Embroidery

Last week, I tried embroidering free-hand in preparation for my newest godson's baptism. My years of cross stitching made it fairly easy to back stitch Steven's name onto a bib I purchased at Wally World.  I wrote his name on a scrap of paper, and then traced it onto the bib while holding it up to a window (aka poor person's light box).  If I had to do it again, I'd probably use three or four strands of embroidery floss instead of just two to make the letters thicker, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Not bad for my first attempt at embroidery!

My godson Steven, baptized August 8, 2015

Lent

Source: On the Way Home Blog

Lent started over a week ago on Ash Wednesday.  Check out this great video that explains Ash Wednesday and Lent in two minutes if you're not sure what it's all about or would like a quick reminder.

I usually get out my small pile of Easter decorations some time during this period, but this year I remembered something I found on Pinterest (above) that was a better fit for this more somber season.  Inspired by this pin and decorations I've seen online and in church, I pulled out my large vase, dug out my purple candles from my Advent wreath, found a twig outside, and purchased a bag of river rocks at the dollar store.  Here's the final product, and I only spent a buck on it.

I hope you have a very blessed Lent!

February's Finished Project

Thanks to Pinterest, I was dead-set on sewing some tiny teabags for my niece's 3rd birthday as soon as I saw the tea set on her wish list. Unfortunately, one of my two favorite Pinspirations was in French, and the other had no pattern. With the help of Crafty Mommy, I spent an afternoon making disgruntled noises at a sewing machine and bonding with a seam ripper. But finally, I had four cute little teabags to go with her cute little tea set and a new book, Bunnies for Tea!

Source #1

Source #2

Trial and error all the way through...

I think she likes it!

Between the rainbow tutu and the rainbow cake,
I think my sister-in-law gets the Pin-Win award this time!

Ten Days Till Turkey

It's beginning to look a lot like Thanksgiving around here! 

Refreshment table food labels from a recent party

Updated welcome sign on our front porch

My newest Thanksgiving decoration, a solar-powered turkey!

Pumpkins, pine cones, and pilgrim squirrels

Week 4: Lack of Progress

Knitting during the Bears' games is apparently a requirement for them to win, and I have been blamed for their loss in Week 4 because I had a Tastefully Simple party scheduled.  Alas, I will not be there again next weekend because Dave and I are in a wedding.

The only knitting I got done this past week was a couple more stripes during Monday Night Football.  Instead of knitting, I was preparing for my first TS tasting party.  Preparations included dissecting a bunch of binders (by cutting out the center section with the rings) to make lapboards for party guests to fill out their order forms.  See the pretty new business cards that arrived last week?  And I have a shiny new nametag, too!

Bridal Helper

The big day is October 12! Less than three weeks to go, Mary! 

In the beginning, there were many homemade invitations to tie with a purple bow...

Then I converted dollar store invitations into snazzy bridal shower invitations with a new printer and lots of rubber cement.  Of course, we tied in the favors and prizes to the purple color scheme, too!

And finally, I made a fantastic Pin Win with this bachelorette party bag I found months ago on Pinterest!  She'll have to live with no purple on this one...

Window Win!

Our new home has a couple of awkward (but cute) square windows in random places. The most obnoxious one is in the living room, and previous tenants covered it with some sort of ugly white plastic thing.  Since I don't want to go through the hassle of blinds, and a tension rod with a small curtain didn't really make me happy, either, I decided to get crafty.

Step 1) Cut foam core board to size (easier said than done...)
Step 2) Pick fun fabric and cut it with enough excess to wrap the board
Step 3) Use leftover packing tape from moving to secure fabric to the board
Step 4) Wiggle stepladder in between audio/visual set-up and awkwardly hammer in small nails to hold the board over the window
Step 5) Wait to see how long it takes Dave to notice...

I may go purchase one or two square canvases and cover them in the same or similar print fabric to make it into an art wall, rather than a random fabric aquarium floating above the TV.  Anyone want to join me for a trip to Hobby Lobby?

Dad's Pin Win

Researching advice for selling a home, I ran across one recommendation to have your address numerals somewhere near the front door for potential buyers to remember.  I immediately thought of something I'd found on Pinterest earlier (originally from the blog 9 o'clock Dance of Joy!), so I showed it to Dad to see if he'd like a small project...

The inspiration

Dad's version (before adding the hook)

The finished product

Dad even added little rubber feet on the bottom so it won't sit on wet concrete when it rains!  I was originally going to use metal numbers, but the hardware store didn't have any small enough to fit the sign.  I decided to go with chalkboard paint instead (and since I had an entire can of it, I painted the base to match), which makes it super easy to update when we move!

Special Valentines

When you're home sick (with a mutant sinus infection) a few days before Valentine's Day, what do you do? Well, if you're me, you look for a small project that doesn't require lots of energy.  Inspired by a craft I found through Pinterest, I made my own "Hearts Stitched Together" cards.  Since the template link from the source blog was broken, I made my own in Excel, printed it, then used push pins on a cork board to make the holes I needed on the blank card.  When I was finished stitching, I had three beautiful cards to send out, made at no cost to me (except postage) since I had everything I needed in my stash already!

The first card I made (top right) was stitched with a dark maroon thread and mailed to my west coast best friend with the inside message: Friend are God's way of giving us hugs on special days.  Consider yourself hugged this Valentine's Day!  As of right now, it's still en route to California (so Heather, you better not be reading my blog till after it arrives!)

I made the card in portrait for my second try and ended up adding a third heart because it looked so blank at the bottom.  The first thread is a deep red for the top two hearts and a medium purple for the third one.  I sent this to my grandmother with the message: You're sew special to me!  Happy Valentine's Day, Grandma!  Mom told me that Grandma was very tickled by her homemade card (despite the really bad pun).

The third and final card (bottom right) has one burnt orange heart and one navy blue heart with the saying inside: Happy Valentine's Day to my favorite Bears fan!  Of course, this was stitched especially for my dear husband, and it was very appropriate since we had Valentine's dinner at Bobby G's Chicago Eatery.  Please don't think less of my husband for not taking me out for a fancy dinner--this is the third year we've had Bobby's at my request because I love their Italian beef sandwiches.  The past two years, Dave brought it home, and I pulled out our china for the special occasion!

Best Etsy Finds of 2012

Most of my lovely readers know that my BFF Heather lives across the country in California. I found the perfect present for her on Etsy a few months back and ordered it just in time for Christmas!

All incoming boxes are subject to kitty inspection...

Aren't these just too sweet?

Goodbye, Georgia mug, and safe journey to California!

Check out more cute stuff from GreySkiesBlue on Etsy!

The other awesome find on Etsy this past year--a baby black hole (with birth certificate) that shipped across the pond from the UK!

Perfect to cheer up my Georgia BFF after eye surgery!

Holiday Santa-tizer

Last year I got all ambitious for my co-worker's Christmas gifts.  This year... not so much.  But I had to be at least a little bit crafty, so with the inspiration of the "Hand Stanta-tizer" idea found through Pinterest, I came up with my own low-budget gift that kept the wonderfully lame Santa pun.

This is an oddly appropriate gift for work right now since the crud has been going around campus for the past few weeks!

Halloween Awesomeness

Who needs to search Pinterest for ideas at Halloween when Julie throws the awesomest parties with the coolest treats and the best decorations?  All bow down to the Queen of Themed Parties!

The tacos are looking at you...

Sweet little cheeseball pumpkins!

The cupcakes had all been stabbed

Mini-Mounds bugs are too cute, but I'll leave the coconut for others

Peanut butter eyeballs... I could have eaten these all night!

Cute ornaments on her Halloween tree

A mummy walking a spider?  Adorable!

Belated Flat-Fold Reveal

It's been how long since I posted?  And how many posts do I have floating around in my head?  All I can say is life is crazy busy, and when I get home, the computer usually stays off.

Anyway, back at the end of September, the other stitching Karen gathered a few of the local stitchers together for a flat-fold class.  What is a flat fold?  It's a way of framing cross stitch.  By the way, the piece I framed was lovingly stitched for me by HistoryDiva a few years back.

All of the pieces waiting to be assembled

A line-up of flat-folds from our class

The Knit Wit is temporarily at home on the mantle, next to a stack of
almost finished knit projects I need to keep out of reach of kitty paws...

Practical Crafty

You know those "clean/dirty" magnets you can put on the dishwasher? Well, I concocted something similar to keep track of kitty litter duty for me and my husband.  One wallet-sized magnetic frame + 2 printable address labels = a "his turn/her turn" magnet for the door to the garage so we know whose turn it is to scoop when we leave for work in the morning...

And here are some gratuitous Skeeter pics since she's unimpressed by the whole thing.