So much stuff, so little time

I keep buying more and more stuff and then I feel guilty because I never seem to get anything done. I need to get more organized...and a babysitter would be nice. Paige is heading into the terrible twos and getting a lot of practice in with the tantrums (even as I type this she's throwing a huge fit because I had the nerve to try to change her clothes!) Noah is pretty happy most the time but sometimes he wants to be held all day which makes it difficult to do anything, even with the sling.

Anyways, a friend has twisted my arm...I mean convinced me to start an Etsy shop. We'll see how long that takes for that to happen. I already set up the account, now I just need to make something to sell....someday.

To show that I am actually doing something. Here is a cross stitch I started last week. It's for the husband's cousin who is getting married this fall. The cousin's fiance's family has mailed everybody a 12 inch square of fabric to decorate. The squares will be made into a quilt that will hang over the couple when they say their vows. I decided to use the pattern from this kit and changed the colors to the wedding colors. This is my first time using waste canvas so I hope it works out. Stitching on a white grid over white fabric with light gray floss is not easy!!!

Here is the beginnings of a pair of wool shorts I'm making for a friend on LJ. She has recently entered the world of cloth diapering and having entirely way too much fun with it!

And just because I love to torture myself I started a Crochet-along in a crochet group on Swap-bot. The theme is Circle in a Square and each week I post a new square. My goal is to make four of each square. Right now we're on the second square. The four on the right are from the first week. They're all the same size, the camera was at an angle. The other square is from this weeks pattern. It came out a little bigger than the others so I need to adjust the last round a bit.

This will be a blanket for Paige. I really wanted to try satin binding on this one but it cost a bit more than I thought so I just got the usual kind. I thought the bunny looked like she was ready to go to bed so I picked out the blue star fabric for the back.

Gotta love sales!! More future blankets, possibly for the Etsy shop. These have binding too, I forgot to add them in the pic.

And finally, the husband has a blanket/tapestry of dogs playing poker so when I saw this kit in the sale bin I had to get it.

You can never have too many blankets

I saw this fishing flannel at Joann Fabrics and just had to have it for blanket for Noah.  I thought the iron on would be perfect since my dad can't wait for Noah to be his fishing buddy.  I later went back and bought some binding for it.  It's the first time I've put binding on a blanket and I'm glad I did, it looks so much better that way!  The fabric on the right was picked out by my husband.  He wants me to make him a blanket for the couch.  I was going to make it like Noah's blanket but then I decided to be adventurous and cut it all up into 6 1/2 inch squares to make it quilt-like.  I've been slowly getting all those squares stitched back together.  My machine is being very tempermental lately and doesn't seem to want me to make this blanket!  But I will get it done!  It'll be far from perfect but I know better to expect that and I'm sure hubby will love it anyways.

I'm not obsessed I swear!

I had a 50% off coupon so how could I possibly resist?!?

I haven't gotten a chance to play yet. I plan on challenging the hubby tonight!

My first apron

Thanks to Yarni Gras for the inspiration!! Since I don't have a lot of table space to work on I thought this apron with pockets would be perfect for holding scissors and glue and other random things. I didn't think I had any fabric to work with but then I found some in a bag of scraps that were given to me quite a while ago.

This is the first time I didn't have a pattern or a tutorial to follow so I'm sure I did something wrong but I think it turned out great! ...other than it being a bit too wide since I just guessed instead of measuring. Shhh don't tell!

I think I'll have to make a mini version.

I'm on a roll!

I kept my sewing machine busy this weekend and finally made a couple things not for swaps. On Saturday I used this tutorial to make Paige a new dress. She was sleeping by the time I got it put together so while I was sewing I was praying it would fit. Amazingly (and thankfully!)it fits her just right! I wasn't too sure about the red ric rac at first. I wanted ruffles but the ric rac was the only thing I could find that was the right color. I think it turned out great! The shirt was my dad's. He gave some shirts he didn't want anymore to my husband but they were too big for him. I hoping this weekend will be warm enough for Paige to wear it to Nana and Papa's house.

I wonder if Dad will recognize his old shirt?

My model wasn't in a modeling mood.

I also bought more of that kitcheny fabric and on Sunday I whipped up some much needed new kitchen curtains!

And last night I made a bag using another tutorial on craftster but my camera battery is dead so I'll have to show that off next time. Possibly with another bag I'm thinking about making.

Happy Anniversary my love!

Inspire Me Thursday....on Friday

I decided to try out Inspire Me Thursday. This weeks theme is Two. Since I just got a new camera I decided to take a picture of my two.

My happy mailbox

I haven't been getting much done lately. My ambition seems to have flown out the window. Not fair! But I have been getting some great stuff in the mail lately so I'll get some inspiration and get my butt in gear!

I got these wooden letters from PiNkPaPeRcRaFtEr for the Make my daughter something swap. I've been wanting to do the same thing myself and she beat me to it! I think they'll look great on the wall in her bedroom.

I received this wonderful package from Keroleen73 for our one on one swap. Lots of fun goodies including two discs packed full of cross stitch patterns!

I joined the Pity Party group on swapbot and signed up for the You've Got Mail drawing. I thought it would be great to send someone a package to cheer them up. I was very very surprised to find out that I won the drawing!! I received my first package from thatzghetto(love that name!) She sent me some great little kits, buttons and paper.

Sunshine9905 sent me these goodies for the YGM. I can't wait to find something to use those tags on!

I wonder what the mailman will bring me today. I think I'll fire up the sewing machine today!

No peeking Yarni Gras!!

This is most the crafty stuff I bought over the weekend. Don't know why I took a picture of it. I was in a picture taking mood I guess.Make my daughter something swap. Mom2Abby said her daughter likes pink polka dots and I read on her profile that she likes Abby Cadabby. Since her daughter is only 5 months old I decided to make her a blanket. It's a little bigger than crib size so she'll still be able to use it when she moves up to a big girl bed! The flower fabric was the closest I could find to pink polka dots, I hope she doesn't mind! For some reason the only polka dots I could find where all blue, green or purple.


These fabrics are for a one on one swap with Yarni Gras. I hope she doesn't see them here before she gets them in the mail! She sent me a great bunch of cross stitch patterns and extra goodies. I really love the kitchen fabric and plan on going back to buy some for myself!!
I bought this fabric for myself. Now what should I do with it?!? I think this is the beginnings of beautiful fabric stash!
Where woman create swap. I had just decided to buy a new cabinet to hold all my crafty stuff so I decided to take before and after pictures for this swap. As you can see, everything was a mess before and looks a lot better now! I wonder how long it'll stay organized.
I embroidered this bookmark to include in the swap. I really wish I'd had time to make something more. Because of getting behind on my swaps I wasn't able to do as much on this one as I would have liked.
This is for a one on one with Keroleen73. I was originally supposed to send her a special edition cross stitch magazine but we found out later that that magazine wasn't being made anymore. So I sent her a bunch of profile goodies. Again, I wish I could have sent her so much more!

Will I ever get anything done for myself? Oh well, I'm having fun swapping!

Swaps swaps everywhere!!

I had a pretty busy weekend working on my late swaps and also trying to make sure I get others done before they're late too! I need to quit signing up for swaps that all end around the same time. Anyways, I got a couple swaps sent out on Saturday, a couple more to send out today and a couple more to send out sometime this week!!

These are for the Easter Circle Book swap. I had to make a page for nine partners. I did make an extra one for myself but it's not finished cause I ran out of bunnies. I've never made a circle page before so I hope my partners like them! I keep thinking I should have done something more with them but I had a pretty hard time coming with these to begin with. I bought several different Easter themed embelishments and papers but nothing seemed to go together very well.

The ribbon has bunnies on it and says Happy Easter
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I'll probably try these again sometime. I like that I only had to design one page instead of a whole book. I already got five pages from my other partners and can't wait to get the rest. I think the book will look great when it's all put together.

These are for several different ATC swaps. Again, not completely happy with some of these. I just never seem to have the right supplies. Or maybe I'm just being too hard on myself?

Healthy at last....maybe

Believe it or not, I got strep for the third time in a row! Hopefully it's gone for good now. It's been very frustrating, especially since it has caused me to be late on several swaps. I just sent messages to all my partners and am hoping they'll all be understanding. Three of the late swaps are for ATCs so I should be able to get those done pretty quickly.

No pictures today :o( Hopefully I'll have a lot more crafty stuff to show off sooon!!!

Time flies when your...sick

Wow, I didn't realize it's been a whole month since I last updated. Having strep throat twice in a row really doesn't help with getting the crafty stuff done! Not very fun either.
I'm signed up for several ATC and cross-stitch swaps over at swap-bot but I'm having some trouble finding some inspiration. Hopefully I can come up with something soon before I end up having to just throw stuff together at the last minute.

I decided to make some bottlecap magnets a couple days ago and here is what I came up with. The first two are my kids names and the last one may or may not be an extra for a swap. I haven't decided if I want send it yet.

Quick update

I finally got a chance to do some stitching while both kids were napping at the same time the other day (how often will that happen?!?) I didn't realize that I haven't updated on Star Light since I started it in October. As usual, colors are a bit brighter in real life and don't forget to click for a bigger, better pic.

See, I haven't abandoned everything for the sewing machine!

Happy New Year!!

My first finished project of the year. I've been wanting a baby sling since my daughter was a baby but never seemed to have the money spend on one so I was very excited when I happened to find this pattern.

I think Noah approves! Paige will also fit in it and now DH wants me to make one for him so we can each carry a kid when we're out.

My Christmas Goodies!

My precioussssssss. I've never used a sewing machine before so it's been fun(frustrating!) trying to figure it all out. I think it needs a name. Any suggestions?
MIL gave me all this fabric "to practice with" plus two others not pictured. It's all flannel except for the pony and snoopy ones. Guess I'll be making a lot of PJ's and blankies!
My very first sewing project and (amazingly!) it fits!
Also from the MIL, plus a Christmas scrapbook which is buried somewhere in the mountain of Christmas toys in the kids room.
DH's grandma gave me all this yarny goodness!!! What should I make?!?
And since I'm really crazy I decided to (attempt to) make a quilt for Noah because Paige has about 5 or 6 handmade blankets but no one has made one for Noah. I have no clue what I'm doing, wish me luck!

Other peoples craftiness

Not much craftiness going on around here lately but hopefully that'll change soon! It's taking a while to get used to juggling two kidlets but I'm hoping after the holidays things will finally settle down to some sort of normalness. Actually, I have been doing a little bit of crochet lately so hopefully I'll have something to show off soon. It's a bit slow going though because I have to wait til Paige is sleeping to work on it. She's worse than the cat when it comes to yarn!!

Speaking of the holidays. I'm loving all the Christmas cards I've been getting from swapbotters, only half of them have been for swaps too! Oh, and I wanted to show off this card my hubby's aunt made. She makes some beautiful cards, I'll have to dig up some other ones we've gotten from her. I wish I had some of that creativity!

I think I mentioned in another post that I was crocheting beaded trim on socks for a one on one swap. Well, here is what I got in return. Knitting Cateling knit this lovely sweater for my son. She did a great job! I love the colors and stripes. I'll get some better pics of the sweater itself when I take it off him later.

My "little" guy

Noah Robert

Nov. 11 '07
10lbs 11ozs
(no that's not a typo, even the dr's were surprised!!)