Weekend Wrap up

Why do weekends go by so fast ?? Jason was watching Tommy so the house was mine all weekend !!!
Friday - I enjoyed some Chinese for dinner - cashew chicken and orange chicken - my usual
Saturday - went to the 1154 Lill sample sale http://www.1154lill.com/ - It was kinda crazy, ladies hoarding bags in the corners, but I managed to buy myself two bags and a make up bag (which I didn;t need any of them). I also got 8 Christmas gifts. The weather was kinda cool and started to rain on my way home. I did a major no no and got pulled over by the EP cops (turned left on a no turn left) and was lucky that the cop only gave me a warning - I WAS SO LUCKY. I kept saying that all day and thanking the police gods for not giving me a ticket. Then I did some great thrift shopping - I got two cool wool coats (1 was 4 bucks), 2 pairs of pants, 2 sweaters, a sweatshirt, some crafts items to upscale, some material (bed skirt, sheet, shower curtain) to also make something with) all for 42 bucks. Since it was a nice cool day, I stopped to get the fixings to make chili - YUMMY - I rented a few movies.
Sunday - got up to early because of the dogs breaking into my room, watched a movie (Back up Plan - dumb), putzed around my house and did some random chores, watched the BEARS win - DA Bears. And the weekend comes to a close. At least tomorrow I am heading to Columbus, Ohio for a work conference on Tuesday - so it will be a nice short work week.

Random Thoughts

So today here are some random thoughts from my day

1 - Mondays mean work - blah
2 - I love fall weather
3 - freshman kids taking the train in the morning are kinda loud
3 - Guys should not wear skinny jeans at any age
4 - I am happy I took a walk at lunch
5 - I should move downtown to enjoy the lakefront
6 - need to win the lottery to complete number 5
5 - I spend too much time in meetings at work
6 - I love when I see 4:30 on the clock
7 - I wish I could cook (or even better have a cook to cook for me)
8 - my doggies are so happy to see me when I get home
9 - Why isn't ice cream a food group
10 - My thoughts are way to random :)

Remembering 9/11

It still amazws me that this even happened. I remember being at work and someone came over and said there was a huge accident in NY. A bunch of us decided to head up to the health club where there was tv's to see what was happening. We stood there frozen watching things unfold. Since our building was blocks away from Sears Tower, we started to get concerned there were going to be these terriorist attacks in differetn cities, so we all went home to be safe. I hope that we as Americans never forget those that fight for our freedom everyday, those that were lost becuase of this fight, those whose lives have been turn up side down because of these fights. God bless NY and every American. I wanted to create something to reflect on something patriotic. I used the back side of an old readers digest book and turned it into a nice flag. (I will use the front side with the pattern for another project)

Then I used scraps of muslin and hand stiched some stars with embroidery floss. I found some white and red striped ribbon, but wanted it to look a little vintage so I used some Tim Holtz Distress ink, walnut, to darken the ribbon. I distress the edges of the ribbon with scissors and glued down the strips. I added Tom Holtz's washers to each ribbon to give it a military look. I used my cropadile (love this tool) to punch to small holes and feed some rusted wire through to make the hanger.


God Bless America

A Dog's Life

Here is one of my dogs totally chilling out on the couch - what a life he has !!! I always laugh when I see him sleeping this way and he does it quit often. My sweet Ozzie (or... Ozwald, Oswald Cobblepot, Oz man, Ozzie boy, little dog, sweet boy, the king - It's a wonder he knows his real name with all his nicknames)


Or this goof ball - always using my furniture as a jungle gym. This is Tank (or Tanky boy, big dog, beast) he doesn't listen in general regardless of his many nicknames :)but isn't he handsome !!!

Labor Day Weekend

Happy Labor Day weekend - wish it was longer !!.
Had a great weekend camping in Indiana with family. The weather was beautiful for camping - each night and even during the day we had a fire which I so enjoy. We did some random shopping at an Antique store and I found a really cool window for 12 bucks - (I was lucky my sister was OK with dragging it home in her car :)a vintage pearl small clutch purse and some jewelry pieces. We went to a couple of thrift stores and found some treasures. This is the second time I went camping this summer and it brought back some fun memories - camp fires, smores, coolers, sounds of nature, wind in the trees, no TV and no laptop - it was nice to decompress for the weekend and enjoy the outdoors. I was able to spend time reading which was very calming. Here is a quick picture of me reading at a fire in the morning. Very peaceful.



I didn't eat all that healthy and only walked one day - but no regrets. I also did some crafts - I made another knock off necklace from Anthropology and a created my first vintage combination necklace.




I love the look of these. I still might add some more to the vintage one.
I sure did smell when I got home - good old fashion outdoor smoke/fire and fun. Looking forward to the next time (I did miss my doggies and Jason)

Anthro redo

I have been stalking a lot of blogs lately and came across one that is making knock offs of Anthropolgie necklaces. I saw this one and thought I can do that - So here is the orginal post and a picture of mine. I need to make some more of these. I am thinking Christmas gifts.

http://www.flamingotoes.com/2010/08/anthro-necklace-day-2/

Vintage linen pillow

I have been collecting vintage linens for awhile. They are so pretty and unique. So I finally got around to using some of them. For this project I used a 14" x 14" pillow form, new white & yellow cotton ruffle trim, a piece of soft yellow bedspread, a striped pale blue sheet and an embroidered finger towel.


I loved the embroidery on this towel. I cut it to size to use as a front panel. I stitched it to a piece of the blue striped sheet.


Then I pinned the ruffle trim between the blue striped piece and the yellow bedspread piece. Putting right sides against each other. I stitched around 3 1/2 sides of the pillow, turned it inside out and stuffed the pillow through the opening. (next time I am making this a pillow case so it is easier to get the pillow form in and out of - duh to me) I then hand stitched the rest. I just love how it turned out. If my bedroom were these colors I would keep it for myself, but I am put it in my Etsy shop or sell at the next craft fair.

Flower Power

I love today's weather - a nice cool breeze on an normally hot August day. One day closer to the weekend - yeah !

I have finally made some flowers that I have seen a lot of lately. The five cream flowers are made from an ivory chiffon. I just roughly cut circle shapes out randomly. Then I lightly held the fabric circle by a candle flame to heat the edges to singe them. Sometimes getting to close for my own fingers. Maybe next time I will try using my long handled tweezers to hold it. Then I just stacked the layers and sewed 3 simple beads in the center. Not sure what I will use these for yet, but you can now find them on headbands, pins, hair pins, clothing, purses. The other two flowers I die cut fabric scrapes and linen with my sizzix flower petals die - it cut really well. Then I pinched some of the smaller petals and hot glued them in the centers. Then I glued four of those onto the next size petal and so on. I continued layering the petals. I really love how these turned out.

On my Walk

So I took an hour plus walk at lunch yesterday and this is some pictures I took. I really tried to take in the sights that I normally just take for granted. It was a beautiful walk. I need to do this more often. The Chicago lakefront, flowers by Buckingham Fountain and Buckingham Fountain. So I email Jason (my oldest son) the picture of me by Buckingham fountain and ask him to guess where I was walking during lunch - He emails back and asks if that was a retirement home !! Oh I that kid makes me laugh !!!

A Cold Candle?

I got this idea from a magazine and for the life of me I can't remember which one - (I am admitting an addiction to all magazines related to creating - guilty pleasure) SO easy to make. I bought a thrifted sweater and cut the sleeve to fit around a glass candle holder. Tucked the edge slightly under the bottom and glue it with modge podge. Let it dry completely and cut a piece of self adhesive cork for the bottom to make sure it was a nice smooth surface. It needed something extra and I already had the ribbon flower pin made just waiting to be used on something. The ribbon flower was also easy to make. Just use a piece of wired ribbon - pull the ribbon along one side of the wire, turning as you go and forming it how you like. It is easy to manipulate. Then I glued a felt circle to the back and secured a pin back. I glued some scrap bead trim and there you nave it. So this is a dual purpose creation - beautiful candle holder that will provide a soft glow when lit and a bonus flower ribbon pin - So cute and fun to make. I already have some other ones in the works. Just think of the possibilities.