Crafting – Page 3 – Thimbleanna

December Busy

48 Comments / December 17, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Crafting, Sewing

It’s nuts here, just like I’m sure it is where you are. If you’re even there — you’re probably too busy working to even be lurking here. I’ve noticed it’s been a lot quieter in blogland these days — how fun to think of all the exciting holiday preparations going on out there! I’ve been cramming to finish up some projects that need to go into the mail tomorrow. Think there’s any chance they’ll make it before Christmas?

I made a few machine embroidered kitchen towels. The Jolly design is from Embroidables.com and the towels are from Crate and Barrel.

Then, some Keep Calm and Carry On pendants that I did in my soldering frenzy last week. Speaking of which, did you see this fantastic Keep Calm and Carry On knock off design? Procrastinate Now and Panic Later. That’s. Awesome. (We have a big thing about procrastinating here in ThimbleannaLand. When I made college quilts for TheFirstChild and a few of his friends, he insisted that I put “Hard work often pays off after time, but laziness always pays off now” on the backs of their quilts. So the girls got nice motivational sayings and the boys got procrastination. Nice. It caused a few raised eyebrows and laughs.) I’ll definitely have to make this new Procrastinate saying in a soldered pendant. Too bad I didn’t know about it earlier — I would have put it on the flip side of these pendants. Thanks to One Pretty Thing for bringing that knock-off to our attention!

And I think these are going to be my new favorite pincushions. They’re giant (see the thimble sitting on top of that first one for scale?) and they’re perfect to sit on your sewing table. Thanks to Darlene for the awesome hint about using crushed walnut shells to stuff pincushions. It’s great and it gives them some weight. I made these pincushions from the Posy Pin Pie pattern by Jill Finley. Its finished size is 6″ in diameter by 2 1/2″ tall.

So, off to bed for me — it’s pretty late here. But wait! Looky Looky….She’s Baacckkkkk!!! WooHoo!!!

Oh, and Hell might as well have Frozen Over this morning, because CrazyBIL had a heart attack. I know this is a VERY serious matter, but you’d have to know CrazyBIL to know just how crazy this really is. He’s the most … MOST fit person I know. He does EVERYTHING right. And, at not even 45, he had a heart attack. He’s in good shape tonight, and we’re all feeling VERY grateful to still have him with us. Poor guy though, he’s going to have to endure a lot of harassment — those of us who are more sendentary have been telling him for years that all of that working out was going to kill him and now…well, it happened while he was working out.

We LOVE you CrazyBIL — slow down and get well soon!!!

XOXO,
Anna

A December Book Group

42 Comments / December 11, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Books, Crafting

Ah, yes…it’s that time of year again. I’m reading more and more posts where people don’t have time to blog. I haven’t had time to read blogs! It was busy, busy here all weekend as I was getting ready for my book group which occurred last night. It’s always a lot of work to clean my little pig sty up and even more work when there’s decorating and cooking to do.

We used to be a normal book group that just discussed the book and then had dessert, but several years ago someone started serving dinners, so now we all do it. And since it’s Christmas time, I thought I’d bring out my MeMum’s Christmas china. (Please excuse the dark pictures — it’s mood lighting LOL!)

I love my candle holder. I used to borrow MyDadLovesMeBestSister’s candle holder, but I think she got kind of sick of it, so she bought me one of my own. (Hey — it’s a technique — you should try it sometime!) It’s always fun to arrange different things around those candles. In this case, I cut a few branches off of our pine trees and added some little red balls, drums, and nutcrackers.

And then I added the dogs to the table because our book discussion was about The Story of Edgar Sawtelle by David Wroblewski. (Which we all LOVED, btw. I hated the ending, but LOVED the book. Some of the passages were really beautiful — especially his passages about the relationships that the dogs have with the characters. And there were more than a few places that brought tears to my eyes. One member was sitting on a plane to NYC between two big burly guys when she hit one of those passages. She had to slam the book shut and wait until she had a little more privacy LOL!)

On the menu we had:

Baked Brie in Phyllo Dough (YUMMY!)
Strawberry Romaine Salad with Raspberry Vinagrette
Chicken Madeira
Ina’s Raspberry Cheesecake

Here’s a close up of the place setting. I think MeMum’s nutcracker china is so pretty. I made each guest a little soldered pendant to take home. One side said “She is too fond of books and it has addled her brain” and the other side had a black silhouette of a woman reading a book. Thank you again Beckie, for teaching me how to make those pendants!

So, whew! Now that’s over, and as MyDadLovesMeBestSister says, I can get busy doing stuff for the really important people. Indeed. It would be really nice though if there were four weeks left, instead of two. TWO! As Ms. Farmhouse so eloquently put it, there’s a knot in my stomach! How are all of your plans coming???

XOXO,
Anna

Cupcake Swap Part II

38 Comments / September 1, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Crafting

Well Hello There! Did everyone have a good weekend? Mine was great and VERY busy. I managed to keep up with my e-mail, but I didn’t get a chance to read any blogs, so I’m looking forward to seeing what everyone has been up to. I did finally get a little bit of sewing done and I’ll show some of that later.

I was gone all day Saturday and when I got home after midnight I was VERY surprised to see that Sharon‘s cupcake swap package had arrived. My gosh, she mailed it on Thursday — it only took two days to get here! Sharon completely spoiled me — just LOOK at all the goodies (there was so much stuff I couldn’t get it all into one picture!):

Sharon sent LOTS of Wilton goodies — a cupcake box, decorating tube with decorating tips, cupcake liners (both silicone and paper), sprinkles, and halloween cupcake picks. Then there were little doodads like the measuring spoon, tiny sieve and an adorable cupcake card with a polka dotted hanky. And then, that VERY COOL bake sale cookbook (THANKS Sharon — I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had that in my hands — I love it!). Look at this cute little cake tester:

How Perfect! Now, I don’t know what’s going on over at Sharon’s blog, but there’s some sort of debate going on about what a cupcake tester looks like. Sharon…Hell-o! I took a close-up picture for you — just in case you’ve forgotten LOL!

And if all of that weren’t enough, check out this adorable make-up bag. Sharon’s been on a sewing frenzy making these for all of her peeps. And look, it’s lined with that adorable Susan Branch fabric:

And last, but CERTAINLY not least…this ADORABLE little quilt:

How cute is that??? I LOVE it Sharon! And look at all the details on the cupcakes:

Just cute as can be! I love all the bead and button details!

THANK YOU THANK YOU Sharon — you’re a sweetheart! I LOVE every last piece of my package. You’re so very thoughtful and kind. And an extra special thanks for hosting this swap. Those of us who participated had a great time!

XOXO,
Anna

It’s the Weekend!

35 Comments / August 29, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Crafting

WooHoo! In the states we have a holiday on Monday and I have today off — so it’s a four-day weekend for me. Yipee!!! As Gail says, “Breathe In, Breathe Out”!

There. At last, some excitement around here — ’cause this week has been pretty darn Sa-Low. Fortunately, Sharon saved me from myself and opened the cupcake swap package that I sent her. She waited until she had the package to me in the mail — and now I’ll have something to look forward to receiving next week. Anyway, here’s what I sent her:

A jumbo cupcake cake pan, sprinkles, cupcake papers, tips and bag for frosting, an apron (which I thought maybe she could use to hold her tools when she’s machine quilting), and a little cupcake tiara.

I was sitting at my computer one Saturday morning getting ready to descend into the dungeon to make Sharon’s apron and I got an e-mail from Nan. She suggested that maybe Sharon might like a Cupcake Queen tiara. That Nan is BRILLIANT! I loved the idea, thus the Cupcake Queen on the apron and the tiara. After all, as the swap organizer, Sharon is definitely the Queen!!! Thanks Nan for the great idea! (And btw, you should go check out the FABULOUS cupcake hat Sharon got from her other swap partner — I’m So Not Worthy!!! That hat is awesome — we must know who it’s from!)

So…off to the weekend. What do YOU have planned? I’ve got a little cleaning (does it ever end?), a get-away tomorrow, and then hopefully, finally, some sewing time on Sunday and Monday. I’ve missed my sewing room!

I hope you have a wonderful weekend and manage to soak up the waning days of summer!

XOXO,
Anna

P.S. Some of you have asked for more information about the soldered pendants. I found a bit of a tutorial HERE and a good video HERE. (Skip through the collage stuff if you’re in a hurry to get to the soldering — she also gives some good supply tips.)

P.P.S.S. Have you seen THESE adorable cupcakes??? They’re bakerella-on-a-stick!

One Fine Weekend

41 Comments / August 25, 2008 February 18, 2011 / Crafting

Did you all have a wonderful weekend? It was hot and muggy here but I was busy running errands and catching up from my week away so I didn’t really notice.

We went to a beautiful wedding reception on Saturday night. The couple got married earlier in the month in a small, private ceremony in the Colorado mountains and had a very posh reception under a big pavillion in a local park. Everything was perfect. Well, except for the heat, but you can’t have everything be perfect.

Before we went to the reception, I made a little package tie-on using the skills that Beckie taught me last winter.

My skills (or lack thereof) are clearly rusty and it turned out a bit rough, but I still thought it was cute. I discovered that I need three things: a better glass cutter, a better soldering iron, and Beckie by my side to tell me where I made my mistakes.

I put their names and wedding dates on the back. I thought it would make a cute little ornament to remember their wedding. I wish I’d taken my camera to the reception. They had the most beautiful tower of cupcakes. There were 7 or 8 tiers, each with a different frosting flower which indicated the type of cupcake. A pink rose was the most delicious raspberry, white for vanilla, a yellow flower for lemon, orange for carrot cake, purple for chocolate, and there were a few more that I can’t remember. They all had a sheen to them like they’d been sprayed with something. Very yummy!

On Sunday we had MeMum and BigDaddy over for a belated birthday dinner for MeMum. I spent all day making a cake that should have taken only a few hours. It was a Lucious Lemon Cake and it tasted pretty good, but in the end, it completely fell apart and became a big pile of goo. So sad. And that was after trying to figure out the lemon curd. The first batch had a very distinct metallic taste to it. We debated about what caused it and thought it might be the lemons so I sent TheManoftheHouse to the store for more. While he was gone I did an internet search and decided that it was the pan I used. I have a favorite calphalon pan for making sauces because they don’t burn while cooking. I knew not to use aluminum with lemons amd I just don’t think of my pan as being aluminum. It is though — it’s anodized aluminum. Whatever that is. Anyway, it “metalized” my lemon curd and I wasn’t a happy camper. Just in case you have a calphalon pan…don’t make the same mistake I did!

So. On to a new week. I’m anxiously looking forward to next weekend — it will be a four day break. Yipee!

XOXO,
Anna