Painted Lady Embroidery

Hi Gang! Wanted to share my newest embroidery project with you! Again I used Angelique Houtkamp's linedrawing book, because I just love her! Here's the one I made a few weeks ago!

The water colors get tricky because they bleed so much on the fabric. Her eyes look a bit wonkie to me haha! practice makes perfect right?! Gotta keep practicing! ;) Below is the piece in the different stages! I embroidered her entire turban, took a while but I think it turned out nice!

The lower left square shows the back on the piece - I LOVE the back any embroidery for some reason! :) And below is a new one I've started! I just love her eyes!

I'm stoked to be embroidering again! What have you been working on!? 

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because I had to

It's always Wizard Week in my heart! ;)

My bud showed me how to make these Undesirable No.1 Posters today and they crack me up! Remember in Deathly Hallows when Harry is Undesirable No.1, now you can make your own posters here! So I picked the two most desirable little ones I know and made posters for them! Tada! Partners in Crime - Mickey & Eli! Bahaha I'm planning a Potter birthday for a friend of mine, so I'm obviously making this their birthday card! Have fun with it! 

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Awesome Wedding Invitations

I had to share Lauren from Active for Fashion's super cute and clever wedding invitations! She and her sweetie Dave are getting married on 9.10.11 - cute! She emailed me telling me she got the idea from Eli's Secret Agent Tunes CD. I was so stoked about the idea and told her we, meaning Sonic Print, could definitely print them for her! We have a machine that can print short runs so it was perfect! 

 Now as cool as the CD look is, the design and photos are even cooler!! Look at how cute  they are!! AND she had a Kozue handmade stamp of her and Dave made! I love it! Have you ever seen anything so cute!?!

She did such an awesome job! I bet they made everyone who got one smile real big!! I just think they're wonderful!! Go hop on over to her blog, Active for Fashion and tell her how amazing they are! :)

Anyone else have awesome wedding invite ideas! I'd love to see links! :)

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1up Pixelated Crocheted Mushroom Blanket

It's finished! The pixelated crocheted mushroom I started in Oct. 2010 is finish! The date is printed out on the directions that's how I know hahaha! You like how organized I am - see below haha not very! ;)
I found the directions here on the blog appropriately named Pixelated Mushroom!

Making this blanket was pretty easy, I just got bored with it alot! I would stop for whole months at a time. But if you can make a granny square (well 192 granny squares) you can totally make this blanket!

Once I had all 192 granny squares completely I felt so accomplished! Then I realized how what work I had ahead of me! Once I got going it went quick, and having to stay in bed helped haha -only good thing about it! Here's the mushroom in the making! 

As I was making the grannies, I'd lay them out to see how many more I needed. The first time I did it I was stoked to see it look like a mushroom (see top left photo). I stitched my squares together with a yarn needle, but you could just crochet them! I did a single crochet (think that's right) around the edge because I wanted to give it a clean edge! 

Tada! One pixelated crocheted mushroom for our new game room! Here's a photo to show it's size. I'm excited about it! I want to make more pixelated things - Pacman & Ms. Pacman perhaps!? Any ideas!? 

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hi gang!

Hello!
Still here :) Just been resting from a tiny surgery! Nothing to worry about, I'm completely find just can't do a whole lot! Along with resting I've been listening to all Brian's arcade cabinet adventures, hanging with Eli and fat Mickey (and his piggie snoring), built some Tron paper toys, got all 3 stars in Angry Birds (the summer one), Rio  Angry Birds is so difficult haha, and crocheting and even more crocheting! I go really nutty when I have to sit and do nothing - it's a bummer! Seriously I'm great and I hope you all are too! I'll be up and at em soon! Have a great week!

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Happy Wizard Week!

How are you celebrating Wizard Week? hahaha Casting spells, trading Chocolate Frog Cards, maybe some  Quidditch? Daniel (bud/coworker) and I wish we had a Marauder's Map - like everyday to keep track of coworkers! Sara, a fellow Florida gal, from the wonderful Prairie Hen, has been in the Potter spirit ALL week! So cute! Her blog is very awesome ps - go look!
Here are two of my favorite Potter Crafts!
First the Dark Mark CrossStitch from BombaStitch on etsy! Thanks to Olivia I've been wanting to start cross stitching again! Look at her Star Wars cross stitch!! Awesome! You can get Harry and the gang cross stitch here at WeeLittleStitches!

 Look at this Harry Potter Plush by Heidi Kenney from MyPaperCrane!  So great! I need to get on a PC so I can download the instructions to build a Potter myself!

We aren't going to see the movie today, because I haven't seen the last three. I've just read all the books. I can't wait to start reading the books with Eli! I'm thinking I'll start a Gryffindor Scarf over the weekend!
Maybe tonight we can start watching the Potter Movies we haven't seen OR start from the beginning!!!! Here's my Flickr set of our Adventures in Harry Potter Land! :) Have a happy Potter week! Let me know what you're doing to celebrate! 

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Happy Tron-tastic Birthday Brian!

Doesn't matter if they're 7 or 33, boys love Tron! :) So Eli and I made Brian a Tron-tastic Birthday!
I printed out tiny Tron light discs, light bikes, and the Tron arcade game for cupcake toppers at work! Now Tron colored cupcakes were tricky - I used blue dye in the cupcake mix and black in the frosting (but only enough to make a grayish color-no one likes black icing).

Eli left Brian a note on our Smile and Wave speech bubble! We got him an iCade from Think Geek- it's a small arcade cabinet for your iPad - pretty neat! Perfect for an arcade lover!
We made a birthday banner too! We're thinking about being Tron characters for Halloween!
If you haven't seen Tron The Legacy you should, even if you don't love video games it's good! Did anyone else think Kevin Flynn was The Dude haha from The Big Lebowski? 
Well Bri, Happy Tron-tastic Birthday! ;) Cuban food tonight! Wootwoot! I love you so much!

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Embroidery DIY

This weekend I decided to make something special for my Aunt Jackie's birthday! I have this great tattoo linedrawing book by Angelique Houtkamp, who I LOVE and I picked one of her drawings to embroider. I chose the devilish looking teapot gal, because it's most fitting for my aunt hahaha! She's the best aunt ever ps and I love her so much!
If you'd like to embroider from your favorite drawings here's what you'll need:
1. embroidery thread and needles
2. your favorite illustrations
3. fabric to embroider on - you don't have to use white, sometimes it's
awesome to use a dark fabric and then use light/bright embroidery thread
4. Honestly I'm not sure what this is used for - clay - it's almost like a carving tool, but it's blunt
I didn't want to use a pen, because I didn't want to mark up the book
5. Graphite Paper, which you can buy in black or white
6. embroidery hoop - ps I paint mine, because I keep them as the frame!

So you'll begin by placing the fabric under the graphite paper and the actual drawing on top of both the fabric and graphite paper. You may want to use tape to hold all three in place, because if you move it the tiniest bit it'll look strange. As you can see I don't press very hard, because I've been known to rub the graphite blackness on the fabric - looks bad, so be gentle!

Once you're finished tracing your image you can start embroidering! I felt a bit rusty yesterday! I use to embroider all the time, but I've lost my precision, I need to practice! My aunt actually taught me how to embroider and when she wasn't around I'd use Sublime Stitches website and kits to help! Here's Sublime Stitches How-To page! If you're a beginner this is a great kit - here!
So because I chose a tattoo linedrawing image, I decided to paint it as if it was a tattoo. I searched the house for watercolors and Eli only had metallic ones haha, but it turned out pretty cool.

I put Jackie's nickname on there -JAX :) She liked it alot, I was stoked!
Here's some of my embroidery I've done in the past!
Do you embroider? Who taught you? Know of any good embroidery sites? I'd love to share them with everyone!

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Our Last Space Shuttle Launch Adventure

That a crazy two days! Lauren, Eli, Brian, and I left work in Tampa at 6pm on Thursday, drove to Orlando, picked up our tickets to the launch (because they got lost in the mail-so mad), dropped off two ticket to two lovely Germany fellows- they came all the way to Florida for the launch, went to a hotel for 2 hours to sleep, then we head to the buses at 12:30am! The bus in Orlando drove us to the Kennedy Space Space and we arrived at 3:30am.

Normally Brian and I go to bed pretty early, so this was a bit tough, but I think my excitement took over because I was zippy, so was Eli! This was Lauren, Brian, Eli, and my first time at the Kennedy Space Center, which is strange because we all grew up in Florida. Eli announced that he was more lucky than Brian because he got to go at a younger age than Brian haha rotten tot!

We only had a short time to look around Kennedy Space Center, but the time we spent there was awesome! My FAVORITE part was the Rocket Garden! It was absolutely amazing! All these actually used rockets standing straight up in all their glory - amazing! I loved watching Eli bouncing around SO excited, looking at everything, asking questions - awesome!

Then we waiting in a HUGE line to the bus for a little over an hour. This was a test of patience let me tell you! It was 5:00am and everyone was so tired and everyone was wanting to get on the bus! Thankful we made it, Lauren and I cracked each other up in line. :) I am so thankful to have such a wonderful sister and friend, she really is the best! I just love her so much!

Once the bus go to the Causeway, the sun had risen and we were ready to go - it was 7:00am! We set up our chairs and towels. And everyone took a nap, even me for 30 mins or so! I was just to excited so I got up and crocheted a bit. Eli fell asleep 5 mins after he sat in the chair til 10 mins before the launch, he got a good nap! Brian bought us breakfast, those Lauren and I ate pistachios and twizzlers on the bus. I didn't want to drink a ton of water, because I did NOT want to use the portapotties, but I think I was a bit dehydrated - Never had to use the portapotties though haha!

Brian woke up Eli because the shuttle was only 10 mins from launch! He was so sleepy, but he was a good sport! We were so nervous all morning because the weather was terribly overcast. Over the speaker NASA said everything looked good, but my dad texted me saying CNN said it didn't look good. Oh CNN and their dramatic news coverage! So the countdown began and at 30 seconds they stopped it and then again at 9 seconds - my heart sunk then it was a GO!!!!

It is the most amazing site I have ever witnessed! The sound and the light! The light was incredible! I think we all teared up. I had such a feeling of pride, proud of what exactly I'm not sure - the USA, the world, the knowledge the NASA scientists have, how far we've home as a civilization, who knows! But I was all choked up! It was sad too. I really want to believe this won't be the last launch, I want to believe that somehow we will send people into space again. At least I hope. Here is my video of the Launch!

Once we were on the bus again, the tour guide for the bus, Stephan, made us all sing Rocket Man, and I really teared up then hahaha Lauren laughed at me haha! I was overly tired and emotional haha she had good reason to laugh - I laughed too and we both sang Rocket Man :)
Now the 4 1/2 hour bus ride back to Orlando was the WORST 4 1/2 ever - it only takes 1 hour normally haha. We inched along in the most uncomfortable bus seats - good thing the Launch was amazing haha, but man was that ride rough! Completely worth it though! We sleep 13 hours last night!
Here's my Flickr album of our Launch Adventure! I'd love to hear your launch stories from the past! Leave your stories in the comments! :) 

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Our Red, White, & Blue Weekend

This weekend it was just me, Brian, and Mickey! My family wasn't in town and Eli was with his mama. So this is how we sent our weekend: 1. got to wear my new Batman tee, which I really love and I love even more because it was like $6 bucks! 2. Brian went to the grocery store and got Mexican cokes and Hershey's chocolate bars, which I melted and made chocolate covered bananas! 3. We went bowling (we never go bowling and we've gone twice in the pass two weeks) look at our patriotic bowling shoes! 4. Brian and I made a July 4th dinner, which was so perfect! 5. Then I made Starcakes! 6. We got a new arcade game called "Ice Cold Beer" (here's a youtube video of the game-not ours) - neither of us really drink haha but this game is pretty rare and super fun! 7. Fat Mickey sitting right on my 1up Mushroom I'm crocheting! 7 - 9. should follow the Starcakes because I did this right after I baked them hahaha Mickey was just sitting there looking cute and rotten. He was begging for food - like he always does because he's a fat boy. I decided he needed a little blue in his new mohawk, which Brian's sister and I gave to him a week ago. He looks even more cute with the blue! Here is Mickey's 2010 St. Patrick's Day hair! I can't wait to show Eli! :) Maybe we'll do it to him too - totally just kidding!

Oh Mickey! He yet is my favorite little pup!
Did you do anything over the weekend to make yourself laugh? :) Dye any pup's hair? See any cool fireworks?
I'm SOOO excited about this Friday, did you know it's the last shuttle launch EVER (hopefully not ever ever-it just can't be)!? My sister, Brian, Eli, and I are packing up and heading over to the How do you feel about the space program? I'm a HUGE fan haha and I'm really sad that NASA will no long be launching shuttles - crazy! I get the whole national debt and all, but NASA shuttle launches are what dreams are made of! Ancient civilizations just got to look up at the stars from the ground and now we have the ability to send women and men up into space and we're throwing in the towel? Ok I don't wanna bum everyone out! I've never been in Cape Canaveral when there's been a launch, so I'm SUPER excited!!!! Have you ever been to one?! I promise to twitter my heart out while I'm there, so you can see the last launch! :) Fingers cross it doesn't rain!

Oh don't forget to check out the post below and leave your baby/pregnancy knowledge! Old wives tales, scientific facts - I want it all please! I'm collecting it for my best bud and me and you all too :)

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baby stuff

Tonight my best bud and I were filling each other in on last week because we live far apart - mine: I was sick and that I asked Brian's little sister to be one of my bride's maids (ps she was so stoked and I was so glad - she has a dress and everything!!). Now my friend's news was baby news - she's almost 5 months pregnant and she's only feeling sick at night, where a few weeks ago she was barfing all day long! I can't put into words how happy/excited/stoked I am that she's having a baby! I will listen to her barf stories for hours with a smile!! Completely over the moon!! She's the first of my close friends to have a baby, so I'm a bit clueless with baby stuff. I do know pregnant women can't eat sushi, farmed tuna, carry heavy things, etc. Today while we were talking she made the joke that the doctor's office doesn't give you a booklet of do's and don'ts or a how to guide haha! Wouldn't it be helpful!!?!??! For example I learned in college pregnant women shouldn't eat pomegranate while there pregnant because it causes the uterus to contracted - googled it for you here ;) but after pregnancy you should eat lots of pomegranate because it helps flatten your belly. So I was thinking I could use Strumpet's Crumpets to collect all your baby knowledge for my bud and all the other soon to be mamas out there! What do you think!?! Help me make a list of need to know baby information- things doctors don't tell you. Thank you in advance!! :)

Note: My bud has been doing research, but she also moved to a new state, so she doesn't have her normal friends around to give her daily advice. Plus I just thought it'd be awesome to help each other out! :) 

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Happy 4th Starcakes

Hope you had a fun weekend! We just stay close to home! I decided to be festive yesterday evening and make these Starcakes for everyone at work! I forget where I found the Star pan, but I'm sure it was Target or Michael's. I love any reason to use food coloring, though I know it's not great to consume a bunch, every once in awhile is okay! I overly mixed my cake mix, that's why there's massive air bubbles haha! How was your 4th? Do anything special?

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July Paper Craft Calendar

Lookie, lookie! The new Curiosity Group July Calendar is out and way too cute! Here's the link to download one for yourself for freenintynine! I was pretty stoked when I saw this camper paper craft! Last month was whales - very cute! But this camper takes the cake! Plus look at how much the domos LOVE it ;) wonder where they'll go and what they'll see! haha!

Happy July 1st everyone! Hope all you USA-er have a nice long weekend! Be smarter than the fireworks you set off, wear bug spray, and have a blast! :)

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