Silhouette, silhouette, silhouette ... silhouette's on it's way!

Yes I like to re-write song lyrics!

I just ordered a Silhouette Digital Cutting machine with the Cyber Monday coupon code from Under the Table and Dreaming.  Happy 28 days before my birthday to me!

What should I do first when it gets here??????

Thankful

We had a great Thanksgiving day.  My sister and niece came over the night before so we could get up early together and cook, cook, cook with just us girls.  We had a lot of fun, and finished one planned project as well as one spontaneous project.

I found instructions for this adorable pineapple turkey centerpiece at Crafty Chic and knew I had to make it.  It's super simple and requires only a few pieces of felt, some cutting and sewing.  My niece helped cut out the pieces and she wanted to help sew him up on the machine too, so we gave it a whirl.  Her foot is in a cast right now, so I put the gas pedal up on the counter with the machine and she ran it with her hands while I made sure the fabric mostly moved in the direction we wanted.  He's not perfect, but he's full of happy memories already!

For being only 6 years old, she did a fabulous job and wanted to start another sewing project right away!  Who am I to argue with that?  So she decided we needed a welcome sign, and we cut out a turkey with lots of feathers from the remaining felt.  I grabbed a hunk of cotton and we sewed him on his wall hanging together too.  She had a great time and was so proud of it!  I think I'll add a border, a binding and a label for sure and tuck him away for next year.

Gobble, gobble!

You can win a Silhouette Machine at Infarrantly Creative!

Have you visited Infarrantly Creative lately?  She's got tons of fun crafty ideas for home decor and more.  It's a 'don't miss' blog on my list!

And what's even better is that she is currently hostessing a giveaway for a Silhouette cutting machine!  I am dying to win one of these and I have mental lists of ideas of ways to use it both at home and at my shop.  I'd love to win, but I'm guessing I'll be breaking down and ordering one on Cyber Monday.  It looks like a fabulous tool to add to your crafty and business branding arsenal.  So visit her blog post and register to win by Sunday night, by following her very reasonable rules!  She's got a great collection of projects to show you too.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Just wanted to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving.  Everyone in my family is coming to my house this year, and although I didn't get everything done cleaning-wise, I'm happy to have the day here.

I am thankful for my family, for new friends and old, I'm thankful for my new home & that my little shop is staying afloat, I'm very thankful for my dog, but I miss my mom.

Happy Thanksgiving! Hope you have a great day!

Dragonfly Luminaries

Haven't had much time to get crafty at home, but I got crafty at the shop. Saturday night was Wines the Blues in Dunedin with music, food, drink and thousands of people. Yes, thousands!!
I've been trying real hard to get people around the corner and into the shop, but the street there gets kinda dark at night. Why not light it up with some cute dragonfly luminaries? I took my logo & simplified it to create a stencil template. It was super easy - I just traced it with pencil & cut it out. Cutting the wings so wide created some cute wing-like holes in the sides of the bags too, so they really let out alot of light.

Add a cup of sand, put a candle in a small mason jar & voila! Dragonfly lights to help you find your way to Dragonfly Garden.  My sister worked in the shop while I worked out on Broadway at a booth-type table with a few sample items, just to give people an idea of what's in the shop.  She said one customer asked if she could buy the luminaries because they were so cute! How is that for a compliment?

Just a little check in

Are you getting so busy that things are starting to slide? My shop is picking up and it seems like there are just not enough hours in the day to do much of anything on the personal side since I've been sleeping extra to try to get back to good health. Tuesdays are my day off and I spent most of the day today doing things for the shop, but I finally stopped to take a little time for me.

After running a few errands, I came home to get started on the outdoor Halloween decor. I've never done outside stuff before so it was a ton of fun! Those spiderweb thingies are tough to work with and it took forever, but I think its cute along with a giant furry spider, a couple of tombstones and a black cat garden stake that I bought from my very own shop. It got dark while I was finishing up the spiderwebs, so all you get to see is my very tired buddy.

Does everyone think their dog is adorable while they're sleeping?  Katie sure is!

Black Cat Pillow for Halloween

I've seen some really cute, I mean scary black cats out there in Halloween decor this season and I decided I could make an applique pillow to add to my own stash of Halloween decs.  I love the black cats with arched backs but I didn't want it too spooky.  I found a cute drawing online in a children's printable coloring page and used that as my template.  One evening of applique for the cat and the next day I added black borders to my square and a fun orange black cat print for the pillow back.  I found an easy tutorial with a great idea for sewing the back at a blog called Sparkle Power - you might want to check out her tutorial here.  She overlaps flaps so that its very simple to remove it. Love it!

Isn't she cute?  I'm not quite happy with her tail, but its been a couple years since I did any applique so I thought this actually turned out pretty well all things considered.

The pillow back is a Debbie Mumm fabric from Joanns.  My camera has mysteriously died so I am subjecting you to sad cell phone pictures.

I'm linking to these great parties - please visit them - there are some seriously crafty ladies here!