Quilted Ornaments

 On a few groups that I belong to, some of the people made these beautiful quilted ornaments.  So of course I just had to figure out how they made them. Because I just needed one more craft to do in my life.

So, I began to research how to make them. Pinterest, of course, has a lot of pins of different ornaments people have made.  There are a few different patterns, but this one is the basic one.  And this is the tutorial from Pot Holders and Pantyhose.

I used fabric that my sister brought home from Africa.  She does work for a non-profit called Raining Hope, and travels to Uganda twice a year.  I thought this would be a great way to use some of the fabric she brings back and to help them raise money for their trips.

 I'm still not sure if I like the bows on the top of the ornaments, or if I just want to use jute. I'll have to experiment a bit.

The above two are almost finished.  The one on the left is one I made from scraps around the house.

This is a really fun craft to do, a bit more labor intensive than I thought.  But a great way to use oup some fabric.

I'm Back!

So, it's been a few months since I've actually posted.  Had some personal issues I've been working on the past few months one of which has resulted in my having to buy a new car.  Of course it's a Subaru, love them to pieces.  They just drive so great, and have so many little extras that really spoil me, like the heated mirrors, wipers, and seats.  Once you have those in a car, you really have to get them in the next one.  LOL

So, I now have a new used Outback.  I just love it so much!!

And Phil loves it too!  It's such a cool car. And it's the first non-red car that I've owned in oh almost 24 years. Can you imagine that?  It's still so weird driving in a not so red car.  But I'll get used to it.

 We took a trip again out to Reno.  I don't know why it's my favorite place to go to, but it is.  I just love getting away for a couple of days just to relax.  Not gamble so much, but just to relax.  So on one of our trips at the Sportsman's Warehouse, there was a guy sitting there with an owl.  So I asked if I could take a picture of the owl, and he says, "Nope, but you can take a photo with the owl for $10..."  SOLD!

I guess the owl was in the Harry Potter movies.  Heck, I didn't care what movie the owl was in, but of course, being in the Harry Potter movies made it that much cooler.  I just got to take a photo with the owl!  And holding the owl at that!  I was so very excited!

A few weeks ago, I met up with my friends Debi and Joanne in Santa Cruz.  Debi took me to her favorite spot on the coast, she calls it her "Special Spot".  It's so very beautiful out there, and it was right before the storms that we just had, so we were lucky to have a warm gorgeous day!  Almost like it was summer.

I spent the winter crocheting boot cuffs as gifts.  The girls just loved them and they are quick and easy to make.  I was burnt out from all the wedding and party decorations, that going back to crocheting just was so nice and relaxing for me.  I still haven't gotten back to paper crafting yet, but hopefully will get there soon.

Oh, and just for good measure, I thought I'd add a picture of our outside cat.  I come home sometimes to see him just looking at the door waiting for someone to let him in.  If we didn't have Velcro, he would be an inside cat.  She just doesn't like any other cats or animals, and she's an older cat.  So we keep her happy.

Have a great day!

49er Tutu

 For Sofia's first birthday I made two tutus.  A pink one in the pink hello kitty theme, and a 49er tutu. I just LOVE how the 49er tutu came out. And she just looked adorable in it!

 My sister-in-law found a Niner onesie, so I didn't need to find a wide red headband, the short one worked out really well.  And I added some 49er ribbon so that there would be no mistaking it for anything else.

 Here she is trying on her pink tutu.  It's came out really fluffy!

 The back side of the tutu.  It's really fluffy!!

I just love her ballerina pose.

Sofia's first Birthday

 Here is what the Hello Kitty Medallions looked like at Sofia's birthday party.  I got the idea from my friend Debi Boring who did these medallions for her niece's baby shower.  I thought they'd look perfect for my niece's first birthday party.  So with the Hello Kitty theme, I made the medallions for the decorations.

 I used the Cricut Storybook cartridge to cut the letters, and it was a Zebra/pink theme.  And I found this great basket at Target on sale to put them in.  Also, Walmart had the cute Hello Kitty bank and lamp. (Of course I kept those cause they're just so dang cute!!

 Close up of the Sofia medallions.

 We had the party out at the ranch in the grass arena area, it worked out really well cause they also had a jumpy house and played volleyball which was really fun.  :)

I also used the cricut pretty pennants projects cartridge to cut out the pennants.  It just went with the theme of the party.  Also used the Martha Stewart Circle Edge Punch to make the large doilies.  Have I said how much I loved the Circle Edge Punch??  That thing is so cool!

Hello Kitty Medallions

 Soon it is going to be Miss Sofia's First Birthday.  And we're having a Hello Kitty party for her!  Can you tell I'm excited.  I LOVE Hello Kitty.  I mean LOVE Hello Kitty.  I've been in love with Miss Kitty since I was a little girl and we went to our first Sanrio Store in Union Square where I bought my first teeny tiny set of colored pencils because OMG, how can you not love Hello Kitty and anything miniature.  LOL

 So when Heather decided to have Hello Kitty as the theme of Sofia's party, can you imagine me jumping up and down for joy.  So I got out my Hello Kitty Cricut cartridge, and started cutting little Hello Kitty heads.   So pictured are some of the decorations we'll be using for the party.  I am in love with making Medallions, and using the Martha Stewart Circle cutter, circle edge cutter, and just punches in general.  I have a circle cutter, can't remember the brand, but it doesn't hold a candle to Martha's cutter.  There is still an issue of the cutter slipping a bit when you use it, but the handle for the cutter is better, love that you can store the tips in the handle, and using it with a glass mat is WAY better than a self-healing mat.

 I also used those sticky jewels to put on the medallions cause they have to be shiny!  :)

 Just having too much fun playing with the different circle combinations, it's fun to make different pieces and to see how it all gets put together.

 I think I'll be cutting banners tomorrow.  This is too much fun, making party decorations for a little girl.  I'm not one to be all poofy and fluffy, but I love making poofy and fluffy for her.  :)

Sofia's Scrapbook

Miss Sofia will be one soon, so I thought I'd start her scrapbook of her first year.  Here is the first page of the book.  I guess I should put her name on it?  LOL I started scrapping again a couple of months ago for my step-son Philip's wedding scrapbook, so I thought I'd continue with my niece, Sofia.  I have been collecting different things for her pages, and am using some of the stuff that we used for my step-daughter's wedding too.  I had a lot of leftover flowers too.

I really like how it turned out.  I wasn't sure at first.  But I really like it.

Handy Dandy tip...

 

 The other night I was trying to open one of those clamshell packages, you know, the one they heat seal together and that you have a hard time cutting apart.  Well, I was trying to figure out how to open it without getting up and getting a pair of those special scissors that they sell at those, As seen on TV stores, when I spotted a used paper trimmer blade.  My thought was, "Hmmm, it might not be great for paper anymore, but I wonder if it is sharp enough to cut the package?"

So I picked it up, and scored it around the edge of the package.  And it worked!  I just pushed the package and it opened!  What a great solution, and it's a bit of recycling too!  

Martha Stewart's Circle Edge Punch

So now that I've started scrapbooking again, I've been introduced to a whole world of new scrapping tools that I haven't seen before.  I mean the last time I actually scrapbooked a page must have been 7 years ago at least?  So the whole scrapbook world has moved forward while I have discovered other crafting.

So while making decorations for my daughter's wedding bbq, I found Martha Stewart's Circle Edge punch. And if I had known then what I know now, we would have had a bunch of decorations made with this. 

I was intimidated at first with the instructions and such, and it was, I thought, too much for me to figure out in the limited amount of time we had to throw the bbq, so I just put it aside. And since I was home sick with the stomach flu today, I was bored and thought I'd try it out. 

OMG, have I told you how smart Martha Stewart's people are to have invented something like this?? 

You don't need to cut up the paper in a circle first, or have to know advanced math, they've done it all for you.  I just really love it! You put the piece of paper under the small round magnet knob.  You should mark crosshairs on the page to make sure you have the center of the paper.  Figure out how big you want to have the circle by using the two size indicators, and there you go.  Just punch, turn the knob, and punch again. Crazy easy to use!

Now I want all the punches....curses!

Here's a video on how to use it...

Makes me so angry....

Today one of our installers saw that someone had left a dog, in an expensive dog crate  with a collar and leash, at the end of our street where people dump garbage and actually had put garbage on the cage so that no one would find her.  We all were very upset and so angry because they just left her there to die. 

Who does that??  I mean you take a dog into your home, she looked well fed and well cared for.  I mean we find dogs in our area who are on the verge of dying because they haven't eaten in a long time.  But this one looked like it had been taken care of, and loved.  She was so scared and was looking for her people.  So you know she had been cared for. 

I can understand if you couldn't have your dog because of living expenses or circumstances, but you don't leave them in a crate at a dead end street covered in garbage.  Again, WHO DOES THAT???

So glad that we found her before she got hungry or dehydrated or was attacked by something else or found by one of the random druggie homeless people. 

Ashley and Alex's Wedding Reception

 Saturday we had the "I DO" BBQ for Ashley and Alex.  They were married in May, and we had the reception for them this weekend.  We had it at the Brentwood Oaks Equestrian Center.  (Our nephew's and niece's family ranch).  It's such a beautiful place to have a reception. 

 Ashley made most of the decorations herself.  She found really great antique items and used those to decorate.

 Her husband Alex punched all the advice cards.

 Her grandma made all the mini strawberry jams, and Ashley decorated them with fabric and jute.

 Her wedding guest book was a Jenga game, so they could "Build Memories".

 They made this cool bucket hangy thing so that the  kids could pick out fun things to do.

 She found this great "antique" box for her cards, and I made burlap flowers for her to decorate with.

 She found this really cute cake topper for her bundt cakes. My sister had the idea to dress the cake up with baby's breath.

 These were the flower arrangements for the tables, really simple, and pretty.  She didn't have a ton of things on the table, which made them prettier, I think.

 Of course she had to have a hay couch.  I am SO over hay couches.  They shed everywhere, and are a pain to clean up.  Remember that if anyone ever thinks they want to have a hay couch.

 And I made all these danglies.  I found in the wedding section in Michael's, this really great "crystal" garland.  I took them apart and put bead dangles at the bottom with different jewelry pieces.

This arch is in the backyard with the flowers on it already, so I just hung different dangle crystals.  Diane bought these really great lanterns to put on the ends. 

Everything turned out so beautiful.  And no stress.  Well, not for me anyway.  LOL  It was a really great time!

Wedding favors...

 Finally finished the wedding favors for my friend's sister-in-law's wedding.   I made the first 25 for them for the wedding shower, but they liked them so much that they wanted 100 more for the wedding.  I ended up making 120 more for them.  :) 

I first decided that since I only had 25 to make, I would use the sizzix die that I bought at Michael's for $5, and put a piece of the lace paper on them. Problem was, when I cut the first one, it didn't cut all the way through.  So I used my handy dandy dentist pick, and poked out all the centers.  Yep, Poked out all the centers.  I had little paper dots everywhere!  LOL You know, back when I was stamping cards, they used to have this lace paper at the stores.  Not anymore.  OMG,  so I ended up doing this for all 120.

After gluing both papers on the mints, I tied a bit of hemp twine around the mints and I actually made the tags as well.  Tags are easy.  I usually lay them out like I'm making labels, and cut them with the paper cutter.  And I used the large crop-a-dile to punch the holes in the tags.

I was going to use the paper flowers that I found on clearance at Michael's but they ran out of them.  So, I found really pretty artificial roses that were the right size.  And I'd curl the ends of the twine with a little stick.

 Here is how they turned out:

 Since the wedding was a bit last minute, I just used different color flowers.  Thank goodness they didn't care about color, cause it was hard to find the colors that I needed to find.

 I think they turned out pretty cute.  :)

RIP Cory Monteith

 Most of you who know me know that I LOVE Glee.  And I am so saddened by the loss of such a talented young man with a beautiful soul.

I was up last night scrapping wedding photos of my step-son when the news came across the wire.  And I just couldn't believe that it was true.  Cory?  Really?? It can't be.

Sad but true, Cory died yesterday.  It hit me a lot harder than most celebrity deaths because we actually were lucky enough to actually meet him.  A friend of mine knows his roommate's mom, so she asked him to get us tickets for the last Glee concert in San Jose.

 He got us tickets to the show, and we also met him backstage.  It was funny cause we couldn't find where we were supposed to be when we got there, and he actually came out looking for us!  What a guy, to be worried enough to come out to find us.  LOL

 And while backstage we got some photos, but one of my favorite photos is of him taking the time to talk to his young fans.  That is what I really loved about him, he would stop what he was doing to talk to his fans, and to thank them.  There was also a young man in a wheelchair who didn't have backstage passes, but wanted to meet Cory.  The security guard asked him if it would be ok, and of course Cory said yes.  That really told me what kind of guy he was, just your everyday guy who appreciated where he was and the people who helped him to get there.

Thank you Cory for all the great memories, and great performances.  You will be missed so very much.