Merry Christmas

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas.

~B

It is already December?

Where did the year go? Ever notice how fast time goes the older you get. I really do not like that thought. I do not want to get older. I want to stay forever at the age I am and never move, but I still want presents.

My tea towel has made it home. It took awhile but it was so worth the wait. Everyone did a wonderful job. I can not wait for the next one in January. Hope you all will join us.

The tree has been bought and the lights have been strung now on to the decorating. This year is our vintage tree only vintage and handmade ornaments are allowed on the tree. They look so wonderful. I can not wait to get started decorating it.

Now all that is left is finishing the handmade gifts and buying the last of the other gifts then Christmas will done and I can rest and enjoy it. I started the blanket for my SIL last night and I was surprised and how much I have already gotten done. It is half way done I think I might be running out of yarn so it will have to be a lap blanket. We set a spending limit on gifts and I am already slightly over. We all go over but we try not to too much.

I hope you are all enjoying the Christmas get-togethers and good food. I might be off and on a bit as my life is getting busy with music programs (7 of them in the next 2 weeks) and 2 work Christmas parties not to mention getting together with friends. I might complain but I love it. I love being busy.

Cheers

~B

Tea Towel Make-Over

What do you do when towels you embroider get stains? You work them over and cover them with fabric and rick-rack. It was a fun project and makes me wish I had done this originally. What things have you done to cover stains on your towels?

Cheers
~B

What Have You Been Up To?

This is what I have been up to what have you been up to? I finished up my patch swap and my Tea Towel Tour Swap too. I also finished up a personal swap where I did another Las Vegas ornament. It was a very fun weekend and very satisfying to be completing everything.

I love marking things off lists so that way I can get started on the next thing without guilt.

My next project is a Christmas apron for myself for when I do Christmas baking with my Mother and Sister-in-Law. It should be fun. We have
done it for the past few years. Then it is to get started on my Christmas presents for my family. We are not getting together until January 5th so I have a bit of time.

I am not ready to go back to work 4 days off is wonderful wish I could do that every week. Well have a good evening.

Cheers
~B

Happy Thanksgiving

I had a wonderful time. I spent is my family this year and the three best men in my life had a blast. They all brought their instruments of choice and had a jam session just the three of them. They were singing all sorts of songs and ended up finishing with Christmas Carols.

My mom and niece had a great time too. My niece learned to crochet from me and how to embroider from my mom. It was great to see my mom teaching another generation how to embroider.

Thanksgiving was a great day I hope you all had a wonderful day too.

Cheers

~B

Break from Embroidery

I have been on a non-stop whirlwind of embroidery goodness and my arm was like what are you doing? Here is how the conversation went

Arm: I am tired of all this embroidery it is getting boring.
Me: WHAT!? How can you be bored of embroidery
Arm: I just am let's do something else
Me: HMMM. Ok we can make a pincushion
Arm: Alright
Me: Excellent!
Arm: Wait! I think I was tricked it is still a craft project.
Me: Oh well you agreed. hehe.

I do often have conversations with the cat and dog but this was a first with a body part.



I bought Quilts n' More magazine for only one reason and that was to make the pincushion featured on the front page. That was sometime this summer and I never got around to it. I took the suggest break and made the little guy. It was so much fun I kind of wonder why I did not do that earlier. Ever have that why did I not do this sooner? What kept me from finishing it?

I keep thinking of who I can give it to but my hubby said I need to keep it for myself. I guess I will just have to make more and put them on Christmas presents as tags. I think that would be cute and embroider their names on them. What do you think?

Cheers
~B

Ornament Swap

I finished all my ornaments and even recieved one. I had so much fun making these that I might have to make some for myself.

I was looking around my house yesterday and discovered that just by looking at it you would have no idea I crochet or embroider. I give all of my projects away. The most I have in the house are 2 towels and 4 shirts I made my husband and a few scarves that did not turn our nice enough to give away. So after the holidays I plan on being a little selfish and make myself some things for my home to give me the I do make things house. I will see if I can actually do that. I tend to feel guilty for keeping things for myself. I just love giving gifts. Do any of you feel the same way?

I received from pinokeeo. They are so cute.

Cheers

~B

Apple Picking

Every year my family goes apple picking. It is so much fun and seems to be the start of Fall for me. This year we were like 3 weeks behind from our usual time but there were still plenty of apples. It was so much fun. We picked some Grannys, Fujis, Reds and a few Golden. Some of the Fuji's were so huge we started calling them Hujis. I picked one that I could not even hold it in one hand I needed both. I gave it to my dad and of course forgot to take a picture. I will leave you with a large Granny Smith we picked as well. Hope you all have a great day.

Cheers

~B

Christmas Swap

Now that Halloween is over I guess I can talk a little about Christmas. I really shouldn't since Thanksgiving is not even here but I must I love Christmas so much.

I am in an ornament swap and this is a test run to see if I should make these. Part of me says yes and the other is no keep them for yourself. I really like the patterns from Sublime Stitching.

I have become a swap addict lately and mostly embroidery don't get me wrong I like to sew and crochet but right now the embroidery but has bitten pretty hard and I have no will power to speak of so embroidery I must. Next time I type it will be with embroidery calloused fingers.

Cheers

~B

Happy Halloween

Hope you all have a wonderful halloween. I just want to leave you with a nice funny picture of my family. This is my Mom, Dad and Brother in (well since it was before I was born I guess I can tell the year) 1972. My parents are always fun. They were the best growing up.

Cheer
~B

Embroidery Swap

I recieved my buttons on Friday. They were all so beautiful and wonderfully made. I am so glad I joined the swap. Enjoy while I go get some rest. Think I might be coming down with a cold.

Cheers
~B

I figured out who these wonderful buttons came from
Owl - Sarah
Apple - Amy
Tea Cup - Joy
Crown - June
Robot - Michelle (the organizer)
Orange buttons - Maitreya they are not pictured yet due to the lack of noticing the bottom of the package held a sixth button for me. I will be taking a picture of that soon. It is very pretty.
Thank you all for your hard work.

Sleep Crafting

Have you ever fallen asleep while doing a craft project only to wake up and think that maybe you were "craft sleeping"? That happened on my last project I was rushing to get it done and it was all I could do to keep my eyes open. I was even doing that one eye open to rest the other one but I am still awake I will get this done. I did not get it done on time I took an extra day because I just could not get the face to look right without her looking possessed. You will have to tell me if you think she looks a little demonic in the eyes.

I am torturing myself a bit. I have signed up for 2 more swaps and I am going to be making presents for my side of the family. We decided that we were going to do a homemade Christmas . I am so excited about this. I have not done one since the Christmas where my parents did not have any money to buy us gifts and my dad had extra wood in the garage and he made my brother an x-wing fighter and made me a little kitchen. My mom had extra fabric and made my brother some huge pillows that were stuffed with worn out clothes (boy I hated pillow fights with him after that. One hit and you were down for the count) she made my existing doll bed into a canopy to match my canpy bed. My brother and I still say that was the best Christmas. We thought we hit the jackpot no way did we know that we were broke.

Hopefully this Christmas will be as memorable.

Cheers

~B

New Vintage Embroidery Pattern Blog

I have deleted this blog. Now all patterns will be found here.

Cheers
~B

Next Installment of the Tea Towel Tour

I finished another towel this weekend now only 2 more to go then it will all be done. It is always sad to get to the end. That just mean that we get to start a new swap.

I made her a Pineapple Cooler. On her towel she originally put a girl in shorts with the phrase it is getting hot in here. Well I decided that the Pineapple needed to cools things off before well, you all know the song. He really likes Blue Hawaiians (or I do I can never remember).

If you are interested in this pattern it can be found here.

Hope you all had a good weekend.

Cheers
~B

A Mouse in the House

I will set the scene for you. I had just finished an embroidery project and sitting on the couch all relaxed and watching Ugly Betty. When all of the sudden our cat lunges at the table, then starts to walk towards us and well .... can you guess what it was?

She had a small mouse in her mouth after we saw that T springs to action and try to get the cat to go outside then she drops the mouse and I go running into the dining room and right up on top of one of the chairs. I was screaming bloody murder and refusing to go back into the living room. As you might image T just starts laughing and laughing. You know how girls are when hysterical do not ever laugh that makes us worse. After the laughter died down he swore he would protect me from the little mouse. I slowly got off the chair and ran to the bedroom promptly closed the door and finished watching Ugly Betty and then put on my boots grabbed a broom and went into the living room ready to get that mouse out of our house.

I swear we must have been a sight me screaming and waving the broom and T lifting the couch and yelling get it get it. We did not get it. We set a trap last night and still nothing this morning so I am hoping by the time I get home it is taken care of and I can relax and enjoy my Friday night.

Cheers

~B

Button Swap

I am done with my embroidery buttons. I finished them awhile ago but kind of forgot to send them out. I hope you enjoy. I can not wait to see what I get in return.

For close-up pictures you can check them out on Flickr
Cheers
~B

Tour of the Towels

It is underway and I have done 2 towels so far. Now I am just waiting for my next towel to be sent to me. everyone is doing such a wonderful job you should go check it out. Craftsters

I am almost done with my button swap I just can not decide what to do for my final button I thought I finished it but I did not like it. I hope to be done this weekend and get it sent off and be done then I can sit back and wait until October 15th to get 5 new buttons.

Last weekend we took our new trailer camping to Ohanapecosh in Mt. Rainier State Park. It was so beautiful there and cold is was getting in the low 30's at night. The worst part of the trip was forgetting my camera. Otherwise I would be showing you wonderful pictures of Mt. Rainier.

The old girl held up and now we are thinking about how we want to paint it and decorate it. It should be a fun project for winter. I will let you all know how we are doing.

Cheers
~B

Birthday

Well today is my birthday and you know what that means. Another year older and the more I lie about my age. Well at least I am not as old as my brother. He is 3 1/2 years older than I am so I guess I can not complain.

Well for my birthday I wanted to go camping and then T got this great idea that we need to buy a travel trailer. We finally found one in our price range it is a 1966 Aladdin Trailer 16 ft sleeps six very cramped trailer. But it is ours and in our blind eyes beautiful. We have plans to fix it up all retro like. It has a turquoise stove. Did you hear me a turquoise STOVE! I will take pictures of the inside soon I just have the outside right now. I am just so excited I can not even see straight. We are taking it camping this weekend then after that it will be sitting there until October when we go camping again. I hope to have it semi-decorated by then. Well at least new curtains. We will see what time does.

Cheers
~B

First Towel is Here.

Well my first towel is here and ready to be embroidered on. I can not wait and I will show you my progress as I go.

Cheers
~B

Tea Towel Tour 2

Well, we ship on Monday. I decided this time to start off the tour with my own embroidery. Last time I was just to excited to send I did not put anything on it. Now I want it to be Monday so I can send!

This week has been going fast and this Friday is T's first Football game of the season. His kids are getting excited to play and march at the game. I will be there early so I can help the girls get fitted into the uniforms. I promise to post pictures.

We went camping for labor day and now we are like we need a little camper. We are going to look at one tonight so we will see what kind of shape it is in. If it is just cosmetic I can do that. I hope it is not to bad. I really really want one so I can fix it up. Well back to the grind of work.

Cheers

~B

Tea Towel Tour

Back in May my post Time Gets Away I said I was doing a tea towel tour well the tour is over, here is the towel everyone embroidered for me. To see the ones I embroidered you can go to my Flickr. site.

A second swap is starting you all should join. I signed up. I can not wait to get started.

Fun With Felt

Several weeks ago I was bored to tears and I decided hey I still have some craft felt leftover from who knows what I should embroider on it. Well these are the results of what I did.


T bought me this one cup tea pot set last Christmas and I love it since most of the time it is tea for one unless he is sick then it is tea for two. I love the look of my tea set so much that I had to copy it.

I have spent most of the summer home taking care of T. He had back surgery earlier this summer and is still recovering. I spent most of the time picking stuff up and putting things on top shelves for him. Although I did get a little mischievious and put things on bottoms shelves to tease him. I do could not help myself. We always have great fun so he thought it was funny and told me to stop because laughing hurt his back. I am so glad he is feeling better.

Now life is getting back to normal. School is back in session (I do not have kids but T is a band teacher). The football season is starting soon so that means I get to bring more projects to games while I listen to his band play. It should be fun.

Right now we are getting ready for our last camping trip for the summer. I can not wait. I still wonder if I should bring a project or not. I always think I should but never get around to it. I will have to see.

Cheers
~B

Embroidery Button Swap

I have signed up for this Embroidery Button Swap. This will be so much fun. I will post on my progress and what I end up getting.

Cheers

~B

Sisterhood of the Traveling Books

This is a wonderful site I found at Second Fig you basically sign-up and offer up to 3 books to lend out and then you are able to sign up for other books to be sent to you. From all over the world. I think it is great. You can sign up Sisterhood of the Traveling Books.

Seattle Trip

A week ago we went to see Harry Connick, Jr. in concert in Woodinville. It was a blast. While we were there T was able to get a trumpet lesson from his lead Trumpet player Roger Ingram. I do have to admit I never heard of Roger before this trip. He was a nice guy and he let me take a picture of him (on the right) and T (on the left).





Later that weekend we went to see my sister-in-law on the ferry. No matter how many times I go over the ferry I love it and I love taking pictures of the Space Needle.



All in all it was a great weekend. Now back to work and no fun. But on the upside. I do get to craft a little more. It has been almost 3 weeks with hardly any crafting. How ever will I cope.

Cheers
~B

Memorial Day

Memorial Day weekend was wonderful. To fast and not long enough. We drove 5 hours to Cannon Beach, OR. It was so beautiful.


These are rock by Haystack Rock. It is getting close to sundown and we walked out to haystack rock. To bad it was high tide. Otherwise we could have walked out to it and see all the sea creatures that live there.


We went all over. We flew kites at the beach, went to the Tillamook cheese factory. Oh my gosh CHEESE. I died and went to heaven.

I do have to say the worst thing happened on the trip. The first morning. I got up before everyone else and since they were all sleeping I thought I would take a shower before they all woke up and then I would start breakfast. Then the unthinkable happend. My bad ankle gave out and I fell. Right there in front of the camp. So the rest of the trip I was called gimpy. My ankle swelled up and hurt that nothing else. I decided to endure to have a good weekend. It was good. Fun and painful. Oh well take the good with the bad.

So at the end of the weekend I was shopping I went into a fabric store looking for some nice fabric to make a purse and 40 minutes later I walked out with 2 wall hanging quilts to make. (Take in to consideration I have never quilted in my life). Man, I am not sure how it happened. Brian assured me I did decide to buy them on my own. It must have been some kind of time warp or alternative universe thing. While in the shop I have all the powers of sewing then I walk out and am like oh my gosh how did that happen. Well I guess we will have to see what happens. I will keep you all posted. I will take pictures of the kits before I get started.

I hope you all had a fun and relaxing weekend.

Cheers

~B

New Header

Looky Looky! I have a new header. Designed by the one and only floresita. You can find her on flickr and her embroidery blog feeling stitchy she is doing a Crafty Blog School which prompted the arrival of my new header. Can you tell that I am so exctied about it. You should go check her Crafty Blog School out.

Thank you Floresita! I love it.

Stitch-a-Long

I am doing a stitch-a-long on Spring Challenge stitch-a-long on craftster.com. Stop by and see everyone's progress.

I have not gotten that far. Hope to see you on. You can find me I am beetastic.

I just started to play around with picnik you should try it out. It is fun to change your pictures.

Have a wonderful Memorial Day.

~Cheers~
B

Mother's Day

I know it was almost a week ago. But this picture is worth the wait. My parents went camping that weekend so my brother and I went up to see them on Saturday to do the Mother's day thing and gorge ourselves on all kinds of junk food. So afterwards it starts to rain and we all scramble to take all the camping gear inside my parents camper and my dad takes the propane tank off the stove and well you can see for yourself.

We now call him the probane bomber. I have never seen this before. I thought it was worth a look at. Have a good day.

Cheer

~B

Crazy Days and What They Produce

Some days seem very hectic and crazy and I am amazed at what I am able to accomplish on those days. Like today for example. I stayed up way to late last night or very early this morning. But I was still able to make it to work have lunch with a friend go shopping, line a bag for my mom for mother's dayFinish up a towel for my embroidery swap and still spend time with my husband and animals. Then on other day when I get all the sleep I want I can not get anything accomplished. Who knows why we have days like that.

Anyone else have days like those?

Cheer
~B

Larger Than Life

My new project for the week is the Larger Than Life Bag from Interweave Crochet I have joined CAL

This has been a really fun project but the bag is really larger than life. It is HUGE! I have made the lining now I just have to attach it. The lining I love so much I do not want to cover it up with the bag but then I want to use the bag. I am so torn.

I will probably insert the bag for the lining and then just make another lining to have as a bag. I love the fabric. Well off to bed I am a tad sleepy.

Cheer
~B

Time Gets Away

Time sure does get away from you. Last thing I remember we were ramping up for tax season and now it is all over and I have done way to many craft projects to even count. I will post a few the rest can be seen at Flickr
Today was just one of those days when you look in the mirror and you say to yourself SELF why do you still have the same haircut since I don't know the beginning of time. So I marched into the bathroom took the scissors I use to cut my husbands hair and chopped my hair to make some bangs and a little on the side to decide how short i want it before I go in and have it chopped. I have grown out my hair to the middle of my back so tomorrow I plan on going in and having it chopped to my shoulders. Then I will have it dye dark brown. I hope I like it. It is just hair right? Oh please tell me right!

I have gone to another baby shower this week it must be in the water! Yikes must drink more soda. Water gets you preggers. It was a long shower come on 2 hours of games the whole shower was 4 hours. I was so ready to die. They had a guess the poo game it was so gross. They put gross disgusting things in diapers and we were suppose to figure out what it was by looking and smelling it. I nearly gagged. Hopefully no one else is will have a baby for at least 2 months.

I have been part of a tea towel swap on crafters. We each send one towel out to 6 people each person stitches on it and sends it on to the next person. It has been great fun.

That is a small recap of what I have been up to. I hope to update more often.

Cheers
~B

No more pictures!

I know Copper is thinking why is this funny girl always taking my picture. The answer is because I am bored and have no children to torture. She is our baby and will be turning 9 next week. I might have to make her wear a hat.

I can't believe 9 she is getting so old she moans when she walks and takes forever to get moving. That does not stop her from escaping from the back yard or getting into mischief whenever she can or sitting in the kitchen waiting for veggie scraps, she loves bell peppers. She hears me chopping and comes running and if I do not give her the bell pepper scraps she barks at me. I normally say barky dogs don't get treats and I make her wait a minute then she gets the treat. She is so spoiled.

Paprika thinks the same thing but then again she bugs me all the time. Everytime I fall asleep on the couch she is there touching my nose with her paw. She is 6 and will be 7 next month. They are both so sweet and they love to play together. The paprika waits for copper and when copper walks around the corner she pounces on her back it is so funny to watch. I so think our cat thinks she is a dog. She likes her belly scratched and at times will eat dog food even when she has her own food. Is it owners reflect their pets or pets reflect their owners? I really am not sure and I hope neither is for my sake.

Well off to bug them some more.
B~

To many babies!

Right now it seems like everyone I know is having a baby. Man, what happened in September? All three people are due in May. Two are having boys and the other one is waiting to know until the baby is born. That is how I want it. Finding out is like opening a present before your birthday then on your birthday you already know what you are getting. I guess we will see if I ever do get pregnant what I do.

These are the onesies I made for the second shower I went to, two weeks ago. They are a co-worker hence the tax credit 2007. We all loved it the nerds we are.

Cheers and have a good weekend.
B~

Viva Las Vegas Baby

To tell you a little about myself. I embroider, bake, crochet, and attempt to knit. So far only scarves in simple stitches.

Embroidered Tea Towel from Sublime Stitching. I had to change it to a real royal flush. My husband told me it was wrong. How am I suppose to know I do not play poker? Trust me I have tried but when you have to ask what beats what it is no use.
The banner is made with metallic thread and embroidery floss together. I liked the effect kind of like a neon sign.

This is what I do to relax after a hard day at work. Right now I am embroidering a lot. I work at an accountant's office and April 17th is sneaking up on us. It is crazy!

Hope you have your taxes done only 11 days left.