Productive Day

I was pretty productive today. At least "craft" wise. I finished 3 projects that have been waiting to be finished. The first 2 were made per Big J's Request, I made Big J a Surf board cover, so the racks wont make black marks on it.

I still need to find a cord or string to put in for the drawstring closure

And then I used left over fabric to make the Strap covers so they won't scratch the back of the boat while in transit.

Finally I was able to make a project that was on my list. It was in the works(on the list) for quite a while. My kids love to take my kitchen towels from where ever they find them and dry their hands and then drop them on the ground. The when Big J or I go to find one to dry our hands there are none to be found. (Secretly I think that Big J just thinks that I never put any back in the drawer.) So to solve this problem I made these...

I had to go to the spendy yet totally adorable fabric store to find one that matched my newest kitchen towels. But now they are done and I don't have to search for something to wipe my hands on anymore. I used this tutorial I found online. I made the ties and inch wider mainly because I couldn't gather them together that close. The towels were too thick. And the ties are a little long, so next time I will modify it a little more than I did this time.


It's only 3 pm so I might even be motivated to finish even more projects today. Yay Me!

Craft Fair 2010

The craft fair has come and gone. Which is sad and great all in one. Sad because its fun to have your things displayed and great because its always crazy around here before and during the fair. Here are some pictures of my things.

I made some dress forms this year to display my things on. Which I thought was a much better way to show of all my stuff. It was a pretty good turn out this year.

Even though the last day was painfully slow. I will still be doing it next year. For me its just fun. My mother even sent some of her stuff this year.

It was so fun to try and sell her stuff. Everyone just loved it and was amazed at her talent. She sent things last minute too and so next year hopefully we will be more prepared. My plan is to prepare throughout the year. So let see how that goes.

Reason's for the lack of posting

I have been so busy getting everything ready for our Tremendous Thursday Activity that I haven't had an extra second to sit down and post. Here is what I have been working on. I am in charge of 3 crafts.

First is the Snow Family...


Next is the Gift Ornament...


Which accordion folds out and is the story of Christ's birth as told in the bible.


and then finally the 25 Stories Until Christmas Book which is not pictured because the sample I made took a beating while it was on display. It is a book of 25 different stories with coloring pages and songs. The ladies will be scrapbooking their own covers.

And then when this is done I will have a few weeks to get things ready to sell at the Annual Craft Fair, we put on in December. So I will be busy for sure. Hopefully I will be able to post about some of the things I am making for that.

Post Pumpkins

Here is what Kathy and I have been up to for the last 2 days. We had to split it up between 2 days because of all our kids. But this project cost us about $14. It would have cost less but we bought a ton of paint. Way more than necessary. (Oops) But it was fun. We purchased the lumber peelers from Home Depot for about $8 and they cut them to our measurements for free. That was nice. All the other wood we needed came from my Garage/Yard. I have a vast amount of tree branches and scrap wood lying around. I also had all the raffia and leaves from various different projects. Anyway it was fun and I am excited to make all the other things on our list. Next up... Wood Pallet pumpkins.
Sorry about the poor picture... It was dark and rainy when I took this.
Little D keep trying to sell these to his friends when he gets off the bus I hear, "Pumpkins! 5 cents!"

Journal Jars

Last week I completed our Journal Jars. I wanted to do these so that we could get into the habit of writing in our Journals and also for the kids to be able to practice their writing and spelling skills. We have written in them 4 days in a row now and it has been fun.
The kids for the most part enjoy doing it. I told Little D when he was complaining one time that he was doing it so that his kids would have something to read about his life and things that he felt and thought. So now every time he makes a mistake he says "great now my kids will see this!" And get upset. I told him that it was OK because they might read it when they are 7 and say hey dad wrote just like me. He is the one that is having a hard time. He hates writing because he is not very good at it. I told him that he just needs practice. Hopefully he will be writing much better by the time 2nd grade starts.
Little A thinks its great and wants to try and write every word all by herself. She does pretty good but I end up writing most of what she tells me to write. Then I have them draw a picture to illustrate their entry.
I have also been making Big J do it too. He only does his on Sunday's but at least its better than nothing. He really doesn't have time to do it more.

Teacher Appreciation

It's teacher appreciation week and this is what Little D will be giving to his teacher.

I found the idea for tissue paper flowers on One Pretty Thing. (If you don't already know what that is you should definitely go there and check it out. But only if you want to find like a billion projects that you have to do just because they are so cute.)



After finding it there I looked some more on the Internet for different variations and this is what they turned out to be. They were so cheap and easy to make. I made them a little more fun by adding Hugs and Kisses as the flower center.



I found a little dollar vase at Target and added a ribbon and there ya go.

I love right now!

It is the perfect weather day. I Love this time. Late spring, when its no longer cold so no need to use your heater and its not too hot yet so there is no need to use the air. Right now it is about 77 degrees and mostly cloudy. Its perfect. I can sit in my house and have all the windows open and feel the cool breeze. I wish everyday was like this.

I also love this time of year because it is perfect for PICNICS!


I just finished my picnic basket and I am so excited to take it out on its first official picnic. I told the kids that we could go on Saturday.


I found the basket at the Home Goods store in Phoenix. I made the lining and also made a coordinating blanket and napkins. I found matching plates at Target and I was lucky to find ones that matched.
I only wish I would have put the elastic in a casing of matching fabric. But oh well. It holds forks, knives, spoons, straws, and napkins on the top. (the side that doesn't have anything in it is for the other 3 napkins that I will finish tonight.)


Here is the inside complete with a pocket for a trash bag and wipes. (cause you always should have them handy) The lining is able to be removed and washed if needed. My sister has redone a few picnic baskets and they always turn out great. You can check hers out here.

Garden Signs

They are finally done! I have been wanting to make these since last summer and now they have been done. My sister Samurai Mom gave me the idea last year. All that is left to do is to coat them with a finish so they will last and then nail them to a stake.

Hopefully this weekend we will have our garden fence put up so that I can actually plant the garden and have something to put these signs in.


I printed the wording using my friends Cricut machine. And painted the veggies and flowers by hand (obviously). They are not that great but at least all the kids could tell me what were. With the exception of one..... The Pepper. I should have done beans or something easy.


Oh well. They are finished and that is all that matters.

Completed!

Finally! I have had this stuff hanging around for about a year. I finally made Little A her Bow holder. It was so easy and quick too. I don't know why it took me so long to finish. But at least it is done now. It help us remember to use the bows too. We would always forget that she had them before but now we can see them all and thus we remember.


Also done is....

I have wanted to put flowers in pots out front for a long time, and I finally did. I was at Costco the other day and they had these awesome pots. They were only 20 bucks. So i bought 2 for the front and now I think that I will buy a few more and plant my herbs in one and maybe a tomato plant in one. Or maybe just more flowers. But to get pots that big are not very cheap, so when I saw them I had to get them. So then Monday Little A went with me to Lowe's and helped pick out the flowers.



This one looks pretty sparse but it will fill in eventually. That is if I don't kill them before it has a chance.


In the works.....

Little A's newly painted room. (which is going to be awesome! I hope)
This years Garden prep

Craft Fair Turnout

Well there was a pretty good turn out for our annual craft fair. It was 3 days of fun and then a whole lot of headache. Only because I was in charge of finding out how much everyone made and dividing up the money. I had done it so many times. I was going crazy when Big J comes over and says (in not so many words),"Why don't you just add this and this and then divide it all by this?" I was like GET OUT OF HERE! Here I had been working on it for like ever and he marches in with his "why don't you do it the easy way" attitude. Which poses the question. Why do Women complicate things so much? I'm sure not all women do, but I certainly do. ARGGGHH! But no in all seriousness I really was grateful that he was able to look at it and find an easier way. Cause I was going nuts! So next year I nominate Big J to do that job. And I'll work on the crafting.

I didn't do super well. But no worries. I have lots of ideas for next year and now that I have one under my belt I know what to expect. Here are pictures of most my table. We tried to take pictures in between customers looking at the tables and so there isn't a picture of all my stuff.


This first one is of most my things. There are the nursing covers and the purses. Not pictured are the Tutu's or the key chains.


The next picture is on more nursing covers and purses but mostly my friends bows that sold pretty well. She does have pretty cute ones. So you will have to stay tuned for next year because I have a lot of new ideas. A lot of people have actually been talking about wanting to do one in the spring or summer months. We will have to see about that.

Craft Fair 2009

So I am going to be in the 5th annual craft fair! I'm really excited. I hope lots of people come and I hope that I sell some stuff. So if you haven't heard from me in a while its because I have been madly sewing and sewing and sewing! My dining room table has been covered with all sorts of sewing paraphernalia.

Before we left for AZ Big J asked me if I was going to clean it up and I said "When we get back I only have 3 days of sewing left before the craft fair! I don't have time to get it all back out." So now I am pretty much done. I have a few things that I can still sew but I'm taking a break. My house has been a disaster! With all the Christmas boxes out and the house half decorated. With stuff all over the place I hope no one stops by. Today I was able to clean it up a little bit so that is nice.

So the craft fair, for those that don't already know, is Thurs. Dec 3rd from 5-9 pm. Fri. Dec 4th from 10 am to noon. and then Sat. Dec 5th from noon to 5pm. So tell everyone you know to come. There is no entrance fee and there is going to be a lot of good stuff!

Time + Fabric = This.....

Well I have been trying to stay home more lately and this is what I do when there is nothing else to do. First I have been making a few things for the Craft Fair thing that I will be participating in this December.

Also I looked at Little A's TV stand and said this looks horrible. Here is the before. So I decided to make some little boxes/baskets to put it all in. I had some left over fabric from when I made her Quilt for her bed, so I decided to make them match.



Here is the after.


The other project that I was working on was this. It is a Hopscotch Mat. Kathy found this idea online and we decided to make them. I just finished with mine.

I didn't want it to be too girly because Little D was excited about it and said to not make it pink. (not that he knew what hopscotch was before I made this)

I think that he was just excited about me making something for them.

My New Awesome Purse!

So I just finished sewing this new AWESOME purse. I needed a new purse very badly. The edges of my old one were all fraying and coming apart. But thus one was is so fun! It was very exciting to see it slowly come together.

Here are the 2 pockets inside.

Here is a picture of the button that I made with the matching fabric. I've never made a button before so I thought that it was pretty cool.

This is a close up of the side so that you can see the cute little pleat.

This Post is a Little Late....

Its a little late but with good reason. I couldn't post the craft that I made for Mother's day gifts if I hadn't given them to my Mother's yet. I wanted to not spend a billion dollars on shipping and decided to hand deliver them after we arrived in MT. I made these for mine and Big J's mom. They were super easy to make. The hardest part was picking the font and size. But I think that they turned out good. Its a little hard to see the larger one but it also says MOM. They can be used as vases or they can also be used to hold some decorative rocks and a candle or somthing. Thanks to Kathy and Selena for letting me use their stuff.

Quilted Binder Cover

This is something that I saw in a Magazine a while back and has been on my list of crafts ever since. I did make it a bit different than the magazine though. Mostly because the magazine was covering a composition notebook. I am going to make some that size but Yesterday I decided to cover my compassionate service binder instead. So it did require a little bit of guess work and I only had to unpick something once. But I think that it turned out pretty cute for my first one. Next time I will embellish it a bit more.


I don't have a fancy machine that quilts so I only quilted 1/4 in on either side of the seams.



There is a ribbon that you can tie to keep it closed. Really not that practical.(Who has time to tie things like this) But it makes it look pretty when you do.

Birthday Banner

Here is the new Birthday Banner! I just finished it today! It took me about 3 days and now we will have a Banner for all of our Birthdays. Hopefully the kids will like it and look forward to having it hanging when they wake up on their Birthdays! I want to make one for other holidays too like Valentines and Halloween etc. So stay tuned for them. Little D's Birthday is on Friday so I had to complete this one first.

This is what all the letters look like up close.

I threw these on the end of 'HAPPY" just for something fun.