Simply Beautiful image from Pinterest

Source: centrogarden.com via Rylee on Pinterest

All right, I've tried posting my response to the 8,000 "likes" and "comments" on Pinterest and the demands for the "How to directions"...I've tried posting a response 10 times and I've been denied by error messages.

Dang.

Anyway....I didn't make this arrangement originally, I only pinned it from another pinterest user and the link is from the original website - www.centrogarden.com in Burlington, Ontario Canada. They have a sweet little shop that I would love to visit and spend a week volunteering in!!!

However, if I was going to make this I would go to a local dime store (as suggested by another commentor) and buy a few tall cylinder glass vases. Then I would walk around my yard (or close by) and look for small branches. I would cut a few and bring them home. Then I would get some clear glass beads and with jewelry wire, I would weave them into the nests of the branches to weight them in the water. Done.  Alright, I'd add a few oval candles for effect.

For winter I'd throw some cranberries in for some extra color and holiday cheer. For Easter, I'd throw some miniature plastic easter eggs - maybe with a little water thrown in to weight them in the water or a small flower head that would float around.

This is a total Winter through Spring display and easy-peasy to make.

The original image is from here -

Repurposing a wool scarf

One of my New Year's Resolutions is to continue along my creativity path.  Not sure what that means but I'm happy to amble along finding new crafty projects. So I wiped the dust of my sewing machine and just started sewing.  

I found some inspiration on this website about reusing old sweaters.  I had picked up a yellow wool scarf that I imagine someone had lovingly knitted  and gifted to a loved one.  Unfortunately, the scarf found itself washed in hot water, which magically felted the natural fibers.  Now the shrunken scarf wasn't so lovely looking and was donated to a local thrift store.

Well as the old saying goes, One person's junk is another person's (or in this case, dog's) treasure.  I've happily been cutting up the scarf and making toys for my boy, Teiko.  The cost of the scarf was $1 and the time to make two toys so far.   As you can see in the photo, Teiko is quite happy to have new toys. 

And  I don't have to pay $10 for a dog toy that will be shredded within days.  Bonus!

A new year and new things to try

My first knitting class starts this week at the local community center.  I'm going to learn how to make a hat and in the second class a pair of socks.... not sure what I'll do with socks but it will be fun to learn something new.

Holiday Decorating UP style

Known locally in the UP as Princess Pine, this ground moss' official name is Lycopodium Obscurum  or Wolf's Paw.  It's a rhizome growing plant so it's a very good idea to cut off each piece and not pull or tear it out of the ground.

  

It's a great ground cover and a good signal of a healthy forest.  Teiko and I spent a nice afternoon in the Ottawa National Forest picking this cute plant for making a couple of Christmas wreathes.

I love the feathery texture of the branches and a different look from the regular pine bough wreaths sold everywhere.  This wreath is hanging at the office.

Crafty family members

I come from a long line of crafters. My grandmothers could sew, knit, crochet, paint, and DYI just about anything around the house/farm. Pictured above is my Uncle Bear's contribution to the craft world. The bench above is made from head/foot boards of old metal beds. What a great idea to recycle the metal into a modern yet country-cute bench.

Digital scrapbooking - kinda fun

For my Grama Boo's birthday last month, my mom wanted to give a unique present. She had a great idea to make a photo collage of her parents from their highschool days. Yes, G-Boo married her highschool sweetheart, Lloyd right after her graduation, much to the displeasure of her family.

I suggested going digital so we could preserve the photos and add some graphic embellishments to the look feel. My mom had some great photos, I found a couple as well but the pièce de résistance was the letter Lloyd wrote in G-Boo's junior year book. Mom wanted that to be the focus. So I scanned everything in, cleaned up the scratched photos and cropped the hand-written notes and began laying out the images in Photoshop. I also found some great on-line websites that have more than you can image in digital artwork and embellishments. The one that I really liked and was easy to navigate is called the Shabby Princess

Quilt Update

Sorry if I am obsessing about the quilt thing lately, but I just have to write this out. And since this is my blog, I can do pretty much that.

Anyhoo.... I took GBoo's (grama boo) advice and brought a nice polar fleece queen size blanket. This week, between work and snow storms, I cut the blanket down a few inches to fit the quilt top. Again, not really a having a clue to what I was doing but following instinct and GBoo's advice, I stitched it all together.

I still need to tie the two pieces together so I don't have what GBoo calls a "parachute", but I'm still amazed.... Two nights ago I tested it out on the sofa....and I must report, it was cozy warm. Total awesome feeling" And I must say one hella warm quilt.

Because of my reconnection with this quilt top that I stared 12 years ago, I was inspired to read a book by the Madison author, Jennifer Chiaverini, called The Runaway Quilt. In this wonderful story, Sylvia explores her own family history through quilts and a memoir left by a great aunt. So imagine my surprise when one the patterns discussed in the story is my own pattern called "Shoo Fly". And I learned that all my mistakes can be called "Humble blocks" because as the story goes only God can make perfection. So I'll sign on to that one.....

I think I might have the quilting bug - if only until the next obsession.

Quilt 2 idea

Okay, totally disregard my earlier comments about quilts - and me never doing another one. I think I might be hooked. I actually like the order and zen-like drive that occurs with designing and building the top. Here's the design I created in photoshop and illustrator to work out the ideas I'm thinking about for the next quilt. I love technology!!!!!

The first quilt is ready for finishing

I've finished the borders and my first quilt top is now complete. Like I said before, I really had no idea what I was doing when I made this - but in the end it kind of finished up well. I just found out that the pattern I used is called the shoo-fly and can be used to create some awesome designs. Some great advise from Grama Boo will have me finishing this baby in a few days. I'm going to buy a queen size fleece blanket and stitch the two pieces together - then I don't have to deal with the batting.

It feels good to finish something I started 12 years ago.

My first (and probably) last quilt

Here's my first quilt top that I finally finished. I started the darn thing in 1996. I seem to remember getting all gun-ho about making a quilt - I had no real plan, I just bought a bunch of kinda matching fabrics, stitched together 10 panels got fed up and put it way.

So this weekend and 12 years later, I pulled out the unfinished quilt top and enough pre-cut pieces to finish something. So I started sewing, and ironing away. I don't know the name of the pattern I created, I don't know how to finish it off, and I learned that I still don't know a thing about quilting at all.

I'm hoping some quilters in the family can help me attach this topper to the rest of the stuff that makes a finished quilt

Jewelry making

So I have gotten back into jewelry making lately after a several year hiatus. I love to find unique class and ceramic beads to make earrings to which I often include a swarovski crystal. I typically bend my own wire to make the earring and the head pin of the jewelery using 18 to 20 gauge half hard silver wire. This earring is one of my favorites as it catches the light and really shines. My new Pentax A20 camera gets some really nice close-ups.

How I learned to crochet

This is so cool, just figured out how to embed a video on my blog.

Anyway....this video is how I learned to crochet last winter. I played it over and over and over until I got the correct stitches. A great learning tool if you want to learn crocheting, knitting, etc.