Friday, December 30, 2011

Old, New, What To Do....

What a way to end a year and start another... I just bought a barely used, almost new, Baby Wolf loom.  This makes 2 for me - but, I'm turning around and selling the older BW - only because I need to make some money to replace what I've spent on looms.  I'm also selling my large Leclerc 45" floor loom.  Both are 4 shaft looms.  I hope they both sell and I can regain some of the $ I've spent recently.  I am also looking for a better sewing machine.  I've decided I really like sewing simple quilts and I want to try to make a go of that as well.  In the autumn of 2012 I plan on trying to do some small, local craft shows and sell things I plan on making...


I'm also trying to find a name for my little crafty business.  It's not easy - I've tried all sorts of names on Google to see if they are already taken.  Of course, that's no guarantee just because they don't show up there....but hey, it's a start.  I don't know that I'd register and all that, but I know that if I go to a craft show and don't have a tax card, I can get into trouble.  I've tried this once before and no one checked on me.  I've never really stuck with any one thing long enough to get good at selling it and making any money off it.  We'll see if I can make a go of it this time. 

I know I'm not a professional weaver - or seamstress/quilter for that matter.  But I won't be trying for juried shows - just local craft shows in the local high schools, etc.  I have a tendency to do my own thing while crafting - I break the rules, do what feels good, and try to make a good product.  I keep it simple because that is what I'm good at - being too fussy doesn't work for me (a good example is the pinwheel quilt I made - thank goodness that is staying in the house because it is coming apart!  I hated making that quilt!).  If I can find charm packs for inexpensive prices, and I can find matching fabric for the sashing, I'll continue to make my small quilts (or put 2 charm packs together and make a larger quilt) and hopefully be able to sell some along the way too........ As for weaving, it will consist of things like scarves, towels, and shawls.  I think that's what I'm good at and that's easy enough for me to do. 

So cutting down to one loom makes sense, right?  After all, I can only work on one thing at a time.  I plan on devoting at least 4 hours a day to crafting so I hope I can stick to that - depends on how much my daughter might need me to babysit during the weeks coming up.

So no photos today....sorry.  It's time to make dinner but I wanted to just post a bit to share my thoughts.

Oh, how about your opinion?  Some of the names I'm thinking of are:
Hrt2Kre8
Hrt2cre8
Hrt2kr8
CottageKre8ions
Remember, I sew, quilt, weave, and I am hoping to sell blank cards with my photos on them.....

I don't know if I'm in love with any of them.  I want something short, something I can make little tags and put them on my goods, labels for quilts, etc.....

When I was riding horses, my forum name was Heart2ride.  I loved it.  I do like hearts, and butterflies, but butterflies is too long....

Let me know what you think.  Meanwhile, I"m going to continue to look around and think about it and maybe something will jump out at me...............

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Ah, Peace

Christmas is gone.  It was a real challenge this year in some ways.  Here is my very last project and gift to my cousin:

This is 8/2 Tencel, woven very loosely, in a Mobius scarf.  Cousin Judee says she loves it.  I'm SO freaking happy.  I want to work with this fiber some more.   Here is a link to Judee's blog - she got me into quilting. :-)

Christmas was good.  We spent some of the day with our daughter, her partner and our grand daughter.  She is SUCH a hoot!
It's a blast watching her, being with her, and seeing how bright, happy, intelligent, and wonderful she is! :-)  She got this little tea pot and knew EXACTLY what to do with it - pouring into the little cups that came with it.  The teapot is not for putting real liquid in - it sings and talks.  Too cute!
Baby Girl is learning to walk too.  It's amazing - she's growing so fast!  Love that little peanut.

Did I mention....I got an Ipad 2 for Christmas?  Well, actually, before Christmas.  I LOVE it - I can hardly stay off it during the day (and evening).  I'm learning a lot about it, and I'm using it for all sorts of things.  I even figured out how to download from our library!  Whoohoo! 

What I'm reading (not on the Ipad) is a book called EMT: BEYOND THE LIGHTS AND SIRENS, by Pat Ivey. She actually works in the hospital in town. I had to get this (and her other book) thru Interlibrary loans.  I have this book almost finished.  I like true stories.  She's a good writer.  The stories aren't too gruesome, they are short, and they are interesting (for me).  As a kid, I used to read stories about Candy Stripers (not strippers).  I guess medical stuff has always interested me.  Good thing....I've had enough happen to me (and hubby) to keep me up on all the stuff that can happen! 

I have not worked on much this week as far as crafts, but I am working on photographs (see my new header?).  I am using a free program called Picnik but it seems to throw my computer into a tizzy and I can't get much done.  I think I'm going to have to invest in a good software program to edit my photos....so if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears. I'm planning on making some cards to send as thank you's and also to send as gifts.

I guess that's about all for tonight.  I am really ready to get back to our regular routine - I'm going out of my mind with the hubster spending SO much time not working!  Oye!  lol

Take care of yourself. 
Martha

Thursday, December 22, 2011

Insanity!

I cannot believe how behind I am.  I just finished a gift for a family member that has to be mailed off (she reads my blog, so I can't post photos till afterward).  It's in the wash as we speak. I sure hope she likes it.....

I can't wait till life gets back to normal ~~~ after the holidays.

Hubby had a bunch of blood work done, and it all came back absolutely normal....but he's still not feeling "right."  Not sure what the deal is....wishing he felt more like himself.  He's not bed-ridden or anything...just not himself.

I don't know what our Christmas plans are, and that's a bit frustrating....but life is a bit hectic not only for me right now, but for my daughter and her family, so I'm trying to be patient and see what the deal will be.  Hubby wants to go see the movie War Horse on Christmas day but I'm not sure that I can....I think I'll end up doing a lot of crying, and I really don't want to cry on Christmas - I have a tough enough time holding it together on that day (and others).  I don't like feeling vulnerable....

I did, however, get a Christmas gift early - and I love it.  I'm feeling terribly guilty about getting it - it was quite expensive.  But, I've enjoyed it a LOT and I think I will continue to use it regularly.  Yep, I finally got my Ipad2.  It's awesome.  I almost got an Iphone (and secretly I hope I can still get one in the near future) but I just fell in love with playing with the Ipad2.  So, that's what I got.....it has 3G but I think we'll probably cancel that as I can use the Wi fi wherever I go.  3G is fun in the car - I can still be online (internet), which I couldn't do if we cancelled the 3G.  But I don't NEED that......  I love playing Scrabble on it although I'm not great at it - I do hope to improve my scores tho over time!

I only got a few small things for Hubby and I wish I could escape to get a couple of more things I've thought of.  I don't know if he'll let me run out tomorrow by myself or not.....probably not.  But I could always tell a fib and say I'm meeting someone....  I'm not too worried tho cuz there won't be anything under the tree for me since I already have my gift.  He has his too - the new truck!  Even tho we got the new truck to lower the payments.....he still LOVES his new truck.  It's certainly pretty. LoL

It's 60 degrees today - it was a bit sunny this morning, but now it is overcast again.  I have some great photos I took this morning but I haven't downloaded them yet.  Another day. 

Time for me to go see if the gift is done in the washer and pop it in the dryer. 

I'll be back when I can --- if I'm not back before, Merry Christmas!

Martha

Friday, December 16, 2011

What the heck???

I've been MIA.  I just haven't had the time or energy to post...and I miss it!

I have been going crazy the last couple of weeks trying to spend time with the couple of friends I have, volunteering with my Therapy Dog, getting weaving and sewing projects done for gifts that had a time crunch to be given in, and keeping up with everything else....and a hubby who has had some weird medical things going on that caused us to spend 4 hours on 2 different days at the hospital last week.  Today we go to the dr to have a physical (him, not me) and hopefully find some answers to what the heck is happening.....

I'm exhausted.  I need to make it thru today and tomorrow....tomorrow being my grand daughter's first birthday party. 

Next week, we only have one commitment (well, as of right now) and that's to take the new truck back to the dealership - we had rain guards put on the front windows....and now, when you roll down the window, the sensor on the window things someone's finger is in the way....so it won't close.  This is on both the driver and passenger side.  What really ticked me off about this was the young lady that talks you into getting the "extras" on the vehicle -you know - the undercoating and the stuff they spray inside to keep spills off the upholstery, etc - she tried to tell me that she told us the rain guards on the windows are a bad idea, that she tells everyone that.  That was an outright lie.  Don't lie to me to cover your butt.  These were installed improperly and it's screwing everything up.  I see lots of other vehicles with the rain guards on them.  No one else seems to have this issue!  Taking them off will probably damage the truck.....and I'm sure it'll never be right once they do that.  Tuesday is the day we find out.....cuz hubby insists the rain guards have to come off.  Ok!

I pray the dr figures out that hubby's issues are from an inner ear thing, or something like that.  We'll see.  All I know is, we aren't walking out of there without some answers...........this doctor's office is not always on top of things....

I had planned on getting SO many things done in the house during his month of vacation.....yep, he took the entire month of Dec off.  But the first day he started with some issues, and I got committed to these things I've been doing, and now it's only a week till Christmas, and I feel all discombobulated! I need some recovery time!

Off I go...no photos today as I just don't have time.  The sheets on the bed need to be changed, and the dr appt is at 10:00.....
Take care my friends.
Martha

Friday, December 2, 2011

Yum num num num num num

Fresh bread.  I didn't make it.  I bought it. From Wegmans, a grocery store that has gone big here in the North East.  I grew up in Rochester, NY, and we shopped at Wegmans all the time.....but it was just a normal, small, regular old grocery store back then.  Now, it's a super store!  They have wonderful bread.  This was still warm when we picked it up this morning.  The smell in the car was amazing and I tried really hard not to give in....but after I ate my salad, I just could NOT resist it anymore!  I hate a piece.  I sliced off the end, put butter on it, and scarfed it down!

I'm not getting as much exercise as I should be getting to lose the weight I wanna lose.  I need to be walking.  Maybe in about 30 mins I'll mention to hubbster that I want to go for a walk.  We are going to try to walk along the road and try not to get killed...narrow road, lots of traffic, 45 mph (crazy!) speed limit, no sidewalks (we live in the country after all.......).  But it's a beautiful day and I wanna walk.

We had to take the new truck to the shop to get all the stuff done on it (as mentioned in yesterday's post) and we have to pick it up today, but not till 6 pm.  I was hoping to go to town before that....oh well.  I'll have to run my errands tomorrow I guess.

I did finish my labels on the little snowman quilty wall hangings and on the grand daughter's quilt.  They came out really nicely and I'm going to make more, some for my wearable weaving.  I love hand sewing (yes, I'm nuts), there is just something about those little tiny stitches that I love....it's fulfilling and rewarding to do it.  Maybe in a past life I did a lot of hand-sewing?   Dunno.

Now I need to get upstairs and iron the quilty snowman wall hangings, then I can figure out how to package them to send them out.  I need more ink for my printer before I can print enough photos to make my Christmas cards.  It would probably be cheaper to go to one of those sites where you upload a photo and get the cards printed out and sent to you, or if you put in the addresses they send them out directly for you.  But I just like doing it myself.   Yes, I'm a glutton for punishment!  I also have an item on the big loom I've been putting off finishing.  I really NEED to get it done.  I have a friend who's birthday is coming up and I want to make her something.  I haven't decided if it's going to be towels, or a shawl.....hmmm.
Off I go!
Take care
Always
Martha

Thursday, December 1, 2011

It's Been A Good Week!

This has been a good week.  I feel good about myself.  I'm cutting back on eating, I've decided I really need to get a grip on that part of my life.  I walked a lot yesterday, granted it was in a mall but hey, I got the exercise part in!  I also got some shopping done.

Monday I went volunteering at the hospital again.  When I left, I was putting Evan in the car, and I bent over to remove a stone from the tire, and saw a nail in there.  It wasn't flat, so I drove home.  Told hubby and he took it back to town to get it repaired.  I guess I should have called him from town and told him and maybe had it done while I was there, but I had Evan and I didn't really want to hang around the car place with Evan with me.  This is the third time the car had a trip to town today!  The first trip was when we both drove in to drop the new truck off at the dealer for the "stuff" to be done to it - the undercoating, the protectant on the inside, the brake system (to pull the horse trailer in case we have to take the horses somewhere in an emergency) and the bed liner.  The second trip was me with Evan.  Just spoke to hubby - he's going to get an oil change while he's there, in addition to getting the nail pulled and the tire plugged.  Hey, time to myself!  :-)

Did I mention I made chocolate chip cookies at the beginning of the week?  Yeah, I know, that's not going to help me get my weight down.  I will NOT deny myself everything...I just can't or I'll be miserable.  I CAN, however, eat better during meals and not eat a lot in between.  Anyway, I made them from my favorite recipe (which I cannot remember where I got it from, I've had it so long on a recipe card - I think it's from a cookbook....), but I didn't add enough chocolate chips.  I wanted a variety of chips - dark chocolate, milk chocolate, and semi-sweet.  I tried to measure out how much one package would be.  From now on, I'm adding twice as much - heck, what's the use in eating a chocolate chip cookie if there isn't enough chocolate in it????

I was pretty successful this week with getting some things done that I wanted to get done.  I didn't have any motivation at the beginning of the week, but the  last 2 days I did pretty well.  I got some shopping done yesterday, as I mentioned before, mostly successful because I went alone!  I also got my Snowman wall hangings done!  Yay!  I will put the photos up here.  This is one complete panel, but I cut them up into individual squares.  I only quilted one of them - I have a really difficult time quilting panels.  I love putting them together, but I don't like quilting them - too time consuming to be constantly changing the thread colors!  I'm lazy, what can I say???  The one I did quilt, I didn't like so much so I'm not sending it out, I'm keeping it for myself!  :-)


Quilted Snoman
Snowman 2
Snowman 3
Snowman 4
Snowman 5
Snowman 6













I had a heck of a time uploading these and I can't seem to get blogger to let me put them where I want to.  I didn't used to have this issue......I think if you double click, they will get bigger, but I'm not positive.
At any rate, some of them need ironing.  It was a job figuring out how I could make them stiff enough to hang with just one hanger in the center of the back (that last photo is crooked - so tilt your head. lol.  I have to sew the little ring in the back in the center - it's obviously off center!).  I finally decided to use a heavy duty interfacing that I used (doubled) in the bottom of a purse I made.  It's pretty stiff.  I cut about an inch wide and the length of the interfacing and placed it about an inch from the top of the panel.  I then used some sort of puffy, iron on interfacing for in between.  I made the first two differently tho.  The first one (where the snowman is quilted and not very well) I made with plain batting in between, so it doesn't stay stiff like the others.  I ended up putting 2 little white rings on the back, and using a dowel to hang it.  Just a few of the reasons why it's staying here and not getting sent to anyone!
The second one I ended up using iron on interfacing which is quite stiff, and it worked.  I should have used that on them all, but then found the puffy, iron on interfacing and tried them.  Because I didn't quilt them, they didn't need the puffy stuff, but I had quite a bit of it, it was already out, so I just cut away and kept using it on the following 4 panels.  They came out ok, but as usual, I'm quite critical of myself and my sewing.  Not many will get these this year, and I think the remaining panels will get used in a quilt.....

Now that these are mostly done (I have to sew a label on them), I started printing out the photo I'll be using on my Christmas cards....and don't you just know, I'm low on ink.  So I'll have to get some ink before I print the rest.  I need to get busy on those, as I'm going to be quite busy the next couple of weeks I think....more on that at another time.

I also updated my TDI (Therapy Dogs International) paperwork so I can continue to volunteer in 2012 with Evan!  :-)  I don't do much - just go to the hospital 2 or 3 times a month when I'm scheduled, but it's enough I think.  I do want to start working on some tricks with him....

I have all my new calendars for next year.  I found a little booklet one for my desk in Target for $1.00 (the bigger one was taking too much room), we got a free one in a newspaper or magazine, for the kitchen, and we found one in Target for $1.00 which is the desk blotter style which Hubby likes.  So that's all set.

Hubby put together the granddaughter's ride on toy yesterday while I went on my shopping trip.  He's such a good guy.  It's really cute, but she's only a year old and the thing is motorized.  Makes me nervous....but hey, it was her mommy's choice....we also got a little brown recliner chair for her and it's SO adorable!  Granddaughter's birthday is Dec 21st, but party will be on the 17th.  Then there's Christmas.  So the chair is birthday and the ride on toy with other toys, is Christmas. 

I have labels to put on the quilt for her too - the pretty, colorful one I made that her that won't match her room - but maybe her mommy and daddy will put it in the family room for her to snuggle in when they are in there. I also have to put the labels on the snowmen wall hangings.  I'll do that in front of tv tonight.  I tried that method of ironing muslin onto freezer paper and sending it thru my printer. I could only find a strip of muslin about 6 inches wide, so I did that - it didn't work really well.  I guess the muslin needs to be 8.5 x 11 like the freezer paper for it to work better.  I messed up one but the rest came out ok, thank goodness. Guess I need to buy some more muslin when it's on sale next time.

I get SO many sale ads, I sometimes feel overwhelmed.  Maybe because it's Christmas season or something, but when I get in Hancocks and Joanns I get overwhelmed - and it doesn't help that I get them after the sale has started (and sometimes after it's ended!!!).  For example, I got the Black Friday Hancock ad, this past Wednesday....let's see, that's 5 FIVE days late!  So I missed a couple of good deals there.... sigh. 

Ok, so this post is way long so I'll close for now.  More later!
Take care of yourself, as always,
Martha