Little Bag 'O Beads

As previously blogged about...I went to a little bead/thrift shop in Angel Fire and picked up a little bag of beads. Here is a quick snapshot of all the beads I was able to stuff into my little 2-inch bag. 

May or may not seem like a lot to you, but I kind of think its a lot considering I picked 'em all out by hand. On the right of the photo above, you will see the green collage earrings I started with some of the beads.

So over a cup of joe on Saturday morning, I created the green collage earrings and think they turned out super cute. In fact, a friend wanted to buy them off me immediately! I gladly sold them :)

I was also so proud of myself for learining how to use the "macro" setting w/ LED light on my camera that I practiced on my husband's teeth. 

Lastly, I remade a pair of Santa Fe Brewing cap earrings with some large red beads since an older pair broke on me. Now they really stand out!

Diaper Changing Wallet!

So I am super excited about this post. I created a little diaper changing pad and think it is pretty awesome. Wanted to share it with everyone. Matthew thinks I should patent it, I think someone needs to try it out first and see if it works well. 

Here is a view all folded up (will be given to my co-worker who is expecting) with a cute owl print. 

Here is a view unfolded. The end has a pocket to stuff wipes, extra diapers, and some cream/powder. The lining is super soft fleece, and at the end there is a strap with a clip to hold a rattle or other baby toy. This addition was a suggestion from a friend who said that would be nice if there was something the baby could play with so they wouldn't grab dirty stuff inside a restaurant or store. I also made a matching bib. 

Let me know you thoughts and if you have a baby and want to try it out, let me know!


Yay - So Melissa in Pueblo and Heather in Abq are going to try it out and let me know how it goes..ya know provide constructive criticism.


Check out the diaper wallet it super cute black owl flannel and fleece!

New Bag (gym bag maybe...)!

So tonight was a lot of fun, I went to the January meeting of the Albuquerque Modern Sewing Guild (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?sk=group_134936733223700) at Hip Stitch (http://www.hipstitchabq.com/). It was a lot of fun and the shop is absolutely adorable! Can't wait to get some new fabric! 

As you may have previosly seen, I picked out the owl fabric for my "Margaret Bag", well here is a photo of the halfway finished product (and my motivation...Happy Camper IPA by SF Brewing). Lining and Exterior done, but not yet put together.

And the FINISHED product! Yay! I love my new bag. Yes, this is a BAG, it will definitely fit my gym clothes and shoes. Woohooo! 

In an Owl-ie Mood

So one of the trendiest things right now are owls. Yep, not sure what it is about them, but they are precious and I love them too. Just as much as everyone else does. To my liking, I found some super cute owl fabric and am excited to make some awesome goodies with it.

This first fabric is going to be my "Margaret Bag". A super cute pattern that I found on one of my favorite quilting bloggers site (www.ohfransson.com). I cut out and interfaced all of the pieces last night and will begin construction tomorrow at the Albuquerque Modern Sewing Guild monthly meeting. Should be cute eh?

Next I found this amazing owl fleece. Inevitably this will end up on a baby blanket or on a diaper changing pad (will be a future blog). Love it love it!

Thrift Store Find

I absolutely love thrift stores! (You probably already know this about me) I love them so much in fact, that this weekend while hanging with friends at a cabin in Angel Fire, Jessie and I went in to town for some shopping and ended up at 2 thrift stores! One was actually a bead/jewelry/thrift store and the other was genuinely thrifty!

At the bead/jewelry/thrift store I picked up a little bag of beads (all you can stuff for $4.5, yay!) and an awesome bright yellow sweater. Turns out, the sweater was from the 1940s and was owned by the first licensed Dr. in Missouri, sweet! Some awesome lady's sweater!

At the truley thrifty thrift store I found a bag of 500+ precut 4x4 inch squares of totally random fabric. Now when I am bored, I can sew forever and ever and make a nice big quilt. Fun stuff. Never owned so much hideous fabric, but there were a few charming squares in the bunch. See below!

Bright Beauty!

So I am excited about the pretty little blanket that I created for a lovely little baby girl that I have not yet been able to meet. Baby C was born before I was able to get the blankie done, so it was a few weeks late. Oh well, better late than never!

I created the front from a few fat quarters that I picked up a while back. The goal here was "nothing pastel"! I am not a fan of pastels (or fabric with binkies, diapers, and bottles) and refuse to sew with them!

Here is a close up view showing the quilting!

Tis the Season for Snow!

I needed a few thank you cards after Christmas and wanted to use my new snowboarding stamp. *I am by no means a stamper or scrapbooker* but here is a few samples of what I made!  

Pray for Snow! Get Big!

Big Air! I Heart Boarding!

Never Summer! I Heart Taos! Never Summer! I Heart Creek! Never Summer! I Heart Purg!

Thank you!

Thank you!

Sugar---licious (Skulls that is...)

So back in October 2010 (I will obviously be back-blogging for a while since there is a bunch of stuff I want to post from last year) we hosted our 2nd Annual Sugar Skull Decorating Party and let me tell you it was a blast! A group of awesome friends with amazing hidden talent came out to help share the Dia de Los Muertos spirit and decorate sugar skulls and eat some great food!

To get in the sugar skull mood, we made dozens of awesomely decorated sugar cookies *recipe here* ! *yes...cream cheese frosting*

 My mom made these amazing candied pecans!

The smell and amazing color of the marigolds gave the house a nice traditional touch!

Viki brought some creepy treats that the boys enjoyed for days!

 And after a few hours of fun, food, and crafting...waaaalaaa! Gorgeous sugar skulls!  

Now if this is something you'd love to do (and live too far away to come to my party...) read on for instructions!

Sugar Skull Recipe *For 40 Medium Sized Skulls (the size shown above)*

Granulated Sugar - 10 pounds

Meringue Powder - 1/2 cup

Water - 7 tablespoons

FYI - I buy meringue powder at the Specialty Shop (in Abq) but it is also available at any baking supply store. 

• Mix the sugar and meringue powder well before adding the water. Stir in the water a little at a time. Once all of the sugar is mixed in, you can use your hands to really continue to work with it until it is a very homogeneous mixture. *At this point it feels like wet beach sand! The only time you will feel that in NM!*
• You can find sugar skull molds online or in specialty stores. The medium sized skulls are the best for decorating, but the large size and small teeeny skulls are also fun to work with (I am in the process of making Christmas ornaments out of the tiny ones). 
• Once the mixture is ready to go, use a spoon or measuring cup to fill the mold, press the sugar in firmly. Use the straight edge of a butter knife to clear away any excess sugar.
• Now take a small thin piece of paper board (cereal box) covered in foil and lay this on the back of the mold. Flip the mold over using the foil to keep the sugar in and lay the back onto a piece of waxed paper. Slide out the board and gently pull up the mold. Yay! You made a sugar skull! 
• They are extremely fragile at this point and crumble easily. Let them dry for 24 h and you are ready to decorate.
• Now decorate you little skulls with paint, glitter, beads, and any other embellishments you have handy! 
• The skulls will dry hard enough that you can use a drill to drill a small hole in the back to hang them! 

Have fun!

Here we go post!

Here goes my first blog. Well the test photo below doesn't have too much to do with what I intend on using the blog for, but it was a great photo with my lovely after a long few hours of hiking the La Luz Trail. Test...test...test....