Two Weddings and My Funeral

Last night, I took Leon down to see his dad at the escape room and I worked for an hour or so touching up paint.  I spilled some yellow paint on the plastic tarp they had all around and Ryan's boss said that that must be where Ryan gets it...  really...?...

My hands have paint bits all over, even after my shower.  They remind me of my mom's hands.  And that's not a bad thing.  She was always painting, staining and varnishing things that her nails always told a story of her latest creations.  

I'm sure I told you part of this before...  I have two older sisters that got married a month apart from each other.  THE two sisters that got married that summer and with them took all my clothes that I always borrowed...  I got heavy into sewing for myself that fall!

Those two will kill me, but I do love their Glamour Shots!!!

My mom was given (or asked) for the job to refinish all the pews in our church in preparation for the big events.  We had a smallish church with maybe 20 pews.  

That spring and summer, my mom and the rest of us stripped old white paint off all of them, sanded, stained, varnished and polished all of those pews.  We did it in sections so that the congregation could still have something to sit in during church...  

You can see just the bits of the pews in this one of Teresa's wedding.  I wasn't in this one and I couldn't find pics of Ruth Ann's wedding.

Knowing my life as you do, the project was probably completed three hours before the first wedding took place...  I kid...  It was at least a week.  Plus my mom made their wedding gowns.

So if something is hereditary, I think I'd rather have the gene pool lean towards the creativity than the klutzy-ness...

Getting My Creativity ON!

The weather is getting cooler and I'm wearing a sweater today...  I feel creative!!  I chopped up almost all of my upholstery samples from my fabric stash into 4 inch strips. 

And this isn't all of them.

WhatEVER shall I do with them??

Well, for starters... this.

I'll let you see after Christmas.

Hey! Do you want to know a secret?

Do you promise not to tell?  

Sorry - The Beatles song just keeps running through my head this morning.

So anyway...  I mentioned this card idea on Thursday and actually made it this past weekend!  A friend is having a "secret" card shower for her birthday but she doesn't know...  

So don't tell her!!!  Or I'll be in trouble with her daughter!

Here is the card I made, since for some weird reason she thinks I have a hot glue gun in my purse.

It's actually mace.

The whole thing reeks of Elmer's glue.

  

I found the idea for it on Pinterest of course!  None of my ideas are original.

But I AM really good at creeping people out with my stalkerish qualities, so I had to tuck in a few pictures of "herself" to really creep her out!

And to REALLY rub in her age, I added this little note.

 

Creepy, no??!  Yes?

 

I apologize for the foggy cell phone pictures!

Channelling my creative bones.

I'd like to think I'm creative.  I tell myself that sometimes when I'm bored and I want to DO something creative and not just sit around and relax.  *that's not very often*  Sometimes on the weekends when I suddenly find myself with an hour to kill ALL my own, I feel like I should sew.  Then as soon as my distraction gets up from his nap, it goes away.

I'm hoping to get one of these made this weekend for Meri!  If I can be creative with the knit fabrics I already own in my stash...  That'll take some time just to find the right thing.  I guess Leon can play with his office toys while I do that!  Or dump out the legos again... 

 

So now I also have a challenge that has a deadline.  An old bloggy imaginary friend of mine is turning 50 soon and does Pinterest a lot, referencing me on Facebook whenever she uses a glue gun as if I'm the only creative person she knows!  I'm not.  I don't even know where my glue gun IS!  

She's given up blogger for Lent, like 5 years ago, so she doesn't read me anymore.  

If you know her... don't say anything! *SHHH!!*

But anyway, her daughter is doing a *secret* card shower for her and asked me to send a card.  I can't just send any old thing store bought thing... It HAS to be something I can find on Pinterest.  

Something creative-looking.  That involves Elmer's if not hot glue.

What do you think of this?  I can stick a photo of her on the front flap along with a birthday greeting of say... "This is what 50 looks like".

found on pinterest.com

 

She's kind of a rebel, so I thought the little card inside the last flap should say something like "Fifty - the ultimate F-word"...  Too much?

Advice?  Anyone??

About getting inspired...

Meri & I watched TSTMNBN (aka, The show that must not be named) last night. Yeah, I'll say it.

Project Runway.

Watched the last little bit this morning while we ate breakfast so a co-worker of mine won't accidentally tell me about the winner...

Oh and SSSHHH!! The dress that Meri purchased from PR will be delivered today before she gets home from school! She doesn't know yet. I just found out last night through their tracking system. That will be a nice surprise for her!

I have to say... I've been inspired to do some sewing this weekend. If not for the craft sale at church, then for Christmas presents. The machines and my supplies had all been set back up in my sewing hall after the wedding project and are sitting nilly-willy everywhere.

I made purses for my nieces several years ago, but they were big. I'm thinking about making some half slung things with zippers. I've got some ideas in mind and have so much stuff in my stash to make this happen, that maybe this will be my least expensive Christmas ever! At least I hope so...

credit

They will not be like this one. Can you believe that this purse costs $25,000 dollars? Sure it's made from Alligator, but criminy!!! It looks like my grandma's purse! Mine won't look like that. They will be better!!! FUN and free, if possible.

So it begins this weekend. Sorry family! The housework goes by the wayside yet again...

Ok, maybe not THAT bad! I won't be as driven as I was with the wedding event dresses and won't take over the diningroom table, but I will be holed up in my sewing hall dreaming up things to make to give people this year. I've got less than 3 months... and way too many nieces to count.

Maddy's birthday was yesterday! Thanks everyone for your well wishes for her! Since she had a cross country meet & play practice, we didn't see her much until 9:30pm. So she had a very full day. Some of her friends made sure that a monster cookie awaited her in each of her classes all day. A cookie was taped to the white board in each room! We will celebrate her birthday as a family on Saturday night. I'll have to talk to those friends about getting some more cookies...

Have a great weekend! Get your creative juices flowing!!!

Designing Dreaming...

Of course Designing Dreaming is sung to the melody of California Dreaming... I'm too lazy to come up with the rest of the lyrics. You'll just have to hum the first line all day now.

My new Burda magazine is here!!! WOOHOO! Maddy found it last night on the counter and started placing orders.I want you to make me that. and that. and that... and that for next years prom! Like she thinks she's going... :)

All the patterns for the styles shown in the magazine are in the mag! So I COULD throw away my thousands of patterns and just store these magazines, but I won't. Sorry hon!Some of the styles are just weird and I nor my girls would wear them. Like the last issue where there were see-through tanks and the model might just as well be standing there nekkid... I am NOT making that one for my girls!

and you can't make me! and NO I'm not going to scan in that picture! (I know which ones of you were wondering if it's here... for SHAME!)

Maddy liked the tank top and jacket here. That is SO her style. So many ideas and so little time, energy and $$ for fabric.

But it does get our creative juices flowing!

Isn't this stuffed animal thing cute? It's made with jersey and should be pretty darn cuddly! Meri wants to make it for 4H. I think the baby clothes in this issue are pretty adorable too. One of my sisters just had her 7th baby a couple days ago. I get to see her tomorrow!!! I have 43 nieces and nephews... shocked? me too. Holidays are pretty chaotic.She also wants to make a lining for some rubber boots like below. Burda shows you how to make a colorful lining for some plain boots and make them feminine.See?! It DOES get your creative bits moving!

It's a Card Party!

Sunday night, Meri and I attended our traveling card making party. I'm sure I've mentioned it before, but it's pretty cool... so I'll tell you again.The little balls on the tree are tiny little stick on balls, then we sprayed it with something to give the whole card some sheen. It looks so cool!

She and I have been doing this for over a year now at a friends house, but the last couple months we've alternated between another friends house locally and ours. It's only once a month so it's easy to squeeze into a busy schedule.The leader of group brings her Cuddle Bug and the background on this card is vellum paper that got pressed through it.

Anyway... You bring $10 and come away with 4 cards that you've made yourself! Oh and the matching envelopes. You can't buy 4 cards for $10! Not at the Hallmark store anyway... You don't even have to be creative to make these. The lady that does the parties shows you every step of the way. She brings all the supplies and equipment to make them so you don't have to have these things at home. You don't have to have a creative bone in your body. This is a postcard kind of card. The little white flap with the trees on it pops open for you to write Happy Birthday or whatever you want to inside.

That's what I like about these parties. I don't WANT to be creative sometimes! Just tell me what to glue where... and they always turn out so cute.

But Meri does like to be creative all the time. So she puts her own spin on the cards and mixes things up a bit to make them her VERY own! Last summer she submitted some of them for the 4H fair and got a blue ribbon.

The only problem is Meri doesn't like to give them away... So we've got a whole box full of cards. I need to remember I have them so I can at least use up some of mine.

So we're putting together a little card club of sorts. At the last party we had about 6 ladies and 2 10 year olds. It was a good group and I think we're all hooked now. My friend that hosted had a chocolate fountain with fruit for snacking. I don't know how I can compete with that at the next one in January when it's at my house again... Hmm..

Any ideas?

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas... At least in my sewing room! Friday night I got most of my turquoise skirt done. All that's left is the hem and sewing some buttons at the waist. It fits! I do have to suck in my gut just a little to zip it... Pay no attention to the funky button holes... They're not pretty but they'll do the job...Then Saturday after making 100 ham balls with my church lady friends for a dinner on Sunday, I lost my ambition to finish the skirt for a while. Dug out some turquoise silk dupioni fabric I had and made two necklaces for a couple nieces for Christmas. What do you think?Then when the mail came and I STILL didn't get my Salsa blouse pattern in the mail, decided I better start on the wedding gift. I made matching placemats for my nephews wedding. I'm going to spray them down heavily with some waterproofing spray so they'll clean up easily.Last night I started sorting through my fabric boxes in my sewing room and moving in. Doesn't look like my son is going to move back home in the next few weeks and I need to get this room ready for company over Thanksgiving. It was nice going through the fabric and thinking about what I could possibly make from certain pieces.This is just one side of the room. The other side has the same number of shelves and is just as stuffed. I need to make more things from my stash, don't I?

For those of you who pour through sewing magazines, you know how there are articles telling you how to make mittens and purses out of old wool sweaters? I've asked my husband, how many old wool sweaters have we got just laying around? NONE. Who does?? That they're willing to cut into??

I got my hands on two wool blankets from Freecycle.org on Sunday. They're both pretty old, but one of them has a very nice pattern on it and should make some interesting things. What do you think I could make out of it? Purses? Scarves? Maybe it's too itchy for scarves. Maybe not.. This one is drying on the hammock and the other one is being washed currently. They were both pretty dusty and smelling funny. I'll have to start rummaging through my sewing mags to see if I can find that article now!

Have a great Monday!

A Chip off the old Crafter...

Meri is working on her 4H projects this week for the fair. Can you guess what she's doing with this old rusty milk can? Besides making a mess on the patio?In addition, she has been working on birthday gifts for her friend, who's party is tonight. I came in for lunch yesterday and found that she'd already made this purse! The handle for it is 3 feet of leftover strap from Sabrina's duffle bag from this past weekend.Along with the purse, she made a duct tape wallet for her friend.with a gazillion pockets!We also got her a gift card at Walmart so she can buy her own make up...

I'm so glad Meri has picked up some of my crafty jeans genes.

Songahm Blog 'er

Today is "ER" day at Maddy's high school. She has to dress as something ending in "er" or "or". Shouldn't be too hard, huh? Doctor, lawyer, teacher... She picked flower.

I had some t-shirts purchased a long time ago for an airbrushing class that Meri and I took last winter, but they were sized large. So Maddy trimmed the sides and tied them like a blanket. Then painted a huge flower on the front.
She made some stencils and lettered out "flower" on the back so there would be no mistake that she was participating. Meri took the extra tee that was left and painted her own design too. But I didn't get a pic yet of that. Perhaps after it makes it through the wash.
Homecoming week is pretty cool! These kids come up with some pretty wacky stuff!

Last night was Meri's Taekwondo testing. After school yesterday I was trying to give her some advice for during testing and she suddenly burst into tears. I hadn't realized she was so nervous about this! I managed to calm her down and let her know that the judges are very kind and one of the judges was her own instructor and she really likes him. He was my instructor too.

And the judges were very nice and kind. Very encouraging to her and she felt more confident when testing finally started. I saw several people that I hadn't seen for 9 years. Wow, has it been that long?

Meri did her form and one step sparring moves perfectly. She advanced from white belt to orange belt and was pretty excited. Plus they got their new belts last night! Usually I had to wait a week or so until my instructor received them. That was a nice bonus and gave these kids the little boost they needed. When Meri started two months ago, I talked two neighbor kids families to start too, so she would know someone in the class. They did really well too and all three got orange belt decided.

They're dangerous on the playground now!!!! :)

Addendum to "er" day... Maddy got home from school and was telling me about the flash"er" at school. He wore shorts and a tee under a trench coat. Then when he whipped the coat open, a camera hidden under the coat would flash at you! Creative, no? LOL! I don't think Maddy won the creative award for todays contest...