What Brightens My Day

Don't you just love getting cool stuff in the mail?  My mailbox contained a few goodies this week.  I found the cutest little wooden sewing acorn on Ebay.  I'd seen these before and always liked them, plus I love acorns, so I clicked the "buy it now" button and it was mine!  Since Mark is crafty with the wood lathe, I'm going to challenge him to make one of these!  And in the meantime, I'm going to enjoy using this sweet little acorn.

During the Grow Your Blog party, many bloggers were holding giveaways in connection with the event.  In an unheard of turn of events, I WON!  You see, I usually don't win anything.  But this time I was lucky enough to win this cute little corsage from Christine at The Alchymyst's Study!

You know how I love receiving handmade things.  I'm a big fan of craftiness, whether it's mine or someone else's.  And it's so pretty and springy.  Thank you Christine!

Speaking of giveaways, Meggie from Cross Stitch Cottage is having a very cool giveaway to celebrate reaching the 100-follower mark on her blog.  Check it out -- I'm sure that you'll agree that it's a very generous prize!

I'm making very good progress on my second stitched quilt square, even with the return of the dreaded trigger thumb.  Ugh.  Off to the doctor I went for another shot in the thumb, and was informed that this would be the last one.  Next time it will be surgery.  Nooooo!  But so far it seems to be doing better and it doesn't hamper my stitching much.

I found this little freebie butterfly chart online.  Cute, right?  No color key, so I had to choose the colors myself, sticking to the colors on the chart.  Or thereabouts.  I have a little more border to go, and then I'll move on to square #3.

More good news for my stitch group, Sisters In Stitches!  We have our retreat all planned and the location reserved.  I'll make sure that I let you know how it goes and take plenty of photos.  Also, we have a new location for our monthly Stitch Days!  Things seem to be going well for the Sisters In Stitches!

Mark and I went to Cracker Barrel for breakfast today and out of the corner of my eye, I spotted something I never thought I'd see again!  A blast from the past!  A treat from childhood!  Bonomo Turkish Taffy!  I didn't know they made this stuff anymore.  I remember getting it from the store, walking out, and then slamming it on the ground.  This would crack it up into a lot of little pieces, thus preventing us from biting right into the bar and possibly incurring tremendous dental bills.  I haven't tried it yet, and am hoping it's just as delicious as I remember.  Yes, I know that the picture is sideways.  It's the right way in my photo album, so I think it's a Blogger thing.

One more thing:  I want to say "Welcome" to all of my new followers.  It's always a pleasure to see my follower number tick up little by little.  And I love hearing comments from all of my followers.  OK, now I'm off to enjoy the coffee treat (complete with froth) that Mark has made for me.

The Need To Bead

While looking through my vast collection of beads one day, I figured that I should actually make something with my beads rather than leaving them to sparkle in their little compartments.  Remembering that I had once enjoyed crafting a beaded rope bracelet, I also knew that I'd need a little refresher course on how exactly to do it.  That's where YouTube came in.  You can find all sorts of crafty instructions there and I did locate quite a few on how to do the beaded rope stitch, or spiral rope.  I finally settled on one that explained it clearly and went to work. 

I used 6/0 seed beads in brown and blue for my project.  After watching the video for a few minutes, I found that I easily remembered the spiral rope.  And here's what I came up with.

The beads I used were not very uniform in size, so I didn't get the even result that I was looking for.  But all in all, I think it turned out pretty good.  I'd like to try this with smaller seed beads, or maybe even Delicas for a less chunky look.  I used a different video to learn how to attach the clasp.  If  you're looking for a fun project, this one is easy and quick.  You can put one of these together in less than an hour.  Really.

 I also indulged in some baking craftiness, spurred on by some very ripe, spotted bananas sitting on my counter.  And the result was some delicious banana bread.  Apparently one of the cats thought it smelled just delicious and couldn't resist.  He (I'm looking at you, Ozzy) chewed through the foil I had covering it and attacked a good portion of the top of the loaf.  He must have liked it a lot.  Note to self:  never leave any food item out where a cat can get to it.  And that includes the top of the refrigerator.

Here in Georgia, we are having pretty good weather compared with some other parts of our country.  It is a little cold at times and the cats are always seeking out heat sources, like the heat registers or spots of sunshine.  And sometimes it's all peace and harmony when they cuddle together.

Cosmo & Moxie putting aside their differences.

And where's Ozzy, you ask?  Oh, probably off in search of something to eat.

Under The Weather Stitching? - Blog Hop #15

Yay, the Blog Hop is back!  The question for Hop #15 is so timely, since it's "cold and flu season".

Eventually there comes a time when you’re not feeling well, whether it’s the flu or a cold or something else entirely. The question is, do you manage any stitching when you’re under the weather or does it just have to wait for better days?

That sound you're hearing?  It's me knocking on wood.  Repeatedly.  That's because I haven't been sick very much lately.  I had a nasty cold in October, but that was the first one I had in about 3 years.  And I used to be a two-sinus infections-a-year kind of gal.  Happily not anymore, but who knows why.  But when I am sick, I find it really difficult to stitch or even to read because the cold or whatever is usually accompanied by sinus pain or a headache.  On the positive side, I can always tell that I'm getting better by wanting to stitch!  So, knock on wood, I won't have to deal with this issue any time soon.  And I hope that all of you have an illness-free winter!

Visit all the blogs in this round of the Stitching the Night Away Stitching Blogger Blog Hop:
Find the instructions on how to participate in this round by clicking here. 



 

Grow Your Blog Drawing Winner!

I'm happy to announce that the winner of my Grow Your Blog Drawing is:

Sandra from Thistle Cove Farm!

I've already e-mailed Sandra, and the bracelet will make its way to her as soon as I hear from her.  Congratulations, Sandra!  And thank you to everyone who participated and commented.  

A Bluebird Finish

A lot of stitching time this past weekend allowed me to finish my latest project.  This is LHN's "Singing The Blues and it's going to go into a very special quilt for the "Xstitch For Those Impacted By The Sandy Hook Elementary School Shooting" group on Facebook.  I've linked it for those of you who are interested in this project.  So if you're on Facebook and think that you might like to help with this, just click on the link.

Oh, that's kind of a shadowy photo, isn't it?  Sorry about that.

I've started on my second quilt square, a little butterfly freebie chart I got off the internet.  There are many, many cute freebies online, and I looked closely to make sure that they were legitimately free.  It was also a challenge to find suitable charts for this project.  Suitable in terms of appropriateness and size limitation.  But I think that hearts, birds, butterflies, little animals and flowers would work just fine.  As for my finish, I'm glad I took the time to sit and stitch this weekend.  I feel a little sense of accomplishment.

I want to welcome all of my new followers!  And I'd also like to remind you that there is still time to enter the drawing for the bracelet I'm giving away as part of the Grow Your Blog party.  All you have to do is leave a comment on my Grow Your Blog post by Thursday, January 31.  I'll announce the winner on Friday, February 1st, and will contact the winner at that time.  Make sure I have a way to contact you!

A Finish And A Snack

It's been fun participating in the Grow Your Blog party, organized by Vicki at 2 Bags Full.  As far as I'm concerned, it's still going on because there was no way I could go to all of the listed blogs in just one weekend!  So it's going to be an ongoing process for me.  I'm doing a giveaway drawing on February 1st in connection with this event.  You can still sign up for the drawing by commenting on my Grow Your Blog post. You don't have to be a follower, but I will need a way to contact you if you win. 

Welcome to my new followers!  I appreciate each and every follower that I have and I welcome all comments.  Especially the nice ones.  I've also found a bunch of new blogs to follow myself, and you can see my list if you look on the right of the screen and scroll down.  Looks like I've found something new to collect, right?

Yesterday Mark said that he wanted to watch the big playoff game between the Atlanta Falcons and some other team.  So I made a delicious snack to munch on while the game was going on.

I found this spicy cracker recipe on Pinterest and then saw variations of it in other places.  Sometimes they were called Firecrackers.  This is the version I used:

Firecrackers

1-1/2 boxes of Premium Mini Crackers

1 Package of Hidden Valley Ranch Dressing Mix

2 Tablespoons Red Pepper Flakes

1 Cup Canola Oil

Preheat oven to 250 degrees. Mix oil, red pepper flakes, and ranch dressing mix in a big bowl.  Add crackers and stir around until the crackers are well coated.  Let stand for about 5-10 minutes.  Stir around one more time and then spread crackers on a large cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes.  Stir around on cookie sheet and bake for 5 more minutes.  

You can also use regular sized crackers for this, and I've seen where someone mentioned using Cheez-Its.  Mmmmm.  You can also adjust the heat by using more or less pepper flakes.  So go and make some.  And then make some more in two weeks for your Super Bowl (which the Falcons will not be playing in) party.  

In all the busyness of the last couple of weeks, I forgot to show you a stitching finish!  Yes, I actually finish stuff once in a while.

Here's Holiest of Nights, all ready to be framed for next Christmas.  See how organized I am?  I already have a Christmas finish for next Christmas!  And those of you who know how long I've been working on this are probably smirking right now. 

I'm also working on LHN's Singing The Blues for the Facebook group I'm working with. 

As you can see, I've got a long way to go.  So I think this afternoon will be dedicated to working on this.  I'm using DMC variegated threads for this.  I hope to make at least two other squares for this very special project.  You can find information on this group here.

Grow Your Blog - Welcome!

Welcome to CraftyCat!  In this post I'm taking part in the Grow Your Blog party organized by Vicki at 2 Bags Full.  I started this blog several years ago to showcase my crafting endeavors, and I think I've accomplished that.  If you look through past posts, you'll see that I've covered all sorts of craftiness -- jewelry making, sewing, crocheting, beading, scrapbooking, framing, holiday stuff and decorating.  There are even some baked goods in there somewhere.  And cats.  Yes, I know that cats don't constitute a crafting adventure, but there they are anyway.  I love all of this stuff, but my favorite hobby is cross stitch.  Stitching supplies take up a lot of space in the craftroom, and I always have at least one (ahem, ok, more than one) project going.

Blogging has also allowed me to become a part of a community where I have learned new things, craft-oriented or not.  Plus I have some wonderful followers who offer all kinds of encouraging comments.  My hope is that my followers and all readers of my blog can learn something from me, and just have fun when visiting.  I can be snarky and goofy, and I can also be sappy and sentimental.  My aim is to make my sense of humor evident in my writing to keep things interesting.  So even if someone isn't a crafter, they still might find something here that they'll enjoy.

In honor of the Grow Your Blog party, I've decided to have a little giveaway.  I used my jewelry-making skills to create this beaded bracelet to be given away in a drawing.

If you want to enter the drawing for this bracelet, just leave a comment on this post.  That's it.  Oh, and you'll probably want to give me an e-mail address so that I can contact you if you win.  You don't have to be a follower to enter.  The drawing will take place on February 1, 2013.  Good luck!

Thanks for stopping by!  Become a follower of CraftyCat, or just check in once in a while.  Either way, I hope you'll find this a fun place to visit.