Dear Sewing Machine,

We have had some really great times together. 

We’ve made lots of pretty things.  We make a great team!

 {First Quilt}

{One Yard Wonders - Collapsible Shopping Tote}

{Fun with Felt - Felt Notebook Cover}

{Fun with Felt - Funny Face Tissue Case}

{Fun with Felt - Gift Card Holders}

{Fun with Felt - Bunting}

You haven’t been working right for a couple of weeks now and I just want you to know that I won't give up on you.  I will do my best to take care of you until you feel better.  I will take you to the doctor as soon as I can.  I’m really sorry if I did something wrong.

I will continue on with our Craft Academy class and then our quilting class after that.  I will try not to get upset with you if you have a bad day and don’t feel like working.  We’ll just do what we can for now to learn the projects and then when you are feeling better we’ll try again.  We can do this, sewing machine!  I know we can! 

I hope you can remember the good times we've had and feel better soon.  I’ll do my best to treat you well and I promise to get you fixed as soon as our classes are over. 

Then we can have some good quality crafting fun together again!

Couture Creatures from Rob Francis on Vimeo.

Your Friend,

marci

It seems like every time I take a sewing class my machine picks that exact time to go all wonky on me.  Well, I decided to just work my way through and do the best I can to finish my classes and then I'll take my machine in to get it fixed.  It's better to have a sense of humor about it than to let it get me down.  :-)  

Oh yeah!  No, those are not pictures of me with my sewing machine.  Don't be silly!  That's Taffy!!  He's my crafting mascot and he helps me with all of my projects.  He really loves my sewing machine, too (as you can see from the pictures), and wants it to be fixed very soon.  :-)

Happy Mail - Goodies & Grasshoppers

I had so much fun participating in Happy Mail this month.  I definitely made a new friend out of this experience.  And it was super fun finding presents to send her, too.  Plus, who doesn't love getting mail?? 

We started out exchanging cards.

We emailed a couple of times to get to know each other a little bit better before we sent off our goodies.

After that it was time to get the packages ready to go!

 This is what I sent to Laura.

• Postcards & whale cards
• Giraffes
• Tiny Journal
• Coin Purse
• Bracelet & Ring
• Fabric & Thread
• Bunting (made by me)
• Knit Headband (made by Velma)

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

These are the goodies Laura sent me!

I love everything she sent me!!  She sent all of my favorite things! 

A lovely card

Fabric

I can't wait to make something pretty with it!

 BUTTONS!!!

These are my favorite.

She made this really cute felt pouch to hold the buttons.

Did you see what was on the front of the felt pouch?

LOVE IT!!!

Some very cute little felt hearts

These will be so perfect to accent some of my felt projects!

 I told her that I love children's books.  She told me her favorite and I hadn't read it.  She sent it to me so I could read it!  This was my favorite gift that she sent.  So thoughtful!  I can't wait to read it!

And she sent me the perfect reading snack (aka my favorite candy)...Sour Patch Kids!!

I had so much fun participating in Happy Mail!  I recommend it to everyone.  I got really lucky with my awesome partner.  I look forward to keeping in touch with her in the future.  I have a thing or two in mind that I want to send her later on when I have time to sit down and work on them.  :-)

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

You're probably wondering why I titled this blog Goodies & Grasshoppers.  Don't worry.  I didn't send Laura any grasshoppers (I don't think).  ;-)  I was taking pictures of the goodies I sent Laura and it was too dark inside.  So I went outside on the porch but it was still too dark.  I ended up setting it all up in the front yard where I had direct sunlight.  Well, two grasshoppers decided to take over my little photoshoot.  They wouldn't leave!  They just kept jumping to a new place in the picture.  Of course, they were in a place where I couldn't crop them out so I decided to just let them be part of the pictures.

Here are some pictures of my little models.

Fun with Felt - Bunting

I have seen those really cute flag banners all over the place recently and I thought they seemed simple enough to make.  They can be made out of almost anything.  I've seen them made out of paper, fabric, felt, plastic...  And they can be all kinds of shapes and sizes.  Very fun! 


Did you know those banners are called bunting?  What's up with that??  I was reading The Dainty Squid a few weeks ago and she had them on her blog made out of my very favorite thing...FELT!!!  I thought it might be fun to make one for my Happy Mail partner with her name on it.  So, I got to work! 


A few days after I started working on mine Kaylah posted a tutorial about the bunting she made.  How perfect was that???

I found a triangle bunting pattern online and cut my triangles out of felt.

Then I cut out my letters and sewed them onto the flags.

Then I sewed the flags onto some double bias tape. 

That's it!! 

Here's the finished product.

Next time I am going to just draw triangles on my own.  The flag pattern I used has a little top to it but I couldn't really get them even so the flags weren't the exact same size.  Other than that it was a really easy project.  I am so hooked on bunting now.  I want to make one for all of my friends!  Someday when I have time I just might do that. I want to make a bunting for my future craft room, too.  I will post more details about that later.  :-)

365 Project - Week Eight

Oh my goodness! It's been two months! I can't believe it!!

This was my week of improvising.  I would plan a picture and something would happen so I couldn't get the picture.  I think I did okay considering I had so many problems. 

I'm still trying to get my airplane picture!! It's like the planes know when I'm waiting for them and they just wait until I'm driving away to come in and land. It keeps happening!!! I hope to finally get that picture next week. I'm tired of staying late after work to get it. But now I'm on a mission. I WILL GET THAT PICTURE!!! :-)


Enjoy week eight!

Day 50

I'm from Texas!  This project wouldn't have been complete without a picture of some longhorns!  Luckily there are some down the street from my house.  I caught them at dinner time so I couldn't get any pictures of them not eating grass.  Oh well.  They still look really cool!  I might try to go back at some point and get pictures of them when they aren't stuffing their faces with grass.  :-)

Day 51

Can you name everyone in this picture?  This mural is on the side of South Austin Music.

Day 52

Wednesday was attempt number two at getting a picture of a plane landing at the airport.  I work by the airport and they fly by all day when I can't go out and get pictures.  I waited until almost 6:00 and finally gave up.  Of course, as soon as I was on the road two planes flew by me and landed!  I think I have a schedule kind of figured out so I'm on a mission now.

While I was waiting for a plane in the yucky heat I saw this little birdie hopping around in the grass, chasing bugs.  He's still pretty young so I don't think he totally knew how to fly.  The picture isn't the best quality because I didn't want to get too close and scare it.  I zoomed a lot.  I didn't play around with different settings on my camera either because I wanted to be ready in case a plane came.  I guess it was worth it to sit out there forever because this little bird made my day.  :-)

 

Day 53

This plumeria sits outside my front door and it finally has some really pretty blooms.  The plant is very tall so I couldn't really get the whole plant in the picture and still see the blooms.  It's still pretty.  That's a wisteria in the background.  Pretty!

Day 54

Okay, this is the picture that almost wasn't.  After work on Wednesday I had no idea what I was going to take a picture of but I figured I would find something as I ran errands and went to church.  Well, my camera battery died!!!  I quickly finished all of my errands and went to church, praying the whole time that someone was there early so I could get int he building and charge my battery.  Someone WAS there!!!  YAY!!!  I charged it for a few minutes and went across the street to P. Terry's to get a picture of this awesome cactus!

Day 55

I knew before Thursday even started that it was going to be a crazy day.  I made sure to take some pictures of the lovely sky this morning.  I really hate that the wires are there but that's okay.  I took some other pictures this afternoon but it was so gloomy that the pictures didn't come out very well.  I decided to go with my back up pictures from the morning.  I'll retake the other picture for another day when the weather is nicer.

Day 56

This is a field on Loop 4 in Buda.  I pass it on my way home from work every day and I never even noticed the flowers until yesterday.  I decided to stop on my way home from work and take some pictures...a lot of pictures!  :-)

Bonus Pictures

Here are some of the pictures I took this week that didn't make it to the project.

Happy Friday!!!

Update
I completely forgot to add my extra pictures from the flower field!  Oops!  Here they are!  :-)

Happy Saturday!!!