Queen of Hearts and Alice in Wonderland Costume Set GIVEAWAY!!!!

http://grosgrainfabulous.blogspot.com/2009/10/queen-of-hearts-and-alice-in-wonderland.html

Okay, I sew pretty well, but there is no way I would ever be able to pull off anything as complicated as this without going completely insane. And she did it without a pattern! Gahhhhh!

You really should click over and check it out ... just don't enter to win it, because the only way LazyKid is ever going to get any costume like this is if WE win!

This looks like a really cool idea

photo from http://www.spiraleyeneedles.com/index.html

Has anyone tried them? I'd love to know how they work.

I also love the idea that you can buy them enclosed in a greeting card. Now that's unique marketing!

Update - look how cute the legwarmers are as fingerless mittens!

All I did was add a large buttonhole to the side as a thumbhole, and voila! Fingerless mittens that look really cute on a 13-yr-old! Gotta go make some of those for me ...

Look how awesome my customers are!

Jessalyn from Junebug Creations bought my South Sea Squares quilt pattern a few months ago, and look how darling hers turned out!

(photo by Jessalyn, used with her permission)

This is my favorite part about pattern design - seeing how other people interpret my designs in fun new ways! Of course, I could just be partial to this quilt because I love the sock monkey fabric ... but come on, it's a quilt cute even if you don't have the sock monkey fabric obsession I have!

So come on, Lazy Mamas! Show me what you've made ... hmmm, do I smell a contest abrewing?

Tinker Toy swift

Success! I made a variation of the Tinker Toy swift (tons of versions available online - here's one I used as inspiration) and used it while I hand-wound one of the Ranco skeins I got in Blacksburg. It worked great - nice and sturdy, exactly the right size for my skein, and it went together in less than five minutes.

Also, it didn't cost $80 like some umbrella swifts can.

Plus, LazyKid helped assemble it, and LazyHusband was supremely impressed that it worked, even if he still doesn't get why I need to wind my yarn into balls in the first place.

Now, if I can find a set of K'Nex, I'm totally making myself a ball winder. That'll be another $40 saved, since technically buying a set of K'Nex is a "toy" purchase, not a "yarn" purchase, right? Even if LazyKid can't use them for another couple years? Right?

Parenthack - how to keep the sand on the sand art

Last time I did sand art with Lazy Kid she insisted that we hang the resulting work of art up on the refrigerator ... where it then shed sand all over my hardwood floor, despite the Contact paper. Not good.

So when we made new sand art yesterday, I decided to try something different. This time I waited until it was dry, then put the art in a plastic sheet protector (like you'd use in a notebook) before we stuck it to the fridge. Now all of the sand gets caught in the sheet protector, and she can still see her work of art every day. Neato mosquito!

Oh, and in case you were wondering, this time we used watered down glue (about 2/3 glue and 1/3 water), a paintbrush, and gravity to make some cardstock sticky enough for the sand. They turned out pretty cool - this one's my favorite:

When I hit the lottery

I am going to buy one of these. Maybe two. Or six. And then have them design all of the rest of the furniture in my house. Because this?

There are no words to describe the immensity of its awesomeness.

Serendipity

When we moved a little over a year ago, I was so excited to be back near my preferred quilt shop that I splurged and bought fabric for a bunch of different projects. Most of the projects are finished, but a couple were of the "not-such-a-great-idea" variety, and those have been sitting at the bottom of the to-do pile for months. The fabric would get used eventually, I figured, even if it wasn't in what I originally planned. But every time I looked at the fabric, I saw wasted $$. Good thing the pile kept getting deeper, so deep you could barely see the offending prints sticking out one side.

Then today I finished up a quilt top that's a prototype for a new pattern ... and also a gift for a friend who is expecting her first baby any day now. Most of my prototypes have muslin backs to save material costs, but since this is a gift, I wanted to find something a little jazzier. Most of the fabric for the front came from my stash, but I didn't think I had anything large enough left for the back ... but it was worth a try, if only to keep me from having to wake Lazy Kid to go to the fabric store before dinner.

After digging through my drawers of full-width fabric and finding nothing that wasn't too small or too ugly, I was ready to give up when I spotted one of the "not-such-a-great-idea" fabrics out of the corner of my eye. Yes, that $18 piece of red flannel was exactly the right color to coordinate with the quilt top, and it is - get this - exactly 2" larger than the top, all the way around.

For once I have exactly the right piece of fabric in my stash, exactly when I need it. Praise Jeebus and pass the ammunition, I may be able to finish this sucker after all!

Here's a sneak peek ... Kylie-Ann, don't scroll down unless you want to ruin the surprise!
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Sometimes I'm silly

I ordered a photo cube a few weeks ago, and it's been sitting in a (big) box on the floor in my living room while I dug myself out of a pile of housework and projects. Today I finally had the time to put it together and play with it for a little while, and boy, was it fun! It's amazing how much crisper and more professional everything looks in a well-lit white cube.

But on to the silly part. What was the first thing I photographed? One of my SWAK blankets? An amigurumi animal? Nope. It was a Happy Meal toy I put together backwards and have been saving for just this occasion, because it makes me giggle every time I see it.

Much more fun than photographing blankets, even if it doesn't pay me anything.

Porn for crafters

from http://www.filly.ca/blog/?p=144

Oh, and Block of the Month folks:

Here's the recipe for the cookies I brought on Saturday:
http://www.cooks.com/rec/doc/0,173,144170-236207,00.html

Enjoy!

Anyone want to guess why I'm posting this today?

btw, the official music video is here, but they disabled embedding (and Angus was wearing normal clothes), so I had to pull this concert footage instead.

My new secret weapon

Yep, it's a shuffle. Jason got it at a technical conference he attended earlier this month, and he was generous enough to give it to me. I give him credit for not hiding it for a week and presenting it as my Valentine's Day present ... the corporate logo on the back probably would have given him away.

You'd be amazed how many yo-yo's you can sew on during one podcast of Wait, Wait, Don't Tell Me.

Brrrrrrrr

More babble love

http://www.babble.com/sectionhomepages/fashionandproducts/

Those are my mittens, smack at the top of the "Babble Featured Fashion" section. Hurrah! Now, back to knitting ...

Mystery Pay It Forward exchange

I found this PIF idea on Red Haired Lady Crochets, and I'm going to give it a try.

I will send a handmade gift to the first 3 people who leave a comment on my blog requesting to join this Pay It Forward exchange.

I don’t know what that gift will be yet and you may not receive it tomorrow or next week, but you will receive it within 365 days. That is my promise. The only thing you have to do in return is pay it forward by making the same promise on your blog.

If you ask to participate, please leave your email address and blog contact information (if you're not on blogger) as well, so I can get in touch with you.

Me? Famous?

Nope, just my mittens.
http://www.babble.com/CS/blogs/droolicious/archive/2007/11/14/hand-made-mittens-for-the-three-handed-child.aspx

Please note that these are still available in my shop, because nobody's bought them yet. All this great publicity, and not a sausage worth of business so far. Maybe AFTER Thanksgiving ...

I'm on the front page!

http://www.etsy.com/index.php

Hee hee! My plan for world domination is coming together nicely, Pinky.

Shameless self-promotion time (again)

As you may have read already, I'm part of the etsy Cleveland street team. Well, we've decided to try to send a little more traffic to our shops by banding together to hold a contest. Just click on the link above to go to our team homepage, where you can find out all about it. Basically, you just visit our shops, try to find where we've listed our favorite place in Cleveland, fill in a form, and you're entered to win a $65 credit to spend in one of our shops (or a combination of shops, if you prefer).

Of course, while you're visiting our shops is the perfect time to get a headstart on your holiday shopping. Jewelry, purses and bags, hats and scarves, baby gifts - we've got a lot of really cool stuff listed right now. Just remember - our stores sell stuff pretty regularly, so if you see something you really like, go ahead and get it now, as it may not still be there when you come back. Trust me, if you win the contest there will still be plenty of stuff you'd like to buy!

Thanks for your support, and please tell the entry form that you found out about this from lazymamadesigns.blogspot.com - we're having an informal competition to see who steers the most traffic to the contest, and I'm determined to win :)

How to waste an hour online while laughing hysterically

http://youknitwhat.blogspot.com/2006/01/return-of-boyfriend-sweater-curse.html

The language is a little salty on some - okay, quite a few - pages, but darn, these folks found some doozies. Let's hope none of my creations ever show up on a similar site ...