copy cat holiday...

Imitation is the best form of flattery, right? I hope so. I fell in love with this beautiful wreath that Angela put together. Normally I am not into making exact replicas, but I liked the color choices, the positioning, and the types of flowers she used. I also got to experiment with some felt flower tutorials. Specifically, I used rolled, circle, and rose bud flowers. I am so thankful that she shared her project!

This was a wonderfully economical project - the yarn I used was some I found when we cleared out my grandma's farm before the auction, I had some of the felt, and of course I had spray glitter [how festive, don't you think? :] Normally I prefer 100% wool or wool felt, but all of the greens in this wreath are plain old regular craft felt. The bright colors are just not readily available in wool felt. Since this won't receive any washing and only light wear & tear, I am certain it will hold up.

It is hanging on the door to our pantry in our kitchen. Though I had dreamed that it would find a home on our front door, the doors are too close together and the flowers ended up smooshed. [at least it is hanging on the front door for my pictures]

Here are a few of the crafty Christmas gifts that I actually finished. I made a few festive tea towels; this deer is a copy of one I did last Christmas, which was a take on a paperchase design.

I also made some string block hot pads. I like the scrappy look of them, hopefully their new owners will enjoy them as well! I hope that you all had wonderful holidays - and perhaps there is still some holiday merriment in your near future)

** perhaps an important note: this wreath is just for my personal enjoyment, it's never proper etiquette to copy someone else's ideas and then sell them :)

around the house [in way less than 80 days]...

This post goes out to those home dec/improvement projects that [sadly] do not warrant a whole blog post all to themselves. Above is the last of my outdoor-furniture-recovering-extravaganza. Again using my crazy low priced JoAnn's fabric.

My New York Beauty is finally quilted, bound, and hanging in its rightful place in our dining room. I still love the 'I-Spy' of it all - seems like a treasure hunt every time I walk by it! I have the pattern and the fabric stack for a pickle dish quilt, but it has to get in line behind my pile of UFOs. Also not quite ready for another intensive paper piecing project. [You can read all about my adventures with NYB blocks here]

New curtains for the bathroom! The former curtains were faded and on their last leg, so it was definitely time for a change.

This is the first time I have made a shade that operated like this one - fairly simple, but looks and works well. I used the same book that I did to make my roman shades in this post.

Currently have some top secret Christmas projects in the works. Hoping to share an update on my quilt swap blocks this week.

yes, my house is aqua...

Did you ever [temporarily] forget that you live a small rural community, with traditional little houses painted white, tan, or grey? Where even a yellow house is a bold move? Only to drive home and see the 2" swatch of color you chose is now the entire side of your house? No? It's only me that thinks beach houses can exist in the midwest [hours from a lake, let alone the ocean]?

This summer our house underwent a transformation from unnoticeable to unmistakable. The house has received mixed reviews - but we get quite a few compliments and people seem to think it 'looks like me.' [hopefully this does not mean I look like a 2 story aqua house]

These are just a few of the before and afters I took. We had the front porch completely ripped off and rebuilt to look like the original. [on a funny note - at the 'porch ripped off stage' one of our neighbors shared how nice the house was looking... hmm wonder how bad the house looked before :]

We only intended to replace the floor, but apparently the two bricks serving as a 'foundation' do not meet current construction standards. It was fun to see the porch come back to life!

It may be worth noting that the 'before' pictures were taken after our house was power-washed - so we the paint was definitely in need of a new coat, but not as bad as in these pictures.

Lookey, lookey - no more suicide door! The former owners ripped a decaying balcony off the house. So for years we have been living with a door to nowhere.

We are enjoying our porch - as is Miss Sophie :D {new cushions for our wicker furniture made with my 60cent/yard home dec fabric courtesy of JoAnn's moving sale!}

past presents [aka aprons i made]...

Here I am - blogging; astonishing really... Between two full time jobs, a part time job, technical issues, and a variety of other things [known as life] I have sadly neglected my blog, as well as my online persona. So let's give this a try - really, I have things to blog about, heck, I even have pictures edited of things to blog about :D Let's ease back into this, a few pictures, brief descriptions, nothing fancy...

I like aprons. I like to wear them. I like to make them. I like to gift them. The folks in my FCS classroom [I am long term subbing currently] think aprons are a strange, foreign concept reserved for black and white pictures of grannies. I however, know better - they are clothes savers and even fashion statements in their own right. Above is the one I made [for myself] that I wear when we cook in class. I love those crazy veggies! The Emmeline Apron is easy, fabulous, and reversible! This one has a Sweetwater floral print on the back.

Yes, it is another Emmeline Apron [I actually made 3]. This is my best pal Jordan - she works at a coffee shop and needed an apron [though she decided she didn't want to bleach it up, so she doesn't actually wear it to work...]

Nope, I don't know what pattern I used to make this apron for my sister's housewarming gift. I think it's super cute with a vintage vibe.
Well, that wasn't so difficult - hope to be back online Friday with some more things to share! Thanks for sticking with me :D

back online!

for the past few weeks I have had a 6" black line running vertically down the screen of my computer... a new display later and I am back in business! It was incredibly hard to do anything, let alone edit photos in photoshop, so I am excited to share what I have been up to! talk soon :D

our first fair!

For all of my local readers... We are having our first Handmade with a Purpose Craft Fair to raise money for Young Life in our area. There are lots of great vendors lined up and it's for a great cause - so it would definitely be worth stop by to check it out!

Here are the details:

When? Saturday, September 24, 2011
What Time? 10am-5pm
Where? Miller Avenue Elementary
Admission? Free!

recipe box redu...

I have a crush on vintage advertising and labels. The wonderful artwork, the neat fonts, the retro colors - the sense of nostalgia. When we cleared out my grandparent's home for auction a few years ago there was no shortage of ephemera. My great-grandparents built the house, and like many during the depression years, they saved everything!

One of the carry overs of food packaging that has lasted to this day, is the inclusion of recipes. [usually the recipe calls for another product that the manufacturer makes] Some of the recipes I found were much more appetizing than others, but the artwork was lovely. I am a big fan of the old school Betty Crocker cookbooks with the 'sketchy' looking art, so I was super excited when I found these 'free with purchase' recipes.

I already had the wooden box, it just needed a handle for the top. With trusty modge podge at my side, I went to work. Some scrapbook paper, vintage images, and even a few of my grandma's handwritten recipes later, I had a great place to store my little tin recipe boxes and all of the misc. recipes I have printed off from websites that were previously hanging out in my cupboard.

The result is a little kitsch - just the way I like it. I hoping that it will encourage me to try out more new recipes and to cook at home more often [too bad I can't reach into the box and pull time out :]