I've got nothin'

HEY! Who's she calling nothin'?

Well isn't that annoying

Little things that I find annoying....

I've been wanting a new Christmas tree and when I went to look, the one tree I liked they didn't have.

This is the tree I've had for quite a while. This is also an old picture.  The tree is still in good shape I've just been wanting something smaller.

Another thing that I find annoying is the last time my phone did a system update it changed the photo editing format. All the old photo editing tricks I used to love are gone. Now all it has is about 12 one click options and you can't even adjust those. Why did they have to fix something that wasn't broken?

Index card art

Here's another index card. I obviously was thinking Christmas when I was doing these. This one needs some words on it but I couldn't decide what I wanted to say.

Help me out here and tell me what words you would add to this.

Index card art

Since Monday I've been trying to do some more crafting but just haven't been able to get myself going. After posting a few of my old index cards I thought maybe doing some of those would jump start my creativity.

I decided on a Christmas theme and this was what I came up with.

After finishing it and scanning it I decided to do a little photoshop magic to it.

I think I like the original card better though.

I had forgotten how much fun these were to do. I have two others started so you should be seeing more of these.

Let the season begin

Now that Thanksgiving has been given it's time I can move on to getting ready for Christmas. I've gone as far as thinking about shopping and decorating. Today I may think about baking cookies.

Black Friday

Are any of you brave enough to venture out for some black Friday shopping?

The one nice thing about working in a grocery store is that it's not busy on black Friday and I can get a lot done without interruptions.

Happy Thanksgiving

 

Always something to be thankful for like off peak hours data so that I can still do a post to wish all my blog friends a Happy Thanksgiving. For those of you not in the U.S. have a happy day

Repeats or not

I was going to show repeats of last years Thanksgiving themed index cards but it would appear that we are experiencing some data issues again. If you don't see me at all between now and the beginning of next month you'll know why.

A snowman and some answers

Saturday at the craft show I went to I found so many wonderful things that I wanted to buy. First I bought a little something for Gibbs. He got a necktie so he can dress up for the holidays. If I can ever get him to sit still with it on I'll show you a picture. Amanda saw a table runner that she really liked and said that I could buy that for her for Christmas. I agreed but told her she has to wait until Christmas to get it. I'm so mean. For myself I brought home a snowman

He's made out of log slices and I thought he was too cute. He's about 18 inches high and quite heavy.

Next I want to answer a couple questions from yesterdays comments.

Sharla wanted to know how long I had to wait on Amanda that I was able to get so much done while I was waiting for her to come over so we could go to the craft show. Since I got up a little before 6 and the craft show didn't start till 9 I had plenty of time to have my coffee, get dressed and then throw that stuff together.

Ginny asked if the picture of the snow was my house and my yard. The picture was taken from an upstairs window in my house. That is part of my back yard and the buildings on the left is a doctors office and the building on the right used to be a Dollar General, now it's just an empty building.

Steve asked if I found anything at the craft show and obviously I answered that with this post.

While I was gone

Saturday morning I woke up to rain and cold temperatures. Amanda and I were going to go to a craft show so while I was waiting for her I put together a quick project.

I bought a plastic Christmas plate at the dollar store along with a gold charger. All I did was glue the plate to the charger. Now I can either put it in an easel or even hang it if I put a hanger on the back.

Next I finished off a bunch of tealight pins that were either waiting for pins to be glued on the back or finished off with bows

Next it was throw dinner in the crockpot and go to the craft show and then hit Wal-mart for groceries and some supplies to finish off some orders Amanda had taken at work for snowmen and penguins.
Back home and I started working on the orders.
I had two snowmen, a penguin and two tealight owls to do.

Sunday morning as I headed out to work there was snow on the ground and bone chilling wind. I wanted to crawl back in to bed and go in to hibernation.
The snow is supposed to continue today I just hope we don't get too much.

Time off

Today you get an old picture of Gibbs. I'm going to take a couple days off from blogging because I've got a busy day tomorrow and then Sunday I'll be heading off to work. We're also expecting snow and lots of it for this weekend so I want to make sure I get any running around I need to do out of the way before it starts falling.

I should be back on Monday. Have a great weekend

Rudy.

It seems everything I make lately is getting a name. I haven't set out to name them but when I go to write the post about them it just seems like I need to call them something other than what they are.

Today is Rudy and he's another tealight pin. Now that I look at the picture I can see that I forgot to put a bow on him at the bottom so I'll have to finish that

I really need to slow down when I'm making these and follow the directions. The first one I did I did the stitching without putting the backing fabric in place again. So the first one got a little red wood bead nose and maybe I"ll put him on a card or something.

Last but not least, I didn't think you would mind if I showed my penguin again. I wanted to answer Ginny's question from her comment the other day. She said:  
Oh my gosh these are adorable!! And YES, they deserve their own post, not sharing with anything else. You just keep getting better! How big are they? Are you selling them? WOULD you sell them?



He is approximately 6" high and about 3 1/2" wide. Yes I am selling them and the two that I posted are already spoken for and I have 2 others already ordered. I'm selling the snowmen and the penguins both for $6 each. I also have a request for an owl so I'll be seeing if I can make  something that resembles an owl. I'll let you know how that works out even if it's a total flop

Stanley

I know you've already seen the sock snowmen that I made but since I made another one of Monday I'm showing him too.

This one went home with my daughter Amanda and she sent me a text later that night to tell me his name was Stanley.

Front view

And here's a view from the side so you can see his (toothpick) carrot nose. When I posted the last snowmen, Deb from Paxton Valley Folk Art mentioned that she used to use toothpicks for noses. As luck would have it I had colored toothpicks so I didn't even have to bother coloring it.

Can I have a do over?

I had such a good day off yesterday that I want to do it over. But alas I have to get up and go to work today.

I started the day off with some blog reading and a big cup of coffee (or two). Then I put together a big pot of stew and when I had that simmering on the stove I went to the craft room.

Again for the sake of having more blog posts I'm spreading it out over a few days.

I would like to introduce to you the Chilly brothers, Willy and Billy

My inspiration for these came from a blog called Up on Tippy Toes. She also made bears from brown socks and mice from gray socks. On hers she used orange 3D fabric paint but I didn't have any and didn't want to run to the store to get some. I substituted orange felt and he's just as cute.

Nothing to see here

Since this is the extent of what we did when I got home from work yesterday

The bloggers new clothes

Since I've lost all this weight I thought maybe I would go out and buy a new outfit or two for the upcoming holidays. I was thinking something fun and festive.

I really couldn't decide between the red or the green though.

Maybe you can help me with my decision.

The green is nice but as cold as it can get in these parts I wasn't sure about the short sleeves. On the other hand the red has the long sleeves but I'm not sure about the low neckline.

If you were wondering, these weren't sweaters, they're dresses. No, I haven't gone out of my mind and I have NO intentions of buying either of these. I just happened to see them hanging on a rack and thought they would do for a blog post.

Look to the sky

Shortly before dinner last night I took a picture out the back door because I needed something new for a blog post.

Granted it's not an exciting blog post but it's better than nothing. Of course that could be debated.

I liked the way the sky looked but I hate having to see the back of that building in my picture.

Then I zoomed in and got rid of the building.  It's hard to believe that all the leaves are gone already. It won't be much longer before there will be white stuff flying around out there.

11-11-16

I had no idea what to post today. I had no new pictures and nothing new to talk about. Then I decided to use the date to pick random pictures out of a folder I have with pictures that have already been posted to my blog.

I counted to the 11th picture in the folder and found this. Three index cards that I have made

11 pictures after that I found this.  A candle I had sitting on my table.

16 pictures after that was this.  This was from a trip to Volant Pa. One of the stores had this set up in their upstairs.

Now to figure out what to do about a post for tomorrow.

Dog gone fun times

Sometimes you just need to let loose and have some fun. Gibbs knows how to do that

Everyone has a different idea of what is fun. Some may need action and adventure to have a fun time. Some can't have fun unless they're in a group of friends or family. Others may view fun as a quiet evening at home enjoying a good book or a movie.

What was the last fun thing you did.

A hooter and some men

Gibbs says I can  now show you what I did on Monday.

First I attempted to make more of the owl tealight covers. At one point you have to remove the hoop from the machine and put a layer of felt on the back of the hoop so that it can stitch the two sides together. While I had the hoop out I trimmed some threads off and when I went to brush off some small pieces I knocked the whole thing out of the hoop. In order for it to stitch correctly it needed to be put back in the hoop in the EXACT same spot it was in. I got it pretty close  but it was off by just a smidge.

Instead of doing another owl I chose to do some snowmen. Same thing, at one point you need to remove the hoop from the machine and lay a piece of felt on the back of the hoop so it can stitch the two layers together. The back piece of felt folded over on me so in one spot it had a triple thickness. Then when I did the hats I put the back layer on too soon and stitched the bottom of the hat closed. All things that could be fixed but they annoyed me.

Here are the two options for the snowmen. One with the hat and one with the earmuffs. 

Lastly, after coming home from my disastrous haircut I decided I was going to make some sock snowmen. They turned out pretty cute.

I wish I would have had something different to use for a nose but the pins worked well enough. These are filled with rice and I only had enough to make 2. Now I need to put rice on the shopping list

If at first you don't succeed...

...ask the dog for help.

Since yesterday was my day off I thought I would do some crafting. The first thing I tried I ran into a snag. I quit that and tried another. Same thing. Snagged again. So then I thought forget the crafting and go get that haircut you've been wanting. Turned out to be the worst haircut I've had in a long time. I tried one more craft project that didn't turn out too bad but Gibbs thought it was best that I wait till tomorrow to show you any of those. Instead you get a before and after Gibbs picture.

He was giving me his guilty look because I had just scolded him for barking like a fool.

I changed the orientation from portrait to landscape, adjusted the lighting, sharpened the whole picture then did an orton effect. I erased parts then sharpened his eyes. I added a couple of textures and VOILA!!!

Tomorrow I'll be back with the craft projects

It occured to me....

That I haven't mentioned my progress in getting more healthy in quite some time. Since I have no pictures that actually relate to that I'll just show you a picture that I played around with last night.


As for the progress, I'm still working on it just a bit slower. I've got 3 more pounds to go to get to my goal and those last pounds are being stubborn.

The original picture

It could be because I'm not walking as much as I was. I'm still working on getting my steps in for the day just not as obsessively as I was. It doesn't help that the weather has changed. More rain and colder temperatures have me not wanting to get out and walk as much. 


The edit.(Should have left the black edges of of it.)

Any way, I'm sure I'll get to my goal eventually. I'm still watching what I eat and making more sensible choices.

Taking advantage

Yesterday I woke up to 34 degree weather. It was chilly but the sun came up big and beautiful and ready to shine. Since there won't be many more nice days left before winter hits I decided to take advantage of it.

I headed out while it was still cold and did my weekly shopping. When I got home it had warmed up enough that I could get out for a walk

I headed down the sidewalk and wherever there was leaves that's where I walked. I made as much noise as I could and enjoyed their rustling noise beneath my feet

In some spots there are more bare branches than there are leaves but there was still plenty of color to admire.

Some spots even looked pretty green still

The sights, the sounds and the scents of the day were heavenly 

What happened to taking pride in your work?

Maybe it's just me but when I do a job I want the quality of my work to say that I cared about what I was doing. It doesn't matter how important or menial the task is. I see everything I do as a reflection on me and the kind of person I am. I don't want my work to say I'm lazy or sloppy. I think that concept is lost on a lot of people these days.

In the deli/bakery area that I work in, I'm the first one in every morning. I walk in to a pig sty on a regular basis. It drives me crazy. One of the first things I'm hit with every morning is how filthy the floor is even though someone claimed to have mopped it. When I have the time I'll occasionally mop my half of the floor.

The other day I had the time so that's what I did. Then because I was so happy to see a clean floor I took a picture.

Believe it or not, the dirty half is how dirty it actually was when I first walked in in the morning. I would be totally embarrassed to say I did that.

Craft item number three.

This one is something that I copied from an item I purchased when we went to Christmas in the woods. You can see the one I bought HERE

And here is my version.

I bought small clothespins at Wal-mart that they sell in the scrapbooking supplies. I covered one side with some glittery sticky back foam strips. Then finished them off with a fabric yo yo and a button (or two) I liked the blues with the snowflake buttons but those were the last 4 buttons I had. I'll have to see if I can find some more of those. For those of you who are wondering just what you would use this for, my answer would be....anything you want.  You can clip them to the branches of your Christmas tree, use them to slip on to gift bags or maybe hold a treat bag closed. I'm sure there are other possibilities but those are just a few ideas.

Well now I'm out of new craft projects I guess I better get busy.

How rude.

Well that was just not nice of me at all to tell you the other day that I had 3 new craft items to show you and then disappear for a day. I was in a bit of a mood Tuesday night and didn't realize until I was at work Wednesday morning that I had never scheduled a post.

Without further ado I'll show you the next item.

This was also a screw up and after the picture I'll tell you what I did wrong on this one.

Technically he's perfectly fine the way he is but he wasn't done correctly. You're supposed to put a second layer of felt under the hoop before you stitch the outer circle. I was in a hurry and forgot so he's single layer instead of double. Not really end of the world. Since he's not done right I decided not to make the black top hat that goes with him. Instead I gave him some ear muffs and I think he'll be an ornament instead of a pin.

The nice thing about this embroidery file is that he comes with the option of stitching 4 faces at the same time so I can get more of him done in less time. The hats however have to be done one at a time.

It's a start

I know I've been doing a lot of whining lately about my missing mojo so today I'm going to change my tune just a bit and say I didn't do much but it's a start. I actually have 3 new things to show you but for the sake of having extra blog posts I'm only going to show them one at a time.

This is another project done on my embroidery machine. This cute little owl fits over a battery operated tealight.

Because I can't help pointing out my flaws I have to say this one is a screw up. Notice the stitching in the middle. The first row doesn't go all the way across to the other wing. That's because my needle came unthreaded and when I started it back up it didn't stitch the whole line it started where I left off. Also while making this little guy the needle fell out while it was stitching. Thankfully I was able to stop the machine quickly and get the needle back in before any damage was done.