felted wool potholders

I love felted wool projects. I hit the jack pot on wool sweaters last year. Re-purposing something that is no longer being used for its original purpose makes me happy. I make them by just loosely designing a flower and roughly sewing with a colorful zig zag stitch. That's what makes them so special and unique. I just love these, do you? The stripe is the back side of this piece. I made a ton of them for my kitchen and for a friend. It's such a great addition to my kitchen decor.

Love the wool, love the colors, love the texture, love the look......

LOVE! 

had a quick sewing fest

I had a bit of a sewing fest prior to my crochet fest and had fun making some jammie bottoms for the damsel girl. The long pants are a vintage pillow case!! It was fun. I managed to play around with some of my bias tape for the edging, while using up some old fabric lying around.

crafting fabric cards

I can't help it, I am on a creative binge right now. Do you ever just want to read books and crafts, sew/ create?? Ugh. Do I have to stop to feed my family dinner? It's ok to just throw something at them and hope they catch, is it not? :) Just kidding, I feed them well still. I am using up whatever I have here in case you didn't hear that Glenn is laid off. I am looking forward to the challenge. Joy cannot be stolen from me.
I am so enjoying not doing any teaching....we are still reading and choring and such, but I have FREEEED my my mind from that right now and just healing my feet up. This is my 'vacation', my 'therapy'.
Anyway, here is a picture of my fabric card I made for my neice. It was very fun and satisfying. I will show you some other things soon. Damsel will be making one for a friend too.
I don't know why this is coming in sideways but you get the idea.

i found it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's true!! I found it! Thanks to all of you that prayed so valiantly for me and my poor little missing box of vintage accessories! I can't even tell you how I was singing, shouting, praising out to the Lord over this! Can't you tell by all my exclamation marks?? Yeah!!!! It was down in the bottom of the only bin that I didn't scrounge through thoroughly enough!

THANK YOU

fabrically fun give away

Here is a fun bloggy gal I love to visit with beautiful fabrics and she is giving some away!!

Yeee Haaawww!!

Check this out.

happy easter

Happy Easter dear family and friends. I am so thankful for the resurrection day and all that it stands for. Bunnies are cute, but Christ's return is so much more. His death means salvation for us all if we just but receive it and His rising is the fulfillment of God's awesome plan. Many of you will know this hymn, but I thought I would put it here. It's a very catchy tune.

1. Low in the grave He lay,
   Jesus my Savior,
   Waiting the coming day,
   Jesus my Lord!
2. 
   
   • Up from the grave He arose,
     With a mighty triumph o’er His foes,
     He arose a Victor from the dark domain,
     And He lives forever, with His saints to reign.
     He arose! He arose!
     Hallelujah! Christ arose!
3. Vainly they watch His bed,
   Jesus my Savior;
   Vainly they seal the dead,
   Jesus my Lord!
4. Death cannot keep its Prey,
   Jesus my Savior;
   He tore the bars away,
   Jesus my Lord!

We had a productive week. We had a simple elk roast here with mom, GG and my man's parents. Yes, you heard right, elk roast ! It was soooo good. My uncle, an avid hunter, brought us some of his extras from hunting. THANKS UNCLE GARY! Can I tell you how much that blessed us?? It is some good wholesome, grass fed, cancer healing food.

Here is some pictures father/ son style that were just fun to me so here they are for you to giggle over.




Here's the whole gang, bed head and all.


Damsel and I are rearranging her room. When we first moved here she was only 4, so we're adjusting it to reflect a '7 year old's' taste . We are trying to be crafty and make it pretty. It's been fun making pillow covers and other cute things. We'll show you some later. Here is a bag we practiced making. (yes the heart is upside down, but it was very complicated instructions, trust me, it's a miracle I got it done at all. It should be easy now ) :)


Dad and Dylan worked out in the garage, getting ready for the racing season. I love to see them hanging out there together, grabbing a coke out of the fridge..I know it's corny, but I can be pretty easy to please sometimes. I guess that's why I love doing what I do. The exciting thing in the garage was the dead mouse they found in the oil pan..uuooooo...I didn't feel like looking this time, but the kids got a kick out of it.
I even got a new bright light above my sewing area so we can see what we're doing. My honey strategically placed the lighting to accommodate multiple use areas.
We also got the garden tilled and some yardwork done. Whew. I am tired just remembering.


Our cute little cousin.

I wish I could have gotten a better picture of her adorable bun in her hair. Don't you just love this Easter dress? Anyway, we go to clinic for Bryce this week, so pray for us please and we hope you have a great week. I will update you later on that.
Blessings.

march was sewing month

I have tried to devote the end of our days in March to making time after school to delve into hands on projects for all the kids. However, I devoted this blog to some of Damsel's fun.

I am encouraging her to keep working on her hand sewing skills before we tackle the machine, so she is chipping away at a flower that I drew on this fabric for her. Isn't she determined? A great way to get your youngster started is to get one of these embroidery hoops and just let her/him go to town. I am thinking of investing in a needle threader. Do any of you know if these work as good as they seem like they will?

Although she has been very interested in all things sewing, hand sewing will not satisfy her appetite for using the machine! We have been working on many different, fun projects and I have naturally taught her what every good sewing mother teaches her daughter; how to have 3-5 projects going at once, of coarse! You girls all know what I mean. But, that's ok, completely normal, part of the territory.

Have I told you how much I love having a daughter that loves all this girl stuff too?

Needless to say, sewing by hand did not last long before the drive for machine power overwhelmed her. :) I couldn't deny her. She is tall enough, agile enough and I discovered, talented to boot. First we started on paper copies from a book I bought years ago when Dylan was little. Before long, she was working with cloth. The paper puzzle gives lots of good practice for turning and maneuvering the machine. I made a little movie memory. She was so deep in concentration, it was hard to just get her to look up and smile before I shut it off.

Here's an actual finished product. She made this pillow for her dolls. I think they will like it very much, don't you? I can't wait to show what else we've been doing. We just finished the edge with an overcast stitch.

Look at this sewing basket I found at the thrift store for damsel; isn't it adorable? It seems to be very vintage and yet like new. Love it!!

In addition, I was looking for some perky, long spring skirts for my girly girl and found a great selection of wonderful stuff in not only the girls section, but also the women's department!! One quick adjustment or adding elastic and viola...thrifty bliss!! Isn't that fun? I also found some brand new Land's End spring dresses to boot! Here are few examples.

Happy sewing and thrifting to you all and I pray your spring will be bursting with blessings of goodness from the Lord above!!

crazy hat night

It was crazy hat night at Awanas, so we decided to have fun with fleece! A helped and came up with all the design ideas.

Side view.

Pattycakes made one too.

sewing fun bags

Didn't I tell you that I was itching to sew? We've been spending some of our extra time working on some sewing projects around here. I didn't really want to start a long project yet so when the need arose for bags this week, I went to town making these quick easy bags. I see future Christmas gifts here. What fun. On top of that, I was being frugal as well. I picked up some large pieces of fleece at the thrift store, maybe 3-4 yards, for under $5!!
We have some great things that I can't wait to show you that we've been up to. I did get some of the sewing out of my system, but I am still raring to go. My dear damsel has the bug as well. I will let you know how that is going.

sewing gift

Look what my sweet friend pattycakes made me! Isn't she a blessing?? She is quite the artist. Check out her other fun crafties.

Isn't this an adorable little mini pin cushion? Now I have a little sewing kit for my chair side table to repair all those little mishaps!

Thanks Pattycakes, love ya!