Summer Time Fun..... Link Up

Sew I have been away for sew long, Where did the past few months go I just blinked or was that a nap, I'm not sure but sure seems like I just wrote that post about the Indulgence and here it is JUNE !!!! What.... I guess my watch must be broken or I guess my little Time machine *You know that one all of us Crafters dream about* that little portal that stops time so we can catch a few ZZZZZ's and craft while everyone else is sleeping and then, we hit the special HOLD TIME BUTTON (GOSH!!!! Wouldn't that be wonderful) then as crafters,embroiders, sewers, knitters, you get the HINT could get to bed at say 3:00 in the morning and still get a full 8 hours of sleep between 3:00 and say 6:30 when our children awaken us for breakfast.... Because if no one told you yet SCHOOL IS OUT!!!!! I know I'm having a wonderful time with my children being home but Guilty that I couldn't finish just a few more projects for them before the school year ended....

AM I THE ONLY ONE????? Please tell me that Other crafty  mommies are having the same problem, I love summer because it means, water balloon fights, outdoor fun, Water Country with the kids, Busch Gardens as a family, and just all out enjoyment of each others company, but I also like to throw a sewing project *NEVER SMALL SCALE EITHER**** because my brain just doesn't know how to think that way so.... I have been searching the blogosphere for some fun KID Friendly Projects that we could do this summer, between the craziness I call life I like to throw in a curve ball or 2, so my goal is to slip in a trip or 2 a week to Water Country or Busch while also throwing in crafty projects (I want the kids to be able to enjoy their summer break) but I want it to be educational, last summer we focused on reading for B and this past school year he blew it out of the water so this year I think Science and Math are going to be our focus since those are his favorite areas, ART I think is his most favorite and since Physics and Statistics requires logically thinking we are going to incorporate them into our summer schedule So here's the Bauer Summer Plan..... Whats your favorite part of Summer? How do you spend it as a family? What fun Crafty Projects do you like to do? I hope you follow me and CSI Project and come on over to join the summer Linky Challenge.

I have a list of things I want to try and make with the kids

Homemade Granola

Side walk Chalk

Gak

Fence Fun Art

Outdoor obstacle Course

Cooking fun Cookbook (kid Friendly cooking)

And there are so many other crafty goodness things running through my brain so stay tuned.

Happy Crafting......

Valentines on the Brain

Can you believe that Valentines Day is right around the corner.....

On my hunt.... for some of the cutest crafts to make for Teacher gifts and for the family for Valentines Day I came across some of the cutest stuff so I thought why not write a quick bloggy post about them...

How adorable are these backpacks for the chairs of students. I have to say this might be on the top of one of my sewing list... Like it isn't already long enough

I know that I want to make a gum Ball machine out of pots....

But that picture is coming....

How cute is this

These jars are simply adorable I love how they look and this is something you could use all year long... Very Kid friendly

Sew what to make for Valentines day that it Mommy and kiddo friendly. hOWL Cute are these....

I'm in love with Owls and just know that these might get made.I'm working on some boy rice bags for my little man he is always suffering from growing pains, but how cute.... are these.

Well I hope you all got some adorable ideas...Thanks for pulling up a seat and stitching a few... til next time.

Get your... SEW on... or is it a Giveaway

So as promised I thought I would start the year off right with a Giveaway and some pictures of the latest projects that I did in December... WOW can you believe 2012 has already started and I haven't even begun to start Scrapbooking or thought about catching up on the projects that I haven't even finished yet. I think that I am defiantly starting on getting my PhD in Embroidery......

Or maybe that's the PhD in Sewing...

I'm not sure I just know there are not enough hours in the day to get it all done. I have so may fun designs, projects, craftiness to do that I just cant seem to get it all done. Don't you just hate when that happens.

So GIVEAWAY I think that was in the title of this post... Now I cant start the year off without giving my awesome followers something FUN and exciting. Now Sewing by far is my passion but I love anything crafty. I have to say when Liz contacted me from My Memories I was very excited to review there product.

A little history on what My Memories is, It is a digital scrapbooking program, that is extremely user friendly. Not only can you digital scrapbook but you can download the finished pages as back drops to your computer, Create gifts for family members, order completed albums. The sky is the limit with this software and you don't have to know how to digital scrapbook because the software is very easy to use,there are so many templates that you can just plug your pictures into and you have an instant album. I used the software for the first time right before Christmas and made this adorable page of our family.

This was so easy and fun to create I hope that you enjoy the software as much as I do.

HOW TO ENTER THE GIVEAWAY

Mandatory Entry: In order to enter the giveaway go to mymemories.com and choose your favorite digital paper pack or layout, then comment below telling me which one is your favorite

This giveaway is offered to US & Canadian residents only. Please make sure you include your email address if you are not already a friend via google friend. This will make it easier to contact you if you are the winner.

NOTE: If you skip the mandatory entry, none of your entries will count for the giveaway.

Extra Entries (please leave separate comment for each entry)* Follow Me (or tell me you already do) (1 entry)
* Like easy My Memories On Facebook. (3 entries)
* Follow Me Twitter and Tweet This....(2 entries)
* Blog About This Amazing Giveaway (4 entries)

Giveaway closes January 14th@ 11:00 pm (EST) Winner will be picked January 15th by Random.org and notified by email, a post will follow. Winner will have 48 hours to reply to my email otherwise a new winner will be picked.Disclaimer: I was contacted via email by a mymemories.com and received the above mentioned product to review. Any and all opinions are mine and are unbiased
To the Sewing Part I like to make my own gifts for Christmas and hear are a few examples of what I made with the easy template collages from My Memories.

I made this adorable pillow or my MIL who recently lost her own mother before Christmas. It was hard for us to celebrate this year with out having Mamma Bett with us, and the kids truly missed having their GG Bett. We made this pillow with my children and My Niece's hand prints. I embroidered the saying....

WHEN YOUR HANDS FEEL EMPTY GIVE ME A HUG AND KNOW YOUR GRANDCHILDREN HANDED YOU THEIR LOVE

A New bag pattern I made one of my Best Friends I had made one prior to this but since she is now addicted to cloth she needed something a little bigger to carry all of that fluff in. She loved it, I have to say this is my new favorite bag.

This is the gifts that I made my nieces, they are really into skulls and cross bones right now so what more to do than for me to make them their own purses. They turned out so adorable.

Pin It

BEFORE YOU LEAVE DON'T FORGET TO COMMENT (BUT REMEMBER FOLLOW THE RULES).... FREE SOFTWARE.... WHAT BETTER WAY TO ORGANIZE YOUR MEMORIES.

Trash to treasure

Sew... what has everyone been up to the last few months? I have been slowly tackling those little household projects that don't ever seem to go anywhere. Last summer my mom and I went to a yard sale and we came across this wonderful step stool, My grandmother had one and I just knew that I had to have it...


It has potential

the demolition

I knew that it needed to be recovered but for the past year it has looked like the trash pile was a better place for it, Instead of a Booster, C-bug uses this as her seat for dinner, so I knew I needed to get motivated and recover it before she was 12... LOL

So here is the kitchen table... a little messy but I figured I better bite the bullet so I went into the studio and remembered that I had got some Oil Cloth a few months ago super cheap and I had just enough to refinish this chair. I wanted something FUN that said Girl but at the same time fit my personality.....

The finished project it took me about 10 minutes to refinish it WOW why did I wait so long, hubby loved it because I added more padding to the seat and the Oil Cloth is easy to wipe which  makes it easy to clean after dinner no more looking at the torn rusted seat.

I think C-bug Likes it and that's all that matters. I would love to see some of your finished projects so feel free to link up and let me see what crafty goodness you all have come up with.



Back on this adventure

WOW I'm looking at the posts and just realized my life has been so busy being a mommy, wife, student, working woman, volunteer, seamstress... that I have neglected my blog. I cant believe its been almost 2 1/2 months since I have had the chance to sit down and write a quick blog. Well that's just not cool, so over the next few days Ill be writing some catch up blogs, about life, mommy hood, crafting, and other fun things that have been going on in my neck of the woods.

WOW can you believe Christmas is almost here... Hard to believe that 2011 is almost over I just don't know where the time went, it seems like before children time seemed to stand still, but between the carpool lanes, the soccer games, the various mommy hood adventures that I tackle on a daily basis, then you throw in the taxi driver, the cook, the maid, the wife and everything else in the world that seems to consume the hours that I'm awake I have figured that there just isn't enough time to get done everything that I want to accomplish. 

When I'm crafting I feel like I'm in my own little world, being able to create something beautiful out of something as simple as a piece of paper, a scrap of fabric or just spending the time being creative. I find that my passion for sewing, embroidering and crafting is the smile that it brings to the person receiving those items . I have always had a small obsession to purses, okay ill admit that my husband might be RIGHT!  SHH don't tell him I said he was right.... That my Small obsession is a little bit bigger than that. I found myself realizing that my creative talents that GOD blessed me with could be useful because instead of buying my own bags I could make them... Ummm yeah can we say that all my tested bags that I prepare prior to a pattern going into the CFC Etsy store ... yeah that tester somehow ends up on my shoulder.... LOL...

I have to say the addiction has gotten cheaper because I make them for myself but hasn't gotten any better because my closets are bursting at the seams. I find that its so much fun to draft up a new bag to go with that super cute outfit that I'm working on. I currently have 9 patterns that I'm working on for the Holiday season Guess I better get moving on that.... Do you think I could wish upon a star to get time to stand still for a few days. I can dream right.

So lets get back in the groove I'm missing my bloggy friends and followers and cant wait to see what crafty goodness everyone is up to these days. I just love this time of year everything has the wonderful aroma of fall, the cinnamon, the colors everything around us just screams holiday season.... As much as I'm not ready for thanksgiving, birthdays and Christmas to approach I'm also like a little kid because this is my favorite time of year.  I look forward to catching up with all of my blogging buddies.

Building Bridges

I have sat down many times in the past few weeks, to stop a few minutes out of my day to write something magical, uplifting, spiritual something from my heart, and I seem to get hit smack in the face with a brick wall. Ever feel like that... Like you have so much on your mind... your heart and feel like it might implode before you can get it out and then realize at that moment that ..... WOW!!! your speechless.... then today I came across an amazing blog, Ashley totally hit the nail on the head for me and it is so that place that I needed to be today

She asked the question "Blessed to Be A Blessing (Building Kingdom Bridges)" she went on to talk about a Sunday service that she had attended that spoke of how to use your blessings whatever they might be to build those bridges, and to pour out GODS love to those around you. She went on to ask the questions I’d encourage you today to look at the blessings God has given you and ask yourself, “How can I use what God has given me to be a blessing to others? How can I build bridges with what I have?”

So I thought about it an realized my BRIDGE is Sewing, Crafty, and trying to live each day as he would see it. I think this story really has helped me write this post for who it is intended not myself, not about my sewing but about JOANNA SIBERT, a sweet vibrant little girl.. A precious angel sent by god to show us what STRENGTH, COURAGE, FAITH, and what it means to PRAY. Joanna was born 8 years ago with Spina bifida she has endured so much in her life, from surgeries, to doctors appointments, countless hours of therapy, road trips to Richmond, Canada, and Norfolk, Her parents have stopped at nothing to get her the care that she deserved... and needed. In July Joanna was diagnosed with Rhabdomyosarcoma, a rare cancer. She is such a fighter, no matter what at the end of the day Joanna can light up a room. She was recently featured in our local newspaper, Hampton girl battles multiple health problems

There have been various benefits to help her in her fight. If you have a moment stop by and read her journey at http://www.joannalee.net/

When I found out I felt very helpless Praying just didn't seem enough, I thought and thought and the only thing that I could do was sew... So I got in contact with her mom and decided to make JOJO a bag all her own she is such a special little girl and I felt blessed that they agreed. JOJO picked out the colors and I worked my magic here is the First Bag of PROJECT HOPE for JOANNA

I then made the 2nd bag for her mom because every momma needs a bag for all those trips back and forth to the hospital so bag #2

then I couldn't leave the sisters out so Project HOPE expanded to Bags 3 and 4

I am asking all my crafting friends out their the same questions Look in the mirror and ask yourself what blessings God has given you and ask yourself, “How can I use what God has given me to be a blessing to others? How can I build bridges with what I have?”

To all my crafty ladies and Gents out their I'm asking for volunteers for PROJECT HOPE FOR JOANNA, Its a small project I have been working on behind the scenes with some fellow crafters, If you are interested in helping out in Project Hope please email me for more details at cuddleflycreations@yahoo.com in the subject line please state PROJECT HOPE, we are looking for volunteers to show her how special she is.

Thank you from the bottom of my heart. and GOD BLESS!!!

Bloggin and Summertime....

Sew just had a moment to step back from the sewing machine that has been running non stop the last few days, Time away from the kiddos and hubster, and stopped by the blog and realized its been awhile. Wow where did the time go June.... July.... Now its August . Geesh seems like I was just here chatting it up with everyone and NOW the summer is almost over. What a whirlwind it has been, summer of change, crazy schedules and WOW what fun adventures. I have a lot of pictures that I'm editing a lots of fun stories to share. I have a few projects Ive been working on which seems to have taken most of my time here lately. I had surgery couple weeks ago that I'm still slowing bouncing back from, lots of fun adventures with the kiddos and some sad ones also. Looking forward to catching up, but for now I must head back to the studio, this week will bring lots of pictures of the projects as well as lots of answers that will be shared on to what has been taking up so much of time. I look forward to talking with each one of you Later for now.

Hugs April

Everyone needs....

Sew.... When reflecting on the past few years and everything that we have been through as a family I have truly been blessed to be able to find daily inspiration in crafting, sewing, and various other activities with my friends, family and my blogging community. I had started a list earlier this year of things that I wanted to try and accomplish and this year I have decided to participate again with  All People Quilt and make some little child happy with a vibrant fun pillow case, This year I would like to make at least 200 pillowcases and hope that my blogging friends out there can help. My donation is to 2 wonderful causes close to my heart... one is to the Local children's hospital I have spent many nights there with my daughter Caleigh she has shown me how strong I am and how many children go there daily .......and daily they are met with obstacles that aren't always there chosen path but children are resilient and I have found hope and faith that the lord has truly paved out our path and that he knows what is best for us before we ourselves know.

Sew if your bored or just looking for a great opportunity to give back to an amazing organization Please help me in making over 200+ pillowcases and surpass my goal. Lets give back to those in need and show them how much they are cared for.

Sewing Frenzy

I have been very busy the last couple of weeks working on Custom orders, and making sew many things for my little ones. We have all been under the weather lately it seams that the germs have set up camp in our house and as much as blogging is my passion I have had to take a few weeks off to get better. This week I feel like the Flu has attacked me once again, but figured I would take a quick moment and update you all with some of my latest projects and Share a little with my blogging friends. Sew what has everyone else been up to the last few weeks.

Custom Embroidered shirt for a dear friend

The back of the Birthday Girl Dress... I just loved the color combination we put together.

The custom first birthday hat How adorable is this....

Do you love the little hair bow... How adorable is this.... If you want more hair pretties like this check out Pickle Pie Designs

The most adorable first birthday outfit. The versatile twirl dress is the perfect little first birthday ensemble.

These adorable Hair Pretties are all done in the Hoop from Pickle Pie designs How adorable are these. If you have a moment stitch on over to pickle pie designs and check out all of her adorable embroidery designs.

This is a bag that I made for my self... I just loved the fabric and the way it all came together. There is a review coming for this pattern very soon. and more pictures of another bag I put together... So stay tuned

The Cell Phone Pocket

MY BAG

Custom Steelers Burp Cloth, I just loved how this came together... for their little Steelers fan.

Custom Burp Cloth, for some friends in the fire department, He is also a Harley fan... I love how this turned out.

The Back of the Custom Onesie for a baby shower I just recently attended the front of the shirt is underneath

The front of the Steelers Onesie that I made for a baby shower... I loved how it turned out, Check out Planet Applique for more adorable applique embroidery designs.

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The back of the blanket for a dear friend in the fire department, it is a monogram of her baby's name

Fire Fighter themed lovie blanket that I made for a baby shower for a dear friend who is in the fire department

A POO-POO Bag holder for my girlfriends baby shower... It has his initials embroidered across the ribbon

 A Little Irish Shirt for my little red for St. Patrick's Day! I just love this embroidery design if you like it too, go over to Emblibrary and get one today.

Sew I hope you enjoyed a sneak peak at what I have been working on in my sewing studio the past few weeks. I hope you liked the Shouts to some awesome companies and fellow crafters. Happy Friday... I hope everyone has a great weekend stitching up a storm.

NEW DESIGN

Im so excited, Its finally all done... So what does everyone think of my new design. Were you wondering how you could get your blog pimped out, well I have great news, Jessica over at




So Stylilized is amazing, she is a miracle worker, I told her a little about what i was looking for in the design, something that showed my personality, my love for my family, and my support to my everyday hero. I love love love how it turned out she asked questions thoughtout the whole process and i couldnt be happier how it turned out.

So a little about my new space... I almost cant stop staring at it, It not only shares my love for crafting, because we all know that Im slighty addicted to crafts, fabric.... defiantly fabric, embroidery, ummm lets see what else, cooking my family. I would have to say all and all Jessica rocked it out. She is amazing Oh and did I mention she does designs for FREE... thats right you heard me FREE... she just asks that you make a donation for her hard work and time... She is amaing so what is eveyone waiting for click on over to so stylilized and check her out... if you havent already sign up for her waiting list it is well worth the wait.

Embroidery Samples

So recently I have been doing allot of embroidery, OHHHH how I love my machine, I have to say by far my favorite thing to embroider would be in the hoop designs or maybe I like applique, I'm not sure what my favorite is. I also have dabbled in some digitizing for our family owned landscape company and some other clients, I have added some examples below to share. I hope you all enjoy.

Digitized CFC for Green Cow 

 The cutest in the hoop design from Pickle Pie Designs

This birthday Badge is also from Pickle Pie designs, birthday dress i made for her 2nd bday

 and this picture is just a cute one that I couldnt choose. LOL

 This is an Applique design that I had and added the writing I loved how it came out

 For my big mans 5th birthday we had a cars theme

 This was the beginning stages of a bag that I made last year for the teachers end of year gift

 For my Good friend Megan, Because Every little Coast Guard Baby needs a cute burp cloth

 Baby Christopher's Poo Poo bag Holder and matching Burpie

 This is the cutest in the hoop design from Embroidery Garden. I just love how it turned out

Hope you all enjoy my sneak peek there is more to see but I figured I would be here all day.... Happy Wednesday everyone