Good Morning!

If any of you have never been to visit Seasonal Delights Quarterly http://sdquarterly.com/ than you don't know what you have been missing. Kelli and Phillip have a lovely website filled with recipes, crafts, poems, etc. They also include bonus recipes or crafts in between issues. Which is where I found the directions for these beautiful Valentine fans.These were so much fun to make. The most time consuming part is cutting out all the fan "blades", but after that it's pure fun decorating them. I am giving these fans, along with a small box of candy, to the girls at my office. One is also going to my Grandmother and another to my sister.

This one is my favorite! Mostly because it's purple but I also love the beaded fob at the bottom.

It's been very windy and cold here this week-end and the downed electrical wires have caused some fires in surrounding counties. Please pray that these are contained quickly and without harming anyone.

Have a great day!

Linda

Good Morning!

Just popping in to say a quick "Hello".

I finally got my neice's apron finished this weekend. It was a little tedious inserting the lace around the scalloped edge and pocket, but I love the finished product.

Just one more week until Christmas Eve! I love this time of year. Yngwie and I went to the mall yesterday evening to pick up a few things we wanted to get for his friends and it was so packed you were shoulder to shoulder. But I was pleased to see that everyone was in a great mood. No shoving, yelling, etc. Everyone full of the Christmas spirit. I was even more pleased to hear many cashiers saying "Merry Christmas"! I am sure everyone has heard about that debate.

I know this week is going to fly by as we are so busy.

Hope everyone has a blessed day!

Linda

Dishcloths and Rambling

Good Morning everyone! We are still having warmer than normal temperatures here in SW Virginia, but by Sunday we should start cooling down to temps in the 40's.

While blog surfing, I have noticed many bloggers who live "up north" are already getting snow! Now I would love to have a white Christmas, and I think snow is beautiful, however; I really don't like snow! I have to go to work and I live out in the country where usually we are the last to have our roads scraped. Fortunately, I have a 4-wheel drive SUV and don't usually have to much trouble getting in to work.

One of my blogging friends "Mammy" http://morthanenough.blogspot.com/ asked to see the dish cloths that I had made for Christmas presents, so here they are. They are very simple to make with one row single crochet and the next double. Then I did a shell stitch around the perimeter. Really quick and easy!

I am giving these dish cloths along with an embroidered tea towel to my sister, grandmother and neice this year. The tea towel below is my favorite, it is going to my grandmother.

We are still decorating and getting ready for our Open House. It's next week and I am so excited! I love having all my friends and family to visit with during the holidays. Ygwie has been getting into the decorating act as well. He decorated his guitar amps and drum set with Christmas lights! I think it looks pretty cool!

This photo is the top of the bookshelf in my kitchen with all my vintage Santas, elves, etc. See that really "messy" looking, small Santa in the middle on the cake plate in front of the angel? I made that in the first grade out of an egg carton. I can't believe it has lasted for 40 years! (oops, told my age, didn't I!)

The "lady in red" on the right was the last doll that "Santa" ever brought to me when I was 18 years old.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week!

Blessings,

Linda

Crazy Cat

Here is the "crazy cat" I made from the instructions from a great magazine I found at the bookstore the other day. The magazine is called Create and Decorate. I have fallen in love with that magazine. It is packed full of projects to paint, sew, scrapbook, etc. very little advertising and full size pattern pullouts.
The cat is made from muslin and then painted orange to give it that "primitive look". I've got another one cut out that I will paint black and will use them as part of my Halloween decorations. He was very easy and fun to make.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful weekend.

Blessings

Linda

Cones

While surfing around the web, I have found many crafters who make these embellished cones, so I decided to give it a try.

I was wishing for fall weather yesterday, so I made mine with a fall theme. Please ignore the junk in the background!

I have black tissue paper stuffed in mine right now, but I thought for Halloween, I would fill them with candy to give to the girls at work. They are really fun to make.

Hope everyone has a blessed day!

Linda

Dogs and Stuff

I was busy last weekend making some "camo" dogs for my twin nephews for their birthday. When they saw the one I had made for their sister, they both wanted one in "camo" fabric. I tried different kinds of ribbon for collars and decided "Boy" dogs should not wear a ribbon. I may pick up some real dog collars for them. On my way to my Grandmothers on Sunday, I took a picture of this house because it has always been one of my favorites, and now it is being torn down for a new road. I know the road is really needed through there but I have always loved this house. It has a huge barn and used to have several stables and riding rinks for horses. I can just imagine what fun past occupants had in that house. I can't help but feel sad for old abandoned houses. Think of how excited the builders of the house were when they were moving into their beautiful brand new home. Sunday evening, when I was taking a walk down to the lake, I found that I wasn't alone in my walk. This beautiful deer stood perfectly still for quite some time as I continued to walk up to her. She finally ran off when I was within 50 feet, but was nice enough to pose for a photo before she was off. There is also ALOT of caterpillar nests in our trees! We are going to be bombarded with caterpillars this fall. Several years ago, our elderly neighbor decided to wage war against the caterpillars and after a "few" drinks, decided to go light the nests on fire. Needless to say, the fire got out of hand in the woods right next to our house! The fire department was able to extinguish the fire before too much damage was done. But he didn't learn his lesson, the next year he did it again! This time my husband was able to put the fire out before it spread to other trees.

It is supposed to be 100 degrees here today. Sigh. I'm looking forward to fall, ya'll!

Have a blessed day

Linda

Finished Projects!

I finally snapped some photos of some of the projects I have been working on. The jeans purse was so much fun to make! I just cut off some of my sons jeans that were too small and sewed up the bottom. I measured the inside of the bag and lined it with some red and beige toile fabric that I already had. The handle is made from a mans tie that I bought for .50 at the thrift store. And on the side is a little rhinestone button that came from the button jar that my Grandmother gave me. The fabric flower I made using a tutorial from http://blairpeter.typepad.com/. These fabric flowers could also be used as a topper to a package or even as a corsage! They are so fun to make.

This photo of my Edwardian apron did not turn out so well. I really love the apron, it has great coverage which is good for me because I can get really messy cooking sometimes! And it has great deep pockets. I got the pattern from http://sensibility.com/. They sell lots of patterns that are Edwardian and Victorian. It's a really fun sight.

The embroidered cat is from a 1980 Better homes and Gardens craft book. It was a lot of fun to make and is so cute. I made this one to be a Christmas ornament and will give it to my girlfriend Diane for her birthday. She loves cats and Christmas ornaments. I think I will make several of these to use on top of Christmas presents instead of bows.

We had a little set back with my MIL yesterday. At her appointment they told her that she had emphazema and she will probably have to have the oxygen tank the rest of her life. She is really having a hard time accepting this. Her oxygen levels are down to 74 without the oxygen. Your oxygen level should be at least 87.

Please!!!! If any of my blogger friends smoke, please, please, talk with your Dr. about getting help quitting. My MIL smoked for 35 years and is now paying the price for it. It is so hard to watch her cry and cry and not be able to do a thing for her. There is no cure for enphazema and it doesn't get better.

Another Dog and Purse

Back in January, I made my sister a stuffed dog and purse for her birthday. My niece (my sister's daughter) had a fit and wanted the exact same thing for her birthday. So this week-end I got both of them finished. I really love the black with hot pink polka dots! The dog is really not hard at all to make and I love watching him come together. My twin nephews say they want dogs for their birthday in August too. They want them made out of camo fabric. They will be so much fun to make!

When I was cleaning in the attic a couple of weeks ago (uhhh), I found a cross stitch that my sister had made back in 1986. Why I have it in my attic, I have no idea. Anyway, I showed it to her and she didn't want it so I made it into this small pillow for my niece. The picture didn't come out very well. The picture is either a beaver or a woodchuck, I can't really tell, but I used some Mary Engelbreit ( love her stuff) fabric to make the pillow.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Gremlins!

My mother in law gave me this craft magazine along with many others when I first got married in 1980. At the time I wasn't very interested in the crafts in it so I put it away. Now 27 years later, I found them in the attic and LOVE some of the crafts in them.

Some of the fashions are hilarious! But I just loved some of the ads for crafts that you could send off for. I wish I could come across the patterns for them.

I decided to make what they called elves. I think they look more like gremlins. Now in 1967 they did not put full size patterns in the book. You were to take graph paper with 1 block equaling 1" and draw the pattern. Sorry! I am not that artistic. Thanks to modern technology I just stuck it on the copier and enlarged the pattern to the size I wanted. Not everything in the good old days was good!

Mine turned out a little different than the picture in the magazine. "Yngwie" has named them. The green one is "Les" and the purple one is "Paul" I like the green one best, he likes the purple one. Either way I think They turned out really cute.

I also made a skirt out of the same fabric that the green gremlin is make from and two more "wee bunnies". I decided that my neice and mother in law needed one too!

Speaking of my neice, she is coming down week after next so I can teach her to sew! She is 16 and want to learn to sew some purses and totes that she can sell to make money to help pay her car insurance and gas.

I hope everyone had a great week-end!

Bunnies and more Bunnies

Good Morning Everyone!

Thanks for your kind comments! It is so exciting to see that someone actually read your blog.

As promised here are my pictures of my "Wee Bunnies" The yellow one has wonky ears and I was getting ready to rip them out and redo when "Yngwie" (DS age 15) came by and said "Hey I like the yellow one best, he has cool ears" I told him I was going to redo the ears and he says" Don't! everybunny isn't perfect" and then went giggling away pleased with his joke. So I left them.


They are sitting in blue and white china bowls I got at the Rescue Mission thrift shop. The post cards are adorable. I got those at a local antique store. They are from 1915 and 1917. I love the writing on the back. Instead of a city, she just wrote "local" how cool is that.


These bunnies are going to live with my Grandmother and Sister, They are all packaged up and ready for Easter.

The next photo is for Bitter Betty who asked me to post a photo of a blouse I made from a vintage pattern. I forgot to check the pattern number before I started my blog so I will have to get back to you on that!


The fabric was thrifted from the Rescue Mission as well. 2 1/2 yards for $1.00. It is a very thin cotton with green and orange follage and little orange deer. I thought it was so cute! I still have to hem the sleeves and bottom.

Hope everyone has a wonderful day!

Oh and Lindat, I got the cake stand at TJ Max for a whopping $9.99 they had two different sizes, one a little bigger than this, I think I may go back and get it.

And Rebecca, yes! The frogs are peepers! I get so excited when they return each year. The windows are flung open so I can hear them. Such a welcome sound of springs arrival.

I made this purse this week. All in all it turned out pretty good. I will get a picture of mine ASAP. The only trouble I have with it was that it was so hard to turn. I use a pretty stiff interfacing so I know it will be somewhat hard, but I guess I didn't leave a large enough hole. I really like the hat, but haven't made it yet. I still have to make my neice a purse and dog like I made my sister, for her birthday and my twin nephews have requested the same dog made out of camoflage.

I had planned to make some shorts this week-end but I was at a thrift store today and they had their shorts on sale for $1.00! I bought 5 pair, two of them were Lands End, two were Levi's and one Jones of NY. Looked like they had never been worn. I love a great deal!

This week-end I plan to attend a workshop on open hearth cookery. It is part of a "Could You have survived" series at a historical park in our area. I am really looking forward to that!

Bunnies and Cookies

Good Morning!

This week end was pretty busy, but I was able to get some crafting done. I made the above "Bunny Garland" using a free pattern I picked up at Hancock's. I used blue and white toile so they would match my kitchen. It was a fun and quick project!

I Love Easter! I love that it comes in spring, I love the pretty pastel colors of Easter candy, I love lillies, the Easter Bunny, the words "new Easter dress", just everything about it in general! I guess that is what prompted me to make the Easter M & M cookies in the top picture. These are so good!

And one of the most exciting parts of this weekend was that my DH tilled the garden for me! This is a huge deal because he hates to garden! But he did it and now it's all ready for planting.

Spring Fever

I am so glad that February is over. I shouldn't be wishing my life away, but I really do not like winter.

Day before yesterday I noticed a sign at the seed store that said they had onions and peas. I was elated! Yay! That means planting season! So yesterday I stopped in and got some red onions. I wanted Georgia Sweet too, but they won't be in until next week. I went home after work and pulled out my old faithful Honda mini tiller, put in some gas and oil and fired her up! She is so reliable, always starts for me, but my husband has a hard time getting her started. LOL I tilled just enough room to plant about 30 red onions. It felt so good to get my hands dirty again. The smell of freshly turned earth is on my top ten list of favorite smells.

The top picture is the purse and stuffed dog that I made for my sister for her birthday. I felt a little silly about giving her the dog, she was 41 years old after all, but she says it was her favorite gift and it rides around with her in her car. Now my niece wants the exact same thing for her birthday and I am glad because both were fun to make!

Thanks for the nice comments on my blog! I am just a beginner, so bear with me while I figure blogland out!

I found this picture on the familyfun.com website. I am thinking that this would be a great craft to make for the girls at work, and some of my friends. Even though I will probably make mine a little more, what is the word I am looking for, maybe creative, yeah I want mine more creatively decorated! Geez, I'm thinking Easter crafts already!