Work Bench Wednesday.

What do you have on your work bench?  I have a few different projects happening.  First I finished up a swap and am making a set of cards to go along with the pin cushion and needle book.  Its a sewing swap, but I love combining my crafts and sharing my projects. 

The first pin cushion is a mushroom in my swap partners fabovorite colors.  Blue and Yellow. 

 

Next is the pin book I made like a scrap book.  Each page has a unique area that can hold pins.  It turned out more art then functional but I had fun making it and hope my swap partner enjoys it. 

 

Now I just have to package them up and they will be on their way!

 

Hope your having a great day! 

 

Happy Mail Monday!

Hello everyone!  Hope your week is starting off fabulous.  I've been busy working on all kinds of fun projects this week.  First I tried a new recipe for cookies.  They are strawberry lemonade cookies and they are fabulous! 

 

OK, so my photography skills need work. You can see a better photo and find the recipe HERE.  

 

Next, the happy mail.  My May Day Secret Sister sent me these fun crafting goodies.  Thanks so much Joan.  Not only was Joan a fabulous May Day secret sister, she also organized the swap.  I love everything Joan and  you did a great job! 

And lastly, I made this fun little mushroom pin cushion.  I'm still learning some sewing techniques and can't quite master sewing circles, they never seem to match up perfectly for me.  But I keep trying.  Here is my latest attempt. 

 

Thanks so much for stopping by and have a fabulous week!

 

Square Foot Garden Spring Planting

We are just about finished planting our first veggies for this year.  We have just a few more spots open that will get later plantings of the same veggies. 

We have planted:

Red Onions

White Onions

Spanish Onions

Spring Onions

Cilantro

Parsley

Garlic

Spinach

Lettuce Mix

Carrots

Hot Peppers

Sweet Pepper

We will be sewing Red Beets and Radishes today in the remaining open spaces.   

We are planning on another 4X4 garden for strawberries, and a container for asparagus.  

In this smaller planter we planted chives. 

I can't wait to see what we get as a harvest.  If nothing else it's been fun learning about how different plants grow, the space they need and how much it actually costs to grow your own food. 

I've dedicated a pinterest board to gardening if you would like some additional ideas on how you can  start your own garden in the space you have.  We have a few acres of land, but I needed to keep the garden close to the house and manageable.  I'm hoping this will be the key to a successful garden, and help if only a little bit reduce our families carbon foot print. 

Thanks for stopping by and happy gardening!

Happy Monday!

I hope your week is starting off well.  I'm such a creature of habbit.  I've started laundry, had a protein bar and a cup of tea and am checking in with my online friends:)  This is a very normal start to my day, but I plan on having a fabulous week and hope you can join me. 

Today I wanted to share with you a card I made for my Secret Partner swap on the Quilting Boards.  I had to get it mailed early and forgot to take photos of the rest of the package.  This card is from a card set I made her.  Luckily I took a photo of one of the set. 

I also wanted to thank my May Day Secret Sister for the fabulous package I received Tuesday. 

I love it all!

That's it for today, short and sweet!  Have a great week and thanks for stopping by!

Happy Beautiful Spring Morning!

I know it's been a few days since I've posted and I have lots to update you on.  Now that we are home from our vacation it's back to housekeeping, paper crafting, sewing, reading and gardening.  It's interesting how the seasons tend to change as well as the amount of time you spend doing certain hobbies.  Right now it seems I'm trying to keep up on everything.  I guess a 10 day vacation does that to your best laid plans.  One thing I can't stand is a messy house, so the first thing I did was cleaned all day yesterday.  Both floors top to bottom, even washed a few walls that needed it.  2 days before vacation I lost my engagement ring. So I was hoping that cleaning would turn it up. It didn't:( It was getting loose, but I thought my knuckles would keep it on.  I cried and cried, then came to terms with it being gone.  Like my wonderful husband said, it was an expensive lesson.  Our wedding bands are both off being re sized as we speak.  And he bought me a new engagement ring the day we got back from vacation. 

Just after getting my iPhone we were out to dinner and while waiting I snapped a few photos of our rings, I'm so glad I did.  It's so much easier doing a police report if you have a photo of the item.  It's not the best pic, but at this point it's all I've got.  And I still hold out hope that my ring will turn up. 

I'll share the new ring once it's sized and I get my band back. 

Now on to vacation.  We went on a Carnival Cruise to Puerto Rico, St. Thomas and Grand Turk. The weather was perfect, the boat was spotless, and the balcony room was wonderful!  The only thing missing was Ashlyn, this is the first vacation Ed and I went on without her. 

Ed and I at our first formal dinner. 



Mom and Dad at Dinner.

My Mom and Dad in Puerto Rico

All of the beaches are public in Puerto Rico, so are beautiful! 

Then we went to my favorite, St. Thomas.  It's a tropical rain forest, and it did rain, but it was short bursts and it was warm enough it didn't bother you as you were in the water already. 

Our ship from the view at the top of St. Thomas. 

And our final stop was Grand Turk. We swam, walked on the beach and brought a conch shell home. 

If you haven't gone to the Islands, put it on your bucket list, you won't be disappointed! 

That's all for today. I'm off to work on my garden now:) 

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by. 

Happy Monday!

Hello all!  I have a quick share for you today. I participted in a hat pin swap at Split Coast Stampers and they arrived last week.  So many beautiful pins and even 2 pin cushions to add to my collection.  I wasn't a good swapper and didn't take pics of how the pins acutally came, but wanted to share with you the fabulous pins. 

Thanks everyone for the fabulous swap, pins and pin cushions! 

Square Foot Garden

Hello everyone!  Woohoo it's Friday!  For me it means my husband is officially on VACATION!  And we leave for a cruise very soon!  

One of my stamping friends had mentioned Square Foot Gardening, I had never heard of it so I googled it to find a very interesting concept.  You can have a garden, grow 80% more vegies in 20 % of the space that it would take to row garden.  There is minimal weeding, uses very little water, and no fertilizer.  I mentioned it to my husband and that night he built the box and we filled it with the required soil and even planted some onions already. 

We reused plywood, it's not as pretty as the ones you buy, but will totally serve the purpose and didn't cost anything to build. We chose the area at the top of the driveway where we had previously mulched but didn't have anything growing that we liked. Besides Ed likes to tear thing up with his tractor. 

 We then we added a soil mixture of 1/3 blended compost, 1/3 peat moss, and 1/3 coarse vermiculite.

Its a very loose soil, that is very easy to plant in.  Really no tools needed.  Then we used twine from my craft room to mark off the squares and it was all ready to go! 

I picked up a bag of mixed onions at Lowes while we were shopping for the soils.  It was the only thing I could think of that could be planted this early in our area.  I just added a row of each kind of onion for now.  I plan on spreading out the planting so we have a continuous harvest.  Literally overnight we had onions sprouting. 

It is still very cold here at night.  So on nights that it has the potential to freeze or frost I cover it with a tarp.  I won't add the next rows of onions until after the 15th when our area shouldn't have to worry much about frost.  I'll keep you posted as to how it goes. 

Have a great weekend! 



 

Wonderful Wednesday!

Hello everyone, hope your week is going great so far.  I've been busy in the craft room.  I have several secret swaps I'm in.  Most of them revolve around sewing and the one I'm working on right now is for a pin case swap.  Now, I know what your thinking...a pin case is something small and holds a few pins, right?  Well, I'm taking a creative liberties with my pin case and making a pin album of sorts.  I've had this very cool chipboard book laying around for a while.  Really since the first Twilight movie came out.  I thought I would make a book for each movie, but that kind of fizzelout out once 50 shades came about;)  So, my re purpose of this little jem of a book is this....

I stamped the front with every single stamp from PTI Button Boutique along with the dressform stamp in classic kraft ink for this weeks Papertrey Ink MIM challenge. 

I'm a little bummed that the fabric looks discolored on my first page so may have to start the inside over.  It kind of looks vintage tea died, but I'm not sure how that happened :(  It looks worse in the photo then irl, any idea how to fix that? 

Just Another Manic Monday.....

but I really don't wish it were Sunday, because I just prefer fundays!  Ok, ok I'll stop now and get to the important stuff! 

I wanted to share with you the pincushion I made out of a vintage perfume decanter.  At least that's what I think it was. Ed and I went antiquing just to look for some fun things to re purpose. Now I want to find several different size decanters and make a few of them to decorate my craft room.  Luckily I live in central PA where there is no shortage of antique malls. 

And here she is just sitting on my desk.

I just love it!  I think I squealed when she turned out perfect the first time!

 I didn't have to touch my seem ripper once! 

The fabric is from  fat quarter bundle from the Rose of Sharin Quilt shop in Danville, PA. 

If your ever in the area be sure to stop in.  It's a great quilt shop and they have an awesome sale room with fat quarter bundles for 6$. I get a few every time I go.  It's like candy;) 

I trimmed the bottom with a piece of vintage lace, held on with stick pins.

 I can't remember where they are from, they have pearl tops and clear jem tops. 

The waist trim is Webster's Pages, and the stamped tag is a Papertrey Ink Stamp and die cut tag, tied with twine and held in place with a Websters Pages stick pin.  Gotta say <3 nbsp="" p="" those="">

And finally a little cluster of items to finish my pretty little dress form pin cushion. There is a little bit of everything in there, but the cut ribbon in back is Webster's trim, then burlap from PTI, then a Webster's doily in black, a prima blosom, a little piece of ribbon and finished with a Webster's accent.  Can you tell I'm a fan of Webster's embellies?! 

 Have you found the Webster's sprinkles box yet?  I am in no way affiliated with or compensated for saying this.  But it's the best 10$ I've spent in a long time! Truly it was like sending a little gift to myself! First the box they send it in is so darn cute I had to reuse it to send my SS a gift.  Then the paper that they use to pack the box is a 24inch piece of Webster's paper that you can totally use.  Then the March box had a full box of the most beautiful stick pins, a card of doilies, and a little spring colored cookie treat complete with SPRINKLES!  I can't wait for April! 

Thanks for stopping by and hope your week is SPRINKLED with happiness! 

I added a few more photos, I seem to be taking very dark pics and not sure why.  One day I'll take a photo 101 course!

Happy Easter Weekend!

I found some extra time to play in my craft room today so thought I would play along with a challenge or 2.  I'm looking for some good card challenges so if you know of any hook me up:)  I did happen across CAS(E) this sketch on my Bloglovin meandering today so thought I would combine the sketch with PTI's MIM # 109, which is water color stamping with embossing.  It's a fun technique, but I have to warn you it's a bit messy! 

 

I love the softness this technique adds to stamping. 

Thanks PTI for the MIM technique and

and Thanks CAS(E) for the fun sketch. 

 

Happy Easter, Happy Passover! 

 

What are you working on?

One of my friends posed just that question on her blog last week.  She posts her What are you working on projects on Wednesday, but I already try to post Whip it Up Wednesdays or Wordless Wednesday, I just don't need another Wednesday.  So I thought it would be nice to share what I'm working on before the weekend starts, then next week I can share what I accomplished over the weekend.  It seems to work in my head anyway, we will see how it works here. 

So for this week I've been busy.  Last weekend my husband and I went out antiquing.  I was looking for some fun items to make into pin cushions.  I found several vintage perfume decanters, with the cutest little bobble lids.  And some white vases. Immediately I had the perfect idea.  So I've been working on these.  Totally re purposed, and so much fun!  I'll show you Monday. 

 

Next, is my sewing machine cover.  I pieced this then did most of the hand sewn binding while driving to West Virginia.  I just have one little piece to finish.  But I've been using it.  Really does help to keep the dust off my machine.  I need to make another now for my serger. 

 

 

 I also completed these card kit swaps for a Christmas in July card kit swap over at Split Coast Stampers.  I had so much fun putting together both traditional and non traditional colored kits. I can't wait to see the cards with the lavender and Christmas tree.  I'm thinking they will be stunning. 

 

 

 And lastly I participated in the virtual quilt retreat on the Quilting Board forum.  Carolyn did a fabulous job putting together the directions for a braided table runner.  I took a little break to travel with Ashlyn this week so I'll be working on this today. The center block is my first Dresden. It took me a bit to figure it out, but now that I know how to do them it will go so much smoother.  It really does give you a new perspective as to how they used to hand sew everything.  I will cherish every hand made quilt I own! I truly know the labor of love that went into them.

 

 

I just love the bright colors, I can't wait to see how it turns out. 

 Hopefully I'll be able to finish this this week as well. 

 

I also wanted to invite you to join the Pincushion and Pin Book swap on QuiltingBoard.com.  You can make either or both and you will get the same in return.  They also do Secret Pal swaps, I just joined my first one HERE. 

I just love getting swap packages in the mail, hope you consider joining. 

Would love to see what you make :)

 

Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous weekend!

 

Wordless Wednesday

Papertrey Ink Blog Hop

Hello everyone! Hope you are having a fabulous Monday! I'm in the Burg as the locals call it.  I'm traveling a few days with my daughter while she works. We were in a hurry to Ed out earlier then expected today because its supposed to snow here again. We are expecting 6 inches tomorrow. To say I'm ready for winter to be over is an understatement! I need the warm sun, bare feet and the house open. Luckily we are on the countdown to a Caribbean vacation!

Luckily I packed my clothes earlier in the morning and didn't forget anything, but as for my crop bag I brought along, it seems I always forget something. This time I brought, stamps, dies, ink, paper...all the essentials one would think. I get started making some barrettes and realize I totally forgot to bringa stamp  block? I had to improvise! So what would you use for a stamp block in. Hotel room? I used this....

My iPhone! Don't you just love the cover. It really is a useful tool. From yelping dinner restaurants to stamping, now how versatile is that!?

And here is my very limited supply PTI blog hop challenge.  This months challenge was to use sequins. I had to google sequins. Of course I google everything, but I wanted to make sure the ones I was using counts as actual sequins.  These little flower sequins have been laying in my little desktop bowl of embellishments forever. I'm so glad I saved them, they worked perfectly for this challenge.

They were so fun to make, and already have a home.  Thanks for stopping by and have a fabulous week!  See you Wednesday for my next post.

Covert Robin Gift I made!

My secret Covert Robin partner should be getting her package today. 

I made her a 16X16 pillow cover. I love how it turned out.  The photos really doesn't do it justice if I do say so myself.  I used quilt store fabric mixed with the black skull fabric from Wal-Mart. 

 

 I didn't know much about my partner with the exception of her first blog post, which told me she liked skulls.  I tried to keep the colors neutral so she could use it in a living or bedroom as a throw pillow. 

Hopefully she will like it as much as I liked making it! 

 

Have a great weekend! 

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Whip it up Wednesday!

I was getting ready to take a huge pile of clothes to the Goodwill, but decided to upcycle a sweater instead. Today I made a little remote pillow. Isn't it crazy how often the remote gets lost, I thought it would be nice to have a little useful place to keep it.

Now that I'm looking at this photo I may have to add a little color to it and retake the photo outside. Although for the first dy of spring, it sure isn't looking like winter will go out gracefully. 

I entered this in the .moxie Fab winter home decor contest, be sure to check out what everyone is whipping up on the Moxie Fab blog.  

Thanks for stopping by and see you soon:)

Bloglovin....

So with the changes to google coming about and blog reader being retired I thought I would venture out to try to find an acceptable replacement. I think I may have found just that. This morning while having my soft cooked egg and tea I was easily able to get to all the blogs I follow within the one email bloglovin sent me. From there I had the choice to open bloglovin to view my followed blogs or simply scroll through the email to see if anything caught my eye. For the next few days ill list both the pros and cons here to determine if bloglovin is a keeper, or if I will have to search for another option.  You can try bloglovin yourself if you like, would love to hear about the options you are trying.

http://www.bloglovin.com/

Pros-
1.  very easily converts current reading list to bloglovin reading list
2.  Sends one email with a daily update.
3. Has an app for easy smart phone portability
4. You can add groups to sort the blogs you follow.....sewing friends, scrapping friends, food to stay away from....ect.


Cons-
Can not directly pin from feed, I have found I have to like a post to facebook and pin from there. If someone finds an easier work around please let me know.

A card....

I was inspired today to make this card by this persons cards, used the technique in this PTI MIM challenge, and all the while stamping joyfully over the fact that I just won a  blog contest by
Therm O Web!  What a great Monday this is turning out to be! 

Covert Robbin Gift

 

Happy Monday! What a fun mail day! I was lucky enough to get my Covert Robin gift today. I was just finishing up my gift when my daughter came in with the mail. I had to take a break and share my fabulous gift!

 

The Covert Robin is a secret gift exchange. Where you make a $20. gift and send it to your assigned partner. My partner was Kathry! Kathryn made me this fabulous artist journal cover. Its perfect for a sketch pad and your favorite pens and pencils.

 

 

 

Thanks so much Kathryn!  I look forward to another secret handmade gift exchange.  If you know of any coming up, please keep me in mind. 

 

Have a great week!

TAG, your it!

I love making tags. I think it's the instant gratification of how quickly they come together.  And they are a great way to dress up simple packages or bags. I love making everything I send out or give look like a pretty present. Don't we all just love unwrapping surprises?!

 I made a few to share with you today.  

This is my final pin cushion for the Hat Pin swap I'm in. The embellishments are cut with PTI dies and the fabric is Moda.

 

And here are some of the tags I used to package the pin cushions and hat pins. I pulled out a few of my PTI anniversary sets for these projects. 

For the next two tags I stamped the blooms with the back side of the stamp first with a lighter color then stamped the actual stamp with a darker color.  I love the demension it adds to the blooms. 

 

That's all I've got for today but stop back Wednesday for another brilliant photo from my everyday life. Ok, so maybe not brilliant but I will certainly be sharing one of my favorite crafts from this week. 

Have an awesome week, and thanks so much for commenting. It really does add a smile to my day!

Whip it up Wednesday

 

How is this for cuteness?!   

 

 

 

Hope you are whipping something up this Wednesday!