Doodle Stitching

I finally got a book that
I have been 'eyeing' for
awhile now. It is called
"Doodle Stitching" By Amie Ray.

It is a great book. Just what I had wanted in an embroidery book. I googled and found that Amie has a flikr group and an etsy shop. She is one talented gal!
I tried my hand at a very small doodle stitching project. That is all it took, I am now addicted.

I am going larger and making each daughter a doodle stitching project. I am starting with Sylvia because her birthday is on the 16th. I doodled with a pencil right on the fabric. Sylvia helped me out by listing things that she loves (karate, grapes, pretty rocks, rainbows etc) I am exciedt to see how it turns out. And yes, I will be posting pictures.

For now I will post a picture of my first small one.

My latest craft project

And yes, it is for a swap :-) I found the tutorial on another blog that someone posted on crafters.

Sage's hair

Sage just wanted to be like her big sister. :) She really wanted a hair cut, and needed it too. About 4 months ago she decided to cut herself some bangs. It was a short, very short spot near her forehead. It was short enough that the rest of the hair around it, hid it. But it was now long enough to really show.

She really want to sit in the cool chair at the salon but I was NOT going to pay for a haircut that I had to fix myself when we got home. I just did what I did with Sylvia's hair and held my breath that it turned out. I had to cut her bangs pretty short to blend with her 'bangs' that she cut a few months ago. But all in all, it turned out ok.

This is for you Grace :-)

Every time I join the MDC craft swap and swap a craft that I have never sewn before I get really nervous that the person on the receiving end will not think it is worth the $20 value set for each package. I tend to over do it in hopes of them saying that it was "for sure" wroth it. After the first or second of sewing the 'new' item I tend to scale it down. I guess I realize that it really was worth it and I don't need all the extras.
In this case I sewed some tiny little bags for a crafty friend. The bags ended up a little smaller than her request of 3x5. I think there is about 30 of them. I am still sending them and just crossing my fingers that they will work for her. But I had to add another something else to the lot. I saw that she wanted a clothespin bag. It looked like a ton of fun. So I sewed one up. The coth had been sitting in my cloth stash for a few years and in my mother's cloth stash for many many more before that. The trim I got from freecycle. The hanger was leftover from my eBay clothing. So here it is. It turned out so cute.

I really wish my hubby had left the clothesline that was in the back yard up. He really didn't think I would use it. But I really would have.

So Grace, I hope this is your "style" it is headed to your house with the "I hope they are not TOO small" bags.

Animal Bean Bags

Another package for the MDC summer swap.

Sylvia's hair

Sylvia has been begging me to get her hair cut. She is tired of it getting tangles up when she swims. Tired of it getting in the way during karate.

I finally tracked down a hair collage. I did not want to pay full price for a quick cut. It ended up being $12. I wonder how much it would have cost at a real salon. I told the gal that I wanted it shoulder length. I guess she thought I was kidding or that dd would not want to take that much off. I was so busy taking care of the other two that I didn't have time to babysit the hairdresser. And boy oh boy my kids were crabby, it 9 too young for PMS??? When I did finally mention to the hairdresser that I wanted it shorter she mumbled about how it would look a lot shorter when it was dry. It was a darling cut, very cute just NOT what we wanted. 3 days later I did what I had wanted to avoid in the first place. I took my own scissors to her hair. I have NO talent what-so-ever when it comes to hair cutting. It brings back memories of when me and my best friends cut each others hair when we were about 17 years old. Yikes! But Sylvia gets what Sylvia wants. Her shoulder length hair.

Please tell me that it isn't that bad!

Library Bag for MDC swap

When I first joined the summer craft swap I threw out a few of my ideas before finalizing my packages offered. I had thought about a library bag with a card holder. My kids use my cloth grocery bags as a library/book bag. They use the business card holders to hold their cards. I ended up taking that off my finalized list thinking that it was not worth the "$20 per package" value. But someone still picked it. I was excited but had to think of an idea to make it worth more. I thought of adding embroidery to it but after three days of struggling with the thread and my huge lack of embroidery talent I gave up. I just fancied up the bag to look better than the plain grocery style bags. It was not easy. I did not have a pattern and just made it up as I went along. In the end it looked great. I am excited about how it turned out. I hope the little girl I sewed it for will have many a'books grace it's insides. So here it is. The dangling pocket holds the little wallet for the library card.