My Husband Won't Let Me Get a New Singer - Or, How to Clean Your Machine

This is one of my favorite things in my house:

My mom bought it for my a couple years ago for Christmas and I use it at least five days a week, making all this stuff. My husband, though I love him dearly, doesn't really understand the lure of fat quarters and JoAnn's Red Tag Sale. So when I told him I needed a new machine, he wanted to know why: The feed dogs aren't pulling through, the buttonholer doesn't buttonhole, the zig zag skips constantly, the tension is whacked, and it squeaks. Didn't matter. He was convinced I didn't need a new one. So, I decided to pull it apart and clean it, and if a few little parts happened to break, then I would definitely need a new one!

Turns out it's a good thing I did! And if you're husband is a big old meany-head as frugal as mine, here's how I did it.

This year is the first time I entered the Handmade Gift Exchange by Craftaholics Anonymous. What a great idea! I love the idea of getting a totally random gift from a totally random stranger! Mostly, I love getting packages. I try not to visit Amazon.com too often...

It took me a while to think of what to make, but thanks to the glut of wreath ideas, I decided to go with the current trend.

I think it turned out pretty cute.

Hey everyone!

So I've been debating how to write a first blog post. Do I do something totally awesome that will blow your minds? Something simple and work into the cool? Hmm... I'm thinking The Tiny Tyrant's first birthday is kinda a good mix of 'yeah - we are that cool' and 'crap! you meant this weekend!?!'

His big day is a couple weeks before his cousin's who is turning eight. Alley Cat loves everything BOY (we're working on that). So when we were talking about ideas, she decided dinosaurs was a good idea. Especially Scary Dinosaurs! Which totally works for me :)

Yep. Dino eating fruit guts. All the kids thought this was pretty cool. And it was so much easier to carve than I thought it would be!