Relaxing

Joe's gone geocaching today, allowing me to play with my new sewing machine for the first time. I made this wristlet this morning.

I love the new machine! It's so much quieter than my old one. I can't wait to play with all the fancy stitches and all the different feet on it. Although, I must admit, I'm slightly disappointed with one thing. The sewing went well until the very end when I had to sew all the seams and the zipper together. I broke two needles in a row. I moved over to my old Singer and it went through all the layers like butter.
Does anyone have any advice?? I never planned to get rid of my old machine, in fact, I have both set up in my craft room. Do I do all the sewing up until the end on my new machine and then use the old one to finish it off? That's what I'm thinking.

I also took a picture of my new button organizer. It makes me so happy!!! It's silly really, but now that the buttons are all organized it is so much easier to choose the ones I want!



We are headed out to dinner tonight with some friends, I'm totally looking forward to it.
Tomorrow night (New Year's Eve), we are doing a "stupid geocaching thing". We are going out with friends for dinner (again) and then going geocaching at midnight. It's not my first choice, but I do really like everyone who will be there and we had no better offers. Joe really wanted to go so I told him that if he wants to do that "stupid geocaching thing" on New Year's that's ok with me. He looked at me and we both laughed. I meant it to sound nice and it didn't. So when people now ask us what we are doing, we both answer "That Stupid Geocaching Thing". he he he

Spoiled Rotton

Wow...it seems like forever since I've posted!

I had a fantastic (but BUSYYYYYYYYYYY) Christmas. We went to our friend's for Christmas Eve and had a very yummy dinner with them. On Christmas Day, after opening and playing with our pressies, we went to Joe's sister's house for Christmas Dinner. We had a great visit with his family.

On Boxing Day, I drove 1.5 hours to go and pick my Mother up. She spent the last three days with us. All we did was eat and gamble at the casino for three days straight. It was soooo much fun!! I managed to turn her Christmas present to me into enough money to buy a fancy digital camera (thank you nickel slot machines). I'm looking at the Canon S3 IS, but I'm going to wait and see.

Santa (aka Joe) bought me this:



I have yet to sit down and figure it out. I was hoping to do so today, but I can't move from the couch. My head hurts and I feel like I'm getting sick. Blah!!! I'm so excited to use it though. I have been using my 15 year old Walmart Singer, I have never used anything fancier than that, so this should be fun!!

My Mother also surprised me with goodies. She gave me her button collection. I can't believe how pretty these are!!



She also gave me a jar full of buttons, already separated by colour!!!! Can you believe she did that??? I haven't had a chance to open them up yet, but I can't wait to do so.



Despite the fact that I feel like I'm dying, I ran over to Walmart this morning and bought one of those organizers for nails. The kind that is like a mini chest of drawers with a zillion little compartments to organize all my buttons. If I can drag my big-fat-I-ate-too-much-at-Christmas butt off the couch, I will get that organized this afternoon.

Last minute crafting and tagging!

We are headed to our friend's house tomorrow night for Christmas Eve. This is a HUGE deal for us because every year Joe has had to work until 2 or 3 in the morning on Christmas Eve. This is the first time we will be able to spend it the way WE want to. Joe just called me with an "emergency". Joe just discovered that my friend's husband (the ones we are going to visit tomorrow night) has bought his wife the same thing we got her!! AHHHHH!!! I am not going to spoil his gift by giving her our gift first so after I write this post I'm headed to the craft room to whip up a bag or a wristlet or something. Just when I thought I was done....

I've been tagged by Bonnie at Tres Bon Babble. It's called the Weirdness Meme. My mother, my blog stalker, called to inform me that I had been tagged (I was already aware of that but was still thinking of 6 weird things). When I told her there was nothing weird about me she said she would call me back in 5 minutes with a list, and she did.

Here's my mother's "weird things about me" list:

1. I'm a weird eater. I don't like tomatoes, mushrooms or ANY fruit.

2. When I was in Grade 2 I hated school and one day told the teacher that I had a dentist appointment after lunch so I wouldn't be back at school. Instead, I went to the neighbour's house to play with my friend who was not yet in school. Needless to say, I got caught.

3. I have weird bones. 4 broken arms, 1 broken leg, 1 broken finger and 1 shattered (and replaced) elbow.

4. I'm scared of mice.

5. I have a MAJOR MAJOR MAJOR phobia of going to the dentist!!!!

6. I cry at sappy movies, for example, Charlotte's Web (the cartoon version), Benji and Frosty the Snowman (the cartoon).

I'm supposed to tag 6 others, instead I'm going to invite anyone to join in the fun!

My intent is to post a Merry Christmas post tomorrow....but just in case it doesn't happen, I wish you all a Very Merry Christmas!!!!

The Clock is Ticking

Ahhhhhhhh!!!

Christmas shopping isn't quite done and I still have a ton of stuff to do to get ready for the pot-luck lunch at school on Thursday.

I wrapped a gift for Joe's boss yesterday, and I couldn't believe my luck. I had no idea what wrapping paper I had since I bought all the paper last year at the Boxing Day Sales. Look at my luck:



Red paper with white buttons on it! Apparently I need to make more of the snowmen gift tags tonight.

Have a super day!

Wristlet Mania

Well, apparently I'm enjoying making these wristlets. I made three more, again procrastinating.














I think it's the fact that they whip up quite quickly and are extremely useful. I've been using the brown one every day since I made it.

I'm just about done Christmas shopping. I've been a bit migrainy and Joe has been very helpful. He needs to know exactly where he's going and exactly what he's buying, but given proper directions, he's actually pretty good at Christmas shopping!

I have another celebration this week at school for the reading program. We are having a pot-luck lunch and I'm giving away a Nintendo game-boy system and an mp3 player to students who have been reading. It should be fun, but it's a whole lotta work during a week that I really don't have time for it, but it will be worth it. I'm off for two weeks over Christmas, thank goodness. I'm very much ready for a break.

Life's getting crazy!

I'm feeling stressed. Stressed about work and stressed about Christmas shopping. I have to review my list again and see how I'm doing. I've been really really good at procrastinating when it comes to shopping this year. The only shopping I've really done so far has been online.
We went to Joe's work Christmas party last night. It was a great time, even though I hardly know anyone there. Joe won Season 1 of Melrose Place. Funnily, he wasn't nearly as excited as I was. I remember watching that back in the 80's and loving it. When Christmas is over and Joe's back to work, I think I need to have myself a little Melrose marathon.
Since I'm procrastinating, and only doing things I want to do, not things I have to do (apparently), I finally made a wristlet that I LOVE!!!

It's a mini version of this wonderful tutorial. The finished wristlet measures 10" at the bottom, 8" at the top and is 5" tall. It will be put to very good use after Christmas when my mother comes to visit at the casino!!!

Welcome to the covered notebook, take III. I didn't like seeing the sewn stitches on the inside cover and I really didn't want to have to cover the inside of the cover as well, so I cheated. I stitched the paper and then used paper Modge Podge to stick the cover to the book. I added a library pocket to the front to store the yet-to-be-made bookmark. I'm getting there. You may have to witness Take IV, I'm not sure yet.

Speaking of notebooks....a super-duper BIG thank-you to Leslie of Yarn and Needles Blog. She VERY GENEROUSLY sent me 5 composition books since I was having issues finding them in Canada. There are only 4 in the picture because I've already used one.

I've also added some Thank You cards to my Etsy Shop.

Ok, I now have to go and make lists, go grocery shopping, mail an Etsy order and hopefully pick up some Christmas gifts!! Ahhhhh!!!

More Christmas Craftiness

I had the students at school making some paper Christmas decorations for the library today. They were making paper globe ornaments a la Martha Stewart.

They had a lot of fun making them, but it became apparent very quickly that I actually had to do the cutting while they assembled the globes. Before long the globes turned into these snowflake-y decorations. I think I like them even more than the globes.

I was playing around the other night with Christmas gift tags. I think I know how I'm going to be using some of my newly purchased eBay buttons.

Lastly, Joe and I are going to his work's Christmas party of Thursday night. I decided to recycle an outfit from a couple of years ago. It's a long black skirt with a long-sleeved scoopy neck top. I like the outfit but it needed a bit of jazzing up.
I am not really into beading, but I am into crafting so I of course have a small collection of beads (I have no idea why). Anyways, a trip to the bead store and about $5.00 later I have these. I just love the sparkly beads!!

Stay tuned for take III of the covered notebook series. It's in my head but I don't know if I'm going to get to it this evening.

Not much news

I don't have much on the crafty side to report.

On Saturday I took a 2.5 hour seminar on digital photography. It was great to learn about some of the features of my camera. I really hope to learn more about photography and the seminar was a great start.

On Sunday we went geocaching for the WHOLE DAY. We left the house at 8:00 am and got home here around 9:00 last night. The two best parts of the trip were the casino (the boys dropped us off for an hour while they went and did a nearby cache) and dinner in St. Jacobs at the Sunday market.

I purchased some buttons from eBay. I just thought they were pretty.



I also purchased this very cute little notebook and bookmark from bookwormsuki's Etsy shop.

I've been tagged!

Thanks to Debbie for tagging me.

Here are my answers:

Four jobs I've had

Librarian at 3 different high schools
Chapters sales person
Public library clerk
I worked in a factory for 3 days as a teen and cried every night

Four Movies I Could Watch Over and Over

Ferris Bueller's Day Off
Pretty In Pink
My Cousin Vinny
Bridget Jones's Diary

Four Places I've Lived

Toronto, Ontario
Richmond Hill, Ontario
Newmarket, Ontario
St. Catharines, Ontario

Four TV Shows I Love to Watch

Anything on the Food Network
24
Survivor
Corner Gas

Four Places I've Been on Vacation

Las Vegas
Hollywood, FL
London, England
Prince Edward Island

Four Websites I Visit Daily

A zillion blogs
E-Mail
The Weather Network
Etsy

Four Favourite Foods

Caesar salad
BBQ hamburger
Dark chocolate
Pizza

Four Places I'd Rather Be

I can only think of one....the cottage.

Four People I'd Like to Tag

Feli from Life in Mono
Lera from The Sky is Pink

Mae from This Life: Part Two

Covered Notebook...Take II

OK, it's not really procrastinating because I came home and wrote all of our Christmas Cards. Once I got that done (and that was my only goal for the evening), I decided to try a fabric version of the notebook cover I played with yesterday.

I like the idea of a fabric covered notebook and I was really hoping that just stitching it on to the cover would work. Two problems with this one. The fabric is a bit thin and you can still see the cover of the note in bright light. That could be fixed by using interfacing. The second issue is the fraying edges. I don't know if the interfacing would help with that at all. I don't have any fancy stitches on my sewing machine that would help either. This was the first (and probably the last) time I played with appliqued circles. How on earth do people do that???? So, I think the solution for this is that I need to not be so lazy and actually HEM the sides before stitching it to the cover. Stay tuned for take III.

Also, a friend of mine, Mary, has opened an Etsy shop. She is a painter. She has a few items up for sale, but promises to have more up in the future. I love the little Chrismas trinket box!

More procrastinating

When I was at USA Walmart last week I picked up a plain old boring notebook. Why did I get it?? Because in Canada, in the notebook section of ANY store, all they have are spiral-bound notebooks. I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, but after dinner tonight I decided to sew a piece of scrapbooking paper to the front. It's cute. I like it. But I want to play with sewing a fabric cover for it, but now I've used the only book I bought and I need to run back over the border to pick up more. Why don't they sell these in Canada???????

Procrastinating

Even though I have a zillion things I should be working on (number one being the raggy quilt I'm making for my Mother for Christmas), I decided to try to make myself a wristlet.
The first attempt was just plain dumb. It's HUGE!! More like a duffel bag than a wristlet. I'll be using it as a travel bag or something, I don't quite know yet.

Attempt number two was a teensy bit better...but still way too tall.


Unfortunately, I've run out of that fabric, so attempt number three will be different. I will not attempt number three until I at least have the fabric cut for the quilt!

I ran over the river to Joann's a week ago or so and I couldn't resist buying these minty things:

Is that not the cutest little tin ever???? The mints are ok, I think they are fruity, but it's all about the tin.

I've signed up for a digital photography seminar this Saturday. It promises to teach me about composition and lighting. I'm really looking forward to it.

Lastly, I've added a couple more card sets to my Etsy shop.

The Great White North!

We went to the cottage this weekend to cut down some trees that were threatening to fall on the cottage and close it up for the winter. I was very hesitant to go on Friday because there were weather warnings in effect from here to the cottage. The "boys" that I was going with insisted that the traffic would be fine, and it was.
While Joe and Mark were playing lumberjack, I had lots of time to sit in front of the fireplace and knit. I finished another pair of mittens that are destined to be another Christmas gift.

When we left St. Catharines it was raining. When we finally got to the cottage 4 and a half hours later, there was about 6 inches of snow on the ground. The puppies were in heaven all weekend!!

I think the most fun was when I was trying to sweep off the deck. I had both dogs barking at me because they wanted me to throw the snow ON them. By the time I was done, the dogs were white, I was laughing and the Joe and Mark were inside the cottage laughing at us.

I love the view from the deck, even when there's snow on the ground. Unfortunately, I couldn't convice Mark to take down the trees that obscure the view to the lake.

Now that we are home it is SERIOUSLY time for me to get to work on several Christmas gift projects. I've been totally procrastinating. I have already told Joe, that no matter what, next weekend I have stuff I need to work on. I also need to write Christmas cards and get the tree up.
Back to reality now.

EDIT: Here's the link to the youtube video of the tree-cutting.

And the winner is....

Firstly, thanks to EVERYONE for entering my little Etsy contest. I'm so flattered to read all the wonderful comments. I wrote everyone's name on little pieces of paper and asked Joe to pick a name. He looked at me kind of weird, but promptly did what he was told. He picked Mae. When I asked him who won, he said "Me" (my writing was a little messy). I giggled and thanked him very much for the help.

So...congratulations Mae! I have taken the "Anytime Note Cards" out of my Etsy shop and as soon as I get your mailing address, I'll pop them in the mail.

Contest time

I've decided to have a little contest for a set of cards from my Etsy shop. It's an easy one, all you need to do is go to my Etsy Store and tell me what your favourite set is. On Friday morning I will draw from all the entries and send the winner their favourite set from the store. If the winner's favourite set is sold, I will either replace it exactly with a duplicate set (if I have it) or contact the winner and ask them to select from the remaining sets.





Good luck!

Misc.

I was fortunate enough to guess what a fellow blogger, Lera, was up to when she was making some soap, and she so GENEROUSLY sent me a bar of it as a reward. I can't describe how yummy it smells. There is a warning on the label that says "Do Not Eat" and I understand why it is there. It does smell good enough to eat! Also included in the package was a wonderful note and a Christmas tree ornament. The timing was perfect and I'll get to that in a second.
Here's a picture of the wonderful package from Lera.



I've decided to put up a Christmas tree this year. I havent' had a tree for a few years because we have a small two-bedroom bungalow with 2 dogs and 2 cats. There really isn't any room for a tree. The other night I realized that there is a small table in the living room that if I cleared off I could put up a little 4' Chrismas tree. Now I've decided that I want all the ornaments to be home-made, even though I have boxes and boxes of Christmas decorations in the basement. I've been surfing the net for the past couple of days trying to find some simple ornament tutorials that won't break the bank at the same time.
This morning at about 6:30 I made this as an experiment.



I was think I was a little bit aggressive with the trimming, but I think I would be happy with these. Maybe different shapes? Stars? Bells? I don't know.
If you have a favourite hand-made Christmas ornament tutorial/instructions, I'd love to hear about it!



Now time for a little shameless self-promotion. A while back, Jessica from Funky Finds (a blog that I frequent) asked if she could include my cards in an online shopping guide for Venuszine. It came out yesterday and here's the link to her feature.

Something new!

I was falling asleep last night and thinking about the fabric samples I had to work with (thanks Carol!) and I thought I would like to try a fabric box like the one in the Amy Butler book, In Stitches. Since I am still not 100% migraine free, when I looked at Amy's pattern (although VERY basic and easy to follow) it still felt like too much work. After a few minutes of Internet searching I found this tutorial for fabric bags (they look kind of boxy to me), so I tried it.




It seems a little bit more baskety than boxy, but I like it. I think I might make some out of Christmasy fabric and fill it with gifts. I used super-duper heavy-wight interfacing so it is very stiff. Hmmmm...more holiday sewing?? Probably.

Not much news to report

Not much news to report. Joe is working all weekend on a HUGE project at work and I'm kind of "on call" in case he needs any help. I'm not exactly sure how much help I could be, maybe that's why he hasn't taken me up on my offer yet :)

I want to thank everyone for their kind words about my Etsy Shop. My blogger friend Feli wrote the most amazing plug on her blog for my shop. I can't even begin to describe how flattered I am.

The store is going astonishly well and I'm having so much fun with it! I have a box full of completed projects that I never used, so some day I plan on going though it and maybe posting a bag or two on Etsy. I can't see that happening in the near future, but that is my plan. I've added a few more card sets to the shop this morning. Here is a sample.




I wanted to show a picture of my photography set-up. I can't stress enough just how easy it was to set up the light box. Here's a picture of it in action.



Today is the very first day since last Sunday that I haven't felt like I wanted to die because of my migraine. I've been catching up on housework and laundry all day. It's amazing just how fast the house can become a total mess!

I have to SERIOUSLY get to work on a couple of Christmas gift projects. I'm started to sweat a bit about it. Being sick all week has really put me behind schedule.

It's time to stop procrastinating and go and fold laundry...yuck.

Etsy's open for business

Oh my gosh, I'm so afraid of this post. I'm nervous!!!

Etsy is offically open for business (I guess!)

trailmixdesigns.etsy.com

Be nice!! I'm scared!! he he he

Here are a few of the items I've listed:

I made a light box!

I used this tutorial to make the EASIEST light box ever for taking photos. I was sick and tired of waiting for the sun to come out before I could take some pictures. I had to purchase the lamps, but they were only $7.00 each at Canadian Tire. It took me two minutes to set it up and a little longer to figure out how to adjust the light balance on my camera, but not much.

I'm pretty darned happy with the first pictures I took.

Here's a sample:



My head is feeling much better today, but I've taken soooo much medication in the past two days that I'm feeling crappy from that. I've never taken Excedrin Migraine before, and I don't think I ever will again. My heart was racing after I took it. I wasn't too happy about that.

Tonight we will be finishing up the big clean-up in preparation for the new furnace installation. They will be replacing it tomorrow. I can't wait until that is all done!

Don't do anything when you have a migraine

I left work this morning with a migraine, my head is booming.

I typed up a short post, published it...but it messed up my Site Meter (I have no idea what I did), so I deleted the post, uninstalled and re-installed Site Meter. That all started about 2 hours ago. Now I'll re-type my original post that started this whole mess. I'm also bummed out now because my Site Meter stats thoroughly entertained me. I loved looking at them, now I have to start from scratch!!!

I have nothing crafty to report. A couple of weeks ago we had furnace issues. The issues were fixed, but we were told that we needed a new furnace, pronto. Joe and I spent yesterday clearing a path from the furnace to the back door. I feel so much better now that the basement is somewhat organized (we still have miles to go before it can be considered done). One thing led to another and I'm in the midst of re-organizing the whole house. I've bought storage bins and I'm cleaning out corners that haven't been touched since I moved in here over 3 years ago.

I'm waiting for the sun to shine so I can take some pictures for my soon to be opened (I hope) Etsy shop.

I've been playing with digital scrapbooking elements, and I've made a new banner. Here it is:



Now I will try to sleep, agian, now that the blog issues are resolved (I hope!!!)

Future projects

I don't get to see my Mother regularly since she lives an hour and a half away. Yesterday she went shopping with her life-long friend, Carol, in the States. On their way home, I was able to meet up with them for dinner. They had visited my favourite place in the world, Joann's Fabrics while they were shopping. Apparently my Mother had quite a time trying to get Carol to leave the store. Kindly, Carol picked up some fabric samples for me to play with. I'm thinking some sort of bags are in order.



On the weekend, I had a quick trip to Value Village. I got what I think was a table runner that someone had made, using the greatest fabric! I am certainly going to recycle this when I get inspired. The fabric is like new, I doubt it was ever used.



Not too much on the crafty front. I've been working on finally opening an Etsy shop now that the new version is out. I'll keep you posted on that project!

Thanks for the help!!!

Thanks to Debbie, Jojo and Beki who responded to my plea for help with GREAT ideas! I must admit though, I opted for the easiest way out and I went to the dollar store and bought two pairs of cheapie gloves. I snipped off the ends, and voila! mini hats. I didn't even need to glue them on because the glitter really grabbed the fabric. In fact, I had to be careful when positioning the hats, because it was very difficult to adjust it once it grabbed on to the glitter.