Christmas Is Coming to Soon!!!

Two and a half weeks to go and I don't even have any decorations up, usually we get it done right after Thanksgiving but not this year, I have been way to busy, lol.

I have had a little help with some of my projects:

Here my Grandson Ryan is helping to wrap dowels to make Korker Bows

Oops dropped something.

He listens so intently.

Ryan twisting the dowel while Grandma holds the ribbon.

Yarn Puppy

Isn't it cute! I thought this would be a great seller at the store, but due to the bulk of the yarn and trying to get it turned right side out, I had to leave a lot of seams un-sewn and then hand stitch. To much work that people probably wouldn't want to pay for. But of course both of my daughters want one. I told them I would loan them the pattern, give them fabric, yarn and eyes and even some ribbon and they could make them themselves. Big no to that one.

Latest projects have been doing dog tags, very fun and easy to do!

Happy Day Before Thanksgiving!!

Clipart purchased from http://www.countryclipart.com/

My Son In Law is home from Iraq!!! Maegan and Ryan were able to spend an hour with him in Indianapolis on Tuesday. He is gone right now again for all the final stuff they need to do before he can come home for good, we are hopeful for Saturday or Sunday! All those that are still there, sending out good thoughts and prayers for your safe return to your own families.

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy and Healthy Thanksgiving Holiday. We are doing a big traditonal dinner here. My oldest daughter Maegan who is here just about every day with my Grandson Ryan has been a really big help to me in getting my house in order. I used to be a super duper housekeeper, but as I get older it doesn't seem to matter as much. Our house isn't filthy, but the deep cleaning that I used to do once a week doesn't happen that often. My main objective is to keep the junk cleaned up, but then I think everyone has that spot in their house that seems to accumulate everything.

Still working on stuff for the store, latest project is chalk/oilcloth mats. Took several over to the store and the owner wanted 4, lol. Had a issue with the chalk falling out of them so need to re-think my design and come up with a way to keep the chalk from falling out if it gets turned upside down. She also wanted a chalk eraser with each of them, I had looked for small erasers but hadn't come up with any that were reasonably priced. The store owner (Deb) said she has some foam that she thinks will work for that purpose. So I will pick that up after Thanksgiving and attach it some how so it doesn't get lost, or make another pocket for it. Once I have a good finished product I will post pics.

Hugs,

Renee

Bitten By the Prim Bug!!!

I suppose it was only a matter of time since the store where I have my space is mostly prim stuff, lol. Sometimes I feel out of place there but sales last month were really good! Thank you to all that made a purchase from me!!! It lets me continue to be a SAHW&M and continue doing what I love, spending time with my family and crafting.

My original search on the internet started with looking for prim ornaments to make, to hang on my tree at the store, which is the Country Lane General Store in Auburn, IN (just had to get that plug in there, lol) my tree looks pretty bare compared to all the other trees.

I found a lot of interesting sites and a lot of information out there too! One site I particularly love is http://www.sewpractical.com/store/Default.asp She has a lot of free patterns and tutorials and I even purchased a couple of her patterns!

Some recipes I have been playing with the last couple of days. Candy canes, cinnamon buns and christmas cookies made from a salt dough recipe.

Cinnamon and applesauce balls, ummmm these smell so good!

I just so happened to have some prim apple fabric laying around

which makes a perfect bow for these.

My drying rack.

S'more fabric button necklaces for the store, soooo cute!

My Store Display

Finally was able to get pictures taken of my store display and all of my items that I have managed to get crammed into my allotted space.

Little Girl Purses, Woven and Fabric Headbands, Kitchen Towels, Necklaces and Hair Barrettes
Bottlecaps, Button Bracelets and Earrings, Poly-Clay Bracelets and Hair Clippies.
Poly-Clay Magnets and Embroidered Magnets
Button Magnets
Korker Bows!!!!
Purses.............
More Purses...............
More Stuff...........FSL Embroidered Apple Bowl and Doily, Kitchen Tea Towels and Tissue Cover.

Messenger Bag Project for oldest Daughter

I had made 2 of these in a larger version for my youngest daughter and her friend to use for book bags, oldest daughter saw theirs and wanted the same type, but smaller sized for a purse. So re-drafted the pattern smaller. There are 2 pockets on the inside. She also wanted her last name embroidered on a patch and added to the front. I had made her a pin back button with her hubby's picture on it, so she added that along with several other pins. He is currently serving in Iraq, due home in November, we can't wait!!!!!

Latest Sewing Project and Family Addition

Latest sewing project, Fish house for the kitties! Sabre loves it!

Oldest Daughter Maegan's new Kitty, Princess Leia. She has been a sick kitty. Upper respiratory infection and an ear infection. Took her to the vet to be treated. Went again a week later to have all her shots and flea medicine and this time they gave her a antibiotic shot. She is still taking her liquid medicine and we are putting drops in her ears too, poor baby, doesn't look very happy does she. She is another rescue animal from the Shelter. She has been staying with me after trips to the vet, until my daughter gets off work in the evening, then she picks her up and takes her home.

This is our kitty, Lilly, from the Shelter. She is happy and healthy, and a pistol! Goes to the vet in a couple of weeks to be spade and front claws removed, of course my curtains will be destroyed by the time that happens.
Latest addition, Sabre. Thought we were getting a boy kitty, then my son brought him home and we discovered he is a she! She and Lilly love to tear around the house and play fight all the time. Glad they have each other to play with, that way they leave poor Blackie, our older male cat alone. She will be making a trip to the vet for her shots soon. Loves to be loved, the minute she hears your voice she is meowing wanting loved on. She came from a friend of my son Eric. Their cat had kittens and my son liked this one, so he brought her home. She is the littlest, but very spunky and gives as well as she gets from Lilly.
Have to add a pic of my Grandson Ryan playing with the hose. It has been so hot here, in the 90's and very humid. So what better way to water the yard and have some fun then to give the hose to him.

Covering those Pesky 1/2" Buttons

I make and sell button bracelets, rings and ear rings at the Country Lane General Store. Each bracelet takes 12 buttons! After making about 50 buttons one day, by hand my thumb was numb, I still had a lot more to go. So I looked on the internet for something that you could use to do the covering for you, I think the cheapest machine I saw was well over $100, unbelievable, no way was I going to spend that much.

Out to the garage to figure out something to use to push the 2 parts together neatly and efficiently and saving my thumb from going numb. This is what I came up with.

This is my drill press with a dowel rod inserted into the bit holder. The dowel rod fits perfectly inside the 1/2" button back. You do not have to turn the drill press on, just position your button under the dowel rod and pull down on the handle. This set up would work for larger buttons also, just attach a larger dowel rod to the smaller one, or a piece of wood cut to match the back of the button you want to cover. I plan on using this set up mainly for the smaller 1/2" buttons, the larger buttons I don't make large quantities of, but if that changes I now have a set up I can use.

Here are 2 samples of my button bracelets.

I hope you find this useful!

Hugs,

Renee

Great News!

My Sales at the Country Lane General Store are up, I am so excited!!!! Deb, the owner called me and asked if I was working on stuff, uh no not right at that moment, hubby and I were eating out, lol. She told me that my booth was swamped and I better be getting busy getting more stuff made up to replace what has been sold.

Everything I have made up is now at the store, so much easier than eBay or Etsy. I don't have to ship anything, and the overall cost is cheaper by the month. No PayPal taking a chunk of my earnings either.

Watch for pictures coming soon of my easy way to cover buttons without your thumb going numb!

Quilting In July?

Yeah, 90° + and I get in a quilting mood, lol. Actually it started with me trying to clean up my sewing room to get rid of some items and make room to actually work in here. Came across a quilt that I had helped my oldest daughter get started to make. She picked the block fabric's, and the block pattern, I showed her how to use the rotary cutter to make cutting easier, and then how to piece them together. Then sent her on her way home, but it came back to me. With her job and a 2 yr old, her time to sew is very limited so it came back to me with a lot of blocks to finish. After I pieced all the blocks together, I went shopping to pick out some border fabric and came across this funky yellow-orange splash, I thought it helped to bring out some of the colors in the blocks with butterflies. Stipple quilted which is my favorite quilting method!





After I finished her project I then decided to refresh my paper piecing skills. Pulled out a pattern I purchased from http://www.paperpanache.com/
called New Bumbly Bs. She has great directions plus free instructions and designs on her site also.

Check out my etsy store

I shut down my ebay store back when all the sellers were going on strike due to the unfavorable changes that ebay made. Decided to try etsy, I have sold 2 items so far, a couple of badge reels. I have so many items to list yet! Keep checking out my store there *SewitchStitching.etsy.com* if you are a member of etsy please add me to your favorites!

I also accept RME for payment besides the usual PayPal, Money Order and Personal Checks.

This is a view that I hope to have every day, some day. This is a picture from our lake vacation, DH and I hope to retire someday to a nice little lake cottage.

Home From Vacation

View from our cottage we rented for a week on Lake Tippacanoe, Patona Bay in Leesburg, Indiana. We all had a great time! My son Eric took his friend Cody and my daughter Elizabeth took her friend Samantha, Vacation with 4 teenagers??? LOL We also rented a pontoon for the week so we spent a lot of time out on the boat, swimming on a sandbar just out a little bit from where we were staying.

The kids wanted to do that more than go down a little ways to the beach, which was set up mostly for little kids, the raft was only about waist deep there. None of us would get off the boat and go swimming until Cody had jumped in the water to scare away the fish and turtles! He loved doing back flips to try to impress girls on other boats, lol.

Fishing wasn't to bad, not that great either. We all went fishing and caught a few but turned them loose, mostly bluegill and a couple nice size bass. Everyone else had casting rods but I used an old fashioned cane pole, just like my Grandpa used to set up for me when I was a kid, actually caught a nice size bass using it.
Plenty of sun and fun for everyone!!

It has taken me several days to get laundry caught up, lawns mowed and just general stuff done around the house.

Actually went out and picked strawberries from my little patch and had enough to make a batch of strawberry jam, ummmmmm yummy.

Can't wait to get back to crafting~!

While we were gone my oldest daughter got married! Her fiance was able to come home on leave from Iraq for 2 weeks, so they decided to get married. Went to the courthouse. They had the reception today and we had beautiful weather too! I am so happy she found a great guy who will be a wonderful husband for her and a wonderful father to her son Ryan. Congratulations!!!!!! He has to leave on the 21st to go back but will be able to come home for good in December, thoughts and prayers go with him!

Hugs,
Renee

June Happenings

We are heading off on vacation soon! Not sure how much of a vacation that will be with DH, me, son 17 and daughter 14, plus they are each taking a friend! Will let you know how it goes later!

Embroidered Pony Tail Cuffs and Bracelets.

Also playing with Polymer Clay, learning how to make floral canes, this is quite addictive! I hadn't planned on getting so involved in the clay but once I purchased a pasta machine that was it, I am hooked. These are some bracelets I made using my first floral cane attempt.

It has finally warmed up here in Indiana. Near 90° and very humid! Not my kind of weather at all. Hopefully everyone stays safe and cool this summer, and crafting.
Hugs,
Renee

May Stuff

Wow it is May already! My birthday is this month, going to be 45, another Wow!

I was unsuccessful with the quitting smoking, I did really good for 3 weeks on the Chantix then went back to the Dr. and had gained 10 pounds, not good, I sure did not need the extra weight! I tried so hard too, to not eat extra stuff, I wanted to be one person that could say "I quit smoking and didn't gain any weight" but that didn't happen. It has been 2 weeks now and I still haven't lost the additional weight, but am working on it.

Latest and greatest projects have been using my decorated bottlecaps and attaching them to doodads from Oriental Trading to be worn in croc shoes. I have never owned a pair until I did these, I always want to try out my stuff to make sure it will work and be comfortable to the wearer. So off to Wal-Mart to buy a pair to test before I went into major production of these.

The other thing I am doing with them is attaching them to Tie Tack Pins, that way you can decorate whatever you can get a pin through. This was Deb's idea from the store, Country Lane General Store where I have my stuff on display and for sale.

Also playing around with my button machine I purchased. It makes 2.25" buttons, I purchased all kinds of stuff with it to make keyrings, magnets and mirrors too. Still trying to figure out which program that I already have, works the best for making my own personalized buttons.

I have been bitten by the polymer clay bug! Ugh! I have purchased several molds and clays and have been playing around with these. Not sure if it is something I will continue to do or not? Why? Because I am starting to feel like I am spreading myself to thin. I have several projects that I want to get done, things I love to do but because of all the other "new" stuff I have been doing my long time loves are getting left in the dust. Thankfully all of my machines have dust covers.

Hugs!

Update for April

I can't believe it has been over a month since I last posted! I promised myself when I started this that I would keep up on it, need to do better!

A lot has happened since I last posted, my Grandmother passed away on March 13th, she was 89 years old. I was doing pretty good in handling it all, I kind of lost it when seeing my Aunt from Montana, and then again when the pastor mentioned the passing of my brother almost a year ago. I want to try and make it to family reunions from now on, it is strange meeting relatives and remembering them from my childhood but not able to place names to these familiar and comforting faces.

One thing I would like to mention here is that the day after my Grandmother's funeral my Dear Hubby and I were shopping at Wal-Mart, we were looking at the coffee when a loaf of bread further ahead of us, from the top shelf fell to the floor. Didn't think anything of it, I have seen bread fall before. We then get to the check out and in the process of scanning our items one flies out of the cashier's hand and across the floor? Ok, me I am stacking the bags in the cart, making sure they all stay in the spot I put them, one bag fell over after I had just what I thought nested it in its place. Starting to get thinking a little bit here?! We get home and nothing else happens out of the ordinary until later on.

I had told my daughter to pick up her shoes and put them on the shoe rack before they left to go to their Dad's. DH and I eat supper and then take a little nap. After we get up he goes in his office and I decide to sweep the kitchen floor using the broom, my daughters shoes that she had put on the shoe rack several hours earlier fall off the shoe rack, I pick them up and put them back. Then I hear the sound of something falling in the laundry room which is just off of the kitchen. I come back here to look and it is a long skinny box that had been laying on top of my dryer, some how it fell off and completely missed a lint roller that was standing up on its end. The box also landed on its long skinny side? Do you have goose bumps now??? I sure did. I went to DH in his office and told him about these latest things falling. I told him that I think it is my Grandmother trying to let me know that she is around me, that she is ok? after that no more falling objects.

I don't know for sure how my sales are going at the Country Lane General Store in Auburn, I go over there and check my stuff and it isn't flying off the shelves like I had hoped, lol. It has only been a little over a month, I hope people just need to find me and spread the word! If I have had any sales I should receive a check around the 10th of this month with the monthly newsletter that the owner sends out, cross your fingers it is HUGE, my check not necessarily the newsletter ((*-*))

I have now opened a shop on Etsy, for those that don't know it is a place kind of like eBay but not auction style, and you can sell your handmade items. Here is the link to my store Sewitch Stitching

http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5599084

Items listed on Etsy-pronounced like Betsy.

I have several different badge reel holders with different buttons on them be sure and check out my store listings.

More big news! I have quit smoking, ok I am attempting and do pretty good most days. I have not bought any since March 19th, I was still bumming maybe a cigarette a day from my oldest daughter when she would come over, then I decided on Easter Sunday as my Grandmother would say to "Shit or get off the pot" which means to me that either I was going to quit or I wasn't! So that was it no more bumming, I haven't been completely smoke free, most days when hubby is home I am strong, but when he is gone I become weak and smoke those half cigarettes my DD leaves out in the garage in my ash tray, can you say yuck! Tuesday no cigs, Wed butt day, and today no cigs, I am not going to give up! My will to quit is still stronger than my will to smoke!

I have put on a couple of pounds even though I have tried to watch what I eat! Ugh, I sure don't need to gain any more weight, that is another goal to lose weight this summer. Heck if I can quit smoking I can lose weight. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers.

Hugs to All!

Renee

Still Working Away

Been really super busy! I did get over to the Country Lane General Store, in Auburn, IN (gotta get a plug in there) to set up my area to sell my creations! Whew was that a job, my oldest DD and I were up until 4am getting everything I had bagged and tagged. I was going to try and get to the store when they opened at 10am but after being up so late, just didn't get up in time. Not a problem, they are open all day. Did make it over there around noon and oldest DD came over to help me set up, took us a couple of hours, but the majority of stuff is up. I still have more items that needed display cards and those finally came, so I will be making another trip to completely fill up my area, once some additional pegboard hooks get here in the next couple of days, I hope.

Been working on more woven headbands, and matching bracelets.

Also some ribbon covered 1/2" headbands with matching bracelets.