Price List

As per request from Desi I'm putting up a price list for my products. :)

My Shower Disks are $1.50 each.

They are used to help combat congestion, or also simply to enjoy the scent. The rosemary stimulates circulation, the eucalyptus clears congestion, and the lavender is a calming agent.
Simply place the disk anywhere in the shower (it will last longer if it's not directly under the water stream) and let it dissolve and the essential oils vaporize and mix with the steam. Enjoy!

Lip Balms $2.00

Vanilla and honey lip balms.

Lotion Bars $10.00

Available in the pictured heart shape above or the flower shape below. Scents at the moment are lemon, lavender, or vanilla.

Lavender-Oatmeal Moisturizer/Night Cream $7.50

Lotion Bars, and Lip Balms, and Shower Disks, oh, my!

So I have been spending a lot of time creating new things. My poor sewing machine needs to be looked at, and healed, so in the meantime I have discovered how much I adore making natural and simple beauty products on my own.
It started with a kiss, how did it end up like this:

And this my very depleted stock, about 50 percent of it has been claimed and the above shelf has a basket with approximately 100 lip balms.
It started with a pinterest experiment following a visit to Lush. My friend Nina, loves them and the fact that they are vegetarian, against animal testing, and make their products with natural ingredients and I think by hand. I like their products and splurged on some honey soap, massage bar, and shower gel. My uncle was with us and was  looking at oatmeal moisturizers since he was considering shaving his beard but wanted something for his poor childhood-achne ravaged face.
Lush is all nice and good, but oh so very expensive as well as requiring a drive up to Portland. So, what do you think I did? Jep, I hopped on pinterest, looked around, found a bunch of recipes and did my own thing. I used the recipes as a spring board and then created something unique and very me.
I created a lavender-oatmeal moisturizer. Then I went on to develop honey-vanilla lip balms. Lotion Bars might even have been before that. People kept wanting more and commenting on how much they loved it and would buy it from me. I didn't really take that seriously until I brought a bunch of my stuff to a work training and had people shoving money at me because they said they knew how expensive ingredients could be and wanted to help.
Wow, I realized people would really pay for what I make. The search for containers started. Hours and hours spent on the internet resulted in the perfect (if I do say so myself) containers to make my products shine. Then I had to come up with a fair price taking into account the cost of ingredients as well as time and effort.
I'm still in the beginning phases and am just now starting to actually make some of the money back I've put into it. When I can I will be ordering labels to make them really look professional and also give people a way to find out how to reach me and order things.
After I'd already started selling stuff I decided I was finally going to try out this mock vicks-vapors shower disk recipe I'd found. I'd gotten a shower disk before at Powell's books and liked it, less so the 4.99 price tag attached. The idea is that you place it on the floor of your shower and let it disintegrate, releasing the vapors which will mix with the steam of your shower. The vapors will help with congestions, whether chest from a cough, or sinus, it'll clear that right out! It's also fun to just put into she shower for some fresh and renewing aroma therapy.
My that was a mess! So much wasted time, energy, and ingredients. Well, then again waisted is subjective... After about a week I was successful and found a way! Today I got the fun colored foil wrappers and as luck had it they were the perfect size (I was worried they might be too small). Today I will have one last experiment and see how that goes, otherwise I am happy enough with the way I'm doing them. And those shower disks? Yes, they've flown out the window as fast as I could make them.
All of my products are great gifts, and not even all that girly so they can be used by men without having to sacrifice manliness.
What do they look like you ask? I shall show you:

Lotion Bars which function as lotion and release it little by little into your hands or skin when it begins to melt from your body temperature. It works great as a massage bar like Lush sells, but I have to admit to liking mine much more (and not just because I made it!)
For now it either comes in the shape of a heart or a flower and is about cupcake shaped. Depending on the demand and requests I'm thinking of getting another shape that kind of looks like a lego piece with rounded tops for even better massages.
The scents for now are Lavender, Lemon, and Vanilla. Theoretically the variety of scents could be unlimited, I'm just starting slowly with a base, but I'll gladly make you whatever natural scent you would like with some extra time allowed for getting the essential oils I don't have.

Here's the view of the tin from above:

The Flower Shape

The Heart Shape

Here is my lavender-oatmeal moisturizer that is most commonly used as an overnight cream:

My lip balms here are shown with clear tubes and either yellow lids or clear lids. I am able to tint them different colors, which however will no longer be all organic anymore. The tints only tint the lip balm, but does not rub off. I can also order differently colored tubes and/or lids if a sufficient amount is ordered in advance. For instance my friend Megan is hosting a baby shower for her sister. The baby will be a boy, so we have clear tubes with blue lids and are tinting the lip balm blue as party favors.

Best part for anyone wanting to get a bunch of lip balms? They're actually cheaper than most other lip balms out there, and definitely cheaper than Burt's. I love that my coworkers high school senior son told her they were better than the Burt's Beeswax ones. (They actually have organic beeswax as one part of the base.)

And here is the newest member of the family, the shower disks:

Unwrap them, place anywhere in the shower, wait, inhale, smell, and relax!

This is what they look like unwrapped. They are also about cupcake sized.


I still haven't been able to come up with a good idea to name my product line. So far I'm stuck on "Bella's Caring Products" quite unoriginal, so I welcome other suggestions. I guess I spent all my creative energy on creating the little buggers so none is left for the name. I think that's something I can live with though...

I'm alive

Well, hello, this is slightly embarrassing. So I'm just going to pretend I died and miraculously came back to life. So, blogosphere here I am, don't be too harsh!
It's amazing what has happened in the last few months! My baby sister got married on August 1st. I went to Europe and was there, I was also the event photographer for a big part of it. (Diesel actually had maid of honor duties limiting her time as photographer. Regardless, my sister was gorgeous and her wedding was amazing. No way I can compete with that! :) My mother told me it was the perfect wedding.

See, I told you Diesel was busy:

So that was quite the Adventure!

Next my friend Nina flew back with me from Amsterdam and staid for a month. We had a fabulous time and did not get into it once, or even really annoy each other! It was so much fun and we have many great memories!!!

The thing about visitors is you finally go explore all the cool things your area has to offer. I saw quite a bit more of Portland than I had before.

We also got to show her some of our favorite places like the Wildlife Reserve half way between Monmouth and Corvallis.

I relearned the meaning for Tripper in German (gonorrhea) and how hilarious it is that my friend George who lived in Germany for a while too named his cat that (no, he didn't know the meaning, but now we can never forget it again.....ever!).

I got to see a wallaby with her baby at the state fair. We also learned how delicious all the animals thought Charlie's shoelaces were! We had at least one of each kind chew on them, deers, goats, wallabies, pigs, etc.

We had a family of raccoons move into our back yard. Charlie named one of them Edward because he likes to sit on a branch and watch us sleep. XD

A friendly neighborhood bird planted a plethora of cantaloupes in our yard for us. Our tomatoes also went into overdrive!

George turned even older!

So did I.

We had a Halloween party:

Oh, and we're caught up! Who would have thought? Of course much more happened, for instance I found a new love: making my own lotions, moisturizers, lip balms, etc. That will be in the next post. I'll introduce you to a few of my girlfriends. ^^

Upcoming crafty goodness

Tomorrow my fiancé's baby brother (8) is coming to stay with us for a couple of days.
My fiancé is a bit apprehensive, since he's not quite sure about having to spend quality time with an 8-year-old. I on the other hand see this as a golden opportunity to do all sorts of crafts with him. We'll see if he's equally enthusiastic... It's only 8 crafts plus a little scrapbook of the trip!?!
Haha, who thinks I'm crazy? Especially since Alfredo has the attention span of a gnat!
If I'm lucky my friend will have time and come too, so I'll still have a fellow crafter once I loose Alfredo to the lure of the Xbox.

What's different about being a wife?

So I've been going a bit nuts on pinterest with wedding ideas. The fact that my sister is getting married on August first isn't helping. There are so questions that are all directed at me, because as it seems I'm the authority on it. ^^ god knows why... I certainly don't.
All these wedding plans have made me think a lot about marriage and what it means to be married. What will change after we get married? We already live together and have for almost 4 years, we moved in together after about 3 1/2 months. We've had a dog together for 3 years on fourth of July. We've had joint finances for at least 3 years.
So what will change when we marry on our 5 year anniversary?
I think maybe it'll have that feeling of permanency. I take the "till death do you part" part of the vows very seriously! I feel that since divorce has been destigmatized (which I think is a great thing! Believe me!), people are more prone to just give up and throw the towel. I know that there are very good reasons to get divorced, and there are situations where I would consider divorce myself. On the other hand I know that marriages need work! And I know I will do my damnedest to work and make sure that this will be my one and only marriage!
The other thing that would change might be kids. That part won't kick in though, until after I finish grad school. When you spend that much time in school, you'll want to actually use it before having kids. So that will be a change, but not for a while.
I want to be able to be a good wife. I just worry that I won't be. What makes a good wife? How do I achieve that? I don't really have the best role models. My parents aren't really the best suited couple. My mother has a lot of baggage from her first marriage. Charlie's parents aren't together. My American grandparents should never have stayed together and I wasn't around my Swiss grandparents at an age where I would have seen how they were together and been able to learn from them.
When you search the Internet for advice there isn't really much. Or at least nothing that really seems useful to me.
I wish I had a support system. I don't really believe in religion, but I do envy the sense of community you can get from it.
What do I do if I mess up? Who do I go to for advice?

Greta

I finally finished Greta round two. I had started one but did not like the threads I had used and some of the fabrics weren't quite my choice. So I decided to make a second one. Since I was making this wallhanging for my dad and I wanted it to be perfect.
I chose the Greta pattern because it's a bear and my father's name is Urs. In latin ursus means bear. So my dad has lots of bear things. He also has so much crappy kid artwork of mine in his office, so I figured I'd make him something that I wasn't embarrassed to have him display.

Here is a picture of the wallhanging as a whole.

I tried to use the quilting to make it look like the sun had sunbeams.

Here's the dedication I made for my dad. I put it on the bottom right of the border so he could see it during the day as a reminder that I care.

Why do I feel so sad?

Well, as most anyone can attest to: everyone has some times in life where they are feeling more low than not. To quote the tv commercials: depression happens, depression hurts.
It sucks, and sometimes it feels like you fall into a hole you can't get out of it again, at least not on your own. But then you also don't want to drag someone down with you or make them feel it's their fault. It is a very delicate situation.
I've been thinking a lot about what to do to get out of this situation, or at least improve it. As so many of us do, I turned to google. I found multiple lists of ideas to help you feel better. I cherry picked my favorites from the lists, I also added some of my own ideas at the end and finally made a master list.
I have the list split up by the authors and have added their url to the bottom of the lists. So you can go look at their lists and see which elements I didn't copy and paste to my list. If I made comments they are in parentheses and most have my name after them.
The last part of the list is my ideas. I'd love to hear any ideas anyone else has! Please feel free to add your ideas in the comment section! I definitely welcome them!


What I have done for myself and will be testing out is printing the list of things that are fun to do and would make me feel happy by doing them, then I cut each activity out as a separate strip (that's why there are such big spaces between the lines). I put all the strips into a mason jar and am planing on taking a strip out each day and doing the activity on it. Of course I don't want to turn this into a chore, so I am leaving myself the out to put the strip back in and pick another one if I really don't feel like doing the first activity.

I am posting the list to the bottom of this post, and when I get home I am planing on attaching it as a file for people to download if they want.

I'm hoping this will help me regain the feeling of how lucky I really am to be leading the life I do. We all need these reminders, and of course I always want to share anything I can to help people!

Things to do to make yourself feel better!


Go outside in the sunshine for 10-15 minutes.


Take a break and read for 1/2 an hour.


Soak in tub of hot water while listening to music.


Surround yourself with candles and listen to music – or just peace and quiet.


Write a letter to someone you’ve not heard from in a while.


Write letters to older relatives; they will love it.


Blow bubbles.


Read to a child.


Have a cup of tea and a snack.


Call a friend.


Watch your favorite movie and have some popcorn (or your favorite treat).


Start a movie night with friends.


Get out of the house if you’ve been cooped up for a while.


Buy some flowers.


Make a list of things you’d like to accomplish throughout your life (like a bucket list).


Explore a subject that interests you.


Fill a notebook with upbeat, inspirational quotes and affirmations.


Add culture to your life; listen to classical music, look into art and find what you like, read good literature, etc.


Declutter your life/house/room/office, whatever needs it or seems manageable at the time.


Ask friends for suggestions of authors to try out, or books in different genres than you usually read. Try something new.


Get some exercise.


Invent new reasons to celebrate.


Give duty a rest for once; put pleasure and happiness first for a little while.


Have dessert for dinner one night.


Have breakfast for dinner one night.


Indulge in your favorite comfort food.


Read a humor book.


Eat better and drink more water.


Do one nice thing for yourself
Make a list of your accomplishments – over the last 10 years, or over your lifetime. See what you have achieved!


Take care of yourself: floss, exercise, eat better, get more sleep.


Be kind to yourself – as you would to others having a hard time.


Exercise more in general.


Keep a journal and write it out.


Write it out on a piece of paper and burn it or shred it when you are done.


Go for a walk.


Go to the park.


Go to somewhere alone for a little peace and quiet.

Try something new to you: a new type of book/magazine, a new recipe, a new cuisine, write a book, write an article, a new craft, and so on.


Make time for yourself every day.


Make a humor file and file cartoons, quotes, stories, and the like in it. Take it out when
you need cheering up.


Remember something funny that happened to you or around you and write about it.


Take a few deep breaths, and relax.


Change your hair color.


Read a book that challenges you or makes you think.


Try crossword puzzles.


Try putting together a puzzle.


Play with a kitten or a puppy, or whatever pet you have.


Go to a zoo.


Visit an aquarium.


Visit a friend.


Set boundaries; if you need peace and quiet, let others around you know.

http://thinkingthrough.wordpress.com/2007/05/19/101-ways-to-cheer-yourself-up/



Do some painting


Decorate your house with flowers.


Make a funny photo album with all those old photos you've got in boxes by adding quirky caption above each picture.


Write and illustrate a mini book or comic book


Go to a park or a place in nature.


Go for a walk.


Fly a kite.


Go on a 'treasure hunt" to find things for an art project.


Turn on your favorite music and sing!


Pull down the shades and dance (or leave them open).


Get some order in your house.


Change your furniture around.


Clear out the clutter.


Sell, throw, or give away stuff you don't need.


Take a bubble bath with candles, music and champagne (or wine).


Line up 2-3 movies to watch in bed while eating your favorite delights: ice cream, chocolate, whip cream, jello, popcorn, finger food hors d'oeuvre, and more.


Make some home made post cards with materials you have lying around the house.


Cutout some pictures from magazines or from your photo collection and make a mini collage.

http://www.dumblittleman.com/2008/01/10-things-you-can-do-to-cheer-yourself.html?m=1




Have a pajama party


Stay in bed. Just you, something (or someone) to snuggle, a laptop, notebook or sketchpad, some rad music, a good movie, and a hot cup of chocolate. It’s the perfect antidote for dreary weather or cancelled plans.
Buy a packet of ten postcards and send a note to your friends – even the ones you see every day. Tell them how awesome you think they are, and how much you love hanging out with them.


Create outfits of ridiculous clothes and accessories to do mundane tasks. Walk the dog in your bondage pants and Pantera shirt, vacuum the house in a tutu and high heels, buy milk at the store in nothing but a trench coat. -I’ll let you invent your own definition of “ridiculous”-.


Watch a DVD of one of your favorite stand-up comedians.


Run yourself a bath. Gather together all your exquisite bathroom pampering treatments – all the luscious soaps and decadent shower gels you haven’t opened because they’re “special” and you don’t want to use them up. Open them all. Use them all. Take the phone off the hook, put up a do-not-disturb sign, pour yourself a glass of wine or mead, put on some relaxing music, and read a book, or stare at the ceiling.


Blow bubbles. You can buy little jars of bubble mixture at those $2 shops, or make a simple bubble mixture at home using dish washing liquid, water, and sugar or corn syrup. TIP: Storing your solution for a day can actually lead to better bubbles.


Make your own kite.


Find one of those treasure-trove fabric and trimming shops with hundreds of bits of old lace and rooms of buttons and bins of fabric offcuts. Set yourself a budget – say, $15, and find a mad ensemble of items. Take them home and decorate a hat, headband, bag, necklace or bag.


Invite someone over for a midnight snack – someone who makes you laugh so hard your stomach hurts. Eat nachos from the plate together and giggle.


Quote Shakespeare at inappropriate moments.


Find a playground in your area. Swing on the swings. Better yet, if you have a backyard with a tree, build a swing for yourself. I find all the world’s problems can be solved by a little swing-time.


Write to Your Idols
Compile a list of all the people in the world you want to meet – all the amazing artists, writers, musicians, actors, thinkers, dreamers and activists who’ve inspired you over the years.


There’s something very peaceful about reading a book under a tree, or while sitting on a wooden bench in a deserted rose garden.


Hang Wind chimes
I’ve always loved the tinkle of wind chimes and crystals. I lined the entire length of my window in my room at my folk’s house with various chimes – ceramic bells I strung up with beads, clear crystals that sparkle in the sun, blown glass droplets which make an incredible sound when they clink together, a ceramic wind chime, dream catchers, African animals with bells … it’s so colorful and cheery.
(My mother has tons of crystals in various shapes and sizes hanging in all the windows, and when the sun hits them rainbows are everywhere - Bella)


You know exercise is good for you, and it makes you feel good. So exercise! Run around the block, do star jumps in the living room. Find the local ice-skating rink or rock climbing wall, hike through the park, practice yoga, salsa dancing or burlesque (you can find lots of free lessons on youtube).


No One at Home
Change your voicemail message to something hilarious. Mine says “Hello, you’ve reached Steff’s cell. Unfortunately, I can’t come to the phone right now, as I’m preparing for the imminent zombie apocalypse. If you’re listening to this, I suggest you find yourself a sharp implement and head to your nearest shopping mall.” All the messages I receive begin with the callers giggling.


Participate in Operation Beautiful
Operation Beautiful’s mission is to put up anonymous notes in public places for other women to find. The notes say “you are beautiful” and give the Operation Beautiful web address. I’ve put up a few around Auckland, and I hope they made somebody’s day.


Dig out your favorites – the music that makes you feel the world is full of wonder. Play loud, sing along, dance on the bed, throw your arms around, headbang, smash something, slow dance with your cat.

http://www.yesandyes.org/2010/03/101-ways-to-cheer-yourself-up-part-1.html?m=1



Make a bucket list.


Listen to Beth heart: favorite things. The song is all about the things you do that make you deliriously happy and giggly.


Write in a journal or diary.


Make a list of all the fabulous and supportive things you have in your life.


Have a good old fashioned tea party with a friend, drink tea and eat cucumber finger sandwiches.


Have a themed movie night, for example watch Kung fu movies, eat Chinese food and wear a headband or something like that. (This isn't meant to be politically incorrect or offensive, just for fun)


Have a silly competition like a mario cart race, a pizza eating competition.


Have a board game night (add some daiquiris and you are in for hilarity!)


Turn your phone off for two hours, or so, be unreachable!


Take some time to be alone, light a candle, and contemplate life, or missed loved ones. Make peace with your loss and remember the good times you had together.


Have some girl time! Go all out, with face masks, romcoms, bathrobes, etc.


Take time for yourself, do your nails, etc.


Smile. Fake it till you make it! Yes, at first it may be a fake smile, but it will develop into a real smile and make you feel happier after a while. Believe me, I've tried it.


Surround yourself with smells that make you feel happy.


Make little cheap gifts for people, giving always feels good. (Try out my bath salts tutorial)


In my case sew something. Creating something always makes me feel great and accomplished. I love the feeling of investing time and effort and having an end result from it. You can always create something using other methods than sewing, like knitting, paper mâché, a collage, paint, tie dye something, etc, ect.

Project inner peace

It has begun! The quest for happiness and contentment is underway!

More to follow soon!

And so there is the world...

I've been pretty much hating work. It has been draining me and just plain sucking the life out of me.
Quit, you say! I agree completely, but here is where being an adult sets in. There are unfortunately bills to be paid and people who depend on me. By being so burnt out I feel like I'm letting everyone down.
This is also hard to express at home because I don't want to complain too much. And I don't want to make my fiancé feel put under pressure because he hasn't found a real job.
In this economy it's so hard to find a job that I feel like a brat complaining about the one I have while everyone desperately wants one.
And having interviewed for two jobs the feeling is weird too. I'm a bit afraid of starting a completely new job. Even though I am so unhappy here there is a bit of me that is scared of leaving, because I've been here so long.

I've also been feeling drained of creativity. I literally sat infront of a fabric panel for more than two hours (I'm serious, I checked the watch, not exaggerating) and couldn't think of a thing to do with it.
I just sat there and stared.

Oh, well, I guess it's back to putting on a brave/happy face for the rest of the world...

Apron

So part of this paperbag club is about challenging yourself and using fabrics you might never normally work with. And I HATED the fabric. Well, maybe hate is overstating it a bit, but it was definitely not my kind of thing at all!
I made a apron. Not a very flattering picture of myself either. >_<
After spending hours looking for the right apron pattern I gave up and just ended up doing my own version of one. I ended up giving away the apron to one of the members of the club.

My first quillow

I've been wanting to make a quillow for ever! A quillow is a quilt that has a pouch and folds up into a pillow.
So I finally tried one! I looked for patterns everywhere online and and kept coming back to the same website. This is the pattern I used. I believe that author's name is: Michele Bilyeu.
And again this was more of my extremely sloppy work! But it is also the first tester just to get an idea of the pattern and see how it works. I'm planing on making many more, but I do think I'll make them a bit bigger.
I'm planing on making a sweet fuzzy flannel one to take with me to Europe in July. Yes, even though I'm 24 I still need a blankie to feel safe when I'm alone. >_<
I think they would also make great gifts and you can customize them as much as you want too. :)

Here Charlie is wearing it as a hat-cape:

When you fold it up as the pillow this is what it looks like:

And here Noli is debating whether the pouch would be a nice little nest for her or not:

Hehe

Heart Appliqué - Reverse Appliqué

This is another project I made for the paper bag club I a part of. I think I explained it before, but essentially it's a club that a few other ladies are part of. Every month on the third Thursday we get an assortment of fabric equaling up to two yards. The assignment is to make something out of the fabric and using some of all of the fabrics in it. We can also always supplement it with fabrics of our own.
So here is the quilt I made out of it. I added a bunch of other fabrics of my own and bought more of the ones I was given.
I used appliqué and reverse appliqué. My fiancé Charlie actually say there and cut out 99% of the hearts for me. We used a double amount of squares and alternately sewed the cutout heart on a square, and then sewed the frame of the cut out heart and sewed that on a square, so that the background fabric showed through in the shape of a heart.

The fabric is all flannels and very fine corduroy. I used wool batting and flannel as the backing. So it's super cuddly and warm. It's all pretty sloppy work but now almost my favorite because it's so cuddly and soft it makes you feel safe, like being wrapped up in a warm hug. :)

My hug:

Cargo scarfs

I found this super cool scarf idea through the stumble upon app. They also have a website and you can install a toolbar Stumbled Upon. It's pretty cool, because they use the interest you tell them about and find new websites to introduce you to.
Aaaanyway the point I was making, is that I found this really cool Pattern through it.
The pattern is for a "cargo scarf", I.e. a scarf with little pockets for things like your wallet, etc. in effect eliminating the need to carry a purse on occasion.
Being thorough (or probably bored and procrastinating for something) I read through the comments as well as the pattern. Some commenters had really great ideas: adding a zippered pocket for little things you don't want to lose or change. Of course I had to add a zippered pocket to mine as well!
I decided to make this for my best friend Lauren. Her favorite color is purple, so I decided that was what I was going to use, but I wanted a soft flannel for the lining so it would feel nice against her neck. :)

Here is a picture of her finished scarf:
You can see a bit of the outside which I embellished with black lace, and the lining.

You can see I also added a carabiner hook so you can attach your keys to it. Above that is also elastic so you can put in pencils or pens. I also made some bigger loops so you can add a lipstick. :)

Here is a close up of the front/outside:

I am also part of a paper bag class, which is a class where once a month you get a bag with two yards of fabric, which could be any pattern, but will match up. The two yards can be composed of 2 half yards, three 2/3 of a yard, etc.
So I decided to make another cargo scarf. Realized that the fabric was a really great fit for my friend Brandy. So I decided to make her that scarf instead of a table runner (maybe next year). I added more trimming and beaded fringe to the bottom of it, in the hopes that she was less clumsy than I and wouldn't bean herself in the head with it like I would...
Haha, I am way too clumsy for words!!!
Here are some pics of that scarf:

I actually have no idea how to put in zippers correctly, I just mangled it somehow and it's staying putt.

...

Works for me I guess... >_<

This one is a bit fuzzy, but I'm putting it in because you can see that I decided to put the D-ring on the outside so you wouldn't have your keys knocking against you directly..

I used a decorative stitch to close the opening used to turn the scarf right side out. I hate doing slip stitch, so most of the time I'll cheat and use decorative stitches and say that's the way it had to be. Hehe

Rainbow Quilt

This is a quilt I've been wanting to make for quite some time! I've had the jelly rolls for a while, but have always had quilts for other people hat I've had to make first. But I decided it was finally time I made one or our bed. So here it is, the quilt top without borders:

The colors are a bit bleached out by the sun.
I'm going to use wool batting for this one and have it be for winter, and then make one that has white strips instead of black ones and use cotton batting for a more lightweight summer quilt.

Nola is puppy testing it!

I got the pattern for this quilt from this Book. That is a link to the book on amazon, and this is the title: Little Bits Quilting Bee: 20 Quilts Using Charm Packs, Jelly Rolls, Layer Cakes, and Fat Quarters.
I adore this book! It has so many quilts in it that I would really like to make! I actually already made a quilt from this book on a previous occasion, Lisa's hot air balloon baby quilt, and wrote about it Here. :)

Jackie's Butterfly Quilt

My friend and coworker has been wanting a quilt for quite a long time. I always promised I'd make her one, but life kept happening. now I finally made it.
Butterflies are kind of her thing so that is the them I went with.

Here is the backing, it also has lots of butterflies:

I also made a little throw pillow to go with it.

This was my first quilt with partial seams. I gotta tell you, they tried to drive me insane. I think I ripped out the same border 2 even though it was right, just because I had turned it around the wrong way. But I did succeed and I'm pretty proud to have conquered a new skill. :)