Vote For Pugsley!

My baby boy, Pugsley, got his picture on Pug A Day! If you have some time, stop by and vote for him :) Of course, I think he's the cutest pug because I'm his momma!

Pugsley On Pug A Day

Friday Funnies

Well, we made it to Friday! WOOHOO!!! And next week is a short week for 4th of July... not sure what we're going to do for the holiday yet. There are some cool fireworks shows in town, but who wants to sit in 112 degree heat for hours? I'd rather see it on TV sipping an iced coffee :)

A couple of my friends sent me funnies today, and I just had to share. Man, this diet is me!

THE COPING DIET

Only girlfriends can understand this one. This is specially formulated diet designed to help women cope with the stress that builds during the day.

Breakfast
1 grapefruit
1 slice whole wheat toast
1 cup skim milk

Lunch
1 small portion lean, steamed chicken
1 cup spinach
1 cup herbal tea
1 Hershey's kiss

Afternoon Snack
The rest of the Hershey kisses in the bag
1 tub of Hagen-Daaz ice cream with chocolate chips

Dinner
4 glasses of wine (red or white)
2 loaves garlic bread
1 family size supreme pizza
3 Snickers Bars

Late Night Snack
1 whole Sarah Lee cheesecake (eaten directly from the freezer)

Remember: Stressed spelled backward is desserts.

What were this guy's parents thinking?!


OK - if these paramedics ever come to my rescue, please stop them!


Guys, this might seem like fun, but I guarantee you won't get any after this stunt!



Have a great weekend!

New Bags I Made

Here are some bags I made. I pretty much made my own pattern for the pink one. It is lined with a product similar to Timtex to make it stiff. Someone told me that they don't make Timtex anymore but the stuff I got is called "Stiffy" (hey - I DIDN'T come up with that name LOL) and I ordered it from Long Creek Mills They said it's the same thing as Timtex, but I found it to be a bit thinner. It still worked great and you can't beat the price. I put a magnetic snap in it so that all my crap won't fall out.

I made the Mickey bag before we went to Disney World last year. The handles started to rip while we were there, though, because I ended up overstuffing it... I got wise and bought a fanny pack while I was there to use instead lol.

More Sock Creatures

The little sock guy I made HERE was getting very lonely all by himself so I made a couple of buddies for him to hang out with. These are so fun to make. I found the funkiest socks at the dollar store :)

Amazon Buys Fabric.com

Have you ever purchased fabric from fabric.com? If so, you know "Evil Stephen" as he's fondly referred to in the sewing community (he is evil for MAKING us buy more fabric!). They have awesome fabrics at good prices. So, seems Amazon bought the company... I'm in BIG BIG BIG trouble if they offer Amazon Prime shipping for fabric!!!!!

I think my house will explode if I bring in any more fabric. But hey, there is still the oven to fill... doesn't Carrie on Sex and the City use her oven to store her shoes? Might as well use it for something!

Here is a link to the article - Businessweek article

Darn! I missed the peeing outdoors event!

With all the pollution nowadays that is killing our planet, I have been making a conscientious effort to waste less and recycle more. I came across this site today which I admit I like, but some of the stuff I just have to shake my head and wonder...

Like this (click to see the blog)-


Now I'm not a gardener, but I believe this might just be going a bit far... I found it a bit late, anyways. Guys might really appreciate an event like this, though... seems that 99% of them have a fascination with peeing outdoors. I think they occasionally regress to their caveman days, but that's JMHO.

Would You Wear These?

While shoe shopping over the weekend, I came across these-



Now, back in the day, I *loved* my red Converse high tops, but get real here, people... geez. As my dad used to say, "What ya see when you don't got a gun!!"

My friend, Debbie, turned me on to Van's. They are skateboarder shoes, but MAN they are like little clouds from heaven on your feet!!!!! I'll bet people are snickering behind my back... "get a load of that old lady with Van's!!!" but I really don't care.

I call them my foot sofas-



This is my buddy, Debbie aka The Scrapbook Queen-

Scenes From Tere's Sewing Room

My sewing room is my sanctuary... a place that's all mine to create, play, forget about the stress and fondle my pretty fabrics and scrapbook paper. I had a 300 square foot room built onto my house last year just for my "therapy" and as soon as it was done I realized that it was too small HAHA. Oh well, the truth is it would never be big enough. I would always find more sales to go to and more fabric and paper that I just couldn't live without.

It's usually kinda messy, but I figured if I took a few select photos, it wouldn't be so scary.



My potato head collection-


Some ladies I machine embroidered and framed-


The frog was from my sister when I had lasik surgery done in 2001, and my mom made the monkey for me when I was 3 years old or so. He is made out of socks and stuffed with panty hose :) He went with me everywhere when I was little-


The doll dressed in white came from Goodwill for $3 new in the box. The other doll is still waiting for me to make her new clothes-


Just a small part of my stash-



I love this clock! I found it at Goodwill for $4.


I found this organizer at Michael's. It's actually for scrapbook stuff, but it works nicely for my sewing stuff-



Michael's and Joann's are such bastards - they keep sending me coupons, so of course I have to go and see what to use them on... heaven forbid I WASTE the coupons!

My sewing room is slowing expanding and taking over other parts of the house. Did you ever see the movie The Blob? Kinda like that LOL.

How To Use Brass Stencils With A Cuttlebug

They had the cutest brass stencils on sale at Joann's a while ago, and I just couldn't resist getting a couple. I found a way to use them with my Cuttlebug! Sure beats dry embossing by hand!



You will need a squishy item that is about 1/2" high to make the "sandwich" high enough. You could use a mouse pad folded into thirds... I used a flip flop since they are pretty cheap.



Sandwich the layers in this order (from the bottom up): pad a, pad b, brass stencil, cardstock, flip flop, pad b.



This is how mine turned out-



That's it! Pretty easy, ey?

The Evolution of Robbery

Something from my friend, Sarah lol



Isn't it the truth?

WTF??!!

Man, I am sitting here shaking my head in amazement that someone so talented, with so much time on their hands, made THIS-



This came from one of my favorite blogs - What Not To Crochet

A friend of mine said maybe the person who did this was a prisoner that was bored out of his/her mind... If it was a guy that did this, well, then I have nothing else to say.

Fabric Gift Bag and Tutorial

With all the efforts lately to recycle and to be environmentally responsible, I decided to make gift bags out of fabric. That way, they can be reused and man- I have SO MUCH fabric, my sewing room is about to bust! I need some kind of 12 step program to deal with my fabric addiction lol.

Here is the gift bag I made-


They are super easy to make and take about 5 minutes from start to finish. Basically, you cut the fabric the size you want, plus 3 inches at the top. Sew the sides and bottom together, then fold the top over to make a pretty edge and sew. This will show, so make sure the raw edges are hidden.


I squared the bottom so that it would stand up-


That's pretty much it! Press it and tie a pretty ribbon around it.

Have fun!

Kevin's First Day of CNA Training

Kevin has officially entered the real world called society! It took for-stinkin-ever to get his high school diploma from the school, but finally, we got him signed up for his CNA training. In a few weeks he will be an official Certified Nursing Assistant!

Here he is on his first day-


Showing off his new shoes-


Have a great day!

Gorgeous Photos

One of my favorite blogs is All Sorts. Jenny's blog is just a *truckload* of eyecandy. Today she posted a link to a photoshoot that is just gorgeous. I love Mexican embroidery and these little girls are so cute. Be sure to hop over and take a look - All Sorts



I have a beautiful little girl in mind that I'm going to photograph like this!

Kevin Playing Guitar

My son, Kevin, has been playing guitar for about 10 years or so. I think he plays really, really well... but then, I'm his mom and I would say that anyway LOL. He writes his own music, which is usually what he plays. In fact, I can't remember the last time I heard him play something that someone else wrote. I think it was the theme to Spongebob Squarepants.

Note to self: clean house before recording next video... shees.

Man, It's Hot

It has been so stinkin' hot here lately. They are saying that we will get temperatures close to 120 degrees this summer. We've already had record-breaking temps several times... and the heat won't let up until October or so.

I was looking through my pictures, and I came across these that we took on New Year's Eve last year. It was a friggin' 19 degrees that night up in Flagstaff. I am totally NOT a snow person and I was freezin my caboose off, even though I had enough clothes on to clothe an entire third world nation lol. My wonderful BF will never forget that I drank an entire bottle of wine (it was just so good!) and got totally wasted. He was so sweet and he made sure I drank a ton of water so it wasn't so bad. However, it will be a LONG LONG time before I drink wine again LOL.

Anyways... I'm just thinking about how nice it would be to stand next to that snowman right now as I sit here at work.






Have a great Friday!

Two More Days Until the Weekend

We made it over the hump day yesterday... at least the weekend is in sight now. I bought a few books on making softies so I plan to play around with that this weekend. It's supposed to be 115 degrees here today - ICK.

Here are a couple of CUTE YouTube softies videos featuring little dudes from the books I got recently. I'm warning you, however - the music will get stuck in your head LOL.





Have a happy day!

Mike the Headless Chicken

Kim (aka Kimmertons aka Home Skillet), is a friend of mine at work. The other day, he was telling me about a chicken who lived for 18 months after having his head whacked off... his owner was going to cook him up for dinner, but Mike refused to give it up. The owner (after realizing that Mike was still alive) took him on tour so everyone could see him. I didn't believe Kimmertons at first, but it is a true story. Here he is featured on Ripley's Believe It Or Not-



And here is his very own web page. They even have a festival every year in memory of Mike. I guess truth really is stranger than fiction.

Mike's Web Page

Tissue Cozy Tutorial

Here is a tutorial on how to make a little tissue pack cozy to keep in your purse. Not like it's difficult to make, but sometimes it's nice to see step-by-step how someone else did it. They make cute gifts that are really quick to sew!

Cut 3 pieces of fabric, each 4"x6".


Take 2 of the pieces and iron them so that they are 2"x6" and put the other (flat) piece of fabric pretty side up, then center the pressed pieces on top so that the folded edge is towards the middle. You want all the raw edges to be together. It's no fun to rip out stitches if you have a senior moment and stitch it incorrectly... ask me how I know. I used about a 1/2" stitch. It doesn't have to be exactly perfect.


After stitching, clip the corners so that it turns nicely, then turn right side out and put the kleenex pack inside.



Happy Stitching!!!

Mike Meyers and Smoke and a Pancake

My wonderful BF has gotten on this kick lately where he says "How about a smoke and a pancake?" like Mike Meyers in the movie Austin Powers... I looked it up to see what it meant. According to UrbanDictionary.com, it says,

Originally used by Mike Myers in "Austin Powers: Goldmember" as a joke about Dutch people. The whole movie (for whatever reason) is riddled with anti-Dutch jokes. This phrase was intended to highlight two of the popular stereotypes of Holland: marijuana and sweet confections. There really is no deeper meaning other than to play on these stereotypes. Since the release of the movie, the term has gained popularity as a general reference to marijuana use, and the "munchies" that may follow.

Mike Meyers was on Inside the Actor's Studio yesterday. He is really a smart cookie and very enlightened. He talked about how Deepak Chopra was his inspiration for his new movie and how through all the silliness of the movie, he was trying to get a message across. It's nice to see someone smart and talented like that make it big. I'm so sick of all the celebrities that are heavily marketed and have nothing but attitude to back them up.

(end of rant LOL)

My Machines and Misc Stuff I Did

Well, it looks like we made it through Monday. It's all downhill now to the weekend, isn't it? The summers here in Arizona are hotter than h-e double hockey sticks, as some folks say... but one nice thing is that there is hardly any traffic going to work compared to the normal rush hour. I guess the smart (?) people went elsewhere for the summer and we are the suckers who are stuck here in the 115 degree heat HA! Wimps!

I bought this book on how to make sock creatures. Funny how a lot of crafts lately focus on the bizarre, wierd and totally NOT perfect sewing/crafting techniques. It's kinda fun to do something like this once in a while. Here is my sock creature. I made him out of some snowman socks that I absolutely hated to wear but I think he turned out cute... in a Tim Burton sort of way...

The book -


Putting him together-


All done!!! Time to party!



These are my embroidery machines. The big one is Baby Hughie and the little one is Molly Moo. Now don't judge me as crazy just because I named them. Embroidery machines are people, too. Have you hugged yours today? :)

My Brother Innovis 4000D (Molly Moo)


My Brother PR600II (Baby Hughie)



OK, one more pic. I bought a bunch of plain wooden plaques from the dollar store and finally got an idea what to do with them. I painted this one and put some pretty paper on it and some clipart I printed.



That's it for this Monday. I hope you guys have a great evening. Over and out :)

Happy Monday!

Eh, well it's Monday again. "Meh", as my son would say... I swear the weekends are never long enough. I always have about 10 sewing projects left that I didn't have time for lol. However, I am thankful that I have a job and a roof over my head, so I won't complain too much.

I hope all the dads out there had a GREAT Father's Day yesterday!

Here are some funnys my best friend, Sarah, sent me today. She is the bestest friend ever :)

Chester and the Kitty Pot

"OOOOoooo maybe if I put on my cute face, I can have some catnip."


"Yes! Yes! She got it out!!!!"


"Mmmmm"


"This is some gooooood $hit, man..."


"Dude, I'm soooooooooooooo stoned now..."

Flip Flops I Made

Here are some flip flops I made. I couldn't get the ribbons to look right all the time, so I made some yo-yos on the other ones. I have about 150 pairs of flip flops to fix up. I hope they sell lol.

Pugsley and His Cookies

Pugsley eats organic food from Sprouts and most of the time I give him baby carrots for treats. However, the other day I went to Petco and got him some cookies. My son says that they are "real people" cookies. He even ate one once to show me... whatever lol.

"Can I have a cookie, Mom?"


Pugsley's cookie jar and the cookies



Hey, the cookies look pretty good, but I wouldn't want to eat them. Who knows how long they sit in the bins at Petco while people run their hands through them lol.

Happy Friday the 13th!

So how many of you stayed home under the covers because today is Friday the 13th? I always feel that way when it's a workday... but I showed up anyways. Did you know that the fear of this day is called Paraskevidekatriaphobics? Try to say that 3 times really fast...



I made it to work ok, had a burrito and nothing bad has happened yet. I'm thinking of going to a late-night crop tonight... maybe we can watch scary movies while we scrap lol.

Thought For Today

IF I HAD MY LIFE TO LIVE OVER
By Erma Bombeck

(written while she was dying from complications from kidney disease)

I would have gone to bed when I was sick instead of pretending the earth would go into a holding pattern if I weren’t there for the day.

I would have burned the pink candle sculpted like a rose before it melted in storage.

I would have talked less and listened more.

I would have invited friends over to dinner even if the carpet was stained, or the sofa faded.

I would have eaten the popcorn in the ‘good’ living room and worried much less about the dirt when someone wanted to light a fire in the fireplace.

I would have taken the time to listen to my grandfather ramble about his youth.

I would have shared more of the responsibility carried by my husband.

I would never have insisted the car windows be rolled up on a summer day because my hair had just been teased and sprayed.

I would have sat on the lawn with my grass stains.

I would have cried and laughed less while watching television and more while watching life.

I would never have bought anything just because it was practical, wouldn’t show soil, or was guaranteed to last a lifetime.

Instead of wishing away nine months of pregnancy, I’d have cherished every moment and realized that the wonderment growing inside me was the only chance in life to assist God in a miracle.

When my kids kissed me impetuously, I would never have said, “Later. Now get washed up for dinner.” There would have been more “I love you’s.” More “I’m sorry’s.”

But mostly, given another shot at life, I would seize every minute…look at it and really see it. Live it. And never take it back. Stop sweating the small stuff. Don’t worry about who doesn’t like you, who has more, or who’s doing what. Instead, let’s cherish the relationships we have with those who do love us.

*Let’s think about what God HAS blessed us with. And what we are doing each day to promote ourselves mentally, physically, emotionally. I hope you all have a blessed day.

I Love Amigurumi

Have you guys seen the cute Amigurumi crafts people are making? "What is it?" you ask... according to Wikipedia it's

the Japanese art of knitting or crocheting small stuffed animals and anthropomorphic creatures. Amigurumi are typically cute animals (such as bears, rabbits, cats, dogs, etc.), but can include inanimate objects endowed with anthropomorphic features. Amigurumi can be either knitted or crocheted. In recent years crocheted amigurumi are more popular and more commonly seen.

Amigurumi are usually crocheted or knitted out of yarn. The simplest designs are worked in spirals. In contrast to typical Western crochet the rounds are not usually joined. They are also worked with a smaller size hook in proportion to the weight of the yarn in order to create a very tight-looking fabric without any gaps through which the stuffing might escape. Amigurumi are usually worked in sections and then joined, except for some amigurumi which have no limbs, only a head and torso which are worked as one piece. The extremities are sometimes stuffed with plastic pellets to give them a life-like weight, while the rest of the body is stuffed with fiber stuffing.

MAN! I wish I knew how to crochet... I may just have to learn how. Check out the cute Clark Kent, Superman and Mario on this page - Geek Crafts

Blog Finds - Tshirt Makeovers

I found a few cool blogs today on how to make tshirts into something new. I just *love* tshirts and I tend to keep them way too long after they are worn out lol so I will have to try these ideas.

Make PJ pants out of a tshirt -

Tshirt Surgery

Lots of tshirt makeovers-

Oh My Stars

Tshirt underwear!

Undies From A Tshirt

Happy stitching!

Day Trip to Sedona

We took a day trip north to Sedona, red rock country. It's about 90 minutes from Phoenix. It's really nice to get out of the city once in a while, and the temperature is so much cooler there. Some timeshare pimps tried to get us to stay overnight for cheap, but we would have had to sit through a 90 minute "presentation"... I'd rather have a root canal thank you very much.

We missed the exit and almost ended up in Flagstaff lol. There is snow on the San Francisco Peaks-



This is Oak Creek Canyon-




Tlaquepaque is an artsy-fartsy beautiful garden-like collection of shops. It's a really nice place to hang out.



These are pictures of Sedona-

Things I Stitched Lately

Here are some burps/blanket sets I finished recently:






Everyone has a different way of making burps, but I like to line them with flannel so they are extra comfy. I might post a tutorial down the road - they are pretty easy to make.

Kevin and His Sofa

My son, Kevin, has a sofa in his bedroom. Not like his room is big or anything, but he found a way to make it fit with all his guitar stuff, fish tank, bed, etc. I woke up one night around midnight to some kind of commotion going on in the hallway and this is what I saw:



He decided to rearrange his room in the middle of the night. But then, he lives the life of a rock star, so it was more like regular daytime hours for him lol.

Star Wars According to a 3 Year Old

OMG this little girl is so cute. She's got the Star Wars story down pretty well, me thinks!

Happy Friday!

It's finally Friday!!! Woohoo!!!

Thought for the day:



Here are a couple of cool blogs I found today-

Free Machine Embroidery Designs
So Sketchy Scrapbook Sketches

Have a great weekend everyone!

Software Development Styles

My profile says that my occupation is "nerd"... specifically, I'm a computer programmer (a rose by any other name yadda, yadda...) This blog has the funniest and most true descriptions about software development styles. A-hole Driven Development

My favorites are:

Cover Your Ass Engineering (CYAE) - The driving force behind most individual efforts is to make sure than when the shit hits the fan, they are not to blame.

Decapitated Chicken Process - A time honored micromanagement technique where each day managers identify a drastic emergency and require developers drop what they are doing (and whatever process they are using) and immediately attend to the latest conflagration. Since this does the double duty of creating new bugs and making other tasks fall behind, fires become easier and easier for managers to spot and then freak out about. Practically a standard in the games industry.

Blog Finds and Movies

So my back is finally better and I got rid of the strep throat (!) so I'm back at work now. It really stunk that I was in total pain the entire Memorial Day Weekend!!! My wonderful BF took me to the drive-in movies, though, where I could lay the seat back and get semi-comfy with my pillows lol. We saw Ironman which was pretty good. Here are a few other movie reviews:

(Out of 5 stars)
New-
Sex and the City *** was ok, but I thought the shows were MUCH better. Mr. Big was luscious to look at, as usual, and Samantha's neighbor was delightful as well ;)

Not so new-
August Rush (dvd) *** cute story, Robin Williams is always good to watch. Story was kinda "out there".

Employee of the Month (with Matt Dillon and Christina Applegate) *** He appears to be Mr. Wonderful, but turns out to be a surprise. The ending was like "DOH!"

My Life As A House (Kevin Kline) **** I really liked this movie. Makes you think about what you would do if you only had a few months to live. Overall it was more of a comedy even though he was terminally ill. I love Kevin Kline anyways.

Well that's it for movies for now. Here are a couple of good sewing/crafting blogs I found today, too -

Sorta Frugal

Polka Dot Pineapple