I'm not worthy!

I was having a pretty rough day on Tuesday. There was nothing specific that was horrible... it was just one of those days that seemed to take twice as long to end. But that all changed when my husband brought in the mail. Look what I got!

Odile from Woolly Fabulous (I've mentioned her store in a previous blog) sent me this wonderful gift in the mail. Isn't it awesome! She had mentioned sending me a few felted beads for me to play around with (I'm looking for something to take the place of the buttons I can't use due to the CPSIA)) - but a few beads??? She sent me a whole bag! PLUS some of her ropes and a cute little zippered do-dad (I think I'm going to make it into a brooch - but I haven't decided).

I can't tell you how awesome her things are... and I love, even more, that they are made by such a warm and generous person. She makes all these beads and rope from recycled wool sweaters. And after seeing the beads and rope - it's truly amazing.

All week I've been admiring, feeling, and imagining the things I can do with these new materials. They feel a bit like gold and I don't want to use them on just anything. I have set them up where I can see them in my work area as I sew in the hopes that inspiration will hit me (this is often how it works for me).

If you haven't already, please check out Odile's shop at Woolly Fabulous. I think she's currently on vacation - but check out her sold items and you can see her creations on her Flickr account.

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Quick Napkin Ring Tutorial for Tea Time Thursday

Lyssie was setting the table for our tea party this afternoon and it just seemed like the table needed a little something more. We had some regular napkins that had fruit wedges and so I thought it would fun to make a quick napkin ring to go around them.

So, I'm going to share the tutorial with you before we go into the details of our second tea party... and I must admit, we can't wait for the next one!

Napkin Rings

Materials:

• Ribbon (about 1/5 - 1 inch wide)
• Buttons (large enough to cover the width of the ribbon)
• Fray Block (or Fray Check)
• Thread & Needle

Step 1: Cut the ribbon pieces into short strips (because these were for paper napkins, we made ours 5" long).
Step 2: Apply Fray Block to each end of each ribbon.


Step 3: Make a ring with the ribbon and overlap the ends. Place your button on top of the overlapped ends and stitch it on with the thread and needle. Be sure to stitch through both pieces of ribbon.

These little napkin rings worked perfectly for our little tea party. If I were to make these for larger napkins, I would double the ribbon and probably stack a few buttons.

We have a guest staying with us for a week or two... so it was nice to also have some adult conversation at our tea party today. Of course, our weather was horrible today - so we had to have our tea party indoors... and at our kitchen table (not as much fun - nor does it make it as special of a meal).

We served - egg salad sandwiches, turkey and cream cheese sandwiches (sprinkled with a little Italian Seasoning), mini banana nut muffins, watermelon, grapes, and carrots. We served milk for the kids and ice tea for the adults.

It was a lot of fun and we ate everything! I had made egg salad sandwiches with the hopes that the kids would eat them... but no luck. Oh well, I hadn't had an egg salad sandwich in years and it was a nice change for me.

Robbie has suggested that our next tea party be themed... so next week will be having an Easter Tea Party. Let's hope the weather cooperates so that we can have it outside in the backyard where there is at least a little bit of green.

If you did a tea party too - I'd love to hear about it! I've been coming up with different ideas to make each tea party special - so I'd love to hear some of yours!

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Whoopi!

Go Julie! Monday and Tuesday, Whoopi Goldberg wore a pendant made by one of my favorite people, Julie of Livewire - Common Object Jewelry.

The 45 RPM Adapter is the piece that Whoopi is wearing. When I did the Urban Craft Uprising with Julie, it was definitely a popular one - but be sure to check out her entire store. I'm sure it'll bring back some fond memories.

It's an exciting thing when you see one of your creations in public - let alone, on tv. Congratulations Julie!

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Work in Progress Wednesday

I don't really have any work in progress right now that is worthy of sharing. But I do have this bag that I completed this morning. It's inspired from the owls that I've just started listing in the On A Whimm store.


I can't get over how easy and fun these bags are. I used all t-shirt scraps for this bag (it measures 10 x 12) - including the draw string. I made a cord out of the hem of a brown tshirt (the same color that this bag is lined in). I'm not sure what I'm going to do with the bags - but I figure that I can figure that out later.

Thank you to everyone who has visited my son's new blog. He was SOOOOOO excited to see that people are reading and commenting. It's been a huge boost for him and it has motivated him to work harder on his writing. I have decided that the blog is a good thing for him right now. I'm not sure if it would be fore most kids his age, but it is for mine. Already in the first few blogs he is more aware of capitalizing the first letter in a sentence... and he is now capitalizing his "I"s. I expect to see him improve the more he works on it. I have found that his sentences are much more fragmented than I had thought - he is concentrating so hard on sounding out words that I think he forgets his original thought... and he only reads a few words back to try to remember. Of course, I think I do this also - I'm not a big proofreader when it comes to my own writing :) His blog has also helped me understand exactly where he is and what he struggles with. It gives us about an hour a day together where we sit down and concentrate on helping improve his writing. It truly has been great and I thank everyone who supports him with comments. Please continue to comment as he really does love them (as we all do).

The kids have been asking me everyday when the next tea party - so we are all looking forward to our new Tea Time Thursday. Many of you mentioned joining us - if you do, we'd love to see pictures! I made Lyssie two of her own tea party serving trays. You can see them in the picture above and she loves them. You can make one too!


I used a plastic plate and a plastic bowl or cup turned over. I glue the two together with E-6000 along the bottom of the bowl/cup; center it on the bottom of the plate and give it several hours to dry completely. Super easy... and each one cost me $1 to make since I found each piece for .50 each at Value Village. You could do the same with the plastic plates and cups from the dollar store if you can't find any at the thrift stores (I found that make of the plastic wear was pretty worn and in some instances quite disgusting).

We'll be using these new serving platters tomorrow - let's just hope it doesn't snow tomorrow as well... otherwise I need to find a clean place indoors :)

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Wordless Wednesday

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