Get Carded wallet #6

What can I say? I made another one. My sixth wallet from Erin Erickson's awesome pattern! Somebody stop me!!! But not yet. I have at least two more to make. Heheh.

This one is for a very special little friend. Actually, I've only met her once, but I've seen tons of photos of her, and her mom and I have become very good friends. Her birthday is tomorrow, and her mom asked if I'd consider making her a wallet for her birthday since I'm so addicted. Of course I was delighted to have an excuse to make another one, and her mom asked if I had any fabric with bunnies on it. Well, sure enough I did, and it was perfect, because I could get bunnies AND her initials together! So I put her first initial on the front...

... and her last initial on the back (on the optional plain fabric pocket instead of the vinyl one, since I didn't think she'd be getting carded anytime soon).

After I sent her mom pics of it, I asked if I had maybe accidentally gotten her middle initial on there, too, since I had no idea what her middle name is. Sure enough, I did! Ha! How cool is that? Her mom's initial just happens to be on there, too (in case she wants to borrow it sometime).

The fabric also has lots of other fun things, like scissors and pencils, etc., that interest that little girl, and I figured she'd like a strap that she can take off and reattach, so that has cool stuff on it, too.

It was a little tricky fussy-cutting it and figuring out what to put where. Thank goodness I'd used the pattern a time or two (or five) before, so I knew where each piece would end up. I still held my breath, wondering if my plan would work out when it came time to sew it. It did work, and I was quite pleased with the results!

So Happy Birthday tomorrow, Kate! I hope you have a super day, love the wallet, and enjoy being 6 years old!! (And are recovering from the jet lag, ETC. ;) )

In case the fabrics look familiar, the outer one came from Jess's friend in Japan, and I used it on Courtney's LeapPad case. The inner one was some I'd bought many years ago, and I used it recently in the Le Marais coat, hat and bag for Courtney's American Girl doll.

I may be expanding my addiction. Erin Erickson just released a new sewing pattern! I've been waiting for this one... it's called the Gadget Guard. It's for making sleeves for electronic devices, such as laptops, tablets, readers, etc., and the brilliant thing about it is that it contains a formula for fitting any size device! I'm excited to try it out! In case any of you are interested in giving it a try yourself, it happens to be on sale for $2 off until April 6th, so grab it now!

Do I sound like an ad for Erin Erickson? She's not paying me to say these things! :) I only say them because I'm so thrilled with her patterns. I love them because they're so good. That's it. Try one... you'll see what I mean.

Get Carded wallet #5

You know what addicts do, don't you? They just keep doing the same things over and over and over again. Yep, that's me. I'm addicted to the Get Carded wallet pattern!

Addicts often have enablers. I have one, too. My enabler is the person who furnished the clear vinyl for the ID card pockets. That's Courtney's Auntie Kris, who comments here every now and then. I appreciate this enabler very much, so I made a wallet just for her, to pay her back, although she furnished her own fabrics. I think this has become my new favorite of all the wallets... I love it! The fabrics kept reminding me of SPRING! So fun to sew... soooo pretty!!

So much loveliness!

And guess what? I haven't overcome my addiction yet (not that I'm trying). I have 2 more wallets cut out. Heehee! One of them has a deadline, so I must get it done fast. I also have fabric on its way to me for another deadline project (not a wallet!), which also needs to get done really fast. So I think this is probably my last post for this week. But don't worry, I'll be back! And you'll get to see what I made.........

Dancing with Courtney!

Courtney's been taking her first-ever dance classes for a while now, and she had a recital yesterday. It was so fun to watch, and she did a great job! I took lots of photos, and it was too hard to nail them down, so I made some collages for you. You can click on each one to enlarge it for a better look.

The girls did some tumbling, too. I really had to admire their teacher! She had a somewhat dangerous job, what with all those legs and arms flying around! ;)

It must've been a lot of fun for Courtney... even if her routine didn't quite go as intended, she always ended up laughing. :)

Below are some really fun shots, with lots of action:

I had brought my trusty old Kodak along to capture a video to post here. So have fun watching the girls dance... and turn up your volume! Courtney's front and center, with the blue belt.

Yeah... the music ended just that abruptly... end of dance. :)

Nice goin', Courtney! Grandpa and Grandma are so proud of you!

Crafting (& drafting?) with Courtney

On Tuesday when Courtney was here, she decided she wanted to do a craft project from fabric scraps. She had just gotten out her basket of scraps when I got a phone call that ended up lasting quite a while. She went ahead, though, and did the entire project all by herself, including the thinking up of what to make. Here she is with her little project:

Now you need to take a closer look at all the details! I think it's awesome. And look at that cute little face!

Then from a previous visit (I can't even remember if it was last Sunday or the Tuesday before), she had decided to make a drawing of her house. This is her first version:

It wasn't quite big enough to hold everything, so she made a slightly bigger one. Neither was big enough, though, to include the bathroom she accidentally forgot, so she had to build an addition. :)

Okay, one more try, on a bigger piece of paper:

Don'tcha just love them? I sure do! Considering she's only a first grader, I think she did a wonderful job of phonetic spelling. The proportions are a teensy bit off... some nice thick walls there ;)... but really, I don't think I could do a freehand drawing of our house and get all the proportions right, either! I do think it's pretty significant that her playroom is the biggest room in the house. :)

Bonus post!

It's the first day of spring!!!!!!!!!!! And just for that, I'm giving you another post besides the one from earlier this morning that I wrote last night. I've had new sightings!

I saw my first robin last evening, but it disappeared before I could even get the camera. This morning I saw another one, and it cooperated much better. Here's my very first robin photo of the year, taken from over 50 feet away:

As I was outside with the camera, I could hear many, many geese honking, but they didn't sound like they were flying. A quick look told me that they were on some standing water in the neighbor's field. This is what I could see from our driveway:

Zooming in as far as I could gave me this next shot. Look how thick they are!

And then I cropped another photo for a slightly better look:

Spring is here, folks... for real! Even if it snows again (and it surely could)... as they say, it can't last long. Today's forecast high temperature of sunny mid-50's should get rid of a lot of that dirty old snow, too. Hurray!

Happy Spring!!!

(And now I'll quit playing and get to work, Kris! Actually, that "work" is kinda like playing to me, too. ;) )

Wildlife

The day I took the photos of the falling water drops, I noticed this big guy out in our backyard.

He made quite a contrast against all the white of the snow.

It turned out he wasn't alone. Even the females were looking quite colorful in the sunlight.

And there were more. I counted 7 in all, although I think one is missing from this photo:

Tuesday morning I happened to see this little guy out back:

He didn't want to come out far enough for me to get a clear shot at him, though.

I'll get him someday!

Get Carded wallet #4

Hi. My name is Grandma G. I am a wallet addict. A Get Carded wallet addict. I just can't help myself.

Here's wallet number four, which sports a fun wrist strap:

I was going to give this one to someone, but I can't. I like it too much. It's mine. :)

This one's empty. I got tired of loading them up for photos. :)

Here they all are (so far). Do you have a favorite?

So fun!

My little model unexpectedly came for a visit on Sunday, so I put her to work. She got a little "smart" with me to begin with. ;)

And then she got down to business. Here you can get a good idea of the actual size of the wallets.

Guess what?! I'm making another one! And maybe another one or two or......

Signs of spring

Spring is coming. REALLY. There are definite signs! I've seen flock after flock of geese, thousands all in a matter of a few minutes, heading north. I've heard robins, but apparently they weren't staying here, because they were in the trees and not landing on the ground, so I couldn't see them. But Grandpa saw some last week. I've seen several huge flocks of blackbirds. And look what I discovered on the south side of our house Friday!

Yes, my tulips are coming up! I was rather surprised, considering that snowbank in front of the house. But they managed to get enough warmth to pop out of the ground despite the all the snow.

The best sign of spring, though, is the snow melting. Here's part of our front yard and driveway. The snow's been melting very fast, thank goodness.

I've mentioned the "golden hour" before... that hour just after sunrise or before sunset... that special hour where the color of outdoor photos is at its best. Here's the same scene, just a short time later, as the sun was about to set:

Sure makes a pretty difference, doesn't it?

And here's that setting sun:

Yes, spring is coming! HOW.EV.ER. ... as I write this, Monday night, we have a winter weather advisory, with 3-5 inches of new snow + wind possible on Tuesday. Aargh. Winter isn't gonna let go easily.

Poor Josie

I took Josie in to the vet this morning. She'd been limping slightly on one front leg for several weeks. I couldn't see or feel anything wrong, and I kept thinking (hoping) it'd get better on its own, but instead it's gotten worse recently, so I figured I'd better get her in and get it checked out. I called the vet clinic this morning and was able to get her in in only an hour, which was a nice surprise. The vet couldn't feel anything, either, so they did x-rays. All they could find was a bit of arthritis in her elbow joint. She's not quite 4 years old yet, and seems too young for that, but I guess it is what it is. So now she'll be taking a glucosamine/chondroitin supplement... plus pain meds for a couple days because of the stress to her leg getting the x-rays. Poor baby.

Here's a photo I took of her a couple weeks ago. It was such a lovely portrait, but somehow Blogger messes it up! I've tried uploading several different times, and it always turns out the same. She looks pale and sickly here, doesn't she? Well, that's probably how she's feeling about now, even though she doesn't really look it. Just imagine the black areas on her as being VERY BLACK, and her eyes bright and lovely.

**SIGH**   BLOGGER, QUIT MESSING WITH MY PHOTOS!!!!

Get Carded wallet #3

I love this pattern! 

They're just so fun to make, and each one goes together a little more quickly. I... um... just might be making another one... and another one......

More photo fun

On Tuesday I showed you falling water droplets. I also took some pics of droplets as they hit the puddle beneath them. (They were not the same droplets... I'm not that fast - ha!)

That looks like some kind of a little creature, doesn't it?!