Working on...and Costume fun

This is what I'm working on.. a sneak peak. I have half of it done.

I saved this to my computer because it's such a neat idea! It's from girlwithmoxy on flickr. It's on her back porch, pointing the way to loved ones who live far away.

I have collected pictures of costume ideas over the years.

Here is one from a favorite movie of Jon's. Teen Wolf.

I'm assuming this is a female Gnome.

I could not remember her name so I typed in "British singer with ratty hair" and Amy Winhouse popped up! How funny is that? Poor poor girl.

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Soon I will be starting my Halloween Costume. I have the pattern, I'm just waiting on the fabric. And then I need to gather Jon's outift.

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All the costume photos were saved without the owners info so I can't credit these people. I'm really bad about that mostly because I'm in a hurry to save and don't want to take the time to remember the persons name when I'm saving.

Ava quilt

I am in love with this quilt. It's not finished (it still needs a wide border and then has to be quilted, etc.) but so far I love it. Thanks Heidi for sharing:)
Because I haven't completed any other crafting projects, I posted 4 photos of this quilt to trick you into thinking I got a lot done.

My little Ava Larue. I took this when I took the mushroom back pack photos but never posted this one. I used several different photo shop actions on this one photo (as you can see below) and couldn't decide which one i liked the best. These are from pioneer woman and eye candy actions.

Jon said he saw an article on photography and the person writing it said something like, "with photo shop, everyone thinks their a photographer" or something like that. I think that's mean. It seems a lot of photographers feel threatened, superior? I don't know. I could say a lot of things about this...mostly, there's enough room for everyone. I can only get better by taking more photos and finding out what photo shop can do so leave me and all the other photo shop-over-using-wannabes alone:)

*no one said anything to me, I was just saying....

Swingset top featured

Oliver + S has me on their blog again!! Go check it out. I'm famous twice now:)

*edit: I included the link

Pictures

Kodak Gallery erased my account. Well, not all of my account. Just my photos. Only the most important part of the account!! All of them since 2001. This includes my wedding photos. I still have access to my friends shared accounts. Yippee!

I have a headache from this heat and being alone with two kids for too long. Jon is in Mannheim for two weeks but coming home on the weekends and while I love these small separations, I have a small child that wants me to look at everything she does. This includes hopping on one foot to pretending to chew gum to wanting me to watch her race herself to the other end of the living room and shout with her that she won! and then i have another one that screams like a siren/pterodactyl and that's all I have to say about that. And the fighting between these two! Oh my God!! So I couldn't have discovered this at a worse time.

I knew they were going to erase my photos by a certain time. I knew this and I did nothing about it because i was waiting for the warning emails. Seriously. I was waiting for them to say something one month out, one week out, the day before or something like that. They emailed me 6 months or so before and that's it. Yes, it's my responsibility to check my date and write it down (I swear I did this but now can't find it on my calendar) and then just order something that totals $4.99 so I can keep my photos on their site for another 90 days. I thought they'd want my business!

I'm a big girl and I realize I messed up but they messed up too. I love some of their products. But I will not shop with them again. I'll most likely just shut down my account and I'll have to force myself to just keep my business between Shutterfly and Snapfish. Kodak Gallery was the 1st place I ever uploaded prints to so you can imagine how many photos I had on there. I'm going to stop writing and go cry:(
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Because I can't post without a crafty thing to show and some random photos I came across today:

This was made years ago! One of my 1st quilting experiences. It's a table runner made from Moda fabrics. And it was a gift for my Step mom. Even though it's not my style I really love it. I pieced it AND quilted it! I used clear thread on the top and cream on the bottom to do a meandering type design. This project was where I 1st learned that a 1/4" foot really matters.

To prove to my coworkers that I really did wear big earrings in the late 80's early 90's. This is on the plane to San Francisco with my sister. I think 1991 or 1992 (maybe 20 years old?). And no that is not a perm. I used to actually encourage my hair to be it's most natural:) You go hair!

This is Jon a year after I met him. Not River Phoenix like you 1st thought I'm sure:) Did you know that River's last name was actually Bottom? His family changed it. River Bottom... poor guy. Although, I did want to name Emily, Sunday Parrish.

No reason for this picture..1995


Me at Yardage City of San Diego, 1995 (the blond is Andrea). My hips aren't really that big.

Me and my sister..1993 or thereabouts. We set the camera on the side of the pool with the timer.

Sony ebook

My new toy!! It's a Sony Reader Digital Book with touch screen (PRS700BC). I am a VOROCIOUS reader! I just wanted to describe myself as voracious:) It's a cool word. Anyway, I read A LOT.

This is why I got it:

1. I'm not in to renting books from the library (every time I call or look online for the book I want, our library doesn't have it) I read books over and over so renting them doesn't work and

2. I HATE buying books online and waiting and waiting and waiting for them to arrive.

3. Our PX has a horrible selection.

4. My apartment is already overstuffed.

5. I read EVERY night before bed even if it's only 15 minutes, and the lights annoys Jon (this particular Sony has a light)

6. I was saving to buy a new serger but I'm going to wait a while on that so with some of that money I was able to get this! Schwing!

There's more reasons but I know some people (Katelyn) have already fallen asleep so I'll stop talking..except for what I wrote below then I'll stop.

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Jenny B. bought one of these a while ago so the research was already done:) It's charging right now and I can't wait to start reading! Until it's ready, I'm rereading Acts of Faith by Erich Segal (same guy who wrote Love Story). It's a really good book. I'm also waiting for the Lily Bard series by Charlaine Harris (True Blood books) to come in the mail. oh, yeah, I meant to say that buying this digital reader was not to save money on books. From what I can tell, buying an ebook is about the same amount as a regular, hold-in-your-hand-book.

Jenny and I are putting together some embroidery projects for the store. Here's one of mine. I got the needle and thread from a Sublime Stitching pattern we carry in the store and the quote from googling "sewing quotes".

The Happy Stacker from Heather Bailey. We now have it at the store so it's sample time...I have two more rings to go.

A new quilt from the book, Winsome Baby. It's going to be ADORABLE!! For a preview of what this quilt looks like finished, look here and here. Heidi so generously gave me some of this fabric to make it! Fabric is Celebrate Spring.
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I think I should start a daily Emily quote:
" my poo poo packed it's bag and is ready to go!"

And the winner is...

Margaret is the winner!

Margaret said...
I Love It!!!! And Keara would look so cute carrying it.

Plus, I have never won a blog give away so it's my turn!

So now you can say you win things:) I called Cory at the store and had him get the number for me on random.org . I just couldn't do it myself for some reason..

It'll be in the mail next week, I hope you like it.

Thanks to everyone for entering. I was scared no one would leave a comment!

I'll try and have more giveaways..I promise:) In fact, I'll try and give another one of these away before Halloween.

Humpty Dumpty

That's Miss Humpty, if ya please.

I found this free tutorial on the long thread website.

Same place I got the scrappy owl treat bag from (see previous post).

I love that website.

The stripes are an Anna Griffen fabric and the head is from a really soft canvas. I interfaced both. The bottom is filled with poly-pellets and the top is filled with polyester stuffing. There are pipe cleaners in her arms and legs to make her poseable and her two halves are attached by Velcro.

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I thought the pattern was VERY easy and there wasn't one part of the tutorial I didn't understand.

After Miss Humpty's great fall. I can't embroider very well if there is nothing for me to embroider over (I need something to copy!) so instead of open eyes I made them demurely closed eyes.

Another day outside in this nasty heat. I wish we had a proper yard for them to play in.

I think the one of Ava looks like she took it for her my space/face book profile picture.

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And remember:

GIVEAWAY!

Read the previous post.

I will draw a name on Friday August 14Th.

Give away!

I'm giving away this Scrappy Owl Treat Bag!

All you have to do is leave a comment on this post. You have until Friday, August 14Th (I'll choose a number in the afternoon, my time). I will use that number generator thingy to pick the winner. Even if you don't have kids, you can use this to hold the candy you give out to trick-or-treaters or...

The bag is made from brown duck canvas on the outside and natural color duck canvas on the inside. It's made from this tutorial. The measurements are: including handle, 14" tall by 7.5" wide across the front and 5" deep (sides).

I'm giving it away because:

1. I've never done a giveaway

2. This was my 1st try and it's for a class I'll be teaching at the store in October.

I need to make another one and change some things. I didn't like how the bottom/sides was sewn (my corners are a mess. Most likely my fault and not the instructions) Also, I want to interface it with decor-bond. It's too floppy. The instructions call for felt but that shows wear really bad (piling).

This is the only brown ric rac we had at the store. I think the darker brown would have been better.

Don't forget: leave a comment and you could win this!

That includes my relatives and coworkers:)

*make sure you leave your name!

Gnome labels

Lunch bag (or "whatever" bag). Made from vinyl coated Japanese fabric. The pattern is..Jalie #914? I'm not sure. It's a company I had never heard of. I got it on Sewingpatterns.com(they don't have it anymore but you can see it here) .

Quilt labels. The graphics are from here. I used white kona cotton ironed to steam-a-seam then run through the printer. My old labels are tiny and on the left.

I know these look like all the other outside-bathing suit-water photos I have taken but I had to show Ava wearing Emily's Small Paul suit. It fits her very good and was only a little short in the torso on Emily. In case you don't understand, Emily is 4 and Ava is 1-1/2!!! The Small Paul suit is a 3t.

Emily called me into their room to see this. I didn't put them on the chair together.

Paper piecing

Corinnea, I'm paper piecing! All by myself:) I found a really good tutorial. It's not a triangle and a lamp with a shade. This is a Gnome and a Mushroom. Jon had no idea what it was...

**the gome and mushroom were enlarged to 200% from the original pattern.
Up close you can see that the stem wrinkled bad when I wet it trying to get the ink stains off. To get the paper off the back easy, you wet it and then pull. Well the ink ran on to the fabric...oops:)
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The fat/wide mushroom below was the 1st one I did as it's for beginner's. It was super easy so I went on to the next one (the Gnome and mushroom) and it was not so easy..at least for me. But I did it! I would not have been able to do it had I not done the fat mushroom first. I can now visualize how it's supposed to be done so if I don't understand the instructions, I can just visualize.

I made it into a mini for my mini clothes line.

It's out of the new line of fabric that I've used now a couple of times (here and here)

Yesterday I sewed at the store with Mary A. and made these 5 reusable snack bags from my own tutorial for my Girlfriend in a Coma (Jocelyn). I haven't properly posted my tutorial because I wanted to do it in pdf form but can't figure that out. Jessica gave me some ideas on how to do it but when I tried it didn't work (It's me that probably couldn't figure it out, not your instructions Jessica!). Does anyone know how to change a Word document in to a pdf?

I do have it posted over here at the work blog though if you want to try it. I think you can also use it for other things besides food. These bags are not going to keep your food fresh like a baggy so no storing food in them!