It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas Presents

This year we've decided to do a "Home-made & Heart-felt" Christmas.

Most of the people I know are like us... in major budget mode. And this year I really wasn't prepared to stress about how many people we have to buy gifts for, what to buy them, or how much crazy bucks would've been spent.

The goal is to have as many gifts as we can...made or found (thrifted) ;)

I've started with L'bug's presents - and because I know that she's too young to understand how to use our computer - showing you guys pictures isn't going to ruin her surprise!

I wanted to make her a collection of something so that we could practice counting. And as I was surfing online I came across these awesome fabric birds! I made 10 of them with random scraps of various fabrics I had lying around.

The blog that has some great photos of them is Spool Sewing - they also have the pattern you can download (for free!)

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The next gift I made was so easy and quick!

I crocheted little puffer fish and put magnets inside them so L'bug can have fun fishing!

The pole is from our front yard :) I put magnets on the end of the braided string... and I have to admit D'man and I had a blast playing with them ourselves!

The pattern for the puffers is also free from Crochet Pattern Central!

I hope these pictures insipre you to make some of your Christmas gifts this year ;) A home made and heart felt gift is way better than giving someone a gift card... just saying *wink*

Laumeier Sculpture Park

I've been cooped up in our house for the last week working on a couple of chairs I'm in the process of recovering. Yesterday I was especially engrossed in my work for about a solid 9 hours...

(And, I was totally listening to The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, & Mockingjay - all by Suzanne Collins... by far the best books I have ever read / listened to! No joke!

If you've read them I've got one word for you, PEETA!)

So, today Der and I decided needed to be a family day. An outside family day to be more specific!

We tossed around a couple of parks and agreed Laumeier Sculpture Park would be perfect.

We packed a lunch and had a blast!

I don't know what this (above) one is, but it was too cool not to take a picture of!

Der and L'bug (below) are the apple of this eye....

(hardy har har huh?! now you know why I took up crafts rather than comedy)

I know I've got a lot coming up - a lot of new crafts and images promised - and I'll post them...

SOON! :) :)

Fees... What a bummer!

Hey guys - Ok, so I have to admit that I'm fairly new this whole paypal thing. I know what you're probably thinking... "Really Felicia! Get with the program yo!"

And it's not that I don't purchase things online. It's more rather that I don't sell items - in mass - online. To be honest the majority of the items that I sell are to friends and family or friends of friends... and what not.

What I've come to realize as the seller of items is that when using paypal - there are these pesty fees... in a word - bummer

First - thank you to anyone that's purchased things from my blog! You've all been great!

But here's my thought for future buyers...

If you're going to use paypal - no problem! But I'm requesting that you "gift" the money to me so that there aren't any fees.

(For those of you like me - when paying instead of Purchase, use the Personal tab and mark the gift option *hehe)

At first a dollar here or there doesn't seem like a lot, but when it happens to every order...

To be honest with you all - it adds up yo! LOL

P.S. Among other things my camera has decided that it really doesn't want to use it's flash anymore and will only take blurry pictures for me :( I'm in the process of getting another one but I promise I will have some updates on my crafts posted as fast as I can!

Thanks a bunch everyone!!!!

This month D and I celebrated our anniversary in Herman, MO.

Honestly, it was absolutely beautiful, relaxing, and had great wine!

We stayed at a neat Bed & Breakfast. Ok, neat really doesn't give it justice.

It had nine bedrooms, kitchen, dining room, main living room, parlor, gentlemen's den, an upstairs living room, two staircases, seven bathrooms, and

last but not least a full wraparound porch!

The keeper of the house was a really nice man with his daughter, however part of the initial house tour was his shpeel to sell the house! lol

Apparently, the house and location is great... business is booming... however, he owns land in

the Bahamas and believes that sand and sun is a much better place to

retire than our beloved Midwest!?!?

So, if anyone is interested just let me know and I can hopefully put you one step closer to your dreams of being a B&B owner.
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Not only did we have good wine, but we also went Antique shopping!

Look at the coolest thing I've ever seen...

Notice anything?

Two sets of seats, pedals, and handle bars!!!

Also notice that only one set of handle bars has breaks... and I guess you need to agree who's steering before you start your journey huh?

Nesting Doll Mug

When I was a child my mom would read a book that had "hidden" lady bugs all throughout the story. To reminisce I hid some lady bugs all over my mug!

Can you find the lady bugs??

Scardy Cat by: Cindy Szekeres
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The L'bug feeding the ducks and geese :)

She'll throw a piece of bread into the water and then tear off a piece for herself! It's too funny!

Apple Picking Season! [& A Peek Into My Craft Room]

This past weekend we went apple picking in Millstadt at Eckerts. This post is totally going to be an awesome plug for them because we had an absolute blast! I can't wait for L'bug to get a little older so she can even more enjoy all of the cool things to do. They had camel and pony rides, a petting zoo (which she wasn't too keen about,) and tons of other things. And to top it all off it was a beautiful day!

They had sliced carrots for you to feed the animals with, and even though the deer were babies she still wasn't sure and would hide her face in my neck when they came close. I was suprised at how soft they were. The water buffalo on the other hand had coarse hard hair. They were all very tame and gentle but still a little daunting even for me.

Red & delicious!

L'bug rode on her daddy's shoulders the majority of the time... occasionally getting bits of apple in his hair. Even though Sweet-P only has two teeth she totally went to town on her apple too!

We picked a bag full and I'm planning on making a home made apple pie. This will be my second attempt at an apple pie. The first time my crust wasn't really good. It was a Betty Crocker recipe, but I'm pretty positive it was a recipe Betty didn't ok before printing! lol

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My last project,Sweet-P's birthday present, made its way onto my dining room table and succesfully took over the first level of my house. I have a sewing room/office... Why wasn't I using that you may ask? The project before that didn't really get cleaned up - ok, it was more like 2 to 3 projects that never made it to the top of the cleaning list. So, this past weekend I bit the bullet and reorganized it! After that, I realized that unless you've been to my house you've never gotten a chance to see my Imagination Station *wink*

[If you're a fan of Adventures in Odyssey you'll appreciate that.]

In every place I have ever lived I've had to be very creative with craft/sewing organizing because of the lack of space... When we were looking to buy this house the first thing that I thought of upon seeing the loft space was having my very own craft room!

Do you recognize my chair??

My Globe project is coming along. (I'm planning on having it done in a week or two at most.) So, I've been practicing with felt to get a feel for sewing it with the machine. In a word = HARD!

I'd just a soon hand sew it!

Here's what I came up with during my "play time."

Key chains. Not very creative, but this play time was more for seeing how hot glue would effect the felt. Another note - you can't sew through it no matter how thin a layer the glue is. All of this felt business will totally make more sense when the Globe project rolls out! Promise.

Birthday of the Flower Princess

Little girl's first birthdays are probably one of the most precious events I can imagine.

To celebrate my best friend's little girl, Sweet-P's first birthday I made

her this super cute outift - complete with matching bloomers!

L'bug is doing the modeling here. It's so fun to dress her up in random outfits. She just

prances around like a little prima ballerina. My neighbors across the street were outside while we were doing our mini photo shoot so they got a first hand look at my little ham!

The whole ensamble consisted of a feather/flower head band, with a tutu, bloomers, and bib.

She isn't wearing the bloomers here... I wasn't quite done sewing them. Below are the pictures of them though. I put ruffles on the bum for good measure. As much girlie-ness as possible!

I had seen a bib that had fabric sewn onto it in a way that made it look like the

child was wearing a necklace.

(A tie could be done for a little boy... just a thought!)

That inspired me to try something similar. I found some flower/graphic print fabric (the same fabric that I used for the bloomers) and cut out various pieces, then placed them to form a necklace design. In my opinion a good bib has a "happy pocket." A pocket that collects all of the goodies that don't reach the finish line *wink* The pocket is lined and has her name embroidered on it.

The last piece to this charming puzzle is ice cream! I made an ice cream cone with three different flavors. Chocolate with sprinkles, Strawberries and Cream, & Vanilla with sprinkles. Each of the "scoops" has velco on the bottom so that Sweet-P can have fun playing and offering her "customers" (aka L'bug or C'bear most likely) choices.

I had a cool idea to make a scoop of Mint Choc. Chip, Neapolitan, or a Butterscotch too!

The cone has a recorder inside of it, on which I recorded a special birthday blessing. The recording can be changed at anytime if her parents get tired of hearing my voice... lol I'm sure 6 months from now, they will totally be tired of hearing me wishing Sweet-P happy birthday! There are snaps on the top of the cone so that you can remove the recorder when you want to wash it.

Let me know if you have a little angle who'd like a tutu or some ice cream!

eclecticallyhomegrown@yahoo.com