I Am That Mom

My daughter Lola celebrated her fifth birthday last week. And naturally she brought treats to her friends at school. But not cupcakes, birthday cake, donuts, or anything fun and tasty like that. No, her mom sent her to school with fruit and cheese. Healthy stuff. How very uncool of me.

Fortunately I presented it in such a way that the folks at school are still talking about it. A redemption of sorts. Her Jr. Kindergarten teacher dedicated a quarter page to my creation in her Daily Newspaper. Behold the Fruit Porcupine:

I cut a cantaloupe in half and inserted 32 skewers with a block of cheese, a strawberry, a blackberry, a green grape, a red grape, and a piece of cantaloupe. I added some facial features by sticking pieces of fruit on a toothpick.

I think she turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself. There are only 28 students in Lola's class but nothing came back. Not even the halved cantaloupe. I take it that means I have gotten away with my healthy ways. At least for now.

Rainbow Felt Heart Garland

When I opened my Etsy account, it came with a shop but it has remained empty for more than two years. A little while ago I decided to start up shop. Over the past few weeks I have been working on inventory, pricing, designs, and such. While it is still a work in progress, it was important to me to get it up and running by Easter. And so I did.

The shop only has one product in it, but it's live. The coming week will be all about adding products and linking my shop, my blog, my pinterest board, and my facebook page. And I am proud to report that my one product is already someone's favorite.

I am linking up with the Rainbow Party at Dilly-Dali Art.

Happiness Is A Rainbow

I have been organizing my craft room. Again. It seems to be a continuous process of cluttering and decluttering. I have sorted my felt and my bead stashes by color. I was never much of a rainbow girl but seeing them everywhere now makes me happy.

Next up is my ever expanding thread collection.

Baby Gifts

My adventures in crafting started many moons ago, making baby gifts. Back then I worked solely with wood, making mostly music boxes. These days I am more diverse. For the new babies this year I have made packer pants, a rattle garland, and a lovely pair of booties based on this pattern from the Purl Bee.

Welcome to the world, little ones. I hope you enjoy your stay.

Fairy House

I stumbled onto a beautiful felt tree trunk Sunday morning while going through my reader at seven in the morning. Very, very impressive. It made me forget about all the projects I have in the works and develop a severe case of Craft ADD. I do not have the patience to take on such a project though. That's why I don't knit, it takes me too long to finish something and I lose interest.

But I did want to recreate that trunk, my way. Fortunately I had an alternative at hand in the shape of a pile of wood in my backyard. I figured I would cut some wood, clean it up, and concoct a way to attach the felt mushrooms (the Dutch fittingly call them 'fairy benches') to the stump. The mushrooms looked easy enough to make.

So there I was at 8 o'clock, sipping my coffee, eying up the branches and trying to decide which one to use. I pulled out the dead apple tree branch, deciding then and there to take advantage of its hollow core and turn it into a fairy house rather than a stump to use on our nature table. The roof I would make out of felt, and I would make interchangeable rooftops for the different seasons. I could totally picture it in my mind.

I wondered if it would disturb the church goers too much if I fired up the chainsaw to chop my fairy house to size. It didn't matter in the end because I couldn't get the smaller chainsaw to work and the large one didn't have a chain on it. Ryan wasn't there to help me out but I doubt he would have been willing at that hour.

With my trusted little hacksaw I silently cut off a piece of the apple branch and several more branches in various sizes to make toadstools with. Because what is a fairy house without toadstools? I took all the wood inside and baked in a 250 degree oven on a foil lined cookie sheet for about an hour. This gets rid of any bugs, a lesson I learned the hard way last year with my acorn collection.

Next I chiseled out the spongy stuff inside the branch, scrubbed it with a wire brush, cut a door with my jigsaw, and sealed the house with a clear top coat. The other branches I painted white. Meanwhile I sewed the toadstool tops and then hot glued them on.

I am truly in love with the results. I have already started working on another roof for the fairy house, a red and white polka dotted one per Lola's request. All that is left to make are the fairy bench mushrooms. And fairies, of course.

I am linking my fairy house up with A Little Birdie Told Me... at Rook No. 17 and Friday's Nature Table at The Magic Onions.

Christmas On The Front Porch

We have a large screened-in front porch that is only used in the summer. We always come in through the back door. Even the UPS guy and the repairmen know to go around back.

But the space is too lovely not to decorate for Christmas. The green and red of the branches from the backyard and the berries from across the road frame the gray and white of my vintage finds nicely.

Isn't it lovely? If the weather were a little nicer, I would sit out there all day.

Stick Horse

My grandfather was a craftsman who liked working with wood. He made my grandmother a hutch once but mostly he made small things like coffee filter holders, jewelry organizers, and toys. The only memory I have of celebrating St. Nicholas as a believer was the year I received a handmade doll bed. It was made by my grandfather.

Lena, the horse

I am my opa's granddaughter. This year for Christmas I made Lola a stick horse from scratch. I am very proud of myself and I know opa would have been proud of me, too.

I found a template at Bluebonnet Village Craft Network. I free handed it onto paper, and traced the drawing with a sharp knife onto wood, leaving a faint imprint of the horse's head which I traced with a marker.

After cutting out the head with a jigsaw, I sanded it until it was nice and smooth. I drilled holes for the eyes, the handlebar and the stick (both made of a 5/8" dowel), stained it a warm chestnut brown and applied a protective coat of polyurethane.

The eyes are bear eyes, found at the goodwill but available at any craft store, stuck into place with a little glue. The hair is made of three Dollar Tree chenille dusters. I took the fabric off the plastic handle, cut off the elastic, and with help from my husband hammered them lengthwise onto the head.

The ears were cut out of soft suede which I had on hand. They are about four inches long. They were a little too floppy for my taste once they were hammered into place so I stitched them together to keep them upright.

Lola found the ribbon I had intended for the reins. I tried a thin leather strap from an old purse as an alternative but it didn't really work out. My solution in the end was to let Lena, as Lola named her horse, run free. Should Lola want reins, I can always suggest using this beautiful ribbon I happen to have lying around...

Lola is very happy with her horse. It is a little bit too tall but that is an easy fix. Giddy Up!

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I am linking Lena up with:
A Little Birdie Told Me at Rook No. 17
THE BEST OF 2011-Its Party Time at Its So Very Cheri
A Pinteresting Link Party at Here's to Handy Andy
Show and Tell at Blue Cricket Design
Whatever Goes Wednesday at Someday Crafts
Strut Your Stuff Link Party at Somewhat Simple

Birdseed Ornaments

In my pantry sits a tub of lard I bought years ago. It was intended to make birdseed balls with. I am not really sure if lard is suitable for birds, though. Our local Piggly Wiggly sells beef suet by the log. They are ideal for making birdseed ornaments, although I guess you can just hang them outside as is. But where's the fun in that?

We melted the 22 oz. suet log over medium heat and stirred in three cups of birdseed. I set out three extra large cookie cutters partially wrapped in aluminum foil on a baking pan, as well as an assortment of little molds lined with plastic wrap. We poured in the melted suet/seed mixture and set the baking pan in the freezer.

After about two hours I took them out and let them thaw out just enough to make it easier to release the ornaments from the mold. I removed the little pieces of a drinking straw to make a hole and strung the ornaments on some butcher's twine. Aren't they lovely? I have already spotted a little chickadee munching on one.

The Scent Of The Season

Lola and I were making birdseed ornaments earlier, with suet. I don't like the smell of melting suet, so I whipped a fresh batch of stove top potpourri:

One orange, quartered
A good teaspoon of cloves
Some whole allspice
Three cinnamon sticks
About half a cup of cranberries
A dash of vanilla

Add water and simmer softly all day. The original recipe says this batch will last you all season as long as you add fresh water every morning.

DIY Snowglobes

No snow? No problem. We will make our own snowy winter scenes. All you need is Epsom salts, bottle brush trees, little figurines, and clear mason jars. And presto! Instant winter wonderland.

Jingle Bells

Silver jingle bells on stakes adorn the path from the garage to the house. Just like me, they are waiting for snow. There is some in the forecast for the next two days.

When I first saw this idea on Pinterest, I immediately took off for the Dollar Tree to stock up on their extra large jingle bells. I knew I still some shorter shepherd's hooks in the shed. Or so I thought.

I had forgotten that a lot of the gardening stuff did not make it back to Wisconsin when we moved. Including the shepherd's hooks. And they are a little hard to come by this time of year.

Looking for an alternative, I found plant props, still available at home improvement stores. They are easy to bend to hang the jingle bell. Quick and easy, my kind of project.

I still feel something is missing though. Oh, that's right. Snow. And possibly a little winter greenery.

Doily Snowflake Ornaments

We are still waiting for snow up here in the Northwoods. But since the temperature has dropped to freezing, both day and night, I made my own snowflakes by freezing doilies in baking pans and hanging them in the trees in our backyard. It couldn't be more simple.

I used boiled water, cooled, because it results in clearer ice. The only tricky part is making a hole in the ice once the doilies have frozen. I used a hand drill but any sharp object will do. Just don't go too fast or push too hard. Thread the ornament with string and hang from a branch. Watch them sparkle in the sunlight. Beautiful.

I am linking up to A Little Birdie Told Me at Rook No. 17.

Felt Heart Garland

I didn't really know what I was going to make for my gift exchange partner in my second Handmade Gift Exchange hosted by Linda of Craftaholics Anonymous, I waited for inspiration. I found it, where else, on Pinterest. I saw a picture of a bowl with red and gray ornaments, including a little gray felt heart with a red blanket stitch. A short trip to the local craft store later I had everything I needed: felt, polyfil stuffing, thread, and a needle.

I cut out a paper heart template by eyeballing it. My heart is about two and a half inches high and two and a half inches wide. I cut out my felt hearts by folding a strip of felt over, laying the folded template on the fabric and then cutting around it. Pinning the felt to keep it in place makes it a little easier to cut out the hearts but they are small enough to just hold in place with your free hand.

An 8 by 11 sheet of felt yields twelve felt hearts for six finished hearts. Once the cutting is done, it is simply a matter of stitching around with a blanket stitch. If your blanket stitch skills are rusty like mine were, here is a clear refresher course. Leave about an inch to stuff the heart with polyfil, then close it up.

My garland turned out to be about six feet long, using thirteen gray hearts and one red one. In between I strung felted wool balls, alternating wool white with red. To keep everything from moving, I tied knots on either side of the the hearts and balls. I don't really think it's a necessary step, though. And since it was an annoying one, I recommend you not do it.

And voilà, there you have it. A felt heart garland. I am very happy with how it turned out. And I am proud to report I am not alone in this. I have been commissioned for the first time ever to make one for a friend. And Craftaholics Anonymous featured my garland this week.

Wreaths

I love wreaths, especially around the holidays, but lack the patience to make them. Instead I scour flea markets and the aisles of Goodwill and other local thrift stores to breath new life into discarded beauties. My collection is growing and it is starting to look quite festive around the house.

My Handmade Gift Exchange partner Heather surprised me with a gorgeous specimen made of rolled up vintage paper and an antique ornament. I love it! Thank you, Heather. And Merry Christmas!

Frosty The Snowman

Inspired by a pin on Pinterest (which I could not trace to its creator - I'm sorry, I tried), I recreated Frosty the Snowman out of three grapevine wreaths, some burlap, and a piece of plywood cut in the shape of a top hat on the side of the garage. My daughter looked on from the upstairs window, giving me the thumbs up when I finished assembling him.

The wreaths are not tied together, I simply hammered nails into the wooden siding of the garage and hung them individually. I started with the bottom wreath and worked my way up. The scarf is also attached to the garage with a few small nails to keep it from blowing away. The top hat hangs from a cup hook screwed into the wall and is attached to the wreath with a little bit of floral wire.

And wouldn't you know it. Just minutes after finishing Frosty, it started to snow! A twist on "If you build it, they will come..."

This project was featured on  A Little Birdie Told Me... at Rook No. 17.