Is it too early for gingerbread?

I love gingerbread, hot and moist from the oven with homemade whip cream, but I really don't care to eat gingerbread cookies that are hard and crispy. Thankfully this cute little guy isn't edible! I have still been experimenting with paints and stencils instead of stamps and inks. It is quite fun. I would like to have a Cricut machine, but have read some reviews that make me think again. Any readers that have one and are willing to share their experience would be welcome. Making these bags makes me look forward to Christmas.

Thanksgiving comes early

Was able to go and visit my son and daughter last weekend and it was so nice to cook a big meal for them and all of my daughter's roommates. I baked a ham, made sweet potato casserole, shoe peg corn, macaroni and tomatoes, fried apples and rolls. We ate till we were stuffed and they still had a bunch of leftovers. They don't get much home cooking while they are in college, so this was a treat for them and for me!

The Cart Before the Horse

It is an old saying, but in my case it is very true. We ended up buying all of our paint for the addition to the house about 2 weeks ago. We had already used Sherwin Williams for the outside so we had to continue with that. We went to their once a year 40% off sale and decided to buy all the paint for the house inside and out. We are doing a neutral gray for all 4 of the upstairs rooms called Knitting Needles-so appropriate. In one of the rooms/bathroom I am going to use Anjou Pear as an additional color. My son loves pears and this will be the room he stays in when he comes home. I found some gorgeous material at Hancock Fabrics while shopping with a friend the other day that will work perfectly with my colors. It was on the remnant table and was only $5 a yard. I got 7 yards of the gold stripe with raised velvet leaves and 2 1/2 yards of the charcoal gray. I love them both and will be so excited when we finally get to the decorating part of building. Gives me something to look forward to-making a house into our home!

New barn-Almost Complete

This has been a big project for our family-mainly my hubby and son (until he left for college). It is our new 2 story workshop (it is not a barn I have been told). The side with the tall door is open all the way to the ceiling, but the rest of the building has a second story loft. We have framed out an apartment inside, but nothing has been done on it yet. We are still finishing trim and paint on the back, but the outside is pretty finished. Unfortunately, it is quite full already. Many car projects in there. We still have to tear down the old tobacco barn, but that won't happen until the rest of the house is done next summer. Looking forward to having the framers arrive to add the 2nd and 3rd stories to our basement. It will be a stressful year, but I can't wait for the additional space-including my OWN sewing/craft room.

Long Time No See

Well the summer has certainly flown by and I spent the majority of it in Hilton Head. Once I returned we moved our 2 oldest to UK in Lexington. We have also signed off on the construction for the rest of our house. The barn is basically done on the outside and the inside is unfortunately full. My house is a wreck due to moving things around in preparation for construction and also housing items we have purchased for the upstairs (double ovens, paint, 6 burner gas cooktop, etc.). So many things to share. I hope to post some pictures of the barn soon. I also plan to keep a picture record of the house in progress. I did finish a quilt top using Lucy's Crab Shack over the summer and will post pics of it soon. I am woefully behind on my Craftsy Block of the Month squares. Need to do July-Oct (wow).I have also been doing quite a few muslin bags for my Etsy.  All this to say, I will soon be back in the swing of things I hope. Hope you all have a great day!

Oh Brother!

I have really been wanting to do machine embroidery for a while, but my machine doesn't do any. My mom's Pfaff will do 1/2 inch alphabet, but they are really tiny. I have really loved my Singer, but I bit the bullet and bought myself a new machine. It is both a sewing and embroidery machine. That made more sense for me-due to space issues (or the lack thereof). It still has all the great features, like needle up/down, speed control, decorative stitching top drop bobbin, auto thread cutter and tie off functions, but it can also embroider! I did some research and found the Brother SE400 and the Brother LB6800PRW models are exactly the same, except one has Project Runway markings on it. I was able to get the 6800 with a zippered rolling tote for less than the SE400 by itself. It's not here yet, so I am asking, "O Brother, Where art thou?"-Joke. Hope to get it early next week so I can take it with me to the beach. I am already finishing my 3rd table runner and plan to finish the 4th before I leave, so now I need a new project to take with me. I might just come back with all my clothes monogrammed-Ha!

Plan to keep my Singer while I am taking this one for a test drive-just in case.

Did "Jute" do that?

Ha Ha. I have a sweet friend (let's call her Nancy-because her name is Nancy). She is a creative crafts scout for sure. She is always bringing me little things that she believes I will or can do something with. Usually I do. She plucked some super cute cat head buttons off a garment destined for Goodwill and I turned those into some cute hair barrettes. This time she gave me these cute veggie buttons. I really didn't know what I would do with them, but they crossed my path this morning and I thought they would make the cutest little napkin rings strung with simple jute. They would be great for summer picnics. Simple, sweet and stepped up a notch. Better than just slappin' the paper napkin down. You could do this with wooden buttons too! All different sizes and shapes would be really fun.I will store them wrapped around this cloth napkin, so that the set of 6 stays together. Smart thinking. Now just have to figure out where to store the napkin. Hope everybody enjoyed their 4th! We went out in the Fiat and had dinner with the kids and watched local bands and fireworks.