I spy #2

An eye spy bag for Nicolas A.

The back of the bag. I bought the trinkets on etsy and made up the monster from looking at a monster stuffed animal on etsy I think.

Beautiful Ava.. (and her eczema rash)

And EMily...

We spent the day with Jenny B and her girls.

Sierra

Jenny B

And Madison.

They leave Thursday morning for the states..for good:(

We'll miss you sooo much.

Rumpled Turtle ( and longest post ever!)

More rumpled quilt skin patterns here.

Here's my version of the Rumpled Turtle out of Corduroy. He's filled with plastic pellets so he feels like a bean bag. He's super soft too.

The hexigon?octagon? pieces were hard to sew together but everything else was fine. It took a while to complete because there are so many steps and pieces.

I'm in love with him (he's actually even cuter in person! The photos don't do him justice). Hopefully we'll get more patterns for the store and I can put him on display.

Look at this book! I have it coming to me in the mail. I'm sooo excited! It's from the creators of the Melly & Me patterns.

I want to make the mushroom back pack and the unicorn to start! I have a lot of craft books bought with high hopes but most seem to dissapoint. They will have one or two projects that are new and different. But the rest will be aprons, or table cloths, etc. patterns I already have. But from the collage below it looks like it has many good patterns. I'll post about it when it comes in.

Below are miscellanous pictures of the Emily and Ava.

*blogger spell check is still not working. Anyone else having this problem?

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How fitting that I post about a rumpled turtle when I just got some news about a rumpled kitty. My sister just emailed that her kitty Alfie had to be put to sleep yesterday. Alfie used to be our kitty along with his sister, Darla. We found Darla and Alfalfa in (I think) 1993 or 94 when they were just kittens not even weaned. We had to bottle feed them and "show" them how to use the litter box. We loved those two like it was going out of style:) Then we found out we were moving to Germany and we weren't sure if we should or could move with 4 cats (we also had Mau Mau and Piggy aka Pig Blossom). My sister's kitty Murphy had just passed away unexpectedly (heart attack while at the groomers) and she was devastated. She had always joked that she was going to smuggle Alfie home in her suitcase when ever she visited. So it clicked that Julia should have Alfie and one other...

Long story short (the story involves driving to sacramento from San Diego with two kittes and returning later to switch out a kitty that wasn't happy about the move!). So she ended up with Darla and Alfalfa. Darla passed away last year and now Alfie. They were approximatly 15-16 years old and truly had it good. While it was super hard to give them to my sister and her husband, it was the right thing to do.

*me with one of Jon's friends.

Pictures of when they were kittens...

We'll miss you Alfie:) aka the Mithter & rumpled kitty.

On a side not: does anyone know want an adult male indoor cat? He's adorable and loves to cuddle (and long walks on the beach). I'm serious actually. We want to give Frank to a loving home. If we happen to find someone that would be great. If not we're keeping him. We're not discarding him becasue we're finished with him:) It's not like we have to get rid of him we just think he'd do better with someone who can give him more attention.

It's all about me

Another smocked top from the Weekend Sewing book by Heather Ross. The other two tops I made on my Pfaff but this one I made at work on a Bernina. It was totally different sewing with elastic thread on the Bernina than on mine. I couldn't get the tension right (I'm guessing that was the problem) so the gathers weren't that tight. It's fine just not as stretchy as the other's. I only notice the differance because I made the 1st two on my machine. The fabric is Mendocino from Heather Ross. You might remember the duvet cover I made a while back out of another fabric from this line.

I had to cut her head off becasue she was looking crazy-eyed. She didn't like the grass touching her legs.

It is all about me. The next 3 pictures anyway..
They make me laugh.

Just random shots from our weekend in London

I'm saying something very funny I'm sure:)

On the airplane going to London.

You have to check out Jenny B's blog for more photos from our weekend.

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A video of Ava entertaining herself.

Somebody needs to..

The London Eye and River Thames

*The two Jennifer's*

In front of Westminster Abbey where somebody got yelled at for taking pictures inside! Her name is Jennifer but you didn't hear it from me 'cause I'm not one to talk....the other Jennifer took many more photos but didn't get in trouble:)

Inside of Westminster....taken by "accident". It's Queen Elizabeth the 1st's tomb.

A guard at Windsor Castle

Windsor Castle

The mote within the castle. Now a beautiful garden. I really think it's the most beautiful garden I've ever seen.

Doesn't she look beautiful?? Jenny B..hot mama of 3..

Shoplifting footage from the Tower. That Jenny B and her theiving..not really. It was some weird thing they had at the Tower.

The Tower Bridge

I'll just put Ben over here....

"Look Right" painted on every cross walk. And it really helps!

me in 2004, me now
We went to the London Dungeon and the London Bridge Experiance/tombs. The only photos I have are from the inside that they take as a souvenir. Jenny B has those so somebody needs to post those...even though they are seriosuly unflattering of me. Jon and I did the London Dungeon in 2004 and holy cow has it changed! For the better. It's a must see. The London Bridge Experiance was ok, it was the tomb part that was SOOOO scary! It was like a 15 minute haunted house. Jennifer and I were the last in our group so we had to constantly look over our shoulders to keep an eye out for anyone creeping up on us. We thoroughly molested the guy in front of us by clinging to him and screaming in his ears. But he was screaming too :)

We toured the Tower of London, St. Paul's Cathederal, Windsor Castle and Westminster Abbey. We did the London Dungeon, London Bridge Experiance and The Medieval Banquet (just like Medieval Times in California, or as seen in the movie Cable Guy but not in an arena). We also did the Jack the Ripper Walk.

The Booty, The Spoils, The Loot (the crap I bought)

We're back from London! I don't know about Jenny B but I had a really good time:) My mouth and stomach still hurt from laughing!
***blogger spell check is still not working!! And I really don't want to read through my post to find errors.

I LOVE tea towels. They are LtoR: Westminster Abbey, The Tube, the Kings and Queens of England and Sweeny Todd.

I accidently brought back too much stuff.....

I am obssesed with the English monarchy. Little known fact about me? Especially Henry the 8th and Queen Elizabeth the 1st. I have 8 DVDs (movies and documentries) on England's Kings and Queens. So when I saw this Henry the 8th and his 6 wives stacking doll....got a little excited.. and these ornaments were there the last time I went but Jon vetoed them. Well Jon wasn't here this time:) I only got 3 though instead of all Henry's wives and all the other ornaments they had. The picture above of the stacking dolls is incomplete because EMily has already hidden the other pieces throughout the house.

This is what I got Ava. These are "london in a bag" blocks. Very cute! Emily got a lift-the-flap book on the history of London which is adorable and funny.

I also got her this paper thingy for her and Jon to put together. It's a moving model paper thingy. You assemble it and then turn the crank to watch the executioner chop off the traitors head.

I got this lunch box from a cool store called Monsoon (same place I got the two tops for Emily below). This Starbucks cup is the coolest! It's actually a very hard plastic and reusable. It looks just like their throw away cups you get cold drinks in. We got Strabucks twice a day and once we ate Crispy Creme! We don't have those here either and I've been craving donuts. In the States I only had donuts maybe once or twice a year at the most. It was heaven:)

Emily loves Charlie and Lola so I had to get her these band-aids. They go nicely with the Charlie and Lola underwear she has:)

There was a Gap right near our hotel! A Gap! I haven't stepped foot in a Gap in 3 years!! We don't have them in Germany anymore (they pulled them all out the 1st year we moved here). I do shop there a lot on line but to go in and try stuff on. Well that actually wasn't fun because Uk sizing is different. A good different but not when you don't know that. I had to keep coming back out of the dressing room to get smaller sizes:) I only got shorts for myself. I got Emily and Ava some cute shirts though and I had to run back there the night before we left to get a huge canvas bag becasue I had exceeded the weight limit on my suitcase and needed a huge bag to carry on all the extra stuff I got:)

In fact I got way more than pictured here but I won't bore you..I did get a birthday present for someone, some capri's for myself and some stocking stuffers.

Next post will be pictures from our trip:)

Someone needs to get some laundry done..

The Suburban Monster

Hopefully I scheduled this correctly and it posts during or after Kara's baby shower!

The Monster print is from Me, Mary and Hannah and it was framed by Cory, etc.

When I was pregnant with Ava I found this print on Etsy. I wanted it soooo bad for Emily and the new baby's room and the other print that goes with it. I never got around to buying it though. A while after Kara got pregnant I stumbled across this print again and thought it would make a good shower gift for her! The mat is a gorgeous green linen and the frame is black. I am sooo in love with it! I hope she is too..I know art can be very personal...

Happy baby shower..day..Kara! Hope you like your print! ahhh man! I forgot to take a picture of the onesie I embroidered for her! She is having a onesie decorating party and since I'm in London (!) right now, I made one last week. Hopefully she will post a picture. It's from this Sublime Stitching pattern.

Emily describes a bad monster dream she had...

"one said eww"