Candle Rings, DONE!

Thanks to my trusty sweatshop all candle rings are done and with a week to spare.

They turned out very nice. I'm pleased with them. They are for a 25th wedding anniversary party on the 11th. We started out with 8 but then was asked for 10 total. Each has four pink flowers and four silver flowers. Sweatshop worker mom thought they would be nicer with the silver ribbon and she was right. That was just the right detail to make them look complete.So now off to the rest of the list of crafts left before the show. CEOreo is watching......

Congratulations Sarah and John!

Today we spent celebrating Sairy and John's wedding. Case you don't know, Sairy is a friend from Stitch N Bitch. She married her sweetheart John today. They make such a cute couple. So today started out with me actually doing my hair and make-up. They should feel honored considering I don't get dressed up for just anybody, you know. Then the red dress and the awesome shoes. I think I clean up pretty well.

So do Roland and Sharon.

Roland drove Sharon and I, two hours to some place in Pennsylvania. Time was well spent as we did work on some plastic canvas. All I know is that we passed some nuclear reactors and some painted bears on parade. It was a little ways down the road. It was very nice. Beautiful rolling hills and such.

I wanted to make some thing different for them, so I designed a wedding cake. Sairy mentioned that her cake was to be three squares and her girls dresses were black and then carried a fall colored bouquet. So after a few nights thinking on it, this is what I came up with.The coolest part is the I made so there is a pocket underneath to hold their wedding card. Which is where this idea started from, something different for their wedding card. It really didn't take too long to do maybe 3 days or so. I used heart shaped plastic canvas to make the bottom, which really turned out neat. It has a art-deco feel to it. I hope they liked it.

We had a very nice time. Ceremony was sweet (I got to relive the 3 years of horror that I guess is now burned into my brain that I affectionately call Catholic Calisthenics). Hors' devours were good, when they got to us, food was good, the best man speech funny, music was definitely heading in the right direction when we departed.

I wish Sarah and John the best of luck and happy life together.

Happy marriages begin when we marry the ones we love, and they blossom when we love the ones we marry ~ Tom Mullen

I want to ride my bicycle, I want to ride my bike

Thanks to the lil' bro mom and I now have new bikes. Now when we just need to get out of the sweatshop for a little bit we can go for a ride. I got us the helmets just in case, I mean it's been over 15 years since either one of us has been on a bike. But they really are the fashion statement of the fall (get it, fall, ha ha), don't you agree?

We will not only be able to save some gas money but get some much needed exercise. The only problem I am having is now that damn Queen song is stuck in my head!

I'm Going to Walt Disney World!!! TWICE!!!

So I mentioned a few posts back about hubby and I going on vacation in January. He and I are going back to Key West, FL. We went last year for 3 nights and had such wonderful time that we practically booked our return trip for this year this time for 5 nights, as soon as we got home.
We stayed at Southernmost on the Beach Hotel. It was quiet and we had a view of the ocean and crashing waves on the shore. The weather was wonderful, everyone we came in contact with, whether it was the hotel, the restaurants we ate at or just people on the street, were so friendly and genuinely nice. And the best part, there were no bugs in our room or pool like we did in Jamaica.
We did the tourist stuff like took the Trolley Ride around the island, took our picture at the southernmost marker and went to Mallory Sq almost every night. But we relaxed too. We took nice strolls near the hotel, hubby went to the butterfly place and I sat on the dock sunbathing. So it was a no brainer to go back again.

I was also supposed to go to Walt Disney World in October with Sharon and friends for the Halloween celebration. I was looking forward to it so much. I love Halloween and I love Disney World so the two together is just the ultimate happiness for me. Unfortunately, life happened and I had to cancel my plans to go. This made me very sad. Very, very sad. I was upset for months over it. (And sitting here, even now typing this, knowing that things have changed, I still get upset that I wasn't going)

When hubby and I went to NYC a few weeks ago we went to the World of Disney NYC. We had some pictures taken and traded pins. It was a piece of happiness to hold me over till I could get there again, which I wasn't sure when that would be. John saw how happy it made me just to be there in the store, surrounded by a little Disney. He has never been to Disney World so he doesn't "get it". It isn't entirely his fault, he gets motion sickness and felt like it would be a waste since he can't ride any of the rides (so he thought). And he never had anyone in his life that he would have liked to take there or no one every asked him to go there. Then he met me, the Disney Dork.
He has heard about all of my trips, or at least pretended to hear. He hears about the pins and the trading and the characters. He has heard me say time and time again that I really love being there and how happy I am when I'm there.
So the time was quickly approaching that we had to make our flight arrangements for Key West and since I was with him face to face that weekend in NYC as opposed to trying to do things over the phone (he has Attention Deficit Disorder or as we call it, "look a chicken disease") We were discussing the cost of fuel and how it effects our airline tickets. After looking up some costs of tickets to Key West we decided that we would fly into one of the larger airports and then just drive to Key West like we did last year. Even with the costs of the rental car and gas it saved us a lot of money. So now we had to decided which airport to fly into. We talked about Fort Launderdale and Miami but there were no direct flights in or out so there would have to be long lay overs some where. I looked at Orlando. Cheap direct flights and all about the same amount of time with the nice drive. I'm sure you can see that I had a hidden agenda because he did. So I said, "Since we will be in Orlando and I'm not going to Disney World in October.......Will you go to Disney with me for a few days?" And he said yes! Hooray! Flights, hotel and rental car booked before he could even blink.


This made me very happy. I am very excited about going with my sweetie and getting the chance to try to show him why Disney World holds a special place in my heart. I'm going to take it easy on him though. No shotgun, cram it all in approach. No, we are going to take it slow and only do Magic Kingdom and Epcot. He will take some motion sickness pills and ride the extremely tame rides like It's a Small World, Jungle Cruise and Living with the Land. We can spend some quality time pin trading and character stalking. I'm so excited!!! (I can just see John reading this, rolling his eyes and wondering, what the hell he got himself into)

Of course if I could go to Disney World once a month I would be happy but life doesn't allow for that. Knowing that Sharon's trip was coming up quick we've been talking about it more and more. I've been telling her about how cool the Mickey's Not So Scare Halloween Party is and prepping her (or pimping her) to pin trade. Even though I now I'm going to January it doesn't stop the longing to go with her in October. She mentioned that I should just look at flights down because there is still room for me if I want to go. I found so amazing deals and mentioned to her that I was looking just for shits and giggles. She then reminded me that other than the flight, some food and some souvenirs that I was giving her money for anyway, the rest of my costs were covered. See, Ruth is a Disney Vacation Club owner (aka Disney time share) and has to use her points or loose them soon, so the room is covered. And I still have a valid Passholder Park ticket so I don't have to worry about the cost of getting a park ticket.

Sometimes I think she should have gone pre-law because she made a good argument. So I mentioned it to the hubby. He said that I should go and have a good time. My mom also said that she thought that I deserved to go and have some fun. So........I'm going. **Big toothy smile** I got a great deal on a flight and Sharon even switched her departure plans and is going to fly down with me. Goddess help the airline with the two of us all hopped up with Disney energy, together on a flight.
So now I'm going TWICE!!! Yeah!!!! **Doing a happy dance** Both trips will be relaxing and easier going than I'm use to but hey, that will be a nice change. And don't worry I'm already thinking about the next crazy, whirlwind, cram it all in trip with Mom to Disneyland next December.

Never Forget!

Plastic Canvas and Peach Pies

Once again mom had some talking peaches follow her home. This time she said they followed me instead of her thus making me help with the creation of the last peach pie of the season and my first official pie.....ever! It is a lot more fun to eat than make.
So here I am cutting peaches....yeah!

Peach are surprisingly slimey to cut.
I was allowed to decorate it too! These are the parts of the crust that CEOreo gets to eat since they are just crust and no peaches (peaches would not be good for her little belly)

It has to cool over night so it won't be runny when we cut it. So no pie tonight, that means, No Kim, I didn't bring you a piece in this morning because we didn't cut it, you will have to wait till tomorrow.

We also worked hard on the candle rings this weekend. Saturday night (aka Craft night) we enjoyed Monsters, Inc and Spaceballs while I cut out more patterns and Mom and Sharon worked on part 3 of the rings, the white.On Sunday Mom and I sat on the deck and all we worked on were the candle rings. We managed to finish and assemble 7 out of 10. Hopefully by the end of the week they will all be assembled and then I can finish them off with the flowers and be done with them for good.
A very productive weekend. I only have one more major project to cut out and then all the cutting will be done and then I can spend my time on sewing and assembling.

Drunken Crafting = Loopy Crafting

It has been a very busy Labor Day weekend. Food shopping, cleaning, laundry and that was just Friday night!

All in all it was a very successful crafting weekend. I finished another secret project which I will reveal in few weeks, the sweatshop workers were out in force with fingers a blazing and my scissors need to be sharpened because I was cutting out patterns like a crazy woman.

Saturday evening sweatshop worker Sharon came over to assist sweatshop worker mom with the candle rings for the 25th wedding anniversary party. Each candle rings has 8 "teardrops" and each one has three colors. Round one was the light pink, DONE, round two was the dark pink, DONE, round three is the white, 1/10th DONE. We have a few more weeks before they are due to the customer and with the great progress this weekend I'm sure they will be ready for an on time delivery.
Saturday evenings entertainment included Walt Disney's Enchanted. What a great movie! I just love the bursting into song in the middle of central park like it is something that happens everyday.

Sunday we were working like mad! CEOreo allowed us to enjoy the weather and take the sweatshop outside. Sharon, Mom and myself sat out on the deck enjoying the sun, the fresh air and the 93.3 WMMR Back to School A to Z weekend while we worked our little finger, thumbs and wrists to the bone. We had some afternoon entertainment that included a brief burst of work from sweatshop worker Roland. However if you blinked you missed it, thank goddess for cameras. After 4 hours or so we broke for some much needed grub and dessert that was most excellent. Mom's township famous, Peach pie! Don't even ask for any because it is already gone.
The talking peaches say Hello! (inside joke)Then back to the sweatshop in the Craft Cave were the evenings entertainment including Labyrinth and Food Network. Since it was a holiday Sunday night we brought out some Angry Pirates which we made earlier and froze. MMMMmmmm! Not sure if it was the extra banana rum or the sun or pure crafting exhaustion but after a half a glass we all started to slow down and get a little....lets say loopy........Labor day for sure! Mom and I worked all day on the deck crafting. She completed round two of the candle rings and I cut and cut and cut out pattern after pattern until my thumb couldn't take it anymore. So after dinner we just rested. Believe it or not! Yes even we do rest for time to time.

I'm feeling pretty good about what was accoplished this weekend. I just hope that we keep this pace up and get as much on the list done as we can. 12 weeks to go and counting down!