Stormy Weather

I have another plushie friend to intoduce you to today! 

This is Stormy.

Stormy is a little rain cloud.  Let's learn a little more about him.

Name: Stormy

Date of Birth: 2/26/2011

Favorite Color: Rainbow

Favorite Song:



Stormy is made of white fleece.  He has big plastic plushie eyes and a little felt rain drop.  Don't worry.  He's not crying.  That's just what rain clouds do.  :-)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So, today is the one year anniversary of my blog.  I wanted to write a big post looking back at some of my favorite projects and talk about my plans for the future.  My internet is being mean to me right now so I ran out of time to write the post.  I hope to make an appointment with the cable company so they can finally come and fix whatever is wrong with it.  This problem is going on two months and it's making me crazy!  I have been so busy that I haven't been able to have the technician come look at it.  I've had all these things I want to share with you that I can't because I can't write blogs when I have time to sit down and write them.  Hopefully when it's fixed I'll be able to catch up and share all kinds of great things with you.

Oh well.  I'm really not that great at looking back posts anyway.  I'll just tell you that I have lots of fun things coming up this year and I can't wait to share it all with you.  Thanks for reading and being so supportive while I try to figure out how to do this whole blog thing.  I still have a lot to learn.  :-)

Hipstamatic 365 - Week Eight

Hello!  It's time for another week of Hipstamatic pictures! 

Ready??

Okay...go!

Blanton

 I finally turned in my group's Knitted Wonderland project on Saturday!  Talk about waiting til the last minute!  I stopped to take a couple of tree pictures before I left.


So Many Buttons

 Look at all the pretty jewelry!  These button pieces are the result of my craft marathon weekend last week.


Still Christmas

 I liked my felt Christmas light garland so much that I never took it down.  It's still hanging up in my living room.


Where the Sidewalk Ends

 Don't you love Shel Silverstein?  My week was not going very well so I decided I needed to wear my bright blue tights to work to help me feel better.  I've never gotten so many compliments before!  It totally brightened my day.  ;-)


Blame Marci

 The bad week continued on Wednesday so I decided to make it an official Blame Marci Day.  My friends are so funny.  They cracked me up with all the fun things they blamed me for.  It totally cheered me up.  I was worried that people might be running out of ideas for things to blame me for so I took a picture of the expensive gas to give them some suggestions.  Gas is now $3.19 so this looks like nothing!


I See You!

 This was my sneak peek picture of Sweetie that I posted on twitter and Facebook.  I think it looks so cute!  I might print this one and hang it up somewhere.


Sweetie Pie

It's another Sweetie picture!  I love the way she turned out so much!  I almost hate to part with her.  She's going to First Thursday and will hopefully be adopted by a nice family that will take good care of her.  It's so hard to let my babies go!  ;-)

Sweetie Darling

I am so excited to introduce you to the newest addition to my plushie family!!

Meet Sweetie!

Sweetie is a cookie monster. She is the first in a series of plushies that I will be working on.  Let's get to know her a little bit.

Name: Sweetie

Date of Birth: 2/25/2011

Favorite Color: Pretty Pink

Favorite Song: C is for Cookie - Cookie Monster

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Here is the story of Sweetie...

One of my friends posted the Cookie Monster song on facebook last week and the idea to make a monster that looks like a cookie popped into my head.  I pretty much try to figure out how I can turn everything into a plushie now.  I thought this could be really cute. 

This was a really simple pattern to draw.   It's just a circle with monster eyes and mouth.  The frosting is a random shape that I cut out of felt.  My favorite part of the cookie is the little sugar sprinkle beads.  It took me forever to sew those because I had to sew each one individually.  I think it was worth it.  Now it really looks like a sugar cookie.

My least favorite part of making plushies is closing the flipping hole.  I can never make it look good...especially on round plushies.  This time I tried making the stitches a little further apart and that helped a lot.  It almost looks like a circle!  ;-)  It's still not perfect but I'm happy with the outcome.  I think Sweetie might be my new favorite plushie!  :-)

I have plans for a few more cookie monsters.  There are so many kind of cookies out there so the possibilities are endless!  :-)

365 Project - Week Forty-Three

Today is going to be a really crazy day so I'm going to keep this short and sweet.  I have lots of new projects to share with you this week but I need to make time to photograph them.  :-)

Here's week forty-three...

Day 295

 I turned in my Knitted Wonderland project at the Blanton Museum on Saturday.  It was so great to be done with the project.  We install everything next Friday!  YAY!!

Day 296

 These pretty flowers sit on my front porch.  I love them because all of the other plants are just green and then there's this pretty pop of color.

Day 297

 This huge dandelion was in my front yard this week.  I love to make wishes with them!

Day 298

 I ordered this really pretty necklace from Uncommon after a terrible day.  I needed something to cheer me up.  I had been thinking about buying the rings before but then they had the necklace!  I couldn't resist. Isn't it pretty?

Day 299

 This is my scrap fabric box.  I love it!  I try to keep any piece of fabric that's big enough to be cut into something else.  That's how I make the buttons for my rings and necklaces.  There's lots of pretties in there.  

Day 300

This pretty sunset picture was taken in my neighborhood.  It's so weird that the street in front of me is Main Street but you can go two streets back and this is what you see.   

Day 301

Yep. It's that time of year again!  It's time for Easter candy!!  I'm not really a huge fan of Peeps but I feel like it's not Easter without at least one Peep!  My favorite Easter candy is the Reese's peanut butter egg but it's not nearly as cute to photograph.  ;-)

Why are there so many songs about rainbows?

Holton Rower is why!  Have you seen his paintings?  They are amazing!  I first saw a video of one of his paintings on The Whimsical World of Laura Bird.  I love the idea of using such a simple concept as layering paint to come up with such a beautiful, elaborate result.

I love the different layers of the wood pedestals, too.

{source}

{source}

{source}

Marathon Weekend

I had a very busy weekend playing catch up on craft projects since I was sick most of the week with really bad allergies. 

This is how I spent my craft marathon weekend...

On Friday night I worked on button necklaces.

I didn't get very far on Friday night since I took allergy medicine.  I finished them Saturday morning.

I also turned in my group's Knitted Wonderland project on Saturday!!  YAY!!!

After that I got to work on my small button rings.

aka Jellyfish Rings

I finished up Sunday with large button rings!

This is the result of my craft marathon weekend!  Isn't it pretty??

That's 25 necklaces, 25 small rings and 25 large rings!  I had so much fun!  My fingers are killing me from making buttons but I think it was all worth it.  I was worried I wouldn't have enough for two back to back markets in March so I went a little crazy.  I'm feeling much more prepared now.

Oh yeah!  I also worked a little on a craft experiment I started a couple weeks ago.  I hoped to finish it but ran out of time.  Fingers crossed I finish this week so I can show it to you this weekend.  More fingers crossed that it comes out okay.  ;-)

Here's a little peek at the before picture.

Happy Tuesday!

Hipstamatic 365 - Week Seven

I'm a day late with this post again.  I have been having problems with the internet at my house and Time Warner Cable is making me crazy!!!  Don't worry.  I won't waste time complaining about it here.  Let's get to some pictures!!  Here is week seven of my Hipstamatic 365!

Downtown

This picture is a little dark, but I liked the way this building downtown looked in it.  I stopped to take a couple of pictures before I went home from working on my Knitted Wonderland project with a friend on Saturday.  This is my favorite building downtown.  I actually have no idea what building it is.  I just like the way it looks.

Valentine

Here's another picture of my Valentine heart hoop.  I think everything looks cooler when photographed with Hipstamatic.

Mail Time

This is what I had waiting for me when I checked the mail on Monday.  Tons of craft supplies..and some pretty blue tights.  :-)

Wall of Hoops

I started hanging my embroidery hoops in the hallway at my house.  I don't have anything on the walls there so I figured it would be good decoration for now.  It's temporary of course, because most of these will be going to craft fairs, but, I like looking at them when I walk down the hallway for now.

Spring

I know it's not technically spring yet, but I was so happy to walk outside and see that some of the flowers are starting to bloom again.

Buttons

This was kind of a last minute picture.  I was feeling so terrible last week because of my allergies so I took medicine as soon as I got home and went to sleep.  I almost forgot to take my picture so when I woke up between dosees of medicine I took a picture of the first thing I saw.  Luckily it was super cute buttons!  ;-)

Necklaces

I was still feeling pretty bad on Friday so this is all the crafting I got done before I needed to take medicine and go to bed.  I'm happy to tell you that I felt a little bit better this weekend and made a LOT more buttons.  I'll post pictures of the results this week.  :-)

365 Project - Week Forty-Two

This was a long week!  I had so much stuff I wanted to work on this week but I kept getting sick.  On Saturday I had an allergic reaction to something.  On Tuesday I had a nose bleed due to my regular sinus allergies that lasted 3 1/2 hours (I get really bad allergies!).  And then my car wouldn't start to I was stuck at work.  On Thursday I felt so terrible that I took medicine and went to bed at 6:30.  I ended up having to take pictures of whatever I could find around the house before my medicine kicked in a put me to sleep.  I'm not feeling great tonight but I'm a thousand times better than yesterday.  I hope it lasts through the weekend so I can get some craft work done. 

Here is week forty-two...

Day 288

I met a friend at Austin Java on Saturday to work on our Knitted Wonderland Project.  I tried to take another night picture of downtown Austin before I went home.  It didn't go as well as I hoped. ;-)

Day 289

I made this button heart embroidery hoop for Valentine's Day.  I really liked the way this picture of the heart came out.

Day 290

The plants are starting to turn green again.  I tried to take a close up picture of this leafy plant.  Tried!  ;-)

Day 291

This cute little bird house is in the front yard.  I'm not sure if a bird has ever actually used it, but it sure is cute! 

Day 292

I liked the way these tiny plants looked with the water drops on them. 

Day 293

I was feeling really sick on Thursday so I needed a quick picture before I took some medicine and went to bed.  Luckily the sky was beautiful that day!  :)

Day 294

I bought this pretty fabric to make more button jewelry.  Tonight I get to start working on ti so I put all the fabric out on the table to find fun ways to cut it.  :)

Hopefully I'll be back this weekend with more fun things to share.  Stay away allergies!!!  ;-) 

Round Two

This is going to be a crazy month!  Not only will I be opening up my Etsy shop (finally!), but I will also be selling at two craft markets within a week of each other.  Since First Thursday was canceled in February due to bad weather I decided I would go ahead and rent a booth for March.  The following weekend I will be sharing a booth at the 78704 market with Bridget from Love Peace Family.  I'm so excited about that one!  It's going to be fun to spend the day with her and sell our cute things together. 

When I started to think about the amount of items I had made and the amount of places I would be selling them I got a little nervous.  It's very possible that I won't sell one thing at either market and I will have tons of left overs, but I decided to play it safe and go ahead and make some more items just in case I get lucky and actually sell something!  I don't want to be unprepared and have nothing for market number two.  :-)

Last week I got to work ordering supplies to make more felt flower hair clips, fabric button rings and fabric button necklaces.  I'm happy to say that all of my supplies came in the mail yesterday so this is going to be a busy and very fun week!  I also plan to work on a couple of embroidery hoop pictures and maybe another plushie or two before it's time for the markets.  I have an idea for a new plushie that I want to try! 

I wanted to get some new fabric for this second round of button jewelry at Stitch Lab but it was such a crazy weekend that I didn't make it out there (I'll go there for round three).  Luckily I could just walk across the street to B&B Quilting and get some pretty fabric to use.  I ended up choosing a charm pack from Moda so I would have a good variety of fabrics to choose from.  I picked Sugar Pop by Liz Scott.  Isn't it cute?? 

I can see a lot of fun ways to cut these fabrics to make really fun buttons!  I can't wait to get started!  and since I got the charm pack I got 42 different pieces of fabric for the price I would have paid for one larger piece!  This gives me a lot more variety.  I'm finishing up my flower clips this week and hopefully I'll get to work on these rings this weekend.  I'll be sure to post pictures so you can see the finished products.  :-)

Hipstamatic 365 - Week Six

It's time for week six of my Hipstamatic 365!  This project is going by so fast!  This post is a little late.  My blog schedule has been very weird lately.  I'm hoping to get back into my regular schedule again soon.  :-)

For now...enjoy week six!

Leftover Snow

We had snow in Austin last Friday.  I was so happy to wake up on Saturday and still see some snow left over in shady spots.  I wasn't realy for it to be over!

Crafty Presents

I have all of these crafty presents on the wall by my sewing machine for inspiration.  The fabric postcards are from my giveaway win at Punk Projects.  The embroidery hoop is from my giveaway win at Curious Key.  The sewing machine painting was a gift from my friend Noemi.  The drawing is from Noemi's daughter, Sarah.  She drew Cupster from Robo Roku!

Stagecoach Park

The weather was finally warm enough for a run on Monday.  I went to Stagecoach Park and ran for a little while and then I took a few pictures.

Knitted Wonderland

I am really happy I worked on the Knitted Wonderland project, but I am very happy it's over!  :-)

Sunset

I was running errands on Tuesday and saw this pretty sunset so I took a quick picture before I went home.  This is behind Southpark Meadows in Austin.  Can you believe that??

New Color

I decided to make some more flower clips and ponytail holders since I am doing two markets back to back in March so I added a new color!  I like this orange.

Broken Heart

This is my Valentine's Day project.  I thought I bought enough buttons until I was putting the pattern together.  My heart was broken when I found out there weren't enough!  ;-)