A pretty guest towel

I've said before, I'll pretty much put rosettes on anything, and here I go again. I embellished this pretty blue guest towel and LOVE how it looks, especially with the sand colored towel hanging with it for subtle contrast.

I got this 2 pack of hand towels because the color is gorgeous. It is more blue than green, a really nice shade of turquoise. I knew that burlap and muslin would look great combined with this vivid color.

I like it. I like it alot!

And since God is in the details, here is the way I finished the trims on the back. Simple, clean, elegant.

I pulled out some rosettes and buttons, dug into my bead stash and started having fun.

How pretty is this? The towels cost $1.50 apiece and I already had all the other supplies. Breaking it down dollarwise, the muslin and burlap actual cost was about 15 cents and the buttons and fabric rosettes add maybe another 15 cents to the total...so about $1.80 for a whole lot of decorative bang. I still have one more towel left, should I make it complementary to this one or go in a completely different direction? OR, should I go get more towels and have some fun? Decisions decisions. ;0)

I'll be linking to the fun parties in my sidebar, come join the fun and see what creative bloggers are writing about this week. There are TONS of wonderful ideas out there!

So stinkin' cute!

We found this stuck to one of the hummingbird feeders this morning. Have you ever seen anything so tiny and perfect and freakin' cute? This made us smile for sure!

Just a little beauty, everyday.

The clematis is blooming all at once. It has overtopped the 10 foot tall trellis tower the Welding Man built. It is beautifully purple!

One of the hanging baskets right next to the deck stairs. I thought the butterfly bush would cast too much shade, but it's happy right there. Just lovely!

And a little bit of whimsy, everyday! I "rocked and shingled" this birdhouse almost 10 years ago, and it still makes me smile when I see it. The unique stump is the perfect place for it.

Ah, purple wonderfulness! I'll take these moments of beauty and joy anywhere I can get them. Enjoy!

Two gallons of thread; you think I'm kidding?

I hit the local Crafters' Market this week with $10 burning a hole in my pocket. I was looking for some display ideas and also some great deals. When I saw this two gallon plastic jug of vintage crochet thread, I just knew it was going to be priced out of my budget. But 'lo and behold, it was $6.50 marked down 20%...$5.20 for this big ole jar and all that lovely thread? I grabbed that sucker and carried it like a little puppy all thru the rest of that place!


And I found four storage jars without lids for $4 total. Score! I am redoing my craft studio and my major fondness for jars and bottles leads me to much noisy enthusiasm when I find them for cheap. My family knows this and try not to worry about me too much. ;0) But here's another reason for my excitement at this big jar of vintage thread, most of which is not being made anymore.


I use alot of crochet thread. ALOT. Here is the overhead rack The Welding Man built for me to hold my crochet thread in a tidy and reasonable fashion. With his usual attention to detail, he designed this for one roll of thread per rod and he even angled the ends up to keep the thread rolls toward the center. Genius! However, soon every bit of fiber and string and more crochet thread and a glass float and some tinsel went up there until it looks like the picture above. He calls it disorganized and chaotic. I call it the charming deshabille of a creative mind. He says, "I'm going to build you another, bigger rack."

I love that man.

Mind you, I already have three separate racks for sewing thread and a different storage system for all my yarn and wool which I use for doll hair and Santa beards. Yeah, my studio is crammed to the rafters. And I use every bit of everything in there, so the stock is always changing.

And here's one of the things I do with my crochet thread. When I am at the computer waiting for things to download, or print, or process, I will crochet a pretty flower or two or three. I try to make them whenever I'm just sitting because I use them alot. Oh, the ribbon and the lace? I got them all with the change from my $10. Such a deal!


And here's the kicker....when I went grocery shopping what did I see displayed in the middle aisle?


...two gallon plastic jars that are cousins to my thread filled two gallon jar! Look at that "sale" price. Crikey.

I just love a thrifty bargain, don't you?

Free Beach Fun!

When we go to the beach at the Oregon coast we are like any other family, we take lots of sand toys and frisbees and snacks and books and chairs and blankets and sunblock and kites and.....you know the drill. We're like a military convoy with all the supplies and equipment; we're a parade of people carrying stuff.


But here's something fun that doesn't require any buckets, shovels, toys or anything else except your own two hands and found items on the beach.....rocks and plenty of 'em. And they're FREE!

When I go for a walk on the beach, I always leave stacked rock towers behind. If you were on the north beach at Lincoln City in July you may have seen them all along the sand. They look very cool and are easy, once you've got the hang of feeling each rocks' balance point.


They are very sculptural and Stonehenge-like and lots of times people will stop and watch.


Sometimes they aren't very tall if the rocks are not cooperating. Soon you can recognize the best rocks for the towers. The grandkids learned too and would bring me the "good ones."


They are good for photos, too, looking very artsy and natural and sculptural and textural. I have some prints of stacked rock towers from 20 years ago and they look as cool now as they did then.

Love the cool gray and tan of the stone with the red tones of the driftwood. Very nice!



The wind kept blowing this one over, if you've been to the Oregon coast you know of which I speak.


You can even layer in driftwood, but sometimes the towers get persnickety when you mix materials. They sag and pout and fall over. Also, I've seen towers that are built with rocks on edge but we haven't got the hang of that yet.



So if you see these rock towers on the Oregon coast, it just might be that we've passed that way and left the fun signs of our travels......stacked stone towers and these.....


The traditional family Oregon Coast rock smiley face. We leave it on every beach we visit! ;0)

Pretty in pink, what do you think?

I've received several requests to do my French rosette trimmed and ruffled pillows in pink. So this is my first try using a soft pink knit with a bit of ribby texture. I love the color! It would be great if you could see the real color, and not this photo that is too saturated and has glaring highlights. This is AFTER Photoshop, too.




And this pic looks a bit peachy salmony to me. The white chenille in the background is a little yellowy. I have the pillow right here, it's a very pretty color. Who knew that pink could be so hard to photograph and keep the color true ? These are close but not quite the same, and when I got to the closeups, it got even harder to nail it.

Nevertheless, I still like the frothy ruffles and the pretty rosettes in this very girly pink hue, even if you can't really see the exact color. So you'll have to trust me on this one, it's the perfect shade of blushing bride, soft summer roses, strawberry ice cream, cherry vanilla cupcake PINK! And even tho pink is not a color I use in my house, I really really like the soft and pretty look of this pillow. Should I make more in different styles? Please tell me what you think.

Update-Alrighty then, it's been a couple of days and you guys rock! The input on this pillow is positive so I'm going to market test it in my Etsy shop, see what the handmade buying public thinks. Thanks everyone for your wonderful comments!





Update part deux-And here's the second pillow in pink. Kinda love this one alot!

A painting for a wedding gift

When my daughter's best friend, Samantha, got married earlier this spring, I knew I wanted to paint a little something for her. I found this gorgeous photo on her very interesting blog...

http://hackphoto.blogspot.com/2010/02/little-greenery.html

....and I knew it would be the perfect subject. I had a small, 8" square canvas all ready to go and this is how the final painting came out.....


I still have a ways to go technically on painting ferns, but this little painting tries to show the idea and spirit of a spring fern in a green forest. There are alot of colors in that background, certainly some I didn't expect to use, but they worked. I was tempted to add a little drop of water to the very tip, but I didn't. Maybe next time?

The canvas was gallery wrapped, so the painting went all the way around the edge and it didn't need a frame. I liked the way it came out and the best thing is, so did Samantha and her new husband.

And now, just putting together this post I can feel that painting bug biting me again. I'd love to do another fern painting, but a coastal painting is tugging at me. Maybe I'll do both?

I'll be linking to the fun parties in my sidebar this week, come and see all the excellent projects posted there!

Quick rosette pillow project

I was inspired by some turquoise pillows with yo yos in someone's header and I didn't tag it, darn it all! I'll know it when I see it, trust me, and I'll send her some love. Note-FOUND HER! Jen, the wonderfully creative author of Tatertots and Jello. Go check her blog out, you'll see the pillows I'm talking about. Thanks, Jen!




So I had this sorta boring $1 thrift store pillow on my bed and I decided to "rosette it." I will pretty much put rosettes on anything. I sew the smaller rosettes while half watching TV in the evenings so I have lots on hand. And the bigger rosettes are hot glued. Yup. I told you this was quick!


So I hot glued the rosettes, large and small, added buttons (including some YUMMY turquoise sea shell buttons, just gorgeous) and beads and whatever the heck looked good and had fun. It took less than an hour and I really had to stop before I went too far from "sweet pillow" into "Las Vegas showgirl," you know how that happens. ;0) Oooh, I like it alot! Here she is on my brown couch with her cousins, the bedroom pillows.

Now, I would NEVER, EVER hot glue rosettes or anything else on my projects I sell in my Etsy shop. I hand sew every bit of trim and beading and ribbon to my pillows and necklaces. With hot glue it is too easy for restless fingers to seek out a weak bond and just pull stuff off (I'm looking at you, terrible toddlers and mischievous teens!) But this was a quick and easy, totally spur of the moment project. It was too much fun, too.

Now here's a total surprise. I put Rosie and her blue cousins on my brown couch and look what happened...they picked up the blue in the sky of my poppy painting and kicked up the total style of my couch a notch! So I'm leaving all of them for a day or two and see if I really like that kick. So far, so good. And I'm starting to think a crocheted throw in a nice shade of turquoise would really be nice......

By the way, the little beaded pin tucked turquoise pillow will be another blog post. She deserves it and she's super easy, in a not expensive, crafty way.

Thanks for stopping by!

All A's for my birthday

I was going to call this "Straight A's for Mom!" but as you can see, they're more angled and curvy ;0)


In May my insanely creative daughter, Christy, posted her clever, chunky, handmade letters on her blog.

I totally loved the letters and the option of making my own for my projects and craft room. I put this on my big list of "Crafts To Do and Soon!" Doesn't everyone have a list like that? And I really planned to make some chunky letters that week. Truly. Ahem, really I did....





http://christylovespaper.blogspot.com/2010/04/brought-to-you-by-letter-m.html


And then she posted a tutorial in June on making curved letters. So cool! Now I could make my own chunky curvy letters in different fonts and sizes for the neat idea I have for an "A" display in my craft room.

I was excited and planned to make some that very week.Then life happened and I got busy and distracted and....you know how this goes. But I totally wanted to make these....soon.

http://christylovespaper.blogspot.com/2010/05/letter-s-and-to-go-with-m.html

Okay, then it was July. Yeah, sometimes I slack with the best of them. Big plans, not alot of progress on the letters. Sigh. But I was busy doing other, important stuff. Okay.

So when she asked me what I wanted for my birthday, you know what I told her. Some "A" letters in different fonts for my craft room. And boy, did she deliver!!


Look what I got....three chunky letters in different fonts and even one she mod podged with book page scraps. Too cool!

I love the way they look! I have big plans for the other two, baby, big plans! And now I can put them together with the other "a" I have, a chunky ceramic letter I bought years ago that has survived a dozen moves.


Isn't there a saying that 3 of anything is a collection? Well, then, I am on my way. Thanks, Christy for the birthday letters! They are too cool for school, and so are you. Loves, Mom.

And here's a link to her main blog...http://christylovespaper.blogspot.com/


I'll be linking up this post to the fun parties on my sidebar. Come visit and see all the wonderful creative projects and great bloggers out there in blogland. See you there!

REPOST - Paint your pillows? Sure!

This is one of my early posts when I started blogging in April. It's an oldie, but it's a goodie! Someday Crafts is having a pillow party this week and I'm joining in. Come on over and look at all of the pillow projects, they are so creative and clever!



Look, new pillows for my bedroom! And they only took a bit of thinking and best of all they were almost (less than $1 each ) free! (I'm still pretty new to the whole blogging thing so I'm working on it with these pillow posts. Bear with me, I plan to make things better but as they say, practice practice practice. And maybe you'll get an idea for your own projects.)


Okay, I switched to a teal comforter on our master bed and wanted/needed pillows to give it some ooomph but as usual, I had no pillow budget. The REAL budget laughs at the concept of a pillow budget and would give it a wedgie if it came close. But I DID have this fabric in my craft room stash......



I love the brown and white print and bought all they had when I found a sale for $1 a yard. I am an absolutely sucker for a fabric bargain! The teal fabric is a standard Walmart flat sheet, and I bought it because for $4 you get several yards of usable fabric. (Here's a hint-at Halloween WM has single flat sheets in BLACK for $4. That's enough for lots of Halloween projects right there!) And the embroidered white on black fabric was a remnant, but a big one, almost a full yard. So here are two of the pillows.....



.....and yes, I dinked around with the fabric to make it match my bedroom. Yup, I painted them. I experimented a bit with remnants and found a look that I liked and so I went to town. First I chose a craft acrylic in teal and watered it down alot. Then I sprayed each fabric piece with water to dampen it and with a paintbrush just touched into the paint I then touched the brush to the fabric. The cohesion of the water in the brush to the damp fabric just drew the color into the threads and it was easy and fun to do. I actually laughed out loud as I was doing it cus it was coming out so cool! Since the paint is so thin, the fabric takes the color without getting stiff. I LOVE the watercolor look on the white pillow, much better than a solid teal dyed background. I sprayed it with water before it was dry to increase the splotchy quotient. On the embroidered pillow I only colored half the embroidery so the pillow is half teal and half white stitching. It looks very much like a custom job. Oh wait, it is a custom job.




And the pin tuck pillow? Talk about a big bang for notalotta effort and cheap. I like cheap. I found a tutorial online for making pin tucks and if I had been thinking then I'd have a link now. But it's very easy, and I will be posting a tutorial on that one one day. However, just for this post, I'll tell you that marking a grid on the pillow fabric then pinching it up and sewing around that pinched up fabric gives you an awesome effect on the other side. The more you pinch, the deeper the pleats and the more plush the effect. I will be making more pin tuck projects in the future you can bet!


So my total cost on this project was minimal but let's break it down...

brown and white fabric @ $1 a yard less than $1
white embroidered black remnant $1 less than $1
(I still have enough of each fabric to make a smaller pillow)

Craft paint on hand zero extra cost
old bed pillows stuffed into new bed pillows zero
WalMart flat single sheet for $4 less than $1.00
(I made 6 full size pillow cases with the rest of the sheet)

So total cost was less than $4 which brings each pillow to less than $1 each. Even the REAL budget condescended enough to give the pillow budget a nod of approval. And now since I have the bed pillows I wanted, I can get on with the fun part of redecorating our master bedroom with a new color scheme....shopping for accessories at thrift stores and yard sales!!

REPOST-Pillow Cleverness from sweaters

When I saw this pretty creamy cable knit sweater at my favorite Goodwill, I knew I would finally have the warm and wonderful throw pillows for my couch that I keep seeing online at upscale and expensive sites like Eddie Bauer. Fortunately it was too small to fit me or I would have worn it, it was that nice. (Okay, so I really wanted the pillows more than I wanted to lose that last 5 pounds, lol!)

No progress pics since I wasn't blogging then and the fam was already getting waaaay too many "look what I made!" emails. Here's a tip-cut a fabric backing for each sweater piece to stabilize it. I used muslin. This will keep your pillow piece edges straight and eliminate bunching and distortion when you sew your pillow. I zigzagged the edges and top stitched over that to make sure every bit of yarn was stitched down.



And here they are on my newly recovered couch. I knew I wanted some vanilla/creamy pillows to offset the strong chocolate brown and red, and these pillows are perfect. And since the sweater was acrylic, the pillows are washable. Bonus points!

And here it is MONTHS LATER and Someday Crafts is having a pillow party! Yippee! I'm posting several of my pillow posts over there, come on over and join the fun!


When I saw this pretty creamy cable knit sweater at my favorite Goodwill, I knew I would finally have the warm and wonderful throw pillows for my couch that I keep seeing online at upscale and expensive sites like Eddie Bauer. Fortunately it was too small to fit me or I would have worn it, it was that nice. (Okay, so I really wanted the pillows more than I wanted to lose that last 5 pounds, lol!)

No progress pics since I wasn't blogging then and the fam was already getting waaaay too many "look what I made!" emails. Here's a tip-cut a fabric backing for each sweater piece to stabilize it. I used muslin. This will keep your pillow piece edges straight and eliminate bunching and distortion when you sew your pillow. I zigzagged the edges and top stitched over that to make sure every bit of yarn was stitched down.



And here they are on my newly recovered couch. I knew I wanted some vanilla/creamy pillows to offset the strong chocolate brown and red, and these pillows are perfect. And since the sweater was acrylic, the pillows are washable. Bonus points!

And here it is MONTHS LATER and Someday Crafts is having a pillow party! Yippee! I'm posting several of my pillow posts over there, come on over and join the fun!