The Beginning of The End, and the Beginning of a New Beginning.

I have been truly  blessed to have spent the last 365+ days with my Darling Danielle and Delightful Delilah. Being able to spend this year as a Mother (for the last time) and Grandma (for the first time) has been an experience I wouldn't trade for anything.  Every day spent with them, it felt that my mother was there with us, too.

My son-in-law, Benjamin, Danielle's husband, Delilah's daddy, will be home on Thursday.  The next few weeks are a whirlwind of movers and bachelor/bachelorette parties, a wedding, and then the three of them leave on the 15th of March.  To Germany.  I can't drive to Germany.

There are other things going on in my life, of course.  I've been stitching and stuffing, and thinking and pondering, the two kinda go stitch by stitch.  My Young Son is taking a trip, my sweetheart and I have to make a trip to the airport and find a wedding somewhere downtown, in the dark...The Pro-Shop is making progress, thanks to some dedicated members...but, still...

To be completely truthful,  I can't quite pinpoint how I feel.  I'm ready for them to start their next chapter, far, far away, and I know I'm gonna miss them like crazy.  There's another aspect, too.  Since Sweetheart and I have been together, we've had 2 kids.  Now, one is going far, far away, and one is clinging to the nest with all his might.  Sweetheart is a bachelor.  He has never been married, no kids of his own.  We live in the house that his parents had built in 1973.  I want to broaden his horizons...I want to decide on a Sunday night that we are leaving to go see the Grand Canyon on Tuesday.  I want to be free to go have some fun!  I'm still 18 in my head, even though my body disagrees.

Thanks for reading my rambling post...trying to get all the thoughts in my head in one place is not an easy feat.  Trust me, there's more.

Delilah's Converse

My friend, Dammit Janet,

a polka dot horse

and a muslin pig. 

With Wings.

Y'all, Play Nice!  xxoo

Trying Something...

The other day an idea popped into my head, like they do now and then.  I've been making my Critters out of felt, my idea was to create a line of Critters made from Muslin Fabric.  I love the natural look of Muslin.  I still wanted to hand-stitch them, too.

I had the idea on a Tuesday, had to work my 2nd job on Wednesday, and finish a sold felt Critter on Thursday, then spent the evening with D, so I didn't get to start on this idea until Friday evening.  I traced out the pattern pieces, and began cutting them out.

As I starteed cutting, I thought, "these should have some seam allowance."  I don't use those on the felt, but soon figured out that they would be needed with the thinner material.

The front...you can see where the seam burst there on the front leg...need that seam allowance.

See how the back leg is shorter?  Seam allowance would fix this, I think, and this wing I didn't stuff, 

wanted to see how "natural" would look...I wasn't happy with this flatness, same goes for the ears.

Back end look, poor little gimpy thing.

Here is the "good" side.  This side I cut out with a bit of allowance for the seam, 

and stuffed the wing a little bit.  

I was glad to have tried this, and really learned a lot.  I'll use batting in the ears and wings next time, for a less "stuffed" look.  The seam allowance is really so important.  

So, what do you think of the stitching on the outside look of this?  What do you think of the monochromatic look?  I'm curious to see how it would look with a contrasting thread color.  

For now, I'm going to cut out another one, with a small seam allowance on all the pieces, I may do some colorful stitches on this one, just to see how it looks.  

Part of the creative process is in the feedback, so if you have any suggestions, please feel free to share!  

xxoo

Cindy

New Normal

My new normal...We have coffee with the girls in the mornings now.  We have dinner with the girls at the end of the day.  And one little girl is becoming very smitten with her Grandpa.

This is Otis, Delilah's Dog 

me (in the sweater), 

and Delightful Delilah (in the giraffe print) 

  

We've gotten more snow in the last month or so than we have in the last 2 years.  After the drought last year, it's got to be a blessing...and a good soaking rain to wash all this white stuff away would also be a blessing.  (so tired of snow.)  The weather for the rest of this week looks promising.  

I've been stitching and stuffing up a storm the last couple of weeks, finally starting to feel like myself after the February Flu kicked my you know what...and took some pics.

The first 3 were for a custom order, the bottom 2 are available in my shop.

This one is going to a Baby Shower

Easter Sunday afternoon, Delilah and I were peeking out the window, and I was whispering silly things in her ear, like, "I'd like to see a squirrel ride a bike past here," and she would laugh quietly, and sometimes she'd just turn and look at me with such a happy, joyful look, my heart melts.  I am so blessed to have my girls here.

Play Nice!  

xxoo

My Darling Daughter

I have chosen to feature my Darling daughter, Danielle, today.  Danielle is a member of the Handmade Circle Group on FB.  She is a teacher, wife, and mother, but not necessarily in that order.  

Darling Danielle (oh I love this girl!)

Danielle, my dear, what got you stared in the crafty world?

It started while I was teaching first grade.  One teacher had taken ceiling tiles home and had painted them as either book covers or illustrations from books.  I sketched out one of my favorites, Oh! The Places You'll Go, and decided to give it a shot!  I loved how it turned out, and I painted 3 more for my classroom, and one for a friend's room.  I had How the Grinch Stole Christmas, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and a Shel Silverstein one in mine and did a Lemony Snicket one for my friend.  After that, I decided to get a canvas and make some wall art for my bathroom.  My confidence was building, so I painted canvases for all the rooms in my house.  I loved having stuff that no one else did.  Friends started asking me to 

do paintings for them, and it just grew from there! 

Ceiling Tile

What inspires you in your art?

Almost everything I do is custom ordered.  The colors, size, and design of almost all my work is tailored to each customer so that everyone has something that no one else will have!  With the art and nursery letters, I go off of the color scheme or theme of the room.  I've done everything from Star Wars to Nightmare Before Christmas to rockets, to an abstract glass of wine being poured.  The possibilities are endless.  It really just depends on what the customer is interested in.

What sort of things do you create?  

Felt designs on onesies and toddler shirts

  

Art on canvas

Letter bow holders

Nursery letters

Tutus

What do you do to relax and have fun?

My daughter is almost 9 months old, and playing with her keeps me laughing.  She's so smart and sassy and does new stuff every day.  I also enjoy watching movies with my husband as well as getting in my crafty corner and being able to just sit and create.

What would you say to someone that was thinking of entering the crafty world?  

GO FOR IT!  It took me way too long to gain the confidence that I could do this.  My husband and mom both encouraged me to do it, but I got in my own way thinking that I couldn't.  Just believe it and do it.  If you mess up, try again.  

Who inspires you?

My mom is the craftiest person I know.  She knows how to do so much, and is becoming really successful.  I only hope to be able to do what she can do one day!  My grandma was also very crafty, so I'm lucky enough to have gotten some of their creative genes.

Besides being the crafty, creative artist that you are, tell us a little more about you.  

Right now, I'm lucky enough to stay at home with my daughter.  My husband is an Air Traffic Controller in the USAF and takes care of us so that I can be there to give my daughter the best care possible!  I am a certified teacher and have taught in the town we live in.  

Tell us about yourself as a person.

I'm a loving person.  I love true and deep, and that's how I think you should go through life.  I love what I do, I love my family, I love my friends, I love my cat, I love my Rat terrier/chihuahua, I love my Pit Bull/Corgi. 

Where can people find your work?

http://www.facebook.com/intheskydesigns

http://www.etsy.com/intheskydesigns

http://www.flickr.com/photos/revolution_number_9 (This is where you can find pictures of my ceiling tiles)

Of course, no feature of her would be complete without sharing with you the painting she made for me for my birthday this year.  

                              This is the painting                       This is my tag

So, there you have it, my crafty, creative daughter, miles away in the real world, but just a click away.  Please go give her sites some love won't you?  

If you'd like me to feature your shop(s) sometime, answer these questions, send me some photos, I'll be glad to give you a little promo, that's what we do, right?  

xxoo
Play Nice!