Stocking Stuffers Galore at Deja Vue

In looking for goodies to share with all my crafty friends I have come across alot of embroidery design websites that I didn't know about and last week was no different. Thanks to a Facebook friend I found Deja Vue Designs. They have the cutest Christmas goodies.

There are a couple things that stand out as my favorites. Ok I lied there are too many things that stand out for me to even begin listing them here. I have a huge list of things that I want to purchase and this is what I chose this time:

Aren't they cute?? Once I trim them up they will be cute little felt puzzles. In my family we were always allowed to open one thing Christmas eve, it was usually pajamas and maybe a little candy treat. I thought these puzzles would be cute as a Christmas eve play thing.Something that we could do together. They also have adorable Non-Paperdolls. If I had a girl I would be in non-paper doll heaven but I have boys. They do have alot of boy dolls too so there is hope but I'm not going to go crazy until I know if my little guys will enjoy playing with them.

UPDATE: The puzzles have now become a must have. Logan wouldn't sleep last night and we browsed the site and he pointed out all sorts of stuff and could name 90% of the puzzles with out help.

Next up a freebie pattern from Connecting Threads. The The Magic PIllowcase. You can find the pattern here. My local quilt shop had kits by the register and I picked up 2 for the boys. Here they are:

They are both fireman pillowcases because I figured they will one day want the same one. I have got to get my machine humming some more and get things done. I have not gotten as many things as I wanted posted but I am going to try to catch up. Hoping with some new ornaments and things in the works that won't be a problem

 

Are you ready for Football!!!

Well today I was looking at some of the designs that I have purchased and I found some that I think that I might try to work on. Having 2 little monkeys 2 and younger running around makes it hard to stitch anything that you really have to pay attention to or that has a lot of color changes. Not to mention they like to push buttons and touch the embroidery arm.

So I came across this:

Perfect for that football fan on your list.. I think this would be just perfect hanging up for the next football or super bowl party, or maybe even to decorate for your little football stars birthday or bedroom.

Next up a really neat Christmas ornament. I am always on the look out for neat ornaments to add to our collection.

This ornament would be great for anyone with kids. You simply add their wish list and the year with your own font and you have an awesome keep sake. Almost like your very own time capsule.
 
While sifting through pintrest a couple years ago I found a great option for the usual Christmas advent calendar. Instead of filling an advent calendar with candy or toys. Wrap a stack of 25 books and let your kids open a new book every night before bedtime. How exciting would that be? My little guys love books. Infact I put Logan to bed today and he insisted on taking a book with him. When I closed his door he was laying in bed with his cowboy woody reading a book. I couldn't be prouder. On that note why not add a special bookmark to one of the books.

Aren't these the cutest? These and tons of other designs can be found at East Coast Applique. I haven't counted how many crafty things that I have posted about but I know that I am really behind! My little guys keep me hopping that is for sure.

Until the next time....



 

Brrr... It's Cold out!!

Well I had originally planned on Heading home Tuesday Morning so that I could meet a friend to do some shopping and start working on some more of my holiday projects. But due to this Polar Vortex as the local news is calling it we woke up to this:

And Brrr... Its cold out. I took Maggie out and lets just say that she didn't waste any time going potty so that she could come back in the warm house.

What better way to stay inside and keep warm and enjoy one of these 25 Mug cakes or Microwave Treats.

I was looking through my Pintrest for recipes or crafts to share and this just looked delicious. In fact I have a gift to put together for a special friend and some family members and I think I might put together some ingredients for a couple of these special treats.

Until Later.. Keep Crafting

Twas the night before....

I have never been a part of a blog hop. I have always thought that I wanted to be a participating member but things always got in the way of posting. I really am going to try to be better about sharing what I have been working on. But in the mean time I found this blog hop called "Twas the night" hop on over to Madam Samm's at Sew We Quilt and she'll give you all the details. In short if your one of those that is found in the sewing room on Christmas eve trying to finish up last minute gifts to put under the tree this hop is for you!!

 I remember what I was stitching last year. My hubby and I waited until the last minute to wrap gifts so I was doing that while Daddy and Grandpa were putting together toys that needed assembly and then after they all went to bed I sat up embroidering stockings to give to my parents.

The design was easy enough I had made several for my husband and his friends using our Navy camo fabric. Our Navy buddies loved them.

 But then I had to play and make a couple more for the boys that we could use for decorations. I think I am going to have to make new ones. Being the stitcher that I am I'm not digging the way the cars are cut off.

You can find this design and a lot of other great things over at Five Star Fonts. They stitch up really fast so they would be great for a family gathering or maybe to hang at work. Have fun!!

Busy Busy

Yesterday was a busy day. Before getting ready to go to Grandma and Grandpas house I managed to finish 2 1/2 loads of laundry to include cleaning baby sheets so that they have fresh beds when we get home as well as clean jammies and towels for bath time. I cleaned the dishes and counters so that I have a fresh kitchen when I get home as well.

Last night even after writing my post I was kinda feeling bah humbug!! I have seen such great holiday ideas yet last night I just wasn't feeling it. My husband will be overseas for the holidays and we want to save some of the celebrating for when he gets home but at the same time I want to mail some things out to him so that he feels the holiday spirit but when I went shopping I really didn't see anything that screamed "Mail me!!".

So the hunt continues for treats and goodies to send to Keith and his co-workers. I was reading emails and came across one from Embrotique. It was advertising this adorable couple was features DIME Magazine (Designs in Machine Embroidery):

These cuties I think are even better than the elf on the shelf. Don't get me wrong we have one just like everyone else but these cuties can be personalized to suit your kids and well they are just adorable so you have got to make them!!

We already know that Daddy will be home in time for Valentines day so I purchased this design to put on the list of things for when Daddy gets home:

Nothing like starting and planning early...

Keep crafting!!



 

In The Hoop Cuddles

The last couple of days I posted about holiday goodies. Well I am also always on the look out for goodies for my boys. I have had Digitized Creations on Etsy in my favorites for a while they have the cutest cuddle toys that  would be perfect for that new little one one the way. My little guys like to play with things like this as well. They would also make perfect stocking stuffers.

My little Logie Mo is into these Paw Patrol puppies. We have driven all over town to find PJ's, Shoes and toys. While searching online for all of those things I ran across this website OFNAH. I love it!! I was able to make one of her dolls the other day!!

It was fun and pretty easy and you can bet there will be some of these under our tree or in stockings this year.
 

In Need of a Crafty Break

    What a day it has been. UGH is all I can say and its only 230. I'm hoping after nap time things will be better. The boys were playing well before naps they were just a little cranky. Logan ran all over target today so he should have been tired. I have never wanted a leash for my kid so bad in my life. Smiles.
    I am hoping that writing this post will help me get into the crafty mood and maybe I will be able to get something made tonight. I love quick holiday crafts. Things that I can make a bunch of in a short period of time especially if they make neat gifts for occasions you didn't plan on.

  Embroidery Garden is one of my favorite shops. Last year I made tons of these:

    I love them I made several per sheet of felt and gave them to my family last year and Logan played with them with out the candy canes. I think that there are still some in the toy box. You could even put a 2014 on the body if your family collects ornaments like ours.
    Reen is great at getting the creative juices flowing.. and this year is no different. If your a facebook user she is offering for a limited time to her face book friends these adorable lollipop covers for free!!

    So go ahead and hop on over and check out her facebook site as well as her website. She has some great ornaments and other holiday things and best of all her instructions are AWESOME!!

Keeping busy... 50 Days of Holiday ideas!!

    Well in an effort to keep the boys and I busy while Daddy is overseas for the holidays I have decided to find 50 (or more) things to do, make or celebrate for the Holidays. I'm hoping to get some stitching done but with the dynamic duo running around and wanting to touch things on the sewing machine that may not happen.
    Today I found a new to me embroidery design website called Luna Stitches Design Studio. I'll have to admit the first thing that brought me to the website was the design for a snow princess mask but, having 2 little boys and Halloween being over I don't really need something like that right now. Luna stitches has some great appliques and if I can find enough scraps with out having to buy fabric I will be sure to pick up some of those to make some t-shirts or something for the boys.
Right now I'm on the hunt for toys, games and fun things that I can put in the boys stockings and little things that I can add to our holiday box to make next year when daddy is home more special. Luna has definitely done that for me. Check these out!!

 Aren't these just the cutest!! and even better they are on sale!! I don't know how long the sale lasts so purchase them while you still can. I am adding them to my list of things to make. How many did I say? 50 Days right? Well I am going to give you #2 while I'm at it because I know when I am making the drive to and from Mom and Dads that I am just not going to feel up to posting. Lets be honest I haven't been great at posting because I have just been swamped with life.

So now that we have Thanksgiving fun covered in this post how about something winter? Again Luna Stitches has something perfect that will go on the to do list when I have the fabric and time.

I think that these are beautiful and would make a great addition to that ice princess birthday party that some one might be planning. Well that's it for me tonight I have to get going and finish cooking spaghetti for the boys. Nice messy dinner and then baths to calm them before we all settle in for the night.




Until next time Keep crafting!! 

New home... New Challenges

    With our new home comes new challenges. To start things off right in our new place I am going to start by looking for advice from one of my favorite sites Organized Home. Last weekend was the official kick off of their Holiday Grand Plan on their sister site Organized Christmas, a plan to clean and organize your house before the holidays so that you can sit back and relax and enjoy the holidays like your supposed to.
    Of course I'm always a little behind, but I'll catch up I hope. My first goal is an organized meal plan for my family. Here is a Weekly Menu Plan that can be printed out and put on the fridge. Before leaving California we were pretty good about using coupons to save on groceries so that is another routine that we need to get back to.

My Favorite Bloogers are busy...

    Keith and I got up early this morning to get him up and headed back to Centennial to go through our storage unit and try to seperate the things that we needed and wanted from our shipment in the apartment so that the things that we knew just wouldn't fit can be put in the back and the things that we want more accessable.
    As I sat here watching him pull out of mom and dads drive I started thinking what next? The boys and mom are sleeping. Keith took our dog Maggie with him because she wont fit in my car between the car seats. She did before we graduated Grayson to a big boy car seat but he has grown so much that he needed the space.
    Today will be spent helping to clean up mom and dads house.. to try to leave things for them closer to the way they were when we invaded back the end of march, beginning of april. Dad is on his way back from California and when he returns I will load the boys up and head down to Centennial so that we can try to get things together at the apartment.
    Apartment living with the boys is going to be a challenge after having a 4 bd, 3 car garage house but if we simplify things we should be fine until we can find our next forever home here in colorado. I started thinking about blogs that I had been following when I actually had the time to sit and read them. For a while I tried to participate in a blog group that had Friday night sew-ins once a month but it seeems that they too have gotten busy with life and not blogged much. That being said I am not going to beat myself up over not having time to blog. If I get time to sit and write a few minutes then great. If not being a good Mommy to my boys and having the ocassional time to my self is okay with me.
     That being said I would like to have a Friday or Saterday sew in with my blogland friends. I hope to be working on some holiday projects but first I need to find my materials in the mess of moving boxes at the apartment. Sewing/embroidery machine... Check. The rest of it well I'll let you know... Lets plan on having a get together the 19th or 20th. For now that weekend is open for us, Keith will be back from a business trip.. if I plan it right dinner will be ready when we walk in from the airport... Yup lets plan for that weekend to get a little crafting time in.

Where has the time gone??

     First let me apologise for the lack of pictures. I promise to try to get some up but right now the camera is missing and 90% of the time I can't find my phone in the mess..
     Where has the time gone?? I can't believe its has been so long since I posted. So many things have changed. Keith took a new job in Colorado and the end of March the boys and I moved to Colorado to live with my parents so that we could be closer to Keith when he was here in the states. Retired from the navy and he still deploys, not for as long a span of time but that doesn't make us miss him any less.
      We celebrated Logan's second birthday a few days after getting to Colorado. It was not an easy start for us here. When we arrived both boys were sick.. Logan with a double ear infection and pneumonia, and Grayson a sinus infection. I hope that no one ever has to endure a 2 year with pneumonia and ear infections at high altitudes its not fun to not be able to do anything to soothe the pressure and an 8 month old with a sinus infection? that is for the birds for sure.
     Last month we were finally able to find an apartment to stay in, not exactley our plan we were hoping to have a yard for the boys and the dog but things happen for a reason and this is just one smaller step to getting situated here in Colorado. Perhaps the biggest thing other than my boys getting older and smarter and cuter (smiles) we sold our house in California. That is one of the hardest things to wrap my head around right now.. The first house that Keith and I bought together and started our little family in now belongs to some one else.
   There are better things for us out there right?? We are now together instead of being split between California and Colorado, the navy delivered our household goods yesterday so for the most part we can get to everything we own if we can find it in storage. Things were damaged but I am trying to not think about that right now.
    There hasn't been a whole lot of crafting of any kind since we left California. I did quit a bit of sewing before the boys and I moved.. well in the month of January anyway. Begining of February Keith told me to be prepared to move middle of march and well, I had to pack most of the house by myself because he was over seas.
     So once we get the things that we want situated in the apartment I would venture to say that we will have officially started new. New State, new job, new house/apartment.... New begining. With that in mind we want to get back to home made. Homemade gifts and treasures and home cooked food. Yumm!!

New Years will be here soon!

Wow its hard to believe that this year has gone by so fast. This past year has been so busy that I am not sure where all the time went. We celebrated so many 1st for Logan including his first birthday this year. We also celebrated Keith retiring after 20 Years in the Navy and shortly after that welcomed our precious Grayson to our family.

After a day full of celebrating together as a family I was cleaning and thinking about New Years and whether I wanted to make any resolutions. This year is going to be extremely busy as Keith has accepted a job in Colorado, meaning that we will be planning a big move hopefully sooner rather than later. His new job also requires him to deploy over seas which we are not looking forward to but know that in the long run this can be a good thing for our family. So rather than making a resolution that I probably wont be able to keep I am just going to set some goals that I would like to work towards:

1. Be strong for my little boys. Daddy being gone is harder on them than it is on me.
2. Strive to teach and nurture my little guys even if I don't feel like it.
3. Continue to make things for my little guys that will make time together special as well as make the pictures for daddy memorable.
4. Kind of off the wall but make at least one thing every month for our Christmas 2014. New house, New adventures, Christmas 2014 will be one to remember even if Daddy is deployed I vow to make Christmas in our new home special.

This year we didn't do much for Christmas because we didn't know if Daddy was going to be able to come home to spend it with us. We had all the gifts and goodies for the boys but there weren't many decorations around the house due to a busy mommy of 2 under the age of 2 that didn't feel up to digging through storage to get our decorations.

Next year will be different. I hope to be more organized and have things planned a little better.

I hope that everyone has had a Merry Christmas and wish you all the best in the up coming year.

Play Time...

While cleaning and re-organizing Logan's room I found some hand puppets that I had stitched out for him I believe shortly after he was born. At that point we used them to get him to smile but when he started crawling he wasn't really interested in them.

Recently Logan has become interested in his puppets and will even let you put them on his hands to play. So with that in mind I have moved to the top of my list More hand puppets for Logan. Here at Too Cute Embroidery is where I found the designs for the first couple that I have made.

An Update and Modified Bed rest.

Well it has been a long time since I have posted and not for lack of wanting to. Things have just been crazy around here. Keith retired a couple weeks ago and is home with me and Logan. It couldn't have come at a better time. Just a few days before his ceremony we recieved a call from the Dr telling us that I had become very anemic and even though I had been taking the supplements they weren't helping. We were scheduled for iron infusions and just finished those up last weekend.

We have an appointment on Friday for a check up and to ease my mind that this little guy is ok. We have six more weeks until our new little one is supposed to make his debut but we have our doubts that he will make it that long. Keith takes care of Logan most of the day and lets me lay down so that we can keep the Braxton Hicks at bay.

I wish that I could say that I was doing alot of sewing but I haven't done much of anything. I did learn a new 10 minute block from my friend Karyn that is amazing. Here is a video:

I have a few more blocks to finish and then sew the center diamond down. I can't wait to finish. I put that on the back burner to finish up some golf towels for Keith that a coworker has paid him for. Then I hope to get some things done for Logan and his little brother.

Lucky Momma

I am such a lucky Momma! I have finally gotten around to sitting down to write a couple blog posts to thank people for some gifts that I have won through blog land. I have not forgotten, just have been a little pre-occupied with other things. My little guy has figured out that he can get on the couch all by himself. So alot of my day is spent trying to keep him from climbing off the couch head first and then the resting to keep braxton hicks contractions at bay. There hasn't been much in the way of craftyness.. though the thoughts are there as I am laying down resting.

Back in March Kelly over at I have a Notion hosted a Machine Embroidery Blog Hop sponsored by Anita Goodesign (who designs some of my favorite embroidery designs). After visiting every blog on the hop and entering the give away at all of them I was the lucky winner at Cheeky Cognoscenti of one of Anitas Special Editions. I choose Oriental Day Dream.

I will be super excited to get this in the mail! Keith likes the Oriental designs and I have so many ideas for this.

To make things more fun Kelly tossed in a $25 gift certificate to her shop IHAN for anyone that advertised the hop on their blog, face book or twitter. Guess what I was the lucky winner there too!!! Yeah me. I'm so excited. I haven't used the certificate yet because I just can't decide what to spend it on there is just too many great things.

My most recent bout of luck was on the IHAN blog. Kelly wrote all about how to use Transfer Artist Paper you can check out her post here. C&T Publishing gave away a 5 pk of the paper and I was the lucky winner. I have some military photos of my husband and I and am trying to decide what I want to do with them.

So BIG, THANK YOUS to Anita Goodesign, Kelly and the IHAN crew and to C&T Publishing.

Do you ever feel like the cleaning is never ending??

I DO!! I have been despirately trying to re-organize my sewing/craft room so that we could convert it into the guest room. The guest room will then be cleaned up and decorated for our new arrival to make his debut the end of July.. Though we don't think that he will wait that long.

I feel like my sewing room is strewn through out my house and that is never what I wanted. I have again this AM started washing fabrics that belong to my guild as they were donated and smell like dust and smoke. It is not easy to get that smell out. I was trying to iron them to perfection so they were ready to use but just can't do it.. the more I stand behind the ironing board the more I swell and then have trouble chasing Logan so I choose Logan.. Smiles. His smile makes the discomfort just a little less noticable.

Today we will be turning Comfort Quilts back over to the guild. I wanted to be the super quilter and super mom but being pregnant with a second its just not happening. It was fun while it lasted but I have to admit it will feel good to just let go. One less thing for me to worry about outside of the house and let me focus on the things that I need to get done here.


So today I am saying good bye to Comfort Quilts and hello to the space in the garage to organize some other things, and to the piece of mind that the other ladies in the guild will be able to do a better job at getting quilts to the people that need them.

A Check up and 1 year shots...

Well we may have found the cause of the crankies.. at least for Mogie any way. He is usually so happy but lately he's waking in the middle of the night and is cranky on and off through out the day. The dr today says he may be getting his incisor teeth on the top and that he may also be cutting molars.. WHAT? Molars already? Then to top it off he got 4 shots. Poor little guy.

He and I didn't sleep well last night and he really didn't nap all that well today either, meaning my nap was non exhistant as well. Oh well how can you be upset at a little guy who keeps standing on his head and looking at you through his legs.. Smiles.

I had thoughts of sewing today but just couldn't get it together. I ended up working on cleaning up my little corner here at the back of our kitchen table.. re-organizing my threads to figure out what colors I am low on things like that. I need to make a list of the threads I need and get a order together before I run out in the middle of a project like usual.

Above are the threads that I have yet to rewind and see if there is actually a labeled space for them in my box. I have put on the list of things I want a thread organizer to hang on the wall but due to the fac that we are moving the sewing room (ok probably packing it up) we will have to re think that.

Do you have a special way to display your threads?

Organizing for Baby...

Today I found myself very frustrated with the fact that I have yet to get things organized for the arrival of little guy #2 as well as wishing that my munchkin's closet was more organized. We have found that we put him in the same clothes all the time and miss out on some really cute outfits. So as I was folding some clothes that I got from my brother and sister in law I decided that I need to make better use of my closet organizers and hangers.

I have decided to make new size organizers for Mogie and little guy #2. In the past I made some for my nephew Noah but have never made them for us. So this has been put on our list of to dos before #2 gets here.
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The designs that I used to make organizers for my nephew can be found here at Designs by Sick.

They were fast and easy but I want ours to be different than theirs. I think I may use some that can be found at NewFound Applique at least for one set and then I think I may change it a little so that I can make them different for both boys.

What did you stitch today?

CTTY embroidery...

Well with a new outlook on the week and my heart set on completing goals this month, let me tell you about CTTY. I joined a group call Christmas Through The Year (CTTY). Each month we have a goal of completing one item to put in our christmas box whether it be decorations for your house or gifts for your family and friends. These goals are set in the hopes that there won't be marathon sewing taking place christmas eve night and that you too can relax and enjoy your holiday.

When I read about this my thought was "Count me in". This last year I was extremely sick for the holidays trying to make the best of Logan's first Christmas. This next year will be our new little ones first Christmas and I really want to be able to wake up Christmas morning and feel as rested as you can with an infant and toddler in the house but know that Santa came to visit and mommy didn't have to stay up all night helping him.

So in an effort to work on my sewing/embroidery goal of 50,000 stitches and CTTY for the month of April. I decided to work on some of these:

We are not sure if we will have company for Christmas this year but I want to get some special things done that can be used for stocking stuffers for the women of course. I don't think any of the men in our family read much of anything other than magazines.

Case of the Mondays...

I woke up this morning feeling Blah!! I have had several nights in a row that I have trouble sleeping. Then of course the animals realize that I am awake and want attention so they won't leave me alone meaning even if I could fall back asleep they aren't going to let me.

I'm sure some of the problem is pregnancy anxiety and the thought that Mogie's birthday and Easter had to be perfect. Well now Easter and his birthday are done. Some things didn't turn out the way I expected but all in all it was perfect and we have tons of adorable pictures to cherish.

I could not believe what a good sport Mogie was. He wore his crown several times through out the day and never once complained. Knowing that and seeing his reaction I think that there will definatley be other hats and costume type things on my "To Make" list that can be put away for special play times and rainey day fun (Not that we get a whole lot of rain).

As a Machine Embroiderist do you set your self goals as to completed projects or estimated completed stitches per week/ month? I am finding mysef more and more closing my eyes at night and thinking that I wish that I had turned the machine on and done something. I have tried to document my stash several times and well have not been sucessful at all. This weekend I did a lot of marathon stitching to get things done for Logan's birthday and Easter. It felt good to stitch both embroidery and regular sewing even if some of the projects didn't work out.

So todays Monday as well as a new month. I am going to start fresh. Being a busy mom to a toddler it isn't always easy to get to the sewing or embroidery machine but I am going to try. I have set my self a goal of 50,000 stitches a week on the embroidery machine. To some that may seem like alot but in the word of machine embroidery its not really that much. I have tons of projects swirling around in my head as well as some that I started and need to finish. Any one else want to join in?

 This Anita Goodesign "Christmas Town" is one of the many things that I have started and didn't get to finish due to health issues before Christmas. I don't think that it will count for "Christmas Through the Year" until the quilt is done but it would do wonders for my stitch goal as well as complete a UFO. I think I can manage one block a week or maybe 2 a month. Then maybe it can be displayed this year.

Until Later .. Happy Stitching