Daily Craft - Myth & Magic

I think I'm finally coming close to finishing my first proper cross-stitch project and seem to be building a little collection of cross-stitch books/leaflets.  I've done pretty well finding cross-stitch books at the thrift store and found another on my lunch break trip on Friday. This time I picked up a copy of Cross Stitch: Myth & Magic for a couple of dollars. I'm working on an Asian themed project right now, which is likely to go in our guest bathrom. I'm very excited that this book has a really nice dragon pattern that I think will be my next project and hopefully the two will look great hung up together!

Daily Art - A Pacific sunset

The last 6 weeks have been pretty crazy between the holidays and my parents visiting from England. My parents were dropped off at the airport yesterday to return home and I'm once again faced with a long time between visits.

On Sunday, my parents and I took a little drive to Santa Monica, where we were lucky enough to make it in time for the most beautiful sunset. So, as the sun set on their trip, the sun also set across the ocean, and I was happy to realize that I had my little point and shoot in my purse to capture this.  Amazing how so much beauty and color can fill just a few minutes every day.  It's like a paint brush was swept across the sky.

Daily Craft - Shiny things

Where have I been you ask?  I was well and truly hit by my first cold of 2011.  Urgh!  It never really settled in my face (which I appreciate because there's nothing less attractive than looking like a puffy sniveling mess for days on end) but decided to inhabit my chest instead (as if coughing like a walrus is much better).  With it being husband's birthday this week, my primary goal was to not get him sick, seeing as that would have been a horrible birthday gift.

What I did manage to do, while recuperating in the house, is a bunch of crafty business!  I borrowed a couple of quilting books from the library last week, one of which was Last-Minute Patchwork + Quilted Gifts.  I decided to give the coasters from the book a shot with some random fabric laying about from one of my thrift store hauls.  These are so quick and easy to do and a perfect way to stash bust / make quick and easy gifts.  I think I'll be making many more of these.

Yesterday, in an attempt to get out of the house for a little bit, I went off to investigate a local Indian Grocery store ( for which a Daily Dish feature may well appear shortly...)  On the way back, I decided to check out the Michael's sale and snatched up a ton of jewelry supplies on sale and clearance.  I am now a fan of a couple of newly discovered component lines - Blue Moon "Orient Express", and Plaid's "Forged".  I just love some of the things that these lines offer and will definitely be buying more.  I'm a total earring addict so that's always my first thought when deciding to make jewelry.  Here are my efforts from last night with my new purchases.

Have you tried either of those component brands?  Would love to hear your opinions.  Also, which of the earrings are you favorite?

Daily Craft - A rainbow of thread

A while back, I entered a contest on the Recycle, Reuse, Refashion blog.  The blog author, Josée, was kind enough to be offering up some sewing notions that she'd scored at a thrift shop.  I'm rather partial to thrift shop hauls myself, so was thrilled to find out that I was the lucky winner!  My package arrived today, all the way from Canada, and I'm now happy to be in possession of a many spools of thread in a myriad of different colors, as well as some bias tape, and ribbon.

Deuce photobombed my picture (no surprises there) and tried several times to steal ribbons, while attempting to distract me by batting away spools of thread.

I'm also happy to be participating in a destash swap on Craftster.org, which involves filling a small flat rate box with supplies I'm no longer using.  I'll be receiving a package of supplies from somebody else in return.  I know that destashing is on my list of things to do for the year, and I'm hoping this will be a good start, even if I'm getting things back.  Seeing as I have to start going through my craft supplies for the swap, hopefully that'll steer me in the right direction for organizing and unloading in general.  Besides, I figure it counts if I'm exchanging things that are just laying about for things that I will [hopefully] use, right?

Daily Ramblings - Happy New Year!

2010 seems like it was really busy and went very quickly.  As the year winds down, there is always anticipation for what the new year will bring.  I don't tend to set myself resolutions as I only end up disappointed, but I like to think of things that I hope to do/achieve in the upcoming year.  I may not get to all of these (just as I didn't manage everything I thought of 365 days ago), but there's no harm in writing some down right?

In 2011, I would like to...

- travel more

- organize my craft room!  

- destash some of the clutter

- finally get around to painting the bathrooms

- hang more on the walls

- get my photography website completed

- work on inventory for my craft site

- complete at least one quilt successfully

- sew more clothing 

- knit more for myself

- go to a museum or three

- sort through my closet and donate what I don't need

- practice baking (not from a box!)

- be better about the gym (to work off what I ate while baking perhaps?) 

- make a ton of grocery bags in anticipation of the plastic bag ban!

I know there's more for this list, and I'll be thinking of more that I want to do I'm sure.  I'm going to take a leaf out of my friend's book here and post it on the sidebar here so I can keep track of my accomplishments, and take you along for the ride of course.

So, Happy New Year from us to you!  What are you hoping for in 2011?  Whatever it is, cheers to a wonderful year ahead.  

Daily Craft - Buzz Lightyear, a quilt for a Space Ranger!

Months ago, after I finished my first patchwork blanket, husband suggested to me that I make a quilt for our nephew for Christmakah.  Armed with a minimal amount of online research on how to make a quilt, I set off to find some fabric that would be suitable for a 2 year old boy.  He loves trains and that was my original plan but wasn't impressed by any of the train fabric I found.  Just as I was starting to lose hope, I happened across Buzz Lightyear and knowing that our nephew is a big fan, I knew I had to go for it.

So, here's my Space Ranger quilt - slightly wonky but made with love.  If nothing else, I'm just really happy that all the corners for my squares matched up.  I was told that, when this gift was opened, our nephew was happy to sit on it and informed his mom that his gift was better than hers.  Now if that's not a 2-year old seal of approval, not sure what is!

Please excuse the somewhat rushed photography job here.  I took this the morning that I was packing everything up to send, and there was no natural light because it was the middle of the one week this year that Southern California was buried under rain and didn't see sunlight.  

Things I learned during the making of this quilt (for all the novice quilters like me):

- Do get a rotary cutter and learn to use it accurately.
- Be careful with choice of fabric.  My biggest mistake was picking fabric that was a little slippery to work with (for the striped blocks) and it would have been neater had a picked a more sturdy fabric.
- Get happy with the iron!
- When sewing blocks/strips together, if the seams have been properly pressed to the appropriate side, they "lock" together in the right spot, which really helps with matching corners.
- Don't try to sew strips together late at night when you're tired.  You may find that you pin and sew the strips upside down and have to pick apart the entire seam immediately after.
- There is no such thing as too many pins.
- Making a quilt sandwich requires a lot of space and is a total pain in the derrière (when you only kind of know what you're doing that is).
- Carefully read/write down instructions on how to machine bind a quilt.  Don't do what I did and think you remember what you're supposed to do because it will invariably lead to frustration and sweating.
- Be happy with the end result even if it's not perfect - after all, it can only get better right?

Daily Ramblings - The night before Christmas

Before I head off to gather with my family for Christmas, I want to share my annual charity venture.  There's a charity local to me that provides assistance to families in need throughout the year and every year through the holiday season, my office adopts some families and helps provide them with everything we can on their wishlists for Christmas.

We got a late start on the donations this year, and with only 4 days to collect everything we needed, I ended up walking office to office, cube to cube, and collecting donations.  I am touched by the generosity of my co-workers as I managed to collect $800 in about 30 minutes.  One gigantic shopping spree later, we got these kids (and their parents) all the toys they had asked for, plus books, clothing, food, and about $200 in gift cards for each family.  From one department at work, we even collected 100 or so games for Xbox, Playstation, Wii etc. to turn over to the "Santa's Room" program that the same charity runs to allow the kids from families that weren't adopted to come pick out toys.  

I feel so grateful that I'm a position to help and bring the spirit of the holidays!!  I hope that these families get the Christmas they deserve in these hard times for many.  

Wishing a wonderful Christmas to you and yours!