Calling All Crafters……

   Is everyone ready for Easter? I have purchased a few small bunnies from Marden’s and a couple other little treasures too. The weather has been awesome here in Maine and the snow is completely gone in my area. I am planning (on paper) my vegetable garden for 2010. I rotate crops every year and try to do companion planting when I can. This year I would like to try broccoli rabe in the garden. Anyone every try it?

   Easter, happens to be my wonderful husbands birthday too this year!  He will be 49!! Next year will be the big one! I am in hopes of having an Easter/birthday gathering with family. That would include a baked ham, potato salad, cole slaw, baked beans, carrot cake cupcakes with cream cheese frosting decorated with colorful jelly beans and what ever else we come up with. Usually every family member brings something.

   Meanwhile I am doing crafts. I am hooked on making these pin/needle cases! I will show you soon. I have many I tried and failed at and some that look pretty good. I also am looking for a craft that I can do using old sheet music??? Sheet music with beautiful graphics on the front….some I cut out and some that are whole. Any ideas out there??? Please any help would be much appreciated….this has been bugging me for a while and there does not seem to be anything on Google that I can find???

 My dad collected sheet music and had a ton of it. Everyone brought it to him. I have quite a few pages left that were his….most I sold as I was really not sure what to do with it.

So….any help would be great! I hope you are all doing well? It took me a while but I added some new bloggers to my side bar and a cool cat. It took me forever to figure that out!! Some cool blogs so check them out! Happy Easter to you all…………will be back soon with Easter/Birthday photos. Oh and I just found out there WILL be a Port Hole 2010 after all!!
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Yeah!! My brother had planned on NOT playing music there this year but someone changed his mind. We are planning on being there July 30th and we cannot wait. I will keep you Mainers informed. Maybe you can come too this year??? Wouldn’t that be fun!!

A tour of my room…..

   As promised, I went upstairs and took some photos of my pillows and some of the crafts I have been working on this winter. I am not very good at this but it’s been a lot of fun. Above is my catch all little attic closet where everything is crammed in right now until I come up with a better system! It stores a lot of my craft bags and an old vacuum and many other items I can’t seem to find a home for. I thought i would take you on a little tour of my favorite things in my room while showing you my crafts I have been working on. I will start with the fleece eyeglass cases….one done and one almost done… this one is done… and this one needs a button.

they were a lot of fun to make….don’t look too close….they are prototypes! Here are the pillows I made…

this is a fairly long bed pillow. I created many designs for this one….a cat, trees, a guitar, a mitten, to name a few….it is my favorite…

Here are some close ups…..

guitar and heart……… tree and butterfly. All of the material in each craft I got at a yard sale and I cut it to fit. The guitar and cat pattern came from two cookie cutters I have had for years. I just traced them. The rest are free hand as you can probably tell!! Then I took matching colors of yarn and braided it and surrounded the outside of the pillow with it. Next is my sunflower pillow…I made a similar one of these for my sister in law for xmas and she loved it….. ,,,the center is all buttons….

my sister in laws is much nicer than this one. The back of this one has a heart…. …. and the same material is sewn around the outside. My next pillow is a more modern approach…circles and squares….I never know how it is going to come out until I start it….

I ended up putting old lace on this to cover up some bad stitching and I don’t like that part.

Here’s a close up…. You can really tell it is homemade in this photo! Very uneven….I am learning as I go….all by hand but someone did just give me a sewing machine….now to figure out how to use it! Here is my attempt at a Victorian patchwork pillow with yard sale material and broken jewelry from …..???….you guessed it….yard sales!! This took me a long time to do.

I love this green/red sunflower….

That yellow is supposed to be a God’s Eye. I also was teaching myself to embroider! More teaching! And lots of old buttons from yard sales. What a great way to recycle huh?

I was attempting a pattern on the bottom left there but forget what it is called? This was just so much fun. I’d love to make another one some day but they are definitely time consuming!

Being bored out of my mind I started cocheting some baby booties. I modified the pattern to make them look more like Indian moccasins….well kind of. I braided two colored and one white piece of yarn and threaded it through each bootie for a lace that looked decorative and worked to lace up as well. I don’t know why but I love these little booties! I think I need grandchildren! These came out bigger and taller and not right but I still love them.

 

This is my favorite picture of the maroon variegated.

Now as promised, some photos of my favorite things in my room upstairs….. My room is in transition but this is a little area I made in honor of my dad, who was a musician. The Martin guitar is one my husband surprised me with on my 50th birthday….before I opened it, I thought it was an ironing board!….that’s another story. I love it….it plays like a dream. The little table has a ukulele on it that belonged to my husbands grandfather. My dad played one and taught my brothers and I to play when we were kids. The sheet music in front of it is a song my dad wrote and had published years ago. It’s called Arizona Moon. I can hear him playing it and my mom singing it now….love that song. There is also an African Shakere gourd instrument, old tapes from the 50’s of us kids at xmas singing and here’s a photo of my dad and his brother and sister when he was little hanging on the wall… That’s him on the far left….he was the youngest and the cutest don’t ya think? Next is my old spice rack that I painted a pinkish color and now use for old thread. These are do-dads I have picked up here and there and will use some day in projects… My button collection is getting thin…

I have some lovely mother of pearl white ones in that mason jar. The jar on the far right is very old and I got it for .50 at a yard sale….what a deal huh? On top of my little tv I keep up there is a ceramic and glass fairy lamp…not old….just adorable and battery operated! Next to that is an old dragonfly wood block printers stamp. You may not be able to see it. I came across a box of these one time and not knowing what they were only grabbed one! I could have just died once I got home and figured it all out! The card is from a girlfriend and it is one of my favorites.

Here is the beautiful painting my mother in law painted for me probably 2 years ago now…still not framed!!! Sorry Alice!! I adore it! There is another pillow I made too. Another yard sale find….a lamp that looks old but isn’t. I have to find some globes for it so for now it holds my pink stuff! An old tablecloth is being used for the curtain until I can find what I want. This is a cheap old bookcase my parents had. I painted it and put all my favorite things on it. They all tell a story. This is an antique bureau I love with glass knobs on it. It holds most of my yarn and my material I use to craft with. On top are pincushions I have made. I am very proud of the bird ones. They have real badger feathers on them!

The antique lamp is from a yard sale as is the mirror below it and the glass shoes that have buttons in them. See the eyeball pincushion in front? That’s the only one I made. Behind that are two bottlecap pincushions….those are fun to make. More yard sale finds….depression candlestick is lovely but has a small crack in the top….I love it still! Not a very clear picture but this is my little closet corner. The wicker chair was given to me by my brother and sister in law before moving to Nashville. I painted it with two different colors of green. It needs a redo. More pillows I have made are in it. Above that is a yard sale mirror. On the floor is a little homemade Adirondack chair I found at the dump. I sanded it and painted it and guess what is sitting in the chair?? Why those are handmade Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls made by our own Dawn from C & G Designs!!! She had a giveaway and I won!!! How lucky am I???? I love those dolls….they are a permanent fixture in my room now. And last but not least is a photo that is near and dear to my heart that hangs on the wall.  It is one taken of my kids when they were very little.,,,,,

They were raising hell one day and I snapped this of them. They were supposed to be getting dressed and they kept chasing each other around the house. What a wonderful moment captured in time that I will never forget. Ok…..that’s my tour!! I love having my own room to just go and sit in and call my own. I will be changing it quite a bit soon to accommodate my kids when they come to stay the night. It needs a couple of twin beds I guess and more of the comforts of a spare bedroom. Do you have a room of your own???

The Next American Child Idol!!!

 

MY niece in Florida sent

me this video. I was

so floored BY it, I just

had to share it with

Ya’ll……………some

countrY star must have

reincarnated into this

kids body. The only way

I can show you this is to

have you right click

and open the link. I

hope it works! It’s

great! Right click and

open hyperlink…..

 

http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid1610699488?bctid=31812464001

 

Spring Has Sprung…..

   It has been much warmer here in Maine than down south. My brother Art lives in Nashville and it has been one of the coldest winters on record there and yes they had snow too! For us, the snow is gone! No long melting of the snow and then chunks of ice here! Spring has sprung as far as I can see and I can see pretty far!

   I have stopped walking and going to cardio rehab temporarily because of my allergies, but that is getting better. On Monday, my friend Chandra and I are going to begin walking every morning, 1.1 miles, just like I did with my son recently. Of course my friend Obie will be going too! He needs the exercise!

 

   See how excited he got when I filled him in! While I was recuperating from my heart attack, I made several pillows, worked on a huge afghan I am trying to some day complete, made some new felt eyeglass cases, crocheted baby bootie moccasins and I have not shown you any of these things! I will take pictures tonight and share those with you hopefully tomorrow. Meanwhile, the air is smelling wonderful, now that I am nicotine free and I think I will go outside and enjoy it! Hope you are all well and life is giving you everything you want or need. Be grateful for each day you have here on this planet. Life is good. Oh and I am losing some weight finally. I went on a binge for a week and ate anything I wanted….it was great! Now I am back on track and you know what?…it’s ok…I actually am enjoying eating healthier…..I know…it sounds crazy but it’s true. I love fresh veggies…especially roasted with olive oil and herbs and I really enjoy my salad each day. You can do a lot with a salad. Aren’t these pictures pretty? It is reminding me of planting my garden and that is getting me excited!! It won’t be long folks, before I will be doing this! Whoooohoooo….can’t wait.