Texas Daffodil Society

Several years ago I started an outreach program for schools with daffodils at work. I didn't know anything about daffodils because they are not typically grown in the valley where I am from. Over the last couple of years I have developed a real appreciation for the variety of daffodils available.

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This year while doing some research I found the Texas Daffodil Society which happens to be based in Dallas. I've joined and have been attending meetings so I can pass along the information to the schools participating in our program. I have learned so much. This week's meeting was especially interesting because the program was focused on Grooming Daffodils & Design in preparation for the Daffodil Show in March.

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The speakers brought many varieties of daffodils, most of which I had only seen in pictures. It was quite facinating. Here are a few of my snapshots.

It's hard to believe these are real flowers because they are so incredibly unique and fragrant! My hope is that the students at the schools will participate in the show, I'll keep you posted on our progress.

Mardi Gras Sweatshirt

I made Micaela a Mardi Gras sweatshirt the other day and it was finally cold enough to wear it. You can tell she was thrilled to stop for a picture before going to school on a very overcast day.

Evee Blanket

Micaela is off to her first Slumber Party! Daddy and I weren't quite ready for this but we hate for her to miss. This is the gift I made, a pink fuzzy blanket with the birthday girl's name embroidered in the corner. Micaela picked everything out-- In the world of seven year olds, pink & purple is the bomb!

Daffodils 2012

Daffodils are coming up.... slowly but surely! This is a bloom around our tree that is about ready to open. It's not even February yet! I think the daffodils are confused because it's been such a warm winter.

This is a pot I have on our front sidewalk (planted this year) and these are barely starting to sprout through As you can see our grass is very brown. More updates soon.

And so the learning curve begins....

My birthday was a couple of weeks ago. Two years ago I got the Janome Memory Craft 200e and after a few months was itching to upgrade to the next model so I could have a bigger hoop. Well, this is the next step up... the Janome Memory Craft 300e! I am so excited. I made myself pay for it with money I made from selling embroidered projects. It took me quite a few months to save for this. I haven't had much time to play with it but I will as soon as I can get back to regular sewing!

Originally I had planned on trading in my 200e but I decided to keep it for now. I guess this makes FOUR Janome Machines in the house! Now I need to save for a serger!

Sewing Machine Cover

EEK, more than a week has gone by since my last post!
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When my parents visited in November for Thanksgiving, my Mom admired the machine covers I have made for my embroidery machine, sewing machine and Micaela's sewing machine. After thinking about it, I realized she did not have a cover for her machine so I decided to make her one for Christmas.
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I knew I wanted to embroider on it but I could not decide... do I embroider "Mom"- what I call her or "Nana" what Micaela calls her. After much thought I just decided I would do her real name Rita! (Mom was born on May 22 and named for St. Rita).
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I picked out fabric in colors that would match her room and went right to work. This is what I came up with....

The colors look a little neonish in this picture but in real life they are soft pastels. It's hard to tell in this picture but the side panels are the contrasting lime green fabric in the appliqued R. I got lucky when the azalea thread I used for the Rita perfectly mached the jumbo ric rac I had on hand.
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Thanks for stopping by, hope you are having a great day!

B is for Blanket

Here's another Christmas gift I embroidered. This is one of those delicious fuzzy blankets from Macy's. I embroidered a simple B for the recipients last name. I love how this font turned out. I don't usually do large fill stitch patterns because they take so long (this took 47 minutes to stitch out) but I am so pleased with the finished product. The B is 5" tall. Hope you are staying warm this cold January day!

1st Oreo Movie

A couple of weeks ago I shared a picture of our new dog Oreo sitting handsome on his hind legs. Well, here's the video!

Daffodils 2012

This is my third year to plant daffodils. In 2010, I planted daffodils around a tree in our front yard. In 2011, Micaela and I planted daffodils in one of the flower beds in our backyard. And now I have gone bananas! Micaela and I have planted about 300 bulbs in every pot I own and sparatically in our remaining flower beds. Not all the bulbs are daffodils, I've added dutch irises, tulips and hyacinth and paperwhites. We'll see how they come up. For now I am staring at pots of dirt with mulch on top!

I am most excited about some different daffodil varieties in some little pots. I got these special bulbs at North Haven Gardens when I attended a Texas Daffodil Society meeting. I picked the bulbs with cool names and pictures of more unusual flowers-- I am still learning so we'll see what comes up. If you look beyond the pots on the table in this picture, you can see a pot on the ground that already has some leaves starting to sprout through the mulch, I am so excited!

Thanks for stopping by!

Happy 2012!

May every day of the new year glow with good cheer & happiness for you and your family!

Thank you for reading my blog!

MC2F

Mini Janome in the House!

There's a Mini Janome in the house! Micaela kept asking when she would get a Janome machine like mine, so guess what Mommy got her for Christmas? Yup, I got her her very own Janome. (This year we decided we- the parents would be the heros instead of Santa getting all the credit for the cool gifts). This is not a toy, its real and Micaela is thrilled. We've been super busy and have not had time to play but soon she'll be making her 'own' projects on her 'own' machine very soon. Now she says she wants a mini embroidery machine. Lord, what will it be next?

Of course, Oreo had to be in the picture. I'll post the big present from Daddy soon! Thanks for stopping by!

Christmas Embroidery

Here are a few things I made to give for Christmas... I am so mad at myself for not taking pictures of everything! In some cases I was literally sewing right up until I walked out the door and in the rush did not have a chance to snap a picture.

The biggest item I made was a this set of 11 napkins and a matching runner for my mother in law & father in law. There's one napkin for each family member. It's hard to photograph 11 napkins at once clearly but I think you get the idea. These will also serve as placecards kinda sorta. I used all lower case to keep the font small. I love the white ric rac and the green trim!

I don't know of more people coming into the family anytime soon but I have some blank napkins set aside for when new members join the family (like the grandchildren getting married). The matching runner is 72 inches long but it was too hard to photograph full length. I embroidered one end with the family name, est. (for established) and my mother & father in law's wedding date. I love the ribbon 'fringe' on the ends.

Once I got all the names programed into my machine, the second set was not as difficult to make, it also helped that it's a younger family with just two children and obviously no grandchildren yet...lol. This is the set I made for my brother in law & sister in law who got married just three years ago. I did white napkins for them just so the sets would not be completely alike.
I embroidered the runner the same, just updated with their totally coool 8-8-2008 wedding date.
I was done with red and green after all of that! Now I have a year to make a set for us! Thanks for stopping by.

Oreo tricks

We have discovered Oreo knows a few tricks. The cutest one is sitting on his hind legs for what seems like an eternity. I say 'discovered' because we couldn't have taught him this in the short three weeks we've had him. Check this out...
He just sits like this... we say he's sitting handsome. Thanks for stoping by!

Pinkalicious!

Pinkalicious, The Musical was in town a couple of weeks ago and Micaela and I went to see it with another Mother & Daughter 'couple'. This was Micaela's FIRST time at the Eisemann Center in Richardson and she loved it.

We debated about what to wear and in the end chose a dress I purchased for her 3 years ago. I've patiently been waiting for her to grow into the dress and the day finally came. I was so glad this dress was PINK and not another color...lol. I have so many outfits I have bought way in advance of her being able to wear, I am glad the timing on this one worked out perfectly! Thanks for stopping by.

Devin B & B

Here's a set I made for a new little cowboy in Nevada.

Mini Sewing Machine Cover

Micaela has a tiny battery operated sewing machine that my Mom got her this summer, she loves it! She's been 'requesting' (nagging) that her machine does not have a cover like all of mine. I've been on the search for the perfect fabric for her since she's not fond of my red, black & yellow color scheme and recently while at Quilt Asylum I found some adorable "sewing theme" fabric called SEW by the Henley Studio. I knew she would love it because it's got PINK, her favorite color.

After much deliberation, we picked out a group of fabrics, ribbon and trim and went to work. After about an hour she was konked out on the day bed and I kept working until it was done. This is what we came up with! I think it turned out super cute. Sadly, I know she is going to outgrow this machine and we'll have to make another one to fit her next one!

Thanks for stopping by!

Adoption Day

We have a new member of the family, meet Oreo- our new dog. We adopted him from our SPCA center over Thanksgiving and Micaela is "over the moon" excited. Oreo is an early Christmas present from my parents. He's a daschund, my family's favorite breed! Thanks for stopping by!

Soccer Party

Our soccer season is over, we have our Saturday's back! We had a pizza party party to celebrate. Here's our sweets table... nothing really significant to write about except I wanted to share how I put the letters on the wall. I cut these out of felt sheets just like I did the ones on the blanket a few days ago. I 'temporary' adhered them to the wall using fabric basting spray. It was fast, easy and did not leave any residue on the wall. Thanks for stopping by!

Soccer Blanket

Our daughter plays soccer and during the last few games it was really chilly. I thought it would be fun to make an extra wide blanket in the team colors with the team name on it so when the girls sit on the sidelines they can keep warm.

I bought 3 yards of fleece 60 inches wide and trimmed it down to 45 inches. I took black felt I purchased by the yard and drew on letters freehand with chalk. I cut the letters out, used some temporary basting spray adhesive to place them on the blanket and then stitched around each letter. It was a little challenging manuevering all the fabric in the machine but I think it turned out cute and most of all the girls loved it! Go Team!

Orange B&B set

A customer requested an orange burp cloth and bib set for a friend. She specified orange, a non scripty font and a dragon fly. This is what I came up with.

I did not think it would turn out so cute. The dragonfly is redwork which is mimicks old fashioned embroidery, I really like the way it stitched out. Thanks for stopping by!

Meeting Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders

Everyone in my family is a die hard Dallas Cowboy fan! We are fortunate to have two Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders in the family, my cousins Ashton & Alyssa. Before the season started a couple of months ago, we got to go to Cowboy Stadium for a Friends & Family night. Micaela was beyond thrilled to see her cousins in the actual DCC uniform and visit the enormous stadium!

Ashton is a 3 year veteran and Alyssa is a rookie. Its crazy how these girls have grown up so fast, I vividly remember going to their parents wedding and when their Mom was pregnant expecting them! This side of the family is quite large and Alyssa & Ashton had a huge group of family and friends cheering them on for the event, Micaela was so proud to hold up a sign while we sat in the stands.

Micaela had fun dancing around the field after the event was over, she asked me to take a picture of her laying on the helmet. I think we have a future cheerleader in about 15 years!

Halloween Party

We had our second annual Halloween Party on Sunday! We celebrated Micaela's 6 1/2 birthday since we never got around to celebrating with friends during April. Here are a few of my favorite pictures!

The girls made a pumpkins out of old fence posts. When we replaced our gate recently, my husband thought I was crazy when I asked him to save the wood for craft projects. After much convincing, he saved a few pieces. These little pumpkins are made from the posts. Hubby cut the post into blocks, sanded them down, added a light coat of pumpkin orange paint and a little stump made out of a dowl. The girls cut faces out of felt and glued them on, it was cute and very inexpensive! Ahh, our sweets table. This is what happens when you forget to take a picture at the begining of the party before everyone arrives. Some of the letter candy dishes had already been refilled a couple of times by the time I remembered the camera. Nothing too elaborate here. I used fabric for the tablecloth, covered the drink bottles with Halloween scrapbook paper, did store bought cookies, cupcakes and a little 3 inch cake for Micaela. Most of all, I love our new letter candy dishes (I wish I could by several alphabet sets so I could spell out many words for every occassion).

The Pinata-- a total Mexican tradition! I found this cute pumpkin pinata at the party store and thought it would be fun to add an M monogram. I cut out the M with the Storybook cartridge on the Cricut, I think it turned out cute!

All in all it was a great party-- me and hubby were very tired but our little girl was happy and that is all that counts. Thanks for stopping by!

Santiago B & B

This is my first international order, this is headed to Mexico! This is not the greatest picture-- I forgot to take a picture at home and this was the best my soon to be replaced iPhone could do. Thanks for stopping by!

Autumn Backyard

Our lawn is looking a little better now that the temperatures have stopped being in the 100's for a few weeks. We are getting ready for our annual Halloween Party in a few days, here's a quick snapshot of our backyard.
Hope you are having a great autumn day!

Heather Witch

'Tis the season for witch stuff! I made this for a teacher friend for Halloween. She loves to decorate for holidays so I hope she likes this.