Bags and bags...

I love bags, big one, little ones, any shape ones!!! I think I can safely say that Kins and I are bag crazy. I have always teased Kins about her bag patterns (the girl has a ton of them!!! and she lets me borrow them, YEAH KINS!!! my weakness is Christmas fabric or scrapbook products, I have a ton of those)

I have always been alittle afraid of bags, they have those square bottoms and so many of them have Z-I-P-P-E-R-S, Ugggggg those really scare me. Well I have faced that fear and you know what it ain't such a big boogie boo as I thought! I can do it!!! I have made five bags in the last three months. I have made a duffel bag (didn't take a picture of it but it is black/brown/gold and big and has a zipper), it was the practice bag to get ready for MIL D's bag. Then I made this little tote bag with prairie points (they intimidate some people, I didn't know enough to be intimidated!!) Then I made MIL D's bag, I have teased it before but it was for her birthday and it came together really nicely. It had a zipper and a square bottom, two things I was not sure how to do.

I liked how it came together so well, that I ripped apart my kids jeans (they had out grown them) and made this little number. It came together so well and so quick. I made it very simple, no zipper!!!

It will be going into our Etsy shop when we get it set up. My little girl K liked it so much she asked me to make her one like the jean one but with the zipper top with Grandmas.

I then tackled a purse/bag/clutch, that was fun. It was also a challenge because of how tight the corners were and some of the materials used. I have been carrying it every since and have gotten so many compliments on it! It is a keeper!! (see picture above)

Kins has made this bright softball bag with grommets that is so cool!! It is really big and bright, here is a sneak at it.

I have a new one on my table now, I am creating K's bag now with this fun furry trim and have started sewing it. That fun furry trim is slippery, makes for some fun sewing. So check back later in the week and see how K's bag turns out!!!

OH YEAH!!!! HAPPY BIRTHDAY MIL D!!!!!! Hope you are having a wonderful time in VA!! Here is your bag!! (she said I could show her a picture of it since she won't get the bag till mid May) Hope you like it, have fun and see ya in a couple weeks!!! Love you so much and thank you so much for being such a wonderful MIL.

Thanks for stopping by our table and C you later, Lala

Too Scared to Try?

What are you too scared to try? Have you every been too to intimidated to try something new? I think sometimes we let things or people intimidates us into not trying something new. I know that I have been in that position, MANY times.

I let it stop me from quilting for many years. I had a Block of the Month (BOM) that I had purchased that I kept putting off starting for a longest time. I would pull it out, do a block, not live up to my expectations, put it back in the trunk. It would live there for a while, then it would come out again, another block, back in the trunk it would go!! I would look on with envy when I would go to the quilt shows, or when I would come across a blog with beautiful quilts on it. I never noticed the mismatched points or the flaws, NEVER saw them, just saw the beautiful finished product and wished I could do it that too.

I would do the same thing when I would decorate cakes. I would have to force myself to step away from the cake before I screwed them up. And in the end, no one saw the flaws that I saw when I looked at those cakes.

I have found that YOU have to be BRAVE and STEP OUT of yourself and JUST DO IT!!!! (now where did that come from?) not be a scary cat as my great niece would say. I did just that last summer and created my first quilt. Now my mom will tell you, I had to re-cut some blocks because I cut them wrong, I ripped more seams then I sewed in some sessions but it got done. The blocks don't all line up, but who cares? I don't, it looks beautiful on our bed. I have since gone on too make another one for my son ( I can find the mistakes, but he has no clue) and I have finished that BOM and it is just waiting to be quilted. MY seam ripper is my friend, sometimes I have a better relationship with it than I do with my sewing machine. I know that on every sewing project I have done so far there has been at least one seam that has had to be ripped out. Those few flaws are what makes them unique. When I do paper crafting, Undo is my favorite product. There are going to be mistakes, what you learn from those mistakes is what makes you grow as a person, creatively that is good.

As Kins and I have started this journey we knew we would have to face challenges and things we have never done before. For me that is intimidating. We have learned alot, how to set bindings, how to bead, what works and what doesn't. We have challenged each other and supported each other in taking that step outside of our comfort zone. I have found a great cheerleader in Kins and I am gratefully for her. I only hope she feels that same way. She has challenged me (don't know if she knows that) to step outside my comfort zone and try new things. Things that I have always thought would be hard, I am find out are really not. Things she has never done (setting grommets) she is trying. (had such fun pounding those things in) I hope that we keep finding things to challenge us. What are you wanting to try? Step up and try!! Chances are you will learn something and have fun doing it too!!! I think I may just try that art quilt yet, maybe ;)

So what new and challenging thing is on your table this week? See you later, Lala

Busy table and week....

Ok, so by now you know that We are not going to be an everyday poster. We are just getting started and having to balance working, with mommy things, wife things, house things, and life things in general, so blogging is not going to happen every day. I'm hoping for maybe three times a week.

Last week was good, busy good! Kins and I had some time to work on some things we got in the plans for the Etsy shop. We worked with some beads to come up with some test pieces. We planning on bookmarks, came up with some good layouts for the beads, figured out some issues with length, how to finish them off. All in all it was a good crafting day spent with a good friend.

I finished my dear MIL's bag! WHOOO HOOOO, it is done and in time for her birthday at that, which is amazing if you know me at all!! (I am almost always late with birthday cards and gifts) I have to admit, I had an idea in my head of the fabric I wanted to use and could not find exactly what I wanted. She really didn't care, other than she wanted blue to match some existing stuff, it had to have a closure to keep the weather out and be big enough to be used as a briefcase type bag. I found some fabrics, I liked them, but didn't love them. I knew that MIL would love them, but I just wasn't feeling it. So it took awhile to work up the layout, then I had to work up the courage to cut the fabric! OH My, that is one of the hardest things for me, because I'm never really sure of myself, Yikes what if I screw up. I know measure twice, cut once!! But still I knew if I messed up the fat quarters I had that I would have to stop and redesign the bag layout. So I cut, quilted, started feeling the groove, started liking the fabric. The pattern is great, makes putting in zippers really easy. The bag went together really quick once I got going. After I got it all done,

I love the bag! I don't know MIL D you may have to get another one, I like this one too much now. I'm not posting the whole bag because after all it is a birthday gift, just a sneak peak.

After that I was on a roll, I put together this little (NOT) clutch/handbag from a Amy Butler pattern (http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/main.php?fl=0), it went together in a day!!! I was amazed how easy it was once I got started, I kept thinking while I was pre-reading the directions, this is going to take forever!!! But it didn't, it was really quick. I started cutting it out at 10 am, stop for a phone call (30 min), stop for lunch (30 min), then stop to get ready for work at 3 pm and all I had left to do was put the strap on!!! Go Figure, I must be getting better at something, or it was so simply anyone can do it. I love the fabric, so springy/summery!! I would change a few things, like adding pockets to the inside, making it a little stiffer or something (it slumps in the middle now that it is filled) BUT it is so darn cute!!!I got the fabric at Joann's. I am in no way a fabric snob, I use anything and I happen to thing that Jo-Ann's fabric is nice (not Moda nice but nice) plus it is affordable. Price some Amy Butler fabric and you will know what I mean. Well it is done and it is HOT (as my friend C says).

Well what else got done this week besides the boring stuff in the house and home like mowing the yard, which you should not have to do the first week of APRIL!!! W hung my window, I so love it there!!! Got a blank canvas to start work on another wall hanging, this time going to try mixed media see how that goes. Ripped apart my kids old jeans, thinking that they would make a lovely tote bag. Even kept some of the holes intact thinking that I'll put fabric behind them. Have to wait and see about that one till next week, it is on the table for tomorrow!!!

My DD K wanted to make some button earrings (my MIL (notice I left off the wonderful this time ;) gave her a bunch of buttons and a book for Christmas this year, do you know how many buttons I have picked up off the floor, well the good side is she has stopped raiding my stash in my craft area) So we sat tonight and did those, took about 1/2 hour and she got some cute earrings to boot. Showed her how to crimp beads on and how to string them. Now she has grand plans to make them for her cousins for their birthday present (wonder where she gets making grand plans from, surely not me!!)

So that is what wound up being on my creative table this last week. I did miss writing about my week as it happen so hopefully I'll get another post out this week after I work on that wall canvas and the jean tote. Until then, happy crafting, gardening or whatever floats your creative spirit!!

Lala

Out and about...

So yesterday Kinsasa and I were out and about town at a couple different shops. I had very good intentions and put the camera in my bag. Well I was so excited to go to this new to me shop, that I forgot to take any pictures. Its that wonderful memory that I have, NOT!!! I was so disappointed that I forgot.

Well here is the scoop on the shop we went to, Chester County Quilting, here is the link http://www.chestercountyquilting.com/. It is a totally wonderful shop!!! While we were there Kins got some help finishing off her binding, the lady working (again that memory, I forgot to get her name) helped her out and made it so simple. She has the steps on the website to show how to finish off the binding in a totally easy way that hides the end and eliminate the bulk (http://www.chestercountyquilting.com/FAQsReviewsFiles/Binding.html. It was so easy once she showed us. So NICE and helpful!! They also have the best selection of Moda fabric charms packs around. There was a whole deep window area with rows and rows of them. I LOVE me some Moda charms!!! I did come home with one, only one. It was so hard choosing, I'd pick up one and carry it around awhile, put it back, pick up another, well you get the picture. It was very hard deciding which one to give a new home. I picked up some blue fabric to use for the handles on my MIL birthday present (which is what is on my table for today) So sorry that I forgot to take pictures, I'll try to do better next time, promise!! Over all Chester Co. is a wonderful little shop and a delightful place to go, check it out if you are ever in the area.

After lunch and brief stop at Wally World (Wal-Mart) I convinced Kins that we had enough time to stop at new little shop here in our hometown called "Remnantz"!! Wonderful shop!! Oh yeah I remembered to take pictures!! Go Me!!! The girls (Laurie and Cristine) and "Bruno" are wonderful!! They are just starting out, been opened about two months or so and are still building up their following and stock. They are on Facebook, http://www.facebook.com/pages/Douglassville-PA/Remnantz/275993534237 . They also have an etsy shop for those of you that are not local, http://www.etsy.com/people/Remnantz.

They are so nice there, they have a wonderful selection of yarns. Now one thing I am not is a knitter nor can I crochet. It is something I have always envy in other people. I have tried, T can tell you she tried to teach me, but I just can't make my hands and mind work that way. My mother and Grandmother crocheted beautiful blankets, sweaters, and afghans, they are some of my treasures. But I just can't do it, but if I was a one I would be at this store fondling the yarns and going home with a bag full. Now I did fondle the yarn while I was there, the camel yarn was so soft. (BTW that Kins in the picture, see all the lovely yarn behind her) They also have a wonderful selection of Amy Butler fabrics. Some of that yardage went home with me to be made into some lovely bags.

They girls are so sweet there, they also have buttons and some vintage fabrics also. Laurie and Cristine are really, really nice and the shop is a wonderful asset to our community. I hope you girls are around for a long time. Thanks for letting me talk about you and share your shop here. So if you are in the area, go by and give Bruno a tickle under his chin, fondle some yarn, and take home some for your creative table. Have a wonderful day and I'm off to my table to do a little sewing today along with a little of that thing that called housework. See ya.

This is Bruno, isn't he adorable!!

A bit about Creative Table....

Now that I got that first post out of the way, the butterflies have settled and told you bit about me, let me tell you about Creative Table. Creative Table is a collaboration with a friend, Kinsasa, that gives us a creative outlet. We both are quilters (I always smile when I say that, it is impossible not to smile when you say that you are a quilter and I finally feel like I can say that in all honesty)and crafters. We complement each other very nicely I think. Once we get this all figured out, she will come on and post with me. So we will have what is on each of our creative tables. We have all kinds of grand plans for this blog and for other adventures, so sit down, have a cup and hang out with Kinsasa and Lala and get creative.

Tomorrow Kinsasa and I are going to a local Quilt Shop, so who knows what might come home with us. I'll take my camera and let ya see if I can.

Looking in my window....

This little bit of craftiness has been sitting behind my hutch for almost a year. I got it at my local scrapbook store (LSS) with plans to create it soon there after. Well it got tucked away, then it got put on the "list". The "list" is my project list, it is were I list out projects that I either want to accomplish and have the stuff acquired to complete. I am embarrassed how long some things have been on the list. One of my goals this year was to complete the "list" before I add more to the "list". I have done well, I have marked off a few things and yesterday I got to mark this one off. BUT that is not to say that things haven't been added to the "list" this year!

Well what is it you ask, its not a layout, but something to hang on the wall. I have my family's' pictures all over our house, I have my extended family's pictures all over our house and I have my husbands family's picture all over the house. What I do not have is my kids school pictures up ANY where in our house, not one year! Every year I say that I am going to get frames and put them up and every year it does not happen. So this is my solution, I put them in this...

I am in love with it!!! (is that bad to say about ones own work?) I got this old window frame at the LSS and re-worked it. I had to take the glass out and sand it all down. YEAH POWER TOOLS!!!! I love my little mouse palm sander, it is so fun to use. I also used the drimmel to get in those tight spots. I was scared that I was going to break the glass panes, I did end up breaking the corner on one but no one knows where it is but me. This is what it looked like after the sanding...

I forgot to take a picture of the real before. Then it went downstairs where the fun began. I got out the paints and as my dad would say "went to town". Coated it with a beigey/tan color and then swiped over with some dark blue. I had gotten the papers on clearance (love that word, clearance, especially in a scrapbook section!) , the words came out of the $1 bin at Michael's. The big D I cut on my handy, dandy Cricuit. Now that is a wonderful machine!! Inked up everything. I think that is one of my favorite tools, ink. Spritzed on some Glimmer Mist(my carpet will never be the same, oops)

Now the flowers have history, well at least the big ones. They came from my wedding bouquet. My wedding was wonderful, but the flowers were not all that I had envisioned them to be. But these hydrangeas and roses were wonderful. I don't think I have every seen such pretty silk roses. So at Christmas when we opened this random box out of our attic from our move up here from GA 14 years ago, I was trilled to find my bouquet, but the greenery was all breaking up, the lily's were not so great, so what to do with it. At our house in GA I had it as a swag over a doorway, but that did not fit the house here, so hence it never got unpacked. Everything else in that random box got throw out BTW. These flowers have sit around until I had a light bulb moment about three weeks ago that they would fit the colors I was planning for my window. I love it when things fit together like that.

So now I have a taped, glued, spritzed, inked, and marked it off my list. I have my kids school pictures up and I can change them out each year easily (no more have to go get a frame excuse) and my wall gets an update!! Woo HOO what a feeling of completion and now it is on W to do list to get hung up in the living room. I post a picture of it when it is up. Until then, thanks for stopping my our creative table. See ya later!!

The 1st Post.....

ITS MY FIRST POST EVER!!!! Sorry for the shouting but I'm excited! I have wanted to try this for the longest time, now I am taking the plunge. It is bound to be an adventure, who's with me?

I'm LaLa, I am a wife to W, mom to son C age 11 and daughter K age 9. Some days I'm not sure if I will make it their adulthood but this time is fleeting, so smile, nod and breath, right? I am a crafter, there I have said it. Hello my name is LaLa and I am a crafter. I have always been a crafter, I grew up with a crafter (we went through silk flower making, ceramics, tole painting, quilling, a few others that I can't remember and there was always sewing/quilting) and I love it. I am lucky to have a husband that supports me and my hobbies (and there have been a few of them). I even made the center pieces for our wedding reception (I have a picture of the blister to prove it, love that glue gun!!)

I love to play with cake decorating, scrapbook/paper crafting, quilting (I do not sew clothes, could never get the sizing right, that was one session of home economics that I do not want to remember), and I have started to dabble in beading. I would also love to get into mix media art, I still find that alittle intimidating.

I have scrapbooked for the last 11 years. I do it to so that my family has more than just memories, so they have something that they can look at and relive those memories, so that I can have a creative outlet and its plain FUN. This is a canvas that I created for MIL (who does not fit the typical MIL role, I absolutely love that woman). It shows my husband, W, and my son, C, at the same age in their hockey uniforms, I also did one that showed my BIL and my nephew. There is so much you can do, say, express with scrapbooking. It is a wonderful outlet.

I have decorated cakes since college (not very well then, learned alot since then). Really got into that after our son was born, that first Winnie the Pooh cake with the pink shirt still makes me smile. (I'll have to see if I can hunt up that picture, maybe ;) I just did this one last weekend for a friend daughter, it turned out quite well, it really shimmered in the sunlight, that never comes through on the pictures.

I have been quilting for good for the last year. Before that I was a wannabe quilter, I had a block of the month (BOM) that I had started over 5 years ago. I would do a block, get upset because all my points weren't just right (of course the they had to be just right, never mind that I was a newbie) and back in the trunk it would go. (that is the martha coming out in me, it also comes out when I am decorating cakes also and I have to walk away before I screw them up) Finishing a quilt was on my "things I want to do in my lifetime" list (I was told it was morbid to call it "my before I die list", go figure). So last summer I got off my butt and asked my mom, she is a fabulous quilter, to help me do a quilt top while I was home (I'm from KY originally, now in PA) and we did it. So then I came home and finished my BOM quilt top. Since them I have one for C, done several runners, and a couple wall hangings. This is one of my wall hangings that I made for Christmas. It is quite the addiction. I love to go to the fabric store and look at all the eye candy. It just crys to come home with me so I have to give some a new home, right?

So those are just some examples of the types of things you will find on my creative table. I look forward to this adventure. Sorry about the pictures, I did not prepare or correct these pictures. I wanted to get this first post out there before I lost my nerve. I know that this got to be quite the book but I hope you come hang with me at my creative table. See ya!!

P.S. I'm very new to this blogging thing (I read alot of them) so bear with me while I figure this out, thanks. lala

P.S.S. Stop by tomorrow to see what I have been up too at my table, here is a sneak peak of my table and hands during the process. Gotta love it when the hands get inky!!!