ECU Homecoming Weekend

In the whole commotion of not making blog posts for awhile I have forgotten what all I have told ya'll and what I haven't so if I start repeating my stories like your great aunt does please just nod your head and smile and act like you haven't heard it before!

I thought I would share some pictures of the ECU Homecoming weekend when Chuck's family came to visit. Now I did warn them that I have a website and I told them I post a lot of stuff on it and I hope they understood they could become a part of this...uh...need to for me to share my life with anyone who can do a search on the internet *okie suddenly thinks it might be a good idea to carry around release of information forms with her and have people she knows and meets to sign said forms*.

Chuck is from Mississippi, the delta area I believe, I don't know really but that sounds really cool so I will stick with that, and evidently his idea of cold and our idea of cold is very different. I told him to call his family and let them know it was going to be cold the weekend they were to be here and he said he did. After they arrived his mother told him "YOU DIDN'T TELL ME COAT COLD" and they only brought some very light weight jackets. Needless to say this caused a trip to Walmart for some sweatjackets and hoodies so they would have appropriate apparel for the football game.

Luckily I hadn't done the iron on vinyl on the t-shirts yet so I was able to quickly make the change to the sweatshirts. I know I posted a picture of them hanging up but here you can see them on his family. I didn't get a picture of them showing the back but they each had his number and then said things like "mom" "sis" "nephew" etc. They were all thrilled with the design and being able to show their support for Chuck.

I was able to get quite a few pictures after the game and of course you know I gotta scrapbook them! I love this picture of Chuck and his mom with Chuck's friend Blake and his dad. Blake hung out at the house a bit this summer while the boys were going to summer school. He is a great kid, although he won't share his food...at all...never *okie giggles remembering Blake taking his plate of Monkey Bread out the door with him and bringing the plate back later*.

Chuck and Deon camping in the living room

When I first talked to Chuck's mom on the phone about them coming for homecoming she wanted to know what motels we had here because her sister, who didn't get to make it, could get a discount if we had that chain. I told her "OH NO GAIL! I can't let you stay in a hotel! My Momma would roll over in her grave if I did that". I told her it might be a tight squeeze but they were going to stay here at the house and that way they would be able to visit with Chuck the whole time. As you see even the living room floor was taken! There was also a queen size blow up mattress in there for the younger boys.

When they first came in and all the introductions were made I told everyone "there's the bathrooms, there is the kitchen...if you want anything you will have to get it yourself because I don't wait on no one. You gotta make yourself at home here or you will starve".

I honestly think his mom and sister would have liked to stay longer just so they could look around my craftroom some more *okie cracks up laughing remembering them going from one thing to another asking what it was for*. Oh and the little boy in the football helmet in the first picture, his name is Tink, he was mesemerized by the Cricut and all my supplies. He came in while I was cutting the vinyl and asked "do you sell stuff". I told him "no, it's all stuff for me to use". Tink's eyes got really big and he scanned the room slowly and said "WOW! You got a lot of stuff".

I was a little nervous about having them here because I wondered "what if they don't like me" "what if they don't like my cooking" and that kinda stuff but there was no need for concern. We all got along fabulously and had a wonderful time. I only wish they could have stayed a little longer, but maybe NEXT TIME!!

It's Fall Break

So someone please tell me why in God's Creation am I up before 7am and typing a blog post! I would love to say that it is my love and dedication I have for my blog and my readers that has me doing such a silly thing but come on ya'll we know that ain't true! Well not that I don't love ya'll or my blog *okie thinks blog....hate, love, hate, love* but who gets up before 7am when they don't have to work? Well I guess I do, and it's my parents fault!

As teenager I had a curfew of midnight and I was to be at home by then, not a minute after. Now I will be honest and say a few times *okie thinks more than a few times* I was at home by midnight but in the driveway sitting in Gary Keith's truck until much, much later and I reckon I felt I still made curfew since I was technically at home. I didn't make it one time and grounded myself for a week. *okie notices the odd glances, scratches to the head and the WTF looks on some faces* You might be wondering why would I ground myself and wellllll...ya'll aren't going to believe this but - I WAS A GOOD KID! There was nothing that could crush my soul like the feeling that I disappointed my parents. My parents got up an hour before the butt crack of dawn to head to work so I wasn't allowed to awaken them and tell them I was home. They always told me "once we wake up we can't go back to sleep". Anyway, I came in 15 minutes late and the next day when they got home from work I announced "I'm grounded for a week. I was 15 minutes late". I can still see the looks on their faces as they said "well, okay". Oh how breaking their trust could cause such guilt in my young mind *okie wishes kids were like that today*. Oh and the point the this whole little story is that I have become my parents...once I wake up I generally can't go back to sleep!

But back to Fall Break, or are we just now getting to it? I have great plans for this weekend! I gotta get cracking on my prizes for my Christmas Party since it will be here in a mere 6 weeks. So far I have nothing ready and that just isn't like me! I did sit down last night and make out a list of prizes for the auction and I think I totaled something like 48, which might be too many so we will see how that goes. I also got a list started for the swag bags. Some of ya'll might remember last year I gave each guest a Santa hat filled with goodies, if you would like to see what they got last year you can click -->HERE<--. Not sure what I will use this year but I will think of something *okie thinks she hopes she can think of something*. I do have a few things for the bags and did start working on another item last night.

I always stress about the party and wonder if I the prizes are good enough, if the swag bags have enough items, if the house is decorated enough, etc etc etc. Linda always tells me "you know you put way too much into this. You could just have us play Dirty Santa and everyone would be happy". But come on ya'll....we know that's not how I roll! I gotta make each party special and make sure all my guests are happy and having fun and I think they usually do! I am going to have a new guest this year, my friend Helen from Arizona, and I am so excited! We have talked over the internet for years and did meet in person a few years back when I was in Phoenix with my sister and she has always talked about coming for a visit and finally she is gonna make it!

I guess if I am going to get anything done I better stop typing and get to working. I gotta get some paperwork done this morning, drop Chuck off at the field house so he can leave for the away game, go by the office, run a few errands and then back home to craft craft craft! WISH ME LUCK!

I Use To Craft

I don't know how many times over the years people would ask me how I was able to find so much time for crafting and I thought that an odd question but I would always answer the same..."I'm not married, my daughter is grown and I do what I want when I want". Well that has changed!

Right now my life has changed so much and I often long for the days when I could come home from work and dive into my crafting. Now days I feel so tired and run down most of the time from my multiple jobs that I have to do every day. I still have my full time job of course, but now I am also a taxi driver, a referee, a life consultant and I don't even know what else. With Chuck and Shiane living here there is little quiet in the house. I am always yelling for them to turn down the tv or "shut the hell up" when they get to playing around too loud or arguing to loud. My house use to stay spotless because I rarely cooked and the only other room in the house that was used regularly was the bathroom but now I am constantly repeating myself of "pick up your stuff" "I'm gonna throw that shit in the trash" "OMG! where did all this laundry come from?" "who used the last of the toilet paper and didn't change the roll?" "Stop being mean to Lucy!!" etc, etc, etc.

I had planned on taking pictures of the layout I made on Sunday and getting it posted today but by the time I finally got home, which was after 6:30 and got my notes done which was 9pm, I was just too dang tired to hold the camera and take pictures. Maybe I can get it done tonight....maybe....

While my life has changed I and I miss those quiet peaceful evenings I will be thankful that my daughter is a better person now and Chuck seems happier as well. I know we have to trade things out sometimes in our lives and right now I am making my trade I guess. Soon enough, at least I hope. there will be time for me to get back to doing what I love to do and have the time that I use to spend playing with all my toys and paper.

I know I use to craft and I will again one day. But for now I will just thank God for blessing my life with these two grown azz folks, who act like toddlers half the time, and remember that one day I will have more time for me again.

I May Be Going To Hell...

Well if sinning against ProvoCraft makes one go to hell that is. First off let me say I have been a very loyal and strong advocate for ProvoCraft over the years and I still feel they have the right to protect their company, products and interests

Now...about my sin....and how it took place...

I have had the Make The Cut software for a long time, way before the big lawsuit took place. I had opened it a few times and since I didn't know how to use it and I want to just make my chit and not have to look up how to use a program I never messed with it...UNTIL NOW.

I have never knocked anyone for using the "software that shall not be named" *okie cracks up remembering everyone saying that when referring to MTC or SCAL* and I have some very wonderful crafting friends that I disagreed with about the whole lawsuit thing, and we just agreed to disagree at that point and went about being the happy merry friends we were and still are.

I am not sure if everyone is aware but there was a long wait for quite a few of the new carts to get updated in Design Studio. I had a few that I couldn't use because as we all know I am rendered useless with my Cricut without my beloved Design Studio. Okay, I'll be honest and say I did use CCR for a project but only because I had no other choice. That LITTLE PROJECT that should have taken me about 15 minutes to get laid out and cut ended up being an ordeal that took a few hours. It also required a lot of curse words as my friend Linda can attest to since she was on the phone with me.

Discussing the whole dilemma with my friend Carmen and me telling her that I decided if I needed to start looking for another program to learn I wanted one that must meet a few requirements...
1. NO INTERNET NEEDED
2. NOT GLITCHY
3. IMAGES DO NOT JUMP AROUND
4. I CAN SEE THE IMAGES AND SCREEN CLEARLY
Well this lead Carmen saying "You've had MTC for a long time why not try it".

Anyway long story short *okie thinks it might be too late for that*, with the help of Carmen and a little finagling *okie is so glad that spell check knew that word because she had it all jacked up*  I was able to get my MTC up and running. So far all I have done is play around with the fonts on my computer and I did a title for a layout that I will hopefully get posted tomorrow.

For now I thought I would share a picture of the title. I was able to do the double layered shadow very easily and I do love that! Of course if ya know anything about me ya know how I love my shadows on images. I just think it makes them go POP! I could have spent hours looking for a font to use since I believe I can now cut with any font on my computer but I didn't want to take time looking forever. Now ironically enough, the name of this font is Hurry Up. My friend Amy got a kick out of that irony. Amy is a big time MTC user and has been from the get go I do believe. I know her and Misty probably have some kinda evil drool running down their chins and rubbing their hands together maliciously as the salivate at the idea of me "turning to the dark side" *okie suddenly thinks she might have some pretty weird friends, shrugs and figures they think the same about her*.

Now I want to be clear about this whole thing, as I think my friend Joy, aka HappyHappyJoyJoy might have had a slight heart attack last night at my announcment on Facebook...
I STILL LOVE MY CRICUT
I STILL LOVE MY CARTRIDGES
I STILL LOVE MY DESIGN STUDIO

However, if it gets to the point where ProvoCraft doesn't support Design Studio then I believe I will have to find a high powered divorce lawyer and  file for a divorce on the grounds of neglect and abandonment. At that point I sure hope ProvoCraft remembers I never signed a prenup!

Little Sewing Project - Bathroom Curtains

Almost a month ago I shared a post NEW AND IMPROVED...IS IT BETTER? about my sewing dilemma and how I loved my old Kenmore machine but was afraid it had seen it's better days. Linda has since brought the machine to me and she believes her husband might have fixed it but she didn't test it. I have yet to get it out to test it. I have however tried out my new sewing machine!

Since I was going to have some company in I knew the little bathroom would have to be used quite a bit I got on the ball *okie thinks it was a slow ball but a ball none the less* and make a shower curtain and curtain for the bathroom.

I did the shower curtain first and tried out which was fairly easy, or you would think it would be. I measured out the size and folded the hems for the sides. I measured out the top and bottom hems and then was quite puzzled on how to get rid of the bulk in the corners. You would have thought I had never sewn before! I guess it is one of those things that after you haven't done it in so long the information leaves your brain *okie wonders how much information has made it's round within her extraordinarily large brain* so other information can come in. After I was able to get the bulk down I was quite proud of myself!

The machine of course has some nice stitches built in but most of the time I always used a straight stitch. This time I decided to use the blind hem stitch. After some practice I had it down to a science as well. The next problem came using the "Easy One Step Buttonhole Feature". It took me over an hour and a half to use this super easy feature and if hadn't been for a video on the internet that I could stop, rewind, replay 50 times I likely would have never figured it out. The first one or two button holes were a little difficult but by the time I got to the last one I could whiz through them.

I had enough material to make curtains but I wasn't sure what type of curtain I wanted. I decided to just go with the split curtains that ties in the middle. I thought about using some ribbon or making bands out of the material but since the theme in the bathroom is beach I thought the jute would work as it looks like some rough rope. My daughter will tell you it was her idea, I just held it up and said "hey this might work" and she agreed. She is good at trying to take credit!

I know you might be admiring how well the lines of the material line up but I will be honest and tell you that the material was very wide and I just had to fold it in half and cut it down the middle and it was the right width to give a good gather. I did blind hem on the sides of the curtains as well.

Here is a picture where you can see both curtains together. Don't they look lovely?  I think they really brighten up the bathroom, especially with the bathroom being a mocha color. Enough sunlight still gets in the window and privacy isn't a problem since the window faces the neighbors wall and neither of us really go between the houses.

It really changed the look of the bathroom and it finally looks decorated after all these years!

Iron-On Vinyl and the Cricut

I was finally able to get the video uploaded to Youtube. I was actually going to post it yesterday but when I gave up and went to bed Thursday night it still had like 25 minutes left on the upload so that put it off until today.

I would first like to say I got my vinyl at Signwarehouse.com and I have done business with them before as that is where I order my regular vinyl that I use with my Cricut. They have some other iron-on available other than what I ordered such as patterned, glittered and metallic. I now have a contact there and it will make it easier for me to make my orders. If you are wanting to order you can use the information below and tell em "OKIE SENT ME" and Clay will be more than willing to help you out.

Clay Cecil
Supply Sales Consultant
Signwarehouse.com
Clay.Cecil@signwarehouse.com
903-462-7700 EXT. 2066

The vinyl seems more expensive but you are getting a larger quanity by buying the rolls of 15" x 5' and if you have someone to split with it would work out even better. I ordered a roll of orange, black and white since that is the colors of the university. Most of my designs have been a good size and so far I have done 7 sweatshirts and 5 tshirts and still have some left left where I might be able to do a few more. For me to go to the T-shirt place here in town and get items customized it likely would have cost me well over $300 as they charge by the design and letter/number.

Here is the video tutorial. I will try to answer any questions that are left in the comments and I might not get to them right away today as I will be at a football game, but will be sure to check the comments when I get home.
 


Here are pictures of Chuck's hoodie completed.

I used Team Spirit for the Tiger head. It is the decal feature and as I showed in the video I used the hide contour feature for the black layer to get the black strips.

Varsity Letter was used for the "ECU" and "91". I did the block in black and then on the outer outline layer I used hide contour feature that gave me just the smaller inside for the orange. I found it easier to layer this way rather than having the orange be the bottom block layer and then the black be the top outline. I didn't have to worry about trying to line up the letters and some orange showing through. I showed in the video how that happens sometimes.

Chuck was very specific about what he wanted on his hoodie. He really liked the tiger head and he wasn't as picky about what font I used but, he was about size and placement for the words and his football number. I did put his name down a little further than I normally would have on a sweatshirt but I wanted to make sure his name would be easily visible when the hood is down.

He is quite proud of his newly decked out hoodie and said "Yep I got a one of a kind" and kept saying everyone is going to be jealous. Chuck is such a kid sometimes! LOL

 
TIPS TO REMEMBER:

~Flip Image

~Spell Words Backwards and Then Flip

~Blade setting at 2, Pressure on Low (this might vary by machine)

~Use Cotton Setting On Iron - NO STEAM

~Use Hard Surface For Ironing

~Use Sheet of Heavy Paper On Top of Transfer Tape

I'M HERE! I'M ALIVE!

Oh my goodness! I can't believe I have neglected my blog like this! But I do have excellent reasons for being away. I am not even sure quite where to start with an explanation but I shall just start typing and see where it leads.


My daughter has been absolutely wonderful since moving back home. She is now the person I remember from years ago who was grateful, appreciative, funny and most of all HAPPY! I can truly say I enjoy her company and having her around. Of course this summer it was touch and go a few times if I would choke her to death when I would see her or just go in a shell and ignore that the hateful person that was in front of me was my child. Luckily God is good and has brought her back from the brink of...hhmm, what to call it...I guess for the lack of a better term "self destructive insanity". She did get back with Chuck, the young man that was here all summer *okie wonders if she should mention that Chuck announced just the other day he is never leaving*, and was her boyfriend last spring and early summer. Here is a picture of them getting ready to go to a party after a football game.

I am extremely overjoyed that God listens to my prayers and brought my daughter to her senses and had her ask to move back home as the house she was living in was busted for drugs just last week *okie sighs deeply, closes her eyes and gives another thank you to God*. Even though my daughter was not involved with the ordeal she would have been arrested just the same for even living in the house. No one can ever convince me that God doesn't listen to my prayers!

Having one vehicle and 3 people needing to go places leaves me playing taxi quite a bit. I told my friend Linda just the other day "it's worse than having a bunch of toddlers", I mean at least with toddlers you can give them a little Dimetapp and put them out for awhile. I have found that with young adults you need large quantities of alcohol and since my daughter isn't of legal drinking age I don't think I can go that route quite yet. However, she does turn 21 next month...I think the kids might be getting a jumbo margarita with supper every night!

Shiane and I had been busy for two weeks getting the house ready for company and that was taking up quite a bit of our time. Chuck's family was coming in for homecoming at the university  last weekend and the house was looking like something off hoarders due to Shiane moving in and me having stuff boxed for a possible garage sale. After some thought we decided the heck with the garage sale and hauled it all off to Goodwill! There is still some things I want to go through and get rid of but for now at least my house is resembling my home once again!

A lot of my time was spent getting ready to do some t-shirts for Chuck's family and that was changed slightly when the weather got cold and they decided they wanted sweatshirts. I am glad I had waited to do them or I would have been in quite a fix. They did turn out great and everyone loved their sweatshirts. And what made it even better was that ECU won the game, 41 to 3! It made it worth sitting out in the freezing wind to see a victory on homecoming!



I gotta get busy on my projects for my Christmas party as it will be here before I know it. Hopefully I will get some crafting done soon. I will be making a post showing you guys my new shower curtain and window curtain I made for my small bathroom. I am so glad I have a working sewing machine once again!

Final note, I do have a video that will be posting tomorrow on how to use the iron-on vinyl with the Cricut! I got the video all done, was almost done editing and the dang program closed on me. I had to go back and re-edit the whole thing. Ya'll better be glad I love ya'll or I wouldn't have went back and done it...just would have canned the whole project! *okie cracks up laughing*.