Completed Project- Invitations

O.k. here are the baby shower invitations!!! I used Paper Source cards and envelopes that I bought at Urban Arts + Crafts. The 4 Bar folded card in strawberry, the 4 bar flat card and coordinating envelope in blossom. The scrapbook paper on the front is a 12x12 by My Mind's Eye which I cut to size. I also used acrylic stamps from Autumn Leaves.

Resolutions

One of my New Years resolutions is to be less of a space case and finish some of my projects. I have about 10-15 projects that are in some stage between conception to completion. According to Feng Shui a cluttered house is a cluttered mind, and even though those projects are organized nicely in their respective places, it is still clutter that I need to get rid of in order to maintain my sanity. One of those projects is my "antique" sampler. I have always been extremely attracted to very ornate antique samplers, but since I seem to share that attraction with a lot of other people... a real antique sampler is WAY out of my budget. So, I decided to make my own. I don't have a specific pattern that I am following. Some of the text and borders I have seen in books and magazines, and the house is a pattern that I made up to look like my house. Anyway, I have been working on this sampler for about 2 years, off and on... more off than on. So I decided to just work on it until it is done!!! So far that has been going pretty well, but we shall see how that goes!!! Any new projects are going to have to take up space in my sketch book until I an get this completed.

Completed Project- layered cake

So, I have been in this baking mood lately. After the Christmas season, I didn't think I would see the day that I would want to do that much baking again... but that day has come. I am throwing a baby shower for my sister-in-law next month, I know that I want to make the cake, so I decided to do a test run. I used a cake recipe that I have never tried before so I just needed to make sure that it wasn't a flop. I made this white cupcake recipe from Martha but I made it into 3-8.5" layers for 1 cake.

I cut the tops of each layer off so that each later was flat. I cut each of those 3 layers in half. The fist layer, I pipped a white chocolate mousse that I made, around the edge and filled the inside with raspberry jam.

The second layer I pipped the white chocolate mousse around the edge and then filled the inside with the same mousse. I continued to do this until the cake was complete.
I also found a really great use for my Pom Tea Jars. It is great to hold your pastry bag when you are filling it.
I ended up icing the cake with a very basic vanilla buttercream that I colored pink. It turned out sooooo hideous that I didn't even take a picture!!!! For the actual baby shower cake, I found another Martha recipe for a white chocolate buttercream, and I might just forgo the pink food coloring. I found some pink fondant, that I don't have to make, and I was considering using that for decoration... but I haven't made my final decision yet. The cake was delicious!!! The icing wasn't quite up to my standard as far as taste as well as its appearance and I think that when I make this cake the 2nd time, I am going to put less jam in between the layers. I think that the jam make the cake a little too sweet, and I think that if I just use less, it will turn out perfect. I will take pics of the official cake and post them after the baby shower.

Completed Project- Candy

I lovelovelove to make candy; I like cooking in general, but my favorite thing to make is candy. I recently stumbled onto Amy Karol's blog; Angry Chicken and she had made homemade marshmallows dipped in Chocolate and sprinkled with hazelnuts. I thought that was GRREEAAT!

I usually make hard candy or peppermint patties, but I have never attempted marshmallows. Sooo... I did it and they turned out wonderful. I am not a big fan of hazelnuts so I sprinkled mine with Heath Bar pieces and they were superb!!!

I also used some of them for a S'more concoction that Martha had on her website. They were very rich, but very good!!!!

My next project: Baby Shower invitations.

Completed Project: Sally's Scrapbook

Like a good Sister-in-Law, I took Sally out for her 21st birthday. We were originally planning a trip out to Las Vegas (my home town) for the event, but there was a shortage of funds. Although we weren't able to go out to LV, we still went out for a night on the town and I took LOTS of pictures so that I could fill up what was supposed to be the Las Vegas scrapbook... I figure no matter what she should still have a book with all of her 21st birthday pics! I worked really hard within a limited amount of time, and I got it done just in time for Christmas.

I bought a kit for a 12"x12" scrapbook almost a year ago with this scrapbook in mind. It had a Valentine's Day theme so everything was black white and red, which is soooo Sally. I started by using just the stuff that was included in the kit and half way through the scrapbook I started to get bored!!!! They say that poverty encourages ingenuity but in this case it was definitely boredom. I started making my own photo corners, paper, embellishments and much more!! I really like how the book came together as a whole but I am more proud of the 2nd half! I also found out that my favorite tool to use when scrapbooking is puffy paint!!!! Here are some of the layouts:

Current projects

I have about 50 Projects going on right now. Unfortunately I can't share most of them because they are Christmas presents. Soooo I will share those after Christmas so they remain a surprise :) One that I can share is a wreath I made for this holiday season. I used a wire wreath frame, 2 very fluffy white boas (the ones with both the feathers and down), 1" glass ornaments in assorted colors, and wire. I wrapped the wreath frame with the boas and then I wired the ornaments to the wreath frame. I made the wire extra long so that the ornaments didn't get lost in the feathers. I love the way that it turned out even though my husband thinks it is a bit girly :) I guess that what he gets from having a woman decorate his house... haha!

Possible Project

Soo... today I made a "prototype" for my handmade ornaments this year. Every year I give away handmade ornaments for Christmas and I always try to do something different from the past years. This year I thought about doing a soldered ornament. I went round and round about what kind of shape I was going to make and how it was going to go together and I came up with a soldered angel. It went together pretty well but I think the end result is a bit cheesy! It reminds me of one of those elaborate soldered night lights? I am not sure if that is what I am going to do for this year's ornament, but I am running out of time and ideas, so I might not have much of a choice. You be the judge :-)

Completed Project-Vertical Scarf

At the store that I work at, we usually make a sample scarf with any of the new yarn that we get so that customers can see how it knits up. Trendsetter Yarns has a new yarn called Venus. In the skein, the yarn appears to be pretty crazy, but when it knits up it isn't really that crazy. This posed a challenge because with a really crazy yarn, you can knit a really plain/easy scarf and it turns out looking like a masterpiece. But when you use a yarn that is a bit more conservative, then I think the scarf looks a bit plain unless the pattern has a lot of detail. I think there were 3 of us that knitted a bit of the scarf and took it out and finally one of my co-workers decided to knit the scarf vertically instead of horizontally. It turned out SO great that I bought a skein for myself and knitted my own scarf and I think it turned out GREAT. I used the color Garden of Eden, I casted on 300 stitches and knit the entire skein... the scarf turned out great. The only thing that I would caution someone on, is that you should make sure that you cast on and bind off very loosely. Even if you do that, you will still have to block it in the end... but I think it is well worth the effort. The more I look at it, the more I want to make another but I think that I might just make the next one out of scrap yarn. I also think it will be interesting if I leave the tails as fringe at each end, which makes it even easier because you don't have to weave in any of the ends.

Completed Project-Halloween Costume

When I was growing up, my mom made most of my clothes. Not out of necessity, but because she like doing it. Her desire to make my clothing included making my Halloween Costumes. In fact, even when she didn't have the time to make my clothes, she found the time to make my costume. And these costumes weren't the run of the mill hand made costumes... some of them were elaborate works of art that could compete with Hollywood and Walt Disney.

Sooo basically I have HUGE shoes to fill... not because I want to compete but because I would like to carry on the tradition. I also LOVE to sew and like to be able to have the versatility to make my son a costume of anything he wants to be. This year is my 2 year old son's 3rd Halloween and so far he doesn't quite grasp the concept enough to know what he wants to be for Halloween. Sooooo I get to choose :-)

For his first Halloween, I bought a standard McCall's Halloween Pattern and pretty much followed it to a T. I just wanted to judge what my abilities were in the costume making department and figured that the following year I could be more elaborate. So, last year I made an Elvis costume for my then 1 year old son. For those of you that don't know, I am from Las Vegas and I have a large "Shrine" in my house devoted to the King. The neatest part about the costume was that we were in Las Vegas visiting my parents and few back on Halloween last year. Needless to say there were Elvis spottings in Las Vegas, Kansas City, and all over the open skies.

This year I thought that my son would have more of an opinion, but I was wrong... so I picked his favorite toy to play with.... a Staples Easy Button. The irony is that I used to work for a company that is now owned by Staples, so I thought that it was appropriate. I went round and round about how I was going to make the costume and then I started to think, "Is any one going to know what he is supposed to be?" Despite my reservations I did make the costume and the look on his face when I showed him the costume made it all worth it. He couldn't believe that I had this giant Easy Button. So I just tacked on the actual button so that after Halloween, I can take it off so that he can have the button.

This past Friday we took him to a local University for their "trick or treating" function for the kids and he was definitely the talk of the party... and everyone knew what he was!!! The best part is that my son taps his belly (where the button is on his costume) and says, "That was Easy!"

Art at Park

This weekend was Art at Park (the Art fair at Park University). It is usually a pretty small art fair but since I went to Park University and sold my first painting at Art at Park, I try to make it to the fair every year. This year I actually bought something!!!! There was a new artist, Nichole Collins, at A.A.P and her jewelry was amazing!!! She is fresh out of college and her work definitely reflects her new and fresh approach to metal smithing and jewelry making. There was one necklace there that really caught my eye and I couldn't pass it up! It is sterling silver and the pendants are made of dried flowers that are suspended in tinted resin. I've never seen anything like it and in addition to the unique medium, I loved the overall design of the necklace. The extra bonus is that it is 7 necklaces in one!!! The necklace is made up of 3 separate pendants that can be worn together, in any combination, and separately. I LOVE this necklace and I am soooo glad that I bought it. Check it out:

Photography

When I went back to Pennsylvania to help my dad with my Grandmother's estate in 2005, I dug up some of her outdoor plants and replanted them in my yard here in KC. I took some of her rhubarb that she had for years and I also took a few sedum plants, which she called Live for Evers. This was the first year that I was able to use the rhubarb because I wanted to let the plant get well established before I stared using it. This summer I was able to cut a few of the ribs and made strawberry-rhubarb sauce for french toast that was excellent! You'll just have to take my word for it because the rhubarb is not too photogenic. BUT the Live for Evers finally bloomed this past week or so and they were gorgeous!!! Every year I like to take pictures of the flowers, I think they are super pretty and I also like that they remind me of my Grandma! Enjoy!

Completed Project-Good Luck Owl

I saw recently on the show, Uncommon Threads (on the DIY Network )instructions for a "Good Luck Doll" and I instantly LOVED the concept. I thought that would be a great housewarming gift.... something that had a great thought behind it and that the person could use as a decoration in their house. I wanted to make this as an additional gift for Emily's housewarming party but I thought that the doll was a bit plain and I didn't think that her boyfriend would be too excited about putting a doll on their couch. Sooo I stored the idea in the back of my head just in case I had an opportunity to make it for someone else. Then when I was researching the knitted back pack that I wanted to make for my son, I came across a stuffed owl at Craftsburykids.com. It looked more like a throw pillow than a children's toy.... And then it hit me!!! What about a "Good Luck Owl"?? It wasn't super feminine and it looked like a pillow so I decided to completely "rip off" the Owl design and make one that looked almost exactly like it. I know... I know... doesn't take a lot of creativity, but keep in mind that I decided to make this yesterday, got it done today because tomorrow is the housewarming party. The result is the picture below. I have noticed that the shape of mine is a bit more exaggerated and I made it pretty large. It ended up being 22" tall and 12" wide. I embroidered the face and the feathers on the body are done with fabric paint. I think that it turned out alright but next time I might adjust the pattern and make it a little more "my own".

Completed Projects-Knitting

I would consider myself a beginner-intermediate knitter. I am a self taught knitter and was a very basic beginner when I started working at UA+C. Since I am surrounded by advanced knitters and we are permitted to knit when we are at work, I am always inspired to knit more advanced projects. I have been pretty impressed by my knitting accomplishments and recently I decided to take a "stab" at circular needles. I knitted a stocking cap for my 2 yr old son and I think it turned out great. I used Lan'g Yarns' Mille Colori in the color 077 and I followed Ann Norling's Head Hugger Pattern. This is how it turned out:

I was also recently challenged to make my own knitting pattern for a pair of fingerless gloves. UA+C generally has free patterns that they give away when you buy 2 balls of one particular yarn. The Free patterns are generally ones that the staff has created, and since I had just made a pair of the Louisa Harding fingerless gloves, I thought figured that I could come up with a pattern for something similar and much much easier. Here is the result. I used On Line Linie 210 Padua and of course, my pattern :-) Here is one of the gloves:

My next project: When I was in Springfield earlier this month I stumbled across a store that looks like I merchandised!!! They had the cutest things and I would have bought one of everything if I could. One of the things that I thought was SOOOOO cute were these knitted kid's backpacks. I have been looking for a cute little backpack for my son and this fit the ticket. I checked out the price, and although it was very reasonable, I decided for the same price, I could make one myself. I also think that it will be a fun challenge to create the initial pattern. I have tons of yarn and I could use any of those, but I might buy something special for this project.

Current work-Kansas Landscape

Soo... I have a housewarming party to go to this weekend for my friend and old college roommate, Emily. My usual gift for these types of occasions is a painting and in this circumstance I really wanted to paint her one. She has one of my splatter paintings that I did in 2003, but ever since one of her male friends decided that it reminded him of a certain part of the male anatomy, no one can see past that. I have a feeling that she is probably not going to hang up her splatter painting and I wanted to give her something that she could be proud to own and one that wouldn't remind anyone of any human's anatomy.



Emily's house is pretty old and the interior architecture is in a traditional-arts & crafts-Frank Lloyd Wright-style, so I thought that a landscape would be a pretty traditional subject matter. I also decided to take it in a bold and very colorful direction because the inside of her house is painted in multiple colors. I knew immediately that I wanted to paint her a "Kansas" landscape because both Emily and her boyfriend, Galen, are from Kansas, their new house is in Missouri and I thought that they needed a reminder of where they came from. I like where the painting is but I think that it still needs more... and I am not sure where to go from here.



I hope that I can figure out what I want to do with it before Saturday, because I would really like to give it to her at her party.... we will see how that goes. I also hope that Emily isn't reading this right now, but in case she is.... Happy Housewarming, Em!!!!

Completed Project-Frechy Bag

I finally completed my Frenchy Bag. It looks great and was super easy to sew. The sewing took me about 2 hours and I am really happy with the outcome. Now my sis-in-law, Sally, can stop making fun of my gynormous purses! YAY. Unfortunately this will be the last project for a while! I am moving my craft area from one room to another and that will take me a few weeks to accomplish. I just painted an old desk that I use as a sewing table and once that is done I will be starting to move my stuff. Hopefully it won't take me as long as expected because I have start making my son's Halloween costume, which I think is going to be an easy button this year.... long story. I am also going to have to start on Christmas presents sometime soon. I am not sure at this point what I am going to make this year for everyone, but I am going to have to decide soon cause Christmas is quickly approaching.