Thanks to Beki for the headsup, there's a new paysite in town! If you sign up for Revolution Money Exchange (RME) before the end of the day today, May 15, you'll get $25 free deposited into your account. RME is like Paypal, but with no fees. Once you have an account you can spend your money online, or transfer it into your checking account. Here is a list of some retailers accepting it.




If you click the button above, I'll get $10 deposited into my account, too! What are you waiting for??

Labels: misc

For Mother's Day I made my mom and sister matching pouches for their Christmas totes. Mom needed a larger one and Katy wanted a coin purse sized one.



You can't see it in the photo, but the small one is pretty crummy. I definitely need practice with zippers. Luckily she still likes it! She's so sweet and enthusiastic about receiving all my imperfect prototypes.

Labels: bags, family, sewing

Last night was officially Night 11 of my 52 no tech nights, but I had an award dinner for work so I wasn't even home to be tempted. So tonight is no tech night instead, other than popping in here real quick for a master quilt update.



I've somehow squeezed in piecing of the first few strips! I hope to make a good dent in the piecing tonight and finish tomorrow or Thursday.

And did I mention that I'm being unfaithful to my dear, basic little Janome?



To tackle the king-size quilting in my near future, I am borrowing my mother-in-law's totally amazing machine. I'm getting spoiled!

Labels: 52 nights, OPAM, quilting

I love having both my mom and my mother-in-law in town, but it made for a busy Sunday! This morning we had brunch with Pete's mom, and I made a new make-ahead French toast that was so delicious.





The recipe is here except I used real eggs instead of egg substitute. Very yummy. And Mint Bellinis, too. We also went out to dinner with my mom and my sister's family, so it has been a day of eating!

Among all the cooking I did get time to work on a new project.



I do have all the pieces cut for the master quilt and I'll try to piece the top this week. Then I'll have three weekends to get it quilted to meet my May goal. It's nice to be able to still work on other projects, though!

Labels: cooking, family, quilting

A coworker of mine heads to Russia soon to pick up his new son. I wanted to make a little gift for the occasion and thought it might be fun for his little guy to have a little bag of goodies for the plane ride home.



I made a simple tote with a fold over closure, and filled it with goodies for the long plane ride.



I made a slightly different version with a flap/magnet closure to send for my cousin's older son when I get my act together and send a gift for her new baby. I'm not 100% thrilled with either of these - I was going for easy construction for me, and easy "operation" for the kids. I need to figure out what to modify before I try a third bag...

Labels: bags, sewing

My sister was able to deliver my grandma's purse and necklace to her over the weekend, and was thoughtful enough to capture this for me:



If people ever ask me why I enjoy crafting, I want to be able to show them this picture!

52 Nights Update - Are you sick of these yet? Night 10 I ran a ton of errands, worked on my quilt, and made dinner. I did cheat - I played a few games of the new MarioKart for Wii. My first slip in 10 weeks, not bad! And I still got so much done, which wouldn't have happened before with something like MarioKart to distract me. I look forward to Mondays, and I am treating more nights like no tech nights. I think this weekend I might make Sunday a no tech day - a whole day! On Mondays I don't count time at work since I need the computer. I'm not sure I can handle a whole day...

Labels: 52 nights, family

It seems like so long ago that I signed up for Michelle's animal-themed embroidered button swap. At the time, May 10th seemed so far away!



I kept putting off work on my buttons, because I couldn't come up with an idea I was pleased with. I threw away many sketches.



Finally, just last week, I came up with a plan that I liked and set to work getting it in thread!



See all six on flickr.

So though I had moments of doubt, times when I thought I might be a dreaded bad swapper, I got my buttons to Michelle on time. I can't wait to see what I get back!

Also... I redesigned the blog! If you check in a feed reader, be sure to click through to look.

Labels: needlework, swaps

Some nights I want to play around in my craft room, but am not motivated to work on any of my "to do" projects. Does that ever happen to you? At times like these, I usually pull out my beads.



I've had a ring blank around forever, and finally made it into a pink party ring to go with a new skirt.





I also figured out how to make my own earwires from silver wire. I love the flexibility this gives me!



And I did eventually sort back out all those tiny silver pieces the cat dumped onto the carpet...

Labels: jewelry