Stockings

I REALLY need to be doing work right now.  Both my real job and my crafty job.  I won't even mention housework, cause let's face it, I only do that when it becomes a health issue.  BUT, I had to stop for a few minutes and show you my latest project.  I have been looking for Christmas stockings for my family.  I married this past May and between me and my husband we have five children.  You just can't go to Target and pick up seven stockings that coordinate.  I thought about doing red for the boys and green for the girls or something like that, but could never find what I wanted.  So, I decided to make my own.  I wanted them all to be different, but the same.  Ya know what I mean?  I went with a variety of homespun plaids for the bottoms and corduroys for the tops.  I embroidered each one with our names.  I do plan to go back and put the year on them somewhere because hopefully we will use them for a lot of years.  I love the fact that as our family grows I can make more that will blend in perfectly because I am not limited to any particular color or fabric.  If we ever live in a world with no plaid and no corduroy something bad has happened and we probably won't be hanging stockings anyway.  So... without further ado, here they are.  I am so happy with the way they turned out.  I am usually looking at my Kreations and thinking "I should have done this..."  or "I should have done that..." but I am really happy with these.  They turned out just like my little mind imagined.  I rarely use patterns for anything, but I did for these.  I struggled through the instructions, not always understanding what I was doing, or why... but it was almost like a miracle.  I did the last step and a fully finished stocking appeared.  The last step involves putting the lining on the outside , inside out, which didn't make a bit of sense to me, but I did it anyway, and lo and behold, it WORKED!  Okay, are you ready?  Here they are.

I love that all the girls have lace trim on the bottom of the cuff.  Again, the same, but different.  I let Owen, Emily, and AJ pick out their fabrics since they were with me.  AJ chose one that is a little different, but that's okay.  I wonder how many stockings we will end up with through the years?  Hopefully a bunch.  Merry Christmas everyone.  Back to work!

Wool coffee Sleeve

I am back today to show you my newest project.  I have collected a couple of wool sweaters and wanted to try "felting" them.  Basically, all you do is wash it in your hottest water setting and dry it on your hottest dryer setting.  I went from three sweaters that were my size to three sweaters that wouldn't fit my three year old.  :)  It was like something you would see in a comedy when the dad does laundry.  Only this time you get to cut it up and make cool stuff out of it!  I made a simple pattern out of a piece of ordinary craft felt and used it as a guide to cut my first sweater.  I knew I wanted to do a felt applique on it but wasn't sure what to do, so I looked through my Papertrey ink dies and came across this beautiful snowflake.  I knew instantly it would be perfect on the soft blue wool, so I cut it out in a soft white wool felt and hand stitched it to the felted wool.  I finished it off with a white button that had been given to me a while back when I had a bright idea about making my bridal bouquet out of buttons.  That didn't really work out...  But, I do now have a fabulous collection of white buttons and think this huge button is the perfect finishing touch.  I hope you enjoy it.  Let me know if you are interested in purchasing one.  I only have enough wool to make a few of these.  I have two striped sweaters that I will soon be destroying with my trusty scissors, so stay tuned!

Does this thing still work?

I have been making a lot of jewelry the last couple of months and am in the process of building a website.  I have no idea what I am doing, but I am excited about the possibilities.  I have been in such a kreative mood lately.  I have so many different projects I want to try!  Anyway, I was just making sure everything still works.  I hope to do more blogging in the near future and this site will also be getting a makeover.