Look what I’ve been pinning lately:
1. Thanksgiving Luminaries by Creature Comforts
2. Thanksgiving Florals, Design Sponge
3. Spiced Pumpkin Layer Cake, Annie’s Eats
4. Cranberry Orange Sherbet, Vintage Mixer
5. Sweet Potato Pie, Joy the Baker
Tag: project (page 2 of 7)
Well, its that time of year again. It is time for me to start working on my Christmas card. Which sounds just plum crazy when you say it out loud, but once I decide on a design and then shoot the photographs or make the piece, edit it and get it sent off to the printers, it is a process that needs to be started sooner rather than later.
I gave Goose Girl and Foxy a break this year and decided to go a completely different route. One of my favorite artistic mediums to work within is collaging. I was inspired by the lovely Phoebe Wahl and a set of Christmas cards she made (see below). Now, when I collage, I don’t normally make all of my pieces myself, I am inspired by other things and I use those to create the elements of each piece.
With my love of vintage patterns I set to work, finding just the right pieces to put the puzzle together. Finding bits and bobs here and there, in vintage wrapping paper and post cards, I slowly formed a collection. Below are the the first few bits I created. I played around with the potential design, but I have now settled on one and my Christmas Card is really starting to take shape.
The beginnings of Butterscotch, a miniature yellow pony.
This was the first of my weekend projects. The wind howled around the house, the rain poured down, causing a mini flood at the end of our street and the lightening lit up the sky like fireworks.
Inside, I stayed cozy and dry and slowly began to cut up the first felt pieces of a project I have started for a little someone. Part of her Christmas gift this year, will be a little menagerie of animals to play with.
Stay tuned, there is more to come!
Mr. Michie bought me my first munchkin of the season this weekend. It looks so cheery tucked in around my Halloween and Fall decor.
It was a very wet weekend, so we stayed in and bundled up, drank copious amounts of tea and had all our little candles flickering away. I caught up on our mountain of laundry and worked on an art project for school. So my afternoon was spent listening to the Capital Cities album and cutting and pasting and sketching and doodling. And now, I can’t get this song out of my head:
Mr. Michie took me out to dinner on Saturday night, it was a great date! We braved the rain on Sunday to run to the grocery store, my green polka dot wellies kept my feet nice and dry! All in all, it was relaxing and everything a quiet weekend pottering around should be!
My Mom is a beautiful calligrapher. Her teacher was running a painted canvas class today, where you would paint, using a variety of techniques, onto canvas that you will later go back and work on top of by placing calligraphy on it.
These were two pieces that we had worked on, drying in her teacher’s backyard. What a great way to spend a Saturday. Taking an art class with your Mom, what could be better? And, since my Mom is the calligrapher and not me, I am planning on commissioning her to put a couple of quotes on my pieces. So, I will have a piece of art to treasure!
I’m working on a mini project for a special little person. This was the first creature I picked from the adorable stuffed animal book. I think it will be the perfect size for her little hands.
As soon as we finish the mammoth task of organizing our pantry, I have a few projects up my sleeves for this half term. But, I have to clean up one mess before I make a new one. If you are in the mood to do a little crafting this week, check out my “Getting Crafty” board on Pinterest.
Here are just a few things I have pinned {click the images for the tutorials}:
As always Molly’s Sketchbook on the Purl Bee site is filled with sweet ideas. A bunny just in time for Spring:
Liberty fabric lap blankets to keep you cozy in the still gray days of winter:
Send mail the old-fashioned way, but jazz up your envelopes with beautiful paper:
Any paper leftover? Use it to make these cute pinwheels:
Not Martha offers a cute and stylish brooch to brighten up your coat:
Have fun!
{all images copyright their respective blog}
This will be a post in two parts today since I just have so much to say! Firstly, today we walk into the first day of Lent. I know that this is a period of reflection and abstaining. I have spoken about this before and I shall speak about it again this year.
In my family we had the tradition of adding something to our daily lives, instead of subtracting it. We still gave up things (and if you chose to give up chocolate, what a blessed morning Easter Sunday was because it meant you could finally touch it again and oh boy did you hope that the Easter Bunny left you plenty in your basket!), but my parents always made sure that we added something to our daily/weekly lives that would be to the benefit of others.
I am going to get on my soap box for a moment here and say that I have always felt it is wonderful to give of oneself; it is marvelous that Church organizations and charity organizations help so many people around the world. I grew up in the South and I was always amazed at how many churches in my town took trips to Mexico, South America, Haiti, Cuba and Africa. Those were extremely valuable trips for all involved, but I think it is just as important to know where we are from, to teach your children and others what is around them as well.
You don’t have to go far to help someone in need. Not only were there people who needed help within my own community, you only had to drive a few hours into the mountains and there were families that would have benefited from a little extra help as well. Start in your own backyard, so to speak and branch out.
I had the great fortune to meet Mother Teresa when I was in High School and I read an article recently that quoted her; it sums up my thoughts, better than I could:
“Stay where you are. Find your own Calcutta. Find the sick, the suffering and the lonely right there where you are — in your own homes and in your own families, in your workplaces and in your schools. … You can find Calcutta all over the world, if you have the eyes to see. Everywhere, wherever you go, you find people who are unwanted, unloved, uncared for, just rejected by society — completely forgotten, completely left alone.”
I want to make it clear now that I am in no way demeaning the work that others do, to give of your heart and of yourself in any capacity is a wonderful act. I just think that sometimes we might need to be reminded we can still make a difference just where we are right now, we can make a difference in the place that we call HOME.
Secondly, we sit on the Eve of St. Valentine’s Day today and I thought I would do a last minute Valentine’s round-up. I have breakfast planned for Mr. Michie, I will be making homemade doughnuts tonight and working on my dessert for our Valentine’s dinner, but I will share more of that later.
In case you need a few last minute ideas, this is for you:
These cookies from the lovely Sweetopia Blog are just too SWEET! Learn how to make them here:
For those classroom Valentine’s where teachers won’t let you give out candy, Inchmark has come up with adorable bookmarks instead:
The House that Lars Built, shows you a cute way to make your own wrapping paper, to make that special gift, extra special:
The lovely I am Baker blog, shared these Neapolitan Spritz Cookies this week and they look like a very scrumptious box of goodies for a Valentine to receive:
These “Sealed with A Kiss” waxed lips from Oh Happy Day, are a sweet and funny way to pass out Valentine Cards. Who doesn’t have fun playing with waxed lips?:
And last but not least, via Martha Stewart, you can give your Valentine a tied posy in a flower cone. These would be sweet to give to friends at a little Valentine Day Luncheon:
{all images are copyright their respective blogs}
Since the arrival of a new baby in our family, I have picked up a few more “making” books here and there. I want to be able to make and give things to my beautiful little niece.
Before Christmas I was at the Tate Modern and saw this book in their giftshop:
I thought it was absolutely adorable and ordered a copy off Amazon. I have a few pieces of fabric I have been squirreling away that I want to use to make some little toys for her to play with. I just know she is going to love animals.
I have already made her a teeny tiny inchworm named Edna. The pattern for that was in my Wee Wonderfuls book.
Yesterday evening while going through my Google Reader, I read a Wee Wonderfuls post. Hillary has made her online shop a little more pocket friendly, although she has always been affordable, she has now made it a little easier for you to get something and “try it” vs. just thinking about it, since maybe, the price just wasn’t right for you if the project you were looking at was something you weren’t so sure about attempting.
I did that last night. I have looked at this doll pattern for ages and last night snapped it up as a treat to myself. I plan to make one of these for my niece. I think they are adorable and the creative possibilities with them are endless. You can make them a whole little wardrobe to be dressed in. I don’t know who is going to have more fun playing with it? The “big” girls or the little ones.
