MY LAST LOVE

pillow love that is. 

 

I am sorry to say I can't remember where I saw this - I've seen it only canvas, wood, and fabric, with the letters painted, vinyl, and fabric.  So really, I guess no one place.

I used my favorite t-shirt (which was showing the love with a few holes and a bleach spot) behind the red letters.  It was a good way to memorialize my shirt.

FAVORITE THING I'VE EVER MADE

well, okay, second favorite thing I've ever made (to my kids)

I made a Dresden plate pillow!  This is my first ever Dresden plate anything.

No ordinary center would do, so I layered 6 pieces of flannel and then sewed it into a bulls-eye and cut through the top five layers down the middle of the seams and rubbed it with my fingers and Viola! Faux chenille!

I love it SO much.  I love the colors.  I love the pattern.  I love the (faux) chenille center.

Sigh.

I'm going to go look at it now.

It holds still when I look at it, unlike my other six favorite things I've made.

RUFFLE PILLOW

When I was here checking out the heart pillow I noticed the ruffle pillow in the background.  LOVELY!  Sew I got out my ruffler foot (am I the only person who gets so aggravated with that thing?!  It's probably because I try to go too fast.)  Anyway, I did a ton of WOF double thickness ruffles and put them on the pillow front.  I kind of wish now that I had scooshed them together more, but I do like it the way it is.  I also put warm and natural behind the front before I sewed on the ruffles and to line the back piece, too.  I like the extra structure it gives, but it is still super soft.  I made the back an envelope so I can slip the pillow form out and bleach it.  Let's face it - it's not going to stay white.

BATH TOWEL WRAP

A few years ago I made Rachel a wrap around towel for after her showers.  It's worn out and she needs a new one so I made her and Sari one.  They are super easy!

Sari's is just like this, except it's turquoise and has the letter "S".  Crazy.  I know.

The initials are on the outside pockets.

I ran the washcloth to the inside of the towel and there is a pocket there also.

I sewed a strip of fabric together and made a loop so it is easier to hang.  The top has elastic in a casing across the back and velcro in the front to hold it on.  (Verrrrrry important.)

Making it is the easy part.  Getting to the post office to mail it ... that is the part that gives me a hard time.

ps I LOVE YOU

I found this cuteness on Flamingo Toes and had to copy.

See how she did it here.

What I did different - I put a piece of warm and natural behind the white fabric before I sew anything - on the machine or by hand.  That makes it so the threads are hidden and I like the extra weight.  I hand wrote the words with a pencil and sewed over them.  I also added the heart.  I used red flannel and white cotton for the flowers.  I sewed them together as I wrapped them up.  I also added the heart.

GATHERED HEART PILLOW

I saw this pillow on V and Co. and made one for myself.  I did mine a little different but the overall concept was the same.

You can go here to get the instructions.

I knew when I sewed it I would hate the ruffles on the edges and I totally cannot take it another day!  I've torn it apart and I'm redoing it.  Pic to come ...

WHITE ELEPHANT AMIGURUMI

Our friendshad a White Elephant Gift Exchange Party back in ,ahem, December.

I made this guy out of chenille yarn (he is deliciously soft) and Erika of DRY Ink took him home.  She also took this great picture of him.  I just sort of followed the free pattern on LionBrand's website.  Beware of the trunk.  It's terribly unruly.

CHRISTMAS PILLOW

Twin Stitches showed this pattern on some website that I can't remember.  I love the occasional back-stitch only embroidery.  (Don't ask me to do anything else!)  True to me, I just finished this.  I am so prepared for 2011!

Close up of the pattern:

Remind me to tell you about buying the fabric sometime... ugh.

You can buy your pattern here.

CHRISTMAS LIST

Copying the girls at Eighteen25, I turned our summer to do list into a Christmas to do list.

MUG RUGS

You know that I have a cup (LARGE) of hot chocolate every morning, right?  With whole wheat toast and peanut butter or a whole wheat english muffin?

EVERY single morning.

So, have you seen the mug rugs EVERYWHERE in blog land?

 

I had a bunch of CUTE fall scraps from a failed project last year and when I saw these I knew what to do!  First, I just made one for Rachel. Then, I admit, I got a little carried away and started thinking of people who would also enjoy one.

 

Perfect size for a mug and a muffin or cookie (or three).

Mine are about 6"x9".  I think I'm in love.

I HATE hand binding.  I am so over that.  I am not doing it again!  (But I did watch the whole season of Sister Wives while doing it.)  I'm going back to the cheater way of machine binding.  SO much easier on the fingertips!

HOOKER HALLOWEEN

I was addicted to making these and these (to name just a few).  When I saw this on the Lion Brand website I knew what I would be making.

Here's the pumpkin and ghost.

The bat and the spider.

The mummy and the candy corn.

They crochet (hook) up pretty quickly which is perfect for my short attention span!

FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE THIS YEAR

I think my kids were pretty much over another round of BINGO and word finds and so forth.  Then I saw this idea on Sugardoodle and again on A Bushel and a Peck of FUN and I was hooked!  I bought several of these at the neighborhood Walmart:

In PowerPoint I printed up the newest apostle, taking the image from Google by Googling their names and making them 1" wide and 1 1/4 " long (or so). The rest I printed from Sugardoodle.  Some were made black and white and some color and I was super frustrated but moved on.  There's the perfect project and then there's the completed project.

Using clear packing tape, I caught up the picture and stuck it on the side of the page so it tabs:

 

and folds over to secure it to the back.

The kids wrote in what they learned from the BIG FIFTEEN at General Conference. 

 These pictures are all of Daniel's book but Joseph and Jack filled their books and Matthew wrote in his, too.

 

After each successful summary they got a couple of candies to get them through to the next speaker.

 

I am for sure continuing to do this.  My kids are old enough to pay attention and take notes, not just argue about and count who has the most blue m&ms and whether or not someone ate one to look like they have less, and so forth.  (Not that that sort of thing EVER happens at my house.)

WOOD and VINYL

 

While I was in SLC I went to the Wood Connection and picked up a couple of crafts to get me through the Fall that is nonexistent here in Louisiana (and I really wouldn't care about that, except I love Fall most of all - the smell in the air, the sweater weather, the football games where you stomp your feet because it's too cold to take off your gloves, etc.).  These are just 2x6 blocks in different heights with vinyl letters of differing heights splatted down.  I painted the wood white, put down the letters, stained it hickory, then sprayed it with a finishing spray. I also painted my boring bulletin board sparkly turquoise a week or so ago and now I LOVE it.  Makes me happy every day.

This took second place for easiest because it had two vinyls which required some lining up.  It is HUMONGOUS - 12"x24".  My friend Julie is in charge of Relief Society education in my old ward in Spokane.  They do fun stuff ( here we don't - although I am not complaining - I have plenty of unfinished projects to finish. Plus, complainers get put in charge and I say "no, thank you" to that!). Anyway, Julie had a left over and hooked me up.  I love it, too.

Doing stuff like this makes me feel better about not doing other stuff, like laundry and dishes.

SEWING

I've been working on this:

Sorry, not my story to tell, but I do get to sew it and it's been fun. I'll let you know when you can take a looksy!

And in relation to the above, I made this. I wish I could remember where I first saw it, but it's been a few years. I was going to make one for Joseph but didn't - since we were moving and all. Now it's for Emme DeGraff who is getting baptized on Sunday.

Here's the full length shot.

There's more things I've been sewing, I'll post about the others soon.

STAMPED METAL WASHERS

SOMETHING NOT TO DO IF YOU ARE TRYING TO QUIT SAYING THE OCCASSIONAL CURSE WORD

even if they are in the Bible.

As you may have heard, we are going on a little roadtrip hur (here) in a few weeks. I have been wanting to make washer necklaces since last summer, but never got around to it.

I have all things roadtrip on mah (my) mind and realized it was my perfect excuse to make some of these rill cute things. (Plus everyone has been making them for more than a year, and now they are practically out of style, so it's time for me to jump on the wagon!)

I went to Harbour Freight and picked up the stamps. They look like this:

The store smells bad and the back tire on Svetlana was low. I filled her up at a scary gas station nearby.

I went to Lowe's and combed through 25 drawers to find 30 frickin' same size washers that were below knee level so I had to bend over the whole time and it killed my back.

I spent twenty minutes measuring the holes and diameter and trying to figure out what size they were so I would know what code to put on the plastic baggy. When I went to check out I was chased away by a checker at the first register who was waving his arms yelling, "NO! NO! Big order! No!"

I was like, I have 30 washers ....

Then I realized maybe he meant the guy already checking out.

Don't worry, I finally found someone who would take mah (my) money.

Then I went to WalMarche and bought knee hi's to make the necklace part. I stood in line for another 25 minutes while I waited for the checker to exercise her right to take as long as she wants as she slides the items over the scanner.

You've seen these, right?

If you factor in mah (my) time it's the most expensive 33 cents I've ever spent!

All that previous stuff leads up to ... setting (sitting) on mah (my) carport floor in 103* heat and bein' glad (for the 1000th time) that mah carport is behind mah house and not facing the street.

Take a hammer and put the greasy, slidey stamp on the washer and start banging the snot out of it.

Check out mah letter - perfect!

Next letter - slip!

Dang it!

Repeat.

Curse.

Remember you aren't cursing and curse when you remember.

Repeat.

Get 15 useable washers out of thirty.

In the air conditioned house, get a big drink of ice cold water and stick your head in the freezer 'til it cools down.

Take a Sharpie marker and smoosh the sharpie ink into the letters (some will get around) and then wipe it off with a baby wipe. It makes the letters more noticable.

Now go ahead and cut up dem (those) knee hi's into 1" strips.

Loop them on the washers and here you go:

Some things to note - the stamps are greasy - I guess the keep them from rusting - so if you are prone to wiping your hands on your legs, like I am, be sure not to! 'Cause when you do, you might be tempted to profane.

Check your box to be sure you have all your letters AND that they are deeply cut. You can see that the "R" on "roadtrip" isn't very deep. I wish I had looked at more sets. I have heard of people not getting all the letters, or the letters being deformed.

The stamps also slide around. GRRRRRRRRR Repeat after me - washers are seven cents each.

DO NOT stamp on tile or carpeted floor, your table top, or counter (especially if it's granite!). The table and carpet aren't hard enough and if you hit tile or granite just right you can crack it. It's best to use good old fashioned concrete.

If you have broken yer (your) tailbone 5 times, take a pillow out for yer (your) tuckus.

If you have a bad elbow on the arm you use to hammer, plan on the elbow hurtin' the rest of the day.

And yer shoulder.

And yer head.

And yer booty.

And yer back.

Use a wide Sharpie and just really smoosh in the ink into the letter grooves. It's so satisfying! You can do a couple before using a wipe to wash the extra off several at a time.

If you want a tutorial that makes it look easy-peasy I suggest this one.

* No actual four letter words were used in the making of dem (these) necklaces. But there was a lot of "dang, fetch, ohmyheck, what the holy scrud, h - e - double hockey sticks, that's frickin, flippin crud!"