The antidote for what ails me :)

You know what always makes me feel better when

I'm having a bad day?

FUN MAIL!!!

Yesterday my head felt like it was going to explode

and I was sure that my left eye was going

to shoot out across the room.....

And then the mailman brought me 

2 wonderful packages!

This first package is from Crazy Annie's Stitchin.

It's the shop I've mentioned before

that sells new stitching supplies

up to 50% off.

And she was having one of her many sales

and I got all this cool stuff for an additional 35% off!

Yep...that's 85% off!

(She's actually got a new sale starting today 

so hop on over there and sign up for her newsletter

to get the coupon codes)

AND... she included freebies!

Look what she sent me!

There is hand dyed linen,

over dyed floss,

charms and buttons,

and even a cute shopping list pad!

Look at those cute charms and buttons!

How did she know that my favorite things

are hearts, sunflowers and pumpkins?

And if all that goodness wasn't enough

 to put a huge smile on my face,

I also received my order 

from The Cross I Bare on etsy.

It's a shop that sells new or gently used 

cross stitch charts for great prices.

And she always includes

 a couple of free charts as well :)

If you've been around here long enough

you know that I try to NEVER pay full price for anything!

I do love me a great sale!

Happy stitching everyone!!!

A Pattern by any other name......

I'm not sure if any of you noticed,

but I no longer have the " link botton" 

for Keyka Lou bag patterns

on the right-hand side of my blog page?

Turns out the lovely and oh-so-talented Michelle 

has changed the name of her company

 from Keyka Lou to Michelle Patterns.

Hence, the new blog button.

Same awesome patterns, different name :)

A few weeks back,

my darling daughter-in-law

fell in love with the Bracelet Bag

and emailed the link to me

informing me that "if" I were to make one for her

she wouldn't be mad at me :)

Well, yesterday was her birthday 

and I couldn't resist making the Bracelet bag for her.

One of the cool things about the Michelle patterns

is they are instant downloads.

No waiting for the mail.

I'm not a good waiter :)

Her patterns are easy to follow and

she includes lots of photos.

I used medium weight denim

and this colorful paisley print from Anthropology!

It took me a little over 

4 hours to complete.

I even made my own fabric covered button

for the outside flap.

That was fun to do and I'm already looking

for something else that might need a fabric covered button.......

The bag has an outside pocket and another one inside.

Just a really cute everyday bag.

She loved it,

mission accomplished :)

I just couldn't resist sharing my progress on my Spring Pixie.

I'm smitten with her :)

I'm not really feeling well today,

seems I acquired a bit of a sinus infection.

You know, that lovely achy feeling

that your face might just explode?

I don't feel like doing much of anything today.

Perhaps I'll just stitch some more?????

Fairy Goodness :)

As promised, here are a few pics from 

the Garden Fairy Princess Party :)

(Even crying, Sofie is adorable!)

The Mommies did such a fantastic job

with all the decor and food!

Little Ms. Sofie :)

Little Ms. Evie :)

Kristina made fairy wands for the girls 

out of large Gerbera daisies :)

April made Sofies cake....so cute!

Kristina made Evie's cake....so cute!

Well the Mommies were very happy 

with the outfits and the little girls were uber adorable!

I mean with baby girls this cute, 

you really can't go wrong :)

And apparently I'm in some kind of fairy mode

because this is the cross stitch I'm working on right now.

It's the "Spring" Pixie by Bent Creek.

I love her little bee on a stick!

Floral fun and Fairy wings :)

 OK.....I promise,

this will be the last time you have to hear about

the fairy princess dresses.

OK....maybe not the last time.....

Tomorrow is the big birthday party

so most likely you'll see pics on Monday

of the girls in their dresses :)

As you can see,

I've been adding flowers to anything

that will stay still long enough :)

And more rhinestones......of course :)

I finished the fairy wings this afternoon.

The glue on the flowers needs to dry overnight.

I can't wait to see my little princesses

fluttering around tomorrow

in their full girly goodness!

Have a great weekend everyone!!!

Cross Stitch Swap, Sent & Rec'd :)

What a fabulous swap package I received from

my no-longer-secret partner Nataly!

I mentioned that I was taking part in my first ever

cross stitch swap over at Stitched With Love Exchanges

and we were not supposed to post any

pictures until everyone had received their packages.

Well this morning I got the green light

to go ahead and post!

I LOVE LOVE LOVE everything!

Do you see all that red?

Do you see the cherries

and the Mary Engelbreit goodies

and the rick rack

and the buttons?

You could say she "hit it outta the park" on this swap :)

Just look at this lovely cross stitch she did

and I love black frames.

Matches my home perfectly!

THANK YOU Nataly....

You Rock!!!

Here is what I stitched and sent out to my partner, Lainey.

She love sheep and snowmen

and she loves pinks, lavender and pale blues.

 I added some french knots to "Flanagan"

because I thought she needed something "extra".

I mean what girl doesn't love some extra sassy?

 I also stitched this little snowman pillow

for her. 

I loves me some snowmen :)

It was a fun experience and I'm already working

on my second swap with Stitched With Love.

This one is Patriotic,

but I'll have to wait until it's all over to post pics.

The Royal Treatment :)

 Once upon a time

there were 2 tiny flower fairy Princesses.

Their wish for their birthday was

to have the most magical celebration

in all the land!

So their Nana went to work 

making them special crowns and dresses 

for the occasion :)

For the crowns I used the pattern 

"Queen of the Party" by The Quilted Fish.

I wouldn't call it FTS (fun to sew)

but I do love the outcome.

I had to really read and re-read

the pattern several times before

I understood how it all comes together.

I think it's definitely worth the work.
It says it fit's size child through adult
and since I was making these for babies
I used my copier
to shrink the pattern to 85%.

 As I mentioned yesterday

the pattern I bought for the dresses and tutu's

is for a "costume" and not a real dress.

 I wanted something that would last 

for playing dress up later :)

The pattern calls for using knit Jersey

and cutting it into petal shapes

and just leaving it alone.

If you've ever used knit Jersey before

and tried to get it lay flat in petals 

(or anything else for that matter)

you know that will NEVER happen!

It's curls up like crazy!

So I made up my own pattern and came up

with a fully lined petal shaped skirt 

attached to a knit Jersey top to form a dress.

I want it to "sit" on top of the tutu's like flower petals.

I'll be fitting the girls today

and if the dresses fit

I'll bring them home and "bling" them out

to match the crowns.

All I have left to do now is

make the fairy wings :)

Oh.....and all the young knights in the land

will get haircuts today too :)

Have I mentioned that I love being a Nana?

TuTu Cute :)

 The Tutus are done :)

Can I just say that I am LOVIN the girly goodness?

What I didn't realize when I bought this pattern

is that it is a "sew free" pattern.

Which basically means that everything 

is either glued or tied on.

Nana is not having that!!!!

So I'm making the rest of the pattern myself.

I want the girls to be able to play dress up 

with these fairy princess outfits for a long time to come.

So today I'll be sewing and embelishing the dresses

and sewing the crowns :)

Wish me luck!

I just HAVE to share :)

I just can't help myself.

I have to share these amazing pictures 

of my beautiful grandchildren!

Miss Sofia just celebrated her 1st birthday in May

and Miss Evie will be a year old in July.

In honor of their 1st birthdays

they each had special photo shoots :)

Are they not gorgeous?

I know that everyone thinks their grandchildren 

are the cutest.....

but mine really are! ha :)

(yes...I am a bit biased)

Here is Miss Sofie and her 3 big brothers :)

And here is Miss Evie and her big brother :)

If you live Southern California and are looking for

an amazing photographer

to take family, baby, pregnancy or birth photos

check out Baby Joy Photography.

Julie does amazing work (as you can see :)

And these pics were re-posted from my facebook page.

The originals are even more amazing!

Ok...now that I am done "gushing"

I need to get busy making their garden fairy princess dresses

for their upcoming double birthday party!

Today it's just me and 20 yards of tulle :)

FNSI and IHSW results :)

First - my FNSI results:

 I know I showed you pictures of Sweetwater fabric

and I said I was going to sew curtains.......but......

I didn't have enough fabric to make the style

of curtains that my daughter in law wanted :(

I did, however, 

have a project that needed my attention.

2 of my grandsons needed me to replace

some of their little felt dinosaurs 

that had been loved to death :)

You can read more about the dinos here.

So I cut and stitched these little guys for them.

They were super happy to have 

their "Kung Fu Dino Posse" complete again!

Now for my International Hermit & Stitch Weekend result:

I finished my "America" by Little House Needleworks

It is stitched on 32ct evenweave over 1 thread.

I love to stitch super tiny crosses over 1.

It looks so compact and bold.

I changed out all the colors to what I liked

that I had on hand.

And last, but not least

some of the Father's Day fun

that I was working on:

Every year I made a special Father's Day card

for my hubby.

It's his favorite thing 

and he looks forward to it more than Christmas!

You can see some of his previous cards here.

This year I went with Despicable Me :)

(I love me some Minions!!!)

Took me an entire day

to cut out  those tiny blue overalls

and those goggles were tricky too!

Those are our 4 grandsons and 2 granddaughters.

He loved his card!

Now I have another year to start

planning his next card :)

I also made some mug rugs for my hubby

and our son and son in law.

I used fabrics to match their offices

and phrases that they each use

that would make them smile :)

I baked up some chocolate chip cookies for the Dad's at church.

I found these great free printable labels on the net.

Gotta love the Internet!

All in all it was a busy weekend.

We had a fabulous Father's Day with all our children

and grandchildren :)

Hope yours was lovely too!

Finally Friday!!!!

I'm so excited that it's Friday!

On Friday nights the men in the family

head outside to smoke cigars and have their "guy time".

Which means I have the entire evening to sew, stitch or craft

to my hearts' content!

We used to call it the Scrap n' Smoke

because my daughter and daughter-in-law and I

 used to scrapbook together on Friday nights, 

but the addition of new babies to the family

means I'm on my own these days.

So tonight is the Friday Night Sew In

and I'll be working on some kitchen curtains

for my daughter in law.

She chose these fabrics by Sweetwater 

from their "Make Life" collection.

Also today starts the International Hermit and Stitch Weekend!

This is the first time I'll be joining in on this.

Here's what I'll be working on.

I have a new found love of patriotic designs.

I'm also working on a different patriotic piece right now

but it's for a secret swap so I can't show photos just yet.

I have some fun little projects finished 

that I made for the guys for Father's Day

as well as my Annual Father's Day Card for my hubby.

But I'll have to wait until Monday to show you those photos.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone!!!

A Finish and a Lovely Surprise :)

 First for my finish -

I finished this little freebie that I was working on. 

"Village et Moutons" from gazette94.blogspot.com

I stitched it on Natural 28ct linen over 2 threads.

Naturally I changed ALL the colors :)

I also changed the 2nd little house because

it just wasn't symmetrical.

Yes.....I know I have issues.

But I do like the way it turned out.

I listed it in my etsy shop this afternoon :)

 I finished it with some vintage buttons and lace

and used blue and red Homespun fabric for the pillow.

And now for my Surprise -

On Friday I was blessed to spend the day 

with Cherise of Sewingly Along.

We became friends through blogging

and this was our first "face to face" meeting!

She drove down to my neck of the woods

and we went shopping at Needlepoints,Ltd

and then M & L yardage (of course).

After our shopping, we came back to my house for lunch.

She was such a good sport to eat everything

I made (even with my food allergies)

She was a lovely guest!

Look what she made for me!

Even that little strawberry card is stitched by her!

 Can you see the beading on those strawberries?

This pillow just makes me happy!

I am a very lucky girl indeed :)

Busy Little Bee :)

"Bee My Honey Bee" by 4 My Boys
Stitched on 28ct Lugana over 2 threads

This has been a busy week for me so far!
I've been doing lots of cross stitch (shocker I know)
I joined another secret cross stitch swap
and this time it's a Patriotic theme!!!

While I'm waiting for my chart to arrive in the mail
I've been working on this little freebie from gazette94.blogspot.com

 There are TONS of great free cross stitch patterns there!

On Tuesday I spent the day at Disneyland

with my darling daughter and 2 of my grands :)

Seriously.....how cute are they?

And I finished this custom order

that I recieved on my etsy shop.

She wanted an apron and matching pot holders.

Isn't it so fun and bright and girly?

My customer picked out the purple floral fabric

and asked me to add some pink polka dots.

I hope she likes it!