Crown for Halloween Costume

My oldest daughter is to be Glenda the Good Witch from The Wizard Of Oz. I'm fighting with that last 25% to be done (adding puffy sleeves to the dress and some type of embellishment to the bodice). Our town in trick or treating tonight, so the pressure is on... but, I'm going to be happy with small victories!!! And, I'm tickled pink with the crown, so I'm taking a break from the dress, having some lunch and posting pictures of the crown!

You know how it goes ... sometimes if the sewing machine is being a pain - you have to step away for a bit.

The crown is made using a cut from a thrifted tablecloth, muslin, ribbon, crystals (hot glued on) and timetex. It also has an elastic band in the back.

I had a hard time getting a photo that truly showed how cute it came out... :( But, I am THRILLED with it. Wish I could get the dress finished, so I'd be thrilled with it!!!

Neckwarmer ... made last winter, but worn today!

I'm cold ...... I'm very cold...... I should turn up the heat, but I'm dreading those high gas bills as it is.

I made this neckwarmer last winter and I realized that I never blogged about it. I'll tell you what I like about neckwarmer (or cowls), you can wear them without the 'ends' hanging down in your way - SO, they work great when you're cold sitting at the sewing machine (which is what I'm doing today - or at least am suppose to be - yet I'm here ... blogging.....hmmm). Anyway.....

I used 3 vintage buttons as the closure. It is so pretty, I think! And, it is very warm!

Dorothy Shoes ... AKA 'Why am I so cheap? Shoes'

So, as I mentioned earlier, I'm to be Dorothy for Halloween. Now, being a 'do it yourself-er', I decided to make my own red shoes. Let's just say ... I'm so stupid!

I have, painstakingly, placed each of these sequins (I lost count at 500 sequins on one shoe) on an old pair of mary janes. Surely I could have found some sparkly red shoes for not TOO much, right? Anyway - I want to be proud of these shoes, I really do - but, they just aren't as cute as they could be! I will say, however, that they are more sparkly that the pictures seem to suggest... odd. After the initial application dries, I intend to go back in and fill in any 'empty' spots!

Anyway - here are the pictures.......

Hopefully, they will be okay with the whole outfit... which, by the way, is not complete. I'm about 75% finished with Sarah's dress (which is a recon of another dress and reclaimed chiffon fabric) - I've decided (after the fact) that it would have likely been easier to just make a dress from scratch. But, alas, as I mentioned above .... I'M AN IDIOT! lol

Cute little felted pouch

I recently felted an old wool sweater, making a bag for my daughter. I originally blogged about that here. I still had a bit of the sweater left over and did another small project...

I made a cute little pouch that can hold cards, lip balm, etc. I attached a key chain to it so that it can be carried with keys, for convenience.

OHHHH, now that I type that out, it makes me think about something else that it could be used for. Once, at my former job, I took a CPR class and at the end of the class we got a little key chain with a few CPR items (gloves, barrier, etc.). As I recall, it was about this same size... so, I guess you could use this little pouch for that, as well... anyway, I digress..

Anyway - cute little pouch that was easy to make......

Now, I have to stop making little things... more heating pouches and more sleep masks... and finish up Halloween costumes! I am doing a recon of a dress for Sarah - she's Glenda the good witch from Wizard of Oz. And, I need to finish my costume - I'm Dorothy! Hannah is at least done!!

Sock Monkeys

I actually made these a few years back. I don't know why I didn't blog about them... but, while we were going through old toys today, we found these. I know they aren't anything special ... but, I SO love sock monkeys! And, I'm still happy with how they turned out (even if my girls played very little with them!)

I happened (somehow) to have some of these socks stuck back in a drawer and decided to try to 'wing it'. I had never made a sock monkey before, but I think that i did okay.

As I was making them for each of my girls, I decided to make one with a pink ribbon and the other with a purple ribbon.

Cute little sleep masks....

For some reason, my girls decided that they NEEDED - yes, needed! sleep masks. So, of course, I made them for them. They chose their fabrics... so, you can definitely see their personalities (and the difference in their personalities) in their fabric choices... I promise, they were happy (though, you'd never know it from Sar's face in the picture below ... lol).

Sarah chose to have hers made out of a purple and pink polka dot fabric. The lining is a purple fleece and hers has ties on either side.

Hannah (my little rocker child! lol) chose a skull fabric with a red lining. We chose to have hers made with a thin elastic as opposed to ribbon ties.

I really like the one with the elastic best, but it was a bit more painful to sew (though they were both REALLY easy to sew) because the elastic had to be shorter than the width of the sleep mask.

All in all - they turned out cute. But, for the girls' small faces, I think that I should have made the masks a bit smaller - but, we just used the same pattern that I had drawn out for my own sleep masks.

Crazy Quilt, anyone?

I actually made this 'block' quite a while back and it has been sitting around .... waiting.... on me.... to do something, anything with it! Originally, I intended to do the full on 'crazy quilting' with special stitching, etc. and making it into a tote bag.

But, while cleaning my sewing room last night, I found it AGAIN and decided that I'd leave it as is (without any stitching) and frame it in a vinyl record frame that I have. So, easy peasy ... I think it turned out cute!!!! I'm enjoying having it hanging in my CLEAN sewing room!!! :)

As always ... comments are welcome! :)

Quick, easy and USEFUL gift

Yesterday was my mother-in-law's birthday, so I had to make her something, right? We aren't celebrating her birthday until tomorrow... but, this is what I have so far and I couldn't be happier!!

I decided to make her a small hot/cold pack, because she has trouble with her hands aching a lot. And, I also made her a larger one that she can heat up and put in the foot of her bed to keep her warm when she first gets into bed (kind of like folks used to - and my grandmother still does - use hot water bottles)! She's cold natured, so I think she'll appreciate that!! This one is made with rice and vanilla essential oil. The larger one has a flannel cover that is just an envelope style.

The smaller one, I made using lavender essential oil with whole kernel feed corn. The external cover closes with velcro. The really cool thing about this one is that I used left over fabric from my youngest daughter's first Halloween costume! She (the baby - who is .. now ... 5 - oh, my!) picked the fabric - I think that is cute!

In addition to these little hot/cold bags, we've gotten her some nice lotions and a reed diffuser (I bought one of these for my bathroom and let me tell you - it is nice! I love it!! I hope that she'll like it as well). Now, I think that I'm going to make her an apron ... if I do - I'll share - if not, it's on the agenda for Christmas!!!

Funny thing about the hot/cold bags - as soon as I made these for my Mother In Law - my girls each requested one! So, of course, I made them each one. And, each of them have curled up with them to settle down for the night! How cute.....

Oh ... side note .... I think that I like the feed corn bags MUCH better than the rice ... just in case you wondered ;-)

Red Again!!!!!!!

Getting the red in my hair again was quite an ordeal! It all started on Tuesday. I went, all excited, to get it done ... but, the stupid 'process' didn't work. We decided to use 1 product that worked (supposedly) in 2 ways - both bleaching and depositing color ... hmmm Not so much on my hair!

In any event - I couldn't get back to it til today! Luckily, my hair didn't look BAD on Tuesday - just not what I wanted! I wanted a vibrant RED and I wanted a LOT of boldness!

I *L*O*V*E* it! I mean, really LOVE it!!!! It's very bold (I'm so hoping that I don't get in trouble at work --- I work in a pretty conservative insurance company). I don't think that I'll get in trouble... My boss asked why I didn't go pink last time (which, I'd love to do, actually). Not so sure what all the family is going to think ... but, hey, it's just hair! Right?!?!?

Here are a few more pictures........ Don't really look at the 'style' ... I got caught in the rain after getting the color done today!

Now, while I love the color - we were way messy with the application! Hmph... now I just have to try to 'clean up' the color that is where it shouldn't be.... Thoughts? E-mail me/comment me or whatever if you have some ideas!!

Another one.....

just because I thought it'd be fun..... ;)

I am 77% Addicted to Coffee

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Sites

Hmmm..... wired for creativity!?!

Was just surfing the web and found some silly little quizzes and I thought I'd, at least, take the one that was about creativity ... so - here it is ....

92%

Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Sites

So - what % of your brain is 'wired for creativity'???

NOTE: Only after I posted did I realize that I took this quiz on an online dating site. How funny is that??

Vinyl, ribbon and nickel plated hardware.....

makes for an (I think) really cool cuff..... I was playing around in my sewing room and decided that I wanted to do something with a scrap piece of black vinyl that I had in there. And, I thought (and, I realize this isn't an original idea!!!) ... 'hmmm, I'll make a cuff for myself! Initially, I was planning to do a simple snap cuff with industrial eyelet embellishments (which, I still want to do)... but, as I was looking for something on the shelf above my head, a box of D rings fell off (avoiding my head by only inches... lucky!).

And, as I was putting them back up, I had the idea to make the cuff you see below, using some ribbon as the embellishment... What do you think?

With the hardware on the underside of the wrist...

Underside:
Other (top) side:
Or the way that I'm going to wear it... with the hardware on top...

I can't wait to make some more!!! Would love to hear your thoughts.....

I'm coloring my hair again.....

So - I REALLY, REALLY, REALLY miss the red streaks in my hair.... This was how it looked with my last hair style...

And, because I miss it so...... I'm putting the red streaks back in on Friday! I *think* that it will look cute with the new hair style! I hope so, anyway. I don't really have a picture of the new hair style (hmmmm, interesting, since I've had this style for a couple of months now). But, it's just like this one..... in cut at least.......

Of course, mine is a deep chocolate brown (bordering on black at this point!), not highlighted like the picture above.

I plan to keep the dark brown and just add the red streaks back in .... what do you think??

I have an appointment for Friday at 1pm. WISH ME LUCK!!! ;-)

Granny Squares - And, my 100th blog entry!

So for, I've only done granny square afghans would of one large granny square. But, I'm currently working on smaller ones (about 7 in squared) to make a larger afghan. As that is the only thing that I have to share (and, I want to do as I said - and, blog more often), I thought that I'd share a few pictures! Here are a few of the granny squares that will be in this blanket:






Nothing exciting ..... I know......




But, it's all I have today! ;)

Can you believe that I've made 100 blog entries? That's actually not great, considering how long I've had this blog - but, my 100th none the less.



Now - off to bed, work comes too early!!

What I got in the swap

Without further adieu.... this is the hat that Emily made for me. I mentioned our swap in the prior post.

On me ....

But, the cutest version.... on my eldest daughter! Yes, it does look good on her - but, alas, it is mine - all mine..... bwahaahaahaa

I think that I made out great in this swap! Thanks, Emily!!!

I can finally post it......

So, on Craftster, I decided to participate in a personal swap! I've done swaps before, but not one on Craftster. The reason for this swap is because I saw a post by the cutest girl, wearing the cutest hat - which I had to have! This is her original post: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=264813.msg2973809#msg2973809 Isn't it just too adorable for words?????? And, to think - she said it was an 'accident'!

Okay - so, I PM'd her and asked if she'd be interested in a swap. I'd make something for her, in exchange for her making that hat for me!!! She, to my delight and honor, said that she'd love to. I decided to make a tote bag for her. Her only request was that it have cute fabrics and not be too girly - she also mentioned that she liked the color red.

So, here is the bag that I made for her. I really like this bag! And, kind of wanted to keep it for myself - but, I quickly said to myself 'but, you really want that hat', so I boxed it up and off it went to the post office!

This is the outside. I made a removable yo-yo, with fabric covered button, pin as an embellishment:


This is the inside of the bag, with three pockets:



This is another picture of the bag, with the matching key fob that I included:

She said that she loves the bag and I'm so glad!!!

I love the hat that I got in return and I will take a picture TODAY and post it later! I really, really, really adore my hat!!! Picture to be added shortly!!!



Oh - should probably add that the linen/cotton blend fabric in the bag is recycled from an old dress that I had 100 years ago ... so, this is part of where this bag started..... and, improved use of the fabric, I think - agree??

My next project!

I am just beside myself with how cute (and, seemingly easy) this project is. I am going to make one (or more) of these in the next two weeks ... and, I can't wait.

Here is the link where I originaly saw this project: http://www.craftster.org/forum/index.php?topic=272007.0

Last weekend

Last weekend was SOOOO much fun. My oldest daughter had 2 friends come over to spent the night on Friday. They wanted to learn to crochet, so that was nice! I really enjoyed teaching them (my girls already know a little bit, so they were 'helpers' for the other two.

One of the girls, in particular, really enjoyed it. She wants to come back over for more crochet lessons! I'm excited that she is so excited.

Their 'project' was to make friendship bracelets for each other. They all really enjoyed doing that. This meant that the really didn't do anything other than chain, but still - they had fun! And, have interest in learning more!! Here is Sar showing off a couple of her bracelets!

The next morning, we all went to Monkey Joe's to play til WELL after lunch. They got to run, jump and play! Had pizza for lunch, then did it all again til nearly 3! How fun is that? You can see that I made them all matching shirts - purely selfish reasons - having them all dressed alike made it a lot easier on me to keep my eyes on them!

While they were having their fun ... this is what I did! More on this to come in another post!

Needless to say, by Saturday night, I was dead on my feet - but, a great time was had by all! So, I'd say that was a successful weekend!!