Progress!

Tana and I have finished several projects, so you can finally quit holding your breath!

If you have an ugly card table like this one, and you need it for your Thanksgiving celebration, this is a simple way to cover it.

Kimba, over at A Soft Place to Land, gave me the inspiration (and the tutorial) for this. I thought I was going to have to make a tablecloth, but I found a round one made of muslin in my stash!

Now I just need to find a pretty centerpiece to make and we’ll be all set for Thanksgiving! Well, except for the cooking and baking, of course.

Tana recently made two jewelry holders out of items found around the house.

An old picture frame plus some barbed wire became…

a cowgirl’s necklace holder!

And an old toaster oven rack became…

her earring holder! She painted it pink and wrapped ribbon around it. Simple, but oh, so clever!

Now for the sweater teaser. I’ve been wanting to harvest yarn from old sweaters for a long time. Periodically I would check thrift stores for a sweater with all the right qualifications, with no success. So recently I just went ahead and bought two sweaters that would suffice, although they’re not my favorite. One requirement is that they be made of an all-natural yarn. Acrylic is just too cheap to buy new to make it worth your time to recycle it. So I picked these two.

AFTER I got home with them, I read the instructions on a blog called My Virtual Sanity.  Evidently I need a sweater with seams like the one on the left, NOT the one on the right. I realize it’s kinda hard to see in the picture, so I’ll explain. The one on the left has seams that were either knit or crocheted together, while the one on the right was serged together. Plus, it has more than one color in it which will result in more short pieces of yarn. So since I lucked out and picked one sweater with the right kind of seams, I got busy unraveling. I picked this sweater because it is cotton and the yarn is bulky. I don’t much care for the color, but it’s no biggie.

Wait a minute! What’s this?! It’s not one bulky strand, it’s 3 strands knitted together! I’ve been misled! Oh, well, I’ll just keep them together and use the yarn like that.

Here’s the crinkly yarn tied into skeins. (Sorry for the blurry picture. I was in too big a hurry to check the quality of my photos before I moved on to the next step.)

Soaking in hot water with shampoo is supposed to remove the crinkles. Maybe I didn’t leave them long enough, because they did relax some, but not all the way.

I draped them on hangers and hung them on the clothesline to dry. It took them about 3 days to dry, so I brought them in the first evening and let them hang in the house. I’m crocheting a hat with it, but it’s going to be awhile before I’m done, so that will have to wait for another day and another blog post.

As for the other sweater, I’m searching for good ideas. I’m leaning towards a purse or bag….

 

Be A Winner

The only quotation I could think of offhand about winning was “It’s not whether you win or lose; it’s how you play the game”. That doesn’t really apply to my topic here, because I’m talking about entering giveaways, not playing games that include winners and losers. So I went in search of some more applicable quotes. How’s this?

“Anybody can win unless there happens to be a second entry.” George Ade (1866-1944)

“Life is not about the things we win, but about the things we keep.” Kazi Shams

“There is one quality which one must possess to win, and that is definiteness of purpose, the knowledge of what one wants, and a burning desire to possess it.” Napoleon Hill (Sounds like three things to me!)

Okay, that enough. Ever since I unexpectedly won an iPad by donating to a Christian movie fundraiser, I’ve kinda caught the giveaway bug. Did you ever see a movie called “The Prize Winner of Defiance, Ohio“? It made an impression on me! The family life was not the most inspiring, but I was fascinated by the woman’s ability to win contests.

So I’ve entered a lot of giveaways recently. Some I’ve shared with you here and on Facebook. Sometimes you get an extra entry by blogging about a giveaway, but I’ve tried to be circumspect in that regard. I don’t want my blog to be all about giveaways and contests, even if they are craft-related! So I’ve shared just a few that I thought were fabulous.

The point of this post is that I’ve been winning lately! In the last couple of weeks, I’ve won three different prizes. First, I won a $10 gift card from Create For Less. They’re celebrating their 10th anniversary by giving away 10 $1o gift cards every day in August! So it’s not too late for you to get in on that one.

The second thing I won was $50 from Krrb (pronounced “curb”). This is an interesting concept. It’s like a garage sale on the internet. You can post anything you want to buy, sell, trade, or give away. They’ve been sponsoring contests to try to build up their site and this is the second one in which I’ve won $50! So go check it out, and in the next contest, give me a run for my money! My little corner is called Earthly Treasures (which I hold lightly, not considering them to be worthy of the things to come.)

So that was exciting! The third thing I won last week was a pair of necklaces from Little b. Actually, the giveaway was hosted by Agape Love Designs. Since Tana is the jewelry maker in the family, this one is going to her!

Okay, people, if I can do it, you can too! There are giveaways and contests ALL OVER the internet, in just about every category you can imagine. I focus mainly on crafts and sewing, but I’ve also entered some for kitchenware or furniture, etc. Go… and win!

Bargains!

Dear Hubby and I had to go to town today and we had some extra time, so we went shopping in two thrift stores. I found some wonderful items and I thought I’d share them with you.

First, The Complete Book of Edible Landscaping. Right now, it’s too hot and, more importantly, too dry, to do any gardening, but this will come in handy someday!

Next, these great little wine charms. I thought Tana could make good use of them in her jewelry making.

I love toile! But it can be overwhelming in large amounts (to me anyway), so when I saw this, I was delighted! What could be better than toile and denim combined?! Somebody hand-made this bag. It makes me wonder if the owner just got tired of it, or if it was an unappreciated gift. Kinda sad to see something so lovely end up in the thrift store… but it worked out well for me!

Speaking of bags, yesterday’s giveaway inspired me. So I found a couple of items today that I might be able to make into a similar bag.

A beautiful, bronze lace table runner…

and a crocheted doily (with a hole) for 59 cents. Artfully arranged, the hole will never show! Oh, and I don’t necessarily plan to use the two pieces on the same bag. I have lots of items in my stash that I’m thinking of putting together.  I can’t wait to get started!

Rowdy found these two beautiful shirts!

Something to wear next time we have a singing gig!

One last bargain to share with you; only this one didn’t come from a thrift store.

We were listening to Swap Shop on the radio and heard about this FREE refrigerator! Rowdy went and picked it up yesterday and we put it in the new house. It’s not hooked up yet, so I don’t know. Maybe we’ll find out it wasn’t such a great deal after all. But if it works, I’ll get some appliance paint and spruce it up.

Have you scored any bargains lately?

Creative Saturday

Tana and I were creatively productive yesterday! I focused on paper projects and she made more necklaces.

First I printed this palm tree onto an old encyclopedia page. I saw the idea here at Ruffles and Stuff. And can you believe it? My library is GIVING away encyclopedias in their sale room! The only question now is, what do I do with it? I don’t really want to frame it as she did. So I’m brainstorming, trying to come up with other uses for this simple craft.

Then I found this free printable at Oh The Lovely Things.

It’s a pretty little pillow box! Great for wrapping small gifts.

It was a little fiddly trying to get it glued together. But isn’t it lovely?!

Here are the necklaces Tana made today:

Here’s a close-up of the charm. So pretty!

She says she would like to sell her jewelry, so if you see something you’d like to have, drop me a line!

Creative Kids

I apologize for the long pause between posts. Life happens sometimes. But rest assured, this blog has never been far from my thoughts and I have been anxious to post again.

The other day I decided to try something quick and easy. I found this tutorial for transferring an image.

I had all the supplies on hand, so I quickly printed off a couple of images and sat down at my craft/sewing table.

Hmmm, all I got was a slightly purple blot, which you may be able to see if you strain your eyes. When all else fails, read the instructions! So I went back and re-read the instructions and realized my mistake. It says to use a photocopied image. Apparently an image from an inkjet printer just won’t work. Rats.

So since I have nothing of value to show you (unless it’s a lesson learned), here are some things my creative kids have been doing!

My daughter, Tana, painted my niece’s fingernails when she was here for a visit. Isn’t that pretty? She put little flower stickers on each one.

My son, Dalton, needed some boxes for organizing his room, so he cut some cardboard boxes to the right size and painted them to fit his decor! Yes, his room is decorated in camouflage. He and his dad painted the walls with a similar design to these boxes and I made camo. curtains for him.

Tana loves to make jewelry. This necklace and earring set are a gift for one of her cousins. I love how she artistically arranged them around a rip in the chair seat to take the photo! LOL

She just made this one today. She has a great sense of style, don’t you think?

Necklace Woes

Whew, this one was a booger! I found this adorable book page necklace tutorial over at Mandipidy.My daughter has a lot of jewelry making supplies, so I begged some of them from her for this project. I think next time I want some jewelry made, I’ll beg her to make it! That’s not to say it’s a difficult project; it’s just that I’m not able to do it well. You, my dear readers, would probably have no trouble at all making this cute necklace!

Book Page Necklace

The circles are about the size of a quarter. The tutorial says draw around a quarter and cut out, but I already had a paper punch that was just right. And I didn’t have varnish, so I sprayed the circles with a shiny glaze I found in my stash. So this turned out nice, but I won’t be attempting it again any time soon!