Been on a sewing kick!

I have lots of crafty passions and one of them use to be sewing!  I use to love to get out the sewing machine and do all kinds of crafty projects.  Then over time I got into other crafts and just left my poor sewing machine out in the cold! Literally, put it at my workstation in my garage and occasionally opened the door and looked at it.  I found that I still sewed but more than anything I mended.  I hemmed pants, took things in or out, but never really sewed any crafty projects.  Well I decided since I have not been scrapbooking lately I would pull the machine out, dust it off and get started!  I showed you last week the 2 bags that I made.  Well this week I managed to make 2 more bags, a wristlet, and a tie t-shirt.  Not to mention that I hemmed 7 pairs of pants!!!  That was a lot of sewing and I did it all in one day!!!
My ideas for the wristlet and tie t-shirt came from my obsession with pinterest, who doesn't love that site!!!!  I do have to confess this is take 2 on the tie t-shirt.  You must wash your tie before sewing it to a white shirt...I learned the hard way and found a really nice pink shirt in the sink.  So I did what everyone would do and I bought color remover and it worked until I forgot about it and left it too long so the tie became discolored.  Out with the seam ripper and took that tie off and dug through my hubby's closet for another one...without further ado I bring you tie t-shirt!

I found that this was the quickest of all the projects.  I did remember this time to prewash the tie and then I just pinned the skinny part of the tie around from the left side to the right shoulder, then started pleading and pinning.  Took it to the poor neglected sewing machine and starting sewing.  I will say that it was a little difficult to sew over the pleads as they were really thick but I just went slow and it worked well.  I am so excited that I now have another shirt to wear.  The first one was a red tie and was super cute, too bad I did not get any photos of it.  I did at least get to wear it to work once!

I made a bag like this last week and the girls from my work liked it so much they wanted one!  I sent them off to the fabric store to get some fabric and promised them that I would find some time to get it done!  Well it only took 2 weeks to muster up the energy and time!!!  I love the colors and the ribbon is so fun!  I used a plain black backpack and cut strips of fabric with my pinking sheers to 3 1/2 inches, then took each strip and basted it with the sewing machine. Then pulled the bobbin thread to create the ruffle, then sewed each strip onto the bag added the ribbon at the top to finish it off, made a fabric flower and the bow.  The bow had a pin back on it so that if you want to wash the bag you can and not ruin the bow.

 This last little beauty is a wristlet made from a men's tie.  My friend Julia actually found this on pinterest and showed it to me!  After the initial ooh's and aah's...I thought I can make this!  Well this is take 2 also...the first one was a sad excuse for a bag, but after my mistake the second one came out great!  I love that it will perfectly fit my credit cards and some cash.  Perfect for those outings when you don't want to carry a large bag...only problem is my keys don't fit or my cell phone!  Oh well, still I like it and will use it often!

As we are nearing the holidays I might find myself with little time to craft or sew.  I am even thinking about ordering my Christmas cards this year.  Usually I make them but just not sure I can find the time.  Just too much to do!!!!

Fun altered bags!

Got a little inspiration this week from my constant looking at pinterest!  It is my latest addiction!  I never actually saw a bag made like either of the 2 I made but there were other things that looked similar and just got me thinking that I could alter a bag or 2.  These are older unwanted bags that I had laying around, might as well try making them cute!!!

I have a feeling that I will be making a few more of these cute bags and giving them as gifts!  I am sure some of my family and friends would love them!!!

I'm the lost blogger!!!

I have taken a very long break from blogging.  It was just neccessary as my creative mojo has flown out the window!  Nothing exciting has been going on since I finished up my friends album that I made her as a gift.  Guess that just really burned me out!  I finally decided maybe I should post the rest of the pages from the album that I made in a little over 3 weeks...who said you can't do a 20 page scrapbook in 3 weeks, they are crazy!  Of course I do think that is my reason for lack of mojo!  Sorry ahead of time that this is a photo heavy post!

Always busy

Life has again gotten too busy for me to have time to post anything new.   I came back from my girls trip and immediately got busy with my little man Devon.  He was sick and we have been to several dr appts and one day turned into 2 and then 3, then before I knew it 2 weeks had past and I had not taken the time to update my blog.  I find that when my life gets busy the blog becomes secondary.  It just does not seem important.  So I am back with nothing new to share.  I don't even have photos from the girls trip.  I broke my little point and shoot camera and did not realize it until I was trying to take photos during the trip!!!  I did however start a gift album for my friend at work.  She gave me photos of her parents and told me that she would pay me to do an album, well she went back to school for massage therapy and I have been getting massages while she is in school and they are not allowed to take money for the service, so my gift to her at graduation will be the album.  I know this will mean so much to her.

This was my first time doing heritage pages, it is a little out of my comfort zone, but I am going with it.  Here is the first page.  Since this page I have made 6 more and hoping to get another 10-13 done before I give her the album.

I will be back as I progress with the album to show more photos!

Girl's Weekend!

Hello all! I am off to a girl's weekend in Charlotte, NC. We are attending CKC convention. Kind of excited to spend the entire weekend doing what I love scrapping and shopping! Be back soon to tell you all about it!

If you are reading this Julia-prayers to you for a speedy recovery! I'll be home soon and I'll come for a visit!

You make me smile!

Here is a card I made for my group blog that I am involved in. For more details visit cricut world.

Here is a sneak peek

Still finding myself extremely exhausted from the wild weekend! So I only have a few photos to share from the party, gotta get some energy to go through the 170+ photos that we took!!! I was impressed with my hubby though, not only did he make the dinner and the homemade cheesecake for dessert he got me some great presents!!! Woohoo!

Promise more photos to come...I gotta get some more rest first!

Recovering from the Best Birthday Party Ever!

Miranda and I had the best birthday party ever. With about 30 of our closest family and friends to help us celebrate...I am taking today to recuperate but will be back tomorrow with photos to share!

My break lasted weeks!

I got so busy after my trip to the mountains I never got back into blogging! That is the story of my life really, sometimes I get so wrapped up in other things that something else gets pushed to the back burner. I am sure that is how all people are, but for me I want balance. That is a struggle I have everyday...BALANCE! I want to balance fun with work, time spent with the kids and hubby, chores needing to be done, etc. When I think of balance I get a little overwhelmed and then have to realize that I can not be everything to everyone, cannot do everything for everyone. It is normal for people to need breaks from the everyday life and some can last longer than others! So the past few weeks have just been a mental break for me. I have continued to craft, actually craft more than usual...See all the pages below that I accomplished! I won a challenge at scrapbook.com for the page titled Celebrate. It was the first time I have ever won a challenge, it was kind of exciting! So in a way I was busy this month, just busy doing other things!

Sorry to bombard you with a picture heavy post but I wanted you to see that I have been doing things, just not a priority to blog. I am not going to promise I will blog more often because every time I do that I feel guilty when I don't actually do it. I do however have several more projects to share so I will be back with those!

A much needed Break!!!

We are taking a break this weekend and going to the mtns for a much needed mini vacation! I am not sure my hubby would call it a vacation since he has to do all the work of setting up the camper and taking it down, not to mention the hours of entertainment he provides for the kids. Just look at the photos, looks like he is having a ball!

All the photos above were taken in the spring on our trip to the mtns. Can't wait to be there in the summer with the warmer weather, we will definitely be sitting poolside most of our days!!! It is my favorite thing to do at the camper is sit outside in the morning with coffee, great way to start the day!!!

Be back next week sometime!

My monthly card swap

Hello! I have fallen a little short this week on my posting. We have had a little bit of a crazy busy week and I have been just a wee bit stressed! We have family visiting for the week and Devon goes to Rockband camp and Miranda works everyday. They both have to be at a different place at the same time...Dan has a new job and he can't help with carpool. Making me a little stressed!!! Thank goodness it is Thursday and we are almost done with this week.

I wanted to share my monthly card swap card with you today. I had so much fun with this month's theme and really took a lot of time doing different techniques.

I used Stampin up cameo coral, tempting turquoise, creamy caramel, and white cardstock for the card. I tore the creamy caramel edges, then ran it through my cuttlebug to emboss and inked the edges. The waves were done on white cardstock and sprayed with turquoise glimmer mist then stamped with the wave pattern and hand cut. The white cardstock was dry embossed with the swirls folder to give the effect of waves. I stamped the surf boards and hand cut them. Then used my cricut cart Accent Essentials to cut the sun and chalked it with tones of yellow and red to make it pop, then stamped it with the sentiment. Think this was one of my most favorite cards, lots and lots of techniques to keep me busy making 10 of them!!!

Friday is pool day!

Since summer began I have been going to my friends pool every Friday. We have now decided that Friday is pool day all summer long!!! Thanks Julia for putting up with us every week! It is truly the highlight of our week! Here are some photos from last weeks pool day. The kids have so much fun playing with Julia's little one and now we have started to say that Miranda has a new boyfriend because Zachary loves her so much! He knows a cute girl when he sees one! Just look at the photos below and you can see how much fun we are having!

I have really been emjoying the lazy days of summer, but I feel like they are not lazy but busy, busy, busy! Although it is a very happy busy!