My Crazy Life

I'm going to put this blog on hiatus for now (as if I've kept it updated). Life is a bit busy at the moment and I need some time to revamp and get things in order to make more regular posts. So what's going on? Well, I recently switched jobs and I'm also finally going back to school to get my teaching credentials. Between those two things and regular life I just haven't had the time to keep up with my blogging. I WILL get back to it, maybe in a month? I dunno, we shall see! Until then, Happy New Year!

Redwork Ornaments WIP

I've been working on holiday gifts lately. My husband and I are doing a 12 Days of Christmas thing where we adopt a family (or in our case, two...cause we're gluttons for punishment) and anonymously leave them gifts and little messages and stuff the 12 days leading up to Christmas. One of our families is an older single man who doesn't have a tree or anything, so we're going to surprise him with a little table top tree, a tree skirt, and table runner to match and of course, ornaments for the tree! I wanted to do something really special with the ornaments, so I pulled out my old embroidery hoop and some red thread and searched through a packet of stuff I had acquired from friends and family of embroidery patterns. I found this little set and it just screamed perfect for this particular project. I've been plugging away at them all week and have just started working on number 6 this morning. 6 more to go and that set will be done! I've got another idea of some ribbon ornaments to accompany these, will post the finished product when it's completed! I think I'm having too much fun making these, and might find myself wanting/needing a set for me!

Fall Fun

Fall has begun! While the weather starts to change and I start to dig through my storage to pull out fall and winter clothing the leaves on the trees have already turned brilliant shades of orange, red and yellow. Time to start pulling out those favorite fall recipes! One of my favorite things to do in fall is bake (I know, that's my favorite ALL year long!) In fall, however, apples are plentiful (and cheap) and I honestly can't think of a better scent for my home than cinnamon apples baking in the oven. This fall I started off with my favorite basic, apple pie, as a gift to a friend for his birthday. (I'd promised him a few weeks ago, but botched the recipe cause I yakking on the phone instead of paying attention to what I was doing.) I'm told the pie was pretty yummy. It was a fun one to make!

Pretty "Phoebe" Bag

One of my passions is sewing. This weekend one of my friend's daughters celebrated her 11th birthday. She's a big time bag and purse collector and so I thought it might be nice to give her something that no one else would have. One of the blogs I watch, Artsy-CraftyBabe, has some great bag patterns and I've been dying to try one of them out. So, thanks to her great FREE online pattern for the "Phoebe" bag I've managed to put together this little adorable bag for her. She opened it today and LOVED it! The directions for this bag are pretty simple and straight forward and even a novice sewer could probably manage to assemble this bag. No tricky stitching with this. My total project time for this (WITH TV watching) was about two hours. There are only really two pieces to the pattern and the majority of my time was spent picking out two fabrics and fussing over my interfacing which was having fuseability issues. I liked making this bag so much I think I'm going to make another one for another birthday I have coming up, only I'd like to add a bow or some sort of appliqued flower or initial or something to the outside to personalize it a bit more.

Projects Projects Projects

Summer is over and Fall is in full swing! The leaves are changing colors and the air has taken on the chill that comes as winter edges closer. All around our neighbors have started to decorate their homes for the season with pumpkins, corn stalks and all the bright colors of fall leaves ringed in wreaths. With the changing of the seasons my project list changes from personal projects to gift making for the holidays! Here are just a few of the things on my To Do list:

Bedside Tables Remake
New Christmas Stockings
Cat Toys/Dog Toys
Fall Table Runner
Christmas Table Runner
Fall Placemats
Christmas Placemats
Purses/Totes
Dog Kennel Cover
New Christmas Skirts
Aprons

That's the short list...I'll probably be adding more as I go. We've finally purchased a new camera so I'll be able to upload TONS of great pictures to accompany my future posts! In other exciting news, a friend of mine and I will be hosting a booth at the Altrusa Bazaar here in town this coming November to sell our homemade wizard wands! If you'd like to take a look at our craft you can view our gallery at www.OrderedChaos.etsy.com Hope you're all having a great season!

Quilt Bag Inspired by Moda Bakeshop Tote Tutorial

This adorable bag was inspired by the Moda Bakeshop Tote Tutorial found here. I thought it was the cutest tote bag I'd seen in quite a while and fairly simple to assemble. I'm all about quick sewing projects. Now, I didn't feel like making a whole tote bag, so I shortened the measurements and made a small handbag instead. The whole project took me about 3 hours off and on while watching TV. Here's how "I" made my bag, which isn't too different from the one at Moda Bakeshop, but just incase you want the short version only.
Step One: Pick out your fabric palette. I chose jewel tones for mine and grouped it with some pretty yellow flower fabric I got in the discount bin at Walmart. Anyway, I cut my strips to be one inch thick before sewing leaving a VERY thin seam allowance. I wouldn't reccomend this to someone who is new to sewing as it can be very tricky to keep the stitching straight and even. I stitched 18 thin strips twice for the top of the bag on both sides. Then I cut out a 6" piece of fabric for the bottom of the bag. Sew this to your strips.
Now you're ready to free hand machine quilt the fabric! This part is fun if you've never done it before. I suggest practicing on a scrap piece of fabric and batting to get the hang of it first. Also, tape down your feeder so that you don't have to fight it while quilting. (The YouTube video above is basically how I did it without the taped pattern and without that octo thing.) Also, remove your presser foot for easier viewing of what you're doing.
You can see that I just did a very simple free hand curvy line throughout my bag using a light cream cotton thread that blends into the yellow but stands out subtly against the jewel toned fabric strips on top.
Next you're going to sew on your center ribbon. For the back just sew straight across on top and bottom.
On the front you'll have two different ribbons. Sew to about an inch from the center on either side so that your ribbon ends are loose enough for you to tie into a knot.
You should not have the sides sewn yet, so your bag should look similar to the one above.
When you are done with the ribbon, insert your bag liner and sew on your latch. I just used that same yellow floral as the from for a cohesive look. Attatch your straps...sew on a cute button to make use of your latch and enjoy! Hope you enjoyed that! Drop into Moda Bakeshop for other cute quilting projects!

August In A Minute

Something strange has happened when I try to upload pictures now. I get a message saying I need to download Image-Do.jpg and then my computer just sits and sits and never uploads the images. I'm completely baffled. So, no pictures this post, sorry. But here's what you've missed:

August is a crazy month in our family. Everyone has a birthday or anniversary this month and we've just added one more to the list! My husbands little brother, last to leave the nest, has tied the knot with a very sweet girl. Hubby and I were blessed to be there at their sealing in Nauvoo and to participate in all the post wedding stuff. Hubby actually gets home from Colorado Springs tonight around 10pm from the reception there.

We also celebrated no less than 5 birthdays in one sitting at the worlds largest birthday party in under 15 minutes. That was...an experience. lol Fun, but definitely odd. I don't know that I'd want to repeat that, I'd rather go to all five on their own dates...well four, cause we can skip mine. =P

Then there were other fun things that happened. Hubby and his brother playing with hubby's Star Wars toys. You've never seen Star Wars till it's re-enacted in your dining room doorway between Darth Vader wearing plaid and some random tall handsome guy with Yoda's light saber. Good times, good times. I wish I could upload the pictures cause they're quite funny.

While hubby was away in Colorado my mom and sister came down to visit (keep me sane) for a few days. That was fun. We've discovered a new game called Settlers of Catan. For anyone that likes strategy games, or just enjoys having a good time, this one's for you. Hey, someone want to trade me one wood for three ore?! he he Anyway...it's a great game that you can play with the kiddos.

I've also discovered my kitchen. After moving a month ago, I've finally unpacked the last box of kitchen items and re-arranged everything to my liking. Yay! I can't tell you how nice it is to have a "cooking" counter and a "dish washing" counter. I can actually leave my mixer out next to an outlet now without having to lug it halfway across my kitchen! If you've never hoisted a Kitchen Aid, let me tell you, they're not light. Actually, carrying it back and forth a few times would probably be a great workout for your biceps and triceps!

So that's the news from the Paint By Life homefront. As soon as I get this image uploading issue fixed I'll post pictures for you, untill then, there may not be a post for a while. Who really wants to listen (read) all I have to say anyway right? I only look at the pitures most of the time too. =P Later Guys n' Gals!