felt!

I have a confession. 
I've been having a mini love affair with felt this summer.  It's the real reason I haven't finished knitting that sweater I wrote about... that, or possibly the fact that after chasing two kids all day my craft-time has been relegated to 10 or 15 minutes stolen here and there.  I cant always knit, right?
So I've really been making a dent in the giant stack of felt I impulse bought last fall.
And I've been making Christmas ornaments.  In summer.  That's right.
You gotta get an early jump on this business when you have small kids.
I started with these (Christmas present spoiler if you happen to be one of my nieces or nephews, and can read, read no further!)

 

I wanted to make the kids a Christmas ornament every year so that when they grew up they would have a unique, handmade set of ornaments imbued with all their magical Christmas memories to put on their own tree.  I also want ornaments that are unbreakable and wonderfully soft and textured.

sooooo..made these little wool felt friends and they were so cute I decided all the kids in the family are getting one for Christmas this year...

I wont put pictures of them all yet... because I haven't finished making them.  I got side tracked in July with this birthday crown (okay, technically, it's a tiara) for my big.

 This might also be a new birthday tradition for nieces and nephews. 

Then I got side-tracked again with these fun matryoshka dolls to depict the seasons.  This has been a collaborative effort between Sadie and I.  She is picking out all the felt and thread colors for me.  I like her taste, I must say!

so far we have done summer and autumn.

 

Now the pressure is on to finish up winter and spring.  Sadie is worried I might not get them done in time for Christmas. She has her felt all stacked up and ready to go, and my embroidery floss is all in a tangled pile, or as Sadie says, "all raveled up."  As you can see, my embroidery skills, are um, rudimentary.  But I'm learning as I go.  And my audience is very forgiving.

 my two favorite little sewing helpers.  They keep things lively for me, that's for sure!

 

vegetable dyed easter eggs

Sadie and I tried out some vegetable dye ideas for our Easter eggs this year--I love the way the colors came out on these.  They really aren't hard to do either; they just require a smidgen of patience, because they need to soak in their color baths for about 15 hours.  But it's so sciencey and fun--and the unveiling of the final colored eggs was well worth the wait!
The basic dye "recipe" which is really more of a process is this:

2 cups water 

1 T. vinegar

coloring agents:

blue: 5+ red cabbage leaves, 

yellow: 3T. Turmeric, 

Purple & Grey (same dye, one egg was white, one egg was brown to start) 

2 whole beets+1/2 cup wild blueberry, 

Khaki Brown: 1 red onion skin +2T. Dill seed, 

orange (light & dark): 3 yellow onion skins, plus 4 green carrot tops

Add water, eggs, vinegar and plant material/spices together in a sauce pan, bring to boil, simmer for 11 minutes.  Carefully pour all of the ingredients into a mason jar.  Add eggs in last, with a spoon so they don't crack.  Let sit on the counter till cool, then put in fridge for the next 15 hours or so.  Open jars, scoop out beautiful eggs.  Let dry on paper towels (don't scrub or wash!)

Have a very happy Easter!

for the birds

Sadie has been after me to make a bird feeder for all the chickadees that have been flitting around our porch.  I saw this quick and easy idea for a pine cone bird feeder in a book we have, and we decided to give it a try.  It is a perfectly textural and messy project for a 2-year-old.  All you need is a pine cone, birdseed and some peanut butter.  I didn't have peanut butter so I mixed coconut oil and a little bit of almond butter--I'm sure you could use suet or any other sticky fat that birds would dig.

Directions:

1.) Tie a piece of twine (for hanging) around your pine cone before you slather it with the nut butter. Believe me, it is easier to do this way.
2.) Glop the nut butter all over the pine cone (you may need to taste test it first)
3.) Roll sticky messy pine cone in birdseed
4.) Apply a few lingonberries to make it festive.
5.) Hang in trees and wait for birds to come eat it (or squirrels, OR moose and bears according to Sadie).

Happy Holidays to our backyard friends.

just in time

One of my favorite things about Christmas growing up was the awesome stockings our mom made us.  I decided I needed to pass the tradition along to Sadie, so I started sewing her a stocking last December, and I just finished it last night.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with how it turned out, considering: 1.) I have never sewed a sequin onto anything in my life, and 2.) Cash came out looking just a little bit like Mr. Hanky the Christmas Poo from Southpark.

Still, When I asked Sadie, "Who's that?" and pointed to the dog, she said, "Tash!" So if its good enough for her, its good enough for me.

Hopefully this stocking will be just the beginning of many fun and happy holiday traditions our family celebrates together in the future!

homemade/handmade...goodies/treasures

Just finished up making a batch of this peppermint bark that many of the blogs I follow rave about. I have to say, it's good.  And pretty.

And I couldn't resist sharing these sweet little ornaments my mom made us.

Aren't they awesome? She made them with felted thrift store wool. Sadie loves these.  And its okay for her to love on these ornaments, because they are very unbreakable. 

Also, check out the coffee cup cozies she made out of up-cycled wool sweaters:

Add these to your list of great things you can do with wool from the thrift store!  Thanks for the Christmas treasures mom!

Whirled Peas--Christmas Ornament Giveaway

I've already confessed how I have a new obsession for needle felting.

 and I just can't stop myself from making a bazillion of these felted pea-in-the-pod ornaments. (I got the idea from this awesome blog)

They are everything I love... quirky, whimsical, natural, made from all biodegradable materials, and they remind me that inside every dried up seed pod is a little kernel of life, just waiting for spring to return.

 and, naturally, they lend themselves to all kinds of puns.

But really, the world could use a little more peas during the holidays. Don't you think? 

If you you need some whirled peas to deck your halls, leave me a comment below--tell me what you will do to bring more peace (or peas) into the world in 2012.

I will randomly select a winner on December 1st. 

mini-mukluk making marathon.

My sewing room is in defcom four disaster mode as I attempt to throw together as many things as I can for the Thanksgiving craft fair.  Saturday I sewed fabric bags, Sunday--Christmas skirts and appliqued onesies, and Yesterday... 5 pairs of mini-muks. I wasn't counting on getting that many made, but Sadie took a 2 1/2 hour nap (!) That almost never happens.  I am loving the magic mukluks with the stars, as well as the soft organic cotton mukluks for wee babes.  It is a nice way to use up some small pieces of the fabric I got from spoonflower. I am really making my sewing machine work hard this year!

Needle Felting

Gosh...I keep meaning to post some follow up pictures of the awesome storm we had, but I have been busy and distracted this week, coming up with some new life-schemes.  To make matters worse, I got a miniature needle felting kit in the mail today.  Now all I want to do is make these:

This is what you will all be receiving for Christmas this year.  Sorry.

I'm not even kidding.

Foxy Sadie

 The Arctic Fox is a critter whose cuteness is pretty much unparalleled as far as fuzzy white things go.   

 

Still. I think Sadie is trying to give this one a run for its money.

 Is it wrong that I kinda wish my kid always had a tail?

It's funny, because even though this costume is supposed to be a lil' fox, it kind of reminds me of this:

Which would also be another great costume.  I even have a grey fox tail I could switch out the white one with.  You might be wondering why I have so many fox tails.  That is a valid question.  I was wondering the same thing when I cleaned out my sewing room and found three of them. 

Happy Halloween... Get your wild rumpus on:)

Saturday Sewing: Mini-Mukluks

 With the cold weather settling in, and the temp dipping down into the teens for several weeks now, Sadie has been long overdue for a pair of warmer winter boots, and I have been scouring the online pattern sources looking for something simple, and mukluk-y.  I haven't been so lucky, so I had to make up my own pattern.  I am kind of liking how it came out. 

 

I found this awesome, double-sided minky fabric when I was down in the big city.  I had no idea what it would be good for, but it was 75% off, and so soft and warm, so I bought the rest of the bolt.  Turns out, it sews up into some sweet little muks. Sometimes those impulse purchases do come in handy!

I still have a few tweaks I need to make on this pattern, but I think overall it's a good one. {Really quick and easy to put together, which is the only way I sew these days} In fact, the hardest thing about it was just trying to get Sadie to sit/ stand still long enough so I could take a picture.