MIA

I know.... I know, I've been MIA lately.  In fact, it's been almost an entire year since my last post. I apologize, I keep meaning to post in my spare time, but that explains the problem... I am currently running extremely low on spare time.  In January, 2014, I went back to school for my second bachelor degree and it has been incredibly hectic here ever since.  I had a few spare moments tonight, so I thought I'd let everyone know that I am still here and creative, just lacking on time.  I'd like to share completed projects that I had promised to share, more projects, and past happenings.  So here it goes...

I couldn't resist sharing this self portrait my son created during the 3rd grade.  I absolutely love it and it is still on my wall of fame!

When I was in Chicago visiting my girl, Jessica, we had a photo booth session.  As a 'thank you' for hosting my trip, I replicated the film strip at 1.5x the size in graphite and gifted it to Jessica.  I kept the original film strip as a souvenir from my trip.

I was so incredibly inspired by Lucky Jackson's stitched portraits, that I used her technique to create similar portraits of my kids...

This one turned out alright, but I was really taken by the backside stiching,  pictured on the left.

We had another robin make a nest in the tree in our front yard.  In just a few short weeks the baby birds grew up and flew away.

Unfortunately, these baby robins weren't as lucky.  After a spring storm, we found these guys on the ground.  We took them in, nursed them back to health, and released them in a nearby green space.

We also hatched baby quail in the spring.

Did I mention that my 9 year old was a budding artist?

Remember the opera gloves I made for my aunt's wedding last spring?  For her wedding gift, I wanted to make her something special and meaningful, so I made her a "wedding band quilt".  I didn't have the time to create an entire quilt, so I settled on making a small pillow sham.  I wasn't a fan of any of the traditional wedding band quilt patterns, as they tend to have flat sides on the circles... so I created my own pattern and used a paper piecing method to piece the top together.  I didn't manage to get a finished picture, but here is the quilt top completed.  If you look close you will see that it isn't perfect, but for my first real attempt at quilt piecing, I was pretty happy. Besides, you can tell by the errors, it is handmade.  :-)   As a special bonus, I used gold fabric I inherited from my grandmother, who passed away in 2004, and fabric I cut from a few of my dad's old shirts.  I thought this would be more meaningful for my aunt to have her mother and only brother represented in this quilted pillow sham.

I made this fox stole as my mom's Christmas present last year.  You can find the pattern here.

 My passion flower bloomed this past summer... one of my favorite flowers!

And check out this Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!  This was a volunteer that sprouted from our compost!

I re-decorated my house, painted the green-apple wall color a neutral gray and updated the wood toned trim and mantle.  The before picture can be seen here.

These were fun...  I crocheted/knit masks for my cousins.  Both attended their first semester in college  this past fall and I thought, who doesn't need fun masks/disguises in college?  This one is an Ood mask from the Doctor Who series. Pattern can be found here.

And this one is a viking disguise, pattern found here.

I knitted a fun button cowl for my son's art teacher. (I made up the knitting pattern and if I find my notes, I will post this as a free pattern).

 ....  and I made one for the Music teacher too.

On a sad note, our lovable rooster, Duck Dynasty, passed away in early November from old age.  This happened only a few weeks after I created this screen print, which was created as a testament to our family's fondness of our sweet rooster and turned into a tribute piece.

I also played photographer for my friend, Kiesha....  out of the 900+ pictures that I took during this photo session, I did manage to get a few good shots.

I did one of those BYOB painting parties with my craft group...  it was fun, although I wish we had the option to paint more interesting subject matter.

Last but not least, I used this bracelet as inspiration to make my mom a bracelet for Christmas.

That just about catches you up to now.  I have very little time to create, but it still happens now and again. I have big plans for this summer and hope to be able to post sometime between now and then.  If you have any questions about anything or just want to say hi, feel free to e-mail me! Until next time, Happy Crafting!!