Glamping Time with Tassels!

It's that time of year, Yay!! The kids are getting restless, the weather is decent, flowers are ready to bloom and it's time to go outside and play.  What a perfect way to play, than by building a tent!  

I found these amazing tents with a tutorial on CAKIES Blog and she gives complete sewing instructions for building the perfect tent.  

And of course, you'll want to put your personal touch to the tent with tassels, to create a grand entrance to the tent.  Just grab your Pattiewack Tassel Maker and make 5" tassels, string them to a cord, and tie to the tent posts.  My goodness, you could even do this to a tent you already have, right?

Okay, now I must get out in the yard, take the wiener dogs out for a walk, and think about making tents.

Sew Excited!

I have dreamed of owning one of these ginormous cabinets for years! I was lucky enough to get this from a friend a lot less than what I would have to pay if it was brand new, and I ciuld just pee my pants!  Now I'm installing it with all of my sewing stash. There are pockets and cubbyholes everywhere and I love how the back flips up so that I have the cutting table. I'll have to show you how it looks when it's all finished. I wonder what my first sewing project will be?

Thread Fix

 

I finally decided to tackle my sewing thread today. 

It all started when I was trying to do a craft project on my table and there was no room.

 

I remembered that I had found one of those cool thread racks at a thrift store for $3 and then another one on sale at Hancocks for $10.  As you can see, there were a few spool rods missing on the one from the thrift store but hey, whaddaya want for 3 bucks, right?

I was so excited because they are normally 15 buck$ each!!

 

So for $13 and 4 nails, my thread problem is fixed.

Now, back to my craft project....

Sewing on the floor...

Scott laughs when I sew on the floor, but sometimes that's the best way to tackle a big job like this one. You remember our trip to Sacramento to get the new bed slats & mattress, right? Well, it's been great for Scott, but not so great for me. I love everything about it, except it feels like my bones are poking through a rock.

So, I got this great idea to take one of those egg crate foamie thingies and cut it down the middle, and put it on my side of the bed. But of course, that wasn't enough. I had to make it mine, and make it a project.

That's when I went to the closet and found an old zebra sheet and decided to make a mattress cover for it. I just laid the mattress on the sheet, folded it over, and cut the edges 2 inches along the side to make allowance for a seam. And then I went back and rolled the edge to hide the raw edge and sewed it with a zigzag stitch. Pretty neat!

Except when I poked my finger with one of the pins!

Scott played nurse and ran to get a sushi band aid to make it all better.

It turned out great, and now I can get a good night's sleep again.

Antique Store Finds

I simply love, love, love going on treasure hunts in antique stores, because you never know what you're going to find. This made me laugh out loud! Probably from the 60's and the cutest lingerie bag I've ever seen. I'm totally thinking about sewing one up for myself.

When I turned it around it was see-through and made sense that it could be used to stash your stockings, and be able to see where those black ones were hiding behind the fishnets.

And of course, you would need this matching wig head with the black lace and faux pearls.

My treasure hunting gal pal was Alexa (aka Swell Designer) and she is such a poser (kidding!) with the chiffon prom dress. I think she would look pretty swell in that.

The cupcake holders cracked me up with the name Krinkle Cups, and then what can I say about the Stickups for gay exciting decorative arrangements for $1.00??

Roller skates! Yes, really. They have to be 50 years old, and in spiffy shape, too. They reminded me of a song I remember called, "Brand New Key" by Melanie Safka in the 70's. The lyrics are:

I got a brand new pair of roller skates

You got a brand new key

I think that we should get together and try them out you see

Isn't he cute? This little owl clock was only about 4 inches tall. I might go back and get him, because I can't stop thinkin' about him.

Then, I saw this super pretty ad on a tin sign about cosmetics with Lucille Ball. I didn't know she did anything besides the I Love Lucy television show.

Okay, so now I can't get that silly roller skate song out of my head.....

Sleevies 2000 vs. Snuggies 2009

Okay, there are SOME of you that will believe me when I tell you that a friend and I dreamed up these crazy blankets with sleeves when I lived in Santa Barbara in 2000. And there are some of you that WON'T believe me, but check out my HAIR! It was very long at the time as you can see, and I'm totally 9 years younger in these pics.

Believe it or NOT, we really did dream it up (and obviously some other people did too) when we were watching those commercials about the funny sleeping bag thingies to set around in during the cold weather.

Well, we went so far as to do this cheeeeze waddy photo shoot as you see here, and then went to the LA fabric market to source felt fabrics, get pricing, and create the pattern. I sewed up several SLEEVIES and sent the presentation to a buyer at one of the craft chains and they said YES!

The only problem is, we needed about 100K to purchase, package and ship these things we called SLEEVIES, and we just didn't have the moolah!

The Aleene's Creative Living Show that we were working on, had been canceled and my friend and I certainly didn't have the cash or enough friends to float the loan. Preeeety sad, huh?

Soooo, we ended up canning the idea and forgetting all about it until this winter when the SNUGGIES commercials hit the airways. Geeeeez! Had we only known! Wah. We threw a little pity party and moaned when we started seeing them show up everywhere, and even witnessed a pub crawl right here in our town a few weeks ago. We ultimately missed out on a million do$$ar once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to make it BIG!

Oh well! Chalk it up to being HIGH on ideas, and LOW on cash.

Butterfly Sleeves!

Do you remember butterfly sleeves? If you are were in my Jr. High, you just were not groovy unless you had a dress or top with butterfly sleeves. Who knew that they would come back! This little top is soooo darling for Spring. I can just see it at the Easter egg hunt, or the family picnic, matched up with sweet dirndle shorts. I am going to dig out my fabulous Singer ® Confidence 7470 machine, high tail it to the store, snatch up this Simplicity Pattern #3504, and get busy.

Gone Crafting

We are shooting my craft video segments for www.LifetimeTV.com next week, and I am in a crafting FRENZY! So sorry I haven't been posting every day, since it's hard to sew, paint, bead, paper craft and decoupage while I'm blogging. I promise to bring you more crafty things, so do come back and check me out. Today I'm working on circle books, re-crafted 6-packs turned into organizers, and sassy invitations to a girl's night out party. Ta-ta-for-now....

Craft A Go-Go

Don’t tell anyone, but I made a D in Home Ec, and the teacher hated me, but I don't blame her. In my adolescent arrogance, I did not care about learning to make a potholder when I was sitting there in a dress I made myself. Can I help it, that my mom had already taught me how to sew? It was a weekly adventure for us to trek to the local fabric store in Ada, Oklahoma to find the grooviest new dress pattern and the latest double knit. Oops, I just gave my age away. I remember an orange sherbet paisley printed a-line dress, with long bell sleeves and extra long pointy collar. Look out, Twiggy. That collar was a bitch to sew, but it was worth it. I had the white patent go-go boots too, baby. Woohoo. I'm outa here...gotta get to a fabric store. Can you say paisley?