Another Birthday!

Today I celebrate another birthday - this year, 36. This year it doesn't feel as great as it did at 35. This year I now have two stores that I'm unsure of their future and both stores were decently successful. It is a little sad.


So I'm trying to look at this year as a new beginning. For what - I'm not really sure yet. I figure it'll come to me one of these days. I have plenty of things that I'd like to do... of course, I'm not sure how many I'll accomplish. I'll post a partial list here in the hopes that it will help motivate me to complete them.

1. Finish the Scrapdown quilt (I'm sure this will happen)
2. Sew the duvet cover for our bedroom that I've had planned in my mind for over a year now
3. Have a fence built around the backyard so that the kids can play out there without me (this will require my extra income - so we'll see what happens)
4. Paint a wall or two in the house and hang something on the walls (I think it's time after 3 years in the house)
5. Change all our light bulbs over to energy efficient
6. Put extra lighting in my work space


These are all things that would make me happy to complete - but don't really have to be done in order for this house to keep running. There are, of course, plenty of other things that need to be done that aren't necessarily for me - but for the family. This year though, I'm going to work on doing a few things for myself... this will be my gift to myself.

** Button in picture was made by a great Etsy shop, Hasenpfeffer. You can buy them here.

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Scrapdown fabric squares

Have I mentioned how fun it is to receive all the fabric squares in the mail? This weekend I received one from Japan and I fell in love with some of the pieces. I convinced myself that two of them wouldn't really work for a quilt and I used them to make mirrors. I love how they turned out! I'll be making a pouch for them and maybe giving one of them as a gift.

The quilt is coming along - although I'm not doing as much on it as I was in the beginning. It's the ironing that is holding me up... I hate ironing! Unfortunately, making a quilt top involves lots of ironing. Maybe that's the next thing I'll teach my son :)

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Valentine Mobile Tutorial

This is actually a variation on the decorations that I will be doing for my daughter's polka dot birthday party. The kids had so much fun making the decorations for the party, I thought it would be fun to do one for Valentines Day as well. This mobile can be made with any symmetrical shape (squares, hearts, circles, butterflies, diamonds, etc). It would also be a lot of fun made with recycled papers (old maps, old book pages, newspaper, magazines, etc). I can also see these as decorations at a family reunion with photos. My point? This project is very versatile and it was a great project for both my kids.

My oldest folded and glued the hearts together. My youngest matched three of each heart by size and color.

Materials:

• colored paper
• scissors
• glue (I found a glue stick to be best as regular white glue was a bit wet for the paper and tended to warp it a little)
• string
• pencil
• thicker paper for making a stencil

Step 1 - Cut a few different size heart shapes from the thicker paper for your pattern. It's easiest to make a symmetrical shape by folding the paper in half and cutting out just half the shape - in the case of the heart, it was a tear drop shape.

Step 2 - Fold the colored paper into thirds so that you can cut three of the same heart at a time.

Step 3 - Trace the hearts onto the colored paper using your heart stencils.

Step 4 - Cut out the circles. I cut the shapes rather than having my son do it because it involved cutting through three thicknesses of paper.

Step 5 - Fold three of the same size hearts in half.

Step 6 - Glue the three hearts together leaving the last one open to insert the hanging string.

Step 7 - Add a few more onto the same string and hang. I put ours on our dining room light, but you can tie them to a hoop (maybe a coffee lid with the center cut out).

For my daughter's party we are using all different colors, six different sizes of circles. I will be hanging the strands on the ceiling to make it a festive polka dot party. Photos will follow after the party on the 15th.

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Muffin Tin Monday - Yellow!

I was not prepared for this tin. I know, I know, these happen every Monday... you would think I'd plan a little better. But I also think they are a little funner for me to put together if I don't have a plan. The downside of not planning though is a less than healthy lunch.

This tin ranks right up there with my less healthy tins. Our theme this week was YELLOW! Had I thought about it, I would have made a yellow stuffed bell pepper. Of course, it would have been introducing a new form of peppers to them so I'm not sure they would have eaten it. Well, there is always next time!

Contents: corn on the cob, parmesan cheese-its, yellow fruit loops, banana slices, white chocolate dipped pretzels with yellow sprinkles and macaroni and cheese.

The kids were very excited when I presented them with this Muffin Tin. Be sure to check out my fellow muffin tinners at Her Cup Overfloweth.

Happy Groundhog Day! ~ let's just hope we don't have to do this day over and over again.

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Button Party!

Last night my son and I attended an EtsyRAIN hosted button making party. We had soooo much fun! My son made buttons to put onto his classmate's valentines (more on that later this week) and I made mirrors of some of my images.

I was pleased to see that Robbie was a master at the button machine so he'll be able to help me when I do decide on a size. I'm still trying to figure out exactly what size maker I want. I am now leaning toward the 3" as I have access to a 1" and 2.25" (and possibly a 1.5"). But I won't bore you with my latest internal debate.

I've decided to try a few of these mirrors (these mirrors are 2.25") in my shop and at shows to see how they do. I'll probably post a few mirrors with a few of my original drawings and see what type of response I get. My problem is which images to use. I chose 3 new images for the mirrors that I'm only semi confident in (although I love the hedgehog).

I think I'm still several weeks from getting anything in my shop... but I couldn't wait to share these with everyone. They are really fun. My next step is to figure out a sleeve to put them in. I think I'm going to try using some of the upholstery and fabric samples that I have. My goal will be to make them with recycled fabrics.

I think one of the best surprises of the night for me was Rebecca, the owner of ButtonMakers.net, was there to share her wisdom. It was great to get some feedback on sizing directly from her. You can bet I'll keep everyone posted on my final decision!

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