Life is Sweet!

My Mom's been having a really stressful time lately; her mother is very sick, and not showing very much improvement over the last 6 months. So, when she mentioned to me the last time I saw her, that she loved my birthday present to myself - my Betz White inspired cupcake pin cushion; I knew I had to make her one as well.

To make this one extra special I even added some fun ribbon trim, and a cherry on top! It's actually a felted bead, dyed with cherry watermelon Kool-Aid, and a fleece "mint leaf" - but it's all anchored to a silk pin, so it's totally removable, too!

An update on my broken heater - it's not broken anymore! My husband is so handy, he saved us a trip out from the HVAC guy! I guess it was just a valve or switch being flaky... or maybe it was a valve switch... I dunno, and I kinda don't care - because I'm not freezing anymore! LOL

Sakura Pincushion

Another evening post for me today... I've been doing so much hand sewing lately, I thought to myself, "Why not make another pincushion?" You know, because I don't have enough pincushions, already! LOL Anyhoo, I've seen these guys around the Blog-O-Sphere, and wanted to make my own, and it was super easy-peasy! Watch out for mor store updates, over the weekend, and into next week! Thanks for stopping by!

Happy (early) Birthday to me!

For a while, I've seen Betz White's recycled sweater cupcakes around a bunch of different blogs. I knew I wanted to try it myself, and I had the perfect sweater laying around, just begging to be reconned into my very own cupcake pin cushion! A CASHMERE cupcake pin cushion! Chocolate caramel cashmere cupcake - to be precise! LOL Normally I'm more of a yellow cake kind of girl, but the sweater I started with was brown & tan, and it looks delicious anyway!

I'm off to try and clean a bit before tomorrow - my 26th birthday! I hate clutter, but I hate cleaning on my birthday even more! My husband & I are going to a wonderful restaurant in Lombard, The Capital Grille; and I'm very excited. We were there a couple of weeks ago with his parents, and loved it. I just need to try the white chocolate mousse this time. Mmmmmm.....

Tiffany Box Pin-cushion

I was over browsing through Whip Up, when I saw the CUTEST pin-cushions ever! Mini cakes & pies - talk about delicious! Although I love cakes & pies, when I saw the picture I knew I had to make mine a Tiffany Box! Here's the two together, the real Tiffany, and my pin-cushion box.

Well, it turns out the original idea came from Aoi, over at Craftster, so I want to give her snaps! Go Aoi! You rock! Mine's made from scraps of aqua wool gabardine (my new pinched pleat drape!), it's 3" square, and the "lid" is 1" tall. The ribbon is 7/8" wide white satin (and the bow took about a dozen tries - I'm no Tiffany & Co. employee!). I lined the interior with the paper tape I used to support my drape (I guess it's called buckram? Anybody know?) to give it some stiffness at the corners, and make it really boxy! Here's a closeup of just the pin-cushion.

I'm pretty proud of the finished product, it's my first handsewn item I'm happy with (I'm kind of a perfectionist). Now I hafta go out and make a set of white bow shrinky-dink pins to match!

If you've got questions or comments, I'd love to hear them!

Did I mention I love Tiffany boxes? It's funny because I don't always love their jewelry (I like some of it, just not all); but something about the whimsy their packaging evokes really captures my interest, and I think the tiny boxes are so cute!