Present from a Wonderful Artist!

S0 excited! I was the grand winner of Little Brown Rabbit's September giveaway. I'm not usually especially lucky so I was very surprised to hear that I'd won. I love her adorable designs as well as her great affection for the little hippity-hops. This is the sweet print I received today. It combines three of my favorite things-- bunnies, hearts, and delicious cupcakes. Yum!

Thank you so much, Emma!

S.A.V.E. 2010

I just signed up for S.A.V.E. 2010. S.A.V.E. stands for Scrappin' Away Vacation Event. It is the ultimate scrap-over in the area, from what I hear. It is being held at a beautiful resort -- the Split Rock Resort in the Pocono Mountains (PA).

My sister went last year. She said that is is basically a ballroom full of tables, end to end. People come in and scrap until they are hungry or tired. After they break, more crafting occurs! Fun fun. There is also a "yard sale" where in you can bring any scrappy items you do not wish to keep anymore and sell them to the other scrappers. There will also be some classes where you can learn new techniques (and probably buy the items you need to use those techniques lol.)

My sister, her co-worker Amanda (whom I have scrapped with before), and two of Amanda's friends will be sharing a "party room" for 5. Cost savings - yes! The weekend is in January, leading up to MLK, but not including. I can go up as early as Thursday but my sister and Amanda cannot go until Friday. I know we can't all carpool (too many crafty items to bring!) so I am not sure if I will stay around and wait for them or go up earlier. What do you think I should do?

Information can be found at http://www.scrappinawayvacations.com/ if you are interested too.

Sorta Looks Like a Carrot...

Here is my progress so far on the cross stitch pattern I started too weeks ago. I know-- it doesn't seem like alot but I haven't had a ton of time to focus on it with school and my pet emergency and my new nephew being born today. I took the picture below in the waiting room in the maternity ward waiting to see my little sister. I am using Needle Necessities overdyed floss #s 1441 (orange) and 1372 (green) for most of the pattern and a little DMC 310 (black) for the back stitching that I will add in at the end. This is my second cross stitch project and it is quite large at that. I am excited for the finished result. I plan to hang it in my bunny room for my little rabbit-lovies to enjoy.

If you have never kept one, I highly recommend a bunny for a pet (or really 2 + bunnies so they have day-time friends. They are super sweet and a joy to play with. ^_^ Yay bunny love!

The Stash Monster (Pattern Style)

So all this talk about reorganizing my yarn has inspired me to organize my electronic files of patterns and crafting ideas. I am working this weekend at the office, so I have some time to tackle this portion of my stash-clean out now! I am opening every pattern file of different crafty things I found online to file, name, and categorize each pattern appropriately.

I have a habit of collecting inspiring images as well so I will go through them, delete duplicates, and collect like ideas together.

Also, I wanted to mention I did a Google search about organizing yarn and crafts while I was sitting here at my desk at work. I came across two links that I expect will be quite helpful to me.

This one is from Craft Stylish.com. It breaks down a step by step approach to sorting yarn.

This site is actually a blog called Yarn Harlot. I *love* that title-- well chosen! The author, Stephanie, talks about her bi-yearly ritual of cleaning out her stash. Great writing.

Anyway... I'll let you know about the progress as soon as I can. It sure is nice to get a little order back into my life.

The Stash Monster...

I will start this post by disclosing that my family has always had a "collecting" problem. Example-- Pictures of Mom's craft room.

As you see here she has packed her craft room to the seams with primarily cross stitch supplies, though there are a few other crafting pursuits in there. She has literally tons of linen, fabrics, patterns, buttons, fibers, and supplies. To be fair, she only recently had a free room open up in her house to allow her to attempt to organize her craft items so the mess is understandable. It is always messiest before total order graces a project.

So, the point that I am attempting to make is that I am humbly following in her somewhat disorganized, collecting, crafting footsteps, though with several other crafting focuses.

I have had a pleasant yet dramatic influx of yarn supplies recently. My boyfriend has pointed out to me on more than one occasion that I need to stop purchasing and acquiring and get to using or at the very least storing my supplies properly.

My organizing plan is... I don't really have one? I am buying the vacuum-sucking Space Saver bags to sort, package, and protect my yarn in some nice, convenient see-through packaging.

I'll... let you know what I come up with...

New Project (I know, I know... Not again.)

So my mother has been trying to get me to take up cross stitching with her. Of course, my crafty will is not strong... so I caved. She and I sorted thru a number of her favorite designers and found a few that I like.

I decided on this one to try out first. It is fairly large at 26 x 15 inches and super cute. It is called "Sow Many Carrots" by the designers Sisters and Best Friends. When it is done it will have some cute bee buttons with the inscription of: "Sow many carrots, so little time." I wanted to make it to hang inthe bunny room. They looooovvvvveeeeee carrots.

Unfortunately, I was unable to find a picture of the pattern all stitched up. I will post one after I am done so the world can see how super cute it will be. Naturally, I will be changing up the pattern a little. I can't help but mettle. I will be using overdyed verigated colored floss instead of the traditional DMC it calls for. It will probably take me a while to finish as I already have so many other projects I am in the middle of but at least I am making my mom happy (while making something cute for the house!).

It's Rainin' Yarn -- Hallelujah!!

Gifts from my brother's girlfriend's elderly aunt. She apparently bought the yarn on a whim because she likes the colors but doesn't know what to do with yarn in general so she was looking to unload it.

Gifts from my Mom. Mom loves to shop. She also loves garage sales and never throwing away anything. Some of the yarn in this large trash back is vintage (her Nana's stock), some of it is her's (from over the years and leftover from projects), and some of it was from bargining at yard sales (she loves a good deal). Hey, I can't complain-- I love free yarn! There are some fun colors in here and yarn types too.

Yay Ebay! I won a 12+ pound box of specality yarn which I will be making into toys and dolls. I think that is my latest interest. I want to make replicas of my pets first. I am also thinking of making ones that are safe for children so I can donate them to local hospitals and day cares. I think I'll start a search of hand puppet patterns. That would be fun!

This was an internet purchase on Paradise Fibers.com. Great selection-- great sale (which is really important). I wanted to try some new fibers, thicknesses, and materials and I thought this would be a good way to do that.

We'll see how it all goes. I'll post the results!!