New Monster purses and backpacks

I was pretty busy last week with purses and I think I perfected a backpack design. I think Clayton will keep the blue one. It fits him perfectly. I'll photograph him later. Right now he's napping.

Low Fat Brownies

Yesterday I made brownies from a box. (I know- I should make home-made). I bought some flax seed flour to add to smoothies for better health. I used it in the mix INSTEAD of oil. Very strange, but you replace it with a 3 to 1 ratio. So, if the recipe calls for 1/2 cup or oil or butter you can put 1 1/2 cups of the flour. (according to the source on the bottom of this post, you should reduce the flour. Well, because we are high altitude I'm supposed to add 3 tablespoons. Next time I just won't add the flour.) They came out really good. With ice cream, even better.

Here's some more information about the use of flax seeds. http://www.ellies-whole-grains.com/eat-flax-seed.html

Holy Cuteness

I ran across this website with the cutest recycled olive can products. http://www.rafinesse-tristesse.com/index.html

Monster Hood

Clayton loves taking a bath, but not posing for pictures. Here's a hooded towel I made for him out of three old towels, an old pair of baby socks and some acrylic eyes. It works really well.

Fused Glass Pendant Giveaway

My husband pulled a name out of the hat. Alice is the winner!

I thank everyone who entered the giveaway. It was great to get feedback about the items in my shop!

Check my shop again soon because I have more to add.

Fused Glass Pendant Giveaway and More

I am offering a Fused Glass Pendant to one lucky person.
This pendant is made with a clear base and hand cut black based gold/green striped dichroic glass and purple/pink, gold honey comb pattern dichroic glass on chips of yellow. Full fused. Simply stunning! The pendant is 2"L x 1 3/4"W and mounted on a large 18K gold plated bail.

It’s difficult to see the beauty of the glass in photos. You’ll be thrilled to see it in person!

Large bail size: 7/16” above pendant, 5/16” opening.

HOW TO WIN:
Please visit my Artsy Fartsy Boutique shop, find something you enjoy, come back and leave a comment along with your email address. The drawing will occur at 8:00 pm on April 27th.

This giveaway is also shown on Tip Junkie

I'm glad I am doing this giveaway. I have gotten some good feedback. I've been working on monster purses and backpacks. I'm hoping people will buy them at my farmer's market booth.






Here are some more of my knot bags. I have several more, too. The last 4 photos are actually 2 bags showing what they look like reversed. The other day I made a monster hooded towel for Clayton. I'll photograph that later.






Here are some photos from the strange weather we had last weekend. It hailed and thunder and lightning-ed. Clayton got a kick out of it.


I am intrigued by the work here: Petit Plat The neatest miniatures!

Errand Day- Without Clayton

Giveaway:
Check out this great giveaway for the cutest potty. I hope I win it for Clayton.


We thought we had an appointment today and planned to put Clayton in Day Care. We finally managed to get a spot because of a cancellation and then realized our appointment was for next week. I decided to bring Clayton to day care anyways. He'd only been to this center on base one other time, so he cried when I left. He's used to the Part Day Enrichment center and loves it now.

Today I went to the library and renewed the Carl Hiasson book, Nature Girl and picked up Cormac McCarthy's Blood Meridian (I am still waiting for The Road...), so that was a success. Then, I searched for a couple of architectural salvage places. I brought the wrong GoogleMap piece of paper, so it wasn't specific enough. I did find one, which was a Habitat for Humanity RESTORE. That was a great success. I found a couple sets of shutter doors and 2 window shutter sets. I want to use them to display my earrings at craft shows. I managed to fit them in the car, just barely. They also had some hanging pegs that I am going to try out. If they don't work for my displaying of purses, they will work on my pegboard in my studio. I also got a ceramic tile to use for paper circle cutting. The directions on the device recommends cutting on something glass or completely flat. Then, I went to Joanne fabrics. I went away with 4 types of cheap fabric: 3 really soft stuff for purses, 3 yards of a pretty patterned silk for $1.50, and some notions...
The only hiccup, was getting a little lost on the way home. I was trying to save time. I didn't get too far off, but didn't save any time.

I picked up Clayton and I guess he stopped crying as soon as I left. He had a great time. I came home and looked at an email from Tipnut.com and was led to a neat blog I want to continue using Everybody Likes Sandwiches.
I want to try making these granola recipes.

Monster Purses

Here are some of my latest creations. The designs are based on my stuffed animals and onesies. Two of them have velcro closings. The blue one has 8 legs: an octopus. It's a little hard to see in the photo.

Nice Glass

Here are some pendants that my stepdaughters Madeline and Alexandra made. I finally fired them because I got some kiln wash. (a couple of days later I found my original kiln wash that mysteriously disappeared. Now if I could only track down a $50 gift certificate I lost and my lost credit card.)
So, girls, which ones do I need to send to which girl. Also, what side do you want the bail (silver or gold, too?)?

Easter Egg Hunt and Fun Fest

Clayton really enjoyed picking up eggs. The "egg hunt" was less of a hunt and more like a "egg pick up" . There was no searching involved because the eggs were just on the floor in plain sight. He still had fun.
Then, we went to the Fun Fest where he got to meet all kinds of characters like the Home Depot guy, the Easter Bunny, Smokey the Bear... He played a few games and won some plastic objects.

Dress for Olivia

I just made a cute pillowcase dress from a pillowcase I got at the thrift store. Hope Olivia likes it!

Clayton Walking on his Own

Clay started walking on his own on April 2, 2009. He's really loving it!

Dirty boy and new projects

Here are some little baskets I made from fabric sample books, leftover curtain fabric and an old sheet.


Clayton loves to eat by himself. It's always fun to clean up....

Thrifting

Here are some of my finds from Goodwill today. I found a Dr. Seuss fish for Clayton, some funky hand carved napkin holders , 5 pillowcases I will use to sew little girl dresses, 2 sweaters (and the pink is cashmere), some books and another stuffed animal for Clayton. I also got something for my parents, but they will have to wait for them to come in the mail.