A canvas for Steph's room

We recently re-did all 3 of the bedrooms in our house (the master bedroom will get it next year SO HELP ME!!!)

When I say re-did I mean that we pulled up all the carpet (thank goodness), put down wood floors, painted all the trim and doors white, re-painted the ceilings and walls, and bought all new "big kid" accessories for the girls. They both still had the nursery stuff in their rooms from when they were born and at nearly 6 and 9 years old I thought it was time to do something different.

I'll share before and after pics soon.

So when I was accessorizing Steph's room I realized that I needed a little piece of artwork on one of her shelves to really pull it together with the rest of the room.

I'm semi-crafty so I decided to give it a try. Her room is purple and magenta so I made her a small canvas that pulls all the different colors together. Here it is....my very first canvas!








It's not perfect but she loves it and that's all that matters.

:)

Baby stuff

If you read this blog then you may remember this post where minky dot and I broke up.

Well, you'll be happy to know that as of a few weeks ago we kind of made up. I decided to give him one more chance and this time he behaved himself a little bit better. I'm still not 100% convinced he's really changes his evil ways.....

One of my cousins who lives in California was having a baby boy so a few weeks ago I whipped up a couple cute little items in time for the baby shower and sent them on their merry way.

One of the items was this tag blanket which I thought would be especially cuddly and soft with the minky dot on the back of it. And I was right. The minky was *fab* and as soft as kittens straight from heaven.




I eyeballed that minky for a good hour before I cut into it and decided to really give it a go in the sewing machine. The entire time I was telling it under my breath, "behave or I'll make sure you live a long hard life as a toilet bowl cleaning rag" and I think that did the trick.

Sometimes you just gotta talk smack.

:)

I also made a burp cloth and bib as well as this cute little travel diaper and wipes holder. I found the tutorial on the internet for it somewhere but cannot for the life of me remember where! Oh well. Here they are:





I hope the little one enjoys his cute baby stuff as much as I enjoyed making it for him!

My first scarf!

As I mentioned in an earlier post I decided to learn how to knit last winter. For some reason in the cold months I feel like I want to keep my hands busy and what better way than by knitting.

After watching the online video a few times and casting on about a dozen times I was off to the races. Turtle races that is. Boy was I sloooooow at first.

I knitted and knitted and knitted during my free time for a few weeks. I got about half way done with my scarf when I realized that it was wonky.

Real wonky.

There were places where I had added a few stitches to a few rows (instead of knitting 14 times I knitted 16 times for example), then when I would realize I made a mistake and I would go back to 14. This caused bumps on the sides of the scarf. Bumps that were really obvious to me.

So I asked Ronnie (devoted and adoring husband who barely even notices all the craft stuff I own) if it looked wonky.

Of course he said no and of course he was lying. He's a smart cookie that Ronnie.

I promptly said "Yes it does!" and proceeded to pull out all of the knitting that I had worked so hard on so I could start over again.

Ronnie was more than a little shocked.

So was I.

But it was a good decision. I had learned some major lessons in those first few feet of scarf and I knew that if I tried it again it would look much better.

And it did!

Its made from wool yarn and I gave it to my brother-in-law for his birthday in December. He must not hate it cause I've actually witnessed him wearing it out in public a few times. Now if I could just learn how to purl.....

Steph's knitting

Last winter I had the itch to learn a new craft (cause I clearly didn't have enough crafts under my belt and digging into my wallet- what with scrapbooking, sewing, mixed media, photography, art journaling, etc.).

~sigh~

So I sat down in front of the puter' one day and Googled "how to knit". I found a nice little video online that walked me through the items that I needed and the first steps to take. I skipped merrily to the craft store and picked up the essentials then sat down for my first lesson. It took me a few tries to cast on and get going, but after that it was smooth sailing.

Almost. More on that in my next post.

Anyways, Steph saw what I was doing and showed some interest (by asking me over and over again about 100 times in a row if I could teach her how to knit). I barely knew how to myself but I figured it was worth a try.

While at the craft store a few weeks later with Stephanie we picked up these cool knitting needles for kids which are color coded to make it easier for them to learn. She picked out some pink yarn for herself and we went home.



I was so excited to teach her but I wondered if at 7 years old she would be a.) patient enough to learn b.) patient enough to sit there for hours and knit and c.) remember all the steps.

Well....she showed me! She picked up on it right away and all of a sudden had the beginnings of a beautiful pink scarf. I can just picture us sitting together under a blanket on the couch knitting away on a cold winter's night. Makes my heart all happy.

:)

Craft show "season"

My craft show season is coming up very shortly so I need to start dedicating a little time in my day to making cute things for my table. I like to do shows closer to the holidays because it seems like more people come out (and are ready to part with a few of their hard earned dollars for gifts). Last year I did a couple shows in October and December and they were quite sucessful, so I'm hoping that this year will turn out the same.

One of my favorite things about doing a show is setting up my table. I get so excited seeing all of the things that I've made sitting on the table ready to go to a new home!

Here are some pics from last years table all set up lookin' purdy. Since I'm usually limited to a 6 foot table I have to be creative in order to fit it all. I have a few ideas for a new set up this year....I need to go UP since I can't go out.

:)

Shameful

Yes....its pretty shameful how many months I've neglected you, my sad little crafting blog.

I know, I know....you've been patiently waiting for me to come back and give you all of the love and attention that you truly deserve.

Please don't cry.

I have 10,000 excuses why I've treated you this way, but you're right...none of them matter now.

I promise, its me not you.

All I can say is that I'm sorry and that I'll try harder now.

Please forgive me????

Book covers

A friend of Ron's (my hubby) asked me to make a couple of book covers as Christmas gifts for his wife a few weeks ago. She's an avid reader and has a ton of paperbacks as well as hard covered books, so he brought me one each of the typical sizes, told me she liked pink, and I went to town. Here is what I created:




It was very simple (and I even added a little ribbon bookmark to each one...GO ME!) but once I was done I decided that in order to sell these in my shop I will need to alter the design just a bit so that it will fit different thicknesses of books. I'm working on it and hope to have them ready soon!

Speaking of the shop, don't forget to stop by and check out what's new. It's the perfect time to start thinking about gifts for all those wonderful friends, family, teachers, co-workers, neighbors, babysitters, children, or loved ones in your life. Get them something handmade and show your support to crafters!!!!