Just a snippet, a tote and a kitten

 

This is a cute tote bag I made recently from a kit, Totes on Bolts. The pattern is by Penny Sturges. I really didn't know what I was buying when I got it. I just thought it was a pattern with the fabric included. It was really neat in that the panels of fabric included little dots and dashed to indicate where you should cut with scissors or a rotary cutter. It also included optional fabric choices which I thought was neat. I'm not going to say it was easy because I found myself not too good at following the instructions. In hindsight though, it was spelled out clearly. I just wasn't used to following instructions. I'm glad I did because I love the bag. It has about 8 pockets on the inside that I customized to fit my phone, security key for work, and other items I love to carry with me.

 

Someone else likes my tote because Little Bella discovered it was cozy for a nap. I laughed when I went to put my phone in my bag and found her nesting. I made a lot of pictures of her before she decided to get up because of me. I just had to share this and I hope it makes you smile.

Little Belle has been with us about five months now and we're crazy about her. She is polydactyle and acts more like a dog sometimes than a cat. She finds things and hides them under a rug to bring out later for playing with. Funny kitty. 

Thanks so much for stopping by and I hope you have a great weekend. It's just beautiful here in Alabama and I'm planning on painting a ceramic Holly Christmas tree today.

Happy crafting!

Debbie

First Baby Quilt

 This is my first baby quilt made for Sophia, my first great-grandbaby. She is due Oct. 12 and I hope and pray she makes a safe arrival into the world.
The front of the quilt is made with a cream colored flannel, with flannel for the tree trunk and the monkey. The butterfly and palm fronds are made from scrap fabric I had on hand. The monkey does have ears that flopped over after I washed the quilt. I think I'm going to tack them down.

 The monkey is from Simplicity pattern #2428. The tree was my own design. I cut the butterfly using my Cricut Expression using the Storybook cartridge.

 The backing fabric is Urban Zoologie by Robert Kaufman. I purchased it on Ebay from  nauvooquiltcompany. 
She was a terrific seller and I love the soft fabric.

I don't know if you can see my "leaf shape" quilting but I wanted to do something unique and I'm fairly happy with it. What I don't like if how the flannel got all nubby when I washed it. I washed it alone and it already looks old. I hope it will look okay after more washings.

I hope you like my first baby quilt. I did finally understand how to make my mitered corners. It took me to about the third corner, but it finally clicked as to what to do.
Let me know what you think of my first baby quilt.


Have a great day and thanks so much for stopping by!

Debbie

Reason for no blog posts

 

If you don't want to read about a kitten you may want to skip this 'wordy' post.

In the first picture you'll see Little Bella. She was a tiny 4-week-old stray kitten who took up hiding in our car motors the first of July. This is after we took to the vet for a check-up and treatments for various problems. We tried to give her to an animal shelter but they wouldn't take her due to the large volume of kittens/cats/dogs received after the April tornado's came through our area. 

She fell asleep in my hands on the way back home and my husband and I decided to keep her and we are so glad we did. It's been an exciting journey to say the least. She was so frightened of every sound and of us. I think she loved our big cat, Mr. Whiskers, and clung to him, much to his dismay.

She was pretty sick and had a reaction to one of her shots and I thought she wouldn't make it, but she did as she is tough and strong. She's not scared of us anymore and is so much fun to watch everyday.

 In the second picture you can see she has been well loved and taken care of. She's so full of energy! She has grown like a fertilized weed and has taken to tearing down wallpaper in our bedroom. Geeze... I need to repaint it any way. She finally made it into this crock and she is just about too big for it but she is a determined kitty so she succeeded.
She went from weighing less than one pound in the beginning of July and weighed about 5-1/2 pounds at the beginning of September. She has six toes on each front paw and an extra claw on the side of one back leg. The extra claw doesn't touch the ground and doesn't seem to be hooked to a muscle. The vet said just to leave it if it didn't get hooked onto anything.
The front paws are a different story. Whew! Who knew that paws that look like little baseball gloves could do so much work. She uses her paws like hands and will stand up like a monkey and pick something up she is after. Very strong feet I must say.

In the last picture you'll see the kitties taking a nap together after a bathing session. They were so cute I had to grab my camera. They play together a lot until Mr. Whiskers (the big cat) gets tired of Little Bella and shoves her away.
What's this got to do with blogging? Well.... it may sound crazy to you but I didn't want to leave Little Bella alone when I got home from work to go outside to my Strawberry Studio that's in my backyard. I felt like I needed to spend time with her so we could 'bond". She was so frightened and sick and little I just couldn't leave her. I also didn't want to take her into my studio which would have been a whole new place for her to get used to. Silly  huh? I couldn't help myself. I fell in love with this kitty and she needed a lot of love and attention.
She's used to us now and follows us everywhere we go. To the bathroom, to make the bed, to do laundry to the ice dispenser on the fridge. She even comes running when we clean out the litter box. She must approve what we do and makes sure to 'mark' her spot when we get it clean. We should have named her "Tazmo" because she has been a Tasmanian devil of the wild kind. We enjoy her though and my husband and I call the furry friends "the children" now.
Little Bella will have an extended stay at the Vet's office this week as she is getting spayed. She won't be too pleased with that I'm sure and I'm worried she will think we abandoned her. We are sending a toy and her tuna treats with her, hopefully to remind her of her home.
Okay... now you know why I stayed away from my Strawberry Studio.
If you made it this far I hope you enjoyed my little Snippet of what I've been up to.
Thanks so much for stopping by. I really appreciate the time everyone takes to visit my little lazy blog.

Have a great day!
Debbie

Conversation Blocks

I made these cute blocks a couple of months ago. I used Stampin'Up Newsprint DSP and the Broadsheet alphabet stamps. Love-love-love them so much. The wooden blocks were made by my Uncle David many years ago. I painted the blocks black and then cut the squares using my paper cutter. I used a varnish on each side after I finished adding all my stamped letters.
I started out with 14 blocks and had to figure out the words I wanted to spell out and any other holiday sayings I wanted to spell also. Then I stamped multiple letters and added the letters to different sides. That part took forever I must say.
It was an interesting project. I felt like I was creating a puzzle of sorts to try and come up with a lot of words. It's cute and I am able to spell Stampin'Up! and bzstampr to name a few.

I hope you like my block project. I think about my uncle, and the many talents he shared before he passed away, every time I look at them.

Well... it looks like we have a storm popping up. I better get off the 'ol computer and maybe read. Whoops... I hear thunder. geeze... better git!

Thanks again for taking the time to visit with me today.

Take care,
Debbie

Mug rugs

This was my first attempt at making mug rugs. I took the quick way and didn't use traditional quilt binding. I used fusible fleece on the front and sewed right sides together and left an opening so I could turn it out. Then, I top stitched around outer edges and did a wonky stitch vertically and horizontally for my quilting. I cut the yellow stars on my Cricut Expression. I had to put Heat N Bond on the wrong side before I could cut them out. After fusing the star to the front piece of the mug rug, I zigzag stitched around it.
It was a quick project. They measure about 8"x10". I can't wait to make more because it was easy and fun. I even washed them to see how they would hold up. I wanted them to get "wrinkly" like an old quilt but they came out rather smooth.

I hope you like them.

Thanks again for taking the time to visit my blog.

Debbie

Coffee bean bag pillow

I'm still here....
I was afraid Blogger wasn't going to let me post something. It was giving me error messages. hum... what's up with that? Can't a lazy blogger be 'lazy'?

Look at this giant pillow. It has a 24"x24" pillow form inside. The front is an actual burlap coffee bag with the graphics on front. How cool is that? I thought it would be hard to sew but it wasn't as bad as a fuzzy shirt I made for my granddaughter one time. The back of the pillow is made from canvas. I bought a 6'x9' painter's canvas for about $10 and it's strong and I see a bunch of tote bags in its future.

The coffee bean bag was so smelly when I received it that I had to leave it outside for a week. Then I had to wash it with water and leave it outside a couple more days. That did it and it smelled like sunshine.

I had read some horror stories online about sewing the burlap but I had no trouble at all. I cut the burlap pieces with pinking shears and that was a little tough but not too bad. It really went together in less than an hour.

I like it ... how 'bout you?

Thanks so much for stopping by. I'll have more projects to post in just a little bit.

Have a great day!

Debbie

My Stampin'UP! stamping blitz

This is the result of my latest stamping blitz. I used only SU! products. My main focus was on using the Sew Suite stamp set (#122009 clear) and the Sweet Stitches DSP (#121781) from the Occasions Mini. I used my technique that I discovered a couple of months ago where I just start with about a dozen card bases and start adding paper. Then I decide what I want to add with stamped images and punched shapes. I did this blitz over the course of a few days. I'm thinking it's faster than what I used to do. We'll see my next blitz with another beautiful stamp set from the Occasions Mini catalog.
I hope you don't mind a bunch of pictures so here goes....

Well.. there you have it. They're not fancy but they were quick and easy.

I hope you enjoyed the blitz. Let me know if you have any questions about any of my cards.

Thanks so much for stopping by today. I really appreciate it when you leave comments too.


Happy stampin',

Debbie

Hot Apron

 

I made this apron Saturday for a dear friend. It has red with white pin dots fabric for the pockets and ties. The sides of the apron curve around to the back. I fussy cut some of the peppers out of the background fabric and appliqued them onto the pockets for a little different touch. Red bias tape goes along all the outside edges of the apron.

I used my iPhone 4 to make the picture so it's not as good as what my Canon camera could do. I just wanted to share something with you today.

Hope you like it and I so appreciate you stopping by today.

Debbie

My little helper

Our fur baby, Mr. Whiskers, loves to come into the Strawberry Studio if he knows I'm in there. He just checks things out then wants back outside.
He showed up at our doorstep about 1-1/2 years ago. We took him to the vet and had him fixed and got all the shots he needed and he's just the best pet. My husband wasn't too crazy about cats before Mr. Whiskers came along, but he loves this little fellow and Mr. Whiskers loves my husband. He chooses to sit with him most all the time and just sits with me if hubby isn't home. How funny!

I was going to share a bunch of cards with you today but my pictures are still in my camera. So... I'll share those pictures tomorrow hopefully.

Thanks so much for stopping by!

Debbie

Just Blown Away

I'm just blown away on a Saturday morning. Just checking my emails and discovered I received a sweet award from Belinda Keller.  This is my first award ever. I've seen awards on other blogs but I've never had one. Didn't know what you had to do to get one either. She's such a sweetie to pass this award along to me. I'm very flattered to say the least.

Thanks so much Belinda. Visit her blog today and say hi.

When you receive this award you are to pay it forward and follow these rules:

1) thank the person who gave this award to me and link it back to their blog

2) share 8 things about myself

3) pass this award to 8 other individuals that I have recently discovered

4) leave a comment so that they can pass along the recognition!

So lets see 8 things about me........

1. Well.. tomorrow (Feb. 20) is my birthday. I get to do a lot of celebrating too. It started a week ago when my sweet hubby bought me an iPhone 4. It's my first smart phone and I'm loving it so far. 
2. I love gadgets and gizmos. (Such as the iPhone) but I love my Cricut; sewing machine; AccuQuilt Go; Big Shot die cutter; Bind-it-all; Martha Stewart score board; hundreds of markers; tons of paper; and a few thousand rubber stamps. I also love organizing cubes, boxes, crates and anything that might help me to be more organized.
3. I recently rejoined Stampin'UP! for the third time. The first time was in 1997 and was with them for a number of years. They really do have the best products around.
4. I was a sign-painter for about 18 years. I painted signs after working full time and would sometimes put the sign in front of a gas heater to get it to dry faster so I could paint the other side. Geeze... How did I ever live through that?
5. I'm still living my dream of my new craft house "Strawberry Studio" that we built in the summer of 2009. I pinch myself  everyday because it is truly a dream-come-true. I noticed yesterday when I walked in it still smelled like a newly built house. It is full of recycled/re-purposed items that didn't cost a lot of money.
6. I started sewing when I was about 10-years-old. Sewed through a finger back then and learned fast not to do that again. Made a lot of my clothes in those days because I was skinny as a stick and a straight-shirt dress was in style.
7. I started painting and drawing when I was big enough to hold a pencil. In  the first grade my teacher popped my hand with a ruler because I was drawing instead of listening. Oops... She just didn't know I needed the practice.
8. My husband and I took in a stray cat about a year and a half ago. He was nearly a year old then and we love him to pieces. His name is Mr. Whiskers and he is very spoiled. This may not seem like anything special, but my husband hated cats and we both just never wanted pets because we worked so much. Now I just work part-time (after eight years of a one-hour commute one way) I retired from that job.

PHEW! I hope that wasn't  TMI! (Too Much  Information)
My turn to 'Pay it forward' goes to some of my favorite places to visit. You will too like them too. They are in no particular order as they are all wonderful.

1. Jo Wilson
2. Diana Gibbs
3. Lynn Pratt
4. Trena Brannon
5. Denise Hill
6. Melanie
7. Mary Fish
8. Gretchen  Barron

Thanks again Belinda for including me in your choices for the Stylish Blogger Award.

Have a happy Saturday everyone and thanks for taking the time to visit my blog.

Debbie

Diabetes donation purse

This is a beautiful paper purse (all Stampin'UP!) that I made a couple of months ago. I found the tutorial from the VERY talented Lynn Pratt blog www.stampndesign.blogspot.com. Her sweet baby girl, Ashley, is five and was diagnosed with type I diabetes last year. With a donation to the American Diabetes Association in Ashley's name you'll get the tutorial from Lynn for making this purse.
The directions were very easy to follow as she walks you through step-by-step with plenty of step-out photos of how your purse should look along the way. She also gives you tips to make the process easy.
Visit Lynn's blog. You won't be disappointed.
Don't ask me how I got the ribbon handles to stand up on my purse. It just worked out for my photo shoot and I was tickled it worked after a few tries.

Thanks again for stopping by my blog.

Happiness always blooms in the Strawberry Studio.

Debbie

Card making blitz

I'm sure you thought I had disappeared but I'm here and I've been busy all along making cards like crazy. I just forget to make pictures of them and I'm a lazy blogger.

The above picture is a shot of my desk with the 17 cards I made in just a couple of days. The paper, ribbon and buttons are from Taylored Expressions key ingredients kit from June 2010. I love her kits and Taylor promotes that you can make about 16 cards from each kit. I've been wanting to put myself to that challenge and see if I could come up with 16 different ideas. geeze.. I'm lucky when I can come up with one idea most of the time.


I usually sit down to make one card for a particular person. I take forever to choose a stamp set, then paper and whatever else I may want to use. By the time I've got all this stuff gathered up it's time to cook supper. I tend to get on my own nerves because it takes me forever to make ONE card.

I tried something different this time. It's an idea I've been wondering if I could do it. It's really simple too. Geeze... why didn't I think of this sooner. (I'm sure all you stampers know this idea already but I've not read about anyone stamping this way.)

Okay... this is what I did for this card making blitz. I folded all the card bases to 5-1/4 x 4-1/2 or 4-1/2 x 5-1/4. I decided to not over-think my card design and I just started cutting layers, applying trim and worrying about the sentiment after I finished most of my cards. Then I stepped back and looked at the card to see what I wanted it to have for a sentiment and/or a stamped image. I just didn't over think it. I felt like I was doing something backwards from how I usually go about making my cards. It worked for me this time and I plan on trying it again. I did spend a good bit of time in my Strawberry Studio but that's what I love to do anyway. Now I was just more productive than usual.

I don't know if you can tell by the picture but I think the cards turned out okay. I used one item cut from my Cricut Expression and only had to add a little bit of Whisper White and Very Vanilla cardstock from Stampin' UP!

I didn't make individual pictures because I thought you'd get tired of looking at them. If there's something here that interests you just let me know and I can make another picture.

Sorry about the long post...  hope I didn't put you to sleep. Then again, if it's late at night that may be a good thing.

Take care and thanks so much for taking the time to stop by my blog. I hope to improve on my blogging this year so hang in there with me.

Happiness always blooms in the Strawberry Studio!

Debbie