Updated Flower Ball Thanks to Erin

Erin saw my post, thanks to my prodding during our chat and shared that she thought I needed to add some glass beads and some ribbon. I had some laying around and here's what it looks like now. She says it looks more balanced now. Yay! Thanks, Erin!

Took a Crafty Day...

And worked on a couple of projects I've seen that I wanted to try.

First up is sure a day brightener! I got the idea for this on Organize and Decorate Everything here. It was literally easy peasy lemon squeezy! I picked up four flower bushes at the Dollar Tree and a round styrofoam ball at Hobby Lobby. I cut off the flowers and just stuck them into the ball. The gal who shared this idea used hot glue to make them stick, but for now, I liked how quick and easy it was just to stick them in.  I decided to rest it on top of the glass vase I have on my coffee table.

I tried to take pictures of it actually ON the coffee table, but I couldn't get them to look right. So I tried this way instead and thought you got a better idea of the colors in the flowers.

Next up is a project I saw in February on Someday Crafts here. Oh my goodness, I fell in love with the cheery gingham goodness! I've been collecting the supplies needed and today I decided to try my hand at it. I thought I could get three made, but only managed the one for now.

This was another tough one to photograph nicely, but I think you get a pretty good idea of what it looks like. The blog post I linked is a tutorial on how to make these, so I'll refrain giving the details. It was fairly easy and lots of fun to create. I actually put fabric over a button cover and added just a bit of fiberfill before putting it together. Aside from making the circle a little too small, it worked great. This may end up on the porch table or possibly in the girls' room.

That's it from me today. I hope your Wednesday has been a happy one! Thanks for stopping by and leaving all those lovely comments on the eggs I shared yesterday. You sure do know how to make a gal feel good! *Ü*

Today's Project...Beaded Eggs!

Now, before you think all I do all day is read blogs and make projects, I want to reassure you that I do housework, too! LOL In fact, this morning I spent a good chunk of time dusting and sweeping the house as well as cleaning a bathroom and decluttering our spare room, which has become a catch all room. Geez, I think it'd work much better as a crafty room, but hubby is not convinced. LOL After I was done with all that, THEN I worked on this project. *Ü*

Of course, I found the idea on a blog and of course, now I can't remember where.(eta: Kathi to the rescue...here's the link: http://craftysisters-nc.blogspot.com/2010/03/day-4-easy-beaded-eggs.html) Thanks, Kathi! These crafty blogs I am reading have linky parties, where lots of different bloggers link up their blogs with projects they have made. I see the idea and then I want to create it right away, ususally. I've been too impatient to note the creator. I've got to change that bad habit, so I can do better about linking up the person who gave me the inspiration.

Anyway, I took some large plastic eggs, some "ribbon" beads (both from Hobby Lobby and both purchased at 50% off) and my hot glue gun (well, low temp hot glue gun, no burning of fingers thankfully) and not too much time and I ended up with this. I had some of the beads left over, but not enough to cover another large egg, so I pulled from my stash of smaller ones and used up the rest. Yay!

You can see the idea much better in the second shot. I used a large pink and yellow egg, and a small purple and green egg. The beads are connected like ribbon. I could only find pink and white/clear beads, but I think they make other colors. I used the pink stuff on the purple egg and the white on the green one.

 I also took the second picture to show you how this display works. Again, on the crafty blogs, I've seen lots of clever ladies use a cheese dome to use as decoration. I found one this past weekend and was thrilled, especially since it was just $2! I put it on top of a large candle base that I picked up a couple of weeks ago. I don't even have to glue them together because the candlestick is large enough to keep it stable. I want to crochet a doily to go inside, but until I do that, I put a doily I found this weekend on top of the base. I love how it looks all together.

Being that this is the week before Easter a lot of crafty ladies are sharing Easter ideas. I am enjoying seeing their creativity, especially since most of these are done on a budget. Today you can go here to see the blog party going on at A Soft Place To Land.

Thanks so much for stopping by! I've got the house all opened up because it's going to be in the 70s today. Wheeee! Of course, it's the warm before the storm...tomorrow we'll be in the 50s with a chance of showers. LOL Gotta enjoy it while I can, right?

FYI...In Case You Didn't Know...

I came across a post in my blog hopping that I thought might be of interest.

I'm trying to get better at responding to blog comments (because I do love to get comments), but a lot of the time, if I hit reply I see this: noreply-comment@blogger.com This means if I don't have your email address already, I can't reply to your comment, unless I do some digging. And I don't always have time to do the digging.

You can change it so that people can respond to your comment via email.

Check out this tutorial! It's very easy, you just need to change your profile in Blogger. This tutorial shows you exactly how to do it. Take a few minutes to do this and you might get more responses from your comments, especially if you ask the blogger a question.

Have a great day!

Daisy Chatelaine

I saw a really neat project on the Sew Ritzy Titzy blog recently, something Dawn called a Daisy Chatelaine. It really appealed to me because the motif was a daisy, which was my mom's very favorite flower. I also loved the blue she used that made the white pop. You can see Dawn's version and tutorial here. She did a great job on the tutorial and I didn't have any problems, until I tried making the I-cord. For some reason I just could not get it to work for me, so I ended up creating a half double crochet cord. I like how it looks and it was immensely less frustrating than the cord I was trying to make. I think the thread is just a bit too slippery for me to make that neat i-cord she references.

I honestly didn't know what  chatelaine meant, so I just looked it up and found what seems to be a good explanation here. I won't be wearing this around my waist, but I sure think it's pretty and it makes me think of my mom and smile and that is a very good thing.

This is the front.

And this is the back.

I'm not quite sure just where I'll put it yet, but I really like how it came out.

******

I happen to enjoy reading book reviews that other blogger's write. I've not shared many books I've read, but I've got to change that this afternoon. I recently finished a book called, If You Can't Lose it, Decorate it, by Anita Renfroe. I checked it out of the library after looking at it and putting it back several times over the past few months. Boy, am I glad I finally borrowed it. I thought it was laugh out loud funny (meaning, I literally laughed out loud at parts while I was reading it...thankfully no one was home at the time, they might have thought I was a bit nuts). It's classified as Christian inspiration and she uses biblical references, but it's not preachy. She just uses them to make her point. It's basically a book encouraging you to look at things from a different (and very funny) perspective. Her humor is very entertaining and I am wishing the library had more titles by her that I could check out.

Another book I picked up is Thank You Power, by Deborah Norville. I'm in the midst of reading it right now and am really enjoying what she has to say and the research that's been done to back up what she shares about living with a sense of gratitude. 

I really like reading books that are inspiring and encouraging and these two are definitely that. They remind me to think and look at things from other perspectives aside from the all too easy negative. If you are interested in this type of reading, you might enjoy these, too.

That's it from me today. I've been ducking and dodging the housework for the better part of the day. I'd best get to it now. Thanks so much for stopping by. I hope your week is off to a great start. And in the interest of being grateful, I am truly blessed to have you stop by during your busy day and read what I have to share. I truly appreciate it!

She's Home AND Another New to Me Project....LOL

Look who made it home safe and sound about 3pm this afternoon. Look at that grin, too! She had a blast. And claims she didn't even miss us because she was "too distracted." LOL She's not been too forthcoming with information just yet, but she's also a bit subdued. I'm sure she's wiped out. I don't want to press her too much for information and be that annoying mom who asks a million questions. I guess one girl in her troop ended up having to go home early because she missed her mom too much. I hear she pretty much kept everyone up on Friday night, managed to last the day on Saturday, but come Saturday night was too upset to stay any longer. The leaders told me Amy did great and had a lot of fun. Yay! It sure is good to see her again, though.

Today Steve took Jessica for a bike ride to our "big" park. That gave me the time to work on another new to me project. hee, hee! There's not much I won't attempt if it looks easy enough and the supplies are inexpensive enough. When I saw this idea on a blog not too long ago, I knew I wanted to try it!

For your viewing pleasure...hardy har har...

I made TWO necklaces and two flowers. The neat thing is...I can change out the flowers on the necklaces and put other embellishments on them. The flowers attach with lobster claws.  I made two because I had enough of the chain left to create a second slightly different one. I found the idea on the Polka Dot Chair blog here. If you check it out, you can see how the flowers get attached. I had some fabric that my friend Heidi gave me and I decided to create a couple of Kanzashi flowers that I could use. Sorry the pictures aren't the greatest. I took them myself in my bathroom mirror and the lighting just isn't that great. I edited as best I could in PSE. This was honest to goodness pretty darn easy to put together. Now I think I need some more solid color tops so I can make more flowers. Wheee!

And while I was taking pictures, I took a shot of one of my new tops from the thrift store. This one isn't crocheted or knit, but it is neat, nonetheless. And the fact that it was only $3 made it fly into my cart. 

I just have to fix one teensy part that you may not see unless I point it out. That blanket stitch is done on the ends of the 3/4 length sleeves and the bottom hem. Guess who wants to stitch on all her clothes now. LOL This was definitely a very happy find for me!

Thanks so much for all your sweet comments on the various projects I've been sharing. I know they aren't papercrafts or digi scrapping and hopefully that's not too disappointing, but I must confess dabbling in other crafts is immensely satisfying these days.

Have a great start to your week!

She's Off and A New To Me Project Completed! *Ü*

Not the greatest picture in the world, but this is how Amy looked when it was finally time for me to drive her over to the drop off location for her to go on her first ever sleep away Girl Scout Camp. One cannot discount that huge grin! Jess and I dropped her off yesterday afternoon and we go to pick her up tomorrow afternoon. We've not gotten any phone calls, so we are assuming she is having a fabulous time! She was a teensy weensy bit nervous when the moment came for me to leave her, but she bounced back quickly. It feels strange not having her around, but Jess and I are having fun playing games and watching movies together. The little scamp keeps beating me. LOL

I did go out thrift store shopping first thing this morning, though, minus Jessica because, quite honestly after a week of constant togetherness, Mommy needed just a bit of a break from her kidlet. I went to a thrift store I haven't been to before and got some neato things. Not the least of which are some more crochet/knit tops! Whooohooo! I also got a board game, one of the ones that Jess soundly beat me at. It's all good though.

Now for the new to me project. When Erin G. was here recently, she picked up a booklet on how to do jump ring jewelry, called Chain Maille. I really liked the book, but there was only one copy at the store. I found a copy at another store later and bought some jump rings. But, for the project I wanted to try, you do need to have specific sizes in the rings and I didn't have them. So, I haven't made anything from that book...yet. However, on another trip to Hobby Lobby, I saw they had a kit to make a necklace in the same style, so I bought it. And yesterday I started the project....

I probably don't have the exact right tools, but I have some that worked for me. Here you can see the pattern I'm creating.

Just a few minutes ago I finished the piece.

And I got a super cute girl to model it for me.

Oh heck, I'll show you her cute face, dirt and all...

She pulled out her second tooth a week ago, and the adult tooth had already broken through. No losing that tooth, she was so excited.

And the top she's wearing? She went out with Daddy to a thrift store and found it herself. I love it on her!

And for the record, the necklace that I thought I was making for me actually is a little too short, so guess who owns it now? Yeah, now you know why she's grinning so hugely!

Thanks for stopping by!

I hope you are having a lovely weekend.

I've got other projects I'm working on, so I'd best get to them if I want to be able to share them with you.

Crochet Tray Mat is Finished!

Hi there! I've been crocheting like crazy and can finally share the project that is the result of all those squares I was making. Yay! I thought I was going to need 36 squares, but when I showed Jessica, who was wondering why the heck I was making all the squares, I realized I only needed 32, so I got done with that part a little sooner than I thought. Then I had to sew them all together and finally stitch the border. I just finished and am excited to share the final result.

Remember the tea cart I picked up at the thrift store a month or so ago? When I saw the pattern I used, I thought it would look great on the tea cart. The pattern itself called for just 24 squares, but the tea cart is a just a bit bigger, so I worked to have the mat fit inside the lines on the tea cart top.

Here you go:

I stood on a chair to get this shot.

Sorry for the over exposure. I guess I could have edited the picture, but I'm too impatient to share, so pretend it's not there, okay?

I'm really, really happy with how it came out. I'm also really, really happy to be done with the stitching. LOL

I found the pattern at FaveCrafts. You can find the specific pattern here. What's great is the patterns there are FREE! Love that!

Before I go, I wanted to share this as well. Remember Rosie the Bunny I made from the pattern I found on MaryJane's Tearoom? Well, on her blog recently she shared she had some extra yarn she was giving away to the first several comments. By the time I saw the post, I saw she had more than 6 comments, but I thought it was so nice of her, I commented anyway. It turns out, some of those comments were from Susan herself, so I qualified for the giveaway! Whooo hoooo! I've been waiting patiently (she lives in England) and today the package arrived! I'm so excited! If you are reading this Susan, thanks so very much!!

That's all from me for now. Thanks ever so much for stopping by. Oh, and if you heard about the big storm that dumped on Denver the other day...we got 8.9 inches of heavy wet snow, ugh. BUT, the weather is improving rapidly and the snow is busily melting. March is the snowiest month of the year and we are already at the average snowfall for the month. With another week left, lets hope this is the last big storm. It's been known to snow in April and even May so we aren't out of the woods, though.

Have a great day!

It Didn't Cost a Dime!

Hi there!

Before I share what didn't cost a dime, I HAVE to share the picture of the egg wreath my friend Heidi was inspired to create after seeing mine. I LOVE the multi-colored shreds she used. Heidi doesn't have a blog and I hope she doesn't mind my sharing. We've become good buddies as we sit and watch our kids take swim lessons. Unfortunately, I was late signing up for the current session and the class was full, so we are taking an imposed break from swim lessons for this session. But, I've already signed them up for the next session, starting in April.

Here's the wreath Heidi made with help from her sweet daughter, Annabelle. Doesn't it look fabulous?!

Thanks for sharing this with me, Heidi. I'm tickled you were inspired to create one for yourself. 

Well, I guess, technically, showing that wreath didn't cost me a dime either, so it fits with my blog post today, right? LOL

This past week, I got the bright idea to look for a piece of furniture to put into the girls' room. I haven't worked too much at decorating in there, mainly because it's usually a pit (they have way too much stuff crammed in there). But, seeing as we are on Spring Break this week, I'm going to try to rectify that. They've had one of these units you see here, with the open bins for toys (I've pulled it out of their room). For months now I've wanted them to go through the bins and take out stuff they no longer use. I wanted to replace it with a piece of furniture with closed storage, (maybe an armoire?) and looked for something at the thrift stores this weekend. I only saw one thing I thought might work, but it would be $99. Not a ton of money, but more than I wanted to spend. As I was taking a shower yesterday morning, I must have had the idea lurking in the back of my brain and I got the bright idea to shift around some furniture in the house.

This desk has been sitting in the corner of our entry way for years. It was mine as a young girl. My parents bought it as an unfinished piece and my dad and I worked together to sand it down and stain it. I used this as my homework station in my room for years! Anyway, I thought it would work in the space where the bins used to be. I quickly finished up the shower so I could grab a tape measure and check. Yep, it would fit!  Next up I had to empty it of all the junk that had accumulated in it. I haven't used it as a desk since we moved here in 1996, but I sure have stuffed it with junk. LOL And I discovered that mice have enjoyed making a mess in the drawers. Ewwwwww! I got all the junk out and put into boxes until I can go through and sort it out. Here you see it in the space in the girls' room. To say they are thrilled is an understatement. They still need to go through the bins and all, but the weather was gorgeous yesterday (with the forecast for snow later today and tomorrow) so I insisted they go outside and enjoy the sunshine.

Now, the space in the corner didn't look right without the desk. I thought, I could probably find one of those long skinny tables at the thrift store, you know, the kind that people use behind a sofa. And the girls and I set off to the thrift store to see what we could find. No luck, but my brain must have been working overtime because I remembered a bookshelf we have in our "big" room that wasn't being used very effectively. So....I emptied that and pulled it into the entry way. I put it where our bench has been for years. I just shifted the bench to the wall where the desk used to sit.

You can see the corner where the desk used to be, as I haven't moved my Sarah picture yet. Here's the bench in its new location. That bear you see was owned by my grandmother who recently passed away. She would win stuffed animals playing bingo at the nursing facility where she lived. My dad sent the girls a box of the animals. I snagged this cute bear for me as a remembrance of Grandma.

And here's what I put where the bench used to be:

I'm just thrilled with how it looks! I pulled some of my recent thrift store finds  to set on the shelves for now. I even found some treasures in the desk I moved, like the two Easter ceramic pieces. I picked up a third larger egg holder and just found the glittery egg at Michaels. I found more doilies and linens in one of the drawers. (It's been literally years since I opened one of the drawers, she says, hanging her head in shame). Those need to be washed and will hopefully be usable.

Anyway, I've not been real big on moving furniture in the house, mainly because I don't really know what would look good. But, this...this I really am glad I thought of. And I just wanted to share! (and I really should take off some of the price stickers on the glass pieces, huh?) Even Steve thought it was pretty clever (high praise indeed from him, since he usually rolls his eyes at some of my ideas).

Thanks so much for stopping by! I hope you have a terrific Tuesday!

Happy Finds

I thought I'd pop in and say hi, in case you were wondering what I have been up to. Don't want anyone to worry (Kathi-hee, hee). I have to tell you, I had a super fun time thrift store shopping yesterday. All of the local thrift stores had 50% off sales! But what was even better is that I FOUND stuff! It's one thing to have an awesome sale, but quite another to actually be able to take advantage of it. I didn't take pictures of them but I found several tops and they fit! Whoo hooo! I found a pair of Bass slip on sandals, too, with wooden beads on the top leather piece. Ohhhh they are so cute and were only $3.50! I can't wait for it to warm up so I can actually wear them. The tops I've been looking for have the crochet look to them, at least in the edgings. I got lucky there, because I'm so hard to fit!

I did take pictures of my other happy finds that I thought you might like to see.

I thought this little wooden watering can was just adorable and it was just a dollar. Actually, the flowers cost me more than the can. LOL I picked up a couple of bunches of flowers and a styrofoam square at the Dollar Tree and arranged them to the best of my ability. This is sitting on top of the tv I watch most of the time. I love the happy colors and as I'm working on my handwork, and I glance up at the tv, now I can see this and smile.

Oh my gosh, I am in love with this pitcher! $3 and it became mine! I should have taken a photo of the eyelet looking side by the handle and I really didn't do the water sign justice. I had some extra flowers from the watering can and plopped them in here. Oh, do I smile when I look at this, too!

I'm a bit of a dork and you know I freely admit it. My lack of cultural experience showed when I realized what I thought were neat looking egg holders were actually sake cups. Oops. I saw these two "egg holders" with a sweet little "bud vase" and for a $1 they went into my cart.

This is my new bud vase. LOL Oooh, maybe I should put my glittery eggs in their "egg holders" here. Hmmmmm....

The picture isn't the greatest, because this is a pretty dark corner, but I saw this apothecary jar at the thrift store earlier in the week. It wasn't on sale that day, so I left it and held my breath that it would still be there when I went back yesterday. Luck was with me. Maybe it was the ugly plastic roses inside that saved it for me. I yanked those puppies out and for now have some potpourri from another old, tired jar in here. The bird I picked up this morning from the Dollar Tree when I got my flowers.

This jar was just so neat looking I had to get it. It was only a dollar!

I'm not so sure I like it with the lid on it, which is why I took both pictures. 

Excuse the floors, Steve and our friend Duane worked hard yesterday getting the dishwasher hooked up. They had to go under the house a few times and mucked up the floors. Oh and I have kids, and you often find random toys (Barbie bridal bouquets and trucks) all around here.

One of my thrift store finds ended up smashed to bits yesterday. I'm bummed about it, but what can you do? The girls have been just chomping at the bit to get a hold of the big box that the dishwasher came in. Jessica was messing around inside it and tipped it over. It landed on the coffee table with enough force to smash the little bowl I had here. The other stuff survived just fine, though.

That one there in the upper left corner. Sniff, sniff. It was so pretty.

Oh well, I can always look for another one, right? LOL

I'm still crocheting. See. I've now made 20 of these little squares and I'm not done yet. I need a total of 36, so I'd better get to crocheting again.

So far, the dishwasher is working fine. Actually it was pretty quiet when it was filling with water a little while ago, Steve thought it wasn't working! That is a pleasant bonus. I never noticed the other one being that noisy.

Thanks for stopping by~

I hope you've had a wonderful weekend!

Sock Bunnies~Inspired By Kari!

Hi There!

Kari shared  some sock bunnies she made on her blog here the other day. In her post she said so very sweetly that she thought of me when she saw them. I grinned at that. Thanks, Kari! I told her I would definitely be making some for myself and so I have and I think they are so flippin' cute, I almost can't stand it. LOL

I sure had fun with these. Here is the link to the directions on how to make them. I tweaked the idea just a bit to make them "mine." I bought the Bobbie Socks (2T-3T size) at Target. At first I didn't want a whole package of 6, but in the end, I'm glad I got it. I first stuffed a single sock with popcorn kernals (like Kari did), but I didn't like how you could see the kernals through the sock. So, I used two socks, one inside the other, and I liked it much better. Mid-way through the first one, I thought putting safety eyes on would be cute, so I finagled a way to add them. I got all three put together, then it came time to cut the ears. But I had two socks together. Hmmmmm. I was going to roll one down, but it looked silly. Then I thought, why don't I pull the sock over the head and tuck the ends into the rubber band at the neck? But what about the eyes??? Hmmmmm, oh, I snipped just a tiny spot over the eye and was able to push the eye through the hole and tuck the edges under. Yay!!! I like the ribbing on the head, too. I thought about adding felt to the ears, but in the end liked the simplicity of the look without felt. Now I'm wondering how one would look with polyfil instead of popcorn kernals...well, I do have a few more socks left....

The end!

(sorry, just couldn't resist)

*Ü*

Have a great day!!