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Lil' Kay Creations

Space Godzilla & Godzilla, originally uploaded by BeckyKay Designs.

I am always blown away by the creatures that Lil' Kay draws and colors, but keeping the reams and reams of drawings he makes just isn't practical. I was really excited to come up with an cute and fun way to make his drawings a bit more permanent.

I started out by iron a piece of muslin fabric onto a sheet of freezer paper. This creates a nice crisp "canvas" for Lil' Kay to draw on. I gave him a black fabric pen and let him draw on of his creatures on each piece of muslin. He's a big Godzilla fan, so that's Space Godzilla on the left and plain old Godzilla on the right.

After he drew the outlines, he colored them in with ordinary crayons. I encouraged him to color fairly dark so the colors would show up. When he was finished coloring, I placed a paper towel over the image and ironed the paper towel until I was no longer getting any colored wax on the paper towel.

I then peeled the freezer paper away from the muslin and placed the muslin image down on a piece of colored cotton fabric. I pinned the two pieces together and used the sewing machine to stitch around the image leaving a bit of a margin around the actual drawing and leaving an opening at the bottom of the image for turning and stuffing. I cut around the stitching leaving about a 1/4" seam allowance. Next, I turned the creatures right side out, filled them with stuffing and hand stitched the opening closed.

Super easy and fun. Lil' Kay was thrilled with the results. The only problem? He drew both of the creatures facing the same direction, so they can't fight! I told him he'd have to work on that design flaw for next time!

Giant Squid Attack!!

I made this for Lil' Kay. It is the one and only that I will ever make, so don't ask me. He's a cute little fella, isn't he? Last night he attacked a pirate ship, so he may look all cute and flowery, but he's deadly!

Actually, if you want your own squid, you can get the pattern for FREE at Bit of Whimsy Dolls! And while you're there, look at all the other patterns you can purchase. They're fantastic! I'm really tempted by Lenny the Guinea Pig and the B-Movie Monsters.

The squid pattern is actually a very simple project. The only problem I had was attaching the legs to the body. I'm not a patient person, so it was frustrating for me, but I got it done! And look how adorable! He's supposed to have a little smile, but my resident squid expert informed me that his squid should not have a mouth, because squids don't have mouths. They have beaks hidden up under their bodies. It was all I could do to convince him that I should make it in multi-colors rather than just orange.

2nd Annual YART SALE on Etsy!

Head on over to Etsy, June 10-14 for some great deals! Do a search for "YART" and you'll come up with pages of mark downs, free shipping and special promotions! Every participating store is doing something a little bit different, and you don't want to miss out!

BeckyKay Designs will have everything marked down 10-25%. If I get my act together, I may even have a handful of items that are even bigger bargains!

O-Matic is Always Better!

Whenever, I have the opportunity to go to an auction, especially if it's right in town, I have to go. Thursday night, there was one within about three blocks of my house. You can bet I hauled myself over there as soon as I got home from work!

I bought a few other things, but you are looking at my big score of the evening. It's a heavy-duty Singer Slant-O-Matic 401A sewing machine in its own cabinet! I had no idea what I was buying. I just knew it was a cool looking old machine, and I only paid $15. It took two men to load it upside down into my trunk, and I had to drive home with my trunk open, but once I got to looking at it, totally worth it!

This machine has more bells and whistles than you can shake a stick at! It came with about 5 extra feet, none of which I could recognize immediately. And there was the one that looked like some kind of torture device! Fortunately, I know people who are more sewing machine savvy than I! My friend Bren was able to identify the really scary one as a ruffler! The other one is for sewing on binding. There were also feet for hemming and sewing

on buttons. Only one remains unidentified.

It also has four cams that can be interchanged to create all sorts of decorative and special purpose stitches. You put in the cam and move the levers and dials to choose the appropriate stitch. It's absolutely fascinating! I need to sit down and read the manual to find out absolutely everything this old girl can do!

The biggest mystery about this machine was the foot pedal. Mr Kay and I could see the pedal fastened inside the cabinet, but could not figure out how to release it. After much peering and wondering and yanking, we finally realized it wasn't a foot pedal at all! It has a lever that you operate with your knee! That will certainly take some getting used to!

The good news is that I can find all sorts of attachments and gadgets for it over on Ebay, including a foot pedal if I don't get the hang of using my knee. Not only that, but I realized I got a heck of a deal. Slant-O-Matic 401As are listed on Ebay for hundreds of dollars! I saw an auction on one without a cabinet that was kind of dirty that was up to $93.

I do have to admit that I haven't plugged the machine in yet, but I'm very confident that it works. If it doesn't I may just take it down to my sewing machine repairman and see what he can do with her. For 15 bucks, I can afford to have some repairs done!

Great Deal!

Just wanted to spread the word about a special promotion I found out about at Quilts Galore and More! You can choose from several handmade personalized items - pillows, stockings, wall hanging - for just the cost of shipping! It's a heck of a deal!

I've already placed an order for little Sally's nursery!

UPDATE: Just got a link to a picture of Sally's pillow. It is GORGEOUS!!

Bragging!

I have to brag a bit on myself today, because I accomplished something so uncharacteristic that I could hardly believe it myself!

Today was my hometown's annual summer celebration. Every year, our church has a food booth where we serve brats and sloppy joes or hamburgers. This year, we also hosted a dart throwing booth for kids to win prizes. While I was helping with the food, Lil' Kay was running around with Grandma and his cousin. He came running up to the table where I was serving and begged me with his big brown eyes to come and try to win him a prize. Apparently, he and Grandma had made multiple attempts (and spent about $8) trying to win something.

Now, I am the MOST uncoordinated, unathletic person you will ever find. I'm terrible at hitting targets. I tried to tell him I wouldn't be much help, but he was so insistent. So, I followed him over to the booth, telling him the entire time that I wasn't good at this stuff, and we probably wouldn't win anything.

It was $1 for three throws. I paid for six throws hoping to increase my odds! The good news was that he had his eye on a small prize which only required that I hit two balloons instead of three. My first throw was pathetic! I didn't even make it to the board. I hit TWO balloons with my second throw and one with my third throw. Then they told me I could rethrow my first dart, because I didn't even hit the board. Anyhoo, I managed to win him a BIG prize! He chose this big stuffed parrot which he plans to use for playing pirate. I feel like the coolest mom in the world. So, we're both winners!

(My second round of three throws was embarrassing...)