I made some Boo Boo's

Boo Boo Bunnies, that is! Aren't they so cute? I did a bunch of them years ago for my nieces and nephews but when I took them to work to ship them, they took off like wildfire. I had orders upon orders for them until I just couldn't make anymore. I even had one girl order two matching ones to use as bunny slippers for a doll!
Well, my kids have recently discovered the one I had left and asked for more... so here are some for them and some for you ~ through my Etsy shop, of course! What you do is, when you have a boo boo, you put ice in the bunny's belly and put the bunny on your boo boo.
Perfect gift for your little ones for Easter. I can do custom orders too!
I think this one is my favorite...

Absolutely Fantastic

Have you seen this yet?


Isn't that just great? There's also "The making of" on YouTube as well.

Time to Pay It Forward

I have been reading about the Pay it Forward Craft Exchange for the past couple of weeks and have decided to participate in the current round.

According to the rules, you have 365 days to send out your homemade gifts. Rest assured, that if you win, I will not wait 365 days to send you your gift.

1. Be one of the first THREE bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.

2. If you are one of the first three to make a comment, you are a winner! And you then agree to post this challenge on your own blog, meaning that you will pay it forward, creating a handmade gift -anything!- for the first THREE bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!

3. The gift that you send to your 3 friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember it’s the spirit and the thought that count!

4. When you receive your gift, blog about it! If you are not one of the first three to comment on this post, you can still play along. Go ahead and start your own Pay It Forward chain, and encourage your blogging friends to do the same! It's all about paying it forward.

St . Paddy's Day

To be true to "part" of my heritage I make corned beef and cabbage every year on St. Paddy's day. My husband likes it and my kids put up with it on one condition ~ that I also make "green" mashed potatoes


Nathaniel dyed the potatoes this year and was a bit skimpy with the green food coloring ~ but that's okay with me. Some years they are almost glowing.
The weather here has gotten quite warm although we desperately need rain. It's hitting both south and north of us but we remain very dry. It's caused quite a few fires in the area and the pollen count is a big ol' 10! Poor Julianne suffers from seasonal allergies and her eyes have been so swollen and red we actually thought she had pink eye. Doesn't she look so pathetic? I'll be glad when we get some rain to wash all this pollen away. Until then I try to keep her inside as much as possible. Hard to do though when it's so nice outside.
I think if this weather keeps up we'll be back in the pool at spring break. Yipeee!

Buttercup Bag

I've been working on a new bag to match my new jacket I bought a couple of weeks ago. I got the idea for the bag from here.
I did make some alterations. A couple of blogging buddies of mine made them already (Hi Sandra!) and some of the comments said it was a bit too small and I think someone mentioned it wasn't as stiff as they'd like so.... I have Buttercup 2.0. I made mine a couple of inches taller and about an inch wider across the bottom of the bag. I also ironed on a fusible for a bit more stiffness and in the piece that goes across the top I actually have some really stiff pelon. I put two pockets on the inside and decided to forgo the little doodad on the outside and doubled up a couple of cute buttons. Aren't they too perfect? I also made the strap long just cause I like it that way. I did get a bit fancy and put some "D" rings on the strap. I do think next time I will skip the magnetic snap and put in velcro instead.
I really like the way it came out and would definitely make this bag again. Now I'm off to make a few matching accessories and I'll be all set!

For all my crafty readers

It's a brand new site with lots of great projects and a chance to win a sewing machine. Check it out!

An Amazing Launch

Living where I do, I am fortunate enough to be able to see the launches of the space shuttle as well as any rockets that are launched from Kennedy Space Center. We've watched launches from the beach as well as a few other places around town ~ although we can actually see them from our house. Since we don't have too many launches left we decided to get a bit closer this time.
We drove over to a park in Titusville which is right on the water across from Kennedy Space Center. You can clearly see the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) and the shuttle launch pad is just to the right of it.
We got there about 4:30 for a 7:43 launch time. We found a nice spot right on the water ~ brought a picnic dinner of subs from Subway as well as grapes, carrots, chips, etc. The kids played on the playground and we all tossed some balls around.
Before too long, the park was pretty packed.
We talked to a few of the people close to us. The family right next to us was visiting from Canada. Almost all of them were from out of town and had never seen a shuttle lift off. Not sure why but I feel very proud showing off "our" shuttle launches and am happy to answer their questions.
It was a beautiful day and a beautiful launch. The shuttle went up just about 10 minutes after sunset. Here is the initial "firing" of the engines

And here is the shuttle just a few seconds after lift off
This picture does not do the sight justice but you can get an idea of the trail from the shuttle as the sun still up just enough to shine off the smoke and if you look just to the right of the smoke you can see the shadow cast by the shuttle and smoke.

This is the separation of the solid rocket boosters
We were able to see them fall all the way down.
All in all it is a great experience. One I hope you all have the chance to see before it's too late.
There is another rocket being launched tonight which we will most likely watch from home.

Only In Florida

Nuff Said!

I've been bitten by a bug

It's a selvage bug! Selvages (for you muggles) are the printed edges of fabric that have the name of the designer, manufacturer, color dyes, etc. For years I (and most sewers) have cut them off and thrown them away as we use our fabric because they typically have a different weave than the rest of the fabric and well, they are like the tags on your clothes and unless you are Minnie Pearl you don't want them showing.
That has all been changing lately. My first clue was when I saw this dress blogged about here. I thought it was ingenious but much more than anything I would ever attempt and still, I threw away my selvages. But then I started to see more and more selvage projects on the blogs I read and lo and behold, I was bitten. I think I'll start with something a bit simpler like this potholder. Shown here and directions for making this cute project (without the selvages) here. Some of the manufacturers are even selling bags of selvages now. Who would have guessed it?
The Selvage Blog is really the place to check out for all the projects she does and shows ~ but don't say I didn't warn you. You just may get bitten too. Well I'm off to see what I have in the way of selvages!

Going to the Dogs

This is where we ate dinner last night. It's the same ol' run of the mill sports type place. Little tiny bar, tv's all around showing sports stuff ~ but they do have good hot DOGS. Here's Richard's order. It's a hot dog wrapped in dough and topped "Chicago Style."
I went with something a bit less extravagant. I got a plain hot dog with sauerkraut which was fine ~ but this was my favorite part of the meal Nothing better than fresh mozzarella and tomato.

Oh and another good part of the day for me was this watch It was a custom order I made (and sold) after someone saw the one I made for myself.
Good Times!!!

Before and After

Sadie got a hair cut on Friday ~ which she desperately needed.
Here she is before


And here she is now ~bows and all. Nice and short which results in a lot less shedding!


And here is how my son takes the dog for a walk each day ~ on his ripstick. Needless to say, I'd kill myself if I even thought about trying this.

A new member of the family

My Flamingo family, that is. He is from Jim Shore and wonderful! He feels right at home in my mater bathroom along with these guys...
And this guy Not to mention these guys And last but not least, this guy
Fortunately for me my darling husband puts up with all this pink in our bathroom. We are thinking about getting a few alligators in there so the green will offset the pink just a bit.

There is a great raffle going on

I'm a huge Mary Lou fan and taking a class from her is way up there on my "Bucket List." If only I could get her to come somewhere (anywhere) in Florida, I'd be there. She has an amazing blog that is not only a pleasure to read, the pictures of her quilts as well as those of her students are phenomenal.


The quilt is called "Park Bench Quilters" designed by Mary Lou Weidman. She wrote about it on her blog here. All proceeds go to the Fiber Artist guild of Spokane,WA/and Idaho and it is to cover their quilt show. If you'd like to buy raffle tickets, write to:

Nancy Huck
2338 West Courtland
Spokane, WA 99205

Make your checks out to "Sew Uniquely You" and the tickets are $1. each.
Nancy is asking for a self-addressed, stamped envelope from those who would like to have the raffle ticket stubs mailed to them. Otherwise she will keep the stubs from all the out-of-town folks and put their tickets in the bin for the drawing. Don't forget, she needs a phone number or email as a contact. Tickets are $1. each
Good luck, it is an awesome quilt that is a wonderful smaller wallhanging size for any room.

In any case I've mailed off my check for tickets and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I will be the lucky winner.

More Mug Mats

Someone came along to my Etsy Shop and bought all my little St. Patty's day mug mats so I guess I'm off today to make more!
Just a couple of things before I go.... Nate had baseball last night. We did alright (we lost) and it was so cold no one cared. We all just wanted to go home. Now I now all you readers up north think I'm nuts but it really was freezing which I could have dealt with but it was so darn windy that it was brutal. This weekend we had wind gusts of up to 50 mph (but at least it was warm). I don't think the gusts were up that high but it wasn't fun. Here are a couple of pics for you
I should have made him bring his grey and black jacket but at least we always knew where he was with this one.
Here he is waiting for the throw to first base

And lastly here are a couple of older quilts that I finally got around to photographing last night. The first one is a dimensional bow tie quilt I did for Halloween a couple of years ago



And then this cascading triangles (I think that's what it was called) was for a class I taught. Some people were put off by my choice of colors (scared of all the orange) but out of all the students there was one brave girl who chose the same colors and it looked great!