The Magic Wands

I have a good friend who has two adorable little girls, twins, who are 2 days older than Collin, so they just had a birthday. I wasn't able to make their party as my little one was under the weather BUT I made these cute little wands for them:

They were soooo fun to make!!!

I got the idea HERE but I made my own template for the shapes and I think they came out pretty good. I can't wait to give them to the girls!!! 

In The Works...

I find absolutely AMAZING that I went from not ever having any craft projects going on to having MULTIPLE projects going on at a time! 
HOW did that happen? 
WHEN did that happen? 
WHY did... haha, just kidding.... 

Any who, here are some glimpses as to what's going on in my "Uncrafty" world.... 
Can you guess what they are going to be?

This is ECHO, one of our two kitties.
She LOVES my projects! 

I didn't have any paper to make my pattern out of,
so I used the next best thing - wrapping paper!
When without, improvise!

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I went with greens and browns* as this project,
when finished,
 will reside in my living room
where I have a brown couch and lots and lots of green plants.

Fancy, huh? I didn't think I could do this!!! 

Stay tuned! I'll post the completed projects as I finish them! 

* Why can't I do BROWN text? Am I missing something - are the other colors hiding somewhere? 

   All you blogger people - help?!

The Embroidery Hoop Fabric Storage Bags

So I have come to the conclusion that I am not very good at measurements. 
It seems that no matter how many times I check, i'm always still off by a little bit. 

I made these adorable storage bags, partially because I can use all the storage space I can get, and partially because they were just so cute!

LOVE the one on the right!
HATE the one on the left!

8JBVAWRSE774


As you can see, the bag on the right came out pretty good! I was pretty proud of that one!!! Unfortunately, and maybe because I was full of myself from making the right one so well, or maybe because I was yet again rushing, the second one came out quite lopsided. *sigh* I really did think I was doing it the exact same way as the first one, but obviously not. 

Here is a shot of where I put them
                                          - one of the only blank spaces left on my wall :)

This is my computer/storage area.
My sewing machine sits to the right.

I actually did make three bags and the last one came out as well as the first BUT when I went to Joann Fabrics yesterday to get the embroidery hoops, there were only two in the whole store (of course). haha :)

Maybe I wasn't meant to hang the lopsided one?


You can view the original pin HERE.
This pin originates from Always a Project, written by Rachel
Thank you Rachel for the inspiration!!! 

The COMPLETED Quiet Book!

Last night, as my husband and I watched 'The Secret" again, I finished my very first attempt at a Quiet Book! Whoot! Whoot! *BIG grin*

It really did come out good and i'm pretty proud of it! :-) I don't have any pictures of it being played with yet as my youngest turns two years old in only seventeen more days, I put The Quiet Book away and will give it to him as part of his birthday gift. 

I look back over my first few posts about making the Quiet Book and realized that I didn't make nearly as many pages as I wanted to make... but you know what that means, right?! It means there must be a Quiet Book #2!!! *giggle!*

I did add a page or two that I haven't blogged about and they are pictured below with the pictures of the finished product! 

I'd love to hear what you all think!!!

TA DA!!!!!!

This was an adaption from Imagine Our Life's Site - check her out - she's amazing!!!
I used a pair of my 12 year old's outgrown jeans for the pockets. 

Here is the Letters Page - Yes, Our last name is still missing one letter "L"
but I do have a third set of letters to finish making as his name has THREE L's! 

SIGH. This was my only BIG oops. See it? SIGH
Putting the pages together was pretty confusing to me. Is there a way to mark them better?
I tried so hard to get them right and this was my only error.

Colors and shapes! More info HERE

The FARM page and the SEASONS page! 

The BUCKLES Page (My little one LOVES buckles!) and the MAIL Page
For the buckles page, I cut up a set of overalls that my little one outgrew
and an old cat harness that my cat refuses to use.

My Awesome Mom gave me these little thingies with: "Made with Tender Loving
Care by Jessica Trabulsie" on them when she gave me my sewing machine and they are just sooo cute!!!

Please check out the links above to see where the ideas and templates came from for each page!!! And stay tuned for my next project!!! :)

The Quiet Book - The Mail Page

This page was so much fun to do! 

My favorite part is the little letters. I printed them out on PRINTER FABRIC! 
I didn't even know they HAD any such thing!!! WAY too cool! Defiantly going to use it again!

No snags with this page... it was pretty easy, thanks to the template and detailed instructions from Stephanie from Imagine Our Life who is SO very very talented! My page isn't as neat and crisp and professional looking as hers is, but I am pleased with it. 

Here are the pictures:

The mailbox on the page

You've got mail!

The front of the envelopes

Back of the envelopes

Letters in envelopes

My favorite part! The little letters!

Cute, huh? I love this page!!!! 

I would HIGHLY suggest checking out Stephanie's blog at Imagine Our Life even if you have no desire to make one of these books. Her imagination and talent is a sight to see! The pages she designs are so amazing!!! Thanks Stephanie for all your inspiration!!! 

The Gift Of Money

My oldest turned 19 years old the other day. (writing that statement and seeing it in print doesn't make it feel possible or the least bit real!) 

I had a really hard time deciding what to give her for this year's birthday. I really love giving sentimental gifts so at first, I thought that even thought I knew she wanted it, cash was out. I considered gift certificates, gift baskets, handmade gifts, etc... but kept coming back to the cash.

THEN as usually happens, PINTEREST came to my rescue!!! 

I found THIS pin, and got to work!

I used a small kleenex box and some leftover red satin fabric left over from The Quiet Book - The Barn Page, to wrap it and some pretty colorful ribbon. Here is what it looked like:

See the little tag that says 'Pull'?

Fabric is NOT easy to use as wrapping paper! 

I think she liked it... it was soooo fun to watch her pull out all that money!!! I taped 70ish ones end to end with scotch tape and rolled them all together. Here are some photos of her pulling and pulling and pulling:

As you can see, she seemed to enjoy the fun and so did my 12 year old. :) My husband and I got quite a kick out of watching this! I wish I could have put in a few hundred dollars!!! haha!

So, Thank you to LOVEZILLA for your idea!!! What fun!!!

The Quiet Book - The Shapes & Colors Page

I found this adorable 'painter's pallet' template on Serving Pink Lemonade and decided to make it a double page to incorporate shapes and colors.  I think it came out pretty cute and sturdy. It could be better... I need to slow down and not rush. I get excited about the 'finished' product  and I find myself rushing, got to stop that! Anyone have any tips or tricks for that? I can't be the only one.....?

Here is the completed page:

The left side, shapes

The right side, Colors

The whole page displayed

I think that if I were to do this again, I would use felt as backing like Stephanie from Imagine Our Life does. BUT I was concerned about this book holding up so it could be passed down, so I went with the muslin. I think the felt would be much cuter though! 

The Quiet Book - The Seasons Page (a.k.a. OMG SNAPS!)

I think that this has turned out to be favorite page so far, but it didn't start out that way!

I decided to use snaps for this page, not only is it a skill my toddler needs to learn but I have used mostly velcro so far and wanted something different. 

Now, before this page, I have never even sewn a snap. I've replaced a couple of buttons thought and figured it would be the same.  **HA HA!**

After sewing on the tree and the bottom snaps onto the page, I added the green pockets at the bottom to hold all the pieces. I then started the construction of the pieces, which is where (surprise, surprise) I ran into some issues. 

First, I cut out my leaves and then realized that I needed two cut-outs per piece to cover the snap stitching. So I cut out 15 more pieces.  Then, I did not realize that snaps are not the same on top as the bottom. I think I sewed twelve green leaves together before I had the five finished ones I needed! 

I did the flowers first, then the green leaves and then I started on the red leaves. The original red leaves we really detailed on the edges which made it really tough to blanket stitch and took me forever to cut out. I tried to salvage them by making 'veins' in them but I hated how they looked:

I only completed two leaves before I trashed them.

Then I thought, well, I could use the same shape of the green leaves for the red leaves, right?   Then of course I cringed thinking i'd have to make a million more mistakes with the snaps before ever getting to the end of this page! But I paid closer attention this time and made five red leaves in a row! whoot! 

Here is the completed page:

The Winter View

The Spring View

The Summer View

The Fall View

OK all you experienced sewers out there... I have a SNAP question for you:

Take a close look at the image below and please tell me which is the correct way to sew on a snap?

Which way an I supposed to be doing this?!

The template for this page was borrowed & adapted from Serving Pink Lemonade. 
Thanks Jeanie & Amy!!

The Orchid and the Fern

In the gardening section of Pinterest, I have noticed a lot of beautiful ferns lately  and it is those images that got this ball rolling.....

I may have said this before - I LOVE PLANTS. 
All plants, lots of plants, just about any kind of plant. I wouldn't feel at home without lots of plants. AND as luck would have it (once in a while), I'm pretty good with them - I've only lost a few over the years and the ones I have are flourishing. 

Now, contrary to that statement, there are two types of plants that don't appreciate my love.
FERNS and ORCHIDS.
*sigh*


The FERN:

I think ferns are just so pretty and feminine and there's some kind of soft, comfy feeling about them. I have tried multiple times to  grow ferns. Each time it has been an epic fail. The last time I tried was many many years ago and I recently decided after all the luck I've had re-growing produce, and all the amazing Fern images I've seen on Pinterest, i'd yet again try my hand (or in this case my thumb) at fern owning.

Here is my cute little fern that waved me down one day as I was walking through the plant section of The Home Depot:

Potted into an old terra cotta pot that I think once lived in my parent's house and
hung in the archway between my kitchen and dining area.

The above picture was taken on 9/29/12. I'll let you know how it fares. :)


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The ORCHID:

I think that orchids are really one of the most beautiful flowers in the world. I actually have two orchids tattooed on my leg that I have no problem taking care of  but real LIVE orchids are a gigantic sore spot for me.

My Father once left me all his orchids (there had to be 20 or so of them) to take care of while he moved. Not ONE of them survived and I still feel lots of guilt over that. I tried soooo hard to care for them they all make me feel like that cartoon character - you know... the little girl that squeezes her pets to hard... Elmyra!

So I thought if I have success with the fern, maybe, just MAYBE I will try my hand at one little orchid and see how it goes.

Then, FATE stepped in as it usually does, and my sweet and thoughtful Auntie Colleen brought me a drop dead (oh goodness, NO pun intended!!!) gorgeous orchid as a gift.

Here is what it looks like as of today:

Beautiful, huh?

I am going to follow the instructions to a 'T' and hope of the very very best!

Wish me luck! i'm going to need it!!!