30 Days of Beauty-12

Snow on the line.

I know everybody's sick of snow-but it's still pretty. Don't you think?

Hello???

Anybody???

The Family Heart & Millie's Hot Pad

This morning I worked on two items from Handmade Home.

First up-the family heart. This little stuffed heart has a pocket, so love notes can be tucked in. The point being-when a family member is leaving home-this can be taken with them as a token of love and comfort.

I think this is a great idea if you have small children and they are leary about staying away from home.

I used a cutter quilt and a piece of a wool sweater for this project.

Next up-Millie's hot pad.

Amanda Soule (author of this book-Handmade Home-in which I am challenging myself to make all 33 projects) recreated one of her grandmother's (Millie's) hot pads.

This was fairly easy to make. The red fabric is a linen/cotton blend cut from a thrifted skirt and the black is a scrap left from a thrifted dress.

This little hot pad is darn cute!

14 projects down, 19 projects to go. I better get a move on!!!

Find it!

I thought I'd share this cool game I bought for my daughter at our local Christian book store. Maybe everybody knows about these Find it games-but I didn't. I had never heard of them until my cousin Michelle (aka Melsie) told me about them. I did remember seeing instructions for a homemade one on Today's Mama, but I had no idea there was an actual game out there.

It's basically a cylinder with filled with tiny beads and random treasures hidden within. (Looks a little like a bird feeder, don't you think?) The object is to find every item hidden. It comes with a little pad with everything listed-you can check them off as you find them, and there is also a list printed on the top of the cylinder.

You can see all the different themes on the Find It website. You can order them from the website, but they encourage you to buy from your local dealer.

A penny can be found in every game and I've heard it's hard to find. You can register it on the website when you do find it. Cool beans, I think.

Need a 20 dollar gift for someone that's hard to buy for (young, old, or in between)? Maybe this clever little game is for you!

(Unfortunately, this is not a paid endorsement. Waaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!) And man-I wish I would have invented this.☻

30 Days of Beauty-11

Mailboxes can be lovely. (This one was lovelier before someone took a baseball bat to it!)

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Mailboxes are especially lovely when they contain good mail that brightens the day!

I ordered this pretty in pink iron print from Mandy Gerth.

Sending it off to a new home

I'm sending this zippered pouch to a friend.

No need to go to the post office.
Goodwill came to my rescue once again. This little postal scale was 99 cents.

(I think I'm becoming a hermit! I just don't want to leave my house.)

30 Days of Beauty-10

The snow melts...and beauty's revealed.

I love these colors!

Projects-past and present

Past::

This is a soccer ball made by me for my daughter's geometry project, about three years ago. Yes-I was a bad mommy and did my daughter's project for her. She says,"Hey Mom, can you make me a soccer ball for my geometry class?" I say, "Well, dear, I can try." And try I did. I googled soccer balls and I tried to find out how they were made and yes-this was an all day project. This was not easy for me! I think I she got a 45 out of 50 on it. Minus five points for neatness. The nerve! (I guess it is a little wonky.) The teacher asked her if she made it herself and she replied, "Well, my mom helped me a little."
Next up-we have the 'valentine box'. I know lots of moms and dads have made these. I think I did this when my daughter was in kindergarten or first grade. So this thing is nearly an antique. It really is showing it's age. I think she must have used it through 6th grade.

Present::
I made zippered pouches! (They actually look better in real life.) A practice one last night and a good one this morning. I've been wanting to try one of these for a while now-they're all over the craft blogs. And since I seem to have a plethora of zippers.....I finally got one made. I followed this tutorial, and it really wasn't too hard. BDO (that would be Dawnie) gave me this Waverly upholstery weight fabric and a lovely sheet-so I used these two materials and made one up for BDO. Oh-and I used fusible interfacing to to make it less floppy.
I really love the inside!

Well-I really must go do something (like laundry, cleaning)-this house falls apart when I try to make stuff!!!

Thirty Days of Beauty-9

Blue sky meets snow covered hill-yep that's a thing of beauty!

I won, I won!

I recently won a giveaway from Mandy Gerth. It's the first time I've ever won a giveaway. I was excited. Mandy is an artist (and mommy to two little boys) and she sells her lovely prints on Etsy. She sent five notecards with five homemade envelopes (sweet!) and two prints, along with a lovely note (the stapler!). I may have to buy this pink iron print for myself-I love it.

These sweet prints came just in time to fill my newly thrifted frames.

Thanks Mandy. I really appreciate it!

I love...making zipper flowers

I just found this out this morning, because this morning was the first time I've ever attempted to make these cuties.

I can't remember where I first saw these, but I knew I wanted to try them so I googled 'zipper flower tutorial' (don't forget-Google is your friend!) and I found this great tutorial on Martha Stewart's website. Click on 'watch video' and this cute girl will show you how to make them. These are very, very simple to do. You can use them as pins, embellishments for your purse, hair accessories, bows for gifts, etc.

I decided to make myself a zipper flower bouquet. I just hot glued these on lollypop sticks (which were new in bag from Goodwill). Tada-a zipper flower bouquet in this little creamer.

Making these is quite addictive.

Good thing I have a lot more zippers (from Goodwill, of course).
Their new home:-)

I've got her camera strap-covered

I can't remember if I volunteered or if my sister asked me to-but she wanted a funky camera strap and today-I made her one.

Before:

After:

I googled 'how to make camera straps' and looked at a couple tutorials and I came up with the above. I think it turned out great for my first one.

Hope you like it, Jodie. That's as much funky as I could muster up today.☺

30 Days of Beauty-8

What the heck-I'll do two 30 Days of Beauty in one day!

Since fruit is the subject of so many paintings and fabrics and crafts, I know I'm not alone in thinking it can be beautiful. Maybe I should arrange my fruit like this more often-perhaps I'd eat more that way.☺

The painting/print I bought quite a while ago (well-within the last year) at Goodwill. The strawberries in the embroidery hoop was a recent purchase. It looks to me like it is punchneedle embroidery, which I've heard is quite difficult to do. I removed the red lace from around it and washed it by hand-then it looked much better. I just couldn't chance someone's hard work going to the dumpster, so that's why I had to bring it home from Goodwill too.

30 Days of Beauty-7

Trying to find the beauty in my bowl of oatmeal!

FYI-that coaster used to be a skirt.

Some are dreaming of summer

2007 was a good flower year for me. Every year we would have a pig roast at the end of summer, therefore I would work really hard at making my flowers look nice. I watered morning and night. Picked off dead blooms. Weeded. I spent a lot of time outside my basement door and under my deck, trying to make the cement foundation less ugly!

Miracle gro bloom booster was my friend! It really works.☺
Dry weather was my friend too-the rain ruins my blooms and if it's dry, I can control the amount of water my flowers receive.
My door is black now-I like it better black.

The last two years we have not had a pig roast and my flowers have been a disgrace. I just didn't spend any much time taking care of them.

This year though we are throwing a graduation party for my daughter, so I will have to work hard to try to make things look nice. The whole thing makes me nervous just to think about it.

Summer people-these pictures are for you. Me-I'm a hermit house plant winter person at heart.

30 Days of Beauty-6 and Happy Valentine's Day

This is the storage shed for the cemetary that's about a half a mile from my home. It doesn't look like a shed, does it? You can't tell from this picture but it has lovely stained glass windows. I would have gotten closer but the road is not plowed.

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This Reese's peanut butter heart is from my sweetheart-that would be my niece, Jessica! It was good. Thanks Jess!

Happy Valentine's Day everybody.♥

30 Days of Beauty-5

Bea-u-ti-ful valentine cookie-made by good friend Dawnie! Thank you for sending some home with me!!!

You must have been a beautiful baby

...cause baby take a look at you now!!!
Today is my sister Jodie's birthday. I love this photo!
Jodie and her lovely family!

Happy birthday beautiful mother, wife, sister, daughter, and photographer extraordinaire!

Love you unconditionally (hehe!) forever and ever amen!

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Today is my hubby's birthday too. Love him unconditionally too! (hehe!) Today, he's halfway to 90!

30 Days of Beauty-4

A snow scarf around our balcony!

It's suppose to be a cupcake cake

Today I attempted to make a cupcake cake. For my sister-her birthday's on Saturday-not for my daughter. (Hope likes the cakes from the Roadhouse-so I gave her money to get one for herself.)

On Sunday I was in Rite Aid and saw the end cap display for 'As seen on TV' and this silicone cupcake cake pan caught my eye. It looked really cool, so I thought I could make her a cake and then give her the cake pan as one of her gifts. Well, the cake pan is going back to Rite Aid! The cake did not want to cook in the middle and got really dark on the outside. Also, the middle of the cake in both pans puffed way up-which meant I had to cut a bunch of each to make them flat so they could be placed on top of each other. I'm getting my money back! Hopefully I can find my receipt.

So I slapped on the canned frosting, added Necco wafers for giant sprinkles, and sat coffee filters under it for cupcake papers to maybe help make it look like a cupcake. Maybe I should have used 2 different colors for the frosting. Oh well-too late now.

Jodie-I will drop off my masterpiece tomorrow! Hehe:-)

Birthday gifts

8 bottles of her favorite 'fragrances' (Nollie line), that are being discontinued and a gift card to Olive Garden (one of her favorite places to eat) are her gifts this year!

I was looking for a box for the gift card and came across this one that my mom had given to me. She had the lid wrapped in this paper with my daughter's photos printed on it. I thought-perfect-I'll use this one for her gift card!

The aftermath.

Today, my only child turns 18

Yes-I can't believe it. Today, my child turns 18 years old. 0-18 goes by so, so quickly!

This beautiful girl and I don't always get along. In this season of our lives, we don't see eye to eye on, well, practically everything. But, you know what, that doesn't matter. I love her unconditionally, with all my heart, forever and ever, amen!!!

Happy birthday, baby girl!

30 Days of Beauty-3 & I love...my tea

Oh, I love my tea and yep-I think it's beautiful.

Now, just imagine Joe Cocker's raspy voice singing, "You are so beautiful-to me. You're everything I hoped for, you're everything I need. You are so beautiful to meeeeeeeeeeeeee! My teaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

Here's an outtake. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

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Melissa got her package from my little giveaway. She did a sweet post about it-go check it out here.

Clipboard as frame

I've been seeing this method of framing/displaying around blogland lately. I love it. And since my (thrifted) clipboard is tall I had room to move a few smaller photos in front of it.

This would also be cute to use with kids' artwork, scrapbook pages, embroidery!, and I've even seen a doily displayed like this.

Love it, love it, love it.☺

30 Days of Beauty-2

Frosty.

Weeds can be beautiful after all!

In their former life...

this crisscross potholder and this crisscross coaster were a pretty little dress with strawberries on it and big ugly red capris from the 29 cent rack at Goodwill.

I love the strawberry fabric (dang-I wish that dress would have been bigger), well-because I love strawberries and also because of the black background. Dark material is so much more practical for potholders-I use mine one time and they're stained.

I love upcycling stuff!

30 Days of Beauty-1

I've joined the photo challenge-30 Days of Beauty. Do you want to join too? Check out the button on my side bar.

Have a great day!