elliebelle

Back from Vacation and 1 Year Older.

We made it back from our road trip to Nashville!  Toria and I had a wonderful time.  We lucked out and had great weather.  It was nice to feel the warm sun on my face and walk around without jackets. Here are a few shots from our trip.  You can also check out my Flickr for TONS more pictures.  I was snap happy.  

Toria with Elvis...

Me with Elvis...

Beautiful blooming trees...

Dressed up before we were off to the Grand Ole Opry.

The Opry was so much fun.  We had fantastic seats and the variety of performers was really wonderful.  I would LOVE to go again.  It was just really neat to see this community of performers and audience members who really loved music.  It was a great experience.

Kellie Pickler performing...

Little Jimmy Dickens...

Dierks Bentley...

Marty Stuart...

Vince Gill...

While we were in Nashville we also visited the Zoo which was lots of fun, especially for Toria as she is currently a vet student!  Here's a few of good shots from that.

At the Zoo, they had an old farmstead which was really neat to walk around.  I love imagining who lived there and what their lives were like.  It's amazing to stand somewhere that has so much history.

The flowers they had here were gorgeous.  It was wonderful to see blooming flowers.  I am especially glad now that I saw them, since we just got snow again last night here in Wisconsin!  ugg...

One of the days we were there we drove to Memphis and visited Graceland!

It was a lot of fun to look into the life of Elvis.  I like Elvis' music, but I've never been one of those big fans, but it feels like such an American thing to visit Graceland.  I really enjoyed seeing his house.  The 60s and 70s style is wild - I loved that!

Toria and me on Beale St.

On our way home, we drove through Kentucky and stopped at Mammoth Cave National Park.  We took a 2 hour tour of Mammoth Cave and it was AMAZING!  It is the longest cave in the United States.  It really is unbelievable to see the way the Earth was formed through glaciers.  Such a wonderful experience. We were there for the first tour in the morning so we lucked out and had a small group to walk through with.  Our tour guide has been working there since the early 70s so he was incredibly knowledgeable. It was a fantastic tour.  I would definitely recommend it.  The entire National Park was gorgeous.  It would be a fun camping trip.

I did get some great shots inside the cave.  I did most of the pictures without a flash and an incredibly slow shutter speed - so some of the pictures came out slightly fuzzy - I had to hold as still as possible since I didn't have a tripod.  But the cool thing is that the pictures ended up being brighter than it really was in the cave.

This shot is cool because you can see "ghosts" of people walking through the shot as the camera caught the people in my tour group walking through probably half way through the closing of the shutter!

So overall, the trip was wonderful and Toria and I didn't kill eachother! hahaha...Anyone with a sister knows that there can always be little spats, but having a sister that is your best friend is really one of the best things.  We laughed a lot, ate LOTS, and experienced great things.

Again, there are LOTS more pictures from the trip on my Flickr, if you'd like to see them.

And oh yeah, I turned 26 on Saturday!  Woohoo!  haha, another year has gone by.  But it was a great year, so I'm ok with being another year older.  Joe is probably happy too - since now I am closer to 30 than 20, but I'll never catch up to him!  We had a little party at our house which was pretty great, but would have been better if we didn't have a snow storm and keep some people from coming!  Luckily though, the snow is melting quickly.  I'm hoping spring comes soon!

I hope everyone had a wonderful week.  It's great to be back.  I've even done a little knitting. I will have a new project to show soon!

Have Messengers, will travel.

I've been absent here this week - I apologize!  It's because I've been sewing like a mad woman on these...

When Toria and I decided to go on a trip, well, I decided we needed new bags to do so! haha.  Can you tell which one is mine and which is hers?  If you know me well, you know that I love purple and she loves orange - did that give it away?  

I came up with a basic design a few weeks ago and saw some things I liked on Etsy and then tweaked my own design a little bit as I went along.  I sewed mine first - so when I got to Toria's, it was a breeze!  I actually finished it in just over 2 hours!  But I was very focused for those two hours.  Mine took quite a bit longer as I had to wrestle with the lining...

Overall, I love these.  They turned out just like how I wanted them to.  The strap is the perfect length so it falls nicely on the hip (of a short person like me and my sister! haha)  I love the heavy duty linen with the fun cotton prints.  The linings totally don't match - but I think that's part of the charm. (and I wanted to use something I had on hand.)

Do you see the little Chelsea face in the background??? heehee.  So Toria and I are off on Friday afternoon.  It's about a 10 hour drive to Nashville, so we won't make it there the first night.  But we have tickets for the Opry on Saturday and tickets to tour Graceland in Memphis on Tuesday!  The rest of the time we'll be taking in the sites and sounds of the music city.  I'm so excited!  I'll post pictures when I get back.  Ta-ta!  See you next week!

Lady Folklore

Hello again!  I'd like you to meet Lady Folklore.  I whipped her up yesterday - and she was quite fun to make.  I named her Lady Folklore because she is made from a piece of Anna Maria Horner's Good Folks fabric line. (that I got here if you are interested...)

I had sort of an idea of what I was going to make when I started out and I am very pleased with the result.  The handles are wooden, from Joann's.  I love this fabric!  It lends itself so nicely to a purse size project.  It turned out that the little squares cut from the corners of my fabric (to create the bag shape) were the perfect size for the tabs to hold on the purse handle!  I didn't have to throw away my little squares!  They were kind of pesky to sew in though since they were a little short.

I love the way the print acts as a side to the bag.  I just love Anna's designs!

And a shot of the inside (or kinda)  I had a really tough time trying to get a photo of the inside of the purse, my camera just didn't want to focus on the inside.  So this is the best I was able to get.  I did add one interior pocket on the back side of the purse - perfect for your cellphone and chapstick.  That's what we need the most often, right?

The lining fabric is one I got during our fabric sale at Nancy's Notions a while back.

So, of course, this is for my future Etsy shop.  I know, I keep saying that and I still have not opened shop.  I will, I'm just not sure when.  But I sure do have a good stock pile of things now though!  Have a great weekend!  Tomorrow is Friday! Yay!  I have to go over to Joe's sister and catch up on Big Love. She has HBO and we don't so she's been DVRing it for me.  I think I have about 4 or 5 episodes to catch up on.  I can't wait!

Sophie the star!

I promised pictures of Sophie, the model, and here they are!  She will be appearing in our catalog that comes out the middle of May.  We will be selling a pattern to create a cat bed as well as the fabric needed.  So here she is!  I think this is the photo they will be going with.  You can click on the photos for an enlarged view.

So she was up on a table and I was crouching below so that between shots I could push her back into sitting position, or get her back onto the bed if she decided to walk off.  But I tell you what, she was awesome!  It only took about 15 minutes to get some great shots!  Here are some of my favorite out-takes.

Sophie is very talkative and meows a lot, so there is a shot of her with her mouth open, which is pretty funny looking.  Joe thought we should have used that image in the catalog and photoshopped a cigar in her mouth! haha!  It was a fun experience and I can't wait to see her in print!

And, because I know some very special people are visiting my parents this week and checking up on me via my blog, I just wanted to say a quick hello to Gramma and Grandpa!

So for my fellow curly gals (I know there are a couple of you out there who visit me!) this is my hair after a little time outside in the mist and sweating away in Zumba!  Sometimes my curls are tamed and other times, well, they are wild. I hope you are all having a good start to your week!  Hopefully I can get some projects pumped out so I have more to show and tell soon.

Meals to Go

My sister, the vet student, begged me to please go on a spring break trip with her.  Unfortunately in the world of the working, it's called "taking precious vacation time."  But either way, I agreed.  Then we just needed a destination.  We've decided on Nashville (with a day in Memphis).  Toria and I are both fans of country music and we figure its only a 10 hour drive and will have much nicer (hopefully!) weather than here.  Which by the way is horrible, snowy and icy today!  Our hotel is booked, our Opry and Graceland tickets are purchased, and well, what do we need now?  Handmade items to bring along!  But, of course!

These are roll up placemats.  We are going to try to save a little money and be healthier by bringing a plug in cooler with snacks and lunch foods.  That way we don't have to eat fast food on our drive down and back.  These will especially be perfect for Toria who is notorious for spilling.  She can keep the placemat on her lap in the car!

I took a guess on size and I think they turned out just right.  I've added a pocket for silverware and the napkin, which is a flour sack towel that I cut smaller and stitched in a fun matching color.  Oh, if you are wondering, Toria's is the orange one, and mine is the blue.  Toria has loved orange her entire life. So hopefully, she'll love this!

I'm excited to have this to bring to work as well, since I eat at my desk basically everyday, I end up going through paper towels as placemats and napkins, and it feels wasteful.  This will be perfect!

Another great little thing...(changing subjects here)  Remember these?  Well amazingly, a few of the flowers are still alive!  And they look pretty great after 3 weeks.

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend.  Mine was especially lovely as my parents came down to Madison to visit.  We went to a hockey game (my hometown's high school team made it to state!), and then on Saturday we had dinner at a fabulous Peruvian restaurant and went to Roller derby!  It was awesome! I've never been to roller derby before, but it was really fun and there were TONS of people there.  The fans were sooo in to it - they would cheer like crazy when a girl would pull ahead.  I think one of the most fun parts for us was that between my parents, my sister and her boyfriend and Joe and me, we couldn't really figure out the exact rules of the game so we were guessing the entire time.  But it was great!  I'd love to go again.  I think it would be loads of fun to go with a bunch of girlfriends... Anybody want to go? ;)  I'm off to cuddle by the fire with my just-out-of-the-oven baked apple.  Yum!

Yarn Boost...again

So, as you all know, I am a total addict to yarn and fabric...so here I am again, confessing, that yes, I have gone on another yarn splurge.  Luckily, my yarn has yet to get crazily out of hand like my fabric.  I'm hoping to keep it that way!

But here's the latest purchased at Iris Fine Yarns (a gorgeous store in Appleton!) and Hobby Lobby. (most are from Iris)

There's cotton, linen, silk, wool, bamboo, alpaca, chenille...basically everything!  heehee  But I have lots of plans (of course!) of what these yarns will eventually be.  Right now, I have a have a hat cast on for myself out of that light mint (it appears almost white in the photo) alpaca.  It's so soft and wonderful.  I have lots of slouchy hats for myself, but no cute little beanie, and darn it!  I want one.  So I'll do it quick, before it is too warm out!  It was lovely today, but Mother Earth is just teasing us right now.  Wisconsin never gets spring in the beginning of March! haha!  

Here are some baskets I picked up at Hobby Lobby which has really helped me improve my yarn organization - plus they look cute!

So little by little, I'll make my way through this yarn, just like I plan to do with my fabric. :)

Next up, I will be posting some lovely professional shots of Sophie! (my white kitty)  She was the model for a new cat bed project we are putting in the catalog in June.  She looks so cute with the fabric!  I can't wait to show you.  It's like I'm bragging about my child...and I've gotten her into modeling...what have I done?  My brother says I better watch out, pretty soon she's going to be asking for salmon and ahi tuna instead of kibble. heehee

Nifty Thirfty

My weekend thrift store finds... this post has LOTS of pictures - hopefully I won't bore you to death!! :)

Isn't this little glass jar cute?  I filled it with thread.

And of course, I found a couple of vintage, hand embroidered linens that were must haves.  I probably should have ironed them first - but truthfully, I like the wrinkly look.  It looks loved. 

I haven't decided yet if these will stay in their original form, or possibly be cut into something else.  Who knows! Depends on what the mood strikes, I suppose.  Aren't the deer sweet? (they are on both ends of the runner.)

This table topper did not photograph well - it's quite large, so it's hard to get a good shot.  It's beautiful in person, though it has a few stains, so it might be neat sewn up into something else.

Here is the embroidery up close.

I found these fun hand embroidered pieces for 0.69 each!  Can you believe it?  Somebody must have spent ages on them.  I am planning to paint the frames a fun lime green since the aged gold isn't really my thing...

I also found a similar frame I'd like to paint white and then possibly put some of my own embroidery in.

And some vintage fabric (at least I think it's vintage)  Wouldn't this be either an awesome skirt or super fun bag?

A daisy brooch...

Are you bored yet???  We're almost to the main event!  

Some doilies...I am thinking for added applique on bags... I especially love the rectangular one on the right.

And drum roll please!  The Piece de Resistance!

Isn't she lovely?  I almost died when I saw it.  There is a little story behind it.  After I was finished checking out at the thrift store, I was standing by the register, waiting for my friend April (she is a slow - meticulous shopper, she can totally shop anybody under the table!)  So, I'm looking around when I see this magnificent doll buggy on the shelf high above the register.  I gasp!  And then I ask to see it.  Yes, I know, liking dolls and doll buggies make me slightly granny-ish. (who am I kidding, slightly?  More like totally granny-ish)  Anyway, I couldn't say no when I saw it.  It's a little dirty and the metal parts could use some polishing, but otherwise it is in great shape!

I'm going to do a little research on it and see if I can find out how old it is.  The funniest part about the whole ordeal was there was an older woman behind me who said, "Oh you are buying the buggy? Is it for your or for a child."  And I said, "Oh it's for me."  She responds with, "I saw it too and really liked it, but I didn't want to spend the money now.  It's so nice to see young people interested in things like this."  hahaha!  She must think we are all hooligans and it is nice to see somebody interested in dolls.  Weird, but funny.

So I put Callie in it to see what she thought, and she liked it!  Chelsea was quite interested as well.

Chelsea apparently likes the taste of it too here as she licks it!

Whew!  Did you make it through all of that?  I told you there'd be lots of pictures.  It was a wonderfully successful trip to the thrift store and I certainly had tons of fun.  April (the friend with me) scored big on jewelry - she's a jewelry girl so she spent lots of time going through that.

Up next...the large stash boost my yarn got this weekend from Iris Fine Yarns and Hobby Lobby.

In process...

Another tote, of course.  But I'm really liking this one.  I just have to psych myself up for more hand embroidery.  

I've only done one of the motifs in hand embroidery.  The rest are drawn in with water erase marker.  The thing is, I'm embroidering through the fabric and batting, which makes it tougher, and makes my hand more tired.  So, I've avoided the embroidery some...but I need to work on it more, because I do like to embroider.  Anyway, it's a linen/rayon fabric with cotton fabric and rick rack added to it.

Here's the embroidery.

Originally I was going to give this bag linen handles but this weekend I stocked up on cotton webbing in a million colors from Joann's so I'm thinking some pretty pink handles might be nice!

Speaking of my weekend, it was wonderful!  On Friday evening I went to see Wicked in Appleton.  It was great, though after reading the book, I was a little disappointed in the story line.  But the costumes and music were phenomenal!  On Saturday, my friend and I spent the day at a thrift store, Hobby Lobby and Joann fabrics.  Oh yeah, and her LYS, Iris Yarns.  I got so many fabulous things, I don't even know where to start!  I'll have to take some pictures soon.  I did score something amazing at the thrift store.  Well, at least I think it's amazing.  I'm not sure how Joe feels about it! haha.  I'll definitely get a picture of it soon.

And one last thing, I have now had over 10,000 lifetime views of my blog!  That is amazing, and makes me feel so good!  Thank you everybody for visiting me!  I should probably host a give-away one of these days to honor this milestone...I'll keep you posted on that.  I'm sure I can put together something fun.

So thank you for your wonderful comments.  Hopefully I'll have some pictures soon of my fun buys from this weekend!