Five Foot Two

handmade holiday gift ideas....

(This is a wedding quilt I am working on for my best girlfriend) 

Let's hope I can finish it by her first wedding anniversary!

The end of September means the holidays are around the corner. yikes..

My mind starts working overtime

 trying to find great homemade holiday gift ideas.

I just ran across this post that has a handful of useful project downloads for the holidays, for free!! 

I don't have a steadfast plan just yet for my holiday gift ideas. I really want to do quilting on a small scale. So kitchen accessories might be the way I go this year. 

Friends and family beware- you may be the proud owners of yet another potholder!

 Can you wait?

UPDATE on my Kitty potty training:

It has begun,

 Yahooo!! 

And someone has been going with the program! 

Let's hope he can stick with it!!

(He looks really stressed out about it, doesn't he?)

 

Sock monkey update....

Here she is!!

She is on her way, to a lucky little girl.

I hope she gets her share of hugs and kisses!

Here is her back side.

The whole process was fun. 

I made a very big mistake on my first attempt. 

I did not sew up to the heel of the sock and therefore the monkey has no "seat"!

I quickly realized I better pay closer attention to the directions. 

These are the set of socks I picked up at target for $6.

I ended up making her tail out of the brown polka dots,

 and it did not really turn out how I would have liked. 

I needed to add some more brown, so I made her hat out of the toe of the brown sock.

I am always happy to contribute my crafting to a good cause. 

So thank you craft hope, for inspiring me to try a new craft while helping a preschool burn camp.

Sock monkeys....

I am excited about the newest craft hope project!

Let's get crafting again!

(Check out the craft hope badge on the right side of my blog)

They need homemade sock monkeys for a preschool burn camp.

 Read all about it here!

While I was participating in a nursing internship at Yale, one of my most memorable patients 

was a 18 month old whom had accidentally grabbed and turned on the hot faucet while standing in the bathtub. She was burned across her entire lower body.

 Her strength is an inspiration to me.

 So I think I will make a sock monkey in honor of that tiny little girl, who endured so much....

Who wants to make a sock monkey with me! 

The deadline is September 18th.....

The magic of a fairy door......

It all started in Ann Arbor Michigan.....

A brilliant artist made a miniature door and called it a fairy door. The children in the neighborhood started to leave tiny little presents for the fairies who live on the other side of the door.

An imagination is stirred and the magic begins.

I found fairy doors for the inside of the house, and sent them to my favorite little people in the world. THEY ARE A HUGE HIT!  

This is where I found them.

They arrived in darling packages with explicit directions including items for "parent's eyes only".

Instructions are included on how to get the fairies to move in, and reason's why fairies leave fairy dust (glitter) wherever they have been.

They were such a hit with the little girls in my circle, I made some of my own and sent them out to more favorite little people. I have heard that the fairies have: scared away the monsters under the bed, helped with potty training, and helped to give up the beloved pacifiers. 

My niece runs up to her room to remind the cleaners not to vacuum the fairy dust in her room, because she does not want the fairies to move out!  The kids leave the fairies presents, and the fairies leave the kids presents. They even decorate their doors for all the special holidays.....

I hope you and yours can find the magic in your homes too.....

Nothing is sweeter than a morning whisper with wonder..... letting you know the fairies were here overnight with sweet wishes and fairy kisses, it just warms your heart.....

Picnic Quilt with rock pockets.....

Okay, here it goes. My very first quilt attempt. I have been flirting with the idea for awhile, hunting for the perfect one. But every quilt I have liked, seems so overwhelming to start. What if I don't like sewing all of those tiny strips of fabric together? 

Then I saw this free tutorial on sew mama sew from Erin's blog. She made it seem pretty easy and it looks like I could do it in a short amount of time. Who doesn't need a blanket to keep in the car for picnic's, soccer games, cold evenings at the drive-in,and as a beach blanket.  You never know.

So I began my search for fabric and here is a sneak peak at my progress so far.....

Someone else (with fur) found the fabric as soft as I did. Notice he is on the couch, laying on all the uncut fabric.

This is what I have laid out so far. I am going to think about it for a day. I want to see if I really like this combination together. What do you think?

To be continued.....

Olallieberry jam

Well, remember this post, where I went berry picking? You know I had to post a follow up about the first attempt at making jam....

Here it is. I followed the low sugar sure jell recipe for blackberry jam. It went well. It was just a lot more work than I thought it would be. silly me.

 It was messy, really messy. Thanks for the tip M about covering the counters with newpaper before you pour the hot jam into the jars. That saved loads of time on the clean-up.

 

The olalliberries made very seedy jam.

 Even though I strained half of the berries of their seeds. : (

I think I may make some again, sometime. Not anytime soon. The timing is everything, and that stresses me out a little. But all of them preserved. So that is good. The process was fun and  I am enjoying giving them out as presents... isn't that what it is all about anyway?

Handmade baby gifts....

 

  I had to keep these under wraps until they were given out as gifts, so this post has been in the works for awhile. I love to make gifts, the easier the better! The first idea of the growth onesies came about because my god daughter had a silk screened set she was given as a gift. I loved the end result! Her mom took her picture in the appropriate month onesie in the same spot in the house with the same stuffed animal.  You literally watch her grow in a number of similar pictures! It makes for a great scrapbook page!!

 I was unable to find them to purchase, so I finally decided to try to make my own. It was easy. I printed out the numbers on 8X11 paper from the computer font selection, traced them on to double sided wonder under or interfacing and bonded away!

 Send me a note if you would like more detailed instructions!! The result is a boy and girl set for my new niece, that we thought might be a nephew!!!

I was on a roll, so I tried my hat at some embroidery on onesies. I am not really thrilled with the results, I should have taken more time with each one, but I was in a rush to get them done in a deadline. So here they are....

I used some buttons, but I fused the back so they won't easily come off and be ingested (my NICU nurse worry). I also silk embroidered one.  I really love the end result of the silk embroidery flowers I just don't seem to have the patience for it anymore.

The next set are for favorite sister pair of mine. Now these are soo soooo easy!!!! If you can iron you can make these!!

These are a huge hit, always!! I just picked up a tank top or t shirt at old navy or target when I need one. Here is a link for the rhinestone sayings... there are a ton out there. I think I made one for a friend that said Bride for her bachelorette party. I would recommend these as an easy handmade project.

I forgot to take pictures of the full color iron on I made. It ends up looking silk screened, and it seems to be of decent quality. I think it said "cupcake" with a cupcake on it, and I added a rhinestone on the cherry. So it was cute and easy, and loved by the little girls!!!

The picture at the top, was found at a store in Willow Glen called fleurish. I saw these after I sent the package. But the next baby to come around might just have something like that.....

Have you seen these CUPCAKE POPS!

Oh my! What a hit. I first saw them on this website. But I could not understand how Angie made them. Then she announced on her website that martha had found them and she was going to be on martha to explain how to make them. I was all over my TIVO to tape the show. The next day I was at work making them. They were loved for their cuteness (by my coworkers) and for the yummy factor- (by the DH-darling husband) All I can say is: baby showers, bridal showers, birthday partys here we come........

Here is how, at two places
#1. Bakerella.com
#2 Martha Stewart- with video and all!

Check out Angies site at bakerella.com she really has some neat treat ideas!
Enjoy.....

Finished handbag perfect for spring!

Remember this post? My wool knitted bag,

that I felted.

I finally added the finishing touches! I knit the flower petals and then felted them while I needlefelted the green petals in 3D and then needle felted them onto the bag. The flower is pinned onto the bag. Very much a spring thing!!

Well, really like it. I don't know if I will be carrying it around much as my main purse, but maybe now and then.

I recently took a needlefelting class and I really enjoyed it. It is strangely relaxing working with a long multi barbed needle. wierd. I took the class at a darling shop in Burlingame called Yarn, Paper, Scissors. The owner is a lovely women who used to be a divorce attorney and realized there are much happier things to do with her days. So she followed her heart and gave up law and opened up this darling studio for all things crafty! Right up my alley. If you have a chance, take a look, and sit a spell at Yarn, Paper, Scissors.

Here is a darling cupcake I needlefelted in class!

Eat your heart out....

Butterflies and hearts....

Up in the middle of the night again. That is what night shift does to a person (without children). Those on night shift with children are so exhausted they can sleep all day and all night easliy. I should not really talk because that is what I did yesteday and for most of friday. I slept, slept and slept some more. Every once and a while, I just need about 18 hours of sleep. CRAZY. Snuggly.

After all that sleep I was in a creative spirit. I always talk about my favorite scrapbooker ali edwards. On her blog she has a weekend creative project. I have been inspired by some of them and tonights project was taken from her blog. I had made a christmas project like it a couple of years back. Remember this?

So this project reuses this frame and it becomes artwork for the spring time.

The finished project. Kind of cute, clean lines, and refreshing.

It was really easy. I just used a butterfly punch (by Martha of course) found at michaels, and different pattern and solid papers. The dh (darling husband) wanted to know how I colored all the paper. So cute. I didn't. I bought it. :>

Speaking of cute, how can I not love the dh when he wears this t-shirt?

He is not afraid to wear it out of the house either. I don't like him too. It is a tad embarrasing. His friends teased him to no end when he wore it out for his bachelor party. I swear I had nothing to do with it. But man did he earn some points. So beside writing all the wedding thank you's and wearing this t-shirt out in public. He has earned plenty of points. Which is equal to most of my heart. So I made him a heart chocolate cake for {heart} day.

He loved it. (It is a good thing, since I don't like chocolate, he will need to eat all of it!) I picked up the heart shaped rubber pan in the dollar bin at Target. It is the first neoprene pan I have used and I have found that you need to cook it for almost twice as long as usual. It must have something to do with the pan not heating up like a metal one. Does anybody know why?