Embellishment Finds On Etsy

I've been sitting here for the past 1/2 hour trying to find something really great to share with you today. Yesterday was my nephew's birthday so we spent the day at my sister's house. I managed nothing in the way of stitching time, which is fine. It happens now & then and will certainly help me to appreciate my stitching time even more this afternoon!

For today, I thought I'd share with you a great Etsy shop that carries all sort of beads & charms suitable for crazy quilting and other needlework projects:



The Artful Market has very nice brass charms at extremely reasonable prices. I recently purchased some brass fish, some little butterflies and some leaf charms.

I was quite pleased not only with my order, but with the great communication and speedy shipping offered by this nice Etsy shop owner!

Bird Purse - Secret Revealed!

I did some more beading on the appliqué on my bird purse yesterday:



With all the excited of setting up the new fish tank, I couldn't sit still long enough to stitch so I didn't get in as much stitching time as I would have liked but that's ok.

Now, you're probably still wondering what that glittery green stuff is to the right of the bird. I didn't think anyone would figure it out.

It's one of those glittered floral picks that you can use to tie on packages or to make flower arrangements:



I found them at Michaels Craft Store back at Christmas time. They were on sale so I bought a bunch of them thinking they would be great on Seascapes. I was looking for a piece of lace the other day and saw these in my drawer and thought, "hey, I can use a piece of that on this project" so I clipped a piece off and sewed it on!

If you want to give this a try, I just want to warn you: some of the glitter will come off onto your CQ. Not to worry! After you get it sewn on and add some do-dads to it, just hold it face down over a waste basket and tap on the back a few times and the excess glittered will fall off of your stitched piece!

I've been told that I use some unusual things on my CQ projects and yes, I do! The great thing about crazy quilting is that there are no rules. If I can sew it on, I will sew it on!

New Aquarium!

We've come a long way on our Living Room remodel and are finally reaching the point of completion!

The floor is done and the trim is in. We primed and painted the trim first before nailing it in place. I spent a couple of hours this past week going around and touching up the paint on the nail holes.

I still have to paint the risers on the steps and the interior door and I still have to have paint my Ivy leaves here and there but I'm very happy to say, that the worst is over! The "dust" producing projects are done!

Before we started this project, we had a 60 gallon aquarium which took up a whole wall. I could have lived without the fish tank all together but Scott really enjoys it so I asked if we could get a smaller corner tank instead. He loved the idea so yesterday, we went up to PetsMart and bought our new corner tank. It's all set up and we can start moving our fish later this evening:



Check out the Greek (or Roman) ruins that we bought! We went with all new gravel, artificial plants and do-dads.

When we did the floor, we had to set up 2 small temporary tanks (heaven help me, in my kitchen) for our fish. And we unfortunately lost 4 of them in the move. So next weekend, we'll head back up to PetsMart and get 3 or 4 new tiny fantail goldfish. I love goldfish!

Here's a photo of the tank on the stand. You can see my new oak floor, my icy aqua blue sponge painted walls and my white trim:



Could I possibly be any worse at taking pictures! Geez, I should have had Scott take these. But it's enough for you to see! I have an antique chair that will sit next to the tank so my cats easily watch the fish. Simba especially enjoys watching them swim back and forth!

Bird Purse Continued

The bird purse is coming along nicely! I did some beading on it yesterday:



The bird pin is now permanently attached. Because the pin is in mint condition, I didn't want to alter it in anyway. I pinned it in place and then added a few tack stitches here and there to make sure it wouldn't go anywhere.

You might be wondering what the glittery green spray is to the right of the bird. Does anyone want to take a guess as to what that is? I'll reveal my secret tomorrow!

Google AdSense

Because I put so much time and energy into my blog posts everyday, I've decided to add Google AdSense to help generate a bit of income for my efforts.

It'll be in the sidebar and not right in the middle of each daily post. That way, if it bothers you, my readers, it should be easy to ignore and if anyone is interested in one of the ads, clicking on it will help to support this blog.

Since I'm HTML challenged, my friend Chris will be adding the code when he has a few free moments. It should be there in the next few days.