Craft Junkie

Do you like my clothes? Do you want them for....free?!

2008-06-27T23:38:00.000+01:00

Do you like my clothes? Do you want them for....free?!

Bye Bye Blogger

2006-11-19T18:51:00.000Z

Hello, Wordpress. This will be my last blog on blogger. My new site is: http://craftjunkie.wordpress.com/ so add it to your bloglines and delete this one. This week I'm going to try to post at least once a day with a A Week of Thanks. Each day will be about something I'm thankful for. Hopefully I'll be able to throw some craft posts in there too. I still need to write a review of the Sew U pants pattern (waiting for my husband to take a picture of me wearing them!) See you at my new site!

PS. Capello, I know you asked about how the site was going. It was super easy and was actually done the same day I started; I'm just kind of bad at blogging. :) No html involved at all! So far... I know if you super customize stuff, you need to know some, but I was happy with what was already available. But if you really want to build a site from scratch, I recommend Microsoft Frontpage. It was really easy to learn. Email me if you have any questions.

A few things

2006-11-15T12:47:00.000Z

*I love mint flavored chocolate as much as I love pumpkin flavored anything. Oh the holidays are good for something! (Weight gain???)

*I will be moving. My blog anyways. Even with the changes that Blogger Beta has (which by the way I barely notice!!!), blogger still stinks. I need more, Blogger. So I'm moving to wordpress. This will cause a fight between my husband and me, but its okay. He spent countless hours about a year ago setting up a wordpress blog for us. He put it on his server though and its just not stable enough for me to want to use it. Anyways, I'm using the version that's hosted by wordpress. So far it looks great. Lots of neat options like categories and pretty layouts. I'll make another post when its all complete and ready.

Cale, robots and rambling

2006-11-14T13:28:00.000Z

What would you think if you went to someone's house and they had a very large painting of thier child in their living room? And by large, I mean huge, bigger than the child is tall? In other words do you think it would be tacky to hang this in my living room?

Its about 40" square. And Kevin thinks that its weird for me to want to hang it in the living room. He thinks it looks like we love our child too much. How is it any different from family photographs though?

Anyways, this week has been rough so far. Cale has been mouthy. And its getting to me. And my neck hurts. I don't know if I slept on it wrong, or if its stress or what, but it hurts.
On the plus side though, I got to be a pattern tester for Wee Wonderfuls new Robot pattern.
The pattern is wonderful and easy and cute and I highly recommend that you watch for when it goes on sale so you can buy it. The spaceboy might be even cuter than the robot!
Also I learned how to make pastelillos which is kind of like an empanada, so I see lots of spin offs from that recipe coming soon, including dessert empanadas!
Also, I made the absolute best dessert this weekend. It was very impressive and no cooking was involved! I made chocolate truffles and they were sooooo good! Even my dessert-hating husband loved them. I would suggest to use less oreos than it says though so more of the cream cheese flavor comes out.

My Thanksgiving menu is all planned and although it appears that we are cooking for many, I think its just us this year. I can't believe its next week! Being gone for a month in a hot state like Florida really took Fall away! Its already almost gone. There are no trees to admire here so we'll just have to pretend its not green and lush outside still. At least its chilly...sometimes.

The other day while thumbing through Pottery Barns Kids catalog, I ran across this advent calendar and fell in love. Advent calendars were not part of our Christmas tradition while growing up. When I saw the idea to put activities in it, instead of treats, I knew it needed to be implemented in our house. So now, I'm working on one for myself. The squares are cut and I have each one planned out, some the same, some different. My husband was like you going to plan 25 activities? No. That's where I cheat a little. Using my MOMS Club calendar, community activities, and our trip to Germany, it really doesn't leave many days to plan! So we'll make cookies, watch silly Christmas movies, make ornaments, decorate the tree and stuff like that. Plus crafts. Cale loves scissors and a glue stick! I'm pretty excited about those aspects of Christmas.
Pssst. I'll show you what's on my list: a new sewing machine. I want it now!!!! It does lots of pretty stitches and automatic buttonhole. And its reasonably priced, plus comes with free quilting feet! I really think mine is on its last legs. Or at least needs servicing, but no one in Italy works on Kenmores. With shipping, it probably is cheaper to just buy a new one. Sorry Kenny, I loved you but I've met someone new. I fell in love with his blanketstitch capabilities.
What's on your list this year?

My craft room

2006-11-09T12:34:00.000Z

I've been working here and there on stuff around the house that I always put off. Painting my bulletin board was one of those projects. The pegboard was painted almost a year ago. (Obviously there's still a ton of work in here!) The book in the righthand corner is Sew U. I'll be reviewing it shortly. I just finished a pair of pants from the patterns. My goal is to make one of each so I can fully review the book.

I finally finished this project yesterday as well. When I hurt my foot I knew I had to do something with the crutches. It seemed so wasteful to throw them away, but I can't stand keeping stuff like that either. So now they are shelves. One is glued and one warped so I had to nail it together. It makes the perfect home for my pez collection. Unfortunately they're a little too small. And yes, I know one is crooked. I hung it, what do yo expect???

I have also been painting lately. Its almost done and is coming along beatifully. Cale loves it so much that he actually pulls up a chair so he can sit and gaze at it. It will be revealed once it's done.
I bought Simplicity pattern 4072 (similar to this) and have been mulling over what fabrics to use. I love the clashing patterns. But there are so many great fabrics available lately. Hancock's of Paducah sent me a catalog recently and its so great to have so many of them to look at. They have a pretty decent selection of discounted fabrics too. I never know if I should spend the big bucks for fabric that I really love or be cheap, because the pattern may not even turn out that well.
I have also decided that I will not be making gifts this year. But in the DIY spirit, they will be purchased from small businesses.

PS. Have you checked out Pandora Internet Radio? I'm loving it. You enter a band you like and it finds stuff thats similar. If you hate what they choose, you say so and it deletes it. I did a Death Cab for Cutie search though and it keeps finding 90's grunge, which I keep deleting, so its basically playing Death Cab non stop. Which is weird, but the other stations are super cool so far.
Have a great weekend and have fun celebrating Veteren's Day! :D

4am Saturday morning + trip highlights

2006-11-01T19:15:00.000Z

So I was driving my husband to the airport (he was home for less than 2 days before he had to go somewhere) at 4am and looked up and saw lava on Mt Etna, Sicily's lovely volcano. Nighttime is about the only time its noticable. Its erupting at the top and on the side. Its probably the only time we spoke to each other the entire drive. Not much to talk about that early in the morning. I dropped him off and Cale said "Where's Daddy going?" This is his favorite new question. SO I said Daddy's going to work. Cale is never fooled easily. He said, "Different work?"
This was the exact moment that I knew I didn't want him to re-enlist. How do I explain to a 2 year old that his Daddy has to go to school for a week in another country? That's really hard. But explaining 6 months? It will be even sadder when he stops asking. I write this and I say this, but I know what his decision will be.

We got home a week ago. Our trip was completely exhausting, in every sense of the word. We experienced no jet lag on the way there, but it has taken a week and a half to recuperate. We spent a few days in Spain trying to get back so we've been on this time for that long.
I wish I could say we had a blast but there were more bad times than good times. So here's a few of the highlights.
*Seeing my new baby nephew, Trinton
*Seeing dolphins dance
*A lovely day spent on a deserted Pensacola beach. Cale and I went for long walks and collected seashells.
*Shopping. I miss you Target. And Joann's Superstore.
*Bought Sew U and have tons of inspiration for these 3 simple patterns.
*Spending time with my best friend who keeps me giggling for hours
*Being told constantly how good Cale is.
*Eating lots of good food.
*Going to really nice grocery stores.
*Fun beverages: Izzy juice, cheerwine soda, and pumpkin spice latte from Starbucks
*Making funny statements to Cale like "you've never been in a place like this" and I was talking about a convenient store or a target or an eckerds.
*Thrift Store City. My fave store in Norfolk still rocks. I can't even tell you how many awesome finds I found.
*Flea markets and thrift stores in general. So much awesome dishware, so little space to bring it back. I did buy too little pieces of Pyrex for a steal though!

So it wasn't all bad. I'm glad its over and so glad to be home. Cale's having a hard time adjusting to these 'naps' that I'm making him take again. He keeps trying to trick me. "Its not dark outside." "I wanna take a bath first." Today it got even better, "I'm going to tell everybody that you keep making me take naps when its not even dark outside." Kind of a long sentence for him and I'm sure he left words out, but that was the jist of it. But at least he's taking baths again.

Craft-tactular

2006-09-30T17:21:00.000Z

Or crap-tacular? :D

From the top L-R.
1. Baby gifts for my sister. I am going to go ahead and give her the stuff that I thought was too girly. I worked hard on it, dammit! Embroidered and freezer-paper-stenciled onesies and shirts, a quilted bib and a card I made from a kit.

2. Necklaces for a few people. The red heart one is made of resin embedded with glitter. The others are made of seaglass that I found in Sicily. It was my first try at wrapping stuff with wire. I like them a lot.

3. Wee Wonderfuls Kitty and an elephant purse. The purse was something I saw in a vintage craft book. I'll have to scan some of those wacky projects sometime! The kitty is for my neice and the purse is for my best friend. I love giving her weird stuff that I make.

4. Shirts for an older neice. One is embroidered and one is freezer paper stenciled.

2nd row:
1. Capri pants from a t-shirt. This is one of the easiest things in the world to make. I made it in under an hour. It's also for my neice.

2. (center) My friend is pregnant and not feeling too well. Her husband gets sent away a lot lately and so I know its kind of rough right now. So I made her a Feel Better Kit. I made lavender scented milk bath, a rice heat bag, lavender scented bath bombs, and a bag to keep candy in at work. Its the only thing that kept the nausea away for me.

3. A purse I made today. After seeing this, I knew I had to make one. It's a purse for embroidery tools. I made a few alterations though.

3rd Row:
1. The inside of the purse. I didn't do the clear vinyl because its such a pain to work with. And who really only has 15 things of thread? So I made a big pocket instead, a place for tracing tools, and my needle case is also a pocket.

2. Button detail. I had some of those really cool buttons that you can line with fabric so I used those.

Last row:
1. I made a passport case. (Although sadly it won't be used for this trip. We have tons of paperwork that needs to be shown all the time too.)

2. The inside. Patchwork pocket (can you tell I'm loving patchworks), lots of pockets. We have 2 sets of passports so I made 2 pockets to keep them seperate. I also included a notebook, because its so necessary for me to have something to write on.

3. Remember when I said that nothing I made with resin was too impressive yet? Well, it was kind of not true. The leaves are resin and the cherries are made of polymer clay. I painted them with nail polish so they would be nice and glittery too. I made one for myself and another for a friend who I hope to meet in Florida.

4. A quilted cuff. I have been admiring these all over the place, so I finally made my own. It's quite popular I guess, because my husband and son have kidnapped it.

PS. Sorry this is all "Look at me, Look at me, I make pretty stuff." I've had to to make time pass. And now it has. I'll miss all my blog friends. :D

Last Weekend

2006-09-30T14:55:00.000Z

Yeah, I know, a little late. But we took really pretty pictures.
Although I had a ton to do, my husband bribed me to go with him. He promised we would go look at furniture. So I went.

And it was beautiful, despite the heat. Our camera's battery was dying so we didn't get many pictures. Kevin got to scuba dive and we played on the boat. Cale met a new friend. It was a pretty nice day.
Later that night, we went on a search for a furniture store that sells B & B Italia Furniture. I knew that it was really nice. I also knew that most of the time, stuff made in Italy is about half the price as what it goes for in the states. Not knowing the price of these couches, this logic told me that we could afford them. So we went looking. The first place we ran across was just the outlet. Nothing really caught our eye. But there was a sign showing where the showroom was. So we followed those directions and finally found it. We went in to what we assumed was the right place. And we found a couch that we really liked. But I noticed that it was a different brand, so I asked him where the B & B Italia furniture was. He told me that it was right beside his shop. So we went in, after finally figuring out where the entrance was.
I should have known what would happen when we were greeted by a host who asked if we wanted stuff to drink. He even offered granita! I also should have known when I looked around and saw my dream chair, the Kartell Ghost Chair. But I was in designer furniture heaven. I had furniture orgasms. Yes its true.
So we found a couch we liked and went and sat down to get the price. Okay, any time you have to ask for the price and it has to be calculated, it's too much, Emy!!! That eff-ing couch cost 6000 euro! For 4 18inch pillows, it was 500 euro! So every bit of furniture goodness that I had got kicked out of me when he told me the price.
Luckily we really do like the first couch better. And it will be ours soon.

The next morning his dive was canceled so we went home and worked around the house. Then we had dinner with friends. So it was a great weekend.

This one has been spent at my sewing machine so far. We leave tomorrow and I can't wait.
Another post will be coming after I make dinner.

3 days to go

2006-09-28T12:52:00.000Z

And the panic attacks started yesterday. Anxiety is a pretty new thing for me. I had my first attack in August and I thought I was dying. Which only made the attacks worse. Now that I know what it is, I can feel better but they still suck. I'm not consciously stressed. I'm not sitting here going ohmygod, ohmygod. But they're happening all the same. I've been keeping myself busy by making everyone gifts. Pictures will come later.

This is why I miss trees. See those beautiful colored leaves? There are no trees here. And no Autumn colors. This was taken in 2004, about the time we found out we were coming here. We drove west to see Autumn. This was taken at a state park on Virginia. We stopped in a tiny town to buy a pumpkin and the accents became so thick, I couldn't understand people! That was why Virginia is considered Southern! Living in Norfolk, I had never come across such a southern drawl. Anyways, it was a wonderful trip and we will always have this picture to remind us. It came out so wonderful.

This was my house. A part of me really wants to drive by and see it, but I know it will only hurt worse. Plus it would kill me if something has happened to Ruby or Mrs Bartlett. I really like to think of the Norfolk area as my home. I'm afraid I will get there and realize that its not and the feeling of homelessness will hit. And I'm afraid to realize that Sicily is home!

But even then, I know where everything is, so I think I will still enjoy my time there. Hopefully I'll get a chance to post everything I've made. To make time pass, I have crammed an impossible amount of crafting in. I'm almost done now, and I'm already thinking of more projects, but this time for myself.

Apples

2006-09-22T10:59:00.000Z

I have done nothing lately. And now panic is starting to set in. I leave in about a week and there's still so much to do. But instead I blog.

I found a really great blog: Craft Apple. I'm sure its not new to other people, but it is to me. Her blog is filled with beautiful pictures of her beautiful projects and tutorials! Gotta love those. If you don't already have a full to-make list, check out her site.

And look what I found on Flickr. Another Emy in Europe! Why can't I meet more people in real life who I share so many interests with?

And one more link: Tortilla Soup. I must confess that I'm not really as good of a cook as people say. I owe everything to a few good cookbooks, my favorite being from Pampered Chef. I used to always think it sounded so snotty, but one party had me hooked. I found a ton of recipes online here, but its just not the same without the pictures.

Let's hope that time will slow down a little this weekend so I can finish everything that I hope to.

PS. I went to the air terminal yesterday to ask about my trip and get a schedule of flights and I am so excited!! I keep hyperventilating! :D

Did I mention that my sister is having a baby? My sister is having a baby! Its taken 9 months to sink in for me, but she's dilated and soon I will have a new nephew to visit.

This n that

2006-09-20T13:47:00.000Z

Today while doing research on my upcoming trip, I read a thread on a forum that indirectly said that my husband was "a little tyrant" and "a control freak." Haha. That made my day. I can't wait to tell him.

I haven't been feeling well lately. I think its part illness and part I-f***ed-up-my-latest-craft. So actually its pretty nice, but it was supposed to be a gift for my sister's new baby who is a boy. It turned out a tad girly though. So back to the drawing board. My "little tyrant" husband pointed this out to me last night as I finished. Is there anyway to do embroidery in a non girly way? I had printed out a beautiful vintage pattern and used it. My sister is more of a ghetto fabulous kind of girl than punker so Sublime Stitching is out. I may just stick to freezer paper stencils. I'll post pics after they are given to her. She looks at my flickr site regularly. Luckily, I have a friend who is pregnant with a girl who will be getting extra baby shirts. :D

Another project I have in mind is for another pregnant friend. She's really sick and tired all the time so I just want to cheer her up. So I decided to make her some bath bombs, a rice hot bag, and a bag to store candy in. If time permits, I may make her some capri pants from a t shirt as well. I love those and they're so easy.

I'm trying to get my house ready to go. I just want it clean and organized so that it's pleasant to come back to. I rearranged my living room and my bedroom (and broke my bed.) I was so proud of myself, until I woke up in a bed that was collapsed in the middle. Luckily my husband fixed it.

Looks like we may be spending the weekend looking at The rocks of the Cyclops while my husband does some diving. It will be kind of annoying because although we're on the coast, there's no beach. And that lady instructor with the perfect body who has a daughter Cale's age and speaks 3 languages fluently. :D But there's always capo's and wine. Maybe I'll take some knitting or something.

Current and recently finished crafts

2006-09-13T12:41:00.000Z

So I have been waiting forever for the paper mentioned in this project by Crafty Chica to be for sale. It seems that it will never be, so I am working on my own. This is mainly done by image searching on google and copying images I like, plus I am working on a few linoleum cut stamps to add to it. All this work for a few sheets of paper to use for decoupaging a tissue box. My images are all black and white though.
It seems that me and Kathy have more in common that just the paper. I have been dying to work with resin for so long. I bought some in the states but after reading all of the warnings about the fumes and skin contact, I chickened out. So after much searching, I finally found a site who would ship it to me. Shhhh! Nothing so far is amazing, just some glitter imbedded, so no pics. But I do have so much more planned for it. I have been searching to no avail for information on making molds out of polymer clay for resin. It seems that all I can do is go ahead and try it out. I have very special plans for this though, very much inspired by Tarina Tarantino.

Now for some pics. A few weeks ago, I hosted a caffeine kicker for MOMS Club. I only owned 2 mugs at the time, so this was a great excuse to buy some more. However, the selection here is less than stellar, so I bought plain white ones and painted them with glass paint. I screwed a few up and I just scrubbed the design off and repainted them, then baked them to a permanent finish that's dishwasher safe. (Psst. mmy husband's favorite one is the one of the far left, the flower-y one!! This cracks me up.) They have really inspired me to do the same for baby shower favors for a friend. No clue on a pattern yet though.

I also made a heating pad cover. I based it on the one in Denyse Schmidt Quilts. I say based, because I just kind of winged (wung?) the pattern. There's no nearby Kinko's to go copy the pattern at 400% so I improvised with a newspaper.
I love my heating pad. It is a permanent resident on my couch due to frequent back aches (and sometimes I use it when I'm cold, okay!) The old cover was soooooo ugly. Now it's so pretty that it makes me want all new throw pillows in similar happy colors (and a new couch too....)

So this is kind of silly, but...
Cale kept asking where his watch was. He sees me wearing one, and his dad has one that Cale kept trying to swipe. I'm sure someone makes kid's watches, but with a 2 inch diameter wrist, I doubt any would fit. Plus, its not like he can read it, or tell time for that matter. So I made him a fake one. Its a reversible cuff. The look on his face when I showed him was worth it. So worth it.

His hand is covered in paint in the first picture (not filth.) :D

PS. Does anyone else read Bust magazine? Amy Karol, aka Angry Chicken has an article on how to make aprons, and Hillary's lovely pattern book is also featured! I felt all warm and fuzzy like I know them in real life or something. ;)

Funny Bunny

2006-09-12T11:55:00.000Z

Cale has this friend who is not quite real, but too real to be imaginary. He's visible anyways. Bunny has surpassed Monkey George, Pooh, Doggie and Roars to be Cale's new bestest friend.

Bunny is apparently very mischievous because Cale is constantly putting him in Time Out. They snuggle, Cale rocks Bunny (because he is also a baby), he asks Bunny if he is okay. Cale makes me hold Bunny a certain way. Cale comforts Bunny when he is afraid (usually of Monsters.) He feeds him and shares his juice with Bunny.
At this point I'm more amused than worried. I know that Cale wants a sister. He tells me all the time. I think this is his way of showing me that he would be a great brother (or he's a very lonely kid with a big imagination.) I wish I could be so sure that I want another baby though. Even though I have names picked out and nurseries designed in my mind, I'm just not sure if I'm ready to make my life hard again. Its so easy now. One of my close friends is pregnant and we had always planned to have our second children around the same time. But I see how sick she is and how tired she it and I'm more confused than ever.
For now, we've decided to wait to decide. We have a ton of traveling coming up and maybe after we see Europe (and Egypt, please please please) we will know more.

Wow, I turned what was supposed to be a cute post about my cute kid into something really serious. Maybe I got high from the E6000 glue I was using earlier. :D

Labor Day Weekend

2006-09-05T11:27:00.000Z

This is really starting to become a travel journal! I guess its good to see that I'm not a crafting robot. Nothing crafty was done all weekend.

Although our plans to go to San Capo Lo Vito were ruined by toxic algae, we decided to not let that stop us from having fun. So Sunday, we packed up and headed to Cefalu. We also ended up seeing Caccamo, Patti, Tyndiri, and Isole Bella.

Highlights from our trip:
*Leaving home
*Pretty stress free driving for most of the way
*Beautiful beaches
*Sandy beaches - so soft on my feet. As a bonus it exfoliated my dry skin as well!
*Having a shower at the hotel with a removable shower head to wash away sand from unmentionable parts of the body...
*Italian mentality about the body- I love it in a way, because no matter what size you are, or how old you are, its perfectly acceptable to wear bikinis.
*Hibiscus plants. I've never seen them grow to tree proportions.
*Pasta alla norma. I love eggplant so much.
*Gelato. We had watermelon. It tasted more like peaches, but had watermelon seeds and stained Cale's face.
*Yummy panini's from gas stations.
*Getting to go to Patti to the Caleca factory and buy pottery.
*Getting home with said pottery and finding out that a few pieces were made for Williams and Sonoma and I only paid 5 euro for each piece.
*Visiting Isole Bella. I love this beach the most. Its a pebble beach though. Which is both good and bad. Bad for the feet, good because you feel cleaner. And pebbles are pretty.
*Coming home.

Lower points of the trip:
*Going to the castle, but it was closed.
*Sandy beaches- leave you feeling dirty.
*Stevie No Pants - My name for this little boy who ran up to us with his little peepee flapping in the wind. Cale was very confused why this little boy had no pants on. So was I....
*An awful night of sleep. We slept in a double bed with Cale... who snores, kicks, hits and bed hogs.
*A million tolls.
*Even more tunnels, some very long.
*Trying not to puke as we drove through all those tunnels and down windy roads with my dear husband driving a million miles an hour.
*Not being able to find a bancomat (ATM) in Isole Bella or Giardini Naxos.
*20 euro for a lido! (A lido is a private beach where you pay for 2 chairs and un umbrella. We normally pay 10 euro or less.)
*Unpacking. And the laundry that will come from it.
*Knowing that Summer is almost over. Just when I started enjoying it.

Today I started watching my friend's 2 children. It is so much harder than I thought. I'm hoping it gets easier though. I thought it would be my kid who was the hardest. Turns out its the baby. It seems that I forgot everything I used to know. Cale has been great with her. It makes me so proud.

Welcome September!

2006-09-01T11:19:00.000Z

Every morning I wake up and hope that the sun won't shine. As negative as that sounds, its not. It never rains here during the summer. I love rainy summer days. I never ever get them here. I miss Norfolk so much. It rained so much there that my grass was always a beautiful green; it almost glowed in the dark!
So today I woke up hoping for the same thing. It was dark outside too so I got real excited. But then I realized that the sun wasn't up yet. And sure enough, it turned out to be another sunny day. They don't call it Sunny Sicily for nothing.

But somehow, as I was avoiding being outside all month, nice weather has snuck up on me, making me realize that Autumn is coming. It has been in the 80s lately. A nice change from the 100+ weather. I love Spring and Autumn the most. Fresh cool air makes me want to do so much. I cleaned my upstairs today for the first time in much too long. My thoughts are turning to other home projects. A garden expansion (and revamp) is in order, plus painting a few things. When we lived in Norfolk, I painted rooms constantly. Paint was cheap and we owned our home so we could do whatever we wanted. I can't paint here (paint costs too much, plus I would have to paint it back white when we moved) so that need for change manifests itself elsewhere. Like the garden.

It looks like we won't be making a big trip this weekend after all, so I'm hoping for a beach day, a trip to the market, and maybe a trip to Castorama (Home Depot type store) for some supplies.

PS. I got the new Pottery Barn Kids catalog and was looking at it with Cale. How freaking cute is this spider?
But I think I like this skeleton even more because Cale thinks its scary. But for $49, I think I will be making it myself. They have really cute trick or treat bags too. Last year Cale wore his costume about 4 times so its worth it. Anyone else thinking about Halloween yet?

How I spent Sunday

2006-08-30T12:14:00.000Z

On August 27th, 1999, I fell in love with my husband and we've been together ever since. Honestly I think we were in love before this, but this is the day we celebrate as our anniversary of being together. Sunday we celebrated our 8th year of happiness. On that wonderful day 8 year ago, he took me out and missed the exit for the restaurant 3 times before getting it right. I must have been really captivating! And beautiful, did I say beautiful? Anyways, it only seemed appropriate that we spend this day adventurously too. So we headed out to Gole dell' Alacantara (Alacantara Gorge). And we got lost. Several times. But once we found it, it was gorgeous!

The water was freezing. Not like, oh, that's cold, but ouch, my legs have no feeling anymore. And no my husband couldn't be satisfied hanging out right by the stairs. We had to climb rocks and walk through rapids that threatened to take my shoes from my feet. But we finally found a pretty secluded area. In typical Italian fashion, we were surrounded within 15 minutes.
Cale had a great time throwing rocks. He hit a lady so his dad put him in timeout. So then the little boogerhead threw another rock and hit me! In the face!

We had a nice afternoon and on the way back, walked through the cave part. It looks like french fries.

Here you can see the french fries. And the man in a speedo and the other man whose package you can also see who's wearing a funny hat. (sorry guys, when you don't move for my picture, you end up on my blog.) Those things really leave nothing to the imagination!

After seeing all those french fries, we were hungry so we went to McDonalds. McD's is the only fast food here. And it is nothing like the states. Its serious stuff!! People dress up to go. The food is decent and doesn't make you sick! Its quite worthy of taking pictures when you go to McDonalds in Sicily.

And that was our day. This weekend we really wanted to go to The Zingaro Nature Reserve. It looks beautiful. We planned on camping nearby but then we heard about the bacteria in the water. :( Now I'm not sure where we will go. Its a 3 day weekend (possibly 4) so we wanted a pretty nice trip. We were going to go to Palermo, the capital city of Sicily. We wanted to see the catacombs that holds all the mummies. And I really wanted to go see Mr Nino and buy some of his lovely pottery. Its my favorite here. So now I'm sad and pouty faced. Where will we go now?

PS. thanks for all the nice comments everyone! They made my day! Jen, I'll try to get some kind of tute up some time soon. Sheena, I'll be glad to teach you! Just name a time. :D

Lots of crafting lately

2006-08-27T18:29:00.000Z

1. Shirred shirt. Made with elastic thread. I wish I could say my machine handled it better but it doesn't. Also wish I could say that its flattering, but that is also not true. I still like it though...

2.Made from two camo jackets. I also made Cale a pair of shorts. Someone asked me the other day where I bought it! That's always a complement. I love the way it fits.

3. I made this last year, but altered it the other day to fit better. I put a lot of work into those pintucks (done before I had a serger or a pintuck foot!) I made it longer and made the straps skinnier.

4. Okay so I finished this months ago, but forgot to post it. I started working on this before Cale was even conceived! I had to add little panels to make it fit (Thanks Cale!) Its a halter dress. I have yet to wear it out.

NEXT ROW
5. I made this corset top. Its fully lined with bleached muslin. I decided to not use boning or hook and eyes because the fabric was so sweet. I wanted to keep it sweet so I went with buttons. This pattern was much easier than I expected. Its an older pattern, so its not in stock anymore. The very top doesn't fit well, so alterations are still needed. I just need to figure out what to do.

6. I am really loving long projects lately. I made this quilt recently and I am quite in love with it. It was very much inspired by this Denyse Schmidt quilt. I changed the colors a bit. The background is chocolate brown with a green vine and red and aqua flowers. I used really cool varigated brown thread. I'm loving the varigated thread lately. Sorry for the crap pic. I really need to take lessons or something.

7.I finished my Cabo halter. I had no invisible zippers in my stash and no desire to wait for one to come in the mail, so I made it button up the back instead. I may go back and change it eventually but for now it works. This pattern was incredibly easy to make and really fast. I actually got confused because that Amy spells out every single little detail.
Let me note that it took about a yard of fabric, even for medium. I also made this with jersey knit and it did not turn out so nice. It reminds me too much of a sports bra.

8. I bought plain white plastic and ceramic bathroom stuff so I could embellish them. They're too rounded for real mosaics so I faked it. I used tissue paper and watered down glue to make these. They need a few coats of spray paint and they should be good to go.

LAST ROW
9. Oil painting of a dandelion. My husband brought home a huge box of art supplies one night and some oil paints were in there. I finally tried them out and this is the results. Plus messy hands, a headache and nausea. :D I was really going for a not dreary typical oil painting. I kinda like it.

10. My absolute favorite creation of late. I made this skirt from Denyse Schmidt fabrics plus a strip of vintage fabric for the waistband. I was going to do ruffles but once I got some on, it seemed a little too square-dancey for me. So here it is finished and lovely.

11. When life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Or when your husband goes through his clothes to get rid of stuff, grab stuff to make new stuff out of! This used to be a polo shirt. Its vintage and so soft, I couldn't let it go. So now its cute and girly and ruffly. I love the way the ruffles turned out.

12. This shirt used to be peach. But I dyed it red and it came out pink with red trim. I liked it so I made it short sleeved, and cut it shorter. I'm still trying to decide if it needs some Sublime Stitching. And rickrack perhaps?

I hope I have time in September for crafting. I have several baby showers coming up in the next few months so probably lots of cute stuff. Maybe some travel tags for my luggage to distinguish my black suitcase from the sea of other black suitcases. More experimenting with Sergio, my lovely serger (I just changed the thread from white to black and tried out the rolled hem!!) So more of that is due.

My Living and Dining Rooms

2006-08-26T19:14:00.000Z

For Angela. Late but better than never!

Really bad pic of my living room but you get the idea. I'll post again once we get new couches in a few months.

How it looked today. We picked up another train set today for $5. This thing is HUGE, but Cale had tons of fun.

My dining room. This was taken a long time ago, but this is still pretty much how it looks.

The hutch has been reorganized several times. I think it will be repainted either aqua or mint green in the next few weeks.

2 of my favorite things from inside the hutch. Sicilian souviniers of Sicilian carts. I love the color. And look at the little bitty one. Awwwwwww.

One of my less pretty corners. Cale's picnic table and easel.

And even less pretty. The Star Wars table. Cale has no idea what Star Wars even is, so surely he won't mind if I redo it in pretty oilcloth right? He uses this table for tea parties with his bunny (not pictured) and Monkey George (he doesn't sit well on a chair, so he sits on the table).
Be glad I left out the corner that houses the recycle bin and giant dry erase board filled with the list of all lists.

Coming soon, post of what I've been up to lately, craft wise. But first check out this crazy thing:

This is growing on what I thought was a zucchini plant. However this looks like no zucchini I have ever seen. Zucchini are about this color here, but I've never seen a pointy one. And I have never seen one so large. We thought it was funny looking when it was a foot long. Now its longer than my arm and still growing. We joke that we can feed the entire block with this thing. The plant itself is pretty scary too. It has taken over my entire garden and we often say its only a matter of time before its knocking on the door. Comparisons to Little Shop of Horrors are often made.
I'll let you know how it tastes when we harvest it (and if we mutate....)

The Case of the Missing Blogger

2006-08-25T13:08:00.000Z

starring Emy Lou (Kind of rhymes with Nancy Drew...Use your imagination, people).

My computer crashed and it has taken this long for my husband to figure out a way to get my info off of it and make it work again. For how long is the question. So after that it looks like I will be using his computer which I hate. Oh well.

Lots of computer free time + hot ass month = lots and lots of crafting. I really missed reading blogs but I kind of enjoyed the extra time as well. So maybe I need to designate a few days a week "computer free".

Lots of stuff coming up for us. In September, I will be watching my friend's 5 month old. I'm hoping this will help convince me that I can handle a second child. :D
In October, we're flying home to good old Norfolk. I have lots of thrifting planned, plus stocking up on stuff like apple butter (the kind from small farm stands), thread, zippers, and stuff for Cale. I wonder if I can smuggle a quart of house paint home in my suitcase. Its so expensive here! I'm hoping to get a day or two in Norfolk, then we plan on driving down to Pensacola. I want to take the "scenic route" and hit towns like Savannah, Charleston SC, and Jacksonville. These all seem like good options for places to live when we move from here. I don't know what the future holds, but I want to be knowledgable on my options when it comes to it.

I'll try to photograph everything I've made recently. And I promise to post more in the future. Hopefully I still have a few readers. :D

my blogger is broken... or is it my computer?

2006-07-25T10:13:00.000Z

Anyone missed me? I haven't been able to get blogger to work for over a week now. At first I thought the whole site was done, but then everyone else kept posting so I knew something was up. I tried upstairs on my husband's computer with no luck either. Right now I'm on his other computer, the one I am never ever supposed to use. (Its a server.) So shhhh. I have no clue what's wrong. I checked it for spyware and no ne was found. Hopefully my husband can fix it soon for me so I can blog again and view pictures on other blogger blogs. Wish me luck!!!!

PS. If anyone has any computer insight to how to fix it, I will love you forever.

In the mean time if you miss me, check out my flickr pics. My user name is craft.junkie

Emy

WIP Friday

2006-07-14T14:23:00.000Z

Cale's Robots and Rockets quilt is almost done. I can see the light. This is so exciting. The quilting is done and I'm working on the binding. It seems to be taking the longest so far!

New supplies arrived today so these are future WIP's.
Denyse Schmidt fabrics for some kind of patchworky skirt, yellow fabric for a skirt, solids for a living room throw blanket (another quilt!?), and Amy Butler fabric and Cabo halter. I personally don't see how a halter can need 2 1/2 yards of fabric so I'll keep you updated. I've heard wonderful things about this pattern so I'm looking forward to it.
Not shown are more patterns. Either my skills have improved or I'm less hard on myself now. Either way, I'm really enjoying sewing a lot more!

Bad Mom Day and Cale's New Hair

2006-07-13T10:49:00.000Z

So I'm having a Bad Mom Day. Surely I can't be the only one who has these. The ones where you wonder what the hell you are doing wrong for your kid to be so bad, because surely its your fault.

This was before we cut his hair. He asked me to make it pretty.

This was taken today before playgroup. Surely this doesn't look like the face of a bully. But it is. He went from wanting to hold a baby and being loving to her and then ten minutes later he pushed a girl down from a chair. She fell and hit her head on a tile floor. This is the second time he has done something that really hurt someone (not counting me.) This week has been bad. Throwing stuff, talking back, making messes and now this. Right now he's supposed to be taking a nap and he's upstairs screaming.

I'm at a loss. How did my kid get so bad? What have I taught him? Maybe its something I haven't taught him. I keep telling him and telling him to be nice to his friends. We had a long talk today about it, but I feel like it made no difference.
By the way, I made his shorts. Without a pattern. They're a little funny but they look cute on him. Patterns have been ordered and I will soon start making his clothes. This is due to him being a skinny bones, not me being a control freak Martha Stewart mama. :D

Corner of my home Thursday

2006-07-13T10:43:00.000Z

One of my favorite corners. My aqua colored dishes were found at two different thrift stores. They look remarkably like Fiestaware. Finding two sets of it from two different brands was pure luck. I made the toaster cover out of oilcloth. I love it so much.
(We have almost no outlets so excuse the bright orange outlet thing.)

Update

2006-06-23T10:42:00.000Z

Usually if I'm not blogging, that means I've been crafting. And I have. A lot. Like a crafting spree. I have a 2 hour time frame during naptime that I use to do what I want, and another 2 hours after we put Cale to bed. Sometimes I get a little extra time if my husband is home and watches Cale for me. No pictures today but they're coming soon I promise.

I received my Potholder Princess prize a few days ago but I have not had time to take a picture of me wearing the crown. (My husband hasn't been home much, and he's my picture taker, when its of me.) I feel bad too. The prize was great, but I was asked to not show it, so sorry no pictures.

Other than crafting a lot, I have been working on our newsletter for MOMS Club. Its my first one and it's taking me a while. I'm frustrated with the lack of help I have received on it so it's last priority for me right now.

Here's a link for a very, very easy sewing project. I made it in about 30 minutes. You take a large tshirt and turn it into comfy capri pants by using the armholes for the crotch. It's genius! So simple too. I bought a new tshirt for the occasion because I wanted a plain pair of pants. I bought XXL but a Large probably would have sufficed. Mine are a little big in the waist, but once I fix that, they will be perfect. Because I used such a large shirt, the legs are wider.

Pictures coming soon, I promise!

Sunday

2006-06-12T09:20:00.000Z

We went to the Catania Antique Market. I love it because its filled with junk. The other antique markets we have been to have been full of ancient, very expensive furniture. The stuff is beautiful but not my style. And most of the time, it is so huge that it would never fit into a standard American house. Most homes cannot accomodate a 10 foot tall armoire.

I love these. They will go in my kitchen. Maybe i can get my husband to hang the curtains soon too!

We bought this for 12 euro!! The man originally said 15 but while we were asking each other if he said 15 or 50, he lowered it to 12. It needs a lot more cleaning.

I'm not sure where this is going or even how to hang it, but I knew I had to have it. I was so surprised that my husband agreed to buy it! He normally says no to anything with flowers. The flowers are ceramic. When I first found out we were moving to Italy, I promised myself I would buy one of these. Its really big, almost as big as Cale, so close to 3 feet tall.
Sunday was a good day.

There's another antique market nearby that happens every 3rd Saturday. Wouldn't you know that it just happens to fall on Father's Day this month. I'm hoping Kevin will want to go. Yeah right.

Kid stuff swap 3

2006-06-08T10:33:00.000Z

I participated in the kid stuff swap 3 at Craftster and my partner has received. As usual I was left with swap anxiety, but I'm really really pleased with everything I made for my partner.

A freezer paper stencil. This is perhaps my favorite thing. It was supposed to be a simple 3 part stencil, but it ended up being 6 parts. The first coat of red looked pink, so it has 2 coats. The blue circle was not part of the original design but it really adds a lot.

I made a name banner out of felt for the child. (My partner asked not to use his name on the internet so this is the only picture I took.) I was inspired by this Happy Birthday bannerat Mahar Dry Goods. A name banner just seemed like a better use. It sure seems like a lot of work for just one day!

I made a reversible smock. One side features Curious George (or Monkey George as Cale affectionately calls him.) The other features 3 Thomas trains. Cale has no idea who Thomas is, just that he's a train. I had to keep this out of site or it would have disappeared. :D

A backpack to put everything in. And to to lug around favorite toys and books.

And some collage art that was tons fo fun to make. Something about cutting and gluing paper is so therapeutic. Maybe it reminds me of the good old days in kindergarten.

I should probably get my stuff sometime next week. I'm excited for Cale.

Everything I made received the same comment from my husband: "Are you going to make Cale one of those?" Um, maybe next month.

He got a rather strange package from my dad yesterday. It contained a giant coloring book (which I knew about), a gnome (Cale calls him Ho-Ho because he thinks he's Santa Claus), some pictures, a letter and a poster of a Budweiser girl. The weird part is that my day signed the picture to my husband. I'm sorry Dad, but no one writes as bad as you, so its quite obvious who signed it. :D So now I'm going to call him Gina. We have always joked about him being both our Dad and Mom because he raised us by himself....

baby shower gifts

2006-06-05T10:32:00.000Z

This weekend I went to a baby shower for my friend in Moms club. I bought her a few things but I also embellished onesies for her new baby. She's kind of crafty herself, so I knew she would appreciate it.

Four are embroidered and one is freezer paper stenciled. Each took me several hours. Embroidery is probably my favorite craft. It's semi portable so I can sit on the couch and watch tv while doing it. It fulfills my crafting needs better than anything else. Like sometimes I can sew on the ssewing machine for hours but not feel like my need to craft has been taken care of.

This is the packaging that I made. I didn't want her to not notice that I had made them special.

And the back, specifying the size.

I'm a nervous gifter. I always spend tons of time picking out a gift (for everyone) and then worry the whole time whether or not they will like it. Handmade gifts are especially subject to this, because they have so much of me put into them. Plus I see all the flaws that aren't apparent to other people but stand out to me. I'm always nervous my gift will either be opened first or last. I normally try to stay out of the room if possible, but it wasn't possible this time. And I was sitting next to her. I kept trying to think of excuses to leave. I heard kids outside screaming and I was hoping it was mine, so I could run outside, but nope, not Cale. Several other gifts were handmade as well. Which helped. But then she got to mine and made a huge deal of them. Which is exactly what I was afraid of. They got passed around the room and I imagined people scrutinizing the flaws. (I'm my own worst critic.) But people said lots of nice things. At the end of the shower a lady approached me about selling them. She has a website, Go-Yen Bags and was excited to meet someone else who crafted and sewed. It was really nice that someone else besides my husband said I should sell stuff. He has to be nice, but she doesn't. I think she has a craft fair kind of thing in mind. She knows several other women who make stuff as well.
I do have dreams of opening a business, though I haven't narrowed down what exactly i want to sell. I wish I had one specific interest, but I like so much.

By the way, I went to the doctor on Friday. My bee sting is infected. They gave me antibiotics (not the nice amoxocillin either, but grown up sounding stuff) and claritin. The pills make me so sick. Then I smelled them. No wonder they make me sick, they're made out of poo!!! I have to take them 4 times a day, which means I have to set my alarm clock to take one in the middle of the night.

Have you seen the entries for the Craftster Challenge 12, Kitschy craft contest? Normally there is one great one that stands out the most to me, but there are so many great ones this time. Those craftsters never cease to amaze me.

I am the Princess Potholder for the month of May at Hot Mitt Monthly! Yay!! I really needed to win so that maybe my luck will change. My poor foot could use some relief. :D

Now for my month of me!

Hot Mitt Monthly for May

2006-05-31T12:46:00.000Z

With a few hours left to spare before May becomes June, I am posting my entry for Hot Mitt Monthly. (Actually there is still 9 hours left, but it sounds better saying "a few".) The theme for May was "Anything Flower Pot Holder", but for some reason I read it as Flower Pot- Potholder. So technically it is still anything flower. :D So in my son's 2 hour nap today, I made this. Let me just say that potholders are not easy to make. I made 2 once with binding and the curse words were flowing freely. I recently embroidered 2 more and they were also a pain. So props to those who can make them without saying the eff word or beating up their sewing machine.

Here you see it in all of it's glory. A flower in a pot.

Here they are seperately. The pot is a (small) potholder. The flower is finger mitts.

See? This shows the back side. The pot has a little pocket to hold the flower. The flower looks like a weird shaped maxipad, huh?

And with a little imagination, my flower mitt becomes a monster. Thanks Cale for pointing this out to me!! Aren't kids the best?

They aren't suited for heavy duty work due to the small size, but I think they would work fine for say, getting a pizza out of the oven.

Back from camping

2006-05-30T10:02:00.000Z

We got back yesterday evening, exhausted and so glad to return. It was fun, but I'm more of a 1 night camping kind of girl, if you know what I mean. We went on a trip with a whole bunch of other people from base. The whole campground was filled with Americans, which I never got, because it was about a 5 hour trip. Plus we live on an island, so there's no shortage of beaches and campgrounds in Sicily. Anywho, it was both nice and not nice. Nice because if you needed something, you could just go ask another family (I'll get to that in a minute) and not so nice because military people have the knack of talking about work, no matter how far from it they are and it becomes a bragfest. Luckily this was mostly overheard and not directed at us. We arrived at the campgounds and I had to pee so bad. They pointed me in the right direction and I went to find it. All I could find though were rows and rows of these:

That's not a shower. Showers don't have holes in the ground. I finally found the one lone toilet. Honestly I would rather pee outside behind the building that in that weird thing (though I ended up peeing in one when I was really drunk.)
So we eventually set up camp and spent the rest of the day at the beach. We came back to shower and even though we had to pay for a hot shower, they were cold. about 20 minutes later they were fixed.
We sat down to eat and something was poking my foot. I was like what is that, so I looked down and saw that I had sat on a bee. I said the eff word a whole bunch, because bee stings suck. We borrowed some benadryl and benadryl spray (which by the way is awesome) and ate our dinner. My first bee sting was last year and it hurt forever and swelled my finger up very big. It itched so bad, I remember gnawing on it. My foot started puffing up and I started feeling drunk (about 2 seconds later after the bite.) From what I have read, the drunk feeling is not normal. Its a sign of allergy. I never found a stinger to pull out, so I just figured the bee didn't leave one.
The next day went well. We spent another day at the beach. I'll pause here to show you the beauty:

The color of the water again the "sand" was beautiful. It wasn't sand though, but rocks. That's pretty normal here. When it is sand, its rough and grating feeling. Smooth pebbles are preferable to us. Once we went to a loofah beach and it was really gross. It looked very pretty, like white sand, but it felt like ashes and it kept grossing me out.

Cale had a blast and stayed filthy the entire time, no matter what we did. That kid attracts dirt.

For having no naps and going to bed late and waking up early every day, he was pretty good. He could have spent the whole time throwing rocks in the water. He never got bored!

That night after we put Cale to bed, we had a few drinks with some friends. At some point I reached down and touched my very itchy foot and felt a bubble. My first thought was "It's like a tetanus shot." Although my husband later corrected me that what I meant was a PPD. (He would know, he gets shots every 6 months!) When I went to sleep, I kept waking up if it touched the mattress. I woke up and looked at it eventually and nearly freaked out. Its about nickle sized and pokes out about 1/2 an inch. I had no clue what to do. I took more benadryl, slept all morning because of it and figured that if it got worse, I would go to the doctor when we got back to base. It never got worse, but its never gotten better either. Exhausted and not really in the mood to put my family through a 2 hour emergency room visit, I just figured I would get home and google it. So I have and I have found nothing. Nothing at all. The only thing I can even find close is this really gross doll. And that's how my foot looks, except its only one sting and its not bleeding nor does it have a stinger sticking out of it. So now I don't know what to do. I know its not normal now, but it also doesn't appear to be life threatening. I'll probably just try and get to the doctor tomorrow. It hurts to walk, so I'm back to limping. Oh and I forgot the best part of all! It stung me in the exact place I sprained my foot! I have the best luck ever!!!

I'll end the post with a picture of a pizza box.

Nothing makes me want to eat pizza quite like almost naked boobies. It says "Would you like...? ...A pizza"
The pizza was actually one of the best I've had in Italy yet. Must have been the boobies. :D

I went on a killing rampage yesterday

2006-05-26T10:46:00.000Z

Ants have been coming in my house since it started warming up. I didn't mind so much at first because they don't bite and they carry the crumbs away. I joked that they were my clean up crew. Yesterday though, they crossed the line of annoying houseguest when I went to open a pack a crackers for Cale and found they had chewed their way through a package and were inside. We had a 10 pack of crackers and they were in about 6 of them. I am pretty against poison since I have a small child who likes to eat weird things and crawls around on the ground. Everyone is like, "Go get the Italian poison from the nursery." Um, I looked at that stuff and it may as well have had a skull and crossbones on it.
So I looked up alternative ways to get rid of them. My search revealed that several powdery substances such as chalk, baby powder, cinnamon and nutmeg detract ants from coming in. I have all those things! I decided on cinnamon because it smells good, I have a huge bottle of it and it was downstairs already. What can I say, I'm lazy. It seemed to go well. I opened the lid near the ants and they started going nuts! So I poured it around every place I know they come in through and all over my pantry. They made new places to come through and I poured more. Those caught running away were shot down with windex. Millions and millions of ants suffered yesterday.
I think it worked pretty well and I'm pretty proud of myself, except...
My whole body is itchy. Like crazy bee sting itchy. My nose is itchy too. It turns out that people can be allergic to cinnamon. Who knew? I honestly thought I just had the creepy crawlies from seeing so many icky ants yesterday. Guess I should have used poison. It never makes my eyes twitch.
Actually I may try chalk. (I just really hate touching it though.)

So many ideas, so little time

2006-05-23T06:18:00.000Z

This month has been pretty busy for me. The swap has been fun and I'm so glad I'm done with everything. But I think it may be a while before I do anymore. I've decided that June will be the Month of Me.
Like I said, I'm done with my swap stuff, but I cannot start any new projects and it is so frustrating because there is so much stuff I am aching to do. We just bought a new desk and right now its sitting in our hallway (thank goodness its extra wide!!) waiting for us to clean out the room so it can be moved in. I think I have the easier part than my husband. All I have to do is box some stuff out and move it out so it can be moved back in and then organize. But he has to unhook all of the computer stuff, and then set it all back up. I *hate* doing that kind of stuff. We bought a giant L shaped desk with plans of each one of us taking one side. I needed more room for my serger and sewing machine, so they could live together and stay set up, easy to use.
So the reorganization of my craft room awaits me tonight. Today I have a craft class with MOM's club. I'm teaching freezer paper stencils. Yesterday was spent cutting out about 10 designs because I know I'm not dealing with the craftiest people. The rest of the day will be spent on base for a doctor appointment.
This weekend we're going camping. I dread the packing for it, but it should be fun. I may take something portable so I can craft there. Either knitting or embroidery. Or both. And definitely a sketch pad.
I have a huge art project that I have been planning and have had no time to work on it either. Luckily the excitement for it hasn't waned.

I hope everyone else is getting more craft time for themselves!!!

My mother's day

2006-05-16T13:38:00.000Z

Friday I spent the morning on base and got to go to the thrift store which is only open for about 2 hours a day, 4 days a week. I got a few books for Cale (not shown) and these are for myself. They're from the 60s and 70s. You cannot imagine my happiness over them. We just don't find old stuff here!
The vase I got a few weeks ago. I absolutely love it although I have yet to find a permanent home for it around my house.

Saturday was spent at the zoo which is actually quite impressive. On the way home, we stopped by a nursery and bought some plants. I had been so intimidated about going there, but the owners were so nice. They kept giving Cale fruit. So on Sunday when my husband told me that I could spend the day doing whatever I wanted, I knew I wanted to get the yard done. He expected a day of crafting and not having to help.

This is my front garden, which I may have posted before. I started with a complete blank slate and here it is now. It makes me so happy!! I love coming home to this! I have chives and basil growing in the windowsill, easy to access from the kitchen. The statue of the lady is a little busted up. We got it on the side of the road for 10 euro (about $13.) I had had plans on gluing it back together (she's missing an arm) and putting copper patina all over it, but she has grown on me. I even like that she's broken. I have jasmine on the trellis, petunias, gladiolus, hibiscus and lilac (I think). The lilac is struggling a little.
This garden has actually been done for a while, but we added mulch to it and it looks a lot more finished.

This is also in the front yard. Its all that I have left. Its the area between my house and the house next to us (they're set up kind of like townhouses). I currently have no neighbor, so I'm taking it and planting this plant in it. You can also see my wheelbarrow which will become a planter. Yay!! I had one at my house in Virginia and I loved it! This was it:

I really like how this turned out.

My backyard. This is the view from my dining table. It used to be a dead tree that my husband removed for me. Now its our food garden. I love that we're able to have an orange tree. And we have strawberries, zucchini and tomatoes. I was hoping this was a cherry tomato plant but no such luck.

The dirt where I live is very thick clay mud. Its gooky and icky and filled with slugs. In the front, it already had a pretty thick layer of nice dirt on top. In the back we had to add compost and more dirt. Its not what I'm used to at all. Its no wonder that Caltagirone, a nearby city, is famous for its ceramics with clay so prevalent. Honestly I don't know if they use this gunk for pottery or something else.

I live in Italy, but my neighborhood is American. Its almost like they cut out a piece of America (circa 1950) and plopped it down in rural Sicily. I have never lived anywhere like this. Neighbors wave and smile. Kids are always out playing. Its lovely here. We're located about 30 minutes from base so we have our own grocery store in the neighborhood, as well as our own bar, movie store and gym. Twice a month, vendors come in from nearby markets and sell their goods. Its all very nice. It makes it easier to be here, I think. All of the scariness is gone out here. We have none of the normal complaints that Americans living overseas have. We have normal power and its constant too. Where we used to live, the power went out at least once a week, which really sucks when you have multiple computers. Even our tap water is drinkable. I think we have the best of both worlds here.

Hope everyone had a great mother's day and weekend.

FAQ

2006-05-11T13:16:00.000Z

So I realized that I don't write a lot about myself or my life outside of crafting. I created an FAQ because yes, I am a geek. If you want to skip this, the next post has pretty pictures. :D

First a little about myself.
My name is Emy Lou F. Yes my initials spell "Elf" which can be either kind of cute or kind of geeky. I have been married to Kevin for 7 years, which yes, means that I got married really young. We have a 2 year old son who sometimes takes the term "military brat" too seriously.

1.Why are you in Sicily?
My husband is in the Navy and we are here for 3 years (1 down, 2 to go.) Growing up I always envisioned men in the military as being big tough strong guys who liked to hunt and stuff. I wonder if other people think that. I guess some people are big tough guys but my sweetie is pretty much the opposite.

2.What is Sicily like?/ Is it romantic there?
Romantic normally conjures up images of intimacy in the bedroom, to me, so its hard for me to call it romantic. It can be breath-takingly beautiful here though. We lived by the coast for the past 5 years before coming here, but the east coast has nothing on the beauty here. I think what really gets me is the water color, depending on where you are different variations of the bluest blues, the aqua-est aquas possible.
Italians must find it very romantic, because they make out in public a lot (grown ups too.) I think it has caused us to be a little more showy in our affections. When we go back people are going to yell at us "Get a room, jeez!" as we hold hands.
The word I would use to describe Sicily is foreign. Of course you say, its a foreign country. But no it really is as foreign as it gets. Everything is so different. Every little aspect of life, the way stuff looks, the landscape. Its still normal to see men driving carts pulled by donkeys.

3.Do you like it there?
I do. It has taken me a while, but I do. When we first got here, we were moved into a tiny 2 bedroom apartment. We were miserable. I had no room to craft and no desire to. My unhappiness was poison and spread to every aspect of my life. I felt fat, stupid, lazy, uncreative, uninspired, like a bad mom. My relationship with my husband was suffering. We finally got permission to move and its so much better now. I have gained almost all of the weight back that I lost during that time, but I don't look at myself as fat anymore. My inspiration came back pretty much the day we moved in here. It took us months to unpack the first place and 3 days for this place. We now live in an American neighborhood with plenty of parks and other children to play with. So you're thinking "A bigger house made her happy." Well to be somewhere every day that makes you miserable, not be able to take your growing child out to play, or be able to release my creative juices, well that was awful.
So to make a long story short, I'm much happier now that my day to day life in the house is happier. We usually only go out on weekends to explore and see stuff.

4.What do you miss about America?
Convenience. Italians have very strange hours. If you want to go to a store between 12 and 4, forget it. They're all closed. Sundays, closed as well. After 8 pm, yeah right. America is open 24/7.
I miss thrift stores. The base has a tiny one and its cheap but the treasures are rare. I like old stuff and there's not much to be had.
I miss Target. Yes, they will ship to us, but only certain stuff. And its not the same as going in the store and experiencing the wonderfulness that is Target. I love the displays. I like seeing everything lined up on the shelf by color. Its much more impressive.
Cheap car insurance. Our insurance tripled when we moved here because there are so many accidents.
I miss fast food and restaurants. McDonalds is all the Italian community has. Our base has a Burger King, 2 Subways, Taco Bell and Popeyes. There's a few others but nothing big. We're getting an Applebees soon which will be wonderful.

5.Fast food? What are you talking about? You're in Italy with Italian food, silly girl!
Italian food isn't the same as American Italian food and nothing like Sicilian food. And I must admit, I prefer American Italian. There's a few dishes that aren't that different, such as alfredo, pasta a la norma, and canneloni. Pizza is way different, thin crust with weird toppings like hot dogs, lettuce and french fries, then topped with oil. The french fries are good. Lasagna has no ricotta but has everything else imaginable like peas, boiled eggs and ham. Speaking of ricotta, it is mostly used for desserts. I cannot for the life of me understand how Italy is famous for pasta, when the desserts are so great. Gelato (ice cream) and granita (like lemon ice) are the best ever. They have yummy flavors like almond and pistacio and hazelnut. I never knew I liked any of these until I moved here. The biscotti (cookies) are great.

6.I bet you see all kinds of weird stuff. What kinds of weird stuff do you see?
Well, where to begin. I've mentioned a few already. What else? A family of 4 on a vespa, truck drivers driving while reading a newspaper, a dad and son on a vespa walking a dog, a man dropping off an umbrella girl (hooker) and smiling as we passed him, a man on stilts with a horse mask, people selling everything from fish to couches out of their trucks. I guess the thing I will never forget though, is that people do not put their kids in carseats here! The moms hold them in the front seat. Ah! This kills me!! And I still can't get over how much people love babies here. Men, teenage boys, other children, everyone has to touch my bambino's head and tell me that he's beautiful.

7.What's up with your email address?
ilovepantsmelons. I love pants melons. Okay, think of what shirt melons would be, now think of pant melons. Pants melons means butt. My husband works with computers and he's always telling me not to use my name for my email address. Hackers can break in to your account and send mail using your name. They used to do it all the time to our account in America which did in fact use our name. He hated that people were getting spammed from his name.
Anyways, I chose the silliest thing I could. It makes me laugh. I actually heard the term on an episode of Malcolm in the Middle.

8.How do you live without Insert-Popular-Show-Here?
We have AFN which is 8 stations that show the shows popular in America. We don't watch much tv though. One station is for kids and that's really nice. But there's no channel you can always count on to be entertaining (like HGTV). We have a movie channel too but they keep showing the same stuff over and over. Basically we get whatever the networks will give us for free or very cheap. So we get lovely shows like Little Big Kid (so awful that a google search produced nothing) and commercials about presidents and national landmarks.

9.Are you going to have another kid?
I dont know. We have about a 9 month window that we would need to get pregnant in and it is very quickly approaching us. My first pregnancy was awful, with extreme morning sickness (so bad I couln't move without puking), scary tests, telling me I may need to abort my long waited for child, pain and more pain, epidural not working, hemmorhaging (almost needed a blood transfusion; i think i almost die) and then after all that having my son whisked away to have surgery when he was 3 days old. Breastfeeding never worked due to various reasons. The whole thing was so stressful. Was it worth it? Yes. I love my son more than anything. I just sometimes worry that I was never supposed to have children and tempting fate again may kill me this time. My husband disagrees that I almost died, but you should have seen his face. He was terrified. And normal births don't involve 10 doctors and nurses each taking turns feeling you up and leaving the room covered in blood. (This probably contributed to my very strong aversion to blood.)
We had been thinking of trying in August but as August approaches, I'm getting scared. Cale is easy now. We're done with the hard part. Soon I won't even have to wipe his butt! He'll start preschool soon! And I don't want to give up my craft room or my craft time. Selfish reasons, but my reasons to have children were just as selfish. At the same time, I would love for Cale to have a sibling. I grew up with 2 sisters and a brother, and it made me very conscious of others. I had to learn to share. And my neice's voice keeps echoing in my head "Don't make him be an only child! You don't know how lonely it is!" We'll see if she's singing a different note in October when her new sibling is born.
So I don't know. We're still in negotiations.

10.Where are you from?
There's a commercial on AFN that this question reminds me of. Its like, where was I born? where was i before this? etc, etc. My husband and I are both from a small town outside of Houston, TX. We lived in Norfolk, VA before this for 5 years and that area is the area that I will always consider home. I read Country Living magazine and it makes me so homesick because it seems like most of the homes are from the east coast.

11.So you're high school sweethearts?
No. Friends and then it blossomed from there. He's still my BFF.

I'm going to wrap this up because its already waaaayyyyy too long. Thanks if you read it all. If there's anything that you're dying to know, let me know and I will answer.

Explaining my absence

2006-05-11T11:25:00.000Z

My foot is better which is great for me and bad for blogging.

Here's what I've been up to:

It's that time of year: Birthday Season. Apparently lots of other parents planned their children's birthdays a little better that we did. We always enjoy a good birthday party though. (I have been to more parties here than I ever did growing up.)

Feeling better means being able to take Cale to the park. (So this was the same day as the birthday party, but we have been going a lot.)

It also means being able to attend MOMS club events. I have never talked about it but I'm a member of our neighborhood's MOMS club. It is one of the best things about the neighborhood and I am so thankful for it. One mom described it as a way to keep from going crazy. Its true. I joined it just as much for me as for my son. I have made such wonderful friends and we have a tons of fun. I recently ran for the board and made secretary. These are crafts we made for mother's day. Honestly I made them while Cale kind of sat back, but it was fun anyways. In a few weeks I'm doing an adult craft class and I'm really excited about it. I'm doing freezer paper stencils.

I never posted pics of the goodies I received from Jennifer for winning a contest about a Mrs. Beasley doll.

I like how the gummy frogs say "Fresh and chewy." That's just how I like my frogs. If only the frogs I find in my yard were this cute, then I wouldn't scream. I would want to pick them up and cuddle them. But they're gross so I scream and run.
And I want to says thanks again. It did make me smile. Plus it was cute watching my son say "ribbit ribbit" and hop.

AND

Some stretchy frogs on the wall. My husband discovered that when you throw them at the wall, they stick. (No one has noticed them yet and I've had lots of people over.)

My best embroidery work ever. This is what a few days on the couch produced. I love embroidery. It's crafting at its best! The shirt has 2 sparrows, one on each side. I can't wait to wear it.

Quilt blocks. I am halfway finished with this part. Lots of fun so far, but I'll be glad to be finished. My next quilt (a throw sized blanket) is already planned out and I'm way more excited about it.

New supplies. I order stuff online like crazy, especially craft supplies. I am so excited about this felt. Its regular craft felt but I was able to get pretty colors like turquoise and hot pink. I got it at MisterArt. I am expecting stuff from Joann's and Sacred Kitsch Studio as well.

I really want to order the new Amy Butler halter pattern soon. I think it would look pretty with some Denise Schmidt fabric so I'm just trying to keep an eye open for an online shop that sells both.

In addition to all of that I'm in the middle of crafting for theBaby/Kid Swap Round 3. Its kind of hard crafting for people you don't know. It makes making choices a lot harder, so it's taking me a while to narrow my choices down. But I think it should turn out pretty well.

Robot fun

2006-04-28T14:00:00.000Z

I finished my robot. Yay! It took me a while but he has feet now and his antennae is attached. I had been wanting to make my son a robot stuffie for a while. I planned for it to be more snuggly. But then I saw Hillary's robots and couldn't resist embellishing this one with everything I could find. It was a very fun project and my son does love it, but I won't let him play with it. I am planning on making another one, larger and more kid friendy, as well a rocket for him. I'm considering using fleece, minky or even real felt. But wool felt might make him itch, so I'm not sure.

His back. I probably went waaaaayyyyy overboard but it was tons of fun.

April's Tie One On

2006-04-28T13:48:00.000Z

For the month of April, the theme for Tie One On was yellow and white. I cannot tell you how hard it was to not throw some red in it or maybe just a little green. But I did it. I finished last Friday before I got hurt. Today is the first day where I can comfortably get around enough to take pics. (But I'm still wearing pajamas because its easier so no pics on me.) So its hanging in my kitchen.

Close up of the kanzashi flower detail. I learned how to make them on craftster. I had planned on doing an elaborate embroidered something but decided that simpler would be better.

Stuff to keep me entertained while I'm stuck on the couch

2006-04-24T17:53:00.000Z

I stumbled upon this while trying to find a popup free site meter for my site: Mini room maker It also has links to other fun sites such as making a robot (which I could not get to work) and A Hello Kitty Room site where you decorate a Hello Kitty room.

Traveling in Sicily

2006-04-24T15:31:00.001Z

Read all about my lovely trip to the scenic Piazza Armerina. Lovingly and creatively written by my husband. Please forgive his spelling and fact errors. :D

Learn why:
My good leg is quickly becoming my not so good leg.
I'm beginning to think my house is too big.
Peeing is a real bitch.
Crutches should not be given to already clumsy people.
My serger is calling to me, but even if I could get to it, I wouldn't have any fabric nearby yo use, so it sits there unused and sad.
I was carried upside down up the stairs to bed. (Not as fun as it sounds.)

Plus, see pretty pictures!

Facing my fears

2006-04-19T18:07:00.000Z

My sweet husband bought me a serger for my birthday. It arrived about 2 weeks ago and it has been sitting in the box taunting me. Taunting I say. Because as much as I have been wanting one for forever, it scared the living crap out of me. Its big and has tons of thread and it has a knife!!! So I've put it off since the day I got it, though to be fair, I have been really busy, busier than normal.
Today I got off my heiney and opened it. I read the manual and read a book I bought about it. And I used it. Boy was I scared!!! But I used it and I think I'm a new woman. How did I ever live without it. It takes my flaws in cutting and gets rid of them!!! I am in love. What will my husband say? I think I will name it Serge-io. hahaha.
So why am I not serging right now? Why to rub it in all of my hypothetical readers' faces. And because *cough* Gilmore Girls is on.

So I will multi-task and cut the fabric for my son's quilt.

Which is also another fear of mine. Not the actual piecing together or even quilting, but cutting the fabric.
The red robot fabric will be the center squares of a log cabin pattern and the back. The black rocket fabric is for the strips in between each block. And then there's the blues and the greens (the other robot one-top right corner, I'm calling green.) But I'm going for it.

Dang, I think I've seen this episode.

Craftster swaps

2006-04-17T17:55:00.000Z

I just participated in the Hair adornment swap at craftster. I received my goodies today and my partner received hers sometime this weekend.
This is what I sent to my partner:

Here's what I received:

AND...

AND...

I feel like a bad swap partner now. She sent me so much!! To be fair, I sent her a bunch of Italian cookies and candies.

I just signed up for the Kid Swap Round 3. My son had so much fun helping me open my package, so I want him to get stuff for my next swap. I think it will be tons of fun.

I try to keep my blog very craft focused but I'm considering adding more personal stuff. I wonder if it would make it more or less interesting?

Sock monkey

2006-04-15T17:54:00.000Z

This will be in my son's easter basket in the morning. Not bad for a first try, but not at all perfect. His tail is too short, his arms too long, but he's pretty cute anyways.

Tuesday Blues

2006-04-04T19:14:00.000Z

So I missed yesterday's Monday Yellows started by Mav at Port2Port. But here's some blues:

My snowboard that I have to put away for the season. *Sniffle*

Beach findings. I like to pretend the tiles are old artifacts instead of litter.

2006-03-23T17:03:00.000Z

My son turned 2. I made him 2 different kinds of cheesecake (apple and oreo) since he doesn't care for regular cake.

My freesia flowers. They smell sooooo good. Even if the day is chilly, the sight of these (and the yummy fragrance) put a smile on my face.

A plant my husband bought me for no reason! He also got me the egg plate behind it. I can't wait to use it!

Now for some crafts:

Embroidered hand towels for my downstairs bathroom.

A mirror I covered with seashells. Its in my living room.

And my favorite thing of all...

My newly painted pegboard. (so the mouth is kind of huge, so what?)

And an action shot.
I had to use nails glued in backwards on places because its all I had. It's functional though and looks great. Its a nice step toward getting my craft area more organized.

March is National Craft Month

2006-03-07T11:08:00.000Z

And although I missed the first 5 days due to planning and having my son's 2nd birthday party, I plan on crafting every day this month.

A little inspiration:
Project Spectrum the colors this month are pink and red. A few things I've been planning can fit into this.

Craftster craftalongs
Bags
Use it or lose it Using your previously unused tools (I'm guilty of this.)
Housewares This month's theme is plant related items, such as vases or planters
Wardrobe revamp This month's theme is dresses, the one I've been waiting for.

Jennifer at the Felt Mousedesignated this month as Work in progress month. This is the most important thing to me. I have tons of unfinished projects and yesterday I completed 3. Two were very simple and took mere seconds to finish, but the last one was a but more difficult. I have been working on a dress for 3 years, since before I got pregnant with my now 2 year old son. I finished it last night and nothing feels sweeter.

I'm going to try to incorporate these ideas together and see what I get. I've also added spring shirts to the list since I am unable to find any in stores I like.

2006-02-28T11:32:00.000Z

I knitted! I received a kid's learn to knit kit from my husband for Christmas. It came with plastic needles which he broke before I got the chance to even try. The book that came with it was also lame. So I ordered myself some needles and Stitch n Bitch because everyone says its the best. I did this without really telling my husband and he asked his mom to get me the same book and needles. We received them on the same day. SO now I have TONS of needles!!! I can actually make the cool case they show in the book. She sent me circulars, double pointed needles and regular needles. Some are plastic (because they are GIANT), some aluminum, but most of them are bamboo. So I sat down Saturday afternoon and tried my hand at knitting. 3 days later I have a swatch that's about 2 X 3 inches. Its almost flawless, except for one hole where I dropped a stitch and didn't know what to do. I'm pretty proud. My first project will be wristbands. I really need some. :D They might just end up being plain jane ones though because I don't know if I'm up to the patterns yet.
By the way, I'm giving my second copy of the book to a new friend. I know she's trying to learn as well and this may be the beginning of a crafty friendship.

About online shopping

2006-02-06T14:36:00.000Z

Living overseas with an FPO box, we shop online A LOT. There is no neighborhood art store or craft store or fabric store. Well there might be, but translation is hard. And I like my American products. I have learned a lot about what I like and don't like, what I want to be sure to pay attention to when I open my own business.

Little things matter!
I recently ordered valentine's cards from http://www.youngamericancomics.com/about.html
I can't say whether the package was the best part or the contents. That she took the time to draw on the envelope and handwrite my name made such an impression on me. It was like getting mail from an old friend!

I have ordered from http://www.reprodepot.com and she also added a nice touch. The fabric was wrapped with a ribbon tied around it.

Ordering from Laura at http://www.sacredkitschstudio.com is always a treat. She put a cool label on her package and included a little note. (It may have been because we are online friends, though.) :D

Communication is so important!!
Because I have an FPO box, mail takes a little longer to get to me. I appreciate when senders let me know when they sent the items out. Then I know when to expect it and when to start bugging my husband to check the mail.

Backordered or discontinued items should be communicated before my order is shipped. I open my boxes expecting lots of cool stuff, only to find a few items with a list of stuff backordered and canceled from my order. This always annoys me.

Basically it all comes down to communication. I don't care how bad you screw up my order, if you explain to me what happened, I am much more willing to forgive.

Now that I have thought about how I want to treat my customers, I need to figure out what I want to sell! :D

A few things I have been working on

2006-02-06T14:28:00.000Z

I hung my art in my dining room. I like it hung a lot better than I thought I would.

I made a sign for outside. Its collaged. I am in love with it. Now if I can only get it to stop falling...

A hoodie. Appliqued and embroidered. I'm not done yet, but it is wearable now. I plan on doing some assymetrical swirls between the birds and below them.

a close up. The fabric has swirls as well.

Not too crafty but it makes me happy. We bought FLOR tiles from Urban Outfitters (only people who would ship to us!) and they're laid down. They aren't stuck down yet though. I was hoping we wouldn't have to, but it looks like we will. Cale likes to kick them around. I love the way they look but I think we need new couches and a new coffee table now. Heehee. Hopefully my husband will think so too.

I think I was too late for both challenges

2006-02-01T19:08:00.000Z

But here they are anyways.

For Tie One On:
My apron. Made from 2 men's shirts. The patch on the pocket is something I picked up a long time ago, wanting to use it for something for/about my husband whose name is Kevin. So I made a heart and put the K on it. The stitching around the pocket is one of my sewing machine's best features. The waistband is made from the button part of the shirt.

Another made from an old skirt and part of the previously mentioned men's shirt.

For the artsy crafty challenge:
A series I have been working on for my dining room. I was least happy with the yellow one, so I decided glitter might be the answer. Maybe I was wrong.

So I also made wine charms and I plan on either painting or etching some wine glasses. I just need to settle on a design.

More craft challenges/-a-longs

2006-01-31T15:19:00.000Z

Sometimes I get in a craft slump, where I'm unmotivated and can't do anything right. Craft challenges are just what I need to help me.

monthly apron challenge This month's theme is to make one out of old clothes. I have one already done and I plan on doing another, more original one. My first was inspired from Kitsch n glam, which is a great site. Mine is made from an old skirt and the collar of a men's dress shirt. My second attempt will be a half apron made from 2 men's dress shirts.

Craftster currently has a few interesting craft-a-longs. (No direct links due to the site being down for maintenance as I type this.)
*Wardrobe revamp - Each month has a different theme. January was bottoms. (I only fixed a few pairs of pants, but to me that counts!)
*Housewares - Again, every month has a list of suggested projects.
*Bag a month - The goal is to make a purse of any kind each month.
*Quilt block a month - Two quilt blocks are listed and you can choose one or both.
*Jewelry tutorial - Tutorials are posted for new techniques to try.
*Anthropologie knock-off sew-a-long - The goal for this one is to choose an item from this over-priced store and make it yourself. (I have already done a few and I have more planned.)

Now I have more projects planned than I know how to get done. A few I have planned are:
*Purse made from oil cloth lined with vintage fabric
*Pegboard with a classic pop art design painted on it.
*Log cabin quilt for my son Cale for his 2nd birthday.
*Embroidered and applique on a hoodie
*Embroidered panels for bathroom hand towels
*Landscape painting
*Cover mirror frame with seashells and another with silver leaf
*PLUS Valentines/Anniversary gifts for my sweetie which have to remain secret!!

Thinking outside the circle

2006-01-20T12:39:00.000Z

Have a cop in your life who you would like to be your valentine? Me neither. Nothing says loving like deep fried dough.

I had the hankering for donuts last night so I made some this morning. My mom used to just roll out a pack of store bought biscuits and use a large glass for the outside and a medicine cup for the hole. I looked in my kitchen and spied a heart cookie cutter and knew I had to use it. Unfortunately I don't have a tiny heart for the inside so it was round. I used a recipe I found online using bisquick but they're really cake-y, not at all the fatty goodness I was craving. So next time I think I will use my mom's way. I sprinkled confectioner's sugar on them instead of a glaze but I think a pink tinted glaze would have been lovely.

It could also work for other things like french toast or regular toast. If you have the cool metal ones you can use them for eggs and pancakes.

Hopefully your valentine actually likes donuts. I guess my son liked them though.

Cute valentines

2006-01-20T11:03:00.000Z

Brought to you by Young American Comics

I bought some of these to give to my sweetie. Too cute to pass up. I normally make one for him but I really liked these.

Cool craft challenge

2006-01-20T08:55:00.000Z

I saw the link to this on Craftster. It looks like fun so I think I will participate.
http://www.hula-la.com/artschallenge/
For the January challenge, I think I will use an existing project in progess and finish it. The criteria inspires me in a way I had not previously thought of.
Beverage themed containing RED and something sparkly.
Should be fun.

Better late than never: Christmas Crafts

2005-12-27T12:02:00.000Z

Due to technical difficulties, this post is a little late, but maybe it will inspire something for next year. Christmas '06 is less than a year away now ya know!!!!

I love a homemade Christmas. I love making ornaments and gifts and cookies and everything else than can possibly made. This year, we're living in Sicily which makes things a little harder. There's no Michael's to run to for supplies. So I had to use mainly what I had on hand. Luckily I have a lot already. The gifts we sent out this year were more of souvenier type gifts rather than handmade gifts so I decided to make my friends and family here stuff. I made a few ornaments and spruced up a store bought tree skirt.

I carved an image to blockprint my own cards this year. Then I glues them over existing cards to save a little bit of time. The results were this:

Since we bought a small tinsel tree this year, we found a lot of our larger ornaments didn't look right. I like some of them a whole lot, although most were handmade or thrifted. So I stuck them in a glass bowl with some other silver sparkly things that I normally stick on the tree.

Felt birds I made and embellished with embroidery and sequins.

Plain tree skirt than I embellished with embroidered snowflakes.

The whole tree.

*I also made a garland of glitter stars but I never used them. They were just made from red cardstock cut into stars and then covered in fine glitter. Pretty but messy. We're still finding sparkly freckles on each other.

Gifts:

Pajama bottoms made of flannel. These were for my husband. They're camo with dinosaurs. I made my son Elmo ones and I made myself fruity ones. For each pair I just used our existing pajamas as patterns.

A photocuff. I made my husband 2 of these. The other one is black and red. They're made of felt and glitter vinyl leftover from reupholstering my chairs. They're made to fit pictures from those polaroid cameras. I think I need to made me some with oilcloth.

Embroidered boxers for my husband. Pattern from http://www.sublimestitching.com Jenny Hart is awesome!

*My friends here each got a bottle of Dolcino wine, two wine glasses personally etched by me and wine charms also made by me. One set had full names and stars, the other had initials and hibiscus flowers that I drew and cut out from contact paper. I wish I had gotten pictures of them.

I also made my husband a picture frame that I decoupaged with chinese fortunes. It ended up seeming like a self help poster so I took it all the way and printed out a picture of a cat that said "Hang in there" and put pictures of myself and my son where the cat's face should have been. I think its hilarious. I don't think he found it as funny as I did.

Welcome to My Craft Blog!

2005-12-09T12:14:00.000Z

I am going to try and post bi-monthly. Each post will have a theme and contain tutorials and pictures.
Please comment with any ideas you may like to see in the future. In the meantime, stay tuned for Christmas Crafts and Gifts.