Frankie the Safety Pins Keeper

I recently moved and most of my stuff is in storage until I move again, (hopefully that will happen at the end of this month), but one thing I did not pack away is some safety pins because you never know when you will need one.  And, yes, I could go buy some if I needed any in the near future, but the point of this post is I found a neat way to store your safety pins.  Meet Frankie the Safety Pin Keeper.  I love him!  (I'm going to label him as a needlebook even though he technically isn't so I can find him when I'm ready to make one.)
I think he could double as a Halloween decoration too.  

P.S.   I just found this piggy bank on the onelmon blog (home of Frankie).  Must make this too!  

Werewolves of Wild Olive

I was looking for something Halloween-y to make this weekend and found two good ones on Wild Olive.

One is a no-sew Werewolf Hoop Art project and the other is a trick-or-treating werewolf embroidery pattern. 

I can't wait to get started!

Six Page Views

So Blogger tells me I had six page views today.  Woo hoo!

I think the reason I'm thinking more about crafting these days is because Halloween is coming up.  I love cute-and-not-so-scary Halloween stuff.  Before I start any new projects, I think I will go through my UFOs and see if any spooky & cute ones are worth finishing. In the meantime, I would really like to stitch up this cute Happy Candy Corn embroidery [via Craft Gossip's Needlework blog].

Speaking of Halloween stuff to make, in September 2011, Feeling Stitchy had an embroidery stitch-a-long with a super cute pattern.  (Go look at the cuteness!)  I actually embroidered it back then but I just did it on a piece of fabric, which wasn't the smartest decision because then I didn't know what to do with it after it was finished.  I don't machine sew or make quilts or aprons or pillows or outfits for my kids.  I've decided to hand sew it on to a kitchen towel and maybe add some trim or rick rack, and just hang the towel up somewhere in the house for Halloween. Right now I am at "the dyeing the towel black" stage.  I dyed it once already and it was too light and looked more purplish than gray but I think I got the right shade today.  Once it's dry, I can start attaching of the embroidery design to the towel. Which will be fun since I don't really have a plan worked yet.  (Tip of the Day:  If you ever get Rit black dye on your bathroom counter and in your sink, Clorox Clean Up Cleaner + Bleach will take care of it and make everything look as good as new again.)  (Tip of the Day #2:  wear rubber gloves when dyeing and bleaching.)

Since I'm volunteering at my local animal shelter now, I have to share at least one dog that's up for adoption.  This is TRUDY.  I saw her with a volunteer on Friday in the play yard, having a blast.  She would run around on the grass and then she would jump up on to the bench and give the volunteer lots of kisses.  Trudy also kept trying to get the dog I had on my lap to play with her, even though a fence separated them.  She really is a happy and friendly little dog.  If you know anyone in the Orange County, California area who is looking for a small dog to adopt, please let them know about Trudy.

TRUDY

A1345389

Female, 4 yrs old

Wire-haired Fox Terrier mix

OC Animal. Care

561 The City Drive South

Orange CA

Random Photo Thursday

The other night, I finished the Halloween embroidery for the September Stitch-A-Long on Feeling Stitchy.  I'd love to show you a picture of it but I can't download any photos right now because my computer has stopped working.  I can turn it on but then it tells me my registry is corrupt and that it hates me.  From what I've learned through Google, it can be fixed but that will involve making a slave of my hard drive (or something like that) so I don't lose any files, and I know that should be left to the professionals, so hopefully I can find one of them to fix it soon.  I'm using my sister's computer (thank you, Susan!) and it's been loads of fun trying to remember passwords so I can log into Facebook and Blogger and AOL.  Does anyone know why my Gmail user name is my AOL email address?  Shouldn't it just be my name?  I'm confused.  Anyway, since I can't show you my SAL embroidery, (which I will soon be turning into a pillow), please enjoy a picture that shows you how many emails I had a week ago.  Either I'm really popular or just really bad about answering my email.


And look at this cute ghost garland from Ginger & George.  I need to make one of those!

Download Pumpkin Stencils For A Good Cause

If you download a pumpkin stencil from Better Homes and Gardens, a $2 donation will be made to one of these charities:  March of Dimes, Rebuilding Together, Big Brothers Big Sisters or Susan G Komen for the Cure.  Go here for more information.

Works In Progress...Sort Of

I'm not quite sure what happened but I could only find one picture of a pillow I'm working on. It's my first attempt at applique the right way -- I used Heat n Bond on my Scottie dog cut outs and then blanket stitched them to the pillow cover.  This other time, I sewed an embroidered piece on to the top of a wool case for my iPod but I had no idea what I was doing and didn't use Heat N Bond or turn the edge under or anything like that so it doesn't count as applique.  Anyway, I'm close to finishing this pillow.  The pattern and idea came from Bustle and Sew.

Every two weeks, Artecy shares two free cross stitch patterns, and after seeing the one with a donkey and a dog and finding I had a large enough piece of Aida this afternoon, I decided to stitch it.  I have the very upper left corner done so far and I can tell this one is going to be a challenge.  It will be 12" X 9" when it's finished -- I hardly ever stitch anything that big -- and I used five different colors of floss today and I swear they are all various shades of grayish beige.  If you click that link after September 8th, you won't see the donkey and dog cross stitch because there will be two new free charts available but you can probably find it for sale on the site.  It's called Ready for the Morning Ride by John Emms.  Looks like he painted a lot of dogs and horses in his time.  I know nothing about fine art but hey, I like dogs and horses.  And donkeys.

The "sort of" in the post title has to do with the Hallowe'en Trio stitch-a-long over at Feeling Stitchy.  I know I'm going to do it; I just haven't started yet.  I have to get moving though since it's a SAL for September and we're already a week into the month.

Ok, I am now going to work on my donkey and dog cross stitch and make a bunch of grayish beige X's until I get bored.

Halloween Update

Finally, something Halloween-y to share: ghosts and candy corn cookies.


The instructions for the ghosts were in Country Living (slide #7) and they are really simple to make. You'll need those white tissue paper honeycomb wedding bells that you find at party stores and black construction paper or cardstock for their eyes and mouths. (The magazine suggested glue dots to stick them on but I didn't have any so I just used my hot glue gun.) Then drape cheesecloth over the ghosts and there you go.

I saw the recipe for the candy corn cookies on a blog and then later found it on the Land O'Lakes website. The only difference was the blogger used sanding sugar on hers at the end. I just used granulated. These are just sugar cookies made to look like candy corn and are easy to make. You can find step-by-step photos here.

By the way, the recipe yields 15 dozen cookies, (they're supposed to be small), and even though I read that before I even started mixing ingredients together, it didn't hit me until I had one tray of unbaked cookies ready to go into the oven and saw I still had a huge amount of dough left. Tip from me: the bigger you cut the candy corns, the quicker you'll use up all that dough.

A Night Of Clicking Links

AOL has something called My Favorite Places which is where you can save links. I rarely use mine anymore but I have a bunch stored tonight I clicked on the very last link in the "Crafty Stuff" category and was taken to a tutorial for a vampire bat softie on Silver Bug Studio. That made me want to see what else I had saved. Some of the links are now dead but I found a few things to put on my To-Do list. Because it isn't already long enough.

How cute are these little felt chicks from Comfortstitching? As much as I love garlands, I totally want to make the version with a button and ribbon to hang them up. Filing this one away for next Easter.

Here's a huge list of crochet patterns to make sweaters, etc for your pets, I love this jingle bells dog collar.

You can find a tutorial make a dog pajama bag on Timeless Truths.

Did you hear me squeal when I opened this one up? A member of Craftster shared some vintage stuffed animal patterns that her grandmother had saved. I'm ready to go make a dog and a horse and an elephant and another dog . There are also patterns for a giraffe, lion, hedgehog, calf, ostrich, ape and two for ragdolls. I'll have to put the animals on hold until after I finish my Halloween stuff.

Happy Wednesday!

More Halloween Embroidery

If you're itching to stitch up something for Halloween there's a new embroidery pattern on Badbirds and this one is a Death Head.

And, if you have time to do even more stitching, see also Bat Boy (I love him!) and Pumkin Girl.

A Halloween Tipnut

Tipnut has a DIY Halloween website with lots of free craft projects, tutorials, recipes and costume ideas. Go check it out!

This Is So Wrong

On the left is chocolate candy corn and on the right is caramel candy corn. My sister got me a bag of each because she knows I am a candy corn junkie and I was really disappointed, even though I love chocolate and I love caramel. Plain old candy corn is fine with me. Well, as long as it's Brach's candy corn made with honey.

Speaking of Halloween, the other night I saw this cross stitched pumpkin on Gazette94 and started working on it right away. (There's a translation widget in the right sidebar.) I'm about 3/4 of the way finished with the stitching. It looks to me like you put it together the same way you make a biscornu. I like the heart with the squirrels design in the same post. She has some really nice free charts there.

I have few other Halloween projects started and who knows if I'll ever finish them. My problem is I keep seeing more things I want to make. There is way too much good stuff out there! Like the ghost walkers from The Small Object Steno Pad and Jenny's pumpkin treat bags. And these vintage looking paper decorations from Martha. I was actually going to make the pumpkin tonight but didn't have enough orange paper.

If you 're looking for Halloween ideas, check out One Pretty Thing. Click the Categories tab at the top and then scroll down until you see the Halloween links.

Have a good weekend!

Michael What?

I was wondering why this didn't post on Sunday morning. I just noticed I had set it for Monday morning. At least I got the year right.

The other day Jenn posted a link on my Facebook to this Michaelmas dragon and I've decided I need to make one, especially when I read this line: "If you like, you could use embroidery floss and sew the seams using blanket stitch." Well, hello! So I'm adding the dragon to my to-do list, which right now is loaded with Halloween projects. By the way, in case you were wondering, Michaelmas is a festival that marks the turning of the seasons. You can read more about it on Rhythm of the Home.

After you read up on Michaelmas and make your dragon, head on over to inspire co. and check out the new Inspired Ideas magazine. I swear the cover alone made me drool. A few nights ago, I started making the kitty cat treat bag and I'm still working on the face. Maybe it's just me but blanket stitching felt pieces on to a small bag is a major pain in the butt. If I ever make another one, I'll add the eyes and nose before I put the bag together.

I went back to the orthopedic surgeon on Friday. I love when doctors show me x-rays and I can't see whatever it is they're pointing out but I nod and act like I know exactly what they are talking about. Anyway, he told me I could stop wearing the brace. My knee isn't completely healed but it's close to it. I think he was a little disappointed he didn't get to operate on me for this fracture, but hey, there's always next time, right? Har har.

Edited to add: Miri is sharing directions to make a bonnet girl quilt on Milk and Honey Quilts. Check out this post to see close-ups of some of the bonnet girls. When I grow up, I want to make quilts just like Miri. I love her work!

Happy Halloween!

I was halfway through a post about my lack of blogging but it depressed me too much so instead I'll just show you my recent finishes and wish you all a happy and safe Halloween.

Here's a little bag I made because I wanted to embroider Tubby* as a pirate on a pillow. Somehow she morphed into a witch on a little felt bag.



I used a picture of Tubby for the pattern for her body and Anne's bat & spider patterns (click the pdf to get them) but everything else, I just kind of did on my own. That's why her eyebrows are not even. I'm still not sure what the chain stitch around her neck was supposed to be. (A lace collar?) It's against my religion to cut in a straight line as you can see. And, yes, the purple felt needs to re-glued where I unstuck it so I could attach the handles.

I also made this little pumpkin pillow out of felt. For the original, you used a t-shirt and a sewing machine. (Ooooh, scary!) I planned to make a larger version and also his little kitty friend but I ran out of time.



The Friendly Ghost pillow pattern can be found here at Value Village. [Link via One Pretty Thing.]

One more thing: My mom got this witch somewhere a few years ago and I've always liked her. She hangs on the front door around this time of year. I don't know what she's made of but it's something hard (clay?) and I worry she's going to break when she bangs against the door as someone closes it. You can't tell from the photo but her face is all glittery.


I just realized she looks like the model for Tubby as a witch even though I hadn't seen her since last year. And, here, I thought a pointy hat, a black dress with a lace collar, striped socks and a pumpkin bag (at first, Tubby was going to have one of those) on a witch were so original. :)

Have a Happy Halloween!!

*Tubby is from the game, Pet Society

You Can Embroider These For Next Halloween

Yeah, I know I should have posted this a month ago. Halloween is practically tomorrow but there's still some time to whip out a few spooky scary projects, right? Or, to get started on making stuff for next year. I'm re-posting some of last year's embroidery freebie links because I totally think they are worth sharing again.

Pumpkinhead girl, candy corn, owl, bat, kids in costumes from Green Jello

Bunnies in costumes from Craft Blog

Pumkin Girl from Andrea Zuill at Bad Birds

Witch and vampire from Quixotic Pixels

Ghosts in costumes from Annie Oakleaves

And, I can't forget Jenny's adorable Dangly Spider.

And, thanks to One Pretty Thing, here's a prim Fall Stitchery (pumpkin head with cat mask) from Cash Strapped Crafting (I totally need to check out that blog) and Bat Boy from Andrea Zuill. If you don't regularly visit, One Pretty Thing, you really need to start NOW. Rachel posts so many great links to freebies there.

I haven't done anything for Halloween except for turning some older cross stitched designs into ornaments, but I made a garland of felt leaves last week and I'll share it on Friday. (Have to take a picture first.) And I am almost finished with an embroidery of Tubby as a witch for a little bag. (For those of you just tuning in, Tubby is my Pet Society critter. Here she is hanging out in her back room where she pretends to sell baked goods and lemonade while wearing fish nets and a witch hat.) (Why, yes, I do live vicariously through Miss Tubbalicious.)

Here, Have Some Links

Remember when I used to post links here all the time? Yeah, me either. I just put a couple up on Facebook and wondered why I wasn't posting them here as well.

CakeSpy is giving away a $50 gift certificate for Bake It Pretty. You have until Friday October 16 at 12PM PST to enter. Check this post for details. By the way, Bake It Pretty has a blog and I was just there for the first time and saw this recipe for Ginger Tea Bread. I think I need to make that.

Speaking of recipes, last week my mom and I made this Asparagus, Artichoke, and Mushroom Saute with Tarragon Vinaigrette -- well, I made the vinaigrette and she did everything else because I was dealing with some evil antibiotics that made me nauseous every time I moved my head -- and it was really good. I love anything with a vinegar dressing on it and I love tarragon so this was perfect for me. It's served warm and it was totally fine that way but it was even better the next day after it sat in the fridge overnight.

Jenny over at Allsorts, renamed Owlsorts for now, is sharing some free patterns for making Halloween spinners. How fun!

Edited to add: I just came across this thanks to Denise at Needlework News at Craft Gossip: The Gum Tree Designers are sharing a free Christmas pattern every Monday in October and November. The first one is a gift bag that I just love. I'll definitely be checking their blog every week to see more of their freebies.

FFF: A Few Recent X-Stitch Finishes

I was saving this post for Finished for Friday and I got so involved with playing Pet Society on Facebook, that I forgot all about posting it this afternoon. Luckily, it's still Friday in California.

Time to share some recent cross stitch finishes for Finished for Friday.

I took these two pictures right after one another (and without using the flash for either one) but look how different they are.



I actually stitched those back in 2007 and last week I decided it was time to add some felt to the back, a loop to the top and stuff them, because that's pretty much what I do with everything I cross stitch these days. The black spider chart may have come from the DMC web site and the others were freebies for members of a Yahoo group. Helga Mandl was the owner of the Yahoo group and the Halloween charts are now available for sale on her site. She has some other free designs there too.

When I first saw this Red Sweatered Teddy cross stitch chart, it was on DMC's Italian website. You can now find it on their USA site but you'll need to join the DMC Club to access the chart. (It's free to join and your log-in will work on their other sites too.) I used all the suggested colors of floss and stitched the bear on 18 ct Aida. And, I backed it with some blue felt, stuffed it and added a yellow loop. I am so predictable.

This Korean website has a ton of free cross stitch charts. Forty-nine pages worth! Since there are no thumbnails for each one, you'll have to click on the links. Google's English translation will give you some idea of what you're clicking on but it seems not all of the chart pages will translate. You can pretty mnuch figure them out anyway. I had no idea how to finish off the koala and or bear so I just added some felt to the backs, and I may stick an ornament hook in them and hang them on my Xmas tree this year. The pattern for the bear in the blue shirt is here and I'm still tring to track down the koala chart. (I'm up to page 20 so far.)

Thanks to Lit and Laundry for hosting Finished for Friday every week!

What To Do With Leftover Halloween Candy

Not sure what to do with your leftover Halloween candy? You can find two great ideas on Alpha Mom, an advent calendar and a tree decorated with cute little candy packages.

And, for an added bonus, there are instructions on making a turkey pinata [link via Craft].

Made With Real Honey (I need to stop editing this)

Look what
the Candy Corn Fairy*
left me on
Halloween!!






Since this is the first day of Diabetes Awareness Month, I thought I would encourage you all to make something the color that goes with diabetes, kind of like how pink is for breast cancer. Except I don't even know if there is a color for diabetes. (That petition linked in the right sidebar wants Google to use a blue doodle on World Diabetes Day but is blue the official color for diabetes? I have no clue.) Instead, I'll just share a fun diabetic fact: Halle Berry is a whack job when it comes to diabetes and you should never pay attention to anything she has to say about the disease.

Ok, that's a tad harsh. But she did leave many of us confused by statements she made regarding her diabetes last year. For years, she had said she had Type 1 diabetes, but then later claimed she was able to wean herself off insulin due to a change in diet and was now a Type 2. From Contact Music:

Pregnant HALLE BERRY is winning her battle with diabetes, thanks to a healthy diet and good living. The actress was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes after she passed out while shooting a TV show called Living Dolls when she first arrived in Hollywood. But the disease has now dropped to Type 2 diabetes because Berry is no longer "insulin dependent". She says, "I've managed to ween myself off insulin, so now I like to put myself in the Type 2 category."

If only it were that easy.

When you have Type 1, the cells in your pancreas that produce insulin are attacked and destroyed by your own immune system (they haven't yet figured out why that happens) and it's irreversible. No insulin means you die. This is why Type 1's HAVE to take insulin, either by injection or via a pump. So, there is no way a Type 1 would be able to completely stop taking insulin and still live. Eventually, they would die of starvation, which is what happened to diabetics in the days before they discovered insulin. Halle was either misdiagnosed years ago or just confused about which type she had. (Type 2 diabetics are still producing insulin. When you have Type 2, your pancreas doesn't make enough of the hormone or your body can't use what is being produced, so you're put on medication that stimulates insulin production or helps your body use what you do have. Sometimes, Type 2's are put on insulin and can then be taken off of it at some point.)

And, please don't put on your Diabetes Cop uniform and yell at the diabetic girl for eating candy corn. It's not something I do every day, for one thing. Also, I know how to figure out how much insulin I need for the sugar in the candy. One serving of candy corn (22 pieces, egads!) contains 36 grams of carbohydrates. The thought of eating 22 pieces at one sitting gags me, but last October, I would have half that or 5 or 6, and then set my pump to give me a dose of insulin according to how many cards were in that amount. I had just gone on the pump and was counting every single carbohydrate I popped into my mouth. It paid off too. There's a blood test that can measure your average blood sugar for the previous three months, and I had one in December that showed my blood sugar was in good control last September, October, and November.

That concludes our medical lesson for the day.

Hmm. According to this site, gray is the color for diabetes. It's also the color for brain cancer and asthma. Another site says gray is also for allergies and to end sex trafficking & slavery in the UK.

Um, ok. Forget I googled that. Go make whatever you want in any color you want: a green felt pancreas, an embroidered syringe in burnt sienna colored floss, a life sized Halle Berry sculpted out of pink Playdough.

I've edited this entry a bunch of times and Sally's comments have reminded me that I forgot to add something back in. I have Type 1 diabetes, which is also known as insulin dependent diabetes. I cannot believe I didn't mention that, especially in light of the Halle Berry story. Now, it probably makes more sense why she could not have stopped taking her shots if she had IDDM (insulin dependent diabetes mellitus). This type used to be known as juvenile diabetes because it was usually children who were diagnosed with it, but it can develop at any age. Meanwhile, Type 2 was called adult-onset diabetes or NIDDM (non-insulin dependent diabetes mellitus) because older adults were affected, but that isn't always the case. Unfortunately, these days, more and more children are being diagnosed with Type 2 because of their sedentary lifestyles.

And, Norma? I was thinking a rainbow bracelet would work for me since I would support a variety of causes: diabetes, breast cancer, animal rescue and AIDS awareness, people-with-mousy-brown-hair-who-add-highlights-thanks-to-L'Oreal-because-they're-worth-it, women-born-in-Philadelphia-who-cannot-stand-Sarah-Jessica-Parker, fans-of-Eric-Cartman-who-also-eat-Marie Callender's pot-pies are just a few, but the rainbow bracelet is already for Gay Pride. Dang.

I apologize for making fun of anyone who wears a bracelet or sports a ribbon for a certain cause but I cannot believe so many issues have been assigned a color. (This from a person who sees nothing wrong with patron saints for unattractive people, hairdressers, fireworks, television and notaries.)


*That would be my sister, Susan. Thanks, Susan!

Finished For Friday Halloween Edition

I took a bunch of pictures yesterday so I could join in on Finished for Friday over at Lit and Laundry, plus I wanted to post some Halloween stuff, but the majority of the pictures did not turn out well. I had knocked my camera off my night table earlier in the day and was worried something was jarred loose inside and that was why my photos weren't in focus. Then I saw the pictures of the candy corn cards that I took last week and realized I'm just a craptastic photographer.

Here are my candy corn cards. I had planned to make more of these with different designs but then I ran out of time. Thanks, Anne, for the pattern!




I fell in love with Jenny's Dangly Spider this week and decided I had to make one. Since I didn't have any nice Halloween-y fabric, I stitched mine on black felt. It wasn't until I was completely finished that I noticed I had only done five "spokes" in the web, and not the seven you were supposed to stitch. Considering I read Jenny's instructions about 17 times before I started this project, it's weird I would miss doing two of them.




Here's a somewhat blurry photo of my spider. Check out his legs. I used the black yarn that Jenny had tied around my prize package (see previous post). Al Gore would be so proud.



Remember, you can click on any picture to see it larger and in all of its unfocused glory.

So, since last Friday, I started and finished the candy corn cards, and the Dangly Spider Picture. I also Mod Podged some orange tissue paper on to a jar and made a pumpkin whose face I copied from was inspired by a Mary Engelbreit illustration, but every picture I've taken of it has turned out to be a huge blur (how creepy!) so I am convinced it's possessed. (Damien!) Or maybe someone or something does not want it shown here. (The copyright infringement fairy, maybe?)

Be sure to visit Lit and Laundry to see who else is sharing their Friday finishes.


I hope you all have a very Happy Halloween!!

Look At What I Won

Not too long ago, I got lucky and won the Halloween giveaway from Jenny at Stitcher & Scribbler. Look how she wrapped up my prizes. Isn't that spider tag super cute?!




Inside, were two of the most adorable felt pins ever . . .



. . . and a bag of Haribo Horror Mix. I would love to show you the fun shapes of the candy, but I ate them all. In fact, the very last piece is in my mouth right now.

Thank you, Jenny, for having the giveaway! I was so happy and excited to win your pumpkin and your ghost. I'll be sure to wear them tonight when I'm handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters.