Finishes…

Over the weekend I finished this wool felt candle mat. I had purchased the kit a few years ago – using the birthday money I received from you Mary :) . While cleaning and sorting I came across it again and wondered “why didn’t I ever finish this”? I had cut out all the pieces and just never sewn it up. I soon realized why – I had cut the mat smaller than it should have been. I vaguely remember copying the pattern with my printer and not realizing it was on “reduce” and being frustrated. But – it is a time to use what I have and boy am I glad I did! I love how this turned out! Now I’ll pack it into the Christmas box and be surprised all over again next Christmas lol!

During the Super Bowl (that I watch for the commercials) I sorted out my beads into this suitcase. (I pulled this awesome suitcase out of a DUMPSTER!)

Everything fits in there really well! Because I have a hard time getting rid of anything I even kept my “ugly beads” – you never know when they can be used for something else…or covered with polymer clay…

I love those clear plastic boxes for sorting things. In “my jury-rigged life” I even use the broken ones…

This will sit in my drawer and keep my costume jewelry all nice and sorted. They stack nicely too. Look at these beauties – the first three pictures were rescued from a dumpster…so sad!

And these pins were given to me by my Great Grandmother Bestemor -

Back in the eighties we would button our shirts all the way up and wear a pin at the neck…so she gave me the purple one and the roadrunner to my sister…I wonder if she knows I’ve “kept it safe” for her these past 25 years…

Happy Crafting!!

Crochet iPod case…

Well, my crochet skills are getting better. I was messing around and made this iPod case, then stitched a needle felted heart onto it. This is not good enough for resale, but good enough for me. :) No pattern used – just made it up as I went along. I have quite a bit of crochet thread to use up (gifted to me from Grannie) but not much yarn and I’m having a REALLY hard time not BUYING yarn! But I won’t…I want to use what I have in my stash. I’ve been spending time cleaning. I’ve spent about 8 hours cleaning in the basement and I’ve probably cleaned about 5 square feet. Not. Even. Kidding. I’m going through everything and putting it in it’s proper place. I had boxes of misc stuff and nothing made sense. It makes me not want to buy anything for a while. lol. During the Super Bowl yesterday I organized my beads. It took the whole game to get through the mess and I was thoroughly sick of beads by the end. But I’ve seen some good ideas lately and really needed to see what I have. Julie and I haven’t started on our shirts yet…kind of a bummer. I hope we can start this week!

In other news if you follow the Monster’s of Rock Cruise Facebook page you probably saw our picture. If you don’t here it is -

They post pictures of “days left until cruise” – we were at the ice-fishing contest on our local lake and came across these characters and had our picture taken with them lol. Grant and I are holding the sign. The caption was “Do you have enough ice on the ship or should we bring our own?” ha ha. I really can’t wait!!! Well, it’s back to dishes, laundry, and cleaning and organizing for me now…until this evening when I can sit down and CRAFT!!!

Happy Crafting!!

Duh…

Do you remember back in November I showed you this “jury-rigged clothes hanger”? Here’s a picture to refresh your memory…

Well here’s the new and improved version!!!!

We were watching a movie awhile back…something on Hallmark…and a guy had a string in his workshop with clothespins on it to hold notes and such. Well, a light bulb went off in my head! All I did was tie one end of yarn to the hanger, string on some beads to keep the clothespins apart, add a clothespin by stringing the yarn through the spring on the clothespin rinse and repeat! Here’s one made using wire instead of yarn…

And there are all the previously drilled holes. lol. I like this so much better!!!!!! Bonus – it even looks cute! Someday I’ll paint it up all funky and cool…not today. Today I’m happy to just have them hanging in my back entry looking kinda nice.

In other news we spent the weekend in the fish house on Mille Lacs Lake. We were about eight miles out onto the lake. And about we were with a group of about five fish houses filled with old friends and new friends. Did I ever tell you spending the weekend ice fishing and living in a fish house is like being inside a monster’s belly? The ice on the lake is constantly groaning and grumbling. And at night, when the temperature falls it really goes nuts…sometimes sounds like a thunderstorm. And it’s all “snap crackle pop” when another vehicle drives by. I feel totally safe though so it’s really neat. I didn’t ask but I think the ice was about 2’ thick…I know at one point Grant had a hard time getting the ice auger through. What wasn’t so neat was when our youngest son fell out of the upper bunk at about 3 AM. Phew! We made him get back up there though. He was scared and probably would have slept on the floor but I told him he’d never fall out of it again. I didn’t tell him he’d probably never fall out of the bunk again because he’d never truly relax enough lol. He’ll be hugging the wall from now on. I remember when I fell out of the upper bunk onto my sister…I never fell out again. Then as we were packing up Abby fell into the fishing hole. (They are only 10” around so only one leg fell in.) I can’t believe her foot came back up with her shoe still on it! Yup, exciting times. We caught two “keeper” fish otherwise they were too BIG! Grant got one that was 25” and had to put it back. I didn’t know I was going because Grant had plans with other people…those plans fell through…so we went as a family instead. Anyways, I didn’t get much packed for crafts. I did manage to make a couple rounds on another pillow case. Don’t know if I’ll like this one because I used yarn instead of crochet thread but I’ll finish. Crochet is a great “small space” craft…not many supplies…not much to lose…down the ice hole. (Cause there are 9 spread throughout the floor! Always in danger of losing something…cell phone…iPod…small dog!…) - (First time we went Edith, our 5 pound dog, entered all excited – first one in the door - and tried to jump on the couch…missed the couch…bounced off and landed in a hole! I fished her out and she stuck pretty close to me the rest of the time!)

Have a great week! Happy Crafting!!!

Crochet-edge pillowcases…

Honestly, could I get any worse at taking a picture! Sheesh. This is what I’ve been working on for the past few days. I’m really trying to use up my stash of stuff. The top three pillowcases were made from men’s shirts that I’ve been collecting and hoarding for the past several years. The bottom pillow was made from some cheap fabric I had in my stash. I got the ecru crochet thread for free from my favorite thrift-store lady. The red thread on the blue pillow was purchased at a thrift store for about ten cents and the red thread on the gingham pillow was from my Grannie. Bottom-line these pillow case covers cost virtually nothing. I bought most of the men’s shirts when I’d hit a “bag for a dollar” sale. I haven’t crocheted in about 20 years and my skills are RUSTY!

First I had to remember how to do a blanket stitch, which I did around the entire case, then crochet. I ended up doing five double crochets in each bridge of the blanket stitch on this case.

Sorry for the fuzz…it was crocheted in. On this case I did five triple crochets on each bridge with a single crochet at each end…so seven on each bridge. Made it almost look like pom-poms. This case took me two days to finish. I don’t know how many hours but it’s cold here and we had a lazy weekend at home. I like that it makes the cases special without being too frilly. I want to make several more so I can change them out whenever. Can you imagine…having extra cases…not having to wait for them to dry after laundering them to put them back on…the luxury! Then I think I’ll make a couple for the Bazaar. Hopefully by then I’ll be good enough at the whole thing that I won’t embarrass myself. I’m still trying to figure out how to cover our square pillows…we have a lot of pillows…but we have a lot of people and a couch that needs the extra support from the pillows…

Happy Crafting!!!

PS: Julie and I are going to cut out our shirts this week I hope, might just get the pattern traced…we’ll see…fingers crossed!!!

Steampunk Valentine paper cutting

 

I cut this out with my eCraft using a file I got at Krewella Kreations blog. I think it’s pretty!!! As always I struggle with the correct pressure settings on my eCraft and what paper to use. Grrrrrr. But I’ve been having a lot of fun designing my own files…the “love” cutting inspired me to make this -

It’s a steampunk heart with wings. I LOVE it! I had fun learning how to make the gears and putting it all together. If anyone else wants the cutting file email me and I’ll email it to you as I haven’t taken the time to get a sharing site yet. I think I love steampunk because I love the “industrial-ness” of it. I still don’t know how to describe it to anyone without sounding like an idiot…so I’m going to say “industrial”. lol.

And…did you notice my new blog header? I made it myself…as I’m sure you can tell :). As I learn more I’ll be changing it up a bit. (Don’t you think the “Kim’s craft diary” part should be curved like the pennant banner?) Maybe changing it totally. Just goes to show…you CAN teach an old dog new tricks!!!

Next week I’m going to try sewing a shirt. Now that I’ve announced it to the world I guess I’ll have to follow through. I have so many functions to go to (like my son’s choir concert tonight) that are “casual” and I have nothing to wear!!!! I either have funeral clothes…or paint-the-house clothes. It’s time and I’m scared. I’m scared I’ll spend all that time cutting and sewing and end up with more paint-the-house clothes. I think I’m going to practice with an old sheet first. I just know the pattern will need some alterations to fit right…I’m just too darn short-waisted and busty. Who am I kidding…my “waist” isn’t really even there anymore…is it too much to ask that the shirt makes me look tall and lean?

Happy Crafting!!!

Leather bracelet…

What do you think?! I got some great 1/8” copper so I stamped on it with my metal stamps…and then riveted it to a leather bracelet. I love it!!! I just need to get some snaps and we are in business. I KNOW these will sell well at our church bazaar – I’m excited to show the ladies at church!

Happy Crafting!!!

Christmas went by so fast!

We barely had time to enjoy the decorations! This is how I decorated the top of the hutch this year. I loved it. And now it’s packed up until next year…

I put up six Christmas trees this year. Here are three of them. (I count the tiny one on top of the hutch as one of the six). I wish I had taken more pictures…I had a lighted Nativity inside the hutch that was really pretty…oh well, I’ll take a picture next year. Also to do next year…replace lights on garland that is hanging at the top of this photo. I never got that done! And – make a tree skirt for the top tree. And - replace the twine with fishing line on the gold snowflake from the top photo. And – take proper photos, not cell phone photos!

We also took our fish house up to Lake of The Woods to fish. All five of us went. It was the first time ever…and the first time we all stayed in our fish house. Everyone did very well and thank goodness we got the big fish house! I didn’t get much crafting done…I wasted most of Saturday just laying around. Sunday I started needle felting some bird bodies but haven’t finished them yet. Now, today, I went in a completely different crafting direction and made a bracelet that I’ll show you next time. I have to find a clean spot in the house to take a photo lol! I’m really feeling the need to get.rid.of.STUFF! A garbage bag of ball caps went out to the garbage today…I’m going to go through my closet next. Do I really need a stack of turtleneck shirts “just in case”? I don’t even like wearing turtlenecks! I’ll compromise and keep two. And that pair of jeans that fit great for about ten minutes then bag out everywhere…GONE! Less stuff=less mess. Period. And I promise, I’m not going to think about how the turtlenecks would make good t-shirt yarn…or how the jeans would make a great quilt…I’m not…it’s all going to The Salvation Army – intact.

Happy Crafting!!!