one shabby chick

lots to share

Happy New Year to everyone first of all....

We had a great New Year's Eve....and welcomed a new baby to the family too. My nephew Parker was born around 8 pm on the 31st.

We visited them at the hospital but can't wait to spend lots of time getting my baby fix.

And a not-so-quick re-cap of the past couple weeks....

Christmas Eve:

{our church puts on a Christmas Eve program called Bethlehem Village - we have shops filled with crafts and food - all free - and then have a short message after - this year we read the Nativity story and had some elementary-age kids act out the story}

our own little Mary:

my Roman soldier:

We all dress up and have our tents/shops decorated...it's fun and the kids love it. We had a perfume shop, candle shop, I had a carpenter's shop where we made crafts, bakery with lots of breads, market with fresh fruits, fried fish at the fish shop.....and a few more.

Apparently I did not take any pictures on Christmas day but we got Bela a camera for Christmas and she took a bunch - I have also told her she's our official vacation photographer.....still deciding whether I'm going to take my camera or not...

I did a little bit of sewing after Christmas. Two new bags for me:

241 tote by Noodlehead:

Used Loulouthi velveteen for both the inside and outside. Next time I think I'll use regular cotton for the lining.

And Liesl and Co. Day in the Park Backpack tote....sorry to say this pattern is out of print.

I've had the pattern for a long time and finally made it - I love it!! If you can find one, it is such a great pattern...very well-written. Clear instructions and such a beautiful bag....

And a few more snapshots from my week:

clean sewing area:

new fabrics:

start of a new project {Maple Leaf Rag from Material Obsession 2}:

Last day of vacation around here...poor Hubby is sick and is sleeping. I'm making tortilla soup for him and cleaning the house - exciting stuff!

Snapshots

No sewing happening around these parts.

{little succulent garden in our kitchen window}

Maybe tomorrow? But probably not.

{velvet pumkins I made last year}

Lots of goodie-making though.

Candied orange peels

Dipped in dark chocolate

Caramels

Vanilla fudge

with pecans from my Grandpa's yard (sad to think we will eventually use the last of them and never get more...)

most delicious cookies ever (well, the dough is so far....it's chilling in the fridge now - seriously...SO good!)

Got some gorgeous fabric in the mail - new Velveteen from Anna Maria Horner:

Dying to make something out of it for the trip...passbort book? messenger bag? something!

No nephew yet but it's any day now - forcing myself not to start a new quilt until I finish his.

Most of all I wanted to drop in and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!

Hope you all have a fabulous weekend filled with family and friends, laughter and cheer!

Busy weekend

We had a busy weekend filled with lots of fun parties and Christmas-y things.

Friday night was our town's annual parade...waiting for my friend to email me some pictures from that as I totally forgot my camera.

Saturday we had Hubby's work party at a bowling alley.

(the drive)

The kids had a blast.

And Sunday was a cookie exchange party I help host every year.

(I made these)

My house has gotten too small for it so we have it at a friend's house and it's a lot of fun.

I make prizes and we all vote on our top favorites in a couple categories.

We were supposed to go to our Homeschool Christmas party last night but Baby Girl came down with the stomach flu....ugh!

She seems to be on the mend now and I'm washing a ton of blankets and cleaning their rooms out today in the hopes of killing any lingering virus....I really, really hate the stomach flu.

Hope everyone is having a great week!!

weird

Feels weird to not have a big 'ol to-do list.

I do have a few orders/things to work on.

The first was some custom totes but those are done and ready to be mailed off...

I made another one too but it's all Lush deer and I didn't take a pic of it.

I joined a little Secret Santa swap on Twitter and sent this off yesterday to my partner - hope they like it all.

And last night, I pulled out these blocks and started working on this quilt some more.

So fun using tiny bits of favorite fabrics....

Pillow pockets

First of all, when Nova emailed me to test her pattern, I was beyond flattered.

She's amazing!

And her pattern is so cute!

I decided to try out the Petal Pocket Pillow (say that 10x fast!) first.

I was going to make a pillow for my daughter but then I saw all this fun Munki flannel in my stash and decided a Christmas pillow was in order.

Her pattern is so easy to follow - loads of photos and instructions. And there are so many variations you can use.

I quilted the back of my pillow but decided not to quilt the front.

And I just serged the edges closed instead of using binding - see, variations :-)

And the best part is one of you get to own a copy of this fun pattern!

Nova is generously giving away a copy to one of you.

So, how about you tell me what your favorite Christmas movie is....

My kiddos are in the other room watching Elf - a definite favorite.

Leave a comment and I'll pick a winner on Friday! 

Comments are now closed!

Last one

My last craft fair of the season is tomorrow - Saturday, December 3rd.

I'll be at the Lanikai Craft fair at Lanikai Beach Park if anyone wants to come down.

Finishing up the binding on this quilt tonight to take it tomorrow.

And some new necklaces (I'm pretty excited about them!)...

Have a great weekend everyone!

A sewing blur

These days are passing in a sewing blur.

I have a few more items to sew up for the craft fair and then I can focus on a couple presents and maybe a few Christmas pillows for the couch.

(it's the only snow we can get here - I let the kids spray it on the doors)

Stacks of zip pouches waiting to be sewn:

Buntings:

A few skirts:

Custom order:

And I turned my too-wide guitar straps into belts...what do you think?

Off to a birthday breakfast for a friend and then I need about 20 extra hours in the day....

Tired but happy

kinda like the nervous but excited song...anyone?

We had a great day...

the location was beautiful, yummy food (we got guava chicken and garlic ahi - mmm) and even met a couple blog readers (Hi Valerie and Nancy!).

I think my mom and I have our booth set-up perfected now :-)

I have a list of things to make for this week :-) and one more craft fair on Saturday. Then I can relax and finish up my nephew's quilt and just do some non-fair sewing....

A flash sale

Hey everyone...

For those of you in the US (or anyone who celebrated Thanksgiving yesterday) hope you are over your turkey hangover :-)

(what my hubby came up with yesterday when my mixer gave out while making mashed potatoes)

I'm having a flash sale in the shop today....15% off with coupon code BlackFriday. So head on over and see if there might be something you'd like...

OK hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! I'm off to finish up a few things for tomorrow.

And don't forget, if you are on the island, please come by and visit me at the Mission House Holiday Craft Fair. I'll be there from 9am - 3pm.

Crazy, who me?

OK so I did it - bit the bullet and signed up for one more craft fair.

That I have never been to. But it's at a gorgeous location.

And it is the weekend after Thanksgiving so hopefully that will translate to lots of crowds? We'll see.

So of course this means I need to make more stuff right? Cause my booth wasn't that full :-)

So on the to-do list is:

iPad covers (I want to make them with the flap - they look way better I think)

Kindle cases (need to make them a bit bigger to fit all Kindle sizes and Nooks)

Camera Straps

Crayon Wallets - these were a great seller (pattern here)

List takers (another good seller - pattern here)

Zip pouches (after seeing Krista's towering stack I got inspired)

Some mug rugs maybe? Love Amanda's no-binding one here.

And Christmas bunting (using the Silhouette)

That's not too much right? :-)

But first I had a few things I had to do...

Try out Jeni's amazing tutorial - seriously - these are SOOO cute!

After you finish making them, you'll be so excited you made something so cute!

My kids are all requesting one for the trip now - perfect Lego holder for my younger son I think!

And I "tested" a pattern for Kerry. Sorta - I'm pretty sure I should get fired for this.

OK so I'm showing you all this (even though I am clearly an utter failure at both following directions and paper-piecing) so you can see - I fail just as much as the next person :-)

For one thing it's backwards - and yes, it does still look like a candy cane - but that is just because Kerry is a genius and even though I totally screwed up following the directions, it still turned out looking ok.

I am on a mission to try again - this time I'm going to enlarge it and try out the RIGHT method for paper piecing.

Seriously do not know how these girls (and this one, this one, this one) make such amazing things - not a strong suit of mine I'm afraid.

But Kerry is an excellent teacher and has tons of advice in her patterns - she just launched her new one (the Candy Cane) today so go check it out.

(photo by Kerry)

 

** ONE MORE THING - come back tomorrow for a fun giveaway....YUWA + fabric....