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

The Little Things Are Always Best

Have you every read the book, Love You Forever, by Robert Munsch? Very recommended! The book is about a mother who holds her son and softly sings to him, "I'll love you forever, I'll like you for always. As long as I'm living, my baby you'll be." The book was published in 1986 and has sold over 15 million copies. I personally do not own this beloved publication, however L'bug's Mum mum [my mom] does, and I read it to her to help her fall alseep when we are visiting.

The little birds are made with L'bug's thumb prints!

I made the mistake of showing it to Mum Mum (what we call my mom). Ok, it wasn't a mistake... but I sucessfully lost myself a mug! She really wanted it and because I had never made anything like that for her, I told her that she could have it once I made myself another one. Which I plan to do here in the next week or so. I love painting so I really can't complain. And for me, the thrill of a project is in the making of it. Mine will have a different design, but the same long legged thumb print "peep peeps" will totally make another appearance!

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This next project came with an added bonus. Quiet painting peaceful bliss! To be more specific - 5 hours of bliss! I left L'bug with her Grammie and Grandpa (Der's parents) while I went and painting this platter for some friends of ours that are getting married in October. I made the design in CS4 and then transfered it to the plate. With a very small paint brush and a Vente Caramel Macchiato I made them a personalized pub platter. [try saying that 3 times fast!]

I found this cute pub saying:

"If you're Irish you're one of the family! If you're not we're too drunk to care!"

Pat & Amy are great friends and I hope they enjoy it!

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Introducing.... Pin Cushion Boot!!

Ok, so if you've read my last post about pin cushions you will recall the beautiful Victorian shoe. That pin cushion I made for my mom and told her that she could have it once I had taken pictures and documented it. Well, a good friend of mine, K and I went to shopping to the Antique mall at 40 & Big Bend. I always find really great things there, but my mission this time was to find a pin cushion replacement. Little did I know I would find something so wonderfully random!

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Munchkin update:

Now that we're fixed up our bike we've gone on several rides - one of which was to the park, where L'bug played in the play ground. She's getting so big!

Bike Riding

I'm very glad that the saying "...it's like riding a bike... you never forget how," is true. Because I haven't riden a bike since I was a kid, but I desperately wanted to take L'bug on a bike ride.

I had a certain bike in mind to purchase. I wanted something retro, that had a basket (to carry the very important library books), and it had to have a child's seat... and not the kind that you pull behind - but the old school kind!

I've been visiting my parents and was talking to them about the type of

bike that I was looking for. My mom suggested that I take her old Western Flyer. A great bike, but one that needed a little bit of work to get it up to par. So my brother and I

took it apart and did a massive overhaul on the paint and rust.

Here's what it looked like before...

In this picture we had already taken off the basket and rear view mirror... oh yes. I just said rear view mirror friends!

Rust central!

Taking it apart was easy. However, in hind site we probably should have paid more attention to where exactly all the nuts and bolts went. LOL Well, J was more detailed than I was with the deconstruction. I was... shall we say very zealous and just started taking things apart left and right!

I'm such a big fan of the white walls.

**** DRUM ROLL PLEASE****

Not only is the bike one that my mom rode with me and my brothers, but I remember riding both of them on it myself. The icing on the cake was working on it with L'bug's Uncle J.

Thank you Uncle Yimmy ;-)
I've totally already gone on two 6 mile bike rides. L'bug loved it and pointed at all of the dogs she could find saying "ooff, oooff!" And then she laid her head on my back when she was tired. I wish I could've seen her, but I figured keeping my hands and eyes on the road was a better choice.

The only thing I'd like to add is a bell. So, if you see me riding throw me a wave!