Friday, December 18, 2009

So Much Fun

Oh, it's just so much fun I have to keep you up-to-date today. Isn't it beautiful? Everything is still and quiet...and just glorious.
We're over 5 inches now...and it doesn't look to be slowing down anytime soon. I think this may be the most we've had since I've lived here. Love it.

Update

I'm already back with an update. I just had to because it already looks so different than it did a couple hours ago when I first posted. It's still coming down. Around 2 today it's supposed to pick up stronger again and not stop snowing that hard through the night. In fact we're looking at the potential of snow for the next few days. Can you even stand it?
Bubba text me a little bit ago. Chick-Fil-A closed at 10:30 today. Woo hoo! Bubba had an appt. to get to, but he should be home in probably an hour or so. I love to sit at home on a snowy pretty day with my love.
However, until then I have to get back to cleaning. Karen and Rod are coming into town tonight (pray they have safe travels). We're pretty excited for them to get here. Still haven't watched my movie yet...cleaning and laundry are calling me. Perhaps when Bubba gets home we'll watch it together. Oh, for a fireplace!

It Has Started

Well, it's officially here. They've been calling for big snow today and Bubba (ever the skeptical one was doubtful). But, this morning while I was still sleeping he text me from work and said that if I wanted to go to the store today I better go now. I looked outside and found this. It has started. So, I immediately changed and headed to the store...the roads were already pretty slick. I got a bunch of groceries and made the trek home.
Where I started singing...
Snow
It won't be long before we'll all be there with snow
Snow
I want to wash my hands, my face and hair with snow

Snow
I long to clear a path and lift a spade of snow
Snow
Oh, to see a great big man entirely made of snow
To catch anyone up who does not know that song, it's from White Christmas, which just happens to be one of my favorite Christmas movies. I've been saying to John for a couple weeks that I want to find the perfect time to sit down and watch it this year. I think today is a perfect day. Oh, how I adore that sweet movie. The singing...the dancing...the lack of snow...the excess of snow...more singing and dancing...oh, and Bing, Danny, and Rosemary. Oh, what a fabulous movie. I can hardly wait.
They are saying we should be getting this for the next good while...5-8 inches worth.
Woo hoo. I'll keep you apprised of that. What a fabulous way to head into Christmas.
Oh, how I love snow.

Thursday, December 17, 2009

Firsts

I had the privilege of making Addyson's Christmas dress this year...and it was so much fun! I've had the hankering to sew dresses for a little while now, and I finally got my chance. I think I may be hooked. This was my first dress. In fact it was a few firsts for me...my first gather/ruffle...and my first buttonholes. I'm very pleased with the way it turned out. I hope that it fits her well because there's no doubt that she'll be cute regardless. So, here it is....
Heather (Addyson's mommy) picked out the fabrics and she found a picture of what she wanted it to look like, so I took it from there. And now you get to send the end result. Of course since it is Christmas, it'll be a bit cold, so I monogrammed a turtleneck for her to wear with the dress.
Here's another close-up of the shirt. I had Bubba snap these pictures for me as we were in a hurry to get to a dinner for work tonight.
What do you think? The plan is that Addyson will be able to wear it for a while...it's got colors that work for Christmas, without being too over the top so that she can wear it throughout the year. Heather and I talked at dinner tonight, and probably after it warms up some I'll add an "A" to the front in that pretty pinky-red.

I've got plans for a couple more dresses in the next couple weeks. I'm pretty excited about them.

One Last Glimpse of the Show

I was about to write another post and realized I had some pictures from my craft fair, so that I can show you what my table looked like. (This was during the camera debacle, so we just got a few). This is what my table looked like, to the left of this I had my clothes rack with all the onesies and shirts hanging...and a couple more hooded towels.Just another glimpse at some bibs and burp cloths.
This is my pirate hooded towel hanging on the end of the clothes rack. This one went pretty quickly. :)
Some of the kitchen towels...more hooded towels...and a purse among other things.
The board of hair clips.
Unfortunately I didn't get pictures of everything...but that's a good look. So that'll probably be it for craft show posts.

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Orders

I am working on a way to make my blog order-friendly for those of you who may want to place orders. I have also given quite a bit of thought into opening at etsy store in January. I think that I will do that, but want to wait to get through the holidays first. I will let you know when that happens and how you can access that shop. Either way, you will see some new things coming soon so that anyone who wants to place an order will be able to do so effectively.

Saturday, December 12, 2009

Craft Fair (Some)

Ok, ok, I know I've been pathetic at updating the blog lately. But I'm back on track now. We had several issues with the camera, etc. Now those have been resolved. I've been pretty busy filling some orders this week and doing a few things for a Christmas party...but the end is in sight (at least for orders). I still have all my Christmas presents to make. Anyway, I uploaded several pictures the day before the blog, but never finished this post. So here are some of the things I had last weekend.

Some kitchen towels for those who don't have little people to buy for.
This was part of my assortment of burp cloths.
And some of the many bibs.
Pirate hooded towel...pirate ship on the hood, pirate hat and treasure map on the towel portion.
purple birdie tee
i love these whale onesies...i picture them on boy/girl twins.
flower onesie
birdie onesie
train onesie
truck onesie
another whale (this one has more detailing, just hard to tell here)
another truck onesie
and this was a cool design from some fabric i have
this was part of my 'work in progress' mode.

So, this is closing out the post that's been sitting here for a while. More to come later.

Saturday, December 5, 2009

Download

It's over...I made it. My first official craft fair was a small success. I promise to upload lots of pictures and tell you all about it, but at the moment I'm about to crash. So reporting will commence later.

For those of you who attended the craft fair today, THANK YOU! I appreciate the business and loved sharing what I love to do with you. I spoke with several of you about potential orders...or making you something you saw that you liked in some form or fashion. Remember, if there was any design at all that you saw that you liked, I can put it on any of my items, even if it wasn't like that today. Also, I can monogram items for a personal touch. Please, either comment to this portion of the blog or email me. I look forward to sewing for you soon!

Sunday, November 29, 2009

Work Work Work

I'm up to my eyeballs in craft show prep. I probably won't have too much to post until the end of this week, when I promise to give you pictures of all that I've got going on. Just 6 days to go...
On a good note, all my boys tees are finished - Planes, Trains, and Automobiles. :)
Oh, and one more thing, my very loving (and also ruggedly handsome) husband got a new battery for our camera until I can put some time into looking for the charger. Isn't he smart? So, all this is to say...pictures will be coming.

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Sorry...Again

I'm sorry I haven't posted anything. Once again our camera battery is dead and I have no idea where the charger is. So, while I have been making things, I haven't been able to take pictures of them. But besides that, it's Thanksgiving week, so I'm spending time with family. I hope you and yours has a great holiday.

Monday, November 16, 2009

A Few Things

I've just about got all my other projects out of the way so that for the next few weeks all my attention can be devoted to the craft fair. I'm thinking I'll be finished with them by this weekend...here's to hoping. Anyway, this is a little tee for the craft fair. I just did that little bird on a long-sleeved pink tee.
And here's another one with a snowflake. I figure snowflakes can be worn all winter and aren't quite as exclusive as Christmas shirts can sometimes be, although I'm sure I'll do some of those too.
This is the majority of an order I am filling. It's for a new little baby named Addison. I've got one more to get done. The A is the same fabric as the birdie. She'll be cute.
And here are some hair clips I whipped up tonight. I just love the snowgirl one...she's so cute with her sweet little eyelashes. I'm going to be doing a lot of these in the next few weeks.
So, that's what I've done lately. I'm going to be stitching out some of my designs that I've digitized this week...I'm pretty excited about that.

Monday, November 9, 2009

Software

I was playing around with my software on Sunday...and Katie and I were swapping ideas, etc. I spent the entire drive back from Charlotte learning more things. That night I started digitizing my own designs...and I'm so excited about it. This week I'm going to start stitching some of them out...really I can hardly wait. I've been drawing more designs like a fool because this is so much fun. I've drawn several of my own designs, but until now those can only be stitched out on my sewing machine. Now I have the ability to stitch my designs on my embroidery machine...which opens up the possibility for stitches and creates such clean lines. It's gonna be great!

Cameron

I didn't really have much to post last week for a few reasons. 1) It was a super busy week at work, 2) I spent a lot of time embroidering jackets for Chick-Fil-A for John, 3) I was getting ready for Cameron's birthday and couldn't post pictures before her actual birthday, so that they would be a surprise. So, alas, here are Cameron's birthday presents.

First, is this raspberry shirt with my little birdie on it. I did it in a black/white damask and dots. It's quite mod...but I like it. The shirt has little silver dots on it, so the outside stitching is in silver also.
Next is the owl. This is the first time I've done the owl this size...I'm pretty happy with how she turned out. And I like it on the striped shirt. I'm trying to break the mold of typical applique shirts by putting them in different places on the shirt and on shirts that aren't just plain. I like it.
This is a really horrible picture, but I wanted to show you. I made these monogrammed button hair ties for her also. Cameron is 5 now, so she doesn't wear bows as much, but cute hair accessories are still up for grabs! I'm going to do some of these for the craft fair too. Lastly, I decided that I needed to do a bag (at the last minute) to put all the gifts in. I drew this quickly and did the applique on my sewing machine. It's certainly not perfect, but I really like this fabric. It's a new one I got a few weeks ago.
So, there you have it...Cameron's birthday presents. I can't believe she's 5 years old. I was reminiscing about my sweet niece the night before we left for Charlotte. I can remember the first time I ever met her. She was about 18 months old...she was waddling around with big fat cheeks, those huge blue eyes, hardly a hair on her head, but cute as she could be. I think I fell for her right away...and she has continued to bring so much joy to our lives since that day.
Cameron, I am so privileged to be your aunt. I look forward to watching you as you continue to grow; I look forward to seeing what God has in store for your future; you are a blessing; you are a joy. I love you. -Aunt Kate

Saturday, October 31, 2009

Today

I'd like to say I feel a little accomplished for the day, especially since I didn't have all that much time at home. Although in reality, my list is still quite long. But, despite it all I thought I'd show you my projects for the day. We spent the morning helping some friends move. It was a rainy day, but we managed to get their truck packed without an inch to spare. John and I came home for a quick lunch then he had to go to work. So, I went to work too, in the craft room...and here are the results.

As you know by now, I absolutely adore this little bird. So I did a shirt with it. You see that little cutie up by the shoulder? Oh yeah, that's a birdie hair clip. I've seen things like this that are designs that you can purchase online...but I decided to give it a shot on my own. Not bad, eh? I think she's pretty stankin' cute.
The next few things aren't really new projects...just orders. I was asked to put Jude's name on some onesies. Here they are.
Annabel had this super cute poncho already, but her mom asked me to add her monogram. I typically don't take pictures of the things people give me to monogram. But, I think this poncho is so cute that I wanted to remember it. I'm gonna let it sit in the back of my mind to see if I can recreate one in the future. Here's a travel mug that someone ordered. It's hard to take pictures of these in such a way that they really look good. But I'm pretty happy with this one. I love the yellow fabric. This is something I helped a friend with. She already created and cut the A, but had some funk happen with her machine. So, I just finished the applique for her. She did a great job picking the fabric...and the shirt is cute too, love the buttons. After these things were finished, I headed to Target to buy a new Bissell Steam Mop. I'm super excited about it. I used it tonight in the kitchen...jury is still out. I'll let you know what I think.

Sunday, October 25, 2009

Organization

Lately, I've been on a pretty big organization kick. I went through and re-organized everything in my craft room the other day. And slowly, I'm trying to work my way through closets. We both collected so much stuff before we got married, then we just combined 2 houses of stuff...and have continued to collect more stuff for the past 2 years. Alas, it's time to break the chain. Our linen closet was totally overrun by some things that we really don't use, but also aren't ready to get rid of. We could probably get some good use out of some of these things at a future house. So, we bought some of those vacuum-seal bags that squish your stuff down like crazy.
Here's our before. This is a super thick, plush queen size comforter.
Here is the after. I also added 3 sets of sheets and pillowcases plus 2 blankets. I'd say it did a pretty good job. If I had everything folded the same way, it would have gotten even smaller. But, we're happy with this and the space it'll save. Besides that, it was pretty cool watching everything squish down.
I also have several old bibs from when I first started embroidery. They are ok, but they're not my favorite, so I thought I would put several different designs on them to put them out at the craft fair. Here's a flower applique.
And this is just a ducky embroidery. I've been doing so much applique lately, that I wanted to just stitch something out. I think he's pretty cute. He reminds me of Little Suzy's Zoo, which I totally loved when I was younger.

Saturday, October 24, 2009

Charlotte

I realized that I never posted pictures from our weekend in Charlotte a couple weeks ago. On Saturday we went to one of Cameron's soccer games. They did a great job. It did rain a bit, but the girls were total troopers and played through it all.
#6 is our girl. Look at her hustle.
Later that day we went to a huge toy store that was having an even bigger sale. There were tons of toys in every direction. A child's dream. But this was, by far, my favorite display. The realm of possibilities here is endless. Little girls can slip into the world of Oz as Dorothy or don a feather boa and become a fabulous singer. Boys can slip on a cowboy hat and be the hero of a wild west tale or rule as the sheriff in town. So much imagination is laying there just waiting to be seized up. Perhaps, even the anticipation of stepping into another world is enough to bring just a bit of joy along the way.