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!

Novelty Fabric Junkie

Yep, that's me. I used to think I was just a plain old fabric junkie, but at my core it's all about the novelty fabrics.

I am drawn, I can't pass them up when they are on sale. The kitschier and quirkier the better as far as I'm concerned. I almost never have any idea what in the heck I am going to do with them, but yet I must have them. Some day, I will come up with something fabulous...watch out!

How's everyone holding up?

I'm doing ok here. I have successfully avoided a major nervous breakdown, I think I will make it to Christmas with my normal about of sanity in tact!
This week has been all about 16 hour days of work, shop, cook, drive, sew. Notice I didn't say anything about cleaning or laundry, that's today.
Here's a sampling of the handmade gifts that I have finished this week.



We had an awesome holiday work party on Thursday. 27 of us went to Chef Silvia's house http://www.chefsilvia.com/ where we learned to prepared a 5 course meal together while drinking wine and exchanging gifts. It was so much fun until we got stuck in 2 hours of traffic on the way home. When I got home Gabby was waiting at the door for me with basketball bag in hand...

Ugh, she had a game. It was a very long day. Great picture of her, huh?
OK, get back to work!

A strange calmness...

...has settled over me. It may be residual effects from the snow day, I don't know.



This little scene from my village makes me happy, I love looking in this little window.
Last night I actually had the mental capacity and 1 hour to figure out the embroidery part of my machine.

This was my test, it's such a cool thing! I doubt that I will ever do much in the way of picture type embroidery but I love having the ability to personalize things. I already have a few jobs lined up!
Speaking of embroidery-
About a year ago Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitch asked for tea towel testers and I was lucky enough to get in on it. Unfortunately, one of the testers flaked out and kept the nearly finished towel and it never got sent back to Jenny. (Grrrrr)Fortunately, most of the original testers agreed to stitch another towel and send it to Jenny because she was very bummed out about it. As my luck would have it, it's my turn- right before Christmas!!! I got started on it last night, I'm keeping it simple and doing pretty much the same thing as last time.

I'll show you when it's done and after I sew some chenille rick rack on it :)

Why Martha?

Why would you trick me in to making these cookies?

I mean they are OK but I would never bother making them again. The dough tasted really yummy but the cookie...not so much. They just sounded so much better than they taste. Now I need to find another kind of cookie to make 12 dozen of by tomorrow night. Oh well.
Happier news:
We had a snow day today!!! Yippee!!! Aside from the wasted cookie time, I had a fantastic day. Just knowing that there was NO WHERE that I had to be all day and night was heaven. I cleaned the disaster that was my kitchen counter, I organized the disaster that was my sewing room spilling into our bedroom, I finished up a few gifts including this one for my sushi loving niece.

I think I will tuck a free babysitting coupon in the oven mitt so they can go out for some sushi.
I hope you are all well and thanks for listening to me whine the other day :)

We're a little slow and what the heck are these spots????

The bumble and I are finally reading the Harry Potter books. It's about time, huh? In my defense, I was busy raising little kids and these books never made it to my to-do list. I can understand what all the craze is about I am completely sucked in! I have a rule as far as books and movies go, If there was a book written I can't see the movie until I've read it.... so we are reading each book and then watching the movie in sequence. Exciting lives we have here, eh?

Now, let's move onto the subject of spots. I was tidying up a bit and putting all my Etsy things in one spot when I discovered these yellow spots on the backs of my embroidered market bags. I know you can't really see them too good in the picture but trust me, they are there!

These spots were not there before when I finished the bags and took pictures, I zoomed way in and checked. The backs of the bags were made from one towel and the fronts were made from another towel that seemed to be identical. It's a mystery and the spots will not come out.

So, would anyone like these bags? C'mon, they are cute and they are on me!

If you are interested, leave me a post indicating which one you would like and if more than two people reply I will draw names on Thursday morning. If only one you post then you get both! The yellow spots are very faint and you might have better luck removing them that I did but the bags are still very cute and usable, I just can't sell them now.

Yay, it's Friday!

5 happy/grateful/thankful things for this week:
1-The Furminator. If you have pets, you need to try this, it will change your life. It's pricey but worth every cent if you can't stand fur all over your house. It removes mountains of fur from even my not-so-furry cat. http://www.furminator.com/
2-time being on my side during the past few weeks and allowing me to sew a bit.
3-ceiling fans
4-iced coffee
5-my oldest daughter empties the dishwasher everyday without being asked. This is huge!

This is hot off the machine this morning (before 7:00 am!)


Happy Friday!

I feel productive!

I've made a few things this weekend and it feels great!
I've also updated my Etsy shop and I almost have my nerve up to let my real life people in on it. Everytime I make something new for myself or the kids or give a handmade gift, everyone always say "Oh my Gawd, you should have a shop or something!". You guys know, I'm sure you get it all the time. But for me, with that comes some anxiety. What if it's not good enough, what if people hate it, what if it falls apart, what if people pity-purchase from me, what if, what if..... I have zero self confidence. Anyway, there have been a bunch of requests for lunch bags and dish towel totes from people at work and people that they know, so I am trying to load up the shop a bit before I let real life people in. I wish I had more hours in the day.



Last night my baby went to her first real sleep over and she lost a tooth! The Tooth Fairy is very creative at our friend's house. She always leaves the window cracked just a bit no matter what the season and leaves a trail of fairy dust (ultra fine glitter) from the window to the pillow where she leaves the money for the kid who lost the tooth and guumy fish for her twin sister (in this case, all the other girls). I knew that they had this tooth fairy ritual for years now, but what are the chances that my kid would lose a tooth last night??? I have some 'splainin to do, because our tooth fairy doesn't pack any ultra fine dust or gummy fish!

the happy, grateful, thankful trend.... I'm in

My 10 things in no particular order

1. My family. I know this sounds cliché but I really am thankful for them. There is a large part of my family that I would pick to be in my family over and over again because I really enjoy them.
2. Tivo
3. The way my brain and hands work together, giving me many talents.

4. Being able to see the ocean every day. I would hate it if I couldn’t.
5. Having a really tall husband (my bumble) that can reach almost anything.
6. Not knowing what it’s like to feel bored.
7. Topamax. After 20 years of migraines, I am almost headache-free!
8. I’m pretty sure that my kids will grow up to be good people. *fingers crossed*
9. That it isn’t 90 degrees and humid every day in Connecticut. Blech!
10. That Vicki at patternbee.com goes through the trouble of collecting wonderful vintage embroidery patterns and reproduces them so that we can buy them like new.

on a little crafty roll

This was fun!
Remember the Martha Towels I bought last Friday? Well, now the lemon one is a cute little tote bag


lined with a yellow plaid tablecloth type fabric

It's a perfect little bag to get dirty and toss right in the wash with the towels!

Martha on the brain

Ever since I painted my kitchen the most lovely shade of green

I haven't been able to find dishes that I love for a price that I can afford... until yesterday, that is. We were on our way to NYC to see a Mets game with some friends and I had the Bumble pull off the highway so we could shop at a K-Mart.

(The lighting doesn't show how well they match in the 2 photos but trust me, they do.)
The woman just gets me. I mean, she lives right inside my head pulls together the jumbled mess of thoughts and ideas, and produces, markets and then sells them to me. It's somehow unfair. Anyway, I found more towels than I could afford to buy and had to settle on 2 packages

Those bandana towels will make cute tote bags for Julia when she starts camp next week.
Today is dress rehearsal for dance followed by another graduation party followed by fireworks followed by the recital tomorrow......
it's almost over

Check this out

Thanks for the warm welcome back. I really missed my blog community!
So, I was drying dishes after my birthday dinner with my parents on Sunday and mom hands me this really nice dishtowel

I am shocked because usually mom has those really crappy synthetic-y towels that don't absorb anything. Then I look at the tag and it's a Martha towel

I am even more shocked because the nearest K-Mart is 30 minutes away on the highway and my mama don't drive on the highway!
me: Mom, where'd you get this great towel?
mom: You'd never believe me
me: You did not go all the way to K-Mart and buy Martha Stewart dishtowels!
mom: *looks at me like I'm crazy* No! Are they Martha Stewart? We got them for a dollar at the automotive store.

Needless to say, they went back the next day and bought all they had left in the store for me!
What? There are worse things to have addictions to! Maybe if you guys are lucky, I'll embroider something on them.

The reason my house is never clean

Well, part of the reason anyway is that I have to do stuff like this:

Our friends host an annual Easter Egg hunt carried on from when his dad did it. It's a huge event and a lot of fun. Typically I make something for their daughters and give my bff Marcella a little something (we are dishtowel-exchanging geeks). This year I was short on time so I decorated clay pots and filled them with pansies for the girls and was ready to slap some rick-rack on a dish towel and call it a day. I'm not sure how I talk myself into these things but with 2 hours to spare I decided I should embroider a towel because Chuck would appreciate the sentiment (he's not a dishtowel-geek mind you). So, there I am...... no make up on, sweats, kitchen floor strewn with bags from WalMart, beds not made, dishwasher not emptied, something sticky on the floor not sure what it is...... embroidering a towel. Anyway, it was very much appreciated and I suppose I can clean my house today after church. We had a beautiful day on the beach, the sun was out the temps were in the 60's, I have a flickr set here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/cbcyr/sets/72157600040013873/
Happy Palm Sunday to those of you celebrating and everyone have a great day!

Friday at last!

Whew! This one took a long time to get here. Speaking of a long time to get here......

Back in December I sent $4.00 to Wrights and they promised to send me a bag-o-scraps in 6-8 weeks. Better late than never. I must say, they were very generous. There is at least 20, 1 yard pieces of assorted trim. I am a tad disappointed with the lack of rick-rack. You all know how I loves me some rick-rack! I got one lonely piece of dark pink chenille and that's it :( I know who could use all the other fancy, lacy trims...... Calamity Kim, that's who! Kim, I'll email you.
There was more excitement in the mailbox:

I was lucky enough to get in on the first official Sublime Stitching Tea Towel Tour http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=152961.0
http://www.flickr.com/groups/sublimestitching/
We are field testing a towel for the fabulous Jenny Hart. We get to do whatever we would like to it and log our comments and pass it on to the next tester. To make it even sweeter.... we get to pick a free pattern!! I would have done this for nothing. I'll post my addition to the towel tomorrow.
On to health related news:
My blood work came back perfect. I am in good health as far as my regular doctor can tell. His best guess is that the neurologist will say that I have some (insert medical term that I can't remember)-migraine. He says that sometimes you can have migraines without the headache. *shrugs* We'll see what the new doctor says on Monday. No worries!

Uneventful week

It's been a slow craft week. This has been on the hoop since Sunday!

My eyes have been so tired at night that I can't even embroider and I'm nodding off during American Idol by 9:00. The weekend looks like it will be a non-crafty one; Sammy's team is playing in the State Championship tomorrow and possibly Sunday. Yay her, but too bad for me and my crafty itch. Hopefully my next post will be a little less dull. Until then, I leave you with a little calendar fun.

Happy old stuff day and have a good weekend!

fresh off the hoop

I needed a little mindless project while I think about my next quilt.

I think I like the idea of cupcakes more than I like cupcakes, they are just so cute.
I really love to do embroidery work, it's so calming, portable and interruption friendly.
I'm going to spend a few hours cleaning and then I'm going to think about what the next project will be.
Have a nice day!

Rabbit Rabbit!

Happy New Year!

I hope you remembered to say rabbit for good luck this morning. I'm not big on resolutions, why set myself up to fail? I do keep one resolution every year. I make sure that other people's kindness gets noticed. Be it a store clerk, medical staff or someone's child..... if they go out of their way to be nice, I make sure I tell their boss, teacher or mom. It's nice to hear good news from a stranger I think. Don't get me wrong......I bitch about people that go out of their way to make me miserable too! There's got to be balance, people!
Well, I'm feeling better now; not great but I can function. On top of being sick, I have been in a terrible sleep pattern lately, I am waking up anywhere between 3:30-4:30 am ............ FOR THE DAY!! Enough of that.
I have been spending a little time with my sewing machine. I had planned on finishing my delusional housewife quilt but haven't felt good enough to go out and buy batting.
I went through my to-do basket on my sewing table last night. I leave you with these embroidered towels that were sitting there for a year waiting to be hemmed. (slacker)

Oh yes, Julia would like to show her project for 2nd grade:

The class does a big Gingerbread Man event including a play and a village of houses made from juice cartons. Pretty cute and I love this old copy of the book!

Ahhhhhhh fall

October Fabric Swap
Originally uploaded by cbcyr.

Every month my craftster friend Pauline and I do a themed fabric swap. Both being generous sorts, it turns out to be a bit more than just a yard of fabric. This is what I sent her for October. I don't have any Halloween fabrics so I went for fall. We usually add one handmade item, I quickly sketched this acorn that I stitched onto a pretty fall colored towel.

Not too bad for a rush job!

Other crafty news includes progress being made to the mystery Halloween costume
and I have one of the horse quilts finished except for the binding while the other will be quilted starting tonight. Looks like I will make my deadlines!