Flashback Friday

Taking inspiration from Chistopher and Tia , I am posting a Halloween flashback. I don't have any photos of me as a kid at Halloween- my dad was the photographer and I guess got home after we had left to trick or treat. He was really much more of a posed portrait kind of guy than a snapshot taker anyway.

Anyway, back when I first became a mom, I remembered that I had as a very little kid worn cool costumes made by my mom. So to me that meant that mom's made costumes. So here are some of my attempts:
This was a Dalmatian costume I made, and I had actually made it for him the year before, and he refused to even try it on that year!
This was my first Halloween with 2 kids, and I guess by then had gotten over my overachiever tendencies, because the Power Ranger costume was store bought, and my younger son is wearing the clown suit I made for his brother's first Halloween.



This was the year my boys were Batman and Robin! I have no photos of them together, because Robin was deathly afraid of Batman. The Batman suit was homemade from a pattern, the Robin suit was storebought. I think this was the last costume I ever made from scratch using a pattern, after this I discovered the joys of doctoring premade clothes with paint or sewn on appliques (the elaborate Elvis costume made from a white sweatsuit is a story for another day!). I think the year after the Batman suit, the boy requested a Superman suit he saw at KMart that had "the muscles already in it".

It's all About the Attitude...

...and yes, mine seems to be in the crapper. I was just writing a message to a friend, and realized that everything I started to type was just one bitch and moan after another, so I ended up stopping pretty much at "How are you?" I am not sure if it is because I have had a bad head cold, or because I am so behind in my household chores, or because I am so behind on what I want to get done for my business. Or because some days I spend almost 4 hours in the car transporting a kid, and he is only a freshman, so it is not likely to end anytime soon. Or maybe it is all of the above. What I do know, however, is that something has to give!

So today I will attempt to start pulling myself out of this mess. First, I am going to put a yummy dinner in the crockpot- pot roast with red skinned potatoes, carrots and onions. Then I will get my shower, catch up on bill paying and do as much house straightening as I can get done. That better be the extent of my to do list, as an overwhelming list is just grounds for more downward spiral!

Back to Reality

Well, my beach vacation is over now, and it is time to get back to my real life. My favorite beach activity was sitting at the water's edge with my toes in the ocean watching the people and the surf. My sister-in-law and I were doing just that in this picture taken by her husband (thanks, Lew!). For maybe the first time ever, we could sit on the beach and be totally unaware of how long we had been there and even what time it was! (The only horrible flaw in this plan reared its ugly head when the sunburn appeared!) We chatted for hours enjoying each other's company and the feel of the breeze, sun and surf. We took it as a sign to go back inside when the rising tide chased us back up the beach to our shoes.

Back to Crocheting

granny square 001
Originally uploaded by magscrafts

So now that my crafting is my business, what is there to do to "relax"? I decided the other day to crochet myself an afghan. I remember from my childhood that my grandfather's house had a granny square afghan, that was black and a million other colors. I decided that is what I would do too. I bought some cotton yarn, and here is the first square- I plan to join the square using black yarn and some crochet stitches.

I made an afghan for my first son before he was born, and those were the last granny squares I made. He is 19 now!

Message to Entrecard Peeps

It is generally my policy to return drops to every Entrecarder who has visited me that day first thing when I log onto Entrecard. Unfortunately for most of the rest of the summer, I will be dropping amongst my errands while I wait for my son to finish football stuff. I will be working using the internet at the public library. I apologize, but certain blogs get caught in the library filter, so they will not open for me (the example that comes to mind is Sexy Old Broad- I love you but the filters, not so much!). I hope everyone will be patient and still drop in to visit, and I will reciprocate as soon as I can!

In the meantime, here is a pretty flower photo from my backyard!

Happy 4th of July!

I want to wish everyone a happy and festive 4th of July. This year we are staying close to home and cooking on the grill. It will be nice to relax.

Chickadee Friends Studio

A longtime friend and I have been for many months now inspiring each other to stretch our creative wings in the fiber arts. Her name is Karen Campbell, and she is quite a wonderful quilter. Karen and I used to work together - her degree is in Cell Biology, mine in Biochemistry. She taught me a lot of what I know about the world of quilting.

Karen and I like to share inspirations- walks in nature, art shows and galleries, interesting color combinations. At some point recently, I invited Karen to join my business, and we created Chickadee Friends Studio to represent our fiber art endeavors. It seems like maybe the way we will work best will be that often one of us will start something, and then pass it on to the other. I already have a ton of pieced blocks that Karen put together that I will incorporate into my own work. I am working on a section of my Maggie's Handcraft Studio site that will showcase the Chickadee Friends stuff, but so far most of our stock in for sale at The Shops at Fabian House.

For example, I took this dog themed quilt to the shop last week. Karen made the quilt and I made a copper wire hanger for it.

The Windows and Doors quilt pictured below (and made by Karen) will go into the shop tomorrow. This quilt has some great surface thread embellishments, which do not show up very well in the photo. I definitely have to work on my quilt photography!