It's tag time!

Hi!  I just came out of the stamping room after some fun play time making sewing themed tags.  I sure do love to play in there.  One of my favorite things to do!
It was a busy day in Mayberry today.  I made a trip to the bank early this morning, baked Mom's birthday cake for her party on Saturday and decorated it this evening and stuck it in the freezer.  I put in a stamping order, took a nap :-D, cooked supper and made up 3 plates of food to have for future dinners.  I baked banana muffins and I made brownies to take out to Di's tomorrow.  We have a play date planned.  So all in all it was a pretty productive day!
I am using my new to me, old metal flower frog for the first time today that the tags are sitting on.  I have been wanting one for some time as that is the way most card makers take pictures of there cards and it looks pretty cool.  I was able to find some on Ebay and bought a batch.  If you would like one....email me or leave a comment, and I will sell you one.  I bought a batch of 5 as it was the only way to get a decent price on them.  The individual ones were very expensive.  Probably hard to find.  I have been looking for a year or so, and have not seen them any where in my travels.  One night I was talking to Corrinne on the phone and some how in the conversation, she mentioned them.  I did not know what they were called.  Once I found that out, I was able to find them on Ebay..  In the eight years I ran antique stores, not once did I see one of these.  We always sold glass flower frogs, so I did not have a clue that these "things" that they were displaying cards on were called "metal flower frogs".  A person learns some thing new all the time!  Have a good one....Elaine

Halloween hair clip

We had a great time at lunch today with the lunch bunch celebrating Mom's birthday.  Jeannette is always a riot....I love her so!  When I was getting ready to leave Family Affair, I spotted another old friend Shirley Hill!  It was so wonderful to see her and we had a nice visit.  I ended up having a 3 or 4 hour nap today....:-(.  The nap was good :-D and I feel very rested, the not so good part is that I didn't get any accomplished in that time period.  I think my body is trying to get caught up on sleep from the Milwaukee trip, as I took a nap yesterday after the flea market too.  I got a few more things marked and added to the "to go" box for the flea market this weekend.  I decided to cut up the left over fabric pieces that I had left from the Halloween bags project, with the Big Shot and the Circles #2 die to make this Halloween hair clip.  A quick fun project.....and you know how I hate to throw ANYTHING away that can be possibly up cycled into something!  Elaine

Butterfly Towels

I woke up this morning around 8 and have been up ever since.  I did my usual check the computer in the morning routine, and since then I have been cleaning, sorting and marking.  I did these towels a month or so ago, and they were laying there waiting to be pressed.  I thought I'd better do that and get them in the stall for the upcoming holiday weekend.

Later this morning, I am headed to Family Affair to have lunch with the lunch bunch and celebrate my mother's 70th birthday!  Happy Birthday Mom!  I hope you have a wonderful day and many, many, more Happy Birthday's to come!  Love, Elaine

At long last....a card!

I finally got into the stamping cave tonight and create a card especially for my readers.  I wanted to try out my new tulip punch from EK Success.  I found it on clearance at Michael's a few weeks ago when Carol and I were at Plover.  It makes a very pretty intricate pattern.  The lace on the card is from one of my thrift store finds.  It adds a nice touch of texture.  The green scallop row is made with a Martha Stewart punch and so is the yellow flower.  The 2 3/8" scalloped circle and decorative label are Stampin' UP!  I used an assortment of different companies DSP's and the verse is from a Fiskar's stamp set.  I did a little bit of distress on the scallop and label with an ink pad to the edges and I also used a sponge dauber on the label.  It was so fun to be back in the stamp room! 

I am going to hip hop off to bed now.....Happy Monday!!!  Elaine

Peach Mary Jane's

I crocheted these little Mary Jane's yesterday and finished sewing the little pearl button's on them this morning.  I crocheted a second pair today.  I just need to get the straps and button's put on them and they will be all done too.  They were teasing me at the flea market that I must be hoping for a little girl.  I am, as little girls are so fun to dress up, but a happy, healthy baby is all I really want for the kids!

Baby Shoes

I found this pattern on the internet for "Mary Jane's" baby shoes and thought they were adorable so I decided I would make some up.  I think they turned out pretty cute.  I would love to see a pair of these on a baby girl.  I made the 3 to 6 month size.  The strap can actually be undone if one wanted to as it has a button hole, but it would be easiest to slip the little foot through the back, there is plenty of room.  Can you tell that I have "babies on the brain" as I like to call it.  LOL  Well....for those of you who have not heard.....Jenna Lee is pregnant and Mason will be having a new little brother or sister.  She is due on April 1st.  She has her ultra sound picture hanging on the frig at their house and I got to see a picture of my newest grand baby this week!

I had supper tonight with Mom and Dad.  Mom and I were doing some visiting then I was showing my Dad the AF Speedway page on face book and that brought back lots of memories for him as he raced in the 50's.  He was telling me that John Ashworth and him would go and race go carts on the track on Saturday morning's.  This got him interested in go carts and racing.  He said he first started racing when he was 16.  The stock car races were really a big thing here.  He said everyone had a car and that all the businesses sponsored cars.  There would be 300 cars on a Friday night, and that they usually would start out with 30 on the track, with lots of pile ups as everyone was just learning.  Any whoo...it was pretty interesting.  Matt Mc Laughlin has put a lot of work into the page, and he is trying to get more information, and is trying to identify some of the people in the pictures.  I got a couple of pictures from him of old libraries for the library scrapbook.

Have a happy Sunday!!!  Elaine

A little treat bag for your little trickster!

 

I love fall, and I love Halloween.  I love the house decorated in oranges, black and fall colors.  

I just finished this little treat bag.  I have 2 more of these in process and will be making more.  It almost makes me want to go down in the dungeon, I mean basement, and get out the fall decorations!  Too bad I am too pooped at the moment.  Oh well, maybe I shall get motivated to do it next week as Jenna, Diana, and Mason (and possibly Antonio) will be here next weekend.  And I am sure Mason would LOVE to see Grammies house decked out for Halloween....ghost lights and all!  

Any whoo....Aren't these bags fun!?!?  A cute little gift bag to give a treat in for those special people in your life.  It could be filled with candy, popcorn, or a popcorn ball, carmel apple, money, a gift card, little toys, animal crackers........... the ideas are endless!   Just depends on who you want to give it to.

 I decided to put a pop can by it so you could tell what size it is.  It looks like a miniature shopping bag, box pleat bottoms and all!  These will be available at the Adams Flea Market.  Stop down and see me!   Elaine

Four more little bibs

A busy day in Mayberry today!  First thing this morning, I went to the Humane Societies rummage sale that was held in the exhibit building in the fair grounds.  I ran into some old friends and had a nice visit with Ruth Petersen.  They had TONS of stuff and I found some treasures.  Then it was back home to do some wheelin' and dealin' on the internet and some sewing to finish this stack of four baby bibs.  This afternoon, I made a trip to the PO to mail out packages, go to the bank, and I went to Pamida to pick up the kitty litter that I had on rain check and a bag a cat food for the cats that was on sale.  So they are all set for awhile!  In Pamida, I ran into Arlene Graham and we chattered for awhile.  I invited her to go to Quilt Expo with us, but I am not sure if she will or not.  If anyone wants to ride along with us, give me a buzz.  We are going on Thursday, Sept 8.  I can fit 8 in the van and we all split the gas and parking costs.
Then it was off to the library to pick up the library scrapbook as I plan on doing a lot of work on it this month.  I really like the new librarian.  He is a very nice man.  And has some great ideas.

It looks like the weather will be great this weekend.  Stop down and see me at the flea market!  Elaine

Crochet Sweater

I finished up this sweater when I first got to Milwaukee, then I started crocheting a scarf.  I haven't got too far on the scarf though....Mason keeps Grammie pretty busy when she is there!

Mason's 1st birthday party!

 Hello!  Sorry for the long lapse of writing.  I have been in Milwaukee since Friday and just returned this afternoon.  I originally was planning on taking Sarah with me and we were going to stay Friday night, and Saturday  for Mason's birthday party.  But Sarah had a bunch of produce to take care of so she ended up just coming on Saturday for the party and returning home so I left early Friday morning, and I thrift shopped along the way, and found some treasures much to my delight and then stayed for a long visit!  The birthday party was lots of fun with about 60 people I think, and 30 of them were kids.  The high light of the day was the huge Elmo pinata that had cone shaped points.  The kids had a blast trying to break it, and I was teasing my sister that her kids were going to want one for their birthday next year as they had so much fun with this one.  Mason had his own "smash" cake and he ate about half of it.  It took Grammie along time to get him to wind down to go to sleep that night!  LOL  Between all the excitement, and sugar that he ate, he was wound up.  I bet he laid his head down on me 100 times before he went out around 10:30 and I am not exagerating!  He wanted to go to sleep....he just couldn't wind down, with people in and out of the house.  Finally he conked out when it got silent for a moment!

 

Oh....and guess who got to clean up the little cake eater after he was done!?!?!   Grammie!   And he wasn't a happy camper about it, I think he liked having frosting all over him so he could continue to eat it!  :-D

 

Isn't the pinata adorable!?!?  Two of the points were already off of it at this point in time.  When Mason and I came out after his "clean up", the kids were swinging away!  And there is a Spanish song that they sing while the kids are swing at it.  I tried to sing along but it was too fast and I couldn't say a lot of the words but it was fun trying.  Afterwards, I asked what they were saying, and it was explained to me that it was like a cheer they said.  I had caught the words Uno, and Trece, and they said that it talks about swinging once, twice, three times you are done.  When they stop singing, the kids are suppose to stop swinging and some one else gets a turn.  And the little kids got to go first, and if someone was swinging too hard, they would raise it up in the air a little bit out of there reach.  It was on a rope.  One of the guys at the party, climbed a tree to get the rope up there and it was wrapped around a branch, kind of like a pulley..

 

Even Mason rapped at the pinata!  He looked a little puzzled about it at first, but I think he decided it was okay as he had seen others doing it, and because he was in his Papa's arms!   We had lots of good food, lots of fun and laughter!  Mason is saying words now at a rapid pace.  He might not say them again, but he keeps saying new one's each day.  He is so much fun!  I hope you enjoyed the pictures!  Elaine

Mason turned one yesterday!

Mason had his first birthday yesterday!  I was talking to Jenna last night and she said that they would say to Mason yesterday, "So how's the Happy Birthday Boy?" and he would say happy!  It was the first that he has said that word.  Too cute!

The past few days have been very busy for me.  On Wednesday, Diane and I headed down to see Doris Kolberg who moved to Milton, WI.  She has a beautiful apartment that is huge!  And she is only 5 or 6 miles from Janesville where there is tons of shopping, there is a quilt shop in Milton, and Milton is a beautiful nice little town.  I am quite jealous!  LOL  It was good to see Doris and her new place.  We all worked on sewing projects and visited, then went into Janesville to have Chinese food, and we shopped at JoAnn's.  A great day!

I had another great day with Carol Camp on Thursday.  She is on vacation and we made a trip to Plover and Stevens Point.  We did some shopping and had lunch at Apple Bee's, and caught up on each others lives.  We have been friends now for over 25 years, so we have a lot of history together, and I feel like her kids are my kids as I babysat for them, plus we have spent so much time together over the years.

I slept a couple of hours after getting home.  I was tuckered out, and ran into another old friend in the grocery store at 9 o'clock at night after I got up, Colleen Thurs.  We had a nice little visit and I got my ingrediants for the Chinese Crunch salad I am making for Mason's birthday party!  Time to head back to bed and try and get some more zzzz's.  Waking up at 4:30 am is for the birds!  Have a wonderful Friday!  Elaine

Enjoy every moment

 Here are some more pages for Mason's scrapbook.

Sweet Things

 One thing nice about rubber stamps is that you can make your own scrap booking embellishments.  Unlike using stickers, you never run out as you can stamp as many as you would like to.  On this page, I used the retired stamp set Sweet Thing.  It has some great images/sayings to use for babies.

I have another page done that I may post later when I need a break.  It is back to work for this chickadee!  Elaine

How to get to Sesame Street.....

A birthday card for Mason's first birthday!

A close up.

Love you "kick stand" for the card.

A close up of the hanging pendant banner.

Inside of card.

Side view of the Easel card.

Back of card.  Two scallops then score, score two scallops from the other end and attach to card front.

On Thursday, Mason will be one year old.  Oh how this year has flown by.  Way too fast, that is for sure!!!   He loves Sesame Street.  Jenna puts the cards I have made him on his dresser, so this will be fun for him to look at!

Here is recipe for the card:

Stamps: Oscar loves Trash from Stampabilities, Pendant from Studio G, Sweet Thing retired from Stampin' UP!,  Big Shot, Scalloped Square Die, Copic Markers, Momento Black Ink, Red Bakers Twine, Dimensionals, Martha Stewart Grass Punch, Tempting Turquoise Ink, Card Stock: Real Red and Tempting Turquoise, Gina K 110lb white card stock, Retired SU DSP, SU Scalloped Oval Punch and Oval Punch

Flowerbuds

Sarah and Zach gave me this pail of flowers from Flowerbuds Greenhouse, a Division of Jerry D's, Zach's parent's landscaping business.  When I first got them, you could really see the purple pail.  They have grown so much that they are now overflowing.  I was telling Sarah about it on the phone and she said she would really like to see them now, that I should shoot some pictures.  She hasn't been up this direction since the 4th of July, as she can only drive about 15 minutes.  It really bothers her leg, so she has to be chauffeured.   She will be riding with me to Mason's birthday party in Milwaukee so that should be a fun time.

Scrap Happy!

Just finished scrapping these pages of Mason's baptism.  I wish the pictures that Jenna ordered would get here.  It is only one week till his birthday party.  I have a few more pictures here and then I will be as far as I can go.
I went to Practical Cents today for Sarah.  She is crafting again.  I picked her up a bunch of silky type shirts.  Last night she made a headband using parts of my wedding dress.  She will be posting this on her blog soon.  Watch the link on the side of my blog to see when she adds it to her blog.  You can click the link for her blog from mine.  I found some very pretty variegated baby yarn today.  It has white, pink, blue, and yellow in it for colors.  It should make up a very pretty baby set.  I am thinking a sweater, hat, and bootie set.  I am working on another little sweater for Mason.  I almost have one side of it done.  I work on it at the flea market and when I am watching TV.  No rush as winter isn't here yet!  I should have it done for the birthday celebration we are having in September for both Mom's and Mason's birthdays here in town.

Thanks for Caring

I made up six sympathy cards on Monday when Brooke and I were stamping together.  This stamp set was in the Occasion Mini this spring and it was a great one to add to my collection as I use so many sympathy cards.

Recipe:  Stampin UP! stamp set: Thanks for Caring, Elegant Lines Embossing Folder, Classic Circle Nesties, Big Shot, Card stock: Sahara Sand, Soft Suede, Basic Black, Very Vanilla, 5/8" Black Grosgrain Ribbon

Verse and Flower that I stamped inside the card.

Brooke comes to visit!

I had the pleasure of having Brooke on Sunday and Monday this week.  She is such a little joy to have around and she loves being here.  She was sewing, making cards, we watched the "Little Mermaid", and we watched a bunch of her favorite cartoons on Net Flix's as she wanted me to see them.  We would eat meals out on the front porch, and as you can see Taffy adored her and had to be up in the middle of things!  I love you Brooke!  Come again soon!   Aunt Elaine

Go Fish

Here is another little Bapron I finished today.  I love the fish fabric, and I so LOVE my Simplicity bias tape maker.  It folds and presses the fabric all in one step.  Zip zip zip...and your done!

Bapron

Just finished sewing my first Bapron.  I have 6 more cut out that are ready to have bias tape put on.  I am heading down for a nap now.  I have not been feeling so great this week.  I have a bloody eye, and they are itchy and scratchy, plus have been having headaches and nausea.  I hope it goes away soon!  Elaine

Sweater for Mason

I finished crocheting this sweater for Mason last night.  It will be part of his birthday present.  It is hard to believe that he will be one on August 18th.  This year sure has flown by!!!

This is a close up of the pattern on the top of the sweater.  Have a great day!  Elaine