Pining away

I finally took the time to make the awesome little pinecone ornaments from this tutorial.

I've had the materials for months, but I never took the time to make it, because I don't have a paper cutter (*wishlist!*), and I have to cut 60-something 2"x1" pieces of paper for this! =X Anyway, I did it today with a ruler and a craft knife, and I'm so glad I did =] My bow is a lil' different, because the top of mine is messy, and I needed to hide some stuff X] It's not nearly as neat and even as the pics in the tute, but I like it all the same =]

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An ATC I made today:

I made this with a stamp made by RuthArt, from the swap we had over at the Carve Your Stamps group on Flickr. I distressed a page from a vintage Spanish-English dictionary I picked up at a yard sale. Added buttons, ribbons, and faux stitching, atop the image stamped on red mulberry paper.

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I picked up a notepad with the cutest print on the cover from target's $1 bins. I just had to carve this funky lil' bird that was on the cover ^_^

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All in all, not an entirely un-productive day! I had planned to make some of these bookmarks today, but....my tummy hurts. So, I'm gonna relax. Tomorrow, I will be calling around to find out how to get my kids enrolled in school, as their website is broken *grr* But, the good news is, the kids will be living with me, for the next school year, at least =] Quite possibly the most wonderful thing to happen this year! ^_^

And a Happy New Year

I'm exhausted, and ready to hibernate for a week. BUt first! Here are some pictures of the things I have been working on (and completing!). Click the pics for descriptions, and whatnot:
Jewelry Pouch

Hand-painted, Hand-stamped Christmas Cards & Gift Tags

Robot Stamps in Altered Box

Crochet Baby Cap & Patchwork Cube Frame

Softie Cupcakes

The beautiful, gigantic quilt my mother made for us!

Feed me, Seymour!

I'm STARVING. I made pork shoulder, mashed taters, and green & wax beans for dinner. That's almost balanced; unfortunately, I used the last of the milk in the potatoes, so I'll have to make up the dairy group with peach yogurt for dessert.

Anyway, dinner has been ready for almost 40 minutes, all desperately trying to stay warm in the oven. My husband is not home, yet. I'm not gonna wait much longer for him!

Stuff to look at:

Arrrrghhh! The sweetness! it's killing me!


Gift tags my mother made. This isn't the best picture of them, but I tried! I'll have to make up one of those awesome lightbox thingys she linked me to in my last post X]


My stamps now have a happy little home in a re-purposed cigar box ^_^



Okay, I'm going to go eat my dinner now. Alone. I hate this stupid recruiting job *pout* -_-

CRE8R

OMG, this cold just won't go away! I've fallen behind on 2 of my 1 on 1 swaps =[ I have them packaged & ready to ship, but I've been sleeping like shit, and during the day, just kinda...being. Staring at the walls. Well, not really. I've been making stuff, too, but, yanno, that's just what I do.


These are some of the stamps in my sketchbook that I am carving for December.

The robot faces and heads will all be individual stamps, and I am going to put them together with a nice blank journal, some ink pads, and metallic gel pens for Isaac, for Christmas =]

I'm planning on using the Christmas-y stamps on cards and gift tags.

The skulls are really just for me, but I think I'll make one up for my swap partner in the Skull Love Swap.

I love carving the Staedtler Mars erasers, but how do I get rid of the raised pattern on them??! =X I don't want little swirlies on my penguin -_-

I also need something wider; I wonder if they make different sizes of that eraser?


This blog is so fun, and has incredible patterns, including these two here!
Some bitsy elf clogs, and peppermint stars, made for a 1 on 1 swap (I traded them for a mix CD *full* of awesome Christmas music). These took me about 2-3 hours to make them all, but I took time out for dinner:


Damn, I make some GOOOOOOOOOOOD cheesesteaks!!

For dessert, we had fried plantains, with ginger & cinnamon (sorry Mom, I just love ginger ;) Oh oh! We also had these:


My yellow pear tomatoes! The only two that ripened before the cold weather killed off my plant *sniffle* There are almost 2 dozen baby tomatoes on the plant that are all shriveled up =[

Still, it's the first time I have gotten edible fruit from my garden (and I've been trying for almost 10 years!).

They were delicious =]

Carebear Stare!

My daughter wanted to be a purple Carebear this year. Great. They don't make purple Carebear costumes, they only make pink Carebear costumes....and she was a pink Carebear for the last 2 years! lol

This is made out of 300wt Malden Mills fleece. It's got a velour finish on the inside, and a sherpa finish on the out. The tummy is lightly stuffed (you shoulda heard her at the Halloween party at school: "Go ahead, punch my stomach!" ;)

Anyway, she loved it, she was warm, all is good =]





It's been a week, and the costume is no longer purple. It is some sort of greenish brown color now. Of course, she's only taken it off to go to school...I suppose it does look like comfy pjs O_o