Aloha!

Aloha from the Crazy Croppers at The Stamping Place Scramp-a-Thon!

I am back from a whirl-wind weekend away scrapbooking with some of my great friends. This was titled our "Aloha" crop and the ladies at The Stamping Place went all out! From the decorations to the delicious food and even a coconut bra - everything was perfect!

I arrived and got set up at around 2:00 Friday afternoon. It was BLAZING HOT so it was so nice to finally have the car unloaded and to sit down and get started on my projects but not before refreshments from the Traveling Tiki Bar came by! We had a fruity punch with fruit/cheese skewers and strawberry dip served up by Lisa. Yummy!

We scrapbooked up until midnight and was up, bright and early, the next morning ready for another fun day. Of course, we had the Traveling Tiki Bar again. This time with homemade tortilla chips with cinnamon and sugar served with mango salsa and pina coladas.
Here are just a few photos from the day:

Lisa and Nancy:

Barbara:

Cindi:

Peggy and Renee are "PRODUCING":

Judy and our scrapbooking dog, Beau Joe (I hope I haven't spelled his name wrong!):

Now, you probably think you have seen it all but we still had another day. So, after a couple hours of sleep Saturday night we came back ready to PRODUCE and.............celebrate Judy's Birthday!!

It was such a fun weekend and I can't wait for the next one. We have such a great time. Lots of laughs and lots of stories to hear and tell. Now, I'm sure you would love to see what I worked on however, I can't reveal it at this time. Soon, I promise.

Me and My Happy Self:

Happy Scrappin', Stitching or whatever makes you happy! Find happiness in making something!

Edited to add: All of the drinks mentioned and pictured in this post were non-alcoholic. A bunch of ladies with glue, tape and scissors do NOT need to be a little "tipsy"

Ready to Get My Crop On!

Scissors, paper, glue, buttons and so many embellishments await my arrival for a girl's scrapbook weekend away. Ready to have fun and belly-laugh all weekend long. Of course that means, if I'm away with the girls, the boys are having their own "retreat" at home without me! Tee Hee!

Have a great weekend and STAY COOL!!

Monday Check In

Hello Friends! I hope everyone had a great weekend. I did! I got to spend the weekend with Chris and Corbin and it was laid back and great. Corbin and I ended the weekend by going to the lake to do a little swimming and grilling. The water temperature and weather was perfect - so much so, I got a little "pink" on the shoulders and back. I used the SPF 50 but I guess I didn't put it on thick enough or just needed to reapply a little more than I did. I just love visiting the lake and being outside under the pines. And why does a simple sandwich or a grilled burger taste better when you're wet?! LOL!

Not much to share on the stitching front. I have been working on the letter "S" some. Not a lot to show but it's a couple of stitches closer to being finished and that's always a good thing.

Have you seen the new Brenda Keyes/Sampler Company patterns? She is releasing two new ones and this one is calling my name........ It's called Sampler Story and I love it! I've already put in a request for this one when it comes in to my online LNS. Can't wait to get this one kitted up and ready to stitch.

This week I will be busy getting ready for a weekend crop at my not-so-local scrapbook store. I haven't been to a crop in forever, it seems. I've got so many pictures I need to get in an album. I'll never be caught up but I do try - LOL. This weekend, I'll be working on some vacation mini albums. It's so much easier to pack when you decide to work on just one theme. I'll be busy pulling paper and cardstock and printing photos. It's always a fun time and I can't wait!

Until we chat again.....

Mad Scientist at Work!

That's would it would look like at my house...or a crazed cook!! I have been in the kitchen coffee dying fabric and coming up with all kinds of concoctions to add to the recipe. My good friends Karen and Joan gave me their "recipes" and I've been at it. I decided, like any recipe I get, to tweak it. To put my own flavor to it and I have to say, I'm pretty happy with the results.

This all started when I purchased a large piece of linen that should have been a neutral, autumn feeling color and instead, I got something that looked like baby lotion. It was pink! I didn't like it when I opened the mail and I have no idea why I didn't send it back. I cut a chunk out of it for a project and tea-dyed it but it still had a strong pink tone to it. That's when I decided to put on the apron and start cooking up some strong coffee.

I dipped the fabric, baked it and decided I really didn't like the way it turned out. Was a little too streaky with coffee lines and more primitive than I was use to. Back in the coffee cauldron it went and this time, I rolled it in a towel to get most of the water out and then ironed it dry. Perfect! I got a nice mottled look with the coffee and a very uniformed shading of brown. I dipped and ironed dry about 3 times to get the shade that I wanted. Time consuming but not too bad when you set the ironing board up in front of the television - tee hee!

Here's a picture of the linen that has not been dyed yet (on the left in all it's pink glory) and the new improved coffee-dyed, yummy smelling linen (on the right). (Colors are much lighter in person - not a good day for picture taking)
One thing to note about ironing your coffee dyed fabric dry - the backside of the linen will be much lighter than the front. I have no idea why! I am assuming the direct heat from the iron does something to the color on the threads that the backside doesn't get. Just an assumption here! There was no "bleeding" of the coffee onto my ironing board cover so it's a mystery. Just a fun fact to know and tell!

Give it a try! I know you have a piece of linen in your stash that just won't do so brew up a pot of STRONG coffee and get to dippin'! What do you have to lose?!

Until we chat again.......

Gifties

I have to show off a couple of gifties that I got while on my trip to Indiana. I "found" these last night after a serious hunt. I had packed them securly for the trip home - so securly, I couldn't remember where they were - LOL!
Diane made the sweet black and polka dotted thread catcher with attached pin cushion. I have always wanted one of these and now I have one that is just perfect. It is weighted so that it hangs off the side on a table. The pocket holds all of your thread snippets and the pin cushion lets you park your needle in a jiffy. She also made various scissor fobs for all the retreat ladies to choose from. Each scissor fob was attached to the lovely silver scissors. I got the nice green fob with the butterfly charm attached. Sweet!!

Karen out-did herself by stitching me a sweet scissor fob with my initial. On the back she stitched OOE 2011 (Only One Ewe) and she attached the fob to a pair of hot pink butterfly scissors! I don't consider myself a scissor collector but looks like I have the start to a great looking collection! May have to look for one of those glass scissor frogs that I see so many have.

I'm still busy stitching on the letter "S" so hopefully I'll have a new picture to show you soon.

Have a great weekend everyone!

A Finish and a Start

Hello Everyone! I hope you had a great July 4th holiday. The family and I stayed home, ate some good food and I was busy scrapbooking and stitching away.

I started a Prairie Schooler snowman ornament when I was flying out to Indiana a couple of weeks ago. I finished him up on Saturday and I LOVE HIM! This was such a fun and quick stitch and I can't wait to get him truly finished and on the tree this year. The pattern is one of several from the Snowy Nights leaflet.

Next up is a start. It is the letter "S" from the M Designs Alphabet Series. This alphabet series is "loosely based on an incomplete set of illuminated letters from the early 1500's." I am stitching this on a piece of Dirty Belfast - which looks very brown - with DMC 310. It is stitching up really quick. Just have to make sure you know where you are on the pattern when you pick up that needle!

That's about it. This time of the year gets me thinking about Christmas (sounds a little weird when the temperatures outside say otherwise) and gift giving. Need to start my list and get started on the gifts that need to be made. I ALWAYS underestimate the amount of time that it takes for finishing so I would really like to get started earlier this year!

Thanks for stopping by......