I is for…

… I can not think of anything for this letter! So how about we just skip over it and I show some of the goodies I got in the mail this week!

This wonderful package arrived in the mail from Karyn as my prize for the stashbusting challenge drawing…

Button magnets! I love these:)

Buttons!

A coin purse with id holder on the front! (I love how Karyn makes these, so I am incredibly happy that I have one of my own from her now!)

A matching tote to go with the coin purse! (And a cat in the background trying to inspect the other goodies! He approved:)

A big thank you definitely goes out to Karyn for her amazing generosity! Definitely go to her site and take a look at her etsy shop! Not only is she a very sweet lady, she also has a wonderful shop with some great goodies!

Another little package also arrived for me this week from Marjorie of MarmeeCraft…

A pretty print that I won in a drawing on her blog! (Which is pretty amazing, because I never seem to win anything and all of a sudden I seem to be having a decent bit of luck!) I already have one print from her, which I absolutely love, so I felt so lucky to win one! :)

Also received in the mail this week… Woven labels with my name on for putting in tote bags, zippered pouches, and anything else I feel like making! I couldn’t get a decent picture of these yet (its been really cloudy lately so the lighting is terrible inside), but the labels are white with “Chara Michele” printed in a pretty lighter blue color. Definitely excited to be able to add these to anything I make! Now I just need to get around to making some new stuff…. I haven’t been doing much crafting/sewing the last few days, I am trying to get some other stuff done and also enjoy summer a little bit (although it is a bit warm right now to enjoy).

These photos were taken the other morning… Neither of these are the “best” photos ever, because I was in a rush to take the pictures and was holding an umbrella over my head in case it started raining again. I just had to get some photos of what the clouds looked like though! Click on the photos to see larger…

Now I am off to read a few blogs and hopefully get some stuff done…

G is for…

… Green living and trying to do our part in being environmentally-friendly. Since moving to a city that doesn’t require recycling and is far less environmentally friendly than the last place we lived, I have become even more aware of this and what I can do for the environment. In exchange for sharing a few of the things that we do in our household to be a bit more green and environmentally friendly, I would love to hear what you do…. (That way we can all get some good ideas:)

• Recycling
• This is a bit more difficult since our city does not require recycling and doesn’t even accept some recyclables! Still we try to recycle what we can and give to goodwill items that do not need throwing away yet.
• Driving a fuel efficient vehicle and walking/biking when possible
• While I would love a hybrid someday that just isn’t possible right now. So instead we have a little Hyundai that gets 40 miles to the gallon. Ben also tries to walk or bike to work frequently (an advantage of living close enough).
• Using reusable water bottles rather than buying disposable water bottles
• You can even add flavors to your water this way, if you are like me and hate regular water.
• Using reusable shopping bags at the grocery store

…German Shepherds. My favorite type of dog! Growing up my family had a German Shepherd named Kittie and she was an amazing dog to grow up around. I was terrified of big dogs until we got her and now I love bigger dogs. I would definitely love to have another German Shepherd again someday!

H is for…

… the heat! I love summer, but heat indexes into the 1oo’s & heat advisories are just not my idea of wonderful weather. I am *almost* looking forward to fall… Although I might change my mind about that once fall actually gets here.

… hair color. My hair has been almost every color you can think of, right now it is a fairly normal looking blonde color. When I had black hair, most people thought that was my natural color because it matched the color of my eyebrows. My hair is actually a dark blonde naturally and I just have dark eyebrows…

… handmade. What can I say? I love buying handmade items and making/selling handmade! :)

This has nothing to do with the letters g or h, but I didn’t feel like I could post without a photo:) I experimented a bit with black & white photos the other day and also taking some photos at a higher ISO to add some noise/graininess to the pictures…

I hope no one is too sick of cat pictures, but like I mentioned the heat is a bit much lately and I don’t really feel like being outside in it to take photos! (If you are not sick of cat photos, there are 2 more black & white ones that I uploaded to my flickr page….)

…. First of all thanks to everyone who left me comments on my 200th post (and other posts) the last few day! It was definitely the most comments I have ever received on the blog:) Thanks to a nice little random number generator (and an excel spreadsheet) the two names picked were Tiffany and AmandaJean! If you could both check your email that would be excellent! (I hope it is okay that I have not made anything yet, it may be a couple weeks before you get your prizes… :)

… Fabric. I would show you a picture of my fabric stash, but I don’t really think you all want to see a messy cupboard. My fabric cupboard is wonderful in that it has doors on it though, so I can just stash everything away and not have to look at the mess. Of course that doesn’t really help with my messy desk/bookshelf, etc…. My favorite fabric is linen right now. If I could sew everything with a bit of linen (and maybe some other pretty fabrics), I might! Now if only linen would cost a bit less:)

… Flickr. When I first got my flickr account, I wasn’t sure if I would really use it or even if I liked flickr. The more I use it though, the more I enjoy it. It is fun to see all the wonderful photography out there and it inspires me to take even better photos. Here are some black & white photos from a few of my favorite photographers on flickr right now….

1. Morning Kiss, 2. Gateway, 3. tulip, 4. Untitled, 5. Road bw, 6. Pier and Distant Freighter, 7. Ol’ Chevy, 8. grid in black, white and rain, 9. At the Trough