St. Patrick's Garland Revisted

Last year, I made this garland for a little St. Patrick's Day fun.

This year I am finally getting the broken blinds replaced and don't have a place to hang that HUGE garland. 

Enter this sweet little hutch my dad brought up from AZ this past summer. My parents moved and don't have a place for it in their new house and they were kind enough to haul it up to WA and give to me. I have had a lot of fun decorating with it. I though I would cut my garland down to size and hang it on the hutch. 

But it needed a little....something. 

Pizazz. 

Glitter.

It really needed glitter. 

I don't know if it's because I have a child in preschool or because glitter is just really awesome, but I am having quite the love affair with glitter lately. 

I scrounged around and found gold glitter leftover from a project Mom and I did a few years ago that involved glitter and mini-gourds. I had JUST enough to glitter three shamrocks. Little Missy was very excited to help me.

Here's how we did it:

We used glue, fine glitter (sometimes called scrapbook glitter), paint brushes and (the secret) AquaNet hairspray.

I mixed about 3 tbl of glue with about a teaspoon of water and we painted that onto the shamrock.











Then, working very quickly before the glue dried, we sprinkled the glitter all over the shamrock.

There were some dry spots so I would dab those with a little bit more of the glue mixture and then added more glitter. I let them all dry and then sprayed the shamrocks with short bursts of the hairspray. The hairspray really helps with keeping the glitter from falling off the shamrock.














Then I re-strung them onto the green ribbon and hung them on the hutch.

Side note: that little flower in the gold frame was the first thing I ever counted cross stitched!

It only bothers me a little that it doesn't go green-gold-green-gold

They didn't all come out QUITE how I wanted them to (I barely had enough glitter for the last one) but Missy kept on saying, "These are going to be beautiful, Mama." 

And you know what? 

They are.

Hello Friends! Hello Spring!

So let's just cut to the chase, shall we?

I've been gone awhile. With the new baby I thought I might be out of commission from the blog for three months-well, she's almost eight months old now and I'm just starting to feel as though I can get back into crafting and blogging. Heck, I'm just now feeling as though I can do more than get dressed and put food on the table! That has been my goal for the last eight months.

Adding a third child has been terrific-My Sweet Baboo is just the sweetest, best behaved baby-but I went through some postpartum depression for awhile and it prevented me from being able to do much of anything.  But on clear headed days I was busy! I made bunting to hang on my mantle for Valentine's Day. I glittered up some X's and O's to place on my hutch. I threw a baptism party for my daughter.

And I've been quilting.

I finished my niece's quilt (finally!) back in December. I vowed I would not go into 2014 with that hanging over my head, so sometime in the last week of December I finished it.  However, I don't think I took any pictures of it before I sent it down to her.

The next pick in the lottery was #30: Finish my sister Connie's quilt. I've been working on this one since the beginning of the year. The top was pieced together-I just had to quilt it. I used my regular sewing machine and quilted the middle part and now I am hand quilting the outermost border.

Everything in place to hand quilt

Simple diagonal lines for the quilting. You can see the green markings I made 

I checked today and it looks as though I am more than three-quarteres done with the border. I should probably start thinking about what fabric I am going to use to bind it.

Hopefully it's Spring where you are. It's raining right now but the last week was pretty glorious here with the warmer weather and glorious sunshine! I snapped a few photos of what's blooming in my garden.

I started seedlings on Tuesday and saw this little guy on Friday!

Grape Hyacinth that runs rampant in my garden

Ornamental plum starting to bud out

 I'm definitely looking forward to more sunshine, warmer weather, and lots more sewing!

Let's go!

Transforming a Sweater into a Dress

As I mentioned in my last post  I realized I had pulled some lottery numbers during this past Fall and have been able to cross a few projects off my list.

The second lottery pick was #56: Re-purpose a Sweater Into a Little Girl Dress.

I LOVE second-hand stores. St. Vincent de Paul, Goodwill, Value Village. I love them. I have scored some amazing finds at second hand stores (I'm looking at you Burberry jacket for $12). Frankly, trying to cram three kids into a dressing room is...well...impossible. Just impossible. I am picky, then, to make sure I get clothes that fit and fit right because I don't want to have to try and take them back or just re-donate them-that's a waste of time and money. When I first saw this sweater I thought it would fit me great but it turned out not to be as tailored as I would like it.

Thankfully, I had pinned this post on how to re-purpose a sweater into a dress for a little girl. I thought this would be perfect this Fall for Little Missy since she loves long sleeves and long dresses.

Making this little dress only took me an afternoon (the youngest took a GREAT nap!)  but I did have some problems along the way. I had a tough time when it came to making the neckline a little smaller-I think I took it out about four times and, even now, I'm not completely thrilled how it came out. I don't know if I cut it wrong or what, but it was somehow harder than it looked.

 I did use one of Little Missy's dresses as a comparison to determine the curve of the both the neckline and to take it in and that really helped.

I'm a little bummed I didn't take more pictures-especially of what it looked like after I cut the sleeves off; if you look at the original post she took some pictures of what it looked like. This was also challenging for me since I tend to like to follow pretty explicit directions; however, I found it kind of fun to wing it where I was going to cut and sew things back together. I felt like a fashion designer!

Overall, I liked how it finished. She ended up wearing it for the first time to her Thanksgiving feast at school. I added a little belt to give it a little oomph. I tried desperately to get her to pose for a picture after we had trimmed the tree a few days ago but she was having none of it.

Hanging her ornaments on the string of lights!

She does not like the flash!

So! Two more items off my list. I am almost done with my niece's quilt; I am determined not to go into 2014 with it still on my sewing table.

What do you want to finish before the New Year? 

Log Cabin Ornaments

After I wrote my last post, I realized a few things:
1. I don't think any of the crafts I had written about were on my Master List. Oops!
2. I forgot about a couple of things I had made and BOTH of them I drew from the lottery. Happy Day!

The first one pulled was #44: Complete Christmas Ornaments to Hanging Quality.

So, once upon a time I was going to sell some of these ornaments I had made. No one wanted to buy them and I gave away the ones I had completed as little Christmas gifts to various people. I still had quite a few leftover that were unfinished. All they really needed was some backing, a ribbon and then I quilted them with a simple stitch-in-the-ditch and I finished them off in an afternoon. A few I have hanging on my tree and the rest I will give away at Christmas this year. At least they are done and out of my sewing hamper! Here's a pictorial history from finding them unfinished to hanging them on my tree.

The log cabin had already been sewed as well as the batting on the back

I had even cut the backing out for each of the squares. They measured 4"x4"

I added the ribbon

Then sewed right sides together. You can see here I left an opening for the ribbon (which I forgot on this ornament) and to pull it right side out. 

At this point I was ruing the fact I hadn't left a bigger opening as I pushed the fabric through the tiny hole.

The corner hadn't popped out very well....

...so I used my handy dandy chopstick to pop it out!

All better!

Then I pinned (maybe over-pinned) the rest of it shut and used a slip stitch to close it off by hand. 

Oops! Got a little carried away with the chopstick-you have to be careful. I fixed that with a slip stitch as well.

Finished on my tree!

I'll post the next item from the lottery I completed this Fall in a few days. It's pretty cute!

What kind of ornaments do you have on your tree?

Fall Recap

Oh friends!

I knew having a baby would put a damper on my ability to sew and craft for a few months. I even told myself that it would be at least three months before I was able to get back to the blog. But here we are a little over four months after My Sweet Baboo was born and I'm just starting to think I can dip my toe back into the blogging waters. Even with the new baby I have my two-year-old (His Nibs) hitting his Terrible Twos in stride. Man, has he got a case of the terrible twos. And my four-year-old (Missy), is navigating going to pre-school and learning all kinds of new things-both good and bad. It's great to watch all of them grow-and sometimes I wish I could stop time-but handling all three has kind of put a hamper on my time to craft and sew and create. Honestly, some days it really bums me out.

But here I am! I have been busy with Halloween crafts and costumes, finishing my nieces quilt and working on some gorgeous GORGEOUS Christmas pillows. My mom keeps on asking me where I find the time and I just keep on telling her my house is not immaculate. There is a load of laundry that needs to be folded and two more loads waiting their turn as well, and I am trying to figure out how to get a mustard and blueberry stain out of my husband's work clothes (any ideas?). That is all going to have to wait because I really wanted to get a post done! And maybe continue to work some more!

So here's what I have been doing!!!!

Halloween Costumes! I love them. I love making them. I love the homemade look. I love looking through all the stuff we have and trying to incorporate it into a costume without having to buy too much stuff. It's a great thrill for me. Missy was a peacock this year. I think this will probably be the last year I get to decide what she is and when I saw this post on Pinterest last Spring, I knew it was for me....I mean, my little girl!

I used it mainly for inspiration and if I had to do it over again I would have made more peacock feathers (I made about 9-12) and attatched them to ribbon hanging from the elastic band; I think they would have stood out a little more. I would have also used some lime green tulle. That would have been pretty awesome too.

Making the tulle skirt is so easy! 

As for my son, he needed to be a Ghostbuster! Many moons ago my older brother made a Ghostbuster costume for my younger brother and for some reason, I thought His Nibs should go as one this year. So I needed to make a proton pack. I spent quite a bit of time looking at them on Google. Luckily, my husband has more computer parts laying around than he knows what to do with and I put them to good use. 

The above picture is a little wonky but a combination of a hot glue gun and lots of duct tape made this bad boy come alive! I used this heavy duty cardboard my contractor had laid on my floors and it was able to withstand the multiple paint jobs and weight of the computer components. Jacob from Home Run Solutions cut me off a huge piece of it to use and without it the whole idea might never have taken shape! Thanks, Jacob! 

And, just because, here is My Sweet Baboo! Or monkey!

I did not make this costume but bought it when Missy was about three months old and all three kids have worn it for their first Halloween. I love it!

What else? What else have I been working on? Oh! My niece's quilt. That's coming along nicely. I just have to bind it and I am done. I think I will devote another post just that one since I have lots to talk about.  Plus my husband took some hilarious pictures of me quilting the borders. 

I made some Halloween luminaries out of mason jars. That idea was found here. I don't have a great picture of them but I made about a dozen-4 jack-o-lantern type, 4 ghosts, and 4 monster- and they were pretty cute. I lined them up along the path to my front door and I really liked them. I got some great responses back from neighbors-one who jokingly threatened to steal them- and parents, so that was fun. Next year I will take a picture! 

What else? What else? 

Oh right. The pillows. I'll just share this picture with you but these will definitely get their own post. 

My friend Taylor and I are making these for our moms and ourselves Christmas. They are so easy. So beautiful. So lovely. Here's one of them: 

Honestly, I changed the pin in the middle and it really makes it pop. I have made three so far-two in the blue and silver and one in red burlap with a cream flower-and they are just so great. I am hoping to get them all done this weekend and I will write a post just to them, I promise!

So that's what's been happening here. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving. To paraphrase Bishop O'Brien, "When you are giving thanks for the turkey on the table, don't forget to give thanks for the turkeys AROUND the table." HA!