Snapshot Friday!

Howdy, Folks!  Sorry I've been scarce this week, I've been a walking, talking zombie.  At one point I actually thought my brain had dissolved and was slowly leaking out of my face.  Between hacking and wheezing, I haven't had much time for anything else.  My feeble attempts at stitching were brought to an end when I realized I was doing more harm to my projects than good.  So I resigned myself to the couch and ridiculously long blocks of Law and Order.  Sad, I know.  Still sick, but now I feel like I can sit at the computer for more than 3 minutes without having to call in a Haz-Mat Team.

Anyways, enough about me, how have you been?  Doing anything craftastic lately?  I hope everyone is ready for Snapshot Friday.  We've got another oldie but goodie this week.

For some reason, the gal in this picture reminds me of Pippi Longstocking.  Remember her?  Even as an adult, I still smile when I think about her crazy house, Villa Villekulla, the monkey or sleeping with your feet on the pillow.  I can't wait to add the books and movies to my personal collection.  So far, I've spared my man the embarrassment of being in the rental place with me while I giddily scoop of these classics.  Grabbing them before some poor defenseless child even has the chance, laughing maniacally to myself- MUAH HA HA HA HA MUAH HA **hack**  **choke**  **cough**  Sorry, I got carried away there.

Thanks for looking!  I'll be back later with more fun stuff.

Home Skillet.

I had a lovely weekend celebrating my birthday with friends.  We sailed the high seas with my fav, Sailor Jerry, grilled the yummiest food and my honey made me feel extra special with flowers.  (So far, the lovely flowers have been knocked over...twice.  And I just walked into the kitchen to get some water and found Boris rubbing his head in them, so I don't know how long they'll last.)

On Sunday, Dillon and I went to a huge antiques fair.  I fell in love with so many things, among them an old army sewing kit complete with everything- the thimble, buttons and various kinds of green thread.  It was all sorts of awesome.  However, I walked away with one tiny thing.  And I could not be more in love with it.

Dillon bought me my very own home skillet!

It's a souvenir spoon from the 1901 Pan-American Exposition, a World's Fair Type event, held in Buffalo, New York.  Most people would know about it because that is where President McKinley was assassinated.  He was shot at the Temple of Music and died a week later.  I've done a little bit of researching online and have seen a bunch of spoons from the expo but only one like this one, it belonged to the library at California State University at Fresno.  So I'm going to have to look into it a bit more.

I had seen lots of spoons that day.  I always halfheartedly look through that kind of stuff to see if there is one for a place I've been.  My love of tiny things must have come from all of the hours spent looking at my great-grandma's collection of tiny spoons and thimbles when I was a child.

When I found this, I had been thinking to myself that I need to start actively looking for Niagara Falls stuff.  After so many years as an tourist destination there are a ton of souvenirs and I would love to have a collection to remember my childhood with.  Not just spoons of course, but you get the idea.  I kid you not, the very next spoon I picked up was this one!  It was a sign.  I had to have it but we weren't planning on buying anything so we just kept moving.  However, I couldn't shake the nagging feeling that it was meant to be.  So, my honey made it happen.  He's the greatest.

Based on a few other pan shaped souvenirs I saw online that only thing I can figure is they were playing on the whole PAN aspect of the Pan-American Expo.  HA HA, I love it!  Silly pun humor, these were my kind of people.

The front.

I'm going to reach out on a limb and assume the the gentleman at the top represents the Seneca Tribe.

The back.

Apparently, the building depicted here was lit up in with multicolored lights and made for quite an impressive display.

I'm super happy that this little home skillet lives with me now.  It might just be the oldest thing I own.  I don't think my man realizes how much it means to me but it's very special.

Thanks for looking and reading my long, detailed, boring account of my life.

Snapshot Friday!

Today, Snapshot Friday is a little different.  Why?  Because I said so...and it's my birthday, so you'll have to just deal.

A long time ago, I developed a love...

... for cake,

... for getting into trouble,

... and for cussing like a sailor.

 OK, so my love of dirty words didn't really start that young, but I'm definitely blaming my love of cake and sweets on my early exposure.

Thanks for humoring me on this Snapshot Friday!  I hope that you have a lovely, creative day.

 

Happiest Crafter!!

Today a total stranger made my day.  

I received an e-mail saying that a pair of my little toys were found.  They've taken up residence with a wee 2 year old.  I was so happy to learn that they didn't get thrown away.

They were kind enough to send pictures too!

Check it out- Bunny and Bear seem to have it pretty good.

Isn't that sweet?  It made me so happy!

Feeling Sketchy.

I've spent a lot of time with my sketchbook lately.  Just playing and thinking.

Thinking about a painting series I'm working on.

They are of Bodie, California.  It's a ghost town that I'm pretty much obsessed with.

Thinking about babies.

And I'll save you asking the question.  No, I'm not.  It's just lot's of people I know are having babies.

This was based on a photo of a gorgeous tattooed lady on flickr.  However, it doesn't look anything like her face.  I was channeling Marilyn or something because that's who I think she looks like.

Thinking about tattoos.

I want more.  Now.  I have a few ideas for an embroidery tattoo.  The one I really want it much more complex than this, I'll share that some time later.  I'm going to use this design for patches.
 

Thinking about a local stitching group.

I've been brainstorming lots of ideas for a flier.  I want to stitch it onto card stock, scan it and add in the details when they're finalized.

Thanks for looking!  Tune in later to see what made my day...

Words to Live By.... Part 3

More Godfather goodness.

I'm working on one right now of the same quote but using stabilizer to see if that cleans it up a bit.  So far, so good.

Can't stop, won't stop.

Thanks for looking.  Tune in later to get a glimpse at my sketchbook.

A Few Thanks.

I mainly started making these cards for friends and family after the holidays.  Since I got such nice feedback on them I figured I would make some for my etsy. 

I have a lot of different color and font options to experiment with.  So far, I've liked working with this swirly font, probably because it's the most like handwriting.  Just another thing I've been up to lately.  

I've been putting a lot of thought into my shop and it's look, so I'll be sharing a lot of it in the weeks to come.  I hope that doesn't bother anyone, I'm not trying to pushing my wares on you.  Just looking for a little constructive criticism, so feel free to speak up about the things you're seeing.  I truly appreciate the feedback.

Speaking of thanks, a big thank you to all of you for taking the time to read and comment on my posts.  You guys are what keep it fun.  See you later.

P.S.  For some more awesome paper embroidery check out Schinders' Photostream and etsy.  Be warned- there's some risque material but her work is super fantastic.  (Plus, we both have great taste in scalloped edge card stock!)

Snapshot Friday!

Happy Friday to everyone out there.  It's that time again.  Today's selection come from the '64 Tartan.  Bet some of you guys forgot all about that, huh?

These were from the "Residence Halls" section.

(Click on the images to enlarge.)

Anyone spot anything out of place with the jokers in Valhalla Hall?

Hmmmm, how did that lady get there?  She's looking mighty coy sitting on that lap there.

Can anyone tell the hall I'd be hanging out in?  Yep, Stonehenge.  Not only were these gentlemen handsomely dressed, check out all of the skinny ties, but I see a lot of booze on that table.  And I like me some booze.

Alrighty, now that I've made myself seem like a total drunkard I'm getting back to work.

I hope you all enjoy a creative and artful weekend.

Thanks for looking.

Words to Live By.... Part 2

Dillon told me that one day a man said this to him at work.  I found it hilarious....and true!  So did a friend of ours, so I stitched it for him.  

Originally, it was going to appliqued to a shirt.  However, it was sitting here finished for so long with no shirt to live on.  I guess I shouldn't have delegated that task to my guy.  Every time I saw it I would feel soooooo guilty because he asked for it a really long time ago.  Finally, I made an executive decision (I love those....) and mounted it onto some foam-core I had.  That way, he can leave it on there or change it later.

I used a great tutorial that can be found on June at Noon.

Mmmmmmm, Sulky variegated thread.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with it.  I wish that I would have done the wires of the fan a bit different.  They seem to get hidden in all of that fill stitch.  And I don't know how they went all wonky because I'm a sticker for tension when I'm stitching.  Oh well.

DMC has some new crazy metal(?), 3-D floss, has anyone tried that?  I was thinking about ordering some but then came across some super thin copper wire I'm going to stitch with.  I might have to do a repeat of this one with copper for the fan.

So, yeah.  This happy mail is on it's way to Vegas.  As a consolation prize for it's tardiness (and it not making it onto a shirt) I made him the "Hello, Carlo" Godfather hankie.  Maybe, that makes up for it.  I hope he likes it!

Thanks for looking!  I'll be back later with some new goodies for my shop.

80's Love.

While looking through a binder of project ideas, I came across a stencil I had cut a looooong time ago,  probably about 2 years ago.  See how easily distracted I am?  The whole stencil was completely cut and ready to paint.  And what do I do with it?  Shove it in a sketchbook and forget about it.

I whipped out a tote bag and some paint and got to work.  Since the text looked super 80's, I thought neon was appropriate.  First, I splattered the acrylic on both sides.  Then I ironed the stencil, made of freezer paper, onto the bag and painted the text.

  I added a few coats of gold glitter paint to the word "parties" to make it stand out a bit more.    I embroidered outlines around all of the letters for more definition.  Around the word parties I used the Glow-in-the-dark thread from Sublime Stitching.  It looks so awesome when it's lit up, I'm still trying to get a good picture of that part.

The back has an extra color since the text on the front was originally going to be all blue.  By time I changed my mind about that it was too late to add more splatters to the font.  Since the front is so busy looking though, I don't think it really matters.

Between all of the different steps it took a few days to complete.  While I was working on it I didn't particularly like it and was ready to scrap the whole thing.  I'm glad I didn't though.  Now that it's all finished, I think it came out pretty good. 

Do you think it's too over the top or tacky?  Be honest.  Since it's doesn't really fit my look, I was going to put it in my etsy.  I'm not sure how that will go over... I'm not exactly making stuff that's aimed at Regretsy.  Although it may appear that way, with the overabundance of neon on this tote.

Anyways, thanks for looking.  More stitches to come soon.  Have a creative day!

Two Little Birdies.

Hello folks!  I hope you enjoyed a great weekend.  Mine was pretty crafty, so I'm happy.  I'm continuing my productivity streak today.  Lots of projects planned!

I painted this glass bowl last week on a rainy day. 

Sorry about the glare, I've determined it's pretty darn tough to take a picture of this thing.

When I first found it in the cupboard I really wanted to get a fish.  After being laughed out of the kitchen by the boy and having to admit that Boris is way to intrigued by water for that to ever happen, I resigned to do something crafty with it.  Using acrylic paint pens, I whipped this up based on a Sailor Jerry tattoo.  

Unable to be the humble home to a little fish buddy, it lives in my crafting space.  In a little area that is sew perfect.

The boy says I have a problem with craft supplies, especially embroidery stuff.  I don't see a problem.  Do you see any problems?  Heck, I don't even have all the colors!  Besides, most of the stuff in the new bowl are repeats of basics, like rainbow colors.  He just doesn't get it, huh?

Speaking of embroidery, I have new projects to share.  Yay!

Have a craftastic day, thanks for looking.

C is for Cookie!

We picked a winner for the cookie needle book!

Since I'm mad as a hatter, this is how we chose:

Everyone's in there!

We swirled it around and poured out a name.

The winner is:

She said:

Yay, Sherri!  

(Please contact me, MafiosaGrrl(at)aol.com, with your info.  You can also contact me through craftster, flickr, or whatever network you found this giveaway on.)

Thanks to everyone that entered, this one was fun.  I'm going to have to tally up all the cookies you guys mentioned and break it down by type.  I'm not 100% positive, but it seemed like Sugar Cookies were winning. If anyone would be interested, I was going to whip up some printable recipe cards for the cookies that people were nice enough to include links for.  In my opinion, one can never have too many cookie recipes.

Thanks for looking.  Have a craftastic day!

p.s.  My favorite cookies are Snickerdoodles.  However, I don't like to leave anyone out so I enjoy pretty much all other cookies too.

Please Pass the Macaroni.

As promised, it's time for the found object of the day.  I found it on campus where I put the purple flower I mentioned in the last post.  To say the very least, it's interesting.  I notice something new every time I look at it.  It has no decipherable order to it and I'm not sure how all of the things mentioned go together.

Click on the image to enlarge it.

Uhhhh, yeah.  I found myself being thankful that the author wrote it all down as opposed to laying it all on me in person.  The fact that it's photocopied makes me feel like it was definitely intended for mass distribution.  Like I said before, interesting. 

Bonus Points if you can find where I got the title for this post!!

Thanks for looking!  I hope everyone had a good start to the week.

p.s.  Today is the day I pick a winner for the cookie needle book.  If you entered, be sure to check back to see if you won!

My Bag o' Fun!

Last Thursday, April 1st, I filled up a bag with goodies and set out to beautify my neighborhood.  Armed with toy and flowers, it was a feel good kind of day.  The weather was gorgeous after raining on and off all week.  I figured a break in the rain was a good day for the flowers to come out.

I live in an historical neighborhood located near the local Junior College.  I love it because in spite of the flurry of activity going on a block away, our neighborhood is nice and quiet.  Walking across the campus, I decided that was where I would leave my flowers.

Don't get me wrong, most of the campus is beautiful and it has lovely grounds- check it out.  It's a great mixture of old and new, brick and tons of greenery.  It's a very lovely place should you make your way to Santa Rosa.   However, there are a couple spots on campus that aren't so nice to look at.  Thankfully there are very few, but they do exist.  So, that's where I put my flowers.  Like attaching a felt flower would really negate the ugliness before you but hey, it makes it more interesting to look at.  You'll see what I mean by ugly...  Their placement is random but you can only do so much with a staple gun.

So, you're walking along.  Pretty, pretty, pretty then BAM!  Ugly, gnarled telephone pole... I mean it doesn't even have interesting posters or stencils or anything.  It's in serious need of some yarnbombing but since I'm not that cool, I whipped out a flower.

Ugly brown wall that doesn't match any other place on campus.  

(Tune in later to see the awesome found object of the day.  It was located here.)

Hideous restrooms located near the baseball fields.  Even a flower can't help this one.

Okay, so now that I feel really bad about making my local school look terrible.  I'll show you some nice pictures of it because it really is a wonderful school with great teachers.

If you go the site that this one is from you can see other places on campus too.

The new library.

Burbank Hall- The Drama Department is located in here.

Ok, enough with the school. I'm not trying to subject you guys to an infomercial.

One more flower picture!

I used wire on the back to attach these.  I liked that method a lot and will do more of it next.  I didn't realize how limiting the staple gun would be.  There are a lot less staple friendly surfaces than I thought.  Oh well.

There is entirely way too much barbed wire on this stretch of the road.

So, yeah, I thought you guys would want to see where I put my silly flowers.  Hope that wasn't too boring for you.

Thanks for looking!  See you again soon.

Join The Toy Society!

Okay, so that sounded a bit like an order.  Sorry about that, I'm just really excited!  

Have you ever heard of The Toy Society?  Well, it's all about handmade toys and smiles.  People make toys and then leave them public places so they can find a good home with a kid.  Isn't that fun?  It started in Australia but has spread around the world.  In fact, it's come right here to good ol' Santa Rosa, California!  I made some toys and dropped them off.  I had a lot of fun doing this and will participate again.

These are the toys I made-

This is the back of the little girl bunnies.

I used a freebie pattern from Wee Wonderfuls, I just embellished their outfits a bit so that each one was unique.  Another de-stashing project, I had everything on hand.  Including the vintage fabric I used for them.  I loved that the patterns were so tiny because I was able to salvage the front, blue fabric.  A large portion of it was discolored from sun damage. ( Of course that was conveniently hidden when I bought it...shady people, lol.) Because of the way it had been folded the ruined part was a very odd shape so I thought I would never be able to use it.  Thankfully these worked out perfect.  The color is so gorgeous it would have been a shame not to get any projects out of it.

I dropped them off on April 1st.  I put them out early enough that they could have been found that very day.

My 1st Drop!

My 2nd Drop!

I hope they went into happy little hands!

So, now that you've seen how much fun it is don't you want to join in?

Thanks so much for looking!  Have a craftastic day!

Snapshot Friday!

Hello, lovely readers!  Welcome to this edition of Snaphot Friday!  I was thrilled to remember this photo that I'm sharing with you today.  It's just in time for Easter.  It's one of my favorites but sadly it is another communal art box refugee, so it is in very poor shape.  I would love to get it restored someday but until then I'll frame it and put it away.  If I ever become one of those ladies who decorates for holidays, I whip it out for the festivities.  It won't be out of place as there are tons of photos of strangers around our place.  Is that weird?

(Click on to enlarge.)

Isn't it sweet?

I wish I knew their names.  There is lovely handwriting on the back, but as you can see by the edge it's been mounted onto matte board so you can't read it.  Although, I can make out "Easter Sunday" on the top edge.  Trying to remove it would just damage it further.  I know this for sure- I tried to get a little glimpse at the year.

Check out the little girl's matching coat and bonnet.  The scalloped edge by the buttons is just darling.  And the baby's jumper- the material on the cuffs of the pants matches his little shirt.  Accckkkk!  It's all just so adorable, it's killing me.

I hope that you have a great weekend!  Thanks for looking.

Thriftacular Thursday!

Last time I went thrifting I found a bunch of crafty stuff.  That's always exciting!

Here it is:

Both sets of napkins were in excellent condition, they looked like they had never been used.  I'm so in love with the green ones,  maybe it's the lace, maybe it's the color.  The second I saw them I knew they had to be mine, so I was relieved that they were nice.  Having to put them back for being in crappy condition would have killed me.  I have big plans for the yellow ones!  I can't wait to finish them.  I'll give you a clue- quote.

Four zippers- in case I can ever figure out how to sew in a zipper.  It's a big goal for me... I want to make pillows for my embroidery pieces but I want them washable.  Now I just need to coax ol' Bessie into helping me out.

And last but not least, 2 packages of Aida cross-stitch fabric.  I'm venturing out people.  I'm finally going to learn.  It should be interesting with the whole counted thing... I'm easily distracted.  But I'm going to try.  I've gathered up some patterns, I already have more than enough floss to get me started and now I've got Aida.  Wish me luck!

Have you thrifted anything good lately?