Master Procrastinator

That is what I could be for Halloween.  I could dress like a rap star or a d.j.  Or a sort of super hero.  Except Halloween is usually about stepping outside of yourself and dressing as something you are not.  So I should go as Miss Punctuality 2010... maybe with a sash and tiara?

Back to my mastery of procrastination...

This year my kids knew pretty far in advance what they wanted to be for Halloween.  They made the decreed-final decision in mid-September.  They had cool, creative ideas that necessitated mom-help and some clever craftiness and the potential for unusual engineering.  I figured that a month plus lead time was perfect and do-able.  You always walk that line teetering on the brink of "stale idea" when you plan ahead for Halloween.

My kids go to a different kind of school.  At their school there are LOTS of days off (which presents the opportunity for a separate blog entry).  They always have a week off right around Halloween and their school parade is the Thursday or Friday before Halloween... so that costume needs to be ready early.  It also allows for the costume-inclined to have an outfit for the parade AND for real Halloween, which is the route my kids have often taken.

Sooooo... with a month's advance notice I, of course, waited until Monday to begin costumes for the parade today.  I finished them.  Grandma helped. And they came out spectacular... in my humble opinion ;-)

Q-man's required no work from me... Harry Potter.  Thank you for being so easy, Q!

Consignment store and hand-downs!


Big G went classic horror.  He wanted to be The Blob.  Here it is:

Big red t-shirt with balloons stapled to it covered by a clear plastic shower curtain with red plastic wrap taped all over it.

The balloons underneath give it that sort of gelatinous jiggle.

Baby X was the show-stopper...  a peacock!  

Poster board, tape, ribbon, and a whole lot of feathers.

Below you can see the beginning of the construction.

Miss C was still in her jammies for the event.  The jury is still out on what she will wear for Halloween.

So given the craftiness and engineering genius and fact that the costumes were completed on time (!) maybe Master Procrastinator gets to be a super hero after all!

Happy Halloween!

Another busy week whizzes by. I had to put a lot of time in at the office this week ... four long, long days of paperwork, but I had some treats too!






















It started off with a fab trip to Falmouth with Jo primarily to visit the vintage flea market and Trago Mills. On the way, we were seduced into Mr. Simms Olde Sweet Shoppe, purveyors of the finest confectionery. We were like two kids in a candy store, oh yes!

I bought some damson flavoured fudge but it didn't last long enough to be photographed!























At the vintage
flea market I
found some
Pingouin biais
de coton
(basically
calico fabric
1 cm wide x
50 metres)
only £1 a ball
and perfect for
natural dyeing
experiments

I got lots of
textile and art
bits in Trago's
too!


I had a wonderful swap with Monique of Blueberry Fields. Monique saw this birdie collage I made earlier and she wanted one similar
















This is the raw edged birdie collage I made for Monique. It is mixed media - calico, fabric, printed papers, printed calico machine stitched with feathers, buttons and hand stitching




















I made the little tag too. It is hand painted, distressed with ink with a flower brad I made

















I swapped the birdie for the cutest little pumpkin I have ever seen called "sweetness". I have already blogged it here along with other autumn treasures

I was very lucky to win another giveaway hosted by Mademoiselle G. I won these gorgeous printed cards with the art work of Genevieve which came in time for Halloween
















For Halloween I also love the stuff that Kath (Out on a Whim) makes, so a little while ago I got this altered tag

















Along with the tag Kath sent me these bits n bobs, vintage black buttons, dark red ribbon and vintage silver edged frames - thanks Kath

















One of my stuffies got into Cloth Paper Scissors - it's on page 76 of the latest issue (Nov/Dec). The fabric was painted and inked and the seed heads were made from fabric, lace, paper and plastic and then machined in silver metallic thread






















I'll try and get round to posting more about how I made the stuffies and some photographs on Stitched Stuffies very soon but I've got another busy week ahead so I'm not sure when I'll get to do it

















My week ahead is hectic. I'm away for a few days visiting Mum & Dad in Somerset then I've got two commissions to work on, some giveaway prizes to package up and I want to try and get to a few galleries too. In particular, I want to see Biddy Picard's work at Badcocks and the art work of Catherine Hyde at The Lighthouse Gallery in Penzance. I have loved Catherine Hyde's work for a long time when I fell in love with one of her paintings of an Autumn crow. Catherine paints nature and landscapes


















GIVEAWAY!

Now it's time to announce the results of the giveaway

I want to thank each and every one of you for entering. I found your responses charming and interesting and enjoyed reading them all very much. I was overwhelmed by the number of responses so I've added a few prizes to the pot. There will be the three original prizes of the textile art/craft inspiration packs and a textile art heart made by me. In addition, I am offering four prizes of a textile art heart. So now to the winners:

I wrote down all the names - can you see yourself in there?


















I folded all the names (133) and put them in the hat. OK - it's not a pointy hat - I was working so I just didn't get time to make a pointy hat! But I did knit this lovely red beanie hat recently


















I had help on the blog today from my giveaway assistant - Custard the cat! He found it quite easy to get his paws in the hat and these are the names he pulled ...



















THE WINNERS!

The first three names Custard picked were:

DOREEN G
LIBBY QUILTER
SHARNE

You each win a creative textile art/craft inspiration pack and a textile art heart

The next four names Custard picked out win a textile art heart:

GER
MONICA - THE WHITE BENCH
EMMA - SILVER PEBBLE
MELANIE UYS

I will be contacting you so that I can get your prizes off to you. I really enjoyed this giveaway, it was a lot of fun, so I'm thinking about doing another one in December with a Christmas theme! Watch this space!

Have a great weekend ♥

secret pals . . .

One thing that I have learned in being a secret pal is that it's not in the getting, it's in the giving. It makes me think of the scripture that talks about not lending, but giving without an expectation of getting it back. I have learned to take such incredible joy in giving, that whether or not there's something on the table for me doesn't matter. If there's nothing there, no biggie. If there is, pleasant surprise.

That being said, this week is a biggie week! It's the last Sunday before Halloween, so I wanted this week's gift to be *loads* of fun!!! I'd gotten a really cute copper pumpkin at Cracker Barrel, along with some of the creamy pumpkin candies (like candy corn, only pumpkins). I'd also gotten a pink John Deere tee-shirt. Yesterday at Two Friends (one of my favorite all-time gift shops), I got a really cool candle holder--it was frosted on the outside, and purple tinted on the inside, with silver bats! Inside that I tucked some scented votive candles. Then last night, I got the idea to make an applique pumpkin -- just a little sumpin'-sumpin' that was hand-crafted. Nothing extravagant. I'd picked up lots of really beautiful orange batik fat quarters at our quilt show, so I pulled those out and played around until I found a combination I liked. I zipped it out and rolled it up and put in the mix, and topped the whole thing off with some Hershey's Treasures. Add a cute little homemade card and some black tissue paper, and voila! It's a pretty cute little gift, if I do say so myself!

This is my first attempt to outline iron-on applique with a zig-zag stitch on the machine. I am really pleased with the results! I was going to quilt it on the machine, but I still don't have the guts to do anything but straight lines!

I tried to arrange the gold "Treasures" so that they poked through in the eyes, nose, and mouth holes! Glimmer of gold -- like a lit pumpkin!

I played around with the words for the poem for a while. I wanted it to be fun, but still make a point about what we're really about. God!

It's hard to read in the photo, so I'll reprint it:

Cauldron boil and cauldron bubble . . .
Halloween can be full of trouble!
But you little lamb, must not despair
The wickedness that fills the air;
For you are a child of the most High God!
He comforts and protects with His staff & rod.
And though mischief-making fills the land,
Nothing can pluck you from His hand.

Psalm 23:4 & John 10:29

The main thing is, I hope it brings a smile to my pal's face!

We're watching Alabama Tide vs. the Volunteers. I put some pork in the crock pot, and we'll have BBQ sandwiches and fries for dinner. At 5:30 we'll head over to Lighthouse for a benefit singing for HAP!

All in all, a lovely, quiet Saturday!

:)

more weekend pictures . . .

Okay. Because I realized I had not uploaded all the pictures I would have liked to, and because I finally figured out that if you compress your pictures they upload a LOT faster, here are some more glimpses into my super-wonderful weekend!

Here's that lovely breakfast I told you about . . . note that the napkin is still on the table with the spider! I had tomato juice (which was very fitting, considering our table setting, I thought). And please also note the truffles & ice cream appetizer! YUM!

Our second course of eggs, toast, bacon & grits! Doesn't it look great? And I kept the coffee coming! (As I told Jane -- Todd's a one cup of coffee person, and I'm a one pot of coffee person!)

One cat . . . Spot

Two cat . . . Maddy! (And three and four cat, too!)

More festive decorations! (And more cats.)

And more . . . most everything had cats!

See what I mean?

I loved this guy, hanging out at the bottom of the stairs!

This was Ginger, one of the upstairs cats. She was very shy. In fact, she bolted as we came up the stairs to take a look at the other guest bedroom, and only peeked around the door when I called her by name. I think, by her look, she's wondering who the heck I am to call her by her given name. She really did look rather indignant!

These are pictures of the quilts I found in her church . . . they really were beautiful.

And finally, a darling hand wreath which was on the wall in one of the children's Sunday school rooms! (We got the royal tour!)

The heavens declare the glory of God. That pretty much sums it up, perfectly.

:)

what a weekend!!!

And I can say that on a Tuesday, because my weekend extends into Monday! What a nice way to cap off my fun little surprise escapade with my hubby -- with one more day off!

So, the fun started Saturday morning. Todd came home off shift, showered, and we loaded up the car. I had lots of questions; most of them went answered! Anyway, we got settled in the car, ready to head out, and Todd had me put this into our trusty GPS:

Okay! I now know we're headed north to Murfreesboro, Tennessee! Our drive was about an hour and a half through rolling hills and lots of farm land. The leaves are just starting to change, and had it not been a drizzling day, the color would have been absolutely spectacular!

We finally turned our last corner, into the driveway of our destination, which was:

The Hastings House Bed & Breakfast! We were warmly greeted by our hostess, Jane Blakey, and shown to our room, The Quilt Room. How appropriate is that?!?! As you entered the room, the first thing that catches your eye is:

This beautiful quilt that her grandmother had hand quilted hangs over the sleigh bed. Quite beautiful! There were several quilted items in the room, including this gem which was one the wall at the door --

It was a piece of an old crazy quilt that had been in her family, and she'd had made into a skirt. When the skirt was finally too worn to wear anymore, she had a piece cut and framed to save forever. Really cool! There was also an embroidered quilt on the bed, with matching pillow, and several additional quilted pillows, including a patchwork cat! This was truly my kind of lady, as you can see here:

And this was definitely a home; she had two indoor/outdoor cats and four indoor cats! Two of the indoor cats were downstairs cats and two were upstairs cats. The two downstairs felines, Spot & Maddy, were long-haired, but groomed like lions. They were both very sweet cats and beautiful! Jane did warn us that we needed to shut the door to our room; the cats took ownership seriously, and to a cat (as anyone knows) an open door is an invitation! In addition to the live cats, there were a plethora of cats throughout the house as decor; Todd and I counted 49 just in our bed & bath rooms! There is no telling how many there were throughout the whole house. Hundreds upon hundreds, easily!

On top of the cat decor, Jane takes her holidays seriously, and the entire house was decked out in Halloween! It was quite fun, and literally was in every available space!

My favorites in the dining room were the buzzards perched on top of the china cabinet.

The three rats sitting on the parlor table were quite realistic (unless you take all the cats into consideration; perhaps that's why they were so "ratty"!

And there were lots more fun things (and I took lots of pictures that are not posted here), but it was time to get back into the car, because the surprises weren't finished! After a bite to eat at Logan's we headed to . . .

Bell Buckle, Tennessee!!! Where they had their HUGE annual arts & crafts/flea market/festival weekend going on! It was huge -- over 500 vendors, spread throughout the town. All *kinds* of stuff, from hand-crafted hats, to seasonal decorations, to jewelry . . . you name it, it was findable at Bell Buckle! We were able to park relatively close to the action, and the first order of business was finding a vendor who had GLOVES and HATS and SCARVES! It was *soooo* cold, windy, and drizzly! My first purchase, in fact, was a $2 pair of mittens. After that, I was good to go, but I didn't take a lot of pictures, because that meant taking my fingers out of their warm & cozy mittens! Weren't no way! I took one photo going into the food area, because at that point I had a very nostalgic sense of the Annapolis Renaissance Festival and it made me happy! :)

The festival shut down at dusk, and we stayed until the end! I found some fun pins -- a scarecrow, a cornucopia, and a darling snowman with snowflake earrings. I also grabbed some wonderful hot chocolate mix, a red flannel scarf that went perfectly with my newly fabricated sweatshirt jacket, a pink John Deere t-shirt for my Secret Pal, and some yummy pumpkin fudge for me and sugar-free fudge for Todd! Todd was more rudimentary in his purchases -- fingerless gloves with a mitten top, a crocheted scarf, and a crocheted cap. I'll probably end up wearing the cap! :)

Once we were spent, we headed back to the car. I was so glad to get the heat pumping! We had seen a Cracker Barrel on our way to Bell Buckle, and had already decided that would be our dinner stop. I was still so chilled, I had decaf coffee with my dinner! After dinner we (I) did a little (more) shopping. They had a black fleece poncho with a faux fur-lined hood which I snatched up. I also got a squirrel votive holder for James (because he'd coveted mine), and some Halloweenish stuff for my SP. From Cracker Barrel, we made a quick stop at KMart, and then headed back to the B&B to watch the Alabama vs. South Carolina game! When we got into our room, we found the fire place on, our bed turned down, and bon bons on the bed! I ate mine. Todd's is pictured. I ate his, too! :)

Oh yeah -- Alabama did finally win . . . but not before I feel asleep in the bed! I woke up in time to turn off the light and roll over! Hey, walking around in the chill and damp looking for serious sales and finds is hard work! :)

Sunday morning we leisurely got up and had a wonderful breakfast. There was coconut-rolled truffles in ice milk as an appetizer, with a slice of lemon friendship bread. YUM! Chocolate and ice cream for breakfast? I need to come back here! Then we had egg soufflés, country bacon, sour-dough toast (with a pecan honey jam that was superb), and garlic grits. Breakfast was delicious! Jane had put our napkins in big, plastic spiders. I immediately took mine and reposed it in a rather threatening way! Jane told me later that her husband noticed it and commented, "I bet I know where the man sat!" To which she was tickled to be able to say, "Actually, that's where the lady sat!" I'm a kid at heart, what can I say?!? Jane later showed me her collection of napkin rings -- I'm telling you, she and I were kindred spirits!

On a side note, she also told me that she purchases her milk from a local dairy farmer. He has, she told me, a "cow of the month". I'll have to check it out! Or rather, I did; clink on the link back there and check out Hatcher Family Dairy!

At one point, she was telling Todd & I their history and how they came to purchase the house and whatnot, and she said, "My husband said when he finished school he'd have to work another three years for the VA. I told him, 'You better plan on working longer than that -- I like to shop!" I felt the need to give her a high-five!

After breakfast, we showered and dressed and headed down the street and around the corner (we really could have walked) to First Baptist Church Murfreesboro. We had decided to go to the 11:15 service, which was the contemporary worship. It was a light crowd (the pastor explained they were in the middle of their fall break), but the worship was sincere and wonderful and the message was right on point.

We headed back and packed up, and Jane decided she wanted to show us the rest of her house (included the elevator and the basement) and her church, which was out her back door, through the gate, and across the parking lot! What a bonus for me, as there were several more quilts hanging in their vestry! Lovely.

When it was finally time for us to hit the road, I noticed the house across the street:

BOO! I love the spiders crawling down the side of this big, old, beautiful home. I am sure this town is a lot of fun on Halloween night!

Then we were back in the car and ready to hit the road for home!

My husband *loves* having his picture taken!

What a wonderful birthday weekend I had! We had a lovely drive home, stopping for lunch at a steak house along the way. The sun was shining and we got to see the beautiful fall colors. I really enjoy my dear man's company. I like just sitting beside him and noting things of interest as we drive. We are definitely comfortable companions!

We got home about 4:30; Merlin was most happy to see us! Traveling is fun, but it's always nice to be home. I think that's one of the reasons we're both so excited about RV living. The comforts of home will follow us no matter where we travel!

Thank, dear husband, for a lovely and memorable birthday trip! I had a marvelous time!

Mmmmmwah!

:)