Craft Club Cards

We met for Craft Club again Tuesday night and Susan led us in constructing these cards -
Now I've got a head start on Christmas cards for the season. Thanks Susan!

Craft Club Crafters at it Again!

We met last night at Shannon's house for our monthly Craft Club get together. Her husband said it looked like a sweat shop in their dining room when he returned home. We had fabric scattered all over, scissors flying, irons steaming and sewing machines humming along until about 11pm last night - but well worth it!
Here's what we did:

Here's the back.... cute, don't you think??Close up of the front.....I had trouble getting the color just right on my camera, the colors are actually more vibrant. Also, the other girls are supposed to e-mail me their photos - so when they do, I'll be sure to include them here.

What has your craft club been up to lately??

Craft Club Aprons and Sick Kids

Craft Club was a hit Tuesday night. - We made these aprons. Most of the girls had never sewn before, and I think everyone left proud of their accomplishments! We used 3 different Amy Butler fabrics.
I'm bummed today because my boy is sick. We left for church last night and after he'd been squabbling with his sister and crying, I noticed him wheezing. So, we're headed to the doctor this afternoon. Our picture session has been cancelled. These poor children may never have their 2 year and 6 year picture taken, will they forgive me when they are grown? The photographer is out of town for the next few weeks - so that pushes us into October, and my boy will be 27 mo. old. Kim takes phenomenal pictures. We'd been planning this for months - well, "budgeting" for this. It's not your run of the mill trip to the JCPenney photo studio prices, but well worth it at certain points in your life. Guess what my family is getting for Christmas presents? That is if we every have the pictures made. My girl woke up last night coughing like crazy - that nasty "barking" cough. I just hate it when the kids are sick.

Puppy Dog and a Monster - gotta be for a boy. Back to School Groove.

Just sharing these two little t-shirts I made for another great customer of mine. I especially love how the puppy turned out, such a sweet expression. Great for back to school.

Hope you're getting into the groove of "back to school". I think we are. Bed times have been moved up to 7:30pm, dinner moved up to 5:30pm, rise and shine moved up to 6:30am, etc. Unfortunately, I still want to stay up late, which means I'm not getting my 8 hours of beauty sleep each night. Around nap time for my boy, I'm struggling some days to keep my eye lids from closing.

Craft Club is meeting tomorrow night at my house. We are making aprons. I'll be sure to share with you how they turned out! I'm planning to make Jambalaya (sans the shrimp - I don't do seafood), homemade bread and cookies for dessert. I had intened to have a nice green girly salad also, but completely forgot to get lettuce at the store - so, no salad. O well, we'll make up for the calories in wine and cookies anyhow.

The "Happy Fly Cake" and my girl is "6"!

My sweet boy has labeled this the "Happy Fly Cake", and I made it! I AM proud of myself. I showed you all the craft club cake and cuppy cakes I made using Anna's recipe several weeks ago - but this was my first attempt at a go it alone, full fledged birthday cake - for all the world to see. It was totally time consuming (2 full days), but worth it.

I would like to thank the Academy - ....no, really I'd like to thank Anna for your cake knowledge, Susan for maintaining the cell phone line during production, and Shannon for moral support!

She had a crafting party at Joann's yesterday with several of her closest girl friends. They made the cutest fabric covered memo boards to hang in their rooms.

Happy 6th Birthday Sweet Pea! Hope you loved your day - I love you!!!!!!

We took our girl to Dallas on Saturday to pick out her American Girl doll. We had promised her a dolly on her 6th birthday. After some consideration, she picked out Kit. Such a cute store - the dolls really are nice. I love the fact that there are books about each doll as well. We all had a good time, kids had fun (#1 girl about laughed her pants off at her brother who stood in the middle of the store and TOOK his pants and shoes off for the the whole world to see what, we don't know!) Finished the trip off with dinner at Cheesecake Factory - YUM.

Cake Decorating with Craft Club Friends

Anna hosted our monthly Craft Club for August. We learned cake decorating this time! I've always wanted to take a class or learn more about cake decorating, but just never took the time. The colors in these pictures didn't turn out very well - they were much prettier in person.
It's been so much fun spending time with friends and learning something new in the process. I love the fact that by learning something totally new to me, I'm inspired to create new things in my own realm of sewing.

So, maybe if you're in a rut creatively. Just try something new. It jump starts certain sparks in your brain and turns your creativity back on. It also makes you want to head straight to Michaels, Hobby Lobby, or Joanns and blow a wad of money on new supplies!

Anna, thanks for a great evening. I still can't believe how late I'm getting home on these evenings (12:30 AM folks!) - that's pretty late when you've got little ones raring to go at 6am the next morning. But, it's been well worth it.

I hope I can further inspire all of you in sharing my creative outlets. I'm hosting the next Craft Club night - we'll be making aprons, of course! I'll be sure to share the pictures.

Little Bird Houses and Challenges Raising Kids

We had our craft club night last week and Susan found the cutest project. We took these wooden bird houses and covered them in pretty paper, applied ribbon, other buttons, etc and the cutest little birds. My boy saw mine sitting on the counter next morning and kept saying "quack, quack"!. Guess mine resembles a duck. We had lots of fun though - I got home at midnight! Wow - when I called my hubby on the way home, I thought it was 10:30, not 11:30pm! Gotta love girlfriends, wine, fun giggles, and oh yes, crafts :)

Not much blogging lately - we've been so busy this week with vacation bible school. I'm volunteering this year and both kiddos have a class. Little boy is loving it, since this is his first time in a really structured classroom for any length of time. They are both whipped in the afternoons, which I thought would be a good thing (think, looonnnggg naps!) But..

Both of them have been sooooo whiney and crabby. Little boy is into "MINE", for EVERYTHING. It's driving me crazy. When my girl was little we didn't deal with that so much because she was it, she didn't have to share with anyone. Also, her personality didn't really lend itself to that problem. She's much more passive, especially in social situations.

Now, when it's just us at home - she gives us a run for our money. I'm thinking kindergarten next year will bring it's own trials and tribulations. Influence from other kids will be interesting. We've already had it out this morning over her hairdo and outfit.

Well, gotta run and corral 23 kindergarteners this morning! (with the help of 2 friends, thankfully!)

Craft Club (Friends plus Food plus Crafts = a great time!)

I recently had a friend invite me to join a "Craft Club". Basically, there are four of us - we rotate each month hosting everyone at our respective houses. The hostess makes dinner for everyone (wine included - sure makes the crafts more interesting! Not to mention the conversation.) The hostess also plans a craft for the rest of the group.

Each of us has different skills to bring - Anna is the cake decorator, Susan is the scrap booker, I am the seamstress, and Shannon - well, she makes a mean Manocotti!

Shannon hosted the first of our get togethers and she did a great job. Here are some pictures of what we all made.

She noticed bottles similar to this at a gift shop selling for $28. Well, us crafty girls aren't going to pay that when we can just make them ourselves! She went to Wal*Mart and purchased the bottles for around $2. Bought a tube of E600 glue for around $2. Then drove to a little gem of a place here in Texas - Sam Moon - if you've never been before - I warn you - its not for the faint of heart. It's a huge store filled with tons of cheap jewelry, hand bags, scarves, etc, etc. Do not take your children if you can swing it. In fact, I believe that on Saturdays strollers aren't allowed. It's in Dallas if you're ever that way. Big tourist stop for the female gender (you see lots of men standing around outside) - lots of shopping fun - you just have to know what you're getting yourself into!

Anyway - Shannon found the pendants at Sam Moon for around $6. We just glued those babies onto our bottles, and voila! Beautiful accessories for the bathroom, kitchen, etc. Don't you love them??!

Thanks girls - I'm looking forward to more "Craft Club" evenings!

By the way, in case anyone is intersted. My boy just learned to take his diaper off. He's currently running around the house naked as a jay bird!