Finished My Bag!!!

I finally finished this bag last night, but didn't have any buttons for it.  So, this morning I grabbed my JoAnn discount coupons and headed out to find the perfect buttons.  Wow......buttons are expensive.  I didn't want shiny plastic buttons, so of course I had to pay a little extra for these.  These darned buttons cost me $3.69 each.  I needed a total of 4!!  I did get 10% off my total order.  So that knocked them down a little bit.  They have kind of a ruff sandy feel to them.  You can't tell that by the photo. I think the buttons cost more than the fabric....LOL!!  I bought this fabric a couple of years ago.  I found Moda "Fig Tree" charm packs on sale one day and bought 3 of them.  It took every inch of those charm packs to make this bag.  I had to use a different line of fabric for the lining.  I used a Whistlepig Creek #1172 Scrap Bag Cuties pattern.  I did become very good friends with my seam ripper as I made this bag.....LOL!!  I learned a lot during the making of it and hopefully my next attempt at it will be a little more pleasant.  I do think I know what I'm doing now....maybe?

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I hope everyone took a few minutes today to REMEMBER  the men and women who keep our country safe and free!!  And to those who have lost their lives for our FREEDOM.   I thank you.

Card Patterns Weekly Sketch 65

I always forget about the weekly sketch challenge over at Card Patterns.  I'm so glad I stumbled across the challenge while blog surfing today. 

MY TAKE ON THE SKETCH........................

Fabric Totes

I've been sewing all afternoon and I've completed two tote bags.  I spent some time this morning looking through all my quilting fabric and decided on a few fabrics that I thought would make fun tote bags.  I actually made these totes for myself as I have given all the others as gifts.  I have promised Nga that I would make her a couple.  So sweetie if you are reading this......yours will be made soon.

Day 74 at 365 Cards - Buttons & Bows

OKAY.......First of all I must make excuses for myself!!!  When I got up this morning at 4am I checked to see what todays challenge was at 365 Cards.  I read 6 buttons - 6 bows!!  I got ready, left for work, came home for my 2 hour break, never checked out the challenge and sat down and made my card.  Well.......before I made my blog post I go check out the challenge to make sure I have the name right and to my surprise I see 4 buttons - 4 bows!!  I swear it was 6 buttons - 6 bows at 4am.....who changed it.....LOL!!!!!  I'm not going to re-do my card now........so here it is!!  Hopefully tomorrow I'm awake before I check out the challenge!

Here Kitty Kitty!!! - Fun with Fabric Challenge in the Moxie Fab World

I used a piece of scrap fabric on this card.  I love this fabric and I seem to have lots of it!!  I originally used it for a quilt that I was making, but I never finished the quilt and have started cutting it up and using it for other projects.  I made a tote bag with it last week.  The scalloped cardboard piece is a scrap left over from gift tags that I made for Mother's Day.  I've just been in a recycle mode lately!!  

I just found this challenge blog over at MOXIE FAB WORLD and wanted to enter this card.  I did make it a few days before the challenge was posted, so hopefully it is okay to share this one!!

Day 72 at 365 Cards - It Needs Something

Todays challenge over at 365 Cards was to add something to the image that we were going to use.  I added a little glitter and bling to the flower.  The fabric flower and pearls were bought at Michael's in their wedding section.  Its a great  area to find little goodies for our projects.  I found this bird image in some very old, old scrap stuff that I had stored away from maybe 8 years ago!  I found a whole package of stuff!!  I just love finding goodies that I had tucked away.  Its like I went shopping and never left my house......LOL!!!!!

Gift Tags

I hope everyone had a fantastic Mother's Day!  Mine was spent with my family and friends.

I made these gift tags using recycled cardboard.  When you buy a fat quarter piece of fabric at JoAnn's it comes wrapped around a nice piece of cardboard.  I had it stacked on my scrap table and decided I would make these simple tags and tie them onto the tote bags that I made for all the mothers coming to our Mother's Day celebration.

Mother's Day Totes

I will be celebrating Mother's Day with my family and friends at my daughter Lisa's house.  I will be headed up to her house later this afternoon and will be spending the night.  We will be celebrating with 8 wonderful moms, ranging in age from 88 years old down to 30 years old.  The men in our family are really picky eaters and Lisa and I couldn't decide on a menu that would please everyone, so we decided everyone loves Taco's,  so we are having a big Taco fest!!  I know.......mom's aren't supposed to cook on MOTHER'S DAY.........but, the men in our lives really don't have a clue when it comes to planning a meal.  We are hoping that they at least do up the dishes!!!

I've been busy all week making tote bags for all the moms.  Right after work each day I hit the sewing machine and I just finished up the last tote about an hour ago.  These are my first totes ever.  I didn't have to buy one piece of fabric as I have tons of it from my quilting days.  Now I need to get some cards made.....so I better get started on them.  

SO...........HERE'S A LOOK AT MY TOTES!!!!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

I'm wishing all my blogging family and friends a very HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY. I lost my mom in August of 2006. This is for you mom............

If Roses grow in Heaven,
Lord please pick a bunch for me,
Place them in my Mother's arms
and tell her they're from me.
Tell her I love her and miss her,
and when she turns to smile,
place a kiss upon her cheek
and hold her for awhile.
Because remembering her is easy,
I do it every day,
but there's an ache within my heart
that will never go away.

OCC CHALLENGE - BEAUTIFUL BUTTERFLIES

This weeks challenge over at the OCC blog was to use butterflies on our card.  I have these beautiful butterflies from my blogging friend Lisa, so I was excited to get started on the challenge.  I came across this challenge late last night and I had just made a butterfly card on Tuesday, so I entered that card......but then I decided to make another, so hopefully they are okay with me submitting another.  If not.....sorry!!!  Here's a LINK to the challenge.

Clips-n-Cuts is Celebrating 100 Posts - add your blog to the blog hop!!

Monkey print drawsting bag

I bought this monkey print fabric in December and wasn't sure what I was going to do with it.  A couple of months ago I was at my daughter's house and Dominick had his puzzle pieces all over the place and Lisa was trying to put the puzzles back together.  So I told her I would make a bag for them.  I've never made a drawsting bag before, so  I did a little research on the net and thought I knew exactly what I was doing.....wrong!  I made a mistake and had to wing it from that point.  It actually turned out great!  I reinforced every seam to hopefully make them hold up to all the wear and tear of a toddler.  Next time I will make a few changes, but I'm very happy with my little monkey bag for my little monkey grandson!!

Fabric Flowers

Well......here's my first attempt at making these fabric flowers.  My blog friend Lisa posted a tutorial on her blog on how to make these little gems.  Lisa recommended using a sheer fabric when making them, so I bought 3 different colors and made my first four.  I was surprised on just how easy they were to make.  I think they turned out really pretty.  Then I thought how cute they would be in some bright print fabrics.  So.....  I dug around in my quilting stash for the polka-dot fabric, but my flower ended up being pretty bulky and I had to do a lot of tugging and extra stitching to get them into a some-what flower shape!  I do like the fun look of the polka-dot cotton fabric, they will look cute on a card or on one of my granddaughters scrap pages.  Maybe with practice I will improve on their look.  I do recommend using a light fabric if you should choose to make them.  You can find a link to Lisa's blog...."What A Beautiful Mess" over on the right under "blogs that inspire me".

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Butterfly Card

Yesterday I finished making 6 Christmas stockings for my cousin Rhonda.  I had been working on them for a couple of days and just needed to get my hands on some paper!!  So I was sitting in my scraproom watching a little TV and decided to make this card.  I got the butterfly images from Lisa's Blog....What A Beautiful Mess.  She posted them for us to copy, you should go grab some for yourself.  (You can find them in her April blog archive).  They print out beautifully.  Thanks Lisa.  Oh and by the way, she has a flower tutorial that you must see if you like making your own fabric flowers.

Bubble Time

I had a great time with family and friends on Easter Sunday.  I bought my grandkidlets bubble machines and they had a ball.  My little brother enjoyed them too!!!!  He's our I don't want to grow up kid!!!  

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!

                                       PATRICIA ANN MCQUEEN
                        APRIL 2, 1933 ~ AUGUST 6, 2006

These photographs were taken of our mom on her 70th birthday.  It was less than a year after these were taken that our mom started the battle of her life.  Cancer won.

"THE BEST"

God saw you getting tired

And a cure was not to be,

So He put His arms around her

And whispered, "Come with Me."

With tearful eyes we watched

Her suffer and fade away,

Although we loved her deeply,

We could not make her stay.

A golden heart stopped beating,

Hardworking hands put to rest.

God broke our hearts to prove to us,

He only takes the Best.

  We love and miss you so much mom.

    You will be in our hearts forever and ever........

 Our arms are wrapped around you tightly, especially today.

      Love from your children.......Karen, Mike, Gail, Jacob & Krista     

                                 

Easter table centerpiece & new pic's of the grandkidlets!!!

I had the day off work today and spent it with my daughter Lisa and my grandson Dominick.  We took a trip over to JoAnn's craft store and bought some stuff to put together a centerpiece for our Easter table.  I think it turned out really cute.  I had a ball with my grandson.  He calls me maawww!!  Lisa also gave me the new photo's she had taken of Dominick and my granddaughter Mia.  

                         DOMINICK 17 MONTHS ~ MIA 27 MONTHS