All Giggly Over This Mama

 I can not tell you how much I simply adore Shannon! She is a fabulous friend (even though we never officially met), an incredible stitcher and is just downright beautiful. Her outlook on life is amazing and even when she's grumpy-she's still divine!

Tell me a little bit about yourself?

I am a Central Coast of California native, born it Beverly Hills. I am mostly of Italian and German heritage. I am a wife, a mother of 2, a daughter and granddaughter, a sister, a cousin, a niece, a neighbor, friendly passerby, and a dear friend.

I am naturally anxious. I sometimes hold my breath for long periods of time without realizing.

I have a fascination with whales and I often have dreams about them.

I giggle at pretty much everything. Which can be pretty annoying to others, I imagine.

I love to eat anytime and anywhere and I always have to have something sweet after lunch and dinner.

I love to sleep, but can only accomplish that in bed with my husband sleeping next to me.

I am a plus size and love it. I have naturally curly black hair, full lips, tattoos, and unexpected hair in unexpected places.

I love tiny baby animals, reptiles, and amphibians.

I don't like dirty feet, or shoes in the house.

Okay, I'm done because this might be more than a little bit....

You are a baking master! What's one of your favorite recipes?
I wish I was a baking master! I do love to bake. :) My pumpkin chocolate chip cookies have to be the best cookies ever, but a runner up would be a Chocolate Cherry Cola Cake I once made. I got the recipe from a fellow blogger. It is the sweetest most sinful cake I have ever tried. Here is the recipe:
1 box Devil Food cake mix
# 1 jar (10 oz) maraschino cherries with juice
# 1/4 cup maraschino cherry juice
1 cup cherry cola carbonated beverage
1/2 cup vegetable oil
3 eggs
1 container whipped vanilla frosting
1 cup marshmallow creme
24 maraschino cherries with stems if you want to decorate the cake

1. Heat oven to 350* degree. Chop up maraschino cherries and set aside

2. Take box cake (don't make it like the instructions on the back on the box), but take the cake powder and mix with cola, oil, eggs, and 1/4 cup maraschino cherry juice. Then throw in chopped cherries and beat for about 2 mins. Pour batter into pan.

3. Bake 35-43 mins. Cool completely.

4. In small bowl mix frosting and the marshmallow creme together and frost the cake. If you want a nice decoration, then add some maraschino cherries on top or chocolate chips.

I love your new tattoo, can you tell me about it?
Oh, I just love my newest tattoo too! I really wanted an embroidery themed tattoo for my 31st birthday. I imagined many designs, but could not come up with one on my own. I knew I had to have each important embroidery tool in the design, but couldn't decide on an arrangement. Luckily my life long friend Scott Osburn, is a pretty talented and skilled tattoo artist and whipped up a freehand drawing right on my arm with no problem. I told him, "Just make sure you get the scissors right!" I had to have the pink Sublime Stitching embroidery scissors in the mix. I think the tattoo turned out beautifully and I will enjoy it for years to come for sure.

Your Pee Wee Herman embroidery is my favorite, what inspires you when you stitch something up?
I always stitch things as gifts for other people, so it has to be something that I know that person will enjoy or something that reminds me of them. This can be a challenge sometimes when scouting for the perfect image for a pattern. I am often inspired by work I see in the Phat Quarter group on Flickr. There are so many talented stitchers out there! I personally love original, emotional, vintage, or silly embroidery. and I am always so pleased and tickled to see new creations by Giddy Girlie, Beefrank, MrXStitch, (my heros) and of course I just love your work as well Miss KittyKill. :) We need to do a swap!

Any motherly advice you can give us?
Don't sweat the small stuff, I know this sounds cliché, but it is really better for your health and your kids, if you just look at the bright side of life. I know this a challenge to do and my mothering skills are still a work in progress. You can't be taught to be a mother. I learn by doing, just like my kids. Even parents make mistakes, so I do the best I can. Each day is a new one and I try to enjoy each and every precious moment I have with my kids, filling time with giggles and memories in between the 2 yr old tantrums, and prepubescent raging hormones. :)

BONUS QUESTION!
Happiness is......
...a warm bed.

Gah! Can you stand it? Shannon is able to warm anyone's heart with her kind words, amazing stitching and postive outlook. She is the  person you want in your corner to cheer you up and give you a hug when things just aren't going your way. She is truly a wonderful woman.  Thank you Shannon for being out there.

Tie One On Tuesday

Welcome to another episode of Tie One On Tuesday, where we give you helpful hints on how to get respectfully sauced. With it being the Christmas season and all, I thought I would take a look at one of my favorite books written just for the season. “Merry Kitschmas, The Ultimate Holiday book” written by Michael Conway back in 2004 and published by Chronicle Books, is a treasure trove of Christmas Tacky wrapped in a bow flavored cover.

There is a whole chapter on unusual drinky drinks and I am going to share a couple with you now.

First off: Rudolph the Rehab Reindeers Nose

Ingredients:

Powdered Sugar

3 oz. Sparkling Wine

1 oz. Cointreau

1 oz. Orange Flavored Vodka

Pinch of Granulated Sugar

Maraschino Cherry

Take a Champagne flute and rim it with the powdered sugar, carefully combine the Wine, Cointreau, Vodka and granulated sugar into glass. Drop your cherry into the bottom and the result is one drunk member of the Deer family!

Next up: The Sugar Plum Fairy

Ingredients:

2 oz. Citrus Vodka

1/2 oz. Cointreau

1 oz. lemon juice (fresh squeezed of course)

splash of cranberry juice

Now – there is a whole crafty segment regarding the presentation of the beverage before you make it, so we are kind of tying all this back to the original main theme of this here blog.

You need:

hot glue gun

mini ballerina cake decoration

pink swizzle stick

Pink straw

small strip of Pink tulle

rubber band

Take your hot glue gun and glue the ballerina to the swizzle stick, insert the swizzle stick into the pink straw and set aside.

Making the drink:

Take a Collins glass and put it in the freezer to chill. In a blender, combine the vodka, Cointreau, lemon and cranberry juice with ice and 2 tsp sugar. Blend until it is a frothy pink slush. Remove your glass from the freeze &  rim it with sugar. Take your tulle and the rubber band and fashion a small tutu for the glass. Pour in your beverage and top with your Ballerina and there you have it. Crafts and booze all in one!!

Just a couple of fun recipes from this crazy book, AND you can pick it up relatively cheap at a local or online bookstore near you! Bottoms up and until next time, leave the driving to Santa!

 

Feel Good Friday!

Greaseball (mascot to the Steven's airport) 1943

Here I am flying off to San Francisco for Bizarre Bizaare but I thought before I got on the plane, I would give ya a little bit of Feel Good Friday, cause ya know, I'm nice like that. Yeah, it's true!

Do the holidays have you in a crunch and you're not sure what you're gonna make for that special someone? Well then, you need to check out  Sew Lovely Embroidery on Etsy. Their patterns are SO COOL! From Pin up girls to spacemen, they have you covered. The coolest thing, they won't set you back a pretty penny and you have a totally kick ass pattern to stitch up. I'm currently working on a spacemen but I can't wait to stitch the cowgirls, cause they are adorable! The detail is amazing.

I love advent calendars. This was stitched up by gnatlaiet. Check out how Santa goes through the house depending on the day. Isn't it just about the cutest thing ever?

Speaking of super cool-have you guys seen the Hand Embroidery Network yet? It's an online community promoting hand and contemporary hand embroidery. There is a community forum, tutorials and even an online magazine-Needles.I could spend hours and hours there-just don't tell my boss!

 

I also want to wish everyone a Happy Hanukkah (December 12th). Hanukkah- A tradition of freedom, courage, and peace. A time of renewed faith and hope. Have a Joyous Celebration.

This is for my friend Casey, cause it makes her happy-and me too.

 Have a great weekend everybody-I'll be back on track Monday.

As I grow to understand life less and less,
I learn to love it more and more.
Jules Renard

It's a Major Award

Giggly Mama aka Shannon nominated me for a Beautiful Blogger. Isn't she the sweetest? Thanks Shannon! So, here's the deal!


The rules:

1) Thank the person who nominated me for this award. (done and done!)
2) Copy the award & place it on my blog. (hee hee...Major award)
3) Link to the person who nominated me for this award.
4) Tell us 7 interesting things about yourself.
5) Nominate 7 bloggers.
6) Post links to the 7 blogs I nominate.


Here's Shannon's blog-she's super cool-if you read later next week, you'll find out why.

7 Bloggers...only 7?
1. Always Inspired
2.Feeling Stitchy
3. Posie Gets Cozy
4. Sew It's For You
5. Average Jane Crafter
6. Oh Merci!
7. doe-c-doe


7 Interesting things about myself
1. I love Lucha Libre
2. I create silly DIY craft videos
3. I'm childless by choice although I do have 3 furry children that keep me busy
4. I want to one day own a farm and rescue small dogs.
5. I drive a huge grandpa car that was given to me by my late father in law and I love it. She was originally the cream puff but I renamed her Betty.
6.  I LOVE LOVE LOVE Christmas and Christmas music and all things cheesy that go along with it.
7. I am a bath person and not a fan of showers.

Who Wears The Pants?

Sometimes a person comes along that you just know instantly you are going to be friends. This is what happen when I met Amanda. She is a smart, sassy and a  knock down beautiful woman that can stitch like nobody's business. Once you find out more about her, you will want to be her friend too cause, yeah, she is just that cool.

Who is the real Amanda Panda Pants?
I am a relatively happy lady with a goofy personality
that can be a bit assertive, obnoxious and aggressive(this is
how the "Pants" of my moniker came about) at times. I love
music (currently British Rock), reading, and watching
movies, although right now I am deep into Season 1 of
Arrested Development. I also talk too much :)

Your embroidery is AMAZING! What or who inspires you?
Thank you!! I find inspiration EVERYWHERE!!! I
recently saw some posters at work that were an art deco
style and I thought "Hmmm I wonder where I can get some of
those so I can turn them into a embroidery pattern?"

A lot of my Flickr friends inspire me; Kunderwood, Penny
Nickels, Johhny Murder, Porterness, Bookwormbethie, Early
Bird Special, Jenny Hart, Bascom Houge, Mr. X Stitch,
Beefranck, Kromo - Threadstar, Themisstrest, Knottyknitty,
Giggly Mama, Follow the White Bunny, Georgia McDonald,
Allthestuffilike, Sewsew-a-gogo, Laura Hartrich, Badbird,
Snarkypants, Floresita, Glazedangel101, Sewitsforyou,
Lovestitches, Rachel McKay, Katiekutthroat, Claudia Marchan,
Ohsweetie, Karina Ascencio, Mimilove Forever, Ruby0042,
Jenni Waterloo, Moster8me, Ritapizza, Doe-c-Doe, Barncat1
and of course you Ms. Kittykill............really the list
goes on and on.

I feel inspired by all embroidery that I see on Flickr, and
what a great community the embroidery crowd is! Someone is
always willing to share methods, where to buy supplies,
share new books and vintage patterns. I truly feel like
you guys are my friends, even though we haven't met in
person.

I am also inspired a lot by print ads that I see in
magazines or images that catch my eye on the internet. Lord
Shiva was inspired by some clip art I stumbled into on the
net.

I think I love everything you do but do you have a favorite piece of embroidery?
Oooooh, this is a toughy. I think the one that truly stands out for me is the Thom Yorke piece. This is where I
saw my embroidery markedly improve. All the comments I got on Flickr cosigned the pride I felt.

Do you have any advice for the masses?
Just go for it. Don't worry about making mistakes, it
takes time to get it right. Always remember that it's about
having fun! Embroidery gives me a sense of freedom. I can
express myself and make something that is distinctively
mine, even if I am using a pattern developed by someone
else.

I saw that you like antiques and vintage finds. Do you collect anything?
I LOVE vintage anything! I am like a Magpie, I just
collect indiscriminately :) I have a good collection of
Chuck All Stars, purses and classic movies going at the
moment. I am currently having a love affair with earrings
from Target :)

I just saw a picture of your family and can I tell you they are BEAUTIFUL! What's their secret ? ;)
Goodness!!! Thank you so much :) Well I
am not sure what the secret is. My mom and dad are just
flat out cute good looking people. My sister was born
beautiful, she has the smoothest skin I have ever seen! I
call her brown alabaster :) For me I use A LOT of Vasaline.
I am of the school that moisturizer is key. I refuse to
wear makeup (I somehow manage to get it all over my clothes)
so I take great strides in making sure my skin looks the
best it can.

And you thought I was making the cool part up! Told you so! I simply adore Amanda. I'm betting her laugh is as infectious as her smile. I'm so glad that I can call her my friend.  Watch out for more of her amazing embroidery on Flickr. She will not disappoint.

Tie One On Tuesday

I want to give a big highball glass up to those waitresses in the sky, those ladies and gents who keep us filled with half glasses of soda and snack mix. I'm talking about a little salute to the flight attendants of the airways.

Now before you say, "Pam, I detect a little hint of sarcasm in your voice." I say, "au contrare", anyone who can put up with 70+ screaming demanding people and serve up a great cocktail while walking backwards in pumps, is okay me with me and although a lot of them I have run into lately have lost their passion for their job, they still deserve kudos.

So, what does an awesome Replacements song, flight attendants and cocktails have in common, well, I'm getting to that. One of the best, if not THE BEST Bloody Mary I have EVER had in my life has been on a plane. I'm not sure what they put in it, but brother, let me tell you. It is mighty fine! So, the next time you are on a flight and want a nice cocktail to ease your nerves and give you your daily dose of veggies, order a Bloody Mary-you will be pleasantly surprised.

Now, let's say you're not a Bloody Mary kind of person. That's cool, cause a lot of airlines now have their own "signature" drink. Alaska Airline has a special tiki cocktail for those going to Hawaii. It has fresh guava and mango juice in it and sounds so yummy. I bet if you ask real nice, they would give you an umbrella.  Mexican Airline has their very own mixologist coming up with new cocktails as we speak. Currently, you can get a Mai Tai, a pomegranate martini or their drink of choice-sweet turbulence (I have a feeling after a few of these, it's what you head will be doing)

Okay, you're not going to Hawaii or Mexico-you're just heading to San Francisco (cause I am this weekend-stop by the Craftster booth and say hello) well, if you fly Horizon they have local wines and beers for your tasting and they are free! I was so happy to have a wonderful Oregon Pinot last time I flew with them and as an added bonus-they give you yummy cookies.

If cocktails aren't your thing-a lot of airlines are offering specialty sodas now. Alaska offers Jones soda to their passengers.Other specialty airlines offer the local flavor soda.

Wherever you are going and no matter what airline you are flying-you can wet your whistle with yummy cocktails. Just remember, as always-moderation. We all want you to get to your final destination safe and sound. I will be back next week with some sensational cocktails for your holiday pleasure.

I'll be right back!

Hi everybody!
I'm just checking in to let you know that I'm still here and around! I am in Chicago right now for Renegade Craft Show with Craftster and I'll be in San Francisco next weekend for Bizarre Bizaare. So....posting will be a little spotting for the next week or so, but never fear-I'll be back in full force with drinky drinks and lots of goodies!


Take care!