Happy New Year

Here's hoping that your 2011 is filled with love and joy. I'm looking forward to another year of sharing my sewing projects with all of my blogging friends.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Merry Christmas

Wishing all of you a very Merry Christmas. I hope all of your Christmas wishes come true!

Thank You ... and some easy Christmas Projects

Thank you for your comments on my previous post about ending this blog. After much thought, I think I will keep it going. I really love sewing and crafting, and I love sharing my projects!

With that said, here are some projects I have made recently, either as gifts or Christmas decor (hope you find something you can use Tootsie Marie!!).

This started out as a styrofoam tree and some garland from Dollar Tree; ended up like this:

My SIL has blues/browns in her living room and dining room, so I made her some holiday decorations, again using styrofoam:

This time I used glass marbles and hot-glued them on (be sure to use low-temp glue gun or you will melt the styrofoam!). I made more of the styrofoam balls with different marbles and things, but forgot to take pictures!

I wanted some holiday pillows, but did not want to pay the $20 most places want for one. Made some myself using Christmas placemats from Target ($3.99). Just opened up a spot big enough to fit my hand through using a seam ripper and added some fiberfill, then sewed it back up!

Reindeer shirts I made for my sister and my two great-nephews to wear at Christmas. They turned out so cute... easy to make using felt.

Every year I give some of the neighbors Christmas goodies I have baked. This year I made some pretty plates to put them on; after the goodies are gone, they can use them as Christmas decor!

I bought clear glass plates at Wal-mart for $1.50 each. Cut a circle of fabric about an inch bigger than the plate. Apply some Mod-Podge to the back of the plate and smooth on your fabric, getting rid of any wrinkles or air bubbles. Then trim the fabric around the rim of the plate and apply some Mod-Podge around the edges to seal it up well. Then add a couple layers of Mod-Podge over the whole thing (back of plate), allowing it to dry between layers. This can be hand-washed only.

I hope you enjoyed these... they were all easy to make and did not take a lot of time to complete.

Happy Holiday Crafting!

Gifts from Handmade Gift Exchange

Awhile back I signed up to participate in the Handmade Gift Exchange over at Craftaholics Anonymous. Here is what I received from Jessica, the person I was paired up with:

It is a beautiful headband that she made... isn't it gorgeous??  She used my favorite color of green and added lots of bling... and I LOVE bling! Thank you so much Jessica!

Jessica liked my pink flowered tote, so I sent her that, along with a zippered pouch to match:

This was so much fun. I will definitely do it again next year!

Coming to an End

I think I have pretty much decided that at the end of the year, I will stop updating this blog. I'm really not sure if anyone out there, besides my sister-in-law, is even reading it! I haven't gotten any comments in a long time, and my followers have not increased very much either.

I wanted to start it to share some beginning sewing projects, thinking that there would be others out there like me looking for some simple beginner projects. I guess that is not the case.

I will probably re-vamp my other blog and maybe call it something else; I haven't decided for sure yet. I will keep you posted in case you'd like to follow that one.

Thanks for taking the time to read my blog, I really appreciate it. Have a great Holiday Season.

Christmas Already?

I can't believe that it will be Christmas in a few short weeks. It really crept up on me this year. Of course, being sick with pneumonia the last two weeks hasn't helped any!

I finally got the tree up and some decorations around the house this weekend, so at least it is finally starting to look like Christmas around our house.
Here are a few pictures:

Our still un-decorated tree

Stockings are hung. Everyone in our house, pets included, gets a stocking, so that's 2 adults, 2 birds and 5 cats!

Hope you are enjoying this Holiday Season!

Great Recipe for Turkey Leftovers

If you have leftover turkey from Thanksgiving, you definitely need to give this recipe a try. It's over on my other blog, Sunflowerz Crochet. You can find it here.

This is a long-time family favorite and everyone who tries it absolutely loves it. You won't be disappointed, I promise!

Reindeer Shirt

I made this today for my 2 and 1/2 year old great-nephew:

I found the tutorial for it here.  She made hers up with a cute ribbon (for a girl), so I had to improvise and made a bow tie instead. I want to make another one for his big brother!  I think it turned out so cute!

Hope everyone had a nice Thanksgiving and that you're enjoying the long weekend.

Holiday Look

I decided it was time for a change, so I switched my template to this holiday one. I am having one heck of a time trying to get templates to work with the new blogger templates... aargh! Still haven't got the one on my other blog looking the way I want it to ... will have to keep playing with it!

Have a great weekend.

Update!

I heard from my Handmade Gift Exchange partner... yay!  Now I know she likes pink and my flowery tote bags, so guess I know what I will be making!

Handmade Gift Exchange?

Did anyone else out there (besides my SIL) sign up for the Handmade Gift Exchange over at Craftaholics Anonymous?   If you did, have you heard from your partner? I still have not heard from mine, so I am at a loss as to what to make for her. I would like to make her something that I know she would use and/or like, but have no idea where to begin!  I'm also wondering if she is going to follow through and actually send me something back!

Oh well ... guess we will see what happens!

As promised, here are some pics from our Hawaii trip  .... enjoy!

Wailua Falls - Kauai

The view of Waikiki from atop Diamond Head

The beautiful Pacific Ocean

Back from Vacation

We got home from Hawaii very early Sunday morning.... had a wonderful time. The weather was beautiful, with just an occasional misting of rain here and there. I'll post some photos throughout this week to share with you.

Do you think I went to Hawaii and bought fabric?? Of course I did!! And what great prices too..... I found a warehouse-type fabric store in Honolulu and bought these fabrics for around $3.00 a yard!!

I had to restrain myself, otherwise I would have come home with a suitcase full of beautiful Hawaiian fabric!

Here is one of my favorite photos that I took:

Hope everyone has a wonderful week. 

Flying Away

The Hubster and I will be taking a much needed vacation, heading to this beautiful spot:

That's right, we are Hawaii bound! I hope to be able to post some pics from there, but if not, I will definitely share them with you when we return.

Have a great week everyone .... Aloha!

Handmade Gift Exchange

Linda over at Craftaholics Anonymous is hosting a Handmade Gift Exchange. This is a great way to meet other crafters/bloggers and get a neat handmade gift! Go check out her blog to sign up. She has both a US and International one. Sign up ends November 10, so go check it out!

Happy Halloween!

Have a safe and Happy Halloween Everybody  :)

Fabric Sale

You might want to go check out the fabric clearance sale over at Above All Fabric.

Melanie is currently offering some of her fabric at $3.99 or $5.99 per yard -and we're talking nice fabric .... Michael Miller, Amy Butler, etc. The sale lasts through the end of this month, so after Sunday the deals will be over. It is definitely worth your time to go check it out.

(And no, I don't get anything for plugging her site, but I sure wish I did!)

Hope everyone has a fabulous Halloween weekend.

Kitchen Fun

I've been wanting to make an apron for awhile now, but just couldn't find a pattern that I liked. Once I saw this one, I knew it was the one. It's classic, reversible and easy... what more could you ask for?

I made it for a young lady I know who loves to bake and decorate cupcakes and cakes... I thought this would be perfect for her.

I found the fabric at Hancock's... cute pink cupcakes (her favorite color) and then I spotted the brown with pink polka dots and knew it would be the perfect contrasting fabric.

Here is the back...

If you would like the pattern, I found it here.   It's listed in the tutorials.

I hope she likes wearing this as much as I enjoyed sewing it!

Crafting Success

I had soooooo much fun at my craft show! I thought I did pretty well for my first time out.  I learned a lot, met some great new people, and also made some contacts for some future sewing projects. So, all in all, I would say it was a crafting success. Here are some pictures of my table:

That's my sister... she helped me by being my cashier. My Mom was there too, she bagged up merchandise for me. Isn't family great?

The dryer vent pumpkins were a HUGE hit... I sold out of them!

The denim purses were also a favorite... I only have one of them left. People loved the idea of the crayon rolls, but surprisingly, I did not sell as many of them as I thought I would. I did, however, sell most of the tote bags with the matching crayon rolls.. go figure!  I didn't sell a whole lot of my fabric baskets either.. they were an item I thought would sell quickly. Just goes to show you that you never know what people will like!

Here are a few things I learned that I thought I would share with you:

• I read somewhere that the Chinese believe it is good luck to give your first customer of the day a discount or giveaway, so I did that. I think it worked!
• I also read that it is a good idea to make up coupons for a discount at your booth and pass them out to the other vendors. I did that and passed them out to the other vendors before the doors opened. Quite a few of them came over to my table throughout the day and used their coupon - it was a great way to generate some sales, and to meet other crafters.
• Smile and interact with your customers - my sister called me "the social butterfly of the craft fair" but that's okay... by getting up and talking to people who were looking at my items, I probably made a few more sales. I noticed that other vendors who did not interact with people did not do very well.
• Have candy at your table - I put some candy in one of my fabric baskets and encouraged people to take a piece. Again, a good way to strike up conversation or get someone to take a look at your items.
• Have business cards and pass them out. My Mom stapled one of my business cards to every bag. They are also good to have on hand for people who would like to contact you about custom orders in the future.

It was a lot of work preparing for the show, but I really enjoyed it and will definitely do it again.  Thanks for all your positive comments and well wishes, it was much appreciated  :)

Wish me Luck!

I'm down to just the last two place mat pillows and I will be done with my sewing for the craft show. Wish me luck that I have a profitable show!

I will take pictures of my booth and share them with you next week.

Have a great weekend and, as always, be creative!

Almost Finished

I am almost finished with my items for the craft show ... yay!  Just have a few more placemat pillows to make and I'll be done. Here are a few zippered pouches I made:

Have a great day ... and remember to be creative!

Sew Much To Do

Still working on items for the craft show this weekend. Here are a few things I've finished:

Still have more Christmas fabric baskets to do, hope to finish them up today.

Here are some finished crayon rolls:

I needed some that were more "girly" so found this cute floral fabric and made several of them.

I made up a quick pillow for my Mother-in-Law, who is crazy for frogs - she really liked it:

Off to do more sewing... have a great week... and be creative!