KRISTEN MARIE TURNS 5!

It's been a whirlwind last few days and it ends on a high note with Kristen's birthday party - pizza, cake and some great friends/family (we missed you Grammy Beck!). I found this cake idea when I was googling for such. It's from http://www.bettycrocker.com/Recipes/Recipe.aspx?recipeId=40760 and it's called the groovy jeans cake, although we opted to make our groovy jeans pink instead of their blue. It was simple but very cute and she really liked it. I'm not sure if my favorite part is the fruit roll-up belt or the rock candy rhinestones. Way too many presents and she's already been into her new Barbie markers to color her cuttlebug jr. alphabet cutouts she made as well as played with her Barbie laptop. She's set with lots of crafts to do between now and Christmas (and then some!). She's going to love doing the projects that everyone got for her!

GOBBLE-GOBBLE!

Big turkey, small group for the Therrien household. The inlaws shared the day with us which was great and my dad came solo. I invited my grandparents as well trying to convince my nana that it would be great and I was cooking this big bird and her response was "Kimmy, I've got a bird for you!" to which we both laughed. That's my nana for ya! Unfortunately, my mother had some insane, lame-ass excuse (ha, ha) of having emergency eye surgery on Tuesday and she's to lay on her side for one week to allow the surgery to hopefully do it's thing. Apparently she was having some issues with floaters??? I dunno . . . google it . . .

"Eye Floaters can have devastating visual and emotional consequences. All too often, doctors dismiss patients' symptoms as unimportant or natural. Patients often describe floaters as seeing bugs, strings, or unusual dark shapes in their vision."

Anywhoo . . . the floaters disappeared but then she was having trouble with a film over her eye and come to find out she had a detached retna and was pretty much blind in that eye - yikes! Hence the need for emergency surgery. This totally blows for so many reasons I just can't even explain but most of all because my mother is my family's rock and the rock has become a little loose. Anyone who knows my mother knows that trying to stay still is not an easy task for her. I think that she would have been proud of my thanksgiving feast even if my gravy did come out of a can. I'm sad that she isn't feeling well and I'm sad that she missed thanksgiving and I'm sad that she won't make Kristen's birthday but it's so much more important that she do what she's supposed to do and LAY DOWN DAMMIT!

Kristen's birthday is Sunday and she turns 5. She's sooooooo excited! I was looking for cake ideas because she was just being too simple (ya, call me stupid!). I found this really cool idea for making a cake to look like jeans. They did theirs in blue but I'm toying w/ pink sparkly pants?? I'll blog about it. It's really not too hard. The hardest part is that I have a craft fair on Saturday and I'm working Saturday night and I've gotta pick up some of my crafts from the Sawyer's house Sunday night. Never a dull moment I guess! Oh and my husband is working tonight (Friday) so he's done all he can do for the moment of helping but my children have graciously agreed to help me on Saturday.

CRAFT FAIR COUNTRY STYLE AT SAWYER'S, BARNSTEAD, NH

Tom & Penny Sawyer open their home on North Barnstead Road, Barnstead, NH to Pandee's, Deedaloos and other local crafters begining Friday, November 28th and going through Sunday, November 30th. They will have our fleece items - hats & mittens - along with some fun retro-styled aprons and pajamas. Pandees has ceramics, primitive wood decorations for the holidays, wreaths, kissing balls and more. I believe that I saw some handmade sweaters and I know that they're having some homemade jams & jellies. I hope to update this post tomorrow after I visit. It's totally worth the trip and if you're uncomfortable with googling directions, just send me an e-mail. If you do attend because you saw my blog post, please let them know that I sent you! kimsworld5@verizon.net. UPDATED - I WAS THERE! THERE ARE SOME ORNAMENTS, GREAT SNOWMEN PRIMITIVE/COUNTRY WOOD DECORATIONS, THE KISSING BALLS ARE GREAT, CHOCOLATE LOLLIPOPS, GOATS MILK SOAPS, BLACK AND WHITE PICTURED SPECIAL OCCASION CARDS, BEAUTIFUL FABRIC PILLOWS. I LOVE THE WINE GLASSES THAT HAVE PAINTED ON SNOWMEN AND I LOVE THE WOODEN SNOWMEN!

12 Days of Christmas with the EtsyKids Teams!

On the first day of Christmas, the ETSYKIDS team members gave to me….a Christmas event you really must see!

November 28th – December 10th, join EtsyKids for 12 days of fabulous, festive fun and dreamy holiday prizes. Here’s how to play: Each day the EtsyKids blog will contain a post showing an image that’s hidden in an item listing on a few different EtsyKids team members’ shops. When a contestant finds just one of the hidden images, they send an Etsy conversation the day’s entry collector with a link to the listing where they found it. Once their conversation is received, they’ll be entered into a drawing for an amazing EtsyKids prize. The Etsykids blog will also contain clues to find the hidden images, and let contestants know who to contact to enter, as well as the prize(s) that will be awarded that day. The number of prizes will increase each day and the winners will be selected at random.***Contestants can enter once each day.Within 24 hours of winning, the lucky winners will be contacted via Etsy Conversation, and MUST contact (via Etsy Conversation) the prize donor with their mailing address within 2 days of being contacted. If they fail to contact the prize donor within the given time, a new winner will be selected.

SEWING KARMA & MY WALK IN CLOSET/FLEECE STASH

If you like to sew, you must know that from time to time mistakes are made. I believe that even the most experienced have made foolish mistakes and here I will share one of mine. I recently acquired some new pj fabric. I think it came with a curse affixed to it. I never actually purchased it because while I was preparing to cut something out of it I wanted to relish in my bargain prices for my recent stash load so I pulled out the receipt and I simply couldn't find this fabric anywhere on my slip. Hmmm . . . freebie I thought with my next thought being that maybe I should go back cuz if I don't I'm going have some bad karma. Needless to say I was ready to cut and cut away I did. I completed the pj's, posted them in my store (now in my clearance/seconds section) and even shared a pic with a co-etsyian only to relize that the construction trucks print was UPSIDEDOWN! I guess that I had thought that these trucks were all on there randomly and not all going one way?! I'm sorry, but that's some seriously poor planning from whoever designed this fabric - bastards! Needless to say, these pj's have the front and one arm w/ upside down trucks and all the rest are right side up. I guess the little guy could look down and he'll see the trucks on his belly right side up - right???
I used to dream of a walk in closet. When my husband was finishing my upstairs the one thing I was insistant on was that I wanted a walk-in closet. I honestly think that I remember show - maybe it was home improvements - the guy built his wife a shoe rack that rotated. There was a time I actually owned a ton of shoes for every possible event and now I think I might have five pair that I wear. Well, he gave me my walk-in closet and needless to say it eventually made it's way into my fleece/ebay storage unit. It never actually had racks for hanging clothes and I suppose that's just as well. I just cleaned this out a couple of nights ago - wow, it was a mess and had I really thought ahead, I would have had before and after pictures to show the difference. Although the stack of clothes might appear messy, they are really well organized! I've been a bit lax on my ebaying efforts so it will have to wait until I'm sick of looking at the pile. Needless to say, I do have a couple of other buckets stashed behind my entertainment system which I haven't pictured and then there's all my buckets IN my sewing room, but those aren't really fleece, but other STUFF.
The rolls of fabric standing up are actually my moms. I borrowed them but then couldn't really find a pattern that I thought I had plus the fabric wasn't quite what I expected and . . . well . . . they belong back in her attic . . . maybe someday my husband will take them back over if ask. Thanks for visiting and enjoy the rest of your week!

NEW PAJAMA WAFFLE KNIT PRINTS

Here's some great newbies to add to my collection! Strangely enough the day that I made my son a pair of pj's out of the Treasure Island print he came home with a note from his teacher stating that he'd take a test on Treasure Island and he did excellent and the book was almost 200 points over his previously assigned lexile reading level which is fantabulous! I think that this will make the pj's even more special! Lots of great toddler and bigger kid pajamas to be made!!

TRUE LOVE IN THE MAKING WITH MY JUKI 734DE SERGER & BROTHER 2340cv COVERSTITCH

Both of my new machines have been pulled from their boxes and I've packed away the huskylock. I've given the the new Juki 734DE a test run and all seems well. I have some attachments but I probably won't try any of those out until after the holidays. I don't like to mess with things when I feel pressed for time. That being said, I still decided to give the coverstitch machine a whirl. That too has 5 different attachments, but please don't ask me what they all are yet since I'm not even really sure. I've figured out the different ways you can thread it (I think) and what I mean by that is that it just depends if you want a wide or a narrow coverstitch and if you want two or threee needles threads. It's really like a serger but it doesn't cut. On the Brother 23440cv it's a bit different not having an autothread release which means that the needles threads don't release when you lift the presser foot. One might think that this is not a big deal until you try it and you realize what a pain it is to release them. I did find a tutorial that in my humble opinion will certainly make it a wee bit less cumbersome once I get used to doing it. Sew, if you too are wondering how to remove your fabric from your new brother 2340cv without feeling like you need to be an octopus, vist http://sew-4-fun.blogspot.com/2007/06/coverstitch-removing-fabric.html. You'll find this blog most helpful! Also, I've found so many helpful people at http://sewing.patternreview.com/. I'm feeling good about my choices so let's hope it stays that way!

Kristen was star of the day last week at preschool and I was the volunteer parent that same day. She was soooooo cute! She did such a great job with her poem. I tried to upload the video clip but it wouldn't work. Her poem goes like this: Brown is my hair, brown are my eyes, i'm 4 years old and just the right size. My name is kristen and as you can see, I'm very happy to be me! Might I point out that her left to right progression was fantastic as she just beemed with pride. I was so happy to share this time with her at East Concord Cooperative Preschool. Teachers Miss Jill and Miss Katie are really quite the everyday hero's in my book!

JUKI SERGER & BROTHER COVERSTITCH HAVE ARRIVED

THEY'RE HERE -- EW, EW, EW, THEY'RE HERE -- I'M SO EXCITED BUT I JUST CAN'T PLAY W/ THEM RIGHT NOW, NO TIME, MUST CLEAN OUT SPOTS FOR THEM TOO - PROBABLY START W/ SERGER FIRST SINCE I ALREADY KNOW HOW TO USE THAT ONE. MAYBE TOMORROW?? I'M GOING TO HAVE TO TAKE SOME PICS OF MY HUSKYLOCK AND KISS IT GOODBYE SO I CAN SAVE FACE WITH HUSBAND. THE JUKI TOOK A DIGGER ON IT'S WAY HERE, BUT SEEMS IT ONLY HAS BOX INJURY.

ALSO, FOR YOUR ADDED VIEWING PLEASURE IN THIS POST, MY RECENTLY COMPLETED EAR FLAP HAT DONE IN CROCHET WITH SOME FABULOUS SOY AND WOOL BLEND YARN THAT WAS $2.00 OFF A SKEIN AT MICHAEL'S. I'M THINKING OF DOING THIS ONE AGAIN IN BOY COLORS FOR HUBBY BUT NOT SURE WHAT HE'D THINK OF IT?! IT'S A LITTLE BIG ON SHEILA BUT SHEILA'S HEAD IS ABOUT 1.5 INCHES SMALLER THAN MINE.

LASTLY, HERE'S A PIC FROM CRAFT FAIR AT COE-BROWN ACADEMY IN NORTHWOOD, NH. IT WAS O.K. - TOO MANY PEOPLE THERE SELLING JEWELRY SO I'M REALLY GLAD THAT WASN'T MY GIG. I'D HAVE TO SAY HONESTLY THAT WE MAY HAVE BEEN ONE OF THE HOT SPOTS AT THE FAIR, BUT I COULD JUST BE DREAMING TOO. OUR SPACE WAS WAAAAAAAAY TOO CRAMPED AND MOM NEEDS TO REMEMBER TO BRING AN ALLEN WRENCH FOR HER GREAT NEW CLOTHING RACKS.

HALLOWEEN 2008 GORILLA & BATMAN FROM THE 80's

Here's the finalized version of my batman costume. I cannot take credit for the gorilla - that came off of a clearance rack at Sam's club years ago and this is Kristen's 2nd year wearing it (her choice entirely and no tears from me on that one). The kids are very pleased with their pumpkins as well as their candy intake! I'm told that they got to experience some sort of haunted house while out w/ dad, their aunt and cousins trick-or-treating. I could tell that they had a great time! Now if only Matty would be batman next year too . . .

not a chance!