Celebrating the 4th

I just could not resist doing these shirts for my youngest granddaughters.

I learn something with everything I make.

The girls liked the shirts when I delivered them this morning

and put them right on to wear.

The 4 year old proudly showed me the sign she and her sisters had made,

and wished me a happy 4th of July.

I hope everyone enjoys a safe holiday

and may we always remember how precious our freedom is

and how high the cost.

Magic beans and flowers

As shown in Ready for Easter

Here are the flowers.

The story is that before Easter I will give the 3 year old granddaughter

some 'magic' beans (jelly beans) and plastic Easter cups

and we will plant them.

Then on Easter morning the girls will find these flowers

which are just crocheted with a dum dum center.

The idea was not mine though I chose a double flower for the fuller look.

Not sure they will grasp the meaning but the seed is there to come back to at a later date.

A Valentine for Mother

I got a little something for my mother for Valentine's Day.

And put it in a bag,

which seemed a little plain.

So instead of making a card to go with it,

I decided to just decorate the bag.

Think she will like it?

Better question might be will she remember

 what Valentine's Day is?

Doesn't really matter

as she loves the attention most of all.

Arm Knitting

Worn out from crocheting doll dresses for Christmas,

I decided to do some Arm Knitting.

I had tried it some months ago and found it to be a fast and fun diversion

and so bought some yarns to play with

but then other needs took up my time.

After Christmas though is a time I try to relax

and just enjoy things that require little to no thought,

like my annual jigsaw puzzle.

There is however, still a quilt in a frame taking up my dining room,

so I decided that was the perfect excuse to just play with some new craft.

I have a few setting around but the two baskets of yarn were taking up the most room

so they were the first choice.

Anyway, here are the results.

The blue and purple cowl

and bronze and brown long scarf

so I could try out both styles. 

Normally I prefer scarves

but with this texture and colors 

the cowl is my favorite.

Now I am back to sewing pants.

I cannot believe I lost weight over the holidays,

but it is certainly motivation for sewing new clothes!

Fun for Halloween

I took a class last weekend

to learn how to use my new toy.

The pumpkin face on the glass block

was one of the projects.

Very easy and fun to scan in what you want

then have the machine cut it out for you.

I see many applications for this and have already used it

to scan and cut out some quilting patterns 

which I then ran through the sticker machine.

It will also cut out actual templates

so I see lots of uses for this tool!

July Walker Decoration

I just had to make red white and blue stars

for mom's walker this month.   

Not too fancy or creative

but I think she will like them.

She no longer remembers that she crocheted.

Walker Corsage

Mother's Day

It is that one day out of the year when daughters and sons

make sure to let their mother's know

just how important and special they are,

and how very much they mean to us.

Bunnies and Chicks

I tried out a new bunny pattern thanks to JJ's conversion from knitting.

Isn't he cute?  In spite of the kind of hunch back neck from my error.

I foresee more of these fellows.

Since you can see the bottom corner of my quilt in the above photos,

I thought I would share that as well.

LOL  This is my flock of chickens.

Too bad the newer TV sets higher and blocks half of it.

The pattern showed hand done eyes but I used the plastic wiggle eyes.

They may not be archival but they are fun for now.

April Walker Decor

Easter is quite late this year.

So the April decor is of course

a bunny and carrot.

Blankets for our Babies

Another Christmas gift finished.

This is two blankets.  One for my 2 year old granddaughter.

The other, smaller one, is for her baby doll.

She just brought a cradle over to keep at my house for her dolly

so I decided we needed some blankets.

Think I will get that sweater knitted in time?

Thanksgiving Wreath

Tomorrow I will have help putting away the Halloween decorations and we will bring out those for Thanksgiving.

So today I put together this wreath that I have been working on all week.

Well, I started the orange slices to drying,

and made the cinnamon ornaments which also had to dry.

Once dry I chose to accent the ornaments with some glitter glue,

which then had to dry.

So not really working...

Can you see the little acorn and leaves up under the bow?

My daughter is much more talented with wreaths and bows and such,

but I am happy with how this came out, (though the bow could be better).

Even more so of the fact that I only had to buy two of the ribbons and the orange.

The rest was from what I had on hand,

(cinnamon and white glue, glitter glue and ribbon for the ornaments, as well as

the bay leaves from a tree in my yard and the grapevine wreath made from

the grapevine in the back yard.

Enjoying the bounty (and the wonderful smell from this) and looking forward to family.

Halloween 2013

This year's carved apple heads.

I have everything out for the skull bracelet to tat but am side tracked now so it may not happen until next year.  Time will tell.

I do still have all my decorations out so anything is possible.

Tatted Skull Earrings

Just for fun,

and because I have been wanting to work on my tatting skills

I decided to give these a try.

I fudged a bit on parts of the instructions

but as I said they were just for fun.

There is a matching bracelet.

It requires a technique I have yet to try.

So we shall see if those appear or not this season.

Starting Early

Well kind of.

I bought this fleece last year but never had time to do anything with it in time for Christmas.

So I set it back in the closet.

I ran across it a couple of weeks ago along with directions

for an easy way to edge it.

So the first gift for Christmas 2013 is complete.

And counting...

Halloween Goodies

Starting to get in the mood for the holidays.

Decided I wanted to make some Halloween jewelry.

And these are what I ended up making.

Then I spent the next day sorting, organizing and putting away the supplies.

Obviously it was much needed!

After finishing with the jewelry

 I made up a few fun fans.

More on these to come.

Plarn Day

Yesterday was the first Remembrance Run locally, hosted by the Coast Guard.

It was an incredible tribute to fallen Coasties

and a terrific fundraiser for those spouses and children.

My family and many friends were happy to join them  and look forward to next year!

One of my daughter's friends, who remembers my late husband, even flew in from Chicago for the weekend to join us in this event.

Knowing we like to craft she mentioned wanting to learn to crochet using plastic bags to make mats to donate to the homeless to go under their bedding.  

Makes great sense to form a moisture barrier and the materials are free.

Well, I had heard of this and even filed away some directions and patterns for bags so today before her flight left I went over to my daughter's house and taught her how to crochet.

Here are the plastic bags being cut into strips...

Here you can see where the strips, which of course are actually loops now

are knotted together to form plastic yarn or plarn.

The plarn has then been wound into a ball and the lesson began.

She is a very quick study!

Meg got a great start to her first mat and we sent her off to security assuring her they would allow a large ball of plarn and a plastic crochet hook!  

(I sure hope we were right)

What fun!

I got to 'hook' a new crocheter, try out a 'new' material, and who knows how many homeless will benefit all from one fun filled couple of hours!

So what did you do for Armed Forces Day/weekend?

Remembering Vanessa on St. Patrick's Day

I have lost a number of friends over the years.

Vanessa was a very special one who left us too early.

She was a fiery Irish redhead

who could cut you to the quick

in that way only a true southern lady can do

if you needed it.

She was also as beautiful as a model on the outside

and perfect as an angel on the inside.

You couldn't even be jealous.

Vanessa was an artist

and I have every decorated envelope 

from every letter she sent.

She made even those simple things special.

She was my self appointed cheerleader

and my friend.

She loved dogs and kids and flowers and words and the beach,

and St. Patrick's Day was her favorite holiday.

So I remembered my friend, Vanessa, as I made these cards.

I have been picking and pressing four leaf clovers for several weeks

 now as my mother used to do.

I lightly glued them to cardstock which I then laminated 

so they can be used as bookmarks

and slid them into the front of these cards.

And I will keep one to remember how lucky I am.

There are angels who walk among us.

Treasure them while you can.

Finished Matts

Finished place mats... check.

Better late than never.

Or am I just ahead for 2014?

Finished these and started playing with an idea I had for something else with the looms.

We'll see where that takes me.

It is something I have been tinkering on for a couple of years now,

so don't hold your breath.

But I always seem to come back to things I start

so don't give up either.

Table mats

I decided, somewhat belatedly 

that I needed mats to go with my tea cozies.

Leftover matching yarn... check.

Love and Money Looms... check.

Frame for looms... check.

Empty toilet paper rolls... check.

I have used the looms before and enjoyed them.

The frame to hold the looms is new however,

and I really am liking it as well.

Although it works great for wrapping I am finding it a bit awkward

when tying and have decided to try taking the loom off the frame to do the tying and see how I like that.

Luckily, that is very easy to do.

I first spent hours  and I do mean hours 

unraveling the mess of yarn so I could use my yarn winder

to make it into a nice neat ball to fit on the yarn holder at the top of the frame.

Winding the yarn onto a toilet paper roll makes that a breeze.

And fortunately the toilet paper rolls fit perfectly onto the winder!!!

Fun.  Fun.  Fun.

Cookies for Valentine's Day

I like to bake cookies.  

Even more I like to bake cookies for particular people knowing it is their favorite.

My oldest granddaughter recently requested "those cookies with the mint candy in them and the pink stripes".  

The official name is Peppermint Rounds.

They are oatmeal cookies with crushed candy canes so I usually make them in January with leftover candy canes. 

But because I was out of town a good part of January I did not get them made.  Therefore I decided to change them up a bit and use them for Valentine's Day Cookies. 

I know it is a little bit early, but hey once in a great while a person can be early!

She was tired tonight so will stop by after class tomorrow.  That's OK.  The great thing about these cookies is they tend to get softer the next day!

Think she will like them?

She did say the cards I made for her were a hit and they made their goal.  

Wooo Hooo!  That means I don't need to make any more!!