Last Minute Birthday Gift

Well, it wasn't completely last minute as I made the mushrooms at the beginning of last minute... however, I procrastinated until the day I saw Marlo to make her gift. Luckily, this is the kind of gift that looks great when made last minute! Not only that, but it's a perfect gift when you aren't sure what to get.

This terrarium is made from a thrifted glass jar, two FIMO mushrooms (from FIMO I had on hand), and the rest came from the yard! The best part of this gift was definitely making it though. I made it with my son (who loves Marlo) and he was sooo excited to be part of the gift we were giving her.

The mushrooms stake into the ground so that they can be moved around. I used old sewing machine needles (sharp end in the mushroom) and glued them inside the bottom of the mushroom. Because the needle is tapered, it was necessary to use glue as it would just slide out. But I did bake the mushroom with the needles inside.

I'm addicted to making these little terrariums... and by the way, the ones the kids made are doing just fine. I do need to drill a small hole in the top of them as we are getting a little bit of green starting to show on the bottom of the cork.

Happy Birthday Marlo - I hope you had a great birthday!

Read more...

New Crown

It isn't often anymore that I mention when I have new items in my stores. But today, I finally made my most requested crown. Everyone has been asking for a Happy Birthday crown and I just never had the inspiration to make it. But today, as I was cleaning my work area, I came across this ribbon that I bought for the fortune cookies I make. It loved the bright colors and thought it would be really cute with buttons.

I'm not sure if I'll be making these regularly or not - but it was fun to make. We'll see what their response is in the store.

Read more...

Tackle it Tuesday

I'm back to tackling the huge pile of tshirts. They are overflowing their boxes and I refuse to give them another one. I will gain control of the situation! So, I've decided that I need to try to do larger things that will use more scraps at once.

I have been watching (reading) Katy pound out these cute little draw strings bags and decided to give it a try. I can understand why she loves them so much. Nearly instant gratification. So easy with a great result. I think finding the fabric and cutting it took me longer than sewing it.

Of course, I'm horrible at actually reading and following directions. So, I glanced at the pictures and decided that was enough to get me going. It's so easy - that the quick glance was plenty and the bag went together in a snap. I cute my pieces 10" x 12" and the casing 10" x 2" (I'll make it bigger for the next bag I think). I used a lace that's been kicking around my workspace. I'm not sure where it came from... but it works perfectly. Hope it doesn't belong to anything important :)

Lyssie was immediately drawn to the bag and proclaimed it hers. I made it with her in mind, so that's fine by me. I need to make one for Robbie now. I'm looking forward to scrapping a few pieces together to see what it looks like. Oh - did I mention that the bag is reversible? Yep, you're going to want to give this pattern from Pink Penguin a try!

I'm certain there are plenty more bags in my future.

Read more...

Muffin Tin Monday

My muffin tins seem to really be lacking color these days. I really need to put more effort into giving them a more colorful diet. Of course, it might also help to take better pictures. There was no theme today, so I just pulled the first things I saw from the fridge.

Contents: Grapes, string cheese, sliced turkey, corn, honey roasted peanuts and Wheat Thins.

I am happy to report that they ate it up - even Lyssie who has been picky and eating very little lately. Luckily she loves the sliced turkey and I have lots of it in the fridge right now.

I've been busy avoiding anything productive lately... but today, I've refocused and I'm back to sewing for World of Whimm. I have 7 undecorated crowns done and 4 masks. I have been slowly cleaning my work area - 10 minutes here, 10 there - and it's starting to look a little better (well, to me who works in it - from the outside, it probably doesn't look a whole lot different). I'm looking forward to our tea party on Thursday - and the kids are too. I'm glad to hear that there will be others doing it as well!

Happy Monday!

Read more...

Bento #10

My husband has been working long hours lately. This means that he's also working on the weekends. To give me a little break, he takes a kid into work with him. The kids love to go into his office - so we alternate weekends. Besides the idea of spending a whole day with their dad, they also enjoy that their lunch (and snack) is a bento lunch. This week it was Lyssie's turn.

Here's what she had in her bento. I'm getting a little bit better with color - just not in every box.

Box 1: grapes cut into smaller pieces (you can fit more), corn on the cob and raw carrots.
Box 2: heart shaped peanut butter and jelly sandwich (this is from a cutter just like the dinosaur one... but I found this one at the dollar store) and pistachios
Box 3: (snack bento) raisins and pretzels (different shapes)

I couldn't resist taking a picture of Lyssie after she got dressed for the office. Her fancy, furry purple scarf definitely completed the outfit.

Read more...

Blogging - A Family Affair

Robbie has been watching me blog for years now... and he enjoys reading them as I type them. But yesterday, he asked me if he could have his own. My first reaction was no because I knew he would want to be on it all the time. But then, I thought about him, the areas where he needs to work and what motivates him. He's been doing a lot more writing of sentences and stories, he has been excited about spelling and the Spelling Bees and the boy loves to talk.

So, I let him have a blog. Yep, my 6 year old is blogging.

Today though, I ran into my first problem. What to do about his spelling. I love the way he writes and I have done very little to correct the spelling when he writes as I'm just happy that he's been working on sounding the words out. But, then I got concerned... as he continues on the blog to spell the words incorrectly. If I let him believe that was how you spell the words, I wouldn't be helping him with his spelling and it could cause him problems at his Spelling Bee next month.

I made the hard decision to sit down with him and work on the spelling. I have to admit that once I told him we were going to work on his spelling, I thought I had made the wrong choice. He got very upset... and I knew he would. He was so proud of his blog and I was telling him that it wasn't right. But after a long talk about mistakes - and how being wrong is how we learn - and showing him that I can't spell either, but there is a great thing called "spell check", he finally arrived to where I was hoping we would be. Where once again, he has found learning fun. He LOVES spell check and he thinks it's funny when the spell check doesn't get it right either (although I was a bit concerned about one of the choices it gave him for his spelling of "actually" - luckily, he's just looking for the right spelling and not paying close attention to the other choices and what they mean). We also left the original sentences so that he could watch his improvement - and because I like his writing, even if it isn't correct.

I know that I have a lot of readers that are educators - and many that have experience with his age bracket. Robbie has been reading since right before his 4th birthday. He has the ability to do much more than he is... but I'm concerned about where to stop. I don't want to over load that sponge of his as he continually pushes for more. I mean, today we discussed apostrophes and when they are used. He's absorbing the information and using it... but in my head, I'm thinking that an apostrophe conversation with a six year old is crazy.

I'd love to hear others opinions (just please be kind). My son is self motivated and loves to do things that challenges him... I just don't want to be the one who holds him back... yet I also don't want to be the type of mom that pressures him before he is ready.

You can visit him at The Life of a 6 Year Old. Finding the name alone, was an interesting exercise.

Read more...

Unfocused and having fun

I've been sewing owls... which in a round about way, is a good thing. See, I stuff these owls with fabric scraps - unusable fabric scraps. And I've now made so many owls that I'm having to do real work to build up more unusable scraps just so that I can make more owls. So today I cut out near 20 masks and prepared them to be sewn... just so that I could stuff more owls. Cutting things out is a big deal - now, I just need to wait for the right thread color to be in my machine and we'll have a pile of masks :)

I did try using Polyfil during a moment of desperation... and was unhappy with the results. It was to refined. I like the bulk that the fabric provides... and it's greener to use the scraps.


So, I'm still in the experimental stage of this new obsession. I've been trying different fabrics. I tried minky thinking that the softness would be great for babies. I was unhappy with the result. Fur just isn't owl like. So... as I changed my plan mid process as I often do. I had some eyeballs next to my machine and decided that the fur would make a perfect little monster. I love how he came out... and he too, is made from all recycled materials. I have a plan for him... so he will be leaving his owl friends very soon.

Read more...

Impromptu Tea Party

Today, I was in a mood for a change. Lunch this week has been sooo boring to make. They just want the normal jelly sandwich or mac & cheese and I can only do that a few times before I start going crazy. So, I thought I'd change it up a bit. Before my son got home from school, I prepared a quick tea party with the limited ingredients I had on hand.

My daughter was so excited to tell her brother about the surprise that was awaiting them at home. I placed the tea party outside thinking that we would enjoy the nicer weather (no rain)... but it did prove to be a bit cold. While 50 seems warmer when you've been having weather in 30s - it's really not warm enough for a tea party. But the kids were troopers (for the record, I did offer to move it inside), put jackets on and weathered - well, the weather.

I served up: mini jelly sandwiches (I stuck a few decorative tooth picks in them that we left over from Lyssie's polka dot party), grapes (both red and green), string cheese cut into circles, imitation crab pieces, hot dog slices, jello and candy dipped pretzels for dessert. I decorated everything with grapes for extra color.

They had milk for their "tea" since they insist on milk with lunch (who am I to argue). Robbie had a great time pouring - Lyssie tried it once at the end (read not much milk in it) and poured it over quickly like she would normally during pretend play - only a few splashes ended up on the table. I'm sure a few more tea parties and she'll be a pro.

Robbie made mini kabobs with all the finger food. I provided toothpicks which was exciting for them. Any lunch served with toothpicks becomes 100 times more appealing.

It was fun watching through the kitchen window as they talked and enjoyed their afternoon "tea". This was also the first time I combined their lunch and they had to share. There was a lot of negotiating going on - and no fights.

Robbie thinks we should do tea parties every week... and I think it's a great idea for spring and summer (and it'll be fun in the fall and winter - just maybe indoors). And since I no longer do Bento lunches for them on Thursday (they get their bento on the weekend when they go into their dad's work), we have decided to make Thursday - Tea Time Thursday.

I'm hoping with a little more planning, I'll be able to do provide them with some fun lunches. And with the smaller serving size, it'll be a great way for introducing even more new foods. Plus, I have a feeling, the kids will have fun contributing ideas. Maybe we'll even more the location of our tea parties. We don't have a huge yard (we live in one of those new developments), but I'm sure I can find a few other locations that might be nice (once the lawn gets mowed).

Do you have tea parties too? I'd love to hear about them!

Read more...

Scrapdown Bag

I was originally going to do a tutorial for this bag - but I haven't been able to find the time. Sorry. It is fairly simple though and it pretty much follows the same concept as this bag (which Katy just turned me on to and I have to try)

My intention was to make a lunch bag for Lyssie's Bento Box lunch for when she goes into the office with her dad. I haven't tried it yet, so I'm not sure if I made it too big ( I guess it would help to have a specific size in mind when you start a project... I just let the scrap pieces dictate it's size - I think it comes down to laziness).

These scrap fabric projects have been a lot of fun. They remind me of previous projects. The purse above has the butterfly fabric that I used to make the quilt we brought Lyssie home in. And the green fabric next to it was used to make a quilt for my cousin's first born.

I still intend on making another bag or two for the Scrapdown bag challenge as I'm not 100% pleased with this one.

Read more...

Wordless Wednesday - Spring???

Read more...

Work in Progress Wednesday

So here it is... already Wednesday and I'm not making a lot of headway on my plans for being productive this week. I have these grand ideas of finishing the taxes, getting new stuff listed in the shops, finishing all the custom orders and cleaning my workspace.

What have I been doing for the beginning of the week to help myself achieve those goals? Well, a whole lot of thinking about them and a little bit of sewing on things completely unrelated.

Here's a little peak into how I work... I was cleaning my workspace (I can see table now) and I found these tea towels that I bought at the dollar store a while back (I won't say how far back as that would indicate the depth of the pile on my workspace). I had plans of making these into an apron for my daughter to wear in her kitchen. So... there wasn't really a place for these to be put away. So... I decided that I needed to sit down and just make the apron.

Two hours later (I take a long time to figure out exactly what I want to do), I have a basic apron front. Of course, I can't finish it because I'm still figuring out how I want to make the straps - as the goal is to make it something that she can put on and take off herself... so ties aren't going to work and I'm not a huge fan of velcro these days.

End result... still no finished product, two hours taken away from cleaning, taxes, or anything else productive and these towels (now part apron) still have no home.

Read more...

Tackle it Tuesday

Okay, so my idea of Tackle it Tuesday was originally to make something from my huge boxes of tshirt scraps. I obviously got bored with that quickly and now Tackle it Tuesday seems to move from one thing to another. Today, I don't have it complete (because I think it'll take a lot longer than a day), but I thought it was time to tackle a system for my many, many patterns and ideas.

I used to put them (and still occasionally do) each into their own envelope and then I'd label the envelope. But when I'm in the middle of a project - I sometimes can't be bothered with doing that. Add to that, the fact that I use anything around me to make my patterns (pattern paper, kids drawings, junk mail, you name it - I've probably used it - and you have an unorganized mess. The two boxes you see above are not all that I have. Yep, this could take a while. I'd welcome any suggestions you have! I think today I'll work on just getting all the various patterns flat and together. I'm sure that alone will keep me plenty busy.

Read more...

Muffin Tin Monday - Rainbow!

Yay! Another fun Muffin Tin Monday theme that I was able to do. I didn't plan for this one... so I'm a little disappointed that I had to cheat and use food coloring. I'm still not sure how I feel about that - but it's done and I'm moving on.


Contents:
Red - shredded pork
Orange - cheese
Yellow - corn
Green - spinach tortilla
Blue - vanilla yogurt with blue food coloring
Purple - grapes

Check out Her Cup Overfloweth for more colorful tins!

Yesterday I went to a supply swap and unloaded a bunch of stuff I was never going to use - and came home with new crafty goodness that I hope to incorporate into my current "inspiration stash". It was so much fun!

This week I hope to share some of my projects that I'm making for people (I am making something for 5 people on FB)... I have a tutorial or two to share (still hoping to finish that pet bed tutorial)... and I hope to get my new owls listed - more pictures of those coming soon!

Read more...

Miniature Flower Vase Tutorial

Spring is here! And even though the weather may not be cooperating - we are celebrating with flowers! flowers! flowers! Today I have my daughter without my son and so I though it was a perfect time to do a project just for her.

We picked up some little vase shaped beads at Creation Station and I had the idea of making flower vases for her dollhouse. She loves anything for her dollhouse so she was very excited! This was a great project for her as she was able to work along side me and she felt like she was fully involved. Also, aside from the beads... I used things that I had around the house (in fact, the flowers were going to be going to a swap tomorrow).

Materials:

• Beads (for the vases - you could used the large macrame ones if you don't have the type we used)
• Tiny flowers
• Small Buttons
• Wire
• Scissors
• Air Dry Clay
• Super Glue

Step 1: Stuff the bead hole with clay (this was the perfect project for my daughter).

Step 2: Trim flower steps short enough to fit in vase. Push the stem of the flower into the clay (I had my daughter push the flowers in)

** For button flowers, I stacked two buttons and threaded the wire through two holes. Then I twisted them and trimmed the wire to make the stem.

Step 3: Allow the clay to dry at least 24 hours. For extra sturdiness, you could dip each stem into super glue before pushing them into the clay. I put a drop of super glue at the base of each stem as I had found that my daughter swirled them in the clay a few times before they dried which made them a little less secure.

Read more...

I-Spy - Welcome Spring with a little Green!

Okay, here's the second I-Spy. We are ready for green and flowers! This I-Spy is primarily green with a little bit of white. Robbie is having a great time doing these. Of course, the kids have lost their button privileges for a few days as they scattered them around the room. Oops!

Can you find these things? How many white flowers do you see? How about aliens - do you see any aliens?


As we continue to do these pictures - they would be fun to print up and make flash cards for the kids. A little something to keep them busy while traveling in the car.

Read more...

Inspiring our Children

I love when I can see my little mark on my children's creativity. Today... Lyssie told me she was going to make me lunch (in her kitchen - which is located in her "pink school" that is in her room). This is what she presented to me as she announced "ere is or bento"


I am now thinking that I need to make a trip to Daiso to get her a few bento boxes for her kitchen... or maybe I'll just purchase larger ones for them and give her the small ones that they are outgrowing. Oh - wait, last night I was also told about a new Asian market by Alderwood - I think I'll have to check it out!

Read more...

It's a Hoot!

I've been avoiding my taxes for months now - and I have to admit, I'm doing a great job. I do know that my time to procrastinate is quickly coming to an end... and I have worked on them for a few hours here and there... but I'm tiring of them easily and finding myself looking for other directions.

Distractions are easy to come by, for me. Yesterday, my distraction was owls... and I think I might be in love. These little guys are soooo much fun to make. I love making anything that looks different each time I do it. I'm making these owls from showroom sample scraps that I rescued a while back. The are embellished from my huge stash of buttons and the many scrap fabrics that I have saved. The best part, though, is that they are stuffed with all my fleece scraps that are too tiny to be used for anything (less than 1/2 an inch (yes, I save that stuff to).

These little hooters are green, green, green! I'm not sure what I'll be doing with them yet. I took them to work on last night at our monthly craft night and two of them went hope with new parents. So far, ideas are to list them in the store in groups, make ornaments, mobiles... I'm welcome to other suggestions! So far, they measure anywhere from 2.5 inches to 6 inches depending on the size of the scrap.

The bag behind the owls in the photo is my SCRAPDOWN bag. I haven't finished my quilt yet (still waiting on a backing) - but I thought I'd still move on to the next project while I'm working on finishing the quilt up. I'll be posting pictures of the bag soon - I'm working on a tutorial for it first though. Maybe by the end of the weekend??? We'll see - I do have a craft swap this weekend and I'm sure that will provide plenty of distraction as I try to go through some of my things.

Read more...

I-Spy - White

My kids are obsessed with I-Spy books. My son is always wanting to make his own. He will draw I-Spy pictures, he will set up I-spy scenes with his toys, we play I-spy when we are out and about. It's all about I-spy.

So, I thought it would be fun to take the much talked about bin of buttons and have him make an I-spy picture. He immediately decided that he would turn it into a book... but I'm thinking that we can just post a picture or two each week and maybe other kids can enjoy his love of I-Spy and their many buttons.

Today's theme is white (perhaps the snow won't come back if we focus on it a bit).

Here are a few things that can be found in the above picture. Hopefully clicking on the picture will enlarge it (provided Blogger is cooperating today).

Read more...

Collaboration - it's a great thing

The best part of Etsy, by far, has been the great people that I have met through the local EtsyRAIN street team. It's fun to be surrounded by other creative minds. Since I don't have a Work in Progress for today (nothing I'd be willing to show off), I thought I'd share some of my favorite team efforts. These collaborations are great - as they combine the work of more than one of my favorite sellers.

Seattle Sundries & LAS Designs

These little shaving mugs would be so great for Father's Day! Anne's soap is fantastic and Laura's pottery is my favorite - it truly reminds me of my grandfathers which holds so many great memories for me.

Seattle Sundries & Scary White Girl

Anne has also teamed up with Dawn of Scary White Girl for these cute little soap sweaters. Pair this with that mug and you'll have one clean father!

Woven Chains & Glass Elements

These two talented artists teamed up to make some fabulous jewelry. Trina is a chainmaille artist (I've featured her before on my blog) and Marja is a glass artist that creates unique pieces by fusing glass. Together - they make some wonderful, one-of-a-kind pieces.

There are also other people teaming up as well. Watch for Kelly of Tomato-Tomato to team up with Heidi of Haute Goat - I personally can't wait to see what that team comes up with!

Read more...

Wordless Wednesday - Firestarter

Read more...

Tackle it Tuesday - Water Bottles

This Tuesday, I've decided to tackle my growing stash of plastic water bottles. I've been recycling the caps into pincushions and it seemed wrong to not use the water bottle... so they've been building up around the house. I've decided it's time to start putting them to good use.

Last week I had posted about some onions that had sprouted in my neglected kitchen. Nora was so kind to respond and let me know how I could take advantage of these new sprouts. I didn't have any vases or jars the correct size. Just one plastic tea cup left over from my daughter's many tea parties and plastic bottles.

I did the plastic cup first and within a a few days, there were roots growing. Yay! So, I was motivated to find something to put my remaining two onions in. The plastic bottles were perfect.

I happened to have a lot of the Arrowhead ones which contour in slightly in the middle. I cut it off with a utility knife about 1/4 of inch below the label. I filled it with water so that the bottom of the onion would sit just slightly in the water... and voila! Okay, so these would probably look much nicer in a nice glass vase or something... and they would look nicer set in front of a clean window. But I haven't been feeling well lately and cleaning the window is just a bit beyond my current potential.

I also didn't waste the top part of those water bottles. The tops are now scoops in the button boxes (yes, I now have two as I've combined ALL of my buttons and it was too much for just one box). I freely admit that I have a button obsession... and I'm comfortable with that.

Being GREEN on St Patrick's Day!

Read more...

Muffin Tin Monday - Green!

This week's theme is Green for St Patrick's Day tomorrow! I'm not sure how much of this tin the kids will eat... they do eat most of these things - just not all at once. I have to admit... a whole bunch of green (and brown) doesn't look real appetizing. Visit Her Cup Overfloweth for more green tins!

Contents: Quesadilla made with spinach tortillas, split pea soup, sauteed green beans, green and white tortellini and pasta salad with Parmesan cheese (couldn't find the pesto sauce), jello with a grape shamrock inside it and pistachios.

A special thank you to my husband for doing shopping this morning so that we could have a themed tin. He did a great job shopping for green food.

Read more...

Fan Heart Shamrock Tutorial

This is a fun project to do with the Fan Heart Tutorial that I did last month. It's easy and fast and it would make great place holders at a dinner table or make lots of them for a centerpiece.

Materials (for clover only)

Green paper (I cut and 8.5 x 11 sheet into 4.25" x 3" pieces)
Popsicle sticks (I bought a package of colored ones at the dollar store)
Glue
Scissors

Step 1: Follow directions here for making the fan heart - make 4 (if you want a three leaf clover, you will probably need to make the hearts a little bit bigger)

Step 2: Fold the hearts in half (see picture below) and apply glue to the side of three of them.

Step 3: Stack all the three on top of each other with the glue-less one on top. I rubber band them together to hold them while they dry.

Step 4: Open it up and apply glue to the two outside ends. Put a Popsicle stick in the middle and hold closed for a minute until glue dries.

I used a small pot (found at the dollar store) and some dirt and stood it up. You can write a person's name on the stem of the shamrock or on the pot itself to use it as a place holder.

Read more...

Colored Pasta & Rainbow Necklace Tutorial

Earlier this week I colored some pasta for my kids to do various art projects with. The initial idea was to do these shamrocks... but we also did rainbows on paper and rainbow necklaces. So much fun - and I have some pasta left over that will go into my kid's art supplies for when they feel that need to create.

Coloring Pasta

Materials:

• Plastic Ziplock bag
• Uncooked Pasta
• Rubbing Alcohol
• Food coloring
• Paper towels
• Small cup or bowl

I used just one bag - but colored the pasta in a specific order; yellow, orange, red, purple, blue and green. This way I didn't have to use multiple bags or wash them and dry them between each color.

Step 1: In a small cup or bowl mix about a tablespoon of rubbing alcohol with several drops of food coloring. I only used about a tablespoon of rubbing alcohol because I wasn't coloring a lot of pasta for each color. You can add more if you feel you aren't getting the desired coverage.

Step 2: Add pasta to plastic bag - I did about a cup to a cup and a half of pasta for each color.

Step 3: Add alcohol/food coloring mixture to the pasta in the bag.

Step 4: Seal the bag well and move the pasta around with your hands until the pasta is covered in the coloring and most drops of alcohol have been absorbed (a minute or two).

Step 5: Open the bag and spread the pasta onto paper towels. As long as you don't have a puddle of color in the bottom of you bag, you should only need one or two layers of towels. Be sure to spread the pasta out so that it can dry. Allow to dry for at least an hour. Repeat process for other colors.

Rainbow Necklace

Materials:

• Colored pasta (we used penne)
• String
• Bead
• Scissors

Step 1 - Cut three lengths of string about 75" long.

Step 2 - Put the strings together and fold them in half. At the half-way point tie a knot to keep all the strands together. Tie a loop at the top the size of your bead to fasten the necklace once it is complete. See picture below for example of what it would like like.

Step 3 - Have the kids string one color on each strand of string. I have found that this project is best for older kids as it was a challenge to keep the long strands from getting tangled. I helped them lay the strings out and separate them. Leave about 8-10 inches at the end and loop the string back through twice on the last pasta to keep the pasta from coming off the end while they are working on other colors.

Step 4 - Once all colors have been completed, gather all the ends and string them through the bead and knot it several times to secure it.

Here are some of the other things we did with our colored pasta!

Read more...