Friday, December 31, 2010

It's always fun to get fabric in the mail

I have this obsession with Munki Munki fabric from Heather Ross.  I've been hoarding it in my stash for years.  But I ordered some scraps off Etsy for some munki prints that you can't find in whole yardage.  They arrived yesterday and I've been petting them.  My plan is mug rugs for myself and then mug rugs and applique baby clothes for Quilty Bits.

And just for fun, here is my sweet Molly B who learned to clap today.  It's just gonna be her, mommy, and daddy tonight for the New Year. We're gonna have a huge party with chocolate chip cookies and Arbor Mist Raspberry Sparkle .  Is it me or does "Raspberry Sparkle" sound like something a drunk stage mom covered in Tammy Faye-esque makeup would say as she pushed her kid out onto the stage?

My other babies are staying with their dad until tomorrow.  Em is getting herself a Felicity doll at the American Girl Store today with her dad.  She claims it's the ONLY American girl that looks just like her, and they are putting Felicity in the dungeon or something after this season and you will never be able to buy her AGAIN!  :) 
 
Happy New Year!!

Thursday, December 30, 2010

The Weepies

I love The Weepies and I was shopping for music on iTunes and just realized they had a new album this year. Such happy songs! I can't pick a favorite, so I put three up here so I can find them later. They make me think of how I feel about my hubby. Sometimes I have to catch my breath and think how lucky I was he found me.

When You Go Away

Be My Thrill

Be My Honeypie

Quilty Bits

I mentioned yesterday that my mom and I are going to do craft fairs and whatnot together. We decided to create a blog and an Etsy store too....known as Quilty Bits.We just set it all up this morning and haven't personalized anything yet.  The Quilty Bits name will point you directly to the Etsy store sometime today, I think. 

I got the idea at 4 am this morning for Quilty Bits and was very surprised the names had not been taken yet.  We had come up with another name but wanted it to be something more than just quilting.  My mom informed me that she is the "quilting" and I'm the "bits."  Whatever mama, lol. And it will be a family affair with my husband in on it too making some amazing earrings I can't wait to show off.

I told my husband I'm going to make him wear a t-shirt to all the craft fairs that says "Check Out My Quilty Bits." :D

Christmas and other stuff

The kids are with the ex for the week visiting his family.  They have recently announced they see huge positives in having divorced parents -- the fact that Santa visits two houses.  [Insert huge eye roll from me] Just lovely.  My children.  Always seeing the glass half full. 

I miss them terribly, but the baby has a horrible bout of bronchitis (as does my poor hubby who stayed home today).  So I'm glad they are off having fun and not stuck with mama and the sick baby.  The pediatrician has her on round the clock dosing of Benadryl, so I have certainly caught up on my lack of sleep.   

For Christmas my wonderfully sweet hubby gave me this lovely Vera Bradley bag.  It's huge and has a zipper, which is what you need in a purse/diaper bag all in one.  I love it!  It holds everything including cloth diapers and a sling all in one, and I can zip it closed so it doesn't dump everything the minute I set it down and it falls over. 
He also got me a very nice hard wallet that looks like this one pictured, but it doesn't have that strap.  With the amount of cards I have to carry from insurance cards to business cards and everything else for the kids, I need a HUGE wallet, lol.  This one seems to be doing the trick.

My quilting mama wants to do craft fairs and I'm going to do them with her.  She wants us to make mug rug sets and include mugs with them.  Well...I found the deal of the day at Walmart.  They are getting rid of Christmas stuff and they have a package of 1 dozen porcelain mugs with golden rims for $2.40.  I bought the last 2 boxes they had and was very proud of my 20 cents/mug deal.  They even have a lot of toys 50% off, if you need anything. Since it was just the 3 of us, hubby, the baby and I played in the toys and Xmas stuff at Walmart last night for about an hour.

Since I've had a sick baby who is only interested in nursing 24 hours a day, I've been reading and watching movies.  I rented Devil on Dish last night.  I love M. Night Shyamalan movies because they are so Hitchcockian and this one I enjoyed to the last minute.  Though, I have a very analytical mind and constantly try to guess the ending of everything.  It's like some weird OCD thing which I think stems from my reading way too many books.  

In the beginning of the movie after I got a look at all 5 characters, I guessed correctly who the devil was but began doubting myself until the very end.  The story involves 5 strangers in an elevator and as events unfold, the story reveals that one of them is the Devil and will end up killing them all before stealing them away to hell.  With five people in a tiny room, you are still guessing until the very end who did it. And apparently, I just read, this is the first chapter in a series called The Night Chronicles. 

Thursday, December 23, 2010

Mug Rugs

We have not had a lot of moolah since I quit my job to stay home with the baby.  I've made it work by living very frugally, but we're having a homemade Christmas this year.  My mom is a quilter and asked for me to make mug rugs for her and my dad.  I had no idea what they were, but apparently it's a cool new fad, and I have to say they are so much fun!  So here are my mom's and dad's mug rugs. They're like mini quilts.  I followed no rules with these things, I just made them how I saw fit.  I read a few things on some blogs that said don't make them bigger than 5 x 8, so that's what I aimed for.  I think my mom's might be a tiny bit bigger, but oh well.

My dad is an aerospace engineer, he writes the software for some missiles.  He's kind of like a rocket scientist, lol.  So I tried to think of something sorta manly and related to what he loves, so this is what I came up with.  These fabrics were in my stash and are probably 7 or 8 years old, but they were perfect. I love how the sun came out.  Well, I love how the whole thing came out. I found this batik that I thought was perfect for the starry sky, then I appliqued the sun and the rocket ship.  My hubby really liked it, so hopefully my dad will too. 

Here is my mom's mug rug.  This is  a set of fabrics I got from her.  It actually came from leftovers from a quilt she made my daughter.  I tried to make it rather whimsy with weird-sized strips.  I hope she likes it.  I don't like it as much as my dad's, but I'm probably just too critical on myself, lol. 

I'm including a mug in each of their gifts to go with their mug rug.

And the weird tutorial I was going to have is this waldorf doll hat.  I've made these before for swaps, but this time it just seemed kinda creepy -- a doll head on my baby's head just didn't seem..um normal. I  don't know why.  I need to write it up, but for now, here is a creepy picture of the finished product.  My baby refuses to keep it on her head long enough for even a picture. 





Who doesn't love a good alien invasion?

Oh my wow, after reading these two novels by Scott Sigler, I swear every time I have so much as a mosquito bite or a zit, I get a little creeped out and wonder if it's really just an innocent skin problem. I recently finished the second novel in this two part series about alien invasion.  It's one part sci-fi and one part horror. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The first novel, Infected starts off with people getting these weird blue triangles on their bodies that screw with your mind and make you afraid of authority and then kill your whole damn family in the most violent way ever.  One guy cuts his legs off with a hatchet.  If you somehow make it past the initial crazy phase, you end up like Perry Dawsey, where the blue triangles turn into EYES!!  If I recall, because it's been awhile since I read book #1, I think he has 7 of them, on his back, neck, arms, and, my favorite, his penis.  Not only are they eyes, but they communicate telepathically with you to get to other people with the blue triangles and to get to this place out in the middle of nowhere to build something spectacular to create a wormhole of sorts to bring the aliens here.  After finding another infected person in his apartment building, he figures out that the "eyes" will hatch out of you and become hatchlings.  There is also CDC and FBI people trying to contain this outbreak of sorts before it becomes public.  It's a fast paced thrilled that you don't want to put down.

Part 2 of this horror story is Contagious.  It continues the story after the military has stopped the first wormhole from opening.  They have now recruited Perry Dawsey because he can "hear" the communication between the hatchlings and something else to figure out where more of these gates are being built by these hatchlings.  In this book, I enjoyed that it gave some back story into the how to of the blue triangles and hatchlings, etc.  Basically, there is a very complex satellite, of sorts, that is creating these spores to infect people, but it's smart and can try other methods to be successful.  So...since the infection of people with hatchlings isn't working out too well and Dawsey can "hear" them and figure out where the gates are being built, this satellite thing changes things up and decides to create soldiers to protect the hatchlings.  In doing so, it creates a "general" out of a 6 year old girl to control all the hatchlings and soldiers.  The satellite communicates with her convincing her the aliens are angels to be loved...until she becomes a bit too big for her britches and tells the satellite to take a flying leap. 

While I loved the flow of the novel, this was my one bone to pick.  Maybe it's because I have a 6 year old myself, and he happens to not be a sociopath, but I found Chelsea, the 6 year old sociopathic general of the "army of apocalypse" to be somewhat unbelievable.  She had no concept of right or wrong.  Now I could see how a 3 or 4 year old child could be like that, but a 6 year old? We're talking 1st graders.  My 6 year old is probably too honest, but children his age know right and wrong and understand you don't torture people into submission.  I just find it hard to believe this girl was turned into an alien soldier and suddenly lost all concepts of right and wrong.  She still could crave ice cream and McDonalds, but beating her mother or killing a 9 year old were concepts she thought were fine and dandy.

Other than this one issue, it's a great story.  It switches back and forth between the satellite's plans, the FBI/CDC chasing the "infection," and the Chelsea army of crazies.  If you love sci fi and thrillers, this is a great two part series to read.  It will scare the crap out of you.  Like I said, I've found myself checking out bumps I find on my body a little more closely lately.

Monday, December 20, 2010

I hate exes...venting

I consider this blog like a diary of sorts...so this is one of my annoying venting blogposts...feel free to move along and avoid it.  And...I'll be adding a creepy tutorial in the next day or so. 

Hubby's ex got some mail here on Friday...and no she has never lived here, we moved here 6 months ago.  It was a collection notice for her freaking macy's visa card.  Hubby and I have a little freak out when he comes home from work and he calls her to see why this is being sent to us.  Well...then...the proverbial sh*t hits the fan.  She doesn't know why it came here but then throws the "oh by the way...I'm filing bankruptcy" line at him.  What in the holy hell is this?!?  Her name is still on hubby's car loan, we were paying it off next month with the tax return and figured who needs to refinance to get her off it when it's going to be gone so fast?  Apparently we thought wrong.  And to make matters worse, hubby's divorce attorney way back when thought it was best if we gave her til April 2011 to get his name off the mortgage.  Is it April 2011 yet?  Um...that would be a nope...so hubby is still on the freakin' mortgage.  Let's just say as I'm listening to hubby's end of the convo as he says "you're what? you're filing bankruptcy?" my stomach fell onto the floor and expletives start running out of my mouth.  She thought it was (and I quote from her fit of rage) "none of [his] f*cking business."  First of all, how is this NOT his business? His name is on the damn loans, you moron.  She "claims" she had no idea how to get ahold of him, yet was quite capable of emailing him just a couple months ago and has spoken to his mother just a couple weeks ago in public. 

I was quite proud of hubby.  He was so calm and even cordial the entire time while I could hear her screaming and yelling at him. 

So tomorrow hubby is meeting with a lawyer at his office to see how badly this can damage his financial career.  And I won't even terrorize you with the crap my ex is doing.  I swear that man cannot NOT lie to me -- ever.  It truly amazes me.  I have to wonder if he is really cunning or an inept idiot.  I'm thinking the latter.  I swear the two of them really should meet, it's like a match made in hell or something.  A liar and a cheater who both spend money like water.

Monday, December 13, 2010

A Baby Turkey Hat


In the spirit of baby hats, I was looking for an idea I had to see if anyone else had attempted.  However, I discovered this one in the process and had to share.  I wish I had found this before Thanksgiving, but alas, it's good for Christmas too, right?  It's from a blog called goingcrafty.com.  Is it not the cutest?  She has the pattern available for PDF download too.  I love it!!

And in looking at her blog, I noticed this interesting patch of a squirrel on fire, which was from This American Life in relation to a story on TAL.  So I had to go check it out.  I'm currently listening to the story as I type this.  If you want to listen, here is the direct link.  

Off to construct my baby hat for a tutorial.  Keep your fingers crossed...baby is sleeping in her crib and I go sew.  You have no idea what a feat this is for any of my children.  We are usually co-sleepers and a lot of times she sleeps attached at the boob in the recliner, but I've been gradually getting her to the crib because she HATES sleeping next to me in the bed.  I think she's a very light sleeper and daddy and mommy bother her too much.  So far, we are up to 4 hours alone in the crib next to the bed.  My secret is an electric blanket to warm up her crib before I put her in it.  It seems to work like a charm. 

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Yippee! Done with school

I'm officially done with school for the semester.  I am fairly certain I got As in both classes.  Now I have time to sew for an entire month (bearing the baby let's me).  I should have a new hat tutorial in the next couple days.  Baby, it's cold outside here, so Mollyball is getting some new hats.  And hopefully a fairy-eared waldorf doll for Xmas. 

Saturday, December 11, 2010

This is ridiculous...

I somehow escaped going to a Southern Baptist high school with my brain still intact.  It wasn't but just 2 or 3 years after that, that I finally admitted to the world my atheistic views.  My old high school/church is in the news again for coming up with this brilliant idea.  Grinch Alert  Can you imagine?  How terrible and un-American of people to say "Happy Holidays" instead of "Merry Christmas" to exclude the other religions at this time of year.  How stupid of them to think other religions have holidays at this time of year too. 

P.S.  I wrote this post yesterday and forgot to post it and then last night we were accosted by a baptist church youth group at this delicious Chinese restaurant where we had dinner, literally tossing tracts on our table.  I dared my husband to inform them we were a table full of freethinkers/atheists, but he didn't want to scare them.  Instead he asked if jesus was REALLY the reason for the season.  They proudly proclaimed yes.  And this is my biggest problem with this religious cult -- they don't know their own religious history. 

Thursday, December 09, 2010

Another year of....Elf Yourself!

I find this hilarious every year to torture my children and turn them into the Elf Yourself crew at OfficeMax.  It's my favorite part of the holidays.  Torture your kids too here.

Sunday, December 05, 2010

Christmas Pattern Sale - $5 Bucks!!


We're having a Christmas Sewing Pattern Sale!! Lowest prices of the season!! All my patterns will be $5.00 this month and if you purchase the patterns together there is an even bigger discount.  This includes the ever popular Diva Mommy Tote, the TipToe Fairy Tote, and the Inside Out Bag.  The sale price will show up in the shopping cart. 

Here is a link the patterns: Sewing Pattern Sale!

Check out these adorable stockings from vintage sewing pattern paper.  I was at the library today reading through Country Living, and they had this adorable idea.  I just love it!  You sew them to clear vinyl and make stockings.  I'm always looking for a way to incorporate sewing in my home. I found the link online for the directions ~ here

I'm finishing up my semester of classes this week so I'll be back with more tutorials next week.  Sew on!