You Go Girl!

A Foot in Each World...

Sometimes I'm an original...  

(Dish towel for my mama)

This little dish towel was stitched up for my mama for Mother's day.  Some fun fabrics, a little appliqué, a little embroidery, a little imagination.  Thing of beauty and a joy forever.

Sometimes I am a SHAMELESS copycat...

(Sweatshirt for me)

I saw a sweatshirt like this at a boutique downtown.  I loved it.  I came home and made my own.  What is it they say?  Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.  Does this apply to stitchie goodness?  Yes. Definitely. I think it does.

Happy Friday!!

 

Want to Dance with Cinderella?

Bippity.

Boppity.

Boo.

The transformation is complete. I feel like the fairy Godmother.  Cinderella is rockin' the ball gown and ready to step into her new life.

Who wants to dance with Cinderella?

The Cinderella Bag can be found here in my You Go Girl shop.  

Back story can be found here.

For I know the plans I have for you,” says the Lord. “They are plans for good and not for disaster, to give you a future and a hope."  Jeremiah 29:11     

Who's Cryin' Now?

Ummmmmm...NO ONE!  That's who.

So I was walking by the craft studio and I heard some muffled sobs.  It wasn't my sewing machine like last time.  It was the scrap bags.  Seems that they were feeling a little like Cinderella before the ball. They watched as the fancy-pants sisters (boxes of fabric ) flew out of the studio destined for adventure and places unknown. The scrap bags, laying haphazardly on my crafty table, were feeling blue; even if that wasn't their true color. It was time to act. Time for an intervention.  Time to step up and give those scrappy girls a destiny. Look at all the pretty that was in those bags.  

The cries have abated. There is excitement in the air.  Redemption and destiny is a reality.  I love it. It reminds me of the life journey set before us.  Heavenly Father takes the bits and pieces that we have to offer and redeems them into something beautiful and with purpose. I love the way He rolls. Nothing is wasted. 

Gotta go now.  There are more scraps to be had!

A Garland...

for one of my girls. It pretty much says it all.

All you need is...

True that. But some sunshine would be really nice too. 

This was the scene at my house today.

SNOW!

Snow on the last day of April.

Seriously?

Vexation and exasperation. 

Not feeling the love, Mr. Sunshine.

 

P.S. Here is a picture of the garland hanging in her room. She says she LOVES it. Yay!

 

A Happy Crappy Post

This is a happy crappy post.

First up... The Happy...

I made FIFTY of these little flowers in all sorts of happy colors. Forty seven went on gift bags for my church-y girl friends who went with me on the New Hope weekend retreat. Three little flowers were sent to the recycle bin for one reason or another. It was fun to see these little flowers adorning shirts, hats, bags, and scarfs during the weekend. Happy. Very, very, happy.

Now it's time for... The Crappy...

Once upon a time I had a nasty tooth. Nasty tooth got a root canal. After the root canal, said tooth had a steel post surgically implanted into it. After the surgery healed, a shiny new porcelain crown was cemented over all. Nasty tooth had been redeemed. The nasty reconstructed tooth was shiny, new, and lovely (and more than a little $$$$$). Glorious.

Fast forward a few years...

Root canal failed.

Infection set in.

Shiny tooth looks happy, but feels crappy.

No options but to remove shiny, lovely, procelain-crowned tooth.

Tooth came out yesterday. NOT fun.

NOT HAPPY. 

Crappy, in fact. Very, very crappy.

There you have it...The Happy and The Crappy.

I think I will now go ice my jaw and take a painkiller or two three.

Wallets of Different Kind

I had a custom order for a wallet to match this purse. Out came my fabric friends. I dove in, mixing and matching patterns galore. Oh, bliss and heaven. Piles and piles of fabric dancing around me. When I finally crawled out from under the mountain of fabric, I couldn't make just one wallet. No. I made three. I made one to match the purse and two others just because I was in love with the fabric combos. 

Here's the matching wallet, inside and out.

And here are the two that I couldn't resist stitching up. Introducing...

Who Gives a Hoot:

And, Little Miss Red:

I like to open these two wallets and find the little peek-a-boo friends inside. It tickles my fancy. 

The two peek-a-boo wallets are in the shop just in case they tickle your fancy, too.

Happy September,

Cassie

 

Jingle All The Way...

Jingle bells. Jingle bells. Jingle all the way.

I hope that little tune didn't cause any of you to feel a wee bit o' holiday panic. I wouldn't want that. And really, I'm not singing about Christmas jingle bells. The jingle bells I'm loving are in this little jingle ball.

I tried something new when I made this ball. I cut the pieces for the ball on the bias. I don't know if I came up with this idea myself or if I read it somewhere and stored the info in the recesses of my brain. Either way, it was an Einstein moment. If you cut your pieces on the bias, the ball will be round when you stuff it, not something that approximates round but looks more like a giant kiwi. Genius!

I stitched this little jingle ball for my new friend, Austin. He entered this world facing a host of challenges that most babies never know. He is fighting hard and doing things no one thought he would. He's a scrappy little boy. It will be a treat to watch his life unfold. 

That's all for now.

Have a glorious weekend --

Cassie

One more thing...In case you are wondering, there are 239 days until Christmas. Jingle all the way!

Craft Hope

My birthing kits for the Craft Hope Konbit Sante project went in the mail today. To hold the contents of the birthing kits, I beautified some canvas bags that I bought at Joann's. I'm not in love with these canvas bags. I could not get the wrinkles out of them even though I rinsed them to remove the sizing. The next time I need a canvas bag, I think I will find a new source. I would like them to be softer, a more natural color, and I would also like to ditch the boxed bottom. Any one have a good supplier?

On Fire...

Somebody throw some water on me because I am on fire. This past week I...

...Crafted five shabby flower hair clips for my Valentine girls. As usual, I crafted them ON Valentine's day. Why do I always do this to myself? Deep down I must like the pressure.

...Made three receiving blankets for Konbit Sante delivery kits (Craft Hope Project 11). This Craft Hope project was very timely for me. Since Kevin and Hailey returned from Haiti, I somehow feel connected to the people in Haiti in a way I didn't before. It's kind of weird.

...Put the finishing touches on this Birdie Sling. I wish the snow and sleet and slush and mud would go away so I could use it. We seem to be caught in an endless cycle of snowing and melting, snowing and melting. We've had at least 60 " of snow this year. More snow is in our future this week. So very dirty. I am going through wiper fluid by the gallon. It is very hard to keep your coat, your bag, and your person from brushing upside the slush mobile that used to be a sparkly clean car. I miss you, summer.

...Replaced the zipper in this little black number. Paige (daughter #2) went to Snowball, a semi-formal school dance. She looked ooh-la-la divine.

...Patched two pairs of holey jeans. I think I like them better with these cute little patches than I did when they were new.

Up next...a new ironing board cover. The girls, all of them, were busy melting crayons between wax paper this weekend. They were doing it for no other reason but the pure joy that comes from such waxy, melty, smelly, wicked colorful goodness. Evidently each one of them was sick on the day they melted crayons between wax paper in grade school because they all claimed they had NEVER done this before. Are you kidding me? I can't believe I didn't do this with the girls when they were younger. Shame. Humiliation. Abomination. Tsk. Tsk.I think this is probably another black mark against me in my bid for Mother of the Year. Harrumph. (I'm only kidding. I was forever banned from the MOTY competion a few years back when I accidentally cut off the eyebrow of a certain 7th-grader during a bang trim. Not cool. But very funny. Shhh.) 

 

Pillow Talk...

Remember this little patchwork project I told you about? As Carolina pointed out: It's a bit on the small side if it's a really cold night. She cracks me up. She is right, though. It would be a small quilt for a cold night unless you were a squirrel. But guess what? I'm not a squirrel and this is not a quilt for the Nutkin family. No, it's not a quilt at all. Instead, it's a patchwork pillow. See...

I discovered another bit o' magic when I put this pillow together...the invisible zipper foot. Bernina magic. There is no other way to describe it. You simply line up the zipper teeth in the groove on the foot, push the power pedal, sit back, and let the feed dogs and the foot do the work. Voila. A perfectly stitched zipper. Magical.