if you love the puppy...

This is the best way to describe the end of my crafty dream. Imagine you find a cute puppy on your front lawn, surely it belongs to someone so you post signs, call the dog pound, and just take care of it until the owner comes for it. The one thing you do NOT do is love the puppy, if you love the puppy the owner will surely come and your heart will be broken.

Let's go back to the summer of 2011...
My etsy shop is in full swing and I was asked to join a local farmer's market.

 Things are good. One day I was approached by a woman who was the director of Project Storefront in my city. To make a long story short;  the city works with building owners that have empty storefronts, they work with ambitious entrepreneurs offering them a space and free rent as you grow your business and/or until they find a regular business willing to lease it. She said I would be the ideal candidate. To say I was over-the-moon happy is an understatement. I left the farmers market and put my etsy shop on hold. I worked on my business plan, a place called Home Ec. that offered classes, supplies and retail space.

 I got my space, it was a former luncheonette... perfect until the roof collapsed after an ice storm.

 Luckily I hadn't opened yet.  I quickly moved into a gorgeous temporary space and ran a holiday pop-up shop for the city, fun, fun, fun.

I met so many people, made some money and had a great time but remember this is a temporary space while they locate a new space for me...I wanted to love the puppy but I knew it isn't mine. After the holidays, Project Storefront offers me the gorgeous space that I am trying not to love. On February 12, 2012 I was days away from signing my lease, ordering signs, working up plans... I let myself love the puppy! On February 13, 2012 the building owner found a tenant after years of having the space empty...the owners came for the puppy and my heart is broken, I packed up and moved out on Valentine's Day.

That is my sad story and the end of my dream. Now I need a big girl job, in September I will have 2 kids in college and one in private high school. I am done wallowing now and ready to move on and figure out a new dream, maybe I should get a real puppy!

orange cat problems

This is Leo.

aka Leroy, Leroy-my-boy, wootie (as in cutie wootie). Leo is 20+ pounds of adorable and rules the house. The only thing Leo doesn't control is the constant flow of furry visitors to our kitchen door.
Meet Little Red

He lives, and I use that term loosely, in the broken down house next door. He comes to the door every day for some food and a kind word. Leo hates Little Red.
This is Missy-

Missy is Little Red's mother. She visits everyday for food and to torture Leo. She doesn't care if I talk to her or not. In fact, she prefers it if I just put the food down and walk away. Leo really hates Missy.

This is Jake.

Jake the squirrel taps on the window everyday looking for peanuts.He has a few friends that kind of hang back because they are shy. Fine by me, I don't need 3 squirrels knocking on the door. Jake and his friends also live in the broken down house next door. They literally live in the house, in the attic which thanks to me is probably covered in peanut shells. Sorry. Leo really likes Jake for some reason,

probably because Leo doesn't care much for peanuts.

oh my

Hello, my name is Carol and I am an embroidery pattern addict.

I had a free day yesterday and decided to tackle my craft supplies that have gone wild; baskets and baskets of mixed up supplies and bags from craft stores that I never put away. Wow, did I learn a lot about myself. I know that I love all things embroidery and of course I know that I love to buy patterns...vintage (original and reproduced), modern ones, corny ones, I LOVE THEM ALL! It wasn't until I decided to file them that I realized that I have HUNDREDS of patterns.

I have a special affection for produce and household items with faces and days-of-the-week; in fact I could probably produce 700 of just those towels easily. So, what the heck am I to do with them? It is nearly impossible to make money from embroidered dishtowels...I know, I've tried, so I think I will just be gifting them to every single person I know.
If you love vintage patterns you really need to visit Vicki at www.patternbee.com , she has an amazing collection and is such a sweet person.

 I love all of the cheesy Aunt Martha's that I find at www.colonialpatterns.com, the prices are great.

 Of course there is www.sublimestitching for all of your hip and modern patterns, they are so cute.

 A lot of times I just sketch a simple line drawing right on a towel or paper
for a quick gift...because I never could find a pattern before I organized them!

Well, well, well

Look what I found here, my old blog! I sat and read for hours last night, I cracked up, I got teary, and I said "aww" more times than I can count.
What's that...why did I stop writing, you ask? Stress, too busy, depressed, internet trolls piss me off, my camera and computer broke and it was pre-smart phone time in my life, Facebook was easier. These are the first things that come to mind.
What have I been up to? Thanks for asking. I tried to make a living doing what I love and realized that it isn't going to happen. It's ok, I will tell you about it later. My kids are so big now ; college sophomore, high school senior, and 8th grader! I am unemployed, broke and need a plan so that my bumble (aka: my tall husband David) can go back to working 1 job.
Come again? Oh, why am I back? I think it is Pinterest's fault. I keep clicking on all of those crafty blogs and it stirs up old bloggy feelings. After reading my old posts, I realized that I was much happier when I was writing...free therapy! I am still crafty everyday and have stories to share. I have no idea who will ever see this blog now but that was never why I started it. There really is no one in my life that gets the creative me, no one to share thoughts and ideas with. I miss my old crafty, online friends! I especially miss Karen (mrs kwitty) who lost her battle to cancer last year, how I wished I knew her in person. I know that her heaven has endless beautiful craft supplies and it never gets messy.
That's all for today!

It's not oilcloth!

A cute little baby gift for Sheena at JoAnn Fabrics. I have mentioned Sheena before but I'll refresh for any new readers. Sheena is a super-friendly young lady that works at my nearby JoAnns. She has a smile that lights the entire store and talks to everyone that she sees and if she really likes you she will hug you hello and goodbye. (she must like me cuz she's always hugging me!) Sheena is having a baby girl in a few weeks and they are giving her a little baby shower today in the store. I whipped these up last night while watching CSI. I tend to avoid pink gifts because it's usually been done to death.
Hope she loves it!


While I have you, I would like to talk about a new series that I will be chatting about called "Life downstairs". I live upstairs from my parents, you can call them Frank and Ro. This adds a bit of interest to my daily life. Here is an excerpt:
Tomato plants were "buy one get one free" last week...this is huge in "life downstairs".
Frank- Hey Ro, I'll go buy 2 and then when I come home you go buy another 2 and then when the shifts change I'll go get another 2.
Ro- *grumblegrumble* OhforcryinoutloudFrank!
Later that day Ro realizes that Frank bought yellow tomatoes and now has cause to torture him all day.
Frank- Hey Ro, I think we should plant these now
Ro-*grumblegrumble*OhforcryinoutloudFrank! It's too soon, even the idiot on the news said so.
After an entire day of heated discussion Frank has a plan.
Frank- Hey Ro, let's keep the tomatoes in the wheely cart in the garage and bring them out during the day.
Ro-*grumblegrumble*OhforcryinoutloudFrank! Fine.
So, everyday at 9:00 am the tomatoes come out and Frank lets Ro know when the sun moves so she can wheel the tomatoes to it. Every night at 5:00 the tomatoes get put back in the garage.
This is life downstairs.

the ever-evolving lunchbag

A year ago, I bought my Singer Futura for the sole purpose of doing monogrammed things. What a pain! First of all, I don't have a laptop so it involves dragging my sewing machine and all of its parts into the living room atop a shakey card table. Second of all...well, that's it but it's a huge pain. Everytime I tried it out, I ended up SO frustrated that the Futura almost went out the window so I didn't try again until recently. Now, I have the hang of it and it's kinda fun! I still wish I had a laptop but at least I have it working.
I am now offering monogramming on my oilcloth items, check out these custom bags that are also insulated-



Thanks for all of the nice comments about Julia's Halloween costume! She even got a mention on Craftzine.com blog
woohoo!

I love Halloween!

How cute is this? I'm not sure how exactly we came up with the idea but we always get a good one in mid-summer. So, how come if we get the idea in the summer, I am sewing the darn thing as we are walking out the door to a party?? I didn't actually sew much; a simple skirt, half apron, rickrack on a t-shirt and lace on socks. The bonnet was a purchase from a wonderful seamstress at GrandmasGirl on Etsy. I could have never made it even half as nice as Julianne did...this woman can sew!
I tied some fake grapes in a basket and we threw in some raisins just in case no one could figure out who she was supposed to be. As if!

We already have next year's costume planned but it's a secret.

free time?

Ok, so when you lose your job you'd imagine that you'd have all sorts of free time, right? Hmmmm, not happening.
I'm done being sad for now (I think) and I'm not yet panic-stricken. I've been busy with oilcloth, doctor, dentist, etc. David actually loves having me home, there's a nice dinner every night, we aren't scrambling for clean clothes at 5:00 am, and I am just more relaxed. If only that paid as well as my old job.
I can't post without a picture so check out this manly lunch bag

And check out this etsy shop, I don't know what my fascination with nuns is but this stuff is great:
www.nunofakind.etsy.com
If you are on my Christmas list, you may be getting a sister!

fall favors

We are celebrating the upcoming wedding of one of my coworkers on Friday so I got to play at work all day yesterday. I stayed behind to man the fort while the entire office went to NYC for advertising week festivities. It was fine by me because I got to make fun stuff for the surprise "shower" we are having Friday.

I dipped small pretzel rods in white chocolate, decorated with fall sprinkles and bagged them. Then I added a fake leaf and velvet ribbon and TA DA! We have pretty fall shower favors!
Did I show you my new Oilcloth Halloween Banner?

The rest of my life is just general busyness, oilcloth and the pursuit of not being dirt poor.
How about you?

nine today!

My baby is 9. Almost double digits. Nine years ago she was born during hurricane Floyd...which was actually downgraded to a tropical storm here in CT. I kept telling the nurse to get my doctor because I was ready to push and she told me it was too soon. The nurse told ME that I was not ready to push after I had done this twice before. Then she told me I could "push a little bit". hahahahahahahahahahahahaha
Yeah, that was a good one- "push a little bit".
All of a sudden she saw my face was bright red in full "push" expression... Nurse Know-it-all went crazy screaming for my doctor. He barely made it in the room and never even got both gloves on before all 6lbs of squirmy Julia shot across the room. Seriously, she nearly fell on the floor, that's how fast she came out.

Happy birthday to my sweet girl!

We made these fun cupcake pops to bring into school- courtesy of Bakerella.com
They are a bit of work but well worth it. YUM!

Oh my!

What happened to my baby? She's growing up, that's what...I guess. I'm dealing.

Last night was a birthday party for one of her friends. This friend (not pictured) is a cancer survivor and her parents have the means to celebrate BIG every year for her birthday so you can only imagine how big her sweet 16 was!

It was at a fancy country club and all the girls were asked to dress in pink to party. I have never seen so many little pink dresses in one place ever, it was like pepto club.

While the girls were partying it up, the bumble and I actually went out. Without kids. Just 2 of us. Like adults.

We went to the theater and saw "Late Nite Catechism". I laughed so hard that my face hurt and my throat was sore. If it comes to your local theater, GO! Even if you aren't Catholic, you will laugh your ass off, I promise.
Other than that I have been trying to get some Halloween stuff made for the old Etsy shop.

I really have some catching up to do on your blogs, I feel like I've been gone for a while...
have a great week!

and they're off...

School's back for all 3 girls now. Talk about getting slammed back into life, sheesh! I feel like a hamster on a wheel, just running for my life and never going anywhere. It's hotter than hell here in CT, but the effects of Hurricane Hanna should blow all that away tomorrow. Luckily we aren't getting the full storm.
I'll be sitting in my leaky sewing room, sewing away again this weekend. I whipped up this cute little pincushion last week when I couldn't find mine.


Naturally, I found mine 30 seconds after finishing this one but a girl can never have too many!

What's everyone else doing this weekend?

Today is the day!

I'm excited about this but I really wasn't trying to string you along and build up hype, honestly!


I now have a "Sew-it-Yourself Lunchbag Kit" for sale at Handmade Parade

This is perfect for you crafty types who want an oilcloth lunch bag that you have made yourself. The kit includes everything you need including easy directions with pictures.... because I need pictures when I make something.
The kit also comes in 16 fun patterns!
So, there you have my big secret. Now go tell all your friends!

tomorrow

Tomorrow I should be able to give you details about my little project. The woman I have been working with has been busy giving birth...hence the hold up. See, I am not trying to build up hype!
Until then, please enjoy this CUTE fabric that I received from my friend Alison at starlitnest.etsy.com

Go on, go see what other cute fabric she has!

Have you all been watching the Democratic Convention? At the risk of making my crafty blog a political place...
HOW ON EARTH CAN ANYONE IN THIS COUNTRY NOT BE INSPIRED BY THE SPEECHES WE HAVE HEARD THIS WEEK???????? Hillary, Bill, Joe, Barack, Beau, Michelle- well done!

I'm done now. See you all tomorrow, I hope!

tap, tap, tap

I'm waiting patiently to tell you about my new project.

I am not trying to be elusive at all, I really thought I could bore you all to tears about it over the weekend but I am still waiting to hear. Now there is all this build-up and it's not huge, exciting news... well for me it is.
I'll be back when I can share. In the meantime I am sewing a 30 lunchbag order for someone's company outing next week.
WooHoo!!

fun!

Look what I found at Michael's last night:

Project Runway paper dolls! Julia and I Looooooooooove to watch Project Runway together. I only wish that there were Tim Gunn, Heidi Klum, Nina Garcia and Michael Korrs dolls too. We are, erm... I mean Julia is going to have a lot of fun with these!

Stay tuned this weekend, I hope to have a new and exciting oilcloth item to announce!