Needles and bobbins.

The Bernina store that I go to has a program where your purchases (including getting your machine tuned up) are recorded and after you’ve spent a certain amount you receive a $10 credit for almost anything in the store.
Today I got $10 worth of thread - for free!
(It almost made the trip out with watery eyes and a drippy nose worth it.)

Nearby is Pacific Fabrics. I needed to stop in there for embroidery floss and more thread. Of course, I’d have to be near death not to give the remnant bin a thorough going through. Here are two that I brought home.

I don’t know what these will be in the future….

….but this is surely in my future.

Jenn Maruska Design is closed for the weekend.
The employee has taken sick leave.
The receptionist is not taking phone calls.
I’m going to bed.

Here is how the little owl needlebooks turned out. I used tiny beads for the eyes. (You can click on the photo to zoom, and don’t mind the purple mark on the right… that’s just some disappearing ink that hasn’t disappeared yet. Sometimes that stuff fades in seconds and sometimes it hangs around for awhile.)

So yesterday I decided to put aside my to-do list and instead,
worked on some random things that I just felt like doing.

In the morning I made good use of some small fabric scraps I’ve been saving.
I cut them into 1 1/4″ squares. In the future these will be part of more little quilts.

And in the afternoon I tackled my first Japanese sewing pattern. This is a little bag that I fell in love with almost a year ago. So cute! I’ve been meaning to give the “pattern” a try ever since. I say “pattern” because not only are the instructions all in Japanese, but this pattern didn’t even have much in the way of measurements. Some Japanese patterns give the measurements in centimeters, which is very helpful. But this one didn’t. So I was basically winging it on this one.

All-in-all I’m pretty happy with how my first attempt came out.
It’s not perfect, but now that I’ve done it, I know what to change on the next one.

When Josh saw it he started describing how he’d go about photographing it for the shop….. so I guess I’ll be making some of these in the future (??) He thinks I should make a little carrot coin purse to go with it…. I’ll have to add that to the long list of things on that to-do list of mine.

: )


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Now that I’m back to being “Frugal Jenn”,
I’ll show you a few things that I splurged on over the last couple weeks:

Isn’t this a lovely wrapping job?
What could be inside, little bird?

A button bouquet! From Lilfishstudios.
(She has a poppy bouquet in her shop right now - red and black, gorgeous!)

I bought this lovely necklace from deciduoussoul.
It is really pretty in person - the ribbon is such a nice touch.

And I bought “Lusty Lip Lush” from DressGreen and I love it!
I also got her grapefruit exfoliating scrub and it is wonderful.
It’s fun to use, smells great and really does leave my skin so soft.
I went back and got her moisturizer, too!

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Today I’m working on business card wallets and monster bath mitts….

….or was that monster card wallets and business bath mitts?

; )

Wow, they sure have gone by quickly!

200 posts ago I hesitated starting a blog because I didn’t think I’d have enough to gab about.
I don’t have a good history with “journaling”. I write in them for a week and then completely neglect them. What would I ever have to write about on a blog?

Well, the answer to that is any wacky thing that I choose - and it sure has been fun!

At about this time last year I was getting ready for my first craft fair.

I’ve written about a really fun road trip that Josh and I took in June.

And I recently finished a weekly book review, which was a total blast : )

Thanks to all who have stopped by and read whatever wacky topic
I’ve been chatting about each week.
It’s been a joy to read your comments and hear your ideas : )

In true blog style I’m doing a give away to celebrate my 200th post.
I’ve gathered some fun goodies to share.

(Dylan from 90210? It can’t get any hotter than that people!)

I didn’t photograph any fabric but never fear,
I’m sure a bit of that will be tossed in as well ; )

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The kittens are recuperating well.
In fact, last night I didn’t get to sleep until about 1:00 am
because Poe kept finding little stuffed mice around the house,
carrying them to the bedroom and making alot of noise playing with them.
Each time I (sadly) took the mouse away and put it well out of reach,
then she’d find another and start all over again.
This morning there was a pile of 4 or 5 mice on top of the dresser.
She must be feeling better : )

For the last few days I’ve been working here and there on various sewing projects.

Yesterday I worked on my little squirrel quilts - what do you think?

(Little squirrel.)

(Little acorn.)

I still have a bit more to do on them, but they should be finished soon.

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Here are some of my new favorite Etsy finds:

This gorgeous bag made by Sarahjanedesigns.

“Mouses Tea Party”, an original watercolor piece by Margiemoore.

And this sweet little wooden house made by Weewood.

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Be sure to leave me a comment for a chance to win my give-away!

I’ll be checking back on Saturday to randomly choose a winner : )

Have a wonderful day!

It all started when I jokingly asked my pal Rebecca to send me Lake Resort Nurse if I won a contest she was having on her blog. And being a generous and good humored friend, she sent me the book even though I didn’t win her contest.
And so began my Wednesday Lake Resort Nurse posts.

Can you believe it’s been 15 chapters already?
Are you as amazed as me that it’s gone so quickly?
Or did you think it would never end - haha!

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In the past weeks we’ve identified so much with Reba and her small circle of friends: bitter Marie, Skip, Uncle Charlie, etc. We should take a moment to reflect on what, if anything, this romantic story about a nurse, who for the most part wasn’t very romantic and who did very little nursing, can teach us about life….. and stuff.

* We’ve learned that it is unreasonable to ask employees to work later than 5:00 pm, unless you want them to have one of “those” days.

* We’ve been educated that if our first impression of a stranger is that he is “stormy” and “authoritative” or has curiously erect shoulders, then he’s probably going to mess up our life somehow.

* We ladies have discovered that sometimes a gentleman can mistake us for a Buick convertible. And they don’t mean anything bad by that.

* We’ve realized that occasionally we can be with our significant other and not know if they are going to make love to us or fight with us. It’s ok. There is no shame in admitting this. We’ve all been there. But if it happens more often than occasionally, don’t be a Reba. Get some help.

* And we have bonded in the knowledge that, even when things aren’t going well for us, life isn’t so bad. I mean, if Arlene Hale refers to one closed mouth kiss as a “wild flame of passion”, you’ve just gotta feel kind of bad for her.
Poor dear.

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There have also been unanswered questions, too.
And here is where Arlene Hale has given us a glimpse of her genius.
Because it is her unanswered questions that truly encourage her readers to think beyond this Lake Resort. Beyond Windwood.
Questions such as:

* Where does Reba keep her whiskey?

* How is the population of this town going to survive
if no one ever gets to second base?

* Why did Arlene Hale write this novel? It barely talks about nursing and there’s hardly any romance. What was Arlene’s real passion?
$0.10 cokes? Erect shoulders?
We may never know.

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On a personal note, I have to say that I never expected the overwhelmingly enthusiastic response that my readers have had for Lake Resort Nurse. Every day I’ve received dozens of emails asking for “behind the scenes” tidbits about LRN.

The most popular question by far has been:

“Hey Jenn! What were those photo shoots like?
Was it all as glamorous as I imagine?”

And the answer to your question is “No, the photo shoots were not that glamorous.”
And they were made all the more un-glamorous when you take into consideration that the action figures of Reba and Marie wouldn’t stand up, so I often had to tape their feet to the table or lean them up against things.

This is the box where Reba and her friends resided between photo shoots.
See that big Ziplock bag to the right? That is a bag of misc. action figure weapons that Josh generously let me use if I needed them. There is also a package of minty lifesavers that I used as life preservers on the boat.
Now everything in that box smells minty. Very minty.

(Click to zoom.)

And here is a page of my storyboard for LRN.
Josh finds these quick sketches pretty funny.
I used this as a guide to set up the scenes for the photo shoots.

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And now for the contest!

Here is one last photo that I’ve taken of bitter Marie the receptionist,
our star Reba, and a random toy from our collection.

Notice that there aren’t any thought bubbles on this photo?

Well now it’s your turn, readers!

* Leave me a comment with your best suggested dialogue for this photo. *

It can be anything you like - you don’t even have to mention the pig if you don’t want to. And references to anything that’s happened in the book will get bonus points.
The most humorous suggestion will be declared the winner.
I will not be judging this contest, the winner will be chosen by a neutral third party who is familiar with the LRN story.

The winner will receive this box of oh-so-delicious Hello Panda treats.
Reba’s favorite!

….I call him “Terry” ; )

A little while ago I did a Martha’s Good Things Swap and my partner requested one of Martha’s simple bath mitts, made from a washcloth. I had so much fun making that bath mitt that I thought, surely there has to be a way to “cute this up” and make a fun item for little kids (and big kids, too!)

Originally I wanted to make dinosaurs, but after doing some sketching I quickly realized that dinosaurs don’t translate well into squarish, flat objects. Mainly because dinosaurs don’t have many facial features to play around with… at least not when it comes to a flat square of terrycloth.

So - dinosaurs “evolved” (haha) into cute monsters.
And Terry, here, is the first of the bunch. He is just a prototype for me to try some things out on, sewing-wise. I also tried using him as Martha suggests: putting a bar of soap inside to create a lather, and then I tossed him into the dryer - and as you can see, he took it all in great stride and is ready for another go!

The craftsmanship of the final versions will be better, of course. But I am very pleased with how this first little guy came together - especially the eyes, which are cracking me up right now. So now I will invest in some monster colored towels (which my husband informs me must be brown, green or purple) and get to work!

I also picked up a couple of these white washcloths with pale green trim…
…any guess what they may become?

Maybe if you think real hard, the answer may come to ewe ; )

In other news - my project tote “Sew Sew Monkey” sold today - yay!
It will be on it’s way to Michigan tomorrow morning.
I made three Sew Sew Monkey totes, so look for another in my shop soon.

Have a great day!

“Where did cats sleep before humans invented dirty laundry?”