owl mobile

A few weeks ago our son pulled down his bird mobile in his room when I was holding him up to "see" the birds more closely. I decided it was time for a change anyway and relocated the birdies (you'll see in a future post where they went!). I had a good idea what I wanted to do, but just needed the time to do it. Last night was the night! While I watched Temple Grandin  (LOVED IT! Here is a video of the real Dr. Grandin), I cut, stitched and hot glued this little owl mobile. If you have not seen the movie yet, get it on your DVR or in your Netflix queue ASAP! It has nothing to do with owls...

Do you recognize the wing fabric?

Over the 4th of July weekend when we went to visit some friends in Tahoe, my son and I walked around and collected some sticks and moss. I LOVE the beautiful color of moss! When we lived in near Tahoe I collected some moss covered sticks and displayed them proudly on my mantle--much to my husband's dismay! When we were packing to move, I had a hard time parting my with mossy sticks (am I loony or just passionate?)

Well now I have an excuse to display moss!

When I found this particular stick I just knew it needed to have an owl perched upon it! The bowl shape of it just called for an owl. There are an abundance of owls in the stores and on the web of late. My little man loves owls (or pretty much anything that flys) and says "owl!" and "whhhhhooo whhhhhooo!" when he sees them, so it is a perfect fit for him!

I have a few more sticks that we collected that are calling out for some felt wildlife so stay tuned!

packing idea

Not exactly a craft--but packing can be craft for some.

This is how I packed for our recent weekend trip to Tahoe. In a canvas box-bag. Easy access! If you are traveling by car, this is great. Not so great for plane travel, I would guess!

little reminders

Knock Knock! Hello!

 I am one of those germaphobe people that ask guests to take their shoes off when they come into our home. I am sure I am not the only one and I am sure there are other people who think I am nuts.

My desire for cleanliness amped up once our baby was born, as I could not get past all those icky things that we all walk on every day (spit, dog poop, roadkill-you may think roadkill, come on!? But think about all the animals that are run over each day, the tires that squish over them and then as when we cross the street, it gets on our shoes. I know gross, right?!!!).

Also, when we moved into our new house in a developing town almost 2 years ago, from our old house in a small town, I could not believe the numbers of solicitors that came to our door, ringing the doorbell, making the dog bark and waking up my napping baby. Alas, I made a sign. It was not a pretty sign.

This is the 2nd one that has been up there. I changed it once the first one got ratty and baby started crawling.

Alas, the computer paper, blue painter's tape sign is not cute in the least. Which led me to finally make something a little more attractive and a little more permanent.

I got a stack of these wooden plaques at Michael's a few weeks ago for about $5.00 and I got a sample jar of wall paint at Home Depot for 50 cents when I was debating about painting my half bath ceiling (makeover photos to come). I painted the plaques, used letter stickers that I've had for literally years, and Mod Podged over them to ensure weather resistance.

Then came the fun part!

I have a basket in my craft nest with all sorts of doodads and miscellany. Let's start from the top.

No Solicitors sign:

The fish came from a broken anklet I used to wear in high school. I have used the fish in a few of my paintings before as a tag on a cat's collar, so I've got a lot of use out of this anklet.

Friends Welcome sign:

The silver "Friends" doodad came from a Dollar Store photo album that I took off and replaced with a home made title of "my baby" for a little brag book I carried with me when my baby was first born and I had to go back to work (everyone wants to see your baby's photos when you come back to work and if you don't have photos-watch out!). The key is just some random key to a little lock I must have had at one point (since there were two on the ring, I must have had the lock right?)

Shoes Off Please sign:

The little round "Thank You" medallion is from a wedding favor.

I put it all together with a little silver bead cord and glue gun and hooked it to the window with an adhesive hook from the Dollar Store (9 for $1). I went there looking for suction cup hooks (since hubby found my collection of all-things-hooks, even my expensive Command hooks, and threw them away when we moved and he was de-cluttering) but they did not have any.

Cute huh? I save everything (and it drives my husband crazy!) but look at all the great things you can create with all the saved stuff! It's free and it's recycling-one of my favorite words! This whole thing cost only a few bucks and it gets the point across in a much cuter way then type on a page and painter's tape, right?

never have a wet bum again!

Did that catch your attention? Well, that's the goal of this project! No more wet bums!

With the warm weather comes picnics! I have had this idea bouncing around in my head for a long time and even had bought the stuff to make it, but didn't have time to put it together. Finally, though, I was able to!

I wanted a picnic blanket that would prevent a damp bum if the sprinklers happen to have been on the night before. I am sure I am not the only one who this has happened to, right?

I decided to use a flannel backed table cloth ($4 at WalMart) as the "wet bum protector" and a thrift store sheet ($1.50) as the side to sit upon. I did not take any photos of the process, since it is pretty self explanatory. I laid the table cloth down on top of the sheet and pinned around it (right sides together). Then I cut off the excess, and sewed around the edges leaving an opening to turn it. After turning it right side out, I machine stitched the opening shut and then ran around the edges again with the machine to keep the edges from rolling in. I think it turned out satisfactorily and used it this weekend at our church picnic! Again, I did not take photos...having too much fun to remember!

Picnic in the backyard with a bowl full of cherries! Aaaahhh summertime (although I loathe the heat, summer does have its bonuses).

When you're done, roll it up and use a shoestring or ribbon to make a carrying handle.

p.s. If anyone out there in blogland wants to make this, I've seen some WAY cute oilcloth/flannel backed table clothes at Ross and TJ Maxx lately for around $5! Wish I had gone there first!!! If you do make one, please send me a photo!  

gold fish freezer paper shirt

My generous friend, Kathy, has given all of her son's clothes to us as our kids grow and man, does that boy have a lot of clothes. Thank you, Kathy! Add to that what our son already has and you have a wardrobe that rivals mama's! In one of the recent donation bags, was a little fishy shirt. It had a slight stain on it and was from Puerto Vallarta. Since we did not go to PV (or at least have not been there with our son) it would be weird for him to wear a shirt proclaiming that location. So, I used this as an opportunity to freezer paper stencil some more.

I free handed some little fishies on the freezer paper and used an x-acto knife to cut them out. The fishes were modeled after the fish on the shirt, but they turned out a little more like goldfish crackers!) . I positioned them strategically over the stains and the PV decal.

As you can see, it took many many coats of paint to cover the "Puerto Vallarta, Mexico" letters, so it took a few days to finish with all the drying time.

It turned out pretty good , I think. Can't go wrong with a free shirt, right? It's a little big now, but pretty soon, it will be just right!

I think he likes his fishy shirt!

box = playhouse

Today I took on the long-awaited task of clearing out the under-the-stairs-closet which has sat plumb-full and untouched since we moved in over a year and a half ago (go ahead, gasp, I did as I typed this!). I was able to empty three large boxes. Since any hint of a craft project can derail any cleaning plans I have, I got right down to the business of making a playhouse for my son.

One of the other boxes from the closet was a receptacle for stuff for the thrift store. I had a bunch of contact plastic in there that had seen better days, but was still very usable. I yanked it out and used it to cover the door, cut out the letters for "H-O-M-E" and made a "frame" for inside the house.

I also got to use up some of my not-so-loved scrapbooking paper for details like the flowers, tree and birds.

I used the Home Depot design as my guide for the window shutters. I decided to not cover them in contact plastic for the sake of time. I just edged them with dotted tape.

I took two of my son's star shaped blocks and a shoestring and made door knobs for the inside and outside of the door. However, as you can see, my son decided he preferred the peep hole as a handle.

Pup tried to get in too, but he is too big. I think he was sad because he kept trying to get in there - and he misses his crate which we never set back up when we moved into this house.

All in all, a quick project--less than an hour--taking photos included. AND it was made from all junk I already had that was headed to the trash (except for the star blocks which I will take off when it is time for the garbage can).

felt watch

I saw a post on a craft blog a few months ago about a felt watch for kids and thought I would make one at some point. Well that point was a few evenings ago. I have searched and searched for the post, but to no avail, so I am sorry I am not linking.

This was a very simple project, which does not even warrant detailed directions. I simply hand sewed black ric-rac on to a strip of green felt, embroidered the face of a clock on the yellow felt (with the blue behind it) and sewed the blue felt down to the watch band with invisible thread. The only part of the watch I sewed with the machine was the velcro fastener. Quick, fun and easy. I didn't even worry about getting the stitches perfect since who knows how long it will last on the arm of a busy toddler.  The hard part was getting a photo of it on my son's arm! He finally sat down on the dog's bed after snatching daddy's calculator of his desk!

This is what most of the photos looked like!

oh whatever to do with a spotted shirt?-make it dotted!

I bought a plain blue shirt at Target not too long ago and when I took it out of the dryer the other day it had little oil-looking stains on it. This has happened to me before. Am I the only one that thinks that liquid fabric softener leaves marks???

Anyhow I decided that an experiment was in order.

So I cut out a bunch of white circles or "dots" from another t-shirt using the bottom of a glass as a template. I used one of those markers where you spray it with water and the lines disappear like magic! I got one a few months back and have used it for loads of projects! Love it!

Then I pinned them on like so...

...in an order I found pleasing. To make the pinning a little easier (so as to not catch the back layer of fabric) I put a laminated placemat in between the fabric layers. A piece of carboard would work just as well. I happened to be watching TV in the family room while pinning this, which is next to the kitchen, so I snagged it off of the kitchen table.

And sewed three vertical lines down the middle of each line of dots. However, as you can see in the above photo, some of the dots wanted to curl up. To prevent this, on either side of each dot, I made a little tack stitch.

This is what it looked like after washing it. I knew it would crumple up a little, which it did, and one of the little tack stitches came out in the wash.  I just tacked it back in place this morning before work –which partly explains the poor photos. I was running around getting ready for work and I ran into the backyard with my socks on to take photos since I hadn't posted in a while and wanted to get a post up this evening and wanted to get the good light. (Yes, I agree, too much to do before 7:30am! My hair was still soaking wet.)

I wore it today to work but I am not so sure I like the end result. I told myself I would wear it once to "feel it out" but I'm still not sure how I feel about it. Maybe it will grow on me...and maybe not....hhmmmm....

oh and please don't mind the patch of dirt in the background. We're working on landscaping this spring/summer :)

shower gifts

This weekend I went to my high school friend, Abbey's shower for her 2nd baby girl. Since she is crafty herself, I thought she may enjoy some homemade gifts. I made her a bird mobile (can't get enough of these) and a recycled mooshy belly bunny which I learned to make from Chez Beeper Bebe. (I made a monkey too, in this same fashion, which is not as cute for my son. But it still needs one ear sewed on. Not sure if he will make it to the blog...stay tuned).

I used my son's old receiving blanket (the recycled part) since I love the print so much. It is an Amy Coe blanket. Here is my little sweet pea laying on the blanket when he was itty bitty teeny weeny.

 I may make some more of these if I ever get around to it. It turned out very cute!

This time for the bird mobile, I decided to go with doves. Abbey is such a gentle soul, I felt that doves were the way to go. I liked the way the colored stitching looked so much on these bluebirds, that I decided to do it again, but with pastel colors (pink, green and yellow since it is hard to tell from the photo). (And yes, if you go to that link and see the title, I obviously lied!). I also changed up the stitch and used a blanket stitch instead of the overcast stitch. I did not do this consciously, it just happened! I think I even like it better!

I hope you and your new baby girl enjoy your mobile and bunny, Abbey!

ruffle scarf

Amazing Dana from MADE strikes again with another amazing beautiful project!!! This is the one I made yesterday and wore today for Mother's Day. I took Dana's suggestion of running down the scarf twice instead of just once.

I made this one for my mother-in-law (hope she does not see this before tomorrow when I give it to her!). It is actually my favorite! This was the best fabric I have found to make these scarves from since it is so breezy and thin, the print shows through almost equally from either side. Upon my mom's advice, I zig-zagged the edges instead of hemming them since it is so thin it is really hard to do nicely. I liked the rough-edge look a lot, actually!