My First Video Tutorial - Hooping Baby Bloomers

Hello everyone! I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! I know I did and so did my grandchildren.

I have been chomping at the bit ever since my husband and I went out to comparison shop a video recorder that I could use with my crafting, Black Friday! It has been one long month!

Below is my video and I still have a whole lot to learn but overall I am pleased with it. I'm sure a year from now, I will be rolling on the floor laughing at how silly this is. I already found a pretty big mistake at the end (I didn't show the finished item to prove that my technique works)! But I will post a photo below the video for you to see!

I started with an embroidery tutorial because that is the craft that I know the most about. I plan to make videos of scrapbooking too but I don't know a whole lot of techniques yet so it will probably be a while. I may do some product reviews and hauls.

I'm from the south so I'm sure you will get a kick out of my country South Carolina voice!






This is the entire outfit. The top is a little wrinkled and needs to be irioned and for some reason the bloomers look crooked but they aren't. The previous photo proves it! LOL

Thanks for looking everyone.

IT'S CHRISTMAS 2010

Hello! Merry Christmas!

I took the day off yesterday and decorated for Christmas with my 6 year old grand-daughter. Needless to say it took a bit longer than ususal. I am very happy with the way it turned out! You can't tell it in the photos, but my Christmas Tree turns. I bought the Christmas tree stand from Lowes when my husband and I were first married, 15 years ago! I love it. I can't believe it still works.

Below is a photo of some Christmas presents that have lights in them. I bought this at Big Lots some years ago. I love these too.

This is one of my newest purchases. This is an advent calendar house I bought at Target. 3 of the doors were missing little door knobs but I went to AC Moore and bought these little wooden balls, colored them black with a Sharpie and hot glued them in place. The kids are really enjoying this and it gives them a visual of just how close Christmas is.

This is a photo of my cute little Santa Clause that climbs up and down the ladder while playing Christmas music, carring his little light strang. I love him, but after about 30 minutes, the Christmas music loop drives me crazy! You can't tell that the light bulbs are lit in this photo but they are sooo cute all lit up.

I bought these stockings over the last couple of years at Lowes. Love these too. They are large and plush and only cost about $9 at Lowes. I monogrammed everyones name on them (not an easy task) with bright red thread. I bought the stocking holders from Hobby Lobby last year after Christmas for like $1 each!

I bought the ornament light covers on my garland from a local boutique in town several years ago and I used them on the garland because I didn't have enough to cover the tree. I really like the way they turned out.

This is my poor Christmas tree. I bought the tree 2 years ago after Christmas and I really like the tree. It has pine cones on it and looks very real. I am not a great decorator and the tree could certainly use some work. I have the glitter ornaments the kids and I made a couple of weeks ago along with all the different ornaments we've collected over the years. I tried to tuck Santa ribbon around the tree like garland, but I think I need to re-do it. It looks really sad in this photo. I will work on that.

Merry Christmas everyone! From my home to yours.

A BLOG AWARD! ME A BLOG AWARD?

OMG! LOVE THAT BUG gave me, yes me, a blog award!

TO ACCEPT THIS AWARD I MUST DO THE FOLLOWING

1. Thank and link back to the person who gave me this award.

Stacy, thank you so much for this award. I am so excited to be chosen. Here is a link to LOVE THAT BUG!

2. Share 8 things about yourself. (not in any order).

1. I adore my husband, Earle of 15 years! He's truly my best friend.

2. I have an identical twin sister. My mother actually had 2 sets of twins but my older sisters twin died in 1951 3 days after she was born.

3. I have 6 grand-daughters! No grandsons yet.

4. I love to sew/embroider, not just scrapbook.

5. I work for a major telecommunications company.

6. I love Walt Disney World almost as much as my husband.

7. I love college football and Lady Vols basketball.

and last but not least

8. I can't stay off the Cricut message boards and I love watching video tuturials on blogs.

3. Pay it forward to 8 bloggers that you have recently discovered.

(this is the hard part)

1. Reddy's Ramblings - great blog for all things Disney.

2. Softbrn's House of Creativity - I met Softbrn at a scrapbook retreat in Atlanta, GA and I love her blog and her videos!

3. Cricut'ing Carol - great cardmaker.

4. Glued with Love - all kinds of crafts and a great scrap area.

5. Laurens Creative - Great blog with video tutorials!

6. Scrappy Jess - Love her video tutorials.

7. Cricut Cuteness - great tutorials for layouts and cards.

8. Sue's Cricut and Crafts - great cards.

MY HERO WEARS COMBAT BOOTS!

I've been thinking about this layout for a long time. My son is currently in the middle of his 2nd tour in Iraq. I miss him terribly and I've worked on this layout since my last retreat in October but have been unable to finish it becuase I could not decide how to lay it out. My hubby recently bought me 5 new cartridges from Cricut Machine.com when they had that great sale a few weeks ago and I got the Stand and Salute cartridge. I was not disappointed! I love the combat boots. I had to leave in the middle of the boot portion of the project to buy just the right laces and it took forever to get all of the holes the right size because I don't have the big crop-a-dile, only the small one and it would not reach all of the holes! But it was so worth it. It's not perfect by any means, but I am happy with it and I know my sonny boy will be happy with it too!

For some reason the photo below uploads and is rotated as below.....I've deleted it and uploaded it multiple times and it still uploads this way. If anyone knows how I can correct this, please let me know. The photo on the page below is of my Sweet Boy! But don't tell him I called him that!

My son is the one on the far left in the top photo and the 2nd from the left on the front row in the bottom photo. I had to take a 2nd glance at the bottom photo when I printed it out because at first glance he looked like Tom Cruise with that expression on his face! If only......LOL!

USC GAMECOCK LONG ALLS

This is a jon jon I made for my daughters best friend who's baby is turning one next week. Of course she is a big USC fan (but I won't hold that against her), so I had to try this embroidery design on Bryce's outfit. It is called feathermetto which is a cross between a gamecock and the SC Palmetto tree.

These pictures aren't great, but I think you can get the idea. I hope it fits little man! I can't wait to see him sporting this outfit.

I used a black micro check gingham and white broad cloth. The pattern I used was the Childrens Corner Johnny.

LIVE SIMPLY - SCRAPLIFTED LAYOUT

I simply love everything Monique Griffith! I've been collecting the pieces to make this layout and although I didn't have the reddish Bazzill paper, I used my imagine to try and replicate it and the paper for the leaves.

I admit that I scraplifted every single piece of this layout. There were very few deviations from the original layout on www.monkeydoodlecricut.blogspot.com. But I loved this layout so much that I just had to try and reproduce it down to the last detail.

It took me 5 hours just to make the color combinations I needed for the paper and then cut each die cut for this layout but it was so worth the effort.

I used a different ribbon than Monique did. I pop dotted the ladybugs and I gave my little skunk a green eye, but those were my only creative elements to the layout. I'll admit that I have no imagination or creativity of my own so I must create based on someone elses talent.

I hope that Monique at www.monkeydoodlecricut.blogspot.com will know that my scraplifting was because of her wonderful talent and creativity and my grand-daughters photos will be absolutely beautiful on here.

On a personal note to Monique, I hope your surgery this week has gone well. I appreciate your work even more during the struggles you've gone through this summer. You are in my thoughts and prayers and I wish you a speedy recovery.

OCTOBER MAGGIE VALLEY SWARM

This weekend was our last swarm for 2010....we won't be having another one until the early spring of 2011. What a great time we had again this month.

Originally there were only 3 people in the group coming so I brought my hubby to cook for us! The food was wonderful and the company was fabulous. Below is a photo of me and my husband (pardon my bad hair, this photo was taken around 10pm!).

On Friday night we had a pasta dish my husband made in his pressure cooker! It was fabulous. On Saturday morning we had waffles and a breakfast casserole. And Saturday night we had Roast with potatoes and carrots, again made in my husbands pressure cooker! There was lots of candy, cupcakes and homemade bread too.


This is a group photo of everyone that came. From left to right is Brenda, Trish, me, Laura & Shyra. Brenda also brought her mom but she was already in bed and didn't come down for the photo. My husband took the picture for us. It is a little bit blurry, sorry!

This is a photo of the main room with the fireplace and tables. I had just received my new Imagine the day before I came and I didn't even open the box until I got to the cabin on Friday! I haven't attempted the upgrade yet but will work on that when I'm confident the bugs are out.

There was another table upstairs in the loft and even though we can't all see each other we can talk to anyone that may be in the loft area still. It has been a wonderful place to get together and oh so relaxing!

This will be our last swarm until the spring because the weather up here is too unpredictable and with the holidays coming we decided to wait until March for our next swarm. So if any of you are interested in joining our group, there is room to spare, so come join us! The fee includes room and board. You can email me at coggie4556@bellsouth.net if you are interested.