Tag: family

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70 of 100 Items!

70 items out of 100 in the 100 items in 100 days Challenge! Whew, I never realized that it would be this easy. Yes, easy to create 70 items out of supplies I already have on hand. I almost hit a road block yesterday when I ran out of pins for the felt brooches. I found a bunch more this morning and I am started on some different style of brooches using different beads. I can’t wait to show them to you. Here they all are in random order. There are some items that I am not thrilled about but I promised to show you the good, the bad and the ugly.

I’m off to sew and bead some more!

See you later,

Karen

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March Roars In

Here are some photos of our March as it roared in with ice and snow storm.

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I took several photos over the course of the day for the college girl. It is always so amazing to me that it was snowing on Sunday and the very next Friday it is supposed to be 60 degrees plus!  This was Sunday morning as the ice and snow started.

2014-03-02 14.14.30About noon it was really snowing pretty hard.

2014-03-02 15.35.43Then we got another layer of ice.

2014-03-03 11.59.33Here is the next morning. Which is really nothing to those of you that live North of us, but quite amazing to us. March snowstorms are not unusual for Oklahoma. My tulips are sprouting and the daffodils are up but not blooming yet. Spring is on the way.

I have been sewing, crocheting and working on more 100 items in 100 day stash projects! This week has been busy with a trip to a college for a couple of scholarship interviews. It was nice to spend one on one time with DS and to think that he graduates in a couple of short months. Our home seems to be getting quieter and quieter, but this week will be busy with our daughter’s college friends visiting here for parts of Spring Break. It will be fun and crazy with a lot of food and laughter.

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

 

 

 

 

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60 Items and Counting

I never thought that I would reach this number quite so quickly. I wondered if I would be able to create even 50 items. Here I am sitting at 60. Here is a quick look at them all.

I am glad that I challenged myself to the 100 items in 100 days Challenge. I have used quite a few supplies. I am also a little staggered at how much I still have. While I have run out of a few key elements like the batting I use in the coffee cozies, pot holders, and cup sleeves. I have used up three spools of white thread and quite a few buttons. I have given to a teacher friend my rubber stamps, stamp pads and card stock for use in her classroom. I removed several vintage tea towels to use in my kitchen. I still have an excess of supplies sitting in my studio. I am wondering if I could continue the challenge to use up even more supplies in my shop. I would need to buy the batting I need though, I would NOT need to buy any yarn for quite awhile. I have enough yarn to last until June, August or even October, barring any flights of creativity.

I have been challenged to think outside the box and to use what I already have rather than rush out the store when I am low on creativity. While, I do pin ideas to my Pinterest boards, I try to use those ideas as a spring board for my own creativity. I have three or four  several things in the works for the next couple of weeks.

  • I still need to baste and quilt the quilt top
  • I have at least two or three crochet blankets in the works
  • I have three or four crochet patterns that I need to write up and publish
  • I have the supplies to create another weekender bag and the pattern free from the internet
  • I can crochet a ton of fingerless gloves, scarves and maybe hats! I am not fond of hats as everyone’s head is a very different size.
  • I have some small sewing ideas floating around in my head as well.

We will see what happens as I will have a full house next week as it is Spring Break for the college girl and she is bringing her room mates home for the week. The other kids also have Spring break at the same time so it will be a  busy week full of food, fun and laughter. I hope the weather cooperates as a hot dog roast/marshmallow toasting are in the works, along with some trips to museums in the area and of course bargain shopping! May you have a great week! It is icy and snowing here today as I write this, but by the time you read this it should be warm and sunny.

Talk to you later,

Karen

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Scarves, scarves, scarves!

When cleaning out the studio last week, I ran across a bunch of lovely silky fabric. It wasn’t anything that I would sew as it tends to spit out the pins as you sew. It is way above my comfort level to sew with and was given to me by both my Mother in Law and my Mom. I had been on a recent shopping trip with my teenage daughter and noticed that infinity scarves and scarves in general were the latest thing. (They have probably been the latest thing for quite awhile.)  I had enough to create a variety of different scarves. Some are infinity and some are not. I am counting these for the challenge.

I made an infinity scarf out of the beautiful green, black and blue optical print.

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I made two of these long rectangular scarves with this lovely black fringe from my supplies. They came out quite nice.

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I also made an infinity scarf out of the same fabric. It reminds me of storm clouds.2014-03-01 13.40.48

This is a beautiful silky feel window pane plaid of purple, green and red on a blue background. While I was taking the photos I found an alternate way to wear it. A simple pull through knot.

2014-03-01 13.41.44So five scarves would be numbers #56, 57, 58, 59, 60! I haven’t decided if these will be in listed in the shop or for personal use. We will see!

talk to you later,

Karen

 

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Cleaning

I’m starting to make headway on the cleaning job. I can really see some differences and I have been able to finally let some things go. Some of the things I am letting go are some rubber stamps, stamp pads, and a bunch of scrap book paper. The scrapbook paper is going to a teacher friend of mine for her classroom.

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I have these really neat scrapbook storage drawers that are perfect for projects in process. Can you see the one labeled buttons.  2014-02-22 16.54.16

 

I am in the process of putting the buttons into other containers. I am using these drawers as project holders. So I have one labelled cup cozies, coffee press cozies, and bibs. I can pull the drawer out take it to the sewing machine and work on the project, when I am done I can simply close the box and put it away! It should work like a charm for most of the smaller projects I do.

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I did a size and shape sort of the embroidery hoops . I have gone through four of the fabric tubs and managed to empty two. The fabric under  peg board is a variety of linens that I pulled from all over the sewing room. I just need to put them away and it will look much better.  I sorted out the larger fabric scraps from the smaller ones and have started some color sorting of the medium scraps. The ones too small to fold and too large for scrap piecing.

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So it is starting to look better. It just takes time to make order out of chaos, and it was definitely chaos! This studio has had two moves and umpteen moves within the house. The moves really took their toll on any organization I ever had, which wasn’t much.So I am getting excited. I have so many ideas of new things to sew that it is all I can do to force myself to finish it up!

I am showing the parts that look the best, but I am still working on it.

Talk to you later,

Karen

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Friday!

I have several ideas rolling around in my head to sew today. A couple of receiving blankets, pot holders, another coffee press cozy and then some things to finish up. I have a quilt to layout and baste. I have some other wrist warmers I can crochet, grey, yellow and brown and maybe navy. I want to make some place mats for the shop and more potholders.  There is decidedly too much to do and not enough time to get things done. I am feeling overwhelmed. It seems no matter how much I use up what I have there are still tons of supplies to use. Here are a few photos to prove the point. Yes, it is really a mess but I have been cleaning and these photos were taken a couple of weeks ago.

 

This isn’t even the tip of the iceberg of supplies in my studio.There are several laundry baskets of yarn, 6-7 large plastic tubs of fabric. I have received 5-6 large plastic tubs and drawer units of fabric from my MIL’s long term stash of items. It is overwhelming me. The little things that I keep making only seems to be making more scraps that take up more and more room! I need to clean the studio this weekend and make order out of creative chaos! So, that is my plan for the weekend and hopefully I will also get some items cut out and ready to go! The good news is that I do have enough of what is needed to make another weekender bag, maybe two!

talk to you later,

Karen

NOTE: So that you know I am human and weird things happen to us. We now have a water leak that requires repairs. So, I will be cleaning up the mess today and probably tomorrow after the repairs are done.

NOTE: I am cleaning the studio and why oh why must it look worse before it looks better….? 2014-02-21 13.10.26But it is improving…slowly but surely. The house is repaired and running properly.

The cleaning is coming along slowly but it is getting done. I am trying to integrate my MIL’s fabric with my fabric so I am not buying things I don’t need. I would rather just sew it all up and get it out of my hair. Cleaning craft supplies drives me crazy.

 

 

 

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The Overnight bag #48 out of 100

I love these overnight bags or weekender bags as they are called. I really needed one as I travel  more frequently for overnight stays rather than week long trips. The wheeled suitcase that we used when adopting our youngest is OLD and huge. In fact hubs and I can both use it for a weekend or longer! I had this fabric in my stash.

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Here is another photo of the main fabric I chose.

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I had the zipper, piping, lining and inner liner all there sitting in my stash. I drew up my own pattern and the sewing and then ripping out commenced! I found that it is easiest to baste by hand the parts you are sewing together.

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Here is the finished bag and I am happy with it.

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There are a few things I would change next time. I would buy a pattern that comes complete with instructions. I would baste everything from the beginning by hand. I do like the way it turned out and I even put some pockets on the inside. I would also buy the metal feet that fit on the bottom and keep it off the ground.

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You can just see them inside here. There are three and they are nice and deep. My laptop will fit with my clothes. The cords will slide into those deep pockets. The handles of the bag are long enough to fit over my shoulder but not so long that the bag drags the floor when I carry it by hand (which can be a problem when you are short!) I found a pattern for another weekender bag that is for free and I think I am going to try to make another one in different fabric!

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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#39- 46 of 100 items in 100 days Challenge!

Here is a huge addition to my 100 items in 100 days Challenge! I was super productive today and many things were started and finished! A huge Thanks to my Mom! She gave me some elastic so I could stay out of the fabric stores!

So here is # 39

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#40

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#41

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#42

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#43

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#44

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And a couple of pot holders that I finished last week but never counted!

#45

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#46

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Thanks, Mom!

Talk to you later,

Karen

Note: Almost all of these are listed in my Etsy shop: www.chocolatedogstudio.etsy.com

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Today: Feb. 3, 2014

Today has certainly been very odd. Hubs was home for part of the day and then left for work halfway through the day. So it has felt off balance all day. We were out of bread, so lunch was a rather yummy potato soup made from hash browns, left over ham bone broth, ham pieces and home made biscuits.

Anyway all of this to say that I got a huge long three hour nap in the middle of the day. I got my next crochet blanket figured out down to the number of squares per color! We now have homemade bread and I have no idea what we are eating for dinner! Woohoo, it seems I am on a roll! Well, not really, but the blanket though is a beauty and seems to just roll of the crochet hooks. The colors are incredible. I am not going to give any sneak peaks this time until it is finished all 248 little 4″ squares! I think it would give it all away.

I have been working on a new pattern for fingerless gloves and after three pairs I am about ready to kick that into production. The pattern is simple and there is no sewing involved.

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It is a version somewhere between the red ones above and the grey ones below!

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So that is what I have been working on. OH, the sewing machine part came in and I have been working away on #10 The quilt. I hope to be finished with it soon as well. I feel a bit like Einstein to be able to diagnose and order the correct part for my machine!

Talk to you later,

Karen

 

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#13 and #14

These are just a quick peek at #13 and 14 out of 100. I have to admit that it is hard to stay on track. I have been deleting about 15+ emails a day that have to do with sewing, yarn, craft supplies or patterns. I am also trying to use the patterns I have or free online patterns. #13 is a crocheted bowl using cord and variegated left over yarn. The other is a scalloped scarf like the red one only in bright blue and a little chunkier.

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There you go two more down and only 86 left and no #10 isn’t finished yet, I am waiting on a sewing machine part.

 

Talk to you later,

Karen