Crafting Envy

Aaaagh! I feel like I'm going crazy over here. Spring cannot come quickly enough for me right now. So tired of being cooped up in the house and not being able to wear skirts.

    Everything is driving me crazy right now, the house is a wreck, my sewing area is a wreck, the kitchen is a wreck, the laundry is not done.

    I woke up thinking (wishing, wanting, Lusting) about the beach this morning. I can just see myself in a bright white tiered skirt with an aqua tank top and gold sandals in one hand and a big floppy sunhat on my head wandering down a white sandy beach....le sigh.

    Back in the real world it will be me and my husband's anniversary soon, February 14th to be exact. Six years and two kids later and we're still laughing and having fun.

    The fabric I designed and ordered from Spoonflower has been shipped and I'm excited to see how it turned out, I'm keeping my fingers crossed! It was for a birthday gift for one of my sisters. I'm not likely to make a February 4th deadline on it but I don't think she'll mind.

    I'll post some pictures of it once I get started on it.

    So I did finish that Fairy dress I posted about. I wasn't in love with how it turned out so there are few pictures to prove my claim of finishing. The tulle skirt was nice but the top was just 'meh'. I always feel like I never get enough done somehow, and then I sit down and think about what I actually get finished and it makes me feel a little better. The following items were all accomplished from last Friday till now:

    I finished up a child's apron, plotted on making a chef's hat and maybe some play food to go with it for another birthday niece.

    I have most of the pieces for a second fairy dress of a different pattern, finished the shift part of that already and I like it better than the other one.

    I've been dreaming up a crazy sort of pattern for an 18th Century dress for a birthday present. I have a niece with long blonde hair and very blue eyes who would just be too Marie Antoinette for words if I can convince her momma to let me play a bit....

    I have an order into Spoonflower for a quilt top for a beloved birthday sister. It won't be finished in time but I'm amazed I got the fabric designed for it.

    I have a baby quilt in percolating in my brain for an as-yet-unborn second cousin (girl). Also will be making her a few receiving blankets, can never have too many of those.

    Organized under the sink in the bathroom, only took me 5 hours to sort through 7 years of accumulated makeup, skin care, shampoo, first aid, styling equipment.

    Got rid of two gigantic bags of toys from my little boy's room. They were passed onto some cousins who will play with them way more than he did.

    Bottled beer, it will be ready January 30th! Woot!

    Husband put up shelves in the laundry room and I can see the tops of my washer and dryer for the first time in 3 years.

    Husband brewed a batch of Irish Stout that is fermenting.

    Caught up on Laundry, well....mostly.


Not too shabby for a weeks work ;)

I'm having a total Craft Envy fit over here. I added a new blog to my list that I envy. It's Ruffles and Stuff by a lady named Disney (how quirky and cute is that?). She has some of the most awesome projects. I love the knee socks she made, I'll be making some for a little niece or two, and the watches she repurposed are fabulous. If you haven't seen her blog you must check it out so I won't be the only one gasping in amazement and eating her heart out :)

I was really craving some hummus today after the gym (we've been every day this week!) so I started rounding up my ingredients and remembered I had thrown out my Tahini before Thanksgiving. I decided to make it anyway, what the hey eh?. I substituted 1/2 a cup of Greek yogurt (plain) and 1 tablespoon of olive oil mayo for the Tahini and you know what, it actually turned out pretty damn good. It's chillin in the fridge right now waiting for some pita bread to magically appear....


Hummus in a Pinch Recipe

Toss everything into a blender and mix till smooth. I also add cumin, cayenne and ground pepper to taste. Chill for an hour or so and enjoy the crafty substitution that has you eating Hummus on a Thursday. :)

I blogged about this project a bit ago. I used this tutorial, sorta. It became a different sort of quilt but pretty fun to make. I actually managed to do some free-motion quilting on this one (although, you can't really see it in this picture) and to my surprise I really liked it. It was sooo much faster than doing lines and such.

This was for my baby girl so I had to get a picture of her using it :).

It's been a lazy sort of Saturday here. I managed to patch my new pair of sweatpants. They had some horrible stiff applique's on them that I couldn't stand so I took them off and managed to poke a few holes in the pants. I did a reverse applique on them instead and I think they look much better now. Pays off to be crafty sometimes :).

There is a birthday party in the family next Sunday and I'm setting myself a goal of making a dress for the little girl. I have one week to make it happen, cross your fingers and we'll see how it goes...

We got almost no snow before Christmas this year. No snow before New Year either. This is the first time my little boy has been big enough to play out in it for long. I'm glad we went and got him some stylin' camo print rubber boots a couple of days ago :). We couldn't find his mittens though. Hmmm.....what is a crafty mom with a ton of fleece to do when she can't find her sons mittens? Make some! They aren't pretty up close but they serve to keep his hands from freezing off and took about 2 minutes, literally.



















He played for about 15 minutes and then came in for some warm cocoa.















Speaking of warm cocoa, one of my favorite ways to fix coffee or cocoa is to add an Ande's brand Cherry Jubilee chocolate piece and let it melt...mmmm. Tastes like chocolate covered cherries. They only sell them around Christmas, I bought 10 packs this year...hope they last till next christmas ;)

Well, here we are just 6 days into the new year and I'm already discouraged. The house is a wreck, the beer exploded (more on this later), it took 3 days to finish a dress that should have taken 3 hours and there are no clean towels in the house to take a bath with. This too shall pass, I suppose...right after I get the towels out of the dryer :/