A Life Full of Color

Okay, I just had to include that shot! We went to a local car show with hubby the other week and there's a local guy who has a "Mystery Machine!" I have seen it around town a couple of times but never this close up. Scooby is usually hanging out the passenger's side window. Oh, and what's that? Does it say? Why yes it does...

It has 'rut-ro' on the door! The inside is green shag and if you look at the upper picture again, you will notice that the whole gang is sort of appliqued (to use a quilting word!) to the inside wall so it looks like you're sitting with them when you sit on the bench seats inside. So cool and brings back memories.

I still haven't made it back into my sewing room but I am hard at work brain-wise on things that need to get done there! I finally picked up another fabric for my kitchen redo. I had used a Riley Blake Verona 1/2 yard bundle as the jumping off point, added a Vintage Modern print and a tone on tone I picked up from the LQS closing sale, and today I picked up a ModKid print from Joann's. Here is my color assortment as it stands.

The teal on the right is a text print and everything is in French. Love it! I was amazed at how it all blended. I think I'm going to pull the dots out though. Even though it actually was part of the Verona line, I don't actually have any prints with that particular color teal in them. I'm toying around with how to use the back prints as my volume and the front ones as accents. Since my living room flows out from my kitchen and I only have one window to cover in there, I will probably incorporate them in there as well. If I have enough, I will try to recover some of my couch cushions. We'll see what I can do with them.

Hubby knocked his towel rack off the wall this weekend by accident, and when he couldn't get it to stay up he decided it was time to update them and all the other bathroom hardware. This also generalized into our kitchen because we still had those little round gold colored balls as the door pulls. Hubby asked if I wanted to keep them but I couldn't think of anything to use them for so he threw them away. Then I went to Pinterest. Yikes! I didn't see anything specific that I wanted to do but it got my brain a-chugging so I went and dug them out of the trash. Oh, and lucky me...they had all fallen to the bottom! Yay! ......not. Anyway, I was able to salvage 30 of the 32 before I decided to give up.

I'm going to pick up some Krylon Brushed Nickel paint to change the colors and use them for a variety of purposes. I thought about attaching a few to a painted strip of wood. Then I could attach it to the wall, hang cans from it and put sewing notions in the cans in my sewing room. Ooh, and with 30 of them I could even make a couple to give as gifts. How cool is that

Pies and Projects

I made another Cool Whip pie for my neighbors the other day; this time it was blueberry with the fruit on the bottom yogurt. I had some fresh blueberries I put on top for looks.
We also finished the final end of the year activity; modern dance recital. They did a great job and I am so proud of my beautiful daughter!

I also made a little trip to Hobby Lobby cause I needed a new wreath for my front door. I was inspired by this wreath over at All Things Thrifty, but then I saw this one which would more easily help me get rid of some scraps. I started out using scraps of everything, but I quickly decided that I would rather stick with a color scheme.  I quickly got drawn in by the colors in this ribbon.

So that became my jumping off point. I'm not quite done yet...it takes a lot more fabric and ribbon than you would think to fill it. I also wish I'd cut the pieces a little longer, but c'est la vie! I will know better next time.

I think it's good to take pictures so you can stand back and figure what's needed where.
I also painted a C for the middle.

I will take some better pictures on teh door when I get it finished. Now, back to Falling Charms!!!

NUMBER 500!

I can't believe I've written 500 posts! Yikes! And those are all since March 22, 2011. I had only JUST started quilting and was learning the ropes. I've learned so much since then (though there is still so much to learn) and I can't wait to create more and do more with the skills I am acquiring.
Just a reminder guys....Sew Mama Sew's Giveaway Day....tomorrow....get your computer's all warmed up....hope you made a cushion for your chair! I'm still deciding on my giveaway so I've got to get it in gear!
And for those of you who don't "Like" Missouri Star Quilt Co. on Facebook, they have incredible Daily Deals and today was one I couldn't pass up.They had the Little Matryoshka jelly roll by Carly Griffith for Riley Blake on sale for $19.45. I know! So, so, so cute!

I really can't buy anything else, and I know this one will end up being used for me but I couldn't pass it up. I have always loved those little dolls. 

I'm also trying to figure out where this came from or how to make it. Someone posted it on FB and I thought it was adorable!

** Update **  I just came across a tutorial for this here just in case you like it!

A Little Birthday Fun

My daughter has a birthday party to go to tomorrow night and it just so happens that the girl is my friend's daughter, our neighbor, and also one of my theater buddies! I was trying to come up with something cool for her and decided it would be fun to have a memory box for her theater goodies (programs, pictures, pieces of costumes, etc.). I made a little visit to the local craft store and came home with some goodies.

I picked up a 12"x 12" storage box made of paper (it's sturdy cardboard and it's like those boxes you get to store pictures), some pink and orange scrapbooking paper, ModPodge, and some foam brushes. My original plan was for a wooden box but the size I wanted had ridges across the top and I needed it all to be flat. I also had wanted to paint the whole thing but I wasn't sure that would work so I decided to decoupage the top. Little did I know that painting would have been the easy out, but it still turned out pretty cool.

I tore the paper and decoupaged it in overlapping colors all over the top. When I finished I wasn't so sure I liked the effect, so I decided to paint over it which would still result in a cool textured effect.

Cool, huh? She's very into orange and pink. I only had light pink at home but I had some red and mixed it to come up with more of a hot pink effect. I simply painted the bottom. Then I started the fun part. I went online and made copies of each of the shows she's been in so far and printed them out. Then I decoupaged them onto the top of the box. As she is in various shows, she can add pictures of those to the top as well.

I think she's done pretty well so far as she's only turning 10! I am including the extra foam brushes and a new bottle of Mod Podge in the gift so she's ready for future shows. I may go back and add some orange stripes or polka dots on the bottom so she has her other color included as well. Here's the finished project so far!

I also made up a bunch of shower puffs for a friend who has 4 girls. She color codes all their stuff (toothbrushes, etc.) so I did them in each of their colors.

She loved them and I had several other people ask for some so I've got to get a few more done!

Owl Blanket: Done!

I finally made myself get out the owl blanket and get it done. It didn't take a really long time to do once I started but sitting awkwardly on the floor reminded me of muscles I do not use! Ow!

One thing off the list! Yahoo!

Harry Potter/Halloween Crafts

I am linking this up to Cauldron Crafts.

I can't seem to get their button to work but I'll try again later.

Last year my darling daughter turned 9 and requested a Harry Potter party. So I decided to post some of the crafts I made for that party. I preface this by saying that I am just as big a Harry Potter fan as my daughter so I used it as an excuse to go,...oh how shall I say it,... hmm, insane. Yes, insane is the word. The kids ended up using them for Halloween and her birthday as well!

This was the costume I made for both of my kids for Halloween and the party. The robe was made from fleece and they both still play with them. I crocheted the Gryffindor scarves myself. The wands are made from construction paper, hot glue, paint, etc. from this youtube video.

Here's a close-up of one of the wands. The wands I made for the kids were brown like this. The wands I made for my husband and myself (we taught classes) had a blacker base and were thinner. They actually looked much cooler because I remembered to rub darker paint over the gold to age it. Of course, I cannot lay my hands on any of those because my children have misplaced them.
I even went so far as to make a robe for my daughter's American Girl doll out of an old black t-shirt I had.

I know. I'm a geek. Now that we've got that out of the way...

Each child received an invitation from Hogwarts which included the second letter regarding supplies. The front door was adorned with the Platform 9 3/4 sign. Upon arrival, each child reached into my witches hat and drew out a pin denoting which house they were in. I just copied the different house crests onto a document and printed onto photo paper. I cut them out and hot glued a pin back onto them. There were only two houses represented and we used that as how to separate the kids into classes.
They also received textbooks (none of which can my daughter now locate) and they got to make their own wands. Hubbie attached dowels to these cool little handles and each child got to color, glitter, or otherwise decorate her wand.

Of course, my kids had to do those too. Everyone also received a Marauder's map I printed and folded from this site. This was so cool and I appreciate the person who created it so much!
It starts out like this (once you've cut and folded it, that is!)...

opens to this...

and finally to this!

Britta rocks for coming up with this!

I also made robes for hubby and I. He taught potions...

and I taught Divination and Transfiguration. I used a Magic 8 ball wrapped in tin foil as my crystal ball for Divination and we magically transfigured jelly beans to have bizarre flavors. For this I used Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans which came in a game form. They had to spin to see which color they had to eat. There were two possible flavors for each color; one good, one not so good (toothpaste, dog food, etc.).

Yes, that's my very own little Harry Potter there on the right! And because of this party, he insisted on a Star Wars party; we ended up doing Jedi training at his party so I kind of went a bit insane for his too!

Foam Swords and Melting Beads

We've been keeping ourselves busy here at my sister's.  Well, I don't know about keeping US busy but we've been working to keep the kids busy. We made a trip to Joann's today to pick up some t-shirts for 4th of July. We have made t-shirts for July 4th for the past several years. This year they are fireworks t-shirts as seen on Family Fun here.
We also picked up some window catchers with the beads that melt. Yeah, all that lasted one afternoon. So I guess we'll put them in the yard in swimsuits tomorrow to beat the heat. We'll see. Have a happy 4th tomorrow!