New Camera thanks to Black Friday deals, woo hoo!

Thanks to a great Black Friday deal at Best Buy which only required us to stand in the rain at 5am for about 20 min... we have a new camera! Its the Canon Powershot SX130. It is larger than some compact cameras but it has an awesome zoom function and takes great pictures so far so I am super happy with it!

 Soooo happy to have a new camera for documenting all of my crafting projects. Also glad to have one that seems to do well without flash, in lowlight settings, and has a faster shutter speed than 1 picture per minute which our last one was averaging before it died haha.

Ofcourse the easiest victim for trying out a new camera is the family dog... so here are some shots of Winston`s photo shoot. I think he is a natural model :)

Thanksgiving coasters and a full belly :)

My mom recently furnished her finished basement and decided we needed some mug rugs down there. I immediately started creating these super cute coasters for her with the hopes of getting them completed by Thanksgiving. Unfortunately I was still hand sewing the binding on 2 during Thanksgiving and the other 2 the day after but hey, its the thought that counts right? Heading back over to spend the day with her and my dad tomorrow and will deliver the rest of the set to its new home. Yay for holidays, family, and a little crafting time in between stuffing my face full of yummy goodness :)

A mug rug and some holiday cheer!

I admit it, I have given into the mug rug craze that has been rampant in blogger-land lately. They are just so cute and only took me about 2 hours to create, sew, quilt and bind! The problem is, the cuteness keeps it from being functional! Seriously... could you put your hot choc mug and cookies on this and not feel bad about the stains? I know I cant! I figure the best thing to do is gift it... that way it will go to a good home, can be useful, and I wont have to see the stains!

 Also had some time to work on the Christmas pillows I planned earlier this year using Modas Crazy 8 line of Turnovers (pre-cut triangles).

1 pack will make about 2.5 of these pillows so I purchased 2 and am making matching pillow sets for myself and my mom. Mine is pictured here... a bit crazy with the colors but I love it. My mom will be receiving a more traditional looking set. This one is ready to go, just need to get some backing fabric, attach it, and stuff the pillow into it. Sad that the pretty quilting from the back wont be shown but at least it worked out super cute on the front too.

Yay for my first Christmas project... 10 million more to go!

Almost there...

 I finally have been able to spend some time working on my soiree blanket mentioned a few posts below. After A LOT of sewing and cutting of 3 honey buns (120 1.5x45 inch strips to be exact!) I finally have gotten to this point. All of the rows are sewn, just need to sew them all together and voila, the top is finished! Will have to find some backing fabric soon and get this beauty quilted, bound, and ready for snuggling! This will be the first quilt I am making for myself and I am super excited to snuggle it upon completion :)

I always use my bed as a place to layout my blankets but it is frustrating going down the hall to get more squares when I am sewing in the dining room. So after a stroke of genius this afternoon, I sew up a litle sewing area in my bedroom. Yes, that is a bookshelf, emptied of all its contents hurriedly into a bucket haha. Im sure I will have to deal with that mess later but for now I will enjoy my little sewing area and get back to work!

Monster attack!

Thanks to my good friend Gina loaning me her camera, I can finally get a few new posts up, yay!

Something I have been dying to show you all is my "ugly doll". I made this a few months ago by tracing around the black "secret mission ice bat" ugly doll I had purchased earlier in the year. Out of some blue velvet scraps I had I made this cute little guy. Totally cracked me up later to realize that he perfectly matched my favorite Shark from Ikea :)

In October on the way to Indiana we stopped to see my good friend Carla and she suprised us with 2 fun ugly dolls to add to my collection. The green one was for Lukas but we all knew it would become mine as soon as we got home :)

These cute little guys have inspired me to make a whole crazy line of monsters, to be designed and created after the holidays. Stay tuned for more monster madness!

***UPDATE: Just as an FYI so no one thinks Im a big poser, the only monster I made is the open mouthed little blue guy in the front. The other 3 are actual "Ugly Dolls" bought from a store. And YES I did trace one of the ugly dolls for my pattern :)

Waiting impatiently for Black Friday...

I have a lot of fun new projects I have finished and/or am working on lately but unfortunately our camera died! The good news is, Black Friday is coming up quick so hopefully we will be able to find a good deal between now and then and I can share all my fun new creations with my bloggy friends (if anyone is out there reading this? haha)

Until then please hang in there and dont forget about this crafty little fox :)