A Holiday Chandelier

Many moons ago, I purchased this wooden chandelier at a thrift store. In typical me-fashion, I promptly grabbed the can of spray paint and provided it with a lovely fresh antique white coating.

During the Thanksgiving holiday, I simply propped some lovely fall gourds on it's different petals and placed it in the center of our table. I also sprinkled some hand-cut felted recycled wool leaves. (Note: To my surprise, when left on the center of the table while eating, the wool leaves provided extra hot-pad protection for our casserole dishes!)

Now for Christmas-time, I've decided to move the chandelier to my kitchen table and sprinkle the petals with miniature vintage tree ornaments. I'm enjoying their shinny simplicity. And who doesn't love vintage?

I can't wait until Valentine's Day to see what awaits this fun thirft store find!

Happy Easter

My wishes to you for a very blessed Easter weekend!

http://www.etsy.com/listing/96286839/little-bunny-pinkeep-and-daisy

This super darling Easter bunny photo is from CheswickCompany via Etsy.com.

Happy Heart Day!

Oh, how I love vintage valentines!

Hope you have a perfect, cozy, vintage-style day!

Living in a Snowflake

Tales are told of the Christmas-loving Who's living in WhoVille - way deep inside a wonderful little snowflake.

Hmmm....I wonder "who" could be living in the ones I caught on this felted heart? Look carefully....do you see any signs of life? (If you click on the photo, it will enlarge your view. I think it's much easier to see all the tiny Who's that way.)

In Preparation

I worked on a few hearts this weekend in preparation for Valentine's Day. That day of reds, pinks, chocolates, smooches, loves, hugs, and winks will be here before we know it!

I found some fantastic red and white polka dot fabric at the thrift store and couldn't resist pairing it with my wool to make some hanging hearts. I think they turned out kind of fun - even though photo-op-day was snowy and chilly! By the time I got done taking photos, my hands were red and pink from the cold!

Happy Thanksgiving

Sweet holiday blessings to all of you.

Snowballs in November

In my quest to prepare for upcoming shows, I thought it would be fun to make some holiday ornaments.

I've been in a white-mood lately, so I dug out as many white/off-white/cream sweaters as I could find in my stash. Unfortunately, it's often hard for me to find white sweaters. But I happened upon enough to make some white-on-white-on-beige-on-cream snowball ornaments. I'm packaging and selling them in groups of three with varied sizes. I hope people like them.

Happy Holidays! Oops......I got just a little ahead of myself!

What did the ghost say to the bee?

Scroll down.....




It's coming......



It's good.....



It's here.....



It's........



BOO-BEE !!

Happy V Day

As they say in the movies......xxoo.

Of Mice and Men...errrr...Cats

Ha! I decided that you would have to wait one more day to see my recycled burlap/wool/leather creations.

Today I thought I'd share a cute story with you.

If you recall, I made two little wool critters for my son's two cats for Christmas. The other day I texted his girlfriend and asked if Leo and Lucy enjoyed their new toys. She responded with a definate yes! She said that Leo loves to play with them and fully enjoys the long wooly tail.  She also said that it was a darn good thing that I made two critters, because Lucy enjoys hiding one and make them come looking for it!

She informed me that the wool handwarmers that I made for them are pulling double duty. Lucy thinks they are her special pillows!  :-)

Cold Hands, Warm Heart

That's what my Grandma and my mom always used to say. Is it true?  I don't know. But I most always believed what they said.

This year for Christmas, I made each of my family members a pair of handwarmers. Just simple little cozies filled with rice to warm in the microwave.  But even if their hands got warmed up - I know they would still have warm hearts!

I made the warmers just the right size to fit into the pockets of their winter jackets on our cold Wisconsin mornings!

Boys - plain. Girls - flowers...of course!

Holiday Greetings

Happy Holidays to all!

Seems like we just asume that some things have been going on forever. Take holiday greeting cards for example. It feels like they've always been sent to family and friends. With today's electronic world, I hope that age-old tradition doesn't get lost. I, for one, love getting holiday cards in the mail. Yes, the US mail.

Below is the first commercially produced greeting card. I don't know what year it was - because the Huffington Post didn't tell me!  But I did think it was darn cute!

Taken from huffingtonpost.com.

Happy holidays to all.

Wrapping Presents

I spent a good part of Monday night wrapping presents. I used plan brown kraft paper and my oddly colored dyed recycled t-shirts strips.

All in all, I guess they didn't turn out as bad as I thought they might (meaning the odd colored strips).

I like wrapping presents and tend to do most of them at the same time - but I also find that doing that, I can get a little sloppy towards the end. Let's just hope that I wrapped the favorite presents first!

Knock-Knock
Who's There
Donut
Donut who?
Donut open until Christmas

House and Home

I made wool house keychains for some of my friends this year for Christmas. Thirty-five houses. That's alot of houses! :-)

They ended up being a little different than what I originally planned - but at this point, I don't know if I even remember what I originally planned!

I also made little gift tags that said "Happy Holidays from My House to Yours" and attached them to the key chain with plain old-fashioned string. I began house distribution today in hopes I get them all delivered - whether in person or US mail - by Christmas. I have a feeling that the US mail ones will be a little late (haven't addressed or mailed them yet!).

Houses, houses, and more houses!  Happy Home Holidays!

Busy Like An Elf

I took the day off from work last Friday to do my Christmas shopping. Surprisingly, I was able to get most everything I needed...in one afternoon! I can't believe how organized I was on my plan on attack. (Generally, I wing it - and don't often prepare ahead of time....who knew?)

Of course, I am also making a lot of gifts (as I often do). Sometimes I think that my friends and family must tire of my handmade gifts - but this year is pretty financially tight - so it's most economical for me to make gifts. So they're getting my hand work again!

Since last Friday, I've been busy, busy, busy with shopping and final preparation of gifts. However, I still have to wrap EVERYTHING! But I think I'm pretty darn prepared for that step.

I'm too darn tired right now - so I'll take some photos in the morning and share a few of them with you in the upcoming days.

Stay tuned.

Don't Forget the Kitties

My son and his girlfriend have two cats, Lucy and Leo.   I sure can't forget about them this Christmas.

Since they love to play, I decided that they might like some little wool play toys.

Do you think they'll keep them occupied until New Year's?

Recycled Wool Blanket

I've been wanting to make a recycled wool blanket for some time now. I just haven't gotten to it. But one of my projects for a Christmas gift was a lap blanket for my son and his girlfriend.

I finally got it done this weekend!

Many of the pieces came from an 2XL men's wool trench coat. I had originally seen it at one of my local thrift shops for $15.00. I, being quite cheap, was tempted, but didn't want to spend that much on a coat.

One day last week I went into the shop and everything was 1/2 off!  I grabbed the coat as soon as I saw it. Nice deal!

My son is partial to darker colors, but I wanted to make sure that I added one spot of nice purple (upper left corner of the first photo).....just so he could see it and always think of his mom.  :-)

PS. Don't worry - they don't read my blog - so they won't see this before Christmas!

Celebrating Creativity Show

I'm honored to be a part of the Celebrating Creativity Sale at The SPACE this weekend.

Unfortunately, I've been down and out with a nasty flu bug since Wednesday night and have not been able to attend the show at all. Friday night was the opening with special music playing in the early evening. I'm so disappointed  that I wasn't able to be there - how fun and festive it must have been!

Fortunately, one of my friends (thanks Jody K!) stopped in The SPACE on Friday and took some fun snapshots for me. So I'd like to share some with you as well.

IF they ask me to participate again next year, I'm going to stay clear of all flu bugs for weeks before!!