Pay It Forward

So I'm finally getting a chance to take part in this, which I saw on tamdoll's blog.

Here's how it goes:

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay it forward exchange. I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

So, if you're one of the first 3 people to comment, copy and paste the above paragraph on your blog and share the crafty love!....of course, the challenge being, are there even enough people that read this blog to post?

It's Ornamental

So I think I've settled on what I'll be making for the Holiday Ornament Swap. I was playing around with a few different ideas. The one that I really liked, I decided was way too labor intensive to make multiples of in the amount of time I've got. I wanted to do a polymer clay mosaic of a christmas tree. I think I'll make one though, for my own tree.

All I can say about what I chose to make is it's from one of my japanese craft books. Maybe I'll get some teaser pictures up tomorrow.

It is painful to tear myself away from Rock Band though.

Aaaarrrggggg!!!!

I was doing so well!!! Damn you Rock Band!!!
Willie bought Rock Band today and I decided to try my hand at drumming. Needless to say, it is quite addictive. I was rockin' it out as my alter ego Roxy Star....aaaand..next thing I know it's 12:08...I officially missed posting for Friday. Curse you Rock Band for sucking me in and making me feel like a kick arse drummer chick!......I do kick arse though...hehe
I'm gonna pretend that didn't happen. I like posting every day!

Rock On!!

Turkey Day!!

I'm so thankful that I'm surrounded by so many wonderful people. I love my friends and family. I'm thankful that I have such a supportive and loving husband. I'm thankful for my Eleanor! I'm thankful I have a job that supports my crazy crafting habit. I'm thankful I'm able to be creative and express myself.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone!! Remember to give thanks today!
**I'm also thankful for the wonderful Nashville Reeves'....especially David, who is a WONDERFUL hubster-in-training.

A fun little meme!

I saw this posted on greetingarts and thought it was too much fun not to do myself!

1. Answer the questions and type it into Google's Image search.

2. Post a photo from the first results page.

• the age you will be on your next birthday



•a place you’d like to visit



•one of your favorite places



•your favorite object



•your favorite food



•your favorite animal



•your favorite color



•name of a past pet



•where you live



•1st grade teacher’s last name




•your middle name



•a bad habit of yours



•your college major
i never went...so i'll post what i want to go for....


•your favorite holiday



That was fun!!

Do I have everything?

Yay! Turkey day tomorrow! I'm having a couple of friends over for Thanksgiving dinner so it will only be the four of us. I can tell we're going to have way too much food. The desserts alone are out of control! I ordered both a pumpkin pie and a cranberry walnut pie from a local bakery. Then we also have flan and a chocolate bourbon pecan pie. And we got a deep fried turkey from Jive Turkey in Brooklyn. I've been wanting to try them for a couple of years now.
I get more excited about the sides than I do the turkey though.
Corn, mashed potatoes, string beans, mac and cheese.....mmmmmmm......
I hate leaving a post without a pictures so here....eleanor says hi!

Nifty stuff

I found something I just must have at my cubicle at work. It's become a necessity!



No, it's not stinky there. But sometimes the people just stress me out too much! So I figured some aromatherapy would really help. I think it's so nifty! A USB oil burner!

I also got a 50% off coupon for Michaels the other day so I figured I'd better take advantage of that and get something I've been wanting that's just been too pricey.



So I got the Makins Pasta Machine. I hope it's worth it!
Hmmmm...maybe I'll use it to make my ornaments for the Holiday Ornament Swap...

It begins

So I finally decided on the quilt!


I think I'll be doing it in mainly blues and greens. With a bit of yellow thrown in maybe. I'm so excited! Can't wait to get started!

Also, look what I got off of ebay!

I'm not all that crazy about the basket.

But look what's inside!


Yay!!! Buttons!
Lots of old ones still on cards...


One of my favorites are these little ones here:

Not the best picture, I know. And they are so deceiving! You would think by looking at them, that they would be light. But when you pick them up....they're quite heavy for the size. Each one is about the size of my pinky nail. Which leads me to my next question...as you can tell by the card they are on...there is no info as to what they are made of. Anyone have any ideas? I'm just curious. They can't possibly be plastic, as heavy as they are. I took one off the card to check the weight of it. Yeah...heavy.

A new quilt

I sewed a bit today on the new machine. I love it! It sews so perfectly and smoothly!
Right now I'm in the process of trying to pick a quilt to make for Willie and I. So far all of the quilts that I've made have been for friends and family. I haven't made one yet for us. So that will be my first quilt on the new machine.
Decisions, decisions...




I love Lucky and Domino magazine. Besides the fact that they are awesome magazines, they have these pages with these little sticky notes on them to mark the different things you like throughout the magazine. Sometimes I use them, but most of the time, they go unused. So I tear them out before I throw them away...(well Lucky, I don't throw my Domino away), and I'll use them to mark other magazines. So they are really coming in handy right now, with the quilt decision.

I also started working on another quilt project that I set aside. Awhile back I had hosted a swap on Craftster where we swapped with a bunch of other people 1.5 inch squares of fabric to make a postage stamp quilt.



So I'm trying to make progress on that too. I still have a ways to go though. I didn't get nearly enough squares to finish a quilt but it was definitely a good start. On that note, if anyone is interested in swapping some 1.5 inch fabric squares I would love that! I want the fabric to be as random as possible on this quilt. I'm just randomly sewing the squares together, no pattern. I love the idea of not knowing what the top will look like until until it's all together.
So yeah, if you're interested in trading some squares....that would be awesome!

The Wright Stuff!

Now that I've had my much needed sleep...onto the gala!



It's not often that I have a picture taken of me that I actually like. I am just NOT photogenic. So I had to post this one that Willie took of me at the gala. It's rare.


I had a blast at the gala! And one cool difference between this year and last year is that we got VIP passes. Last year only two people in our group had VIP passes so we had to pass it back and forth to go into the VIP area. No more of that...we got our own! woohoo! Free food, free drinks and for the VIP's free stuff!! They had tables set up around the room with all kinds of free goodies, free jeans, jewelry, body spray, toffee, lotion, and a mug with a watch face set into it. Yeah, I thought that was kinda random too. A watch face? It's a nice mug though! One of those tall insulated travel mugs. And guess who we saw!!



We saw him when we went back into the VIP room to get more free stuff when I realized I skipped over the free jeans. As we were trying to leave, it was insanely crowded and Willie starts freaking out and telling me to take his picture! I was confused but took the camera. I turned around and this guy was blocking my way and had his back turned to me. I was about to tap his shoulder but this girl was having her picture taken with him so I decided to wait until they were done. That was about when I realized...Holy cow! That's David Wright!! So as soon as they were done, I tapped his shoulder and asked if I could take his picture with my husband. He said sure! He is such a sweetie! Of course I don't have to say how insanely hot he is. Willie told him how he had designed the posters for the event, and he said they look great!

And look who else was there!



Willie flipped out even more when he saw Mr Met than he did with David! It was cute!
Apparently, they don't really have Mr Met show up at events like this where there is alcohol because people tend to get drunk and then try to take off his head....so wrong.
Good times!

grumble grumble grumble

Ok, I'm too cranky and tired to post much right now. What can I say? Sleep is very important to me. We got home at 1am and I had to get right back up at 5am to go to work.
So, delay on the gala pics again. But I will fulfill one promise. Here's a pic of the poster that Willie designed for the gala:

Partay!

I'm off to the Gala! I'll post pictures tomorrow.
Blogger isn't letting me post a pic. So....boring cop out post. sorry

Shopped and dropped

Ugh, I am exhausted! I procrastinated and had to do a bunch of last minute shopping for the David Wright Gala tonight. Again, ugh! Don't get me wrong, I love shopping. But not rushed shopping. That's no fun! But I have my outfit, I'm ready to go! I hope Jose Reyes is there! Mmmmm....Jose.
I'm also baking for a Thanksgiving potluck we're having at work Friday. I realized I wouldn't be able to make anything the night before. But I'm making my Peanut Butter Cupcakes so it'll be fine for them to sit an extra day.
Also, hubby sent me a link to this and I just had to share! It's amazing! That's the coolest marching band EVER!

Smush face!

So I realized that I haven't posted many pictures of my baby. So I thought I'd give you guys an overdose of cute!

This was the day we picked her out. She was insanely hyper and this was after all of that when she crashed in my arms. Awwww....




I love my nor!

Burn out

Yay! I just got my partners for the Holiday Ornament Swap! I can't wait to get started! I'm still toying with a few ideas first. I could make them out of polymer clay. Or air dry clay. Or felt. Or fabric. Needle felting anyone? I don't crochet....yet. I do want to take a class to learn. Anyway, I used up alot of posting energy on yesterdays post. Sorry folks.

Crafter's Anonymous

Hi, my name is Starla and I have a problem.

It started fairly innocently. Like I said in my previous post, I needed to clean my craft room before I could put my new machine in there. So I started cleaning..and cleaning..and cleaning. I started around 2pm....it's now 9:30 minus a couple of breaks and I'm finally finished. For now. I had to take all of my magazines off of one of the shelves because my books need more space. So tomorrow I'm going to Target to pick up a couple of plastic bins to slide under the bed.

Anyway, as I was cleaning I realized how I am a serious pack rat.
Witness...Bare with me people, this will be my longest post yet.
The aforementioned magazines before I stacked them neatly under the bed. I LOVE my magazines. My cooking ones are obviously in the kitchen or the stack would have been much worse.




My drawer full of paints...


My drawer of beads...


My box of ribbons and lace...


A gigantic shopping bag full of yarn for latch hooking....


A tall priority mail box full of wine corks...at one point I wanted to carve stamps. I still do!


My many bottles. Again, I did have crafty intentions! I still do! I have a few different ideas for these guys. But for now they just sit collecting dust.


Ok this is an odd one. A large shoebox full of colored paperclips. I'm convinced I can find SOMETHING crafty to do with these. These were collected over a period of time at my job. I had them hanging up all pretty in my cubicle. Boredom.


Roving for my needle felting. I actually do this. Not as often but...it's not going to waste!


My stack of old Life magazines and newspapers from the 60's. I got this big box of them at a flea market for $15. No self respecting crafter could pass that up.


A polka dot hat box full of embroidery floss. Isn't it beautiful?



Of course I have to show the books. The bottoms shelf is dedicated to all of my sketchbooks/journals/notebooks.


And last but certainly not least. The main storage area where I keep all of my fabric, yarn, and all of those shoeboxes are full of polymer clay, crayons, rubber stamps and so much more!


And now to make myself feel better. I do actually craft with some of my pack-ratted materials. I made these out of some shelves from an old bookshelf.


and this...


aaaand this. I needed something to organize my spools of thread.


But don't worry. There's still more where that came from: