Hey ladies,

I'm embarking on the big move from Houston to Kilgore in June. I know NO one in the area! Are there any craft groups in the area that y'all know of?

Amy

I need help coming up with some good ideas for what to do OTHER than dance.

The boy and I will be getting married in March here in Texas. It will be an outdoor wedding on the grounds of a historic plantation. We'll have the whole grounds for the reception as well.

Not very many people in our families dance. It'll be me, my bridesmaids, and a couple of work friends, pretty much. So I need other things to do.

So far, here is what I've come up with:
1.) horseshoes, maybe croquet, wiffle ball
2.) a DIY photo booth (my digital camera on a tripod with a remote and a box of goofy hats and props)
3.) Dominoes (my fiance and his family are big into dominoes)
4.) temporary tattoos - maybe a face painter, I haven't decided yet.
5.) coloring books, crayons, little toy goodie bags for the little kids
6.) a pinata

I'd like some sort of other crafty thing... Any ideas? Things you've done at your wedding or seen at other weddings?

Hey y'all...

I'm supposed to be paying attention in my teacher professional development, but instead I'm playing with our save the date cards...

We're doing simple postcards. Vistaprint.com prints them for free - you just pay the shipping and handling! Woo!

This is the front. The back will have a little message, the location, the website, etc...

Is this too simple? (The black blurbs are our last names!)

Hey ladies,

So my fiance and I live in Houston but we're planning a wedding back in his hometown of Kilgore in March of 2009. I've been searching high and freaking low on the internet for venues in the Kilgore/Tyler/Longview/Henderson area (or something similar) and am having little luck. Everything is very run of the mill country club which is not our style.

My dreams: outdoor (garden or gazebo or lots of trees or a pond/lake/body of water), fun, relaxed, etc...

Any ideas? Any leads? Anything pretty in the area that I can at least investigate further?

Thank you!!!!

• Modified from the Lotus pattern.
  
• Made with 3 fat quarters of Michael Miller fabric, lined with vintage cotton from my Gram's stash,
  
  • Magnetic snap closure.
    
  • 3 interior pockets.
    
    • All ready to take to my conference next week!
  
  
  
  

Okay, so here's the scoop. Got a new boy. He's not *quite* my boyfriend yet, but it's definitely headed down that road. We're just taking things slow so as not to mess up.

His birthday is July 21- I'm giving myself plenty of time to figure out something awesome. He's definitely into home-made-with-love kinda stuff, so I want that to be the bulk of it.

Okay, my boy -
- Will be 31.
- Shaves his head
- 10 tattoos
- Home brews beer
- reads a ton
- is a geek
- likes metal and indie rock
- has a pug named Sweetpea (how adorable is that!?)
- Our first "date" was to hang out and shoot pool
- Our second was a picnic in the park

Ideas fo far -
- I promised to knit him a hat. I really want to knit him one of the R2D2 beanies from the pattern on here but I'm scared of color working. Maybe I'll just knit him a simple beanie in some really nice yarn.
- Picture frame w/ beer caps - I know a bartender who can probably get me tons.
- something for Sweetpea. Maybe a new collar or lead and tags. Or a doggie sweater to match Daddy's hat.
- the new Harry Potter comes out ON his birthday. If I can manage to get it, i'll get that - plus a bookmark and decorative bookplate.

Any other suggestions?

I want to knock his socks off! (Maybe I should knit socks too... Hmm)

So, a group of my fellow teachers and administrators are headed to Nashville Dec 1 - 6 for the National Staff Development Conference at the Opryland.

Crafty things would be cool - but also needed are some suggestions for fun, funky, and CHEAP (we're teachers!) places to go, things to do, food to eat...

Many thanks!

So I was watching the "Uncommon Threads" show on HGTV I DVR'd and saw a project on embellishing shirts w/ free form machine embroidery and quilting and reverse applique.

It was one of those "OMG that's so cool and I can SO do that" moments.

Grabbed this shirt I had laying around, which is comfy and fits well, but was boring.

and I did this! It's not perfect, It's kinda bunched up in places. But that adds "texture" and "interest" or at least that's how I'm justifying it. I like it enough that I'll wear it anyway.



And me modelling it.

Digging through my gramma's stash, I found a bunch of this vintage barkcloth. The story is that it's what was left over from making cushions for patio furniture from when my mom was about 5 or 6.



So I made a very simple, but gigantic tote out of it. Nice long straps to go over the shoulder, faux tortoise shell button with loop to close, lined with a buttery lemon denim. One big pocket, another divided into 3 smaller compartments.



Ignore the crooked topstiching. Here you can see how gigantic the bag is. That's two full size 1-subject spirals, with tons of room leftover. Zippered thing in the big pocket is the totally awesome globe pencil case Dewey made for me in the Office Supply swap. (Check the gallery!)



Thanks for checking it out!

I have one of those ginormous black rolling suitcase type scrapbooking totes - the ones that cost like $100 at Michaels and Hobby Lobby. It's almost 2 years old, but it's never actually been rolled anywhere and been sitting in a closet, so it's almost brand new. No damage, no wear and tear, probably a little residual dog hair, but no smoke.

Willing to trade it for fabric or ribbon or yarn or whatever. I just would like to see it go to a good home and someone who'll actually use it.

Message me back!