Wednesday, October 29, 2008

well it wasn't my NEXT post per se

Today, we're going on a field trip (yay!) to one of my favorite little shops, Bob McDougal's Sewing located in the lovely Houston Heights. McDougal's has been in business for 40 years now. McDougal's is both a dealer and repair shop. They sell machines, repair machines, sell supplies and give lessons.
First, imagine my delight when I drove up and saw this little lovely upon my arrival. Has nothing to do with the field trip, but how could I resist snapping a picture of this bitchin '71 Chevelle? Aaand in the background is my bitchin...um... minivan.
Of course the person greeting me is Fernando. I believe he's been referred to in previous posts as 'the man at the repair shop' or 'the repair shop guy'. He's my guru when my Brother acts up and despite his very serious face, he actually is so helpful and friendly.
So I get there and of course, Fernando is making a sale. I didn't catch this sweet lady's name but she told me she bought her first sewing machine from McDougal's when she was first married. By the way she's the owner of the bitchin Chevy outside. Gimme that hotrod, granny!
McDougal's repairs all kinds of machines and has refurbished machines for sale. There are machines from different manufacturers and eras! I love going to the very back of the store where machines awaiting repair are kept. It's like they're all waiting to be brought back to life. But my favorite machines are the ones in this glass case...beautiful singers from days gone by. I'm not sure why these particular machines are behind the glass, but I love standing at the case and just oggling them. There are even these two little ones, presumably for little girls, that do actually work! How cool is that? McDougal's does have refurbished old Singers for sale. Dang it! Shoulda took pix of those too.
So what I wanted to show you was the latest machine Fernando has refurbished. It's been his pet project, he says, for about 6 months now. It's this oh so cool red Singer. He fixed the machine, refurbished it, even put beautiful new detailing all around the base. He'll be selling it soon and I can assure you, it won't be me buying it. But I HAD to get a picture of this vintage beauty. Kinda like a hotrod huh? But for a nerdy crafting mom....like me.
So I pick the thread and needles I came in for in the first place. I took about 2 more shots of the red machine cuz I'm in love with it. I might have to marry it. Sorry, Mr. McD.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Vacation Day

...but not really. So I'm taking a vacation day at work. Today is one of those days where my boss is the busy one. Which means anything I need to get done will be pre-empted by his need for copies, stapling, sorting etc. It's bad for my 'to do' list but good for me because all I can do is sit here and wait for him to give me little chores. SO...today I'm on vacation. and THIS

...is what I'm doing. That's right, I'm watching scary movies found at Emol. The movies are free but there are commercials. Yes, commercials!! Come on over...and bring some popcorn!

Monday, October 27, 2008

The Red Hot weekend


Yes, this weekend was a fiery one. It was warm yes, but mainly I refer to the Houston Fire Fest put on by our Fire Dept. There were demonstrations, moonwalks, food, music, trainrides and several vendors. Sadly, Mr. McD was working this weekend so it was me, Little Man and Princess Buttercup. They made sure to wear the FD shirts Mr. McD got for them. Of course, Princess Buttercup just HAD to wear her 'fireman' boots to top off her look. Little Man was mostly 'checking out the babes'...and hiding out in a sea of tough guys!
I've been working like crazy on bags for an upcoming craft show. No, no sneak peek, but I can tell you, they're pretty much like Princess Buttercup's first bag...the giant one. Except these aren't so giant. Yes, I've made some adjustments.
There's a great messenger bag tutorial over at Craftser. I like this one because I always want folks to explain stuff to me like I'm four years old. Pics n everything. Go see. I'll soon post a few pics of the bags I have going.

In the meantime, I give you a hint at what my next post will be about ...

Friday, October 24, 2008

Yay for stamps!...now, what?

So I'm stoked about my own customized clear acryclic stamps I got from Anna Mae over at Village Impressions. They take your images, your logo, your text, whatever and create clear stamps from them for an unbelieveable, obscenely low price. I ordered a half sheet (8.5 by 5.5) and filled it up with different logo styles, some thank you's, an address stamp and more. It cost me the same as ordering only 2 custom clear stamps elsewhere. check it out!

So I made myself a few simple 'starter' calling cards to hand out. I need to get a little more creative. Maybe I'll ask some of my favorite bloggers for ideas. Especially Shelly over at Lily Eden and Cathe at Just something I Made. They always have such neat little ideas! But for now it's these simple candy color cards. how fun! Thanks Anna Mae!

Yesterday was picture day for Princess Buttercup. I (gulp) let her dress herself. She went to school looking like Stevie Nicks and Rainbow Brite had a baby. She was so excited about her outfit until we were walking to school. She said, 'I hope I'm wearing the right clothes'. Asked her if she was wearing what she wanted to wear. She said 'yes'. I asked her if she liked her outfit. She said 'yes'. 'Then you're wearing the right clothes' Am I right or what? She also showed me the picture of her with The Queen Mother on Grandparents' Day. As of yesterday, the Queen Mother is calling every clerk in the school to make sure she gets! that! picture!

Mr. McD has been up to his own handcrafted goodness. I came home to find THIS on the stove top:
Yes, Mr. McD will again brew his very own beer to drink...well, actually, he's not a very big drinker so guess who will be downing most of the home brew. Yeah. He also added his own brand of furnishing to our bedroom... Adds that 'college dorm room' touch to my pretty drapes in the background. Isn't it romantic?

Monday, October 13, 2008

Back to normal...mostly

Well a month has gone by since the hurricane and we're back to normal...mostly. We got our lights back on Sunday, the 29th (of Sept). We haven't filled the fridge back up but we may go shopping this evening.

I thought I'd bring you some pics from our little neck of the woods. Not of damage or destruction but of the little clan in 'survival mode'. First of all there was of course...clean up. Little man started off (or was firmly coerced into starting off) by picking up fallen branches in the front yard.


Mr. McD is seen here also picking up some of the ba-jillion branches that fell ALL OVER the place

Princess Buttercup was so kind as to sweep up the deck which was, unfortunately cover by some super slickery (slick + slippery) stuff that made me fall and BADLY sprain my wrist (but we'll save that for another cloudy day).

The Queen Mother did mostly cooking, cleaning and helping out in every way she could (especially after my wrist thing but we won't talk about it right now) here she is helping Little Man pick up even more branches and debris!

The hurricane did have one victim at our house (besides me of course, when I fell and sprained my wrist, but we'll talk about that much later)...it was Mr. McD who struggled with the dang generator for days. He did finally break down and get a new one. But not before this happened....see if you can spot him working on the generator:

Of course it wasn't all bad...Princess Buttercup knows how to make the best of a bad situation. Once clean-up was over and she realized that tv, radio, internet and other electrical goodies were temporarily suspended, she decided to take the lemons and make lemonade. She took a blanket, her drink, an umbrella, a couple of stuffed animals and her phone (read: old flip phone she uses to call Hannah Montana) out onto the front stoop and relaxed ...not unlike a celebrity, poolside. Don't know if I should be tickled or scared....you decide.

Monday, September 22, 2008

Keep on Keeping on!

Well, for those of you who have been in a coma for 28 days; We have been dealing with the aftermath of Hurricane Ike and everybody is a zombie now....just kidding about the zombie part.

So everbody who can read (or hear) knows that on September 13 about 2 am, Hurricane Ike blew through our little neck of the woods. Galveston Tx is uninhabitable and many of the surrounding parts have been completely closed off. About half of Houston is STILL without power as I write this. The kids haven't been to school since Thursday, September 11. Still, most folks are trying to keep their spirits up.

We had, Praise God, no damage to our house. We had one tree break in half and it fell between our house and our neighbor's house without hitting either one. Whew!! In the meantime, we do have running water and gas. We can bathe, cook, wash dishes. The upside to no power is that we spend quality time together. The kids did something OTHER than watch tv. They made friends with our elderly neighbors; they read real, actual books; they made the most of the daylight hours and played outside as much as they could. Now they're at their dad's house. Lights and cable will drown out the silence they enjoyed for a few days. But hopefully not too soon.

Monday, September 8, 2008

Brand New Bag

So i just HAD to rectify the bag situation. This weekend, I altered Princess Buttercup's book bag. I shortened the straps, took in the bottom gusstes and bit. We'll see how it fits her now. But I didn't stop there. I went ahead and made another bag. I couldn't resist, seeing how cute the first one was (despite the misproportions) check it out...

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and two more of the details...

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not bad for being the second bag i make like this!

Thursday, September 4, 2008

Birthday Boy and GIANT BAG

This Labor Day was my wonderful hubby's birthday. He's 35 again! yay! The Queen Mother and Sister Kewpie came over. The idea was to craft like mad-women all day; we actually worked on making him a big and hearty Birthday dinner comprised of a huge pile of meat. It went over quite well! it pleased and flattered him which of course, sent him straight into "shy & quiet" mode. Happy Birthday my Hunk of Burnin Love! and many thanks the Queen Mother and Sister Kewpie for they're graciousness!

So while my little princess was at her dad's I made her the cutest little bag. It's messenger style, very pretty prints on oil cloth. I put pretty little embellishments on it. I had it ready for when she came home. I knew she'd like it and when she saw it, she did. She squealed, ooohed and aaahhed over it. One problem: the bag is WAAY too big for our Princess Buttercup.

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Just look at the size of that thing! WAH. So I deciced last night to work on it and maybe reduce the size just a tad, no? The trick here is that the bag is made from oilcloth (not true oilcloth, mind you or there would be no problem) so I'm basically punching a hole in plastic every time I sew it.

She's off to her dad's again this weekend, I'll fix it up then probably adding some interfacing (live and learn) to reinforce the stitches just a tad. Wish me luck!

The good thing is that her classmates we're ga-ga over the bag and one of them asked if I could make one for her too. Sure I can, kid....for $35 bucks! aaahahaha! Just-kidding-but-not-really since once I get the logistics down, I think these would be adorable bags to add to my etsy shop!

Friday, August 29, 2008

Brain Fart Friday

So I just KNOW there was something I was gonna post about and for the life of me, I can't think of what the heck it was!!

Who cares, it's Friday and I have a three day weekend coming up, Yay!!! Mr. McD will be working, the kids will be at their dad's. This mean 3 whole days of uninterrupted crafting (till 5 o'clock when Mr. McD gets home). Don't think I don't have my 'to do's' ready. *rolls out list*

Let's see ... there are two pressing items. The first is to make a seat cover for Mr.McD's jeep. That should be fairly quick since it's just gonna be some slip-ons with velcro closures to allow for the hardware. I had him pick up some painting drop-cloths from the hardware store. Will wash them tonight and begin tomorrow morning.

The other will be a fab-oo messenger style book bag for Princess Buttercup. Her teacher gave her a binder to use instead of the standard folder. It just doesn't fit in her kid-size-appropriate backpack. I picked up some oilcloths at the Fredricksburg Trade Days. Now i finally have a project worthy of actually cutting into them. She spent an evening and a morning going back and forth between patterns...so I'm gonna make it out of both. Yeah, me smart.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

Never go to Eleven...

A month? A whole month? Wow...I never even went to Eleven.

Well needless to say I did get my sewing machine fixed...but not before the man at the repair shop convinced me to buy another one (refurbished of course) to take home right away. And right away, I finished pillow totes, yay! Here's one of them (listed on my etsy of course)

I was so excited this Monday morning when I opened my etsy and found that I had made my FIRST SALE over the weekend! What a wonderful feeling that was. Tracy from Seattle bought a pillow tote from me. She doesn't know it yet, but I sent her a little pin just for being my very first customer. And just to give me that extra boost, my fab mom (the very person who made me a crafter) bought another pillow tote and my Joan brooch. Aaawww, thanks mom!


BTW kids started school on Monday and were glad to do so. Little man was excited a week before, Princess Buttercup was unhappy until the very morning. As she got ready and as we walked to class her excitement grew and grew. All was well by Pledge of Allegiance time!

So I'm gonna start another batch of pillow totes this weekend (maybe sooner). Kids will be with their father and Mr. McD will be working. Also starting on my dioramas for Christmas. I'd like to have a whole bunch of them, but each scene takes so much time, don't know how many I can reallistically crank out. So far I have 5.

Oh and that top ten that goes to Eleven? Let's finish that off, shall we?
8) A certain earth citizen of amphibian persuasion left this world. It was covertly replaced with a look-a-like to avoid princess drama.
9) On the Fourth of July, Mr. McD drove the firetruck in a couple of neighborhood parades. Little McD and I tagged along behind ... I knocked down an old lady's mailbox BY ACCIDENT. Don't worry I replaced it, with love even. Holiday mayhem; good times, good times.
10) We started some gardening. Started, not finished. but started.
11) ... has already been shown to you. The crafty goodness of Pincess Buttercup' diorama but I'll show you again for good measure. She may sell these on my esty.

Friday, July 25, 2008

"45% of the way there!!" or...Top Ten that drags on

Seems like I'll never get to 11! well, my fabulous bags from the last post are on hold for now. I realized that my rinky dink 'hello kitty' machine is not going to cut it when it comes to mass production (mass = more than 3). The Brother that Mr. McD bought me went to the shop today. The repair guy said it's defiantely worth fixing. He also managed to talk me into buying a refurb'd machine with the promise of a ridiculously low, under-the-table price for fixing the Brother. Updates on my new machine tomorrow.

In the meantime, please feel free to oooh and aaah over this cute little 'diarama' made by Princess Buttercup. She worked on it as I was making some of my Christmas ornaments. I think it's such a funny expression! I'm trying to convince her to make a few more but I think she may be through with the whole thing as she has moved on to sewing.



As our countdown resumes we find we've already, made a headboard, stuck a bean in our ear, broke a hand, bought a car and got gutted. Let's see what other fun the clan can get into.

THE SIXTH thing that happened was that we went on our family vacation. We loaded up the minivan, piled in the kids and had ourselves a good old fashioned roadtrip. There was no hot blonde traveling alongside (thank God) and no crazy aunt dying on us (double thank God). If you don't get the reference, just keep moving.

We first went from Houston to St. Louis and neighboring parts to visit the my inlaws. The weather was cool for a Texas girl like me. I even required my sweater at night, Yikes! We had loads of fun visiting with little cousins. MIL and SIL made fabulous dinners for us while we were there. We were treated to a minor league baseball game that, I have to say, I think was far better than a major league game would have been. It just felt so cozy and "small town-y". Everybody made us feel so welcome!

From STL we forged on to Pittsburg and its neighboring parts. The main event there of course was the famous Kennywood Park one of the nations oldest amusement parks. There are a couple of books about Kennywood and it's history and it's actually quite interesting! If you ever have a chance to visit Pittsburg, do yourself a favor and go to Kennywood.

THE SEVENTH thing that happened was that me and my kiddos all had our B-days in the month of June. While in St. Louis, the family threw us a birthday party/family gathering Luau complete with leis! The dinner, made by elder Mrs. McD, was DELISH! there was presents (of course) and best of all CAKE! don't have pics to post yet, but I PROMISE they're coming!!

Wednesday, July 23, 2008

Top Ten that goes to Eleven...part deux

where was I...oh yes, when we last left Buttons, she was making a desperate attempt at one-upping cutie pie sister by updating on all the missed blog opportunities in the fabulousness that is her life. let's tune in...

So the fourth thing that happened was that wonderful and fabulous Mr. McD went out and bought me a 1977 Chevy Camaro. She's a fixer upper (which is part of the fun, isn't it?) and sooooo cool. See here my bitchin Camaro
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Love starting it up, you should hear the roar!!

The fifth thing that happened: you should know that the kids aren't the only ones with the uncanny ability to cause themselves great harm...NOOOOO. Mr. McD spent a glorious week in the hospital for a rutpured appendix (a nasty case, according to his surgeon) because he waited a week before deciding that he was just in too much pain. He drove himself to the emergency room, waited for hours before he was admitted (of course). Was gutted like a fish, got a cool nasty scar up his belly, got SMACKED on that scar by my loving mother (hi mom!) and teased a little by me.....nice going, Mr. McD! Yeah, he's my tough macho hombre.
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Here he is looking not unlike Jason Statham. Oh Yeah.
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Here he is unwittingly doing his best founding father imitation. Fabulous!

That is it for now. Oh! I almost forgot, finished my first grocery bag made of upcycled materials! PhotobucketPhotobucketPhotobucketIt was extremely easy and I loved doing it. Just need to add a few embellishments. Last night I started a little production line. I have about 5 bags ready to be sewn. Show 'em later!

Friday, July 18, 2008

The Catch-up Countdown -or- Top Ten that goes to Eleven

So, as promised, I'm catching up on all the stuff that shoulda been blogged but since I was busy doing the stuff to blog about, I didn't blog. I'm bringing a Top Ten list of Stuff that happened...except My list goes 'one more' doesn' t it? Now bare in mind, I work for a living, so all things will not get listed today. (this will also give me stuff to blog for a few days, won't it? MOO-HOO-HA-HA!)

PhotobucketFirst thing that happened: I painted my fabulous headboard It wasn't that it was a bad headboard, or ugly or anything. Just needed a change up to match the decor in my bedroom. It's quite pretty; it's a pale blue with a darker blue "age" rubbed into it. Does that even make sense? In the center of it I painted some tree branches with flowers. Love it!
Second thing that happened: Princess Buttercup felt the burning urge to stick some sort of "bean" in her ear. The discovery of this went something like this:

"Mommy, I think there's something in my ear." I sit her down, head in my lap to try to clean or wash this myserious thing out. As she's sitting there, she says to me, she says,

"I think it's a bean".
"why do you think it's a bean?"
"because I think it's black" .....HMMMM.
"how do you know it's black?"
So she goes on to tell me how she thinks it may or may not, be a seed....a seed that she might have put in her ear, but maybe not. I ask if she's running for office. A visit to our beloved Dr. Don is promptly scheduled.

seed mach2 ann baxterThe seed, bean, whatever was extracted but not with out much pain and anxiety. Here you see both the bean and Princess Buttercup doing her best Ann Baxter.

But wait! It doesn't end there, no. You see, my children are MASTERMINDS at finding ways to injure themselves or insert foreign objects into their bodies.

Third thing that happened: My darling little man broke his hand. Whilst making an earnest and vehement effort to not miss the bus, he managed to simultaneously take out a locker with is knuckles and totally misalign his hand into a cool Mr. Spock formation. Below please find photographic evidence of this one-two punch of future-marine destructive power.

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Just look at that knuckle. The bruise covered the top of his hand and his palm as well.
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We can make him faster, (slightly) stronger, but not more careful...

Well that's the first three things on the list. Off to an exciting start, huh? See told you the stuff was good. Not ABC Afterschool Special good, or Lifetime movie good, but maybe a Leave it to Beaver episode good.

















Wednesday, July 16, 2008

oh, it's on now...

So my cute little kewpie doll of a sister started a blog...putting me to shame for NOT updating since oh...let's see....MARCH.

Inspired to catch up, I'm posting today. I don't have anything exciting but I just HAVE to put something down. Maybe I can give you a rundown of stuff that's happened since March. It's good stuff, I promise...stay posted ahaha!! See what I did there? 'stay POSTED'. oooh, crack myself up.
BTW here's a picture of me n Sister Kewpie...I'm the tall one in the pink. She's the ....kewpie.

Thursday, June 5, 2008

whoa!

Talk about your time off! life really does come at you fast. a lot has gone on since my last post. Princess Buttercup put a bean in her ear, little man almost failed 7th grade, Mr. McD had a ruptured appendix and bought me a Camaro.

On the 'artistic' front, I've made several items to start listing in my etsy. Scoped out several boutiques I think would be good for my products. Built a light box.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Finally

Well, the spyware is gone. The children (temporarily) banished from the computer. I thank Mr.McD, of course, for coming to my rescue. Didn't do much by way of crafting last night. We spent of a couple of hours at the park with the kids. Baseball (or some semblance of it) was the game of choice. I managed to finish some wall plaques for my bedroom and upload some pictures for my etsy, that was about it.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

ding dang spyware!!

I want to list more items on etsy. I want to post a picture of my fancy new headboard (actually it's my same old headboard with a facelift. read: new paint job by moi). I want to print some pix of the kids. But can't do these things...ask me why. Yes, because of the trojan horse spyware that got into our computer! Frickin' Trojans...except for that Bana guy, he's hot. I uh, I mean...yea, verily, I say, he is fearfully and wonderfully made!
I'm sure that at some point today, my hunky hero of a hubby is gonna call and say that the situation is normal. I'll just sit here. . . and wait. . . . In the meantime please enjoy the lovely pix I've added to my blog. I feel funny writing that, "my blog". I'm no computer whiz, by any stretch of the imagination; I'm not a politics fanatic, I'm not a Martha Stewart type, I'm not even particularly angry about anything. But I had to put these random thoughts down somewhere and Lord knows I've got my fair share of little scraps of paper.

Monday, March 10, 2008

new day


Listed our first etsy item today; the scented crystals that I love so well are now for sale. I'm pretty proud and Mr. McD is, of course proud too. Love that man! I have to say, if it wasn't for my fab honey, I wouldn't have done this much. He doesn't just support me, he encourages me and believes in the things I like to do and can do . Thank you so much, honey!

Anway, I listed the 'breezy beach' scented crystals and they look pretty. Here's one of the pictures I listed them with. I really need to list all the other jars (3 different scents, 5 jars of each) but there's a problem. Some little person who shall remain nameless (frankly because we don't know which one it was) allowed a trojan horse to get into our computer. We have spyware and I can't do a dang thing to fix it. Darling Mr. McD will have to figure it out. He's a man's man, he can fix it...or y'know, pay someone to do it...or y'know, mash the dang thing into a million bits. whatevs.