Sister Rings

The other day I posted about my growing cabochon obsession and the bobby pins I made. Here's some pics of the earrings I did recently:

Drying in a row

Tiny sakura studs

Baby pink close up

Have I mentioned I love pink? Anyway, I left these to dry in my craft room for several days. Over the weekend, I call my sister Jessie into my craft room to ask if she'd like to see the earrings. I was not expecting her response. You see, Jess isn't very crafty. I don't think she's ever been. So why would she ever really step into my craft room? Well, well, well ... she tells me that she's actually been snooping around to peak at things I have around my desk and in my closet. Hmm ... interesting. What's even more interesting is that she's "found" the earrings and thought they were adorable and had to try on a pair!!!!!!! Whaaaat???????? And I would have never known if I didn't happen to call her into the room. What a stinkin' little punk! But I did think it was kind of funny. Heh heh!

So, in the process of finding out about her little foray into my stash, she starts rifling through more of my things, specifically my small collection of cabs. And she discovers some ring bases. So, there Jessie was, begging for a ring. She chose a black mum cab:

And what does Jessie do with the ring? She flaunts it to sis Addy the next day. Can you guess what happens next? Yep ... Addy came by to search through the cabs to choose her ring. She ends up choosing a pink rose:

Now I'm waiting for is sis Mary, Tina and/or Loretta to put in their orders!

Winner, winner!

Me! A winner! Can you believe it? As I was perusing my blog reader, I came upon this post:

Okay, so it's not the greatest image capture, so if you want to see what I saw, click here. When I opened the post and read it ... I gave a little shout and immediately thought, "no ... that must be another Marlene." So I clicked on "Marlene" and surprise, surprise!! It led me to MY blog! Whoot! I won, I won, I won!!

Oh, what did I win? Hahahaha! Well, I've been following Candace's blog, Sparkle Power (her Etsy shop is adorable and she was the Etsy featured seller this week!), for a little while now. And I don't usually enter giveaways, but when I noticed she was sponsoring a giveaway from City Chic Country Mouse ... well, I had to throw in my name. This is a really great Etsy shop and I had stumbled across it a few months ago and immediately fell in love with their ironing board covers. I added this cover to my favorites:

Oh how I love Heather Bailey's Nicey Jane line. Love, love, love! So when I saw the giveaway, I thought I would take a chance. And it totally paid off! I did not think I would win, I never do. So imagine my surprise when I did! Of course I chose the Church Flowers cover. I cannot wait to receive it!! I hope it sparks my creativity. Or at least start to get my craft space spruced up! Ha!

I do have to say that Jamie from City Chic Country Mouse is the greatest! The shop has so many cool things ... ironing board covers, sewing machine covers, just great stuff. Besides the cover above, I really like this sewing machine cover:

Again from the Nicey Jane line! I love the lace trim. So cute. Go browse for yourself and find some goodies! I will be anxiously waiting for my cover and will snap a photo to share!

Obsessed?

I think I'm obsessed with these cabochons! These are from my latest order. A ton of 'em! They're all so cute. And perfect for bobby pins. I've been buying these things off and on over the last few months. I've accumulated a nice stash. But now I want to start using them. I made these quickies several months ago:

Pretty in Pink

Spring Fling

Pinks and Gray

Sweet Mint

I'm kind of partial to the cool minty ones. Personally, I rarely wear pins in my hair. Like never. But who knows, these may be too cute not to use. I'm not sure if I'd put these in my Etsy shop; there's a ton of these on Etsy already. I would definitely include these in a craft fair. But will I do a craft fair this year? I don't know, that remains to be seen. I hope to put a dent in my stash. In the meantime, I had better stop feeding my addiction!

Mini Keychain Clutch

Wasn't it just a few days ago that I had a post? Can you believe I'm actually posting again? Wow! I've been trying to do something crafty nearly each day. We'll see how long that goes. Hahaha! Here's my latest project I finished this evening while waiting for my dinner to finish in the oven (hese photos aren't the greatest since I was snapping them at night and the lighting in my craft room is horrendous) :

And here's a peak of the inside:

Don't you just love the lining fabric? It's Joel Dewberry's Aviary line. I love the woodgrain fabrics and have a small selection in my fabric stash. I was so hesitant to cut into both of these fabrics. Why? Because I'm a fabric hoarder. But let's not talk about that for now. The pattern is Keyka Lou's Keychain Clutch (I have a ton of her patterns and I need to start stitching them all up!). This was my first attempt, and I have to say that it was an easy pattern. But I messed up on the flap, sewing a bit too straight instead of nicely curved. So I have to go sew a few more. If only I could easily find fabric for it -- as a fabric hoarder, I loathe cutting into my fabrics, which makes it a little difficult when I want to start sewing. 

But I do have some kawaii Japanese fabric pulled for more zipper pouches. I think I'll cut them out tomorrow evening. I usually don't add my Guava Girls tag to my "first attempts," but it was coming out so cute that I just had to add it. The only crap thing is that somehow, as I was pressing some wrinkles out, I noticed that my mini ironing board left residue marks on the clutch. Bummers! I don't know why this is happening. So I guess this clutch, if it doesn't get stolen by on of my sisters, will probably make it to the next St. Theresa School carnival. 

I hope to post again real soon. Until next time, happy crafting!

Long weekend

How was your weekend? I had today off, and that was great. I'm off to work tomorrow and I'm not looking forward to that. Oh well ... life! I visited my local fabric shop this weekend and scored some great fabric for half off! The fabrics are all by Nancy Wolff. Her designs are so whimsical. Here's what I got:

I really don't buy a lot of kiddie prints (did I just type that?), but these were just too cute. And on sale too! Now I'm wondering what the heck I'm going to do with these. I made a couple of baby blankets (with minkee ... I'll need to post that later), but these don't seem appropriate for blankets. I'm thinking fabric bins. My niece has toys all over and her mom has some bins that are easy to transport. So that's an idea. We'll see. That might be my next project.

Speaking of projects, I finally, finally worked on some hippo pouches that I had cut months ago. Here's a peak:

I've been working on perfecting the zip corners. I do not like zippers with the wonky, slanting corners. I think these came out not bad. I did topstitching on the first one (dark blue, top one in photo), but I don't like how the stitches are not straight all the way across (I think it's because of the linen-type fabric). So I didn't topstitch on the cream and black pouches. Not sure what I'm going to do with them. Sis Jess already had her eye on them. As usual. Wondering what the inside looks like:

Red stripes! Perfect with the red zipper. I think I'll be sewing up more pouches real soon. I'd like to get some ready for my Guava Girls Etsy shop, which isn't open yet. Maybe soon.

While I was working on the last pouch, the hubby brought me a little treat:

A yummy cupcake. Now, I've been on the Special K diet for the last two weeks to kind of jump start some weight loss and to also start eating better (I never eat breakfast and usually take leftovers for lunch). The good news is that I lost almost 10 pounds in two weeks. Woo-hoo! I'm hoping I can keep it up (and start walking again). Anyway, that cupcake sat there for all of 10 minutes before I took a bite out of it:

Yummmmmm .... it was soooo good! I have a few more in my fridge ... I'm going to have to bring them to the office so someone else can eat them. I had to try out the recipes in preparation of my niece's first birthday. Yep, I'm going to be making cupcakes again. This cupcake and frosting are keepers, and if all else fails, this is what I'll be baking for the birthday party. I used Smitten Kitchen's best birthday cake recipe found here, and the best frosting the Pioneer Woman ever had, found here. It really is a great frosting. And pretty easy, too. My kind of recipe. For some reason, I've been obsessed with Pioneer Woman ... I've tried a couple of her recipes over this long weekend and they were delish! Yes, yes, I am on the Special K diet, but you're allowed a sensible dinner ... and I kept my dinner portions sensible. And no nibbling on leftovers the next day.

This is a rather long, rambling post. I have to be up bright and early tomorrow morning for another week of work (at least it's only 4 days), so I will end here. Oh, and I haven't figured out any real goals yet. Sigh! But I'll be back ... hopefully sooner than you think!

Happy New Year!

We're well into the new year and I can't believe how fast 2010 flew by. I'm hoping that 2011 is a great year. I want to do so much stuff ... mainly more crafting and getting my Etsy shop(s) filled and going. And more blogging!

I'm back at work now that admin leave days are over. Boo-hoo! So I'm finding it difficult to get into the craft room. But I must!! Besides those 4 Annies that need to be photographed, I also need to get better photos of this big guy:

This is Bruno ... I like to call him my "kidney bean bear" because his body is shaped exactly like a kidney bean. Hahaha! He's been done for quite some time and I've had him tucked away in the closet to avoid dust bunnies! I guess you could say he's been in hibernation. Ha!

I know we're over a week into the new year, but perhaps I will put down some goals for this year in my next post. Or maybe I don't want to put them down for fear of not accomplishing anything. Sigh! We'll see ... it'll be a good thing to put down and keep me accountable. So until next time, I hope you have a great year!