Hoppy Easter! In Pictures

Happy Easter everyone! We've been busy preparing ourselves for Easter in all the ways, including, of course, crafting. Here's a smattering of what we've been up to:

Brr, baby! Get Crafty!

I can't warm up lately, and part of it is our unheated basement. There are vents down there but we'd had them closed off as the basement isn't finished. Another problem is the gale force winds that come in through the front door cracks. Ok, that's a little exaggeration, but there is a breeze. Enter in the door draft stopper. Or draft dodger, but that has a whole different connotation for me. I saw one ages ago and I searched all over for it and kicked myself when I finally did find it again. Of course I had seen it at Betz White's beautiful and inspiring site! I should have looked there first. It looks like a wooden log, with cute leaves on it. Scroll down (slowly, because there are too many other gorgeous things on the way).

Not being a stellar sew-er (that is, one that sews), and trying to use up crafty items I already have, I pulled out the felted sweater stash. I bought several at thrift stores over the last couple of years and have started many little projects with them, finishing very few. I never realized the accumulation of grey felted sweaters I had. Knowing that I wanted to make a little log-like draft stopper, I worried that the grey would look bad. I thought about over-dyeing the sweaters to a nice brown. I thought about how I could spritz them with dye to give a mottled look. I thought about how crazy I was and told myself to just buck up and make the darn thing. So, with Peanut as my assistant, we cut arms off sweaters and rolled them up.

Then Peanut helped me sew each rolled sweater so it wouldn't unroll.

Then we seamed the three sweaters together, and I tried to have the bulkiest on the "base" of the branch, and the thinnest on what would be the "end" of the branch.

To make the "end" of the branch look more like the end, I cut the roll in two and sewed the ends so that the branch ended in a fork.

Next we needed to embellish a little bit. Peanut added a flower and chose a nice button for the center

and I rolled up half of a sleeve and seamed it to hold in a small branch shape and attached that to the main branch. I also added an owl with awesome stash buttons that were perfect for some owlie eyes.

Here's the finished project, doing it's job!

We had a lot of fun making this and it took maybe an hour. A bonus to sewing felted sweaters is the stitches are so easily hidden. I just did a running stitch (and just had to look up the name for what I was doing) and a whip stitch (knew that name!) for attaching the branch and owl and seaming the owl as well.

So, if you're feeling cold and can't warm up, break out the stash in whatever form you have. Fabric? Seam up a tube and stuff it. Yarn? Knit or crochet up a tube and stuff that. Or, make it super quick and roll up some felted sweaters. Have fun, and stay warm!

Snow Babies

Or not such babies! Mom can't go out and play, so what are two antsy girls to do? Get all bundled and go play out on the deck by themselves while mom watches from the window. :) Everyone is happy this time!

This was just before all the drizzle started this afternoon. Ick. I am not a fan of drizzle ever, but when it's supposed to be snowing? Definitely not my favorite! We'd had a foot and a half of snow out there on that deck 2 days ago. Since then it's been all melty and drippy.

Why couldn't mom go out and play this time? Just a little surgery. Doing well, healing nicely. Sore a bit, but taking it easy. Derek has been wearing all the hats, poor guy. He's so good. :) Look what I had waiting for me when I got home:

Goosie also made me a present. She had broken a comb the morning I went into the hospital, and she taped it and then wrapped it up in toilet paper and taped that all up. I think she gets her taping skills from Grandma Sue! ;) It was very sweet. Then Peanut ran up stairs and wrapped a brush in the same way for me. Very thoughtful little girls!

Anyway, it's entirely possible you will see more posts from me as I'm on the mend~what else can a girl do if I'm banned from housework/cooking/laundry/vacuuming/dusting for a while? I also promise not to refer to myself in the third person anymore. That's sort of annoying. :D

Projects

Today we did some painting projects. It was part of the weekly read-a-long projects with the Little House on the Prairie Group on Ravelry. I've mentioned it before, but each week we read a chapter and do some projects. This project was to reflect on the sky at sunset~those beautiful colors. We decided to throw in some fall items, since it's definitely upon us here in West Michigan. (I scraped my windows yesterday morning!)

Here are the girls in action:

And our finished projects, which we hung on the windows. They are like stained glass, and are beautiful.

Goosie's:

Peanut's:

Mine:

Now, I'm off to see if Goosie has a fever. She doesn't look it in that action shot up there, but she complained of a sore throat, has sneezed a few times and felt hot to me. Right now she is like a limp noodle on the couch. Let's hope she's just tired.

Projects

The girls love a project. "Let's do a project mom!" So, about a week ago, I said it to them first-"Let's do a project!" They were more than ready for one. This idea came from a group on Ravelry called "Little House on the Prairie". We are reading the series and doing projects from within the chapters. (We're ahead on the reading, but don't tell anyone!)

I took a pillowcase and cut it into 2 pieces. Then we ventured outside and picked some flowers. Armed with wooden blocks, you place flower petals under the pillow case (over newspaper or magazines) and pound away. We had some trouble with the blocks, so the girls tried rocks-perfect! Pounding away any stress, frustration, or extra energy, we pulverized the pretty flower petals (and stems, leaves-even chives!) and made these great prints! I will heat set them in the dryer and frame them. I have the perfect spot to hang these, and the girls were so proud. (Although I think I needed to do the pounding more than they did!)

Making Butter

Yeesh, it's been forever. No excuses, but thought I'd share here that this summer we are reading the Little House on the Prairie book series and doing crafts/projects as we go. Today we made butter. :)

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Ah, St. Patrick's Day, the day when we're all a little Irish, right? Are you wearing green? If not, consider yourself pinched. Here's what we made to celebrate the day: Leprechaun Catchers!

There's the ladder there to have the leprechaun to climb to the top (and the sign telling him not to as a taunt!) and then some golden nuggets on top. When he steps on top, there's a trap door to catch him! He'll fall to the bottom of the hat and we'll have ourselves our very own leprechaun to take us to our pot of gold! Wahooie! (Haven't caught one yet, but we're waiting...) And look how well Goosie wrote her sign! I was impressed, and loved her shamrock. ~note: leprechaun catcher idea courtesy of FamilyFun.com

Corned beef and cabbage for dinner too along with some Irish Soda Bread. Hope it turns out well. 

Today is also our kitty's birthday. She is 15 years old today. :) Here she is playing in the stash.  

Happy Birthday Hawkins! (Look at that face!)

Butterfly Week

This week we were doing butterflies, since tomorrow we are going to Frederick Meijer Gardens to see the butterflies in the huge greenhouse area they have. It's a great time and we go every year. So, in the spirit of that, this week we focused on butterfly-sy things. 

First, it was a simple snack:

Then we made shrinky things-like Shrinky-Dinks, but inspired by Poopscape Projects at www.poopscape.com, I used #6 plastic (the kind berries come in or, in my case, the top covers to Qdoba take out containers. If you look hard at the "A", you can see "#6"). We did color them with colored pencils, so after drawing the shapes with Sharpie, and cutting out the shapes, I scuffed the plastic up with sand paper. Then we colored away! Baked at 220* F for a while with not much action, so I bumped it up to 245* F. Worked great! Oh, the green underneath is a cheap-o silicon baking mat. Works great!

That was a lot of fun. I loved Shrinky Dinks as a kid, still do! We turned ours into necklaces on fish line, so the butterflies just float there. So cool!

Then we made some stained glass butterflies with construction paper and tissue paper. These make even the grey sky look cheery! But it's great with the sun, naturally. 

[Hmm, insert photo here. I know I took one--where is it? I'm totally going to dust the camera for fingerprints....]

Finally, today, while we didn't make anything having to do with butterflies, we went outside and ran around, chased our shadows, and played "Follow the Leader" and yes, we pretended we were butterflies. :)

We did make these though:

Peanut Butter Cookies that are pretty darn yummy. www.recipezaar.com "Big Grandma's Best Peanut Butter Cookies". Bet you wish these were scratch-n-sniff. Or taste! Better yet!

Oh! And, that package from yesterday's post was not my super secret swap package, but rather one of the Stitch-It! Podcast Midwest Charity blankets! Phew! I was glad to figure that out and that I could open it. :)