I spoiled myself ;)

Last week I decided to make myself something special. I haven't sewn anything new from my little ole self in a long time. I decided it was high time I did something about that. I took a few days and did some hand stitching and then I started piecing fabrics together. I have been taking applique squares to work with me ... I really wanted something special to put them in. I decided to make myself a cute tote bag. I took the design idea off a blog... who's was it you ask... well I have to be honest.. I saw the idea a couple of places. All I can tell you for sure is I love loved loved their idea for a design :) I also want to thank Mistea Crafts for showing us her awesome looking purse she made very similar to this tote... She used some very fun and bright fabric strips on her bag. I loved that little bag so much. I knew I had to make one similar for myself ;)
Isn't that what blogging is all about? Getting great ideas from each other?

Here is my finished project.. I used muslin for the design panel. Then I used some wonderful fun fabrics my sweet friend Sandy W at Awtemnymf sent to me from CA. She found these lovely fabrics at a garage sale ;) Aren't the fabrics fantastic? The fabrics were already cut into strips and squares. Putting this tote together went fast and easy :) I really enjoyed making it!

The back side of my sewing tote ;)

Here is the inside of the tote filled with wonderful hand stitching goodies... Ms Nadine do you see that awesome pincushion that you made me along time ago from selvages???

Now your going to say what the heck is this? This is two very pretty place mats sewn together to make a sewing case. I had to make the button hole by hand... I didn't have a machine that made button holes when I made this. I was flying out to CA in 1986 when a lady had one of these in her lap and she was doing some hand work.. I fell in love with it and asked how she made it. As soon as I landed I had mom take me to the store so I could make one. Isn't it fun??

Here is the inside of the tote :) Look look lots of places to put your things.. I even have a pair of snips tied by a ribbon to the tote so it doesn't get lost ;) Also there is a needle case in one of the pockets. The big pocket on the left is
open so you can put a project in it ;)
The large pocket on the right has sewn sections in it.
My baby sister liked it so much I made her one for her
birthday that same year. She loved it and uses it all the time when she sews.

An amazing upcycle idea :)

I am always talking about deconstruction or up-cycling items. A member of cut out and keep came up with this very clever and fun idea. This my friends is an awesome idea. I love it!! I can't think of a better way than this... to use old sheets. I do know that some women are using old sheets to make quilts.. but I have not gotten that far into my research on that topic yet. What do you think.. isn't this marvelous???

It's so much fun!!

I remember when I was a very your girl at the tender age of 7 years. I had my favorite dress up skirt it was a twirly skirt like this. It had a carousel horses along the bottom hem. The skirt was white and the horses were many many colors. I had this pink lacy petty coat that would make it stick out and bounce, like in the 50's with the poodle skirts. I had to use a huge safety pen to hold it up on my waist. That didn't matter, because you could never see it in the back. I remember standing out in the back yard for hours and hours twirling in that skirt and yes wearing my go go boots.
Those were fun days for sure!! Being able to dress up and feel big and important!
If I could have imagined then.. was I one of the glamorous girls from SEX IN THE CITY?
All dressed up in designer apparel.
LOL I don't think there was any such thing as designer apparel when I was young!
That started coming in to my vocabulary when I was in my High School Years :)

Quiet time Game

I found this fun toy idea from Duringquiettime.
Why not make a cloth tic tac toe game??
I remember many days playing this game while we were traveling in the car. Yes we used good ole paper. After going through eight or ten sheets we were finished for the day. Those 8 or 10 sheets got us most of the way to our destination. Those few pages kept us busy and quiet.. so we were not on the drivers last nerve :)

I know I know... you can purchase those fancy vehicles with the capability of watching movies. If your rich enough to own one of those.. Whoot Whoot.. but me I am is still a poor farm girl. I have to resort to other means of entertainment for the kiddo's. I hope you find this idea as fun as me. I am going to make a couple of sets to send out to CA. My family still have children young enough that have to go with the parents. The family still goes on long trips... heck going to the grocery store out there is a long trip in my eyes... LOL poor poor Ca People.. the traffic is really bad during commute.

Did I get thrown in Boot Camp

What do you think of the big Banana??
It hauled the little bob cat that helped do the hard work today ;)
LoL this is the truck I fell off of in the city of Greensberg right after the huge tornado that litterly wiped out that small town. Bubba and I was making trips over to haul off all the damaged autos. It had been raining and oops I slipped right off the top step to the ground. I am sporting my own Greensberg scar... It's the size of a very large potato chip. Bubba was scared.... he thought I might have broken my back. ..... because I feel right on it. I got the wind knocked out of me for sure. It's sort of funny I just layed there.. I didn't move for the longest time. I think I was stunned. When I did get up my entire body was on fire. Mostly my arm hurt from getting most of the hide ripped off of it. LOL but that's not what I wanted to talk to you about today... Bubba was a sweetie~~~ he came to help his ole sister out!

I don't know about you .. but there was a very tough gal I had to work for today. Her name was Aunt Pitty Pat!! She had me up at Oh dark thirty hours to meet her brother outside to do a hard job. Thank goodness Bubba was smart enough to get some friends to come along and help!! It has been years since there has been any type of tree trimming going on at the Oleo Ranch.

We had to pull up lots and lots of saplings that was in the gardens next to the house. As you can see it was loaded with them. I was very concerned about the basement wall, with all of those tree roots. Here is a photo of us just getting started for the day. Thank goodness it was cloudy and over cast, because it was hot and muggy outside. In the mid to upper 80's.


Here is what its starting to look like after almost all of the trees have been pulled out. Yes there still is clean up to do but Aunt Pitty Pat wore me out.. I had to stop after 4 hours. Remember I am old and grey.. not to mention I have been sick recently :)

Here is down the side of the house.. as you can see by the photos there is still a lot of work to be done as far as the grooming and removing unwanted trees. But this was a fantastic start to getting the job done!!

Yeah I must be feel better ;)

During the last couple of weeks .. I started feeling a lot better than I had in a long time... But....Last week I had a set back ... I had the most horrible flu. I was sick to my tummy for two days. It really wasn't a pretty site. Ugh!!!! just when you think your doing so much better. Along comes some unexpected bug and zaps you! I can tell all of you for sure I am feeling close to my same old self today. I spent several hours sewing and just enjoyed creating.
I spent an hour today looking for my applique pressing cloth... I can't find it anywhere. I must of accidentally thrown it away when I was cleaning in the sewing room. I didn't know what to do .. so I wasted some fusible web so I could use the release paper to tack all my pieces in place. Boy I sure hated ruining that fusible. I guess you do what you have to in a pinch!
I finished cutting out my applique shapes and ironed everything down on the foundation block. Then I worked on getting caught up on my Siggy Block Swap. I am even ahead by a dozen blocks.. Yeah!!! Tomorrow I will have to do some of the hand stitching on my Block of the Month blocks from Pins and Needles Swap. I was lucky enough to sign up for my favorite month ..

OCTOBER ;)

My blocks are turning out so awesome. I guess I should finish up one so I can show you here on the blog what they look like. I am pretty excited about these blocks,
they are so full of the Halloween Spirit :)

Musings of days gone by…..

My Big Daddy O when he was young ;)

Growing up as a child.. my life was very different than most children. I lived with a young single dad. Which was unheard of in the very early 60's. Let alone parents getting a divorce. Life for me was very different. Endless days of fun and sun!!! To me dad walked on water.

Talk about handsome.. and wow what a dancer he was! The mash potato, the pony, the jerk, and lastly the frug. I remember when most of the world was listening to Western Swing music. We were listening to something wild and new… they called Rock n Roll. I remember living in Ok City, Oklahoma and listening to KMOA, it was one of the very first radio stations to play that wild and crazy music they called rock. Look out girls it was Elvis and the Beetles. Then a short time after.... came a lot of other wonderful musical artists. Johnny Rivers, The Box Tops, Lou Christy, The Letterman, and The Kinks, the list is end less. Songs like This Diamond ring, Lightning strikes, Sonny, Poor side of town, Send a letter Maria.. I still love these wonderful fun oldies. Every time I hear one of those oldies but goodies .. fun times of my youth comes to mind.
There were Beetle hair cuts, page boys and Nehru jackets and Beat Nicks. Life was very fun and carefree then. I spent endless hours riding around in Big Daddy O's Chevy with the top down... yes….. you guessed it!

Big Daddy O owned a 1964 convertible Corvette Sting Ray.
It was silver blue in color and a real eye catcher. I think Big Daddy O purchased that car because he got a lot of attention in it…. all the girls wanted to ride around in it. Not very many people owned such a hot car back then. It really was a singles vehicle of the times. I remember.. I was the one that always sat beside Big Daddy o... I had to sit on the console. Do you think , that was a young girl in training...in the proper way to sit next to your sweetheart when out on a date??? Life for me was so much fun then.. it was awesome to be very hip and modern. My life style was nothing like the kids I went to school with. They were so jealous of all my fun adventures. Each Monday I had to tell them play by play the things we did over the weekend. I received so many oh’s and awe’s giving the details of the weekend. Especially when I told them the great race car drivers that I knew and grew up with. Connie Collette, Cha Cha Muldowney, Ted Detard, just to name a few of the awesome Quarter Mile drivers that I was so lucky to meet in my life time. It was weekends at the race track or the lake. Hot rods, RC colas, hot dogs, skate boards, mini bikes, and yes one of my favorites still ..


Moon Pies. I always had to have my favorite flavor…. chocolate of course. I remember being introduced to peanuts in my coke when you could find a coke to purchase. Coke wasn't common place in my area..Mostly I remember coke sort of got flat when half the bottle was filled with peanuts. This happened when you poured in the peanuts the salt made the pop all bubble up, and foam out...Speaking of other trends. I was so in love with my awesome white go go boots, Oh how I loved wearing those. Maybe those little white boots and my first pair of purple cowboy boots…. Were the down fall to me being on the long road to owning 34 pairs of cowboy boots. Yes I still have a pair of awesome purple cowboy boots. Its Justin Ropers all the way now ;) Young girls or I should say most females wore those cute cute little dresses that we called shifts. I am not sure what they call them now.. maybe a jumper. They were those sweet little A lined simple style dresses with no sleeves. Of course you had to have bangs.. and sported one or two pigtails. I thought I was so mod. Oh yes it was so fun to be hip. I was a very lucky girl to have such a progressive Daddie O. He is still very forward thinking for being in his 70's. He recently purchased one of those new Kawasaki motorcycles.. one of those that are very fast. I told him... you don't need to drive 250 mph. He assured me he would not. We will see.. lol.

Chocolate Chip Cookie Stuffed Cupcake

These cupcakes sort of remind me of the ones that Step Monster made us as Children. The ones she made us were made with Chocolate cake with a cream cheese/chocolate chip stuffed center. Oh my goodness were those wonderful. Very rich but really really yummy and very delicious. I can't wait to try these yummy looking cupcake goodies. You better run fast .... to picky-palate.com to get your recipe ;)

All dressed up and somewhere to go ;)

DON'T I LOOK CUTE???

Mommy purchased this custom made dress for me a long time ago. Mommy has tried it on me several times.. but it was always way too big on me. Now that I have gotten older and have become Chi Chi wa wa square pants from my spaying. I can now fit this fun dress that mommy got me so long ago. Isn't it fun and pretty?? I wore it to Momma Bears for mothers day :)
I got a lot of compliments on being such a pretty baby :)

** UPDATED** A great way to store plastic sacks

Step Monster asked me to make her something for mothers day. I told her I would be delighted to make it for her. She asked me if I would make her a plastic sack holder. The one she showed me as an example was just a straight tube with ribbon at the top and some elastic in a casing at the bottom. She said that she wanted it bigger than the one she had. I knew exactly what I was going to make her after she asked me... I received an amazing fun Apron style bag holder like this one for Christmas from a friend in NC. I loved it. I thought it was so cute... I decided that I would make them as gifts this year for family and friends. Of course I had to spend an hour or so looking at the item and making a pattern.. but I think the copies turned out fantastic! I did modify hers from my pattern. I made the red bag part even bigger than this one ;) The photo's of this one went to Momma Bear.. my adopted family mom. Both mommas loved them... and was very excited to received them... Speaking of excited to receive them. Mom in Ca loved her Annie I sent her for Mom's Day. Sorry about the photos.. the day was very cold and cloudy here. Taking photos was very poor inside the house so I had to go outside to try and get a decent shot.

This little bag holder sure beats the plain Jane long tube ;)

There has been lots of interest on this apron holder.
It was very easy to make.
Let me share how I did it with all of you. ;)
Sorry No Photos!!
I took a piece of tissue paper and folded it in half and then folded it in half again to make a smaller sq. Then you measure 10 1/2 inches down the left fold. After that is completed you tie a pencil to a string. Hold the string at the top left corner, put your pencil point on the 10 1/2 inch mark and swing the pencil in an ark to the top of the tissue paper to the right of the left fold.
I hope this makes sense as your wanting to make a circle out of your piece of folded paper :)
When that is completed you will open the tissue into a half moon shape. I keep my folded over as it gives the tissue more body and not so flimsy. You might have to trim to make your half moon the shape you want it. I trimmed a tad off to make it more rounded.
Next you measure your tube fabric.
That is 18 inches long by 10 1/2 wide.
Next you will measure the cuff of your holder.
That is 12 inches by 3 inches...
I found if I allowed a tad extra length on the cuff fabric.. I was able to handle it better.
I cut off the extra length prior to serging it together.
I used a left over scrap of fabric to make the hanging holder. The one I made were 6 inches by 2 1/2 inches. You can make these bigger to slip over a door knob if you like. Sew along the edge... turned inside out and pressed flat with seam in the middle.
Ok now you have all the measurements...
Let me see if I can tell you how I put this together.
The first thing you do is serge all raw edges. Or zig zag if you don't have a serger.
Next I layered my lace and rick rack on top of the Apron fabric edge and sewed that down.
To make the tube.. first you must stitch your gathering stitch along the top.
Next sew the bottom casing for the elastic. You turn up the bottom edge aprox 5/8 and stitch very close to the raw serged edge. Sew the side seam leaving the bottom casing edge open. This is where you will thread in your elastic. Join the elastic together over lapping the ends. I guessed on the elastic length. (I have to have extra to work with. I have fatty hands and old Arthur doesn't help working with small amounts of anything). I used my zig zag elastic stitch and sewed the elastic together. After completion of inserting the elastic I sew up the small hole along the top of the casing.
Now its time to gather the top of the apron piece and the top of your tube. Once both pieces are gathered you put the apron back to the front side of the tube. Pin to hold together.
Lastly you iron a bit of interfacing to the wrong side of your cuff. Fold the cuff in half serge short end to make a circle and press.
Pin this all the way around the top of your tub and skirt all raw serged edges together. adjust gathering as needed.
Fold the little holder and place it raw edges on the outside of cuff at center back.. Serge all of theses items together.
And Va la' your sack apron tube is completed.
It didn't take very long to make these only a couple of hours. Remember I had to figure out the pattern too :) If you have any questions please send and email and I will see if I can help you figure it out. I am not so hot on the instruction thing.. If one of you great ladies make a tutorial.. I will replace these instructions with that ;) If you don't mind sharing ;)

Grey Hair Or Grey Matter

Just because I am getting older and have grey hair doesn't mean I'm loosing my mind does it???

For days I have been finding frosted Mini Wheat's all over the house... It's been more like weeks at least two that I know of for sure. There would be a little sq of cereal here and a little sq there. Me..... sometimes I walk around the house eating a bowl of cereal. I thought to myself... Self... while you were walking around the house.... did you dropped a kibble or two. It was the strangest thing.. I kept finding them in my blanket and on the couch. in the dining room .. I would even crunch them with my bare feet-sies. So tonight after work I finally figured out what the story was... here is what was happening :)^^^^^Here's the little devil that was causing all the problems with my brain.^^^^

A box of mini wheat's some how ended up on the floor. I have food in a pantry. I don't go in there much ... So I didn't realize the box was down until today. I keep the extra boxes of cereal, juices, canned foods and extras in there. I didn't need anything out of there for a few days or has it been a couple of weeks... Hum maybe I am getting soft in the grey matter :)
Guess who took it up her self to open up the lid and help herself!
Yes you guess it .... that little Imp that I love.. Pitty Pat... It seems to me.... she is very fond of Frosted Mini Wheat's!! She almost ate the entire box... I am so glad it was that and not chocolate that hit the floor. She is such a chow hound when it comes to human food. I have to keep an eye on her all the time!! I would not put it past her to have gone to the shelf and went as far as pulling the box down herself... she is such a silly willy girly ;)

Gone to the Dogs :)

I think my City has the right idea for its employees :) I have always said my City is a very progressive town. Recently one of our retired personnel returned to work.. She couldn't stand it being home all day.... Returning to work is an arson investigator.. a dog. Yes I said it was a dog :) We now have a Stress Management dog in our Human Resources Department. Jodie continues to report to duty serving as a stress reducer for the City employees. When ever people come into HR they see Jodie and can't help but smile. Our City maybe the only town in the nation that has a stress management dog for the employees. Jodie is used to working and she missed the routine. Coming to work one day a week seems to fill a void that provides her the opportunity to serve. We all look forward to each day she is in the building. I can tell you she receives lots and lots of attention. I for one am very glad I get to continue to see her. I missed riding up in the elevator each day with her. She is one love-able creature ;)

Annies are done ;)

I have said several times that I joined in on an Annie Challenge.. Here is my completed little girl. I think she turned out in the Holiday spirit of the 4 of July ;)
This little Americana Annie was made with up-cycled materials to keep in the beliefs of us Americans. Save Mother Earth..
by deconstructing and reconstruction out of all ready used materials ;)
GO GREEN!!

This little girl will be sent to Ca .. Mom sort of asked where her Annie was the last time I was out there. Everyone seems to get a doll but her. Since my mom served this country with honor. I feel this Annie is an Excellent Annie to send to her for Moms Day.
Happy Mom's Day DK :O)


I know your going to say to yourself.. Self doesn't that Annie have a mouth. Well yes she does. I used a very very light colored pink for her mouth. I didn't realize it would not show up in the photos. But believe me it looks like a very nice color on these little girls ;) Click on photos they will enlarge so you can see the details ;)

I promised the big Daddy O I would make him another Annie for the little girl across the street. Well this is the Annie I made. Isn't she cute?

I would also like to take a min and thank Brenda Greenwalt for giving this lovely Annie Doll pattern in one of her recent news letters for her followers. Thank you Brenda.. I really like how she works up ;) Adorable!!

UPDATE!
I gave Big Daddy O his dolly at lunch today and he loved her.. He wasn't sure at that time which Annie he wanted to give away. The first one that I made him or this one. I can tell you by the end of the day he told me he was keeping the first one that I gave him. He says he is use to seeing her smiling face and knows its one of the first ones that I ever made. In fact I think she was something like dolly #3. He did tell me he liked the stitched on faces better than the painted ones. It's too bad his dolly has a painted on face. As everyone knows we improve as we go along ;) Which is a very good thing!!! I don't blame him not caring so much for my painted on faces.. I don't paint so hot. But I try :) Dad mostly laughed when he saw the wild and bright painted socks ;) Yeah..... I thought they were sort of way over the top to!!! But I did love how both of them turned out... The Americana Annie is now in route to CA.... :) I hope she has a safe flight ;)
And gets lots and lots of hugs when she gets there ;)

All Warm and Fuzzy

Isn't it strange how one person sees something differently than another. No matter how many times you see that certain something.. it always makes you smile. This is the case on this fun little video my sweet friends. I just had to share it with you. When I need that little pick me up.. I just click on it and for some reason it lifts up my spirits. I have to tell you there is no Chocolate or Pepsi in it but it does keep ones eyes on the screen. Ok ladies before you watch this video.. you just might want to get a towel to wipe off your drool :) There's just something about this little video that I like ;) I don't know if its the catchy tune or the lip smacking, slobbering cute adult male with his little cutie hot wiggly butt moves... Ok so maybe I do need a cold shower after seeing this video.. but really the video is very cute give it a look see ;)

Whoosh... be still my pounding heart.................... after that little video I don't know if you will be able to sit long enough to watch this very fun quilt block video. I showed this to my mom and sister Allie when I was out in Ca. I have wanted to do this for quite sometime now. I think I will make the strips smaller and use this easy and fun block on my Holly Jolly Quilt as the border. What do you think??? Do you think it will work out? I think it would be fun using these blocks all the way around or do you think I should just use these blocks as corner stones.
Show us your blocks if you make some using this fun method ;)

I don't know about you but not everyone can not afford one of those fancy smancy sewing tables. This lady on this video has provided us with a very inexpensive way to turn our own sewing machines into a very user friendly sewing table. I think this was a very clever way to save everyone some money and still have an awesome space to work.
This table looks like it would take a couple of hours to make.
Wow great idea!!!

Video #1



Video #2



Video #3

I have one final video to share with you today. I know a lot of you are like me and use your ironing board for everything. I have heard women use this little things that they call pressing blankets. I have to tell you I thought this was a very clever idea on how to make a pressing board that can be used right next to your sewing machine so you don't have to get up and down to use the ironing board. While I was watching this video on how to make a pressing board.... I wondered to my self... I said self!! I wonder if I could use that insulation stuff you use in pot holders to help keep the heat at bay and help stop the steam from soaking through. I wonder do you think that will work?? You all know me I am always trying to improve on a good idea ;)

Just think I was out of brilliant words to say over the weekend?
Now you can't shut me up :)
Its off to finish up on my two Annie's that I am making. The American Annie is all but done. The other Annie is going to be a gift for the little girl that lives across the street from the big Daddy O. He asked if I would please make him another dolly. He told me it was hard for him to give up the dolly that I made him before. He just could not take her down off the shelf above his computer. He said she makes him smile when he looks up there. I told him no worries I would make him another ;) After Annie is completed.. I have to start on the 12 blocks that I need to make for the Pins and Needles By the Month block swap. I was a very lucky girl.... I was the first one to sign up so I got all the months to choose from. It was a toss up would she choose Christmas or would she Choose Halloween......... If you guessed Halloween......Yes of course I chose Halloween. I have my idea for my block all picked out now I just need to make a pattern for it and I shall get started on those blocks also :)

I hope you have enjoyed the videos I have shared with you today :)
I hope you have learn a few new things along the way ;)

Blah Blah ... blah blah blah!

When has anyone seen me on this blog at a loss for words??? I have been sitting around the last week trying to think of something fun and interesting to share with my readers and I just can't pull it out of the hat. Isn't that strange .. ME ... the person that always has something to say is at a loss for words??? Go figure.. ok I will post when my brain is out of the mush :) Hugs