Fruita$$es - I think she liked them :D

I recently made *someone* these fruity lady zipper bags - they were a birthday gift, and the recipient received them yesterday. I think she liked them :D I'm not going to say who it was that received them because I didn't ask permission to post her email, so she can remain incognito - and fruitassed - should she so desire :D (Sorry, person to whom I sent the bags - your email made my day, and I have to post it :D)

Woohoooo -- got a pkg today -- and at the risk of getting smited/smoted/smote/smot ~~~~~~~~ I OPENED it EARLY!!!!!!!! They are SWWWWWWWWEEEEEEEEEET!! FRUITASSES!!! I GOT FRUITASSES for my bday PMSL!!!!!!! LoLoL -- can't wait to use and show THESE off -- MUCHOS GRACIOUS!!!!!!

Got an ouchie?

Here's a prototype first aid bag I made this morning - it's pretty cute! It measures 7 1/2" tall x 7 1/2" wide (at the top), 5" wide (at the bottom) and 2 1/2" deep. I still need to make the zipper pull to finish it :D

#@$()*&)@#$(*&$#)@ !!!

Dessert is ready!!! *rolls eyes* :D

Chocolates, shopping and beasties :D

I whipped up a trio of zipper bags today (birthday gift for a friend) - these are all lined with the pink gingham that I used for the zipper pull on 2 of the bags. I wish I could remember where I got that fabric - it's much nicer than the thin crappy gingham that my local fabric store sells - it's a nice medium weight and sews like a dream! I'm quickly running out of it, so I use it sparingly :D

Here are the goodies I purchased at Joanns when hubby and I went Stateside a week ago ... it was a last minute trip and it turns out that the sale they were having at that time, was pretty damn crappy (that's twice in a row we've gone down during a shitty sale!) - because it was last minute I didn't even have any coupons - next time I check the sales flyer BEFORE we decide to go! :D

And here's a photo of some beasties that my son took yesterday @ Reptilia, when he and his girlfriend went to visit. This was the only picture I could bear to look at - they seemed to have liked the snakes an awful lot --- PASS!!!

Edited to add a correction: OOPS! The two ribbons (flamingo and flowers) in the shopping photo were from a wonderful seller on ebay - ribbongeek! :) Excellent prices, excellent service (I ordered the flamingo ribbon and they included the floral ribbon as a bonus - NICE!!) and reasonable shipping to Canada - 5* sellers in my book :)

It's hot upstairs but cooler in the basement ...

so I'm enjoying spending time down there with my sewing machine :D A few weeks ago I made a boxy bag for a friend, and today I made the zipper bag to match - hubby will deliver the set tomorrow (her husband works with my husband). They spend a lot of time at their trailer on the French River so I hope she can use the bags :)


I also finished this UFO cage quilt - I think a girl kitty will be happy to stretch out on it :D

Meat and potatoes and veg and dessert - oh my!

Here's a set of hotpads I started a while ago (probably 6 months!) - I decided to get off the pot today and finish them :D They measure 8.5" square, and were made with the Canadian Fabricland no-name version of InsulBright :D This set makes me chuckle because of the fabrics I chose for the backings (pics 2 & 3), LOL. Yes, I'm easily entertained :D

A few finishes ...

The bibs and shelter quilt (24 x 26) were finished in June but I forgot to take pictures of them. The sealife zipper bag (7x8) is my first finish of August - it's lined with the same batik that the pull tab is made from :)

Dogs and cats :)

The pink/black zipper bags are for my son's girlfriend (she has two kitties) - the rick rack one is lined with black, and the other one is lined with lime green batik :) She liked them (at least - she SAID she did!).

The doggy tote and zipper bag are for a fundraiser - the tote measures 15" x 13" x 4", and the zipper bag is 5X7 :)

Boxed in :D

I made this little guy today (finished to 8" long x 3" high x 4" wide) loosely based on this tutorial. I actually made 2 of them but in the first one, I didn't add the ribbon tabs - without them the bag is somewhat awkward to handle, so I changed things up when making the second bag. The original tutorial called for fabric cut 6" x 8" - I knew that would make a very small bag so I cut my fabric 8" X 10" --- the zipper is sewn along the 8" length. I cut out 1 1/4" squares to box the ends (1 1/2" squares in the first bag were too deep for my taste). Next time around I'll make the bag a little bit longer, cutting the fabric 10" x 10", and staying with the 1 1/4" box cutouts. (Posting this information to my blog gives me a way to look it up the next time I make these, LOL). I'm going to have hubby take this to work to give to a guy he works with - my husband and I are friends with the co-worker and his wife, but she doesn't read my blog so this will be a "just because" surprise :)

Gifties :)

I completed a couple more gifts to go in my box - a puppy tote (with matching zipper bags, of course) ... and some fruity lady zipper bags using up the last scraps of that FQ. You can see each bag is pieced differently - that's because I was using up every last inch of the fabric, however I could make it fit, lol. Nick's jeans have certainly proved useful for me, after they were too worn for him! ;)

Brian's lilies :)

11 or 12 years ago (ish) my brother dug up some tiger lilies from his house in Smiths Falls, and planted them here in our garden. Over the years we had to move the lilies several times - once because the flower bed got removed when the front porch was replaced, and then again when we realized that they didn't like their new home at the side of the house. They apparently didn't like their new home at the back of the house either, as all we ever got were skinny spindly stems with bug-eaten leaves - no blooms for probably 8-10 years. This year hubby suggested moving them to the front yard where they would, we thought, get a LOT of sun. Apparently that was the ticket, as we they've been doing well since the little stems were transplanted. And today, Brian's lilies bloomed. They're decendants of the ones he planted, so they're still Brian's lilies. He's been gone for just over 10 years now, but his lilies are back and blooming beautifully. Cheers, Buzz! :)

And ... Happy 34th anniversary Sherry and Mark!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I hope you're going out for dinner tonight ... or something!! :D

I'm still addicted to the zipper bags :)

I can't stop making these little sweeties - I just finished these ones up for a gift - isn't the fabric a hoot? LOL!

Tote 'n zippies :)

I made up this little set yesterday and today - the tote is 15 x 13 x 4 with a box bottom, is lined with the pink striped fabric, and has one pocket on the outside (with a yoyo decoration) and one on the inside. The two zipper bags are fully lined, and measure 8" x 6". The set will go in my "donate for a fundraiser" pile :D

A little bit of shopping :)

Thanks to my Humira injections, my psoriasis has improved to a stage where I can not only walk without my cane, but I can now spend some time shopping :) For a while hubby was doing ALL of the shopping as I wasn't able to stay on my feet for longer than a few minutes at a time (and those few minutes were agonizing). Some days are still better than others, but overall things are so much better than they were less than a month ago (I started the Humira on June 22). I am positively THRILLED :)

Hubby and I went to Buffalo on the weekend for a bit of a shopping trip. We went to a Lavender Festival in Niagara on the Lake, then headed across the border to visit a couple of Joanns stores :D Joanns didn't have anything on sale that I was interested in so I only picked up a couple of books, a little bit of fabric and a few notions. We also hit Aldi (thanks to Kim & Heather for telling us about that fantastic store a year or so ago) and stocked up on cream cheese, shredded cheese, sliced real cheese, butter and some pantry items :) My feet held up for the entire trip (we left at 9:30 a.m. and got home at 10:00 p.m.) - life is GOOD :D

I've gotten a little bit of sewing done in the last week or so - some bibs for a friend who's expecting her first grandy in September, and some more zipper bags. My son gave me some old jeans he had worn out (poor child thought I'd actually FIX them for him - instead, I cut them into as much useable fabric as I could, HAHAHA) and I used them as the basis for a bunch of the bags - waste not, want not! I'm so happy to be able to sew again!!

She's baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaack :)

I've been on Humira now since June 22 (3 injections so far) ... I started to improve 48 hours after the first injections, and I'm continuing to improve. It's miraculous - it really is. Hopefully I don't grow a second head, get TB, die or get inappropriate numbness/tingling ;)

Now that I'm feeling better and can use my hands, I've gotten some sewing done - more zipper bags :D The denim for the top two bags was recycled from some jeans my oldest son wore out, and the bottom bag, with the puppy fabric, was given to a girlfriend's daughter last night - just because :D The top two bags will be mailed this weekend - I hope the recipient likes them :)

Taking a blogging break

I'm going to take a little break from blogging until my health improves a bit. At this point in time I'm not able to do much sewing, and I don't want to turn this into a psoriasis blog. I'm pinning my hopes on a new medication that holds a lot of promise, and if I get approved by the insurance company it will be a while before there's any improvement. When (I don't want to say "if"!) things get better or at least under control, and when I can get back to my sewing, I'll get back into blogging. I still read my favorite blogs, but typing is difficult so I rarely post comments. I'm typing this post with one hand because the other hand is soaking in medication, lol.

In the interim, since I dislike posts without photos, enjoy this bit of eye candy - I stole the picture from my sister's blog - this is her and her daughter's kitty Lucifleur ... I mean FLOWER!!! *whew* :D I love this picture because the colors in the photo are incredible, and the poppy project above Miss Fleur, was made by MOI :D

Birdy bags :D

I don't get a lot of sewing done now because my hands hurt too much, but I'm still totally enjoying making little zipper bags. Everybody on my gift list should know that they're getting zipper bags for Christmas, LOL. Here are a few more that I've finished recently - the owl fabric is from Joanns, and the flamingo fabric was a gift from a sweet friend Barb (check out her blog - she makes AMAZING stuff, and always uses such delicious fabric!)

Our newest family member ...

Chris got his very first car today - a 2007 Mazda 6 :) He just now pointed out that if he takes out the car in the middle of the night, we can't give him shit ;) When he was first licensed, we discovered that Chris had, several times, taken our car out at 2:00 a.m. to go on a coffee run with buddies. He was insured on our car, but didn't have our specific permission to take the car out for the middle of the night runs. He learned a valuable lesson when he lost the use of the car for a month - that was a very LONG month for him, lol!





Another new family member - our older son Nick's new "ballin" rims - he just got these put on yesterday, lol. Apparently "ballin" is good!

Not much going on here ...

I'm waiting for permission from hubby's insurance company to go on heavy duty psoriasis medication (injections) - at the moment there isn't a lot I can do because my hands and feet are in bad shape. Today I had a melt-down at the clothesline - I hope nobody was watching - I'm sure I looked ridiculous :D

Here's what's happening in our end of the world - our new car, my new clothesline (Mothers Day gift!), and my cabana project progress (sandwiched and pinned) for Week 8. We told DS2 he couldn't drive the new car so he went out and bought a 2007 Mazada 6 - he takes delivery tomorrow if it's ready - he's BEYOND excited! We only have room for 3 cars in our driveway/garage - we'll have 4 vehicles (hubby's work van, our car, DS1's truck and now DS2's car) so the guys will have to find somewhere on the street for him to park :D Not my problem - the guys can take care of that :D Hard to imagine my baby will be legal drinking age (19 in Ontario) next month - HOLY (*&)(*#@$)$#@(*$# !!!!!

Gifty bags :)

I haven't been doing very well lately so haven't gotten much of anything done. I did manage to get a few little gifts sewn - the two tropical bags and the two fairy bags are for some friends of mine, and the extra fairy bag and the prism owl bag will go in my gift or donation box for "later" :D

Even tho I haven't been very mobile, hubby and I did manage to do a bit of car shopping, and on Saturday our newest family member will be joining us :) I can't find a picture of our exact model and color on the web, but this is close :) It's a 2009 Dodge Challenger SXT (with a sunroof! IMAGINE!). We're trading in the Impala, and have told DS2 he can't drive the new car, so he has to get his own, LOL. So now he's out car shopping as well :)