Eat, drink and make cards!

I had a Stampin' Up party on Saturday. My friend Neena who is the SU demonstrator told me none of the Frisby women has had a party in a while. The girls are too busy and I think I haven't because I'm sure I own most everything they sell! lol But we got together anyway so I had to put out a spread. You know, if I didn't feed people, I could spend hundreds of dollars on stuff for myself! LOL It just wouldn't be as fun....
So, we had some bedgetables....

And we had other stuff that I didn't think to take a picture of like Frito Salad, sandwiches and fruit. My husband already looks at me like I'm nuts for taking pictures of everything so I can blog about it. LOL
Then it was time to have some dessert and I made our favorite and super easy Texas sheet cake...again! This is a crowd favorite so I have to make it whenever the girls come over.

I'll share the recipe later if I haven't posted it already. :o)

This is the first card we made. Neena makes everything so easy by precutting all the paper. We get to just stamp and play. I like the saying. You should be able to click on it to make it bigger.

Then we did this adorable card!

The flowers and leaves were done with their bigshot which is a die cutting machine/system. I don't have one but it's similar to the old Sizzex machine, but way better. Anyway, we cut those parts out with the machine. We also used it to emboss the dots on the white card stock and the little dots on the pink flowers. It is a cute card! Who doesn't love pink and black together? I'll probably never send it to anyone. Well, maybe I will but I have a hard time giving up the cute ones. hehe

Then we used the big shot and one of the dies to cut out these little matchboxes. They don't look like much here because we didn't decorate them but if you add a little ribbon, a sentiment and some chocolate, they're really cute.

So that was Saturday. Sunday was nothing exciting. Laundry and cleaning up the backyard some. Tending to my dying tomatoes.... more on those later.

C'mon Over!

I finally finished the curtains in my spare room. It's seems kind of goofy to have half of the room all modern shelving from Ikea and the other half old stuff with a country look but it's just a spare room right? No sense in going to Pottery Barn and spending a small fortune on furnishings. Like I can afford PB! Good thing they give the catalog away for free or I couldn't afford that either!!!
So here's the front window.

I kinda sorta hate mini blinds but my rooms face the street and I have to have some privacy for those late nights sewing and playing with stamps. They're cheap and they work. What can I say?
I found some buttons in my sewing box to make fabric covered buttons. So I put some of the check fabric on them for a decorative touch. Look at me trying to be Martha Stewart!! lol

And this is the room all done. :o) It's so small I can't get far enough away to get a picture.

I still haven't found a place for all the stuff that I took out of this room and that I don't want back in this room. I think I'll be making a donation to my local charity this week (because all the leftover stuff is in the game room and that room is practically sacred!!) hehe

So, c'mon over!!! :o)

Father's Day Fun

Stephanie and Kelley came over to cook their daddy a Father's Day breakfast. I love breakfast and was so happy to participate (in the eating). They made bacon and waffles and cut up fresh strawberries and bananas. It was delish! Here are the cooks with their daddy.

You better believe the youngest daughter, Ashley got grief for not being there for the cooking process but managed to get there for the eating process. lol She tried confessing that she played five softball games on Saturday but the older sisters weren't too sympathetic. I recruited her for the clean up and she couldn't even argue about it. :o)

Let me back up a few days to Tuesday. I went and picked up my mom for a little visit before taking her to my older sister's house on Saturday. Friday, we made a trip to Michaels. My mom loves to make jewelry and it keeps her very busy and ingrossed. That evening when we got back, my hubby was playing golf and mom was in "her room" (the guest room) making jewelry so I got a few minutes in the sewing room to play too. I finally finished the valances for "her room". :o) This is the small window over the bed. I might paint that rod, I'm not sure yet. It's just plain wood and I suppose it makes sense to have it be black or cream colored. The picture of the big window didn't come out. Too much glare from the sunshine outside.

I still need to use the little check that I bought for the side panels. Hopefully, I'll get that done in the next night or two and I can share that finished project!!

I'm leaving my husband...

We went to a car show this past weekend up in Palmdale, CA. There were a lot of good looking cars, like this one. :o) This is my hubby's `34 Ford 3 window coupe. (Took me a long time to remember what it's called. It's not like it's a Pfaff, Singer or Bernina! hehe)

And you never know who or what you'll see at a car show. There were lots of Princesses.....Miss Lancaster, Miss Teen Lancaster, Miss Jr. Lancaster, yada, yada. Pretty young things with all their body parts still where they were supposed to be! :o)

And this `56 Chevy started out the Burn Out Contest. Yup, a burn out contest. Men! They are such funny creatures. They pay big money for nice tires and then hose down some concrete and put the pedal to the metal... and go from this........

....to this. Cough, cough......silly boys!

And then I saw "him"! Across the parking lot. I've been married for almost 32 years and never thought anyone could take my breath away like when I first met my husband, but it happened. "He" was tall and had a tan to die for. And what a body............

I'm in love............those eyes, that mouth, those buns!!!

:o)))))

Hung up my buttons

I finally figured out where I could hang my decorative buttons. I tell you, my room is wall to wall sewing stuff so it took some creative thinking! I had a sign above my window that said "Woman Cave" because my hubby has a game room and his sign says "Man Cave". I figured if that was his hangout, this was mine but the buttons are much cuter than the sign!

I ended up using the small buttons. I just dont have a big enough room to be able to have the big 12" buttons.

You know, in looking at this picture, I don't think I like anything "real" size. It's either oversized scissors, spools and buttons or itty bitty collections of sewing machines, irons....stuff. So much stuff. Well, a girl has to have her toys!!!!!

Somebody stop me!!!!!!!!!!!

I got the Joann's sale flyer in the mail today. And after dinner, off I went. Sometimes I can't even find anything to use my coupons for but not today....

Aren't these buttons freakin' adorable??? I saw some similar in a Pottery Barn catalog about six months ago for a kajillion dollars. Of course the ones in the catalog were carved out of solid wood. These are some sort of ceramic product and made in China. Not to get all political but I had read some things recently about trying to keep our $$ in America for products we make and thought I would try to make a conscientious effort to do so. I got weak! LOL And politics went right out the window. :o) They were 40% off. The large one is 12" and ran around $12.00 and the smaller ones are 8" and were about $10. I got extras to give some to my sister Isabel. But when I got home the little ones look like they will fit above my window so I might have to go back after she sees these pictures. Oh darn. hehe
Then I found these Debbie Mumm decorative thimbles. And guess what? 50% off!!

And I found this adorable blue little spool trinket box. It opens in the middle for storing all the money you save by not going to Joann's!!!!!!!!! LOL

I was going to use my 40% off coupon for these cute Fons & Porter storage boxes but guess what??? They were on sale. LOL They were regular $12.99 but on sale for $7.99.

I put some things away already and I'm still moving stuff around in both rooms. I was hoping to sit and sew by the weekend but my hubby told me we're going to Palmdale for a car show. We'll stay with my nephew and his wife. No worries. There's a quilt shop up there. Juuuuust kidding.

License Plate: I'd Rather Be Sewing!

You've seen those, right? Except they say I'd rather be fishing or golfing or something manly. Well, this week I'm doing some things around the house so.....I'd rather be sewing. I did get a little bit of sewing done on Saturday. Me, Sherrie and Neena (the TNT girls) are making this little tote as a group project. This is how far I got before I had to stop. There's another embroidered pocket on the inside so I'll get to that when I have a chance to sit down and stitch. Probably next TNT!!

Okay, so now here is the nightmare of a spare room. This has been a catch all room since my youngest daughter moved out after graduating from college TWO YEARS AGO!!! She finally took her pictures off the wall (with a little proding from mom). So, all of the "stuff" went into the game room to give us some room to move around. I will spare you the photograph of the sheet hanging on the window from when we had new windows put in and I hadn't hung the mini blind back up. Argh!

So we got to painting. My job is cutting in and hubby's job is rolling. This happened on Saturday and by Sunday morning, the walls were all painted. Yay! No fancy colors. Just a base coat in kind of boring beigy putty color. My mom's coming for a visit in a week so I thought I'd make it look like a spare room instead of a garage.

And after some assembly........actually, A LOT of assembly, sore hands, back, legs, etc., etc.

I got these bookcases and little drawer unit put together.

Now to go through all that "stuff" and to decide what gets put away and what gets pitched. I hope to get back to sewing by the end of the week. I hope!!!

Nature, Burn out and Cute as a Button!

Today's blog is all about yesterday. :o)

On my way home from work, I take a little side street and yesterday I had to grab my camera and take this quick picture of the Jacaranda trees in bloom. They're so pretty. I don't know if it's very much fun to park beneath these purple trees but I still think they're pretty.

That's one of my favorite things about Fullerton. All the tree lined streets. The neighborhood where I grew up had very small streets, where only one car could pass at a time. When we moved to Orange County and I saw these wide streets and all of the trees, I thought I had to live here. Ahhh, it's the little things that make me happy. hehe

Next up, my dead, burned out iron.


My poor little traveling Rowenta has died and needs to go to iron Heaven (or the recycle bin). I guess it has had too many days of sitting in the "on" position for too long. It just quit getting hot. But she had a good life. I think she's been to Lake Arrowhead, Indiana, Ventura, oh, and Santa Ana!!! :o) And darned ol' Joann's excludes irons from their 40% off coupons now! Bah-humbug! Guess I'm going to have to scout some sales.

And here is that little darling boy, Gavin, that my daughter used to babysit. Gavin is now three years old. He is my good buddy Sherrie's grandson. Last night we were at Sherrie's for TNT, aka Sewing Night. When I came back from the restroom, Sherrie had Gavin up on her lap and he said to me, "I'm sewin'!" Such a cute little face. That boy loves buttons and gadgets and electronics. I told Sherrie, "You better unplug that thing or he'll be sewing while your gone!" lol He even got to push the "cut" button to cut the thread. He was one happy boy on Grandma's lap.

The only thing better then sewing, are Gavin's trains. One was Thomas and the other one was.....oh, I can't remember what he said the other one was called but he tested me last night.

Gavin: "What's this one called?"

Liz: "Thomas."

Gavin: "Oh yeah, that's right." (Like he forgot!) LOL

Cards and a Zip-it

Here are the three cards I made at a Stampin' Up! party I went to on Sunday. We made this first one using a brayer and the Big Shot. We colored the "debossed" side of the card so it had grooves instead of a raised embossed side. I didn't color mine as nice as some of the girls which is surprising because usually, I'm the strong arm and press so hard I could break the legs off the table. LOL


This was an easy card and I think it's actually a copy of one in the catalog. I don't know any names of the stamp sets. I was just the guest. :o)


And this was my FAVORITE CARD EVER!!!! :o) We used SU decorative paper and either side of the paper was cute as could be. I forget what Neena said the name of it was but I bought two packages of the stuff. lol


Then last night my middle dd came over and we (and I use the term 'we' loosely) sewed a couple of zip-its. I don't even know if the pattern for the zip-its is around anymore. We couldn't find mine so we went from memory. Another term I use loosely. :o)

I bought the Fullerton High School fabric from Cozy Cottage. She got a couple of bolts from someone who got it.....well, it was in the store! lol The first time I went in there, I bought two yards of it because my girls are all alumni of that high school. Well, then the lady I work with had a niece and tons of friends who go there and wanted some. Then the lady I work for wanted some and sent me back to buy a bolt! I guess when you're the boss you can do that. Anyway, it's the boss's daughter that I made this for. She is graduating from jr. high and going to Fullerton next year. The boss and her hubby are alumni of there too so I'm sure they'll think it's cool. I think I'm going to make some more tonight at TNT (sewing night) because I have a strange feeling there will be requests of this hot, designer number. :o)

Seeing light at the end of the Storm (at sea that is)

Well, let's see....what have I been up to since my last post??? Hubby and I went shopping for mattresses. Pretty exciting, huh? lol Our last set has been bothering our hips and backs and we've had them for about 10 years. That seems to be the time span for a cheap-o set of mattresses. We bought them at Costco when our kids were still at home and in school and it's all we could afford. Well, Lordy, was I in shock when we went shopping!! I didn't know I would need a home loan for a set or queen size mattresses!! I'll spare you the gory details of how exciting mattress shopping was and just say we ended up with a set for $700, which I guess is pretty much slummin' it when you see the prices. We've spent two nights on them and I'm not sure they're going to work. I woke up with my lower back hurting and my husband said his did the same thing the day before. I guess I'll call and see what happens if this keeps up. Someone told me they should have sleepovers at mattress stores. Now there's an idea! Lying on a bed for 10 minutes really doesn't help you know if it's going to work or not. It's kind of like getting married after one date. You just can't know that quick if it's going to work out. I won't mention the sleeping over part! LOL

What else?? I'm sure I have some pictures on my camera of my Storm At Sea blocks.....YES, I'm still working on that project! Sigh...

Monday night I sewed some SAS blocks together. There was a LOT of pinning. These are from a swap and even though I supplied a paper pieced pattern, I don't think all the ladies did them that way. Some blocks had too much seam allowance. It seemed to take forever to get them sewn together.


Because of all the bulk, I pressed the seams open. It worked pretty good except when sewing the blocks together. I didn't have any seams to butt up against each other. A few of my seams were off a little bit and with the black against the light, you could see it but I stood back and most of them were acceptable. Check out my fancy row numbering!!


And here's the finished top, sort of. I still need borders. But I like the way it turned out.



I am not a batik person! I tried a BOM a few years ago to try batiks without having to buy lots of fabric and build a stash. It was okay but it really didn't do much for me. Not the way I go ga-ga over 30's or reds or dots or fig tree fabrics or Moda or homespuns or....well, you get the picture. :o) Anyway, I'm getting closer to getting it done so I'm getting excited and I've always wanted to do a SAS and I can almost mark that off my list.

I went to a Stampin' Up party on Sunday and made some cute cards. I'll post those later on. One was coffee cups stacked up. It's so dang cute!