I've been a'sewin

I've been listening to Christmas music while I sew. It is sooo cold outside I had to have hot chocolate (with whip cream on top). Its been a pretty good Sunday, I'd say.

Coin Purses now at Textures

Food, Family and...Alligators!

I am thankful for a wonderful Thanksgiving Holiday. It was full of fun with tons of food and memories. The best part of the week was the day we spent at Wakulla Springs State Park near Tallahassee. Here are a few memories of the week.

Keeping up with the Boys

Wakulla Springs Picnic Area

On the Boat

Watching for Alligators

We saw at least 8 or 9 Alligators!

Exploring the Park

A Broken Leg Can't Stop Him!

How a 4-Year-Old Eats Pumpkin Pie

I hope your Thanksgiving was as delicious as ours!

Stocking Stuffer and the Winner

from Country Living Magazine

My favorite stocking stuffer is magazine subscriptions. It is the gift that truly keeps on giving (for at least a year). I love getting magazines in the mail. It is such a treat to get home after work and find a new crisp magazine waiting to inspire me. It is like getting a surprise present in the mail every month. Right now I receive 4 magazines: Country Living, Real Simple, Better Homes and Gardens, and Ready Made. My favorite magazines are those that focus on thrifting and crafting. I love my magazines.

OK and now the winner of my unique little coin purse!

#6 Saving Capulet! She says her favorite stocking stuffers are miniature items for dolls. I agree, small versions of big things are so charming!

A New Design

I have been working all morning on this new design. I like how it turned out. Now, I have to make a bunch of them for Textures. Holiday shopping is just a week away! Yippee!

I will be drawing for the give-a-way tonight!

Tag! You're it!

OK guys...does anyone else want free stuff? I am giving away a handmade coin purse and right now I only have 4 people in the contest. That is just fine, but your chances of winning are not too shabby if you throw your name into the mix! Go ahead and leave a comment here...you might win!

I am so excited. I finally figured out how to make my own tags for my bags. I used the logo that my husband created for me, a little sun that looks like a single piece of thread. In the past I had this super Etsy seller, mommiemadeit, make my tags. She was great, but I wanted to figure out how to do it myself. It wasn't too hard, either! I think I may do a tutorial soon to show you how I did it.

Coin Purse Give-a-Way

I am up to my 100th post and I thought I would do something special. I just received a shipment of these little flex frames and am making some coin purses that will be great as stocking stuffers. The first one I made I used some of my own original fabric. I know I don't have a huge following on my blog, but maybe the few loyal readers that I do have would like to take part in a give-a-way? I will be giving away this cute little coin purse. Perfect for you to hold your itty-bittys. All you need to do is leave a comment telling me your all-time-favorite stocking stuffer. (Be sure to leave a way for me to contact you, should you win). I will randomly pick a winner next Saturday, Nov. 13th.

Happy Halloween!

Here are few Halloween pictures with me and my sister. Don't you just love the groovy curtains in this first one? It looks like I may have been eating pumpkin seeds before they were toasted. Yum!

I used to love the cheep and gaudy paper decorations that we hung around the house for each holiday. It made the house so festive! (I think my sister loves her pretty princess makeup or she is just giddy from too much candy). Hope your day is crazy fun!

Let's Play Dress Up

Do you ever just wish you had a reason to dress up? If I did, I would get a little black dress like this one from leasvintage:

Then I would add some amazing jewelry from GingerHollow, like this:

or this:

I would top it off with an amazing clutch from LemkaB:

and heels from starletvintage:

I just love playing dress up on Etsy.

Broken Sewing Machine = Shop Update

Ok, I know I have not been sewing very much lately, but this weekend was going to be all about sewing. My husband's good friend was in town and they were going to be doing guys' stuff that I really didn't care about. It was going to be a good excuse to sew away to my hearts content. I had no worries, no cares. I didn't even have to worry about meals because the boys were going to take care of that. So I started to sew my first project and...snap, an important screw came loose (on my machine, guys). I tried with all my might to get it back together, but alas, it would not screw back. So I had to order the part and wait...until Nov. 2! So my sewing weekend turned out to be another kind of weekend all together. I ended up listing a bunch of new items in my vintage shop. Here's a peak at what is new.

So, it wasn't a weekend of sewing, but it was productive. I kinda had fun sitting in front of the computer all day-listening to Pandora while I edited photos. It feels good to finally have a vintage shop update. It's been a long time coming.

Happy Mum-Day!

I bought some mums to pretty up my front porch for fall. As I was planting them, I found a little friend on top of one. He was scared to death he was in for it but I was very careful not to hurt him (even after he crawled up my back a few minutes later, yikes!)

I took these pictures and played with them a bit on Picnik. Aren't they cool?

Sewnsunday: Quilted Handbag

I have been sewing today! Yippee! Back to sewing on Sundays again. I made my first log cabin block today and decided to feature it on one of my bags. Hope you had a bright and sunny weekend, too!

Quilting for Baby

The sewing bug has got me again. I have been mulling over ideas and day dreaming about new bag designs for a while. I sewed a few goodies this weekend. One was for a shower for a soon-to-be new mother. I made her quilted burpcloths and wrapped a few of my favorite Sandra Boynton books in them: Moo Baa La La La and The Going to Bed Book. Sandra is one of my favorite authors of books for babies. They are silly and fun for adults to read and have adorable pictures. I called my gift "Books and Burpcloths for Baby". I hope she enjoys them!

Today we did something different. We went to The Muskogee East of the Mississippi River Intertribal Gathering in Sopchoppy, Florida. Sopchoppy is this very cool, tiny town about 15 miles south of us. It is a charming little place where they have a few stores: one IGA grocery store, one antique shop, one little bistro, one recording studio (I know, not what you usually find in tiny-town America), and a historical school where the Sopchoppy Opry performs. It really is quite charming and only takes about 30 seconds to drive through. Anyway, we decided to head out to this Intertribal Gathering at the Sopchoppy Park to see what we might find. It was really fun. The music and dancing were cool and the people were so very friendly. Lots of talking about Native American History which was really quite fascinating. Here are some pictures of the little tents set up with cool, unique items. It is not everyday that you find a hide for sale.