The Spunky Diva

Hey Everyone ~ I can't believe Ms. T is already eleven days old!  She is doing very well, and she has her one week/two week old check-up today {I will tweet her new stats when we get out of the Doctor's office}.  Ms. Diva continues to amaze with me with how helpful she is trying to be.  No mean feat for a 15-month-old.  She already has an 'understanding' that Ms. T's binkies are not hers, and is determined that the baby's bottle needs to be held by the person holding the baby.  Otherwise she will hand you the baby's bottle, LOL!  Having Ms. T at home motivated me to finally get around to redoing the seat cushion for the rocking chair.  A task that had been on my to-do list for waaaaaaay to long.  Here are the results. I am not terribly thrilled with the finished look, but it is uber comfy.  I used a four inch foam from Joann's {purchased New Year's on sale}, and some micro-suede {also purchased at Joann's during the New Year's sale}. 

When I brought home my latest fabric finds, Mr. SD thought the John Deere flannel fabric would make a great cover for his neck pillow.  So... here is how I made it in about half an hour. I took measurements of the pillow {making sure to write them down, my memory tends to be poor with numbers, LOL!}: Then I cut the fabric from selvage to selvage: I rolled both selvage edges over twice {edge is inside the stitched sides}: I wrapped the length of fabric around the neck pillow.  Here is where I should have cut of five or six inches and rerolled the edge to finish.  Hindsight is always 20/20.  So... here is my tip, make sure your opening overlap is only three or four inches.  Otherwise, you will have one heck of a time getting your pillow inside the case. A picture of the western themed pillow and the case. When stitching the two long seams, start one inch away from the fabric fold, stitch to the reinforcing stitches and then proceed to the edge of the fold.  Flip the pillow c

Vickie, over at Spun Sugar Quilts , is celebrating being part of Moda Bake Shop's book, Fresh Fabric Treats , with a GIVEAWAY!!! Check out her blog post about the new book, and her favorite pre-cuts {here} for  your chance to win a copy of the book and a set of fabric. My favorite pre-cut at the moment is jelly rolls and honey buns.  I am working on a quilt topper using one of Moda's newest fabric lines, Fresh Flowers .

Ms. T arrived on Monday, weighing 9 pounds at 20 inches long.  Ms. Diva is handling her arrival very gracefully.  Ms. Diva is shaken up by the changes, but loves her little sister... most of the interaction has been amazinly gentle for a 15-month-old.  Ms. T is eating very well, and producing as much No. 1 and No. 2 as a little baby can.  Both Grandmas are tickled pink with the newest addition.

Here is a wonderfully fun Ironing Board Cover and two matching pairs of Stay-Put Towels.  The fabric was provided by the client, and certainly will make doing the laundry much more fun!  Enjoy how I made the world cuter today. Linking up with...  

1. What movie could you watch over and over again and not get tired of?   Last of the Mohicans.  I have watched that movie so many times, LOL!  It is all about having a good cry type movie.  Beautiful scenery, beautiful music, beautiful leading man.  Need I say more? 2. What's your biggest pet peeve right now?   I am sure I have one, but right now I am sooooo ready to not be pregnant that issues with others is not high on my list at the moment. Speaking of that... Ms. T should be making her arrival any day now (which makes it even harder to still be pregnant). 3. If you had to describe your best friend in five words or less, what would you say?   Only five words... that doesn't leave much room for clarifications... let's see... Best Friend, Fun, Trustworthy, and Listens. 4. If you did not have to worry about money or go to school what would you do for a living?   Be a stay-at-home mom that gets to craft and blog about it.  The crafting and blogging part are current

Mom picked out this fabric for Ms. T for burp clothes.  I used this "Cute as a Button" design to go with the round dots on the fabric.  Stay tuned to see what design we used on the other burp cloth.  PS ~ Ms. T has not yet arrived, but is expected within the next week.

I am trying to switch the standard font on The Spunky Diva.  Let's see if this worked!

I have officially collected over 1,000 SwagBucks !!!! My goal is to collect 1,850 and trade them in for the iTunes $15 Gift Card to give to Mr. SD as a Valentine's gift.  Wish me luck! Click below if you are interested in collecting SwagBucks for yourself.  You earn SwagBucks simply by searching the internet as you would normally.  There are additional ways to earn SwagBucks by finding codes, and of course they start you out with a sign-up 'bonus' to get your account started.  So far I have traded in my SwagBucks for six $5 Amazon Gift Cards ($30 worth).  That is just by using SwagBucks as my search screen for the past couple months!

Since I sell both locally (craft fairs, vendors) and on Etsy (some taxed and some untaxed sales) I have had to decide on how I want to deal with the question of collecting sales taxes. When pricing I have decided that I will just 'eat' the sales tax on local purchases so that I don't have to mess with collecting sales taxes right then.  I figure that at local craft fairs I am not paying Etsy or PayPal on these sales.  Plus, on Etsy I want to encourage customers to come back and not give them sticker shock by collecting sales tax after they have decided to make a purchase.  So... I have set up my Sales Spreadsheet to collect the info I need to complete my State Sales Tax Form, this is seperate from my detailed sales report or item inventory sheets.  Total Sales and Taxable Sales.  Since I don't collect sales tax 'on-top' of the cost of the item's price, I have to back-up to the pre-tax price to find out how much was for sales tax.  Here is a website that h

I have finished up all the books I had to review (the Toby Mac book review will be posted this coming Sunday) .  Now I have another on it's way!  I am very excited to be reading this one.  I have included the publisher's description below: Left at the Altar - My Story of Hope and Healing for Every Woman Who Has Felt the Heartbreak of Rejection - By Kimberley Kennedy - Published by Thomas Nelson Fascinatingly insightful and hopeful page-turning account of one woman's encounter with ultimate rejection. TV journalist Kimberley Kennedy went from having it all to complete devastation, rejection, and public humiliation when, like a Lifetime movie scenario, her fiance left her at the altar. But her story did not end at the church. With candor and humor, Kimberley shares the personal details of her life as she journeys from devastation to a deeper understanding of what happened and how she found not only healing but hope to someday find her Mr. Right. The intimate woman-to-

A major goal for me this year is to get back down to 140 pounds.  I plan to start with a 30 pound drop by the end of January.  Nothing like having a baby to start the weight loss program, LOL!  So to keep myself accountable I have decided to use Post-It Note Tuesdays as my weight check-in day.  I am not planning on dropping the weight fast (other than the actual birth weight loss), but want to stay consistent and motivated through-out the year. "They" say that being public with your goal and your progress is one reason why programs like Weight Watchers are successful.  Let's see if I can find the same accountability in posting here on The Spunky Diva. Here are the first post-its to get the ball rolling: Linking up with:

How would your faith fair if you were suddenly uprooted from your comfortable home and thrust into the middle of your father's unsavory ministry?  In Love's First Bloom, Delia Parr explores this question with artistic storytelling. Ruth Livingstone leaves New York City in the middle of the night on board a packet ship with a baby and an assumed name. She finds herself struggling with the request her father has asked of her. When her father becomes the center of a controversial murder case keeping her mouth shut about who she is becomes harder and harder. When the case takes a turn for the worst the media starts hunting for the 'missing' daughter. Ruth learns more the affect of her father's ministry has had on the lives of the family she is living with as she helps in the family store. Their support helps Ruth make it through this difficult time. A stranger appears in town. Will he be a friend or enemy? I really enjoyed Delia Parr's writing style. The situ

It is hard to believe that the first Friday of 2011 is already here!!!  I already miss Christmas.  With all the family in town, being close to my due date, and all the stuff I have been sewing for The Spunky Diva on Etsy , I fell like I kinda just skipped and hopped right over Christmas this year.  I did do more decorating this year than last at the Cottage , but certainly was not a big help in decorating the big house. We also dealt with Ms. Diva being sick for the first time.  Not bad since we made it to fourteen months without her being sick.  It was a lot scarier than I thought it would be with her not being herself.  Miss raring to go first thing in the morning with no time to cuddle (especially with her mommy), just laid on my chest and didn't even 'talk' to the dogs.  Freaky. She then very helpfully spread her germs.  I ended up going down Wednesday, just before my Prenatal visit so my Doctor was able to prescribe anti-nauseous pills (of course keeping those down l

Valentine's and St. Patrick's Day are now represented in The Spunky Diva shop .  Check out the fun embossed designs used on these gorgeous, 100% cotton, terry cloth hand towels! Linking up with:

Check out this great giveaway to start the New Year over at Mechelle Designs .  Who couldn't use another calender to start the year with?  You can check out more of Mechelle's designs on her Etsy Store .

One of my goals ( more to goals of 2011 to be posted in a goal post, almost sounding sporty here, later this week ) is to be better about using up fabric that I have been collecting this past year like a fiend.  Have questions about the amount of fabric... check out these posts: Fabric Posts .  I also want to continue learning new sewing skills in 2011.  I purchased a ruffler foot , and decided there was no time like the present to get started on ruffles! Since I used fabric I had on hand, a shirt Ms. Diva was outgrowing, and the ruffler foot... technically this project did not cost a cent.  {technically}  One of the issues with a lot of Ms. Diva's shirts is that she is very tall in the body, and even though she is already wearing 18m and 24m shirts they still tend to be to short.  So... this purple shirt became the subject to my first ruffling experiment.  I used a 6.5" strip of the Hearts fabric folded in half (no wrong side showing), and ruffled away.  It wasn't h