Sew little patience......

Patience has never been one of my best virtues. Some people are blessed with it. I tend to be an instant gratification person which probably explains why sewing and I have never been great partners. I always feel as if sewing just has too many steps. Cutting, pressing, pinning, more pressing.... you get the picture. My friend Robin
sews beautifully. You can tell she makes her cuts precise, pins everything correctly, creates straight seams, even sews rick-rack the way it was made - not just sewn down the middle. You can see a quilt that she has done here to get the jest of what I am saying. She recently made me this purse.


It is sooooo me. I just love it! As I was looking at the construction of it, I could not help but think that she sews like my Mimi (my grandmother). Everything of hers was beautiful too. The inside of her stuff was just as pretty as the outside. She did not care if you never saw it. She knew it was right plus she swore that everything lay better if it was this way.


 My mom is like this too. She tends to be very thorough in how she does things. I don't know what happened to me. I am sure the whole family wonders too. I am always planning, dreaming, got too many ideas and projects to work on..... its a never ending saga. These ladies are inspiring me to try to do better with all of my sewing projects. I do have to say the Embroidery machine and the Cricut are great partners for me. That is some instant gratification right there! For now I will just have to slow down and remember sometimes the extra mile produces better results!

Personalized baby blocks

Every since I bought my embroidery machine, I have been playing around with fonts I have found. I love this one font in particular named boys. I do not know why they named it boys because it actually works for both genders. All of the capitol letters have a pic of an item that starts with that letter. Just absolutely adorable!!!!!  I immediately thought I would use it to make some baby blocks.

 Then the more I thought about it..... I knew I wanted to put the babies name on it. A name is such a powerful thing. It solidifies who we are, sets forth our identity and it is normally one of the first things a baby learns. I think it is a great way for the child to connect their name with the letters of their name. In addition to the name, I knew I wanted to add taggies, different textures and a sensory effect for the ears. This is what I came up with.

I made this one for Zoey. It has crinkly paper inside the block. The boys and I can not stop touching it. We love the crunchy sound it makes and all the taggies feel neat. Did you notice the zebra in the "Z"? It may be hard to see in the pics but it is there.

Jack will be receiving this one. I really loved all the fabrics I used - a waffle texture, some flannels with cars printed on them and I actually used a square from a onesie with a car embroidery on it. I put a bell inside Jacks block. It sounds great!

 

So what do you think......should I put these in my store? 

Which brings me to another scenario. So many of you keep prodding reminding me to put more of my stuff in the store. It is on my to-do list, I promise but I must tell you a secret. It is so easy to procrastinate on that when you start a project. I tend to love creating toooo much. Then I get lost in it. But I promise I only have 3 projects finish up tomorrow. This coming weekend,,,, my store will be loaded with the items. If I do not do this, someone please prod remind me again ....please!

Photo Letters Giveaway!

My friend  Robin is expecting her grandchild Zoey to arrive soon. Fortunately I was able to finish up the letters for Ms. Zoey.  I loved the colors her parents picked out for the nursery - lime green and lavender with a hint of yellow. They also put Tinkerbell in the room so one of the quotes I put on the letters is about fairies and little girls. It seemed appropriate. Other embellishments are buttons, ribbons, photo clips, flowers, a butterfly and simple words like Cherish and Joy. I am sure they will look delightful once they are hanging on the wall with some of Zoey's pictures attached to them, don't you? 

Now I did promise a giveaway and I am just tickled to offer it to you. It is the.....
PHOTO LETTERS!
The winner will receive a set of letters that spell out one of the following:
Love, Hope, Joy or Home. These are 6 in wooden letters with  pre-drilled holes for hanging. Every letter comes with a clip waiting to display your treasured photos. 
If you are chosen , you can let me know your color scheme so I can customize them to match your decor. I will be using a random number generator to choose the lucky person on Sunday, August 1st, 2010 @ 4:00pm.


Just tell me what word you would choose to enter.

I am offering everyone up to four extra chances to enter. (You must leave a separate comment for each one.)


1. Follow our blog Goldilocks Creations. 
( Just leave a comment if you already follow)
2. Grab Goldilocks Creations Button for your blog.
3. Follow Goldilocks Creations on Facebook.
( Just leave a comment if you already follow)
4. Post about the giveaway on your blog or Facebook.


Good luck to all and thanks for visiting us!
:)

Chincoteague

We just got back from our little mini vacation to Chincoteague. It was so much fun. We have never been before, well I mean I have read Misty of Chincoteague before. So I guess you could say I had visited before within the pages of the book.  I got some beautiful pictures to share with you. I am glad to be back and look forward to offering my first giveaway which I will tell you all about tomorrow.....Promise!

Ornament Record Keeper

Every since I posted about our tree trimming ceremony, I have received so many questions as to how we keep track of all those ornaments. Its very easy with this pretty little notebook I made to record all my additions to our ornament collection.

I had to have something to keep up with all of the ornaments as the collection grew.

So many of my ornaments were given to me by my clients in my former life as a hairdresser. My mother always gives me a new hallmark ornament at Christmas. Not all of the ornaments were given to me though. Some of them I acquired as I traveled with my job or when we were on vacation. Many of them have been made by my children and myself which obviously means more than I can say. Several of them are worn out and look a little sad but I must keep them because they were my grandmothers. I remember them in their glory, hanging on her tree mesmerizing me with their beauty.

When we hang these ornaments on the tree, a vivid memory comes back with the ornament. This is the main reason I keep a record. I never want to forget or my children to forget. Not the ornament but the person, the place, or the activity associated with the ornament.

If your collection of ornaments is growing you might want to think of decorating a notebook for yourself too.  So many in your family will appreciate it as time marches on. I guarantee it! ;-)

Penguins Crossing!

Well I told you that I had an ornament for you so let me explain this little fellow to you. Are you familiar with The Penguins of Madagascar? We love them at our house. They completely crack us up. Even my hubby loves them. He usually imitates them and has nicknamed all three boys with one of the penguins names.

I thought it was only fitting to make Penguin ornaments for Christmas this year. This one is really easy to make....

you paint a light bulb!

Seriously , you just spray paint the bulb white. Make an outline of the face and tummy, and dry paint the yellow around the outline. Add the black everywhere else, paint the details on face and spray some clear finish on the bulb. After the finish dries, add some feet cut from yellow foam, wings cut from black foam and a little stocking cap made from a baby sock. Thats it! Simple, right? They are cute and cartoonish looking just like the show.

I think the boys will be happy with the little family of penguins I made to remind us of all the times we have laughed at those penguins antics. 

Christmas Giveaways and more!

If you are not familiar with Tip Junkie, I suggest you hop right on over to her blog and become familiar with it. Laurie has great, awesome giveaways going on right now to celebrate her Christmas in July. I discovered Tip Junkie a couple of years ago and have always found it to be a great resource for decor ideas, printables, organizational tips and creative holiday info. She truly tries to support moms with businesses with her mom-preneur shop. You can always find unique items made by moms. If you are looking for a giveaway , you will find lots of those as well since so many women post their giveaways on the Tip Junkie. It truly is like a one stop shop.  So go ahead, check her out and go win some stuff!

Now, I had an adorable ornament that I was going to show you but guess what? My camera batteries died again. I did not have any xtras laying around this time so we will have  to wait on that but I do have this to show you. When you look I am sure you are going to wonder.........

what do these fish have to do with Christmas????

 They are actually ornaments for my boys. I found these and thought they would be a nice representation of how we live on the coast.

Every year I give the boys several ornaments to add to their collection. It is my hope that when they go off into the world on their own, I will be able to hand them their box of ornaments to have a complete tree done. Now my oldest already has 62 ornaments in his box. He is 14  years old. I think we are on target to achieve this goal. Of course my DH pointed out to me that more than likely they will marry a girl who will say "We are not using those!".

I think the man really likes busting my bubbles sometimes. Oh well only time will tell about that but for now my boys love this tradition and so do I. C-ya tomorrow and don't forget about those great giveaways and Christmas ideas over at the Tip Junkie!  :)