Sharing a Smile

From me to you...our Zoey in her fabulous panda hat!!

And opening her diamond stud earrings!!After all, the baby needs some BLING!

From our family to yours...

HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

A Little Help Here?

NOTE: I'm editing this post. First, you have to "Like" the Boutique Challenge Group on Facebook (just search for it in the search bar), THEN it lets you vote. Yeah, I don't know what I'm doing, LOL!

HIIII. No, I have not fallen off the face of the earth!!!!!! I've been in a crafting frenzy of Christmas creations, and last night I FINALLY finished the last one!! Unfortunately, since they're gifts, I really can't show you most of them until after Christmas.

Here is something you could do to help me, though. I'm in a contest. Well, actually, two of my ITEMS are in a contest. If you do Facebook, take a second to click on the title above each picture. It will take you to Facebook, where you can vote by clicking "Like" under my items.

Baby Girl Bling Banner:

Easter Bunny or Reindeer Booties:


I hope to be back soon with some pics for ya!
Thanks for stopping by!

Ernie is Right!

Our great friend, Ernie, has been in retail pretty much all of his working life. He contacted me the other day after browsing my Etsy shop and said that he thinks I'm undercharging...he said my prices are too low! At the current rates, I can't afford to offer discounts and discounts are what drive sales up.

So I made a Christmas stocking for our little grandbaby, Zoey. I had this vision of a patchwork side and a side with a cute appliqued pocket...with a wide fleece cuff and BOTH sides monogrammed. Oddly enough, while I was pondering the construction, someone contacted me and wanted a Christmas stocking for her daughter. That was odd enough, since I didn't have Christmas stockings for sale yet. Even odder (more odd, LOL) is the fact that her daughter's name is...ZOEY!! With a Y on the end and everything!!

Long story short, I made two nearly-identical stockings. They are both fully lined and padded with a nice thin batting. They both have the names embroidered on both sides of the cuff. And after I was done, I realized that I had DRASTICALLY undercharged the Etsy lady, because they turned out FABULOUS, if I do say so myself!!

This is the back of Customer Zoey's stocking:

Yes, Quilters, it's all pieced from 2.5" squares - that is NOT "cheater cloth".

This is the front of Customer Zoey's stocking...I could die from the cuteness!. That's a little pocket that can hold a note to Santa or a Christmas list, if you hang it early enough!

Here's the nearly-identical back of Our Zoey's stocking

And the front of OUR Zoey's stocking, again with the ridiculous cuteness!! Zoey's momma liked the idea of a look-alike elf on Zoey's stocking. I even changed the font on the elf's pocket to match Zoey's name!

Yeah, Ernie, I undercharged. I don't even want to say...let me just say that the CUSTOMER told me she had described to her own mom what I was making for her and the MOM said I'd undercharged, LOL!

Thanks for stopping by! Come back tomorrow to see my monogrammed doggie scarf!!!!!!!!

I'm Still Here!

So my husband woke me up today with these words, "Good morning!! We leave for Connecticut in two weeks from today!!!" He was a little bit sad when I replied, "OMG, YOU ARE STRESSING ME OUT!!!!!!!!!!!"

Obviously, he has NO IDEA how much I have to get done before then, LOL!

So if you don't hear from me toooo much before then...I'm okay, I'm just swamped!!! I'm working on Zoey's christening blanket with its NINE YARDS of satin ruffle. (WHY did I think satin ruffle was a good idea??" I'm working on a 16-pennant Hanukkah banner that was ordered, plus a Christmas banner, plus a reversible Christmas stocking (the fabrics have popped up in that little box in the left margin of my blog), plus Zoey's reversible Christmas stocking...

OMG, I need to go SEW, LOL! Unfortunately, I can't, because I've got to go teach my kindergartners how to read...

Thanks for stopping by! I'll pop in when I can with updates and hopefully pictures!!

Ho Cubed!

Check out the cute trio of headbands I made for the college-aged daughter of our great friends from Cleveland! I just LOVE this design, but I can also make them with an embroidered monogram instead or any one of literally gazillions (how much is a gazillion?) of the designs I've purchased. They're reversible, so they can also feature two different sassy prints instead of the solid black fabric pictured.

I worked ALL EVENING last night to perfect this design. I found some tutorials, but I was not really happy with how those headbands looked or fit. After about ten designs that I was not satisfied with, I finally created this design, which is wide (about 2.5"), but molds to the head and tapers behind the ears so that the headbands are comfortable to wear. I used cotton fabric with an elastic closure...none of that tight, stretchy headband fabric that winds up giving the wearer a headache!

They make a great stocking stuffer and are available in my Etsy store ON SALE at a reduced introductory price.

Hope you like my latest creation, and thanks for stopping by!

And the Answer Is...

DingDingDing, Darlene has the correct answer! We were married on December 2, 1976...the year of the Bicentennial! Today marks 34 years for us and it's been a really good day!!

I'll be back soon and hopefully, with some pics of something I've sewn...it has been slow around here in the "studio" since last weekend, but I hope to remedy that this weekend!

Thanks to my buds who made guesses yesterday and thanks to you for coming by to visit me!

Blast from the Past!

Tomorrow is our anniversary, my husband's and mine. Here are some images from the year we were married. Can you guess when we were married?

It cost all of 5 cents to mail a letter. Of course, there was no email.

Linda Ronstadt and Jimi Hendrix graced the cover of Rolling Stone.

Michael Jackson still looked normal.

But Elvis was looking pretty unhealthy.

And the Bee Gees just looked hairy.

Thanks for stopping by! Come back tomorrow to check your answer!

Shout Your Good News!

Shout your good news with our
Front-Door Birth Announcement Banner!

It's sized perfectly to fit your front door...also perfect to hang over the crib, on the nursery door or on a nursery wall. The banner can even be strung vertically, to fit those tall, narrow wall areas near the nursery door.

It can also be personalized to spell out the baby's name, if you prefer. Available in boy or girl (naturally) in a wide range of fabrics and ribbons to coordinate with the nursery decor.
In honor of the birth of Zoey and the upcoming birth of Avery,
IT'S ON SALE THROUGH JANUARY 31, PRICE REDUCED!!

>

Click the links above to see the listing on Etsy, and thanks for stopping by...off to finish my monkey bib and burpie order!

Shop Till You Drop

Here are some pics of the little Hands-Free Shopping Purses I made for the craft show. You can shop till you drop because they are sized just right to hold a credit card, some cash, a cell phone and your keys. The strap is long enough that the purse can be worn across your body, so you don't have to worry about it sliding off your shoulder and your hands will be free. Do you love the owls?

I have some pics of a really cute banner I made for our grandson-to-be, Avery. Hopefully, I'll have them up tomorrow! Thanks for coming to visit me!

The Craft Show

I'd gotten about 3-4 hours of sleep each night for the last couple of weeks while I cranked out items for last Saturday's craft show. Unfortunately, business at the show was slow. Slow is actually not entirely accurate. It was more like almost nonexistent. There just weren't more than a handful of customers throughout the whole day and those that came through were mostly looking and not buying. Last year, the show had been held during Black Friday weekend and the organizers thought maybe that was the reason it was slow...everyone was at the malls. This year, they moved it up a week and but was still just as slow.

Strangely, I wasn't really disappointed. I was mostly just glad to have my life back! Now I can concentrate on making things for Avery and Zoey. I can take orders from Etsy and from my friends. And mostly, I can SLEEP!

Happy Thanksgiving one day early!
Thanks for stopping by!

Nicer Than Me

It occurred to me that my husband is. Nicer than me, that is. In brief: I asked him to make a display thingie for the craft show. My vision was that he would get a sheet of pegboard, cut it in half longways (to make 2 pieces each 2' x 8'), run skinny boards around each section to sturdy them up, hinge them together and WA-LA, a display thingie that I could paint and hang stuff on at the craft show.

So he did that. He did EXACTLY that for me. He even had to add extra boards to sandwich the pegboard to make it more stable. When I finally went into the garage to see it...IT WAS HUMONGOUS. It was so big it scared me. It was SO big it would touch the ceiling in a normal room. (The garage ceiling is higher, but turns out regular ceilings are 8' tall.) I took one look at it and said, "OMG, that is a MONSTROSITY. It's WAY too big and it's unusable like that. Can you cut it down????"

This is when I knew for a fact he is nicer than me. Know what he said? "Sure, that's no problem." SURE, THAT'S NO PROBLEM. Now, if the situation were reversed, would I have been so nice or would I maybe at least have said something sarcastic? Yep, sarcasm.

The only other thing he said was, "At what point did you realize that 8' is really tall?" LOL

Thanks for stopping by. Hope to have some pics for you soon!

No Words

Should be necessary. Just look at the ridiculous cuteness of these little shoes I made.

My original plan was to make a few pairs to sell at the craft show on Saturday and then make a pair for Zoey (and eventually for Avery). Let me just say THAT is not going to happen. These tiny shoes were a HUGE pain to make, so I won't be making them again anytime soon and I guess Zoey wins that round! (Although they'll probably be really big on her little feet.)

Here's another pic with a tea bag for scale. Can you believe they're made inside out and turned? Can you imagine turning something that small?

Alright, off to bed!! School tomorrow! Thanks for stopping by to visit!

Parent Teacher Conference

Sadly, a lot of this video does actually ring true. I've had conferences that had this same tone. In fact, I've had WORSE.

I'll try to pop in on Sunday with some more sewing and embroidery pics. My sewing and embroidery machines were humming all day!
Thanks for stopping by!

More Pics!

I'm proud of the item in the first pic! It's a diaper pod...a little tote I designed that's just big enough to carry a refillable wipes case and a diaper or two, for when moms want to run out somewhere without lugging the big diaper bag along.

Last summer, the awesome Mrs. Goodneedle wrote a post about a diaper pod she'd made, using a pattern from the Internet. Following her thought on how to improve it, I created my own pattern to include a separate flap and a strap that closes into a loop (with velcro), so that it can be hung from a stroller handle. I think it turned out really cute, don't you?

And now, in the interest of fairness to little boys, check out this tuxedo shirt! It's made from a 24-month long-sleeved T-shirt...for all those black tie baby affairs, LOL!

That's it for now, but I have LOTS more! Check back soon and thanks for stopping by!

Will Pictures Make Up?

For the fact that it's been forever since I posted?! I have been in a total frenzy of trying to crank things out for the craft show. I think I'll try to just post a picture or two as often as I can and maybe just enough text to explain what you're looking at.

The first pic is a pile of 'paci pods', which are little zippered pouches to keep extra pacifiers clean.

The next pic is a pile of crayon rolls.

And finally, a birthday shirt for a birthday girl!

I've got LOTS more pics to show you, so please check back. Thanks for hanging in there with me!!

Quick Howdy!

HI! I didn't want you to think I'd fallen off the face of the earth! I'm in an embroidering-and-sewing frenzy and will have LOTS to show you once I can force myself to stop long enough to snap some pics. I actually have not even eaten anything today! I really should be thinner, LOL!

Thanks for checking on me and please stop by again tomorrow for an update!

Did Anyone Lose a Tooth?

Because I think I've got you covered. Check out my pile of partially-assembled Tooth Fairy Pillows that I'm making for the craft show.

The picture above sort of illustrates the problem with doing a craft show. Seventeen Tooth Fairy Pillows may be WAY too many.

Or not.

EVERY child loses teeth, after all. And the ribbons on these allow them to be pinned to the child's pillow, which eliminates the fumbling around in the dark that most Tooth Fairies are familiar with.

So I hope they sell well. Worst comes to worst, I know what I'll be giving my students this year for the holidays!

Cute Stuff!

Okay, I promised you cuteness and I'm about to deliver it! I've been cranking out kiddie oven mitts and hot pads! I have a couple more designs to go, but here is a sampling of the designs I've made so far:

Three sets of butterflies.

One set of ladybugs so far.

Four sets of piggies...2 on purple and 2 on lime.

(The colors are off. The piggie hot pad is a dark purple and the ladybugs are on a bright lime green.)

I'm going to make placemats and napkins to coordinate with them. Cassie and I are doing a craft show later this month...she's bringing play food and I'm bringing these things to go along with it.

I think just about ANY little girl would be delighted to find these in her Christmas stocking, don't you?

I'm glad you could stop by to visit! Come back soon, okay?

Quickie Pic

Here's a bib and burpie combo I made today for a little one named Matthew.
Hope his parents like them! This is not a great pic...

I'm working on something SUPER cute! You definitely need to stop by tomorrow to see my latest creations! Here's a hint...they go with play (pretend) food.

Thanks for coming by and see you soon!

A Day Late

And a dollar short...the story of my life! We held evening conferences last night and I was really exhausted after I got home. I talked to 13 sets of parents...went over the same material (testing, reading levels, year-end K expectations) 13 times. At least all the conferences were positive and I don't seem to have any hostile parents. Yay!

So anyway, here are a couple more pics of my weekend output. I made 3 sets of bibs and burpies for a co-worker:

Isn't that turtle just the cutest thing?! Here's a closeup so you can see the edge detail under his shell:

Alright, off to school. And in a classic case of bad planning on our part, we have a field trip to a farm/pumpkin patch today. Bad timing...the teachers are all exhausted and there is the threat of a torrential downpour.

Thanks for stopping by! Come back soon, okay? And keep your fingers crossed for no rain!

Tooting My Own Horn

'Cause after all, if I don't, who will? Well, my family will...but then, they don't have blogs, so you won't know.

First, the CUTE QUOTIENT for the day. Brace yourself, they are really, REALLY cute. Okay, here you go!

Seriously cute, right? These little clippies are tiny - they use a 2" snap clip, so you know the little gingerbread and especially the reindeer are tiny. And Rudolph has a TINY POM-POM NOSE!! I can hardly stand the cuteness of it all!! (I'll be listing them in my Etsy store in the next day or so.)

Now, for the horn-tooting! My Achievers "R" Leaders installation ceremony was last Thursday. In this, the fourth year of the program I created, I have 140+ students that applied for jobs. I read EVERY application and EVERY essay and placed EVERY kid in a job. Oh, and I made them all an ID badge, too - that's what we're handing out at the ceremony. A film crew came out and shot this little blurb, which will run on a local TV station all week!

So CLICK HERE, because I'm semi-famous! I'm the short one in black (with longish hair - not the one with spiky hair, that's our superintendent). On the stage, I'm holding the mike and standing on the far side of my friend "Martha", the tall one in pink.

Thanks for stopping by! Come back again tomorrow, because I have more embroidered items to show you!

Tote-ally Awesome

Okay, corny, but I had to. The first two are for the nieces of a co-worker. Dora is four years old, girly, "princess-y" and loves to dance. The colors are off in this picture...the pinks all actually look GOOD together, LOL:

Fofi (a nickname) is eleven-going-on-twenty, tomboy-ish, likes to ice skate and loves "cerulean, you know, that REALLY BRIGHT blue" (a quote by her aunt). I thought this revved-up bag might appeal to her preteen sensibilities. I think I nailed the blue color. It's actually much brighter in person!

I bought the blue fabric first, and I just couldn't believe it when I found that awesome ribbon in the EXACT shade of blue!

These next two pictures should look familiar - the bag is almost an exact replica of Addison's BOO bag. Would you believe it took a total of 23 emails between me and the lady who bought it (in my Etsy store) before we were sure MY mental vision for her daughter's tote matched HERS? Hope she likes it!

I'm glad you could stop by to visit! Come back tomorrow - I'll have more to show you!

Aaaaacck!!!

That's me, hacking away. I have a TERRIBLE head cold. Despite that, I have lots of finishes this weekend to show you. The only problem is that I'm too tired and hack-y to mess with pictures. Stop by tomorrow and I promise I'll have SOMETHING to show. After all, I finished THREE totes and THREE sets of bibs-and-burpies.

Just didn't want you to think I'd fallen off the face of the earth. Tune in tomorrow, okay?

Another Proud Nannie Interlude

No sewn items to show, but can you stand just two more baby pics?
Well, one baby pic and one baby-to-be.

Zoey

Looking at that innocent face makes me want to cry,
thinking of all the babies in this world who are just as innocent as Zoey,
but who are neglected or go UNloved.

Avery (well, Rachel, Avery's mom...you know)

I just think it's so fabulous that we're gonna have VERY LOVED grandchildren from A(very) to Z(oey)!!

And while I'm at it, happy birthday to Avery's daddy...our son, Travis, who is THIRTY today. Wow. Thirty.

Thanks for stopping by!