Weaver String Art

I finished this string art for hubby today to take to his office.  I actually meant to make it for Father's Day, but things got a little busy.  I also decided to find a different frame from the first one I brought home.  This frame is from walmart and I used cork with foam board behind it for the backing.  I also glued the original back on that came with the frame to make it look more finished on the back.  My fingers were a bit tender after pushing all the nails in. Before the string was added I stood looking at all the nails wondering what on earth was I doing and what was it going to look like.  But I think it turned out okay, not too embarrassing to hang up at work, right?  I got the idea after a friend B* pinned some string art on pinterest earlier in the year.

For Sale

Well, A LOT has happened since Father's Day.

We decided to put our house up for sale.

The kids and I started cleaning up & dejunking the house and yard on Tuesday, June 26th in order to have it ready to list on Tuesday, July 3rd.  Crazy.  And to make it even crazier, we received an offer on Saturday, July 7th in the evening, by the first person to look at our house (which occurred earlier in the day).  We decided to go with it and have our fingers crossed that it really works out.  If it does, we have a closing date for July 30th set up.   So we may be packing up and moving out by the end of the month.  This is all happening so fast it's hard to catch my breath sometimes.  Our plan is to stay in the area, we decided that it would be nice to find something with a little more space than we currently have (an office/craft room would be SO nice)(oh, and room for food storage). 

We've lived in our cute, little house for almost 12 years!  Time sure does fly. C* and I had this house built and moved into it about a year after we moved to H*.   I'm a little sad in some ways to sale it as there are many things about our house that I really do love.  It may also seem a little harder since we haven't found our new house yet, so there's not something concrete to look forward to (hopefully that changes soon).

I love K*'s room, I love the view of the greenbelt trees out back, and now that my room is dejunked, I love it again, the happy yellow paint in my bathroom, the tiles C* laid in the entry for me, my new-ish living room curtains and curtain rods, the list could go on.

So needless to say, all my craft and sewing projects have been packed away.  I hope to pull a few small ones out.  Maybe the capes for the kids.  They were asking about them again today.  And well, blog posts will be scarce in the coming weeks (hopefully not months).

A grandfather is...

My SIL (she's in Utah, we're in Texas) called me up Thursday wondering if I thought we could get something like this put together for our FIL in time for Father's Day/his birthday.  Well, I'm happy to show you we did!

The frame opening is 12x24 (from Hobby Lobby) with a cream mat board for the background and foam board for the backing.  The pictures are 3x5's mounted on foam board so that they stand out from the background. The grandfather saying is brown vinyl in the font gabriola.  I tried to snap a decent photo of it in the lovely evening, indoor lighting in my living room.

I'm really happy with how it turned out and am excited to give it to my FIL tomorrow.

String Art

For a fun, crafty project today I helped the kids make some simple string art.  We actually made string art hearts at activity days yesterday as a present the girls can give their fathers on Father's Day.  The other leader did all the planning and supply gathering for this one.  So I just basically showed up, helped out and went home with some of the leftovers.  How easy for me.  Anyway, the kids had a great time.  We dashed outside to snap a few shots right as it started raining.  Yay for rain!

 

 

We used foam boards instead of wood to make things easier at activity days.  That way you can just push the nails in instead of using a hammer.  The thread is varigated to give it some visual interest.  For activity days, ribbon was hot glued around the edges to give it a more finished look.

Some ideas from pinterest found here, here and here.

There are lots of ideas for shapes, words, states and all sorts of string art on the internet.  Funny thing is earlier this year I saw a pin for string art words and I thought about making something and never did, maybe now I will, it's so fun.

Farmdale Blossom Skirt

Here's the skirt I started a little over a month ago.  I finished it up Saturday night and wore it to church Sunday.  I love this fabric, I bought it at JoAnn's last year.  When I was in line to get some other fabric cut, I noticed it sitting in a cart with the plastic still wrapped around the bolt, it hadn't even been put on the shelf yet. Little did I know I should have bought more.  It's Farmdale Blossom in Turquoise by Alexander Henry.

I used a favorite skirt in my closet and the book, Sew What Skirts, to draft a pattern.  I thought all was going well until I tried it on and it was 8+ inches too big!  I guess when I was drafting my pattern, all pattern and math sense left me.  I was worried about making it too tight and was a bit too generous with the pattern ease, obviously.  Adding two inches onto my pattern, really meant I was adding, you got it 8 inches.  I tried to fix it by adding the middle, pleat, making five pleats instead of the four I had so carefully, evenly space.  I also took the sides in.  I thought all was well, once again, and even though it was a little loose still, I decided to leave it alone and finish it.  It then took me a few weeks to get around to the lining.  Not that it really needed a full lining, but that was my plan to make finishing the top of the skirt easy.  I just was a bit deflated at the sizing issue and didn't finish the lining up quickly.  Well, after wearing it to church, it's still too big.  A bit too big to just leave.  And I don't intend on growing into it.  So sometime this summer you may see my "pickiness" at it's "best".  I have thoughts of unpicking it all and starting over, I guess I like the fabric that much.  I would just turn it into a skirt for K* if I could find some more for myself, but that print in turquoise is hard to find now.  Looking back, I should have unpicked the pleats when I first realized it was too big and not tried to just make it work.  Oh well.

Summer PJs

Summer PJs

Oliver + S Bedtime Story PJ top modified to have short sleeves, and a snap on the inside and a cute heart button on the outside instead of the ties called for in the pattern.

New Look 6746 for the PJ bottoms.

 The flower fabric is Tea Party by David Walker for Free Spirit. I already had the pink polka dots in my stash, I think I bought it at Jo Ann's last year in the nursery print area.  

This pair is just like the pair I made for K*'s friend, mentioned in a previous post, only a size bigger.  The fabric colors in the photo in the previous post are better.

I made these PJ pants at the same time I made the above PJs over a week and a half ago, but I just really couldn't decide on a shape for the tee shirt applique.  I finally decided to just make it super simple and picked between stars or an elephant.  Then I went with the stars due to the straight lines being easier.  Maybe I'll be more adventurous/creative on a future applique.   I let K* help decide where to place the stars yesterday evening so she could finally wear them to bed.  She's been wearing the other pair since I finished them.

New Look 6746 for the PJ bottoms.

The striped fabric is Grow with Me for Moda and the purple fabric with tiny white dots I bought at Joann's to match the purple in the stripes.

Hair bows

Tonight, I tried out making hair bows to match a shirt K* is wearing to school tomorrow.  I bought several shirts from one of the gymboree spring collections this year that has tulips and want ribbon hair bows to match.  I remember seeing someone pin this way of making bows on pinterest, but I can't seem to find it now and I didn't take pics of the step by step process, but hopefully these pics will give you an idea of how I made them.  I wasn't sure what would look better, on the blue cutting mat or my bed, so you get both.

The ribbon is from Jo Ann's, already had it in my stash yay!  It's 7/8" SHKPINK 5.  The hair bows are about 3 1/4" wide.  Gluing the bows onto the metal clip is the hardest part IMO.  I'm pretty happy with how they turned out for a first try.  Okay, I did try to make an orange pair in the Fall to match some things I sewed for K* but I hated how they looked, so I'm not counting them.

I came across a different way on pinterest that I might try but it looks more involved, there are a lot of ways to do it if you search for hair bow tutorials. 

Pencil Roll & PJs

One of K*'s little friends had a birthday party on Friday afternoon, so I whipped these up during the week as a gift. 

A pencil roll using one of my favorite fabric lines for cute girly stuff, Hoo's in the Forest by Riley Blake. I timed myself this time when making the pencil roll, from getting the fabric out and cutting it to finishing stitching the last pencil "pocket" line, just over an hour.

And a pair of pjs using the Oliver + S bedtime story top and New Look 6746 for the bottoms.  The flower fabric is Tea Party by David Walker for Free Spirit.  I already had the pink polka dots in my stash, I think I bought it at Jo Ann's last year in the nursery print area.   I did a snap on the inside of the pj top and a cute heart button on the outside, rather than the ties called for in the pattern. 

I also made a pair of pjs for K* out of the exact same fabrics. And not to pat myself on the back or anything, but as I was making the two pairs of pjs, no unpicking needed until the very end on a button hole that just didn't turn out right due to some fabric bulk.  It felt really good to not mess up.  I'll post K*'s pjs later as I also made her another pair with a tee shirt I need to finish deciding on an applique for. 

Summer Reading Log & Ribbon Bookmark

For activity days this week we made:

Reading log from Simple as That

Book of Mormon reading chart from Food Storage and Beyond

The reading log cards are about 4x5.

I used paper from a solid colored card stock paper pack from Michael's called soda pop for the pocket holders.

Ribbon bookmark from Court Could Make That

Very easy.

 One of those projects that takes longer to gather the supplies than to actually make.  I cut my ribbon about 16 inches.  It seemed to fit most of the books in S*'s collection.

Today, I was thinking about the ribbon book marks and thought that more buttons could be added to accommodate a wider variety of book sizes.  Maybe two or three buttons total.   That could be cute, maybe I'll try it out.

A few weeks ago, for Mother's Day gifts, we made little clay dishes out of air dry clay.  I just cut out paper doilies and other lacy like shapes with my silhouette out of card stock to roll over on the clay for the patterned imprint.  Then, two weeks later the girls painted them.  I was really disappointed with how fragile the little dishes were after they dried.  Too many of them broke.  I haven't used air dry clay before,but I didn't think it would be as fragile as it was.  I hope the girls weren't too upset if theirs broke, I know they had fun playing with the clay and rolling the designs on.   Live and learn I guess.

Pictorial found here. 

You can also search the web for step by step instructions in English.