Family Project

The kids and I had a lot of fun making little bird houses from designer paper.  I found the pattern here on the Chic-n-Scratch blog a great place to find cute paper crafts.  My daughter made the black, crooked house and my son made his own blue bird for his orange house.  The one I made ended up as a teacher gift with a coordinating Post-it note pad. 

Enjoy!!

See ya!

CJ

I'm am Stitching Again!!

Can I hear on big WOOHOO!! I started stitching again, only for an hour or so at a time and it is great.  My CTS is under control and so very happy.  I'm only wearing the brace a few times a week at night.  Wearing  the brace and losing weight has really helped my wrist/hand.  Hope it stays like this forever.  As for weight lose I am down 17 pounds.

Stitching Update

So what am I stitching?  I am playng catchup still working on BRD "Stop and Smell the Flowers".  I also plan to adapt a portion of this pattern into a biscornu for a challenge I am hosting on swap-bot.  Check it out perhaps a few of you would like to join me. 

I have some PIF's to finish up that will be going out in the next few weeks. Then I plan to host another one to support "Stand Up to Cancer".  Still working on the details for this one.  Speaking of cancer check out Nancy's blog.  Nancy is collecting "Think Pink" items from her friends and followers to raffle off on her blog in the month of October for Breast Cancer Awareness.  What a great cause, please stop by and give her a shout out of encouragement.

Papercrafts

Since I have been working full time for the past 7 weeks--3 more to go-- my card making/paper crafting has been put on the back burner so to speak.  I have a few swaps coming, I will try to take a few pictures to share with you as I get the cards made.  I am also considering hosting a card making party for OWH this summer.  To support OWH from now on, each time I make a card for an exchagne I will make at least on extra for OWH.   I think that sounds like a good plan.

Basket Weaving

I did make a new basket, actually two recently.  One is an oval gift basket accented with black and red, the other is an Easter basket.  I plan to make several more oval gift baskets for my kids teachers and one wine basket for a retiring teacher friend.  

Reading

Currently I am reading a cozy murder mytery called Crewel World (Needlecraft Mysteries, Book 1) that I picked up from paperbackswap.com.  I need to come up with a creative way to display what I have read, what I am reading and what I intend to read on thie blog.  If you have any ideas please send them my way.

Other Stuff

As for the family we are doing great.  DH is down 28 pounds--you didn't think I would go on a diet by myself now.  The kids are fine.  One is in the Miracle League and two are playing soccer.  My oldest DD will take some art lessons next month, turns out the kid loves to draw.  We are also looking at summer camp activities.  Can't believe we are only weeks away from summer break.  Thank goodness my job will be finished in 3 weeks and I can get some things done around the house before the kids are here 24/7.

Oh well, time for coffee.

BTW - Meari, love your new car. 

See ya!!

CJ

Biscornu Finish and a Few Other Things

WooHoo!! Finally, a finished piece of stitching is appearing on this blog. I have made another biscornu for a Swap-Bot exchange. This will be the last one I make for a while, I plan to concentrate in getting my UFOs finished and working a RR in late February with Stitch It Quick group. Now I just need to figure out what I am going to stitch in that RR.

Stitching

This biscornu is in honor of Valentines Day. It is stitched on Cameo Rose Zweigart 14ct Aida with DMC # 99 variegated floss and little tiny pinkish-red beads from Japan. This turned out to be the smallest Biscournu I have ever made and I just love the colors it will be hard to part with tomorrow. BooHoo!!


Papercrafts

I also completed a bookmark, coaster and tea exchange for Swap-Bot. The acrylic coaster is decorated with designer paper from K&Company and solid paper from Stampin Up!. I made a coordinating bookmark and tea packet holder. The idea of the swap is to have a cup of tea and enjoy a good book. Turned out pretty good, tomorrow they leave with the Postman as well.

Here are some cards I made for upcoming birthday and swaps. This particular layout was inspired by Dawn of Dawn's Stamping Studio. I love watching her videos, she has some great ideas. These are made with a combo of Stampin Up! and K&Company papers. The sentiments I printed on the computer onto Whisper White cardstock. Easy as pie!!

Other Stuff

If you want to help with the Fight Against Breast Cancer in a crafty way consider joining Nancy, Basketmasters Weavings, Think Pink effort. My friend and fellow weaver, Sue and I plan on participating, we would love to have your join us. BTW-Sue and I will be making that basket this spring. So excited!!

Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate all your comments.

See ya!!

CJ

Happy 2010!!

This is my first post for 2010 and the month is almost over. My life just gets in the way of my posting. I really should try to find more time to post or come up with a better system. On the home front, the family is good although hubby is a little disappointed with the Cowboys. Oh well!!

Stitching Update

Actually did a good bit of stitching this week. I have finished the grid for Blue Ribbon Design Stop and Smell the Flowers. I have one letter left to stitch on my Granny ornament, and I have almost finished a biscornu for an upcoming exchange. I received a Christmas packet from Pirjo for an ornament exchange we had on CSE. He stitching is superior as always and I just adore how she finishes her pieces. I am so lucky to have two ornaments from her now. She sent some metallic thread, a piece of hand dyed fabric and the snowman ornament with a sweet card.

2010 reading Olympics

I finished Hey Diddle, Diddle the Corpse and the Fiddle by Fran Rizer on 8 Jan and started Dan Brown's The Lost Symbol. Thus far it is slow going in the new book, I am only on chapter three--that is what I get for only reading in bed.

Paper Crafts

Card making seems to be taking over my life. I am going to stop getting feeds and just checking for updates on my blog roll. It is just to tempting to start something new or buy more stash when I can read about it in e-mail. I entered a card in the Card Maker Weekly Challenge. This the category is Monochromatic. My card is shades of yellow. I used all Stampin Up! materials, even the button is made out of paper.

During the holidays I made Gift Tags and Gift Card holders for exchanges on Card Swap. The card holders and tags that I got back were fabulous and they came in very handy. I used up all the tags for my kids Christmas gifts. I managed to save a few to copy for next year. Here are pictures of my Gift Tags -- I had to make a dozen. They are folder like a match book with white paper inside for a note or sentiment.

I had to make six Gift Cards and they were pretty ordinary, but I got back some really nice ones. Unfortunately, they are all gone and I did not take any pictures of them. Bad me!! Here is a shot of some that I made. I used a pinwheel design that I got from Barb.

Recently, I started to cover some old bird houses with the designer papers I have collected and I am really pleased with the outcome. I got the idea from a card Maker magazine. So far I have two finished. One I kept for myself the other was a present for my baby girls teacher. The plan is to display them in my kitchen above the cabinets with greenery and lights. This is a picture of the one I kept. The box it is sitting on is also covered with paper. It is Washi paper from Japan, I have had that paper for many years and I love working with it.

Basket Weaving

Last week my friend and basket weaving mentor Sue came up and we did a little weaving. I was able to finish the trim on my Cherokee Market basket and weave the Ladybug kit I had bought last October. We plan to do it again on Tuesday this week. Making baskets leaves me with a really "green" feeling. These baskets will last almost forever, if they ever get tossed out they will not harm the environment. I have baskets around that I weaved over 20 years ago and I still use them today. I use the market basket to carry my weaving tools and the other is a gift. They are not perfect but I love them and they look even better in person.

For Christmas I made a few Nativity baskets for family members. Here is a picture of one.

Here's wishing all of you a very happy and healthy 2010. Thanks for stopping by I really appreciate all your comments.


See ya!!

CJ

Another Friday Update!!

Hello April!!! I will be soooo glad when school is out for summer, only 8 weeks to go. I have been busy with PTA, School Health Activities, subbing, sickness, etc. I am glad that April is here, now I can think about putting out some flowers to pretty up my yard. Leaning towards making a small butterfly garden in the back for the kids to enjoy. We seem to have lots of butterflies in North Texas so I might as well invite them to visit us.


Stitching Update
I have been stitching allot. So much that I feel I am losing control of my projects. I managed to finish my PS Snowman exchange after having to re-stitch the entire piece. Really like the way the second ended up and I think my exchange partner liked it as well. It is the second PS winter themed piece that I have stitched on hand dyed blue 16ct Aida called Royalty from Enchanted Fabrics. The picture does not do it justice, it is really cute with the blue background. I either need a better camera or some basic photography lessons. Perhaps next time I will try hubby's camera.

Prairie Schooler Santas and Snowmen Booklet #151

This is the original snowman I stitched with errors. Even though it looks okay, there are mistakes in it and I will not send something with noticeable stitching errors. I was able to save it just need to finish it off with some ribbon so it can be an ornament for my tree this year. It is stitched on 14ct ivory Aida with DMC floss.

My Blue Ribbon Design SAL, "Stop and Stitch the Flowers" is coming along very nicely. It is a fun project and I really love the colors. It will hang in my kitchen once it is finished.




Finally started stitching the Gazette 94 SAL, after struggling with material color and changing the floss colors three times before settling for a medium blue and pink on hand-dyed Aida. Needless to say I am far behind on this project and I need a few, actually several, late nights up stitching to catch up.

This is a freebie from Gazette 94 that I finished while visiting my MIL during Spring Break with my three kiddos. I was able to get lots of stitching done at her house and it was quit enjoyable. I plan to finish this as a flatfold. It is stitched on 28ct hand dyed Monaco call Blood Moon. I used DMC #500 floss and I love it.


I am also stitching some Floss Tags with a simple flower design for an upcoming Swap-Bot exchange. One one of my exchange partners is a fellow stitcher from the Chatty Stitching Exchangers group on Yahoo. How funny is that, I am excited to be sending her something that I have made. Hope to have the stitching done this weekend, so I can spend next finishing them up and mailing them off to their new homes.

Card Making

I have been making cards for Swap-Bot exchanges. Hope you like what I have done so far. I even covered a chocolate bar and decorated some tea bags with paper for another exchange. It looks much nicer to open a packet with a little decoration than a just a simple bar of chocolate and a card.

See ya!!

CJ

It's Thursday!!

Happy Thursday, what a week it has been for our great nation. I was truly impressed with the inauguration events and happy to see President Obama get right to work yesterday regarding ethics and lobbyist. Now we just have to see how it all works out. I am keeping my thoughts on the positive side. Having grown up in Delaware, I was very proud to see Joe Biden become VP, he is a good man and he was good for Delaware.

Stitching Update
This week I have been finishing up the last of the CSE RR, can't wait to start the next one. I have almost completed the stitching for my PIF's and I joined a The Needles Content "A Year of Primitive Floss Tags group. Below are a few finishes that I wanted to share with you. I also plan to make an bookmark for the Nordic Needle 2009 Bookmark Challenge, check out Meari's blog for more details. What a great way to do a little something to promote literacy.

This my first finish for 2009. It will also be posted in the Christmas SAL and Ornie SAL groups. The pattern is from Gazette 94 blog, stitched on a scrap of gold, 14ct Aida using Carrie's Creation thread "Holly Days". This will be finished as an ornament for my Christmas tree. I really like how it turned out. I have already started my ornament for February.



This is a little Prairie Schooler ornament I made in December for an exchange on the Prairie Schooelr Fans Group. The colors look much better in person. Like all PS patterns it was an easy stitch, a pleasure to make. It was stitched on 16ct hand dyed aida from Enchanted Fabrics, color Royality using DMC floss.

Cards/Paper crafts
I have made several cards in the last few months for floss exchanges and birthdays. This is something that I really enjoy doing, I think is makes the packages a little extra special. I have added some pictures for your viewing pleasure.

This is a card for my very BFF, Nora in Indiana. Her birthday was inauguration day. She is an avid card maker and she is the one who inspired me to make cards. This is made with Stampin Up papers, Image Maker flowers, white ribbon and a Paper Studio Rub-On. Trust me that this is not an original design, I adapted it from CK Media Card Creations Vol 2. It is rare when I come up with an original design.

These cards, so nicely displayed on my dining table, were made in November. I used them for birthday and thank-you cards. Again I used Stampin Up papers, I really like them. If you are interested in Stampin Up suggest you check out the Rebel Inkers blog. She'll inspire you.

This is Hershey bars, wrapped in Stampin Up Chocolate Chip paper--my favorite. I sent these along with different exchanges last fall.

Lastly, these are pocket cards made form 4 cirles and two squares of paper. You can use plain paper inside for a message or pattern paper then insert a surprise. I did the later and filled the pocket with floss for a floss birthday exchange along with a a little birthday note. This is also Chocolate Chip from Stampin Up.


Hope you are having a great day and staying warm--especially those of you up north. It will be in the 70's here today. But never fear a cold front is moving in for Saturday.

See ya~!!

CJ