Frou Frou Gypsy in Combat Boots

Head over Here to the Inspired Mess blog to join in with the 7 in '11 as we work on Seven goals we have for 2011 together! Check it out and lets work together!

Its been a while since I have sat down to blog. Shame on me. As the year 2010 draws to a close, I realize that i need to wrap up some things here in the blog. one of the last things i talked about was the insanity that my house was going through. I wanted a computer armoire for the living room..... wellllllll not that easy. Couldn't fine anything in our price range that didn't look like office furniture. hmpf ! Then, hub had a GREAT idea....turn our TV armoire into one for the computer. Score! Now, what to do with the TV. Apparently all of America has nice flat screen TVs now...except us! I wasn't in the market for a new TV (sorry dear!). We looked and looked and finally ended up with something from the IKEA Hemnes series . perfect! Perfect that is until i brought it home from the store in ATL , about 3 hours away...and hub assembled it all, and though it fit...there was too much on that wall of the Living room. It looked like a wall of black wood!!!! sigh. crazy like...

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right now my life is a big ole pile of chaos! somehow i have ended up redoing half my house RIGHT before the holidays! seriously, how do i do these things to myself? well hopefully it will really come together, mostly, before Thanksgiving next week and eventually i will be able to show you some of it...right now i have a fall festival to take the kids to! xox cyndi

Donna's Decembers is having two give aways over in her blog HERE . If you are interested in some crafty goodness.....head on over and enter to win...but hurry, the winner will be picked this Saturday!

This is my new best friend! Sta-flow liquid starch! i am in love with it. SOOOO much better than spray starch and yet so hard to find! good for many things...but especially helpful if you are making a T shirt quilt. My Cousin's hub was killed about three years ago in a car wreck leaving her with a 6month old. Well, that "baby" just turned three and I was so honored to be a part of the most amazing gift ever! My darling cousin saved a number of her late hub's T shirts in hopes of one day having a quilt made for their son! *pick me*choose me*I want to do it* PLEASE**** so, I was trusted, and got the bag of shirts back during the Summer. I started looking around online because i knew this had to be the most amazing T shirt quilt EVER! I found some really nice, and IMO not so nice, stuff out there. The most helpful was This site. I loved what she was doing and OH MY she had a book! Well i ordered that baby and then..... used a lot of her ideas with a few of mine and ende...

Well here it is! finally. I made this quilt for a friend of mine's daughter. I meant to make it shortly after she was born. They didn't know what they were having...well, a baby of course, but not the sex! So i wanted to wait and make the quilt for the baby...and i hadn't met him or her yet! Well, Ruthie turned 1 several months ago...and i had an idea, but no quilt. Found out a few weeks ago that they will be having an addition to the family in about 9 months and that gave me the incentive to get in gear! The mom of this particular Ruthie, hates all things pink and frilly. I didn't want the quilt to be too babyish...i wanted her to be able to love it for a long time. I absolutely LOVE this quilt. I didn't want to give it away! See that 2nd square from the top in the right row? It's cherries on a blue background. That fabric has been in my stash for YEARS waiting to become something fabulous....now it is! I love those cherries and I am thrilled that at least pa...

So my Son, always inventive, wanted a Popeye Party for his NINTH (when did he get so old?) Birthday. I am here to tell you that there is NOTHING online to help a girl out when planning a Popeye party! I had to be really creative on this one~ He, of course, wanted a costume. I was NOT going to spend $40 on a crappy store bought one! Have you noticed how poorly most of those costumes are made? ICK ! I constructed this Popeye shirt with a $4 Navy Tee and some felt i had "in stock"! Turned out pretty good i think! I was lucky enough to be selected for another house party ...this one by Capri Sun! SO, our Popeye party was "sponsored" by Capri Sun! (thank you craft!) They sent Frisbees and Terra cycle pencil pouches for all the kids, and coupons and magnetic frames for the moms! In honor or Capri sun, we played that game where you pass an orange held under your chin from person to person....this does not go over well with this age group! It was very funny thoug...

i thought i was going to be able to do a catch up post, but life is getting in the way. I do have a lot to share... apparently just not now :(

I was lucky enough to be accepted to host a Boboli Beat BarBQue Boredom House Party!!! The party was this past Sunday! We had the best time. Boboli sent me coupons to purchase all the pizza crusts we needed for the party as well as some nice swag for me and my guests. Above you can see the reusable shopping bag they sent...with the cutie tag i made to go on it. Here's my Dad hanging out waiting on other guests to arrive. It WAS TOO HOT to be outside so i hung the little "keep flies off your food" thingy from my lamp over the table as a decoration. You cant really see it in this pic, but i also made boboli garland out of their log and hung it from the window behind Dad. This is one of the recipes they sent me ....Spinach and Artichoke pizza. We had this one as an appetizer when guests were arriving.... OF COURSE ELMO and his talking pizza were in attendance! Hubs outside in the HEAT grillin the pizzas for us.... as you can see from the rest of the pics, we just had a la...

Here it is...for size reference, my son it holding it up, he's almost 9. I made this quilt for some friends of mine who just had their third baby...first girl. I had heard that the nursery was going to be done in a safari theme....they didn't find out the sex of the baby so they were going "neutral". My Mom found this vintage animal fabric at a YARD SALE for me and i built the quilt around that. For maybe the first time EVER i am willing to show the BACK of one of my quilts. I found the best tutorial ever on hand basting instead of all those safety pins!! I don't know how to link a you tube video but if you go there and do a search for hand basting a quilt..you'll find it. The first time i saw the tutorial i thought "as if!" but then i gave it a try and FELL IN LOVE with it. I did all the quilting on my Bernina, with the walking foot and it looks AMAZING! (the back fabric is a vintage sheet in grey i had...matched the elephants) I got a little ca...

I know it's not just me... this summer has flown by! my kids go back to school on Thursday!!! I have managed to sew a few things this summer in all the insanity... I made this bag....and i hated it! just wasn't happy at all with it and was so upset that i spent time on it and used that too cute birdie fabric on it... Here is the bag after my BFF made me rip it apart and re-make it so that it was tolerable! I am much much happier with it now....and not so upset for the use of the cutie birdies! This bag i LOVE! It is entirely from vintage fabric my Aunt gifted me with! I love that! It is made from a Simplicity pattern that I can't find at the moment to tell you the # of! If you really want to know, leave a comment and i will dig around til i find it for you! I was so proud of this interior zipper pocket!! (vintage gifted zipper too!) I added this fabric rose bling....not origional to the pattern... and here it is finished! i totally love it and the second it even thinks of ...

Here are a couple of bags i have finished up recently. This first one i LOVE and can't wait till fall so i can use it! It is made of 100% vintage fabric that my Aunt gifted me with. Even the zipper i used on the inside came out of the box of goodies from my Aunt! This one....i started back before Easter. It was going to be my "spring bag". It got set aside and i finally finished it just to get it off my projects list. I am not super happy with it. I LOVE that birdie fabric, so i am bummed that i am not lovin' the bag. I don't love the shape and size of the bag...but it's not workin' for me in other ways either. I feel like i need to do more embroidery .....ideas???

oops! a bit late....but i'll post 'em anyway. March in review: April in review: May in review: