I entered a contest...

In March I saw that the Austin Browncoats were having a contest to celebrate 10 years after Firefly began.

In case you didn't know, I think Firefly is the BEST show ever!

I even learned to knit so I could make a Jayne Hat!  I made my first attempt about a month after learning to knit, I was that determined!

There was an art portion of this contest so I decided to enter my Serenity Embroidery Hoop

When I made this hoop, I pictured Kaylee and Inara sitting by each other and making this together.  They both have different reasons for loving their Serenity and want to remember her in their own way. 

Well, I got 1st place!! YEAH! I'm so honored to have won this contest! I get some cool Firefly related items that I can't wait to get!

I've got some more Firefly inspired ideas for future Geeky Hoops to get started on soon!!!


PS I didn't get a chance to put together my week in pictures yesterday.  I looked at my pictures and realized that I didn't have a lot from last week anyways! I'll make up for it next week!!

There's Nothing We Can't Face

I just finished another geeky hoop!!!

In case you don't live in this same geeky bubble that I live in, this is a reference to the ever AWESOME Buffy Musical Episode - Once More With Feeling.

Seriously, check out this episode!

I'll be adding those hoop to my Etsy shop soon!!! 

Let me know what you think! 

Any other geeky area that needs to be captured on an embroidery hoop?

Geeky Hoops - BSG

I added a new Geeky Hoop to my collection!!

I love the play on words!!

This is a reference to Battle Star Galatica.  

Some of the characters would call the Cylons (aka robot evil) toasters and would express their hate with the phrase "frakkin toasters." 

My Geeky Hoops have been pretty popular in my etsy shop and have already sold 2 of my TARDIS! 

Are there other geeky references you want me to capture?

I'm still working on the perfect Buffy one! So many things to choose from!!

Geeky Hoops

I feel like I have crafty-ADD where I can't stay with one project or type of craft for too long! I am in the middle of a big granny square blanket, so I wanted to have something else to work on for moments with the crafty-ADD kicks in!  I have tried some embroidery before and have enjoyed doing it.  I thought I could combine some of my geekiness into an embroidery hoop and here are the results so far:

GEEKY HOOPS

I started with my biggest geeky addiction - Firefly!

My newest geek love - Doctor Who

And my other geeky Dr - Dr Sheldon Cooper from Big Bang Theory

These geeky hoops have been fun to make!  I've had some challenges - like not getting the tracing paper to work or having the tracing pen ink not come out! I used a tutorial I saw my friend Marci post on pinterest for finishing a hoop by gathering the fabric in the back.  This method looks much better than previous methods I've tried - I wish I had taken pictures to prove it!

These Geeky Hoops are added to my Etsy Shop! I'll be making more as I go along and geeky ideas come to me.

Happy Valentine's Day

I wanted to wish everyone a Happy Valentine's Day!!!!! 

Also I wanted to share what I gave to my swap partner for the Oh Strumpets Valentine Craft Swap!!

My craft swap partner is Sophie (go check out her cute blog!)  I love the whole craft swapping fun, but also love getting to make a new friend!  

I found some inspiration from pintrest for an embroidery hoop wall art and wanted to make something similar. 

I think the embroidery came out cute!

(sorry blogger has decided that my pictures need to be sideways!!)

Of course I had to add some crocheted hearts!

And to finish it off, my daughter decorated the package!

My package from Sophie should be here soon!! I'll post pictures once I get it here!!!

Taking Advantage of a Long Weekend

I took advantage of this long weekend and crafted away!

The one project I'm really excited about was these lovelies

They look like regular gloves, but they are actually...

GLITTENS!!!!!

They are a nice combination of fingerless gloves and mittens all in one!

All I need to do is add a button so I can keep the flaps down when needed!

You can find the pattern here on Ravelry 

I also finished up a hat for a friend

Made a cowl for a friend's daughter

Started an embroidery project

And finally I cleaned out our hallway -- it's an ackward hallway that leads to nothing and we have just used it to hide the junk we have! SO I have reclaimed it for my crafty storage!  Thanks to Ikea I now have a beautiful space for my yarn, fabric, sewing machine and more!!

What did you do this weekend??

Crafting for my Cub Scouts

My son has been in cub scouts for a few years and has moved up to Webelos this year.  Now that they are Webelos the boys get pick their own patrol name and start getting ready to be Boy Scouts.  

My husband is our den leader and he thought it would be fun if the boys had their own flag to show off in the pack.  So here came the crafty momma to help out!

I used my new embroidery skills and loved how it turned out!

Here are some of the pictures from the process 

 I loved getting to do this for the boys and seeing them getting so excited about having something that was made just for them.

Happy Valentines day!!

I hope everyone is having a great Valentines day today!

I have been working on a few Valentines crafts over the last few weeks.

One has been for Strumpets Crumpets Valentine Swap

I will post pictures once I know my swapee has her prize!  I can't wait to see what I get! 

The other thing I worked on was a cute embroidery project I saw at One Artsy Mama

I made these two shirts for my cousin's 2 daughters.

I thought this was the perfect thing for them because our grandmother always signed her cards and letters XX OO.  I've noticed that my cousins have kept this up so why not make a special shirt to remind these girls of how awesome their great grandmother was.

I did discover that embroidering on T-shirt material is a little harder because it stretches all over the place so they didn't turn out as cute as One Artsy Mama but I still think they are cute for these little ones!

I'd love to see the crafts you put together for Valentines! I'm sure you did an amazing job!

A special request

My friend asked for a special present for her father for Christmas.  Since he is a Firefly fan, I thought this awesome mousepad would be perfect!!!

It's another hand embroidered Serenity with part of the theme song from the show.

I was so excited to get this finished. It took forever to find the right mouse pad to slide in the embroidery piece in, but I think came out perfect!!

And in case you aren't familiar with the theme song...

Let's Be Bad Guys!

I finally finished up my Jayne inspired coffee sleeve!

I'm so excited at how well it turned out! 

I've been finished with the embroidery for about a month and just needed to sew it all together to make the sleeve.  

It was just added it to my Etsy Shop, so feel free to snag it for yourself or another browncoat you love!

Pumpkins Everywhere!!!

I have finished up some more pumpkins for the CAL and thought I'd show them off!

They are so easy to make that I find myself just making another one just for fun!

I love looking at the Fllickr album of the other pumpkins! Check them out for some other really great ones!!

I also wanted to show off the Jayne Hat I embroidered for my next coffee sleeve.  I'm still thinking of the perfect quote to go with it. I've gotten some great suggestions from my friend Marci, but would still love more suggestions!  Let me know if you have an idea for a quote to go with it!

Embroidered Serenity

I am a huge geek and I am probably the most geeky when it comes to Firefly, one Joss Whedon's greatest TV shows!  I am not sure how many times I've re-watched the series but I know I have seen the movie in a theater 5 times (more about this later in the week!)

I also love my coffee.  My day always seems much better after a good cup or two or four. 

I needed to figure out how to combine these two things together - so why not make a Firefly themed coffee sleeve??

I wanted to include one of my favorite quotes from the movie (Love keeps her in the air when she oughta fall down) and had to have the ship Serenity on it.

So first I drew my own picture of Serenity to use.

I was pretty impressed with my drawing skills on this! I also transported it over to paint to make the lines darker so it would be easier to transfer to fabric. 

So then I got started on the embroidery! This was my first time to try it so its not perfect by any means, but I really love the way it turned out!

Next I sewed it all up to make it into a coffee sleeve and added some velcro and TADA! A Firefly Coffee Sleeve!!

I know it isn't perfect but I'm pretty excited with it! I have ideas on how to improve on it so I can hopefully add it into my Etsy shop when I'm ready to open!

If you have any embroidery tips you would like to pass on, please share them!