Well it's been a while ...

Well it's been quite awhile since I wrote on this blog. I still love to sew, but life has been busy and so I have not kept up posting everything but I will.
 I decided to expand my horizons and for the last 4 years I have been a Health Coach with Take Shape For Life. I lost 60 lbs on this wonderful program! I used to be tired everyday after work and had plantar fasciitis so bad my foot was in a cast, twice. I had asked my Dr. if losing weight would help it? He said no, you will suffer with this for the rest of your life. I had resigned myself to probably living a short life as I felt miserable. So my husband (also over weight at the time) saw a commercial and talked me into finding out about this plan with him. We had tried several other plans and failed. He said, let's try it, and if this does not work we will just die fat! I said ok. We started on the plan in January! And stuck with it, of course there were days we were very compliant and others we were not. But we just kept plugging along. Then in April, at Easter, 2 of our children came home from College and saw us. ( We had not really told them what we were doing.) Our daughter said, " I don't think I have ever seen you 2 this small!) We both lost about 40 lbs each by then. This daughter was so impressed she said she wanted to do it. She was living in Idaho at the time and we are in San Diego, Ca area. Our coach had talked to us and said, "you were so successful on this plan, would you like to help others, and become a health coach? I at first said no, but when our Daughter said she wanted to do the plan, I decided to become a coach for her. So in may we had 1 client! Needless to say she went back up to college, and lost 60 lbs! In June we had so many of our friends that saw us lose the weight and we had 9 clients the next month. You know the best part of this whole journey is that I feel so great! I have so much more energy, I like the way I look and my feet are soooo much better!  I am 55 now and feel like I have a new lease on life! You know when you find out something that is just fantastic, you just have to share it? That's how I feel. I have helped over 80 people!

Hooded bath towels for Kids

Well, It seems like I have been off doing a lot of things and not blogging. I have lost 40 lbs since Jan of this year and that has been my high priority. I have done some sewing and here are some pictures of the Hooded towels I am making right now. I have just finished up all the special orders from the craft show I showed them at. It all started when my daughter in law told me that the hooded towels they sell at stores are not very good. I made my granddaughter the first butterfly towel, needless to say I have improved upon the first one. I think these are cute and useful. I remember how we used to go to the beach and lug all our beach stuff. These towels are made so your child can wear it when they go to the beach. I have put small loops of elastic inside so they can slip their hands thru it and fly like a butterfly or bat, or just carry it. I have made a frog, aligator, butterflies, bat, full size towel w/ hooded, or a square with a hood in the corner these have I have embroidered the designs of a duck, whale, monkey girl, monkey boy, mermaid, frog, princess and a microscope. I also embroider the child's name on the back of the towel. Very useful when your child leaves his or her towel when swimming at a friend's house, these always make it back to you. Well Happy sewing! and if you get a chance check out my Etsy store to see some of my work.  Just search Etsy and search by sellers-I am psully6 (click the dropdown arrow where it says handmade to find sellers)

Machine Embroidery and Sewing Group starting up in Poway California!

I am starting up a small group of Women who want to get together once a month or so to do projects together. You must have a sewing and embroidery machine that you can transport. It does not matter if you are experianced or brand new to this. No 6 thread machines at this group. I thought it would be fun to pick each other's brains. I would like to limit it to about 5 of us total. (That's a lot of plugs!) Email me if you are interested in coming. I plan on having our first meeting on March 20th. I will host it at my house 10:00am.
Email me if you are interested in coming. Pass this along to friends might have that might like to join us.
Happy Sewing & Embroidery! Pauline

Baby Safari Burp Cloths, Bibs and Fleece Blanket, Oh So Cute!

Hear that Roar! See That Long Neck! Listen to the chatter of the Monkey! Here is a cute baby gift set I have just finished. 3 Burp cloths-personalized, 2 bibs and 1 infant receiving fleece blanket. $40.00.

I had a lot of fun making these, and they were received well. I love machine appliques. It is just another fun thing for me to do.

How I learned to be organized.

Christmas is over and a New Year is here! This is the time I like to think about goals. I really don't want to make any resolutions as those seem to come and go. This year I have been thinking about how to plan my long term goals and then make shorter ones so I can see my accomplishments or how well or bad I am doing thru out the year. When I was a young mother I felt really disorganized and so I read many books on organization. I also read how to motivate your kids type books. I made up several different motivation games to help my kids and myself to keep on tasks and try to make cleaning, and maintaining my house fun. Then I realized that some jobs are really not fun. The fun part sometimes can be that the job is finally done. I did figure out though that how fast or trying to make a job fun was not the secret to getting my kids to clean. The secret I learned was in a book that I think is out of print, but it was called the Side Track Home Executives. This was written by 2 sisters that had a hard time keeping organized. You used a card file with 3 X 5 cards to list all the jobs in your house and filed them by daily, weekly, bi-weekly, Monthly, Bi-Monthly, 6 months, yearly. It seemed overwhelming at first but It really helped me. The big think that I learned with this system was to time a job and to see how long it really takes to do it. For example-the bathroom. I made a card for, Clean the toilet- 3 minutes, Clean the mirror-3 minutes, Clean off the counter top 3 minutes, Clean the tub 7 minutes, Sweep and Mop the floor-10 minutes. Now I put down how long I thought it would take, and then I took all the cards into the bathroom and timed myself. I can tell you these times are pretty accurate. So then I would take one of my Kids into the bathroom with all the cards and say you are incharge of cleaning the bathroom. I explained the cards and each chore ( if they can't read then put pictures next to what you want them to clean.) Have them take a card and explain exactly how to clean it. Then take a stop watch and time them doing it. You both with find that maybe it takes less time than you put on the card. I explained to my children that if we split up the jobs and all did a different part of the house then we could get every thing done in about 20 min. I found that after 20 minutes they were no good to me anyway. Then I made sure I did not make them do any more large type chores that day. My husband says that I still can clean really quick. It is a good thing since I am really good at making a mess! My Mother was not the best at keeping the house really neat but we were really good at quick speedy clean ups. As a kid I really did not watch commercials. When there was a commercial on during a show our family was watching, my Mom would say, "Everyone get up and pick up 5 things and go put them away. With 8 kids and 5 items each. the room would be clean in no time. I also use to play the same music when we were cleaning. Whistle while you work, and Supercalifragilistic. Years later I played that music when my kids were home and one of them said, why do I know this song? So let's have a Happy New Year and Make some New Changes for good in our lives. With God Nothing is Impossible! Pray for help, I came to realize that Heavenly Father knows us and our loved ones very well and he will help us improve if we want to.

Over the river and thru the woods to Pauline's house we go!

I can officially say it is the start of the Holiday Season. Now you might be one of those fuddy duddies that says it does not start until the Day after Thanksgiving but I say It's November and Yippee! I love Thanksgiving and Especially Christmas! This year try not to let Thanksgiving zip by and not even think about it. We have so much to be thankful for in this Country! We have a wonderful freedom that has been bought by many who have given their lives for us to live like we do! We have family around us, If you are lucky enough to have a Grandchild or 2 or 4 you should be over joyous. Is that correct english? Oh well that's another thing to be thankful for. Talking how ever we want! When I was a little girl I always heard about gingerbread houses and making candy and fun holiday traditions. We had our traditions but I wanted to try out some of the other ones. So now that I am grown up, Mostly! I love to have holiday craft classes. If you or your children have not come to one, then consider this your invitation. I have put together 4 classes that will happen starting Nov.20th. I always have them on Friday night, 6:00-8:00 pm (this is by design. I figure if Mom and Dad want to go out for a couple hrs they can.) Except the Mini Crafters Classes they are Fridays 4:00-5:00
Check out the pictures. If you want all the specifics, email me. I send out details about each class and all that we do.
Nov. 20th Thanksgiving Class $20.00 Candy & Cookie Turkey, Acorn Dough Nuts & Can do Turkey Soup
Dec. 4th Mini Crafters Class $10.00 Snowman gift bag, Nativity Necklace, Decorating Gingerbread men.
Dec. 4th Christmas Popouri Angel $20.00 and Christmas necklace
Dec. 18th Decorate your own Gingerbread house and Free Gift table.$20.00 (Children take turns picking a gift from the free gift table to keep or give to someone special, nothing elaborate but the kids love this!)
If you want more info email me at psully6@cox.net
Happy Holiday's and don't forget to be thankful!

More towels

Pretty Towels, Useful Towels, Kid's Towels and More...

For years when we needed towels we went to the store and bought any towels that looked nice to us. Then about 15 years ago when I bought new curtains for my kitchen I realized something. If I bought towels that matched my curtains my kitchen would look like I was trying to decorate. Now many of you might wonder why it took me so long to realize this but up until then I was very busy with little league, popwarner football, volunteering at the kid's schools, cub scouts, girl's camp, etc... Finally when the kids were older and I had more "free" time I turned my attention to the house. So now when I go out to buy towels I only buy ones that go with my kitchen decor, or my shower curtain. You know that you need to redecorate your bathroom when you just can not find towels to match your shower curtain anymore! I now look at my shower curtain and think, what ever possessed me to buy this? My tastes have changed and I have realized that if I buy a shower curtain and towels that are in the same family colors that my counter top is It might look nicer in there.! Yes I am still evolving. There are just somethings I don't think about for several years! Even though it has taken me some time to think about decorating many of you might already be doing it! So when you come to my house and see something that might look a little interesting to you, just remember that I will probably figure it out in a couple years. I have figured out the towels. Look at all the towels I have embellished over the last year.(Minus all the ones I forgot to take a picture of!)

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BBQ Apron we can use it all year long here in California!

Check out my Embroidered BBQ aprons. I made one with a Grill Sergeant design and one that says Camp Cook. These are a nice sturdy fabric and each one comes with a fork,spatula,tongs,oven mit, and salt & pepper shakers. They have adjustable straps and can be rolled up and snaps together for taking to the beach or a picnic. Makes a nice gift. $24.00

Sewing for horses? You never know!

Well I can add sewing a costume for a horse to my list of things I have sewn. One of my little friends that I have taught sewing and crafts to, was in a horse costume show. Her horse was an angel and she was a little devil on her back. I sewed the white robe and attached the wings to the robe. Amber and her horse won 3rd prize! Now I had never sewn for a horse before but I think it came out great! So in honor of horses I made a towel set that has an embossed horse head on them. They really look nice. I showed them at a show lately here in Poway. I knew we were a horse community, but I guess I never realize how big that love of horses was. These towels are embossed instead of embroidered. It is different as the design sews around the towel and makes the towel stick up in places to create the design. And yes it is the same design on the toilet paper. Embroidered or Embossed towels make a great Christmas, Wedding or Birthday gift.

And if you are wondering...the answer to how do you emboss on toilet paper? Very carefully.

Halloween means candy corn and lot's of fun!

Well here it is October! This starts out my favorite time of the year. Halloween, Thanksgiving and then Christmas is just around the corner. I found this cute recipe for a fun way to make creative hot dogs with a Halloween theme on line. You wrap the hot dog in that pop and ready dough and bake it. They put mustard on the top to make 2 eyes and it looked like a mummy. Also there was a bowl of ranch dressing and then you put some ketchup in a small ziplock baggie and poke a hole and pipe out a big circle all the way around the edge of the bowl on the ranch and then make another circle a few inches in from that circle and keep doing it until you have the ketcup looking like a big bullseye on top of the ranch. Then you take a toothpick and starting from the inside pull it out to the edge of the bowl, do that all the way around and it looks like a spider web. You can also cut your hot dogs in half and wrap them in dough and bake and stick french's dry onions in to make it look like spider legs, them just put a couple drops of ketchup on the top to look like spider eyes. Use the spider dip for your hot dogs or have crackers or pretzels or carrots or celery for dipping. Make sure you stock up on all those fall decorations, pumpkins, candy corn, etc... so you have some left over for November. Now you say why would I want any left over? Well this is why I stock up. Grocery stores only bring in enough pumpkins to sell for Halloween and aim to have them sold by the 31st. When our children were young we had a tradition of making homemade pumpkin pies for Thanksgiving and each child picked who they were most thankful for that year. They picked a teacher at school, a church teacher or scout leader or whom ever they thought was important to them. We made little 3 X 5 cards and put stickers on it explaining our tradition and that they were the one picked this year. Everyone who got one seemed to really like it and I wanted our children to think of others at this time and not get wrapped up in the "I want" syndrome. So you could make a pumpkin pie or pumpkin bread, or pumpkin jelly roll with those pumpkins. We just used a black marker on the ones we were keeping instead of carving them. Also look at the cute things you can do with candy corn. On Kimi Coopet's blog I found this cute oreo turkey cookie and this other sugar cookie on several other sites. So stock up on candy corn too. Happy Halloween!

Zumba Anyone? Personalized Exercise Towels or Sweat Rags

Ok so if you are like me you probably do not know what Zumba is. Well I found out that My sister loves it! So I went on line and looked it up and it is an exercise class that you dance at. It looks really fun. I searched it on Google and found some videos of classes. So in honor of all those who love to exercise one way or another I have started a new line of Exercise Towels!

Sweat in style! These are just the right size for your favorite athlete. 11" X 11" 100% cotton and absorbent. These can be personalize with up to 7 Letters. Choose your sport, Zumba, Football, Baseball, Basketball, Soccer, Skating, Running Etc... They come in Teal, Orange, Brown, Red, White or Purple. Stuff them in your sport bag and you are ready to go! Makes a great Birthday present or Stocking stuffer. $15.00 each or 3 for $40.00

Pirate Costume you can make yourself.

Since I had requests for a boy's costume idea, here it is! Why not make your little boy into a Pirate for Halloween? It can be simple and easy and you can use things you already have. For the shirt use a long sleeved white t-shirt. Take some black fabric paint and paint some stipes on it going around the body and around the sleeves. Or you could sew on or use wonder under to attach some big black stips of fabric or ribbon to the t-shirt to make the stripes. Next take a black pair of pants, (you know the ones for church that are too short now) cut them at the bottom making points all the way around the legs. If they are brother's and the waist is too big get a piece of rope or twine and use it as a belt. Invest in some red & white striped fabric and rip a piece long enough to tye a round your child's waist like a sash, make sure to have it long enough to hang down a little. Then Take a stip of the striped fabric wide enough to cover your child's head and tye it down in the back. You can make your own eye patch out of black felt and some black ribbon cutting out a semi circle of felt and sewing the ribbon on either side so you can tye it around the head or you can purchase one. Here is a picture of a sword & eye patch I found on line. Ahoy matey!

How to make your own Princess Halloween Costume

Ok, so Halloween is not far away, and your little girl has decided she wants to be a princess. Now for me the ideas can be endless. So I am going to give you some ideas.

First you can make a wand by cutting out 2 stars from some poster board. You could choose yellow and then put glue all over it and sprinkle with glitter and then glue both sides around a wooden dowel so the sides with the glitter are on the outside. Then tye some pretty colored satin ribbons around the dowel just below the star. You could use blue, or pink or silver.

Now for the skirt. Go to the fabric store and get 2-3 times your child's waist measurement of tule or some princess looking fabric. Get 1 time around your child's waist plus 2 inches of elastic. 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch wide would work and some 3 inch satin ribbon, or bias tape that is close in color. I think the satin ribbon would be pretty and you should be able to get it in a color that is close to the skirt. Come home and sew the fabric together at the ends so you have a really big circle. Then on one of the long sides. Run a very loose stitch, weaving the needle in and out of the fabric so that you can gather it up. When you get it about 6 inches bigger than your child's waist sew the thread in to the fabric so it will not come out or loosen up. Then take the satin ribbon and turn it under on both of the short ends and sew them down so the ends do not fray. pin the right side of the ribbon to the right side of the top of the skirt. Pin it all the way around and sew it making a seam so that when you are done it looks like a skirt with a big waist band. Then take the satin ribbon and fold it in half to the back of the skirt so that the seam is inside the waistband and sew it down on the back of the skirt so that you make a casing for elastic. Remember you have made this about 6 inches bigger than your child's waist, so after you make the casing take your elastic and hook a safety pin in one end and use it to thread the elastic thru the casing you made with the ribbon. Pin the end without the safety pin to the end of the skirt so you don't accidently pull the elastic all the way thru. When you have threaded the elastic all the way around thru the casing have your child try it on. Adjust the elastic to fit your child's waist. Sew the elastic to the ends of the casing. now if there is a little gap at the back you can sew on some hooks & eyes. Cut the skirt length to fit your child. You can make it short and have them wear shorts under it. Leggings would look cute. Pink skirt & white leggings or blue and white, any combination would look cute. Here is a picture of a tiara I found on oriental trading co. use your imagination or you can order one on line. Try this I bet you will find that you have more craftiness inside you than you thought! Happy Crafting!

How to have a fun Halloween!

I can't believe summer is almost over and fall is just around the corner! I love fall! Carmel apples, carmel corn, apple cider. I have always loved Halloween and the cooling weather. As my children were growing up we celebrated halloween and always had a lot of fun. Of course we had homemade costumes and it just would not be the same if one of our kids did not wait until the last minute and say, I don't have a costume. Since we had the newspaper route in our neighborhood for many years we had a hat and paper carrier, the kind that you put your head in and big pockets hung down in the front and back of the person wearing it. That get up seemed to be the one costume that got used every year and a great last minute costume. They loved to roll up a couple newspapers and have them stick out the front pocket and it was a great place to put all the candy! It was fun to go trick or treating around the neighborhood and everyone knew us.

Now days we don't get too many trick or treaters, but it is still a lot of fun to open the door and see all the fun and creative costumes. Since my love of the holidays is apparent I have started to plan my holiday craft classes for Kids for this year.

The first one will be Oct. 9th, 2009 What a blast we will have! Each child will make one of the pumpkin brothers, a decopaged candy corn candle holder and spider cookies. Take a look at the cool things I have planned. Email me for more information.

Fun with Butterflies!

Check out this cute multi colored girl's skirt with purple satin trim and removeable embroidered butterflies! Waist is 24" and length is 15". $15.00 it would make a great summer outfit paired with this purple peasant blouse $12.00 or a color coordinating t-shirt. I had so much fun with this butterfly I sewed it in different colors on baby burp cloths and a onesie. $24.00 Butterflies are free to fly!!! Fly away!! Bye Bye!!!

Remake Vintage Girl"s Skirts

Here are 2 Girl's skirts made from vintage fabric. These were remade from vintage adult skirt. I love the feel of the older cotton. It just seems to be so much softer. These are fun and cute when pared with a peasant blouse. $ 10.00 each.

How to give the perfect Wedding Gift.

Well here it is May and the beginning of the Wedding Season. One year I was invited to 10 weddings! Well I guess it comes with having 4 children very close in age. As they have gotten married so have all their friends. That year the gift of choice was crockpots. Since then I have decided it is nice to give something a little personal. I like to look at the gift lists that the Bride and Groom have registered for. I Check out what colors of towels, kitchen gadgets, or even the shower curtain that they have listed, that way I have a good Idea of their likes. I choose a set of towels in their colors and Monogram them, or put some motif on them that they are known to like. His and Hers are fun for Newlyweds. One friend said the favorite gift her son and daughter-in-law received was Monogrammed Robes. It may take a little extra investigating but it will make the gift special. If you know the Bride's Mother well, you can ask if there is any unique characters or designs that the Bride really likes. One of my sons and his friends were down for a wedding recently and as they were talking about some of the wedding plans, I said, "you know it is really all about the Bride!" I was listening to a speaker recently and he said, "Happy Wife, Happy Life!" I have to say that Being the "Wife" I loved the saying! Check out this gift set. 2 Sets of Towels made in to something special! Set included 2 Bath towels, 2 embroidered & Monogramed Hand towels and 2 Wash cloths. $52.00

Sewing repairs can prolong the life of your clothes

I read some place that all good business have a clear and defined mission statement. I had not been able to come up with one until now.

My Mission statement is:

To Create, To Embelish, To Repair.

To Repair: I have noticed in these economic tight times that it can be better to spend $10.-20.00 to have something repaired than to go out and spend $40.-50.00 on something new. I have had several repair jobs lately. I have a friend who's hem came out of her pants and another who's daughter had a hoodie that needed some seams restitched, come to me and ask if these could be fixed. They were ready to throw them away because they could not sew or mend it themselves. Sometimes we just have that one shirt or outfit that we just love and can't bear to part with even though it needs some repair. I worked at a Bridal shop for awhile and learned to repair a lot of garments. Brides can be hard on clothes! So if you need some pants hemmed, seams restitched, Boy or Girl scout patches sewn on, or some other sewing need, email me and we can get together.

I ran across the old saying that I think is great to remember these days.

"Use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without!"

His & Hers Towel set

Here is a great gift for that special bride and groom. This set was made with white towels and black and silver embroidery. It is a hit with the young couples. Of course it might be nice for those celebrating their 50th wedding anniversary. I can change the colors to be silver or gold or whatever their color scheme is. $85.00 for the set.