Picture Perfect

Here I am, last July before the myriad of health issues:



A self portrait that I just love. I made the paper crown to celebrate Independence day and if you find me else where on the web (i.e. Facebook, All Recipes, etc.) you will see this face shining out at you. It's been nothing but craziness since that photo was taken and now I'm on the path to get back to being "picture perfect." Picture Perfect isn't about looking magazine fabulous (though that never hurts!) it's about seeing yourself and thinking "Oh yeah, that's me and I look GREAT." It's about others seeing you and wanting to be around you and absorb all your good energy. Too tree huggy?? You know what I mean.

I have been working on some things.



Another self portrait of Luis and I in Las Vegas last August. I haven't scrapbooked in so long and as soon as I got started I remembered why I love it so much. I heart paper. Oh and scissors, too.



I found the little book at Marshalls and it's been sitting in the craft room forever. Why can't I just USE things? They sit there forever being saved for a better day. I'm done with that. I'm using everything I've saved. This little book will become a book of things I love. Starting with that photo taken about 6 years ago. (What is with me and paper crowns??) I'll share my journal pages as they unfold.

Also in the works is this birthday banner for my dear friend Dana's little boy, Charlie, who will be celebrating his 1st birthday in a few days!





This is coming out really cute and I'll do a post soon on how to make your own from supplies you probably have sitting around your house.

So my head is now above water and I'm healing. It seemed it would never happen. Now go out and be picture perfect!

Fondly ~ Rebecca

Sprung

I'm home. Back in New York City. Back to Queens. I feel over whelmed, tired, antsy. I feel like there is so much to do yet not enough time (or energy) to get it done.



My craft room should be condemned. The people from Hoarders will be coming for me soon. I want to create something but I can't do that when there is not one single clear work space in there. It's frustrating.



My pants don't fit. Sitting on your butt for 3 months will do that. I can't navigate the stairs to the basement to do laundry or dig out some spring clothes as the steps are about half as deep as my walking cast is long. Three more weeks of big plastic footwear for me. Have I mentioned that I broke my leg on January 23rd? What month is it?

I'm sprung. Literally. Neither coming, nor going. Just sitting here like a deer in the headlights with no clue what to do first. This is my 400th post. I wanted it to be happy, positive and rife with giveaways. I will have to out that on hold until I can dig myself out.

In one happier note, my sweet Louie turned 30 last Friday.



Happy birthday, love. Decorated picture made with Picnik.

Bear with me, I will be better. Soon. ~RR

Hoppin' Down the Bunny Trail . . .

 . . . late as usual! I hope everyone had a fabulous Easter! It was a nice day with beautiful weather so we were able to sit on the porch and enjoy our meal. I'm still at my parent's house and we were joined by my sister and brother-in-law and my aunt and uncle.

Mom tried something new this year:



Asparagus tart! It was not only fabulous looking but easy and delicious. It's a Martha recipe and can be found here. It's worth splurging on the gruyere, trust me. :)

We had minimal decorations but they were lovely and evoked thoughts of Spring.







I love the little bunnies hidden amongst the flowers and garlands.

And we did dye eggs, the lazy way!



While boiling the eggs just toss in some food coloring! Red and blue makes lovely sometimes striped or spotted eggs and tea bags were used to make the brown eggs. Now we could have just bought brown eggs but this was fun!

So Hoppy (be-lated) Easter!

xx~rr

PS - leg update: I'm walking with a cane now. Yeah! But only for a little at a time to regain muscle in my leg. I'll be going back to New York as soon as I can handle stairs. :)

Egggg-cellent

*SPOILER - if you are a part of Shara's Eggstra Special Swap I am about to reveal mine so if you want to be surprised . . . move along!*

So, as you know, I joined Shara's swap where you had to make an egg themed craft and make 13 of them. Since my Victorian Christmas ornaments turned out so well I decided to have a go at making them a bit more spring themed.



I made 4 different designs, 3 bunnies and an angel.









I really enjoyed making these! Who doesn't love crepe paper ruffles? I would put them on everything if I could.



I hope everyone in the swap likes my eggs! I added little fortunes to each egg so they will also get a little surprise there as well. I purchased the fortune cards from The Speckled Egg.

~RR

PS - do the photos look weird? I tried to "auto correct" them. (All except the first one.) Not sure I'm loving them.

What I'm Loving . . .

Just a post about things that are making me happy!

Annie's Bunny Grahams - I love them all but my new favorites are Bunny Friends which is a mixture of honey, chocolate and chocolate chip.



Made from organic ingredients and with only 20 net grams of carbs in 30 cookies I can have these as a snack with only a small amount of insulin. (130 calories and 4.5 grams of fat per serving!)

Too Faced Walk of Shame Collection - a gift from my sister!



A great collection with the best lipstick and palette. I think any complexion would work with these shades and LOOK at that cute bag!

My new Tarina Tarantino bracelet.



Cute, right?? I got it as a free gift with purchase at Sephora!

I love Le Sport Sac bags and my latest set, found for super bargains at Marshall's, is in this super fun pattern:



I have the duffle, the tote bag and today I found the make up bag. Le Sport Sac discontinues their patterns pretty quickly and since I never buy them at full price it's pure luck to find any that match on the clearance racks!

And a crafty love? These sweet paper mache eggs from the latest issue of MSL:



Wouldn't they also make the cutest orange pumpkins in the fall?

So what are you loving these days? Write a blog post (or a Facebook note) and leave the link in the comments section!

cheers
~RR

Let the Games Begin!

The judging is going on over at Plush You for the Winter Olympics Plushie contest. I've never been featured on another blog before! Now I know she is putting up everyone in the category BUT STILL. Go take a look! Featured HERE! (hee hee) Wish Hippolita Hoppington luck!

And you know I'm still plugging away over here filling up my very own ark, right? I realized that I didn't share one of my favorites:



I call him Percy. He is knit from cotton blend Yarn Gang yarn and his pattern can be found in Vogue Knitting on the Go: Quick Gifts. The Vogue to Go books are full of fun quick projects and can be found for a pretty good price in the Amazon marketplace. Percy needs to have his scarf ironed! I really like how he turned out but I think it's sooo much easier to make crocheted toys. I have three half made animals that I hope to share soon.

hugs
~RR

Always Last to the Party

I'm so behind in the times. I'm not exaggerating. I JUST started watching Grey's Anatomy. Um, yeah. You can't make that up. So the places and things I'm about to share with you are probably old news but they are brand spankin' to me.

Have you visited Pimp Stitch? They have collected some of the most fabulous sewing, needlework and all around crafty tutorials out there. Some of my favorites:


photo courtesy of Pimp Stitch
Printable Sticky Note Cozy. Who doesn't want to pimp their Post Its??


photo courtesy of Pimp Stitch
Doll House Potholders. Hey, if I'm cooking, I'd better be surrounded in cuteness.

Another new favorite blog is Happy Loves Rosie. I want my blog to look like that. I discovered it over at Lollishops which is also quite cute.

And have you started your Easter crafting yet? Hmm? Well how about those super cute polymer bun-buns?


photo courtesy of Swirly Designs
From, ahem, 2009. So last year? I think not.

So yes, I'm behind the times, but I'm having a great time being inspired. Now if only I were home in my craft room (and it was miraculously clean and tidy) and I wasn't exhausted all the time. A girl can dream . . . look out May, I'll be back and rarin' to go!

Anything new to share with me? And I don't really care how new it is. :)

xoxoxoxo
~RR

Time keeps on slipping . . .

Sigh . . . I'm so tired of sitting around. I'm tired of the pain. I'm being very impatient with this, I know, and the urge to be uber whiny is hard to repress.

I've been doing some designing:



Including actually writing down the pattern for my frog and a set of really cute jungle themed bowling pins and balls. I'm very excited about that project and will share it once I get the kinks worked out.

Today I am home alone well Mom gets some much deserved fun on an outing with my aunt. I am catching up on my TV (watching reruns of Grey's and the last season of Heroes) and working on a crochet project that I don't have to think too much about:



I've decided that since I'm sitting here I might as well make some things to be used for gifts next year because as soon as I can walk I'm going to be non-stop. All I can think about is cleaning. I can't wait to get home and organize my craft room, switch out the winter clothes for summer (please let them still fit! I know I'm growing doughy in my convalescence) and basically reacquainting myself with my possessions. (I have a major urge to purge! Spring cleaning mania? Maybe.)

Over at SGS we are thinking about having a late spring swap. If you don't know, there are 5 wonderful ladies "on staff" and we take turns handling the issues depending on who has what going on. I wasn't much help with the last swap due to my back surgery and Heidi and Shara were left to deal with what was definitely our most drama filled swap to date. They both spoke of quitting (and I don't blame them) but I may have convinced them to stick around a bit more. I hate that we had so many problems with flakers, nasty emails and just down right craziness. So we are working on ways to better screen participants. In all honestly, MOST people are great. But it's the small amount who are not that ruin it for everyone. So if anyone has any suggestions on how we can conduct a better swap please leave a comment here or over at SGS. Oh and we are always looking for swap ideas, too!

Stay well . . .
~RR

A Little Nookie

My sweet husband just sent me a wonderful gift, the new Barnes & Noble eReader, the nook.



I had mentioned to him last year that I was curious about it but was still on the fence. I love books. I love the feel of them, the look of them stacked up next to the bed, the smell of the paper, you name it. I couldn't imagine giving that up. Of course now I realize that I will still be buying books at the thrift and yard sales, etc, but that the nook is a great way to purchase new titles and carry your library with you. I have already downloaded "Shutter Island," which was a $4 special this month, and plan to start it tonight. There are lots of free books, including classics and cheesy romances a like, and many books under $5 and $10.

The nook itself is neat and compact. You can download photos, music and pdfs from your computer. I'm thinking to have a collection of knitting and crochet patterns on hand at all times!

Can you tell I'm excited? Since I've met Luis I'm always on top of the new technological trends, lol. His first ever Christmas gift to me was a DVD player. He couldn't STAND watching video tapes on my scratch old TV and when my roommate's father bought her a new TV he jumped right in with the DVD player. He actually carried it on the train all the way to Baltimore. This year, in addition to the nook, he also just sent me a fancy new phone:



I love that's it's red and has flowers on it. Hello, ladies phone! Louie has always treated me to fancy gadgets. I think he "understands" them more so then jewelry and flowers, lol. However he has also given me Lenox crystal candle sticks and a pretty china ring holder when I was upset for breaking mine. So over all, he's a pretty good egg and I'm lucky to have him.

Thanks for the gifts, dear! That nook will get plenty of use while my leg heals.

~RR

Family Ties

Hello! I'm hard at work on my eggs for Shara's swap so I haven't been doing as much crocheting and have no new projects to share. I do have a few finished animals that I am really happy with that I still need to photograph and I'm also in the middle of another animal for an original design contest put on by Red Heart Yarn. That's it for me for crafting news.

Soooo in the mean time I thought I'd share some favorite old family photos. Some of my cousins and I have been sharing photos on Facebook and having a blast! In fact we have plans to put together a "Pasta Sunday" where everyone will bring their old photos and we'll watch my parents old slides as well. So what is Pasta Sunday? When my mother was young she spent Sunday's eating pasta at her Aunt Gloria's with all of her cousins. They still try to get together these days for a modern day Pasta Sunday. So now on with the show!



This is my mother as a young girl. I love her sassy pose and stripey dress!



My parents not long after they were married. My Mom says that hair cut is called a Sassoon and was quite popular! The little dog is Tiffy and she used to bite people. She was my mother's first daughter lol.



My mother's parents, Helen and Wes, on a vacation in Atlantic City. Everyone thinks I look like my grandma when she was a young woman. She was really happy when I dyed my hair red in college because she always wanted a red handed grand daughter lol. Both are passed away and greatly missed.



This is my Great Great Aunt Sissy. She was my grandmother's aunt and her name was Lucia. She went by Lucy but I guess I couldn't say that as a child and called her Sissy instead. It stuck. (Sorry Aunt Luce!) She was quite the fashionable lady and gave me my love of vintage clothing. She gave me jewelry, gloves, coats and handbags to die for. I still harbor a dream of opening a second hand store called Aunt Sissy's Attic someday.

I hope you've enjoyed this walk down my mother's side of the family. This is my Italian side and we have a lot of photos. I don't have as many of my Polish/Irish side of the family but hope to find some and scan them in. Here is the current generation:



Myself and my sweet hubby Louie who has added a touch of South America, Colombia specifically, to our family tree.

cheer
~Rebecca

Baubles

To get a break from crocheting I joined Shara's Eggstra Fun Swap. Since I'm still at my parent's house I don't have my crafty bag of tricks to dig through to find supplies to make my 13 egg themed pieces. So I hit the blog-o-sphere and ending up purchasing some supplies at Speckled Egg (how appropriate, no?) and some fun things (and was sent some extra fun things!) from Heidi's Etsy shop, The Merry Magpie. :)







I'm currently stashing all these goodies, and more, in this sweet vintage train case (right) I thrifted when my parents took me out for some air last week:



I also found the old sewing basket on the left. I'm going to fix the handle and sew some flowers (I think) and use it in my craft room. I love how they match!

So now I'm ready to create, I just need the energy.

~RR

Going for the Gold

Not only are the Winter Games in Vancouver going on right now but ANOTHER even bigger event is taking place:

The Schmancy Winter Games Challenge

Kristin, who runs the fabulous Plush You blog among many many other things, issued a challenge to toy makers to create a team of Olympic plushies. Each participant was given a sport and today was the deadline to submit your plushie to win a medal in that event. My event is Figure Skating. (yeah!) So without further ado, please meet Hippolita Hoppington of the Frog Pond Federation:



Hippy is a classic skater who loves all things sparkly and girly. She loves hot tea with flies and leg warmers and is a bit upset with me for not making her a pair to wear with her new skating outfit.



After her Olympic career is over she is hoping to become a cover model for Amphibian Times:



Or perhaps pursue her passion of torch singing:



So please wish Hippy luck as she goes up against some heavy competition over at Plush You. You go, girl!

xoxoxo
~RR

PS - if interested, Hippy is made from 100% cotton yarn and poly-fil. She outfit is tulle, felt, fleece, ribbon and sequins. She is my original pattern and MAY be put up for adoption in my Etsy shop. She could use a sweet young girl to take care of her. She would like that.

Meet Harvey

Friends, this is Harvey*.



I did not make Harvey, I rescued him. He was laying in a pile of dirty old and broken toys and stuffed animals at the thrift store. My Mom thinks Harvey us pretty pathetic (his stuffing is coming out a bit and he's some what floppy) but agrees that is part of his charm.



As you can see, Harvey was made by Angela. So Angela, if you happen to be out there, rest assured that Harvey has a nice home and lots of stuffy friends to play with.



I have also made this adorable ring game. The pattern is a freebie from Lion Brand and can be found here. This makes a great baby gift and comes together quickly. And I think it will be fun for baby.



See? Harvey likes it!


And I'm not finished. I have loads of yarn to work with so expect more animals. As a friend of my Mom's said, I'm crocheting an ark full. :) Oh and photos courtesy of my sister. Thanks, Mandi!

xoxoxo
~RR

* - My Dad named Harvey. Quickly and matter of factly. Harvey it is.