This was my neice's birthday gift from me (painting, not the bedding, LOL) I'm pretty proud of this one. It only took me about a million years b/c I used acrylic craft paint for the dots instead of wall paint, so I had to do 3-4 coats per dot. But, it matches her bedding perfectly and she LOVES it! My neice just turned 11, so hopefully this bedroom can carry her into high school.

There should be a bad blogger award. I haven't updates since JUNE! You'll just have to trust me, I've done some crafty stuff. Plus, I'm having another baby! Whoot--due March 10, 2008 and it's a GIRL. So lots of fun, girly crafts, YAY!

Here's some recent stuff:
Up first, a soaker for my friend Betsy's new daughter, Georgia. The trim is Lion wool, the body is undyed Purewool, 3 ply. As usual, I've used the Punk Knitter's free pattern. Size Sm/med because I used a smaller needle on the medium pattern. The legs are a bit snug which is leading me to consider buying this pattern by Radiant Twist.

Also, on the creative frontier, I've made a toddler backpack and crayon roll for our neighbor girl's birthday on Saturday. She already loves to wear backpacks, so I figured this would be a great gift.

My crayon roll is far, far less complicated that the one I gave credit to for the idea--mine rolls up a little chunkier, but I think it was less work. Plus it has a flap like needle rolls so the crayons won't fall out. I cut 2 rectangles, one from denim the other from a woven cotton/poly blend, measuring 15x20. Sew right sides together, leaving a hole to turn. Turn. Figure out where you would like the fastener to be--I did mine almost halfway up the 14" and place it in the seam. I used a bright-colored hair elastic instead of a ribbon since I'm giving this to a 2 year-old who can't tie a bow. Topstitch all around. I folded one of the long edges up approx 2.5" and pinned. Then using a long ruler, I put a pin every 1/2", which holds 2 crayons perfectly. Now, my measurements did not equal 12 (24 pack of crayons) perfect slots--I knew I'd have an inch to account for, so I make 1/2" seams on each end. I sewed each little pocket, making sure to backstich so it won't fall apart down the road. It's done! All you do is fold the flap over and roll it up! Sweet!


Stay tuned, 'cause I've got several Christmas crafts and one neice's bedroom to post about. I swear it won't be another six months.

Okay, who am I kidding? No one is reading this anyway!

My First Time........

with felt--what were you thinking dirty-mind? LOL

I think I might be in trouble. I LOVED felting this crown from Little Turtle Knits. It's for a special little girl's Christmas. Mine came out a little taller than i expected, but I like the result better. She'll be able to wear it for several years, hopefully.

But really, felting is like magic. You put this MONSTER sized knitted tube with pointed ends in the washer and you pull out a cool crown. Impatient me forgot to before pictures of the crown, pre-felting. But trust me, it was huge. Like as long as my whole arm & hand. What's so great about felting you ask? You don't have to be perfect because it all get mushed up in the final project!

I've got a couple more crowns to make and then i'm moving onto slippers.

Beware of UFO's

UFOs everywhere I look! (UnFinished Objects--or as I like to call them, the status quo) The grey soaker was an attempt to make a night time solution for Trapper's diaper issues. He HATES it and will not wear it. Great. Glad I wasted my time on that one. At least I didn't waste time finishing the cuffs. The waistband is bi colored b/c I was trying to use up scraps. The rainbow soaker is for a friends' baby to wear in at least 12 months. It's a tad bigger than I anticipated, but that's my own fault. I hate the mere idea of swatching--so I've never done it. I've yet to have something really be screwed up beyond wearability. The yarn is the skein I dyed way back in the day and the pink is some Purewool I dyed the other week.

Another attempt to avoid the frump!

Update--that fishing line was itchy as hell and I cut the beads off the second I got home. Back to the ol' drawingboard. But it did look cute.

No, the zebra isn't part of the top. That's a napkin strategically placed to help show the neckline and hide the size of the shirt.

I'm total stoked about this. $7 for the tank at Old Navy on clearance, $1.88 for the turquoise beads at Walmart, free ultra thin fishing line from my neighbor--not too shabby. Since I'm the tank top queen, I needed a fancy-Sunday-go-to-meeting tank, LOL.

And the coolest part is that it took me five minutes, so I can just clip the beads off and save them when i want to wear it plain. For most people that would be too much of pain in the ass, but hey, I'm not most folks........................

I'm taking a mental respite

This is the table project that will NEVER die. I may die first at this rate.

In the second photo, you can see what the finish used to look like on the sides of the leaf. It started chipping the day we brought it home--we should have taken it back but we didn't for various (lazy) reasons. All along, I've been swearing I would refinish it. Then I discover it's veneer and not solid wood. Nice. (OT: remember that Frasier episode where Niles & Frasier and Marty watch Antiques Road Show and take a drink every time someones says "veneer?" If you haven't it's freaking hilarious.) I decided that I would do a porcelain crackle finish. Above is the primer and base coat as I was halfway through.

So I started by sanding. The finish was so poor that all it did was flake off and gum up the sandpaper, so I moved onto chemicals. This worked really, really well and very quickly I might add. Then the primer--which here is mistake #2 (or#3 if you count buying the stupid table in the first place). I got an OIL based primer but didn't discover it until I tried to clean the roller and ended up with a roller of white oily dreadlocks.

So it was back to Mecca, I mean Lowe's for another primer. A coat of that. Then 2-3 coats of the base paint. Mistake #4--I used a cleaned roller for the second coat and discovered that i hadn't cleaned the roller as well as I thought. It left little sandy speckles and pissed me right off! Okay, sand that down, one more coat.

Finally (I think) onto the crackle medium. So I put it on in what I would consider a thick coat. But not thick enough. If you're keeping track we're onto #5 on the mistake countdown. The thicker the coat of crackle medium, the nicer the crackle looks. I put another layer on with a roller rather than a brush this time. #6--it left little air bubbles that TOTALLY ruined the crackleyness.

I've sanded it down and taken a mental respite from this Godforsaken tabletop. If I could lift it, I would have thrown it across the yard, similar to the BBQ coup of 2003--a story for another day. What a freaking disaster.

I needed to be creative............so................I got to sewing!



This clutch came out far better than i anticipated. There were mistakes, but nothing so boneheaded that you'd get a chuckle from them. The pattern is a freebie. I was wanting something to carry for Friday night when my uberchic friend from Miami is in town. She knows me pretty well, so it's just an ego-booster for me because she is spectacular-looking and dammit, I don't want to feel frumpy!

So for all my friends who think I do crafts so perfectly, this post is for you. See, I mess up ALL the time--i just don't tell you about it. Wink.

Crazy Daisies for my niece, Malea

I did some decorative painting in my niece Malea's new bedroom. For her birthday, her parents painted, bought new furniture and bedding. She asked me to do paint "flowers and butterflies." You see how cute she is, how could i resist?

This was done using sponges, believe it or not. Her bedding looks like it was sponge-painted so I thought it would work out well. I hand cut the two different petals, centers and leaves.

First, I got my husband to help me draw level lines around the room so it all didn't get crooked. Thank goodness for laser levels! Then I painted the bigger pink flowers, randomly placing them where I thought they needed to be. Then came the purple flowers, centers and leaves. After it was all dry, I went back and added leaf and petal details. Then i stamped a couple butterflies with a chunky foam stamp. The final step was to use a glitter glaze (which probably doesn't show up in the pictures) on the petals.

All in all, I am super pleased with how this turned out. I even surprised myself! LOL! Malea was stoked about it, so that was nice, too! And the paints and sponges were under $10 total. Can't beat that with a stick. I'd love to do this as a side business, but I'm afraid I'd get in over my head! If someone wanted a horse or football player, I'd be screwed!