Handmade Whimzy

Christmas Pics

2012-01-16T14:45:00.000-08:00

Ok. I've climbed down off of my high horse and finished ranting.
So, I thought I'd share a couple of Christmas pics with you.

Coming soon - pics of my repainted living room and my new sewing room.

My newly repainted mantle, decorated with our Christmas stockings.

My sweet son and his sweet dog, Ben and Mac - Christmas 2011.

Now, back to sewing and crafting.

Customer Service

2012-01-03T10:35:00.000-08:00

I have read a lot about poor customer service on the Internet lately. Large sites who have arbitrary rules that their employees don't seem to understand or know how to follow. Small sellers, such as etsy sellers, who can't even seem to say "thank you" to their customers, let alone actually send a packing slip or business card with an order.

I've actually written a long rambling rant that I was going to post on my blog but I just don't have the energy to finish it. But I will share what really got me to thinking about customer service.
It was this line that one of my dear customers left in my feedback:

"Oh so lovely, received super fast, with a thank you note!!"

This wonderful person, who supports handmade and who has made quite a few purchases on etsy, made a point of saying how wonderful it was to get a thank you note with her purchase. This leads me to believe that she hasn't gotten very many thank you notes which makes me very sad.

I've shopped on etsy for years and have loved most of my purchases. But the ones I love best are the ones who at least say thank you. It's such a small thing but it makes such a BIG difference. Maybe even the difference on whether or not you'll get future sales.

Maybe we've forgotten what we learned as children and what we all strive to teach our children?
The three most important words are Please and Thank You.

Thoughts?

12 Days of Christmas Treats

2011-12-24T08:44:00.000-08:00

Last Christmas, I did this blog post for the EtsyMom Team showing how to make a 12 Days of Christmas Treat banner.
This year I wanted to do something a little bit different. Mainly because I didn't have any place to hang the treat banner from last year that was easily accessible to me. My son could easily access it anywhere as he is now a giant. But since I stopped growing 30 years ago, I can only reach so high without dragging out the step ladder.

I decided to make a treat sac that I could hang on his doorknob. It's bigger than the treat sacs from last year, so I could get bulkier items in it.

I started with 2 rectangles of cute Christmas fabric - I think it was about 9 x 6 inches. And a strip that was long enough to go all the way around the top. I sewed the 2 rectangles together, right sides facing and then pressed the seams open. Next, I put a button hole horizontally in the strip so that I could pull a cord through the top. Pin the strip of fabric all the way around the top of the sac. I folded mine in half and ironed it first so that I would know where the top would be.

Once, you get it all pinned, sew it up. I then folded the strip it half at the iron line and sewed it down on the inside of the bag. I also did another seam around the top edge of the bag. Then I threaded my cord through the top using a big ol' safety pin. I tied knots to try to keep it from fraying or getting lost back inside the bag.

Then, I hand stitched my son's initial, "B", on the front of the sac. I used felt and embroidery thread.

Now, all I have to do is put a treat inside and pull the cord closed.
I did 12 days of Christmas treats, so I started on the 13th of December. Some treats were really small like a ring pop, or box of jelly beans. A few were larger items like the Nintendo Power magazine he likes to read. In all, I spent about $25 on treats for his sac. This doesn't include gifts or stocking presents for Christmas.

I know it makes it seem like he's spoiled rotten, but he's such a good kid. He makes straight A's in school, he's so laid back and sweet. I just wanted to do something extra. Plus it helps him to get excited about Christmas.
So, I don't care if it seems like I'm spoiling him. He's my only baby and he's growing up so fast. I want to treat him special for as long as I can.
Merry Christmas Everyone!

Short post to start catching up

2011-12-20T09:35:00.000-08:00

Ok, I'm trying to catch up on all the blog posts that I haven't made in the past month. So here we go.

About 3 weeks ago, I got a big pile of fabric in the mail. I LOVE fabric order days! Expect to see new aprons coming soon in my Handmade Whimzy shop. Some of this fabric is scrumcious!

Also, a couple of weeks ago, my sweet hubby talked me into getting a tablet. One of the back problems I have manifests itself in my shoulder and using my laptop really irritates it. So, he researched all the different tablets out there and made me go look at all of them until they all just looked the same to me. I liked the bigger screen size because I'm blind as a bat. We finally decided to go with the Toshiba Thrive. It has a full size USB port that I can hook my printer into, or my camera or anything else with a USB port. This is unlike the Apple Ipad which has Apple specific ports only.

I really like it so far. I'm able to surf the internet and do other stuff that I haven't been able to do for awhile without alot of pain.

So thanks to my sweet sweety for thinking of it. :)

Christmas Stockings

2011-11-23T17:21:00.000-08:00

I've been busy lately with custom orders for Christmas Stockings. Specifically, quilted elf stockings.
I love making them but I finally just got overwhelmed and had to deactivate the listings.

I'm hoping to have some time this next week to work on more aprons and also some "ready to ship" Christmas stockings.

Anyhoo, here are some pics of some of the custom ones. They've all turned out so cute!

Meanwhile, my hubby is on vacation this week and is helping me finish the painting in my living room. I hope to have it done this weekend so we can start decorating for Christmas.
I'll be sure to post pics when we're finished.

Veteran's Day

2011-11-11T12:51:00.000-08:00

To all those who have served our country and who continue to serve, thank you.

The very poignant Korean War Memorial in Washington DC.

Tales from the Crypt

2011-11-10T08:30:00.000-08:00

My son helped me decorate for Halloween this year. He also answered the door every single ring. Of course, he did it by running up to the door and slamming into it and acting like a monster. He scared some of the little kids really good. One kid was shaking so bad he could hardly hold onto his candy sack.

The older kids (8 and up) loved it though.

The signs were my son's idea.

It was scarier at night with the lights and all. Plus we have this skeleton head that is motion activated. It wiggles it's eyes and makes this aweful noise. We have it on the porch where people don't really notice it until it scares the crap out of them. MWAAHAA

Where have I been?

2011-11-07T07:57:00.000-08:00

Well, my blogging has been spotty lately, at best, but I'm going to try to do better. I could ramble on and on about my new wonderful High Blood Pressure (sarcasm) and the meds I've tried that didn't work and cluster headaches, plus all the other health related stuff that's been happening, etc. But what fun would that be?
One thing that I'm not going to do is say that I'm feeling better, because I don't want to jinx myself. The last post I made where I rambled on about feeling better caused me to immediately feel like crap.
So, lets not do that again.

Anyhoo, I'm going to attempt to do better.

The Studio show that I did on Saturday was great. Thanks so much to Sharon and Tana for inviting me to participate.
The crowd was really good that morning but thinned out quite a bit in the afternoon. I SOOOO enjoyed spending the day with such wonderful local artists and crafters. I got lots of tips and sold some stuff. How great is that?
Plus, one really nice lady that I met sold me a bunch of her fabric stash (because she is downsizing) and I'm totally in love with my new giant box of fabric. You rock Gwenna!

I've already talked with my husband about how we can redo my closet in my sewing room to make it more efficient. I promise to take before and after pics and post the progress when we get started on it.

But for now, I want to show some pics of my son's b-day that took place about 2 weeks ago.
He turned 13. I swear he was just 3 last month.
His b-day was on a Wednesday which is chapel day at the school he attends. So, on his b-day, he had to wear his church clothes and tie. Bless his heart. When I asked him what he wanted for breakfast, he said butterflies. So, this is what I made.

He also wanted a white cake (I used my Heavenly White cake recipe that I've posted here) and he wanted it to look like a Lego brick. I'm sure I've mentioned before what a dismal cake decorator I am. But I'm always willing to try. I did lots of internet searching and looking at pics and this is what I came up with:

I wanted to use fondant because I wanted the cake to be nice and smooth but I'm no expert fondant roller or anything plus my hubby and son have decided that they don't like the taste of it. So, as a substitute, I researched the Paper Towel Method. I think it turned out pretty good and it was a lot easier than rolling fondant.
I made 2 rectangular 9x13 cakes which I stacked so that it would be a layer cake. Then I used Ding Dongs for the round "stumps" on top. I covered them all with blue buttercream icing - you have to use a buttercream icing that will "crust". This is the recipe that I used - except I left out the almond extract because I used that in my cake.

My happy b-day boy. He got just what he wanted - a Wii and lots of games.

Happy Birthday to my young man. He's almost 6 feet tall and his shoulders are getting wider every day. Sigh.

Arts and Crafts Show on Saturday, November 5th at Azzurro Luna Studio

2011-10-31T09:04:00.000-07:00

Handmade Whimzy has been invited to participate in a Studio show at Annurro Luna Studio this coming Saturday from 10 am to 4 pm.
If you're in the Tyler area, drop by and see what's what.

Update on EtsyMom Challenge

2011-10-22T10:01:00.000-07:00

Well, according to the EtsyMom Website, the participation with this challenge was awesome. I know I thought that the items made were great.

We were suppose to encourage people to vote on the item that they thought most represented the challenge and used the color palette the best - not just have our friends vote for us (which is hard to do because I want to win!).

This is the item that I liked best. It's by Little Tadpole Designs. I thought she used the color palette best and it looks like she put alot of work into her little doll. Plus it's cute as a bug.

Well, guess what. She won and clearly someone else liked her adorable doll too because it's sold.

Congrats to Little Tadpole Designs and her sweet Kelly.
What a great Christmas present that will be for some sweet little girl. And never fear, this one may be sold but she has more in her shop that are just as cute!

Time to VOTE!!

2011-10-10T11:22:00.000-07:00

It's time to vote for which item you think best represents the EtsyMom Color Palette Challenge.
All you have to do is go to the EtsyMom Website and follow the instructions to vote. The 3 color palettes are there to view.

Please vote!
Please.

EtsyMom Color Palette Challenge

2011-10-05T07:45:00.000-07:00

The EtsyMom team is having a color palette challenge for Fall.
The idea behind it was to choose 1 of the 3 "mini palettes", make an item using those colors, list it in your etsy shop, have people vote on all the cool stuff and the winner gets a prize from a sponsor shop.

SO, I decided to enter. I chose mini color palette #1.

And this is what I came up with:

The fabrics I used are from Robert Kaufman. The coffee bean fabric is from Metro Market and the chicken fabric is from Monaluna. The apron is for sale even though it's part of the challenge. Just CLICK HERE to go to my shop!
I think it turned out really cute.
Voting starts on Monday and I'll be posting instructions on how to vote.

Ho Ho Ho Christmas Stockings

2011-10-01T09:59:00.000-07:00

This week I started listing my new quilted Christmas Stockings in my etsy shop. I have two styles: the traditional, and the elf stocking.

I can personalize the elf stocking with an initial. I'm going to list those as "made to order" today.
I'm really loving my new walking foot for my sewing machine, btw. I can't believe I didn't have one before. Where has it been all my life?

Honestly, if you don't have one for your machine, get one. You can use it to sew almost anything and it makes everything so much easier. The only thing that I've found so far, that I CAN"T sew with it, are the little labels that I use in my coin purses and aprons.
I love you walking foot - almost as much as I love my Eureka Steam Mop. Or maybe more. :)

Duke Scholar

2011-09-29T08:25:00.000-07:00

Warning: Proud mamma bragging about her super smart kid!

My son (and 22 of his classmates) was given an award for qualifying as a Duke Scholar at school yesterday. This means that his scores on his last standard achievement test (which he took back in April) were in the top 5% in the nation.
He is the 3rd boy from the left in the back row. He's in the 7th grade.

I'm so proud of him!!! Plus, he gets to take the SAT's in January which will be a great experience for him. It will give him an idea of what to expect when he takes them for real.

96th East Texas State Fair and PIE

2011-09-26T11:44:00.000-07:00

It's time for the 96th East Texas State Fair!
It goes on for about a week and a half. So far, we've gone once but we plan to go again (and maybe for lunch a couple of times too!)
Even if you don't like to ride anything, it's still fun to go, just for the food. ALOT of people go just for the food. For example, the PIE at the Trinity Lutheran Church booth. It is awesome!
I love their pecan pie which is kind of funny because I don't like pecan pie. And their chocolate pie, OMG.
Here's a pic of the pecan pie which I might have already started eating before I took the pic :)

I think the reason I love fair time so much is because I'm from a small town and the fair was the biggest social event of the year. It started with a Monday parade and ended with Saturday night at the fair and rodeo. Good times.

And here is a sneak peak of something that I'm working on.

Can you guess what it will be?

Happy Labor Day

2011-09-05T09:28:00.000-07:00

Happy Labor Day everyone!

Enjoy the last few days of summer.
After having over 77 days of temps OVER 100 degrees here in Texas since June, we are finally having a nice day. It's only about 84 degrees right now and the rest of the week is showing 80's.

That's so crazy!! It was 104 on Friday.

Anyway, I'm off to the inlaws for a free lunch.
Have a blessed day!

One Christmas Present Down

2011-08-31T15:49:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I posted about a table runner that I had seen in a magazine and wanted to make for my MIL for Christmas. I even posted pics of the top that I had finished piecing together. See the post HERE.

Well, I've finished it!! YAY!!
I finished it a couple of weeks ago and I'm just now getting around to blogging about it. This is not the entire runner - I have it folded in this pic.

I really enjoyed making it though, and I think it turned out great for my first quilting project (if you don't count the Christmas tree skirt that I made 20 years ago). You can see in the pictures that I quilted each seam. I did what's called "in the ditch" quilting. At least, I think I did.

(this is the back side. I'm not loving the fabric I chose for the back as I think I should have gone with a darker color like a matching brown. But hey, live and learn.)

The quilting part took the longest of any part of the project but it would probably have gone faster if I had known that I needed an even feed foot for my sewing machine before I got started. I didn't figure that out until I was at least half way done quilting. But now that I've used this foot, I LOVE it. It is soo awesome. I've even been using it when I sew up my aprons. It makes all the fabric move so much smoother and it goes over seams well.

I've also started making quilted Christmas stockings which I'm going to list in my Etsy shop. I'll post about those next time. Stayed tuned for more great crafting :)

Funny Dog Story

2011-08-26T08:09:00.000-07:00

This is our dog Mac.

I had given him a Dentley's pig ear to chew. Usually, I try to give him small ones because he's a small dog but this one was kind of big. He chewed on it for most of the day and then that afternoon, I walked into the living room and saw him with it hanging out of his mouth. He was carrying it around with him so that no one would get it.

I was the only person home other than the cat.
Who did he think was going to steal it? Plus, I'm the one who gave it to him. I have a whole sack of them, why would I want a partially chewed one?
It's funny how a dogs mind works.
So, I started laughing hysterically at him because he looked so silly. He was very offended by this - especially when I started trying to take his picture - and he took his ear chew and went to hide in his box.

He's giving me his "you are so mean and you hurt my feelings" look.

Back to School Breakfast Recipe

2011-08-22T13:10:00.000-07:00

Hello all!
Today was the first day back to school for the public schools in our area as well as a few others. Not ours though. My son started back last Monday, so we've already been at it for a week!

So, in honor of Back to School, I thought I'd share a yummy easy breakfast bake recipe.

This is from my Bisquick recipe book. This recipe is called Do Ahead Breakfast Bake.

1 cup diced fully cooked ham (6 oz)

2 boxes Betty Crocker® Seasoned Skillets® hash brown potatoes
1 medium green bell pepper, chopped (1 cup)
1 tablespoon dried chopped onion
2 cups shredded Cheddar cheese (8 oz)
1 cup Original Bisquick® mix
3 cups milk
1/2 teaspoon pepper
4 eggs

Layer ham, potatoes, bell pepper, onion and 1 cup of the cheese in baking dish. In large bowl, stir Bisquick mix, milk, pepper and eggs until blended. Pour into baking dish; sprinkle with remaining 1 cup cheese. Cover; refrigerate at least 4 hours but no longer than 24 hours.

Heat oven to 375ºF. Bake uncovered 30 to 35 minutes or until light golden brown around edges and cheese is melted. Let stand 10 minutes.

***************************
I used sausage instead of ham and I used frozen hash brown potatoes. I also used real onion and egg substitute.

I made this on the Sunday before my son's first day of school. I was really hoping that he'd like it even though he doesn't seem to like egg dishes (loves hard boiled eggs on his salad though - go figure).
He liked it ok and tolerated it for about 3 days before he started asking if he could just have a pop tart for breakfast. I loved it though. If I could, I'd eat this kind of stuff every day. It would be great with a bit of sour cream on top. Or maybe some picante'. Or both.

Anyhoo, I hope everyone had a great first day back to school.

Fancy Chocolate

2011-08-16T09:34:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I found some Ghirardelli Semi Sweet Baking chips on clearance at Target.
They were a great clearance price so I HAD to buy them. I mean, who can't always use chocolate chips?

So, this past Thursday, I decided I needed to make them up into some Best, Big, Fat, Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies. It was my little taste test to see if they are as good as good ol' Nestle.

Here is the recipe from the link above which really is the best chocolate chip cookie recipe that I have EVER tried.

Ingredients:

2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
1 egg
1 egg yolk
2 cups semisweet chocolate chips

Directions
1.Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F (165 degrees C). Grease cookie sheets or line with parchment paper.
2.Sift together the flour, baking soda and salt; set aside.
3.In a medium bowl, cream together the melted butter, brown sugar and white sugar until well blended. Beat in the vanilla, egg, and egg yolk until light and creamy. Mix in the sifted ingredients until just blended. Stir in the chocolate chips by hand using a wooden spoon. Drop cookie dough 1/4 cup at a time onto the prepared cookie sheets. Cookies should be about 3 inches apart.
4.Bake for 15 to 17 minutes in the preheated oven, or until the edges are lightly toasted. Cool on baking sheets for a few minutes before transferring to wire racks to cool completely.
******************

My conclusion is - they were good but not "buy at regular price" good. They tasted a lot creamier than Nestle but didn't really have the semi sweet flavor that I like about Nestle. Nestle's semi sweet flavor is much stronger which I think tastes great with the sweetness of the cookies. That's why I don't care for milk chocolate chips in my cookies - although my son LOVES milk chocolate chips so I use them often even though I don't like them. My what we do for the love of our children :)

End of Summer

2011-08-12T09:26:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody!!!

I've been neglecting my blog lately. I've also been neglecting my sewing and some other things. But things are about to change. I went to my Pain Management doc yesterday and got my meds adjusted - :) - YAY! So now I'm hoping I'll be able to sit and sew as well as sit and blog!
**Explaination: I have some problems with my back that makes it very painful to sit or lay down or stand in one place.

Anyhoo, I'm filled with hope and purpose today. My son starts back to school on Monday, so we are busy this weekend getting uniforms washed and ironed, getting school supplies ready, cleaning out last years school clothes from his closet, etc. I'm also planning to work on some of the many half finished projects laying around my sewing room.

And one other thing to share. I had my shop on vacation mode for a few days earlier this week. We took a mini "end of summer, last hurrah before school starts" vacation. We went to Grand Prarie, Texas to the Great Wolf Lodge. It's a really cool hotel that is totally geared to families and children. It has a huge indoor waterpark as well as an outdoor pool with water slides - but it was 110 degrees outside while we were there, so forget about that.
This is a really cool pic of the outside of the hotel - it's also the view from our room.
This hotel is a great concept and they did a really good job of following through with the concept. A lot of hotels or restaurants that seem to come up with these grand concepts seem to have trouble following through. But this hotel reminded me of Disney because they did a great job of following through.

Here is an outside view of one of the slides - the Howlin Tornado. I didn't ride that one. The funny red and yellow hat looking thing has a spiral slide inside that's part of the ride.

Here is my son doing his favorite thing no matter where he is:

I wish I had taken more pics of the waterpark area because it was really cool, but I didn't. My son really loved the wave pool. I really liked the hot tub. I don't know what my husband liked but he seemed to be having a good time.

Well, that's enough blogging for today. I have to install my new even feed foot onto my sewing machine.
Have a great day!!

A Stolen Life

2011-08-03T10:09:00.000-07:00

I've never reviewed a book on my blog before but I felt compelled to when I read this book.
A Stolen Life by Jaycee Dugard.

I don't usually read true story books, especially books about children being kidnapped, raped, abused, tortured, etc. I just can't bring myself to read them.
When I read a book, watch a TV show, or watch a movie, I want the movie to be entertaining, to make me laugh, to take me away from real life. I don't want it to be about real life because I already live in real life.
I've never understood why sitcoms always try to have "serious" moments. Like having a family member get cancer or be abused in some way. What's that all about? I already have family members that were abused, have cancer or other serious illnesses. I don't want to watch it on TV or read it in a book.

Anyway, this is her story, written by her, written how she remembers it. It's not written by a ghost writer and it's not written by someone who combined all the news stories into book form just to make a buck.
She's not a professional writer, although, I think she does a great job of telling her story. There was a Diane Sawyer interview with Jaycee recently, which I watched online. She is a beautiful young woman who still seems like an 11 year old girl a lot of the time, in her interview.
Her story is horrible, sad, and terrifying all at the same time. She is a strong, brave person who will no doubt find herself adjusting to life for a very long time. I wish her and her daughters well. They deserve all the happiness and joy that they can grab from life.

If you are interested in purchasing this book on the cheap, I have it listed on ebay. Here is the link:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=330596913411&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT

Rainbow

2011-07-29T20:45:00.000-07:00

It rained this evening at my house, on and off for about an hour or so. After it was over, my MIL called to tell us there was a wonderful rainbow that went all across the sky.
I think she had a better view of it from her house but this is the view we got:

This is the view on our back deck.
Lovely, isn't it?

Crazy Week

2011-07-27T08:10:00.000-07:00

Well, it's been a crazy week so far. Actually, the whole summer has been weird.

First, I put this dark purple polish on my toes and I don't like it but I'm too lazy to take it off and redo them.

I think I've spent more time with my chiropractor than I've spent with my son.

It's been so HOT. Even hotter than usual for Texas and we haven't even been going to the pool. Because it's too HOT. Although I have to say, I'd much rather be too hot than be cold. I hate cold weather and I've already started buying sweaters for fall/winter.

I've been working on Christmas items for what seems like forever. There all over my sewing room and non of them are finished. What's up with that?

We have 2 1/2 weeks before school starts back for us, so my son and I were going to do all our major errands this week. We have to buy uniforms, take them to the embroidery store to get the school logo put on, buy school supplies, get vaccines, and on and on and on.
But instead, my poor sweetie got some kind of stomach virus and was sick for the past 2 days. He feels better today though. YAY!

Ok, that's enough about my life and my whining. (and yes, I would like some cheese with my whine - and maybe some wine with my whine too)
Let's talk about some crafting.
I showed off my piecework in this post about a table runner that I'm making my MIL for Christmas. Here is the fabric I bought to do the stripes on the side and back.

It has all of the same colors in it that the jellyroll fabric had. I could have also gotten a brown fabric that would have looked good but I thought it would be too dark.
Here is the piecework pic to compare.

I have the lining fleece in and I've started quilting the table runner. When I get it finished, I'll be sure to post pics.
One thing I learned with this project, was that I need a walking foot. I've got another pieced project started that I need to start quilting but I'm waiting for the new walking foot that I ordered from Amazon.

So, that's it for today. Stay inside, drink lots of water and don't have a heat stroke. :)

Star Cake

2011-07-23T15:18:00.000-07:00

I originally posted about this cake HERE. This is my July 4th cake that I mentioned previously which I couldn't get the pictures to load. Well, here they are.

This is the same cake but I just wanted to show off my fondant work. This was the first time that I had ever tried to use fondant and I thought it came out pretty good.
The cake is covered in buttercream icing (LOTS of buttercream) and then my sweet son and I cut out tons of red and blue stars in the fondant and randomly placed them all over the cake.

I also sprinkled on some glittery sugar and patriotic stars.

This is a great white cake recipe - though it is time consuming to make. It tastes DELICIOUS!

Thanks to my sweet Hubby for finally getting the pictures to work. :)

EtsyMom Street Team Christmas in July Sale!!

2011-07-15T07:53:00.000-07:00

The EtsyMom Street Team is participating in the Christmas in July Sale! YAY!

My shop's not participating, mostly because I couldn't get myself together enough to do it. So sad. But there are tons of really great shops that ARE participating. You can get all kinds of awesome stuff - baby stuff, jewelry, artwork, graphics, home decor, gifts for mom - anything your heart desires! EtsyMom's make cool stuff!

Just click HERE to go to the EtsyMom team blog and see all the shops with sales. Some have percentages off, some have free shipping, some have other great deals.

Happy Shopping!

Look what I made!

2011-07-13T16:16:00.000-07:00

I've been trying to make a blog post for several days about this great looking July 4th cake that I made but for some reason, I can't post the pics. I'm so frustrated by it that I just have to cuss! $#(%)#((%&#)9877124##

Okay, I feel better now. Let's all just move past that. It was really AWESOME though.

I bought this sweet jelly roll at Hobby Lobby a few weeks ago.

I bought it to try this - a table runner, which I found in the Summer edition of Quilts and More magazine.

I wanted to make it for my MIL for Christmas. It will be only my second ever quilting project. The first one was about 20 years ago and it was a Christmas tree skirt which I made for myself and we still use it every year. It's really cute. Here's a pic of it around our tree a few years ago. It was all hand sewn and hand quilted. I'm not sure why I didn't use a sewing machine except that I think I felt like I was cheating if I didn't hand sew it. I no longer feel that way :)

I have enough of the jelly roll left to make myself one too or I may use it for something else.

Anyhoo, I finished piecing the top together on Saturday. I think it came out pretty good. I made it about a foot longer than the instructions so that it would hang off the ends of my MIL's table. The table in the pic is my table. Her table is oval and smaller than mine so I think it will work well.
Now I just need to finish up the backing and then I'm going to quilt it with my machine.

I'll keep you updated :)

Magic Wand

2011-07-07T09:35:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I found out that I had won 2nd place in the EMCA (Etsy Mom Curator Award) contest for the EtsyMom team. My prize came from AppleNAmos which is a store on etsy owned by a cool EtsyMom. She sells wooden toys made for baby and children. Such cute stuff! Wish I had had some of her cool toys when my son was little.

My prize was a beautiful magic wand. I told my son that it was a REAL magic wand. He rolled his eyes at me and grunted. He's so not fun.

Thanks AppleNAmos! I love my magic wand! Your shop is awesome!

Special Edition Mouse Received!

2011-06-30T20:18:00.000-07:00

Our special edition Pippi mouse that I bought on Monday from Connie (Refabulous) was received today in the mail.

Here is Sparky the mean cat enjoying her new mouse.

In this last picture, she's cleaning her ear with one paw and hugging her new mouse with the other.

I usually get her shaved around April of every year but I didn't do it this year. She's almost 14 and the anesthesia and yearly shots are starting to make her sick, so we skipped those this year.
I know it's a bad idea to not get her shots and all, but she never goes outside and the only other animal that she's ever around is our dog who also never goes outside (unless we make him or he has to pee/poo).
We keep her food and water up on our dryer because our dog would eat it if he could get to it but sometimes she acts like she has trouble jumping up that high. I think we're going to have to move it down to the floor soon and we're afraid that we'll come home one day and our fat dog will be stuck halfway in and halfway out of the cat door that's in the laundry room door. It would be just like when Pooh got stuck in Rabbit's door.

I'll be sure to take some pics of that when it happens. It should be really funny.

Thanks Connie - this mouse is adorable. I hope Pippi can have her surgery soon.

Help for Pippi

2011-06-27T12:00:00.000-07:00

My sweet I-friend (internet friend) Connie, also known as Refabulous, is trying to raise money so that her family's pet, Pippi the Naughty Cat can have her broken leg amputated. Pippi wasn't always a Naughty Cat but when she slipped out an accidentally left open door to have an adventure, she was hit by a car which broke her leg and permanently displaced her pelvis. Read all about Pippi's story HERE.
In this picture, the hind leg on the top that is straight is the broken leg.

Connie has listed alot of special edition catnip mice in her etsy shop and all of the proceeds go towards Pippi's surgery. I bought this sweet pink one for my mean cat Sparky.

Do you have a kitty who might need a new toy? Or do you know someone who has kitties that would like new toys?
Don't forget Christmas! It's coming up - you can start your Christmas shopping early.
Or if you don't have a kitty or know a kitty, how about buying a few mice that you could donate to a local animal shelter.

So, if you're looking for some cool cat toys and would like to help out a sweet kitty, check out Connie's shop and help out poor Pippi.

And I'd also like to say that Connie's shop items are really fabulous. She's a great sewer and her stuff is really detailed and beautiful. I have a gorgeous tote bag that she made that is beautiful, functional and SOOOOO well made. You won't be disappointed by a purchase from her shop.

My First Zippered Pouch

2011-06-24T15:05:00.000-07:00

As I was planning what to pack for our vacation a couple of weeks ago, I realized that I needed something to put my jewelry in. I usually just put it in a ziploc and put it in my makeup bag but this time I wanted something different. So I decided to make myself a zippered pouch.

I read this tutuorial over at Skip to My Lou and a couple of other tutorials that I can't seem to find right now. Then I sort of combined them in my mind and winged it.

This is what I ended up with:

I do wish that I had put in a barrier or some kind of separation so that there would be 2 or more areas. I think it turned out cute though and it was easy to make. Now on to the next project!

Still recovering from vacation

2011-06-21T09:03:00.000-07:00

Well, either I picked up a bug while in Florida, or maybe allergies are bothering me or I'm just exhausted. I think it's one of those.
Anyhoo, I'm hoping that I feel better today. I'm plugging on anyway.

I've started working on some Christmas things for my shop - mostly because I'm thinking about doing a local arts and crafts show in July that is a 'Christmas in July' show. I've almost gotten myself talked into it. It's indoors at a great location but it's only been going on for about 3 years so I don't think the crowd will be as big as I'd like it to be. So, it's something to think about.

This is the Christmas apron that I listed yesterday - made with Moda fabric.

I have tons of ideas for pincushion ornaments and I need to get off the computer and start working on them :)

Here are some more pics of our Disney World trip.

I'm back!

2011-06-19T15:38:00.000-07:00

You may or may not have noticed that I haven't made a blog post in a while and my etsy shop has been on vacation mode.
That's because I've been on vacation! :)

We went, once again, to the happiest place on earth - which is my husband's favorite place to go.

He planned this trip for over a year and is very disappointed that it's over.
He coincided it with the last weekend of Star Wars Weekend at Hollywood Studios. They have about 3 (I think) Star Wars weekends every year and they are very popular. My husband and son are both big Star Wars fans, so it was great. I'm not much of a fan having not actually seen any of the movies all the way through. But I do have a general idea of what they're about.

Anyhoo, I'm making this a short post but thought I'd add in some pics. I didn't take many this time but the ones I did take turned out pretty good. I have more pics that I'll force on you on a later post :)

Awww.. Isn't that sweet? My son was so disgusted that we made him take this pic.

Memorial Day Patriotic Cake

2011-06-01T15:25:00.000-07:00

Back in this post, I showed you pics of my Clown Puke Cake and gave the recipe. Well, I made the cake again for Memorial Day only this time I colored it red, white, and blue. It turned out really well. I did try to make each layer different but somehow I ended up with a huge red center anyway. Go figure.

I used a different buttercream icing this time - with unsalted butter instead of shortening - and it came out GREAT! I made it very slowly to make sure I got the right consistency and didn't add to much milk.
I decorated the top of the cake with red and blue colored sugar even though none of my family members like sprinkles. I thought it looked pretty no matter what they said.

I also wanted to share a bracelet that I bought on etsy. I got it from Lanmon (she has more really cool looking patriotic bracelets in her shop!)

I ordered it too late to get it by Memorial Day but I did get it today. It's really pretty and fits perfectly. I LOVE these bead crocheted bracelets. You don't have to worry about a clap, they're lightweight and slip right over your hand.
I anticipate getting lots of compliments on it because it's so cool looking.

These are Lanmon's pics that I'm using - just to give credit where credit is due. :)

I'm building up a slow collection of these bracelets. I want to be able to wear 2-3 at a time as if they were bangle bracelets.

Memorial Day Wreath (and extra chiropractor visits)

2011-05-30T17:09:00.000-07:00

Happy Memorial Day everyone!
I'm so thankful to all our veterans and military personel who have served and still serve to help keep our country safe.
We celebrated by having a WWII veteran (my FIL) over for homemade hamburgers and homemade french fries and homemade cake and homemade ice cream. Our WWII veteran liked it (especially the cake and ice cream!).

To decorate for this holiday, I put out our flag on the flagpole, lined our sidewalk with flags on sticks (this seems to be popular in our neighborhood so we decided to go with it too), and hung my freshly made patriotic fabric wreath on our front door.
I decided to make a fabric wreath because the tutes I found on the internet all seemed pretty easy plus I couldn't find any patriotic wreaths for sale anywhere locally. Isn't that weird? Even Michaels didn't have any.

All you need to make one is 1 yard of red fabric, blue fabric and white fabric and a metal wreath frame.
You cut the fabric into 6 inch x 1 inch strips and then just tie them onto the metal frame. The more you tie on, the fuller your wreath will be. Here are my strip stacks and the metal frame with about 1/4 done.

Great huh? I love it. I plan to leave it up through July 4th.

Now here's the down side to making this fabric wreath. (note: I'm about to whine about my health problems)
I have nerve pain in my right shoulder that is caused by a cervical spine problem that I have and which I periodically have to see a chiropractor for (because my pain management dr. says he can't help me with it anymore except for giving me drugs). I usually have to see him 1-3 times per week for 6-8 weeks and then I'm good for a couple of months.
Nerve pain is very different from regular pain. The nerve pain that I have, feels like someone is stabbing me in the back between my shoulder blade and spine. It is constant 24/7 and NOTHING will make it stop. No amount of exercise, stretching, Motrin, or anything else (except seeing my chiropractor) will make it stop. The pain meds help for maybe 1-2 hours which is not nearly as long as they are suppose to last. It's miserable and puts me in a really bad mood - every day. Certain things make the pain worse, like using my laptop (which is why I've been trying to stay off lately), scrubbing anything with my right arm, or basically using my right arm in any way.
Hence, my visits to the chiropractor.
So, I had been seeing my chiropractor this time for about 2 weeks when I decided to make the fabric wreath. I spent about an hour or more cutting the 3 yards of fabric into strips with my rotary cutter.
I use my rotary cutter alot but not usually for more that a few minutes. Well, guess what? Apparently, using it for long stretches really aggravates that nerve. Isn't that awesome?!! So, I'll be spending alot of my time at my chiropractors office for several more weeks. YAY! :(

This is one of those examples of when you should just buy a wreath from someone on etsy instead of trying something new and doing it yourself.

Look at my shiny wedding rings!

2011-05-27T10:00:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I posted HERE about it being my 20th wedding anniversary on May 4th and how my wedding ring exploded about a week before the big day.

Well, I got some good advice on that blog post and gave the matter serious thought. What I decided to do was to keep my old set and replace the missing diamond from the engagment ring. I also decided to have the V shaped band (which I bought 5 years ago for our 15th anniversary) removed and to look for a band that I liked better and that looked better with my rings. I honestly never really liked the V band - it was just the one I disliked the least at the jewelry store when I bought it - which is not a good reason to buy something.
Here's a pic of the old set with the missing diamond and the ugly V shaped band:

So, I did some price shopping at 2 different stores in the mall. They both wanted about $500 for a .25 carat diamond PLUS the price to fix the prongs and set the diamonds. It was going to take anywhere from 3-8 weeks for them to send it off to be fixed and I wouldn't know how much they were going to charge for all the work until the jeweler got the ring and gave an estimate. They charge for every little thing such as to unsolder the rings, to resolder the rings, to resize, to fix the prongs, to make the prongs gold so that they match the rings, to set the diamond etc, etc, etc. blah, blah blah.
Plus one store had EXTREMELY high pressure sales people.

I ended up just coming on home and calling my hubby to get his opinion. He suggested I go to a local jewelry store - Jim's Jewelers.
Honestly, I had thought about going there but I just thought that they would be really expensive. Well, guess what?
I got a great deal and they were way nicer than the people at the mall.

I got a .39 carat diamond that is square for LESS than the .25 carat at the mall. Plus, they had the kind of anniversary band I wanted - it matches my wedding band almost exactly. AND they had it completely fixed and looking gorgeous by the next day!
Tell me what you think! Here are the pics:

The very top band is the new band which almost exactly matches the bottom band (my wedding band).
I had the square diamond put in a kite setting which I think looks soooooo COOOL!

Look how big it is! I LOVE it!

Thread Catcher

2011-05-25T10:51:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of school - YAY!
It was really just a half day - we left after the awards ceremony. My son is now a 7th grader. He'll be going to a different school next year and it was really hard to leave the school he was at. We loved the teachers, the admin was great and the students were awesome. But with many tears in our eyes, we said goodbye and he's moving on to other things. My fingers are crossed that the new school will be just as wonderful.

So, on to crafty things.

I made myself a thread catcher. I didn't really make it to catch thread. I made it to put on my ironing board to hold all the junk I have on there that needs to stay like the little cup that fills the iron with water, rulers, pinscushions, the little wooden pokey tool that I use on corners of fabric - etc.

To make it, I followed the instructions in magazine, Simple Quilts and Sewing 2011. The instructions were fairly easy to follow but I did have an extra piece of fabric left over. I went back over the instructions several times to see where I was suppose to use that square of fabric but couldn't find it. That was a bit odd - like putting together a bookshelf and having leftover screws and boards.

It was suppose to be quilted which I didn't do. I think if I had, the basket would have had more structure - or I could have used interfacing which I didn't think to do until I had done about half of the project.

I might make another one for my sewing table because it did come out well and a thread catcher would be very useful to have. If I do, I'll either quilt it or use fairly stiff interfacing for the basket.

What do you think? Cute huh?

Huge Markdown Sale on My BEADED Bookmarks!

2011-05-22T12:42:00.000-07:00

I've decided to clear out my BEADED bookmarks so that I can focus on my ribbon bookmarks.

When I first started making and selling the beaded ones, they sold like hotcakes. People would buy 3-4 at a time - especially at craft shows. But when the economy tanked, so did my beaded bookmark sales. However, my ribbon bookmarks continue to sell really well.

So, I've marked all the Beaded bookmarks down from $15 to $12. Just click here to see all that's available in the section.

Here are some pics of just a few of your choices.

My New Coin Purse

2011-05-17T08:33:00.000-07:00

Well, I finally got around to making myself a new coin purse - which was the whole reason I started making coin purses to begin with.

I used some of Michael Miller's Gypsy Bandana fabric to make it. It was actually a messed up piece of fabric that I had cut and attempted to make the top part of one of my aprons. But apparently, the fabric didn't want to be an apron because it wouldn't let me sew it correctly. I'm not even sure it wanted to be a coin purse, because it had to redo it a couple of times too.

Anyhoo, it's done now. And I love it. It's adorable and sweet. It's in my purse right now, holding my coins :)

I bought these sweet little crocheted flowers and butterflies from littlemargie which I think look really cute and will be gracing some coin purses that I'll have in my shop soon.

I love making these little purses.

Germs

2011-05-13T09:39:00.000-07:00

Last weekend was Mother's day.
My son was sick all weekend, starting the previous Friday. Several kids in his class were out sick so, I'm guessing they just all passed the germs around.

As a result of his being sick, he didn't get to go shopping with his dad to get me a Mother's Day gift. I'm still waiting for my present.

But he did share something else. He's so sweet. Guess what he shared with me?

I feel like crap.

New Shop Banner and Avatar

2011-05-09T14:26:00.000-07:00

I've gone live with my new shop banner and avatar. Click here to see my new shop set up.

Tell me what you think.

Special thanks to doodledesignstudios for the cute, cute graphics!

Teacher Appreciation Gift

2011-05-09T08:55:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to make a quick post to show what I whipped up for Teacher Appreciation week last week.

I got the idea and graphic here. My son has 7 teachers in all and I would have loved to get them all gift cards to a restaurant or somewhere great but 7 x $30 would have given my husband a heart attack. I don't like to just get them stuff because I'm sure they get tons of junk they can't use all year long. I thought the potted flowers were a good choice because it's spring time and they can be kept inside or planted out in the flower bed.

So, I went out to my favorite plant nursery and got 8 Gerber Daisies in red and yellow (7 teachers and 1 principal). This is my son's last year at this school and it's a small school. The teachers have all been so great the 3 years we've been there and the principal has always been willing to listen to my concerns and has actually made positive changes based on complaints! That is completely the opposite of what I was use to. The previous school my son was in, the principal just listened to me and basically patted me on the head. No changes were made and that school stunk. We were so glad to leave.

Anyhoo, feedback so far has been positive. The second pic is of all the flowers sitting in the garage, ready to go the next day. I wrapped each pot in either white wrapping paper or clear cellophane (I ran out of the cellophane) and tied them with a pretty ribbon. The graphic was hot glued to lollipop sticks and stuck into each pot.
I gave these out on Wednesday and on Friday, I took them all a Godiva chocolate bar. Yum!

Happy Anniversary

2011-05-06T13:54:00.000-07:00

Wednesday, May 4th, was mine and my hubby's 20th wedding anniversary. Wow. 20 years.
That's a loooooong time.
BUT, I love him and he loves me. And that's all that matters.
It's hard being married for 20 years and I think it's quite an accomplishment.

So, to celebrate the occasion, my wedding ring exploded.

Well, technically, it was my engagement ring, but whatever. It happened about 1 week before our anniversary. I had been cleaning and I was washing my hands and noticed that my ring felt rough. So, I looked down and sort of screamed because the prongs were broken and the big diamond was gone. My hubby took off the pea trap but of course, it wasn't there. It could have been anywhere. Plus, I had been vacuuming and had even changed the vacuum bag. We figured out pretty quick that it was gone and we didn't need to look for it.

Now I have to decide if I want to replace the diamond and fix the ring or just buy a new set. My tastes have changed and I'd love a new set but at the same time, I'm sentimental towards my old set. Sigh.
I'm thinking that I'll probably just replace the diamond but maybe I'll trade in the anniversary band (the ring on bottom) that I bought 5 years ago for our 15th anniversary and get something different. I've never been really crazy about that ring anyway.

I'll be sure to post pics of the repaired rings to keep you updated. I'm sure you're all anxious to see how it turns out. LOL

Medieval Times

2011-04-29T19:05:00.000-07:00

Last week, the middle school that my son goes to, went on a little field trip to Dallas to Medieval Times. They had a blast. There were lots of other schools there which added to the excitement because all the kids were very enthusiastic. Plus, they enjoyed eating with their hands. :) In fact, my son enjoyed it so much that he put the handiwipe that was given out at the end of the meal in his pocket and brought it home for a souvenier. LOL It got washed and dried and then I found it.

Kudos to his teacher for planning this trip. She has been so great all year and she's very enthusiastic about the history class she teaches.

That's some of our kids down in front. We had really great seats.

I took some not great pics of our knight - the RED knight. He won the final battle at the end of the jousting and rescued the kidnapped prince, so that was pretty awesome.

Our knight looked just like Bo Bice from American Idol a few years ago. Remember him? I wonder if it was him.

My DH and I tagged along.

Clown Puke Cake

2011-04-25T08:40:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago, I asked my DH and son what they wanted for dessert for the next few days. They both said white cake with white icing. Blah!
I love white cake with white icing but it's just so unimaginative. I knew if I just put sprinkles on top for some color that they would complain. Neither of them likes sprinkles.

Then I remembered a rainbow cake that I had seen on someones blog. So, I looked it up and found that some people also called it a Clown Puke cake. That is soooo much more interesting. ;)

I found this recipe for a Heavenly White Cake on allrecipes.com

Ingredients:

2 3/4 cups sifted cake flour
4 teaspoons baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 egg whites
1 1/2 cups white sugar
3/4 cup butter
1 cup milk
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon almond extract

Directions
1.Measure sifted flour, baking powder, and salt; sift together three times.
2.In a mixing bowl, beat egg whites until foamy. Add 1/2 cup sugar gradually, and continue beating only until meringue will hold up in soft peaks.
3.Cream butter or margarine. Gradually add remaining 1 cup sugar, and cream together until light and fluffy. Add sifted ingredients alternately with milk a small amount at a time, beating after each addition until smooth. Mix in flavorings. Add meringue, and beat thoroughly into batter. Spread batter in a 15 x 10 x 1 inch pan which has been lined on the bottom with parchment paper.
4.Bake at 350 degrees F (175 degrees C) for 30 to 35 minutes. Cool cake in pan 10 minutes, then remove from pan and transfer to a wire rack to finish cooling. This cake may also be baked in two 9 inch round pans for 30 to 35 minutes, or in three 8 inch round pans for 25 to 30 minutes.

***********************
This cake is DELICIOUS!!! I topped it off with a white buttercream icing.

But the trick to making this cake is, once you've completely mixed up the cake batter, pour it into several smaller bowls - depending on how many colors you want. Then, dye the batter whatever colors you want. The gel dyes that you can buy at craft stores make much deeper colors and you can make many more colors. But I just used the liquid dyes that you get at the grocery store that have red, yellow, blue and green in them.

Once you finish mixing in your colors, you can start pouring your batter into prepared pans. I used 3 - 8 inch pans. You can pour your batter in any order you want. I did the same order in each pan and it sort of came out striped. But when you pour your batter, pour the first one in the center of the pan, then pour the next color into the cented of the first color and continue with each color. The batter spreads out to cover the whole pan.

My family loved it. It made the cake much more interesting. And my son was excited to take it to school in his lunch box and show it to his classmates.
You could also use a cake mix or any cake recipe you have as long as it's a white batter that will dye well.

Sorry my pics are a little fuzzy. I thought they were ok but the cakes all gone now so I can't retake. :) Also, as you can tell, my family cut into this cake like animals. It's a bit wonky.

If you google rainbow cake, you'll get tons of pics that give you lots of ideas on how to do your cake. Like for a little girls party, you could do pink and purple stripes, you could do star burst designs, all kinds of stuff. It's fun to play with.
Good luck!

US Post Office Increases

2011-04-19T15:33:00.000-07:00

Did you know that the USPS increased prices on First Class Mail packages and First Class International Mail yesterday?
Well, they did.
April 18th was the date of price increases.
As near as I can tell, the First Class packages increased by approximately $0.50 and the First Class International increased by $0.80.

I just happened to be at the PO yesterday morning mailing a First Class International package and heard one of the postal clerks telling a customer about it as I was waiting in line. Apparently, $0.44 letters are not affected but packages are.

So, to all my fellow online sellers, you might want to check into it and adjust your shipping charges accordingly or you just might get a nasty surprise.

And to all my fellow online shoppers, this just stinks. :(

Quilt Show

2011-04-15T21:05:00.000-07:00

About 3 or so weeks ago, the annual quilt show was going on in our little city. I had never been before and thought I'd go check it out.

There were a bajillion quilts on display and they had them roped off so that you couldn't get to them to look at them. There were people standing at each little section, wearing white latex gloves and if you wanted to look at the back of the quilt, you had to ask and the lady/gentleman would raise it up so that you could look at it from about 4 feet away. I have to say, I was alittle frightened.
I had no idea that they were so fragile. I had no idea that it would all be so proper and precise. It kind of freaked me out alittle.

I was frightened and freaked out. So, I just gave up looking at them and went shopping at the little booths set up all around the perimeter of the quilt show. They had given me a ballot and I was suppose to vote for my favorite quilt but I was so intimidated that I didn't vote.
For some reason, I had it in my head that I would buy a kit and try to make a quilt.
So, I bought this.

Sigh. Let's see how long it takes me to make that. Geez, it's like I'm setting myself up to fail.

I also bought this little charm pack. I've since found a tote bag pattern in a magazine that I may try this out with. Or, I also found a quilted placemat pattern that I could use them on. Placemats are small, so maybe I'll just start out small and graduate to the quilt.

And lastly, look at this little guy.

It's a pincushion chicken filled with sand. He was so cute that I couldn't pass him up. They also had sand pincushions that looked like mice with yo yo's for tails.

It was a fun and scary day. :)

My Beautiful Family

2011-04-13T20:12:00.000-07:00

Back in November, I decided that we needed to have family pictures done since we had not had any professionally done since my son was 2. I found this wonderful local photographer and told her what we wanted. She suggested the Children's Park, which is a city park in Tyler that was built to celebrate the lives of children who have passed away. I had never been there but knew it was beautiful from pictures I had seen.

It is a beautiful place and a wonderful place to take pictures. In fact, the park was full of people doing just that on the morning we were there. By the way, who is this grown man in my pictures? Where is my little boy? :( And who are those old people? It makes me sad.

Cassie did an excellent job. I'll treasure these pictures forever. I highly recommend her to anyone in the East Texas area looking for wonderful photos - whatever the occasion.
http://www.cassiespaldingphoto.com/#

(P.S. - My son has braces in these pictures and still does in real life. They affect his pretty smile.)

My Funky Peasant Blouse

2011-04-12T08:36:00.000-07:00

Way back in January, when it was cold and snowing, I blogged about 3 new patterns that I had bought including one for a funky peasant blouse. See the post here.

Well, at that time, I got so far as to cut out the fabric (Michael Miller's Gypsy Bandana fabric which I LOVE) and I even got to about step 3 in sewing together my new top. That's when I realized that I had made a mistake in step 1 and needed to rip out most of the seams and start over. So, instead, I let the fabric pieces sit on my sewing table in a big pile so that it would remind me every day that I needed to work on it and essentially, make me feel really bad about myself.

Then, about the end of March, we were on a family walk (which we do every day) and my DH says to me, "whatever happened to that top you were working on? Did you finish it?".
Well, that was the incentive that I needed to get my butt in gear. I did the ripping of the seams and started over. I worked on it for the better part of 2 weeks and had to rip out more seams than I would like to admit. I learned some new skills and used new things that I didn't even know existed.

Like elastic thread. Have you ever used that? It is so cool. You sew the seam with the elastic thread and it makes a perfect little gathered sleeve. You can pull the thread tighter or make it looser.
Also, I put in a zipper for the 2nd time ever. The seams around it aren't perfect but hey, the clothes made in Thailand aren't sewn perfectly either.

I finally finished last Tuesday (April 5). I had made an oops on the front and was hoping that no one would notice. So I tried it on and showed my DH and he immediately saw the oops. He said it stuck out like a sore thumb. I spent the ENTIRE rest of the day ripping out seams and redoing to get rid of the oops. And now, it's practically perfect.

TaDA!!
I wore it to my son's Science fair at his school and wanted to get my DH to take picks of it on me so that I could post them here but that didn't happen.

I am pretty proud of myself though. I've bought fabric for the skirt pattern and the other top pattern that I posted a pic of in the above link. The skirt fabric is actually Christmas fabric for a Christmas skirt - it's Moda fabric that I got 40% off - YAY!! I wish I was better at time management so that I could get all the projects done that I want done and still have time to make things for my etsy shop.

So? What do you think about my new shirt? I'd love to hear - feel free to leave me a comment about it.

Today's work

2011-04-07T13:58:00.000-07:00

Today, I've been working on 3 new aprons for my shop - 2 with the new Gypsy Bandanna fabric from Michael Miller - which I LOVE!
I haven't listed a new apron in at least 2 weeks, so I'm going to try to get these done quickly.

Why I haven't listed new aprons and what I've been working on the past 2 weeks - coming in my next blog post.

I also forced myself to sit down and work on my promotional material today. I put a little matchbook notepad with my shops name on it, in all of the orders that I send out and I was almost out of them. I think I was down to 2. But, I managed to make about 35 of them today - so YAY! Also printed up more business cards and blog info cards.
Glad to be done with that stuff for awhile. I'd much rather sew.

Spring planting down on the farm

2011-04-04T20:20:00.000-07:00

It's spring planting time down on the farm but since we don't live on a farm, we just plant in this little planter box that my DH built for us this year.

We have been using an area in our backyard that was boxed off (and actually on the ground) but last year we didn't have any tomatoes because the moles/gophers either ate or killed the roots of all our plants. So this year, we copied an above ground box that the local AG people had on display at the county fair back in the fall.

We've planted bell peppers, grape tomatoes and lettuce. I've got my fingers crossed for our tomatoes this year.

Smith County Sheriff's Deputy Robert Britton Jr. laid to rest

2011-04-03T12:47:00.000-07:00

The funeral for my husband's cousin was yesterday, Saturday April 2nd. The family chose to have a full police funeral. It was a beautiful service. The church was full to the brim of uniformed City of Tyler police, Smith County Sheriff Deputies and other officers from the surrounding area. The honor guard and all of the officers involved in the service did such an amazing job, I can't even describe it. I was so proud of them all.

The funeral procession to the cemetery was even beautiful. We were towards the back and as the end of the line went through each intersection (which was blocked off by uniformed officers), those officers then joined the end of the procession with their lights flashing. As we drove through town, we would look behind us and it looked like a Christmas tree with all the flashing lights of all the police cars. Entire families came out and stood on the sidewalks as we went past, with their hands on their hearts. Many of the drivers of the cars stopped in traffic also stood beside their vehicles with their hands on their hearts. I start crying just thinking about it as I write this.

I really appreciated the amount of respect that was shown to his family by the people in Tyler and even by the local news media. It's always a horrible thing when a police officer is killed in the line of duty. I know he's going to be missed by so many people.

Here is a link to the local Tyler paper - story and video.
Here is the link to the local ABC station - KLTV (which is my favorite local news station because they are the most professional and the least sensationalistic when doing news stories).

Each of the above videos are different.
Thanks again to everyone who read my blog and sent up a prayer and kind thought for his family - including his law enforcement family.

All You Need Designs

2011-04-01T15:25:00.000-07:00

One team that I belong to on etsy is the EtsyMom Team. Every month the EtsyMom's give out an Etsy Mom Curator Award (EMCA) to the person who makes the most treasuries featuring all EtsyMom team members. I try to participate every month and last month (Feb. 15 - March 14), I got 2nd place. I made 6 treasuries and the winner, Tamsy Trends, made 11. We had a total of 38 treasuries made during the time frame. Our goal is 50 each month so we have a ways to go.

So, for my prize, I was able to pic something from All You Need Designs' etsy shop - who so graciously offered to be a sponsor that month.

All You Need Designs has some wonderful things in her shop. She makes bookmarks, keychains, jewelry and also does graphic design for invitations, birth announcements and such.
I chose as my prize, this sweet Peace bookmark. I love it.

It's colorful and fun and I've never seen a Peace charm like this one before so I was pretty excited about that. I received it last week and have been remiss in telling Heather thank you and posting pics to my wonderful prize.

So, thank you Heather. I love my bookmark and I appreciate you sponsoring the EMCA award and being active in the EtsyMom team. You rock!

Be sure to check out All You Need Designs because she has some really neat stuff in her shop.
You can also check out Heather's blog here.

Update

2011-03-28T14:39:00.000-07:00

I just wanted to post an update to my previous post about my husband's cousin.
Deputy Robert Britton passed away today (Monday) from injuries sustained in the accident last week.

Thanks to anyone who might have seen this post and sent up a prayer for his family. I know his dad is taking this pretty hard and he leaves behind 2 adult children. I'm sure this is a huge blow for the sheriff's department as well. Robert was very well liked.

Please pray

2011-03-26T20:22:00.000-07:00

My husband's cousin, who is a deputy sheriff in our area, was injured Thursday morning in a freak accident involving a cow, while at work.

See the news story here.

Please keep him and his family in your thoughts and prayers.
He is in very critical condition.

Painting Painting Painting

2011-03-25T08:23:00.000-07:00

It has been a super busy week that has passed in the flash of an eye.

I haven't had time to finish anything that I could list in my etsy shop and I've had very little time to sew or do anything fun. :(

Why? you ask. It's because I finally started a project that I've been putting off for some time.
The majority of our house needs to be repainted - especially the trim and doors. I hate painting trim and doors. But I finally got started on it because we've been having days in the upper 70's and 80's for the past couple of weeks and so it's perfect, weatherwise, to paint. Luckily, I've already repainted a few of the rooms.
Our half bath got a makeover here.
I repainted my sewing room here.
And I repainted our spare bedroom - which is suppose to be our game room - a couple of years ago.

So, the past couple of weeks, I've been working on the trim and doors in our long hallway which includes 3 rooms and my son's bathroom. Because of my back 'issues', I have to work a little each day. I've finished all the trim on this side of the house and 3 of the doors. Still have to finish up 4 doors. I bought the paint for the hallway walls yesterday and hope to get started on that tomorrow. I've also done touch up painting in my son's bedroom and bathroom since he doesn't want those rooms changed. Here's a pic of a section of trim that's been painted. I was a bit messy but I'm repainting the walls anyway.

I'm hoping I will like this paint color because if I do, I'll be repainting the living room, dining room and possibly my bedroom with the same color. I have a different color in mind for the kitchen and will be waiting to repaint it as we are planning a remodel for later this year. I'll post a pic of the color when I get the hallway walls painted.

Here is a picture of 2 of the doors. One has been repainted bright white - which was the color all the house trim was suppose to be in the first place - the other door is the color the idiot painter painted all our trim when the house was built even though he was told specific paint colors and paint finishes.

Sad, huh? At least, it makes me sad.

Happy St. Patrick's Day

2011-03-17T08:38:00.000-07:00

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Here are some yummy, wonderful, green things made by my fellow EtsyMom Team members to help you get your green on! Click the pics and it will take you to the shop.

From MomPotter - she has some really lovely jewelry in her shop.

From FlandersField - I have this hanging in my sewing room right now!

Lovely quotes from SoulGraffiti.

Yummy soap from Anhoki.
So have some green beer and go shopping for handmade yummies!

Book Review

2011-03-14T09:09:00.000-07:00

Ok, so today, I have some book recommendations.
Many moons ago - I think when I was a teenager but who remembers? - I read the book The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. It is the best Christmas story I have ever read. I mean the BEST. It's about this family of kids named the Herdsmans whos father abandoned them, so they live with their single mom who works all the time just to keep a roof over their heads. The kids pretty much raise themselves. They have almost no adult supervision and they basically terrorize the town.

When my son was in 1st grade, I read it to him for the first time. He loved it. We've read it together several times since then and he has also read it by himself several times since then. When he was in second grade, his teacher let me read it to his class before Christmas. The kids who payed attention really enjoyed it.

I have since discovered that Barbara Robinson has more books about the clever Herdsmen including The Best Halloween Ever and The Best School Year Ever. I've read them both and they are a hoot.
At our last trip to the Half Price Book store in Dallas, I found this little gem (for $1.98 :)

My Brother Louis Measures Worms. It's a series of short stories. I'm about half way through it and it is laugh out loud funny. These are great books for your kids to read. They're at an AR level of about 4-5. Really great little chapter books.

So, that's my recommendation. Any book by Barbara Robinson - especially The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. They are great for adults too! Happy Reading!

Happy Birthday to me! and a sale!

2011-03-10T07:25:00.000-08:00

Today is my birthday! Yay!
I'm not going to say which one though. I think once we hit 35, we should be able to subtract the years instead of adding the years. So, going by that theory, I'm 27. :)

To celebrate my birthday, I'm having a sale in my etsy shop - Handmade Whimzy.
Get 10% off all items by using the coupon code - birthday1.
Discount will also apply to the already marked down hair accessories and scented sachets.

I'm planning to run this sale through Saturday. So, Happy Shopping and Happy Birthday to ME!

Sweet Little Coin Purse

2011-03-09T18:37:00.000-08:00

I've officially finished one sweet little coin purse in my new sewing venture. It's perfect. Well..... actually, it's practically perfect. I got alittle over zealous with the glue and got some of it on the fabric. So, I'm debating about whether or not to list it in my etsy shop. If I do, it will be as an oops and at a discounted price.

Here is it:

It's actually a tiny bit of glue that you can barely see. But I know it's there ;)

Ganache

2011-03-07T17:00:00.000-08:00

This past Friday, I told my son that we would go to the new cupcakery, Ganache, in our town after school to celebrate the beginning of Spring Break. The store has been open for about a year, so I guess it's not new but we had never been there before, so it's new to us :)

We each got a cupcake. I got Raspberry Chocolate, my son got a Lava Cupcake which didn't have any icing but did have melted ganache in the middle, and my DH got a Coconut cupcake.

My Raspberry Chocolate cupcake was delicious. The cake was moist and yummy and very chocolatey with just a hint of raspberry flavor. The icing though, was awesome. They must have puried the raspberries for the icing because it had seeds in it and the flavor was very strong. I give it a thumbs up!

My DH liked his coconut cupcake. He said the cake part tasted like vanilla cake but the icing was very coconutty.

My son stuffed the whole thing in his mouth. I guess that means it was good?

So, I'd say it's worth another trip. Next time I want to try the salted caramel cupcake. It looked really yummy. I think I can talk my son into the Smores cupcake - it probably won't be too hard.

This Weeks Sweet

2011-03-03T15:47:00.000-08:00

This weeks sweet treat was a Banana Sour Cream Cake with Cream Cheese Icing.
Yumm!

I get recipes from the Kraft website every once in a while and this was one of them. Their recipes usually use Kraft products, of course. But you can substitute other brands.

I made this recipe for Sunday lunch. My in laws were coming over and I thought they'd like it. And they did! My father in law ate 2 pieces plus they took some home with them. My son didn't like it though. He said the icing didn't go with the cake and honestly, I kind of agree with him. I think if I make it again, I'll use a chocolate buttercream frosting or even vanilla buttercream.

If you do make this recipe, I don't recommend that you use fat free cream cheese for the icing. It makes the icing runny and sticky.

Here is the recipe, courtesy of kraft.com:

What You Need:
1 pkg. (2-layer size) yellow cake mix
1 cup mashed ripe bananas (about 3)
1 cup BREAKSTONE'S or KNUDSEN Sour Cream (I used Light Daisy)
3 eggs
1/4 cup oil (I used light olive oil)
1 pkg. (8 oz.) PHILADELPHIA Cream Cheese, softened
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 pkg. (16 oz.) powdered sugar
1 cup finely chopped PLANTERS Walnuts

HEAT oven to 350°F.

BEAT first 5 ingredients with mixer on low speed just until moistened, stopping frequently to scrape bottom and side of bowl. Beat on medium speed 2 min. Pour into greased and floured 13x9-inch pan.
BAKE 35 min. or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean. Cool completely.

BEAT cream cheese and butter with mixer until well blended. Gradually beat in sugar.
REMOVE cake from pan. Carefully cut cake crosswise in half using serrated knife. Place 1 cake half, top-side down, on plate; spread with some of the cream cheese frosting. Top with remaining cake half, top-side up. Spread top and sides with remaining frosting. Press nuts into sides. Keep refrigerated.

*****************
All of the adults liked the cake but the kiddo didn't. The cake part was REALLY good. Very moist and you could really taste the bananas. We give it a thumbs up.

My Finished Flower

2011-02-28T10:46:00.000-08:00

Finally, I have a minute to sit down and show you what I did with my finished flower.

But first, a little background story.

I'm not a purse person. I'm a shoe person. I could spend all day buying shoes and would love to have a million pair. But purses - nah. I'm a once a year purse shopper and that's just because I have to replace them when they start to get all crummy looking. So a few weeks ago, I happened into Kohl's to look at the purses - which were all on sale :) My last years purse was pretty crummy looking and had been for a couple of months.
I bought a new purse and a really cool wallet (on clearance) but the problem was the new wallet didn't have a pouch for change. No problem, I thought. I'll just have a look on etsy and buy a cute little change purse.

As I was looking, I thought to myself, "boy, what a great way to use up scrap fabric and you could embelish them in all kinds of cool ways." Then I thought, "Duh". And that's when I ordered purse frames.

Here is my first change purse:

I have all kinds of embellishment ideas and once I get my pattern perfected, I plan to start offering them in my shop.

Now you know what I did with that sweet flower :)

Impulse Buy

2011-02-24T20:12:00.000-08:00

While browsing through my local craft store, I often come across cool gadgets that my fingers just itch to buy and try. Sometimes I know what the gadgets are for and sometimes, I have NO clue. Many times I'm in the scrapbooking section when this impulse overtakes me. I don't have a clue what most of that stuff is for. I understand paper but what the heck do you do with all that other stuff. That's why scrapbooking is too complicated for me.

So, one of the gadgets that I've been wanting to try for quite some time, is a yoyo maker. You can get them in all sizes and they look pretty neat. I know you can find the tutorials on how to make them all over the internet and so I already knew how to make them and I have been meaning to make some for ever and without the use of a special $4 tool. The tutorials on the web just show you how to do them freehand.
But there was that yoyo maker.
And I had a 40% off coupon and nothing else that I needed........ so............there it was, looking all neat and..........
Ok, I bought it and brought it home. I'm a sucker for an impulse buy.

I used it for the first time this morning. Let me just say that for some reason, I thought the yoyo would be the same size as the green yoyo maker in the package but it wasn't. I had bought the small size and it was only a little over 1 inch after it was finished. I should have read the package better because I wanted one a bit bigger.

But anyhoo, it came out well. Sadly, it took me about 3 tries to be able to follow the instructions correctly. I can't blame that on the instructions so I guess it was all me.
Here's my first little yoyo:

Here you can see that I've sewn a felt flower with orange and turquoise petals together to match the yoyo.
And I've turned it into a pretty flower.

Now what will I do with the flower? Check back in tomorrow as I show what I did with it - my finished product.

When the new year started I promised myself that I wasn't going to get into any new crafting areas but look what I've gone and done now. And it's only February. My resolutions don't seem to last very long. :(

Germs

2011-02-22T10:42:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, my son who I love dearly, was kind enough to share his germs with me. At least, I think that's where they came from. But now adays, who knows?
So, I've been mostly laying around for the past 2 days and feeling yucky.

Hopefully, the worst part is over and I AM feeling better today. So back to business as usual.
It's a beautiful 'spring' day here in Texas today which makes me feel more energetic. And I'm loving the warmer temps and sunshine that we've been having lately. Maybe old Punxsatawny Phil was right and we will have an early spring.

I hope your day is bright and sunny too. :)

Funky New Aprons

2011-02-18T08:23:00.000-08:00

I have 2 funky new aprons for my etsy shop. I've listed the "what came first" apron already and will probably list the Hootie Owl apron tomorrow.

Very cute!
What do you think about them?

Also, I finally got a much anticipated package in the mail yesterday. It's for a new craft project that I'm going to try out. I'll keep you posted on how it goes. If it turns out well, I'll be listing them in my shop. (This is in spite of the fact that I promised myself I wouldn't do any new crafts or buy any new supplies for awhile. I just don't think I'm capable of not buying crafting supplies.)

Last weeks SWEET - Oreo Balls

2011-02-16T20:05:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago, I was reading one of the blogs that I follow ( I can't remember which one and I can't find the post but I think it was a fellow etsymom), and I came across this yummy sounding recipe for Oreo Balls.

I immediately went to the store and got the stuff I needed and proceeded to make only 1/2 of a batch. I didn't want to make the whole batch in case we didn't like them. But boy, that sure wasn't something that I needed to worry about.
My son LOVED them.

Here is the recipe:

Oreo Balls

1 - 8 oz. package of cream cheese
1 package of oreos
chocolate chips for melting

Instructions:
Pulverize the entire bag of Oreos in your food processor. Dump in the whole 8 oz. of cream cheese. Pulverize some more until it's all blended together and lumps up. Roll mixture into small balls about 1 inch or so in diameter. Refrigerate for at least 1 hour until they are good and chilled. Melt chocolate chips in microwave - don't forget to add in shortening so they will melt well for dipping. Dip oreo balls in chocolate until covered then put on a cookie sheet covered in wax paper. Refrigerate again until chocolate sets.
Decorate with melted white chocolate or icing in a tube that's available in stores.
***************************

I used fat free cream cheese and reduced fat oreos and it was still decadent and yummy! These are so rich that I couldn't eat more than 1 or 2 at a time. They're a great quick and easy treat. So good in fact, that I actually made them 2 weeks in a row.

If the etsymom whose blog I saw this on is reading this now, please feel free to leave a comment and take credit for your yuuuuummmmmyyyy oreo balls. This will definitely be something that I make again. It's also a great recipe to make if you have sweet little helpers because they could help you roll the balls and decorate.

Pretty Flowers

2011-02-14T18:47:00.000-08:00

Egads, I can't believe it's been over a week since I blogged.
Last week was one of those weeks where you're really busy and the week goes by really fast but then, when it's over, you have no idea what you did. Whatever I did, I was only able to finish and list one new apron in my shop.

But this week will be better, surely. After all, it started off with a day for love.

Here are some pretty flowers that I got from my sweet baboo.

After years of me saying that red roses are generic, he finally listened to me and bought me pink tulips. He's a sweetie.

Happy Valentine's Day to all!

Snowday!

2011-02-04T12:30:00.000-08:00

Last night on the national evening news, Diane Sawyer told me that the temperature is colder in Texas right now than in Alaska.
Great.

This morning, I got up at 6:30 am to check the school closings and discovered that it was officially a SNOWDAY!

It's a dry, powdery snow though, so I don't think there will be many snowmen on our street. It's suppose to get up into the 40's-50's tomorrow and all of it should melt away fairly quickly.

It's been nice staying in all day today. I was very thankful that I didn't have to drive my son to school in this aweful weather.
So far I have finished 2 aprons and some bookmarks and taken lots of pics. My son parked himself on the sofa early this morning to watch TV and play his DS.

It's been a pretty good day. :)

This is a pic of my snow covered gazing ball. It looks kinda funny.

EtsyMom's Valentine's Day Treasure Hunt

2011-02-02T08:48:00.000-08:00

The EtsyMom's Team is having a Valentine's Day Treasure Hunt.

For all the info, click here.
My shop is not participating but alot of really great shops are. All you have to do is look for the Valentine symbol in each shop, make a list of the item URL's and email them to the email address given. You then have a change to win 1 of 3 great prizes.
So, nothing to loose and you may win a prize - plus you'll find lots of great EtsyMom shops that you might not have known about before.

Have fun!!

And for those who might not have heard yet, Punxsatawney Phil did NOT see his shadow, so that means it's SPRING! YAY!
Why is it still only 20 degrees outside then?

My fun day that I have planned

2011-02-01T08:29:00.000-08:00

I have the most fun day planned.
First, it's 27 degrees outside right now and snowing in some areas.
(I hate cold weather)

But that will only make my day better because in a couple of hours, I have to go to the dentist to get my tooth drilled out and be fitted for a crown.
So, I guess it's like I'm a queen for the day, right?

Sigh.

On a lighter note, in regards to my funky peasant blouse project that I mentioned in the last post, I have all the pieces cut out and I hope to start stitching them today or tomorrow. I'm going to try to keep you all updated with pics.

New fun project

2011-01-28T12:41:00.000-08:00

Right around Christmas, I bought myself 3 new patterns that I found online. Two are for tops and one is a skirt pattern.

I'm not sure how this is going to go because I'm not always great at following instructions - I mostly sew by the seat of my pants. Ha Ha.

I'm starting with the Funky Peasant Blouse pattern by Lila Tueller Designs. Wish me luck. Lots of luck.

I've been drooling over the Gypsy Bandana line by Pillow and Maxfield for Michael Miller for several weeks so that's the fabric that I'm using. I absolutely love it.

I've taken my measurements - bust, waist, and hips - and what I'm wondering is where do they get the pattern measurements? Because my body seems to be 3 different sizes. So, basically to pick which size I'm going to sew, I closed my eyes and pointed. I'll keep you posted along the way. It may take me awhile because I'm going to take my time with it and be very careful.
Today, I cut out the tissue pattern. :)

What fun project are you working on right now?

50% off sale

2011-01-27T09:25:00.000-08:00

My big 50% off Clearance sale on scented sachets and hair accessories is still going strong. You can get some wonderful sachets for your closet or to tuck into a drawer OR perhaps pretty flowers for your hair.

They are all marked 50% off in my etsy shop. No more will be added, as I'm discontinueing both lines, so shop now!

Last weeks sweet treat!

2011-01-25T08:01:00.000-08:00

Last weeks sweet treat that I made for my family was Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cupcakes.

I used this recipe that I found on allrecipes.com and had wanted to try for awhile. I know it calls for a cake mix and in this post, I rambled on and on about only making things from scratch, but what can I say. I'm a hypocrite. LOL It's so sad. But I really am trying to stick to the made from scratch rule.

Here's the recipe:
Ingredients

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/4 teaspoon sea salt
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 egg
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

1 (18.25 ounce) box yellow cake mix
1 1/3 cups water
1/3 cup canola oil
3 eggs

Directions

1.Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and sea salt; set aside. Beat the butter, white sugar, and brown sugar with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add 1 egg and the vanilla extract and beat until smooth. Mix in the flour mixture until just incorporated. Fold in the chocolate chips; mixing just enough to evenly combine. Form the dough into tablespoon-sized balls; place onto a baking sheet, and freeze until solid, about 2 hours.

2.Preheat an oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Line 24 muffin cups with paper liners.

3.Beat 3 eggs in a large bowl with an electric mixer to break up. Add the cake mix, water, and canola oil; continue beating for 2 minutes on medium speed. Spoon into the prepared cupcake liners, filling each 2/3 full. Place a frozen cookie dough ball on the top center of each cupcake.

4.Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the cake portion of the cupcake (not the cookie dough ball) comes clean, about 20 minutes. Cool in the pans for 10 minutes before removing to cool completely on a wire rack.

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

So, basically, you're making the cookie dough part from scratch but using a cake mix for the cupcake part. I didn't put any icing on them because when we ate them fresh out of the oven, they seemed really sweet and didn't really need icing. But, the next day they didn't seem as sweet and could have used icing. A chocolate buttercream would be yummy on top.

If you use this recipe, be sure you freeze the dough balls really good - at least 2 hours or else they will cook with the cupcakes. They turned out pretty good for me. Although, I didn't like the cake mix cupcake part. If I make these again, I'll make them all from scratch.

One of the blogs I follow (So, I'm in Texas Now) makes alot of cupcakes and she always posts the recipes. Here is her's for the same kind of cupcakes. Her's look way yummier.

These are very kid friendly - my son loved them!

The post I've been dreading - Why my Christmas wasn't as merry and bright as it should have been

2011-01-20T08:50:00.000-08:00

My husband tricked me into buying a new car.
Now, I know what you're thinking. A new car is fun and great. Yes, it is - sorta.

Here's the whole story (in condensed form - yes, this really is the condensed form).

Two years ago I bought a new SUV, a Hyundai Santa Fe which is a smaller SUV, not a giant Suburban.
I got rid of my 7 year old Honda minivan which had 'issues'. It took me months to decide what to buy and I test drove about 10 different cars and/or small Suv's. I did tons of research and then decided what I wanted to pay. I then spent about 2 weeks negotiating via email with 2 different dealerships.

You should know that I don't do that sitting in the dealership for 5 hours while the salesman speaks to his "manager" about the price I want to pay and then just buy the stupid car at an unfair price just to get out of the dealership and away from these aweful car salesman. I only negotiate via email now. The only time I spend at any dealership is when I test drive and when I pick up the car. It usually takes about 30 minutes to do the paperwork and then I'm out of there. Plus, we finance through our credit union so there's none of that "being approved" crap.

Anyhoo, I bought the Santa Fe completely by myself. My husband didn't even see it until he went with me to pick it up. Having to deal with the car salesmen gives him stress fever blisters, so I didn't think he should have to suffer.
From the moment he saw the Santa Fe, he loved it. He kept saying that if I changed my mind and wanted to get a Nissan Altima (my 2nd choice), he would sell his truck and take the Santa Fe.
Unfortunately, in the 2 years that I've had the Santa Fe, it's had several mechanical problems - which were all under warranty - causing me to take it to the service dept. of the dealership, to be fixed. And, instead of ranting about my experience there in great detail EVERY single time I took my car in, I'll just say that I was disappointed by the service dept and fed up with going there. I had never had to deal with a service department like that before. It was really a bad experience for me.

At the beginning of December, my car had yet another problem and I was standing in my kitchen ranting and raving when my husband suddenly said, "there's a guy at my work who wants to buy my truck, I'll just sell it to him and you can go buy a new car." Then he ran to the phone and within 5 minutes had made a deal with the guy. I was still standing in the kitchen with my mouth open.
At this point, I didn't really feel like I could say, "no thanks".

There it was, 2 1/2 weeks before Christmas. I had gifts to wrap, a house to clean, Christmas dinner to plan, teacher's gifts to finish, a school party to prepare for, plus tons of other things going on - oh, and did I mention, a kid home sick with a temp of 101.6? And there I was, researching current mid sized family sedans, making a list of the 4 I liked, deciding which features or packages I wanted and going to each dealership to test drive. Oh, did I mention, our credit union was having a 'sale' on finance charges and I had to make a decision and purchase by Dec. 30th to lock in the rate.
So, no pressure or anything.

Between Dec. 10 and Dec. 30th, I was a little stressed. Of course, there were glitches. Guy backed out of buying the truck causing us to have to put an ad in the paper. Luckily, it was not a hard truck to sell and we ended up getting a good price for it. The dealership that had the car that was my #1 choice didn't want to negotiate at all - kept sending me the MSRP. Bless their hearts. I don't pay full price for anything.
Christmas was in the middle of all this. I was stressed with a short temper. My DH was stressed. There was some screaming. My sweet son had to put up with us. Although, I do think that it's good for him to see us stressed and screaming because that's real life sometimes. I think it's good for him to know that yes, we get angry but we still love each other. And the bad times blow over.

Now the bad time has blown over and we managed to get the car before all the deadlines expired. We got a REALLY good price on the car - WAY better than I expected. I was actually shocked by how good of a deal we got.
But, to be honest, I think I would have rather bought later under less stress so that we could have had a nice quiet, relatively stress free Christmas. All the stress and frustration takes all the fun out of the whole new car thing. I've had it about 3 weeks now and I'm finally started to enjoy it.

So, that's my aweful story. It feels good to get it off my chest. Now I can enjoy the new year and figure out how to work all the buttons on my new car.

Teacher Bottlecap Pincushions Ornaments

2011-01-12T19:31:00.000-08:00

I had big plans this year for the really cute pincushion ornaments I was going to make my son's teachers for Christmas. I started planning them months ago. The thing is, I should have started SEWING them months ago. As it was, I barely finished them in time for the last day of school before Christmas break.

These ornaments were for his art, music and Spanish teachers. They are made with bottlecaps that were about 2 inches in diameter.

For his art teacher, I did a color mixing theme - blue plus yellow equals green. The side of the ornament has a red heart and the word "ART" embroideried. I also used blue and yellow buttons on the back to hide the ribbon.
My son had a book about mice mixing paint when he was little that he just LOVED and that's where I got the idea. Plus his art teacher is really cool and I thought she'd get a kick out of it.

For his music teacher, I did a big musical note - sorry the first pic is so blurry. I thought I had gotten good pics of these. The side has hearts sewn on and music notes embroideried.

For his Spanish teacher, I did poinsettia's inspired by the Mexican Christmas story "The Legend of the Poinsettia". I cut out the 'petals' and sewed them on with seed beads in the middle. I was pretty excited about this one because I thought it was clever. I embroideried the word "hola" on the side.

For his regular teachers, I made each of them an ornament similar to these in this post here. Plus, we gave them gift cards to the bookstore. Here is one of the ones I made:

How about that? It matches the box :)
I had intended to make each of them 2-3 ornaments but ran out of time.

They all seemed to like them - or at least I hope they did. His teachers are all really good and I know they work really hard.

Snow

2011-01-09T19:05:00.000-08:00

First, it started to snow.

Then, it started to stick.

Then, Ben built a tiny snowman :)

Now, we have 2-3 inches of snow (just guessing) and we're waiting to see if tomorrow is a snow day.

And this past week, my sweet hubby celebrated his 54th birthday with his loving family. Only one more year until he can get the senior discount at IHOP. Woohoo! :)
I got his cake this year at Cakes by Sara, here in Tyler. I had tasted her cakes twice before and they were wonderful. This weeks b-day cake was no exception - it was yummy delicious. And she added lots of extra icing like I asked, for the b-day boy. I highly recommend her cake shop if you're in the East Texas area and need a cake - or cookies, which are also yummy good.

My pretty new bracelets

2011-01-07T19:38:00.000-08:00

I love bead crocheted bracelets.
They're pretty, easy to wear, and made with about a million tiny seed beads.
And since I can't do crochet of any kind and have no desire to learn how, I periodically go searching on etsy for someone who does work that I like so that I can buy myself a pretty new bracelet.

And find such a person, I did. Shortly before Christmas, in fact. The name of the shop is Morning Sky Jewelry and that's where I bought this sweet chartreuse and white striped bracelet - not to wear for Christmas but because I LOVE bright green and knew it was something that I could wear all year.

Mary Ann sent me my bracelet and I loved it. It fit perfectly. It slips right over your hand so there's no clasp to worry about and it's a perfect little bangle.

Then, after Christmas (which was a tad more stressful than usual), I decided to treat myself again with this red "LOVE" bracelet I had been coveting in her shop. I've worn it for 2 days straight. I don't even care if it matches what I'm wearing, I just like to wear it.

Ignore the old lady's hands who are modeling my bracelets. I have no idea who that is but she must have broken into my house and tried on my new bracelets and then taken pictures of them. :)

So, thanks Morning Sky Jewelry. My new bracelets make me feel pretty.

Two interesting realizations

2011-01-04T20:06:00.000-08:00

You know how in the back of your mind you know something, but for some reason, you just never really admit it to yourself or acknowledge it? Or maybe you just hope it will go away.

Well, I have 2 such realizations to share with you. (They're kind of strange.)

The first one is - I'm a terrible bow maker. Here's my proof:

And I really tried with this one. I think I need professional help. And it's not just my apron bows either. It's all bows.

My second realization is that I think I finally have to admit to myself that my lovely Betty is crooked. Gee, you're asking yourself, maybe that's something I should share with my doctor. LOL

Betty is my dress form that I use when I take pics of my aprons. I think she's crooked and I can't figure out how to fix her. She's pretty old - I got her from a garage sale many years ago and the previous owner had her for awhile. I'm thinking I may have to break down and get a new one this year. :(

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T14:40:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone is happy and safe during festivities tonight. There have already been people setting off fireworks near our neighborhood for the past 2 weeks.

And don't forget to eat your black eyed peas and collard greens for good luck in the new year :)
I just eat the peas - I hate collard greens. So I guess I'll just have 50% good luck and 50% bad luck.

Have a Blessed New Year!

Jingle Paws

2010-12-28T10:02:00.000-08:00

Well, tis the season to not have time to blog. LOL

Things are finally settling down around here and I hope things are calmer at your houses as well. I hope you've all had a very Happy Christmas or a blessed Hanukah and any other holiday that your family celebrates.

And once again, we're getting ready to celebrate the beginning of a new year. Funny how fast they come the older you get. My son swore that the days waiting for Christmas were endless and moving at a snails pace. I, however, thought they were speeding by.

We had a very nice Christmas. Some good food. Spending time with family. Putting together lots of new Legos. And watching my new DVD's of The New Adventures of Old Christine.

I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions. But I do have some plans for my Handmade Whimzy shop and things that I hope I can get accomplished this year.

For now, I have some cute pictures of Jingle Paws. Our sweet Mac is such a good sport.
But stay tuned for the posts of the bottle cap pincushions that I made for my son's teachers.

Treat Yourself End of Year SALE!

2010-12-18T15:53:00.000-08:00

I'm having a big, huge "Treat Yourself End of Year SALE"!

ALL of the hair accessories and scented sachets in my Handmade Whimzy shop are marked 50% off!

You can get some yummy smelling sachets to put in all your drawers or hang in your closet. Or how about a sweet flower for your hair?

So treat yourself to something pretty. Don't we all deserve it after the stress of the holiday season?

200

2010-12-12T16:32:00.000-08:00

I just hit 200!!!!!

I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOO excited. My 200th customer is getting a surprise free gift :)

In other, unrelated news, my baby is still sick.
I have a ton of gifts to wrap and haven't wrapped any.
I picked up our Christmas cards (the have a pic of my son on them - we ordered through his school), but haven't addressed any of them.
I'm having to car shop, now, at Christmas time. UG!

How is your weekend going?

Farmer's Market Apples

2010-12-11T17:06:00.000-08:00

I listed a new half apron in my shop today. I love this apple print by Sandi Henderson from Michael Miller fabrics.

And I'm working on one with more Sandi Henderson/Michael Miller fabric - from the Meadow Sweet collection. It's so pretty! Can't wait to show it off!

What else is going on right now? Well, when I picked my sweet baby up from school yesterday, he had a temp of 101.9. So not only is he sick, but he infected his whole class because he's too stubborn to tell the teacher he feels bad so he can come home. Sigh.

AND, my shop has hit 199 sales! My goal was 200 by the end of the year. My sales have really picked up since I switched over from handmade jewelry to handmade aprons - and you don't hear me complaining :)

Have a great weekend everyone!