A Bit of Christmas Decorating

 So this year I changed up my tree.  Normally, I decorate for the kids with toys, and candy colors, but I was in the mood for something a little more "grown up."   I took one of my thrifted doilies and set it on the table for the tree to sit on instead of the traditional skirt.  I stiffened a collection of smaller crocheted doilies and pieces of battenburg, a couple of white cotton angels with crochet trim, glittered spent light bulbs (FUN recycling project), made some paper ornaments, fabric roses, a 6 yard strand of faux pearls instead of garland, silver icicles, and the darling little candle lights clipped to branches were a Christmas in July gift from a friend two summers ago.

 The basket the tree is sitting in has for the last ten years has been a natural color.  Part of my change included the basket.  I painted it a rich chocolate brown, hit it in spots with black spray primer, then lightly sprayed over the entire thing with white.  For whatever reason, it came out this GORGEOUS blue-gray and it was the best as far as happy accidents go! :)  On the table, I have a mercury glass angel and two bottle brush trees that are normally part of my winter forest.

 A peek at one of the ornaments I'll share with you this weekend.  I found a set of 6 apples at one of my thrift stores for a whopping 50 cents.  I didn't want them red, so painting was called for.  At first I tried a soft aqua, but the red came through & made one purple.  Then I tried white...it went pink, which wasn't terrible, but it wasn't really what I was going for either.  Finally, out came my trusty can of Rustoleum metallic spray paint in CHROME and I ended up with these absolutely darling faux mercury glass apples.  I'm in love!

 This is the winter forest on top of my entertainment center.  I try to add something every year.  This year it's the milk glass cup with silver & white berries wrapped in pearls, a stacked paper tree (not shown), and that darling memory/tag book on the tripod.  I'll share a VERY detailed tutorial for that with you another time.

 And finally for today, this is the top of my microwave cabinet.  The glass collection is always there, I simply put my glittered bird and some pretty miniature blue ornaments under the cake dome, and put some pearl sprays in one of my hobnail milk glass cups.

I also made a really neat garland for my front window...I'll share that tomorrow with details on the ornaments.  Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Today I'm....

We have a LOT to catch up on...and we will....very soon...but first, I have to get these projects off of my "to do" list. They've been there long enough!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Hey there! Just wanted to say that I hope everyone found a little bit o' the Irish in them today to celebrate St Patrick's Day. If you're indulging in the green beer, please do so responsibly. True Irish don't go for the green beer though...guaranteed they're lifting pints of Guinness Stout or Killian's Red tonight (as a former bartender, you kinda just KNOW these things)! *LOL*

Image courtesy of Karen, the Graphics Fairy

I didn't have any new projects to share with you, but I went through old posts and can't find where I've ever shared these pieces with you...so I thought today would be a good day. The top picture is in Biker Boy's office & the frame is wood sprayed with Krylon's hammered copper paint. I like how it compliments the dark green floss that I used & the natural muslin. The bottom one hangs just outside the bathroom door.

(images were taken from Dover Publishing newsletter freebies, printed & stitched)
Yes then center circle of this one is made ENTIRELY of French Knots!

Still no decision on the haircut, though from comments here & from a few friends e-mailing me or letting me know on other forums, the long hair seems to be a favorite. Just not sure, but I'll figure it out and let you in on what I do. Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

What to wear?

No not me. I'm always comfy in my t-s and jeans or shorts. It's this pillow I'm making for my sister that needs dressing. Yes, I'm working on 2011 CHRISTMAS gifts already. No throwing things at me....unless it's chocolate...or David Tennant....or David Tennant covered in chocolate! *LOL*

The only thing that she requested of me is making the gifts that I put together in the future portable. She & her hubby have some traveling plans in the works, and they don't want to leave anything behind if they don't have to. So I got to thinking....she ADORED the little Scottie ornies that I sent for her birthday earlier this month...I have some great vintage embroidery patterns....I'll make a double-sided PILLOW!

This is Mary Kate, named after Mary Kate Danaher in "The Quiet Man." I used straight stitches for the majority of the design, lazy daisies for the flowers & leaves, French knots in the flower center, and the bow is a mixture of split stitches and stem stitching. {You can right click each of the pictures and choose Open in a New Tab for better viewing of the project}

And this is Colin. Again, I stitched them after her little darling Wheaton Scotties. The stitches for this one: straight, lazy daisy, satin, & buttonhole.
These patterns can be found as freebies if you do an online search (I checked), but I was lucky enough to have them already in my private stash. {grin} It just took some VERY careful handling to not destroy the delicate papers. Someday I'll show you my filing cabinet that houses nothing but embroidery patterns here in my she-cave. Now, I get to stare at THIS all evening....

And try to figure out what to use for the borders on these darling pups. I'm trying really hard to keep myself from running to the quilt store for some DARLING 30s & 40s reproduction flour sack prints that I saw while shopping the other day. Believe me when I say that it's not easy, this resisting of purchasing fabric! *LOL* Next project for their Christmas gift package....an MDF monogram!

Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Ruffle love!

I am on a major ruffle kick here lately! This project, made just an hour ago, is a ruffled scarf. I'm giving it to a friend that will be moving to Texas in a couple of weeks. I wanted her to have an "indoor" scarf for her nicer dresses and sweaters that she wears to church, but I didn't want it to be hot and bulky, like my ruffly polar fleece scarf. I wanted soft and delicate, so for this one, I used a dreamy, cream-colored t-shirt knit that I picked up a JoAnns yesterday (1/2 yd $4.50).

It's 45" wide, so I cut two 4" wide pieces, then used a stretch stitch to join the two lengths together, making a 90" length of fabric. I don't have a ruffle foot for my machine, so I went in half an inch and started pinching and sewing...very slowly feeding the material under the presser foot....all the way to the end. Then I flipped it to the other long side....

And repeated the pinching/stitching process until I got this GORGEOUS double ruffle.
It's ruffle-tastic! I sure hope she likes it. I know I do...in fact...I have enough material left over, I may just have to make one for myself! *LOL*
Don't forget ~~ if you haven't joined in on the Stalker Fun for the $30 gift certificate to CSN Stores here on my blog, go do it now! I'm off to work on an embroidery project for the evening that I'll share later this week. Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Linking to The Lettered Cottage

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Feeling a Wee Bit....

Scottish! *LOL* I made these for my sister's birthday. She owns two of the cutest little Wheaton Scottish terriers & I thought she'd like to have these ornies for her tree next year (or if she has a little one to display year-round). I had a set of twelve made, but the red one at the bottom had an issue with its hanger, so I put a back on it and it's now a pin she can wear!

These were very simple to make, thanks to an applique pattern from Bustle & Sew. I used pieces out of my scrap box, some warm n natural batting, cream twine, and didn't even bother to get out my big machine. The little Janome Sew Mini machine I got for Christmas handled the job like a champ!

I was going to share a card with it, but today has just completely gotten away from me & I'm drained. After supper, I'm going sit on the couch for a bit of Gibbs and the Gang (aka NCIS). Maybe I'll have a card to show ya by Monday...and I'm working on a little bit of fun for y'all, so stay tuned.

Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Stitching & a tutorial

Hi! How are ya?

I promised that I'd share an embroidery project with ya. Feeling REALLY good about the fact that I snapped enough pix of the steps that I can actually give you a fairly decent tutorial! *LOL* Ready? Here we go!!!

Step 1: Decide on image you wish to stitch. Inspiration can come from anywhere (just ask my kids)...in this case, Middle Child and Youngest Child both wanted me to stitch one of their favorite cartoon characters, Gir, from Invader Zim. So, after a brief Google search on the WWW, I came up with 2 images - one of Gir in his regular form and one of him in his "disguise." The boys decided they each liked BOTH images, so double-sided pillows were the call. I printed off the images...

Step #2: Get your basic outline for stitching by laying tracing paper over the original design.
Step #3: Using a light source (light table or tape the images & blank fabric to your sunniest window), trace the designs onto your material. You can use a fabric pen, pencil, or an ultra fine point sharpie (test the fabric in an inconspicuous spot to make sure your pen isn't going to bleed).

Step #4: Stitch. I used 3 strands of DMC rayon floss for each image, with warm n natural batting behind the fabric for some quilted dimension (optional). At this point, I'm not worried about the wrinkles in the fabric.

Step #5: Grab your kids box of crayons, or, if you're like me, you've got your own private stash. Stretch the fabric with your hands & color the fabric till you get the look you're going for. On mine, I used the original printed images (step #1) as my color guide.

Step #6: Grab waxed paper, plain news print or printer paper, and your iron. Set your iron to COTTON. Pull off enough waxed paper to cover the image.
Step #7: Lay your news or printer paper OVER the waxed paper...
Step #8: Using a fairly firm pressure, iron over your image. The waxed paper & heat from the iron help to seal the color into the fabric.
Step #9: Repeat steps 6-8 for each image you're setting into fabric. This time around, I had to do it FOUR TIMES.
Step #10: Using your machine, set on straight & normal length stitches, sew 3 sides of your pillow together, leaving one side open for stuffing (I leave the bottom).

Step #11: Stuff pillow to a fullness of your preference.

Step #12: Blind stitch pillow shut or use machine to close seam.

And you have two of the cutest, not-your-normal-kind-of-embroidery-project, pillows EVAH!

The boys really love their little pillows & I hope you enjoyed this tutorial. Any questions? Leave me a comment & I'll do my best to get back to ya ASAP. If you make a project using today's lesson, leave me some love & let me know where to find you or send me an e-mail with pix - I'd love to see!

Gotta have a "Gir Moment"

I'm linking this post to ~~

Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Still playin' with fabric

I've got a confession...this stash busting feels good. Not "chocolate pudding" good, but pretty doggone close! *LOL*

For this project, I used two cuts off of my 40 yard roll of "waxing" muslin. Yes, you read right. I had made a trip to the local beauty supply & they had a 40 yard roll of 3 inch wide muslin ($17) normally used for waxing. I decided to craft with this instead of doing anything painful!

The first cut was 36 inches. I split it right up the middle length-wise, tied a knot in one end of each strip, grabbed my Liquid Stitch, then started twisting the muslin and wrapping it around the knots, letting it fray, and gluing in tiny spots as I went to hold it all together. There was a 1 1/2 inch tail at the end that I flattened & used UNDER the twisting to make a base. The second piece was 45 inches and I left it the full 3 inches wide. Just repeated the same steps as the two narrow pieces. I ended up with 3 of these lovelies...

I knew EXACTLY where I wanted them to go. Not sure how long it's been now, maybe 4-5 years, one of Salt Lake City's oldest craft stores (Zim's) went out of business. During one of their last weeks, I happened across a table full of natural muslin vests. Did I buy one or two for the fab price of $2 each? NOPE! I bought up every stinkin one that was lying there because I knew if I didn't, I'd kick myself down the road for wanting more and not being able to find 'em. Think I ended up with 20 or so when I walked out (I'm not going to divulge how much papier mache I picked up during that trip!).

Over the years, I've put Christmas appliques on them & given as gifts, painted with fabric paint or acrylics & fabric medium like this one here, used a fabric gel pen to draw...you name it. Well, I still have quite a few vests sitting in the cupboard, so I unwrapped one, grabbed a needle and thread, then sat and did the guilty pleasure thing last night ~~ watched a couple episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and stitched. It was a great night!

Now to run it through a quick wash to get the wrinkles out & fray the roses a bit more. I LIKEY! Hope you do, too. We're up to 50 cool projects and counting, so go peek and be inspired...there's so many fantastic ideas flowing over at The T-Shirt Diaries!

Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!

Curtains...done!

What do you do with three funky windows? Folks, when I say funky, I mean FUNKY...they're better suited to a basement, but they're on the south & west side of my home...nearly 6 feet above the ground. They measure 48 inches across and are just shy of being 23 inches high. So, what do you do? Buy pre-made curtains and alter them to fit? Yeah, you could...but that could be expensive, even with cheapo panels from Wally World, and my budget is beyond thin. Non-existent, really. So, the answer is you get REALLY CREATIVE!

You take a 6' x 9' canvas drop cloth purchased at Lowe's in August. Wash it & soften it up just a bit. Take it straight out of the dryer and fold it in half length-wise in your living room floor so that it doesn't wrinkle too much...Using a measuring tape, you divide it into thirds and mark down both long sides with pins. Then using the measuring tape again, lay it cross-ways between the marking pins, and either lightly pencil a line between the pins and cut...or do it 'the Nora way' and just be bold...get out your pinking shears and CUT that puppy! *LOL*
Then on a Saturday night, while hubby is away with his motorcycle club and the munchkins are either at sleepovers or crashed out in their beds, you find one of your favorite David Tennant episodes of Doctor Who on PBS, set up your sewing machine in front of the telly, and STITCH.

I'm sorry? You don't watch Doctor Who? What do you mean, you don't know who David Tennant is?!? Oh, for shame! You need to snoop through my blog more & find this stuff out! *ROFL* Oh, okay...go pick out your own favorite show to watch, then.

Anyway....the cool thing about this project - two of the panels are finished on three sides before you even get really started. All you have to make is the rod pocket on the top (cut edge). The third panel (from the center), you just have to make a 1/4 inch hem on one side for the bottom and the rod pocket across the top. It's all straight sewing so it goes really fast.

In the time it takes to watch a one-hour show (even if you're making stops in between to squeal in delight when David does something utterly adorable....oh, sorry, wandering off topic...MIBAD!), you're done!

You just wait for the munchkins to wake up the next morning (so you're not standing on their beds while they're sleeping) and hang them up.
They look really nice. One quick note: I didn't make them into traditional double panel curtains, just left them one solid piece. You can...a simple fold in half, cut, then two quick 1/4 inch seams...it's just that for these windows, it's not necessary. Since they're horizontal sliders, I usually push them off to one side to open them for the breezes anyway.

See? They let in just enough light, they have a nice rustic finish (perfect for 3 smelly boys that don't like frou-frou anyway!), the texture is amazing, and I made all three for less than $11! You've GOTTA love that!!

Now...my next project is to take this sheet that was in one of the windows and turn it into three valances for the finishing touch...a nice, masculine feel without being too much. {Mama runs on testosterone overload most days, we don't want to over-do with the decor!}
After THAT, I get to tackle this window in MY bedroom. Doncha just love the flour sack towels hanging over a tension rod for privacy? Lovely...NOT! *LOL*
I have this little funky window (south wall) and a more "normal" sized window (east wall) that need my attention, too. Thought I'd take some white muslin and this fabric that I got through FreeCycle....
For the big window - I'm not sure if there's enough to make full panels out of this (haven't measured), but if not, I can always use it for a band at the bottom of the curtains, maybe the rod pocket portion & still have some left over for toss pillows or to add a bit to that little window on the south wall. I dunno yet, but I'll figure it out. It'll probably come to me like most of my best projects do...at 3am just as I'm getting really good and asleep. *LOL*

And for THIS little thrift store find...
Well, I thought I'd alternate it with some white muslin strips and make a REALLY RUFFLY curtain for that smaller window...too much? Maybe? Guess we'll see! *LOL*

Thanks for stopping by & have a great rest of your day!!