Happy Zombie

Let me preface this post by saying that I am sorry for anyone reading this that does not have an iPhone or an iPad. (or isn’t on Instagram!)

I LOVE this new (to me) iPhone and iPad app by Rhonna Farrer of Rhonna Designs (also the app name).   I discovered it recently on Instagram, and one IG post was all I needed to see to steer me over to the app store. Sold. When I bought and opened it up I felt like I had gone to app and Instagram & ish photo editing heaven.  The Rhonna Designs App is a deal and a half at only $1.99 (really, it could be $19.99 and I’d still think it was a deal). I’m really, really sorry for the iPhone and iPad-less.

On my “sprouting yam” photo I was able to add a frame, some design elements, typed my own “treat yo self and sprout joy” wording, added some pre-made word/designs (”everyday”). I can chose from the pre-installed color palette or use the color sliders and pick my own (RGB fields would be amazing here, but slides are awesome!). Pretty much the app has 256 million colors to choose from.

Could Ragnar be any more amazing? Why yes he can. Who knew I could make a Sons of Anarchy By The Sea screen-cap into such a cute pic! In this pic I used design elements, per-written goodies, along with transparency, strokes and drop shadows. WOW, this app does SO MUCH!

Much like Photoshop and Ai, the app works in layers, scaling, rotations, transparencies and strokes. I was all super simple once I got the hang of it (and learned that tapping a layer brings it to the front). Not only can photos be edited, but stand-alone images can be made - which is nice for the occasion instagram post that has no photo for the message.

I’m not selling this app or have anything to do with it, just blogging about it as a PSA because eff yeah it’s amazing!

RESOURCES:
- Rhonna Designs App
- Rhonna Designs App FAQ
- Instagram
- History Channel’s Vikings

—-> Click here for comments.

Welcome to the final day of the Ruby Star Wrap-Along! The Wrap-Along is the brainchild of Amy of Sukie - don’t you know who I am? to celebrate Melody Miller and Allison Tannery’s beautiful and craftyawesome new book, Ruby Star Wrapping - Creating Gifts to Reuse, Regive & Relove.

You can read more about the entire Wrap-Along here for info on where to buy the book and enter to win prizes. In addition, visit Sew,Mama,Sew! for the Ruby Star Wrapping Contest where you can enter to win some seriously good stuff by showing what you’ve made from the book.

The project I planned to make for the Wrap-Along was the Gift Card Truck Softie and use Winterkist to make a faux shirt to make the cute little truck softie.

I made a placket from strip of fabric joined at the center and pressed open, and then added two prairie points to make the cuffs.

And then I went away for the weekend with my friends (Yams!) for a sewing weekend (Yamcamp!) in Sisters.  And then a blizzard crashed our party and we spent more time than planned up at Sisters (poor us, snowbound with friends and fabric). And more time on my Instagram as well!  And well, in my rush to get my project done and lost time - I decided to fudge a little on the project because before I knew it - it was time to post my day on the Wrap-Along, and I still had so much to do, so I turned the truck into a shirt pillow. So I feel kinda bad that I didn’t make the cute little truck, but I also like that I’m showing an alternate option. At least that’s my hope!

I added some buttons down the placket and popped in a gift card (I used my VA card - a precious card from my Uncle Sam) and made gift card pillow. I thought about how fun it would be to make little love pillows and slip in little love notes, or make a pillow out of your kids outgrown jammies and make little tooth fairy pillows.

Below is a list of everyone who participated in the Wrap-Along, and everyone is linked directly to the beautiful project they made. Totally worth a visit to everyone!

NOV 7 – Anna of noodlehead
NOV 9 - Amanda of A Crafty Fox
NOV 12 – Elizabeth of Oh, Fransson!
NOV 14 – Brooke of Pitter Putter Stitch
NOV 16 – Erin of Two More Seconds
NOV 19 - Jen of BettyCrockerAss
NOV 21 – Rochelle of Lucky Lucille
NOV 23 – Sukie of Sukie – don’t you know who I am?
NOV 26 – Elizabeth of Don’t Call Me Betsy
NOV 28 – Gina and crew of Bolt Neighborhood
NOV 30 – Ellen of The Long Thread
DEC 3 – Katie of Swim, Bike, Quilt!
DEC 5 - Faith of Fresh Lemon Quilts
DEC 7 - Lee of Freshly Pieced
DEC 10 - Maureen of Maureen Cracknell Handmade
DEC 12 - Sara of Sew Sweetness
DEC 14 - Colleen of The Busy Bean
DEC 17 - Amy of Diary of a Quilter
DEC 19 - Monica of Happy Zombie

On a side note, had it not been for the blizzard in the Cascades and having to turn around and head back to Sisters - Violet, Elizabeth and I never would have seen these deers crossing the highway near Black Butte Ranch. Thanks to my CoPilotViolet for grabbing my iPhone in time and getting shots of this amazing winter scene!

Never ever in the history of nevereverness has there been such a cool, new embroidery floss!  The super cool and brilliant genius (coolest girl in the whole damn school), Jenny Hart of Sublime Stitching unveils her new Sublime Floss embroidery floss today. I was lucky (lucky is an understatement) to be able to take Sublime Floss out for a test spin before today’s big unveiling.

After I parked from the test spin, I confess to wanting to make out with the floss.  That or eat it. Sublime Floss is like candy without the nasty repercussions. Sweet little 7-packs of crazy, sick yumminess.

Organized in perfect little color group packs. I love picking out fabrics for a quilting or sewing project so much, that I think I actually get a buzz.  But with floss, I don’t have brain juju to put colors together.  In my hand a gathered bundle looks amazing and well put together - but once I’ve stitched with it and see it on my fabric… I wonder what the spork I was thinking. Blerg ferg, I suck at auditioning floss. With Sublime Floss I no longer have to think or audition floss, it’s all been done for me. GAH, love it so much. <Arnold Schwarzenegger> Stitchery super powers are now mine! </Arnold Schwarzenegger>

It took everything I had to open the sweet little packages o joy and take out the floss, but thank goodness I did - there were even more sweet surprises inside! OHMYUNIVERSE, the color names are so fun and clever!

And then I saw the little messages at the end of each skein - too cute, too clever, too funny and TOO COOL!!

For my test spin I thought it would be fitting to sample a pattern I had recently bought at Sublime Stitching - a pattern by Carson Ellis on Sublime Stitching’s artist series. I had no idea how much I loved Carson’s work until Sublime Stitching unwittingly feed me nuggets of enlightenment… HEY, that’s the same Carson Ellis who’s illustrations grace the Wildwood books (with her writer husband Colin Meloy of The Decemberists!)  - THE reason I bought the books was because of the cover artwork (and because I got great feedback when I Instagram’d Colin & Carson’s books while I was at Costco, and because the books take place right here in Oregon). AND OH HEY, Carson Ellis is the same artist who’s benefit poster I’ve loved so much for so long.  I was initially drawn to the mention of my little town of Astoria and the Liberty Theater on the poster, and then fell in love with the artwork.   Talk about sublime serendipity!

Besides loving the colors of Sublime Floss, I love the tightness of the floss (all while retaining it’s soft, buttery feel). I’m a 2-strand stitcher, but often find I have to go to one strand for detailed embroidery work. With this floss I can still use two strands and not loose my detailed stitches in a fat, blubber of floss.  I stitch with long threads because I’m lazy, and this floss really holds up to prolonged stitching time without getting separated, thin, or fuzzy. I love you, floss.

I don’t know yet what I’m going to do with this любовь (Love) stitchery once I’m done, but I’m just happy to be stitching with my new floss boyfriend.
Yo.
Stitch.

Resources:
sublimestitching.com
sublimefloss.com
carsonellis.com
wildwoodchronicles.com

I having a head spinning heart swooning love affair with my new boyfriend, George.

George Pinterest Glass.

Oh yeah, he’s hot. So hot I don’t want to climb out of bed - and just be with him day and night, night and day.

A snapshot of my kool-aid board.  No reason to explain why I can’t get out of bed and out of George Pinterest Glass’ loving arms (right arm: keyboard and left arm: trackpad).

My boards - like pretty little shoe-boxes where I hide away all my dreams, desires and delectables.  Any photo or image I see in Internetlandia - bam, one click to my “pin it” button on my toolbar - and into one of my selected pin boards it goes.  My boyfriend George is that good. And the best part… my friends (old and new) who are also on Pinterest - I get to see into their shoe-boxes AND get to socialize with them.  Gravy.

Pinterest = Lovefest.
Want your own Pinterest boyfriend or girlfriend, too? If you get one - please don’t say I didn’t warn you about Pinterest’s sexy, sexy spell.

Editing in a Q & A. I’m no expert… just passing on what I’ve learned.

Pam allegedly asked:
[Q] Do I need to know someone with an account to get an invite?
[A] No… but if you do know someone - I would offer them some chocolate for an invite. If you don’t know someone, just click on “get one” at the bottom of my post - it’ll take you to a request.

Sherri allegedly asked:
[Q] … can you request to see friends’ boards???
[A] You can see friends’ boards even if you don’t follow them or they don’t follow you. No friendship requests… just following. If you do follow them, their pins will show on your feed - exactly like your twitter feed shows tweets of those you follow. You can also unfollow boards within a user. Example: I follow Person-XYZ, but I’ll unfollow their “jewelry” board so I don’t see all their jewelry pins in my feed.

Pat allegedly asked:
[Q] Okie dokie… so am I supposed to get notified if the people i follow post something new? How about when someone comments on my photo? Or repins?
[A] Yes - you just need to set up your preferences here. I haven’t been getting all of my notifications, but I think Pinterest is working on that.

Recently I was asked if I’d like to have a copy of/and review Amy Sedaris’ new book Simple Times - Crafting for poor people.  I jumped at the chance, JUMPED  [whispering] And it was already on my shopping list.  Score! [/end whispering].  I love, love, love Amy Sedaris and I think she is HILARIOUS.  Here’s a YouTube clip of Amy on a recent Martha visit.

As soon as Simple Times came, I thought I’d do a quick thumb through… only to have gotten sucked in and I couldn’t put it down. There’s even some recipes in the book. Not that I know how to use that big box thing in my kitchen that gets hot - but there’s no way I can resist a recipe that’s called My Plumbers Cheesecake. 

I’m too chicken to show the Crafty Candle Salad recipe (a banana, a smidgen of mayo, a cherry…), but I can show the Mexican Sugar Skulls recipe - which I want to make yesterday.

The section on Safety Meeting is something I need to make myself get in tune with.

Especially after Jana’s pin incident.  The book says there may be tragic results… but Amy has yet to meet Lizzy.

This killed me: “KILLING JAR - Instructions: The easiest way to kill your butterflies is to use a killing jar. Simply soak… yada yada yada… blah blah blah… A label on the the jar make the whole thing cuter”. Yay… just like Dexter… he’s so darn cute when he follows The Code.  And then there’s the how to make a roach clip with a crab claw - it had me roaring. This is NOT your momma’s crafting book from the 80’s. Now I’m having a fantasy Carol Duval making crab claw roach clips with Gary Collins in my head. Dude. Carol. Dude. Gary. Sweet.

The Healing Power of Crafting… clearly my medicine cabinet needs restocking! Out with the OTC, in with the fat quarters and ric-rac.

The only downside to this book is that you shouldn’t read it alone - I wanted to read it out loud to my friends. Especially the chapter on, ummm… Ya. That. Again… NOT your momma’s crafting book.

OMG… so naughty and so funny. Charlie Sheen would blush.

I love my iPhone
I love my toys

I love my hamburgers,
I love them animalized

I love my fries,
Dipped in mayo
I hear my arteries cry,
I don’t listen to what they say-o

I suck at poems,
I suck at rhymes…
This here post should be a crime.

I spotted this La Piña Flour at WinCo Foods in Longview, WA.  I embarrassed the heck out of my husband when I snapped this photo with my iPhone.   Yes… people were looking at me in that odd, curious sort of way.  But I was looking at THEM in the same odd, curious sort of way…. People, people, PEOPLE… don’t you see what is before us??? OMG! FOOD… in FABRIC packaging!

Fantasy #1: The good peeps at La Piña Flour read my post and the lovely comments left about feedsacks - and decided to produce this:

Fantasy #2: The peeps at Gold Medal, C&H, Peet’s and Cocoa Puffs will read it too.

Fantasy #3:  Above peeps will contact Moda peeps.

Sweet by Urban Chicks (aka Pam’s BFF’s), Baskets of Flowers by Mary Engelbreit and Oh-Cherry-Oh! by Me & My Sister

Fantasy #4:  Safeway would build me a covered parking space (out of the rain).  I’d be there EVERY day, after all.

The little pic tease’s goodie came. OH MY! That sweet little Doe… look what she sent! An effing adorable little Cath Kidston mushroom pin cushion that I JUST LOVE (I’ve had a thing for mushrooms and Heinzelmännchen since I was a little kid!). And the best part is Doe’s little tag hung on it. And if that wasn’t enough… Doe also sent some killer CK stationary - which I can’t bear to use and will keep it by my computer, staged, so I can pretend it’s something I use on a daily basis in my little realm of unreality. And no, that is not a flash. It’s not lighting. That my friends is s-u-n-s-h-i-n-e!

So here’s where my little Doe-shroon is now sitting. On my shelf-o-joy right by my beaver (crap… you know THAT’S gonna get me a ton of spam) that Laurie sent me and my little aqua/red birdie in a mailbox that Pam sent me. Click here if you want to see the goodie love close-up.

Panning out… my shelf-o-joy is right above my “ironing center”. I really was hesitant about taking a shot of my messy studio. But WTF… it’s how I live. One day I plan to clean my mess and take some nice shots and use it for posterity - like looking at a skinny pic of me to motivate me to kick the Best Foods habit. And one day I may even straighten up my cupboards and show what cotton treasures are hidden behind Door Number One, Door Number Two, Door Number Three… AFTER I tackle my closet that’s still in boxes and bags from my move last summer. Hidden somewhere in that closet are other mailbox love treasures I have not yet shown (and need to COME OUT). I also need to get them out to show what beautiful people are in my life and what beautiful things they’ve done for me! I’m such a scheißekopf of a friend!

I’ve died and gone to heaven. I don’t need it… I must have it! I found out about it here.

How did Target slip this Janome past me?

Love.

Love.

Bliss.

photo credit: Target

It is not uncommon for my friends to have to wait for me. My parents, my doctor, my dentist, my guild, people behind me in line at Safeway or on an airplane, you name it… all have had the unfortunate opportunity of having to wait for me. So here’s the thing… I took this photo of DS and Kathy Griffin last night at about 8:10pm. Kathy’s show was supposed to start at 8:00pm. So to all the nice people in the sold out and packed Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall last night… I’m really sorry you had to wait for Kathy because of me DS and I got to go backstage to meet Kathy and you didn’t! Ok, so I’m kinda sorry you didn’t get to meet her too… because she’s so sweet, friendly, gracious and warm IRL. HUGE thanks to my cousin Bobby for hooking us up!

Kathy’s show was so funny and she really is a comic genius. But the funniest thing happened when she spotted the sign language interpreter signing some of her colorful language… which ended up being a show in itself. Kathy started feeding the interpreter all kinds of deliciously bad and naughty words and phrases. If you know me IRL… you’ll know that I’ve increased my wordpower to a new level! Watch my hands friends… watch my hands!

And speaking of the Arlene Schnitzer Concert Hall… While EVERYONE is so friendly who works at The Schnitz (actually, ALL of Portland is sooo friendly), there is this one lady usher who just shines and oozes kindness and joy. This usher is Phyllis and she’s got a smile and grace that just warms your soul. We’ve been seated by her a few times now and last night I told her how wonderful I thought she was. Phyllis is warm apple pie served on the very best china. I told her I was going to blog about her… so here it is Phyllis!

Because I’m so obsessed with our snowfall last Wednesday night… I of course have more to show! This was this morning on Hwy. 30 heading west into Astoria. Photos can’t convey the enchanting and breathtaking beauty of this winter wonderland. If you’re inland missing your now melted snow… head on over to Astoria for a magical treat! Some of the trees looked like lace or that they were spayed with marshmallow fluff. Beautiful. Breathtaking. Enchanting.