Happy Christmas!

Just want to take a few moments to wish everyone a very Happy & safe Christmas Eve & Christmas Day. 

Scott is taking me out for breakfast tomorrow and then to the antique mall.  Hoping to find some new little goodies for my stitching projects! 

A New Litter Of Crazy Quilt Cat Dolls!

I just finished wrapping my gifts and now I'm making soup.  Smells good!

I'll keep this post short today as I know everyone is quite busy.  I just thought you'd like to see my latest Crazy Quilt Cat Dolls.  Perfect for Valentine's Day Gifts!  Yes, I am already thinking Valentine's Day!  I love the pink and the cupids and the hearts!  Anyway, here are the kitties:

These are all available in our Boutique.

I'm off to check on my soup.  Have a great evening everyone!

Christmas Week

I have been stitching but I know everyone is busy so I haven't worried about blogging too much this week.  I've also been helping mom out.  As you know, she had gallbladder surgery last week and is doing well.  Surgeries aggravate her depression though, so she's having a tough time with that.

My Simba is doing better.  He's still too thin in my opinion but he has put a little weight back on:

He's been playing more!  It's good to see that.  He used to play all the time and still chased his tail until the Colitus set in.  Now he lays on the sofa and plays with that little pink fuzzy ball all the time!  The only problem is, he knocks it on the floor and then I have look for it!  LOL!!!

Here's one of my latest finishes:

The design is from my collection of vintage iron-transfer patterns.  I've crayon tinted it and bordered it with a white and blue pin dot fabric.  I just added it to the shop.

At the moment, I'm working on some little baby things using my vintage patterns.  I thought it would be fun to offer some baby items in the shop.  I plan to start on Block #5 of my Marie Antoinette quilt later this week.

As for Christmas, I just have to wrap my gifts!  I put my little tree out yesterday, and my little glitter houses that mom & I made last year so my living room is sparkly but not overwhelming to me. 

If you've been a long time follower of my blog, you know that I deal with ADD/ADHD, Depression, Anxiety and Seasonal Affective Disorder.  This is the most challenging time of year for me.  But I'm glad to say, that after tomorrow, it starts staying light out longer.  I know it won't be noticeable for a few weeks but it's good to know that we'll be gaining a minute of daylight every day!

If you cope with any of the disorders that I mentioned, or if you deal with the holiday blues, you might find this article on Coping The The Holidays helpful.

I hope you're having a nice holiday season.  I'll be back tomorrow with my favorite of mom's Christmas cookie recipe.  If you basic baking supplies on hand and a bag of chocolate chips, you'll be able to whip these up!

Embroidered, Cottage Style Accent Pillows

Just a quick post for this evening everyone.  I just added these Embroidered, Decorative Pillows to our shop:

I'm really into my iron on transfers these days so I thought I'd stitch up a few pretty shabby chic pillows!

Tomorrow, I'll have a new blog post from mom.  She'll be sharing a wonderful Christmas memory with you from when I was little!

Until then, have a great everyone!

A New YouTube Video

Hello Ladies!  I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!  By Friday, I was feeling very burned out.  I know now to pay attention to the warning signs so I've been stitching and taking it easy.  I'll have an update on Block 3 of my Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt soon.  In the meantime, I thought you would enjoy seeing my newest YouTube commercial.  Enjoy!

Update On Marie Antionette Quilt Block 2

I thought you would all enjoy seeing an update on Block #2 of my Marie Antoinette Crazy Quilt:

I'm getting ready to work on this for an hour before getting ready to go over to mom's.

In other news, it really hit me hard yesterday that my Simba won't be with me real long.  Although he seems to be doing better, I'm smart enough to know that Kidney Failure is pretty much a death sentence.  I lost my Francis to Kidney Failure back in 96.

Honestly, I feel like I just keep getting kicked in the head, over and over and over.  It's like there's this perpetual dark cloud hanging over me that just won't go away.

I'm have to take Simba for another blood test tomorrow and am eager to see what that shows.  I'll keep you posted.

I've added a few new things to the shop:

 

I need to stitch now.  I expect to have my Marie block done in the next day or so.  Have a good day everyone!

Glitter Houses Are Here!

Just a quick little update for this evening everyone.  I managed to list all of our Glitter Houses in the shop today:

And here's my latest video:

New Additions To The Shop & Quick Newsbrief

As much as I love blogging and love to blog everyday, there are days when I just can't squeeze one more thing in!  I'm in the process of getting caught up on adding our newest Christmas items to the shop.  I expect to have everything we have at the moment in there by the end of the weekend.  It's an extremely time consuming and tedious process.  Anyway, I'll start by sharing our latest additions.

These are mom's Gift Card Or Money Pockets:

Are these beautiful or what!  I can't believe how awesome my mom is at Mixed Media art.  She's always been so traditional but she really has a knack for this!

And here are Mom's Mixed Media Art Gift Tags:

Again, I'm so taken with how great Mom is at Mixed Media art.  These are so beautiful in person and seeing them, makes me want to make some!

This is my newest addition to the shop:

I have 2 of these little Gingerbread Man brooches in the shop.

I doubt I have to give anyone the link to our shop as I'm always shoving it down everyone's throat but just in case, here it is again:  Kitty & Me Designs.

I certainly hope I don't bore anyone with my "shop talk" but it's a huge part of what I do and I really, really enjoy it so much.  It's given my mom a sense of purpose and over all, I can see where it's helped keep her Bi Polar Disorder at a tolerable level.  For the most part, I can see that the ups & downs are not as extreme as they were.

For Kathi, it gives her an outlet for her creativity.  She has a stressful job as an insurance agent and making things for the shop helps to relieve her stress.

For me, it keeps my ADD mind occupied.  I always say, when the hands are occupied, the mind is occupied.  It helps to take my mind off the depression which I know is still there although I have noticed another twinge of improvement but the Seasonal Affective Disorder is loud and clear at the moment and may I say that hormone changes do not help!!!  I can really live without the night sweats!

Ok, so enough of all that.  I plug my shop constantly and I don't care.  I love making things and I love being able to give my mom and my sister an outlet for their creativity.

And speaking of my sister Kathi, I have a treat coming for you all!  She shared an original recipe with me and she wrote up a nice blog post to go with it.  I'll be making her recipe either later today or tomorrow, taking photos and sharing Kathi's post with you here.

In other news, I've been stitching on block #2 of my Marie Antoinette quilt.  I made some changes to the lace that I chose.  Just decided to go with something else.  I'll share an update on that in the next day or so.

For now, I'll leave you with a sneak peek of what's coming to the shop next:

Yes, Mom and I made some Putz style Glitter Houses!  These are not the actual houses that I'll be listing.  These photos are of the ones that Mom and I made last year.  I'll be adding 6 traditional glitter houses and 4 gingerbread glitter houses to the shop this weekend.  I'd like to get them all in the shop today but that's quite a bit of work so I may have to break it down and do some today and some tomorrow.

I don't think mom and I will be able to do anymore this season if any one wants them, keep your eye on the shop.  I've been asked several times if we'll be doing some this year so get them while you can.

On a final note, I am still planning on writing more Crazy Quilt tutorials and my article on Creatively Coping with the Holidays.  Lots of new things coming to the blog so please stop by often!

Musical Food Dishes

Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts and prayers for my Simba.  He seems to be doing a twinge better.  No peeing or pooping on my floor and he's not throwing up as much as he was. 

He's not at all thrilled with his special diet food but he does take his pill without a second thought.  He just gobbles it up!

The challenge now is the "musical food bowls".  I have to make sure that Simba eats his food and not the others and I have to watch Nightmare & Lucy like a hawk so they don't eat his food. 

My Nightmare is the most persistent cat I've ever met.  I literally have to put him in the bathroom or bedroom so Simba can eat in peace.

So that's where I'm at with this situation.  I can see why I had a breakdown 2 years ago.  I got so tired of dealing with things, fixing things, cleaning things and just plain doing things.  I just got so worn out!  But enough of that.

I spent hours and hours yesterday adding new things to our shop.  Mom & Kathi have made so many beautiful things!  Here's the latest:

Remember, phone & email orders are welcome!

For now, I'm going to stitch on my "mystery CQ project" and do a bit of needle felting.

Thank you again for keeping my Simba in your prayers!

New Creations

Some new finishes:

Everything was made by Mom except for the Santa Brooches which I did.  Polymer Clay meets hand Needle Felting!

Now Accepting Phone Orders & Email Orders

I had no clue that some people don't care for ordering online.  After having several conversations earlier this week, it's come to my attention that many people either don't want to mess with signing up at Etsy, or just find it easier to pick up the phone and place an order.  It's funny how things come about sometimes.

Mom and I discussed this and we agreed that taking phone orders would be helpful so, here we go!  We are now accepting phone orders as well as email orders.

Everything in my Etsy shop is available to order by phone or email.

To order by phone, click here.  If you call and I'm not here, please leave a message with your name and phone # and I will return your call ASAP. 

To order by email, click here.  Just send me a list of what you would like to order and again, I will reply ASAP.

I will have to send a PayPal invoice via email either way.  It's the only way I can accept Visa/Mastercard payments at this time but who knows what the future may bring!  One step at a time.

With all that said, I will make our entire catalog available right here on my blog (at the tab on the top marked Phone Orders) but that's going to be time consuming so I'll have to add it a little at a time.  For now, everything we offer is available to see on my Etsy site. 

I'm getting ready to list some new items so for now, I'll leave you with the weekends additions:

Marie Antoinette Quilt Block 1

Among other things, I started stitching on Block #1 of my Marie Antoinette quilt:

I'll be taking this over to mom's with me today and I'll do some stitching while I'm there.

And speaking of being at mom's, she has some emails to answer so if you're waiting for a reply from her, I'll be helping her do that today.

I also put my Pansy piece in the frame yesterday:

I just added it to my Etsy shop in case anyone is interested.

Finally for today, Scott will draw a name for my Snowflake Crazy Quilt ornament & magazine give away when he gets home from work tonight.  I will post the winner's name tomorrow morning!

Good luck everyone!