taggies

I made SIX taggies the other day. I can't seem to quit making them. I LOVE it! My mom's cat Carter loves them as well. I have to make one for him out of scraps I have kicking around.


Polka dots


Red Monster Fleece- I LOVE this fabric and might have to buy a yard or so of it just to have on hand. :)


Gecko fleece made for a teacher @ my mom's school.


Flowers and Flutterbys- I bought this as a remnant and LOVE it!


Flower Garden- another remnant I got. I'm a sucker for lime and flowers.


Big polka dot fleece. The "right" side is SUPER DUPER cookie monster fuzzy so I put that INSIDE. My machine does NOT like stitching over that stuff!

Crafty Saturday

I spent my WHOLE day today being crafty. My craft room is a mess and I wasn't even working in there! I was working in the dining room on the pool table.

So, here's what I made today:

A reusable cup insulator in a SUPER cute turtle fabric.



Another reusable cup insulator in a teal and lime paisley kinda pattern.



I restrung a bracelet for a friend to give as a gift.



I made a "taggie" blanket as a baby shower gift for a fellow teacher.




Baby shower card for fellow teacher (goes with the taggie)



A mother's bracelet for the daughter of a fellow teacher.



A Birthday card for my brother

I also got most of another cup insulator done but ran out of felt. Guess I get to go buy some insulbright tomorrow. :) I love crafty shopping.

New Snow Hat

I have this OLD snow hat I got @ J.Crew like seriously 15 years ago. It's fleece with a drawstring top so I can put my ponytail thru (when I have longer hair) and I absolutely love it. I bought 2 when I got it actually- one brick red, one black. For a long time I've wanted to make one. Well, now that I have a sewing machine and love trolling the fabric bins @ Joann's I have NO reason not to make it. So, I took my original hat and drew a pattern off of it onto a big piece of paper. I dug through my scraps and found a chunk of striped fleece. Then I traced the pattern onto my fleece and cut it out. I stitched it together once and realized that it needed to be stitched different, so I ripped out all the stitches and REDID it correctly. Then I threaded a ribbon thru the top and tied it and it's done. I really like it and will probably wear it for school tomorrow. Yes, my kids will laugh at me, do I care? Not really. I have a fancy new snow hat (with no snow but lots of rain).



The "inspiration" hat



My hat



My fancy new hat on me!


Oh yeah, I also learned how to do an overcast stitch and a blind hem on my machine AND used 2 different feet! I learned LOTS today! I started out the day making valentines, moved on to fabric coffee cup sleeves (to replace the cardboard ones from starbucks) but then Greg threw out my cup I was using (have to get another tomorrow- darn :) ) for a model. So, then I moved onto my hat. There I have ended the craft explosion of the day.

Olive Hyde Show

The Olive Hyde Show/Sale is this weekend. I've entered 10 bracelets and 10 bookmarks. These are the bracelets I'm hoping to sell. Keep your fingers crossed for me! If you're in the Fremont area this weekend, pop in and check it out. I think I might try to hit it up on Saturday.


This one is ceramic flower beads, green cat eye beads, peridot and clear swarovski, and a rhodium clasp.


Rhodium butterflies, olivine glass beads, olivine and clear swarovski, sterling silver rounds, and a sterling silver heart clasp.


Glass irridescent orange fish, sun and clear swarovski, sterling rounds, and a sterling heart clasp.



Pink swirl glass beads, seed beads alternating in light and dark pink swirling around it, sterling silver clasp.


Glass beads with colorful swirls alternating with copper disc spacers, and a copper clasp.


Glass irridescent green fish, blue opal and clear swarovski, sterling rounds, and a sterling heart clasp.


Copper chain, swarovski crystals in indian sapphire and topaz, glass beads, all on copper wire wrapped head pins, random copper spacers, and a copper clasp. Fully adjustable!


swarovski hearts and crystals in siam and clear, and a sterling silver heart clasp.


Ceramic hearts, glass bronze pearls, and a copper clasp.


Swarovski lt. sapphire crystals, swarovski lt. sapphire crystals set into silver plated suns, sterling silver rounds, and a sterling silver clasp.

I made this

So, this year we have a tree for the first time. It's fake, got a problem with that? I didn't think so. Anyway, my kitty seems to think it's for him to eat. Greg hears him chomping away, goes over and tells him no, the cat looks at him and meows back at him and then continues. Someone needs to get some control around these parts, guess it's gonna be me. UGH! Why do I always have to be the bad guy?

Anyway, since we have a tree, I decided we needed a tree skirt. I looked around at lots of places for the "perfect one" that wasn't TOO christmasy, too crazy, too over the top, too bright, too green, too red in the wrong shade, too well, just too..... So, I was at Joann's a week or so ago and bought some red sparkly felt. Then I came home and searched about how to make a tree skirt. I had no clue what I was doing. I mean, really, it's a circle, with a hole cut out, with some fasteners to hold it all together- how hard can that be? It was SUPER DUPER easy and FUN to make! I used a tape measure to make a 1/4 circle (after folding it in half and then half again) at 27", cut it out. Made another 1/4 circle at 2", cut it out. Cut some white sparkly felt scraps into snowflakes that were iron on adhesived using my sizzix. I cut 3 different sizes of snowflakes and then arranged them on the felt. Then I busted out the iron, ironed each one on to hold it down (and it sticks REALLY well!) To make the slit so it can go around the tree, I cut it down one of the 1/4 marks. Then I added a few denim buttons, cut button holes in the felt and closed it up. LOVE IT! I think it turned out pretty darn cute for my first attempt! :)

um yeah

it's been almost 2 months. School's already been in for a quarter. Life's FLYING by. No earth shattering news to share. Nothing really note worthy. I've been hacking and coughing my lungs out for the past 3 weeks. Yep, dumped crappy kaiser for even more crappy blue cross 80/20 plan and the next day I get sick. Wonderful huh? So, anyway, it started with ear and sinus issues, moved on to only sinus issues, then it was coughing and not we're down to only coughing. Well, it would be REALLY nice if I could actually sleep at night and not hack the night way and keep the honey up too. BUT, alas, that's not to be. My house sounds like a family of sea lions have taken up residency. I wish they would leave! Anyway- that's it. Nothing fun, nothing great, nothing interesting. Sorry blog readers. I'll have to come up with something fun soon. :)

school's in

So, as if my blogging wasn't infrequent enough, school is back in session and I haven't been a good blogger. Nothing of note to talk about. Just rants: insurance increases, pay decreases, kids who don't do their work, kids who won't be quiet, parents who enable their kids to be lazy and not do their work. You know, the usual. That's about it. Summer is over. I have 36 weeks of work (well, now 34.5 at this point) until summer shows up again. The time will go by VERY fast, it always does. I'll be another year older (for those who are counting, I'll be 36 in April), Greg will be one more year toward his culinary arts degree and another year older. I will have TWO nieces. That's about it. Life seems to be flying at full speed these days! I'll try to be a better blogger this school year but I can't bitch about school because who knows who will read this and I don't need to get my butt in a sling. Thanks for following along with my slice of reality. Wish I had more I could blog about but I got nothin. :)