wreath redo: christmas edition

well, i thought i would love it and I DO!

that darn burlap wreath is just my fave... i wanna have one for every door in our house! :)

i don't. YET. 

here's the updated version with my other favorite thing- glass christmas ornaments.  

all i did was pull the chevron burlap out and wire those little babies wherever. 

still love it.  

project lately: string art tree

hi friends!

sorry- been absent lately... thanksgiving came and went and so did a flurry of delicious food (15 pounds of potatoes to peel and 9 pounds of green beans to snap), sweet sister in town for a week, brothers and extended family EVERYWHERE and i have loved it! plus, working on some big things- big girl beds for the littles and christmas decorating and a nasty bug that won't leave our family alone!

anyway- here's a little project lately. wanted the chickies to have something to play with and leave my big tree alone so i whipped up this string art tree.  

 i feel silly making a tutorial for this so i'll just give some basics....

*  bought the board off the scrap cart at home depot.  uh- 51 cents?  i'll take it.  it is big- 2 feet by 3 feet maybe and is made of pressed wood.  really heavy.
*   painted board with white paint found in the paint cabinet. 
*  using a sheet of freezer paper, made a stencil of a tree and outlined it on my board. 
*  to husband's dismay, nailed my panelboard nails around the outline while duck dynasty played.
*  using brown and green yarn, started wrapping.  i did the little rectangle for the trunk first.  then i sectioned my tree into 4 triangles to sting the yarn.  that way if the girls unravel it, i won't have to redo the whole thing.  when i finished stringing the yarn in the sections, i did some lengths from top to bottom and across the whole thing.  
* to make the oranaments, i just used a circle punch to punch out circles.  smeared glitter glue on them to give a little sparkle.  while those dried, i cut paper clips in half and used some pliers to bend them into a candy cane shape. then i just made a little sandwich; foam, wire hook, hot glue and foam.  
* to make the garland, i used a roll of beaded trim. cut into several short lengths. i glued paper clip hooks on the end using hot glue.
* since the background is white, i used white velcro circles to attach a star onto the background.  you don't see the circle when the star isn't there.  and same for the little bag.  it holds all the decorations when they are off the tree and can just come off to make it easier for the girls to hold. 


they love decorating their own tree. it's pretty cute to just have leaning against a wall-  i didn't mount it or anything.  

after the fact:  i might brush watered down glue on it just to potentially prevent all the yarn from unraveling and make it stiffer.  older kids would be much more careful than my littles.  mia has trouble getting the ornaments off alone.  it would also be cute to let older kids decorate their own ornaments or use real shatterproof ones.   

lots of potential, dears.
take care!

project lately: burlap wreath

just thought i would pop in and show my morning project for you... 

nothing special- in fact, these burlap wreaths are all over right now.  i love them!  they are so classy and rugged and EASY! 

i only wanted to share some tips because when i was looking for a tutorial, (which there are many and they are good!) they all said the same thing- just weave your burlap in and out and fluff up your loops.  which is EXACTLY what you do- but i was still clueless. that seemed so vague and directionless! so after making a few, i wanted to post some tips in case you need a little more guidance getting started.   

one thing i wished someone would have stated in their tutorials also is that burlap STINKS and is super messy.  so don't wear a black cashmere sweater and you should probably do this project outside!  seriously, what do they use to make burlap rolls- seems a little toxic?? anyhow. moving on. 

 start with your supplies:  a roll or rolls of burlap (mine took about 10 yards total), scissors and a wreath form. [i also used some chevron fabric to gussy it up a bit at the end. and i thought i would need the twine but didn't.]

one thing that helped me a BUNCH was to take my burlap, unroll the whole thing and cut it into thirds. each is still long-10 feet- but  this made weaving much more manageable.  

start with one end of your burlap, knot it onto your wreath form on the inner rung.  it won't show.

 now take that long tail of that piece of burlap and pull it through the middle space. then make a little figure 8 and weave the tail through the middle section again.  
that's all it is- but it took me AGES to get the hang of it.  don't worry about the burlap being twisted or scrunched up- adds character! every so often, loop through the first rung instead of the middle.  just weave, making figure 8's as you go along. 

{you can see my ghetto photo-editing here with the turquoise arrow guiding you through the second part of the figure 8. it's real bad.}

i tried to make about 5 or 6 loops per section of the wreath and used one of my long 10 foot pieces about 3 sections.  nothing exact.  when i finished with a piece, i just tucked it in securely somewhere and started again with a new long burlap strip.   i knotted each new strip but i think tucking would work just as well. 

 helps to have your old handsome dog giving support.  

 there she is!  really quick project.  i love that is can be changed out easily- glitter snowflakes, silk flowers, peacock feathers, an initial.... endless possibilities.  

i used that chevron fabric to stick in a few loops here and there.  not even secured very well- i can pull them right out when i'm ready to update for Christmas.  (which i totally am already, but restraining until after turkey day....)

i need to be sure to thank my supporting cast members who all diligently gathered around and got under my feet and all twisted up in burlap.  thanks for letting me indulge in a quick project, everyone....

october package pals

doesn't take much to get me in the mood for fun mail!

i participated in jamie's package pals for the month of october. 
we signed up back in september and i was placed with my partner, tanyia of domestic deficit disorder. if you wanna laugh, or see some awesome quilty goodness or fantastic digital scrapbooking, head on over!  she's too cute!

anyway- when my package landed on my doorstep, i was upstairs getting the girls to sleep for a nap.  i could hardly contain myself to wait until they were asleep before sneaking downstairs to open my gift!

tanyia was so generous and must have given a lot of thought to my gifts- especially making sure they would be fun for the chicks!


WHAT I GOT....
wooden ornaments for painting, jingle bells, pompoms, pinecones, stickers, glitter glue, yarn, candles. SO FUN! the ornament painting will be such a fun activity for our advent calendar.  the girls will LOVE it. 

 again, must know about my sweet tooth.... yum. 

 and then THIS made me gasp out loud!! see, i told you she was so talented- she made me my own mini-quilt!! i can't believe she went to so much work for lil old me- but boy, do i LOVE it!! it's beautiful and so well made.  THANK YOU, TANYIA!

WHAT I GAVE....

of course, i took until the very last minute to get that package to the post office.  procrastinating!!

here's what i sent to tanyia:

 some holidayish/ candy fabric (maybe these are called fat quarters?? clueless)

 rainbow of embroidery thread for friendship bracelets with her cute daughters

 some scalloped scissors, a cutting mat and a diamond template for quilting

and Christmas stickers, ribbon and laminate samples for a diy i'll feature tomorrow.

what a fun thing to do!! if you've never participated in a swap, give it a shot! it's a lot of fun to meet a fellow crafter!  thanks so much tanyia and also to jamie for coordinating! 

Gee thanks, pandora radio

Nothing like looking at last night's Halloween pics and hearing "To Make You Feel My Love". Generally reducing me to tears.

There ain't nothing that I wouldn't do,
Go to the ends of the world for you,
Make you happy, make your dreams come true.
To make you feel my love.

The things we do...

I just drove around our block 4 times, windows down, music blaring. Times one and two, a neighbor waved and smiled. The third time, the man started walking toward the street and number 4, well- glaring, hands on hips, ready to report me for suspicious behavior.

You see, after running errands, I had 55 minutes before needing to leave again. And those chickies needed some sleep- trick or treating tonight!

So I let them fall asleep and pulled into the cool shade of a big tree in our driveway. And of course, I had to climb out the window of the car or risk the music turning off.

My neighbors think a crazy lady moved in, I'm sure!

All for this...

books

are you a book lover? 

i am. and now that mia and hen are pretty good sleepers (KNOCK ON WOOD, SALT OVER SHOULDER, all the other things to keep things this way) i'm actually getting to read again!!

i really missed that part of babyhood- but loved almost all the other parts of it- and i'm glad to have some time to pick up books.  

our town built a new library last year. it is just so great.  modern, light flooding through.  many more offerings. 

isn't the whole concept of borrowing books just incredible?? i can take a big pile of wonderful kids books for my littles to look at and to read to them at bedtime.  for free! and borrowing movies and music and books for me.  my bag is so heavy when i walk out.  it's just the best. 

imagine my bursting heart the other day when after loading up the dishwasher, i wandered into the living room to find Henley with a pile of little golden books i had put into the book basket in the living room. half the time these books are just dumped onto the floor but she was paging through, carefully examining the pictures.  love.  

and THEN. we went upstairs to look for mia and discovered her in the playroom surrounded by books as well.  flipping through a sesame street book.  she was surprised to see me at first, but then handed me a few. 

    "book?" she said and plopped herself into my lap. 

ahhh. my heart was full.  happy to see my girls enjoying the beautiful pictures and stories they've heard us read to them.  

a little off the subject, but i am planning to open an etsy shop soon.  too many "treasures" and vintage paraphernalia.  must find new homes for it.  i plan to list these little golden books.  aren't they precious!  how many LGBs does someone need, though? sharing the love.