Birthday gift

I made another fabric bucket for a birthday gift tomorrow. I filled it with hair accessories, wrapped it in tissue paper and put a ribbon on it....ready to go to it's new home with my daughter's 10 year old friend! I also made a recycled card using ideas from there two blogs.... Inspired and Made Celebrating Mom









Thanks for stopping by!

So much fun to make!

I have LONG wanted to do this pattern, but wasn't sure what I would use it for, so I wasn't really motivated to do it. Yesterday I saw it on a blog I follow being used in the bathroom to hold TP. I thought this was a great idea, so instead of finishing my chores (naughty naughty!) I made TWO of these great little buckets!

Thanks Jodie at Ric Rac for the great pattern! And thank you Anna at Noodlehead for the idea to use it in the bathroom!

I am going to make plenty more of these!

What inspires us

Today is my first "at home" day in a long time. Since I started working full-time an entire day where I stay at home is rare. I wish I could say I have been very productive and everything that needed my attention is caught up, but sadly it isn't. I spent the morning on business calls. It was productive, but my list is far longer than business calls. Yesterday I was reading one of my favorite blogs and she had these beautiful pictures posted of her new sewing room. I thought I would love to do that here, but there is just no room. Then I thought about the man in Hong Kong that has only 330 sq feet and he has done amazing things with it. So I am inspired to turn our toy/fabric storage/storage whatever room into a beautiful crafting space for my girls and myself. I had originally thought since I would be home all day today that today was a perfect day to start this project, but it is already afternoon and there is still more pressing things that need my attention. I know I'm more likely to accomplish a task if more people know about it....so my announcement to the worldwideweb is by the end of May I will have pictures of a beautiful finished crafting room! If I come up with any creative ideas I will be sure to share step by step how I did it.

Hope you find something today that inspires you!

Simply Amazing!

Cross Stitch Finish

This has been an UFO (un-finished object) for a while now, but I'm thrilled to say it is finished! At least the stitching part is finished! It is called Le Temps Qui Passe by A Mon Ami Pierre She has some beautiful patterns! I'm very very drawn to this one! It is definitely on my "dream" list!


Today was also the 1st Birthday Party of a sweet little girl. I made this for her (my own pattern), I don't think she was too impressed, but her mother loved it! All the sides are straight the picture was taken with it lending up against the wall which distorted it's shape.

Yard sale fun!

I don't go often, but when I do I have a blast! Today my hubby woke me up early and asked if I wanted to go to yard sales. At first I was reluctant to give up my cozy spot in bed, but I did get up and once the girls were dressed we were out the door! We didn't have a map, a list of sales, or a destination, we just drove and when we saw a sign we went! I had a few exciting finds today. One is a beautiful picture frame with double mat. It came with a cross stitch of Noah's Ark inside, which was beautiful, and cost $2! I really like the cross stitched piece, but it doesn't have a place in my house. I pulled it out and pulled out my stack of "to be framed" cross stitch pieces (some date back to 1998) and found the perfect fit for the frame! It looks like the mat and frame were custom made for this piece. I am thrilled at how great it looks and disappointed that I don't have two. I made each of my girls the same cross stitch finish with their name at the bottom. I framed my older daughter's and hopefully will one day find another frame for my younger daughter.


Another exciting find was fabric! This stack of fabric was $2.75! I really like the Turkey fabric!!!


I also got a holder for my ironing board and iron that mounts to the wall, something I have long wanted for 25 cents.

Hope everyone had a great Saturday!

Ladybug Needlecase

I decided to make another needlecase. I think it turned out a little too big, but the pattern can be easily reduced in size if you choose to. (sorry about the poor pictures, artificial light just didn't work out tonight!)



Start by printing the pattern and cutting out the pieces


Using a satin stitch create as many Ladybug spots as you like on the larger ladybug "shell". Attach the smaller red ladybug "shell" to the black body using a running stitch.


Attach the head to the body using a blanket stitch


Attach the larger ladybug "shell" to the body at the top and down the middle creating two needle sections, blanket stitch around the remaining outer shell areas making sure not to attach it to the body




Enjoy!

In celebration of Earth Day!

In celebration of Earth Day I am offering a cross stitch pattern that was originally sold as a stitching trading card pattern. You can leave off your name and location and use it as a design on a "green" bag, as a card, or just about anything! Someone used it on a bathroom towel, came out great!

Hope you enjoy it! Save Our Home

Feel free to link to my blog to share the pattern with your friends!

Happy Earth Day!

It is raining here and my allergies are horrible, but Thank God for the beautiful home we live on! I have to admit to wanting to do more, but never seeming to get there. Today we have a full day, but tonight I am hoping to make some "green" bags and send them to my friends in honor of Earth Day! For some projects with children visit here.

How cool is this?!?!?!

Discovered another blog today. She has some amazing quilts!!!! What talent! I also found my next project on her blog. A quilted zipper bag. I think this is a great way to practice different quilting patterns....now if I only could get my only sewing machine with a free motion foot fixed! Find the instructions here

Gift Card Giveaway!

I discovered a new blog today called "I'm Just a Guy that Quilts"! Not only is it a beautiful blog, this week he is giving away two $25 gift cards to The Fat Quarter Shop! Stop by and check him out!

Trip to the local farmer's market

Living in the heart of Lancaster county there is plenty of fresh locally grown products throughout the summer months! Not too far from me is Roots Market one of the local farmers markets. Today my younger daughter and I went to pick up some fruit and veggies. For $10 we got a bag of green beans, 15 pounds of russet potatoes, 3 pounds of carrots, 3 pounds of bananas, a basket of apples and a pint of strawberries. There is something really neat about a farmer's market, walking in the open air, smelling the pasteries coming from the nearby building filled with even more venders. It was a lovely outing this morning!

Apple Needlecase

I was inspired last night with the idea to make an apple needlecase, I even emailed myself the idea so it wouldn't slip away! Today after school with my daughter and some chores I sat down to make it. Here is a tutorial on how to make one. Please feel free to share the link to my site with your friends so they can make one as well!



Supplies
DMC floss (I used numbers 3031 and 817)
Small amounts of wool felt in the colors you like (thankfully I had red, green, off-white, and brown leftover from Christmas gifts)
Pattern
Needle
Fabric glue



Start by printing out the pattern and cutting out the pieces. You need two of the outter apple, and one of the inner apple, stem, and leaf.







Using a small dot of fabric glue attach the left to the stem and then the stem to the apple. This will hold it in place while you sew.



Using a running stitch attach the inner apple to outer apple. You can also add "seeds" using a satin stitch.



Using a blanket stitch attach the two outter layers of the apple together between the needle and the pencil shown in the picture.



Once you have attached the two layers continue the blanket stitch completely around the top layer.



Then blanket stitch the bottom layer. Now your needlecase is done and ready to use!




If you make an apple needlecase, please send me a picture or a link to your blog, I would love to see it!

Another Green Bag Lady giveaway

Love these bags! She is so great to do what she does for our planet! Teresa makes and gives away "green" bags to replace plastic ones. She also has patterns on her site to make them for yourself.

If you enter please let her know that "Kelly from PA" sent you!!!

Thanks!!!

The Green Bag Lady

Don't waste!

I used the 4" by 4" squares left over from the bottom corners of my bag to make 2 American Girl® doll bags. I can't take credit for this idea because it was my younger daughter Emma that came up with it! She saw the four squares sitting there and asked what I was going to do with them, I said that I didn't know, after a few minutes of looking at them she said they would make good AGD bags. So here they are!

Bag idea

I was at a yard sale last week that benefited a retirement community and found a stack of fabric calendars for 25 cents each. I should have just purchased them all, but instead picked out my favorite 4 and purchased those. It didn't take long to decided that they would be great bags. Using the Green Bag Lady Pattern, I used two calendars to make this bag.

The 4 calendars I purchased


Sewn right sides together


I cut off a strip to make the handle


Finished bag!

So excited!

There may be a huge adjustment at my house, nothing is for certain yet, but changes could be happening. As I am preparing for whatever the future might hold, I'm working on my house. Today after school with the girls, errands, and some work, I went about cleaning up the living room. I have long wanted to add some type of runner to the DVD shelving. Today a thought came to me. The living room isn't finished, the walls need painting, new drapes are long over due, but the general "theme" in the room is Lighthouses and blue. My hope is to one day paint the walls with a beautiful blue color and then put in white beadboard going around the lower part of the room. Very nautical! My idea for a runner is to make flags using the nautical alphabet! I'm very excited about this idea. Here is what the nautical alphabet looks like... Nautical Alphabet I'm going to use the letters to spell out things like our last name. There are three shevles so I'm trying to decide what else I might say. I'm thinking for two shelves have each of my daughters' names and for the last shelf use our last name. Our last name has 5 letters and both girls have 4 letters, so I might add something special to the end of theirs so all shelves have 5 flags. Oh I'm so excited, now to pick out some fabric from my stash!

WOW what talent!!!

I was looking for ways to make cards with recycled materials and I stumbled on this.... Newspaper cards WOW I am so impressed with the talent in this world!!!!

Do you know of any create card ideas? I would love to hear about them!! Leave a comment with a creative card idea and I will enter all the names in a drawing for a surprise! Please share the blog so more crafters can enter to! Drawing will be Saturday April 17th (my wedding anniversary!)

****Updated 4/12 - I have changed how to enter....leave a message with ANY creative idea, yours or one you saw someone else do and you will be entered to win. I will post a sneakpeek at the prize in the next two days!

Drawing is now closed, I will do another one when I have a few more followers

Thoughtfulness and talent everywhere!

It is so amazing to read about all the wonderful things that people do for each other. It touches my heart to see so many give of themselves and of their talents. Today I was reading a blog, Daffycat, who is not only talented, but very sweet. She enjoys doing RAK (Radom acts of kindness), which I really admire. The world is full of wonderful people!

Where have the "thank you" notes gone?

I'm just as guilty as the next person and I am sad to say I don't always find the time to create and write a thank you note. There was a time when thank you notes were always sent and they were always appreciated. So many times I send gifts and never hear anything, no thank you note, no phone call, not even an email. I often wonder....did they receive the gift, did they like it, was it the right color? Occasionally I will receive a thank you in an email, but there is just something so nice about getting a card in the mail. Is this custom gone forever? Will children born today ever even see a thank you note? There are many great things that progress has brought us....better medicines, more ways to communicate, resources to learn a great number of things and so much more.....but progress has taken some things from us as well. But how do we reclaim the past where family always came first, respect was given, and thank you notes were sent? I don't know, but tomorrow is a new day and even though I have two children to get to 3 different activities, 2 appointments (1 being an hour away), 3 meals to serve, laundry to do, and clients to call I will find the time to create some thank you cards, ready to send the next time one is needed. For all those who do write thank you notes and teach your children to do the same, thank you for keeping that wonderful traditional alive!

ABC's of me

Saw this on another blog and liked it. Hope you will repost on your blog and answer the questions so I can learn more about you!

A – Age: 32

B – Bed size: Queen

C – Chore you hate: washing dishes

D – DH's height: 5' 6"

E – Essential start to your day item(s): alarm clock

F – Favorite color: green

G – Gold or Silver: Silver

H – Height: 5′ 4″

I – Instruments you play(ed): piano

J – Job title: Design Consultant

K – Kisses or hugs: Hugs! I hug everyone!

L – Living arrangements: Small house with my 2 daughters, hubby, 2 dogs, 2 cats, 2 mice, and 1 guinea pig

M – Mood: happy

N – Nicknames: Kel, Mom, Sweetie

O – Overnight hospital stays other than birth: When my EKG was bad

P – Pet Peeves:

Q – Quote from a movie: "My heart is and always will be yours" - Sense and Sensibility - Edward said this to Elinoir

R – Right or left handed: Both, but prefer my right

S – Siblings: One sister

T – Time you wake up: 8am

U- Underwear: cotton with a little bow

V – Vegetable you dislike: asparagus

W – Ways you run late: I never run late! I was a military wife and you learn early on that you are NEVER late!

X – X-rays you’ve had: Every part of my body has either been x-rayed, ultrasounded, MRI, or some other test!

Y – Yummy food you make: I hope my family thinks most of the food I make is yummy!

Z – Zoo favorite: Monkey

Quilting finished!

I finished quilting last night, all that is left is the binding!

Unexpected Organizers

Found this great link with ideas for using some things we may already have to organize all the "stuff" in our lives! These are really creative and helpful ideas. I hope you take a moment and check them out!

Ideas

Happy Easter

What a beautiful day! Hope everyone is having a beautiful day!

We aren't going to have the traditional Easter events. We are going to church this morning with my mother, but then we are coming home to change our clothes and go pick up some mulch and work on the garden. It time allows I will do some sewing as well.

By the way I found the quilt!!!!!!! It was hanging up in my bedroom under some clothing!

Well going to make this a quick post, hubby is calling!

Hugs!

Beautiful day with some frustration in the end!

Today was breath-taking! The weather was incredible, the flowers blooming (well in other people's yards, mine are still trying to grow) and the sound of 5 children at play filled my house today. It was a great day. I felt so inspired by the weather that the children and I took 2 walks around the neighborhood, Emma and I did some weeding, and I decided to finish a quilt that I started 2 years ago. This is where the frustration comes in. The reason I had never finished the quilt was because I didn't know what I wanted the label to say. I started the quilt when I started another round of fertility treatments. We have been trying for almost 10 years now for another blessing. Anyway, I didn't know what I wanted it to say, today I decided what I wanted it to say, so I made my label, got up to get the quilt out of the closet to finish it off and found it is missing!!!!! I live in a small home and my places for storing my projects is even smaller, so the fact I can't find it anywhere is a little upsetting. I have looked everywhere I can think to look and I can't find it. I'm probably going to be up the rest of the night looking for it because I just won't be able to sleep. While I was searching for the quilt I found another quilt that I plan to finish in the next few months, but I have no idea where the pattern went for that one, so another search will be started for that as well.

Some Spring and Summer quilt patterns I found today...

Lighthouse

Butterfly

Birdhouses

Beautiful Butterfly Quilt