crafty «

Archive | crafty RSS feed for this section

poinsettia pillow

Every year my bunco group does one of those gift exchanges where you draw numbers and take turns opening packages. It’s the kind of thing that starts out civil but ends with stealing and fits of laughter.

I brought this pillow, which is a knock off of a Pottery Barn pillow that isn’t listed on their site so you will just have to take my word that it looked a little bit like this.

This one is made with a khaki cotton that has a linen look that’s on a 12 inch pillow form. The poinsettia is just a bunch of petals cut out of ivory felt and stitched down with linen floss. I used buttonhole twist thread to stitch the jingle bells.

Today I’m doing my best to finish up some presents and getting started on this years teacher gifts – hope the oven is ready.

Comments 3 Comments
Categories crafty, sewing

put a bow on it

4 Dec

We have our Christmas tree, but we haven’t put it up yet. In the meantime, I’ve been decorating around the house.

I usually hang ornaments from all the windows, but this year I wanted to do something different.

This year every thing gets a bow -

frames…

doorways…

stairways…

sconces…

plates…

even plates, sconces, and frames…

and when the ribbon is gone, put a garland on it…

Comments 1 Comment
Categories crafty, stray posts

advent

1 Dec

The calendar is ready.

The kids were up bright and early and ready to put on the first decoration. Seriously, cj was up at 5 am. He came downstairs dressed for the day, asking about getting the house ready for Christmas. They both love peeking at the days ahead to see what ornament is next. All the while lulu reminding cj that they have to wait for each day before the ornament goes on the tree.

Their tree will be filled before we know it.

Comments 1 Comment
Categories crafty, sewing, stray posts

my name is…

9 Sep

Here is the name tag I made for the Sewing Summit.

The tutorial for the felt dahlia can be found here.

I put a separate pin back on the flower so I can remove it and wear it separately.

Comments 7 Comments
Categories crafty, sewing

a bit of home improvement

31 Aug

We are lucky to still have a lot of great original features in our home.

Our mantle is not one of them. The previous owner bulked it up. So much so, when you open the window next to the fireplace, it hits right into the corner of the mantle. I do love having a great big shelf for display, but wasn’t loving the trim.

I went scouring my files for before pictures of our mantle. This was more difficult than I thought it would be.

I found this…

It’s from 2008. You can see the flourishy things in the center and corners along with the bullseye and ribbed pieces along the sides. You can also little lulu in the amazing Sleeping Beauty dress that my mom made for her.

Here you can see where my dad chiseled off the scrolly things for me.

I knew I wanted them off, but wasn’t sure what to do once they were off. Matching stain would be a pain, but I didn’t want to paint the whole thing. Since we couldn’t decide what to do, we left it…

for over two years…

Then my mom called to tell me about a fireplace she saw on This Old House that was just painted on the bottom…

done…

We swapped out the bullseye blocks that didn’t go with anything in the house and were wider than the boards beneath them, that were also replaced with something more understated. I’m still not 100% committed to the tile, but at least I can look at the fireplace without frustration.

Comments 1 Comment
Categories crafty, stray posts

party for 7

4 Jul

Turning seven that is…

I spent an evening last week knotting strips of scrap fabric on to a piece of twine.

Lulu wanted a camp theme so we set a plan for an afternoon in the backyard with a tent full of balloons and games like bocce and basketball. Then it turned out to be the hottest and most humid day we’ve had this year. We still had the tent, but went with a water fight to try to cool off.
Then they painted birdhouses.

They decorated bangle bracelets made from popsicle sticks. (here they are undecorated)