Pretty things

Last week Kristen posted on her blog a necklace that she loved. She was coming down for a ladies fun crafty day so we decided that would be one of the projects. I have not dug into my bead stash in a long, long while. Part of the problem is that my collection is a little dated for my tastes:

I own thousands of tiny beads. Seed beads and a little bigger.

These are so small, it takes a lot to make a big impact. Kristen is more bold and already had some fun big beads, but I needed to enhance my bead stash so we went out to a few shops. Turns out one of our bead stores was closing (that day), one is an “open whenever we want” kind of place, and one was a bit over priced, where we did most of our shopping. So I’m not going to pretend this copy is much cheaper than the original. But I love it.

The sliver beads that make the necklace for me are from Michael’s.

This necklace is a combination of stone, glass, pretend stone and glass, and probably everything in between. Kristen, Sciarrino and I each made one. Watch their blogs because each of ours are a little different, I hope they show theirs off too!

I had never used a double clasp like this before, we were lucky our local bead store had them.

Now I have  a lot more fun big beads to play with in the future (jars are from Ribbon Jar special collections).

Ten extra credit points if you guessed I couldn’t stop at one.

(if you make a necklace for your kid always ask yourself, “can my kid handle this jewelry?” And don’t leave them alone with it if they will eat it. Tuesday is a good necklace wearer, I think because of the teething necklace when she was tiny).
And another thing I scored this weekend:

So tiny and cute. I won’t even go into describing the hoarder’s house I had to traipse through to get these. Tuesday was on my back and as soon as we walked in she said, “mama, DONE!”

And more tulips continue to pop open. Supposedly we are supposed to get sun the next few days. I’ll believe it when I see it. We’ve only had three days hit 60 so far this year. Brr.

My mini quilter

While I was going nutso trying to finish my monochromatic quilt Tuesday was definitely interested in what I was doing. I got out the design wall for her and let her mess around with her fabrics. For a while that appeased her, but then she wanted to “ho!” (a.k.a. sew!). As you saw in the video the other day, she has the  main functions of my machine down. So I helped her line up pieces and let her push the buttons to make the machine go, stop, and cut.

She picked out the fabrics and mostly where they would go. When she picked a piece that was too short I had her pick another and put those together first. I was trying to keep this a good shape for her doll so I encouraged her to put pieces all around the center (where we started). She didn’t always have the patience for me to square up sides before we sewed the next thing so there are some wonky bits in there. I had her pick out the binding and made that, after we quilted it together.

To quilt it I didn’t baste or anything (not necessary because it’s so small and the backing was flannel). We just started at one edge and every time she’d make it to another one I put the needle down and we just rotated the quilt. I tried to make sure most areas were covered. By this point she was having fun messing with the stitch speed so things got a little crazy.

Out of my flannel stash she chose this bug material. I wasn’t surprised since everything else was a solid or simple pattern. Who wouldn’t go for the bugs at two years old?!?! At first I wasn’t love the color combination but it’s growing on me. Right now Tuesday has it tucked around her doll in her crib. What a good little mama.

A bit of spring inside

The good thing about having clients to my house is the need to keep it neat and tidy. And it also makes me want to dress it up for the seasons.

This is the first thing you see when you walk in our front door. I think this summer I will actually pull this table out and refinish it. I got a quote to have it done for me. $600, no thank you very much. Also I should put back in the leaded glass doors to the built-ins (taken out almost five years ago). Then maybe I can talk Bj into french doors… my grand plan (ooh and I’d love to have one of those hid away screens!). Anyway I digress.

My mom got me this beautiful runner as a housewarming present. I’ve had it tucked away for a while because I feared Tuesday would pull it (and anything on it) down. I think she’s past that stage now (she’d just jump up on the table!). The flowers are the few left from my anniversary arrangement (two weeks ago!). I’m trying something new with the napkins (scored at a Sur la Table going out of business for 50% off). We have been going through a lot in a day so I found this cute wire basket at an estate sale (my mom refused to give me hers, the nerve! :)) and I’m leaving our napkins in it for the day, unless one gets really messy. Of course when we have guests I set the table with new ones, but I think this will help cut down on needless laundry. I got to the point where I was pulling out paper napkins saved from take out and Tuesday looked at me like, “um, what is this?” Such a good eco friendly girl!

Cake plate I think was a gift from my grandma and the glass thing on top was thrifted. The eggs are from Jo-Ann’s. I used these, but I wouldn’t buy them online, some bags are funky and I prefer choosing good looking ones. They were the closest to “real” size and shape I could find. I painted them white with cheap acrylic paint, just one quick coat. Then I let Tuesday and her little friend go nuts on them. They wanted to paint for 2.5 seconds so I left them out in our painting area and she hit them up a few more times. Glad I painted them white first since she didn’t get very good coverage (but I do like the effect). Last year my mom gave tutu an easter bunny purse with a wooden painted egg inside. It was a craft project of mine when I was a child. I hope to do these again as the years go by. My old egg has my name on it, painted by me. I’d love to have one similar by Tuesday’s hand.

The big purple top

The last Project Modern Challenge for the Modern Quilt guild was a monochromatic challenge. I decided to give it a try because I had a sewing day coming up with the girls… back in January. And I hadn’t touched it since. So a couple of days before the deadline you can guess what I decided to do, finish it! I figured that if I didn’t finish it in time for this deadline it would sit in my pile of to be completed quilts like so many others. And I really had done the hard work of piecing the many purple strips (my color of choice for the challenge) already.

Another little hiccup? The deadline was also my anniversary. I told myself (and Bj) that if I wasn’t done by five PM, oh well, I gave it my best shot. I managed to finish the piecing in a few hours, the back is simply the wavy fabric, and only needed two pieces. I did have to piece the batting (I thought I had a big enough piece but the quilt is actually quite wide at 74 inches in diameter). I quilted it the next day (our anniversary), but didn’t think I would have time to finish the binding. I went ahead and washed it with out binding it (it works, but I did have fuzzy batting balls all over the thing). I had my binding cut out when Sciarrino reminded me that a bias binding was probably what I was going to need for a circle quilt (duh!!!). So I ended up with the scrappy binding, which I like better anyway. I finished piecing it while the quilt was in the dryer. At this point it was getting time to make dinner plans. Bj told me I should finish the quilt since I was so close and he would make me dinner (my mom had taken Tuesday so we could celebrate). He was so sweet. It was the time I needed. I got the binding on (though the hand sewing would come a couple of days later) and snapped these pictures to send to the Modern Quilt Guild.

Just in the nick of time! I love it too. My inspiration was a circus big top, and I love it in monochromatic colors. I almost did a green binding, but I don’t think it needs any other colors in it. The different textures in the quilting really bring it alive. I did all over free motion in the big wavy fabric and stitch in the ditch for the pieces sections. With a little straight line in a few special wedges, and a swirl in the center. I figure this will be a great play quilt for Tuesday, we had a picnic lunch on it yesterday! Also prime fort material, for sure.

One thing about a circle quilt, it is sure NOT easy to photograph. Here Tuesday tries to hold it up with my mom. My mom did say I could attach velcro to my husband’s head and the quilt so he could hold the top with that and then use his long arm span to hold the rest out, LOL!

Oh, I almost forgot to mention one of the things that took me the most time, the center medallion. I found this video by googling and it is such an awesome set in circle tutorial, if you have circles you must try it! I saw a quilt a few meetings ago that I was gaga over and I couldn’t figure it out, I’m sure this is the technique she used. I’m super excited to try it again in the future. All of the purple was from my stash except the wavy purple stuff (Kaffe Fassett). My local quilt store had it and I wasn’t sure it was what I needed, when I came back after I decided it was what I needed it was on the clearance shelf, it was meant to be!
Friday the winner is announced. I won’t mind at all if I don’t win, there is some great competition (and that’s just what I’ve seen in my guild!). But I am so glad I pushed myself to get this done before the deadline. Now back to the quilts that have been sitting for a few years…
And if you need inspiration join up for the third installment of the challenge. Just announced it’s a word challenge: ORGANIC. Details here.

A little help from my friends…

So I got a little scrapbooking done.

I figured I had better scrap these pictures before Kristen moves to Canada. I would probably not be able to use them because of all the crying 🙁 Friends moving to other time zones, boo!!! This is one of my favorite kind of layouts, very simple and sweet.

The misted heart card is from a small package Sarah sent me (had to save it of course!). The two little square embellishments are some of my favorite Ki Memories icicles. Pretty old product, but I scored some recently on eBay. I stamped the Ali Edward’s Technique Tuesday stamp on white cardstock and cut around it. Letter stickers finish it off (no pattern paper or silhouette or brad?!!? I know!).

This is one of those “I can’t forget this story!” layouts. I paired pictures of my mom and Tuesday at Disneyland with a story about how she called her “Mom” until just recently. I didn’t want to forget her sweet sing song “Mom” now that she’s taken to calling my mom “nam-ma”. I used old Ki Memories and Making Memories paper, embossed some target hearts and finished it off with a perfect little bit of ribbon from The Ribbon Jar. You can see that this layout is the exact same general idea as the first one, I tend to do multi photo layouts in groupings like this. I find it quick and easy.

And this is the one that I could use a little help from you friends. I love the white on white and simple nature of this layout, but I don’t think I can get by without some kind of title or something. This layouts is about everyone that went to Tuesday’s birthday trip to Disneyland, so anything along those lines. I didn’t feel like I could call it “Disney” since I have that all over the page already. I’m also stuck on what color/texture/size as to not overwhelm everything else. Ideas, please?

Sweet Tee


Ok, sure that tee on the last post was super cute, but I didn’t make it (I got it here). When Sciarrino told me she needed to know how the Silhouette handled that iron on stuff I got a while back I had to answer sheepishly, “um, I don’t know.” The transfer material was in my craft “to do” pile, and had been for months. But I decided I had to report back that day so I picked a cute design from the Silhouette store (heart_flowers_C00849_20509) and went to work. It was super easy to cut out the material, and luckily as easy to set quickly with my iron. Even though on two of the flowers there are three layers on top of each other. I just did one layer at a time, it worked fine. It’s been a while since I bought it, but I’m pretty sure I used a combination of EasyWeed and DecoFlock.

These colors are most true, that is some bright neon pink! Tuesday was just looking so sweet with the soft light coming in on her at the end of the day that I didn’t bother trying again to get pictures of her in it. But believe me, she loves it!

(yes those pants are way too big, why is the difference between 18 months and 2T clothing GIGANTIC?!?!). Now that I know this is so easy I want to make more… for me!

The Cottage Garden – early spring

It really is spring, and I really am starting to love it. Of course it’s mostly been raining, but we go out as much as possible (even in said rain). This weekend though we got a little bit of not-quite-sun-but-not-freezing-and-only-a-little-wet weather that was good to get things started in the yard. The first thing you see coming to my house is the front rock wall we put in last year.

Next week this is going to be all kinds of wonderful colors, exactly what colors I don’t quite remember (I waited too long to order tulips and basically took what they had). I forgot to show you pictures of the crocus’ blooming (purple and white), they were very welcome in winter! The tulips coming up the drive and in the back are blooming now though:

I think planning on a few different bulb types (early-late blooming) was a good call, I should have color in my yard from now until November (not just tulips of course). So much is popping up now!

(try not to cringe at my text handling Sciarrino!) I took way too many pictures so I made a little collage. I say, we won’t have much dirt showing in September. I guess this year I’ll really know what it’s like to have a full on cottage garden!

The backyard is looking amazing! I’m so in love with my garden. Last year it was a bit of “oh my goodness we have a yard” shock, especially since the plants didn’t come until the hottest days of the year. This year I know where the gaps are and where we can sneak in edibles.

That’s an apple tree (honeycrisp!) surrounded by a few types of strawberries. Let me know if they really hate each other, I forgot to look it up. I figure if anything it should be fine while my apple tree is tiny. We also planted two Asian pears on the other side. Turns out they prefer to be in pairs so we had to jostle things around a bit over there. So that we can have shade the next few summers we’re keep the holly and hazelnut trees until the fruit trees crowd them out, then we’ll keep the fruit trees and chop the others down.

With the addition of two vines you can barely see here we’ll have tons of fruit! I chose a marionberry vine and a raspberry variety (both do great here). Plus we have the well established plum tree already. I planted peas (on the homemade trellis in the back), spinach, and lettuce from starts. I know my weakness, and it’s seeds. I do have some carrots sown in the back boxes with the lettuce, we’ll see if they come up. The front box will hold tomatoes, and I’m thinking of doing a few potted tomato plants because I don’t think that’s enough room (will tomatoes live in pots?). Plus the herb garden you can’t see behind these boxes has to be restocked with the things that couldn’t overwinter.

Here is the view from the other direction, those white tags sticking up on the left are our pears (the plum tree is the big one in the back). The yard looks huge with this lens, but it’s not that big. So far Tuesday and I have been handling the weeds and pests completely organically. And I think our soil loves us.

At least the worms do. There are tons and some are HUGE (side note: I also found a crazy huge and weird shaped spider UNDERGROUND while I was digging. It was alive and had a ball thing?!?! Scared the crap out of me).

Tuesday moved her babies around for a while, naming them and comparing length, until Bj took an unfortunate step back onto a rock…

Tuesday says, “do that again papa and you’ll get the business end of this shovel” She means it too, right after I snapped this picture she walked over to show me the shovel and my lens took the hit. So glad I’ve taken to lens hoods AT ALL TIMES!!!!
 
p.s. it might snow today…

At the table

Tuesday is the slowest eater E.V.E.R. We spend hours at this table. So of course I sit her in the spot with the best light and get out my camera to fiddle around with it while she finishes up.

Breakfast = “bbbbbeeee” cereal (signed, she can’t say that word yet). bbbbbeeee = cold cereal. Usually we have hot cereal (oatmeal). Plus frozen banana slices and soy milk. I guess she woke up really hot? LOL who knows!

Hmmm Mama, while you look through your camera this seems like a good opportunity for me to climb up here…

And make silly faces at you!!!

Mama did you leave out these colors because you wanted me to play with them instead of eating?

Ok I will! (side note Ceara and Donovan you will get your birthday cards someday!)

You want me to look at you? Ok fine.

I gotta get this cap back on, let me see, how about this trick?

Ohhh no, I figured out something better! Balancing!!!

Mama are you paying attention to me?!?!?!