One Ornament Down, Tons More To Go

You should all thank me for deleting the entire post I just wrote (except for the following paragraphs) because it was SO BORING. Consider it an early Christmas present.

Mollie over at Wild Olive has been sharing her adorable daily Advent Embroideries patterns, (look in the right sidebar), and they are simple enough that you could stitch the ones she's already posted on her blog so far, and then start working on the new one after she adds it every day.

Last night, I spent a few hours embroidering all seven of the patterns she has shared so far the mitten and making an ornament out of it. Why did it take me so long to do just one? It was due to a busload of dumb mistakes on my part, but my mitten is all finished, and wonky eyes and wrinkled fabric aside, I am happy with it.



You can see some pictures from last night's ornament making project on Facebook.

So, now I am going to stitch up the rest of the posted patterns tonight so I'll be all caught up when Mollie adds another one tomorrow. [insert hysterical laughter here] Well, maybe I won't get all eight finished but I know I can get a few more done this evening.

Finished For Friday: It's Tubby

Time for another Finished for Friday post!

My new favorite Facebook game is Pet Society where you create an adorable little critter and then feed it and play with it, decorate its house and visit its friends. Thanks to the cuteness factor, I am now obsessed with this game.

My pet is named Tubby and her turn-ons include guitars...

...making googly eyes at her stuffed horse (which is cute and creepy)...

...and lattes.

Recently, I decided I needed to immortalize Tubby in felt and ended up making a pillow with her image on the front. Sorry for the dark picture. When I lightened it up, it looked cartoonish so I just kept it as is.

I printed out a picture of Tubby and used that for a pattern. One copy worked for the body shape and then I cut up a couple of others for patterns for the eyes, nose and the white fluff on her head. The dress I cut out freehand but used the body as a guide. She's made from a combination of craft felt, eco felt and wool felt. (Jo-ann, if you're reading this, the felt for her dress came from you. Thanks again!)

Here's a close-up of Miss Tubbalicious.




If you'd like to share anything you have finished lately (a craft project, a book, a bag of Cheetos), head on over to Lit and Laundry and leave a link to your blog on this post so we can see what you've been up to this week.

No Facebook?

OK, I can't get on Facebook at all. I can't get to my page or their blog or anything. Is it just me or is anyone else having a problem?

There's Got To Be A Morning After

Earlier today, some guy knocked on the front door and I was ready to jump up from the computer and go answer it when I realized it was after 2:00 in the afternoon and I was still in a robe and pajamas. How did that happen?! I seem to remember coming up with a plan, while I was eating breakfast, to give my bedroom a good spring cleaning -- I was even going to move furniture so I could vacuum everywhere -- and then next thing I know, it's early afternoon and I'm still in my PJs and playing on Facebook. Have you tried the Pick Your 5 application yet? It lets you make lists of your five favorite whatevers -- movies, bands, TV shows, beers, sports teams, books, slopes, dog breeds, etc, and then share them on your page. I love doing that kind of thing, and also seeing what other people put on their lists. And, making fun of people who think Hannah Montana is one of the best shows ever always cheers me up.

And, it wasn't just Facebook that kept me busy today. I also wasted a ridiculous amount of time trying to get a pattern to print. Normally, I'd give up after the second try but it's for this adorable donkey on Etsy's blog and I HAD to have it. Who knows why but I couldn't get the pdf to open no matter how many times I tried, and printing the page only gave me the sidebars -- the entire middle section with the pattern itself was blank. Signing into Etsy didn't make a difference and neither did using Firefox instead of AOL's browser. To make it more fun, my computer kept freezing up when I was trying all these things so I had to keep starting over. The weird thing is I had the same problem a few months ago while trying to print another pattern from The Storque blog. I would love to link to that other pattern now but I just got stuck on Etsy again and had to re-start AOL. Anyway, the donkey is cute and I am sure you will have no issues printing the pattern. I think I'm just special that way.

On to the good stuff . . . You can win a copy of either The Apron Book or The Kitchen Linens Book by EllynAnne Geisel from The Apron Goddess. All the details are on this post. You have until midnight, Saturday, March 28th, to enter.

Kandra & Renee at Sibling Craftery are holding their first giveaway for some great prizes. (fabric! a pincushion! floss!) You have until Sunday, March 29th, to get in on this one. And, I know I've linked to them before but in case you missed it, be sure to check out their fun embroidery patterns too. I heart the Valentine's Day one.

There's another way to win one of EllynAnne's books but it's a little more involved: EllynAnne, along with Colonial Patterns Inc., is giving away six prize packages (full of Aunt Martha embroidery transfers, some towels to stitch them on, and copies of her books), over at Apron Memories, but to enter this not-a-contest giveaway, you need to create something using vintage household goods, (fabric, handkerchiefs, toweling, embroidery, doilies, place mats, napkins), and then post it in their Kitchen Linens Flickr pool. The deadline to enter is April 30th.

I am really in the mood to stitch something now but first I must print out even more patterns. I wouldn't want to get kicked out of Hoarders Anonymous any time soon. They're all are for embroidery except the felt Easter cone, which is now on my to-do list. (I'm considering joining Felt Anonymous as well.)

Bunnies and chicks at Orange Flower: Patterns and Tutorials [via Meet Me At Mikes]

Springy Chicken Day, flower for Spring, and (my favorite) Itty Bitty Circus and (even more favorite) a felt Easter Favor Cone at Tangarang

Henry the Hedgehog and Padraic O'Malley (links are in the right sidebar along with a few more) at Chichiboulie

Bunny pattern for March from Bad Birds (thanks, L&L!)

Have a great Thursday!

I Might Need To Break Up With Facebook

The new Facebook layout is ugh-worthy.

The "news feed" is now supposed to be streaming live so every time your pal Joe Blow sends Peeps to 57 of his closest pals, your news feed lets you know about it. (I'd like to know who the loser was who thought someone using the Peeps application was newsworthy.) Meanwhile, my news feed doesn't bother to tell me when Michelle adds new pictures and no longer lets me know when my sister becomes friends with someone. Yeah, I could click on their FB pages and see what they've been up to since I last logged in 37 minutes earlier, but I don't want to have to do that for everybody, or at least not for the seven Facebookers that I actually like and consider real friends. I'd rather see it all in one place, like it used to be. Dear FB: if you're going to stream it live, then post everything we all do, not just the stupid gifting of the Peeps. Or at least let us choose what we want and don't want to see on our news feeds. It seems many people don't like how things are now so maybe our complaints will get FB to reconsider the changes. And, I believe in unicorns too.

Did you know that March was Adopt-A-Rescued-Guinea-Pig-Month? To mark the occasion, here's a super lousy photo of a felt guinea pig I made sometime last year (what's up with that white mouth? They look like teeth.) and my version of Jenny's Shamrock Pin, which I made the other night and then pinned on to a sweater that was left on top of a pile of clothes on a chair in my bedroom for all of St. Patrick's Day. But, hey, my shamrock is all ready to go for the wearing of the green next year.

If adopting a guinea pig sounds like a plan but you don't know where to find one that's been rescued, try Petfinder. They have a search feature on the home page where you can put in your zip code and the kind of pet you're looking for and get a list of available animals in your area.

And, thanks so much for all the comments on my pillow! That totally made my day year!

I Once Shellacked A Hamster

I think I forgot how to blog.

I admit I've been spending far too much time on Facebook but looking at profiles of people I once knew has prompted me to go through lots of old pictures and boxes filled with things I've saved over the years, and that's brought back a lot of memories. Since I haven't finished anything this week, I thought I'd share what might be considered my very first craft project.

Meet my third grade teacher from University Park Elementary School: Craig Ritter. Thanks to Mr. Ritter, I learned how to play soccer. Except in his version, there were no positions like forward or fullback. Everybody got to be on the team and play, and the entire field was fair game. He called it Jungle Ball.



I had my first Rice Krispie Treat because of Mr. Ritter. I don't know how many batches we made the day before we went on Christmas vacation but all the kids in my classroom, and the one next door, ended up with a treat the size of a softball. I can remember gnawing on mine -- it was too huge to take a bite out of -- while waiting in line for lunch that day and thinking it was the greatest thing ever. My sister and I still tease my mom that if it wasn't for Mr. Ritter, we never would have known about Rice Krispie Treats since she never made them for us.

My first and only experience with shellac was in Mr. Ritter's class. He had asked us to bring pictures of something we liked to school. I had a thing for hamsters back then and I think I cut mine out of a how-to-take-care-of-your-hamster type book. Our project started off by gluing the pictures to a piece of wood. Then we got to shellac the hell out of it. I'm not sure if his lesson on using varnish fell under math, spelling or creative writing, but I remember I really enjoyed coating that piece of wood with shellac. (Can you get high if you inhale shellac fumes?)


Mr. Ritter eventually left my school and went to teach in Japan. He later came back to UP Elementary and became the principal. I'm sure he did a wonderful job in that role but I feel bad for the kids who missed out on making giant Rice Krispie balls or playing Jungle Ball or shellacking a hamster because they didn't get to have Mr. Ritter as a teacher.

Fun shellac fact from Wikipedia: Dried shellac is all-natural and is often used as a candy and pill coating.

I Heart My Garland

Does anyone remember Lola Heatherton from SCTV? She would be a guest on the talk show and her catch phrase was "I love you! I want to bear your children!" I was thinking about saying that to those of you who left me comments about my house ornament (the short, dumpy one). But I thought it might freak you out if you didn't know the reference. So, I'll just say thank you, everybody, for saying such nice things!!

I know someone out there will love this free embroidery pattern of Cute Hate Bunnies by BoT. I like it too and think it would be great on a kitchen towel. To make it easier for you Googlers to find this design : bunny rabbit meat cleaver knife Hah! I just discovered I could post that pattern link directly to Facebook. So I did.

On December 13th, Niki of Pumpkin Country is having her own personal quilt-a-thon to finish up some last minute Christmas presents and she's hoping to get some of you to join her.

Niki says:

I'm having my own personal Quilt-a-Thon...I need to get some last
minute Christmas gifts made up and finished! If you'd like to join me, then grab the graphic, and post a link back to my Pumpkin Country blog and we'll do this together! We can post updates that day (the 13th of Dec-Saturday) with fun pictures along the way. Spread the word. About 2 wks from now. Who's IN??? Please blog about it, so we have more participants!

p.s. If anyone knows how to make the HTML to my graphic clickable, with
the scrolly bar type thingy (LOL) please let me know. It's a heck of a lot
easier grabbing the graphic that way.

You'll find the graphic for the Quilt-a-thon on her Just Us Quilters blog. My sincere apologies for not posting this sooner, Niki!

Last night, I wanted to make something out of felt and I wanted to blanket stitch it so I went looking for a project that would fit the bill. I decided on Anna Maria Horner's felt garland. (It's been on my to-do list for awhile.) I read the directions but we're nearly out of paper so I didn't print them out. I cut out a bunch of felt circles and first I blanket stitched each pair together, and then I attached them to one another in a row. When I lined them up to figure out the order I wanted, it looked like a preschool matching game to me. Well, except for the extra beige one at the end. I used to make this kind of thing for the kids at work. Not out of felt but with stickers on juice can lids or laminated cardboard. I really miss doing all of that.




And, now here's a shot of my chest modeling the finished garland. Isn't the trash bag hanging on the door knob a nice touch? (I haven't had a bathroom trash can on the floor for years thanks to a little Shih Tzu who would raid the one I used to have.) I really love how the garland turned out. I just clicked the picture and got a good view of my stitching. It's not too bad.

I wonder if there's a Facebook group for People Who Take Pictures in Their Bathroom Without Tidying Up First.

Patty Blogs! Alert The Media!

Remember when I used to make stuff? Me neither. But I do have some links for you.

There's a great tutorial on turning an embroidery project into an ornament on Bookwormbethie - between the pages [link via Needlework News].

They're doing a Christmas stocking stitch-a-long at Meet Me At Mikes [via Pimp Stitch]. Pip says it's especially good for embroidery beginners because she's going to explain how to do everything. Go see the cute patterns. I must stitch that dog.

And, just because Mary has issues with Goodnight, Moon doesn't mean we can't appreciate her Easy Handmade Christmas Gift projects. On her blog, she shows you how to alter a candle (glitter alert!) and how to make an acrylic bookmark.

Facebook Groups

I found an apron group on Facebook with 54 members. I knew four of them through reading their blogs. It's a small world after all.

Here are a few Facebook groups you crafty types might be interested in joining. I'm not sure if a direct link will work so go log in and then do a search on them.

Craftster.org
I love Sublime Stitching!!!
Tie One On...an apron, of course!
I'm Bringing Aprons Back

Let me know if you know of any others. Thanks.

Yes, I'm Addicted To Facebook

Thanks to Jessica, I found Sublime Stitching on Facebook.

I also found my sister. If she turns down my friend request, I might have to beat her up.

And, then you know what I did? Yes, I admit it. I looked up ex-boyfriends. Just shoot me.

I hope there isn't a counter of some kind that keeps track of how many times an hour I go there.

But I Will Not Twitter

The other night, I was kind of bored so I reactivated my Facebook account. I had joined last year at the request of a friend but didn't see the point of being there and deleted inactivated my account. I spent some time there again, checking out groups and looking for people I know. I plugged my AOL address book in and there were names coming up that I didn't even recognize. I think most of them were dog rescue-related but then again who knows. At least none of them are dead (see Tuesday's post). And, I found a few of you on there but felt a little stalker-ish sending a friend request, and there's a good chance you probably wouldn't know who I was anyway.

(By the way, there are ads on Facebook on the right-hand side, and I swear 99% of the ones I saw had to do with Rachael Ray. I would click another link and a new page would open and there would be another picture of her. It's as if Facebook knows just how much she annoys me and is doing this just to drive me insane.)

I still don't see the point of Facebook (maybe I am just anti-social) so can someone please let me in on what I can do there. (Looking up some guy I had a crush on in high school is so 1998.)