A Little Birdhouse

Back in September of last year, I posted about a little birdhouse that my now 13-yr-old had made at a Home Depot workshop when he was about 7-yrs-old.  Well, I finally got around to finishing it.  I had been hoping for years to interest him in painting it himself, but I finally faced the fact that he doesn't share my love for painting things.  It's okay because we share other interests.  

There's actually more decoupage going on here than painting.

I went with a butterfly theme because, as you know, I have a thing for "bugs."

The photos were taken at different times of the day (and in fact different days) as, after taking the first one, I realized that I neglected to take a picture of the side design.  Brainfart?

Also, I am quite excited as I have some new blooms in my tiny container garden!

    

I don't know what either of these flowers' names are, but they are my favorites so far!

I hope you are all enjoying your Spring!

Thanks for stopping by once again.

In Memorium

April 30th

is always a somber day for my family and myself.  Ten years ago on this date we lost my brother to a motorcycle accident. He was 23. He was my parent's youngest child and only son.  He was two years younger than me, and the best friend I have ever had.

Every year on this anniversary, we try to get together at his grave site and have a little cemetery picnic.  My brother was a new age kinda guy (even though that term probably has him turning in his grave right now,) and he enjoyed burning candles and incense.  Perhaps he would be more comfortable with the term pagan, although I don't believe any of his interests had anything to do with ritual or religion.  

I enjoy bringing him candles, incense, and beer.  These are the offerings I'm bringing to him today.  I hope he enjoys them!

I'm not religious, and I'm not much of a superstitious person, but I hope that a part of him knows how much 

I miss him.

If you would like to make a little crochet candle holder like the one above, I used this tutorial over on "Nature Nut Notes" blog, and a baby food jar that I cleaned with some goo gone.

Thanks for visiting!

Monster Mash

If you haven't guessed by now, monsters are a recurring theme for me.  I guess I'm a monster-lover.  I recently made a little felt monster badge which I'd like to share with you, but I was afraid he may get a little lonely if I posted him by himself. As you all know, a lonely monster is just trouble waiting to happen, so I decide to also share some of the other monsters I've made this year (that I haven't already shared in another post.)

Here goes...

I pulled the image that I used for this off the internet. (I used Google's image search for 'kawaii monsters')

Here's an "in progress" shot with my dollar store scissors :)

I made this guy from a pattern that I wrote in an attempt to create a crocheted version of a Rebecca Danger style monster.

This is the original monster I made while writing up that pattern.  She now resides in Australia! Lucky gal!

This is the first crocheted monster chunk that I made.  He is much smaller than Blossom!

And lastly, a set of  Halloween monster ATC's, or artist trading cards.  

This was my first time making ATCs, but I sure had a blast making them.  I don't have much experience with paper crafting (as you can tell,) but I definitely think that it is something that I'm going to do more often.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed my monsters!

Updates!

It's about time that I update some of my older posts of WIPs (works in progress.) 

Remember this picture? 

Well, as I had mentioned before, I ended up frogging that red circle to the far right, and as much as I hate to admit it, the birdhouse still looks exactly the same.  I have decided what I'm going to do with it though, but I need a few supplies and so progress on that one has stalled a bit.  The other red thing turned into this...

Chili the Pepper

I love how this pattern takes into account the wonky shape of a real chili pepper!

This guy was for a swap, but I plan to make more for myself (someday.)

The pink and white swirly thing at the bottom left of my wip photo is this little painting:

Painting white fur was much harder than I had imagined.  

I love drawing and painting, but it is one of those things that I really need to concentrate to do.  I can crochet in bits and pieces in between diaper changes, sandwich making, and dish washing and such, but in order to really draw or paint something, I need to commit my time in a way that has been difficult for me since my first son was born 12 years ago.  Needless to say, I am out of practice!  

Anyway, so I have decided to spend at least a half hour a day on the weekdays doodling in my sketchbook and hopefully strengthening my drawing skills.  So you can look forward to more artsy projects from me! At  least I'd like to think so!

That's all for now, but my next post will include some more updates!

TTFN!

A couple of droids

Remember the cupcake and sugar skull felt badges that I posted a while back?  Well, here's a couple of felt badges for my fellow Star Wars fans.  I made these for a swap.  Remember that these are limited to 3x3 inches. (I should really remember to throw a ruler into the shot for size reference.)

I really struggled with C3P0, because he just wouldn't stop complaining while I was stitching him up, but I'm happy with how he came out.   I just hope that he isn't annoying his new owner too much with all his chatter! 

I've always loved R2D2!  He's noble yet spunky at the same time!  He's one of my favorite characters second only to Yoda.

It was only a matter of time before they started arguing,
so I'm glad I've sent them off to a galaxy far far away (Canada actually)!

May the Force be with you!

Projects, projects, and more projects

So you may have guessed from today's title, but I have a lot of projects in the works!  I love having lots of projects going at the same time.  My husband...not so much.  Who can blame him when I have projects in the kitchen, living room, and back porch?  Well, I guess I should explain that we live in a two bedroom apartment with our three boys!  So, when my projects spread out a little too much, they really tend to take over the whole house!  So really, I think my husband is a pretty good sport about it.  He's special that way!

Anyway, I can't really post any of the things that I've finished yet (boo!), because they are for various swaps that I'm in right now, and I really ought to wait until my partners receive.  BUT, I have some in progress pics I can share!

These are my supplies for three different projects that I'm working on.  Well actually, two of them are already finished!  OKAY, so it's not an actual "in progress" shot, sorry.  I just got so into my crafting that I completely forget to take pics along the way. Doh!  

These are some actual in progress projects.

I had to smudge out the item in the bottom left corner because its for a swap, and I did end up frogging the red circle thingy at the far right.  The birdhouse was made by my son at a Home Depot workshop about 5 years ago!  I've been asking him to paint it for the longest time, and I've finally come to terms with the fact that he simply isn't interested.  :(  He can draw, but he's currently in those difficult teen years where he's only interested in "cool" activities.  This is going to be a difficult stage for me!

I didn't even take pictures of my porch adventures because they are more like homey improvementy stuff which although oodles of fun, they fall just a tad short of being crafty enough for me to want to blog about.  Eh.

Next on the list?  Organizing my embroidery floss!

(probably another "eh", but oh the colors!)

In the meantime, here's a picture of something I made many many moons ago.  By the time I took this picture, it had had many years of love behind it, and I only had my very outdated cell phone with me.

She was a present for my baby niece, who as you can see, isn't a baby anymore!

Thanks for stopping by!

A Foray in Needlework

Today I have something new for you!  I have been wanting to venture into embroidery for quite a while now, but as I'm not one of those persons who simply goes out and buys everything I need at once, it usually takes me a while to compile all the tools needed for any new craft that I'm interested in.  Truth be told, finances are always tight in my household, so I have to gather crafting supplies little by little.  Anyway, point being,  I finally got around to doing some embroidery.  Okay, so its just some embellishing, but hey it counts!

These are some felt badges that I embellished with different embroidery stitches.  I forgot to include something in the picture for size reference before sending them off to their new homes, but they are 3 inches tall.  This is the very first embroidery that I've ever done.  The cupcake was my first one, and I learned back stitch, satin stitch , and whip stitch with that one.  The sugar skull was my second one, and I learned how to do a french knot and a daisy stitch.  I love how they turned out, and I look forward to making more of these little felt badges!

here are a couple of close ups...

I used some beads as sprinkles on the cupcake.

Thanks for stopping by today!