What I’ve been doing…

Well, it seems as if I’m always moving but not getting much done beyond daily housework. I don’t know why…but here are couple things that has excited me lately -

This pin on pinterest. I can’t seem to post the picture – but basically you put a tension rod under your kitchen sink and hang all those spray bottles from it. It works beautifully!!!

I’ve also been having printer problems for a while and decided to attempt to fix it myself. Not sure if this was a good idea or not…basically my printer head had dried ink on it. So I soaked a paper towel in a solution of 50% windex and 50% distilled water. Fold it up and put it in the printer where your printer head travels. Then you gently push your printer head over it and let it soak. Ack – just watch this video.

Besides taking apart a couple wind-up clocks for a future project I haven’t had much crafty fun. That’s OK…because taking apart the wind-up clocks was REALLY FUN!!!

Happy Crafting!

Been awhile…

I know it’s been awhile since I posted so I grabbed my camera and went into my office to snap a few pictures and I got ONE before my batteries went dead. Argh! Well, what you see is a murder of crows in the process. They have been “in the process” of getting finished for over a week. However, I am proud of myself for not starting a new project until the current project is finished. I used to have two or three projects going all the time and that just gets messy. For the past several months I limit myself to one project at a time. Only time will tell how long I can keep that up – lol!

Speaking of messy, I reorganized my office again. Seriously, I think there is something wrong with me. I can’t stop rearranging my office/craft room! This is about the 10th time in the past 5 years. Enough already!!!! This time I reorganized with the intention of having a crafting table in here. I am tired of crafting at the kitchen table. Well, I love crafting at the kitchen table but I’m tired of having to clean up for meal times and tired of looking at the mess even when I’m not working on a project. So, I thought I’d ask my hubbie for an office re-do for my birthday. Then we decided to book a cruise (and we did!) for next March. It isn’t cheap. I decided to work with what I have instead. I can ask for an office re-do next year or the year after that…maybe by then I can figure out what exactly I want anyway.

Speaking of the hubbie – here is what we went and did last week -

Speaking of the cruise we are going on the Monsters of Rock Cruise 2013!!!!!! On the cruise we get to go to PROM TOGETHER!!!! We get a ROOM WITH A BALCONY ON THE SHIP!!!! We get to MEET OUR FAVORITE BANDS!!!! Well, it’s not until March 2013 so I’m sure I’ll be posting more…geez we are excited!!!!

Sidetracked by Frowning Francis soft sculpture!

I don’t know how I first came to be at Frowning Francis’s website – but once there I was hooked! I immediately ordered the pattern for the crow and got to the fabric store as fast as I could (within a couple days!) and started! I think it took me about two days to make this. I LOVE IT! I went to the antique stores and hunted down the key hanging from his collar and I made the propeller at the top of his hat out of a sheet of copper. 

He’s first made out of muslin then stuffed then painted then decorated. I made the goggles too – and I see they are upside down in the picture! Oops – I haven’t glued them on so they come off once in a while. I intend to remake them some day…I’m not terribly happy with them. I think I have to clean my copper better before soldering.

In other news we let this little guy go yesterday - (that’s the tip of my thumb at the top of the picture. It gives you an idea of how tiny he is.)

We brought him to a quiet area next to the Mississippi and wished him the best. lol. (No people live within miles of the place) I don’t know why but I really like turtles! Speaking of which – did you read this article?

Happy Crafting!!!

New needle felting project and weekly organization…

Well, it looks like the summer blogging schedule is going to be less often but more content. lol! Here is what is in the works at my craft table -

I have plans for these little guys and they will hopefully be a little further along next week.

This little lady is in the works also -

I’m happy with the shape and scale but she’s missing a little pizzazz…I have ideas though.

This little bird was sitting so still in the back yard that I thought it was a decoration. Then I remembered I didn’t have any decorations that looked like this – lol! So I got my camera -

And the little birdie posed prettily for pictures for a moment and then scared me half to death when it flew away – I hadn’t realized it could fly so well! I also found a baby snapping turtle on the road…in the middle of town…it didn’t stand a chance…and it is now living in a container on our front deck. We’ve had it for a week and I’ll take it out to the swamps later this week and let it go. It’s been fun observing it. It slurps down worms like they are a piece of spaghetti. I want to get some good photos this week – I’ll show you next week. lol.

I’ve also been playing around with the idea of a planner. I just hate feeling out of control – and I often feel that way in regards to our schedule. There is always so much going on and my husband has such a weird work schedule in the summer that I even forget what day it is half the time. My weeks seem to naturally follow a Monday through Sunday week. The weekend should be lumped together for me and Monday is always the start of the week. I’m always looking forward to the weekend so that should be at the end of the week…makes sense to me – lol! I kept this “bare bones” and not overly embellished because I like to doodle while making phone calls and I can put little frames around the boxes and just be silly. I use that open spot in the middle to make a grocery list…I’ve been using this for about four weeks now and I can say I’m waaaaay better organized! I just have to remember to look at it every day and make a little mark to show the day is over. The best part is that no fancy computer skills were needed to make it up – just doodled and copied. I print on both sides of the paper so a year takes very little paper…and because it’s bare bones – very little printer ink! The things that happen every week – like pay bills on Friday, different meetings on Wednesdays, etc – are part of the original copy. I can’t forget them – sweet! The list on the right will be changing to a more permanent list…right now I’m just playing around with the weekly chores that need to be done and they can be crossed off as completed. I’ve truthfully spent very little time making this up and I’m content with that. Some day if I really feel the need I can pretty it up – not now smile.

This week is already filling up – my office is a nightmare – again! It’s just too hard to try to neatly fit 1,000 things into an area that can only hold 100 things. I either have to build a bigger room (not gonna happen) or pare down (and I have a really hard time paring down!). It’ll take at forever to clean it out and organize it again.  Hope you all have a great week!!!

Happy Crafting!!

Pillowcases

 

I actually sewed last week! (Julie made some pouches and I realized it’s been a loooong time since I sewed…thanks for the encouragement Julie! I even used my serger…which made these go together SUPER FAST!) I made  these pillowcases. I’ve been hoarding thrifted sheets for a long time now and…not using them. Well, that’s enough of that. The sheets used to make the cases on the ends was sooooo soft and made wonderful pillowcases. The one in the middle is also soft but not quite as soft as the other. I love thrifted sheets because the quality is usually better than what I find in the stores. Also, I’ve noticed with newer sheets there is always a “chemical” smell in them. I can wash them ten different ways but they always smell “chemically”. It’s got to be some fire retardant something they put on them. Well, these smell like fresh sunshine!

Also, my dryer is eating my clothes so I’ve stopped using it. So this is how I’m keeping up with laundry now -

 

I have the clothesline you see the pillowcases hanging from, and a drying rack on my back deck and this clothes rack on the deck. If I hang the clothes on a hanger and leave a little room between each garment I can get a lot of clothes dried at once!! I match the socks before I clip them to that blue thing you can barely see on the end. So aside from having to hang the towels it’s not much different than when I did have a working dryer. The socks have to get matched anyways and the clothes have to get hung anyways. Then I bring them in at the end of the day and leave each kid’s pile on their kitchen chair. When the weather is bad I move the racks to the basement where I always have a dehumidifier always going in the summer and I turn on a fan. The only tricky part is blankets (if we have rainy weather) although I think they would dry just fine in the basement too, and there’s a Laundromat about 4 blocks from my house in case of emergency. I’m thinking about how to put a rail on the outside of my deck railing to hang clothes from – they could hang between the pickets…and it would be permanent. Or maybe something attached to the house that’s on a hinge and can fold down…well we’ll see. I’m still going to get a dryer but I’m not in a big hurry anymore. I can wait an find the right one at the right price. And I probably won’t use it as much as I used to!

Happy Crafting!!!

PS: I’m waiting for pictures from Grandma Mary before I blog about the Graduation party – it was an awesome day!!!

More felting…

 

I’m working on this bag right now. I started it over a week ago and just can’t seem to get excited about it anymore. Maybe because there is a lot going on right now…

Yesterday we had family pictures taken at 7:30 PM. I started getting ready at 4:00 PM – running everyone through the shower and making sure clothes were clean took forever! We spent an obscene amount of money on these pictures…but we have to had them “touched up” (which costs big bucks) because I have a cold sore…in/on my NOSE! I didn’t even know this was possible! By the time I figured out what was going on I’d poked and prodded it so much my entire nose was swollen, and sore. The swelling had mostly gone down by last night but the sore is still apparent – geez. I’ve been hiding in my back yard and house…it’s ugly! The pictures were taken at our church as a part of a new church directory and were done by LifeTouch. They really did a nice job and I’m excited to get them! (About 2 weeks from now) This could very well be the last time we are all together for a family picture like this. The middle child is getting older and I can easily see him flying the nest soon after he graduates. I did… :) And we kinda have to be forced into getting something like this done because it is such a pain! I think I’ll try to get one more professional family portrait before the kids grow up…but I’m so bad at stuff like this…just trying to coordinate our outfits makes me break out in a rash!

Today is the last day of school! woot woot!!!! I’m so excited! Almost as excited as I get for the first day of school! No more shower wars in the morning! No more “get-to-bed-right-now-because-you-have-school” wars! No more homework wars! Now we get to start the “chore-wars” and the “spend-time-with-me” wars lol! It’ll be a nice change.

We are having Abby’s graduation party on Sunday and so far the weather is forecasted to be NICE! I am so relieved! We’ve rented the “cook shack” down at the park and it should be a really nice time.

Well, that is it for now…Happy Crafting!!!

Graduation and wet felting…

Those two things don’t seem to go together do they? Well, in a way they do…

Here’s my girl!

And here is Pam…

Here’s all my children…geez they are getting BIG!

Here’s us – “the fam”… Abby used that smile for most of the pictures lol!

My parents came for the evening… my dad drove up from Iowa where he was working!

It was a great evening. I don’t have pictures but I had three girlfriends surprise me by coming for support and boy did I appreciate it! I surprised myself by not crying. I held it in. The closest I came to bawling was when I hugged Pam. That just choked me up. I’m actually choking up right now just thinking about it…

MOVING ON!!!

I wet felted a handful of the wool I’ve been cleaning. Just to see…it felted up nicely! Then dyed it pink…and now I’m adding a little red…don’t know if I like the red…but it is fun to experiment!!!

Then I felted up some of a wool batt just to see…and it also felted up great! woot woot!!! (This is a little pouch – I think the needle felted flower needs a little something in the center though…don’t you?)

And I’ve been working on this bag off and on…I think more leaves are needed…and I’m finding out I like needle felting branches! I’m not thrilled with the background color – it’s kind of a blueish white…maybe some more leaves to hide it!! The felting has been therapeutic…it keeps my mind off the future…I know I don’t have to worry about the future because God tells us not to worry and to leave it to Him. But sometimes it helps to keep your mind occupied with other things…wool fills my mind right up!

I think I’ve been posting about twice a week lately and now that the kids are getting out of school I don’t know what our new “normal” will be. So…I might be posting a lot more…or I might be posting a lot less but with more information in each post…again, that’s the future, I’m not going to worry about it…

Happy Crafting!!!