Valentines Tags, a Snow Day and Brave Girls

Oh my goodness! I received my Valentine Tags from the swap I was in and they are so beautiful. I haven't been able to get a good picture of them so I'll try again tomorrow and post then. You are going to want to see these - I promise!

Well - tomorrow is going to be a "Snow Day". I hope that I don't wake up to this in the morning! The weatherman is forecasting 8-10 inches of snow for our area, our governor has declared a state of emergency, and schools are all closed tomorrow. The storm was supposed to start around 5pm tonight but as of yet I haven't seen a single snowflake.
Like all the other nuts in our town I braved Walmart this morning to get some food in case we are stuck inside for a few days. Good thing I went when I did because the selection of bread was not very good and the people were already in a bad mood. So, as long as we don't lose power we are good!

I leave for Brave Girls next week. This will be my second trip and I'm really looking forward to going again and meeting up with some friends. This picture of me and Rachel was taken at last year's camp. We met and just hit it off from the start. We had such a great year last year traveling around the country and meeting up at various crafty venues. Of course we were on the phone just today making plans for what this year holds in store.

A Sweet Valentine

I sent my sister a Valentine of my sweet nephew. He looks so serious and concerned in this picture.
These Valentines are so much fun to make!

Cosmo Bag Complete!

Today I finished the Cosmo Bag for Jemellia's Sewing Challenge Month One. This bag was much more difficult than I anticipated it would be and I made a few mistakes along the way but overall, I am thrilled with how it turned out!

In doing the outside of the bag I accidentally put the handles on incorrectly and didn't discover my mistake until I had topstitched and clipped the insides of my curves. Let me tell you - I wanted to cry. It took me HOURS to undo all those stitches and I wasn't sure if I was going to be able to match things up correctly - but somehow things worked out. Like I said, my bag may not be perfect, it may not even be close to as good as some of the others in the challenge but I don't care. I'm not going to compare myself or my Cosmo bag to anyone else. I'm just so happy that I have a complete bag and I will be absolutely proud to carry it around with me.
This bag is completely lined and has four pockets on the inside and two pockets on the outside side panels.

I have never sewn anything other than straight lines for blankets and dog beds - and dogs don't care if your seams aren't straight. ;)
Amy Butler lists this as an "Easy" project and while that may be true for a more experienced sewer, I don't think that it was easy for a beginner.
My suggestions for improvements in the ease of this project would more pictures along with the directions and directions that didn't have you referring back and forth for the lining part. Although with a book there is limited space, I think I would have settled for one or two less projects to have more illustrations and lengthier directions for the actual sewing.
Let me know what you think of my project!

January's stash and a snow day...

So, I promised a few pictures of the Stash I received from A Gilded Life's Stash Club. So, on this snowy, January day, here they are:

I'm not sure you can appreciate how lovely these goodies are, but I can assure you, they are fabulous!

Now I just need to not be afraid and go ahead and actually *USE* my goodies to create something beautiful.

I need to just remember that there is more goodness to come. Get over that feeling that I've had since I was little that once something was gone, it's gone. Life is abundant and there are plenty of other beautiful things for me just around the corner.
I *am* going to use the day to create. We got some snow overnight - nothing compared to what my family is dealing with in Connecticut, but nonetheless, there is some snow on the ground. That means I don't travel too far from the house. I'm scared to drive on slick streets even though I have a very good 4 wheel drive vehicle. Better for everyone if I just stay home.
I'm going upstairs to work on my bag for this month's challenge. Wish me luck!

Valentine

I made this little Valentine for my honey.
It's an old polaroid picture of me as a little girl that I scanned and printed on regular paper.

Beautiful doll and Valentine Tags!

Remember back in December when I was the lucky winner of a beautiful doll that Jackie made? Well, I took a class back in late December and I was supposed to pick her up then at the Paper Crown. Somehow I forgot as I was leaving the store and remembered only after the store was closed. Well, Christmas came, then New Years and between the store being closed for the holidays and other things going on, I wasn't able to get her until the other night when I went for class. Isn't she just beautiful! Not only the doll but also the box she came in and the tag Jackie made. I'm so lucky! :)

I'm doing a tag swap for Valentines Day and I finished my tags today and got them sent off in the mail. All 20 of them. Can't wait to see all the beautiful tags I get back in return. The ladies in this group are so incredibly talented and each tag is it's own little piece of art.

Last night I opened the box containing all the beautiful stuff from the Gilded Stash. Amazing! I tried to take a few pictures but I couldn't quite capture how beautiful all the fabrics and embellishments are. I'll try to photograph them tomorrow but for now, you will just have to wait to see what you are missing out on if you didn't sign up. Bummer, I know!

Valentine Love Banner Class

Last night I ventured over to OKC to the Paper Crown to take a class with Jackie. She designed this adorable Love Banner and I just love mine! As always, we had so much fun - how could we not? Check out Jackie's blog for more pictures.
I spent the night over in Oklahoma City so that I could get up bright and early and attend the Oklahoma City Quilt Show. I'm not really a quilter, in fact, I don't know the first thing about quilting but I thought it might be something fun to see. Plus, I like fabrics and I may be in the market for a new sewing machine before too long. Carolyn said she was going to be there with some of her friends and sure enough, we ran into each other.
I ended up purchasing a couple applique kits, some wool for felting and a few other embellishments. Lets see what I can come up with using what I bought today.
Shea and Debbie of A Gilded Life have started a monthly Stash Club. Because they both have such exquisite taste I knew I had to jump on the chance to be a part of it. My first package arrived last night while I was in Oklahoma City and I can't wait to go open it! Bye for now!

Getting things done

Nestle has the right idea - staying in and bundled up. Whew - it's COLD outside! I'm having a hard time staying warm and I'm in the house with the heat cranked WAY up. I'd love to crawl in those covers right next to him but not right now.
I am getting things done and that's a good thing.
I've been working on Jemellia's sewing challenge. I prepared my fabric, cut out all the pieces, put the interfacing (is that what it's called?) on them and now it is time to actually start sewing my project together. I don't want to show you just yet so you will have to wait until it is finished. I can hardly wait!
The electrician came today to fix the lights under the cabinets in the kitchen and install two ceiling fans in our garage. Why is it that things never go as planned and things always take so much longer than you think? Well, we need a new transformer for the lights because the old one was damaged in a power failure this past summer. In addition, the ceiling fans couldn't be hung today because apparently they need to be "braced". So, hopefully tomorrow when the electrician comes back those two projects will be taken care of. I'm sure glad we didn't try to hang the ceiling fans ourselves. Sometimes it is just so much more worth it to hire someone who knows what they are doing.

This picture is of our back porch that was taken right after we closed on our home. We want to extend the patio out to the edge of the house and put a walk way on the side. So today, I also had a concrete guy come out to give us a bid. We had a couple of estimates done last summer and almost fell over from the sticker shock. Our back porch, although very cute, doesn't function very well. We should have that bid tomorrow so I'm keeping my fingers crossed.
Looking forward to being able to check a few things off my list.

Fabric for January's Challenge

When Jemellia announced her Sewing Challenge for 2011 I was all over it. Doesn't matter that I've never really sewn anything more than a blanket or pillows for my dogs. I *want* to learn to sew so what better time than right now?
So, when Jemellia posted a picture of the fabrics she intends to use for this challenge, I started searching online for mine. The problem was that each time I found a main fabric I liked, there weren't any matching fabrics to go with them. I started to panic.
Until this afternoon when I stumbled upon this:

This fabric is so "me" - even Doug thinks so - and I just love it.
The first fabric store I tried to go to today was closed for inventory. Ugh. I checked their website prior to heading over there and there was no mention of being closed today.
Then I remembered a small fabric store here in Tulsa that I had driven by once - the Cotton Patch. What a pleasant surprise! The store is little but has some of the prettiest fabrics. I will definitely be shopping there again.
It only took me about two minutes to zero in on my absolute favorite fabric. Since Valentine's Day is right around the corner I opted to go with fabric that had pink and brown. The hardest part for me was picking the "plain" fabric. I couldn't quite find a matching solid until I found the brown that seems to go well with both the bag fabric as well as the lining.
Now I'm just waiting on my Amy Butler Style Stitches book to arrive so I can get started!

Happy New Year!

Happy New Year Everyone!

From reading so many blogs I know that although 2010 was a good year in many ways it also brought many challenges, difficulties and heartbreak. We are all looking forward to 2011 being an even better year, aren't we!?!

Usually the week between Christmas and New Year's I take time to reflect on the year past and what I'd like to change in the new year. I remember that last year, although I wrote some goals down, I wasn't able to quiet my mind long enough to really think about what I wanted to change and how I was going to change. Somehow though, I did accomplish some things completely, made a good effort on some and some fell by the wayside.
This year however, I was really able to get quiet, and think it through. I feel much more at peace going into this new year and much more able to actually make a change. I'm so looking forward to it!
I approached it wrong last year. I was defiant and tried to "force" change like, "That's it - I'm going to make changes this year! :( " Forcing just doesn't work for me. Ask me nicely and I'll do just about anything, but demand and I'm just not going to do it. I'm not going to fight back since I don't like conflict, but I'm simply not going to do it. Being forced into something makes me angry and stubborn and want to run the opposite direction.
I need to feel encouraged, loved and guided along - just go with the flow. Life is too short and I want to be happy. So, while some of my "goals" look the same this year, I'm going to take a different approach. I'll let you know how that goes!