Monday Morning Pinch Me - New Minivan!

I've needed a new minivan for awhile now. My old one was 8 years old and had 120,000 miles on it. With three kids that translates to about 300,000 miles! Practical as we are, we wanted to wait until we found just the right one. Well, this weekend we did! Not only did we find a great minivan (Kia Sedona) but we found an amazing dealership.

We went to Fuccillo Kia in Cape Coral Florida. We were amazed at their fabulous customer service. Our salesman was a 7 year police officer turned salesman and he was fantastic. He even gave us some great parenting tips! The owner even sat with us and helped us get a better interest rate. To top it off, he gave us a gift certificate to a local restaurant (seafood!) because we had been there all day and hadn't eaten anything.

Buying a car has never been a fun experience -- until now. So, I thought it appropriate to send a nice thank you note. I had mentioned I designed greeting cards and the owner said he had never heard that before so I decided to design a fun card especially for them.

In doing so, I thought it would be interesting to show you all how the design process works for me. This is the pencil sketch I worked out beforehand.

From there, I create the design with a pointed pen. This takes a lot of time as I go over and over the design until I get each part just right.

From there, I created the final design for the card.





On the final card, I filled in the heart with a glitter pen and the card was printed on pearl paper.

Love my new minivan and we heart Fuccillo Kia!
Truly,
Erica

Monday Morning Recap - Whatcha been up to?

WARNING: Very photo heavy post!

I just finished next year's birthday card for the Coastal Calligraphers Guild. LOVE it! I can't share until next year because I want it to be a surprise for members. Tease right?! Anyway, I've been doing lots of crafty stuff and baking but not much calligraphy these days. I thought I would take a moment to recap what I've been doing to make up for the lack of calligraphy. Sorry lettering friends - hope you enjoy some other stuff, too!

I made this little ipod hoodie for my oldest. It took much longer than I expected but I love how it came out. Found the pattern on Ravelry but originally it came from Colorado Moms. Thanks for sharing such a cute pattern! Wonderful gift for the teen in your life.

My cousin recently had another baby girl. I made this sweater dress for her. I'm not usually a clothing knitter but more of an accessory knitter. This took some work but I was really pleased with the result.

Let's see ... what else. . . last Christmas I did a few house portraits for friends of my parents.

What else? ... A totebag for my aunt and purses for my mom, my other aunt, and two other friends. This bag (except the tote) is my favorite pattern (as you can tell) and they were made from the Zest Tote Bag pattern at Joann.com. Note, I skipped the flower and made the straps longer than the pattern.

Goodness... can you stand another?!

Made these Kids Art Organizer totes for my nieces when they were moving back to Maine. Great for long car trips! This was a great Etsy find - Ginia18 has some wonderful patterns.

I loved these so much, I made one for myself for my calligraphy supplies in zentangle like fabrics!

Made this cute little dog harness for my mom and dad's dog. Found this wonderful free tutorial here at the Moda Bakeshop.

Made 10 of these cute little reversible bags for my oldest's birthday party. We did a treasure hunt at the mall with 10 of her friends. It was REALLY fun! The purse size was originally much larger and the strap was originally smaller but I made it a little longer and the purse a little smaller. This was a free pattern called Grab Bags from allpeoplequilt.com.

I made one for each of the adult chaperones, too!

This one is one of my favorites! I made these for all the cousins and my kids last Christmas. Their Nana passed away and we all live in different states now so I thought this was really cute. This was another awesome free project from joann.com. I made the drawstring bag and added the poem (feel free to borrow).

Made this laptop bag for my mom. I doubt I'll make another one. I loathe working with foam. This was a store bought pattern.

Every year I try to make one gift that I can give to all the folks on my list. You may recall my maple syrup bottles a few years ago. This past year it was conversation starters. I made these from scratch ... it took a lot of work and organization. I wouldn't recommend it! I see now they sell these things in various places. I also made the snowflake ornaments but I will blog about those separately soon.

This was a gift for my parents friends who are also now our friends. Their last name is Parrot. I've tried silk painting a few times. I still need some practice. But this was fun.

Made these for friends of ours that have a little girl and also a set for my uncle's son who recently had his first. I made a little cloth drawstring bag to put them in and crocheted a drawstring bag for the second set. SO CUTE! This was another great etsy find! Barnyard Balls by patternplay on Etsy.

Made quite a few cheer bows for the cheer squad at Imagine School where all my kids attend. These took some work as I had to actually make the sequin ribbon because it doesn't exist anywhere else! I cut fabric strips and used fuse-a-seam to adhere the strips to ribbon. Each bow had to be assembled and stitched. I used instructions from this great ebook, Cheer Bow Instructions from No Bow No Go.

Speaking of cheer... I made over 50 fairy tutus, crowns, and 100 wands for a fundraiser at the school carnival. We were in a bad location so we only sold a handful. If you know anyone that needs fairy gear, I'm your girl!

Speaking of fundraisers... I made hundreds of cake pops and muffins for a bake sale of sorts during a motorcycle run fundraiser. We had a lot of fun but didn't make a lot of money as unfortunately, the turnout was really low. :-( I ate way more of these than any human should. I did make the labels (sort of lettering). The muffins were DELICIOUS and came from Good Housekeeping: The Great Bakesale Cookbook, a book with great ideas for bakesales. I should have left off the Ricotta label because you don't taste it and they are wonderful, moist, lemony muffins. I should know. .. I sold 2 and ate 4. The cheerleaders had no problem finishing the left over cakepops.

This was a birthday gift for my little cousin who is more like a niece. She's a doll! I think she enjoyed playing with these. This was another store bought pattern.

I also made her a princess crown hat for those inbetween cold days when a full hat isn't required. This is a pattern I purchased called Loved by Talitha Kuomi.

I baked quite a bit throughout the year. I won't post all of them. But my favorites were the pumpkin and chocolate whoopie pies. YUM! Oh look ... a tiny bit more calligraphy! :-)

WOW! I'm going to have to stop here even though there are a few more fun things I made this year that I would like to share. Maybe next time. Geez ... looking at all this in one place it's no wonder I don't have any time for extra calligraphy fun! Well, there is always next year. :-)

Truly,
Erica