Pun'kins, Pun'kins Every where!

I am so excited for Fall... It's one of my favorite times of the year! Last year I didn't really get to decorate much due to my spinal surgery! I wanted to do another little project with my girls and I found a really neat project online. It was EXACTLY what I was looking to do (thanks Fern Creek)!

We got plastic pumpkins from Wally World, brown acrylic paint, I had some crackle medium and ivory acrylic paint already.

Sweetpea very intent on getting it all covered

 My little ones and I painted all the pumpkins the brown color - painting each pumpkin a few coats. Then we spread the crackle very thickly on each pumpkin and let the crackle get tacky. Once it was tacky, we painted the pumpkins again - one coat of the ivory! VOILA! Shabby chic looking pun'kins!!!

Painting the orange pun'kin brown!!

 My girls were very intrigued by the paint "crackling"! It really is a neat process and the project took less than an hour - with most of the time waiting for the paint to dry/get tacky!

I got to do a big 'un!

 Here's the final product! Aren't they neat?!

ALL DONE!

I am so excited for Fall! These reminded me of a little song we used to sing in ELEMENTARY school - I won't even tell you how LONG ago that was...

FIVE LITTLE PUMPKINS SITTING ON A GATE...

THE FIRST ONE SAID "OH MY IT'S GETTING LATE""

THE SECOND ONE SAID "THERE ARE WITCHES IN THE AIR"

THE THIRD ONE SAID "BUT WEEEE DON'T CARE"

THE FOURTH ONE SAID "LET'S RUN AND RUN AND RUN"

THE FIFTH ONE SAID "I'M READY FOR SOME FUN"

OOOOOooooooo WENT THE WIND AND out WENT THE LIGHTS...

AND THE FIVE LITTLE PUMPKINS ROLLED OUTTA SIGHT!!!

I am really starting to feel better...HAPPY FALL EVERYONE!!!

Don't Quit

yep... been an exceptionally hard week...

While cleaning found this from Gramma San's stuff... funny how things work out that way...

Don't Quit
When things go wrong, as they will sometimes will,
when the road you're trudging seems all up hill,
when the funds are low, and the debts are high,
and you want to smile, but you have to sigh,
when care is pressing you down a bit,
rest if you must, but don't you quit.

Life is queer with its twists and turns,
as everyone of us sometimes learns,
and many a failure turns about,
when he might have won had he stuck it out;
don't give up through the pace seems slow,
you may succeed with another blow.

Success is failure turned inside out,
the silver tint of the clouds of doubt,
and you never can tell how close you are,
it may be near when it seems so far;
so stick to the fight when you're hardest hit,
it's when things seem worse
that you must not quit.

Hmmm seems pretty appropriate. Now if i can only LISTEN and HEAR the words...

Projects, projects everywhere...

It seems that I just cannot focus and get one thing accomplished. I work on my house and sorting Grammie San's things falter, as do the many projects I want to finish to start building up some "inventory". Conversely if I work on the house I don't get things unpacked, the house/garage is still a wreck and I am no closer to setting up a studio to get projects done.

I was explaining this to two of my friends... the best I could describe it as was "the domino effect". In this house - I need to find that one domino that will start all the others to topple over. If I could just get the one task complete that would start the flow for everything else... I could get things ACCOMPLISHED in this house. Does that even make sense?

This weekend Mr Safety-Man was gone alllll weekend long. The week I had had before with behavior of my babes made me cringe at the thought of dealing with them alone this weekend... HOWEVER what a shock I received!!

We had the BEST weekend all together. And we did some fun, crafty projects together - which meant a lot to me!! We watched a movie at the theater - GIRL's NIGHT OUT, we had a double feature actually. Sweetpea got to have some quality momma/biggest girl time and we went anywhere she wanted to go! 1. Books-a-million (twist my arm... NOT!), 2. Walk around Toys 'r Us (just to look at things "to see what the little ones think is cool" she says! HA!), 3. Hancock Fabric (for material to finish making her cousins their Christmas gifts from her to them)!! She is bound and determined to make her cousins' Christmas special - even with losing their dear, sweet brother. I am SO, SO, SOoooooooooo proud of her. And today both girls worked on sewing projects!! We had dueling sewing machines going!!!

The projects that are a result are: Sweetpea - a cool stuffed animal lizard with crazy button eyes (her OWN design and pattern, sewing etc...), a polar fleeced with puppy dogs on it - guitar shaped pillow (complete with pocket and strap to hold on your back (all her own design/pattern), and soon to make a square pillow with giraffe print. BooBooBear - a pink fabric with kitties on it - made in to a cat's face for a pillow. Such wonderful imaginations! I am so pleased with how everything turned out. I loved doing the teaching and helping on the projects, I loved spending time with both my girls, I loved how they were thirsty with knowledge on how to sew
(machine and hand), how to pick out fabric and for what (loved watching BBB rubbing fabric over her face to ensure it was comfey to lie upon), loved seeing their creative juices just boil over with what they wanted to do for each part.

So all the mundane, boring projects didn't get touched (well except MOUNDS of laundry) nor did my fun projects that I wanted to work on. But spending fun time, quality time, IMPORTANT time doing my girls' projects with them... now that was where I needed to be. It was necessary. It was gratifying and it filled me up.

Proud Momma project photos to follow soon!!!

Ooops I did it again...

I stopped at Jo-Ann Fabric's after my dentist appointment (bleck) yesterday... yes I did and I specifically went in to look at MORE FABRIC!!! I know, I know, I know... I have BINS of it in the garage...well now in my dining room to go through!! YIKES! And wasn't going to buy anymore...

Here's the bins of fabric and a few craft items...(bad photo due to cell phone)

HOWEVER... Ya see now I've been asked to showcase 3-4 aprons in my friend's ART Show!!! Can you believe it!? So I just HAD to find the perfect fabric... right?!

The theme of the ART show is ART MEETS AGRICULTURE! I am just so honored she asked me (thanks G. LOVE YA!)! She loved the aprons! Yippee! She and I are going to "hang" together while selling our raku clay"BirdDomes" on October 2nd during a festival nearby so she invited me to bring my clay wind chimes AND more aprons to try and sell them! I couldn't be more excited! It feels good - a feeling that I am relishing- since i haven't felt this way in awhile!!

Come on over to our booth if you're in the area! It's from 9am to 3pm check out here for more information!! And it's FREeeeeeeeeeeee to come!!! (Even better!!!)

LOVE my passion! =)

Funky, Fun Aprons oh my!

I had a lot of fun with these two projects! I know many people thought my fabric choices were kind of crazy (but I am! so there!) - but I had a FANTABULOUS time picking out fabric with my eldest Sweetpea. We mix & matched like two goofy girls! I could have spent probably another 2 hours PLUS in the fabric store (however limited it is here in Western FL...GAWRSH I miss Logan's fabric stores!!!) but Sweetpea reeeeeally (said with a bit of a whine) wanted to go and get her craft to do while I was sewing - from Michael's... so off we went.

It really was a lot of fun to ooooo & ahhhhhhh over different textile wonders. I loved all the different prints. I did write earlier how obsessed I am of fabric now right?! If I didn't have at least SEVEN totes filled with fabrics from Gramma San...

Sooo we start with my oldest's apron... She surprised me with picking a French-ish theme for her main fabric! But she added her usual pizazz with a funky, retro-striped, swirl for the ruffle, waisteband and pockets and a flashy purple, multi-colored polkadot for the straps!

main fabric, waistband, & ties



the dreaded placement of the pocket

(ratsin, fratsin thing took me 45 min to place... darn perfectionism - at least that's what i am calling it)

The colors complimented each other really nicely - I was initially concerned about the 'busy-ness' of it. We also used the same fabric for the front panel and the back panel - so she could wear it with or without pockets - depending on how she wears it.

final product - complete with 2 pockets!

My youngest, Boo Boo Bear, loves yellow. EVERYTHING has to be yellow. It is her all time FAVORITE! But I didn't want to do every single fabric choice for her apron in yellow. I wanted to incorporate some whimsical design in to her apron. With help from my eldest Sweetpea... we came up with these four designs:They were funky and fun, still adding the element of yellow, and birdies were a major theme this summer for us - so it added a neat character into the mix. The striped fabric became the ruffle (it's colors going so well with both the main fabrics). The yellow on yellow, tiny daisies - became the apron ties and the two birdie fabrics became the front and back panels (yes folks... a REVERSIBLE apron). Also the carrot/bird fabric was the waistband!

I even learned how to do some new stitching on the pockets! Mr Safety-Man said that they even looked like little birdie steps! Aaaaaaaa they do!!!! I was pretty proud and it gave the pocket a little element of SNAAZZZZY-ness!

Finished product...
This one has one big pocket - off-center on left side of photo (she's right-handed so would work better for her).

BOTH girls were overjoyed with them and truly were excited (which made my day!). BooBooBear kept asking me when hers was going to be finished (which was after she went to bed last night). So I put it on her chair for breakfast and she was so excited she brought it to school to show her teachers! AAaaaaaa! I didn't get a photo of the little one in her apron - but will today.
Here's a shot of Sweetpea in her apron...

karma

I try to do all my posts in the evening - because by then... I am pooped enough not to want to clean, organize, etc - but do not just want to sit around and veg in front of the Telay (otherwise known as the tv). SOooo I figure I am hitting two birds with one stone - or maybe more accurately multi-tasking when I blog while sitting next to Mr Safety-Man watching some of our shows. And last night's viewing was my beloved FOOTBALL...

Last night I started this post ready to proclaim being so excited finishing 2 sewing projects. I finished the two-apron project I started last week and was ready to share with "the world" - or the few friends and family that actually read this - my excitement of how cute they turned out with loads of photos... ONLY to be thwarted by our POWER GOING OUT! And my friends... it stayed out...for a long while...

I guess it was karma's way of telling me "GO TO BED!". But I showed karma... I got out the candles and got lunches ready for the girls, got their bags ready for school, AND managed to tidy a small area of the kitchen up!! SO HA-HA KARMA!!!

Fabric, Fabric everywhere...

I have become obsessed with fabric! I just wish I had the financial status to back-up this new obsession! I LOVE beautiful fabric. I love to figure out what I want to make with fabric. I love coming up with ideas on how to incorporate different fabrics in to gifts for people... And let me put it this way my dear friends... (and I mean that specifically... Dear Friends...) I am making much of the Christmas prezzies this year! Oh yes! And feel free to make things for us... because I LOVE HOMEMADE!

I have found TOO many sewing sites, knitting sites, crochet sites, CRAFTING sites... many of them blogs I read. And I can get lost for HOURS looking and reading and noting different projects but I really need to get my back part of my family room in to a STUDIO before that happens! Sigh... It seems everything is hinged upon something else happening before it - like a domino effect - in order to get where I want to be. But to get things organized, put away, and in order... I have to figure out what that first step is and go from there... that is the tricky part.

I am still unpacking boxes and FINALLY found the 5-7 TOTES of FABRICCCCcccccc (Can We YELL Yay?!?!?). Sooooo why do I go and purchase MORE fabric I ask you?! Well I think I hit the needle on the pin cushion by saying I am truly obsessed.

I found over 100 patterns from Chris' mom! OH BOY they are fun... some from the 50's, 60's and early 70's! LOVE IT! Can we say VINTAGE?! hahahaha So currently I am working on 2 aprons for my 2 sweetpeas... They are SURE funky material in a hodgepodge kinda way - but I think they go and they CERTAINLY match my girls personalities.

Next projects will be to finish knitting my nephew his sweater and while I am doing that working on 2 skirts for my girls... ruffles galore! I cannot wait!!!!

My goal is to get this studio up and running for my pottery, sewing, & crafts so that I can start producing things in order to open a small shop... I am dreaming... And someday I hope it to come true...

Maybe I can sell some AWESOME fabric in this store too!!
Ahhhhhhhh fabric... got a package just yesterday... it's washed and ironed just ready to be created in to something beautiful!!!!

musings on beautiful fabric and all the prezzies and things i can do ALL BY MYSELF!

Accomplishments...

It's been a busy weekend... a good, busy weekend! Yesterday was quite gratifying. Kyky and had the day to ourselves since Mr Safety-Man was working on a few home improvements and BooBoo was off with her bff for the day...

Kyky decided that she really wanted to do a craft together with momma and since I had to go to Michael's for a few projects of my own... well it worked out well. We stopped in at Hancock fabrics - so I could get fabric for some APRONS I am making for my girls. Kyky found a cute kit to make a bunny and clothes and decided this would be a PERFECT prezzie for her little cousin in Utah. We are so excited they are coming and we are starting NOW to get ready. I think it wil help us all to be together despite the sadness of missing Andrew during the first Christmas without him.

Kyky has such a sweet, loving heart. She has decided to make something for each of her cousins. She wants this to be a wonderful Christmas for everyone. Well the bunny came home - and we even bought some fabric for her to have a change of clothes - in to a GLAMOROUS dress!! It was a really fun afternoon. I got to teach Kyky some stitches, how to read a pattern, how to follow pattern directions and she even did her own accessories for little bunny. I love passing on the tradition of sewing and doing something special for someone else. And getting that warm feeling of sharing your talent. She did a FANTASTIC job on Princess Bunny... And I will definitely have to post some photos!!

I got the fabric washed and dried and am preparing them to make the aprons tonight. We also made some decisions on what to do with some of Mr Safety-Man's mom's paper weights... we have soooooo many of them and I really needed to make a special spot for them. Sooooo tonight I have that on my list to get done. That will help me move along on my goal to accomplish the studio...

The biggest accomplishment was getting the boat back to be useable. With us being gone all summer for the various things that pulled us away... we never got to use the newly re-modeled boat. And the cover was taken off - so a summer's worth of leaves and debris was distributed all over the boat... The girls and I spent the entire afternoon sweeping, hosing, scrubbing, washing, and cleaning out that boat from top to bottom. It's come a long way. It still needs some more TLC and a bit deeper clean... but on the whole it's back to being a great boat... Getting THAT done felt like a huge accomplishment.

Lots of things to accomplish... some things accomplished...and I feel like i am slowly getting myself back. It's definitely taking miniscule steps... and a lot of times I feel like I've taken 10 steps backwards... but I am getting things done...