Creative Passage

Christmas 2011

2012-01-22T22:43:00.002-06:00

I had a wonderful Christmas…got to see the great nieces, my mom stayed with me a month, most of December and a week in January. I don’t have a bunch of great pics, but these pics are from Christmas with my nieces and nephews and my brother and sister in law.

Sam and I had extra presents to gift for my mom, she had to have a stocking and of course things to put in the stocking! I even did some last minute knitting to give her a special gift! So that was fun…

I got great gifts as always…I had dropped the hint about the heart pin I had been drooling over since I first saw it on etsy. The shop is Woolly Fabulous (sorry that shop is on vacation at the current time) and boy, there are some great pins there, made out of wool and zippers. Very professionally made and so cute—owls, hearts, birds, snowmen, holly. And then there’s the Lands End peacock sweater that my mom got me after she heard me oohing and aahing over it for weeks before Christmas. And the Big Ass Book of Crafts—I got one and two! And the Santa canvas is soooo cute! Love it! My son got me The Help DVD…mom and I watched it at least 3 times, maybe 4! And I got the newest book by the Yarn Harlot Stephanie Pearl McPhee, All Wound Up! It is most entertaining as are all her books!

So I am blessed by being able to be with family…plus this year was the first year ever that I was off both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and that was truly a treat. I changed jobs a year ago this month, so I am now off all holidays and I work in a great place!

DIY Pony Tail Holders {{by Sarah}}

2012-01-22T15:47:00.002-06:00

Hi everyone! It’s Sarah back for another guest post. Ellen keeps telling me that I should start my own blog. My creativity mode has its own manic-depressive personality, so there may be periods of time that I don’t accomplish a thing. I know I would get a “blog fog block” occasionally (also known as BFB, because if you try to say “blog fog block” a few times, it turns into a tongue twister). For now, as long as my creativity is in the manic mode, and Ellen allows me to guest post once in a while, all is well. :c)

Today I wanted to share some tie dye ponytail holders. Here is a great tutorial on how to make them. I kind of took the easy way out and bought some dye in premixed spray bottles at Hobby Lobby.

I used 5/8 inch wide white fold-over elastic and started randomly spraying the elastic.

Let dry. This type of dye requires to either heat press with an iron or heat set in the dryer. I chose the latter. Cut into desired length. I cut mine in 12 inch pieces. Knot ends together. I like to leave some short tails. I cut the ends at an angle and applied Fray Check to prevent raveling.

I also made a few with colored elastic, so no dyeing was needed. See the brown one below with a few of the sprayed ones.

Thanks again, Ellen! Love ya!

Linking to these great parties!

Crazy about Cloches (aka Bell Jars)

2012-01-16T17:53:00.002-06:00

I just love cloches…when my mom was at my home over Christmas, she got tired of me talking about cloches…she calls them bell jars. I was so excited when I made my first cloche.

I found all these cloches in one antique mall today here in Columbia.

Lots of different shapes and sizes! I now have five cloches, Sarah gave me this one…I paired it with a white ironstone footed dessert plate.

It has been fun to create little vignettes to go under the cloches.

I crocheted a tiny birds nest to go with some sea shells…

This cloche without a knob on top was $3 at the Goodwill store. It came over an atrocious wind up plastic clock, but the cloche is glass. I re-donated the clock! :)

This little guy is a votive holder upside down. I glued on an interesting pinkish glass knob from Hobby Lobby ($1 on sale and some more off because it was broken--there was no screw to attach it to a drawer).

So, this is what I have done today…played with cloches!

I even have a Pinterest board that is full of cloches!

This little dude is now sitting on my kitchen window sill…love it there.

I am linking to these wonderful parties!

Cardboard Rose Wreath

2012-01-15T18:49:00.003-06:00

I got a new couch this weekend…

It’s very pretty, I love it! The guys wouldn’t come down the driveway with the truck so one of them carried the couch all BY HIMSELF!! I was so afraid he would fall and get hurt or drop the couch!

Well, the couch and the delivery guy are both safe…

They were actually going to throw away this corrugated cardboard padding that was wrapped around the couch!

I must have been drooling a bit because one of the guys asked me if I wanted it to help start fires in my wood stove! Haha!

I have been looking at that paper for 24 hours when it hit me…this would make great rolled flowers!

I made a bunch of the flowers like this first. Then I found this straw wreath (you could also use a foam wreath too) and wrapped it with some left over muslin binding.

Glued on some leaf shaped cut outs and then the cardboard roses…

I am so loving it! Thinking that might just look good above the couch!

Just to add some bling, I put some hot glue in the middle of each rose and poured some vintage glass beads (which I bought with those buttons from last weekend) on top of the glue.

I tied another length of muslin around the top of the wreath for a hanger and stuck another flower on top of that.

Looking good, huh?

I decided to see what it looks like hanging above the couch…I may rearrange those pictures and add one more thing, but I am pretty sure that wreath is staying!

Total cost for this project: $3 for the wreath form (after using a 40% off coupon at Michaels), had everything else, left over from other projects!

I am linking to these great parties!

Bottle Lamp

2012-01-12T20:51:00.003-06:00

I have this bottle that I got for $4 at JoAnn’s over a year ago.

I am such a sucker for anything this shade of blue! But…probably because I only paid $4 for it, the color faded and then started to flake off. I finally got it in the sink and washed it and the remaining color flecks came right off. So now it looks like this…

Not bad, but I stuck it in a closet for a while, just to teach it a lesson and just because I wasn’t in love with it any more!

And then I saw this tutorial on making glass bottle lamps. I knew what had to be done…and I got busy doing it!

Finding the supplies I needed was the hardest part! I finally found the parts at an Ace Hardware, Westlakes here in Columbia. They had tons of different sized corks!

Of course I got one that was gigantic so I had to whittle it down to size so it would fit.

Not perfect, but not bad!

I love it!

The ~~teensy tiny~~ shade is temporary…I will start looking for one that is the appropriate size but I couldn’t wait to ~~brag~~ show off my new lamp!

I saw as I was taking pictures that there is a chunk of cork in the bottom of the lamp…I need to fish that out, but I think I will save that for another day!

Here it is with the new shade…and I made a seashell finial!

I am linking up to these great parties!

Sea Shells

2012-01-08T20:55:00.002-06:00

I was at the same auction that I got the buttons and bought this dirty wicker picnic basket with seashells inside. Actually I didn’t even see them until the auctioneer (my brother) announced there were seashells inside! I just bought them sight unseen!

I cleaned them by soaking them for a few hours in bleach water and scrubbed the dirt off of them with a brush.. They lightened up a lot, I think they were so dark before that they looked a dark grey!

I like how this one look like it is turned into sand on the very end. It is grainy too, and a bit crumbly. Wonder how old it is…

I can sit by the fire and pretend like I am at the ocean with my seashells.

Two boxes full of buttons

2012-01-08T20:35:00.002-06:00

I went to an auction yesterday…I found two boxes full of buttons. I just couldn’t help myself! I bought them both, we won’t talk about how much I paid for them, but anyway I bought them! I love to go through old buttons, one by one. I love the clamshells ones, I love the fancy plastic ones, I love the jet black glass ones. And this group of buttons had plenty of every kind!

Love the turquoise ones…and these oval buttons, they are plastic, but so cute. I am thinking they would make a great pendant. They are big and flat.

Love the yellow orange flower buttons and another giant flat button…I can see another pendant there!

This one is pretty interesting too, several layers of material, not sure what it is made of, but it doesn’t look like plastic.

And there are lots of buttons on cards. I like to see the prices! Wish they were that cheap now!

More turquoise and these carved red buttons are great!

And now a whole bag full of buttons I have set aside to use on a vintage button bracelet. Lots of really neat buttons, mostly clamshell, some glass. These will make a great bracelet!

I think these daisy type clamshell buttons are the best! They are big and very detailed.

I wonder how these clamshell buttons are made…

Looks like they need to be scrubbed a bit…

Linking up to these great parties!

Cute little knit baby hat

2012-01-08T19:37:00.004-06:00

I saw a baby hat on a baby even on Pinterest, but didn’t pin it so I didn’t have the instructions. I used several online patterns, just sort of adapting into my own pattern until it worked out right.

Too bad I don’t have a cute baby to try this on!

Pretty cute, huh?

Linking to these great parties!

Jenga Keychains {{by Sarah}}

2011-12-31T20:47:00.004-06:00

It’s Sarah again. Thanks to my sis Ellen for allowing me to guest post again! I still love to create new things from old things, so when I saw this cute keychain tutorial here, I knew that I had to make some. While browsing a local thrift shop, I ran across these blocks for $1. They were screaming “pick me, pick me!” Funny how that happens when you have a project in mind, and the supplies you need just seem to talk to you. :c) Gotta love those thrift shops for inspiring creativity!

I covered the blocks with Mod Podge and attached an eye screw in the end of each block for the key ring. So, here are my creations!

Maps, vintage music, dictionary pages, scrapbook paper, fabric… Oh, the possibilities are endless!

Thanks, Ellen, for letting me visit your blog again. Love ya!

~~Sarah~~

Here is the keychain Sarah gave to me!

Linking to these great parties!

2011 in Review

2011-12-31T20:07:00.003-06:00

These are my favorite projects from 2011…hopefully you thought some of them were great too! Click on the pictures to see the projects!

Paint Chip Mosaic Wall Décor

Baby Onesie Dress and Headband

Old Spoon Plant Markers

Flower Girls Dress

Earrings to Wind Chimes

Button Bracelets

Felted Wool Pumpkins from Recycled Sweaters

Wool Felt Stacked Christmas Trees

Sheet Music Feathers

Crochet Hair Clips

I hope everyone has a great 2012!

I am linking to these great parties!

When Pigs Fly

2011-12-25T21:05:00.002-06:00

This is a comparison of how a knitted project turns out when you follow the pattern and how a project turns out when you do not follow the pattern! These are both made from the same pattern, I pinned it a while back…

I made two of them for Christmas presents, one for a toddler without the wings and one for a knitter! I always worry when I give a knitted item to a knitter…you have to worry about that dropped stitch in the second row and the fact that maybe you didn’t say, follow the directions!

The one on the left was knitted first, I thought I was following the directions, but actually decreased instead of increasing! Trouble for sure! I managed to fix it up so it was presentable…I do love these flying pigs though!

I do love these tails…and they were so easy to make!

These piggies have a pink rubber ball inside them. Makes it a bit of a challenge to knit around it when you first put it in there, but after a bit it gets easier.

Hope everyone had a great Christmas!

I am linking to these great parties!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T17:00:00.002-06:00

Wishing you the best Christmas ever!!

Ellen

And the winner is....

2011-12-23T10:18:00.001-06:00

I used Random.org to choose the winner of this beautiful necklace from Shabby Apple!

Congrats to

"Melody said... 1

GFC Follower."

(I tried to copy the random selector box, but after 20 minutes, I gave up!)

Anyway, Melody, I am sending you an email now!

Thanks for all who entered!

Senior Pictures…How could this be?

2011-12-18T21:31:00.002-06:00

Sam had his senior pics taken today by his cousin (and my first niece)…I can’t believe he is a senior! He pretty much told me that he wasn’t going to have his senior pics taken, but he didn’t seem to mind so much!

These are just the pics that I took, I can’t wait to get the real pics from Jess!

We even had a (late) Christmas pic taken to send out in the cards I haven’t even thought about yet!

Last Minute Gifts…BBQ Rub

2011-12-18T10:50:00.002-06:00

I saw this recipe for BBQ rub on the Real Simple website. I love Real Simple…so many great ideas there and I love their comparisons on what the best product is and their cost comparisons.

I “borrowed” some jars from my SIL and made three Christmas gifts in less than 10 minutes!

I just layered in each pint the ingredients…

Just FYI, each pint holds 1 1/2 recipes. I packed it in snugly, tamping down the mixture with a measuring cup. When I was done, I ran a bamboo skewer down the side all around to get the design (remember sand art?) Love it!

In combination with three potholders or a gift card, this makes a nice gift! See my assistant Jack in the first four pics? No matter how I took the pic he was right there!

I Mod Podged scrapbook paper to the jar lids for a more professional look…and I included the directions for using the rub on the gift tag.

I am linking up to these great parties!

Don’t forget to enter my Shabby Apple *Looking Glass Necklace* giveaway!

Crochet Hair Clips

2011-12-16T13:17:00.002-06:00

Looking for a last minute quick gift to make for girls on your Christmas list? These are so easy, I made seven of them with left over yarn while watching TV one evening.

I chained about 5-6 inches and then turned and *half double crocheted in two chains, chained two and repeat from the * to the end of the chain. Then just roll it up and sew it with the yarn tails to the holes in the hair clip. Easy peasy! I already had the supplies so these were FREE!

I heart free things!!

The white felt flower I made from five felt circles. Also easy!

I am linking up to these great parties!

Don’t forget to enter my Shabby Apple necklace giveaway!

Christmas Cloche on the Cheap

2011-12-16T13:00:00.003-06:00

I had this thrifted black base for a candle that I arranged a little holiday scenery on…I have been wanting a cloche or bell jar to go over the top of it…so I found this vase ($2) at a recent thrifting expedition to St. Louis with Mom and Sarah. I forgot to take a before picture, so you will need to use your imagination to see this…

I turned the photo upside down so you can see this nice plain vase, it had a different shape to it that I liked and it is a really thick heavy glass. I thought about a handle and came up with this ($2 at Hobby Lobby-50% off of course!)…

This was a glass knob from a drawer pull…I used E6000 to attach it in the center of the vase. And taaaa-daaaa, there it is! I saw a very similar cloche at a fancy gift shop recently and it was the exact same shape! Love it! I also found that I had several bases for the cloche in my cabinets…

A clear glass desert plate my grandma gave me…I’m not liking this pair as much as the next one…This is a white ironstone cake plate, also given to me by my grandma. I love the way this looks!

Hard to take a picture with the sun shining so!

I am linking to these great parties!

Don’t forget to enter my Shabby Apple Looking Glass Giveaway!

Shabby Apple Jewelry Giveaway

2011-12-14T23:19:00.001-06:00

I have been seeing all the Shabby Apple giveaways around the blogosphere lately and I love their style! I was so thrilled when I got an email from the company offering me a chance to host a giveaway of one of their jewelry items! I had a great list to choose from…I just couldn’t decide which to go with!

Was this the necklace or what about bracelet…There were so many items to choose from--Key to My Heart, Key To Wonderland, Light as a Feather, Lost in Wonderland, The Duchess, Mad Hatter's Timekeeper, The Queen's Rose, White Rabbit's Time Keeper, Through the Looking Glass, Unlock the Queen's Castle, Dark Secrets of Wonderland, Poker Face Alice and You're All Mad. They all sound so intriguing!

I eventually chose a beautiful necklace called Through the Looking Glass. Here is the picture…

I am so wishing that I could enter this drawing myself! This necklace is so wonderful! It's 24" long which is such a great length…I love the vintage look to the glass!

And if you don't win the giveaway (or just need to finish up some Christmas shopping), Shabby Apple is offering a 10% off coupon code if you see something you can't live without! When you check out, just enter the code CreativePassages10off and and you will save 10%!

Wow, aren’t these earrings beautiful?

Here's how to enter to win Shabby Apple's Looking Glass necklace:

3 possible entries per person - each comment counts as an entry, so make sure to leave separate comments each time you do one of the following:

Go to Shabby Apple's Facebook page and like them, then come back and leave a comment saying you did.
Become a follower of Creative Passage and leave me a comment saying you follow!
Like Woolen Wonders by Ellen (the shop) and Creative Passage (the blog) on Facebook and leave me a comment saying you did!

Now for a few details:

Winner must have a US shipping address.
No exchanges for the winning piece of jewelry--the winner will receive the Looking Glass necklace and it cannot be exchanged for another item.
Giveaway will run through December 22! Winner will be chosen with the help of Random.org in the evening of December 22.
Don't forget about the 10% off coupon code~~ creativepassages10off is good for 30 days...You can pamper yourself for all the work you did before Christmas!

Thrifted Grapevine Tree {{by Sarah}}

2011-12-12T02:45:00.001-06:00

Hi! It’s Sarah, Ellen’s sister. Just stopping by again to share a repurposed thrift store find. I saw this tree and knew it had great potential. And it begged me to take it home. (Yes, I hear voices in thrift stores). :c)

I removed the raffia, bows, and lights. I debated about whether to spray paint it. But I liked the natural look so much. It looks perfect just as it is.

I decided to keep its simplicity and add a garland. I found these wooden beads at yet another thrift shop for $1.

I strung them on some jute twine and wrapped this around the tree.

I love the simplicity of having just the garland. I can change it easily to match the season or the décor. Another idea is Ellen’s super cute wool garland here…or wrap it with burlap ribbon. Stringing buttons on baker’s twine is another idea. Or wool felted balls on a garland of yarn like this. I can see endless possibilities!

Thanks, again, Ellen, for allowing me to share another creation! Love ya!

I am linking to these great parties!

Sarah’s first blog post!

2011-12-11T15:49:00.008-06:00

Hi, I am Sarah and I am so excited to do my first ever blog post! Ellen, my sister, has graciously asked me to guest post here on her blog. Ellen inspires me with her creativeness and keeps me motivated just by seeing all the awesome things she has made!
I am a crafter and a sew-er. I have probably tried just about every craft or needlework at least once. I love to repurpose and redo. Fabric, wood, and wool are some of my favorite things to work with. I have a HUGE fetish for wooden and metal boxes and baskets.
Here is my crafty work area in the garage thanks to my handyman hubby…

You can see many of my unfinished projects. You may see a few of these things in a future guest post, that is, if Ellen invites me back. :c)
Today, I thought I would share a project that I have been working on. Thanks to a local new Goodwill store (Ellen, we must go the next time you visit!), I brought this box home, thinking it might be wood. And it’s a box. So it was begging me to take it home.

It’s very cute, but I was thinking it would be even cuter as a rustic-looking box. So I removed the wooden letters on both sides and started sanding.

And… I think it’s fake wood. Actually, I know it is. So distressing the wood is not an option. Oh well, still determined to make this work. I sanded the corners to look more worn and then primed the entire box.
Next, I painted the box. It’s a good time to use up those paint samples (I have a gazillion since I am somewhat indecisive when choosing a paint color) and leftover wall paint if you have any. I have even been known to mix a few paint colors on occasion, such as the color below. I used a stiff bristled brush so the brush strokes would show when dry because I wanted to stain it to give it more of the real wood look.

On went the stain…

I decided to use scrapbook paper to fill the recessed area. I actually did not glue the paper in the area. I decided to use heavier scrapbook paper, make it a bit larger so it fits snugly and will stay on its own. That way I can change the paper to match the season or holiday. Or another thought would be to paint the recessed area with chalkboard paint. Or use mosaic tile. Or decoupage a child’s artwork. A recessed area on a box is a blank canvas just waiting for something creative to fill its space. I also gave it some new handles.

Here is the box Christmas-fied! Pretty with greenery and Christmas paper on the side!

Done!
Thanks, Ellen, for allowing me to share a bit of my craftiness! Love ya!

Linking up to these great parties!

Felted Balls Garland and other stuff

2011-12-04T17:42:00.002-06:00

Our Christmas tree this year is a lot different than usual! I made a decision to not put all our ornaments on the tree this year…we are just going with a few ornaments, some red striped wool balls I bought last year after Christmas…

and a few handmade garlands. The squares garland I told you about here and the one I made today with felted wool balls strung on wool yarn. And the clear lights too, but other wise nothing else. It has been rather nice, not having to climb into the long skinny closet under the stairs

and pull out the boxes and unwrap the ornaments. Some how it makes it easier to not have to stress about getting it all done!

And then, I won’t have to put things away after Christmas, wrapping each ornament and stuffing the box back under the stairs!

Anyway, I am excited because my mom is coming to visit over Christmas and into the new year, so I will have company for a while! I love having company! I have been working on Christmas presents today, I have a whole basket done, still have some left to do…knitting, sewing, crochet, felting, jewelry making!

I am linking to these parties!

Paper Feathers

2011-11-29T19:11:00.002-06:00

Another Pinterest idea! I loved the way these feathers looked when I saw them on Pinterest…so I made some out of an old songbook.

You can go here to see how to make them!

I think I am leaving mine on the Christmas tree!

I am linking to these great parties!

Black Friday Shopping

2011-11-27T19:45:00.004-06:00

Sarah and I went Black Friday shopping…we are not traditional Black Friday shoppers, we went to JoAnn’s and then we went thrift shopping!

I found the jar on the left at a junk store…it was $1.50. I love the bubbles in the glass and love the color. The jar on the left has a really short neck, I think it must be older. I was telling Mom about finding this jar and she told me she had lots of them. I wanted some pints but we only found quarts. So now I have four of these!

I found this little box for a few bucks…definitely has some age to it. I found the clay looking peppermint canes for $2.25 each at a gift store and also found this scrumptious room spray…it has an orange/clove fragrance which is heavenly!

I also got a pile of fabric at JoAnn’s…spent $52 and everything I bought will be used to make a Christmas present this year! The receipt said I saved $175!!

Darling burlap garland…

Lots of snow people…

These snowman faces were painted on fabric wrapped balls…

And wonderful felted wool stockings, big enough for any sized elf!

The wool felt mooses were very cute!

I loved the brown wool heart ornaments.

This cat was the guard cat at the junk store…she was very sweet but wouldn’t budge an inch when I checked out!

She’s clearly in charge!

I listed these in my etsy shop this evening and they were gone before the hour was out!

Speaking of shopping…shop here and enter ShopMonday15 as a coupon code for 15% off everything in my shop!

Sarah’s posting soon!

2011-11-27T17:36:00.003-06:00

I have this sister named Sarah…

She is really crafty…but she always says I am the crafty one…

She is the middle girl of five, so she is that notorious middle child! Well, except we also have three brothers. Yep, that is a total of eight kids!

And yep, that’s a total of four all polyester leisure suits in that photo! And you can’t tell but there are three (maybe four) maxi dresses! Trust me, they were in style then. At least I hope they were because we were all wearing them then!

So Sarah and I exchange gifts every other months, must be handmade things…usually that we make for the other. I have made lots of cool things, most of which you see here on my blog. Sarah doesn’t really have a blog, but I have been encouraging her to start one. She always says she doesn’t have time. But she made this felted wool ball garland.

And these JOY blocks…

and these labels for my crafts…

And these wonderful mug mats for my desk at work….

And this really cute felted present for my tree…

And darling snowman magnet for the fridge…

And this soap holder for the shower…

And this package for Christmas last year… Well, you get the idea, I guess…Sarah is very crafty and I am happy to announce she is going to be doing an occasional guest post here and there! So, watch closely for the next post, which will be by Sarah!

Cute Owl Hat

2011-11-27T16:28:00.002-06:00

Cute toddler owl hat…I made it this weekend from scraps of yarn I already had on hand. It is for a little girl, Miss Audrey, for Christmas…shhhh, don’t tell!

The pictures make it look kind of like a monster hat, hope it is not too scary!

I found the pattern online, I sort of made my own version (shocking, huh?) and tweaked it to make it my own! I used this pattern and this one and this one!

I am linking to these great parties!

Knit Cowl…thank you Pinterest!

2011-11-27T16:16:00.002-06:00

Pretend like that vase is a person’s head and neck! I tried to take my picture wearing this but it just didn’t work out! Anyway, I was pinning away on Pinterest one day and found this really cool cowl.

I am not much of a scarf wearer because I don’t like the ends hanging down from my coat or blowing in the breeze. I think this is a great solution!

All it took was a few hours watching TV. I didn’t have the size 17 circular needles so I went with a few more stitches around and used size 15 circular needles. I did use the yarn that Maggie used from Smashed Peas and Carrots…Wool-Ease^® Thick & Quick^®Yarn…I used the Barley color.

Anyway, I am pleasantly pleased with how easy and cute it turned out!
Linking to these great parties!

2011-11-23T11:28:00.001-06:00

As we express our gratitude, we must never forget that the highest appreciation is not to utter words, but to live by them.
~~ John F. Kennedy

Happy Thanksgiving!

Winner!!

2011-11-19T19:03:00.002-06:00

Yep, that’s right, random.org picked commenter #3 (I tried several times to copy the little random.org box, but couldn’t make it paste)!!

Rachel said... 3

I think my favorite etsy item is the bird's nest with the music note eggs.

Just email me Rachel and I will get your package mailed!

Christmas Garlands

2011-11-19T18:25:00.002-06:00

This garland is so cute and so easy to make! I used some wool felt and just cut squares a bit over an inch square…then I strung them onto coordinating baker’s twine.

I love the way it turned out! I made each one 12-14 feet long so it will actually make a few circles around the tree.

The wind was really strong today, you can see how the garland was blown all around!

I made the garland from this sweater…it has the best colors! Bright lime green, bright red and blue. Perfect for a garland.

I am working on getting the Christmas tree up and the decorations out later today, then this garland will hang on the tree!

I am linking to these great parties…

Are you ready…for a giveaway??

2011-11-13T14:31:00.003-06:00

I have been wanting to have a giveaway to mark my 500 followers! I am now at 566 followers, so I guess I better stop procrastinating! Thanks to everyone who reads my blog posts, who follows me and who leaves me comments! It is so cool that I have as many followers as I do! I remember when I first started blogging and I had 20 followers and I was amazed! So, here I am at 566!
Anyway, I want to offer some handmade things…a bunch of them!

And here they are…a wool felt cosmetic zip pouch, two wool mini wreath ornaments, a felted wool cupcake pincushion, a felted wool birds nest with two robin eggs for your Christmas tree, and a fall leaf garland (sorry, not wool).

Sound good?

Here’s all you need to do to enter:
1. Become a follower and leave me a comment that you follow!
2. Like me on Facebook and leave me a comment that you liked me!
3. Check out my etsy shop and leave me a comment telling me your favorite item there!
Anyone, anywhere can enter...I will ship anywhere!
That’s it! Have fun and good luck! I will choose the winner Friday evening.

Fall Craft Show

2011-11-13T13:33:00.003-06:00

Last year I set up at the Hearnes Center Fall Craft Show for the first time. I did well last year and thought I would try it again this year…

I would like to think I was more organized…

Actually it took much less time to set up this year, because I had less stuff to display. I decided to focus on fewer items and I think that helped!

The booth looked better, less cluttered and I sold things like crazy!

I sold many birds nests…and I sold every single garland I put on this tree which I had brought to display the birds nests!

I sold tons of the felt wool stacked trees too!

I sold all but one wreath I had packed there!

And I had a great time! I got to visit with people I hadn’t seen in a long time. A “baby” that I had taken care of when I was a nurse in the NICU came by and I had a nice visit with him and his mom, aunt and grandma! It was great to see him and his family and he was soooo cute!I just kept running my hands through his curly hair!

I even sold a few more pumpkins!

I gladly brought this wreath home! I wanted it anyway!

How to make wool felt…

2011-11-13T12:11:00.002-06:00

Many of you have asked where I buy my wool felt or how I make my felt…I have been wanting to explain this anyway, so here you go! I make my felt from wool sweaters, blankets, hats, scarves, coats, etc. This scarf is made from alpaca wool.

I use the process of fulling to create felt. I have actually gotten comments on my blog from the fiber purists pointing out that what I call felting is actually fulling! Basically it boils down to this…if you start with something already made (knitted, crocheted, woven,etc) you are fulling when you attempt to shrink it to produce felt!

Fulling is A finishing process in which the woven or knitted cloth is subjected to moisture, heat and friction causing it to shrink considerably in both directions and become compact and solid. In heavily fulled fabrics both the weave and the yarn are obscured, thus giving the apprearance of felt.

Felting is an ancient technique that produces a non woven sheet of matted material which is most frequently made from wool, hair or fur created by the entanglement of a mass of fibers that takes place when heat, moisture and pressure are combined.

Ok, so now that we have cleared the air on that topic, I actually start out at the thrift stores, yard sales, auctions. Those are the places that I look for anything that is mostly wool. I prefer 90-100% all wool, such as shetland, merino, lambswool, alpaca, llama, cashmere, mohair.

Now cashmere and mohair is wonderfully soft, but it won’t give you the tight felt that I prefer to work with, so I might buy it to use on some delicate projects, like baby blankets or soft flower pins. Look for wool solids to start with as prints are difficult to predict until you have some experience in how pieces look after they are washed.

Avoid any wool product that says superwash, because it will not shrink…it is meant to be washed. The good sweaters are the ones that say DRY CLEAN ONLY! Occasionally if I need a certain color, I will buy a sweater that is less than 100% wool if it is mixed with angora or mohair. Those fibers will bond with the wool so they will still give a nice finished product with more texture.

OK, so let’s say you have your wool sweaters…get them ready to shrink! The hardest part of all this is finding the wool articles to shrink so after that it’s all downhill!

Start by putting the similar colors together. I like to wash my sweaters all together…to save $$$. If you mix different colors together, the colored fibers from one sweater will attach itself to other sweaters in the washer. To prevent the colors from mixing I enclose my similar colors in a zipped pillow case cover or just tied up in a old pillow case.

You want the zippered bags to be loosely filled, not full and snug by any means…the pieces need to be able to move around freely. Another take on the zippered bags…this process will yield a lot of fuzzy debris that will clog your washer’s lint trap, so it is a good idea to contain that in these bags. Trust me, I know. Some of my fellow crafters use their local Laundromat for this process.

Nest fill your washer with water as hot as you can get it…add your regular laundry detergent. Never use fabric softener when fulling/felting wool as this causes the wool fibers not to stick to each other and therefore wont make felt! Then toss your pillowcases into the washer! Add an old pair of tennis shoes or rubber balls or old tennis balls as this adds some mechanical agitation of the wool, helping it to felt.

Set the washer on hot wash and hot rinse too…my washer is not fancy so I just hand set the rinse cycle. The next step is to wait anxiously while your washer does the work…You can open the lid and look inside every few minutes….I usually do that but I have to warn you about the smell of wet sheep which will emanate from the washer! And if you used old sweaters, think of the wet sheep smell combined with mothballs! Mmmmm, lovely!

You remove the sweaters from the zip bag outside preferably…this part is plenty messy as the fuzz will be everywhere! Shake each piece off and stuff it into the dryer. I usually clean my lint filter once while the sweaters dry and of course at the end of the load because it will be full! Once everything dries, you have wool felt! It might look really fuzzy…like this…

So if your sweater is fuzzy, then you brush off the fuzz…I use this Sweater Stone. It neatly cleans all the fuzz off the sweater in just a few swipes! You can get one here for only $5.99 and I have heard Target also carries these stones! You can see the left side of this sweater has been de-fuzzed and the right side (where the stone sits) still is fuzzy.

Now let’s compare a pre felted sweater…(you can see the rows of the yarn if you look closely)

with a post felted (or fulled!) sweater (all you see is fuzz)!

These two green sweaters made wonderful felt! One was an Old Navy and one was a Gap sweater…seems like the more expensive brand name sweaters make the best felt!

Grab some scissors and start cutting up your felt! It will not fray or ravel…the edges should be finished looking…if you can see threads or stitches, then the piece needs to be fulled again! Now you are done! All you have to do is find something fun to make…like this or this or this!

I am linking to these great parties!

Wool Circles Wreath

2011-11-05T17:59:00.003-05:00

I saw this on Pinterest and loved it from the beginning. I couldn’t wait to make my own, but of course I had to make it in blues.

I created a pattern with the blues and the off whites too and really like the way it turned out!

It was a lot of circle cutting which is sooo hard on the hands (especially when you are cutting through thick wool), but I did it the same weekend I made these so I was already in the circle cutting mode!

These circles are simply threaded on a thick coat hanger size wire…I bought a “hank” of wire at the hardware store. I am fairly sure the guys at the hardware store don’t call it a “hank” but I can’t think of what a gob of wire is called. Anyway, when you get enough circles strung on the wire so they are really snug on it, bend your ends into a circle and attach them to each other.

Then fluff it up and attach a bow! I used a scrap of vintage wool fabric to make this bow…I love the soft look of it.

I am linking up to these great parties!

Tile Coasters

2011-10-30T21:23:00.002-05:00

I have seen a bunch of these on Pinterest lately…decided to give them a try myself.

I used sunprint paper from Acorn Naturalists and printed some of my favorite things onto the paper. “This Sunprint art utilizes sun-sensitive paper that can be developed using plain tap water. Natural objects such as ferns, feathers, flowers or leaves are placed under a transparent cover (provided) and exposed to the sun for from 1-5 minutes.”

These tiles are only .33 each, so this is a great inexpensive project!

I printed them earlier this year and just hadn’t found the right project for it yet, but this one is it! I used the pages with daisies and ferns for these coasters. I love the blue color of the paper after it has been developed.

The tiles are actually 3.75 x 3.75 inches, so I cut the paper with my trimmer to be a bit less than 3.5 inches square. Then I just Mod Podged them right down onto the tiles. I also made some coasters using scrapbook paper.

The hardest part of the whole project was waiting for the Mod Podge to dry!

I used some self adhesive cork circles to put on the back to keep the tiles from scratching furniture.

I used matte Mod Podge and applied 4-5 coats to keep the paper protected. Eazzzzy!!

I am linking up to these great parties!

My first home

2011-10-30T20:54:00.002-05:00

If you read my blog you know I went on vacation the first few weeks of October. I went on a bus tour of New England…with my mom. It was a great trip and we had such a good time laughing and running around! I saw a lot of firsts too—Niagara Falls, New York City, whale watching, a riverboat, the place I was born.

I had not been to Connecticut since I was 18 months old when my mom and dad and brother and I moved from there. I had always wanted to go, so this trip seemed like a great chance. Our tour group was headed to Mystic Seaport which was a mere ten miles from New London where my family lived when I was born. So, mom and I broke free from the group (amid some scandal) and rented a car and drove to New London.

It was wonderful! We knew the name of the road, having looked it up before we left and found that the road still was there…after all it had been (COUGH) 50 (COUGH) years since we had been there. I was amazed at how beautiful the countryside is around there.

We drove up and down the road several times before we saw this…

The little blue house on the right was the cottage where mom and dad lived when they were first married. It was so cool to find the house. And the best part was that we actually got to go inside to look around. The man who owned the property actually was home and the cottage was between renters so he asked mom if she wanted to go inside.

While the house looked sort of rough on the outside, it was as solid as could be. It was built in 1810 in New York; it was moved to Connecticut in 1890. New London has a submarine base, so navy families lived there and this house was a rental for those families. Each of the cottages on this property had names…the one we lived in was Juniper.

Even the little shed outside the house was the same. My mom remembered it all like she just left it yesterday. The man who owns it now actually lived in one of the houses as a child when my family lived there, so mom even knew his name.

The yard was bordered by cove on two sides…the view was fantastic!

Mom wondered if the same roses were blooming in the garden.

This is mom with Doug, the property owner. He was so sweet to us, after all we knocked on his back door and he could have not answered the door!

The side of the house, such a cute little cottage! When I got back home I found pictures of my brother and I in the side yard of the house. It was so cool to be able to see what part of the yard the picture was taken in.

We stayed there for a while after Doug went back inside…he told us to stay as long as we wanted. We walked around the yard and mom talked and I listened. I didn’t want to leave.

On the way back to the hotel, we saw a sign for Hammonasset State Park. When I saw the Public Beach sign, I told mom we had to stop. The water was beautiful, the sand was wonderful, the shells were great, the breeze was heavenly!

I had my shoes off in no time with my feet in the surf…

I collected a bunch of seashells, driftwood and pebbles while at the beach…

I didn’t take into consideration that there might be some live things in this group of shells…I tucked my shells away inside a bag inside my suitcase after I washed them. By the next day the shells were soooo stinky! And it was only day four of twelve! I used Listerine to sanitize them and disguise the smell for the remainder of the trip! The luggage bins smelled minty fresh! Mom and I laughed every time we opened the bins to get our bags out…

Blog Block

2011-10-30T19:18:00.003-05:00

OK, I have not been blogging as much lately…I think I might have a case of blog block. Every time I sit down to write a post, this happens…the screen sits blank and I end up walking away. I have a lot to say, but I don’t really want to get down and get it done! I have projects that I am working on, but hmmm, for some reason, I don’t want to get them done or posted.

I am pretty ambivalent about where I want my blog to go..I would really like to host a link party weekly, I am sure I could do it, but wonder. Maybe no one would link up…hmmm. I would like to do more personal posts, but not sure if the blog would be as followed.

I have been meaning to host a giveaway for 500 followers too! But I haven’t yet! It is crazy for me to think about having 500+ followers! It is very wild to think that I would have followers at all… I was so thrilled one morning last month to find that I had been “stumbled” and had 340 page views in one hour, in the middle of the night even! I need to figure out how that works!

I did make a new banner for the blog and I love it. I use picnik.com to make my banner and my buttons, it is such an easy site to use and it is free! OK, enough rambling for now!

I can’t see the trees for the forest…

2011-10-26T18:20:00.004-05:00

Since it is a few days from Halloween, I started working on Christmas…Ha ha…gotta keep ahead of those holidays. No really, I am doing a craft show in a mere 10 days, so I am working fast and furious to get some more things done.

Some of those things I need to get done are these stacked wool felt upcycled Christmas trees. I call them Christmas trees, but I guess they could be any type of tree. I have seen them in a few places in the blogosphere, and I made some of them last year. The circles are in 18 graduated sizes, each tree uses 2 of each size circle and they are strung together with two pieces of wire (which allows them to bend and I like to pose them like Dr. Suess-ish creations) up the center of the circles.

Most of them are just a random assortment of colors…I try to keep a lot of green among the mix, as they are trees, of course!

I top each one with a felted wool ball. I have used different colors for the tops but I love these cream colored ones the best.

On the bottoms I put a thick layer of wool felt to hide the wires and to make them look more “professional”.

After all, it’s all about looking professional (not!). That’s why I use the unstained deck as my background…

Oh, and I hand cut these circles out on Saturday and put the trees together on Sunday…I made 17 trees…so that means a total of at least (I had a few left over in certain sizes and I had to cut a few more of certain sizes) 612 circles and I have the blisters to prove it!

I am linking up to these great parties!

Ellen

The first in a long time…

2011-10-17T02:00:00.002-05:00

Vacation that is…I took a vacation! It was lovely. I went with my mom on a trip to New England…we had a blast and I was so honored to be able to go with her. I know I haven’t been blogging much, I thought I could do so from mom’s iPad, but that was too hard and too time consuming, so I decided to just wait.

I knitted my way across the states of Illinois, Indiana, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Maine, New Jersey, New Hampshire, New York, Ohio, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Vermont. I am one of those people that can knit and watch scenery out the bus window at the same time so it was perfect for a trip like this.

Here’s my finished products…I had a new pattern for a knitted dishcloth and took probably 10 skeins of Sugar and Cream cotton yarn. I ended up with 5 great new dishcloths and several wool flowers I made from scrap yarn (no pics yet for those).

Here’s my mom…we are eating at Applebee's somewhere on the way there. We went on a bus tour, which wasn’t very fun, but we survived it!

Finding this little blue cottage on the right was the highlight of my trip. Mom and I rented a car and drove to Gales Ferry, Connecticut to see if we could find this little house where my older brother and I were born. We drove and drove, thinking that perhaps the little house was gone. We drove past the house four times before we realized this was probably the one!

More about this later, and I will have pics of Niagara Falls, the ocean and lots of other places we went. I just wanted to post something to let you all know that I am still here!

Ellen

2011-10-05T20:52:00.003-05:00

Yesterday and today I have been traveling by bus to the east coast with my mom. I was born in Connecticut and haven't been back there as an adult, so I am really looking forward to seeing Connecticut. We are now in New Jersey, so I thought I would post a few pics of the great little resort where we stayed last night. The bus ride itself hasn't been very much fun, but we will be there in a few hours.

Working on getting pics uploaded from the iPad

2011-10-03T19:43:00.003-05:00

Some garden pics from the end of the summer!

MDA Fundraiser Fun

2011-10-02T13:35:00.003-05:00

Sorry, this is going to be a long post with lots of pictures! I love my pictures. This is the 7th annual MDA Fundraiser hosted by my family in Galatia, IL. We have raised over a quarter million dollars since the beginning to raise money for research and care for folks with muscular dystrophies.

These two guys are the reason my family does this every year…Beau on the left and Gabe on the right! They both have Duchenne Muscular Dystrophy. We hope and pray for a cure to help these guys! We have a live auction, a silent auction and a team walk/ride to raise money.

We had rain this year, lots of it, so we set up differently and everything was fine, just a bit muddy, but the sun did try to come out several times. You couldn’t keep the people away, they came out as usual!

My SIL Chasidy…

and my mom…

The walk part getting ready to happen…lots of walkers/riders and the local village fire truck to lead them off. That’s the cool thing about this event is how much the little village/town puts into the mix!

The handmade pumpkin basket….

Pint jar full of felted wool acorns…made by me!

Kid fun basket…

Snuggly baby blanket with handmade taggie! I made this from a soft chenille and it turned out really cute!

Miss Laney has the best seat in the house!

Fun fall basket!

My aunt Marge made this bandana quilt and it went really high!

I snagged this basket…see the wool ball garland! Love it!

My niece made this lovely birds nest necklace.

I wanted these soooo bad, but I was outbid. My sis Sarah made them, just little owl zip pouches.

I also scored this Sak purse…love it!

A Thirty One basket…it was very popular!

And who doesn’t love girl scout cookies?

One of the classes at the school made this crayon canvas piece of art. I had seen these on blogs, but never saw one in person. It looked really cool!

My sister Jenny, Beau and Gabe’s momma! And that is another great thing about this fundraiser…I get to see all sorts of family!

Everything in this basket was made from duct tape—those flowers were really creative!

The teeter totters were very popular with the young ones…

Look mom, only one hand! Audrey is fearless!

And cute little great nieces and nephew running around made it all fun too!

Cheap Homemade Laundry Detergent

2011-10-02T12:35:00.004-05:00

I have seen a lot of homemade laundry detergent around the blogosphere…I bought the stuff to make some a few weeks ago and just got around to making it today.

I made a double dose, so I used two bars of Fels Naptha soap (99 cents) and two cups of each Arm & Hammer Super Washing Soda ($2.98) and 20 Mule Team Borax ($3.99). You must use the washing soda and borax, you can’t substitute baking soda for the washing soda.

I grated the bars of soap by hand and then got the bright idea to mix it all in the blender. I added the dry powders and the grated bars of soap and it turned out great!

The powder is fine and easy to scoop. I can’t believe how easy it is and this is supposed to do 80 plus loads of laundry. And the cost for each 80 load batch is about $2.

I have enough of the washing soda and borax for 8 more double batches (if I did the math right). And I have used it and love it! I understand you can also use Ivory bar soap instead of the Fels Naptha.

Definitely a great idea!

I am linking to these great parties!

Ellen

Seize the Cure Bra

2011-09-30T08:47:00.001-05:00

I have also been working on making this bra for the Artful Bra contest.

My work department wanted to create an entry and we decided to make it ours!

I work in the Pediatric Neurology Department, so we are always doing EEGs.

This bra is covered completely in EEG tracings, and sports the Epilepsy Awareness Ribbon pin on the flower in the front...

It sure wasn't the easiest thing I have ever crafted, as it took several hours to make, but it sure turned out great and it is sure a great cause.

October is National Breast Cancer Awareness Month...check out this website for news and information on prevention and treatment of breast cancer.

You can see last years submissions here.

You can follow this year's contest on the Ellis Fischel Facebook page here.

I am linking to these great parties...

Ellen

Dictionary Page Pumpkin

2011-09-29T19:47:00.002-05:00

This is a very simple project made with book pages…I used a dictionary because I had an old one from Salvation Army store for 50 cents. I also found the paper mache pumpkin there and it set me back a mere $1. Mod podge and a brush is all you need to make this cute pumpkin.

I used the P pages…you know, P for pumpkins!

It’s really very easy, you just wet the paper with Mod Podge, wet the pumpkin and then put the paper on the pumpkin and smooth it out with the brush. Don’t push too hard or you will be recovering that area!

Make sure all the surface of the pumpkin is covered and coat with one or two coats of Mod Podge to seal the pumpkin.

I covered the face on mine and just let the paper sort of settle in those areas. I like how the mouth is minimally defined.

I had cut out the words around pumpkin so I could paste it on when I was done with all the layers. So here it is, right by pump, pumpernickel, and pumpkin seed.

So this is a great idea for kids or grown ups as well! Mine went into my bushel of pumpkins for the MDA family fundraiser!

Yup, it’s buried in that basket full of mostly handmade pumpkins!

I am linking to these great parties here!

Ellen

MHBC Fish Fry and a Birthday Party

2011-09-18T22:04:00.003-05:00

This weekend the Lootens came to town for the MHBC fish fry…and to visit of course!

Laney telling me that she called Sam Buster!

And telling me a story…

Audrey chowing down with Grandma and Grandpa Looten.

and hanging out with momma…

Apparently she is now a momma’s girl!

I think this was the most fun of Audrey’s evening…they had a swimming pool full of birdseed with cups in it. She played in that birdseed for as long as we let her.

The end of the night…the light in the tent made it look so cozy!

Sunday after church we had a dual birthday party for Chuck and Laney.

Audrey was not impressed, Sam held her for a while and she was quiet.

Laney telling the big guys how to play Wii

This picture cracks me up!

Audrey fell asleep before she even ate!

Sweet baby feet!

Laney looks scared of all those candles on her Grandpa’s cake!

Grandma helping Laney blow out her candles.

It was definitely a princess sort of birthday…

Not sure why the princess is frowning here!

Ellen

Making Silent Auction Baskets and Other Things

2011-09-18T21:25:00.003-05:00

This past weekend my church had their big annual fundraiser for the debt free building fund. I always make several baskets to donate for the silent auction. This next weekend is my family’s MDA fundraiser in southern Illinois. I always donate a lot of things for that fundraiser too! Here’s a few things that I have been working on…

The Mizzou basket…set of four potholders, two badge reel clips, two decorated kitchen towels, 10 bean bags, two glasses case, a black and gold clutch purse…

The beach basket…all things blue and seashell-y!

I am still working on more baskets…a pumpkin basket, a patriotic basket, a fall fun basket, some felted wool acorns in a mason jar, wool mittens, a bride dress up basket, lots more!

I am linking to these great parties!

Ellen

Pumpkin Harvest

2011-09-11T19:23:00.002-05:00

Last weekend I spent most of Saturday making pumpkins from machine felted wool sweaters. I have been collecting orange lambs wool or merino sweaters over the past year to make these cute guys…

You can go here to see how to make them…

I am linking to these great parties!

Ellen

I will never forget…9/11/01

2011-09-11T11:34:00.003-05:00

I remember exactly where I was, what I did, how I just wanted my son with me (he was in school) so I could protect him some how, some way.

I remember how in disbelief I watched the plane hit the second tower, holding my breath, thinking how it couldn’t really be happening. Not in my country, not in the United States of America.

I remember being glued to the TV, I wanted to see it all, hear every news report about this disaster. I remember my son asking me why it kept happening…he assumed every time the footage was on TV it was happening again. That was when I turned off the TV. I hadn’t considered this was how a 7 year old might translate the relentless footage of the airplane hitting the tower, the people running and screaming.

I remember how packed the church was the Sunday after…full of people wanting reassurance that life would be the same again, full of people wanting to be with family and friends. And there wasn’t a dry eye in that church when the choir sang America the Beautiful.

O beautiful for spacious skies,

For amber waves of grain,

For purple mountain majesties

Above the fruited plain!

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea!

O beautiful for pilgrim feet

Whose stern impassion'd stress

A thoroughfare for freedom beat

Across the wilderness.

America! America!

God mend thine ev'ry flaw,

Confirm thy soul in self-control,

Thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for heroes prov'd

In liberating strife,

Who more than self their country lov'd,

And mercy more than life.

America! America!

May God thy gold refine

Till all success be nobleness,

And ev'ry gain divine.

O beautiful for patriot dream

That sees beyond the years

Thine alabaster cities gleam

Undimmed by human tears.

America! America!

God shed His grace on thee,

And crown thy good with brotherhood

From sea to shining sea.

Ellen

Wool Pumpkin Pins

2011-09-07T08:23:00.001-05:00

I made some big wool pumpkins today, so I had lots of orange scrap wool just waiting for me to make these pumpkin pins!

I cut black felt with pinking shears for the eyes and used a satin stitch for the mouth. I added one to two layers of batting in the middle of the two layers to give them dimension and a sprig of green felt for the stem.

I think they are especially cute!

I am linking to these fun parties!

Ellen

Long weekend means lots of crafting!

2011-09-06T19:05:00.002-05:00

Lots of crafting done this past weekend!

Some Mizzou things for my etsy shop….

A wreath makeover….

A really pretty crochet flower pin…

Some bright and cherry Jack-O-Lantern pins…

A cute little Halloween sweater for the cat…

Some time to take some pictures…I am loving the cooler temperatures and noticed the orange/red leaves on this tree for the first time this year! Guess it is close to fall!

Ellen

Doily Brooch

2011-09-05T15:25:00.003-05:00

I was at the Salvation Army and found these crocheted circles for $2…they are only about 2 1/4 inches in diameter. I think the person who made them was working on a table cloth or a bedspread. There were about 60 circles.

I had all sorts of ideas with what to do with them.

I used a tutorial I had seen all over blogland, but here is a specific post you can read about to see how the circles were folded.

I used a German glass button for the center, in a pretty coneflower blue shade.

You can find one of these in my etsy shop!

I am linking up to these great parties!

Ellen

Wreath Revamp

2011-09-05T14:50:00.002-05:00

My sister Sarah and my mom sent this calico heart shaped wreath home with me to make into something fabulous! Well, when I found it, the calico red wreath was covered with old polyester/vinyl/ugly ribbon and some old plastic Christmas picks with plastic berries and total ugliness!

I had my wool out this weekend and thought I would just show them! I just can’t refuse a dare of that sort!

I am liking the way it looks hanging on the tree in my yard!

I am putting together a red, white and blue basket for the MDA fundraiser that my family hosts every year…so I thought this might just fit in there!

I kinda like it in a 70s sort of way!

I am linking to these great parties…

Ellen

Frosty’s New Sweater

2011-09-05T13:04:00.004-05:00

I do love to ~~torment~~ pamper my cat Frosty…so here is his new Halloween costume! Frosty is a different sort of cat…he doesn’t like the other cats, he still, after 6 years, hisses at Rachel the dog, and he doesn’t like my son. Here he is trying on his new sweater.

But me, he loves…that wasn’t always the case because the first time he met me it was ~~hate~~ not exactly love at first sight. I dated Frosty’s original owner six years ago…the first time I met Frosty at his house he attacked my purse with wild hatred! And it was a very nice pink leather purse, brand new!

Frosty was abandoned as a kitten, then he lived a solitary life with a single man, my friend Ralph for a year or so. Then Ralph suddenly died and Frosty didn’t have a home. Ralph’s kids couldn’t keep him and I hated the thought of Frosty going to a the Humane Society, because, well, Frosty was not a social animal. In fact he was downright cranky and not happy.

When I brought him to my house, he hid for two weeks, first in the woods, then in the garage, then underneath my bed. I would see the occasional glimpse of him, but he wouldn’t let me hold him and he wasn’t eating that I could tell. And he didn’t have outdoor cat survival skills, so he needed to be in the house.

I called my vet, described the situation and explained that I had not been able to catch him. My vet only makes house calls, so he came over and we trapped Frosty underneath my bed. Frosty chewed up Dr. Frank’s arm and scratched and bit him. Dr. Frank trimmed his nails and we put him in a crate so I could give him some medicine to calm him down and so I could monitor his eating.

Isn’t this so cute on Frost? I thought the bat added some extra bling! And it sort of matches his personality. The sweater was made from a machine felted wool turtleneck sweater and this is the turtleneck part! The bat clip I got at Michaels for $2.99–40% off of course!

Well, back to Frosty’s story…Dr. Frank prescribed him some amitriptyline which is a human antidepressant. I drug him out of the crate that evening, gave him his first dose, and tried to love on him but he would not have it! So back into the crate he went. I fed him baby food first meats-lamb of course-and the first day he didn’t eat any of it. The next morning I saw the food was gone. That afternoon, I took him out to give him his medicine and he didn’t fight so much. A few hours later, I heard a noise from the crate and Frosty was purring! And he was making eye contact with me!

With some hesitation I let him out of the crate and he started rubbing against my legs, making figure eights around my feet. He purred and purred! Now this cat hardly ever leaves my side, even though he loves to go outside, he always wants to come back in the house.

See Rachel’s head shadow in the bottom of the picture? That’s about as close as she comes to Mr. Frosty! She is terrified of him for sure! I need to start working on Rachel’s costume…in the past she has been a ninja, a ballerina, a chick…gotta think of something different!

I am linking up to these great parties!

Ellen

Random stuff

2011-08-30T18:27:00.001-05:00

Sitting outside this evening talking on the phone with my mom (which is where I have to go to talk on my cell phone, thanks so much AT&T!), I took a few deck scenery pictures. Summer has been really hard on my landscaping/plants/willingness to do much out there.

Loving my flying pigs…

And how the water accumulates on big leaves after even a small rain…

I went to an auction in town this weekend and after I parked, I walked by this bush on the way to the action! I have never seen a bush like this. The berries are a light purple and they look like those Styrofoam flowers you buy in the craft store.

The bush was really interesting…just never have seen one like it ever! If anyone knows the name of this, I would love to hear about it!

And yes, I shamelessly photographed it with my cell!

And here’s my pooch Rachel Manatee…I caught a face picture of her, she is barking here, but you can see her gray muzzle and her gray underbelly. She is after all, 77 people years old!

I’ve got this dorm fridge where my big fridge used to be…not liking that very much, but hopefully I am getting someone out here Monday or Tuesday to look at the fridge to see if it is fixable. I am praying that it is repairable…it just quit cooling and all the food in the freezer and fridge was lost! Seems like it is always something!

This book is why I didn’t get much else done this weekend. I started reading it Friday night and basically couldn’t put it down! I finished it this afternoon, wonderful book. Can’t wait to see the movie!

This is one of my next projects I am working on…not going to tell you any more, but hopefully next weekend I will have more to show!

These ratty song books I found at the auction, someone had left them on a table and they were going to throw them away, so, I snagged them! I remember singing this song, Old Folks At Home, in high school music class. I will be using them for crafts of course, since I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket!!

Ellen

500!!!

2011-08-29T19:14:00.003-05:00

Here's my great news! I just hit 500 followers! I remember when I had no followers, no comments, and now I just can't believe I have 500! Actually now I have 505 followers!

I have come a long way, however, it took me probably 20 minutes to figure out how to capture this screen shot, but I finally got it wrestled down and pasted here in the old blog.
Thanks for all your comments and thanks for following me!

I want to do some sort of giveaway, but please tell me what you want for a giveaway, look around and leave me a comment!

I can’t wait to see what you choose!

Ellen

My Tuesday {Ten}

2011-08-23T13:43:00.000-05:00

Surprise lilies make a great bouquet. I love using the old Ball jar for a vase. When you get up close you can see a touch of blue/purple on the end of the petals. Never noticed that before.

The Rose of Sharon bush has bloomed like crazy this summer…my cub scout den planted it probably 8 or 9 years ago. That was such a fun project, they all got really dirty and loved it!

Queen Anne’s Lace is one of my favorites…

I am starting to work on some projects for a craft show this fall.

Pins and pumpkins…

I took this on a dare from my sister and my mom. It was a Christmas wreath covered with some really gruesome white carnations and some red berries and a hideous green ribbon that was polyester. So I am going to try to make some thing out of the 1970s craft disaster!

Trying to get my dog Rachel to look at the camera, she instead chose to look at my feet…but the cat kept looking at me. Friday we took Rachel out to the farm (my brother and sister in law’s house). She always rides in the back seat and sticks her head out the window and barks all the way there. We usually have the windows half down and she has never acted like she was going to jump…well, Friday she jumped/fell out of the car while it was moving (only 35 mph thankfully). She was fine (except for some abrasions on her underbelly) but looked so confused…and the dog she was barking at ran back to his porch and stayed there. No more barking from Rachel the rest of the way. From now on those windows are more than half up!

This is Frosty, the wonder cat…he used to be an indoor cat and now is an indoor/outdoor cat. He always has the deer in the headlights look when he is outside. Occasionally he climbs a tree and can’t figure out how to get down.

The little swing my son made when he was little…he wanted a swing but we really didn’t have much of a place to hang a swing. He spent many hours in that swing.

Ellen

A new felting book & another attempt at wet felting!

2011-08-21T19:35:00.005-05:00

My mom and my sister were here this weekend and my mom bought me this book….she’s nice like that! I have tons of wool and felting books, but didn’t have this one!

It is full of such great projects…even though the cover says it is for kids, I can see a purse made like this…and I am thinking one of my great nieces or nephew would like one of these horses.

Plus this book showed a different way to wet felt, which I have never had much luck with. I have tried to felt bars of soap, tried to make wool fabric, just never quite turns out right! I do have this ginormous (probably this is less than half of the stash) quantity of wool roving from sheep and llama and alpaca.

I got my stuff together…I used dish soap, an empty dish soap container for sprinkling water onto the dry wool roving, a container of water, two large towels—one on the floor under the table and one under the bubble wrap, and yes, bubble wrap.

I laid my roving down on top of a piece of bubble wrap which was 24 x 24 inches (I taped two pieces together) with the first layer horizontal and the second layer vertical and then another layer horizontal. I used three thick layers for the blues, pulling the roving apart as I laid it down.

Next I sprinkled the dish soap on the dry roving…

and then squirted water onto the roving.

I patted the roving down until it started to stick to itself and then I laid another piece of bubble wrap on top of the roving.

Then you roll it up like a jelly roll and start kneading and rolling it…I had to squeeze the water out of mine because I ~~might have had~~ had about a gallon too much on the roving!

This is the finished product…definitely a success…the colors are so deep and vibrant. And the roving I laid on top adds a lot of texture.

Ok, so that was a success…but this one was not. I was hoping to make some leaves out of it, with nice fall colors.

I made this one too thin I guess, my roving was thinner and I didn’t use as much of it. I had a lot of trouble getting it to felt (might have just been the kind of roving I used) and I tried to repair some holes which left giant hunks of roving hanging out.

So one success and one not so much…

This piece is made from llama roving. Lovely soft brown color. I added some swirly designs on top in a cream color.

It was pretty coarse wool, so it kept getting thicker and thicker. I decided I had had enough of hand felting it and it was already felted so I threw it in the washer to finish the job. Take my word, resist this temptation if you try this! It is close to an inch thick in spots and one half of it attached itself to the other half, so I had to cut it apart with a knife to show the design. Not so sure it will make the purse I had hoped!

You can see how coarse the wool is here. Looks more like the darn llama itself! The jury is still out on whether or not this one is a fail!

This project I know is a success!! I felted a bar of soap. I have never been able to do that before and I have tried it a dozen different times. I used a blue/green and wrapped a length of sea foam green around the middle after it was half felted.

I am linking to these great parties!

Ellen

Tuesday {Ten}

2011-08-16T19:58:00.006-05:00

School starts Thursday for Sam my son and he loves the Yankees and I do too by default. The Yanks were playing the KC Royals Monday night and Tuesday and Wednesday too, so I surprised Sam with tickets to Monday’s game. August games can be miserable temperature wise, but this was a 7pm game. We got there a few hours early to watch the Yankees warm up…Jeter and Cano leaving the field here…

We watched Teixeira hit a few practice balls out of the park.

When the Royals came out we saw Melky Cabrera come out and hug Jeter and Cano…Melky was on the Yankees last year…and got traded to the Royals, so it was funny to see them on opposite teams.

We couldn’t have had a more perfect night…cool in the upper 60s, forecast was for rain, but we had sunshine until dark, then we had a beautiful full moon facing us.

And the best part is that Mariano Rivera, AKA Mo or the Sandman, closed the game out! We have seen three other Yankees games, but had never seen Mariano close. He is incredible! Loved to watch him pitch and to see the three consecutive outs!

Wow, that’s all I have to say! I could watch this guy pitch all day.

Funny thing, I have never been too much of a baseball fan, but now don’t miss a Yankees game! My son has always been a big Yankees fan(atic), so I just became one too! I have been to two Cardinals games and was miserable both times—one it was 105 degrees, afternoon game with seats in the sun (did I mention I was wearing a knee length denim dress?) and the other game it was 42 degrees with seats in the shade.

Being uncomfortable to watch the Yankees though is no big deal! Now I am starting to understand those die hard Cards fans!

Regrettably I didn’t get any pics of Sam and I together, but it was great spending time with Sam and talking with him during the game (much to his distress!). Of course, he slept the 1 1/2 hours there and back!

Ellen

Ribbon Organizer Tutorial

2011-08-16T18:54:00.000-05:00

I made a few ribbon spool holders a few years ago...they didn't quite hold all my spools, but they were a help! The pink one in the back is the new one I am going to show you how to make.
I have made ribbon organizers before, but they were too small or too wonky to work well.

This is my pre organizer ribbon storage…yeah, not working so much! The more I dug to find a color, the more I couldn’t find it!

And this is the after! Six dowels all full of ribbon…

So, a few weekends ago I acquired about 50 more rolls of ribbon (major deal~~$5 for 50 rolls, plus some lace and rick rack, plus I donated a large quantity of trims and things I won’t use to Goodwill) and clearly needed more efficient storage.

Since there are different sized rolls, I decided to make one to fit the larger ribbon rolls.

I found a board that was 4.25 inches wide and I cut it to 18.5 inches long. I laid my large ribbon roll along the board and used a black marker to mark the hole in the center of the ribbon spool.

I just kept repeating until I was to the end of the board. If you want actual measurements, the holes were 4.5 inches apart and the first and last holes were 2.5 inches from the end of the board.

Then I used a yardstick to tidy the spacing up a bit so the dots were equal distance from the sides and from each other. As I walk to the garage I remember that I haven’t fed my fish yet today…so I stop and do that…

One of these days the big goldfish is going to jump right out of there!

Ok, back to the project! I got my Craftsman drill ready and used the appropriate sized drill bit which happened to be 3/8 inch. Now here is the tricky part…this is how I got my holes to be straight so the dowels don’t lean crazy. I put a ribbon spool on the board and held it while I drilled.

Ok, now I know there is probably a tool to accomplish this in a less silly fashion, but I use what I have! I make do! My mom taught me that…she has eight kids and she could whip up a big meal out of not much or make us all clothes out of what she could get. So that is my mom’s trait that I am happy to have—she is much better at it though!

Looking pretty straight now, huh? So next, sand it all nice and purty! I have an electric sander and couldn’t quite find the coordination to sand with two hands and take a pic, so no pics of that part!

Now give it a nice coat of spray paint (or you wouldn’t have to do this step, it works fine either way!). And yes, that is my trash can lid that I spray painted on. I always use it for all my spray painting—that’s just how I roll around here! Let the paint dry all the way (trust me on this one—it is hard to peel a ribbon roll off the board when you didn’t let the paint dry all the way) and….

I used a small rubber mallet to pound the dowels into the drilled holes. (The dowels are 12 inches tall, did I mention that?) You could put a drop of wood glue or Gorilla glue on dowel before you hit it into the hole.

Drum roll please!!!! All done…..

Total cost to make…nothing! I had the dowels, paint, sandpaper, boards left over from another project.

Now, I hate to admit it, but I have more spools of ribbon in my craft room that need to be stored onto my new holder too! Can a person have too much ribbon?
I had linked this project up to Jill's great blog Creating My Way to Success last week, but thought I would share it here too!

Ellen

Guest posting at Creating My Way to Success!!

2011-08-11T18:58:00.001-05:00

Jill asked me to guest post over at Creating my Way to Success!! You should bop over there and check it out…you will find a tutorial on how to make this wooden ribbon organizer!

And while you are there, check out Jill’s blog…she has a great linky party and lots of great ideas!

Ellen