A new start and a tiny finish!

I started a new project the other day. It's called "Halloween" and is a freebie from www.passionericamo.com I thought it would make a great little pillow top, so my plan is to do the chart and then put it in a round robin and have people stitch little halloween motifs under it. I'm using some 14ct aida that I dyed myself. The picture doesn't do the fabric justice....it's more of a lighter purple with a few variations through out. For some reason the picture made the fabric look darker than what it actually is. Anyway, here's my start......

This next one is a little ornament for Donna for her Stitching for a Cure project. The pattern was a freebie online, but for the life of me, I can't remember where I found it. I changed it up a little. It did have the "hope" in these letters then "for a cure" in small backstitched letters. I left the "for a cure" off and added some thin pink ribbon secured by tiny pink heart shaped buttons. I stitched it on 28ct white sparklie fabric. You can't see the sparklies in the pic, but I love the way it turned out!

Not alot going on lately. I'm really wishing summer would just get over! The heat has been unbearable lately! Hope everyone else is staying cool. Until next time, Hugs to all!

A tiny finish and some fabric dyeing...

Since I haven't shown any 'crafty' stuff in a while, I thought I better show something...so here's a tiny magnet I did for an exchange in my yahoo group KraftersKorner. I just finished it this morning and will be handing to my partner this weekend when she comes to visit.

Now, if you read yesterdays blog entry you'll remember that I had a bit of dye left over from the kids shirts. Well, I rummaged through my stash and came up with 3 pieces of 14ct aida. Not 'exactly' what I wanted, but figured I would attempt the tye dying anyway. The next 3 pics are what I came up with this morning.....

I like the last one the best. I'm not a big fan of 14 ct aida, but I think these would make some great fabrics for Halloween stitching, especially when they are cut down a bit. The colors might make some interesting backgrounds. Especially with a haunted house or something like that.

Anyway, thought I would show off my zany way of killing boredom. Hope everyone is staying cool this summer! Hugs!

A Day of Dying.....

About a week ago I recieved a wonderful RAK in the mail from my good friends Carrie & Rog. The great thing about these two wonderful people is they always include a little something for my kids......

Yep, you guessed it, they sent a tie dye kit for the kids! Well, today the kids were bouncing off the walls and I thought now was the time to bring it out and give them something to do....

Here we have my 3 "angels" (yeah right) showing off their plain white tees. Even my 20 year old daughter got in on it which is amazing since she can't stand to be with her little brothers for even 5 minutes! LOL, Amazing what a little dye and a plain t-shirt can accomplish...sibling love.

Here are their tees all ready and rubber banded.....

And here they are doing the messy parts......

This is my crazy little red head sticking his tounge out at the camera....it's so hard to get a pick of him being normal.....

And here's my oldest...yeah, I know she needs a little lift..hehe. (I had to put it on here just to embarrass her while I still can!)

And here's my middle one, can you tell he was not happy about the camera? I love annoying my kids! LOL

And here they are with the tees all dyed and ready to sit for a bit.......wonder what they'll look like?

Fast forward about 5 hours......and here's their finished tees!!! This was a great way to spend a hot summer day!

Thank you Carrie & Rog for helping me to make this memory with my kids. As much as they've been driving me crazy this summer this was a much needed break from the norm.

With the left over dye I plan to dye some cross stitch fabric. I've never seen any tie dyed aida so I'm going to attempt it. Not much more to report here. I've got a few projects in the works but nothing I can show a pic of yet. Hope everyone is keeping out of the heat this summer!

Hugs to all!

July Already!! Wow!

I can't believe it's already July! The year is half over and I haven't done as much crafty stuff as I've wanted. Guess I better get busy! I've been wanting to learn how to knit and crochet and after looking at the price of yarn I thought it was alot of cash to spend on something I wasn't sure if I would *really* like so I posted an ad on my local freecycle group and asked for yarn. My thought was maybe someone would have a couple leftover skeins or half skeins that they had no use for. Well, a wonderful lady named Jolene answered my ad and said she had a couple. So last Saturday I went to pick it up and this is what she gave me.......

I thought that was a wonderfully generous lady! LOL, I have plenty to play with and learn! Thank you Jolene!
We recently did a patriotic theme exchange in my yahoo group (KraftersKorner) and this is what I received from my friend Lynn......

The picture just doesn't do it justice. I have it on a shelf in my kitchen displayed for the holiday. The funny thing about this exchange....her and I did the exact same pattern! I made a scissors fob and she did the pinkeep. Guess great minds think alike! LOL

We also recently did a "pattern wishlist" exchange in my yahoo group (KraftersKorner). We listed 5 patterns that we really wanted and our partner picked one from our wishlist and sent it to us. This is the one I received......

Thank you Meadow! I can't wait to collect the rest and get them started!

Then I recieved a mysterious package via 123stitch in the mail the other day........

Janet sent me this pattern that was on my wishlist!!! It is "Amazing Grace" from My Big Toe designs. I've been wanting this one since it came out and I can't wait to start it! Thank you Janet!!

I have company coming for the July 4th holiday. I'm hoping it turns out to be a fun weekend and not one of those where you sit there wondering what the heck you got yourself into..LOL! Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday! Hugs!

A Few Tiny Finishes....

I've had a few tiny finishes this week. This first one is a floss ring tag I made for an exchange. It was my first one and I hate the way it turned out. One edge just looks terrible, but I'm hoping my partner will like it anyway. This is the back......

And this is the front......

This next picture is a scissor fob I made for a patriotic exchange in my new group. (KraftersKorner) It was a freebie I found online. I love the way this one turned out! The picture didn't do it justice. This is the front....

And this is the back.....

Next is this little piece that I finished stitching this morning. This will be an ornament for Donna's "Stitching for a Cure" project. This was an easy and quick stitch, it only took me a day to complete it! I've started another one this morning and hope to get it done over the weekend and I'll do the actual "finishing" of them both next week.

On a more personal note: My kids are officially on Summer Vacation. I was so not ready for it! They are already driving me crazy. I think I've become the neighborhood babysitter too.....yesterday I had a housefull and when hubby came home from work I tried to send all of them home. Their stupid parents kept sending them back over! I finally had to tell them that we were having "family time" and the kids had to come in for the night. At 8:00 this morning the kids were back over here knocking on the door! UGH! I am so not prepared for this!

I'm looking forward to the summer though....I'm hoping we can take a quick weekend trip to the beach sometime with the kids. They've only been once in their life so it would be a fun inexpensive way to have a short vacation. Might be able to get some great beach photos for scrapbooking too! LOL

Hope everyone is having a great week!

HUGS!

Stitching, Kids and a little Gratitude

I haven't had much stitching progress the past couple of months but I've started to finally stitch again. Here's a little piece I'm doing for one of my sons teachers. It's from Heart in Hand and it's called "teachers". It will have an apple next to the words with a little star shaped button when it's done. I haven't decided what to make it into yet. Maybe a cube?


This is a little piece I started the other night. I ended up staying up LATE and working on it. Both are freebies from Trail Creek Farm. This will be for a patriotic exchange we are doing in my NEW group. I don't know what I'll make it into yet, but I liked the simplicity of the designs so I'm doing them. LOL

Today was a hot and muggy day. It finally rained this afternoon. We had a good solid downpour for a good half an hour and my kids decided to go play in the puddles. Well, this is what they looked like when they were done! Here's Bodie......

And here's Brady....

Pretty messy little boys, huh? LOL, I am so thankful for moments like these. It's these kind of times that make life worth it.

I've started a new journal. Each day I'm writing something down that I am grateful for. It can be the most trivial little thing or a big thing, just something that made me happy that day. Not long ago I went through a nasty bout of depression and I honestly didn't know if I would make it through it. After a few weeks of thinking long and hard about what was making me unhappy, I made some changes in my life. I've started the "gratitude journal" and discovered that there is more to be thankful for than I thought. I've found myself having a more positive outlook rather than expecting things to be bad all the time. I've made a choice not to carry on some friendships because I realized that it just depressed me. I'm sad to give some of those relationships up, but for now I know it's the best thing for ME. I gave up my yahoo group and started a new one. I'm looking forward to watching it grow. It's for cross stitchers, but it's also a place to show other things too. Whatever each individual is into at that moment, whether it be scrapbooks, quilts, knitting, photography...whatever. The main focus is cross stitch, but other things are ok too. Soooo, if anyone is interested in yet another group, feel free to join us:

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KraftersKorner

I am looking forward to more good things in this journey called life. I hope I haven't bored you all too much! LOL

HUGS!

FRAZ

Family Fun & Tote exchange!

My daughter left last week to go see her fiance in Texas. He was graduating from boot camp. Instead of getting a ticket to the airport here, she got one for $400 less and went to Portland so we had to go pick her up this past weekend. Since hubby's mom and sisters live there we decided to make a mini-vacation out of it and go visit the family. We haven't seen them for about 4 years. We all had a ball!! Here's a pic of my youngest, Brady (the shirtless redhead) with his cousin Austin. They were filling the bucket with water and filling water guns...this turned into a BIG water fight between all the kids and all the adults. The kids won! LOL

Here's another of Brady and Austin....they were having so much fun. They stayed up playing until about 12:30 that night! Neither of them were having anything to do with "bedtime".

Here's my middle one, Bodie. He played pool for about 5 hours straight! We could not get him away from that pool table! When it was time to eat he kept doing the whole..."just one more game" thing. He kept telling his aunt Jen that he wished he had a pool table and she told him he could have it so.....you guessed it, it ended up coming home with us strapped to the top of my car! LOL

Here's another pic of Bodie with his Aunt Jen. He was showing her how great his guitar playing skills are. He was definately in his element here.....

We had a great time visiting everyone! I can't wait to visit again...now that the kids are older and actually play together the adults can have uniterrupted grown up time. It was nice to be able to have a conversation with someone without hearing, "mom, I'm bored!"

I recieved my tote exchange from Meadow yesterday! Thank You Meadow! This was a wonderful surprise after our weekend away. She sent so much stuff! I was definately spoiled rotten! You can't see the actual tote in the pics, but it is cute. It's kind of a distressed denim and it says Rock & Roll on it....it's so me! LOL

I couldn't fit it all in one pic, so here's the other half....

Anyway, it's been a great few days in my world. We had some fun family time and I got a great surprise in the mail. Doesn't get any better than that!

This week I'll be working on another RR and mailing out packages for exchanges and birthday clubs. Gonna try to get my sewing machine out sometime and work on my grocery bag holder. It's all cut out and ready to sew together, I just haven't had time to actually work on it. I so wish I had a craft room! Hope everyone else is having a great week! Hugs to all!

Fraz