Wow. I don't know why but I haven't been able to sign in to my Blogger account, I don't know what I did, but finally! I've had things to post and it's been frustrating especially when you think you know what you're doing, but you really don't!

So, this is the last FOUR months in a nutshell!



I made this tunic using some fabric from my stash not sure what fabric for the bodice is, but I know the cuffs and neck are Amy Butler. I used Simplicity pattern 2696, view F. I had started out using Butterick B4856 What A Nightmare!!! It was the most maddening sewing experience I have ever had! It was suppose to be a "Fast and Easy" pattern, it was anything but! I was ready to give up sewing. FOREVER! I wouldn't call myself a novice but I don't have that much experience sewing clothing so I called in reinforcements, my Mom! Usually between the two of us we can figure it out, but not this. It frustrated us both and usually I take on the challenge and don't like to give up there is just no way this pattern makes sense! So I did it-Gave up! I had almost the whole tunic made! I don't think I will ever buy another Butterick pattern as long as I live! Simplicity on the other hand, they were great! There was something that was omitted in the instructions and after my awful experience with the Butterick pattern I was thinking it was just me. At least they have a help line you can call-couldn't find one for Butterick or help online. A real live person called me back from Simplicity and was very patient with me and agreed that they had left a step out of the instructions! Other than that, it went very smoothly and I was pleased with the outcome. As for the Butterick tunic- I salvaged what I could and used the fabric to make a smocked shirt from Heather Ross' Weekend Sewing! No pic of that one-will work on that.


Okay, ignor the goofy picture, it was the only one I could find! I made this from some fabric I picked up from Joann's and used Heather Ross' Mendicino dress pattern. It was fun to make! A little trouble getting the pattern printed to scale from Staples, but got it close enough and made it work!




These were cut outs of my Dad through the years that my Mom and I made to use for table decorations for my Dad's 75th surprise party. They were the hit of the party!







This is the newest addition to our family. Our brother, Rob, married Sara this summer. This is from the rehearsal dinner, me in the center and my sister to my left and my brother to my right and our new sister-in-law across our laps! A great fit! Too bad she's so shy and hates to be the center of attention!




I used my Mom's cricut and etched these for gifts for the shower we had for Sara. The cricut was also used to make the cute little place mats and favor boxes.



And by we I mean my Mom and Aunt, they pretty much did all the work! I showed up with a gift! (That's the most important part anyway, isn't it?)

That's about all the craftiness for the summer!

The chairs are finally done! Unfortunately not much else has been happening around here. Lindsay's birthday is on Monday, I had made so many cute things for her last year. Not sure what happened this year!



I did make a couple cases for her camera and gps, and a card case I thought I'd put some gift cards in! Both were quick and easy from great tutorials.

Like I said not much happening around here. Hopefully some more exciting things soon!

I have been working on reupholstering my dining room chairs. The chairs are by Baker, probably from the 1930's and were last recovered (in pink fabric) in the 80's, so they were in desperate need. The chairs, table, sideboard and china cabinet were all still in the house when we bought it and we tried to purchase them from the deceased owner's son but he had already signed papers with an auction house. They came and moved it all to the auction house and I kept trying to tell the movers not to bother because it was just all going to come back! It did! I went and bought it all for a VERY good price and moved it all back-they should'a listened! Everything was in pretty good shape except the seats of the chairs, a bit droopy!

After tearing them apart, I can see why!

All nice and new now-just hope I got them tight enough and they stay that way for a while.



I reused the old padding (horse hair) and batting, it seemed to be in pretty good shape. Put some new muslin on, and it's ready for the good stuff!

Good as new! Actually, better than new, because I wouldn't be able to afford these new! Not anything that will still be around in 70 years and in this condition anyway! It's true what they say- they just don't make 'em like this anymore!

So far no eruptions! Laurie has decided that since there is a chance of an eruption and all that ash will be falling that there is no reason to dust. I agree, but somehow I don't think that excuse is going to fly in Ohio, ya think? Really, it looks like there's already been an eruption-in my house!



Went to my favorite yarn shop and worked on my socks. Interesting group of characters that get together on Saturday mornings and knit. VERY helpful and knowledgeable shop owner, awesome selection of yarns, and dogs (lots of dogs, very cute dogs)--what more could a girl ask for!?! Still working on the socks.



We went to my Mom and Dad's and ate our way through the Super Bowl on Sunday, in fact I'm still at it, we had so much food it was ridiculous (but good)!



Yes, we are a bunch of dorks! We had fun cheering on our hometown boy, Ben Roethlisberger! What an exciting game!

I've been trying to learn some new things with my new camera and trying to figure out some things on my computer. you know how time consuming, frustrating, and unproductive that can be! That's pretty much been the week so far.

Well, there has been a whole bunch of nothing going on around here! We have had lots of snow days, in fact we haven't had a full week of school since before Christmas. Lots of lazy days! This is what we woke up to Wednesday...


Laurie and Kiska made it home safely and she is now getting their volcano emergency kit ready! They live 60 miles or so from Mt. Redoubt, which is ready to blow in hours, days or weeks according to what I just read on CNN.com. Yikes! Just a big waiting game, and not a fun one. Keeping our fingers crossed that they're waiting for nothing.

I made this little case for Lindsay's Blackberry Pearl for Christmas. I used a heavy duty snap and I think it's too big and heavy (weight wise) but I like the way it looks, so did she and didn't want me to change it-so I guess that's all that matters!



Off to work on something-I'm determined to do something productive today (or at least fun)!

Sad day today, my sister and Kiska left today. The weather is definitely better this week for traveling. Doesn't matter how long she stays-it never seems long enough!


I should be digging in and starting all those projects I've had on my mind! I was here and here and saw this hat and I am sitting on my hands to keep myself from running up and digging through the stash and starting this. Nope, not starting anything new until I get those socks done! Unfortunately I don't feel like running up and getting those and working on them. The thrill is gone. I hope it's back soon, it's only half a sock left to do!

Finished up the earrings and necklaces today (no pics). Not really sure what else I did. I had good intentions, but you know how those go sometime. We didn't have school today and it is already canceled for tomorrow. Yesterday it was getting so bad out that I left three hours early to go get Nick.


My Mom and sister came over tonight and brought Thai green curry my sister made, her favorite and I made my favorite (so good and sooo easy)! They were both really good.



After dinner we made these (French Chocolate Bark) from Ina Garten's newest. All I can say is they were yummy, chewy,nutty, and chocolaty goodness! Oh, and really easy. We just made individual ones instead of one large one like in the recipe.


This is my sister, right before gobbling down her masterpiece! Half an hour later she went home with a tummy-ache. Not me, I'm a pro. I paced myself! (Not really, I just ate too much curry!)

We took another class last night, earrings this time. We cut and fused fine silver wire and then textured it, just like the bracelets. I made two pairs of earrings and two necklaces. Everything is oxidized and polished, I just need to put them together. It was another fun class.


My sister was suppose to leave tomorrow, but they are calling for blizzard like conditions and because of her dog they have to drive 5 hours to Chicago to get a direct flight, so she changed her flight and she's here for another week-YAY! Another week of play!!

We had a school delay this morning, It takes about 40 minutes to get there anyway and the weather was a little iffy as to what it was going to do this afternoon, so I decided to keep him home today. A lot of their work is done online, so can do work from home-snow day for me, not for him! Although, with all the playing that's been going on around here, I should be catching up on the not so fun stuff. I have plenty of that to do!

We had another snow day on Thursday. My mom and sister came over and worked on my project. We've had Christmas glasses with our names on them (so we're not always washing glasses) for I'm not sure how many years. They were looking pretty shabby so we found new glasses and etched everyone's name on them.


They turned out pretty good. We used my mom's cricut to cut the names out of vinyl and then used etching cream. It was a pretty quick and easy project. I had done some glass etching in the past and the die cutting machine really makes it go quickly. and does a nice neat job.



Saturday I went to my mom's and she and my aunt, sister, and I worked on some bronze pmc (precious metal clay) stuff, I wasn't crazy about the bronze clay. I thought it was hard to work with. My sister, Laurie, is a certified PMC instructor. This was her project, kind of. She wanted to try out the new bronze pmc, but our real project is going to be really cool. They're bezels made out of silver pmc with our initials on the back and then-this is the hard part-finding something to fit into the bezel. Will post pictures when they're finished.


After our pmc morning, we took a silver bangle class here. It was really fun and the bracelets turned out really cute (not the greatest photo)! I made three, and have to finish two of them.


Laurie had made up a kit for me as a gift one year with everything I needed to silver solder-something I've always wanted to try but I never felt knowledgeable enough to use it-Well, no more! We really learned a lot. So now I need to break that stuff out and get to work. I was looking through all the stuff I have for projects in my craft room closet and I should never be sitting on my ass doing nothing!

Two days back to reality and we have a snow day today! Yahoo! I'm not sure who loves snow days more, me or my son! I think me.

My sister, mom and I have been working on this little project. Soldered charms. This is my mom's project.



When my sister comes home we always have these grand ideas of all these projects that we want to do and then all of a sudden it's time for her to leave and we've done nothing, well, not nothing, but none of the projects we wanted to do. So, we decided this year each of us would pick a project and kind of do it like a class for the rest of us. My problem is picking a project and sticking with it! They should have made me go first!



We should have had this project done, but we started it the same day Laurie and Bill made his dad's famous spaghetti sauce (famous to us any way)! The sauce is a half-day project in itself, then we had like 14 people for dinner. Really that's only a few more than it has been over the last few weeks! I said it's been party central around here lately! The sauce was sooo good, well worth the time it takes, but less time for craftiness.



This was my brother's second helping! I think he kinda liked it.

Yesterday my mom, sister and I took my brother-in-law to the airport and and shopped, it was a fun girls day out, but again no crafting going on. Hopefully these will get done today, then onto the next project.


This is a picture of a painting Lindsay did of Kiska, my sister's dog. She did such and awesome job I just wanted to show it off like a proud Mama should! He was so funny when Linds brought it over to show them Kiska had to check it out, he was looking at it and sniffing it as if he knew what it was. This photo is not posed-somebody was walking by and said hey somebody should take a picture of him sitting there like the prince he is!

Happy 2009!

Reality will be setting in too soon! We've been having a lot of fun around here.

Lots of eating, drinking, relaxing. Linds has been here since just before Christmas and my sister and her husband are here from Alaska visiting.

Besides Christmas and New Year's, we've had Greek night Monday-I guess I was too anxious to get at that food and didn't get any photo's. That's really bad because I got a new one of these for Christmas!

Last night was ribs and venison tenderloins, a specialty of Bill's and remember that Mike is the BBQ King of Alaska! Didn't really get any photos of these either. But my mom did. My mom, sister, daughter and I have all decided to do the 365 Challenge on Flickr! We'll see how long that lasts. I'm hoping that there is power in numbers and no one will want to be the one that drops out!

I didn't get a lot of crafting done for Christmas. In October I got this idea that I would learn to knit socks. I've been knitting for a few years and still have a lot to learn! Socks are hard! Well, not really that hard, just time consuming and something you really need to pay attention to while you're doing it! OH, and gauge, that's important too! I found that out after almost completing one whole sock! So, since October, I knitted one and a half pairs of socks!

These are the socks I knitted for my Mom for Christmas! Still working on my sister's pair.

The only other crafty thing I did for Christmas was a case for my friend Kelley's cell phone.

I think she really liked it. I made it from this tutorial and made it to fit her phone.

My sister, the awesome bead maker, made lamp worked silver cored beads that fit Pandora bracelets for all the girls in the family. Not just one bead but enough for 10 for each of us! And there are seven of us! Yes SEVEN! That's 70 beads (I know, my math skills are amazing)!!!!! Really what is amazing are those beads! I will try to get up-close photos because any description I could try to give could not do them justice--they are gorgeous, beautiful, unusual, organic, intricate!

She gave us each a turn to pick a bead and we kept going around until they were gone. She had planned on doing a greed game type thing, but nobody wanted to steal because they didn't want to be stolen from! It was an amazing gift! She is working on a new website for her beads as soon as it's up and running I will have a link to it, it will definitely be worth checking out.

Gotta go get ready for tonight's activity. Dinner at an amazing restaurant and then project day and spaghetti dinner tomorrow! Sad day too, Lindsay is heading back down south. (In the months of no posting--she lost her job, moved to Nashville and is in search of the next great thing! Not sure what that is yet but she'll know it when she sees it I'm sure!)