I won in the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaway

I am soo excited. I won during the Sew, Mama, Sew giveaways. I won fabric from Ripping Out Seams blog.
Not only did I win fabric, I won some of the coolest fabric ever! Its a half yard of the Alexander Henry fabric, with half-naked men camping.



I am so going to have to make something with this that I can use when I camp. The fabric arrived today, and I honestly think I was as excited as I am at Christmas. Thanks Kat for the great win, I never win!

Pictures of Berkeley and SF

So I have spent most of my time in the workshop I have been doing at Lawrence Hall of Science, so I really don't have many pictures of the area, but here are a few I have managed to get:

This is the view from my hotel room. You can see that I am really on the marina.

This is a picture of the Bird of Paradise just outside the hotel. I love these flowers. I wish they grew around me, but then I guess they wouldn't be as special.



This is a picture from the balcony of the Lawrence Hall of Science. It sits at the top of Berkeley and has a beautiful view of the area. For those (like me) that aren't familiar with the view, I included the same picture with labels.
The workshop is over today and most people fly out today. I am one of the luck ones that couldn't get a flight until tomorrow. This means I get to explore this afternoon. I believe the plan is to go to Muir Woods and see the Redwoods. I am so excited. You see pictures of these great trees, but I just have a feeling that reality will be sooo much more impressive. Not sure we will actually be able to get into San Fransisco. Guess I will just have to come back someday!

Greetings from California

It is soo nice here in Berkeley. The hotel has a lovely view of the Golden Gate Bridge.
I am here for two more days and then back home to New Jersey. The only problem is that just as I adapt to the time change, I leave and start all over again.
Pulled out my camera today, so hope to add pictures from the Lawrence Hall of Science later. off to my workshop.

Good Monday Morning

I'm getting ready to head out of town for a workshop this week. I'm very excited to be making my second trip across the US to California, San Fransisco and Berkeley this time. I did LA tow years ago for a conference.
Today will be spent packing and getting ready, but thought I would share a couple more pictures. This time, we move to my other favorite arena: Cooking. I made these great cupcakes from the Hello, Cupcake! book by Karen Tack and Alan Richardson. This book is so cool because people like me that aren't artistic, but are creative, can make some really cute things. I made the cupcakes for my nephew, whose favorite things are sharks and Pen-Pens, so I mixed and matched. I can't wait to try butterflies next.

A Sunny Saturday of Work

Off to help a friend with moving into their new house.
I thought I would give a smile today. Several people have said how cute the Puppy and Kitten are. I don't won't you all fooled. As we speak, Ranger is in Kitty time out for knocking my sewing scissors off the table (for the tenth time) and into Lilly's waiting mouth. They are 8 months (Ranger) and 6.5 months (Lilly) and love to get into trouble together.
Here is the cute picture from below, and a second picture taken just moments later...

Another Rainy Day

Seems like we had our April Showers lead to May Showers, instead of flowers. They are saying another day of rain today. I should be sad, but it means it will be too wet to do the outside work that I should be doing, and instead spend the day feeding the need to sew. I made a pair of capris this past weekend and I wasn't completely happy. They were great, except the pant leg bottom was just to wide. I want to try again and this time try to taper in the leg a bit to make it fit better. It was my first time putting pockets into the pants, I was very scared to try, but in the end, follow the pattern, and they turned out great!


Meanwhile, another craft from the backlog. This is a very, very simple fleece throw I made for my grandfather several years ago. Just a piece of fleece with some binding around it. The special part was I took all of his travel patches off his old jacket and put them on the blanket. By that time he really couldn't see anymore, but people would visit him in the nursing home and it acted as a great conversation starter..."look at all the places you have been"; "which was your favorite?"; "tell me about this one?". He cherished the blanket until he passed, when my mom kindly gave it back to me to keep. Patches are a great way to mark your travels (light, easy to get from just about everywhere, last for ever). Ever member of our family has a patch jacket (okay mine fit me when I was 10!), and now we even collect them for my husband so he can start one.

The beginning of another addiction

So I have been spending tons of time going to all the blogs on Sew, Mama, Sew's site and have been hopeful about winning something new and exciting. I think it is a great idea to coordinate everyone's giveaways to the same time and encourage people to look at new blogs. But there is the problem, I am looking at everyone's new blogs. Every time I go to a new blog, I am signing up for the giveaway, but then getting lost in the blogs. I have really been enjoying everyone's work and it has been great to see the possibilities. I had a couple of blogs bookmarked before this, that I would visit, but now I have about 20-30 that I have subscribed to.
And all of this has made me want to actually start my own blog. Not really for others, as much as for me. I am thinking that this is a great way to journal my life, something I have always wanted to do, but never had time for; and a great way to make me keep working on my crafts, and not let them linger in the works in progress pile!
So to that end...I give you one of the things I created. I have a whole bunch of items to share, but many are on my camera. I will start with something that is already on my computer:
I made these onsies for my nephew for Christmas. It was my first attempt at embroidery and I really enjoyed it. So far I am sticking wiht the simpler beginner stitches, but hope to get better as I go. Since my nephew is one, he was easily pleased, and his brother thought it was cool that he got Nemo. I used an on-line coloring page for the Nemo one, and a sublime stitch pattern ( I think, will have to check).
Enjoy!