Carrie do not scroll down this one....

Hey Carrie - there is a note saying where to stop.

I spent my holiday working on some things. One of those was the finished item at the bottom of the page. It goes to Carrie for little Oliva (soon we will all get to hold her). My house is a little cleaner than it was. I am headed in the right direction there.







Last night, we started assembling the stuff for the College Freshman to return to campus. She leaves this afternoon. Right after she goes and kisses that boy goodbye. I was not as well prepared mentally and emotionally for this departure, but she is so excited to go back that it helps me let her go. It also helps that we will see her tonight. The younger one is playing basketball a few miles from her and she is coming to the game - then dinner at her favorite restaurant.







The layout below is made with my new spellbinders dies. Just a note - I bought the universal adapter plate to make these work with my Sizzix cutter. The plate was too wide. But being impatient and having the appropriate tools, I just cut it to the correct size instead of having them reorder what I needed.







These dies came as multiples in each package and are a great deal.



This is the beginning of the layout and it has already changed a bit. Instead of those scalloped frames, I am just going to use four pictures of my girlios. Each of those tags is going to be lettered/stamped/stickered with words relating to them. I love the slide on tag shapes (the set has three slightly different shapes) . All those tags were cut from scrap paper. I cut the bright strips of paper to slide these on, but I have also already used these on ribbon too. I'll be buying more of these dies as money allows. SISTERS/FRIENDS was stamped using black ink. Everything except the dies was from my stash.







OKAY CARRIE --- STOP HERE................

What my new year's weekend offered. Textured crochet pieces and a yarn needle. I normally crochet my afghans together, but I wanted a smoother interior of this. I found the pattern in the latest issue of Crochet Today magazine. I have never crocheted a garment and have been wanting to try it. I had that yellow yarn in my stash. Now I could have made this in tiny baby size, but I chose not to. Itty bitty ones have lots and lots of clothes, and they really don't need a jacket. In most cases you wind up simply tucking them into a blanket. So I made this in a toddler size. Playing dress up with a toddler girl is so much fun.

Mind you - this basket weave pattern is so freaking easy to accomplish once you complete a single set. Looks complex, but it is only double crochet stiches. I have already stared a gift for local best friend using the same basket weave pattern and acrylic yarn.

I added some colors to the yellow yarn and here is one toddler sized complete cardigan. I am so thrilled with how this turned out.

The unassembled body of the sweater stops at the large purple and green panels. I added those three stripes after I got it all assembled. This really was not at all difficult to make. The spirograph looking card is one of those scalloped tags wrapped with floss. The tag is punched to say smile from some scrap paper I had in the stash.

The pattern called for the ties to be crocheted onto the front. I didn't like how they were turning out so they got frogged - very quickly. I used embroidered white on white ribbon - again from the stash. To keep this from fraying at the free ends, I brushed a tiny bit of clear nail polish on it.

I am a detail person. I love seeing the little details on items. These are not flashy, you really do not even see them in the previous two pictures, but look at the tiny little buttons I sewed on. These were in my stash too. You know -- that little extra thing that make this a MaggieGrace item.

I had the yellow yarn. I did buy the green and blue. All in all this was a very easy and affordable project.

I also stocked up on some sale yarn from Michaels over the weekend. All purchased with LBF gift in mind and already being utilized. Now to find a place for completed items to live for this year as I prepare for the art show.

Have a wonderful day.