Emily's Christmas Present 2011

Well since I was blessed with 2 stinky boys and no girls, I got to endulge myself this Christmas and make Emily some dress up clothes. I stared off making some tulle tutus. When I was researching how to make them. I ran across a blog that told you how to cut them quickly and easily. For anyone who has ever worked with tulle, knows that is a welcomed blessing. Tulle is horrible to work with. Here's the website: http://treasuresfortots.blogspot.com/2009/10/cut-tulle-for-tutu-using-quick-and-easy.html

Here's the first one I made:

It was made from the thicker bridal mess, not tulle. I didn't have enough of anyone color to make the tutu so I used all 4 colors (fushia, purple, turquiose and green).

Keeping with the theme of only using what I had on hand, I made a halloween inspired one:

I had just a little bit of black and plenty of the orange.

Black and white:


Maroon and white:


Purple and white, with ribbons:


I made all of these with elastic waists. I went back and forth. I had thought about making them tie on but I figured they would get more play if they were easily pulled on and off.

Well, I put these all in a paper box and had plenty of room so I got to thinking, "What else can I make?" WANDS!!!

So I went to Hobby Lobby and bought dowels and wooden balls that had holes that did not go all of the way through (in other words I didn't want big beads). These were the only supplies I bought for ALL of Emily's gift, everything else was from supplies I already had. I used some star shaped cookie cutters and copied the shapes onto felt and made padded star topped wands. I painted the wood pieces and added ribbon. Here's the result:


One set of barretts. I just couldn't help myself. I wanted to try these out. I might have to make more:


I also made "Boas" out of fun fur and other fuzzy yarn from my stash. They knitted up quickly. the white was actually made on a knitting loom.


And last but not least, I pulled out the 2 alien washclothes from my "to be finished pile" and decided to make Emily a purse. I used some scrap green fabric with white polka dots (from the Dr. Suess outfits I made my boys years ago) to line the purse. I already had the handle knitted as well. I have no idea what I was going to use that piece for. All I had to do was put it all together. Sew the 2 wash clothes together and then the strap on. Sew the cloth together and then sew it to the rest of the purse. I think it turned out cute:

I didn't go so much for "matching" as "make a bunch of cute stuff and fill the box", LOL! I had a BLAST making it all. I had a few more things planned to put in the box, but I made myself stop.

And for giggles, here she is opening it with mommy:

She had to try it on right away so I call that a success.

My craft room redo - part 1

I'm redoing my craft room. I painted it and put it mostly back together but I'm not quite finished. But I thought I'd post a picture of my ribbon storage area. I had my husband put 4 screw hooks in the upper windowsill. I then used some chain (the kind you hang light fixtures and such from) and attached it to the hooks I then made slings out of fabric and slid 2 dowel rods through on each side of the sling. At the end of each dowel is 2 eye hooks. I attached the slings to the chains with s hooks. I made 5 slings. I also threaded my curling ribbon on to single dowel rods and hung them below the slings.



These work really well. And I can leave the ribbon hanging over the edge of the slings or have it not show for a cleaner look. I could have just used different sized dowel rods with eye hooks on the ends to store the ribbon, but I didn't want to unstring 20 spools of ribbon when I emptied a spool. I didn't worry about that with the curling ribbon because the spools are bigger and there is ALOT of ribbon on those spools

Woodworking and stuff

Well I've been pretty busy. I need to post some pictures. I made 2 pairs of wrap pants for me and a ton of teacher appreciation gifts. I need to get pictures of the wrap pants still, but I got the fabric at MalWart in the $2.00/yard fabric section. So the pants only cost me $5.00/pair.

I've been reading alot lately too. If you haven't read The Black Dagger Brotherhood series by J.R. Ward, you must read it. Its excellent. Its a paranormal romance series that is based on vampires as a seperate species. You must read it in order. She just released the 6th book in the series... Lover Enshrined. Other noteworthy books I've read lately are One Foot in the Grave by Jeaniene Frost, Midnight Rising by Laura Adrian, The Darkest Kiss by Keri Arthur, Vampire Interupted by Lynsay Sands, etc..... Yep I love books. Those are just some of the paperbooks I've read recently. I've also been reading some e-books.

Anyway I think I'm about ready to start some woodworking projects. I want to make a beanbag toss for the boys. I'm thinking about doing some woodburning on it, I might make it a skull and crossbones. I also want to make some chairs for outside. I've found some great patterns for some simple chairs:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Plank-Chair/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Folding-Shelves-From-Bunkbed-Ladders-and-other-Ins/
http://tech.cls.utk.edu/wood/projects/bogchair/bog_chair_mark_iii.htm
http://www.currentmiddleages.org/tents/chair4stargazer.pdf
http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/cached_files/27813_files/

I just need to go through them all and figure out what directions/dementions I like the best. I found a fabulous site for free woodworking patterns. http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/resources/index.php?cat=102

And since I'm sharing, LOL, check out this absolutely awesome shelving unit.
http://www.instructables.com/id/Ten-Green---modular-shelving/
I wish I had known about it in college. I think they look way better than the old stand by of wood and cinder blocks. I like this other one too:
http://www.iamanangelchaser.com/products/booKrates/booKrates.html

I've been completely stuck on instructables lately. Its amazing what information you can find on that site. I love the steampunk crafts I've found. I might just have to do the boys room to mimic a steampunk-esque room. We'll see. Anyway, you'd think I'd have updated this before now since I've been on the computer alot lately, but I just forgot and got busy doing other things. I'll try to take some garden pic updates soon too.