Class of 2010

A personal little post today,

I shout it to the world because I'm brimming with pride,

but this is all about you,

Ana~banana!

Congratulations baby! I'm so very proud of you!

I know what a difficult journey you've had these last few years.

High school is behind you now, and the world is waiting at your doorstep.

You can do anything you set your mind to, anything at all.

I love you and will always be here for you. You're a pearl, my girl!

I love you (both) forever.

oxo

Auntie

Love Bites

Ok, so as promised I'm back tonight with something cool! I hope you think so too!

Back in January of this year, I had a good ol' time having a bit of show and tell with you, because for Christmas 2009 I had challenged myself to make all of my Christmas gifts by hand. I had never taken on a handmade challenge before, and this was a lot of fun, as well as a lot of work. I had some pretty late nights back in December pulling it all together. One of the things that I especially liked was the Twilight pillow that I made for my niece, Ana. Remember?

This was also about the time I discovered Flickr (I know, late to the game as always) and had started loading my pictures there as well. So, just for shits & giggles I added this pillow into a Twilight Craft group on that website. I thought it might be helpful to other people, because when I set out to make this pillow I searched and searched for inspiration. I found nothing. All I could find when I Googled "twilight pillow" were silk screened pillow cases with giant Edward faces, not that there's anything wrong with that, but not exactly what I was aiming for either.

Anyhoo, a couple of weeks after I'd added this picture to the group, I got this email...

...I'm contacting you on behalf of ECW Press, a Canadian

publisher currently working on a book called Love Bites: The

Unofficial Saga of Twilight. The book will have a section on

the fan response to Twilight, part of which will focus on

Twilight crafters and the ten best Twilight crafts. We'd

love to include a picture and short description of your

Twilight related pillow. It's fantastic! You would be fully

credited in the book and would receive a copy.

Well of course I was like, beyond flattered!  So I replied yes! I would be happy to have them use my picture. OMGosh, like so totally radical! But really... on the inside I thought, well maybeee... and didn't hold my breath. Other than my immediate family, I didn't tell anyone because I didn't want to have egg on my face if nothing materialized.

In a subsequent email from ECW, they said that the release of the book would coincide with the release of Eclipse, which as you Twihards know, is fast approaching... yesterday I came home to find this in my mail.

At first I thought "hmm, what's this? I haven't ordered anything... Canadian post mark? weird"...

(yes, I converse with myself, just like that. Often.)

Then it dawned on me.

!!!!!!!!!! I know what this is!!!!!!!!!!

I ripped open the envelope!

Oooh, glossy! Lots of fantastic pictures!

Aww, isn't that nice??

Ok... where is it?!? Flipping to the back... Aha!

Yeah baby! Team Twilight!!

There it is, page 196!! Woop! Woop! Raise the roof!  

(insert totally immature squealing, maniacal giggling, and awkward happy dance here)

So yeah, I'm immortal now.

Hehehehehehehehehehehehehehehe.

Hey look, my pillow is right next to Floresita's "Stupid Lamb". I love that piece!

I'm honored, seriously. Floresita is a major talent, and is a writer for one of my favorite blogs, Feeling Stitchy.

Actually, all the crafts featured here are amazing, the journal (made by Nikki Pitcher, pitchmom.etsy.com) is a great example of paper craft, the mittens (made by Erin Smith) are beautifully knitted, Bella's moonstone ring (made by Desiree of fallenhearts.net), the Edward-themed necklace (made by Paula McDonough, venbead,etsy.com) are all wonderful.

All kidding aside, I am truly, truly flabbergasted that my little pillow, a Christmas gift for my niece, was selected to be in such great company as these other pieces. I'm not a professional crafter, I don't do this for a living (I wish.), I'm just a regular chic, goofing around with fabric and floss...

Wow. It's still all I can say. I know, this isn't *that* big of a deal, it's not like I have my own book or anything, I'm just really happy to have been included in something like this. I am an unabashed Twihard myself, a bigger fan of the books than the movies, but still... a fan none the less.

Ahh... I've done it again, prattled on and on.

If you've made it all the way to the end of this long winded post, thank you most sincerely for taking the time to read this, I know there are a lot of really awesome blogs out the, and I appreciate that you've popped in to read mine.

Goodnight sweet blogsters!

~oxo~

Lisa

p.s. Wanna own a copy of Love Bites? Here's a handy~dandy link, just cuz I love ya!

Beautiful Blog Award

Well Hello Y'all!

We're busy as ever around these parts, and I have lots to share with you, but check it out! I was tagged for a Beautiful Blog Award, woohoo! Have you ever checked out Felt Like Stitchin? If you haven't, mosey on over there, it's a comfy friendly place!

 Now I'm supposed to share 10 interesting things about myself... hm. Let's see what I can come up with... I'll try not to be a bore, and I'll try not to ramble, but you know how I can be sometimes... 

1.  Year before last, I'd had enough of looking the way I did and feeling bad about myself, so I set out to change something only I was able to. My weight. I lost (although "lost" isn't the right word... "forced off" is more like it) 100 pounds. No magic bullet. A lot of sweat and a lot of very careful choices. This last year has been very challenging for me physically & personally, and I've slacked off my healthy habits. I've gained a little back. Losing is easier than maintaining. Getting back on track is a struggle, but I'm getting there :o)

2.  In my early 20's, my greatest ambition was to take a year off and follow the Grateful Dead with my brother and a couple of our buddies. Ahh... good times. I still go see the remaining members whenever I possibly can. Great music. Their reputation overshadows their talent, which is vast. Need any recommendations? I'm your girl.

3.  I could take down an entire carton of mint chip ice cream if left to my own devices. But not just any mint chip. It has to be Thrifty's Mint Chip. Don't even need a bowl. Just a spoon... dangerous. Might have been a contributing factor to #1, ya think? Chocolate Malted Crunch comes in a close second. Close.

4.  I sort of have an obsession with teapots and Jadite Glass. I'm running out of space. Scratch that. I'm out of space. I'm secretly afraid I'm going to end up like one of those ladies on Hoarders. *shiver*

5.  I love geocaching! Have you heard of it? It's a fun hide & seek game played with GPS all over the world. I'm still new at it, but it's really addicting. I've gotten a couple of friends addicted too.

6.  I'm related (distantly) to Sherriff Pat Garrett. He is famous for killing Billy The Kid. My mothers maiden name is Garrett, and he's her great, great uncle. Cool, yeah?

7.  I ride a scooter whenever possible. I'm like, literally in love with my Vespa. I bought a pack of fabric baby diapers to polish her with. If I worked in the same town as I live in, I think I'd be tempted to sell my car.

8.  All my life I've been a serious night owl. However, recently I can't keep my lids open past midnight or so... some people say that is late. On contraire mo fraire... 3am. That's late. I still do it on the weekends, but I pay dearly in the mornings. Especially work day mornings.

9.  I'm the only one in my family that doesn't have tattoos. Including my mom. She started getting them on her 50th b-day. She has three now... they're all really pretty. I love beautiful tattoo work, I'm just too indicisive. I can't commit. I want to though... someday...

10. I love to read, I'm in two seperate book blubs. One meets every month, the other meets every other month. I don't watch much TV, it's on, but it's like background noise.

11. BONUS!! I have something REALLY cool to share with you tomorrow. Seriously cool. I can't believe I've managed to keep it under my hat actually.

Well hey! I managed to name not 10, but 11 things that you may not have already known about me that are (hopefully) mildly interesting! That's a feate considering what a blabbermouth I am.

Ok, so stay tuned because tomorrow I'm coming back with something timely and cool. Did I mention it was cool??? Oh yes... it's cool allright, and it concerns you, Twihards!!!

See you on the flip side!

oxo,

Lisa

p.s. Oh! I almost forgot, I'm supposed to pass this award along by tagging 10 more Beautiful Bloggers...

1. Two Boys and a Beagle

2. Tea With Friends

3. Roxy Creations

4. MafiosaGrrl

5. Little Nest Studio

6. My Cup of Tea

7. Tea and Talk

8. Vegkat's Yarns

9. Giggly Mama

10. Sew Lovely Embroidery

Have fun you crazy kids!

Making Mama Happy

'Ello Lovies!

Hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day! I spent the day up at my brothers house with my family, lots of good food, hot tea and a tour of the new veggie garden (I'll tell you about that later). A great day!

My Mom cracks me up girls. Let me just tell you about this real quick. Sunday morning, I'm shuffling around like a zombie, trying to get my rear in gear, sipping my usual morning cuppa joe. I quick sit down at the computer to wish you all a Happy Mothers Day, but before I do, I check my email and see this...

from: Sandy
to: lisasteatime@gmail.com
date: Sun, May 9, 2010 at 1:06 AM
subject: New comment on National Apron Day & International Female Ride Day....

I thought maybe I'd get a sneak peek...I Love My Baby Girl! :)

What?!? My mother is a peeker!! Notice the time people! Mom checked my blog at 1:06 AM (!!) to see if I'd posted yet about what I might have been planning for her for Mothers Day!

1.) I didn't even know my mom read this blog, (hi mom!) and
2.) She was trying to bust a peek in the middle of the night!

Sheesh... This is why we hide Christmas presents in our family. She's a regular Nosetta, that one. So, if you saw the little p.s. at the end of my last post, this is what I was referring to. Honestly, this cracked me up more than I could tell you. Three days later and I'm still smiling...

Here's what she was hoping to catch an early glimpse of.

Freshly stitched just for her...

A pretty place to lay her pretty head.

New pillows & pillowcases for my Mama.

Mom tells me that the pillows are indeed very comfy and she loves them. Yay.

I'm happy, you're happy Mom.

I love you very much.

Sew! A little about the project, these were pre-stamped pillow cases from Bucilla, I got them at JoAnn's. The pattern is called Swirl Flowers. I thought they'd be a quick project, they looked quick... but if I tell you the truth of the matter, I started these for Mom at Christmas.  There was no way I could get them done for her then, I'd already commited to too many projects as it was, so I made her this instead. Boy was I glad that I did, because these pillow cases were s l o w  g o i n g. Lots of satin stitch, which seems to take me forever.

 I don't know if y'all are interested in this, I'm always curious about the length of time these types of projects take. These pillow cases have a repeating pattern which repeats six times. Each pattern piece took, on average about 5 hours... 5x6 = 30. 30 hours. 30. This is why I don't do this for money... it takes too long. I LOVE embroidery, but I'd really need to pick up my pace if I wanted to open an Etsy shop or sell in a boutique like I see so many stitchers do... No, no, no... I do this for pleasure. I don't know how all you crafty, super-stitchy girls do it so fast. My hat's off  to you ladies! Standing O's!!

Anyhooo,  I can't wait to catch up on all your blogs and see how you've spent your Mothers Day!

Toodles,

Lisa 

Happy Mothers Day!

Good Morning All You Beautiful Mama's!

Quickly on the run out the door this morning to join my own dear Mum and Sis-in-luv for a mountain top garden tea party, but I couldn't go before telling all of you beautiful ladies in blog land 

Happy Mothers Day!!

I hope your day is filled with many hugs, and giggles and smiles from the ones you love!

Only the best for all you Mamas!

~oxo~

Lisa

p.s. No Mom... still no "sneak peek" at your gift (silly lady thinks I'm going to post about it before she receives it... not!), but nice try! I love you!

National Apron Day & International Female Ride Day

Hi Girls~

Hope you're all doing well and enjoying some of this beautiful spring weather!

Did you guys know that there was such a thing as National Apron Day?? There sure is, and it's this Monday, May 10th, I just found out a moment ago, and I have to share this because it's too cute not to!!

Lookie, lookie!

To celebrate National Apron Day, Calamity Kim is having a give away, gosh I hope I win, I LOVE that gnome fabic! Dang, that's cute! If you win, she'll make you one in your size and everything, how cool is that ?!? Pretty darned cool says me!

I found out that today is another national, or rather International day just for us ladies...

Today is

International Female Riders Day

Isn't that rad?? I think it's rad. And, by happy coincidence, I rode the Vespa to work today! Yay for me!!

It's been an interesting week via Vespa, remind me to tell y'all about that later...

Hope you've had a great week! I've been stitching like crazy a special something, something for my Mummzie for Mothers Day, I'll definitely share with you after I share with her.

oxo,

Lisa

Pretty ~ Calm

Hi Girls!
Wow you guys! Thank you so much for all of your wonderful comments on my 35 Squares sampler, you girls sure know how to make me smile! Too kind, you're all too kind! Schwwwwwaaaa! That was a big ol' smootch from me!

Ok, so! A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I stitched up a goodie for my girlfriend Melissa, for her birthday, since I finally shared the last two squares of the stitch-a-long with you, I can start sharing the other stuff I've been up to, yay! I like sharing! Here's how it all went down...

Have you ever consciously known that something, a wedding, a birthday etc. was coming, but somehow it doesn't really dawn on you?? Like you see the date approaching on the calendar, but somehow you don't fully appreciate that the event in question is right upon you? This is what happened to me the night before  Mel's b-day. I knew full well that her party was Saturday, and Friday after work, the light finally came on and I realized I hadn't gotten her a birthday gift... awww nuts!

Not to worry, I'd had a vague notion of a little goodie that I wanted to make for her for a while and her birthday was the perfect excuse. The question was, could I get it stitched and sewn in a few hours the night before the party?!? Heck yeah!! I'm a stitchin fool!

Pretty & calm, that was my mantra...ohm...

Water and lotus...ohm...

M is for Marvelous Melissa

More water...more lotus...ohm...

Here's the fabric for the back

Here's another view to see the top & bottom together.

Pretty...calm...

She likes it!

Yay, I liked it too. Start to finish, it took me about five hours, including a quick trip to the store for the top fabric and a pillow form. I am by no means a fast stitcher, but this is a simple pattern and comes together pretty quick.  I got the idea for the stitch combo (ripple and lazy lotus) from my newest crafty book purchase, Sublime Stitching's Embroidered Effects by Jenny Hart. I really like this stitch combination;  I even used a tiny version of it in my sampler (square 6).

Saturday morning, I even had time to bust out Mr. Sizzix and whip up a cute bag to put it in... Success!

I love rising to a challenge! Makes me want to hold an embroidered flag and sing (badly) from a mountain top.

Thanks for visitin'

~oxo~

Lisa

34th & 35th Squares

Drum roll please... Ta~daaaaaa!

My homage to the great outdoors.

Purple mountains majesty, the forest and a river tying it all together.

We love to go camping! The Sierra Mountains of Northern California is our place of choice, it's technically called the El Dorado Nationial Forest.We try to go a few times each summer, but it's never enough. 

In these squares I wanted to play around with the idea of "painting" with thread, and be more free handed. To fill in every square milimeter. I sketched in the shape of the mountains, the river and the tent for spacing and perspective, the rest was added as I went along. I'm really happy with 34 & 35, I wanted to go out with a bang, so I tried to pack in a lot of detail in these two square inches. I think I did all right, what do you think?

Here is my completed 35 square grid...

I wish I would have taken a picture with a quarter or dime lying next to one of the squares. Friends and family who've seen the piece in person all say the same thing "Wow, it's so tiny, it looks so big on the computer." It's true. I think that's why I've been so critical of my own work, because when it gets blown up so big on the computer screen, I can *clearly* see all of my mistakes. It's funny, my eyes definitley see my good & bad days. Days when I felt good and went in with confidence, I produced stitching that I'm happiest with, days when I felt lost or rushed, not so much. Over all I'd have to say that now that the piece is finished, I'm more or less happy with it on the whole, even the squares I didn't like originally (fan, wreath, sunflower). I haven't framed it yet, but when I do, I'll be sure to share a picture or two.

Speaking of pictures, are you ready?!? Here are all 35 squares all in one spot.

SQUARE 1

SQUARE 2

SQUARE 3

SQUARE 4

SQUARE 5

SQUARE 6

SQUARE 7

SQUARE 8

SQUARE 9

SQUARE 10

SQUARE 11

SQUARES 12 & 13

SQUARE 14

SQUARE 15

SQUARE 16

SQUARE 17

SQUARE 18

SQUARE 19

SQUARE 20

SQUARE 21

SQUARE 22

SQUARE 23

SQUARE 24

SQUARE 25

SQUARE 26

SQUARE 27

SQUARE 28

SQUARE 29

SQUARE 30

SQUARE 31

SQUARE 32

SQUARE 33

SQUARES 34 & 35

SQUARES 1~35

Whew! That's a lot of stitchin! Thank you all so much for hanging in there with me, I really don't think I could have done with without all your kind comments, feedback and advice along the way. I love emboirdery, but you bloggy girls made this fun! I enjoyed sharing with you all, and those of you who played along, I have LOVED looking at your squares along this journey too! You stitchy sisters ROCK!

Are you ready for another stitch-a-long?? Check this out!

Counting My Blessings

Here we go again! A slower pace this time, but I'm game! Who else is in??

Humongous hugs to each and every one of you!

~oxo~

Lisa