last couple of weeks shortly – the pictures took FOREVER to upload and you just have to have pictures!
Until then, I thought I would pop on and share my creative space with you. Now, I realize, I should have used a different color background (and taken the picture with something other than my phone), but I am so proud of the block that I came up with (thanks to Amy’s Creative Side) for the Challenge Fabric Swap I participated in recently.
I have to admit I was VERY sad to see this one ship out in the mail. Do you want to know why? Yes, the challenge fabric was right up my aisle (the yellow with blue flowers), but more importantly, all the seams line up! Do you see that – I know the picture is stinky, so just trust me if you can’t. They all line up! I have discovered the secret. You see, I stitched this together in the evening after everyone had gone to bed by the light of my sewing machine. With the limited light, I checked my seams like a thousand times! Makes for straight seams and one proud quilt square mama! So if you ever walk in on me sewing up quilt blocks in a dark room, you’ll understand!
Make sure to head over to Kirsty’s to check out some amazing talent!
My Unconventional Creative Side
19 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Canning, Creative Space, Gardening, Threads Thursdays
Okay – usually when I post about my creative side, I tend towards to the artsy-crafty creative side. Not so today! I am so proud of this little baby that I want to let the whole world know!
Tomato Sauce meet the world – world meet my Tomato Sauce! You see, the reason this tomato sauce is so special and worthy of so much attention is that, with the exception of the lemon juice, I grew everything in the jar. I made the sauce out of tomatoes from my garden, added the herbs from my herb garden, and canned it myself! I only got one can – but that’s beside the point. This baby is going to my mother as an Empty Nester Gift. I hope she likes it. I did get a little extra on the side that I mixed with some noodles for lunch – so fresh and yummy!
If you’re looking for real crafts, make sure to stop by kootoyoo.
Birthday gifts in my Creative Space
12 Aug 2010 Leave a Comment
in Creative Space, Threads Thursdays
Alright, it’s not threads, but it is what I’ve been working on up until the birthday party on Sunday (literally – we were wrapping it Sunday morning).
Baby G turned one and in celebration of his birthday, we (Baby J, Superhero, and I) got him a stool/seat and personalized it for him. Do you want to see the stool/seat before we started?
The first thing I did was spray paint the seat to cover the bears. Do you want a tip for life? Do not let me spray paint ANYTHING for you. Those are my words of wisdom for the day. Okay, I have spray painted things successfully before – for instance, the mirror in my living room looks wonderful! But, it’s a good thing this was a base coat, because this spray paint job was not pretty.
See what I mean? Well, after several coats of blue paint (Baby J picked blue – I asked her what color she wanted to paint it and she said “Blue!” Well, okay then), I himmed and hawed over what design I wanted to put on it. I thought about putting his name on it, circles and triangles, footballs and baseballs, and finally I came up with the racing stripe idea. I’m quite happy with the outcome (we sealed it in Mod Podge to give it a nice shine). I think Baby J liked it more than I did though, because she was a little unhappy to see it go. It was her chair!
Head on over to Kootoyoo to get more incredible inspiration from some seriously artsy folk!
Quilt Squares are back in my Creative Space
08 Jul 2010 1 Comment
in Canning, Creative Space, Fabulous Food Fridays, Quilting, Threads Thursdays
I am working on ending up on the same week as the Simple Sampler Quilt Along, but I tend to make the blocks on the weekend. So here are the blocks I made for last week’s blocks. I really love these blocks and I can’t wait to see everything all together in the end. It’s going to look so scrappy! I am making sure to use some of my favorite fabrics that I only have little bits left of. This is the first quilt I am making for myself, so it’s going to be quite the treasure!
If you haven’t already, join in! You aren’t that far behind yet.
I am also still working with my crochet needle. I have figured out a Christmas gift for a friend and I hope she likes it when it is done.
While it’s not technically crafty, I can’t wait for this weekend! I am going to take Baby J raspberry picking here. We are making infused vinegars and sundae sauce for Christmas gifts. I will share more with you about that later.
P.S. Hope everyone had a great fourth of July weekend! I will be posting pictures of everything we did next Tuesday.
The Crochet Hook Came Out
01 Jul 2010 3 Comments
in Creative Space, Quilting, Threads Thursdays
Because I pulled out my crochet hook to make a super cute hat for Baby J (which I didn’t get a picture of because she wouldn’t hold still long enough for me) I picked up a crochet book from the library. In it, was a super cute capulet. Using the pattern and adjusting for littler person size, I made this:
Raspberries and Cream
And I got my two squares done for last weeks part of the Simple Sampler Quilt Along…see!
Thank you for stopping by! Make sure to leave a comment to let me know.
My Creative Space…
24 Jun 2010 1 Comment
in Creative Space, Threads Thursdays
…is in my office today. I finally figured out something I could do at my desk without being told I can’t do that at my desk!
See my phone and headset (they are the tools most utilized in my job aside from the computer – yup, I’m a call center rep).
On with my creative space….
I adore the Beanie Kirsty posted and desperately want to make one for my daughter. So I pulled out one of the only balls of yarn I have right now (can you tell I was knitting baby booties for a unknown-sex baby?) and my crochet needle – much to my husband’s dismay at six am this morning – to bring to work with me.
I got a decent ways, but I didn’t like it. So I pulled it all out and when I get home, I’m going to dig out my pink ball of yarn (baby booties for a girl) and put them together to crochet the beanie. We’ll see how that goes.
Make sure to hop over to Kirsty‘s to see the other creative spaces out there! And if you’re visiting from Kirsty’s – thank you! Don’t miss my giveaway!
Remember the giveaway?
21 Jun 2010 Leave a Comment
in Giveaways, The Juice, Threads Thursdays
I promise – it’s here!
Okay, I realize these are a bit hard to see. But there are four cuts of oriental brocades that are a greenish color. The cuts are almost fat quarters – but I don’t want to say they are fat quarters, because it’s not quite. Starting from Left to right: gold oriental pattern, birds, two separate gold floral patterns.
To be entered, just post a comment below and put a link on your blog about my blog. That’s it! You don’t have to do a whole special post or even come up with an answer to a question. Just say hi and link me up! By the way, I will pinch the pennies and mail this internationally – so feel free to join in even if you don’t live in the US.
I’m going to give some time on this – I’ll close up on July 4th and draw a winner on July 6th.
Simple Sampler Quilt Along
17 Jun 2010 Leave a Comment
in Creative Space, Quilting, The Juice, Threads Thursdays
Okay, I know I said there would be a giveaway posted today, but I don’t have the pictures yet. I do have some beautiful brocades to give away – so stay tuned!
On a crafty note, I am joining in a Amy’s Simple Sampler Quilt Along. Join with me!
I have dabbled in quilting, but I think this is going to be a great way to hone my primitive skills. I haven’t figured out what fabrics I’m going to use yet. I figured I would scramble around in my stash (it sounds so cool to say I have a stash!) this weekend.
Duh moment: This is my creative space this week!
Have you ever thought about quilting? Do you quilt now? Share your story and thanks for dropping by! Make sure to let me know you were here.
My Creative Space
10 Jun 2010 1 Comment
I have been so fortunate this week to catch great inspiration for my posts from all sorts of different blogs! I am really starting to get into the blogging world thanks to Google Reader. If I don’t have to remember the thousands of links I want to go check daily for a new post, it makes it so much easier.
Now that I’ve put in a slight plug for Google Reader, I am going to tell you about my creative space and what it is filled with right now, per Kirsty’s invitation at kootoyoo.
Okay, I’ll be honest, my creative space doesn’t exist. Someday, I’m supposed to have a sewing/guest bedroom in the back room of our house, but until we can stretch the budget for lots of Rubbermaid boxes to put all the junk in that room into the basement, it remains a junk room. Currently, most of my fabric has found it’s way into boxes stacked up next to my nightstand and it really only gets pulled out when I have a project I just have to finish for something (because I am that much of a procrastinator). However, I recently resurfaced with my embroidery hoop and needle after my second very successful embroidery project. I don’t have pictures of my most recent embroidery project – which is simply hand stitching around some applique for Baby J’s baby quilt (that’s right, she’s almost two and I haven’t finished it yet). I also have numerous Christmas Gifts in the works as well that involve embroidery. There is one I am most excited about and if I can figure out how to post pictures without giving it away (because I happen to know the person who is getting it reads my blog occasionally) I will try. If not, you’ll have to wait until Christmas!
I don’t have a picture of the projects I am currently working on, but I do have a picture of the last project. Be forewarned – cute little kid coming up!
See the beautiful flowers at the bottom of the dress? I did those. Okay, I made the dress too. And what you can’t see (which happens to be my favorite part) is that I used ribbons to tie the back together. I’ll admit, the idea came up because I am too scared to try button holes. But it looked so cute with three little bows down her back – well, except when it would come loose a little and looked more like a hospital scrub.
