Self-Portrait #191

I discovered this while walking to meet my bff for lunch. My favorite parts are the kids foot prints which then makes you understand that the tiny dots that are speckled around are fairy foot prints. I love my neighborhood.



My sister sent these pictures of my nephew Westley in the onesies that I embroidered for him. He's so damn cute and big!

Self-Portrait #75

Yup, mornings are rough. What is wrong with my right eye?

This is Kayah, the cute recipient of the first ever Baby Bad Veins shirt.

Self-Portrait #57

It's been a very quiet day.

The Craft Pad Is Here!!!!

But first...self-portrait #49. Ben knocked on the bathroom door this morning to tell me that my package had arrived. I love that he knew it was important enough to interrupt my morning bathroom time.

Receiving the Sublime Stitching Craft Pad made my day but then I realized that I couldn't start another project until I finished my long neglected sewing machine cover. It actually needs a few finishing touches but that will require a trip to the store on another day. I got far enough to rid myself of the guilt of a neglected project. It's far from perfect but will serve its purpose.

Now the package!!!!!















It's so cool! There are so many great patterns that compliment the Sublime Stitch-it Kit that I already have.














The packaging is so fun. I highly suggest visiting the Sublime Stitching site and getting one for yourself!

Walks, Onesies, and Wrapping Paper

I made this discovery while taking a walk today. The car I pass daily and admire it's fun fruits and vegetables but today something was different. I'm not sure if it's a political statement or the driver just thought that was a good place to keep a gas can. I'm thinking political...but the message is still a bit unclear to me. Maybe my few blog readers will have some insight. I feel like I'm on a scavenger hunt when I walk through my neighborhood. I can never tell what I'll find each time.

One of my coworkers/friends is expecting a baby boy mid this month. I have another gift up my sleeves but I wanted to have a gift to give at the shower so I whipped up this onesie using one of my favorite Sublime Stitching patterns. I've used it a few times but it's so perfect for many occasions that I can't resist it when I'm combing over my pattern selection.

Here's a close up for your viewing pleasure. Then I had the opportunity to do one of my favorite things...make my own wrapping paper out of old magazines. We've gotten a good collection going on between our old copies of Real Simple which we canceled to try out Ready Made, Rolling Stone, and National Geographic. Here's how I do it:
1. Pick out a color pallete that works by combing through each page until I have a few good pages.
2. Then I lay the face down on the floor and tape them all together side by side until there is enough paper to cover the package.
3. Wrap it up!
4. Make a cute bow using strips from the leftover paper edges.

You should try it.It's fun and the environment will thank you.

Self-Portrait #31 and Newly Completed Project

I finally finished it!!! The goal was to have it finished before Austin since that is where the littlest Bad Veins fan lives. She is the adorable daughter of Bad Vein's attorney. I learned quickly that I get sort of car sick while sewing especially when Sebastien is driving so the project had to wait for our return.
This is a close up, but....


...this is my favorite flower on the shirt. It looks inquisitive to me. I hate that you can still see the blue lines but they will wash out in the first wash.

Cropping photos for this blog post. I like this picture because it has as little of me in it as possible while still having me in the frame.

Self-Portrait #8

This is one of the projects that I'm working on right now. It's a
gift for Bad Vein's lawyer who we'll be seeing in Austin next week.
He's been very good to them so I'm making this little Bad Veins t-
shirt for his 1 year old daughter as a thanks. We'll also hopefully
be sleeping on his floor while we are there. Only one week until we
hit the road and only one week until my birthday!!!

I've Already Failed

I've already botched one of my goals. I didn't blog last week, I could list my excuses but that would be a waste of time. I did finish another onesie for my nephew. He's just getting to the size where he can wear them. I'm hoping my sister sends me some updated pictures soon(hint, hint).
Our friend Rick was also kind enough to give us one of his paintings. Ben and I have been hinting for a while and he finally broke down. We love it! It looks great in our living room and it's nice to have art other than my own hanging in the house.

Next week I will post my first completed sewing project!

Holy Hell It's January!

This blog post was supposed to happen a long time ago but the holidays and this new position of mine have sucked all of my spare time so I've decided that I need to make a list of goals for this year to make sure this doesn't keep happening. I generally hate New Years resolutions so I decided to make goals. That's different right? Before I commit the list I'd like to finally show of some projects that I finished over the holidays. There are more to come but unfortunately I just finished a few and have not given them to their new owners...yes...I know the date.


The first projects are gift card holders that I made for some of my co-workers. They were really fun and added a personal touch to the impersonal gift card.










This is my standard baby hat which, of course, turned out too big despite my efforts to make it smaller. Luckily my nephew has a pretty big head and looks really cute in over sized hats.
I seem to be out of shape and have grown tired of writing this post. My first goal of the new year is to post my goals for the new year before the end of the week.

Cotton is weird

Last weekend I went home to South Carolina to meet my new nephew. He is so tiny and adorable. I'm pretty sure he may be blind after the about of pictures that I took of him with my new camera. Bad Veins went to NYC while I was in S.C. and Ben took the camera with him so the logical thing for me to do what buy myself a new one. I had very big ambitions to make Westley tons of presents but my new job has been taking up a lot of my time. I did get to finish a few things.

My favorite has to be the fire hydrant. It didn't turn out as cartoon like as I had hoped but it still cute and made with love...so cheesy.

I also made him a few onesies
that are way too big for him but he'll grow into them.
My sisters house is right next to a cotton field, I didn't realize has funny that is until going home to South Carolina this time and realizing that we don't grow cotton in Ohio. Cotton really did look sort of silly to me this time through the eyes of a "northerner", it looks like something that Dr. Seuss would make up.
Here is one more adorable picture. He is just so damn cute. I went to Babies R Us with my sister for what felt like an eternity. I sat in the rocking chairs watching all of these babies go by and frankly a lot of them just were not cute. Westley on the other hand is adorable. Just look at him.

Busy Week!

First a friend at work is having a baby girl in a few weeks and I started a hat for her last weekend but before I knew it Friday, baby shower day, was fast approaching. Thursday night I finished the hat and started bunny #2. The hat turned out big...I can never win with this pattern.

I took the monkey pattern and altered it a little because I liked how the body was all one piece. I feel like she didn't turn out smiley enough so I told the mother that it was okay to hide her if she thought it would scare the baby.


Then I had to finish up two towels on Friday and Saturday which were a wedding gift for my friends Rick and Ellen. I took the pictures in a rush so they turned out terrible. Booooooo. I used patterns from Sublime Stitching. I'm going to swear them off soon and make my own I promise!

Oh yeah, my interview monkey was very lucky!!!

YUM!

I've finished another dish towel, I'm sure you are all excited. I'm starting to grow tired of them but I only have one more to make and I'm on a mission! This one doesn't exactly fit my home decor so it will likely be a gift. It took me a while because I had to master the french knot.
For some reason it took me a while even though everyone says that they are SO easy. I could just hear those people mocking me with each knot that I had to cut out, but once I got the hang of it everything was magical. I didn't even have to call Kim. I see lots of dots in my future embroidery endeavors. I feel like I've got the hang of this embroidery stuff and I'm almost ready to abandon the Sublime Stitching patterns after the next cloth and create my own.

Two Down Two, Two To Go!

I just finished this towel a few days ago. It's yet another fun pattern from the Stitch-It Kit from Sublime Stitching. I have two more towels to finish! I don't really like coffee so it will probably end up being a Christmas gift. I'm feeling sort of bad for my friends and family because they are all getting something handmade this year.
I don't really like the way my pictures are turning out. I don't feel like I'm getting enough details...except the wrinkles seem to stand out just fine. Any advise? I even ironed.

Embroidery IS Cool.......so oooohhhhhh!

This is my very first embroidery project. I ordered a kit from Sublime Stitching and it was a grueling three day wait to receive it. I could hardly wait after seeing the cool projects that my friend Kim had completed. I was really impressed with the little kit that I received and it came with a bunch of transfers that you can use multipule times! This dish towel is happily hanging in my kitchen now. I'm hoping to someday emboider one of my paintings, but for now I have a three dish towels to complete.