Mad Men

As much as I am interested in the show Mad Men I do not watch it much because I never remember when it is on. On my favorite knitting site, Ravelery, a new craze has his the avatar world, you can google "Mad Men Yourself" and find a place to make a cute little caricature. I made one for myself. I don't know that it is the best, but it's what I have for now. I had the desire to add a cigarette to my profile, but I was afraid I'd frighten my small children. Hey, it's not my fault that I was raised by chain smokers and still occasionally love the mist of smoke as it wafts by me. It reminds me of my childhood, what can I say? Ypu make a bigger picture, but I chose to crop mine down to avatar size.

And I did create something lately. I hope I didn't post it already. I forget totaly who made the stamps, but the background paper is from Basic Grey. I brayered the background and Scott used the word "Gradient" to describe it. He's a smart guy full of big words. I never would have come up with that on my own.

Seth asked me to bring him McDonald's for lunch. I really don't want to, but I will. Why couldn't he want something good, like Arby's or Taco Bell? Tomorrow the kids don't have school, so I have to plan something to do. seth wants to go to the Indianapolis Art Museum. Not to see the inside though, he likes to walk the grounds outside. They have a gorgeous garden that is in bloom through the summer. I think Noah will go along, he loves to be outside. It won't be his idea of a great day, but he'll run and hike and have fun.

Scott

Scott said he has noticed I am not updating so much anymore. Hmmm It's not as if I have throngs of readers begging for more information about my crafting life. I was going to distract everyone with a photo of a card this morning, but blogger won't cooperate with uploading. Darn thing. That's what it was made for and now it won't perform its duty.

In truth I have been painting with Seth a lot this week and not card making so much. We just can't seem to stop making those little clothes pin people. I took one out in public with me this week and I believe that I left her behind at Joann fabrics in Castleton. I know I had her in my hands at check out, so maybe she stayed at the register. I hope she likes her new life because I did not notice she was missing until I got home and I am not interested in going back for her anytime soon. Though I do miss her sweet face.

Life is pretty much the same. The boys both want to go to Barnes and Noble and I am trying to sidetrack them with a trip to the library. I am having lunch with my friend Tina today and my no longer a friend, ex neighbor M. And I really want to nap but I have to be at school to volunteer this morning. I wish I was a hot room mom, but a good volunteer is all I am. Nothing sexy about it, just dedictaed.

Craft Days

If you have followed along so far you know that I lack impulse control when it come to crafts. If I see it and I like it, I want to make it right now. I saw a sweet little site on the internet where the most amazing things are made and I thought "Oh, I can do that!" I was so very very wrong! My stuff just pales in comparison. I will happily tell you the name of the site if you ask me, but I hate to post it here as I am clearly borrowing someone else's idea and not even doing it justice.

I have spent the past two days collecting all sorts of wooded balls and golf tees to glue the balls onto. I have wooden blocks, and wooden balls that are tiny and all sorts of acrylic paints (that are on sale at Michael's for 3 for $1.00 Thank God.) The kids are also helping me craft, and even a neighbor girl came to craft. It is addicting, I tell you! And Noah was having way more fun that he looks. We are painting the wood to be little candle holders.

They look like this when they are done. We used wooden beads that are 1 inch big and the holes are already in them. The monkey in the front is my favorite. The lady who makes these also makes full bodies people and they are super cute. I am trying to work my way up to that level of creativity.

What good is it to have cute little candle holders unless you have some cupcakes to put them on? Sorry these are not homemade, but that's why God gave us Kroger, right? Noah is working on making gorillas, but they were too dark to get a good picture of. I gotta run, the paint is dry and I have more little faces to paint.

Clucky

I love this card! Mainly because I love the image on it, I think. The image is from Penny Black and the materials are from Papertrey Ink. The challenge the other day was to use red to make your image really pop. I attempted. I achieved!

Not much is going on here. I have a friend whose hubby is in the hospital with leukemia and will get a bone marrow transplant within the next few weeks, so I have devoted Tuesdays to doing her laundry. I pick it up in the morning before she starts teaching and return it to her at the end of the day. She lives way out in BFE so it works better this way, since I can avoid the drive to and from her home a couple times.

I have volunteered at school, driven car pool, taken Seth fast food for lunch, celebrated a friends' birthday with a Girls Night Out, just the usual stuff. I got a few Christmas presents on line already and now need to find a place to hide them. It's just more of the same old, same old, with a little sewing thrown in for good measure. I'll have to post my sewing pictures next. I nearly flunked home ec in school and never learned to read patterns, so my sewing is wonky, but it is made with love and it all works out in the end, I guess.

It's Warm Where I Am

Yes indeed, these little guys indicate what I am feeling today, warm. The stamp and quote are sold separately, and as well as they go together, they are from two different companies. I got these last year at Papertrix and the boys used them throughout the fall. This year I brought them out for the color challenge on SCS, to use Old Olive, Elegant Eggplant and Basic Black. I added a little orange just because I felt like it.

We took a weekend trip to Cincinnati and spent hours and hours at the Great Wolf Lodge while the kids ran the halls and played MagiQuest, a wizard and wands style game. We also went toJungle Jim's a grocery store that specializes in foreign foods. Good thing we went to the grocery first because the kids were in no hurry to leave their game. We have played it in South Carolina and there it is played one hour at a time.I guess you can pay for more time, but we never have. In Cincinnati, you can play for as long as you want, up to 4 days in the hotel. They were worn out on the way home and slept great that night at least.

School and Karate and laundry and dinner sems to be in full swing so ther just really isn't anything much going on in my life. And that's a good thing!

This Week In Sewing

I know, you are wondering, "Sewing? Again?" Well, yes. See the photos above and below? I don't know what it is called, but it is a re-useable sandwich wrapper that I bought at least five years ago at a craft fair. I thought it was a genius idea and bought it as soon as I saw it.

My favorite craft blog, Skip To My Lou, has asked us to upload easy sewing projects to share, so I thought this project would be perfect. I knew as soon as I saw this wrapper that I would make my own. That I would, in fact, make lots and lots of them. But I guess I got busy since I never actually made any, I just think about it everyday as I am packing kids' lunches.

I finally bought some fabric and started to make my own this week. The sandwich wrapper I bought has different fabrics for the front and the back, but you can use the same fabric if you want. Here is what you do:

1) Cut 2 pieces of fabric into 14 inch squares. Also cut a piece of clear vinyl this size.

2) Cut the corners off the fabric and vinyl.

3)Sew on Velcro tab to the bottom of one of the fabric pieces, maybe 3 inches from the bottom.

4) Lay fabric face to face with piece of vinyl in the middle of fabric.

5)At the top of the fabric sew in opposite piece of velcro, making sure velcro will line up to wrap the sandwich when you are done sewing.

6) Sew around all the edges of the fabric except for the bottom edge.

7)Turn fabric in side out and fold under bottom raw edge.

8) Sew bottom edge shut.

Here is some of the fabric I bought and cut down to make more sandwich wrappers with. When you fold them up, the sandwich is on the inside/vinyl side and it will stay fresh till lunchtime. You just wipe it clean for the next day's use.

Happy September! According to Skip To My Lou it is National Sewing Month, so maybe I'll have more inspiration to share before the month is over. Okay, I doubt it, but stranger things have happened.

Head on over to the Starving Artistamps web site, too. They have a new release of Halloween stamps and you can win a set! Gotta go check it out, though. You know how excited I am about Starving Artistamps and their Creatures. I really love all their stamps,the Creatures just hold a special place in my heart. I do love Halloween, so some new stamps would be so much fun!