I'm kinda here...

I've finally found some motivation and may be back to crafting again. This past fall/winter proved to be a pretty challenging one for the first time in my life. I'm not one who is prone to seasonal depression, I honestly do not know much about it. I just know that the sun is such a huge motivating factor to my day. This winter was pretty dreary and overcast. Plus add the fact that I experienced a huge loss in February, the passing of my father. It just added to my lack of want to do anything.

With the coming of spring, our days have been sunnier and bright. This past week, almost every day was in the 70's! SO NICE! I have started crafting again and have a few things to share...

Back in February I participated in Yarni Gras ornament swap, a gnome home. I had a marvelous idea that proved to be time consuming and required patience with the final installation. This little gnome is sleeping in a "captured" home with a couple toadstoals and at the end of a rainbow. I pray that it makes it in one piece!

The rest of the package included a Welcome Gnome plaque, a dove bar, two magnets of layered vintage buttons (I first had this idea last June from a vendor at Farm Chicks, it onlly took me 11 months to finally create them!) and one of my owls from Moonstitches online tutowlrial. I hope Kerry enjoys it all and doesn't see this post before they arrive!

I also sewed a few blocks for the Block Lotto this month...they proved to be quite a challenge since I did not have an opportunity to trim them to size, they had to be perfectly sewn to achieve size. It was a good lesson for me and they were fun to create!

I also sewed a dress for a parade. Our MOPS group participated in the Jr. Lilac Day Parade and we dressed up in the 1950's era. It was a Simplicity Project Runway pattern....if I get to it....I will post it soon.

Have a great weekend!

Ophelia

Meet Ophelia...
She's a white mouse.
She's also camera shy.
In preparation for winter she cracked open an ornament and crawled in......then hung up her scarf and mittens to dry.
Soon after that she decided to pack up a bunch of vintage Christmas colored sewing notions and gum then flew the coop down to Utah where she will spend the rest of her wintery days. Maybe she was a pack rat. Hhmm???

August Y.o.E. Ornament Update

Right before I left town last week, I sent my package off to my swap partner, Little Messy Missy in Utah. While I was away, I received hers and got to open it yesterday! What a neat package it turned out to be...
Along with the orni, there was a skein of red eyelash yarn, a pair of knitting needles that she made with an octopus pic on the ball end, an octo-chic bookmark, an octo sun catcher and THREE Utah chocolate truffles. YUM! Just LOOK at this octo ornie....it's knitting! And all the different pics, beads and sand are layered in what I think is clear resin (or something like that). I just GOTTA get me some of this stuff and play with it. It's such a creative ornament!
Thank you Missy for the goodies AND inspiring me to try something new! Below is a pic of what I sent to her...
My two ornies, an octo magnet, a slice of pretty rock, two power bars (she's a runner) and a bag of some of my Idaho garnet gravel that my mom brought me. In her blog she mentioned that she was a rockhound. Well, that kinda stuck in my head and I ran with it. But Missy loved it, so it all worked out great!
Once again I was inspired by this Etsy item to create my octopus ornament. I didn't have a laser cutter and a sheet of acrylic to make such a feller...so I attempted shrinky dink shrink art paper first with black sharpie (left), then with black acrylic paint before shrinking (middle) then with black acrylic paint after shrinking (right), then I was frustrated and bought the colored shrink stuff (top). Yeah, the best solution to getting a black octopus is to paint him black after he shrinks. Then I gave him a clear coat to seal it.

The challenge this month was to make tentacles...so...I found a tentacle pic online here and again played with the shrink art paper to get the right size tentacle to glue rhinestones to as the suckers.
I think both turned out all right...more color would have been nice, but I think I got stuck on the whole black octo idea. Oh well...
Stay tuned for more stories of crafty fun, our travels and some new friends!

Snail mail...

For July's Year of Enchantment, the theme was "snail." Here's what I created for my swap partner...I looked up paper quilling and snails and thought I'd play with some metal again. When my January swap partner, Natalie (from down under!) created a paper quilled mermaid, my first thought was that it would be a good idea for a snail, so I stored it away for future reference...just in case. And what do ya know.....July was the snail! I found a couple of good idea generators for quilled snails here and more quilled snails here....and I found this awesome snail iron-on applique on Etsy that inspired me to try my own. Again...JUST for this swap, not for sale. As you can see (if you clicked on those links), I leaned towards the first paper quilled snail for my metal snails.
Here's the whole package...metal snail ornaments, snail iron-on appliques and some vintage lace, edgings, hankies and a baby top out of a recent stash I recieved. Even one of the laces had a snail spiral in it...funny!
My swap partner is going through a difficult time right now, therefore the hostess, Valerie at Yarni-Gras, was my "angel." My package is on it's way!!

Bird Swing Tutorial

I thought it would be fun to share how I made the bird swing for Aprils Year of Enchantment ornament. I was inspired by Spool's bird mobile and I last blogged about it here. They are pretty easy to create if you have all the right tools, and could probably be made for people who keep birds...I'm just not sure if there is any kind of safety issue with any of the parts I used. That would be up to you, bird owner, to decide if this is right for your pet or not. :) Otherwise, it's PERFECT for the Spool bird pattern that I used! Here we go...

Things you'll need:
1/2" thick sticks or dowel
18 gauge plastic coated steel wire
ribbon or mini-garland
ruler
plant pruners
sand paper
pencil
drill
5/8" wood drill bit
needle nose pliers
can of foodWhat to do:After searching and locating the right size twig/branch/stick, mark about a 4" long area to cut out.With the pruners cut sticks at the marks. Try to cut swiftly, this will create a cleaner edge...as you'll see next...This part could also be done with a circular saw, hand saw or the likes, but I wanted to avoid large equipment and/or sawing by hand. See those broken ends?? Sometimes that happens, but since they're actual sticks, and just work with it and keep 'em some-what natural.Sand edges smooth. I angled mine like a pencil to soften the edges as well as straight up in a circular motion to soften the very end.

Turn the stick around to determine which side you would like facing up. (Well, that's just silly, why? Some of my sticks had a dirtier side or a knot in the middle or were slightly bent. Not that it matters, but I wanted the pretty side up.) When you have found "up" mark each stick about 1/2" from each end. Using an edge (table edge, 2x4, step, whatever...I used my dining chair) drill all the way through the stick at each marked spot making sure not to turn your stick.Cut a length of wire about 18" in length, lightly mark or bend the center. Using the end of a stick, wrap the wire around it at the center point, pull each side tight to get that top circle, then twist like a twist tie 1-2 times. Center the twisted point of the wire on a round can to curve the wire into shape for the top of the bird swing.
Push both ends of the wire through the drilled holes on the stick.
Push the stick up the wires to the desired height for the perch, I did mine around 3-4" inches high while keeping each side equal in length. This is a good time to do a little reshaping too, in case it got a little bent out of shape.Mark the wire 1/2 below the wood perch and trim off excess with wire cutters or the pliers. Bend the ends up 1/4" and flatten shut. Push down the wood perch over the exposed bent end of the wire, trying to tuck it into the drilled hole.
YAY! You have a bird swing! Now the final step is to decorate it with a mini-garland. I had mine left over from Christmas, since its a Christmas ornament swap, or ribbon.and then create yourself a perty songbird to perch on it! Like I mentioned at the beginning, my birds were from Spool's bird pattern and are super easy and fun to make.
If you have any questions or any bit is confusing, feel free to ask!

A week of good stuff in the mail...

I received three packages in the mail this week...woohoo!!! My first one being from Missy over at FairyChildHeirlooms for my A Fairy Went A Marketing swap...what wonderful goodies!! I sent in a pixie pouch and ten similar items (I blogged about them here.) and this is what I received...
In my new pixie pouch, I got a fairy fireplace, a fairy carpet, a fairy walking stick, a butterfly wand, a glittery lollipop, a jar of unicorn dust, a felted mushroom, a strawberry lavender sashe, a felted acorn and a lovely booklet explaining it all!! Speaking of strawberry lavender...have you ever had that combination in a jelly?? I have!! It's actually pretty good. :) Especially on a cracker...mmm-MM!
Here is my fairy enjoying her goodies. She doesn't like to smile for the camera, so she turned her head away at the last minute...naughty little fairy!
Over at Phat Fiber Sample Box I won a skein of yarn from one of her weekly drawings! YAY!! I LOVE YARN!! That was the second item I received in the mail this week. And the third one was...
My March ornament for A Year of Enchantment hosted by YarniGras!! Sherry sent me two felted mushrooms, eight paper mushrooms, some mushroom tags, a chicken with her chick and hidden Easter egg and two energy bars. So fun! I also blogged about my ornament at the SwapperSpot here...it shows more pics.

And the weather outside is NO-LONGER frightful...but has become so delightful!! The temps been in the high 50's and 60's...so nice and warm. We've been spending a few days out in the yard cleaning and searching for garnets. Garnets!! you say?? Well, check back and we'll post about it in due time. :) What a wonderful week!!

Ornament exchange package surprises!

Yep, that's right...this was my super creative, awesome idea I came up with ALL on my own... only to research it (after I made some prototypes) and learn that they've been thought of already. :( However, the ones I found on Etsy are not two pieces sewn together like mine. There were all sorts of different kinds using real acorn caps. I like mine the best though. :)

Now that my swap partner has recieved her enchanting package of goodies, I can show you what I made for her...I just COULDN'T RESIST making a couple of cloth diaper covers for her 10 month old. My mom gave me a pattern and instructions, but I didn't like how they were put together, so I changed it. So, Natalie, if there are any issues with these diaper covers, please, PLEASE let me know. I would like to try to perfect how I make them so that I can make a WHOLE BUNCH! I also sent her a few of my favorite teas and a cute little set of notecards I just happened upon while browsing Pier 1.
I made SO MANY of the acorns, in the end I decided to send her the most "Christmas-y" ones. I think the rest will go on Etsy...I'm just debating if I should add the little holly berries and leaves to all of them or just the "Christmas-y" ones. I ended up with several shapes and sizes, I was trying to achieve the pointy tip like the real ones had (in lower left of the photo). Sewing that small was pretty easy, but to get a point like that was a little difficult. Fabric doesn't want to get that pointy when it's that small.

I also recieved Natalie's package for me!!! What perfect timing, we received them the same day! She sent a WHOLE BUNCH of goodies all wrapped in tissue paper and labeled with her recycled labels (I'm gonna do that this year, I've saved my Christmas cards)....just look at it all...There were three ribbon pinecone ornaments, eight felt leaves for decoration (my three year old can't get enough of them, he's constantly wanting to play with them), a pinecone bracelet and one HUGE bar of dark chocolate (my favorite!! and my toddlers favorite too!). We couldn't wait to try the chocolate, I think we opened it before we opened the rest of the tissue covered packages. heehee! It's got a good flavor to it, I can tell it has a different type of sugar than our American chocolates.
I LOVE the colors of the ribbon she used! The green one is AWESOME...She's very good with selecting colors I would say. :)

Isn't this bracelet cool?? I've never seen a bead so pine-coney! It's really neat!

THANK YOU NATALIE! It's all so fun and wonderful!

Crafting as of late...

There's only been six days into this new year and I've still manage to get my crafting in daily. Yeay!! I've started another Knitted Gnome Baby, one of several for some friends of our families, I plan on gifting them at Christmas time. I don't believe they follow my blog, so I'm not too afraid to mentioning it. I guess only time will tell if I get them all done AND on time (I've got 353 days to go). I'm also STILL working on a knitted beaded bag that I volunteered to test knit in a Ravelry group I joined. I've run into problem after problem with it, mainly because I keep dropping stitches on the double pointed needles. I'm also a slow knitter and add in the string of beads and my speed has slowed WAY down. I'm farther along than what the pic shows, I just haven't taken a recent photo of it.Other than my constant dropping stitches, it's fun to work on! And I think I beaded the beads to create a spiral pattern among the colors. Yippee!

I've joined Yarni Gras Year of Enchantment which is a year long swap of enchanting Christmas ornaments. This months swap theme is the acorn or the pinecone. I wanted to do something really unique and creative for my swap partner, Natalie (who lives in Australia...SO COOL! I've wanted to go there since the fifth grade when my best friend went for a month and we did a science project on it, which was really just an "informational" project, there was no science involved, you know, the kind where you get a big ol' display board and put up a title, information and trinkety stuff to display along with it, maybe even a flyer for people to take)...anyways, back to unique and creative...I thought about it for a good week, and I always think at night when I go to bed and I'm drifting off to sleep (why do the best ideas come right at that moment in between wake and asleep??) So I had an AHA! idea that I thought would be SO CUTE and I've already got a few prototypes going when Yarni Gras posted her tutorials post here, here and here. One of the posts gave me the idea to look up on Etsy my idea and what do you know...someone had already thought of it, BUT...it's not quite the same...MY design is different...and honestly, I think I like my design better. Well, that's all I can say about that super secret crafty bit. The suspense...what could it be?? Soon you all will see!

Ornament Arrival

YEAY!! That's right, my enchanted ornament arrived finally!! It got mixed up at the post office, sent back to the sender before coming my way again! I got two "made with love" and very enchanting ornaments, a pair of super soft and I'm sure toasty warm socks, a tin with some chocolates that the three-year old has already eaten, a stocking with a package of hot cocoa and Erin's favorite chocolate (YUM!! How did she know I like DARK chocolate??), a Santa and a package of small ornaments. Nice!!

I got the CUTEST little owl and gnome ornaments! Doesn't the owl have the cutest expression??

Thank you Erin!! It's all great!

Enchanted Forest Ornamets Completed!

YEAY! I've completed my first swap! Valerie of YarniGras and YarniGras Swapper Spot hosted an Enchanted Forest Ornament Swap that I participated in. Below is the pic of everything I'll be sending off tomorrow. One adorable little hedgehog, two sweet little owlets in their holiday colored nests, lots and LOTS of little chocolates, some friendship tea and a pine scented candle for all the critters to feel at home in the forest when it's lit.

I've bundled them all among a red garland (instead of packing peanuts or bubble wrap) inside the tin with the enchanting tree on the lid. :)

These two little owlets were so fun to make! I think I'm going to make more for Christmas gifts this year. My favorite part of this whole swap was that I got to buy more yarn!! FIVE NEW SKEINS!!! The brown is a super soft alpaca/acrylic blend by Bernat (it's so soft and they had great neutral colors to choose from), I lost the label to the white one but I think it's a Lion's Brand, the orange is Lion Wool (which I'm so excited to possibly use the rest for a hat, I just love the shade of orange it is!) and the red and green are Vanna's Choice. All are nice and lovely yarns to work with.

I originally posted about all of them here which has the links to the oscillating owlets and hedgehog knitting patterns, you know, just in case you'd like to knit them up as well. I'll be mailing all these guys off tomorrow to my secret top secret swap partner. I hope she enjoys them all!