Be Thankful

I really enjoyed my Halloween window and porch display throughout October but I really need change out the window for something with a Thanksgiving theme.


I wanted something quick and easy and cheap!
A sign was the answer

I went by my local lumber yard and purchased a scrap piece of plywood.  At my lumberyard scrap pieces of plywood are cheap, it was a nice surprise.

My first step was to spray paint the outer edge

After the outer edge was dry, I taped off the outer edge and painted the center

 I cut vinyl on my Silhouette and applied it to the sign.  It was pretty easy and simple.  One exception it had been so long since I used my Silhouette, it was like relearning the software!

One more project, a thankful banner for my hutch

That's it for Thanksgiving, I can't believe the Christmas season is right around the corner.

Painted Bottles - Idea via Pinterest

Sometimes you need a quick project to do, just something to brighten up the house, something to enjoy doing with family, something that turns out cute and fun.

Well, I just had the perfect DIY project in mind....

I saw this painted bottle project and immediately pinned it.  I ordered the bottles (6 in all) and picked out some paint.

Kaitlyn wanted to paint them, which worked out perfectly - I cooked dinner and she painted.   A quick and easy little project to brighten up the house

Notice I have only 5 bottles, one is on the way to a friend!

Pintuck Pillows

Erin wanted some new pillows for her family room, going with more of a burnt orange instead a bright in-your-face orange (her words not mine!).

I had some burnt orange linen leftover from maternity sewing and thought of just doing something with texture.  I found this great Pintuck pillow tutorial and decided that perfect for the fabric.

Each pillow took about an hour and the texture is so pretty

 A nice little wedding anniversary present, it has been one year.

Some Wedding Sewing

Erin's wedding is in 44 days, according to the Macy's registry.  Okay, wow, that is closer than I thought, happy I went ahead and did most of the sewing last week.  Two flower girls for the wedding and last week was a fitting with the muslins I made of the pattern.  Now more confident in their sizes, I made the dresses the last 2 days.  I am planning on lining them but will wait until another fitting on April 20th.   My plan is to line them, add an orange sash, then probably some eyelet ruffle to the lining and let it peak out from the dress. 

The pattern is princess seams, with center front and back seams, lots of seams to break up the polka dots but great for fitting.  Fitted bodice with a nice flare to dress, great for twirling, as the girls demonstrated in the muslins. 

In the background of the picture is the ring bearer pillow and in the pitcher, 2 headbands for the flower girls.  Meredith made those this weekend and they are darling.



Scrapbooking Table

For her birthday, Erin wanted anything related to scrapbooking.  In junior high and early high school, Erin was a big scrapbooker but school got harder, college was demanding and the start of her teaching career was full.  Then things settled down and she had extra time, scrapbooking called her name.  So for her birthday she received gadgets, papers, adhesives, stickers, albums and all sorts of goodies.  In addition, she asked her dad to build her a scrapbooking table.  Paige told her to go to Ana White and check out plans, then one weekend Paige was here and the two of them found the one that would work the best for Erin.

The chose the Modern Craft Table and Mike went to work

Here is her finished table:

I am working on new liners for the baskets but ran out of fabric, it is the blue geometric fabric.  I think my husband did amazing job and Erin is so pleased with her birthday present.

Last Gift Completed and Wrapped

I wanted to make something for my older two daughters, Paige and Erin.  They both have beautiful homes and really enjoy decorating for Christmas. 

I started out with these pictures, purchased for 10 cents each at Dollar General

I painted the entire picture and frame in the same paint.  For the past 12 days, Silhouette has been graciously giving a design a day for the 12 days of Christmas.  I have been downloading them each and every day.  I used a free design on each of the girls' pictures.

Here is Paige's:

Next Erin's:


                                   

I have a couple of gifts (sewing ones) that I will share after Christmas, I don't want a couple of people knowing what they are getting. 


With these two gifts, I am finished crafting and sewing.  The presents are all wrapped, the food is purchased, cookies made and sampled!

Tomorrow is the day for my older two girls to come home with their guys and we have Christmas with them.  Then off to my mom and dad's for Christmas Eve with 16 of us.  I can't wait, it will be so fun.

Quick Gift Idea

Are you looking for a quick, easy and very useful gift idea?  This morning I made just such a gift, two, in fact.
At the first of December, I printed off these Circle Zip Earbud Pouch Tutorial for the twins.  They never can find their earbuds and this little pouch would be the perfect solution.  Fast forward to December 22nd and guess what I hadn't made yet.  Thanks to Stacy Sews wonderful Linky Thursday, which the earbud pouch was one of the links, I was reminded that these were on my to-do list.

I had 30 minutes to spare this morning before work and the girls are still sleeping (Christmas break).  I made two of these in less than 20 minutes.  Now they can fasten them to their backpack or car key ring and always have their earbuds handy.

Poinsettia Pillow

I used a combination of two patterns.  The first, Amy Butler's Snow Mum pillow (free download)   and the second, Censational Girl.  My first intention was to use only the Amy Butler pattern but it was too much aqua and tone-on-tone.  I remembered the pillow from Censational Girl and used the petals for a base.  After sewing on the larger petals, I then attached my snow mum.

  This one is for Erin for Christmas and her color scheme for the holiday is aqua and red.

Poinsettia Wreath

A new wreath for my front door was needed this Christmas season.  After seeing, V and Co. Poinsettia Wreath, I knew just the one I needed.

My only change was to cut the stems a bit longer so I could wrap them on the back of the grapevine wreath and hopefully keep the flowers on the wreath with the wind.

If you need a wreath this one is fast and easy.

Stocking holders

Using U Create's November Project for inspiration, Erin and I (and her dad) made her stocking holders for her new home.

We got a 2 x 6 scrap board, cut each four pieces 5-1/4" each. Mike used his router and made a groove for the frames..  The frames are 4 x 6 frames from Hobby Lobby (50% off) and with the routed groove, Erin can change what is in the frame.  A little bit of paint on all the wooden surfaces, she has mostly turquoise and red ornaments for her tree.

The frames have scrapbooking paper background and initials cut out with my Silhouette.  She bought hooks in our small town but they were the wrong color, so she painted them her trim paint color.

take a look

Stocking found at Hobby Lobby and yes one for their dog.  I am going to embroidery their names on felt and then stitch it onto the stockings.

Her fiance's holder

Her holder

 Aren't they cute?  And very inexpensive to make.  I might need new ones, I really like Shanty 2 Chic's holders with the clothespin.  I am thinking a cute picture of the girls when they were little, dressed in their Christmas finest.

Lemons to Lemonade - Quilt

Meredith picked out some fabric to make a very cute quilt (pattern purchased online).  I cut all the strips for her and the blocks.  She began sewing and we realized the blocks were only going to be 3" square, quite small and she would need several to make a quilt of any size.  Not giving up, Meredith kept at it and stitched some rows together but some blocks had some bias.  With the bias and small size in mind, the blocks were not matching up.  I told her not to worry about it, we would cut new strips and blocks in a much larger size.  I took the strips she had sewn together and made a baby quilt.  Now we have a very cute baby girl quilt all ready and waiting when we need a gift.

New Pillows

I did a bit of sewing last week, new pillows for the family room.  I used this tutorial for some of them.

I also used these new pictures for some brighter colors in this room

Here are the pictures:

This pillow was from a quilt magazine

I used my ruffling foot and pleated a long section of fabric and then stitched it onto a felt base to make the flower.

Most of the fabric is Fandango  (moda)

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Silhouette Artwork

My second oldest daughter purchased a house and closed last month.  She has been busy decorating and fixing up.  We used my Silhouette machine to transform some canvases.

The first one uses three canvases and we used this site as inspiration.
Here is our version:

Here is another view:

Then the second one we transformed a plain canvas into this

We used a silhouette design for the middle and then painters tape for the outside. 

Here it is in the office:

On both canvases we did a dry brushing technique for the cream paint, allowing some of the base coat to show through.

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Craft Room ReDo

As our girls grow up and move out of the house for their own homes and careers, we are finding ourselves with more room.  My second oldest daughter has moved out and will graduate in May and has a job as a secondary math teacher in the fall.  She will be living in our town, which means her room did not have to remain a guest room.  I changed it into a craft room (mainly a scrapbooking room with hopes of the sewing area moving into this room someday).

I set it up temporarily and it was a mess in these pictures

The wall across from desk

bookcase wall

window

from door

The changes:

1. New paint - Valspar Silver Leaf
2. I made curtains from  quilting fabric
3. wall art made from Silhouette, frames and old anitque piece
4. Purchased a drop leaf table to expand my work area
5. Updated a lamp shade
6. Removed the carpeting, parquet floor underneath
7. Added jars, baskets and more for storage

Here is the bookcase, this is my daughter's piece of furniture and will be moving to her classroom in the summer.  I plan on finding a bookcase to replace it, something a bit taller.

Bookcase wall

 The parquet floor isn't in the best shape but so much better than the old carpet.  I used mop-n-glo floor wax (2 coats) and the floor looks much better.



View from the doorway

The glass L-shape desk was in Meredith's room but we moved it to this room and now we can both scrapbook and make cards with all the desk area.  One drop-leaf of the table is up and I can lift the other side for even more area. 



Wider shot from the door

 I used some yellow quilting cotton and this tutorial from Dear Lillie to add some color to the room



Corner of L-shape desk.  Vintage items for storage and updated lampshade.

 This storage piece was found at Sam's Club, I added vinyl so I would know the colors in each drawer. 



Scrapbook storage

 My mom had this embroidered picture.  I made it for my Grandfather when I wasy 12 years old.  It is myself, my brother and my 5 other boy cousins, yes I was the only girl that generation. I erased the birthdates to protect our ages!!  I thought it a perfect addition to my craft room and so happy my mom kept it all the years, my grandfather has been gone 24 years.



Picture I stitched many years ago

I need to look at the flea markets for a few more jars for the ribbons but this is much better than all of them in one big basket.  Plus it looks nicer.



Ribbon jars

 I bought this at a flea market and the yellow is just right for the room.



vintage scale

 Used a vintage wooden piece (it was in the before picture) painted it yellow, added Dollar General frames with scrapbook paper, then the wording made from my Silhouette.  I plan on making a yellow and white quilt to hang on the ladder.



wall opposite of the desk

I am so pleased with the transformation.  I find I am a much neater crafter since the room looks so much better and I have improved the storage.

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