Welcome to the zoo!

Guess who got finished tonight? (OK, it was really around 2 a.m., but close enough!)



I haven't picked out a name yet. Truthfully, I'm not even sure if this little elephant is a boy or a girl. You would think I would know, after I spent all that time stitching its hindquarters.

I think my favorite names thus far are Horatio and Violet. Any other ideas?

Anyway, now the elephant and I are headed to bed. I'll try to post more about the pattern, the materials I picked out and why this was a lot more time-consuming than I thought it would be.

A sneak peak

Just a little sneak peak of what I've been working on this week ...



I cannot wait until this is finished. I just stupidly drank a diet Mountain Dew, so there's a chance I get it done tonight!

Backblogged. And Ugh.

I've been sick this week. And not my normal kind of nerve pain sick, but more of the sipping water and Sprite and trying not to throw up before I make it to the bathroom kind of sick. It's been awful. I'm not sure what caused it - either a virus or food poisoning - but I'm annoyed that shortly before the vomiting commenced, I was eating pizza that I had ordered in. So trying not to tempt fate, there goes a big waste of money. No way in hell am I eating any more of it.

Anyway, I've been home sick. Tuesday was awful. Between bouts of sickness I slept all day, not even having the urge to get online (you can tell I'm feeling miserable when that happens). Today I've been slightly better and have been able to keep liquids down. I just ate my first solid food - a bagel - so I'm hoping I don't get sick again tonight. Today has been filled with lots more sleeping, and I still feel so exhausted. It's been sucky.

One of the bad aspects of being sick is my lack of energy and brain power to work on any projects. Here's a look at something I made earlier this month as a birthday present for my friend, Natalie. It was a lot of fun to put together. It is made out of felt, stuffing, a button shaped like a flower, and embroidery floss.



Ugh. I don't think the bagel was a good idea. My stomach is hurting again. :(

Can't wait for the wrinkles

No, not the face kind of wrinkles, the soft wrinkly goodness that comes after sending a just-finished quilt through the washing machine and dryer! It's past 11 now and I just put it in the dryer, so I won't get to see the final product until tomorrow. It's like unwrapping a present. You don't really know what it's going to look like.

I love watching the transformation projects go through, from the pile of fabrics to a soft quilt in the end. It really makes a bit difference even from just quilt top to quilt.

Other than getting the label sewn on the latest project and getting it laundered, I haven't been very productive tonight. The pain in my feet has been bad tonight, but I am trying not to take too much pain medicine. I feel like I am running low this month and I don't want to run out. The pain makes me crazy. And crabby as hell.

Jimmy John's had subs for $1 today during lunch time! I was super psyched, since I am a sucker for any kind of bargain. Not all the sandwiches were that much though, so I branched out from my normal turkey club and got a veggie sandwich. It was so good! It had provolone cheese, avocado, tomato, lettuce, sprouts and cucumber. I definitely plan to order it again.

After that exciting bit of lunch news, here's my latest acquisition that I am thrilled about:



Glitter! I love glitter so much. Mom used to always make us go out in the garage to use glitter when we were working on craft projects because she didn't random bits of glitter all over the house. Me? Not so much. I like glitter in just about situation. When I was a kid, I used to dream about getting a car that was painted with glitter paint, like the kind that is used on speedboats. Wouldn't that be awesome? Hell, my wheelchair du jour has a fuchsia glitter seat back. I love it. It's about as cool as a wheelchair could be, in my opinion. Unless I could get a Snoopy or Hello Kitty themed one, I guess. :D

I'll have quilt photos to post soon. Yay!

Crafting updates

My quest to have a mostly homemade Christmas continues. I can't believe I only have one week left though! Oh, the stress and angst of it all. :)

Just kidding, I am doing the best I can, and at this point am making things that I hadn't especially planned to, or the things in my head are either easy or stuff I just need to assemble. I just hope I can find all my supplies at home! And yay, I just heard from the short bus that they can take me to Joann's tomorrow after work so I can get a few last minute things for a couple projects I thought of in the last few days.

I'm very excited about most of my projects. I hope all the recipients like them as well!

One of my projects was for a friend of mine at work. Last year, I made a Christmas stocking for a friend of mine that -- I thought -- really needed one! I personalized it with an orange kitty to match her cat, Julius. Here's that one:





My other friend asked me to make her a couple of stockings for her pets, Jersey and Cleopatra. I was going to make her something different as a gift, but this idea was even better, since I knew she'd like it! I saw photos of her pets on Facebook and modeled the stockings after them.

I couldn't find any plain stockings when I went to Hobby Lobby this past time (well, except for like 3-inch ones and 30-inch ones). I did find some small fleece sheets there though in the felt section. They were softer and thicker than the felt, and were cheap too, only like 33 cents a sheet. What a bargain! I already had a bunch of felt, beads and embroidery thread at home, so I was all set.

Here is the one of Jersey, who is a tan and white hound-esque dog:

In the early stages



Done, bottom half



Full stocking



I made a little dangling bone to make the top more interesting



And Cleopatra. She was harder to make because she is calico and I was worried that her face wouldn't show up enough.



And for the top of the kitty one. I had the mouse body and tail put together, complete with eyes, but for some reason it didn't look right. Seriously, it took me forever to realize that the mouse ears were missing ... duh!



These weren't terribly hard to make. Probably the hardest part was getting the calico patterns close to being right, drawing the shape of the stocking (this was more complicated than I thought!) and hand sewing the fleece. It was harder to get the needle through that than the felt.

I gave them to my friend today, so yay, I was happy that she liked them. Off to another project now! :)