One of my motivations for joining Mochi's postcard swap was how much I love getting snail mail. And sure enough, it was so much fun receiving all my postcards! I finally stopped procrastinating and got all the wonderful postcards scanned!

This one is from Amy:



And from Candie (left) and Tania. Does it make me a big dork that I was super excited to get Tania's postcard? Hers is one of the first blogs I started reading, and I absolutely love her illustrations!

  

This is from Christabel:



And from Jennie. Is this not the cutest puppy ever??



Check out these buttons from Tabitha!! I can't wait to be hit with inspiration for how to use these.



This one is from Katie:



And from Megan:



Last but certainly not least, from Susanna:



This was such a fun swap, and turned out to be a great way to find new blogs!

Labels: swaps

In keeping with my New Year's Intentions I have been going twice a week to an ab class at my work's on-site gym. A friend of mine joins me pretty regularly, and she has this neat bag she brings her workout clothes in. It is a large tote, with a drawstring top to keep everything contained. Not one to be put off by something I haven't tried before, I came up with a design and spent about $5 at WalMart for some fabric. I now have a drawstring bag of my own!



If I had it to do over again I would have made the strap a little narrower and shorter. Since the fabric was so cheap, I suppose I do have it to do over again! Maybe I'll try again later with a few tweaks on the design. For now, I'll use it for ab class, and probably as a carryon and a weekend bag, and much more! I think I'll work up a matching pouch since I didn't include any pockets...





The only problem so far is since I was lazy and didn't prewash the fabric first, it's turning things pink! Looks like I get to test the sewing and wash it soon!

Labels: sewing

Last week an invitation went out for a coworker's baby shower... I have never been one to buy something off the registry (especially when that's all the men at work will do!), but I didn't have much time, so I took a page from Amanda's book and make a baby blanket from some flannel and fleece I've had for a while.



I didn't even bind it this time, just sewed with right sides together, flipped it right side out, and did a little zig zag on the edge.



And every night of hard work deserves a little reward!

My favorite eBay vintage bead shop had these adorable tiny green rough cut beads when I made my last order. I wanted to make some delicate earrings with them, and I'm quite happy with the result! Unfortunately, they were quite hard to photograph, since they're so tiny! I waited for some natural light over the weekend (thank goodness it's starting to stay lighter later!) and snapped this photo.



I used the lever back earring posts so that the light earrings wouldn't be at risk of falling out. I'm not sure if I have enough readers to try this, but I have plenty of jewelry right now (especially green), so these are up for sale for $9. Email me at semikkelsen(at)yahoo(dot)com if you're interested!

Labels: jewelry

Since I recently got my automatic one year raise (so the new-hires don't make more money than me!) I decided to get myself a little gift. This turned into a few little crafty gifts. First, I got in on port2port's wonderful February printing. As beautiful as this is in her pictures, it is even more beautiful in person! This will get framed and be my first step in decorating my craft room.



I also am anxiously waiting a sweet little owl from Merwing, creator at little dear. I told her I'd like something like 5b and 5c in the photo below, so I can't wait to see what she makes!



She also had the wondeful idea of making a trinket shelf with a yardstick. I might have to incorporate this into my craft room visions!

Last but certainly not least, I ordered this book from YesAsia.com.



I had also tried to order this book but they were having a really hard time finding it, so it was delaying the whole shipment and I got impatient and cancelled it. So much for delayed gratification!

All in all, I have wonderful things coming my way! I can hardly wait!!

Well, I am sort of back up and running... Things take a lot longer than normal, which is frustrating, but it should get better! I am using Gimp to edit pictures since we don't have Photoshop on this computer, and it's pretty cool! It has all the features I use in Photoshop to fix up pictures, and it's free!

Here is a necklace I made a few weeks ago, out of some pink quartz pear-shaped beads. They are such a beautiful color, I just had to wait for some natural light to take pictures of them...



My sister came up with the design for this necklace. The beads split off right at the hollow of your neck. I really was just in love with the color, and had to make something else with these beads!

Labels: jewelry

Computer problems have left our desktop computer inaccessible, and that's what I use to edit and upload all my pictures... That's my measly excuse for not posting lately. I have been receiving my postcards from Mochi's Postcard Swap, and I can't wait to share them.

So hopefully we'll get the other computer up and running, or I'll get this laptop set up for editing pictures, so I can get back to posting! As usual, I have grand plans and tons of project ideas on my list, and when we finish painting tomorrow I'm going to get right to work!