Discovered a new blog today

I stumbled upon a new blog today with some really great ideas! This is my favorite one.... Grandmother's Garden Let me tell you why. When I was younger I spent years collecting clothing from all my family members near and far and I started making a Grandmother's Garden quilt from all the clothing. Each member was represented and now almost all of those family members are gone and so is the quilt. We have no idea when it was lost, but it is gone. I have moved 4 times in the last 9 years and we have opened every single box and the quilt is gone. I kept holding out hope that we were just missing it, but it is gone (I never even took a picture of it because it was done before I had a digital camera). It is heartbreaking because it had such meaning for me and I can't make one like that again because most of my family is gone now. I love the idea of collecting material from everyone out in blog world, but sadly my blog doesn't have enough readers to make it possible. Maybe once I hit 100 readers I will put together an incredible prize that you can be entered to win if you send me fabric, like the blog above did.

Will you help me find more readers? What things would you enjoy reading on my blog?

Lunch bag and more pictures!

I knew the day was coming...tonight I needed to make Hubby a lunch bag because all the paper ones are gone and we are almost out of plastic bags (You didn't read that Teresa) and won't be getting any more of those (you can read that Teresa). So tonight I took an old pair of corduroy pants that were once daughter's and turned them into a lunch bag. It isn't much to look at, but it will function, is completely machine washable, and it is "Green" and it didn't cost anything. I have been giving a great deal of thought to being "green" tonight. I want to do more, but I wonder how I will. I know I should start small, but I never do....I want to jump in the deep end on day 1. One goal I really want to work on is to stop shopping at the big W store. Every town has one and even though they are less expensive I don't feel "right" shopping there. They under pay their employees, treat them poorly, ship products all over, wasting our resources and do other things that I don't support. I want to buy everything local, but I'm not sure how to. I am starting to find ways to barter more and I'm feeling pretty good about that. I will have to give going green some more thought and research!

Here are some pictures!

Another hair bow


Another hair bow


Finished cross stitch piece


Black corduroy pants


Finished lunch bag (I will get a better picture during the day light hours)

More hair bows!

Made a few more hair bows! These are smaller than the original.

Daughter's Bow

I made a bow today and attached it to a headband. Here it is on DD!

Crayons

I was reading some of the blogs I follow today and found this cute idea for children....

Crayons

My next project

My older daughter has a new found interest in big hair bows, so my Sunday project will be making some. Here is a site that shows you how to make them Hair Bows. I will try to make a trip to the $1 to pick up some headbands. Hopefully I will have pictures to post Sunday night!

Have a beautiful Friday!

Inspiring "green" articles

Gardening with children
An article by the Green Bag Lady

We didn't buy for the bathroom!

Our bathroom is pretty bad, the flooring is vinyl and has a pattern that is suppose to mimic marble....it didn't work! We aren't daring enough to pull it up and put something else in. Our bathroom is tiled about chest high all the way around with pale green tiles and the sink....let's just say it needs work. Over all not a beautiful bathroom, but it functions and it is what we have, so that is that. Today my hubby replaced the original mini-blind with a new one...nothing fancy, just a few dollars at that big ugly retailer. The curtains I had up went with the bathroom, but were really falling apart, so I took them down. It doesn't look bad, but I wanted it to have a small valance at least. So to my fabric stash I went. I collect remnants from the fabric store, I usually won't spend more than $2 on each one, but I splurged on a beautiful yellow and blue fabric...it was $3.50 for just over 1/2 a yard. I never really know what I'm going to do with the fabric, but I get it just in case. I would love for one day my entire bathroom to be yellow and blue, but right now it is green, pink (wall color), and yellow. So the fabric isn't a perfect match, but close. I wanted to line it, so I found an old curtain from my great Aunt's house that was cut apart. I used it as my lining and it worked great! For just $3.50 and about an hour of my time here is my new valance.

Fabrics


Before


After


With the blind up


I used up all the yellow and blue fabric I had!

A little bird

I'm very excited. My birdhouse went ignored by the birds for a few days. They actually started to nest in a birdhouse that I'm repairing that was sitting on the grill, so I quickly went out there and put the birdhouse away because I don't want them to have babies and then abandon them because we go out to use the grill. I am sitting here checking email and I hear some noises at the window....it seems that a little bird has decided that the house is for her!!!! I have a cover on the house right now until she gets comfortable with us watching her, so I can't see for sure, but I'm hearing what sounds like the dropping of twigs into the house. I will wait a few days before removing the black cover....it came with the house to attach to the inside of the window to cover the see-through back of the birdhouse.

Here is a picture I took a few days ago, you can actually see the house I'm repairing to the left of the birdhouse, sitting on the grill....

Beautiful day here!

It is beautiful outside. In the mid-60s here with beautiful sun shining! Sadly I don't have the time to work outside all day today, but I did spend some time on the birds. I have a bird feeder outside that I purchased when we purchased the house three years ago, it is one of those expensive ones that shuts when a squirrel tries to eat from it. I had originally purchased 4 or so of those cheap plastic ones, but within a few days the squirrels had eaten all the food and broke all the feeders. So I figured it would save me money in the long run to buy a good bird feeder than to keep replacing the cheap ones. Here is the one that I have....Squirrel Busterl it is MUCH cheaper on this site than I paid for it, but I purchased mine from a locally owned bird store so I feel good about where the money went. My local bird shop is run by a gentleman that lives locally and makes his own bird seed that the local birds greatly enjoy. I always purchased my seed from him..... I just checked, he doesn't have a website to look at.

Right now is the time of year here on the East Coast to be cleaning out the birdhouses to get them ready for the birds in the spring. Sadly the squirrels destroyed two of our birdhouses. I am going to try and repair the one, but the other one is beyond repair. I put the window one up after washing the window. I'm excited to see if any birds come and lay eggs for us to watch. I will take a picture of that house from the inside of our window. It looks just like this Looker Birdhouse

To celebrate the coming of spring I located a few freebies for you to enjoy....
Hummingbird cross stitch patterns
Cute little birds in cross stitch
Birdhouse cross stitch
Bunny cross stitch patterns
Bird paper pieced quilt patterns
Birdhouse paper pieced quilt patterns
Sunflower mini quilt
Cute farm quilt pattern

That's all for now, I must go make dinner! The girls just want mashed potatoes, but I don't think that is a "real" meal!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

I made three business card holders over the last 2 days. One didn't turn out so well, but my 9 year old loves it for her business! She calls her company "The Big E Company". I then made one for myself and one for the friend that is training me for my new job. I think I want to try a few more to see if I can do better. Something just doesn't seem to be turning out the way I would like it to.





I have been looking for a pattern I created 2 years ago to offer today, but can't find it. I found a picture of a finish that someone did using the pattern. I guess this is what happens when your computer dies and not everything gets saved on a new computer. Maybe one day I will have it all together!

Long day and some pictures

Today was a very long day. I had jury duty from 7:30 this morning until 4:30 this afternoon. I go back for a minimum of two more days! On a positive note I was able to get some stitching time in. Can't share a picture yet because it is a gift for a friend's birthday this month and she does read my blog.

I'm very excited to have 7 people reading my blog! Thank you!!! I really like knowing that someone is interested! To celebrate my "followers" and St Patty's Day I'm going to offer a free pattern that I created a couple years ago. St Patrick's Day Pattern

Picture time! For jury duty I made myself a "pocket". My skirt doesn't have any pockets and I didn't want to carry a purse, so this worked out great. It ties around my waist and stays there very well. I wore it all day today and I didn't even notice it was there and it stayed secure the entire day!



I made the covering flap large enough so that there was NO chance of anything falling out.


The inside is fully lined


Yesterday I decided to make a little bag to carry a cross stitch project with me. I figured if something happened to it, it wouldn't be the end of the world like losing my purse would be. I'm very pleased with how this turned out. I gave it an extra long handle because that is how I like to carry things. I think I'm going to make another one with shorter handles and use it as a lunch bag.

Before I added the handle, I made the bottom so it would stand up on it's own


This bag is also fully lined


With the handle


I have also started working on a business bag for my new job. It is out of the same beautiful green material.


Because of jury duty I'm not sure when that will be complete!

I'm also working on a business card keeper by Amy Butler http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/products/free_patterns.php

Still working on getting my cross stitch program to work so I can start posting new patterns! I will get there some day!

Hope everyone has a wonderful Wednesday evening!
Hugs!

Projects

Today I made a pocket and ties around my waist. I have jury duty this upcoming week and my only skirt has no pockets. I didn't want to carry a purse to the courthouse, so I made a pocket! I will take some pictures tomorrow (hopefully) and get them posted. I'm happy with how it turned out. I didn't have a pattern, but an idea in mind so I made it work.

My next large project will be a rug for my daughter's room. Here is a video on how to make one http://ragrugcafe.com/toothbrush-rugs-complete-video-instructions-part-1-beginners I'm very excited about this project!