We Still Need These.........

As much as I wish it was Spring, it is not and won't be here in the upper midwest for several more weeks.  So that still means winter coats and mittens.

Several Christmas's ago my hubby gave me a pair of mittens made from recycled sweaters.  He paid a fortune for them and I love them.  Since then I have seen them in several upscale boutiques and I thought how fun it would be to make some.  So I found a tutorial here and made several pairs as Christmas gifts and then I got several  custom orders. 

I now have all my friends thrifting for wool sweaters for me.  I really love making these.  Wearing these fun mittens is the only part of winter I will miss.

Stay warm!!!!!!!!!

Kari


Linked to: 
Tatertots and Jello Weekend Wrap up Party
Debbiedoos Newbie Party

Where I went over the weekend......

I know the weekend is long over and we are halfway towards another one but since I have been under the weather and in bed it seems like the weekend was just here.  OK....I lost a couple of days or so it seems.

Anyway we decided to get away for the day on Saturday and we went here.....

 
I know so she went to Pottery Barn wow good for her!!!!  You see it was not just Pottery Barn but the Pottery Barn OUTLET in Birch Run Michigan.  It is about 3 hours from our house. 

I saw so many things I could have brought home.  Pillows, a couple of a lamps, some new bedding, some cute bird dishes and nest charger plates, but money was a slight problem so I bought just this.

A brand new ticking stripe queen size bedskirt that was only $22!!!!!!! WOW!!!!  I have yet to put in on our bed.  I am not sure what I am waiting for..........

Anyway....have you been to a Pottery Barn outlet and have you found some great stuff at great prices?  I would love to hear your stories!!!!!!

Kari

Burlap Flower Pins

I totally adore flowers!!!!!  Any kind, real, silk, dried, floral fabric. Flowers make me smile!!  I am always drawn to floral fabrics and I love flower pins.  I have made the burnt edge flowers in multiple colors, I have made colorful hand sewn flowers, I have made bracelets with flowers on them BUT my favorite flowers are these flower pins I made of burlap.

I made these from scrap pieces of burlap that a friend gave to me. I cut circles, then cut them in half and then folded the half circles in half and using my sewing machine sewed the half circles on the straight edge.  I then turned them right side out and hand sewed a running stitch on the open end. With the same thread I continued sewing on each petal. I then pulled the thread tight to give it the round flower shape.  I added another layer of petals on top of the first for dimension. The two layers were hot glued together.  On the smaller one I hot glued a black button from my stash and some ribbon scraps.  On the larger one I hot glued a suede covered button and scraps of twine.  I attached a pin to the back. ( you could also attach a clip) which I sewed on to a felt circle.  I glued the felt circle to the back of the flower.

I sewed on the pin back but you could use hot glue.  I made the flowers two different sizes ( by making different size circles)  and will wear either depending on my mood!!

These are fun to make but can be messy.  Fray check is a must when working with the raw edges!!

I like to pin these on a jean jacket.  They would also look good on a headband, a sweater, a purse or a coat!!!


Kari

Linked to: 

  http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2011/02/weekend-wrap-up-party-and-accessories.html

A "Nest" Project!!

What a difference a day makes!!  It it so warm here today 47 degrees in February in Michigan!!  I must be dreaming. 

Since it is warm ( not snowing) I decided to go check out some stores I have not been to in a while.....one of them is Pottery Barn.  I saw so many fun things- some real cute Easter items, but my favorite of all has to be all the fun birds nests and eggs!!

A while back- on a cold gloomy day- I decided to put together my own little nest project.  I started with a really bad ugly frame that I picked up at the Goodwill outlet.  I did not take a picture of it but trust me it was bright yellow with this little tin mouse type creature glued on it.  YUCK!!

After I pried off the mouse and sanded, primed and painted it robins egg blue, it looked like this:

Sorry about the bad pic quality, I am still learning!!

I filled in the opening with a piece of cardboard covered with scrapbook paper.  I then glued a small nest I had leftover from another project on the paper and then hot glued small eggs in the nest.  Using my cricut I cut out two little birds and a branch and mod podged them on.

Doesn't this just make you want Spring to be here?


Kari

Linked to:

http://debbie-debbiedoos.blogspot.com/2011/02/newbie-partyand-bachlorette-party.html

Love x 2

Valentines day will be here before we know it.........WOW wasn't it just Christmas??

I put my outside decor up a couple of weeks ago .....needless to say I have had to rescue the large hearts on the porch several times due to high winds and snow.  My interior decor I put up just last weekend because I had to finish a couple of signs I was working on.

I got a cricut machine for christmas and I have been testing it out making signs.  Using the "home decor" solutions cartridge, I printed out "love" on clear contact paper and using the reverse stencil method I made these two signs.




Love sign in red....perfect for Valentines day!!





Rustic love sign.. works any time of year!

 I am so happy with the way these turned out.  They were fun to make.  If you have to have one I made more for my booth at "Not so Shabby"!!!1

Kari

Red Burlap Heart Wreath

Recently I was reading some of my favorite blogs and I came across this wonderful burlap heart wreath from Choose to Thrive  http://choosetothrive.blogspot.com/2011/01/burlap-valentines-wreath-from-box-and.html

I thought this was so cute and was made using items I had around the house:

Red burlap ( from the thrift store!)
cardboard
red satin fabric
white ribbon
glue gun and glue sticks

So following Nike's tutorial on http://choosetothrive.blogspot.com/2011/01/burlap-valentines-wreath-from-box-and.html I made my wreath.

I did it a little different .  I wrapped the carboard with the red satin fabric and made the rosettes with red burlap and chose a white ribbon hanger.

I love how it turned out.

On my front door at night



A close up during the day



This was so much fun to make and so easy.......Thanks Nike!!!

Kari

Linked up to:
http://tatertotsandjello.blogspot.com/2011/02/weekend-wrap-up-party-and-twig-creative.html
                           

Where I Live Part 1- exterior

With the blizzard of 2011 behind us and nothing to look at but SNOW and lots of it, I was browsing thru some pics this afternnon of sunny, warmer days and trying not to get too depressed.  So I thought a really good way to cheer up was to start a series about our house and to post summer pics of our house!!!!!

We purchased our home in May 2003 and it looked like this:

I am not a big fan of brown and boy it sure looked dated to me.  It stayed that way for about 4 years.  I just worked with it and made the best of it.

In 2007, we decided to replace all of our windows and we wanted a historic look for this 1923 craftsman bungalow so we chose "Renewal by Anderson" windows.  They were expensive but they gave us the look we wanted, and not to mention the energy savings, and I love them!!!!!

So after the windows were installed we decided the brown had to go,  So much ado later and many bottles of paint samples we had a custom mix by Sherwin Williams that we called " King Green".  We chose along with the green a custom  mix called "King Tan" and also used a stock SW color called "Muslin".

The above photos show the house as it looks now.  Bye Bye brown........ and summertime.  Sure looks good about now.

This will be the first in the "My House" series......next time we go inside.......

Kari