Raining Crafts & Dogs

Some people save their spare change for rainy days... others curl up with their hot tea and read a good book. I am neither of thoes two people :)

On rainy days I like to make what I call "fast crafts." You know, the ones that

only take a couple of hour to make.

Instant gratification!

The crafts that follow are my fast crafts from the past couple of rainy days.

I had first noticed these snack bags while baby-sitting for a friend from church. Her son had his

dried cherries in one. Upon closer inspection I realized that these snack bags were awesome!

You can put basically anything in them - obviously not liquids - however all of the

finger foods that kids (and adults) eat can be carried around in these

very eco-friendly bags.

They are lined and have a velcro strip that closes them. What I like most is that the kids can

open and close them themselves. I used fun vintage fabric for L'bugs.

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My next craft came from a picture that I saw online from good 'ol Martha Stewart.
They are flower pins made from zippers!! Thanks to my wonderful mother
I am in the possession of approx. 50 zippers, so I had plenty of colors to choose from.

I glued a hair pin (like the ones that I used for the felted hair pins) on the back.

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Bottle Cap Hot Pad

I know what you're probably thinking.... "really... you don't need to be 'that' person that has everything possible crochetted"

But I found this vintage 50's pattern for a crochet bottle cap hot pad and I couldn't resist

trying it out. The original pattern formed the caps into a pineapple shape, and honestly

that would have called for twice as many bottle caps, so to keep the craft within my

instant gratification range I made up my flower pattern which required half as many bottle caps.

It was a relaxing craft because you can basically just make the bottle cap covers from memory after about the third one.

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My last craft was another Martha special. I wanted to make something for Mother's Day, not only to save some bucks, but to also incorporate L'bug.

She called for a tote which you could color on for your Mother. I didn't have any plain totes on hand so I made my own. I made my mother, mother-in-law, and myself one.

Then I made a flower template and drew a picture for L'bug to color. Since she's only 11 months

I did help her hold the permenent markers, but she did so good and we had a lot of fun coloring together.

I traced her flowers and then put a cute saying on the side.

"I love my Grandmother as the flowers love water & sunshine!"

They both loved them.

If are ever wondering what you could do on your rainy day - instant crafts are the way to go!

As always if you see anything that you'd like me to make feel free to email me! :)

sing_82@yahoo.com

Nesting Dolls with a pinch of Yarn

I have a "slight" passion for Matryoshka dolls. (aka Russian nesting or stacking dolls)

They are by far the most popular Russian national souvenir and I'm facinated by them!

I love that they have pretty much taken on a life of their own.

If you Goggle them you will find not only the traditional style, but also more retro ones. I've even seen ones painting like Star Wars characters!

The first nesting doll was made in 1890 in Moscow. Apparently the name, Matryoshka was a popular female Russian name. The name also stems from the Latin words meaning "mother." That's why the first and largest of the dolls is thought to be the "healthy & portly" looking mother of the large peasant family :)

L'bug and I went to a place in Chesterfield, called the Painting Paw.

It was awesome! They sell unglazed pottery which you paint, they fire, and then after a few days you pick up your finished product. They have everything you can image... I was very close to selecting a fun garden gnome with a mushroom, when I happened to glance up and what do you think I saw??

Russian Nesting Dolls of course!

It took me two trips to finish painting them. L'bug actually did really well with letting me work. Thank you Jesus for Puffs & Mum-mums! I tried to get her interested in helping me paint them, but she only wanted to eat the paint brush... which I thought wasn't the best of ideas.

So, I ended up holding her hand so that she could make a few brush strokes :)

I would highly recommend going!

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I'm alwasy making things for L'bug and I would say that my house is tidy and clean, however I have been known to misplace things from time to time. (just ask my husband *hehe)

Anyways, the other day I was looking for a pair of L'bug's booties.

I looked high and low to no avail!

So, I was going to make her a new pair, however the pattern I used was a collection of a couple of patterns - basically I made it up - and when I realized that I hadn't written the "new" pattern down... I was so annoyed at myself for loosing the booties in the first place that I started looking for a new pattern.

(new patterns always make me smile)

To be budget aware I looked at crochet pattern central for a free one, but I didn't like anything they had.

Next stop... etsy :) :) :)

HELLLOOO CUTE SHOES! and a happy mamma :)

I found this pattern from Hook Candy - love it! And if you crochet, the pattern is totally worth it! Her format is easy to read and has detailed pictures!

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I'm throwing in this last picture because it cracked me up, and you can kind of get a feel for how L'bug plays while I'm crafting :)

Enjoy!

Hair Pins for Easter

Well, the hair pins are officially my best selling item :)

Thank you everyone!

Along with making these cute hair accessories L'bug and I have been enjoying the weather.
We've got some pretty flowers that showed up in our backyard.

I'm in the process of making some cute baby items - but alas... the spring cleaning and beautiful sunshine have been calling my name. So, I haven't devoted much time to my crafts.

I am determinging to be better at that however, and I promise that my next post will have

new and fun things :)

Happy Spring!

A Month's Full of Doings & Makings

*letting out a deep breath*

What have I been doing this past month? Even though I haven't been very up-to-date with my postings I have been quite busy. I wish I could say that I was done with painting my house, but alas I have to confess that I still have the trim in the bathroom and basically everything in L'bug's room... In bettween the poopie diapers, my new wondermus steam mop, and making dinner - it will all get done :) At least that's what I keep telling myself! haha

The above picture is a baby sling that I made for a friend - I want to take this time to say that mommy's do need to be careful wearing the babysling with a new born. I wore one with L'bug and she did fine - you just need to make sure that they can get enough air. If their chin is tucked to their chest the baby could not be getting enough to breath :( After they are around 4 months old babies are usually strong enough to move their heads and the risk of them getting hurt is greatly decreased.

For more information go to: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/09/national/main6282437.shtml

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A couple weeks ago a dear friend N had her baby shower - I made her some hair clips for her little girl, but what fun are clips if you don't have a holder?? Not very fun at all!

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This next project was very close to my heart.

It started out with a book by Thomas Kinkade, "Grandmother's Memories to her Grandchild."

The book was filled with questions such as,"Where were you born? What was your favorite childhood hiding place? Who were the attendants in your wedding?" Personal

questions that give us great insight to the ongoings of our grandparent's lives.

Even though it wasn't my own grandmother, it was very neat to see how,

Mrs. Gladys Kujawa, born in 1912 lived her amazing life.

I read about how she wasn't allowed to ride a bicycle because it wasn't lady like and how her first car was a Model T (as was everyone else's... but still!)

This woman, who has sinced passed, loved her children and grandchildren and this book, in her own, beautifully written cursive handwriting tells it all.

Ok so, now that you know the back story - here's my project.

My aunt wanted copies of this book made. Not just any copies from a big box store, with plastic bindings and such... but copies that would go along with the neatness, shall we say, of these

timeless memories of her grandmother.

I took photos of all of the pages and reformatted them to fit into old books that I'd found at the GoodWill. I make journals the same way... I find books in good shape with interesting covers, remove the original pages, and then rebind them with my own pages. I love how old books can get a second life!

These pages have images... my journals have lined pages :)

Once I have the pages folded and cut. I sew them into the book (as shown below.)

I added a button with ribbon to help close the book and to add detail.

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My last project of this month has been a Crochet Hobo Bag like the multicolored one I did for myself awhile back. I did this one in a more neutral color pallet with punches of red and blue.

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Sneek peek into next months work....

Lovingly in Painting Lockdown

For the past couple of weeks we've been painting our entire first floor... and when I say entire - I mean entire! Trim, walls, and ceilings. To fully understand the extent of our painting experience I'm going to back track two weeks.

Once upon a time...

*chuckling*

Seriously though - When we first thought about painting my husband and I went to Lowes to pick out paint colors. I knew I wanted a tan color for the living and dining rooms and I was thinking that having one wall of the dining room as an accent color would be nice. So we (basically me) picked out a tan swatch for the walls and a camel swatch for the accent wall. We also picked out a deep chocolate for the trim and a country white for the ceilings. We brought the swatches home to see them in our lighting and as much as we could tell by the 2"x 4" piece of colored paper... we liked them.

Really, the 2" x 4" strip is a lie and totally not good enough. If you are ever thinking of painting it's totally worth getting the samples. Having said that - back to my story -

So we go back to Lowes, purchase 8 cans of paint. 8 cans!

2 qty : tan

2 qty: trim

3 qty: white

1 qty: camel

My father-in-law came over to help me get started. We painted the living room tan. As we were painting I was looking at the walls and they looked very golden colored to me. After the paint dried it wasn't any better either, but I kept telling myself that I would eventually like the paint and that I shouldn't worry. We had been painting all day long and the two cans of tan were running out so I called my husband to stop by Lowes on his way home and get two more cans for the dining room.

( unpainted trim)

Why I did this??? I don't know! The more I looked at the finished living room the more I hated the ugly tan color - which in our lighting actually looked gold. Truly people - gold. Our doorways are arched and our walls are plastered. A combination that made the inside of the house look like a pueblo rather than an 80 year old brick bungalow! In a word = UGLY!

(Stained glass window in the living room... not western in the least bit)

So, the question as to why I had Der get more paint and basically waste $40??? I was trying to force myself into liking the paint because I didn't want to admit that I had make a huge mistake. If you know me, you know that nothing bothers me more than waisted money. I thought that $40 would over power the ugly pueblo-ness of the room. It didn't.

That night I confessed to both Der and my father-in-law that I hated the color from the depths of my being (strong words I know... but totally how I felt.) Der, being a wonderful husband told me that he would take the next day off from work, we would go back to Lowes and get samples, bring them home, test the color, and repaint the pueblo :) My love for him that day multiplied ten fold!

Now we have wheat walls in the living room & dining room, a teal blue accent wall, and a happy ME. Honestly the whole paint situation and the thought of the money spent kept me up the first night until 1am! Since that night we have painted our hall way, kitchen, and bedroom. All rooms went according to plan - no random golden walls :)

(me painting the kitchen )

(Der taping off our cabinets)

The only thing left we have to paint is our main floor bathroom and L'bug's room - both of which will be a country white. We should be completely done with the main level within the next week... or at least by the end of February! I hope :)

What am I going to do with the two random cans of gold? Come spring I'm going to go antique shopping for outdoor furniture... who knows I might have a post in April with golden colored patio chairs!

Beeswax Holiday

This week I have been visiting my parents. We have a local bee keeper who sold us some beeswax so that we could make candles. We also bought some honey... you'll see why in a minute!

Ok... back to candles.

Mom and I have been experimenting by using freshly rendered beef tallow, beeswax, and paraffin wax to see which ones burn better and longer. The candles that we made last night are a mixture of beeswax and a left over wedding candle that mom had saved from our wedding 4 years ago! Wax is wax :) We melted the wax in a double boiler [a pot with water in it and an old coffee can] I wouldn't suggest using a real double boiler b/c the wax is so hard to clean off anything that it touches...

For the wick you need to use cotton. I braided ours to make it stiffer. We also soaked it in a mixture of borax and salt - then let it dry over night to make it burn clean (without black smoke.) You'll need to pre-dip your wick into the melted wax, then tie something to the bottom of it to weigh it down. I used a nut. Once the wax was fully melted we poured it into the jar.

(When the wax is melted you'll want to add any type of scent - before you pour it into your jar. We added citrus :)

Burn and enjoy!

We also made lip balm - I know what you're thinking.... "really?!"

It's true!

It's wonderful smelling, it tastes good, and it make your lips feel great.

Don't let the Altoids box fool you -

**Recipe For Lip Balm**

Melt - 1 tsp. beeswax / 2 tsp. coconut oil / 1/2 tsp. lanolin / one vitamin E capsule

in the microwave. [BE CAREFUL - beeswax is highly flamable]

Once melted, add 1 tsp. honey and stir.

Pour into a container and put into the fridge until completely set.