easypeasy grandma

A visit with an artist

2012-02-26T20:48:00.001-08:00

I have a friend that is an amazing artist and I love visiting her home. Every time I go she has a new project she has been working on. This last time I went I took my camera because she had some cute projects to show me and I wanted some pictures. She usually paints with water colors and has some amazing paintings, but she has been working on these dancing ladies made from fabric, paper and clay. I loved them! (She also makes those cute beaded dragon flies.)

She has them in her windows and hanging from some of her light fixtures. Even though it is still winter out, these little ladies just made me want to dance for Spring!

Aren't they amazing! I love all of the fanciful poses they are in.

She also had told me how she loves making her felted birds. These little birds are so cute and are made from felted wool. She has them perched everywhere and you can't help but smile.

She decided that she was going to leave this tree up for awhile. She had made some of the glitter balls that I had made for Christmas and she had decorated a white tree branch with white lights, birds and stars.

See how cute these little chubby birds are! When I went to leave she gave me one of these cute little birds for my home as well. Thanks Inga, I love visiting your creative home.

Hope you have enjoyed it as well!

I love Monsters!

2012-02-19T15:47:00.000-08:00

I have a passion for little monsters, so of course my next pattern to design had to include monsters!

I started with these little monster feet.

and of course had to make a monster head to go with the feet.

This pattern was fun and you really can't make a mistake because it is a monster and they don't always look exactly normal.

I love the little grin and who can resist the teeth!

I am certainly going to have to make some different versions of these, because you know there are lots of monsters out there!

Maybe some fuzzy ones.

or maybe some girly ones, I 'm sure my passion won't stop with these.

They were certainly fun!

Baby Bunnies

2012-02-12T12:37:00.000-08:00

I have always thought baby bunnies are so cute, so I decided to make some bunny slippers. My inspiration usually comes in the middle of the night and then I can't go back to sleep because I am so excited to try it out.

I was trying to think of something to kind of get me in a Spring mood and these of course did the trick!

The first ones always take the longest because I have to write down the pattern as I go.

But when I was finished, I just had to say, Ahhh, aren't they cute!

Then of course those little feet will need something to put on their head, so I had to make a hat to match.

I loved how the little muzzle nose turned out.

I am starting to feel Spring!!

I did get both patterns written up, which is a great accomplishment for me because I usually take days to get it finished,

The pattern is made and I had some more lack of sleep last night, so I need to get on with my next inspiration.

Sometimes I wish I could turn it off, (the ideas) but I am grateful because I love new projects!

New Beginnings

2012-02-04T17:11:00.000-08:00

This last week we had New Beginnings with our Young Women. Our theme was going to be based on everything is Black and White. Meaning that in order to do the things we should be doing we don't want to find ourselves in those gray areas. You know we all have little gray areas in our lives, where we really aren't doing something bad, but are we really doing anything good? We wanted to stress that in order to be where we want to be, that we should avoid those gray areas. I needed to make some things that would just be black and white to get my point across. So, I went to my favorite store, the DI, (Divine Inspiration), really it is a thrift store. I found these vases and plates.

and knew if I put them together they would be perfect for what I needed.

I also found this mirror and frames which were also just what I needed.

This frame had a beautiful shape but I really didn't need what was in the middle.

Someone had gone to a lot of work on this, but I really just needed the frame. Since they both cost $2.00 a piece I thought they would be perfect.

This is the theme for this year and here is the frame that I just spray painted white. I did the theme in black and white to get our Black and White theme across.

Can you see where those vases are?

This was the second frame that I spray painted white, added the black and white fabric, and then used a second frame that I put in the middle, attached with Velcro.. We have been asked to do these 4 things every day, Pray, Read, Smile, Obey, 100% everyday! I made the words in Photo shop and just made it in... you've got it, Black and White!

There is a little hook on the bottom of the frame, so I made a tag that has 100% on it. If we are 100% we will leave it turned around to the front, if we are not we will turn the tag over.

I added a black and white picture of Christ, in a frame that I spray painted black.

Can you spot the vase pedestals now?

I spray painted them white and added some tulle and black and white ribbon. The large flower ball I made from a Styrofoam ball and tissue paper. I punched out a bunch of scalloped circles and attached them to the Styrofoam with straight pins.

These were some candle pedestals I had, that I just spray painted black and added the tulle, beads, flower and ribbons too.

I thought these turned out great and for about $2.00 for each pedestal I thought they were perfect!

These were perfect too!

I'm kind of liking this black and white theme.

I added the white lights under some sheer white fabric to give a little pizazz to the table and give it some shine!

These blocks are what we have made for each young women to be given on their birthday.

We handed out these little favors at the end of the night. The light bulbs were found at Hobby Lobby and we filled them with white six lets and attached the theme for the year.

The night was great and we will be caring this black and white theme through the yea,r and then for our Night of Excellence we will bring in all of the value colors to show that if we stay out of the gray areas that we have in our life we will really be able to shine in our values!

Some new patterns!

2012-01-29T16:42:00.000-08:00

I have been working on some new patterns and I have had request to make some larger sizes. ( Most of my patterns are baby size.)

This little ballet slipper is probably about the right size for a 6- 8 year old. Depending on the size hook you use and the weight of yarn it could vary. It is made with wool yarn which is double stranded.

So, it is not only cute but warm as well!

I love the rose on the toe and think it would make a great gift for any little girl, especially for those who like shoes! ( A girl can never have enough shoes!)

The next pattern is for a newborn to 3 month old and I love sock monkeys so I thought some little sock monkey booties would be great.

I will have to get busy and make one of my sock monkey hats to match!

These were very quick to make up, (once, I got the pattern written.)

I love these, with their cute little smiles on their faces!

These next ones are my size, I wear a size 7- 7 1/2 shoe size and they could be adjusted as well according to the hook size and weight of yarn. Actually the first ones I made were too big, so I unwound them and started over.

I added the buttons for detail.

See how snugly and warm they are!

Perfect for this time of year, I'm thinking I need some in every color! Hope you all have a great week!!

The water in my craft room is drying up and I am much happier this week!

Organization and disclaimer

2012-01-22T15:31:00.000-08:00

They say that creative people are sometimes disorganized and a little messy, well , I am a little embarrassed to show you this picture because, I must be very creative! This was my craft room before Christmas, ( I am really trying not to look at this pic, because it is quite disturbing!) I have a craft room in my basement and I am so grateful to have it but because it is out of the way and sometimes out of site, and because of that it becomes a little disorganized, (who am I kidding, A LOT disorganized!) I decided that I couldn't work like this any longer so I was on a quest to become more organized.

Here is my after picture and let me tell you that this transformation did not happen in one day! I decided to move my machines to the other side of the room, ( before they were behind the door) and with 3 machines it was a little crowded.(Yes, I use all three machines.) One is my embroidery machine and although it does everything I kept my trusty Bernina, (which I have had for more than 30 years) I mainly use it for sewing on leather and heavier materials. Then of course I have my serger. With this arrangement I am easily able to move from one machine to the other.

In my organization I went through all of my baskets and got rid of what I don't use, (and found things I didn't remember having.) I put all alike things in the baskets and labeled them with tags. I thought I knew where everything was but when my daughter came down to make something, she couldn't find any thing!

All alike things in one basket!

I organized my thread and ribbon and it makes it so easy to find what color I am looking for.

Went through all of my fabrics and got rid of more, then put similar fabrics in their rightful stack.

Flannel

This is the other corner and now looking at this picture I can see that I probably still held onto too much fabric, I think I will be the winner when I die!

Love the convenience of this, there is a disclaimer coming about the thread in the window though.

All of my other thread, (some I have had since time began) in a drawer next to the sewing machines!

Elastic and bias trim in another drawer.

Bobbin thread.

Zippers!

Buttons on cards!

Doesn't this just make you want to sit down and sew!

More ribbon, tulle and tape.

More buttons in an organizer, (I love buttons can you tell?) Now to tell yo about the disclaimer of this story, It's kind of sad. Yesterday I went down to go exercise and when I got to the bottom of the stairs, I started screaming because there was water at the bottom of the stairs! It has been raining here for 3 days and a lot of water has come down! This is quite unbelievable though because at this time of year we usually have 6 feet of snow! Because the ground is frozen the water has no where to go but down to the lowest point and because there is a ditch above our house, it got clogged and the water came pouring into our back yard. The lowest point of the house is the window wells, they filled up and because the water had no where to go down it came through my house.

So, yesterday this is what my craft room looked like. (Can you see the water running down the wall and over the counter?) Yikes! it was bad! See those bolts of fabric on the floor, they were a little wet and muddy, because with the water came the mud! I have been washing fabric for 2 days now.

It was not a happy day. But with the help of neighbors, family and friends we got rid of the river coming through our house.

This morning it looks like this, (I don't want to repeat yesterday ever again.) So the disclaimer is this, if you are more organized and a river comes through your house, it is definitely better that you had the room looking like this.

Instead of

This!!!

Can you imagine what the cleanup would have been like if my room looked like this!

I do have a goal to be more organized this year, this was a little set back but maybe just what I needed to get the rest of the basement organized, (even if it was forced!)

Buttons and baby shoes

2012-01-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

I decided to make a new baby shoe pattern. I wanted to make a little flower to put on these little shoes so I made one out of ribbon and added a cute little button.

I love how they turned out and I actually made up the pattern to put on my etsy shop! I love it when I get a pattern done, because writing patterns is not easy.

I was in the button mode and had seen some cute flowers made from buttons on Pinterest.

I got out my E 9000 glue and went to work. First put your buttons in the shape of flower that you want.

Coat your top button with E 9000 glue, (hot glue just doesn't do the trick!)

Place the button on your arranged flower.

I then added 2 more buttons and the last one was a cute lady bug button. I did have to cut off the button prong on the back of the lady bug so it would sit flat.)

Once you start layering the possibilities are endless!! ( Warning! If you don't want the buttons to be stuck to your counter, do your gluing on something that you can pull off) This warning comes from experience, It's a little hard to get the glue off of your counter.

After gluing I let the flowers sit over night.

I then added a small circle of felt and a pin.

Then added another circle of felt. I think this helps as well to hold the flower together.

Aren't they so cute! and I can think of lots of places to use these little pins!

Love these cute little baby shoes as well!

Have a great week!

Projects for the week

2012-01-08T12:55:00.000-08:00

I had a couple of special orders this week and I want to share! The first was for a kindle bag for a 12 year old girl. She wanted it bright and colorful so I chose the lavender and navy blue.

I added a strapand some flowers with polka dot buttons.

The leaves are made from felted wool and they are sewn on with my sewing machine. I forgot to show the detail in the bag, (sorry it has already been shipped and is gone, just try to imagine it.) but the inside was made from a striped fabric and had a pocket to hold any small items.

I layered the flowers and added the cute polka dot button.

You can kind of see the sewing on the leaves now.

I hope she likes it and enjoys reading with her new kindle bag.

I then made these little button loafers for a cute little baby boy.

Trimmed them in white and added a white button.

I was glad to get them in the mail for the special occasions!

Hope your week is great!

Monsters

2012-01-01T19:41:00.000-08:00

For some gifts for my grand kids I made this label to go on a bottle to help rid their bedrooms of monsters at night and I wanted to share it with you! You are welcome to use this for your kids as well.

I found this linen water at the store and decided this would be perfect for my monster spray because it wouldn't leave any marks on the bedding and it would make the room smell good.

I just removed the label and replaced it with my own.

I had been working on some pj's for the grand kids as well and the shirts had monsters on them! ( I don't know if that was such a good idea after I had made them, I was afraid they might get scared!) That is why I came up with the idea of the monster spray. Then I decided that I should make some little monsters for them to put to bed at night. I made the little monsters out of felt and embroidered the design on the felt.

Then I made a little box to put the monster bed in with a little pillow and blankie!

Go to sleep monster!

I have quite a few grand kids so I had to make a lot of monsters.

Just one for my grand daughter, (isn't she sassy! )

another monster...

oh, no, another one!

They are quite addicting once you start, I was thinking I should have made a monster hotel!

This one is a little angry.

Go to bed little monster.

I mod podged the fabric to the boxes and made the little pillows and blankies out of the same fabric.

Here are the PJ shirts I made to go with the little monsters.

One for Carson...

One for Lincoln...

One for Tydon...

One for Layne with his little "stuffy".

One for Bryce...

One for Kace...

One for Evan...

and of course one for McKenly...

Here is her monster bed.

Go to sleep monster!

I added some slippers and had no idea what a hit the slippers would be.

Here it is on.

I found some monster slippers to go with the monster shirts and they all turned into monsters!

So, if you are afraid of monsters you might want to make you some monster spray to keep them away at night. When Mr. Jones is gone sometimes those monsters keep me up at night, so I better make some more for myself, besides it will make my bedding smell great!

Away in a manger

2011-12-19T11:26:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to think of something that my grand kids could make when they come to visit on Christmas eve. They are always excited to make something and because of the excitement of the day and what we are celebrating, I came up with this idea. I was looking for a wooden X to start the project but all of the craft stores only had just a few and I needed 9! As I looked at all of the wooden shapes, I saw a cross and realized that it would work! I also thought it interesting that because I was making something to celebrate Christ's birth that the manger would be made from something that he left this life on, (a cross). I used a ruler to make a straight line and used a table saw to make the cut.

I then needed something to use as the cradle for the manger and used a small rectangle of burlap for this.

To make the body of baby Jesus I used some white felt, about 1 1/2 inches by 6 inches. I rolled it up and secured it with some fabric glue.

I used some wire to be used to hold the star, I found the stars at Michael"s and they were just the right size.

I used a small wooden bead for the head and added some wisps of hair to cover the hole of the bead. I put the heads together ahead of time because it would just be easier than having each grandchild paint and glue the hair.

I used some white flannel to swaddle this little child used some glue to keep Him wrapped and a button was added with glue to the swaddling. (just because I thought it was cute.)

I used some excelsior ( the hay for the manger) and put it all together.

I did add a small wooden base and because it makes the manger a little more stable. (is that a play on words?) I then painted them a yellow gold color.

I made a small hole for the wire to be attached and used some glue to keep it secure.

I then attached the star to hang over the Christ child. I think it turned out perfect and hopefully will help my grandchildren remember why we are celebrating this wonderful day. I think they will have dun putting them all together.

Merry Christmas!

Wrap it up!

2011-12-13T14:06:00.000-08:00

I had to show you an update that I did to my Christmas decorating. Remember the pictures that I wrapped at Halloween because they didn't quite go with the Halloween decor? Well, I decided to do the same to the pictures by wrapping them as Christmas gifts. See how easy it is to change the look of your pictures! You could match the paper with any color you wanted and it is a cheap way to update some of your pictures for certain holidays.

See how quick you can update and match whatever is in your room!

Love how quick and easy this was to my Christmas decorating!

Merry Christmas home tour

2011-12-11T15:29:00.000-08:00

I think I am about decorated! Welcome to my Christmas home. We will start at the front door. Funny how when you see it is pictures you will see what you for got, (like hiding the wire that plugs in the lights.)

My front door. The wreath was made from a pine wreath and the berries, pine cones and leaves were added.

I added pine boughs to the shelves of my plant stand and hung threes metal stars.

My junk birdhouse, as I call it. It just has all sorts of old knobs, hinges and wires on it, and I love all of the old things on it.

In my front entry way you are greeted with my Santa on a fish. (Sorry that the picture is blurry.)

Man I must have been having a problem holding the camera still. These are in my piano room and because these nativities are so small I decided to display them on my cake stand.

This one is from Mexico.

This one from , I am thinking Peru or Chile. The reason I don't know the exact place is that these all came as a set and I liked how they looked, so I am not really sure. They are made from clay and look like they were hand painted. I got them as a set from E bay from a woman who had been collecting them for years.

This is a view on top of my piano.The reindeer are from pottery barn.

This is on one of my favorite pieces of furniture. My great grandmothers buffet. (Oops, I forgot to remove the scents y spray before taking the picture.)

The tree in the piano room. Do you remember those glitter balls?

Now into the Dining Room. These 3 trees are in the corner.

Here is the Dining Room table. And the glitter balls again.

I added a wreath, some feather trees and silver glitter trees. Oh, and don't forget the antlers!

A view of the table and mantle.

I left the picture that I had hanging and just added a silver dove. I attached it to the glass with some glue dots that I use for scrap booking.

More glitter and shine!

I am kind of liking the silver and white look.

I added some silver tinsel around the bottom of the steeple houses.

see how it makes those little houses shine!

I didn't add much to the garland,just a pine cone garland, twinkle lights and the silver doves.

Added a few candles to the table.

I hung this in my kitchen.

This was hand done and was a gift from my daughter.

This is the tree without the flash of the camera on.

This is with the flash.

Now we are downstairs. This is the tree in the family room. I added some green glitter fabric garland around the tree and all sizes of green and brown balls.

This is the mantle, I added more cedar garland with twinkle lights, glitter ornaments, and green glitter icicle ornaments.

See those glitter clear icicle ornaments, with three potted trees in front.

The soldiers standing at attention. I got these as a gift from my daughters, I think they were from Pottery Barn.

Here it is all put together.

This sleigh is used as a table in front of my couch, just added some big pine and red berry balls.

Then I added some pine boughs to this bookcase.

Thanks for visiting!

It's a marshmallow world...

2011-12-04T18:43:00.000-08:00

We had a marshmallow day yesterday. We had some snow in the morning and then we had marshmallow treats that we made. We celebrated a birthday, (Mr. Jones) and my daughter brought him some of his favorite treats. These marshmallow snowmen were for the kids but I thought they were so cute and they were loved by all who ate them!

Cute huh!

She then made these cupcakes, yes they are cupcakes not little cherry pies. The cherries are red M&M's and the lattice is frosting.

Aren't they adorable! Then she brought pineapples upside down cake, pumpkin bars, and gingerbread cake as well. It was sugar overload! but it was all delicious.

I told you they were well loved, I had to hurry and snap the picture before they were all gone.

We then made some marshmallow stirring sticks for our neighbors and friends. You start with a marshmallow and dip it in chocolate and then roll it in crushed candy canes.

or if you want crushed toffee bits you can roll it in that!

Put them on a lined cookie sheet pan.

Dip your sucker stick in chocolate and stick it in the marshmallow.

They are all at attention!

Wrap them up. Don't they look delicious!

I made a little tag for them.

Love it when they are all done/

Then I mixed up some hot cocoa mix and put it into containers, to go with the cocoa stirrers.

Put the directions on the jar.

and now I have my neighbor and friend gifts done. (I hope none of them are reading this.)

They were super fast to make and they are delicious when you stir your hot cocoa with them!

This is a sneak peak of my holiday decorating to come.

Have a great week!

Glitter balls!

2011-11-27T17:39:00.000-08:00

I was watching Studio 5 last week and I found a fun craft that I knew would be easy and fun. I had a bunch of clear ornament balls that I bought at the end of the season last year. Then I saw this floor finish as an adhesive and my mind just couldn't stop at all of the possibilities. I have never thought as floor finish as an adhesive but it works great!

Start out with a clean glass ornament ball.

Pour some of the floor finish into it, and swirl it around it doesn't matter how much you pour in because once you have all of the insides of the ornament coated you will just pour out the rest back into a plastic cup.

Swirl it around so you don't get bubbles, we used a cotton ball to keep it from sloshing out the top.

Once you have it all coated, pour out the remaining finish.

Then pour in whatever color glitter you want your ball to be.

Shake the glitter around to coat all of the insides of the ornament.

and then pour out the left over glitter.

This was the fun part! To see how pretty they were turning out.

See how pretty they are!

Love these bright colors.

Can't you see some Halloween project with these.

Look at all of the colors! You have glitter without all of the glitter getting all over because the glitter is inside the ball!

I also tried using the finish on some mason jars. You can make the jars look old by adding food coloring to the floor finish and painting the out sides of the jar. I tried this last summer with Elmer's glue and food coloring but using this clear finish makes the jars just sparkle. Sorry I didn't add any pictures of the jars but it has the same finish that this glass bowl has that the ornaments are in.

I am thinking that there are a lot more possibilities with this clear finish used as an adhesive!

Love it!

Happy Thanksgiving!

2011-11-20T15:11:00.000-08:00

I saw these cute little Turkey pops and knew I would have to make them. They are pretty simple to make and fast for a last minute favor to make. You will need a vanilla, I used peanut butter cookie, some small Nutter Butters, candy corn, and some melted chocolate (white or chocolate) and some black icing or some eyes that are purchased. Pull the cookie apart and put some melted chocolate in the center, stick 5 candy corns and a sucker stick into the chocolate and put the top back onto the other side of the cookie. Use one small Nutter Butter and attach with chocolate. Then add half of a candy corn for the beak and add some black beady eyes. Let it harden and you have a Turkey pop.

I made these first ones for some ladies I visit teach. I put them in a jar of M&M's and added a bow.

The others I saved for "Pie Night". We have a tradition in my family where we all get together the Sunday or Saturday before Thanksgiving and we all bring pies. We have a great time, we get to enjoy the pies, and we get to see everyone, because we all can't get together for Thanksgiving (our family is huge!) So, I decided to bring the Turkey pops for the kids, they had pie too but they enjoyed the pops!

On some of them I did add a little gummy gobbler to the side of the beak, but they look great with out the gobbler too.

I added this little card to the jar of Turkey pops and had fun visiting.

Hope you all have had a great Thanksgiving holiday!

Christmas ideas

2011-11-13T14:21:00.000-08:00

I had a special order for a couple of Christmas Wreaths this week, well it was kind of a do over. I kind of wish I had taken a before picture so you could see the difference. ( pretty much imagine the wreaths looking nothing like they do now.) They both were lighted wreaths and half of the lights were not lighting, (the frustration every year with Christmas lights.) So I pulled off everything that was on the wreaths and pretty much started over. I put on new lights and I did use the red berries that were in the wreath but gave them a fresh look by spray painting them a cranberry red. They look brand new when you do this!

I added some silver and black ribbon, some pewter bells. icicle picks with bells, a horn and some green hydrangeas.

You can see the white lights in the wreath but it looks really great when it is dark.

This other wreath is really large about 4 1/2 feet across it is also lit and it looks great under under the eaves of a gable on the house it belongs too. Since it isn't going on my house I didn't get up on a ladder to show you how it looks so great, so you just get the back deck view.

I also dismantled this one and started over. Because it gets a lot of weather I used berries, pine cones and a red eucalyptus that is silk.

I think you could probably put this one up right now and it would look great clear until after Christmas.

Here is a view of the Christmas one on the front door.

and here is a closer view of the big one.

Love these big pine cones that I got by Lake Tahoe.

I know it is a little early for Christmas but if you are going to make your decorations it's better to start early!

Thanksgiving table

2011-11-06T07:56:00.000-08:00

I was looking at the Pottery Barn catalog for fall and one of the pictures of a Thanksgiving table inspired me. I have tried to find the inspiration picture but even on their website I can't find it. So I pretty much made the table as I visioned it in my mind. The one thing that I remember about it was that it had antlers on the table. My hubby helped me out on this part because he loves to hunt and I knew I could find a good supply of antlers.

I also was putting away my Halloween decorations and came across a couple of boxes of feathers that I had purchased at the end of the season last year. It just seemed like these feathers say, "Thanksgiving" so I put them in a white pitcher that I had.

I used a burlap runner and added some white pumpkins,( they used to be orange, but I spray painted them white and speckled them with a brown paint. I also painted the stem silver.)

I went up to the barn and found the perfect antlers and had hubby saw off the ends so they were nice and smooth. I then scrubbed them with a bleach cleaner and other than that they are just the natural thing.

I think he was excited that I had a use for his stash.

Added more pumpkins to my shelves.

and more white pumpkins to the window ledge.

A fall garland to the mantel. I then added the white lights because I just love the look of sparkly lights.

I used a fall wreath around the base of the centerpiece, and added some acorns around the base.

The feathers are not real, so I guess if you had real ones you could use those.

What do you think of the antlers on the table?

It is so easy to lose Thanksgiving between Halloween and Christmas but I am glad that I decided to keep fall around for a few more weeks. I loved how it turned out and the PB inspiration.

Baby boots!

2011-10-30T20:37:00.000-07:00

I have been admiring these cute boots that I had seen on Pinterest and I thought maybe I should see if I could make my own pattern and make some of my own. When I make a pattern I have to make it several times before I get it just right.

I started with these yellow and black cotton boots and decided I had to make more. Not only to perfect the pattern but because they turned out so cute!

I added the black and white buttons and it really finished them.

I then decided I would try some pink ones. I did these with a smaller hook so they came out a little smaller, but I still liked how they were looking.

I made the soles a different color because I like the contrast.

Then added the bows, because pink just needs bows!

The next pair I made was blue and green and I made these with the smaller hook and the yarn was a little more chunky. I liked the tighter weave on these and loved the colors.

Just makes me want to make a pair for myself!

Yes, I like this pattern!! They make up quickly and are so fun to make. I will definitely be making more of these cute boots.

It's sweater weather!

2011-10-23T17:51:00.000-07:00

When I started making these sweaters, I didn't know how addicting they would become. I finished another one that was the same pattern as my very first sweater, but I made it a little bigger. I still need to make a bigger one for baby Jack, but I had these colors and I kind of liked the color combination.

I added the pink and green ribbon and pink buttons and I loved how it finished the sweater.

I am quite happy that I can make a sweater now and even though they take a lot of time, it is a real sense of accomplishment when I am finished.

Here is the little sweater that I made for baby Jack and it was too small.

The football buttons finished this one as well.

I will have to find a tiny baby for this one.

and of course my sweater for Livy. I feel like maybe I have learned something in knitting! The weather is getting cooler so it is definitely sweater weather which makes it definitely knitting weather!

Felting

2011-10-16T14:43:00.000-07:00

This last week we had a young woman teach us how to felt with wool. I have seen projects that are felted and even had bought some wool and some felting needles to try it out, but had never got around to it. The wool comes like this in a variety of colors and then you get a felting needle to carry out the felting.

I bought a brush like this but that night we used a large chunk of foam to poke the felting needles in. This is a multiple felting needle but for my project I just used a single needle. The process is accomplished by making the shape that you want by poking the needle into the felt multiples of times until the felt sticks together on itself and will make the shape that you want. The needles are very sharp and have a little barb on the end that catches the wool and causes the wool to felt.

This is what I decided to make and yes, it is kind of primitive and I wasn't sure what I was doing, but you can tell what it is, right? It was kind of relaxing to do as long as you watched out where your fingers were and didn't poke a hole in the wrong place.

I looked up these images on Pinterest and found these cute little owls and decided maybe I should have felted mine a little tighter.

It was a good experience to see how the felting is accomplished.

He is kind of cute though.

Here are some more pictures of felted items that I found on Pinterest.

Too bad I didn't see this one when I was trying to make mine! This one is adorable.

This one looks a little spooky to me, it almost looks real. Great felting! It was a fun skill to learn and I will now have to try some more projects. Have a great week!!

A gift for Livy

2011-10-09T14:29:00.000-07:00

I started this sweater for Livy at the first of the summer thinking, I should be able to have it done by her birthday in September. With the help of a long road trip in August I finished the sweater! I had some different colors of yarn that I thought coordinated well and started knitting.

I added the ribbons and polka dot buttons.

I looked all over for some red polka dot ribbon and finally found the perfect red.

I then decided that this sweater definitely needed a skirt to go with it. Livy loves to wear dresses and skirts so the yellow flowered fabric matched perfectly with all of the colors that I had used.

This actually was the second skirt that I made because I was afraid that the first one would be too small.

So, I finished the first smaller skirt for her little sister, Sofia.

I added some more polka dots, this time in green. (Can you tell that I love polka dots?)

I packed up the sweater and skirts and off I went to visit the birthday girl!

This little girl loves birthdays! It fit great!

Should have got a picture of both of them in their skirts.

She wore her birthday outfit all day.

Happy Birthday Livy girl!

So glad you are in my life!

A Halloween tour

2011-10-02T20:11:00.000-07:00

It is October and I am always so excited to decorate for this month. I am going to take you on a Halloween tour of decorating in my home. Do you remember the "eyeball" I made from last year, it has a different spot this year and is on top of my piano. I still love it!

The other one is across the room so they are kind of "eyeballing" each other.

Mr. Skeleton found a good place to take a rest.

My Welcome "Hogwarts" broom graces the front entrance.

This is a new addition this year and it was super easy to make. I had an old red berry wreath that I had left out in the sun too long and it was faded and some of the berries had popped and the white was showing through the berries. Sorry, I didn't take a before picture. I just used some silver spray paint and painted the wreath and added a spooky sign and "ta DA", it was done!

Added a feather wreath to my old leaded window pane.

Some pumpkins to my pumpkin jars.

Some pumpkin heads to the top of the cabinet I just refinished.

More pumpkins and straw raffia to my front porch.

A wire pumpkin, some leaves and more pumpkins to the top of a flower pot.

Welcome to Hogwarts!

I had some pictures in my dining room that were just not looking to Halloween, so I had an idea!

I went to the fabric store and bought some cream colored muslin. I had the black contact paper that I got from Home Depot and I decided to do a picture wrap around my existing framed painting. I cut the muslin a little bigger than my frame and then sketched a spooky tree with an owl onto the back of the contact paper. I just googled spooky silhouette tree, and found many to look at. Then I cut out the spooky tree from the contact paper.

Here is the sketch of the other tree onto the back of the contact paper.

Here is the first one that I did, next to the framed painting that I was covering up. I turned the painting on top of the fabric and used duct tape to wrap it around the frame. I didn't pull the fabric tight enough on this one so you can kind of see the ripples in it. I figured it out better on the second one.

Now instead of a vegetable painting, I have a silhouette spooky tree pair that goes very well with the Halloween decor.

When Halloween is over I will just pull off the duct tape and roll up the fabric and save it for next year! Oh, the ideas I could do with this!

Love, the way it turned out!

Now, a tour of the dining room mantle. I added another black contact silhouette spider to the existing framed flower I had sitting on the mantel. It looks so much better with the spider for this spooky decorating. I added some gauze and spiders to curtain the mantle, some pumpkin lights, a big "BOO" and lots more spiders.

Added another "BOO" on some blocks of wood. Then topped the "BOO" with some painted pumpkins with painted polka dots, and of course more spiders!

Found this green spider fabric at the fabric store and sewed some tinsel around the edge.

Have some "Trick or Treats" with this bowl of eyeballs.

It's looking like Halloween!

I like the black and white look for this holiday.

Added my spider web to the front of these shelves.

Just have a few more pumpkins to add to outside and I am ready for all of the little spooks to come my way!

Happy October!

Some more projects

2011-09-25T13:52:00.000-07:00

Since I am here visiting my grand kids, I thought I better take advantage of these cute little kiddo's!

I made this hat for baby Jack and since it is fall I thought it would be a perfect hat for a cut little pumpkin. The hat is a little big but the way he is growing it will fit soon!

I knitted this with three colors and when I did the checkerboard I just left the colors attached and just carried the next color over so it was quick because I didn't need to keep starting a new color.

I added the stem and the little pumpkin curly Q's to the top and it made the perfect fall hat.

I can't get enough of this cute little guy and I am going to be sad because I am leaving tomorrow.

He is just the best baby and I am going to miss all of his snuggles!

This little girl, I am going to miss as well, whatever I am doing she is right by my side and if I do it she has to do it as well. Of course, if baby Jack was getting his photo in the basket, she needed one as well.

The hat actually fits her pretty well.

I embroidered this blanket before I left and finished the edging after I got here.

I used the furry yarn to go on this little froggy blanket and just did a single crochet all around the edge.

It is nice and warm and fuzzy!

The frog was embroidered on my machine.

I then made this crocheted scarf out of #3 crochet thread. I was just making a flower chain and then thought it would make a cute scarf.

I then added a flower ring to fasten the scarf together. I thought that would be easier than tying it.

It turned out okay, but I would make a few adjustments to the flowers and not make them so loose.

It kind of had a shabby chic feeling this way.

It was quick to do and I will have to make another and make the adjustments to it.

It has been a great trip and so fun to be with these cute little munchkins!

a new model in the family!

2011-09-18T14:37:00.000-07:00

I have been knitting and crocheting lately and I also tried my first sweater. I actually made this sweater at the first of the summer and I was saving it for a special someone who was supposed to be born in September. He decided he couldn't wait until September and came on August 31st! I had my trip planned for this last week so when I first met him he was already 2 weeks old!

I made a little hat for him.

and this little sweater. The pattern was for a newborn and this sweater looked pretty tiny when I finished it.

and sure enough it was pretty tiny.

Little Jack is just 2 weeks old but he was a big baby, so I am thinking I am needing to make a little bigger sweater. It will maybe fit him today but I am not sure about tomorrow.

It has been cold here, so he could actually wear it but the sleeves are a little short and it is snug around his middle.

Isn't he just the sweetest little chunker!

I really did rotate these pictures but when they uploaded they went back to the way they were.

"Grandma, make me a bigger sweater!'

We also celebrated my daughter (in law) I hesitate saying (in law) because she feels like she is my daughter, but it was her birthday and I made this hat for her. She is a major BYU fan and today is probably not the day to show this post, because after last night she is probably in mourning, and this won't be as fun for her.

She did love the hat though!

I also made this owl hat for a friend who is having a baby soon!!

I hope she loves this fuzzy owl hat!

This is another hat I made for her.

It is the time of year to start making those sweaters and hats.

I will just have to re adjust some of my measurements, but I was so happy to make my first sweater!

I finally refinished it!

2011-09-11T08:02:00.000-07:00

I have had this piece of furniture sitting in my shed since we moved here 11 years ago! I have always liked it and found it at an estate sale about 25 years ago and it was old then, so it is really old now! It originally had a dark finish and it my navy blue loving years I painted it navy blue. It was in a sun room where I used to live and the sun had done some major damage to the paint. If you look close you can see how bubbled the paint is. Thus, that Is why I have not moved it into my house. I have had the vision of it a creamy white for a long time but not the ambition to strip the paint and start over.

This is why I really like this piece. It has the cutest cubby hole drawers with the old time labels on the drawers. I decided to just leave the drawers as they were and just strip the rest.

That was a good decision because the stripping process took awhile and there was a lot of paint on this thing. This piece was hand made by someone and the wood that was used looks like it came from different kinds of wood so I really didn't want to leave it natural because of the differences in the wood.

After stripping it, I primed it with a good primer.

Then added 2 coats of "glazed pear", that was the name of the paint but it doesn't really fit the color I think.

I moved it into my guestroom, where I already have a creamy white headboard.

Added some accessories to the top.

Made some new labels for the drawers and put in some of my scrap booking and craft supplies.

I love these little drawers!

I'm sure I will find more to fill it.

I also painted the little stand next to it, it used to be a dark green.

Loving the color.

Fits right in with my black and white guest bedroom.

Glad I finally got around to it!!

Nature's fall decorating and an old screen repurposed

2011-09-05T08:25:00.000-07:00

The first of September I decided to put up my fall wreath on the front door. Yesterday we had some family come up wondering if I had decided to decorate for Halloween a little early. If you look really close in the picture you will see my Halloween surprise.

Here is my Fall spider, (can you see it? It is kind of camouflaged in the foliage.)

If you look really close you can also see the web it has spun all across the front of the wreath. It actually is a perfect spider web with the center right in the middle of the wreath. I am thinking though that my visitors to my front door are not going to appreciate my live Halloween decoration so I am getting Mr. Jones to take it to the garden.

I have had these old windows and screens at the side of my shed for a while now. We have an old 100 year old house that we rent and we replaced all of the old windows and I couldn't part with the screens and windows because I knew I could find some great thing to do with them. You may remember the guest room redo that I did last summer and I used several in that renovation.

They are pretty disgusting but a little soap and water and vigorous scrubbing did the trick. I had a place in mind to use them in my bedroom so I painted the frame a turquoise blue that I had used on the accent wall in my bedroom. Sorry I didn't get a picture of the paint.


Then please pardon this picture it is way out of focus. I cut some cardboard to fit in the back of the screen and used some quilt batting to pad it with. I covered the batting and cardboard with fabric and used a staple gun to put it into the frame. Then to make it more secure I added a larger piece of cardboard and stapled it to the back of the frame.

You can see that my cardboard is not real even but it is on the back so it won't matter. I added some picture hanging wire to hang it.

I then added some little hooks to the top of the frame. I am thinking you have guessed what I am using this for! I have been really frustrated with my jewelry storage lately because I can never find what I want to wear with certain things. I think it is because I don't want to dig through the mass of tangles to get what I need. This has totally solved my problem.

Now I can see my jewelry at a glance. I used the batting and cardboard for a reason because I wanted to be able to use straight pins to push through the screen to add more places to hang jewelry.

I mounted it on my closet wall coming out of my bathroom because then it is more accessible to my clothes. (and it can't be seen when you walk into my bedroom.)

With the straight pin idea I can add more jewelry or rearrange it any way I want!

I think I am loving this old grungy screen, well, it is not so grungy anymore!

re purposed sweater

2011-08-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

I have a few sweaters in my closet and some that I don't wear very often, (I know it is a little too hot today to wear a sweater, but fall will be coming.) I have been thinking of some ways to re purpose them and here is the first one that I chose to work on. I had some black pleated trim that I thought would look cute on it.

I added the trim around the neckline and then 2 more strips on the sides of the front of the sweater.

I decided it needed a little something more and then just added the pleating in a circle and it made a cute flower.

I added a button to the center of the flower.

I added a belt but you wouldn't have to wear it with a belt.

I think it would look cute with some black skinny jeans as well, but I was too lazy to change and besides it is pretty hot outside today.

I liked the finished results and am now trying to think how I could re purpose some more sweaters in my closet. This transformation cost about $2 because I got the trim at Hobby Lobby with my 40% coupon.

Not bad for a new sweater.

ohh, baby!

2011-08-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

I have always been fascinated by baby shoes. Even before I was married I would see some small little shoes or sandals and would have to pick them up and ooh, and aah over them. I think it is the miniature thing, they are just so cute and so small.

This last week I had this project on my to do list mainly because I had some baby gifts to get and I really wanted to learn how to make baby shoes from fabric. I have an amazing embroidery sewing machine and these shoes were all made "in the hoop." I know that is kind of cheating but there is a process to it but the end product was worth learning. These were the first ones that I tried and they were so much fun that of course I had to make more!

I then used some canvas fabric that I had to make some little sneakers. I used ribbon cording for the shoe laces. On the first pair I used ribbon for the ties and ribbon would probably look cute for these sneakers if they were for a girl.

I tried different colors because I had several baby outfits I was trying to match.

Then I found this baby Birk's sandal pattern and even though I didn't have some canvas for these I lined them with some soft fabric and added buttons and used velcro to close the straps.

I had to make some girly sneakers.

I was going to use some eyelets for the shoe laces but found that just clipping the fabric inside of the embroidered circles worked just fine.

I then decided to try some vinyl and lined the shoe with a light weight cotton. and of course added the bouillon roses with embroidery

Aren't these so feminine and sweet! I then tried some more in a very feminine pink and added the embroidery to the toe.

It took me a couple of days to figure out how to make them all but I will definitely be making more of these, they are very addicting and they feed my addiction for cute little baby shoes.

Le Fleur and Bon apetite!

2011-08-13T15:47:00.000-07:00

While I was cleaning out my hobby shed this summer I found these containers that I had held onto thinking I would do something with them someday. I had some inspiration for them and decided it was time to to do something about it. I decided to paint them a linen white and I knew I wanted to put some mason jars in them.

I have seen several ways to color mason jars and decided that would be perfect. I used Elmer's school glue and just some liquid blue food coloring. I added a couple of drops of food coloring to about a 1/4 cup of glue and then painted the outside of the jars. I had to keep smoothing the glue on the jars and then just left them to dry. They dried to this beautiful old jar color and looked great in the painted boxes.

You have to remember that these jars can pretty much be used just for decoration because if you wash them I am pretty sure the color will wash away. I think they are great for decoration though!

I used a paint pen to write on the container and was sure that since" flowers" would be perfect in the jars, that "Le Fleur" would be perfect on the outside of the box.

I painted the top handle a gray color and made 2 flower boxes.

Just add a few sprigs of greenery and flowers and because the paint is on the outside it is okay to put water on the inside.

The third box I decided would be great with some silverware in it with some vintage fabric napkins.

It makes a perfect container to hold all sorts of things.

I have kind of had this obsession with Ric Rac lately and decided to add this soft yellow Ric Rac to the edges of the napkins.

Then I found a perfect spot in the house for these cute little boxes.

and the perfect spot for a place for the silverware.

Bon a petite!

Sandals and Hats

2011-08-07T17:24:00.000-07:00

I have been working on a new hat pattern and some sandals to match. I actually started these last March and finished them but I didn't have the flowers sewn on. I decided to put them in my bag when I returned to one of my favorite models home. I was able to finish sewing on the flower and because this little girl loves anything "girly", I knew she would love showing me how cute she looks in her new attire.

I wasn't disappointed in the results. She was the perfect model.

I now have to work on getting the pattern written up, (always the hard part.)

I loved these colors together although we didn't have my perfect model dressed in something that matched. Oh, well she was in the perfect mood to model so I just started clicking away.

I made these sandals to match and knew she would love showing these off. She is so funny when she has a new pair of shoes on she does this, "goose step" kind of walk so she can see her new shoes while she is walking

Love those little toes.

The only bad part is when I packed the flowers to sew on, I must have dropped one of the flowers at home and I didn't have the same yarn with me, thus just one flower on one of the sandals. 9 hours is a little long to turn back home to get it!

she loved "goose stepping " around the house to show off the sandals.

Oh, so cute.

I told you she loves to model, at the beach she couldn't wait to show me her cute suit.

Wish these cute models lived a little closer!

I can't make just one!

2011-07-31T15:39:00.000-07:00

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You know the saying, "you can't eat just one!" well, I am the same when I am trying something new. I learned how to make these braided leather bracelets and they are very cute just plain but I thought they would be even cuter with a cute leather flower.

The braiding took a little practice because you braid it from all one piece, I got the tutorial here.

Once I figured it out though, I couldn't stop!

There are so many possibilities. For some of the centers I used old earrings.

For this center I just used beads. I did use the recommendation of using water colors, to dye the leather.

That is how I got these great colors.

Just some black leather with an earring center.

This one was dyed.

The color of the leather originally was the color of the braided band, the leather is a light color. I think this made it easy to make whatever color I wanted.

They look yummy enough to eat! I bet you can't eat just one!