It's a......

So I found a silverware tray...



It was pretty and real wood.  But the bottom was all warped, probably water damage.  Plus none of my kitchen drawers are wide enough for a regular sized silverware tray, but that's a rant for another day.

I couldn't just let it go to waste!  Now it's a little shelf.  I totally want to get some little figurines for it!  Maybe I'll start collecting miniature porcelain cats or bunnies or something!

Now I'm actually laughing out loud, I am generally pretty anti-chotchkie.  I hate clutter and dust catchers and things that don't do anything useful.  LOL

So Pretty!!!

I finally got something finished!  Hooray!

I actually made a dress form.  Is that cool or what?  I found the pattern from this seller on ebay.

The fabric is a lovely home dec from the thrift store.  It has "1984" printed on the selvages!  I can so picture it in my Grammy's house way back then, she would have loved it.

Anyway, having an actual, real, dress form helps so much in the designing process!   Yay!!

Dollies for Haiti

The girls and I made these dolls to send to an orphanage in Haiti.




There are so many children there who have lost everything, including their families. We wanted to let them know that somebody loves them!



More details here

Craft Show Fun!

This weekend I took the girls to the biggest, most amazing craft show I've ever seen!

Here's the girls with their new handmade barrettes.

We met up with Kate from etsy. I had bought one of her birdhouse ornaments on her shop and then I found out she was having a booth at this craft show, which I had intended to go to anyway! So I just picked up my order there.

Isn't she cute?
Her bird houses are just beautiful! This is art. Look at the detail!

We also met up with Mari. Here she is telling the girls about fused glass. I was sure I had taken a better picture of her, but I guess not. Sorry Mari!
We got to spend quite a bit of time with her and Violet says that "That lady that's Mom's friend" is her new best friend.

Kate and Mari both belong to our etsy Createability team.

This made me smile

I met a sweet etsyian yesterday and she featured me on her blog today! How fun is that! I love Etsy :D

How cool is this!!!

Make photo slide shows at www.OneTrueMedia.com

That's a job well done

I got to make 5 life sized snowmen for a display for a charity event benefiting kids with cancer. It took me months, but I'm done now and they turned out really well.



I went down to the CDA Resort to help set up on friday for the Festival of trees. It was really fun, but it took 7 hours!

I spent this last weekend with my booth at a craft show-slash-flea market. It was a very nice flea market really, all the antiques were very nice and there was jewelry and home decor. There was really only one or two booths with just junk.
However, business was really slow and I only sold one item, not even enough to pay for my booth. I'm kinda bummed about that, BUT, it was a good learning experience and I had a lot of fun.

I learned that:

• Being away from home for three days in a row is just too much for my family. My primary responsibility is and should be at home with my family. Even though the girls were in the booth with me on Friday and home with Daddy on Saturday and for two whole hours on Sunday, it was just too much for them, and so we were all stressed and cranky by the time it was over. That's most important thing I learned. I think I'll wait a couple of years before I try this again.

• I actually had a display that looked really good! I've done craft shows in the past, and my booth has looked fine, but this time it looked really good!

• I miss having co-workers. There were two ladies there with booths on either side of me that were just so much fun! I spent most of the weekend laughing!

• And lastly, paper clips do not make good display hangers.
  

Wow! Look at this!!

I just found the most amazing softie artist! And I don't use the word artist lightly, her stuff is truly amazing. Nosey Nest can be found on flickr, etsy and her blog, AND she has a tutorial for this cute duck!

Isn't this lovely?

Today I'm featuring PSBBdesigns. She's on my Etsy street team and I think her work is just fabulous.


I think this is just lovely.

The County Fair!

We had a great time at the fair! I wasn't even sick this year! Yea!


Ziggys had an area for making birdhouses and the girls and I made some. They looked awesome...and then we took them home and the girls painted them. Oh my they're ugly now! That's okay, it was a great experience for them to create and be so proud of themselves!

War bride pictures

We took Tori and Dustin's engagement pictures last Saturday and I've been waiting to blog until I got some pictures that really show off the dress. I haven't got around to it yet, so I stole this one from my Mom's blog.


The dress turned out perfect and the pictures look so good!


Here's a close up, it still needed to be ironed though. I'll post some pictures that really show off the dress later.

In other news, I had a great Mother's day. Violet drew me a picture with flowers on it. My Sweet Husband and Willow got me a gift certificate to a pottery place! I've only done pottery a couple of times since high school and it's something I really enjoy. I'll probably just get to paint and glaze some bisque ware this time, but I'm really excited!

Happy Mothers day! I hope yours was as good as mine! ♥

Happy Valentine's Day!

I was reading Monica's blog, one of my very favorites, and she's been doing all these wonderful things for Valentine' Day and I realized that I hadn't done a thing!


So I made this. It's just craft foam cut into hearts with foam stickers, glued onto ribbon. Super easy and it's pink and makes me happy.


The girls made their Daddy about 6 valentine's each and I had foam sticker all over the place yesterday, but it was great fun. And Daddy was very pleased.

The clouds have parted...

And I shall flood you with pictures!
First of all, I got this last week! Isn't it beautiful?



This was my first project with it. It's a bath mat. I need to wash and iron it and it will look a lot better. It'll go on Etsy later.



And more balls.


And some pins which need better pictures. Common more sunshine!



Oh, and here's the doll Willow and I made for another birthday party.

Plus I made a baby blanket for church, which I didn't get a picture of. I embroidered one of Willow's dresses and some of her pajamas, and got started on a heart bunting kind of like my star bunting.

Oh, I feel so much better.

Snow-less man

Well, all the snow has melted. It's been almost 50 degrees here for half the week. Guess what activity we pulled out of the jar! Yep, build a snowman. Actually, the same thing happened last year, so I still had the body.
I took a scrap of batting and rolled it up like a sleeping bag. Then I tied a piece of yarn around the it at about 2" from the top and then again farther down to make a nice round head.
We used hot glue and whatever we could find to dress it up.

Here it is with Willow


Violet was giving it nose kisses.



Here's last year's. Willow looks so little! She was almost 4 then. I can't believe she'll be 5 soon.


5! How did that happen? I'm sure I'll freak out more on her birthday. Stay tuned...

My little Meme

Sew Mama Sew is having a little activity for us craft bloggers. It is share our holiday projects and traditions and ideas. Here's mine:

• Do you have a favorite gift that you love to give?

I love to make jams and jellies during the summer, mostly from things I've grown in my garden, to give to my neighbors, Clint's friends at work, visiting teaching sisters, etc.. I decorate the jars really cute and it's something that can be done by October and I don't have to think about it again until I'm ready to give it.

• If you’re making gifts this year, what are you making?
  

Well there's this little apron for Violet. She's also getting a little duster and broom (both from the dollar store) to go with it.
I've also made jammies and dresses for both girls, but I'm afraid they'll look over my shoulder and see them if I post them now.

• Name one thing on your personal wish list.

I would just about die for an embroidery machine.

• Do you make and sell things that would make fantastic gifts?
  

I am in the process of getting any Etsy Shop right now. I need to take pictures and the weather has been cloudy, so the light hasn't been good for that. Keep watching my blog!

Traditions

• Have you started any new traditions with your family that you didn’t practice growing up?

We have a jar full of little scraps of paper, one for each day in December. Each paper has something to do for that day. All different things like, drive around and look at the Christmas lights, read part of the Christmas story, build a snowman etc..

• What do you love most about the holiday season?

I just love the closeness you feel to family during the Christmas season.

• What do you like least about the holiday season?

I wish it wasn't so cold. Cold makes me hurt. But on the other hand, if Christmas was during a warmer time of year, I'd have to go through the cold months with nothing to look forward to!

• What is your favorite holiday food?

Apple pie

• Do you have a great recipe to share?

We always make snowball cookies. They're really just Mexican wedding cakes, but my kids like to call them snowball cookies.