Chilly Outside; Chilly Inside

A finish!  I took advantage of the cool temperatures last week and put the finishing touches on Chilly.  I don't have the snowflake buttons yet, but that can wait for now.  I consider him finished!

It's too bad I didn't see the shadow until I loaded the photo on the computer.  Since the cross stitch is upstairs, and I'm downstairs, it's not likely I'll re-take the photo!  I'm not sure if I will frame him or mount him on a 2x4 piece of wood.  I will decide when I stitch his friends.

I have been working on a sewing project too, and will post when it's done.  I'm about 50% done, and the kids are very excited.

This year we will observe Lent for the first time.  My Favorite Girl said she is going to give up TV, computer games and Wii playing!  I'm super impressed.  In order to keep it fair, we decided we would all do the same.  Of course there are some exceptions, like the fact that if I don't check our email for 45 days it will be a mess, and I do put my Avon orders in on-line.  I am allowed to do the occassional post on here, but not my endless sitting here purusing everyone else's fabulous blogs.  Which really is probably for the best, because it will give me more time to actually make some of the projects I have been bookmarking forever.  So if you don't hear from me, I am just biting my nails until the end of April - not ignoring you!  It will be a fun day catching up with everyone after Easter, that's for sure.
I see I have another follower as well - a big fat "Thank-you!" to you and welcome!

Thanks for visiting!

Jenn

A Good (second) Start

I finally have a progress picture to show of my SAL snowman.  I'm sure Pumpkin feels like I've wimped out!  If this wasn't such a fun stitch, I fear I may have, after having to rip out my first attempt.  However, I am finding this design quite addicting to stitch, and since I am using a separate needle for each main color it is coming along very quickly.

I am using DMC threads, and while at first I was thinking the hand-dyed ones look so much better, I decided I am loving the brighter tones of the DMC in this particular design.

I have another crafty finish to show.

I thrifted this alarm clock in the fall.  Of course it didn't look like this then!  It was painted purple and the face had a Curves logo on it.  A promotional item I am guessing.  I was inspired by similar clocks in the Greengate catalogue.  It took me months to decide what color I wanted the clock, as that would determine where the clock would eventually go.  When I purchased the papers for the BAKE  letters, I thought one of the patterned papers was pretty enough to use as a clock face.  I happened to have some scrap-booking stickers with numbers, so put those into good use as well.  I'm not sure if I'll keep it like this forever, but for now it looks just fine in my very girly spare bedroom.

We are back to winter weather today after having plus 12 degrees yesterday.  It's also a long weekend for us, and we will most likely be hanging around here.  I have a feeling lots of crafts will be in order to fight boredom by the little people.  Oh the sacrafices I make...!

Thank-you so much for dropping by; have a great week!

Jenn

Friday Things

I seem to have a lot on the go right now, not the least of which is purging, purging, purging.  Or rather, I have been making my kids go through their things and decide what's staying and what's going.  I'm quite proud of them; they have both decided to part with quite a few things they no longer play with.  Their bedrooms and craft area in the basement really do feel lighter.

To decorate their newly cleaned rooms I made each of them some fabric bunting with their names on them.  I was able to use up quite a bit of nautical fabric for My Favorite Boy's bunting (see, I've been purging too!):

...as well as a curtain panel for My Favorite Girl's.

I did a bit of thrifting last week: I seemed to have good luck with vintage books.  It was half price day at Goodwill and I came home with these:

I'm not a knitter, but the Practical Home Knitting book from 1949 was just too good to pass up.  I wish I did knit, because there are some seriously great sweater patterns in there.  There's even a pattern for a figure skating dress!  The other three are novels, the top being an 1899 copy of Arabian Nights.

I started work on a scarf for Mr.Crafty World.  He's been feeling a bit left out of the homemade scarf endeavor, as I'm sure it seemed I was making everyone else a scarf before Christmas but him.  I'm using the same blue-green chunky yarn I used to make a ruffle scarf for someone else, but this time I'm sticking to a much faster double crochet version.

While buying my yarn yesterday I came upon these MDF letters and pretty scrapbook papers.

I knew just what I wanted to do with them, inspired by a set I saw at Coco Rose Textiles.

The light where I have these hanging is not the greatest, but now that I have them up I don't want to take them down to re-photograph them.  I think I might change them later to be all the same pattern, just like the ones at Coco Rose.

I'm back to cross stitching, this time a snowman design by Stitchy Kitty.  I'm working on it as a SAL (stitch a-long) with Pumpkin.

So far it has  been a fun stitch, which is a good thing because I have to start over :( .  I noticed last night that I didn't  give myself enough space for the design.  I'm trying to look on the bright side - at least I didn't get too far into it.

And that's it for this week.  Thanks for stopping by!

Chair Re-Do

I am without car again today, so I figured today was as good as any to finally re-cover my thrift store chair.
I bought this in the fall, and it has been sitting patiently while I found the right fabric for it.  Lucky for me, the blue velveteen on it matches my blue antique sofa, so it could wait out its time in the living room and not the garage.  Really I could have just left it alone, but I convinced myself the old fabric wasn't good enough, and where's the fun in buying a thrifty object if I can't have a little fun with it first?

You will notice this is the same fabric I used to re-cover my dining room chairs.  At four dollars per meter I could cover just about everything around here with it.  I used just one meter for the chair, so all in all a pretty good bargain.  I added a bit of extra padding, and it's much more comfortable.  The only thing is, I don't like the dark wood.  I wish I had painted the frame cream first.  Or maybe it's just that the fabric doesn't really go with the style of the chair.  Who knows; it's kind of hard to appreciate anything in the first few hours after you have been working all day on it.  I'll have to sleep on it. Not the chair, but the paint decision!

While I have been home and therefore saving money because I'm not shopping, I notice on my Visa bill that someone else has been having a bit of fun with my card.  Like $1200 worth of fun from an electronics store.  It really makes me think it would be so much better to go back to paying cash for everything...

Have a great day!

Playing

Yesterday was bitterly cold, but so sunny.  I had a forced home day of sorts: one of our cars is not working so Mr. Crafty had to take mine.  The kids were in school; the house was clean; supper was all taken care of; nothing to do but play!   I had a great time sorting through my  beads and enjoying all the bright colors in the sunshine.

I took apart some older jewelry and "up-cycled" it into a new earring and necklace set to match a bracelet I already own.  I'm loving the turquoise: it makes me think of summer.

No crafting today as I have to walk to the local rink (no car again today) to skate with My Favorite Boy and his class.  Then  I have to walk back.  I will certainly be making up for any lack of exercise I have had lately!

Have a great day!

Pairs

A few stitchy - hooky finishes for the weekend:

(Pattern available at Loft Creations)

(Pattern available here)

Sweets

No calories :)

Cupcake potholder  pattern came from Stephanie's blog.  Felt doughnuts are courtesy of the newest Quilts and More magazine.

Have a sweet day :)