Post Number 600!

So Saturday Rich, the kids and I met up with Jen, Jeremy &; Charlie at the 44th Annual Maryland Seafood Festival in Annapolis. We were really looking forward to it. My niece Danielle made Charlie the most adorable little crab shirt and sent me some crab fabric which I used to make her matching pants. Unfortunately that was pretty much the best part of the day.

It was hot ~ I mean Steamy hot. It had been raining for the week prior to the festival which meant the ground was a mess. It was muddy with huge puddles everywhere. Silly me wore sandals. White sandals even! Don't know what I was thinking but they are no longer white! The crowd was insane. The lines for the food (which wasn't particularly good) were longer than the lines to get on a ride at Disney. At least it seemed that way.. and so overpriced. So hot, crowded, over priced, wet and bad food.

I will say the view at the festival is nice. It's right on the Chesapeake River ~ looking out at the scary Bay Bridge. Did I ever tell you I have a real phobia about really high bridges, especially those that curve. Did you ever notice there are always scrape marks on those curves? How scary is that..... anyway, I digress..
Ah, but there were craft booths. That should make me feel better, right? Wrong. I had actually gone with the thought of maybe getting a craft booth next year but for $325. for the weekend I wanted to chat with some of the vendors and see if it was really worth it. The craft booths were equally as bad. Nothing of real interest ~ candles, jewelry and paintings. The booth area was also crowded and soggy even though it was under a tent. People were hot and cranky and I really didn't see anyone purchasing much of anything.... so after all this we decided it was time to go. Poor Richard was drenched with sweat. Julianne was whining that she was going to throw up and Nate was just down right cranky.
Jen made the suggestion that we all get our hand stamped and leave the festival and go somewhere to get a real bite to eat and hang out for a while... which is what we did and that was really nice.
Charlie ~ what can I say ~ I'm so in love with that child. She was being so cute and just screaming with laughter. Keeping us all amused ~ and us doing anything we can to amuse her as well. Through all of this ~ she was a real trooper.
About 5:30 we left the restaurant. Rich, the kids and I went back home.

Jen, Jeremy & Charlie went back to the festival. The whole reason they were going in the first place was to see the concert by "Cowboy Mouth." They said it was much cooler when they went back and that the concert was fantastic. Charlie even got a drum stick and her picture taken by the lead singer. Do you see the look on Charlie's face? How funny is that!

In any case ~ I, for one, won't be going back next year!

Been Playing and Creating

In addition to the stuff I made for the Panda Swap I've actually been working on a few other things.

I have a customer that wants to give coaster sets to her "card group" for Christmas. She liked my coasters but asked if I could come up with a design that showed more of the main fabric and less of the accent fabric. I came up with this design ~ and gave her two different fabric combos to choose from.

Just waiting to hear what she thinks of them.


I also have another customer who loved my football wallet for her husband but wanted something a bit bigger to hold his football tickets. My "regular" wallets measure 4 1/2" wide by 3" tall. She wanted 6" wide by 3 1/2" tall. A little simple math and it was done. Here's a pic of the larger wallet along side the regular one.

Now what else to do... combine the two ... New style coasters in football fabric!
These will go in the Etsy shop

And on a completely different note... I've been playing with beads too. I made this necklace a couple of months ago. I'd like to find a few more pieces like this owl.

I also recently purchased a couple of these little scrabble tiles from Jesse Janes Etsy shop. She has some adorable stuff you should check out. Anyway... I made the red and black necklace for my very pregnant niece and of course, the flamingo for me. I also have a couple of other tiles I haven't played with yet.That and a bunch (and I do mean a bunch) of elastic beaded bracelets have been my vice of late!  Hope you are doing
 some fun stuff as well.

Time for me to get back to the sewing room.  I'm doing a craft fair on November 4th.  Better get my butt in gear!

Panda Swap 2011

So last month Julianne and I participated in an "on-line" swap. The theme of the swap was Panda's.

Basically you send your info (age, likes, etc) to the swap host ~ in this case Jill of "Life With Nature Girl."
She then matches everyone up and assigns partners. Julianne was matched up with a 14 y/o girl living in Louisiana. The rules of the swap were simple. There should be at least one handmade item with all other items being panda or the black & white theme. The hunt was on for panda fabric as well as other themed items. Here's what we ended up sending..... Hot pink was one of the colors Julianne's partner said she liked with black and white so we went with it.... I made the Panda travel pillow and Julianne made her some pink/black/white beaded bracelets. We also included a little stuffed panda, a panda charm, and a little panda bag. Some black/white/pink school supplies (notepad, pens & wipe off board), some fun socks and topped it all of with pop rocks!

And here is what Julz got from her swap partner... a cute crochet panda, a panda timer, necklace, and a bookmark. Lots of fun stuff like boa's pink/black/white nail polish and a giant "J" covered in glittery peace signs.

It was a lot of fun and the best part is that we got to meet some new friends.

As a "thank you" I made both Jill and Nature girl some matching screen bags with the left over panda fabric. If I do say so myself, they turned out pretty stinking cute. I hope they like them.

And now we can't wait for the next swap.