Cut and Ready to SEW!

Train Themed Giant Fleece Ball - $50.00

Each ball is 14" in diameter and features 12 panels. The theme will be carried out as follows.



1 panel with a NAME

4 panels with theme related words ("All Aboard", Toot, Choo Choo, Chug)

3 panels with Train Cars

2 panels with Railway signs

1 Panel with Train Silhouette

1 panel with railroad tracks



Unless specified this ball will come in r...

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Custom made to fit You!

Adult Skirt Custom Size Bits Recycled Jersey Skirt - $75.00

I got a little bored making straight panel skirts, so I started getting a little more inventive. This graphically stunning skirt is the latest from my spring/summer line. It is made from little bits of recycled tops and jersey scraps. They are patchworked together to create this colorful an fun skirt that twirls and sways beautifully as you move.



I have collected beautiful colorful jersey tops for two ...

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Cut and ready to Sew!

Personalized Giant Fleece Ball - English Horseback Riding Themed - $50.00

These balls are huge! They are made from soft fleece and stuffed with fiberfill. Babies can flop on them and big kids can too. This ball is about 14" in diameter.



This order is for ONE custom giant ball made with English Horseback Riding themed appliques. The price includes the following:



1 -Personalized panel

3 - Theme related words (the ball in the photo says "cross co...

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FIVE Candy Free Fillers for Plastic Easter Eggs

FIVE things besides candy to fill plastic Easter eggs:



1. Pom pom chicks - We made these one year for our girls, and they STILL play with them years later. Here is how to make them:

Materials:
1 bag large pom poms
1 bag googly eyes
1 bag of feathers
1-2 pieces of orange fun foam
hot glue gun with glue sticks
scissors

Each chick needs a beak and feet cut from the fun foam. Cut small triangles for the beak and larger triangles for the feet. Each chick also needs one pom pom, two eyes, and one feather.

Using the hot glue gun, put a dab of glue on the end of the feather and stick it to the top of the pom pom. Glue the feet on the bottom. Finally, glue on the beak and the eyes. Ta dah! You just made a chicken.



2. coins - pennies, nickles, dimes, even quarters. My kids enjoy putting the money in their piggy banks more than they'd enjoy the candy. They are old enough that they can count the money too.



3. stickers - the beauty of stickers is that they get used up. We buy a few sheets of stickers and cut them into individual stickers to stuff the eggs. Tattoos work great too!



4. Easter jokes or fortunes - Our seven year old is deeply dedicated to the art of joke telling, so this year, we plan to stuff some of the eggs with small slips of paper with Easter themed jokes on them. Click Here to download a sheet of jokes.



5. Flower seeds - We buy a few packs of flowers and divide them into smaller packets (simply fold little pouches from scratch paper and write the names on each pouch). After the hunt is done, encourage your children to plant their seeds in your garden or flower beds, in pots, or go on a walk and spread the seeds in vacant lots and along fence lines (every kid enjoys a little eco-terrorism)! They can enjoy watching their seeds grow all summer long.

Do It Yourself: Vintage Scarf Wine Bottle Wrap

A beautifully wrapped bottle of wine (or vermouth if you are out of wine...)

How many times have you given or received a bottle of wine wrapped in some sort of wine holder that can only be a wine holder. This is a quick project to use a vintage scarf like wrapping paper for your next bottle of wine. Most large vintage scarves will work great, double check by pulling on opposite corners of the scarf to see if it stretches on the bias. If there is a little bit of stretch, the scarf will work great. The best part, there is no cutting or gluing, simply untie the knot and your recipient will also receive a beautiful new scarf.

Do It Yourself: Paper Easter Eggs

The finished goods can be used as a fun greeting card, or stuffed with money, tattoos, or stickers.

A few years ago, our daughter lost her first tooth on Valentine's Day. Our clever tooth fairy folded her dollar like a heart and made her a tiny little valentine. As luck would have it, her second tooth fell out three days before Easter. She wondered aloud "I wonder if the Tooth Fairy will bring me something for Easter this time?" Wouldn't you know it, in the morning, the Tooth Fairy had created a tiny little egg that held her dollar.

Coming up on Easter again, these little paper eggs are a fun alternative to the cheap plastic eggs we have all come to stuff with candy.


The supplies

What you need:
Scissors
White Glue
Colored Pencils or Markers
4 X 6 Pieces of Cardstock (Index Cards work GREAT!)
Washi Paper Tape (optional)


Decorating the easy way!

If you have Washi Paper Tape, decorating your eggs will be a breeze! Simply lay down layers of tape across your card stock. I am using 4 X 6 index cards, but a similar size piece of cardstock will be fine. If you choose to NOT use the tape, pre-decorate your eggs with markers, colored pencils, or decoupage (let them dry completely before proceeding).


Fold the paper in half and draw or trace an egg shape onto the back with pencil.


Cutting through both halves at once, cut out the egg shape.


On an additional card, trace the egg shape. On the back of one of the decorated eggs, draw a crack.


Hold both eggs together and cut the crack.


Trace the bottom half of the crack on the blank egg shape then carefully draw about 1/4" INSIDE the edge of the outline along the top half of the egg. This is the portion of the card that will be inside the egg, and needs to be smaller along the top edge so it can move freely in and out of the top of the egg.


Decorate the inside piece. I have drawn a chick with an Easter greeting. A vintage Easter drawing pasted to the inside would also be cute.


Cut it out just on the INSIDE of the outlines.


Put a small amount of glue on the back bottom half of the inside piece.


Press one of the bottom halves into the glue and hold firmly.


Along the bottom half of the front, place a thin bead of glue just along the edge of the paper. Leaving most of the bottom front half open will allow for the egg to work as a container. Press the remaining bottom piece into the glue and hold firmly.


On the back of one of the top halves, put a thin bead of glue along the edge. Leaving the center open allows the card to move in and out of the egg.


After the glue has dried...


Assemble your egg! There is probably a right and wrong way to put your egg together, I find holding the top over the bottom to see which way the crack matches up the best makes it easier.


Once the glue has dried, your egg can be used to hold coins, stickers, tattoos, sticks of gum, or in the case of this lucky egg, FIVE DOLLAR BILLS!

New Gadget: Twist and Sparkle

Sparkle baby! Sparkle! In just a minute, I will be enjoying a glass of sparkling Raspberry Mint water.

My husband got me a Isi Twist and Sparkle for Christmas, and it is fantastic. I have a raging La Croix habit, and can easily go through 3-4 cans a day. I like the Twist and Sparkle because I can use it to create fresh fruit infused sparkling water, and I can make a bottle when I want (no more late night trips to the store to buy a warm case of La Croix).

To keep a stash on hand, each day I prepare two bottle of fruit water. I have tried fresh pineapple, oranges, clementines, mixed berry, and raspberry. This time of year, oranges and clementines are abundant, so I have been favoring those, but I also like to use frozen raspberries with a little dried mint from last summer's garden. I put in about 1/2 an orange or a small handful of raspberries with water (i use our tap water, but you could go all fancy and use filtered water). I let the bottle chill in the fridge until I am ready to fizz it up. The fizz lasts best for a few hours (I have no problem drinking 4 cups of infused water in just a few hours). It will keep overnight, but it is not as fizzy.

I think next I will try infused cucumber water, and some classic lemon lime.

Do It Yourself: Empty Spool Candy/Cracker Ornaments

This ornament was made by Sylvia (I helped her with the hot glue). She decided to make hers a piece of sour candy by gluing a paper label to the front.


This ornament was made by Beatrice (with the hot glue assist). Beatrice's is Sweet Sour Candy (?).

If you sew as much as I do, you probably have a giant bin full of empty thread spools. They are too good to throw away, but yet hard to use (especially the modern plastic ones). I designed this little project to do on a rainy (yes RAINY) December afternoon with the kiddos. My girls are 4 and 7, this project uses hot glue, so I needed to help them with the gluing and cutting the pieces to the right size. This project would be perfect for kids just a little bit older (8+).

Materials:
floral wire (medium gage)
wide ribbon
felt
empty spool
thin ribbon
hot glue
scissors



Prepare your pieces by cutting the felt into a rectangle that is large enough to roll entirely around the circumference of the spool with a little bit of an overlap. Leave the ends at least 1 1/2 " longer than the spool on each side.


Thread the wire through the center of the spool and bend a hook at the end. Secure this into the spokes of the spool with a small dab of hot glue.



Next, secure one edge of the felt with hot glue to the spool. lay the ribbon over it and secure the ribbon with hot glue to the spool as well.


Roll the felt and the ribbon around the spool. Fold the edge of the ribbon over the edge of the felt and secure with hot glue.


Finish rolling the felt and ribbon around the spool and secure with hot glue.


Using the thin ribbon, gather the ends and tie with a decorative bow.

To hang the ornament, either leave the wire long and bend a hook, OR clip the wire short, and bend over to create a loop to which you will tie a hanging ribbon.

Add a paper label if desired with glue.

To create a dish of candies, omit the center wire and continue with the rest of the steps.


Santa Cop means to show the new ornament who is the boss...

Recipes: Bee Balm Sun Tea

A fine jar of Bee Balm Tea in front of our Bee Balm patch. Bee Balm is in the mint family and has a sweet minty flavor. Bee Balm blossoms are also a lovely addition to salads.

It's summer, and at our house, we drink sun tea. Lots and lots of sun tea. The problem is that after a few glasses, my caffeine intolerance kicks in and I can have no more. Additionally, the girls love tea, but I am not really all that enthusiastic about hopping them up with chemical energy all day. So we invented Bee Balm Sun Tea. It is very easy to make, and quite delicious.

Bee Balm Sun Tea
5-7 Bee Balm Blossoms
A handful of Fresh Basil
A Handful of Fresh Mint
2-3T Dried Hibiscus flowers and rosehips (optional to enhance the pink color)

In a CLEAN (scrubbed with hot soapy water) clear glass jar, fill about two to three inches from the top with water. Add all ingredients (if using hibiscus and rosehips place these in a tea ball or t-sac). Place the jar in direct sunlight for 3-4 hours. Remove the ingredients and chill.

An alternate brewing method which yields a less strong tea is to cold brew the tea in the fridge for 24 hours.

The tea is great on ice with or without a touch of honey.

Note: for those of you with weak or compromised immune systems, the cold brew method is probably the safest, as sun brewed tea can sometimes promote the growth of bacteria.

Patterns: Better Homes and Gardens Pouf

Two lucky BHG subscribers will WIN the one of the ottomans in the photo above. Both are made by Lara Newsom of Handmade Pretties.

Open the latest copy of Better Homes and Gardens and you will find a stitched yellow burlap ottoman made by Handmade Pretties as a set piece. After creating the ottoman as a mere photo prop, the editors at BHG asked me to create a pattern that would be available for free online (all you have to do is register with BHG to download the pattern). For $50 or less, you can create one of your own.

In addition to generating all of the digital pattern files and written instructions, I spent a day working with Amy Panos of BHG on the set of the photo shoot. Two lucky BHG subscribers will WIN the two ottomans in the photo above.

Favorite Songs: Buoy - The Nightgowns

I love the lyrics in this song. It's like coming out of a fog and finding yourself in the bright sunshine. (or like coming out of the basement and finally getting to go to bed...)

Magazine Feature: Do It Yourself Magazine Spring 2011

Title Page for the Story. I created the dyed and starched candy dishes.

I worked with Jessica Thomas on Eye Candy for the Spring 2011 issue of Do It Yourself Magazine. I spent a good month collecting doilies and lace, dying doilies and lace, painting doilies and lace, and finally sewing doilies and lace. I created the stiffened doily dishes using watered down white glue and a final coat of shellac. I used a similar technique to adhere the lace to votives and a large mason jar vase. I also created the five lace and doily embellished pillows on page 83. The teal pillow in the front simply used doilies as stencils for spray paint. The others featured doilies and lace sewn to the surface of the pillow.


A lovely stack of pillows. I designed and produced all five lace and doily pillows.

A shot of the votives and the mason jar vase.

Magazine Feature: Giant Monkey Block Pattern

The finished dice right before I dropped it off at Meredith.

The Winter 2010 issue of Quilts and More (published by Meredith), features a pattern that I created for an over-sized monkey block. I generated all of the digital files for the patterns and wrote the instructions. Meredith shot all of the amazing photos with the baby (my babies are big girls now). Eventually, I will offer this pattern for sale on my etsy site.


The magazine cover

Title Page of the pattern

Magazine Feature: Do It Yourself Magazine Winter 2010

The title page of the story. I hand cut and stitched the felt artwork for this page.

"We Love Felt" is published in the Winter 2010 issue of Do It Yourself magazine (pg 76). I worked on this piece with Jessica Thomas to create the backdrops and cube props. I created the title page "We Love Felt" piece. Additionally, one of my felted wool brooches is featured on page 79.


I created the felt covered block set pieces for this shoot.


More of the felt block in action.


My brooch is the spiky red orange flower in the foreground.