Quilt Time

Well, it took me a little while (read: about 8 months) to finally finish G's "baby" quilt, but I took care of all the final details a month or so ago. Though I'm *sure* nothing would ever happen to it being loved by a baby boy, I thought I'd go ahead an document the final project here.

It all started when I found the perfect striped minky for the back. From there, I pulled together some various fabrics used for other projects throughout his nursery. Once I had all my fabric pieces, I played around a bit before finally deciding on the final monster-themed design.

I sketched the monsters out then took them apart (in my head) to figure out what pieces I would need. After sewing together the fat stripes for the top, I appliqued the monsters on (the blue one is my favorite). Once it was quilted, I assumed the hard part was done. Unfortunately, I botched the binding (twice) before deciding to just go with it and add little monster buttons and tabs to each corner (good thing I happened to find the cutest monster buttons ever while I was in Virginia!).

I'm so very pleased with how it turned out. Since it's large(ish) at about 5' by 5', I'm hoping that G can love it and use it for quite a while :)

Obligatory Halloween Post

I've been requested to post a snipit about Halloween. So here it is:

Seeing as how Halloween landed on a Wednesday this year, it was the perfect opportunity for me to make G a little costume since that's my day to go into the office for some on-site work time. It was a bit down to the wire, but I managed to finish in time to take him in. Now, without further adieu, his costume...

I did make him a little mask, but he disagreed with me about how cute it was ;)

Giveaway WINNER!

From Collages

Ok, So... using the highly sophisticated "draw a name out of a bag" method, the winner has been chosen.

Congratulations McMOMMY!

Thanks so much to everybody who played my game with me :) Keep your eyes open. I've had some inspiration here of late. You may soon find another giveaway upon you!

Have a happy day!

My First Giveaway

So... I like feeling crafty (like with glue and glitter... not devious), but I don't necessarily have one "area of expertise" per se. I basically just do whatever I feel like doing at the time. This works out super great for me, but it results in my have a ton of supplies and the such. Anyway, the hubby has mentioned once or twice recently that, though I have a fabulous craft room now that houses all of my supplies, we may not always be able to live somewhere that has such an abundance of space. What he means is, I seriously need to think about downsizing my collection. So, while I don't disagree with the sentiment, I don't necessarily want to just chunk things either, ya know? All of that to say... I've decided that for however long we're here, or for however long it takes, or until I get distracted by something else, I'll be hosting random giveaways of various items which I create using all of my bajillion things. I know, you're just dying of excitement, I'm sure... Anyway... I figure that this is a good compromise because I can totally pawn all of my random stuff off be super generous and bestow all of my awesome creations to all of you lovely friends :) Besides, I really like the actual process way more than the results (mostly, sometimes it's a nice tie). Now, there are a couple of things I want to mention right up front. 1) I am not a professional. 2) None of my stuff is professionally made. 3) Should you win, do not expect professional results. That's all.
So, moving on to MY VERY FIRST GIVEAWAY!!!
Today (in honor of me conquering my fear of zippers and hidden pockets as well as discovering a total obsession with fabric flowers), I'll be giving away a bag. It's a big bag. And by big, I mean very large (for those who care, the dimensions are 17" tall, 17" at the fattest part, and 12" at the top). It is made of charcoal gray felt, and is lined with hot pink satin. Also, as an added bonus, there is a zipper pouch on the inside (totally my first attempt, so please refer to my statements above should you expect perfection). Anyway... because I hear they're worth a thousand words, here's a picture...

From d60

The flower is a pin, so it can be detached and used for something else should you so desire.

I suppose that's about it... Oh! I have to tell you about how to be entered... Ummm... leave me a comment for one entry, mention this giveaway on your blog for one entry, and tweet about it for one entry (and make sure you come back here and leave me a comment letting me know that you blogged and/or tweeted cause I'd hate to accidentally miss something like that). I guess entries will be accepted through Wednesday when I get home from work (around 5pm east coast time). That or whenever it becomes obvious that no one else is paying attention to my prattling. 

Ok, well... that's all. Have a lovely day :)

Cherry Blossoms and Ring Pillows

So I realized after posting my poem that a haiku is definitely 5-7-5, not 7-5-7. I feel rather foolish :/ My apologees go out to all of you who were cringing at my serious oversite.
Moving on, Hubby and I went out a couple weekends ago to play tourist while during cherry blossom season… It reminded me of how much I don’t like crowds :/ Ha! I guess I probably shouldn’t live in such a popular tourist city then, huh? Oh well… I’ll just blame the government for stationing us here ;) Anyway… the cherry blossoms were pretty :)

From CherryBlossomFestival2009

Work has been a little crazy recently… We run on a fairly steady monthly schedule (I guess that makes sense seeing as how we’re a monthly publication and all…), and the past couple of weeks have been my busy weeks. Now I’ll get about a week and a half of doing a whole lot of busy work and nothingness before things really pick up again.
In the meantime, most of my spare time has been spent playing and crafting things for my bff’s wedding in June. Last weekend was spent with ring pillows. I made three for her to choose from, and I thought I’d share them with y’all. Now, I know my favorite, and I know her favorite, but I’m curious as to what your favorite is…
There’s the traditional one…

From d60

The slightly more funky one…

From d60

And the Knock-Off…

From d60

So tell me, which do you like best?

Try This Tuesday

…or, as it will henceforth be known, T3.
Ok Friends, today I’m going to try a little something. I’m kinda nervous. I would like to start up a recurring event that will be called “Try This Tuesday” (because I like alliteration). It could also be called “Trust Me Tuesday”. I have often found in my travels and the like, that when I suggest projects, recipes etc… to my friends, they will laugh and say, ‘Oh, hahaha, that’s wonderful… but I don’t think that mine would turn out like that.” The problem (I’ve found) is that many people like to stick to what they know, and sometimes my ideas are slightly out there. Anyway… today I want to talk to you about sewing. I’m going to take you through a super easy, super cute project just to kinda ease our way in (this will not be the last time you see my sewing machine). One of the things that I love about this project is that not only is it functional, but I made more than one mistake while doing it. Now, I can hear you saying, “what? You made mistakes? How do we know it’s safe to follow your instructions? Why are you showing us this terrible atrocity?” The reason, my friends, is that I want to show you that sewing isn’t always about getting it perfect (I’m pretty sure my sister just disowned me for saying that :/). It’s not scary. Don’t be afraid that you’re going to mess it up. Trust me :D By now I’m sure you’re just totally on the edge of your seats wanting to know what I’ll be trying to convince you to do today. So here it is…(Oh! And I apologize in advance for the horrendous picture quality. The lighting in my casa is not what you would call stellar for the picture taking.)

From T3

You can see that I obviously use mine to hold my makeup brushes. This would also be super cute to hold pens and pencils, paint brushes, markers, crayons, get creative! And it’s really insanely easy.
To start, you’ll need a piece of fabric. It should be barely longer than you want the end product to be, and tall enough that you have room for whatever you’re putting in it as well as some extra to function as a flap over the top, savvy?
The first thing you’ll do is pin and iron down the edges where your hem will be.

From T3

Now, with your sewing machine, sew along the top and the bottom (for this project, I used a wavy stitch because it matches my makeup bag). Go ahead and trim off any excess fabric (you’ll notice I almost always have a ton of extra fabric along my hems… It makes me feel better. I don’t know why.
Ok, here you get to see my first mistake! When you sew your bottom hem, the sides get sewn down as well. At the time, I totally thought that this was going to lead to major problems, so I cut the fabric to free the side…

From T3

Turns out that wasn’t really necessary, but all’s well that ends well I suppose. Anyway… From here, fold up the bottom hem so that it forms a pocket (make this as deep as you need it to be depending on what you’re going to be using this for). Contrary to normal sewing behavior, you’re going to fold this so that the raw edges are inside. As in, you will sew it exactly how it’s going to stay. Savvy? (At this point, I will need to show you a photo that may or may not have been taken when I was at this step, so ignore the superfluous seams at the bottom. I will explain those momentarily.

From T3

Go ahead and pin, iron, and sew the sides so that you end up with a nice pocket. Turn it inside-out so that you can trim up the excess fabric, then flip it right-side out again. You’re almost done! Now, take one (or two) of whatever you’re going to be putting in here, and determine how big the little pockets need to be. Take a pencil and draw out where you want your pockets to end up.

From spare time

Now just sew along those lines

From spare time

At this point, I realized another mistake that I had made… I made it way too long. So I simply cut it off where I wanted it to end and sewed another side hem (recognize the picture?)

From spare time

All you have to do now is attach the ribbon. I suggest filling the pockets, rolling it all up, and wrapping a piece of ribbon around it to determine how much you’ll need. I wanted my ribbon to go around twice, so I measured for that.
Unroll your pocket, and take everything out.
The last step is to sew the ribbon on to one of the sides so that it stays put.
You’re done!
See, wasn’t that fun?! And soo not difficult?

***If there is something that you have been dying to try, but are a little nervous about, let me know, and I'd be glad to try it for you first :)

*Grin*

STOP! Take my poll. It's over there <---, above my profile.
Ok, now continue :)
First, I would like all of you to partake in my joy in the fact that when I stumbled out of bed this morning to take the puppies out, it was cool out. As in... I was a little sad that I had just rolled out of my nice warm bed and was standing outside in my pjs cool... Now, I know that it won't stay this way. I'm sure that this is just leftovers from Ike or something like that, but still... It was a nice change of pace. I kinda like not sweating by 7 AM. It was a nice little change. I'd also like to talk about this...

I'm ever so mildly in love with it. See, I have this thing for mustard yellow... and with this nice warm plaid... *sigh*... I've been needing a new bag. Mine is fabulous, gun-metal gray, shiny "patent leather", the perfect size and shape... but alas... I've used it till it's at the end of its life. the handles are peeling, and the zipper pulls are breaking. It's time to move on. I can accept that. And to ease my suffering... I have this pretty little jewel! I'm just so happy with it :)

Moving on... Happy Monday!

Craft Time!

Ok Kids, on today's show, I'd like to talk a little bit about magnets. Now, I'm sure none of you have this problem, but in my house, there is a serious lack of strong magnets on the fridge. We have some of those flat ones that are cool, but can't really hold a sheet of paper up, but we only have like 2 that can do their job. Anyway, I've been wanting to get some more magnets for my fridge, but I wanted cute ones, and I've been having trouble. So the other day, I was browsing Etsy, and I saw these. I thought to myself, wow, those are cute. But I couldn't convince myself that they were worth a dollar apiece plus shipping and handling, you know? So I stared at them for a while, cause that's what I do when I see something I want but decide I don't need. And I realized, I can totally make those! So I went to Hobby Lobby, got the supplies and made totally cute knock-offs. I will now proceed to share my secrets with you.
First, you need... ModPodge (I keep the matte kind on hand at all times), a brush (or sponge, or whatever you apply ModPodge with), scissors, cute paper (I got this scrapbook paper set on clearance for like 3 dollars), regular black round magnets (I found them in the craft aisle at walmart), and glass pebbles (this is a really bad picture of them, but you'll see them later. At Hobby Lobby they're in the wedding section. I recommend the big (a little bigger than a quarter) ones that are totally clear. They didn't have the totally clear ones when I went, so I settled for the irridescent ones. They're still cute, just way shinier.


The first thing you're going to do is cut out chunks of paper (I also had some random circle cut-outs that were the right size, so I threw those in) that are slightly bigger than the pebbles (I normally do about 2" by 2").

Now, gloop some Modpodge on a piece of paper, and plop one of the pebbles flat-side-down strait on it. Press it down a little to make sure it kinda seals.

You'll end up with a bunch of these...

From A Life of Delight

Now, when you look at them, you'll notice that they look milky because of the ModPodge, like this...

From A Life of Delight

Don't worry about it. As the ModPodge dries, it'll turn clear. Promise. Ok, now... When they've dried (make sure that there's at least not any wet glue still around the outside), you're going to cut off the excess paper by cutting around the stone. The easiest way to do this is to make sure that the bottom blade of your scissors is the one closest to the stone. Get as close as you can and just trim off that excess paper.

From A Life of Delight

Now, flip them all over so that they're paper side up. Take your magnets (I like to seperate mine before starting this part), put some modpodge strait on the magnet (you don't want it to be super thick, but you want the magnet to have a layer of white), then stick the magnet on the stones. At this point, I like to (carefully) flip them over so that they're resting on the magnet. The main reason is that sometimes the stone will shift with the weight of the magnet, and it'll slide around before it dries. Now, just wait for them to dry, and you're done!

From A Life of Delight

These make great stocking stuffers, gifts for teachers, I put some in each of my swap boxes... They're just so easy. You could also use pictures, or drawings, stickers... whatever!
Anyway, enjoy!

Because I Know...

Because I know that you need to see it, because I know that you lost sleep last night, wanting to see it, I give you, the final results of my gift log (as I call it in my head) as well as an added bonus of a couple "work in progress" shots :)

Here you see a project just waiting to be started...

Ok seriously, I have some major mod-podge skills. Seriously.

Ok, here's the completed outside...

Here's the completed top (it has rings... like a tree... hahaha... ok, well, I thought it was cute..)

And here's a shot of the inside. I threw together a dish-towel for them so that I could pad the wine a little. Notice the gift card hanging from the neck?

And up close (I swear it says McNamara(s)).

So there you have it. I know that you will now all sleep a little easier knowing how this turned out ;)

I Need You!

Ok... so here it is... one of my oldest and dearest friends is getting married tomorrow. She (and her hubby-to-be) is a graphic designer (read, has great taste), and she also happens to be the person who designed and hand screen-printed our invites for our wedding (as her gift to us). Anyway, seeing as how she didn't really need me to do anything for the wedding (especially seeing as how I live a state away), I'm giving her a normal wedding present (nice bottle of wine and a gift card).
Moving on... I decided that I wanted to do something fun and different as far as wrapping goes. I didn't want to stick with the normal white and/or silver and/or gold. I just didn't. So I found this really sweet cylinder gift box perfect for a bottle of wine (Hobby Lobby, 50% off). It was white, and intended to be decorated. So I started thinking about all of the things I could do, and suddenly it came to me like a lightening bolt of inspiration...
Ok, maybe I won't tell you what my inspiration was, because I need your unbiased opinons. Anyway, what I need from you is... after looking at the pictures, tell me if it's really as cute as it is in my head. I need you for your honesty here. My feelings will not be hurt. This is one of those situations where honesty is necessary. It's like if you're out with your friend and she has a mondo booger, you got to tell her. It may be awkward, but it's for the greater good. Savvy?
Oh! and one more thing, the wedding is an outdoors, very bohemian, the bridesmaids will be in cute little brown dresses, so it does kinda fit...
Also, it's not finished yet, so ignore the bottom which hasn't been done yet as well as the spots that need to be touched up... Ok... go!











Now, seriously, honest opinions. If you don't want to come across as mean to all everyone else in blogland, email me. Seriously. I will not be offended. I just don't want to look like a tool slapping that down on the gift table, and then getting weird looks. You know?