Little Miss Matryoshka

Working on tea towels for family members that were so gracious as to accept my late Christmas gift via IOU. That's right, my family is so generously supportive that they actually got excited about an almost finished Christmas present.

I bought the tea towels at the most wonderful and entertaining website, thank you Jenny Hart, at Sublime Stitching. http://www.sublimestitching.com/ She has so many genres of designs that you are surely going to find something up your alley.

Just buy the amazing package of designs that are completely economical and super cute! You can iron the designs up to 10 times for the price of one. How can you go wrong?

This is so much like coloring for adults. I love to color with my daughter but this is just as fun! Well, after I discovered how much I like to embroider, I threw in the crayons anyway. The center of the Matryoshka's dress is colored in with crayon. I colored it in after I put the iron-on transfer on the fabric but before the embroidery so my thread would give it the "finished" look. Pick a complimenting color (Crayola is the best because it has most color to wax ratio) and color in the lines. Then take a hot iron (heat appropriate for type of fabric) with scrap fabric below and above your colored piece so it protects your iron and your ironing board. The heat fuses the color to the fiber and the extra fabric absorbs any excess. It will wash just fine because the water won't get hot enough to bleed out the color. I should mention that I don't usually wash these in hot water but very warm water. It gives such a nice addition to the work and looks very tailored.

Have fun embroidering!!!

I'm Back with Mystery Trip Fun!

Wow, I took a very long break....so sorry about that! I guess I needed a small break that turned into a big break. Refreshing? ...yes, but I sure miss the sharing!





During this break, our family went on an adventure! I called it the "Mystery Trip." The kids had no idea where we were going until we went to the airport. One week before Christmas we went to the most magical Christmas place in the world, New York City! They were thrilled!






We did the whole thing! Skating in Central Park, American Museum of Natural History, Statue of Liberty, FAO Schwartz, Rockettes at Radio City Music Hall, American Girl datenight, Sony, Broadway Show, Rockefeller Center Christmas tree, hot dogs on the street corner, the subway and all it's funk, italian food, and amazing chocolate....yweh! So much fun every minute we were there.
Skating before falling. Salute to NY!


The tree!!!
Little girl taking a picture of Lady Liberty.




Lesson here? We saved, saved, and saved. All the little jobs the kids did, the extra work my husband and I found, craft shows and orders; all that money went into the Mystery Trip Fund. Boy, those little dollars add up quick. Through this process another amazing thing happened, the kids matured a little. Didn't see that coming. They started to see the progress and when we went to the bank to make our weekly deposit, they watched the numbers grow. The lovely ladies at the bank were in on the surprise so they really helped ham it up and give lots of praise (and kept the secret) through this 5 month commitment. Now the kids are a little less fussy about being asked to do chores (and sometimes even do them without being asked) and they realize that work equals money. I love it!





Here's how we did it! We made a plan (without the kids knowing details) and knew where we were with every deposit. We played it off pretty well for a long time. The kids thought we were going to eat peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for the whole trip. Once we reached a certain amount, we told them we had enough for hot dogs....and so the fun continued.

First the airfare, then the lodging....everything else unfolded and as the list grew so did the jobs and deposits. This was such a fun experience for our whole family and I highly recommend doing this with yours!

Birthday and Parade

The little guy is growing up! He's getting big and strong. He informed me that he was now a tween and that I need to get used to it. It's hard though because I remember when he really thought he was Peter Parker and Spiderman. Boy, those were the days.

To keep him young and spry and continue with the toy theme before it gets weird, we gave him what I thought was a very cool thing.

That's good, bud...read the card first.
Now you can dig in!

The emotions set in.

A LEGO CLOCK/RADIO! I love this! I really think he loved it too, because through the course of the weekend, he kept unplugging it and taking it around the house wherever he was so he could see the time. I wasn't sure if I should tell him that they have invented the watch. Nope, I just smiled at the excitement. I guess I should add a quick side note - my family is completely behind the times on technology...and I love it. I mean, this kid is excited about a clock. It's the first form of technology in his room except for his fan.

After the fun times of the family birthday party (friend party to come this weekend) we had a wonderfully relaxing time watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. We watch it every year.

One of the kids seems to remember us "being" there so the annual show must have sunk in.

Craft Show!

Here's the display! It was adorable! I have managed to surround myself with such creative friends.
Kara made the cutest yo-yo clips for your hair and the most amazing tie headbands. Jessica made the sweetest coffee mug cuffs out of ties!
I threw in a few hair bows and knitted flowers.

And some homemade Christmas cards and there you have it! The show stopper....

...or so we thought.


Even though this was heavenly to us, it didn't seem to catch anyone else this weekend.

OH, did we try! We modeled our own things, roped in some family members to walk around with our stuff just to create a buzz...but no luck. I guess even though we think it's simply amazing stuff at almost exploitable prices...not everyone else thinks so. It was a hard pill to swallow but I guess people sometimes have shows like this, where you walk away hoping you made enough to pay for your table. Any thoughts? Do tell!

As for now we are admiring our cutsie things and giving cheers to each other for all the work and prep that went into our array of inventory.

Don't worry! We are too crafty to keep down! The creative flow is stalled by disappointment but I feel like that will only last about 2 days...ok, maybe 3 days, and then back to the thoughts of Christmas around the corner! Ooooo I hope my family is not looking at this post - there may be a few gifts represented here.

Craft Show Prep

Here's the life the next few days. I carry my yarn and needles in my purse so I can knit a flower in a snap. You would be surprised how fast those little segments of time can add up.

Here's the last few days of "found" hours. I still need to sew the button on and add the headband. I learned how to do short rows and scale the flower bigger or smaller based on yarn size and needle size. It's so fun to see how they turn out and I've found myself snooping around for a new skein of yarn just so I can see a new one. So here I go....knit, knit, tic, tic, click, click...the sound the neeldes make!

Craft Show, Craft Show, 1 more to go...

Yeah! This was the last craft show I entered. It was sooooo fun! I loved seeing other artisans there with a nice intimate setting. Such a lovely night with crafts, sales, charity auction, coffee, and great food. How could you ever go wrong?

Gearing up for the next one in 7 days.....ahhhhh!

Pumpkins of Late

We went to a spectacular Pumpkin Carving/Costume party. It was so fun! I love seeing creative costumes and everyone that comes! So here are a few pics of the wonderful pumpkins that we managed to carve and scrape....

Messy, messy.


Just couldn't give up the pumpkin.The rest of us just carved it up!!!!

The men really dove into this project. We weren't even keeping score.

....such talent!