Snapshot Friday!

This creepy little kid reminds me of a young Vincent D'Onofrio.

Speaking of creepy, anyone have exciting Halloween plans?!  Mine will be pretty tame.  I think the highlight of the weekend will be trying to dress up my pets.

In a Pickle

 Today's post is brought to you by the word, pickles.  Yay for pickles!  I love 'em, do you?!

When I found out my partner in the Phat Quarter Food swap had the nickname, Gherkin, I knew I had to go with it.  So I made her a pickle jar, with my attempt at a label.  It says, "Leslie's World Famous Gherkins.  Petites with a punch."  Originally it was to be a patch, but I think this came out better.  Now if I could have just got a good picture of it.  Taking pictures of round things is hard!

 I guess the fabric I used for the words was too thin, I've never had it stretch out like that before?  Any suggestions?  It didn't seem like that when it was one the hoop.

 I started by plotting out a pattern on the computer, mainly to play with all the different fonts.  And to get the oval shape even, I'm terrible at that sort of thing.  I transferred it onto the green fabric with my trusty Clover pencil and stitched away.  Somehow my stitching turned out a little crazy in the word, famous.  However, I'm learning not to beat myself up and obsess over every little thing, so I went with it still.  Once the stitching was complete I cut it out with pinking shears and stitched it onto the orange felt.

The jar is an upcycled Trader Joe's coffee can that I covered with vintage green linen.  I couldn't quite get the back seam right, so I used some coordinating ribbon to cover that up.  Not thrilled about that so I didn't take a picture, ha.  I finished up by attaching the vintage foodie trim with tiny dabs of hot glue.  Then I glued the entire patch onto the jar.  Added some felt to the lid, done!  I filled the jar with goodies and sent it on it's way.  My partner, Leslie, liked it, so I'm happy!

Ok, once I share pics of the foodie pieces I've received lately, I promise- no food posts for a while.

Donut Party!

On Sunday, my honey and I had lots of "us" time.  Between sleeping in, eating too much awesome food and watching football, we found time to do a little baking.  We made donuts!

Aren't they pretty?!

We used this recipe.  Despite following it closely, we had nowhere near 58 donuts, which is probably a good thing.  That meant we had too much glaze for the frosting, but oh well.  We had one minor set back, when Dillon kept telling me I was going overboard on the sprinkles.  Is there such a thing?!  It was alright though, I told him he had no idea what he was talking about and promptly went back to flinging sprinkles everywhere.  Thankfully, it was easy to clean up.  By the time we got out the broom to sweep up, our little sprinkle hound, Tequila, had already taken care of most of the floor.

Like I said, we ate too much good food that day, so there was no room left for donuts.  However, I've since tried them and they were yums for my tum.  I think they are excellent paired with a glass of milk.  I'm sure my guy prefers them with coffee.  Either way, tasty!

Hopefully, I haven't made you too hungry!  If I have, sorry!  Feel free to stop by and I will share my donuts with you.

Caturday!

It never fails.  When you are trying to get something done around here, a cute little kitty will come along and distract you.  Or in this case, jump into the laundry you're trying to take care of.

 

Or two may come along.  Either way, their cuteness is getting in the way of progress.

Sorry about the Instagram photos guys, I couldn't resist the convenience factor.  I can smell a pizza in the oven and it's calling my name.  Oh, I'm Mafiosagrrl on Instagram.... like that's a surprise, just call me "Captain Obvious!"  Are you on there too?  Lemme know!

Snapshot Friday!

Someone was obviously impressed by the gams on this gal!

In fact, they were so impressed they had to write it twice.

 A bargain at .25, wouldn't you say?  It makes me curious to see what the rest of this scrapbook looked like.

I'm looking forward to this weekend off from work.  I've got lots of Halloween prep in the works.  It's been hard to get into the holiday mood since the weather refuses to turn into fall here in CA, so I'm going to force it along.  I think it's time to decorate!  I need some pumpkins around this joint.  Be back soon!

I made this kitty for Connie as part of a swap we had.  She was kind enough to send me the largest Q-Snap you will ever see in your life.  It's made to be a floor stand for hand-quilting and I'm going to put it do good use.  Baby quilts here I come!  No, there are no little ones in our near future.  I just want to start small with my new hobby.

I found the canvas on sale at the craft store and fell in love with the circular shape.  I bought it with no particular project in mind, and now I wish I had picked up a few more.  Not for stitching though, it was a major pain as it was primed for painting.  Next time I stretch my own canvas for mixed media stuff.

Despite having a cute little dog named, Girlie, Connie loves cats!  Being a kitty lover myself, I wasn't lacking in cat patterns.  I used a vintage pattern that someone had shared in the Hoop Love flickr pool.  I've long since printed it out so I'm not sure who the original maker was, sorry folks!  Then I lightly tinted it with watercolors and stitched it for more definition.  I used Perle cotton and regular embroidery floss, divided into various #s of strands. 

I'm so glad that she liked it.  I'm always happy to send off things to a good forever home!  Speaking of which, I've got tons of happy mail to post about.  Including a package for a lovely lady from the land down under.  She will love me and hate me by time she get's the giant box of swaptastic stuff.  I decided to create one last goodie to make up for my tardiness and you know how that goes....takes forever.  I feel like the naughtiest swapper ever, I'll probably decline swaps for a year now!  Anyhow, more coming soon!  See you later, dolls.

Current State of Affairs

My crafting area is one hot mess right now.  This is just a small portion of the craziness.   And it feels like more a reflection of my life in general.   Trust me, I can't show you the rest.  I'm too ashamed.  Maybe I'll get a before shot as I attempt to master the mess.

Last time I posted about organizing the fabric into bins, but that's pretty much where the organization process stopped.  I need to get it under control and soon!  It's getting a bit overwhelming.  I tend to avoid the room when it's like this, which also means I'm not blogging and can't really work on anything but embroidery (which I take in the other room.)  Holy Guacamole, I need to get it together!  Be back with some projects that have contributed to this pitiful mess.

Best Pencils. Ever.

Despite telling me that I have enough paper and writing utensils to last me the rest of my life, my honey still indulges my obsession with stationary products.  I guess he just gets me.

These pencils he got me are just plain awesome.

The Shining is one of my all-time favorite movies. 

                      

Great, now I want to watch this movie!  Perfect movie watching weather too, gloomy and rainy outside.  I want to cuddle under a blankey with a yummy coffee.  Too bad that's not going to happen for a while, I've got too much to do.  I'm in the process of organizing my fabric stash into bins.  Exciting, I know.  Well, off to finish up!