Gifts from a Friend

I received these sweet little zipper pouches on Christmas Eve and have forgotten to post pictures of them.  They're from my blogging buddy Sandra of Sandra Sews :).  She is a sewing fiend!  The first 2 are for my birthday, apparently she had them all ready to mail in July and then had an issue ;) so she waited to send them at Christmas.  Better late than never, I say!

How cute is the zippy made to look like a pair of panties!

This one Sandra made me for Christmas:

I love the cardinal fabric, it's so pretty!  Thanks Sandra :)

Random Act of Kindness, L*K Update

Look at this little beauty I recieved from my blog buddy Sandra Sews:)!

I've been admiring the zipper bags she makes (check out her blog, she is a zipper bag machine!) and she graciously offered to send me one! Look at the pleats and the little yoyo detail...isn't it cute? She also attached the sweetest zipper pull:

My photo isn't great. I hope you can see the stones and beads she used. Thanks Sandra, I love it!!!

If you're interested in making this type of bag check out this great tutorial on the blog Heart of Mary.

Here is a picture of the progress I've made on Christmas by the letter:

I haven't stitched on it for awhile, I've been busy doing exchange stitching (which have turned out soooo great, I can hardly wait to post pics of my finishes!)

I just have the seam to stitch up on Happy Halloween by La-D-Da and I'll be able to post a picture of that finish too!

Happy Stitching!

Ta-Da

Here is my finish for my Challenge with Sandra Sews:). I made the September 7th deadline...barely! (Sorry for the horrible pic!)

I had the stitching done for this ornament and finished it too! This one is just gravy! Woo hoo.

I'll update my post tomorrow when I have more time. I'm trying to get my kids ready for bed. First day of school tomorrow!

Stitching and Pizza

Things are going along great for my challenge with Sandra Sews:). I'm almost done the stitching after two lovely evenings in my stitching room with Jane Austen movies playing in the background.

I chose "Christmas Tree" by Country Cottage Needleworks. It's part 3 of her Winter Wonderland Thread Pack series. I love the Crescent Colours silks included. They just glide through the linen. Tomorrow, if all goes well today and I finish the stitching, I'm going to pull out the sewing machine and do the finishing.


As for the pizza part of this post, today was my first foray into bread dough making without the breadmaker. I made pizza bread, a recipe I found on a wonderful blog I found called Cooking During Stolen Moments.

I recently started doing a weekly meal plan and grocery shopping once a week. Since two of the things I hate most in the world are figuring out what to make for dinner and grocery shopping (I should say loathe!) I figured meal planning was the way to go! After two weeks I have to say it's been quite liberating. All I have to do in the morning is check my plan and I'm good to go. I highly recommend it!

Here are the results of my bread baking (dough after rising for an hour):


I'm glad the dough turned out so well as my Jenn-Aire mixer started smoking as a result of it. I think that's a bad thing *GRIN*. Luckily my hubby, being in the appliance industry, has a contact at Kitchen Aid so he's going to get me a new mixer...I should have made dough a long time ago...

Here it is with all the fillings before being rolled up like a jelly roll:


And here is the delicious (if i do say so myself) final result:


My son was official taste tester and declared it "a keeper!"

Ornament Challenge!

While emailing back and forth about getting ornaments done for Christmas with Sandra:) of Sandra Sews :) she mentioned starting an ornament today (in between emails!!!) So I proposed a challenge for the both of us...finish one ornament by Sept 7th. Wish us luck!

Happy Stitching!