Gourds.

I love making little felted gourds. I think this is my third year making them.

Fall centerpiece.

When I got mine out this year, I decided to put them in my $5 ironstone bowl for a centerpiece. I carefully arranged them by shape and color. Ellie saw them, "organized" them all, and then threw them back in the bowl. And there they are.

Kate's gourds.

John's sister Kate asked me for a set. At first I wasn't too excited about it. There's the knitting, the felting, the stuffing, knitting the tops, and assembling. The knitting is easy and fun. I don't really use a pattern anymore. I like mixing the colors and seeing them after they are felted. I like knitting the stems too because picking the right color yarn really makes the gourd. There are a couple I wish I could keep, but they are all ready to be packaged up and shipped off.

I found the paint chip for the hallway and living room! I'm hoping to get the paint this weekend, but the living room itself is going to have to wait until after the holidays.

I/we have another project in the works. It's an extension of the hallway I guess. One of my great ideas. It's more work for John, and I was surprised he agreed to it. It sort of reminds me of the time he just wanted to build some shelves for the basement, and I made him re-do every surface down there. I'm really excited about this next project. We just need to find the time to get started.

something crafty

I made a little quilted table topper for our kitchen table last week. It isn't very big as we eat in the kitchen, and I don't want to take it on and off daily. I'm also not into decorating for Halloween, but I'm thinking of making a bigger one for the dining room table. I have a lot of fabric left over. I'm pretty happy with this little one though, as the log cabin square reminds me of my knitted blanket.

I'm also making another set of felted pumpkins/gourds. I wish they were for me, but they are going to John's sister Kate who lives in Spain. I have a couple other small projects to work on, and then I'm turning my attention to Christmas stuff.

Today the girls and I filled the planter boxes with new daffodil bulbs. I got 96 bulbs in each box (29 inches by 29 inches)! They are going to be beautiful in the spring!

I couldn't even find the "new post" button

Hello there! I have not fallen off the face of the earth. I just felt like I had nothing to blog about. We've been busy. We've been sick. We've traveled. We've settled into the school year.

I haven't felt very crafty lately. I've been slowly plugging along on a project, and it is finally done!

baby for Ellie.

I want to keep her for myself.

For my birthday this year, John and the girls bought me the book Itty Bitty Toys by Susan Anderson. The girls each picked out a project, and they bought the yarn too. The doll was slow going. She was made in pieces and then assembled. Then I had to make the clothes. She has on knit underwear under her dress. When it came to the dress, I didn't care for the pattern in the book, so I just made it up. I love the way it came out. Ellie's happy with her too. I'll be starting on Mary's project soon.


And of course my life wouldn't be any fun without some DIY. I finally convinced John to work on the hallway. So a couple weeks ago, I was all set to rip out the old trim. I had my tools. I sat down to start the first board. It wouldn't come off!!!!! Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!! There were two nails on each stud. One at the top, and one........set below the current carpet. I had to split the boards and then pull them out. The first baseboard was about 12 feet long, and I was taking it out in 16 inch segments. Good times. I finally got it all though. Then John started in on putting in the new trim. Then Mary got a huge assignment/project at school. THEN we got really sick! Fun! John had Monday off work though, and was able to finish up. Now it's up to me to paint. There are SIX doorways in the hallway. Painting the trim is so slow going. It's taking about 2.5 or 3 hours to do one coat of paint. I have it all primed now, and a half coat of paint on. I'm hoping to make more progress this weekend.

before. be gone, dark trim!

this morning.

So many doorways! Ugh. And I'm too short to do the top of them, so I have to get a step stool. I pretend it's exercise. John hasn't even started sanding the last two doors. He hates doing it, and I hate painting them. We never even use them anyway. One is to the basement which is always open so the cats can get to the litter box. The other door closes off the hallway from the other half of the house. I need to paint the walls too, but I've misplaced the paint chip. I'm going to find it soon though. I'm also going to find time to make the 2 hour round trip to Home Depot so I can get their paint plus primer.

Hopefully I'll be back to updating on a regular basis. Maybe.

a small project

After wrestling the bedskirt, log cabin blanket, the roman shades, and Mary's quilt, I needed a small project. Something both physically small and quick to make.

I started last night at 10pm. I ironed/measured/cut/sewed until 11:30pm. I finished it up this morning after I took Mary to school. Ellie worked at the dining room table with me, making some sort of craft using scissors, tape, and construction paper. She cut up a bunch of my fabric scraps too. We had such a good morning.

I've wanted to make this bag for a while. It is supposed to be for a child (based on the size), but it was almost the size of my current purse. So I just made the strap longer, and I was good to go. The exterior is a piece of brown denim from Mamaw Judy's stash. I had the lining fabric in my own stash.


It isn't perfect, but I think it's cute! Of course now I want to try to make another one, this time with a zippered pocket on the inside. I'm out of interfacing though, so it will have to wait.

It was so nice to do an easy project. I already even have the ironing board and sewing machine put away. Too bad my entire fabric stash is dumped out of the craft closet and all over the entry way floor. I guess I know what I will be doing tonight.

now the bed looks right!

When John made our headboard, he said it didn't look right in the room. I told him it would. I just needed time.

Last fall.

This summer.

But even with the windows painted, new blinds, and the walls painted, I was unhappy with the room. One thing stuck out like a sore thumb. Something I saved until last since I didn't really know what I was doing. Then I got busy with the log cabin blanket. Even once it was done, the room didn't look complete. Finally I got busy on the one last thing.

Gah! I love it. Looks like grown ups live here.

The bedskirt turned out exactly how I imagined. Ten dollars!! Ten! It's half of a twenty dollar painters drop cloth from the HD. And it was so easy to make. I made the gathers using dental floss and a special zig zag stitch on my machine. Then I pinned to to the fitted sheet that was over the box springs and sewed it right to the sheet.

That's it for the projects in this room. I really want to center the rug under the bed though. Which means taking everything out from under the bed, moving the bed (where? it won't come out of there with the headboard attached), and then scooting the rug over a few feet. Even John looked at me like I had two heads when I asked him to help me with it.

At least the bed finally looks right in the room!

back to school

Today was the first day of kindergarten. They start off with two half days, so Mary's already home. The upper classes get to stay all day. Mary wanted to stay even though the rest of her class was going home too. Sounds like a good first day to me!

Poor Ellie, she wanted to stay this morning when I dropped Mary off. She's so tall, she nearly blends in with the pre-k kids. I was busy getting Mary all set in the classroom, and I looked over at Ellie who was chatting away and playing play-doh with some other girls. She and I came home and had a great morning together.

Now I'm going to try to actually get some housework done while they play. Oh, and babysit Bitty Baby.

Slow going bedroom progress.

The other day, I walked out of our bathroom and into the bedroom. I wondered what on earth was taking me so long to finish decorating it. Then I remembered I'm sort of a one woman show. John did help a lot with the construction type things. Between painting the walls, trim, and ceilings, and finishing the log cabin blanket, it's just time consuming.

Still to do: decorate the bathroom (need art for 2 places), make and hang the roman shade (almost ready), and then make a bedskirt for our bed. And then maybe a couple more pillows. I take them all off every night and put them all on every morning, so hopefully John won't mind looking at a few more.

new pillow covers....again!

I had the second ruffled case cut, seamed, and the ruffles made. I was set to sew the back to the front. Then I sat and carefully pulled out all the stitching, and cut what was the front in half. I sewed up the two cases and the used craft paint with a fabric medium for the stripes. I'm much happier with them now. Next up, bedskirt. I hope I can do it. It will be out of drop cloths like the shams.

I'm blogging from the floor of Mary's room. Mary's cleaning. Ellie is our dog, Pickles. Pickles has a dog bed, blankets, stuffed animals, food, water, and a dog bone. She seems like a happy little dog. I've been told that I need to sit here until Mary is done cleaning. I might be here a while.