End of School Again...

It is that time of year again, the end of school. With five kids in four different schools I am running around like a chicken with it's head cut off. The spawn have different schedules of half days and off days and field days and graduations and more. So today I am off to field day number one, the second one is Monday. I also will be dragging my second oldest along since he is off school today. As of one week from today they will all be done with school! Then starts the chaos of summer, weeee!


I am also busy trying to make some teacher appreciation gifts. So far here are a few ideas I am kicking around:



http://www.houseofhumble.com/2012/03/reclaim-plastic-bottles/



http://sadanorris.blogspot.com/2010/08/busy-busy-opps-thimble-holder-tutorial.html



http://www.countryliving.com/crafts/projects/book-bag-craft-1109#slide-1

At least those are some ideas I want to do. This weekend will be hectic because the hubby is working, the two oldest are job hunting, and my baby girl will turn 9 on Monday! Arghh! Nothing like a bit of insanity to keep you sane right?

Inspiration, or my ADD craft brain

I love making things! All sorts of things, from crochet to painting and everything in between. Every once in a while my brain goes into overload and I get TOO many ideas and want to make them all at once. At times like this Pinterest in hell for me. I mean look at some of these amazing ideas:

Source: madebyjoel.com via Christina on Pinterest

Source: fifikoussout.blogspot.ca via tasia on Pinterest

Source: avintagefairy.com via Kristin on Pinterest

Source: thewindandthesail.blogspot.com via Karen on Pinterest

Argh! My head is going to explode! There are too many ideas! What do you do if you have too many ideas of what to make or do? How do you narrow it down?

Wire Wrapped Tree

When I saw this:

http://www.happyhourprojects.com/2012/05/wire-wrapped-tree.html

I knew I must make this! I can vividly remember my Grandmother had something very similar to this. I use to play with it as a little girl and move the branches around. My Mom's birthday just passed and I thought this would make a perfect gift. So here is my version:

I tweaked the directions a little and made it my own but I LOVE how well this came out! I might have to go out and get a few more beads and make one for my own!

Lavender Wand

My beautiful lavender bushes are ready to be harvested

It's so pretty and smells divine as you walk up my sidewalk

So I wanted to try my hand at making a lavender wand. Lavender wands are a way of preserving the wonderful smell. They are a traditional English craft from around the Victorian days. You can put the wands in a drawer or a vase to add fragrance.

Here's how I did it:

Start with fresh lavender stems, when there are a few flowers on the stem but still a lot of buds is the best time. Cut 15 stems, you can use more just make sure it's an odd number. Remove any leaves so you have a smooth stem.

Start by tying a ribbon very tightly around the stems as close as possible to the flowers.

I wrapped the ribbon around the stems a few times to give extra strength. Then begin to flip the stems over the flowers/ buds. Be gentle! Using the ribbon weave under and over the stems. The beginning may be a bit difficult but you'll get the hang of it! Over and under, and soon it will begin to look like this:

Just keep weaving until you get the wand as long as you want it. The one pictured measures about seven inches top to bottom. At the end of the wand I wrapped the ribbon around several times and knotted it. Trim the ribbon and the lavender and viola'!

New Needleworks!

I have been sewing away lately and have come up with three new embroideries to share! I have put these in my etsy store too if anyone's interested. First up, a bright and colorful chicken:

Next up a cool Asian style dragon:

Last but not least, some cute purple flowers:

I had a lot of fun making these. All of the embroideries are original designs too! I'm happy with how they turned out.

Memories....

I am going a little bit crazy working on my latest embroidery. I am truly feeling it in my wrist and right shoulder, ouch! However, it is coming out so cool! I will post pictures as soon as I can but in the meantime I thought I'd show of some of my earlier works:
I made this for a swap with one of my sweet Punkymoms:


This is one of my pendants that I made, I love the image of the Virgin Mary




I made these tiny little bottles with the Virgin Mary images on them. The yellow stuff inside is yellow cloth chrysanthemum petals.

Negative Space Embroidery

This embroidery fascinates me. I think I might have to give it a try. Here are some examples of negative space embroidery:


http://www.flickr.com/photos/ejsmithart/galleries/72157624266336198




http://www.mrxstitch.com/2010/01/25/beefrancks-emporium-mama-sass/




http://www.flickr.com/photos/formfireglassworks/3464146631/in/photostream/




http://www.flickr.com/photos/thejoysofjess/3723895963/

So many ideas are rolling around.....

A New Toy for Me!!!

I'm so excited about my new toy! I bought myself a light box!

It's not top of the line by far but it definitely gets the job done. I traced an adorable pattern I got from one of my flicker groups:

It was so easy to trace and now I'm working on a new embroidery. What I like best about the light box is that it's something my whole family can use. My husband and spawn are all very talented at art I know they will put it to good use. Plus the really nice lady at Michael's gave me a coupon for 40% off! Woo-Hoo! Bargain and a cool new light box!

Do you think anyone noticed?

So yea, I suck and let my blog go for almost three months without posting. The holidays are a time sucking event and then January flew by before I knew it. So I will now pretend nothing happened and continue where I left off......
Want to see some of what I've been so busy with?
My son was in another play and was amazing as always:

My dog came inside from playing in the backyard missing a huge chunk of her ear and we still don't know what happened...


I made a kick ass traditional Japanese cake for my son's birthday!

My birthday boy, I mean young man...

My daughter won 2nd place in her school for her diversity project. She came up with the idea herself!

I made ornaments for a swap

For the holidays we went to my parents and had a fun time. Look cows!


That's it for now and I will try my hardest not to let such a huge chunk of time pass again

Help my brains are being controlled!!!!

I have a friend who LOVES Futurama, I mean really LOVES it! So for no reason at all I decided to make her a brain slug hat! Here's the original:





Here's what I made, by the way the lovely model is my sweet husband:







I'm really happy with the result! I didn't use a specific pattern but winged it. The hardest part for me was the stupid antenia! I can't wait to see what she thinks!

My HATS off to you!

**We now return you to your regularly scheduled blog, thank you for your patience**


Once again I apologize for not posting more, life and it's craziness got to me. Anyway, I wanted to post some pictures of my latest works, hats! I love making hats, they are so quick and fun and you can do so much with them! This hat is a sweet little crossbreed. It's part kitty and part owl:









This little number I made for my son. I even used an old pair of earring to make snake bites on it!











But don't worry I'm still making many more!!!!

WTF?

How can so many days have passed without a post? Okay, catch up time:
My kids are all back home! Yeah!
I have done jack shit on crafts! Boo!
My garden is still thriving, my melons have killed my cucumbers.
My hubs is on call, yeah for money boo for him being gone all the time.
My sister is completelt moved into her new house, thanks to a lot of help from me!
My house is falling apart, time for me to focus on our house!
How's that?

Summer, what summer?

Is it me or is this summer flying by? I can't believe we are almost halfway through July already! My friends from England are coming over at the end of this month. I can't wait to se one of my oldest friends and her family again! We got our tickets to Busch gardens. My kids are so freakin' excited about it. I am too if I say so myself. I love roller coasters. but I do have to admit as I get older they do get a little more scary. Oh well, I force myself on them anyway. We are thinking about letting the older boys go off my themselves this year. We'll give them a cell phone and meeting places to check in at. I think they'll really love it.

My sister is moving this weekend. Her new little house is just about ready. Her contractor is amazing. We might even hire him to build us a room downstairs. Then my husband and I could stay downstairs and all of the kids will be upstairs. It would also give the boys their own rooms. The girls will have to share for a while longer. He would also re-do our floors. Our carpets suck. Five kids and two dogs ruin a carpet like nothing else.
I am waiting to hear back about a possible upcoming craft opportunity. If all works out I will be here: It's a tradition here in Richmond and tons of people come to it. So fingers crossed! I'm working on my record cuffs. I need to polish them a bit more but I am very happy with how they are coming out!

Ben & Jerry's and Crafts!

What a fabulous idea! Mix together a very hot Saturday, throw in some artists and local craftisans, and top it off with some delicious Ben & Jerry's ice cream! It was a very hot but fun day. I sold some of my crafts and met some new crafty friends. Here's my set up:




I used both of my way cool mannequins and my new old suitcase. I love thrift stores! I only treated my self to one very cold milkshake, yummy... It was really fun and I hope they do this again every year!