A Year in Review

Well, it's been a wonderful year in many respects. I started a new job in January, which brought new friendships into my life. We went to Aruba for a wedding. I started going to college. I joined a local quilt guild and made more new friends. We refinished some of the hard wood floors in the house. Had a few good weekend trips to see my daughter at college.  Went camping. We played lots of card games and made lots of memories with my family. God has been and is very good to us! 

                            

1.   Wine Cork Chess Set

2.   Cupcake Pincushion Tutorial

3.   Cheat Silk Screen T-Shirts Tutorial

4.   Sewing Machine Silhouette

5.   Sandwich Wrapper

6.   State=Love Pillow

7.   Rainbow Mug Rug

8.   Valentines Day Table Runner

9.   Easy Damask Picture Frames Tutorial

10. From the 1930's to 2011

11. Penguin Mug Rug

12. Reindeer Mug Rug 

Here are some posts from the year that got a lot of views.  Thanks to my friends and followers who take the time to read my posts.  I appreciate you all so much.  May God richly bless you throughout the new year with much happiness, peace, love, joy, and laughter!

Blessings,

Merry Christmas with Love

When love came down to earth


And made His home with men,


The hopeless found a hope,


The sinner found a friend.


Not to the powerful


But to the poor He came,


And humble, hungry hearts


Were satisfied again.

What joy, what peace

Has come to us!


What hope, what help, what love!

Thankful today for the gift of Jesus and for you!  Blessings!

Personalized Laundry Bag Tutorial

Last minute stocker stuffers!

I saw this idea here awhile ago and thought they would make cute and functional stocking stuffers. I bought the laundry bags at the Dollar store. I found white ones that were 3 for $1.00 and then I found blue ones that were 2 in a box for $1.00. I used scrap fabric and my daughters accent machine to embroider the initials. You could applique an initial or hand embroider one. I was pressed for time since I started today so I used the machine.

Here are the steps.
1.  Cut the piece of fabric 5" by 12.5".  Fold in half and press.
2.  Turn so right side of fabric is facing each other and sew the short ends.  
3.  Turn right side out and turn down (to the inside) a 1/4 " all around. 
4.  Pin it in place and sew along all the edges.   
5.  If you want you can add a piece of co-ordinating ribbon to the zipper pull.  
*If you are going to embroider I would suggest adding some interfacing where the letter will be to make the fabric stronger and less likely to pucker.


My daughter is home for Winter break and brought with her an exchange student, Kris,  from Taiwan. Last night she made for us a traditional dish they eat at home.  It's called

蕃茄炒蛋/西红柿炒蛋.

Which translates to tomatoes and eggs.  Kris is cute.  She took pictures of the Chicken Marsala I made for dinner, and eggplants at the food store, and the bulk isle at Wegmans.  Her scrap book will be very interesting.    


Blessings friends,

Superman Beer Mug

When Will I Learn?

I saw these adorable glass etched glasses SOMEWHERE and after looking through all of my 94 RSS feeds, my trash, and then thanks to my awesome daughter my internet history I finally found the site so I can give credit where credit is due.  Wowsers! I MUST remember to 1. flag the post or 2. Pin it.  :)  I am Momma Hear Me Roar made these awesome glasses and gave me an idea for the hubby.

Now, I don't have a Silhouette (yet) so I took some of my vinyl for my cricut, found a Superman logo on google images and used my exacto knife to make my stencil.  

If you want to try your own make sure to keep your eyes out for Michaels coupons because the large bottle of Etching cream was something like $34.97. I bought a small bottle with my coupon and it was under $10.00. I bought the beer mug at Kitchen and Company for $1.99. 

It's not perfect but I think he will like it!  


Blessings to you all,

A Reindeer Mug Rug

This is what I made for our work gift exchange this year.  I had the idea to find a nice pottery mug and then make a mug rug to match it.  The more I thought about it, while I love pottery mugs, for the most part they are sort of plain so I found this mug at a local coffee shop.

I participated in a Christmas charm swap recently and used some of the fabrics for the top. I used fusible fleece for each side and then did diagonal stitching across to keep them together except where the reindeer was on the back. 

                                                                    

This is the back. I traced the reindeer onto tracing paper and made an applique. I wound up putting two pieces of fabric together, sewing it around and turning it right side out. I did it this way because when I tried the applique with one piece of fabric I could see the backing fabric through the white and didn't like the way it looked. I used a solid lime green that matched the ornament on the mug for my binding.

                                              

I bought a bag of Raisinets, put them in one of those plastic bags you can buy in the candy making isle of JoAnns and made a 'Reindeer Droppings' label for it out of card stock. I found a cute reindeer graphic on google and typed up the serving size and calorie count on the back.

Our gift exchange was done by rolling dice. It wound up that my gift was the last one opened so no one fought over it but I think the lady who got it really liked it! 

Blessings friends!

Please check out my Linky Party button to see where I am linking up!

Notebook Covers

I saw these adorable mini memo book covers here and decided I would make a few for Christmas gifts. Twenty books later I am finished! Of course I started wrapping them and then remembered I needed to take a picture! The tutorial was awesome and they were pretty easy to make.    
            

A closer look.

I made each one different.  Some of the scrapbook paper had a coordinating color on the back so that worked out nice.  I coordinated the embroidery thread to match.  I bought the brads at Michaels.  The notebooks were 4 for $3.99 at Staples.  I think they will make nice stocking stuffers.

Blessings,

The Stockings Were Hung...

Me and my big ideas!  I had bought this fabric at JoAnn's after Christmas last year with the idea to make new stockings. Why I waited until December to start, I have no idea. I was going to make them all the same with the maroon on the bottom but then thought the green might look more masculine.  I used my daughter Jocelyn's Accent machine to embroider the names. I made 11 in all. My parents get a new one, our family including a boyfriend and a girlfriend. I even made one for the new friend from Taiwan that Jocelyn is bringing home from college for Christmas break. 

 I sort of followed this tutorial after seeing these stockings here.

Now my problem is how do I hang 11 stockings on my mantel! I only have 8 stocking holders. I hung the last three up by paper clips just to take the picture! I don't think that is going to work once I fill them! :)

Blessings to you and yours,