argh.

Other than my camera, which officially is not a craft, but art right?  I haven't been doing many "crafty" things.  I haven't had the time. Literally, no time at all, in fact it is before dawn at this moment.  A sneak up, if you will, to find some spare selfish moments for myself.  Yeah, me.

Boo!

We are having an avian Halloween. Our kids wear their costumes to school today.

This is the owl and the peacock. I have one more bird to go. It's a homeless Big Bird. Kidding. :). It's another peacock.


Picture quality here stinks, but at

least I am posting, even if the entire thing comes from my phone. Real, finished, looking beautiful and ready to beg for candy photos to follow.

Altering the plans.

Back to the last post. My husbands grandmother crocheted a dress for her two year old daughter to have a picture taken. The subsequent daughters - my mother in law included all wore the dress for their two year old pictures. Then all of her daughters wore it (my sister in laws). Then all of the granddaughters, my three daughters included wore it as well. My oldest was the first great grand-daughter to wear the dress.

I remember clearly when my mother in law came to visit and brought the dress for these pictures. Has it really been 14 years ago?

She wanted Ry's hair curled just like hers was in her own 2 year old picture. So we did. And while at the photographers she recalled that in her own picture her mother had handed her her wedding ring to play with so she would keep her hands together. She handed my two year old her own ring to hold. I love that invisible moment in those pictures.

In the last few months I have become obsessed with that dress and how as the family tree spreads the tradition could end. I decided to make a copy for my future grand kids. (Odd? Maybe. But I am okay with that. ).

After an extensive Internet search of antique patterns I found the pattern or a pretty close match.

I decided to follow the pattern from 1944 precisely. And it's turning out cute. Just not like the original. It appears that great grandma Loretta made some alterations. However making it myself following the directions will help me better make the alterations to the second version of the two year old dress I bought thread for today. Yes, I plan on making it again.

I thought briefly about just ripping it out and starting it again with the same thread a few hours into this project, but opted to continue and just learn the pattern and enjoy the process. My girls are already thrilled with the idea of this reproduction existing even though they hope to use the original when the time comes.

I probably have another 5-6 hours to go in this dress.

I am looking forward to doing it again.

Not forgotten

I am currently working on a rather large crochet project from a pattern printed in 1944. Let me just say that patterns have gotten a lot easier in 66 years. Holy math project. Pictures to come soon.

Dresser facelift

Bought this sort of raggedy looking oak dresser at an estate sale last Saturday for $20. 

Lots of rings on top, broken hardware, etc.  

We started sanding before we took its' picture.

But the varnish was yellowed and lifting.

All sanded up and ready to finish..I loved the curves and the super groovy personality.

 My sweet husband went to work on it with a paint gun and Tada! The dresser completely sanded and the super cute finished dresser that totally matches the room colors where this dresser now lives

Christmas ornaments

Grandma died three days after Christmas this year at the age of 65 and a very sweet friend of hers had a star named after her in the constellation Pegasus, which coincidently went along with the priests homily for the grandchildren. It has been a hard year. The star paperwork had a beautiful chart of the star's location, so I really wanted to do something with it.  Finally have decided to make ornaments of this for each grandchild (or family depending on how they turn out) using metal stamping and have started playing around with that. So I've made a template and started 'playing'... We shall see.

The blanks- 40mm.

The template so far.  The larger whole is for her star.

Who doesn't love

A shrinky dink?

A little crafting

Scrabble tile jewelry. Kinda fun too.

Organizing

Okay third times the charm on this post. I made myself this little needle and hook organizer. I love it. I didn't intend to store the giant needles in there, but now like having everything in one place.

The giant flower button is quite possibly my favorite part. I picked them up in several colors and plan to use them all on projects for myself.


Now I just need to come up with a plan for my circular needles . . .

Since I didn't...

Get any, and I mean ANY Christmas crafts completed last year, I decided to get started early this year on several with the hopes of having them ready before Valentines day. Yes, I seriously had to give Christmas gifts to friends for Valentines ... in my defense I started working again outside my home in November and WOW.  Just WoW.

So in the love of all things Pinterest.  I made these:

I SPY Ornments.

I bought giant glass Christmas ornaments on clearance in January and started collecting tiny white and silver things.  The 'filler' was the hard part.  Those little beads are expensive at the craft store so I went to Goodwill and bought beanie babies...slightly gross, but since no one will have to handle the beads I decided to go for it.  So instead of spending $25 on beads I spent $4 and chopped the heads off of eight beanie babies.  There are twenty different white and silver things in there along with the filler beads, silver, white and glass glitter.    They are extremely heavy and I had to use E600 to glue the caps on them.  Still they may be table top decor rather than an actual ornament, which is fine since they beg for handling really.   If I were making more of them I would probably try harder to find the foam bean-bag filler, which would make them significantly lighter, but oh well.  They are overweight, like the rest of us.   Can't wait to give these for Christmas this year. 

Honestly I am really a knitter.

But apparently I have a little crochet problem.  Strangers have actually stopped my girls to take their pictures in their monkey hats I made them last fall (see the previous post on with the Sock Monkey Halloween costume).  This pattern also came from Etsy SweetKiwiCrochet.  Really simple pattern can crochet up in less than hour...if you don't count sewing on the ears, mouth, eyes and making the pom-poms. 

So okay, it still needs eyeballs but this is basically what they look like..  My girls actually slept in theirs most nights this winter.  They are cute.  This one is for a toddler.  I had extra yarn after making the two for my girls and so I made the baby and toddler versions as well and just haven't sewn the eyes on them yet.  I put mismatched eyes on the girls' hats and will probably do the same for these.

And I just finished two of these for the girls next December...

they have earflaps and long white fuzzy braids hanging from the flaps. 

The thread has sequins incorporated so they have a little sparkle.  Kind of cheesy, but fun.

This pattern also purchased on Etsy from SweetKiwiCrochet. 

Crochet Cobbler...

So more little shoes as promised.  All from TwoGirlsPatterns on Etsy. 

They have some super cute patterns for little shoes.

These little sandals are a fun way to use up little bits of yarn. 

These flowers are lovely and fun to make because the results are stunning...

you know if the picture weren't blurry.

So cute I made another pair...

they could use a little blocking or shaping to take a better picture,

but alas this is what you get for today.

Someone should loan me a baby so I can take their pictures in these things.

Crochet

I taught myself to crochet two winters ago...you know more than a chain --- and became fixated on baby shoes.  This is surprising as I am pretty sure I don't even know anyone with a baby these days...  I purchased the patterns on Etsy from TwoGirlsPatterns. 

Yep, you have seen these before.  I have made several pair and have several pair right now completed.  I love these.  I love the whimisical loops and the mismatched antique buttons that I put on them.  I have given these as gifts and even sold a pair.  Love them!

And these little Mary Janes... I find them enchanting.  Ver simple quick crochet and with nice results. 

Don't worry, I have more mediocre photos of baby shoes for another post. See you soon!

It's been so Long

I had to go through the entire password reset process to even post this.  Sad. 

I have however done lots of creative and not so creative things since I last posted. 

Most I have not taken pictures of yet, but plan to do that later today for a post to come asap.

We had Halloween and I painted the Cheshire cat on a face...

I thought it was pretty cute all things considered...

This may be one of my all time favorite Halloween costumes. 

Funky Hair Day.  Thank you Pinterest.

I painted this 9'x12 back drop for Project Graduation.

And this one...on some really horrible paper, but overall it was okay.

Painted some more faces just for fun.

And more faces.

And baked a wonky cake for a sweet sixteen. 

I have some really fun things to post, but must take pictures. Will do today I promise.