Let the Festivities Begin!!!

 I am not one of "those" people (and you know who you are) that have to listen to Christmas music the moment the the turkey carcass is removed from the Thanksgiving table. I don't believe that the Christmas season should even begin until at least Dec. 1. I don't even decorate my home until December 24th, but I'll explain that in more detail on another day. We all have our own traditons when it comes to the holidays. Years ago, and I have no idea why, I started to tell myself that I didn't really feel like the Christmas season had officially started until I heard the song "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano. Random...I know. My family knows this about me and they crack up because I'll call them from my car, an elevator, or the grocery store or like this year I was at M & L yardage when I heard it played. One year a friend of mine called me from their cel phone to let me listen to it because they were shopping and heard it and thought of me. By the way...for any of my friends who may read this....please don't feel that you need to call me because that doesn't count in my book. I have to hear it myself in some random way. That's what makes it fun for me. Why that song? I have no idea. Probably because it's not one that you hear every 5 minutes. Maybe because it's a catchy tune? So as of yesterday, thanks to Mr. Feliciano the Christmas season of 2010 is in full swing!

Happy Birthday So So Big David!

 It's so hard to believe that you are already 3! You were born on Thankgiving Day 3 years ago. I was there with your Mommy & Daddy through the entire labor. You had yourself flipped around and sure didn't make it easy on your Mommy. But she was such a brave little woman and she toughed it out with no pain medicine through all those hours of labor. We were pretty much the only people in the maternity ward that day. Most people were home with their families having turkey dinners. We were patiently waiting for our "little turkey" to arrive :) I can't actually put into words what it meant to me to be there to witness the moment that you came into the world. Thanksgiving will always be connected to your birthday and I will always be so thankful for you!

You are such a creative little guy. You love to do art projects and you love to sing and dance. You enjoy performing your newest dance moves for all of us. Your Mommy is your partner in crime and you'd be happy to spend all your time with her. You look so much like your Daddy and you love to play with him. You have a wonderful imagination and you have 2 imaginary orange dinosaurs that get into all kinds of adventures. I love that now that you are talking more and more you call me on Mommy's phone just to say "hi Nanan". You love firetrucks and trash trucks and pretty much any other kind of truck as well. You like to line them up bumper to bumper. You have always had a very special connection to your "Papa". You love pumpkin muffins (pum pum as you call them) which is fitting as you are a Thanksgiving child :) You also love tune tune (tuna)
 and pickles. I could go on and on about all the things
 that  make you so special.....but most of all,
David you are so so loved and so so wonderful!
Happy Birthday my so so big David!

The trouble with Ninjas.......

 –noun, plural -ja, -jas. ( often initial capital letter )

a member of a feudal Japanese society of mercenary agents, highly trained in martial arts and stealth (ninjutsu), who were hired for covert purposes ranging from espionage to sabotage and assassination.

When I made my Ninja-bread Man (or Ginger-Ninja as Regena calls him) I didn't take into consideration the nature of Ninjas. Seems like every time I turned around he was gone. Like a vapor! It's amazing how they can hide in the shadows. For now, until the time comes for him to go to his future home, this little guy is being kept in a very safe place, under my constant supervision :)

Are you out of your Vulcan mind?

So I've mentioned the Stocking swap that I'm doing with a few friends and besides the stocking we need to make a Christmas ornament. I decided that these 1/2 eaten gingerbread men made out of felt were definately the way to go as soon as I saw the free pattern. One of my swap partners told me that Star Trek IS Christmas to her! So how could I not make this Twisted Trekkie Spock cookie for her? I took the basic gingerbread man pattern and added some Spock flair to it. I knew that Spock would never make that crazy "Oh No" face. It's just not logical.....so I decided that even if someone had eaten one of his legs and 1/2 of his head, gingerbread Spock would never show emotion, he would merely raise one eyebrow. Now that I have finished Spock, I have so many other ideas swirling around in my head. Just wait until you see my "Ninja"-bread cookie ornament :)

Friday Night was Sew Much Fun!

Friday nights at our house used to be the "Scrap & Smoke". No.....it's not a bunch of women getting together in a smoke filled room to work on scrapbooks with cigarettes hanging out of our mouths :) It was actually a fun family time that the guys would go outside and smoke cigars and work on solving the world's problems while the ladies would stay inside enjoying some coffee and snacks and work on our scrapbooks. Well a few years and a few new grandchildren later, it's only the men who still get together. My girls are both home taking care of little ones and so Friday nights have become "Smoke Night". I miss my time with the girls, but I know that this is the season of their lives that they need to be with their children. I still enjoy my time to get my "craft" on :) Last night, thanks to the magic of the internet, my friend Regena and I chatted back and forth while we both worked on some crafty goodness in our own homes. It was really fun to have that time to sew and laugh with her even though we live about a 9 hour drive apart. I was able to finish this fun ruffled half apron and because my computer is right next to my sewing machine I was able to chat online and still be productive :) I found this adorable Christmas fabric at Fresh Squeezed Fabric on Etsy. It's just so cute! Some of the little Santas have cherries on their hats and the poinsettia fabric for the waistband and ties have cherries on them too. I bought this fabric in a 5pc 1/2 yd bundle. It is imported from Japan. The combination of Santas, poinsettias and cherries just screamed Christmas apron to me! We are going to a Christmas party next week and I'm going to give this apron as a hostess gift. Hope she likes it :)

Git 'er done!

 Yesterday was a day to Git' er done! I'm in a stocking swap with some friends and one of the swappers is a huge fan of the classic Levi's 501 button fly jeans. Being a 501 lover myself (I lived in mine back in junior high and high school) I decided to try and find a pair at the thrift store and make the stocking out of it. It pained me to cut them up but at the same time there was some satisfaction in slashing a pair that has the waist measurement of 28 inches! I edged the stocking in bias that I cut from some 25 year old christmas fabric that I had and of course I had to use the button fly on the stocking as well. I love the way it came out and I hope my partner gets a kick out of it too.

After tackling the stocking, I set out to do the finishing work on the 4 jammies that I made for my grandsons. I actually made 18 *gasp* button holes. (well actually 23 if you count the 5 that were wanky and needed to be carefully taken out and re-done). Don't you love it when you finish a project that you were dreading?

And last but not least, I stitched the final x's on my stocking cross stitch. This piece will be the center of a wall hanging quilt. And as I have never quilted before it should be interesting to see how it all turns out. Today I'll be cutting and assembling the quilt top and hopefully next week I can show you my completed "first ever" mini quilt :) 

What the??????

 I am 49 and 3/4 years old. I have 2 grown children and 4 grandsons and 2 new grandbabies due next summer. I have been married almost 31 years. I am looking forward to menopause. Having more children myself is not really on my agenda. I'd like to leave that to my kids at this point. That being said, I haven't been feeling myself lately. My fingernails are longer and stronger than they have been in years. My breasts are so tender and sore I could scream and it's been that way for over a week now. I gained 8 lbs in the last 2 weeks. Weird huh? Did I mention that my period is 2 weeks late? Not totally strange, as I am not on a normal cycle anymore...headed full speed towards menopause :) Anyhoo...I'm at my daughter's house yesterday to play with my grandson David, and we're having lunch and I'm telling her how I haven't been feeling well. She laughs and says "you know I have a pregnancy test left and I'm not going to be using it.....why don't you use it before you go?" What? NO! I'm not pregnant! That ship has sailed! She says "come on Mom.....just pee on the stick and know for sure". So she convinces me to do it. She says its in the bottom drawer of her bathroom cabinet. So I go in there. I open the drawer and see the pink First Response box. I take out the only test in there and proceed to pee on the darn thing. Next thing I know Kristina is at the door and she wants to see the results. So as we are standing there looking at this thing the first line shows up. Then very slowly a very faint 2nd line....Wha????? No...that's not a second line......can't be....... She takes it out of my hands and low and behold.....2 lines. I'm feeling really sick now and she's jumping up and down. Saying "Oh my gosh MOM! Congratulations!" I know I'm going to pass out any minute......

Did you know that First Response also makes a fertitlity test that looks exactly like the pregnancy test? Did you know that they included a free fertility test inside the box of pregnancy tests that my daughter bought? So the good news is that I am fertile :) But I'm definately NOT pregnant. The Bible says for everything there is a season.....*whew*. I am one very happy Nana :) After telling Jose about our very funny adventure, he smiled and said that he was happy that he didn't have to change his name to Abraham :)

The Fabulosity of Fleece :)

 I have to say that I really enjoy sewing fleece. It comes in so many colors and patterns and because it doesn't fray, it's just so fabulous to work with. When I went to the thrift store the other day I found an uncut McCalls pattern (7768) for 25 cents that has 10 different hats for infants, toddlers, and children. As soon as I saw the pattern I knew I wanted to make this one for my youngest grandson Gabriel. I can already picture his cute little grinning face with the deep dimples wearing this hat! I love the fleece I got on sale at Joann's last week for 1/2 price too! I also made another dinosaur for my grandson David who will be 3 years old next week. He talks about his imaginary dino friends all the time. Aparently he has 2 orange dinosaurs that he interacts with.

A few months ago I made him an orange dinosaur and I embroidered his name on the side. This orange dino has a different patterned fabric for the back scales and I embroidered "Two" on the side :) His Mommy is organizing a Dino themed birthday party for him and he'll be getting this new orange dinosaur to complete his set of 2 as well as dino jammies from us :)

More Giveaways!

One of the fun things I've been finding lately in the blogesphere is all the giveaways that are going on every week! Over at Sew4Home (where you can find a plethera of free download sewing patterns)

 they are giving away this awesome Simplicity Bias Tape Maker! I really want to win this one! You can make Bias tape in all different widths. I feel deep inside my soul that I need one of these :) Anyhoo.....if any of you are interested in getting in on this, head on over there and register. Then over at Burgundy Buttons (a terrific fabric shop) they are giving away a $25.00 store certificate...which I really want too! I struggled with whether or not I wanted to let everyone in on these two giveaways because the more of you that register, the smaller my chances are of winning, but I believe in sharing, so good luck to anyone who wants to play along :)  Let me know if any of you sign up too!

Oh....We Tied One On!

 Today was our Tie One On event at Branches! A few of the ladies couldn't make it at the last minute.(It's hard for mommies to sneak away sometimes when you have little ones at home)  Even though we missed them, we will have other sewing opportunities for them to join us in the near future. Everyone had such a good time chatting and sewing!. The time flew by and the aprons came out so cute! I can hardly wait to hear about the ladies who will be receiving these beautiful creations on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. I'm so glad I found this 1 Hour Apron free download pattern :) So quick and so easy and about $3.00 in fabric. They would make wonderful Christmas gifts!  Don't the girls look happy? (The smiles might have something to do with all the yummy snacks we had ) I'm thinking that we may need to get together again in the next few weeks and sew some pillowcases for the Million Pillowcase Challenge. These girls definitely got bit by the sewing bug for sure!

And the Giveaway goes to........

I wanted to say "Thanks" to everyone, old friends and new ones, who participated in my first ever Giveaway! It was so much fun for me to read all your posts that I will doing another Giveaway in December, so make sure you check back here for more chances to win. I consulted Random.org this morning and used their handy dandy random number picker.....

And the winner is (drumroll please).......MARCIA! Congrats Ms. Marcia! I will get your new sewing organizer to you this weekend!

Free Giveaway Reminder

Wanted to remind you that you have until Thursday night to register to win the sewing kit here on my blog.

 Also...over at Wee Folk Art they are also doing a giveaway that you can check out. It's for a beautiful Poinsetta Garland kit. So get on over there and leave them a post for a chance to win. (I'm hoping to win that one myself!)

Cute-a-Saurus!

Stegasaurus

T-Rex

I am totally in awe of people who can design adorable patterns like this one from Gulf Coast Cottage! I found this PDF file pattern for making tiny felt dinosaurs on Etsy.com. It looks like it would be very time consuming, but it actually wasn't bad. I think I stitched together 2 1/2 dinos while watching TV the other night. The most time consuming part is cutting out the felt. I learned some great tips for cutting small patterns pieces out of felt over at Wee Folk Art. I love that so many artists are so willing to share tips and tricks with the rest of us through the magic of the internet! This is the first set of tiny dinos for my grandsons. This is Elijah's set. His favorite color is red

Triceratops

 so the T-Rex is red and all the other dinos have a red belly. The

palm trees and volcano also have red underneath. Caleb will have

a blue T-Rex and the other dinos will have blue bellies and David

will have an orange T-Rex and his dinos will have orange bellies.

I figured that was the best was to avoid any possible arguments. Also included with this pattern is a play mat for the dinos and with a large outside pocket  for all the little parts so that you can fold it up and carry it with you. Pretty darn cute and no batteries needed!   

Brontosauras

Sweet Dreams

Last week I made these 3 pillowcases for my grandsons out of flannel that I had left over from the pj's I made for them for Christmas. I was amazed at how quickly they were completed. It seriously only took me 15 minutes each! I thought of pillowcases because I remembered that when I was about 8 years old the woman who lived across the street (she was the mother of 2 of our playmates) made personalized pillowcases for my brother and I for Christmas that year. She took store bought white pillowcases and put a coloring book page inside the pillowcase and traced a cheerleader for me and a football helmet with my brother's number for him along with our names. She used fabric markers to color it all in. We cherished those pillowcases. I wonder if she knew how much her thoughtfulness meant to us. When I went online to find the measurements of a standard pillowcase, I found this list of free pillowcase patterns. Not only did I find the patterns, but I also read about the 1 Million pillowcase challenge that is going on until the end of this year. You can click on the button to the right to find out more about how you can participate, but the general idea is to make pillowcases that will be donated  to children fighting cancer, abused woman and children, the elderly. It has certainly touched my heart and I will be making pillowcases to donate. When I thought about how it only took 15 minutes to make these for my grandchildren who are healthy, well fed, loved and protected, I know that even at this busy time of year I can find and extra 15 minutes here and there to make some more for those who are not. I hope some of you will join me too :)

The Countdown Continues.....

It's hard to believe that we are down to 7 Saturdays until Christmas. I've been working on all kinds of projects for the family that unfortunately I can't post about because they may look at my blog and see them. So I decided to share some wine bags I made for my sister in law the last 2 years. She and I both have a deep love for German nutcrackers, but they are very expensive so I found some wonderful nutcracker cross stitch patterns at crosstitch.com and started stitching. The older I get the more I love the idea of giving gifts that will last long after I am gone and with every stitch I put my heart into them. When I was finished with her nutcracker I was trying to think of what I could do with him - other than have him framed. The size of the finished cross stitch (4" x 11") seemed perfect for a wine bag! So I bought some red velvet, some satin seam binding and some gold braid and voila the Nutcracker King was born!  Last year I made her a different one with "Henry" the nutcracker. Wine bags make great gifts (with a nice bottle of wine inside) and they can be used year after year for decoration. And if you time it right, you may even be invited to share a glass of wine with the recipient! It's a win win!

Sandra with Henry :) Christmas 2009





First Ever GIVEAWAY !!!

A friend of mine mentioned the other day that you could see how many people are reading your blog under the "stats" tab on the blogger dashboard. So I looked. Sometimes there are over 60 page views in one day! There are people reading the blog from as far away as Russia, Sri Lanka, Brazil, Latvia, Greece and Japan....who knew? There are times when I can't even get my hubby to listen to what I have to say....and he loves me! I couldn't imagine how they found my blog, but being the very curious person that I am, I decided to ask that question. On top of that, I was trying to figure out how to get these anonymous readers to post something. So I'm doing my first ever GiveAway! I made this really cute Sewer's Organizer yesterday. (The giveaway is for the organizer only, not the contents in the photo) The pattern is available on a free download from Butterick. One lucky reader will win this organizer! You can enter by posting your first name, where you are from, and how you found my blog. Anyone can enter and you only need to post once. A winner will be chosen at random next Friday the 12th of November.

Cross My Heart :)

 By now I guess its safe to say that cross stitching has a special place in my heart. I pretty much stitch every day. It's not only that I enjoy cross stitching so much, but I love the way it looks when it's finished. I have quite a few framed pieces, some done by my mom (she's an amazing stitcher) and more recently, those that I have completed. With all this stitching there are a few items that I couldn't do without. At the top of that list is my StitchEZ frame! This frame holds the fabric tight and because I hold it in place under one leg, my hands are free and I don't get that nagging pain in the neck from holding a hoop frame. Also hoops stretch your fabric out. I also love that I can spin it to get to the backside of the fabric to make finishing my stitches neatly a lot easier. I also love the 

Floss Away bag system for storing and organizing my floss. There are no bobbins to wind. You just write the floss number on the zip lock bag, put the floss inside and attach it to the metal ring and you're set. I have 3 large rings divided numerically and when I'm working on a new project, I just pull the bags I need for that pattern and attach them to a smaller ring and I'm ready to go! Another tip I have learned by experience is to color copy whatever pattern I am working on. That way I can mark it up, wrinkle it, spill coffee on it (yes...I've done that) or whatever and then throw it away when I'm done with no guilt that I destroyed the original. I use a metal backboard with magnets to mark my place.

And last but definately not least is my fabulous OttLite! This lamp allows me to see true colors as if I were in bright sunlight. They come in so many different styles and they are amazing! There are so many times that you are working on a project and several colors look almost the same. But with the OttLite, you can truely see the difference. And with my 49 year old eyeballs I can use all the help I can get :)