I feel very spoiled.

Because of the layout of the house we turned one of the bedrooms into an office (which really is just a desk since we got the laptop a few months ago) and my sewing/craft/homeschool room. Which is more to say it is a very pretty, nicely organized storage area. I have all of this space available to me and I am not using it the best that I can!

I decided to change that today. I started cleaning off the sewing desk so I could sew a few things. I need to work on a rag quilt that I’ve had the material for, for YEARS…like three or four. I also want to make Alice a few easy dresses for the fall. And I have so many other projects in mind!

So I took all of the baskets and stuff piled on the desk and sorted it out. It was good timing as the electricity picked that moment to go out for about a half hour or so. The kids played checkers and cards while I sorted screws, beads, finished projects and Chris’ uniform items. Once that was done, I had three empty baskets! I’m sure they’ll be used very soon though.

Tomorrow I am going to move my pictures and prints (they are stacked up next to the sewing area) and get the two huge boxes of material out and see what I have. I’m sure I have plenty and could make more then a few dresses. I’m excited! I have a designated area for my stamping and card making and really need to use our space better. We are lucky to have a house this big and I doubt it’ll happen again for a very long time, might as well take advantage while we can!

Of course this helps get the home school stuff situated - it’s just about that time you know.

This is by far some of the coolest things I’ve seen lately! I’ve been using my StumbleUpon button to browse for new craft sites and came across this tonight. Check out this page of stamps, they are the new images offered by Hot Potatoes, and they are sewing stuff! I love them! I’m so excited, I’m saving the site here so I know where to go back to when I want to order a stamp. There are buttons, a cross stitch stamp, a little spool of thread with “handmade by”, pins, a sewing machine. Ah, heaven. They look so very cool.

Technorati Tags: stamps, handmade

Check out this cool site that has everything you need to know about making soap - as well as lip balms, lotions, etc. I’ve never tried making any of these things but when I see the kits in the craft story it is so hard to pass them up! I wonder if they would be kid safe at all, since they involve melting and such?

Technorati Tags: making soap, craft instructions

I feel like we watched only Disney movies today. Between the laundry, dishes and homeschool research I have to say The Lion King is still the best movie they put out! I’ve always loved that movie. We also watched The Little Mermaid - and I so love it that Alice wants to watch these movies. Jake isn’t that interested but that’s okay.

They had a good, restful day. Alice’s voice is gone now and Jake’s is coming back. I hate it when they are sick, they make me feel so bad. I’ve been having to give her lots of meds because she’s had a fever that just won’t go away. In the middle of the night last night it was 102.4 and she was shivering, I forgot that you got the chills when you have a fever. I took Jake to the dr the other day and (long story VERY short) after the dr saying nothing was wrong with him, he gave us meds anyway. I don’t usually rush to take them to the dr so the visit was very annoying, and I don’t look forward to another!

But Alice was feeling well enough to start a popsicle stick purse. We got halfway done today and ran out of sticks, so once we get more and finish I’ll show the pictures. It’s a project taken from the Craftster book - very fun, fast and easy. She’s having a great time building it and when I mentioned I thought it would need a little bag inside of it, she offered to jump up and get her sewing machine first thing. It’s a purple, green, red, blue, yellow, orange purse so who knows what fabric would look good in there! I’m going to look through my stash tomorrow before going out.

Did you do any crafty projects this weekend? We borrowed the Craftster book from the library so I’m going to see if there is anything else we have to do before returning it.

Technorati Tags: Crafster book, popsicle stick purse, Disney movies

I got the idea for this card from this card in the splitcoast gallery. I’ve had the Stampin’ Up chalk set for quite a while now but never used it because I was too scared to! And after using it - wow, I love them! All I did was stamp the image (the leaves) in versamark and then use a qtip to brush the chalk over. The instructions do say to use a cotton ball but I couldn’t find them the day I did this card. The qtips worked well I thought, and when I did find the cotton ball I thought too much chalk got onto the card - though maybe that was the point? I’ve been playing around with my chalks here and there and like the effect the qtip gives much better.

I made a few of these cards for a swap group I am in and kept a couple for myself. I haven’t sent them to anyone yet, just adding to my growing card collection.

All paper, inks, stamps, etc copyright Stampin’ Up

Technorati Tags: handmade cards, stamping, Stampin’ Up

It seems that I go back and forth with the frequency of posting to this blog - and so I’m participating in a challenge! Check out the other blogs listed here and I encourage you to join in the fun. We are going to be posting to our blogs every day for 30 days.

I’m excited about this!

Crystal Misener of Happy Mommy Thoughts
Jenni Hunt of Snacks For Toddlers
Diana of The Cravings Coach
Kristine McKinley of Financial Tips For WAHMs
Marie Ynami of Mommy Community
Courtney of Mom Needs A Clone
Carrie Lauth with her own Carrie Lauth blog

And of course my blog - Tsoniki of Me Being Crafty.

I’m going to get to posting more on this blog and then work around to my others.

I made this card for a swap I did earlier this month. I wanted to do a holiday card - and then I got all the other swaps back the other day and they all used new stamp sets! Ah well that’s okay, it’s a cute design.

It is missing something though, color filled in the little border maybe? I do like the card and think if I made more I would just line the tags up straight. On some cards they staggered nicely and on others it seemed like it didn’t work out - all the measurements were the same but it was still kind of odd.

I’m actually going to go through the holiday cards I have now and see how many I have. I know I have quite a few but maybe I’ll make a few more of these anyway. They were fast and easy - the coloring and punching the tags out took the longest - and I like them not being all Christmas colored - you know, not *all* green and red.

(all images, paper, ink copyright Stampin’ Up)

Technorati Tags: Stampin’ Up, handmade cards, stamping