DuhBe.com

Four posts in 4 days – what’s up with that?

I just had to share the prize bag I won from Sarcastra’s blog giveaway over at  Too Lazy To Be Evil.  Look what she sent me…

Bunches of candy, and custom sharpie pens and a moleskin notebook, and even some toothpaste to wash away all that sugar!  Hubby and I decided to cut back on our candy consumption, and then THIS prize came in the mail.  I rationalized that the UNIVERSE wants ME to have CANDY.  So I ate it.  And it was good.

You might recognize Sarcastra as a frequent commenter on the DuhBe blog.  If you don’t already read Sarcastra’s blog – you should.  Her dry sense of humor is very entertaining.  Who doesn’t love a sarcastic quilter?  I especially enjoy how she manages to not kill her co-worker on her frequent business trips.

OK, my shameless plug for Too Lazy To Be Evil is over.  But I do enjoy her writings, and she sent me lots of Candy.

She rocks.  That’s all.  Check her out.

I Do, I Do!!  My cup now runneth over with vintage buttons.

I recently received the most pleasant surprise from my quilting friend Brenda in the mail.  She went through her vintage button collection and decided she wasn’t going to ever do anything with most of them, so she sent a ton of them to me.  Well, not quite a ton, but the box of buttons weighed over 9 1/2 pounds!   These are just some of them.

Needless to say, I was overjoyed at Brenda’s generous gesture.  Some are grouped in little baggies, but most are running free.

I am now suffering from a touch of buttony gluttony.  I spent long periods of time sifting through them until I finally sorted them out this last week.

There are metal buttons…

Shell buttons…

Here are some of the glass buttons…

I like these glass pastel seed buttons…

I think my favorite are the rhinestone buttons.  They are old, with patina.  They look great in the center of a fabric flower.

I am so grateful Brenda sent me these buttons. I’m not even sure what to do with all of them yet, but I will slowly find ways to use them.

In return for all the wonderful buttons, I sent Brenda a few things from my studio as a token of my gratitude.

I whipped up some embroidered Alice in Wonderland linen blocks along with some red roses.

She can do whatever she wants with them – quilting related or not. I tucked a couple more things in the box – I hope she enjoys them as much as I love all these buttons!

Since I haven’t seen the other crafty sites talking about this, I’ll fill you in.

Costume designer Colleen Atwood talks about the costuming for Alice in Wonderland which comes out this Friday, March 5th.

And here’s another bit of Tim Burton trivia for you.  He has already teamed up to direct the movie version of this book which just came out this week.  Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter sounds pretty interesting.  Even though we’re all sick of vampires (those of us who started with Anne Rice have been through enough, haven’t we?)  This one peaks my interest anyway.

Now if I can just find that book used or handmade, so I don’t have to cheat on my Dottie Angel challenge.

Today I’ve decided to share a list of 11 different tutorials for making and crafting roses from various materials.  Read on to see links and photos off all the lovely roses you can make… Read more…

This has become one of my favorite books in my craft library.  For the first time ever, I actually read an instructional sewing book cover to cover rather than just browsing the pretty photos.  And then I started trying the projects. Read more…

Most cats like to watch birds or squirrels. My cat? She likes to watch Sewing with Nancy on PBS…

She especially likes the episodes about machine embroidery, since we do that upstairs in our sewing studio.  Never to be outdone by humans, she wants to learn how to embroider on the sewing machine so she watches intently…

Little kitty was very interested in the touchscreen aspect of the big embroidery machines.  She loves computers and often sits on my laptop while I try to type.  So this touchscreen thing was right up her alley.  (not that she would be caught dead in a stinky alley, but you know what I mean)…

But when the sewing stuff was over, she quickly got bored with Nancy talking to her guest.  (she is yawning below, but it looks like a much worse critique, doesn’t it?

Eventually the talking got too long winded, so kitty decided to freshen up a bit with a quick bath before going upstairs to try a little embroidery of her own.

We’ll see how that turns out.  I don’t think those touchscreens were ergonomically designed for kitty paws.

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I love handmade gifts.  I feel compelled to share 2 gifts I received for the holidays.  I’m so thrilled with these!

My husband Patrick of Mythic Pict leather studios made me this leather phone holder.  It matches the coffee cup cozy he made me last year.  Roses, purple, and all.

And my 13-year-old daughter stretched her creative wings and needle felted this little Chihuahua for me.  Isn’t he sweet?

Here he is again, begging for some of those candies behind him.

This is part 3 of my photo journey to Ginger Blossom world bazaar.  Check out part 1 and part 2 if you haven’t already.

Read more…

Imagine a world bazaar filled with treasures from around the globe, where the artisans were paid a fair wage, yet the prices were still low to the consumer.  Not just a little store in a strip mall.  No.  Ginger Blossom is set on a family farm and fills 3 levels of a large barn, as well as the lower part of the farm house, and then about 4 more outbuildings!

Read more…

Do you swap?  I’ve been thinking about joining these swaps where you make something and send it off to a stranger, and somebody sends you the item they made.  So today I signed up at Swap-Bot and filled in my profile.  It’s a free service, complete with ratings to help avoid people getting gyped by cheaters.   I’m pretty excited about getting started.

I’m just passing this along for others to try.  If you know of other swaps you recommend – please leave a comment, or tell me about your experiences with swaps.