Baby onesie ideas

Just found a sheet of paper with lots of funny baby onesies ideas that lil' sis Rikki Tikki Tavi and I listed.
Feel free to stitch, stencil or embroider our smart assery.

I'm not a girl

I'm not a boy

I'll eat anything off the floor

I can't read

I'd rather be a monkey

Food in, poop out

I'm the boss of you

They shake me

I have no neck

My parents are breeders

I can ruin a plane trip

Don't talk to me like I'm a baby

Ceiling fans are cool

Hippies stink

Check out my baby onesie creations

Post-party boot

Tell me, would you have guessed that glitter would outlast paint? Miss Light Bright and Tina Twinkle were right, I shoulda glittered the whole dang boot!

The glitter girls

So, I painted my boots with gold paint and thought I was gonna look pretty daring at Dawn's Solid Gold karaoke birthday party that is, until, Dawn and I went to her friends' house to pick up their karaoke machine.

We opened the door to find a demented Santa's workshop with beer and wine drinking females happy at work painting glue on shoes, covering with glitter and embellishing with boa feathers and glitz and glam. The chicks belong to an all female Carnival krewe whose name rhymes with "shoes" and indeed glitter shoes are the special gift handed down during their parade ride. Handed down people, not thrown. Can you imagine getting beaned in the head by a glittered high heeled shoe tossed from 2 tiered Mardi Gras float? Yikes. Now you know why the Zulu krewe has been prohibited from tossing their decorated coconuts after Governor Edwards signed the "Coconut Bill" .
Friends donate shoes to the glitter girls and each krewe member is limited to giving 30 shoes so they set up an assembly station and we were lucky enough to witness the fun. We wondered if we would need to be treated for "glitter lung" and laughed at the thought of future attorney television commercials soliciting for inhalation damage only to later witness the special first aid required when glitter gets in the eye . . . . . Oh, did you want to know the technique? Apparently a really strong puff of air blown into the eye from a close friend does the trick so maybe glittering alone is not safe.

Some shoes were based painted, then painted with glue and sprinkled with the New Orleans shiny magic dust. These ladies had lots of glitter inventory but see if you can spot the shoes with the super iridiscent quality Martha Stewart glitter. That stuff is the McDaddy of embellishment.

Eventually, they let Dawn and I play. Fearing the potential of an eye glitter incident, I opted to brush on glue and be part of the assembly line. Dawn wanted to play glue pen and glitter games. Dawn is a good crafter but doesn't always know when to say when. Check out the letters.

Ease up on the glue, lady.

Glue to glitter ratio: FAIL

Mardi Gras colors and fleur-de-lis

Finally, I swallowed my pride and brought in my country-comes-to-town boots and asked for a dab of glitter. Miss Light Bright and Tina Twinkle were ready to cover the whole dang boot but I resisted, wanting to be subtle and all.

New Orleans Saints theme

Go LSU!

My two toned heel idea as executed by Miss Light Bright

More is more: add a boa accent

Base painted and waiting for glue

Before and after

Shiny Stuff - caw! caw!

Glitz and glitter

As a little girl, I enjoyed ballet dance recitals and feeling glamorous for a short evening but mostly I was a natural fibers girl and preppy all the way through school and beyond. Never a fan of glitz and glam and glitter and have postulated that the older the lady, the more shiny her clothing choices and often joke that those old bingo ladies confuse the planets with their shiny-as-the-sun ensembles. In fact, I'm pretty sure the December 26, 2008 tsunami was caused by female senior citizens wearing their flashy and trashy Christmas sweaters and rocking the sun off its trajectory.

Usually I shun any clothing with a hint of glimmer and yet today I sit in front of you wearing a sweater with a bit of shimmer. Damn it all, I'm getting old. Not yet wearing shiny crap from head to toe but trying real hard to resist, Ringo.

However COMMA Dawn's Solid Gold karaoke birthday party preparation brought out the repressed shiny side and I decided I to see how the tackier side of life dressed by revamping my tired cracking boots.



Brushed on a couple coats of gold paint and top coat of glitter paint.

Added "stitched" detail with gold Sharpie pen.

(stay tuned to learn more of the painted boot adventure . . . . .)

Saints win and furniture sales go up. Why?

Monday morning greetings!
You people know I am not above a dumpster dive or roadside treasure hunt but would like to caution you from perusing the anticipated glut of curbside upholstered goods brought about by folks across Louisiana and region crapping themselves and furniture last night when the New Orleans Saints cinched a spot in Super Bowl XLIV.
You've been warned.
~~You're welcome~~

Solid Gold

My buddy Dawn had a Solid Gold themed karaoke birthday party so searched for my costume because neither my closet nor costume stash contains gold lame' and such tackiness.

If you can believe it, this gold sweater was waiting for me at a local thrift store! WooHoo! It was a $4 kind of shiteous but who cares - it's gold!

UGLY, before

Tried it on and realized the fold-over "collar" drove me nuts. I cannot tolerate "fussy" clothing. Y'know, things that don't lie flat, need constant adjusting, etc. It's the reason I rarely wear lightweight scarves and love tailored clothing. To party all night long and have that collar thingie riding up would have brought on a huge case of monkey nerves with a very probable ending with my drunken gin and juice fueled sawing off of man-made fibers with a borrowed pocket knife. Not good. So, a revamp for the sweater tramp was attempted. No biggie if I ruined it, right? Could a gold shimmer sweater with lioness tassels be ruined? Is that possible? I mean, a big red wine stain would be an upgrade.

Folded up the collar or cowl neck or whatever it's called.

Looked at a scoop neck t-shirt and guessed at cut line. I cut it, I tell ya!

Puzzled over the next step. Right sides together? Join edges to outside or inside? Collar seam inside or outside? There was no way I was gonna fix it if I sewed it wrong so pinned, unpinned, re-pinned.

Serged the edges. I had taupe thread but too lazy to change 4 cones of serger thread plus the finished edge would be hidden so no dark thread would show through sweater weave.

Here 'tis!

UGLY, after

From UGLY to STILL UGLY but more comfortable. Because that's what's it's all about: I'll suffer for pretty but ugly? No, ugly needs to be comfortable.

(Check out my gold multi-chain necklace worn with the gold "pearls" I strung!)

Easy gift wrap idea

Wrapped a wire bound calendar without a box and it looked blah. It was just too flat for a ribbon bow. Included a paper bound journal and wound it with tatting thread. Lots of thread.

Super easy, super fast.

Just like your ma. ;-)

Gel pens suck ass

Went through my stash of gel pens this weekend and tossed all of these dried out and kaput pens.

But looka, my cast offs made a cool photo.

These are the only working pens. Recommending Jell-Line by Mon Ami and the best gold metallic gel pen is this long lasting one by Hybrid Gel.

Bookmark tags

Crafting on the sofa with a remote control nearby, it is the best, I tell ya! On Saturday, while it rained all day, I watched tons of television and made a dozen bookmark tags for my "Girl's Night Out" group.

Just a few rubber stamps, 12 tags and a basket of ribbon remnants.

An outline here, some water color there, a few gel pen accents.

Look closely and you'll see ribbon re-purposed from a box of chocolates, fabric selvage scraps, bias binding and rick rack. Craft hoarding is sometimes a good thing. I feel those Depression era grandmothers and great-grandmothers smiling on me.

Word of the day: Craft envy

My friend Dawn should be credited with originating the term "craft envy". While crafting with others, invariably the feeling of "damn, I wish I had thought of that" occurs, thus craft envy.

Reading other's blogs is interesting and sometimes I think "that's cool but not my bag" or "why the hell would someone spend 7 hours making that crap?" or "way cool, I am so gonna copy that" but the blog entries that chap my ever lovin' ass are the very same ones that cause craft envy. Ideas or creations that are in my mind but time hasn't allowed me to create OR just the germ of the idea that someone beat me to OR made something even better than I could have imagined.

So, the source of craft envy is use of twine (which I blogged about in November) by the ever talented and creative Cathe Holden.

Don't wanna post her pix without permission but click HERE for her fabulous and much coveted images featuring TWINE and retro images, dammit to hell.

And, I love retro. If I didn't love Cathe Holden's style and blog, I might just pout but instead I'll direct you to her site so you can see her fabulous creations.

My Retro image embroidered on tea towel,

. . . thinking she needs a twine rope now . . .

Organize your earrings

First, pair the earrings and attach to each other.

Here's how:

Hoops - open one hoop. Slip the other closed hoop inside. Close hoop.

Posts - remove back from one post. Slip post through the back of the other post and slide back onto post.

Even if you take it no further, this is a sure way to keep the pairs together and it is much easier to find an attached pair than a single earring.

Next, find yourself an antique tin-type tray and place on shelf in your closet. You might find one at an antique store or flea market. Alternately, you can use shallow drawer space with dividers.

Arrange earrings by ascending size of hoops, stone earrings, pearl earrings, whatever makes sense to you. Silver on one side, gold on the other. Cover silver side with tarnish-free flannel cloth. Charms and chains behind the earrings. See an empty compartment? You should be able to guess which earrings are missing. (If you were really anal, you could label the compartment.)

Click here to organize necklaces.

Organize that closet!

If I don't see my long sleeve pink cardigan sweater, the only place to look is in the dirty clothes basket or laundry room because my clothing is arranged by color within the following categories:

• sleeveless and tanks and camisoles


• short sleeved shirts


• long sleeved shirts and sweaters


• pants


• skirts


• coats are in hall closet

Organize your closet like this and be amazed at how quickly you can find things AND how easy it is to put things away.

A place for everything

and everything in its place.

As it should be.

Caped brats

Baby sister Rikki Tikki Tavi and I made 20 small capes for Walter's Super Heroes themed birthday party this weekend. Super cheap fabric from WalMart, serged edges and leftover ribbon sewn at corners.

Rikki hates sewing and such so was probably surprised when I asked her to serge while I sewed ribbons. Pretty sure she hated it but she is a Super Mom thus, she suffered for the enjoyment of the invited Super Heroes.

Did I mention we made TWENTY? There is a certain freedom in making something super fast. You cannot entertain goals of super detailed finishing. Heck, this fabric would MELT if ironed!

However, I must point out the "leftover" ribbon. How many kid's capes include pretty Neiman Marcus gift ribbon?

Rikki found only 1 yard of black fabric so reserved that for later sewing because her brats are into Star Wars and she thought they would want it for whatever character wears black capes. (I am the only person in America that has never watched a Star Wars movie.) I asked Gregory if he would like a black cape for Star Wars play. Yes. Last month, he shunned sewn capes. Do you want me to put a "G" on it for Gregory? No. Plain. Just black.
It made me laugh because he sounded just like me. Not a fan of embellishment. Love plain. Love simple.

What a difference a day makes

Worked on the crossword puzzle before going to sleep, stumped on too many words and finally turned off the light.

The next morning I almost completed it. Sleep is amazing! And I am such a fan.

Gift wrap center

One easy to assemble unfinished pine hutch from Lowe's that perfectly fits in a standard depth closet. I would insert a link but the Lowe's website sucks. Walk down the storage and shelf aisle and look for ideas. Measure your closet depth!

Boxes and baskets store tinsel bows, tape, small paper bags and gift enclosure cards.

The Coca~Cola 6-bottle carrier contains paper remants for small gifts.

Vintage paper collater sorts the tissue paper stash. You can buy one HERE or look at garage sales and such.

Small gifts are on third shelf. I have wiped out a few things over the last year so need to replenish. Usually I keep nice soaps, candles, journals, stationery and tea towels on hand along with other things I pick up when on sale ~OR~ Re-Gifts.

That's right. I am not above passing on something that I don't dig but someone else will. Do yourself a favor and attach a Post It note to the potential gift with the original giver's name. Not good to give the gift to the person that gave it to you. Not good at all.

Gift bags are sorted by size and color then tied onto rod with ribbon.

(I actually purchased large curtain rings with metal clips to fit the rod but cannot remove rod without another pair of very strong hands. It is jammed, I tell ya, stuck!)

Empty gift boxes stacked on wire shelf.

Purchased a mongo pack of tissue and though I am anal retentive, I was too lazy to fold all those sheets and jam into the collator so did the quick fix with a men's pant clamp hanger.

Gift wrap stash. I purchase paper everywhere but usually opt for seasonless designs. I don't
purchase Christmas themed paper. No matter the age or gender, most of my paper choices will work. Bought a big roll of dark brown paper and there is not one ribbon that doesn't look good with it. Bright green, white, pink, blue - it all looks fab. Bright green is another good year 'round gift wrap color. One choice of paper that looks good with everything is a space saver.

Note: I have plenty of space for multiple rolls of paper and lots of boxes so have acquired quite a stash. You will need to adjust to your prescribed space.