dragonfly days

monster pants

I've finally been getting around to some projects this week.   For one of them, I tackled the holes in the knees of Jack's pants. Last spring I scored some pants for Jack at a garage sale for 25 cents each. The only problem was they had holes in the knees. Jack likes the holes and thinks they are cool, but they were starting to bug me. Now I know I saw these somewhere on the internet, this is not my original idea. The problem is I can't remember where I saw this idea first. So forgive me for not linking back. If anyone knows of the first post with this idea, lmk. :)

 

The good news is he likes them. They are still cool enough to wear.  

my new space

This project has been in the making for a few months now and it is finally done!  After years of having to do dinner time while accommodating my projects laying all around, I finally have my own space.

There is still some final tweaking to be done, but it is useable!  Talk about fitting a lot in a very small space. The two brown boxes on the floor to the left hold craft supplies- top one wood craft and the bottom holds felt in yards.  The basket in the center holds my bag that I take projects out and about in.  The right brown box holds felting supplies.

From the left: old floss drawer that I found thrifting- perfect for my stitching supplies, my vintage typewriter, the pile of papers needs to be dealt with, and Jack cut the hearts out of felt.

On the top shelf is a pencil sharpener which is hidden behind a jar of felt beads, a big jar of buttons, jars holding- rubber bands, wooden thumb tacks, and mini wooden clothespins(for the shutter memo board in the top picture),  our terrarium, a metal bucket holding pens, scissors, markers and paint brushes.

The middle shelf- binder holding all of my class printouts thus far, embroidery patterns, felt patterns, and one full of homeschool ideas. Side note- I just realized they were all thrown on there after I had finished them yesterday.

Bottom shelf: card catalog of lesson plan ideas for homeschool., extra moleskine notebooks, blank canvases, and a big sketchbook, three hole punch, beeswax polish and my post it note supply. :)

In the far corner lies the photography supplies. The green crate houses our homeschool stuff in use. The roll of white paper on top is for an upcoming school project. You can see my planning notebooks in front. And the stack of papers in the middle are my home cleaning/organization ideas and planner. 

Time to create!

crafty

Yay the computer is back!

Candle holder covered in mod podge and sprinkled with glitter.

first attempt at a pocket gnome. He still needs a hat.

a felt bunting garland for the tree.

repurposing the now to small desk for a lego table.

wood ornaments with beeswax polish.

homemade snow globes.

kindle cover. The ribbon comes aorund the front and ties, but I didn't want to cover the mushroom. :)

 

 

new threads

I'm not sure what my favorite part of Tuesday afternoon is- the boy having yoga, or being able to browse the stores next to the yoga studio?  Today it was definitely browsing the stores. Unfortunately the yarn and thread store is going out of business. Fortunately they have everything 50% off. Unfortunately I didn't have a project in mind going in to the store today. Fortunately they will be open for another two weeks.

And really is there such a thing as too much floss?

I've had some projects swirling around my head lately, but after really seeing these colors I have thought of a few more. Now to make a list!

 

17 years ago

I married this guy. :)  Yesterday we celebrated our 17th anniversary.  It's also becoming known as the garden day since every year that is when the weather is finally good enough to get the garden ready.

For Zac's gift, I did a wall in our bedroom.  The 3-19- is part of our wedding date, I didn't get the 94 finished in time.  The round hoop on top is our family "tree", I'll post a close up of it later.

This picture was taken at a weird angle which makes everything else look crooked. :)

 

And this is the other side of the big frame.

I have one other piece I want to do for the wall, but my fingers need a break this week. 

knee deep

We've been knee deep in:

• chicken selling & coop finishing
• projects, oh the projects. I have a deadline for Saturday for a bunch of projects I am working on and they have taken all of my free time, photo time and all other times in between. I think my hand will be glad for a rest after all this stitching.  I will post pictures when it is all done.
• tracking down various thread and other components for the projects.
• baseball games
• sleepovers galore
• spring cleaning--actually we haven't been hitting this as hard as we should be. Yikes.
• spring break-iness and all that entails with teenagers.
• insomnia, which would explain my current mood.

Hope everyone else is having a wonderful spring break.

crafty goodness

Here are the finished projects and one work in  progress from this week.

Practicing subway art.

wooden necklace pendants in progress.

Finished at last. Ignore my bad french knots, I really have a hard time with them. I think I may pick these out and replace them with beads because I just don't think I can go through the knotting experience again.

Another work in progress.

birthday for a friend

Sunday monring Jack announced that it was Teddy's birthday. Teddy is his stuffed dog that has been around for years and has just recently become very popular again.

He decided we needed a party with cake and presents. Hmmmmm...

So we invited all of Teddy's friends over. ;)

We had a blueberry muffin cake. Zac decorated it. :)

For presents he recieved a hand me down friend--on the left and

A quickly stitched, personalized sleeping bag.

Happy birthday Teddy!

 

stitchin' along

Next week is our wedding anniversary! Agh. I've been wracking my brain trying to figure out something meaningful,  cheap(thus is our life right now) and wonderful to do for Zac.  So I think I am going to make and or do something wonderful for the walls in our bedroom. I have a saying floating around, a stitching idea or two and a couple of empty canvases. 

Above is my current stitching project. I love this tree and it's many moods.

 

finally finished

This week I've been working on a little birthday surprise for one of our wee friends. It's the first felt crown I have made.  I used the pattern out of The Creative Family, by Soulemama.

Instead of doing elastic, I don't have a sewing machine, I stitched ribbon into both sides for ties.

It went together quickly and easily. Looking forward to making another one, especially now that the blanket stitch is down. ;)

 

Works in progress

It's week 4 of Brave Girl camp and the projects are all over the house.  I'm sure my family has hopes of one day being able to use the dining room table for eating meals again and no longer risking  an elbow sticking to an errant modge podge spill. :) Someday.

Today alone I have:

• painted
• collaged
• made shrinky dinks ;)
• stitched

And loved every minute of it.  What are you creating?

January 19 2011

This has been the craziest day.  Among other crazy things, tonight a drunk driver sped down our cul-de-sac hitting the cars parked across the street then almost hitting our neighbors grandson head on in his truck, before finally stopping. We heard the noise and went out to see what was going on.  Come to find out from some witnesses that he also hit the light pole around the corner on his way here.  Crazy! Thankfully no one was hurt.

After that,  Zac and I were watching a movie and I decided it was a good night for some stitching.

Tooth fairy pillow.

Jack has had two wiggly teeth for quite a while now so this project needed to get done soon.  At least I hope he needs it soon. Really, how long can those two teeth hang on?  I just freehanded the whole thing. I'm pretty sure you shouldn't check for straight lines, since there aren't any. :)  But I think it turned out pretty cute.

January 7 2010

7/365

I love Friday evenings. We come home from park day with everyone happy and tired. The older kids are excited for the weekend, which means more tech time for them. The little guy is in a state of happy exhaustion after playing with his friends all afternoon.  Everyone is ready to relax and sleep in.  Everyone goes to their chosen room, or screen in most cases and chills for the evening. 

For me it is usually a combo of catching up on blog,  missed television shows, and journaling or researching about some great conversation with friends at park.    I kind of love Fridays in a big way.  

This weekend :

• Fish Fry at the parents to cook up some of the many fish that Steven and his grandpa have been bringing home.
• some decluttering/deep cleaning-- not too much but enough to feel like we are accomplishing something.
• I'm hoping to revamp a thrifted canvas for project.
• Some tennis and hiking.
• Getting some thoughts and plans together for the new season of homeschooling.
• Baking. I need to do some baking.
• Be more consistent, ahem, about getting the camera out. :) 

January 5 2011

A very productive and fun project day. I haven't decided whether or not I will actually save these little guys for the Christmas tree next year--I would love a tree with a whole bunch of these. Or use them for other things. They are easy to put together and so stinking cute. You can find the patterns here.

 

April 13 2010

Jack has been obsessed with Star Wars lately. All day long he begs for someone to play duel with him. Today he and Alex were taking turns wearing his Darth Vadar mask. It's getting quite funny to watch them. 

Today was busy, more doctors appointments. We left the doctor thinking the crutches would be gone and walking could resume, but no such luck. An hour after leaving Steven was hurting bad enough to be back on the crutches. Yuck. So we'll see how it does this week. Between doctors and running around that took up most of the afternoon.

Today was warm enough that we headed down to the river for a walk before dinner.

Jack was dancing and running down the trail. I think he is excited that the good weather is back.

 

 

Jack got upset at something that Talisa did on the way back home and sat on the bench to grumble about it. A few minutes later he looked up and said he made up a happy song to sing. He started singing and it was hilarious. It was very random, very him. The whole situation reminded me of Winnie-the-Pooh and the little songs in the book. It was great, we were all laughing by the time we reached home.

 

In other news, I'm trying different bird patterns in order to find a stuffed bird for a project I have in mind.

what do you do?

I'm still sick. The pink eye is slowly getting better, but now it's all in my sinuses. I can't breathe in one position to long. And I'm just so tired. But I am bored out of my mind.  I'm out of books to read and I cn only read in spurts anyways because my eyes start to hurt.

In an attempt to busy myself I've done some crafting. Granted, it's not top notch stuff. In fact almost everything is crooked, which tells you a lot. It has been kind of fun though.

Can you tell I was listening to The Cure?

Then I made some ipod covers. This is mine.

This is Talisa's. We have plans to add buttons and straps, but I need to be a little more on top of my game for that. 

And here is a felt Valentines I attempted while trying to give Jack a bath. Seriously. Everything is crooked and sized wrong. I had plans, good plans, but they didn't translate too well. The bright side, I can say that I accomplished something today.

Christmas projects

Life has calmed down some this week. My dad is out of the hospital, the kids are out of school, and Zac's not busy. We've been able to take advantage of it all and do things like stay up late, sleep in, and finish those projects we started months ago.

 

Like the gnomes! Zac thinks the one with the white hat looks like the Pope. If anyone is in the market for a Pope gnome let me know! :)

 

Alex got busy and made some cookies today.  Oatmeal Chocolate chip and Gingersnaps.

 

And I was finally able to sit down and think about gifts for everyone else. I'll give you a hint:

 

This is one of Talisa's paintings and an integral part of the gifts.

getting crafty

We've been knee deep in projects this week. I think the colder weather and impending holiday season have finally hit us.  I haven't been in the craft stores for quite a while and so far I've been to each one at least twice so far this week.

 

On Wednesday afternoon we pulled out the paints and all went to work. Alex painted ceramics and I started on the gnomes you see in the foreground. Jack's painted some pictures and ate some cheese and crackers.

 

 

 

I finally got our thanksgiving tree up. I found the leaf shaped paint samples at the hardware store and used a roll of brown kraft paper for the tree. We have the samples with permanent markers in a turkey bowl on the table for the taking. And I have to tell you there is one on there that says "being homeschooled". Makes a moms day.

Here are some of Talisa's art assignments, for those who don't facebook.

 

project day

The super talented Kamas held a project day at her house yesterday. I always come away from our project days wishing that every day was project day.  Yesterday she helped me make this:

 

It a Halloween countdown calendar! I did the 13 days of Halloween because the number 13 adds more creep factor. I'm pretty sure we'll be hanging this up ASAP. I can't wait for fall!

Today I spent the day making lists of everything I wanted to make/do this season. Thanks for helping me get the creative juices flowing Kamas!