Monthly Archive for December, 2010

Coming Home

Published on December 28, 2010 in Daily Rambling. Closed

We are getting ready to head home after a long trip to PA. We will be coming home to a new kitchen floor, new blinds in our bedroom and a door sweep to keep out the drafts.

This has been a really hard trip home. Not because it was hard being with my family… in fact… it was awesome being with my family. But my sister and grandma ended up in the hospital on two different days because of the flu. Then my mom, my husband and my sister’s husband were knocked out of commission over it. Then I was putting the fold out couch away and it popped back up and gave me a bloody lip (thank god that didn’t need stitches).

I am praying for the best on our flight home. The best being an empty seat between my husband and I, no flight delays, and neither of us getting sick. But really I would just be okay with neither of us getting sick.

I also am looking forward to getting home so I can get my Etsy shop open for the new year!

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Happy Holidays

Published on December 23, 2010 in Daily Rambling. Closed

well… it will hopefully be a happy holiday. Right now I am in a house with 6 other people and only two of us haven’t come down with the stomach flu. Fortunately my grandma was released from the hospital today, so barring any other bodily malfunctions, she will be here to open presents with us on Christmas morning.

Be prepared for the onslaught of christmas crafts once everyone opens their gifts. I have to keep hem under wraps until then. :)

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Sparse postings in these parts

Published on December 19, 2010 in Daily Rambling. Closed

I am too busy playing in snow to post…

But I promise that I will return with some posts about the Christmas presents I made this year and all of the other holiday goodness. Because there is a lot of it.

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Minor Home Improvements.

Published on December 10, 2010 in Crafty and Daily Rambling. 1 Comment

This week Eric and I decided to take care of two things… we needed a new dining room table and we had many many dead plants in our house.

We remedied the table situation by buying our friends’ old dining table. It was too small for their house, but perfect for our house. This was quite a relief because we have been looking for a table now for months and had not really found anything. This one is just the right size and the right color. We will need to replace the chairs soon, but they should hold out for now.

Then Eric took the initiative and replanted our hanging houseplant into something other than the crappy white plastic thing that it has been housed in for the last 100 years. We went to King’s Nursery to find some plants for our terrarium (give me a few more sentences, then you will see that project too) and we left with the plants and this wire hanging basket and moss. He did a great job putting it together and now our house has a nice woodland feel to it. I love it.

The last project I finished this morning. We bought three different little plants for our terrarium that Porter’s dad made for us for our wedding. It is just too pretty to leave sitting with dead plants in it. So it now has this nice tall leafy plant, this vine that kind of reminds me of a strawberry plant, and a great little fern that should grow to cover the bottom of the terrarium.

All it took was a couple of hours of work and this house is back to feeling like a home!

p.s. The women at King’s Nursery did a great job helping us find the right kind of plants for our terrarium and helped us solve our ugly hanging plant problem! Go visit them.

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Fabric + Cricut

Published on December 9, 2010 in Daily Rambling. 2 Comments

I have some pretty crafty friends. One of the awesome things that we do is swap crafting equipment. Alicia houses screen printing stuff. Porter houses soap-making supplies. Nancy is the big guns… she has the serger and a Circut. And now I have the Go! Fabric cutter. Together we form a crafting force unstoppable. Because between the 4 of us, we can craft our way out of any situation.

I have the Cricut in my possession now. And I thought I would try and figure out how to cut fabric for real this time… Here are the facts, as I see them:

  • Have yourself a new mat at the ready. The stickier the mat is, the better. So fresh out of the package is the best!
  • Also have a new blade. Much like the old saying about never cutting fabric with your paper scissors and vice versa, the same holds true for the Cricut blade.
  • I set my blade depth to 6, pressure to medium or high (never max), and the speed to high.
  • Use quilter weight fabric with double-sided fusible interfacing. This gives the fabric additional stability without adding too much bulk. It also gives you the ability to iron on your cut-outs.
  • If the fabric tears instead of cuts (ruining your fabric) you can try turning it 90 degrees so that the weave is in a different direction. If this doesn’t work, get a different piece of fabric. Not all fabric is created equal and I have had some fabric cut great and some fabric not cut at all.
  • Lastly, I have not had ANY success at cutting out small things. Everything I have cut out of fabric has needed to be at least 2 inches big. Or it needs to be a very thick design.

    • I figured I would keep track of this while I made bunting for my friends’ children.

    I am happy to report that the banners are ready to be made!

    Do you like the letters when they are made out of all of the same color? Or do you like the scheme below where a couple of the letters are a different fabric?

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    Inspiration: Whispies

    Published on December 8, 2010 in Inspiring. Closed

    I’ll be honest, I don’t know what these are called. But they are enchanting and lovely and when I see them, I take a moment to enjoy their fluffy beauty before blowing the whiskers all over the place.

    The story behind this photo is strange. It was a field trip for work to see how the forest service does its thinning to prevent forest fires. This giant whispie was in the middle of a field of new growth.

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