Pincushion Mania

I am on a pincushion streak. Yesterday my girlfriend Christy (who I have known since birth) comes over to have a crafty afternoon. Christy and her husband just adopted a baby a few months back and are in the "new parent mode" where you don't get to much done. She came over to work on the baby's Halloween costume and only got one ear done in a two hour period of time due to baby cries, feeding, diapering etc. I am silently relieved to be done with that period of my life. My girls are two and five and mommy can actually get her craft projects somewhat complete now and again. Christy is a trooper and an extremely crafty gal herself. She won't admit it but she can make gorgeous flower arrangements in a very short period of time. I have been trying to convince her to sell her wares for as long as I can remember but she says she would rather keep it as a hobby rather than a business. Anyway, I digress..... I started on pincushions... let's pick back up there. So I have been making pincushions for the last couple of days. They are so much fun. I have been making the traditional flowers and squares. I have even tried out a few triangles. The triangles are a little harder because I am not the best person for measurements. My husband actually calls me "innumerate" meaning can't read a ruler. For the most part that is true. I really don't know how I managed to score a bachelor's degree without being able to read a ruler, but I did. So he is making me some triangles out of metal with a stompshear (don't know if I spelled that correctly).

While Christy was over I managed to cut out and sew 15 pincushions. I still have to stuff them today and sew on the buttons, but overall, they came out really cute. I am on the lookout for a pattern for a starburst pincushion. I have looked all over the net. Think three-dimensional starburst with pointies all over it. Material sea-urchin. Haven't found one yet to create but am still looking and experimenting.

Dealing with food Allergies

O.k. so I have two kids with severe food allergies This has been a huge struggle for me as a mom. I know that thousands (probably millions) of people deal with this on a daily basis and let me tell you it can be draining. I already make two different dinners every night to make sure no one has a reaction. One can drink milk but not soy, one can't have eggs the other can't. Tonight my oldest daughter had a reaction to God knows what. She was eating carrots and ranch. Carrots that she got from snack provided by her soccer team. Pre-packaged baby carrots and homemade ranch that she has on a regular basis and pretty soon she is coughing and complaining about her throat hurting and feeling tight. My anxiety raises. We have had numerous trips to the ER with my youngest daughter including two trips by ambulance due to anaphylaxis and the closing up of her throat. I have even had to use the Epi-Pen on the little one. It is scary. This time I gave my oldest, we call her Peanut (how appropriate, because it just happens to be that she is very allergic) two shots of her inhaler and that did not help. I then gave her Benadryl which finally kicked in a few minutes later. Now my anxiety ridden self will get no sleep tonight because I will feel the need to check on her every two minutes and make sure that she is breathing o.k. The littlest one, we call her Scout has extreme allergies to milk, eggs and perfume. I am sure I am like any other Mom who's child is afflicted with something that is potentially deadly. You wish somebody would just come up with a cure already or something that could help your child be safe. They are in the process of making a "safe" shot for people with peanut allergies and it should be available within the next couple of years. That I am very excited about. I myself am extremely allergic to peanuts and tree nuts and am an anxious mess going out to restaurants and getting on airplanes. Even to send our little Peanut to school can be quite a bit of anxiety. Last week they made a gingerbread man and were going to decorate it with M&M's. I quickly reminded her teacher that she couldn't have M&M's and she was glad for the reminder. Whew! Avoided that disaster. Anyway, I had to write about it tonight because I will go on for awhile with no anxiety about their allergies and try to stay on the positive side of things and then "boom" an allergy creeps up and it sends me spiraling down into oblivion. I know that through time things will get better. The kids will be old enough to let me know when they need to have an Epi-Pen and when they are o.k. Right now I am relying on my five year old's description of how she feels and my motherly instinct. For those of you who have kids with food allergies there is the Food Allergy and Anaphylaxis Network which is a great resource (www.foodallergy.org) and there is also some really great support in schools due to the rising number of children with food allergies.

I finally finished them

O.k. so maybe the small details are not complete. I just finished my monk's cloth purses. Four that I made and 1 that my friend Ruth made. I don't think that I will attempt these again. The material keeps wanting to snag and sometimes my sewing machine catches and pulls in a thread. But nonetheless, they are done except for a few ribbons to attach. Yeah! My next project to finish is my Halloween coasters. I use a gel-medium transfer process that I learned about a few years back. The results are awesome. The ink actually sinks into the coasters. So the result is a nice flat surface unlike when you decopauge something. I was just looking at etsy.com yesterday for a price point for these. Nobody had the gel medium process that I could see. They were all decopauged. So, I will have to think about it. I am excited to start these because as much as I love to sew I love my paper projects even more. Ahh the smell of a paper store. It is enough to send me straight to heaven. So, I am drinking my vanilla latte and pondering whether or not I should clean up the house or study. I have a rather large test that I am taking Sunday afternoon for an online school that I have been attending. It is http://www.scopeschool.com/. I got involved in this because I have been running a court reporting business for my friend and boss Ruth for the past five years. Scoping is a great business to get involved with. This punctuation test is looming over me so I guess I will go and study. Yuck!

So Here I Go

So here I go.... My very first blog entry. I have always wanted to do one of these but never attempted it. As my profile states. I am an avid crafter. Never met a craft I didn't like. I have started a small business by the name of Pink Petunia Designs and am currently trying to build it into something profitable. I recently joined a wonderful organization called Sacramento Craft Mafia. They are a great group of women who have extraordinary talents with many different craft mediums. As of currently I have been sewing some vintage style handbags made with a combination of monk's cloth and cotton to begin selling at the next show. My friend Ruth actually used these bags back in the 60's - 70's when she was a teenager. Originally they were made out of burlap, but because of the scratchiness we decided to make the switch to monk's cloth, a much softer version. Ruth drew up the patterns and away we went. I have been sewing a few quilted rag bags that have come out quite cute. I have given away two to friends and kept one for myself. I just made another one out of chocolate brown felt with a baby blue interior. My sewing machine does not like the felt and really struggles with the monk's cloth but, we are finally making headway. I have also been making some cork Christmas trees and some fun tile coasters with Halloween and Christmas images. I will post some pictures when I get them done.