Fabric Basket

Phew...long time no post. AGAIN! Sorry to those of you who still check this thing!! I haven't been too crafty here lately. Just too busy trying to clean house and have it actually look clean. Anyone else have that problem? I feel like I clean 24/7, finish a room and move on to another one and by the time I finish the second one, the first is a disaster again. I'm sure it's part of having kids and having to keep up with it all on my own while Will is away, but MAN is it frustrating!!!

I decided that enough is enough and made myself let go of the fact that my house just isn't perfectly neat and gave myself a break to do something just for fun. I got out some fabric and my sewing machine and got to work and here is what I came up with...

and the inside...

I know this is going to look awesome with some of my Amy Butler or Heather Bailey fabrics...YUM. But for now, I think this little polka dot one is pretty darn cute! I definitely didn't reinvent the wheel here, there are other people all over the web that have done these and I just decided on a whim to give it a go...thinking they might make some mighty cute gift baskets with some other stuff inside.

Look, the seams match up on my very first try!! I usually have at least some issues with this...not this time!

Pretty proud of my cute little basket! :-)

Happy Friday, everybody.

Got a little messy...

I LOVE working with paint and canvas. I wish I could take credit for the design of this piece--I can't. I totally copied this whole idea from someone else. I saw it on the Living with Lindsey blog and thought it was such a cute idea and I love the quote because it sort of relates to my life with my hubby and such. Anyway, here is my take on it...

I got a few parts a little spattered with some black paint and I just kind of went with it and left it there. I figure it was just a happy little accident ;-). Besides it's just for me anyway. Just a way to get outside of my box and do something fun. I hadn't worked with paint in such a long time and it's so relaxing. I was so wrapped up in it, it was nearly 1 a.m. when I finished!! But I like it and for now it is gracing my lovely buffet table. I will probably move it into my studio/office at some point.

**Sorry about the flash on it, it was obviously dark when I finished it, so not a great picture, but you get it :-)

I almost forgot...

Here is a pic of the finished buffet table! I can't believe I almost forgot to post it.

First, one more look at the before:

And after:

I am hoping to do some more crafting tonight so I should have more to share tomorrow! Happy weekend!!

A solution...

Last night I set out to solve a problem. A big annoying problem that I have been having over the last couple weeks. See, my friend and I go for these long walks and I have to take the stroller, but Hayley is 3 now, so I use an umbrella stroller and got rid of all my other fancier ones and I was stuck with nowhere to put my water bottle, my phone, my keys, etc. while we were walking. My temporary fix was to use a purse but it was too bulky and got in my way, so I needed something better.

Here is my solution. It attaches with velcro on those tabs, since you can't see that from the picture.

Pretty cute, huh? I love this fabric! I bought it at http://www.aboveallfabric.com/. Well the swirly one anyway. The pocket fabric is actually just from a bandana I got at the craft store for like ten cents. My next one won't have such a deep pocket, though...I just wanted to make sure my water wouldn't fall out and I think even just a couple inches shorter on the pocket and the water would still be nice and secure.

And look! It works on my elliptical too! And I plan on taking it grocery shopping to hold my coupon thing and my car keys so i don't have to dig through the purse for those!

One year later...

Today is me and my wonderful hubby's anniversary! To celebrate the day since Will is gone, I took my girls to the beach where we were married and we spent the day there. Here are a few pictures from the day.

This is the aisle that I walked down a year ago today! Except this aisle now ends in a wall of sand that just drops off instead of the gentle slope it was a year ago. Amazing how much changes in just a year...not to mention that there is so much more grass here now when last year there was barely any. I had butterflies in my stomach walking through here though...I'm so glad I went there today. It was the best possible way to spend the day under the circumstances...and knowing me, I'll drag him back to this very same spot next year :-)
I love this beach. Today we decided to take a shell-searching walk and went all the way down to the end of the park area. We found some pretty cool shells, but even better was the complete lack of people down there! So peaceful. The ocean was so beautiful. This photo was on the first part of our walk but you can see that further down there was NO ONE there. It was awesome.

Happy Anniversary, Will. I love you!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge 16

Once again one of Dawn's challenges has brought me back to life with my creative side. I just haven't had time to sit down and do much for ME lately. Will left last Saturday for his deployment and it's been a little overwhelming to get into the swing of doing everything on my own again. Will had issues with the international service on his phone, so I've had to run around trying to fix that and he still ended up having to ship it back home to me to take care of it here. Then Hayley has had a really rough time with this one and is still not quite herself and Caitlynn is of course testing her boundaries again to see how far she can push me. It makes things really interesting, I suppose, but it also makes me really frazzled! So between the housework, yardwork, kid work, and my actual work, I haven't had very much time to just do something fun for myself. That brings me up to today when I decided that I needed to just take a time out for myself tonight and do something creative. Get my hands dirty. So I did. Once again I made 2 cards for this challenge. I had this image of what I wanted to do in my head, but when it came to actually putting it on paper, it didn't work out as great as I thought. It's just a little busy to me. You can't really tell in the picture but the circles are punched out of the kraft cardstock and then the designs are on the inside. So it has some texture and stuff on it...but it still just wasn't quite what I had hoped for.
So I kept going and churned out another one...And I'm much happier with the final result on this one.

Tomorrow is my wedding anniversary and we are spending the day at the beach where we were married. I thought it would be nice to be there, to just connect with the day and just let all of the happiness from that day wash over me. Hopefully the weather holds out! Hope all of you are enjoying your Labor Day weekend!

T minus 9 days...

Will leaves in 9 days. For 4 months. Not at all looking forward to it. I know as soon as he gets his bags out and starts loading them up, I'm going to be an emotional basketcase. Happens every time he goes TDY for an extended period of time and it definitely happened for the last deployment. The hardest part about being a military wife. The goodbyes. I HATE the goodbyes. Blah. Trying SO hard not to focus on that happening here soon, so I'm trying to stay extremely busy with my crafty stuff. I have a couple cards to share today and an update on my buffet table that I've been working on sporadically over the last few weeks! ** I apologize for the not so great photography here...I was photographing these while the kids were eating so I didn't have a whole lot of time to play around and then crop and edit before they were ready to get up and play!

First the cards... some I made just for fun.

Used all PTI stuff on these. Friends Til the End, Women of Life, Polka Dot Basics, and Damask Designs are all the stamp sets I had pulled out for these. I used up a lot of my scraps from some other cards and projects which always makes me happy!

And here is the progress on my buffet table. The staining has begun. Hoping to have that wrapped up today so it can dry completely and then I can apply the polyurethane finish! And then it will be DONE and displayed in all it's glory in my entry way! WOOHOO!

A couple more hair flowers

Here are the other hair flowers I said I would share. I am super excited because I actually sold these about 10 minutes after I made them and talked about them on facebook! (Thanks Ronee!) Now I need to go to the store and get some more supplies to make more and maybe I'll sell those too!!

Happy Friday!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge 14 take 2

Will decided to watch a scary movie last night and I'm not a big fan of watching those when I need to be guaranteed to get some sleep so I had to distract myself. I had some papers and supplies still left out in my studio from working on the challenge card I posted the other day, so I thought I would use those up and make another one. Pretty pleased with it! I seriously LOVE this Star set from PTI!

Here are the challenge deets again...And my 2nd take on the challenge...

So what do ya think? Pretty fun, right? I used a SU backgrounder on the large Plum Pudding piece and sort of mixed and matched stamps from a few PTI sets for this one. Some dots from Polka Dot Basics, the large stars and sentiment from Star Prints, and the small stars from Let Freedom Ring. I admit I didn't use much scarlet jewel, but it's in there! One of the large stars and the "you're my shining" part of the sentiment ;-) I squeezed it in!! And this card is a larger format than I usually work with, but I think I'll have to do it more often! It's a 5.25 in. square card.

That's it for now- I have some more hair flowers to share tomorrow as well as a couple cards I made for an old color challenge that I missed during my crazy summer hiatus :-)

Good thing I already have things done because a busy night ahead for us. I'm working today and then tonight we have Meet the Teacher Night at Cait's school. She is beyond excited to go back and see everybody and find out who all is in her class!

Playing with the sewing machine...

I was playing with my sewing machine this morning and here is a new little something I cooked up. Saw something like this on the web and thought, hey I can do that. So I did a little trial and error and this is my end result. Now I want to make some more in some cuter fabrics to see how those turn out...and to see if I can re-create it ;-) It has an alligator clip on the back but I'm going to play around and make some on ponytail holders and the snap clips too!

By the way, isn't my little model the cutest?!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge 14

Wow it's been a while since I've been able to participate in a color challenge. Just too busy. I gotta admit, though, that I REALLY needed the alone time in my studio today. We had a crazy busy weekend...or well, I had a crazy busy weekend. I attended a coupon seminar on Saturday morning for a few hours, had to come home and bake like crazy for a donation to the Crisis Ministries soup kitchen, Caitlynn had a friend over, Hayley was attached to my hip all day...then today I had to drop the cupcakes I baked off to a friend who was going over there to volunteer (I baked because I wasn't able to actually go and help out and still wanted to contribute), grab my newspapers, cook a side dish for our squadron picnic, run some other errands, head out to the picnic where we spent 3/4 of our day...and then deal with a very crabby over-tired Hayley and Cait's friend came back over and on and on and on...

SO long story short, I needed some quiet time and I got just that thanks to Dawn McVey's color challenge! Definitely not colors I would generally create with together, but I LOVE how they came together. Makes me so happy when that happens!

Anyway, here is the challenge ...and my card...

Not sure why it's kinda crooked looking in the photo...I promise it's not in real life! I tried a new thing with the ribbon on the card edge and I really like it. Adds just a bit of texture :-).

Hope you all had a great weekend!

What I'm working on...

Just a peek at what I've been up to over this past week.

Found this gem on craigslist for $40. I talked the lady down to $20. And the obsession begins. I seriously can. not. stop. working on this table. I want it DONE so I can have it in my entry way as planned!Here it is after Day 1 of sanding...which was about 4 hours worth of sanding with an orbit sander. We bought a beautiful red mahogany stain for it and some great square brushed nickel knobs. I can not wait to have it finished. I'll be sure to post a picture of the finished product when it's complete, which hopefully will be some time next week. I have a few other things that are in the works now too, so stay tuned...

Life

This summer has flown by. I can't even explain what a whirlwind life has been the past few months.

Been spending lots of quality time with these adorable little people...

Went on a camping trip to Myrtle Beach for a week.

Been spending a lot of time at the pool watching my youngest little peanut do this...

hard to believe that at the beginning of the summer she was scared to even get in the water and now she's jumping off the side.

I've had around 10 kids in my house most days. Took on a few extras for the summer with my daycare. It's been NUTS, but tons of fun. I will not know what to do with myself when they all go back to school and life goes back to "normal". Well yes I do. I'll blog more, scrap more, stamp more, sew more... you get the idea :-)

So that explains my long absence. Thank you to all of you who keep checking in. Sorry for not having more for you to look at! I will be back, I promise! :-)

For now, though, go check the Making Memories Blog. They are doing TONS of giveaways and CHA peeks! :-)

For Today...

Saw this over on Ali Edwards' blog...thought I'd try this method of documentation.

Outside my window... There is a swimming pool waiting to be filled with fresh water. If only the sun would make an appearance.

I am thinking... That I need a bigger vehicle to transport all these kids to the park to run off some of this energy! Life with 5 kids 24/7 is definitely different than life with 2.

I am thankful for... good friends who help me take a break now and then.

From the kitchen... made eggs and sausage for breakfast-HUGE hit as usual.

I am wearing... a yellow tank and khakis with no shoes. My toenails are painted red, which makes me happy.

I am creating... some crayon rolls for my kids to take on our camping trip next month. And probably a few extras to give as gifts and/or sell.

I am going... to have to do some grocery shopping this evening. We are out of milk and running low on juice and chicken.

I am reading... nothing at the moment. I seriously have NO time to do it. I'm lucky that I get to blog hop these days.

I am hoping... that Will's class finishes WAY earlier than 4:30 every day this week.

I am hearing... the girls chatting while they color, and the other group of kids upstairs watching Cinderella.

Around the house... there are legos all over the playroom floor. There is a pile of laundry ready to be washed, another pile ready to be folded and put away. I have literally a million things to do.

One of my favorite things... is that Will finished my blanket yesterday and I love the soft coziness of curling up on the couch with it.

A few plans for the rest of the week... work, try to finish some sewing projects, clean, go to the pool, maybe visit the park, and possibly invite some girlfriends out for coffee or ice cream or something to get out and socialize a bit!

A picture to share... (hasn't been edited yet, but I wanted a recent one and like I said I haven't had much time for extra hobby type stuff here lately...)

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge 9

Ok, so I missed the deadline again. Ugh... life is just too busy these days. But here is my card anyway...

Tipjunkie.com giveaways...

Its Tipjunkie.com's birthday bash giveaway! Go to www.tipjunkie.com to enter!! I LOVE giveaway # 9. This site has some awesome ideas on it...it's one of my daily reads!

Quilting...

I have been working on my very first ever quilt! I'm pretty excited. I have to say, this sewing stuff is super-addictive! I already have quite the fabric stash going. Here are a couple pictures of how its coming along. I actually have the quilt top almost finished, but still need to photograph it, so for now here is just a little peek!! :-) This is the layout of all the squares. It's just random. Nothing scientific at all about the placement of these.

I hope that things settle down a little this week so I can actually sit down and do some more creative work. So hopefully I'll be back soon with some new fun stuff!

Been doing some sewing...

I am officially addicted to my sewing machine. Yep, I will readily admit it. And my poor husband has to put up with me being a half-presence in the evenings when I really get to sit and focus on what I'm doing :-). So I thought I'd do a quick share of what I've been up to... here are the latest sewing projects I've completed.

A new purse design...

A key chain
A checkbook cover

Off to a training on the base today and feeling a little under the weather, so not sure how much I'll get done today but I started my very first ever quilt last night (well...getting the fabric cut for it anyway!) I'll share my progress with it hopefully one day this week! Have a good day, all!!

**I had to transfer pictures of the new stuff and they came out teeny tiny, so when I get home tonight, I'll fix that! Sorry, but you get the general idea for now!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge 7

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!! Unfortunately our weekend (not to mention the forecast for the rest of the month) is pretty much all rain so no BBQs for us. We did have a fabulous big dinner tonight at Will's request with turkey and mashed potatoes. It was YUMMY. And then I made him some chocolate crinkle cookies-his fave and my first try turned out pretty good. Thank goodness!!

So anyway, on to the challenge...

Another fun one at Dawn's blog. I stepped out of my box on this one and did this shaped card...

I used all PTI supplies on this one. Spring Moss, Avocado, and Raspberry Fizz. Plus the yummy spring moss buttons (love 'em!!) and the new Star Prints stamp set which I can already tell is going to be a favorite with the background stamped in polka dot basics. I punched the stars out and popped them up on pop dots for a little dimension.
Fun to do something a little out of the ordinary. Now it's your turn. Go try out the challenge!!

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge 6

Sorry I haven't posted in a while. Lots happening here in our neck of the woods. We are looking to start building a home with KB so we've been spending a lot of time at the model homes and looking at floorplans, etc. Plus my step-children arrive at the end of the month, so we are preparing house for them and getting some old stuff together for a garage sale. Not much time for blogging, unfortunately. But I have been creating (otherwise I'd go completely crazy).

Another fun challenge over at Dawn's blog. You can find it here.

I LOVE LOVE LOVE this one. She has such fun challenges.

Here is my card for this one. I used PTI Berry Sorbet ink, cardstock, and satin ribbon, PTI Aquamist cardstock, and SU Soft Sky, Chocolate Chip, and Whisper White cardstock and ink. The stamp set is PTI's Friends Til The End.

Raspberry Suite Color Challenge 4

A new challenge over at Dawn's blog. It's been a busy week around here with Will being gone again, so it took me a little while to get a card made. Even though I didn't finish it in time, I'm glad I was able to play! These were my wedding colors, so I was excited to play with them again! I used SU paper and inks--soft sky(retired) and chocolate chip and then a combination of SU and PTI stamps and of course the cute little butterfly punch from Martha Stewart.

I'm not sure why photos come out looking so flat on here...I'll have to inspect that. It looks better in real life, though! I think I will give this one to my mom for Mother's Day even though the sentiment is from a Father's Day set...

Thanks for looking and hope you are having a good week! I will be back tomorrow to share some projects I've been working on for Teacher Appreciation week this week!

Busy busy...

Yes, I've been creating like a mad woman the past week or so, but haven't had much extra time for posting. I'm gearing up for some birthdays, Mother's day, and a few thank you gifts that I was procrastinating on!

Here is a quick share of a gift I made for my friend Kathy for bailing me out last week when I woke up late and my daughter missed her bus and then my car battery was dead & Will was out of town on a mission. It was just one of those days and she came and took Cait to school and then helped me get my car jump started. So I made her this as a thanks. Everything in the gift is handmade, the purse, the card, and the box! I was kind of excited about having it all be made by me. I hope she likes it!!

And here is the box...
Hope to be back later to share some more! :-)