Needle Felted Critters

 

My friend Anisa and I both have early February birthdays and we exchange gifts. She gave me some acorns she collected in Texas, because she knows I'm a scavenger at heart. She also gave me some really cool acorn candle holders. I wanted to make something for her because she quilts- and it's fun to craft things for other crafty people. I wanted to make a pincushion for her, and I had this little dish that came with a flower growing kit. I made this little sheep in a pasture, and it inspired me to make more critter-cushions for my Etsy shop.

 

I found some small dishes, but then decided to look at goodwill to find other one of a kind bases for the cushions. I'll be making more soon, but for now the little group of felted items are all I have. Sunday is my day to stay home and craft- and I can't wait to get started on more!

 

Houdini Dog

 

See this sweet little pup? She looks so innocent, but she cannot be trusted! A week ago she escaped from her crate while we were at work and had a really good time on her own. She had a crap-tastic time actually, but luckily for me Jeff beat me home!

This afternoon I came home and spotted a stick on the living room floor. I picked it up and saw that it was a perch I had just taken out of the bird cage. What the... oh, hello Trixie! She greeted me with a mouth full of bright green wool roving that I bought yesterday and hadn't put away yet. It was fluffed up all over the craft room, and she has still been finding pieces tonight- she has some stashed away I'm sure. Then I saw that Trixie had also found a pair of my socks and roughed them up a bit, isn't she helpful? A few shredded napkins finished off the scene. Not too bad for a pup on her own for who knows how long. I *think* I have secured the escape-hatch on her crate, but I guess time will tell. For now I'll have to close the craft room door and cross my fingers!

ATCs Made using Greeting Cards

I'm part of an ATC (artist trading card) swap with a group of ladies, and we have a monthly theme. This month's challenge was to make ATCs with store-bought greeting cards as a base. I gave away most of my store-bought greeting cards when I started making my own cards several years ago. I managed to scrounge up one or two, but decided to make a trip to the Dollar Tree where I found these:


I liked the flourishes and the little pink hearts, so got these and a package of a different design and headed home to make something. The swap is for 9 cards, but this pack only came with 8 greeting cards, so I knew I'd have to use the sides with the sentiment as well. Here is what I came up with :)



I have a little story about the second pack of cards, but I'll save that one for another day. If you'd like to be part of a monthly 9:9 ATC swap let me know and I'll pass your info on to the organizer- the more the merrier!

A Wee Mouse

 

I took my needle felting supplies on vacation to visit my parents in Myrtle Beach. Mom wanted to give it a try and she made a little grey blob that I turned into a mouse. He's sitting on a quarter in these pictures and I left him there to keep them company. :)

 

Valentine Bunny

I needle-felted this little guy over the weekend and am really pleased with how he turned out.



The heart was going to be for something else, but I liked it better with the bunny than the carrots I made for him.



I like him right down to his fluffy white tail. In fact, I like this guy so much that I'm going to do something I seldom do- I'm going to keep him! More needle-felted critters to come- I promise!

Ornaments

 

I am in the ornament making mood and have really been having fun making these little goodies. I have all kinds of ideas for more of them too!

 

I love these little birds- the cardinal is Ohio's state bird- so I'm especially partial to those and have lots of them on my Christmas tree. These ornaments are the first two things I've listed in my Etsy shop. I have finally taken the plunge- constructive criticism is always welcome :)

Glub Blub Glug Glug...

That's the sound a lawnmower makes. At least that's the sound MY lawnmower made yesterday. I was bitching and moaning about having to mow the lawn because my sweetie had a benign lump removed from his ankle and can't do a lot of walking. As I was getting started he asked if I'd remembered to take my back pill- and I hadn't. He went in to get it for me, and as I came around the side of the house I saw him standing on the deck. I stopped the mower and turned to walk over to him and saw him pointing toward the pond. The lovely pond where our mower was heading. It hit a bush and slowed a little as it bounced down the slope- but not enough for me to catch it.

I'm accident-prone and usually don't walk down the slope- and I had no idea I could actually RUN down it. The bubbles and glugging were just getting started as I grabbed the handle that was still above water. I dragged that blasted machine back up the hill with one hand. Adrenaline is a wonderful hormone- it worked well for me yesterday. I'd like to take this moment to give a shout-out to my adrenal glands for not letting me down. Thank you adrenal glands, I've never given a second thought to you, but you were there for me when I needed to drag my fat butt up and down a hill to rescue an off-roading-mower.

I'm also thankful that we went "green" with our mower and use the Neuton, a battery-operated mower. I think having no gas tank, no oil, etc- was helpful in this case of scuba-mower. It's a very nice mower- quieter than a vacuum cleaner and no emissions and no tune-ups. There was water in the battery, but we have a second battery that wasn't dunked in the pond. We sprayed it off and wiped away any pond scum. We left it out in the sun to dry and set-up a fan to blow on it too. This morning it started right up!! WHEW!!! So now that all is well in the world and I've finished mowing the lawn I must admit it's funny. So go ahead, have a laugh, I can take it!

ps- the card in the pic is ooooold, but fit the theme.

All Decked Out

From Deck Progress

Our deck is finished, has been for a couple weeks actually, I just didn't get any photos up. We really like how it turned out. I do think I'm going to see about having more of the crossing-slats across the top of pergola though. It would provide more shade, and the other pergolas on their website show more going across, and another one they built on our street has closer slats as well. Overall I'm pleased with their work though- more photos in this album.

New Purple Onion!!!

I made these first two cards while the power was out. I also was faced with the truth that I get soooo much more done when the computer is off! I like the way the word "witch" shows right next to this witch image her. I used some of the tiny stamps- eek, boo, and the spider, on some little plastic tags. I have a couple more Halloween cards in the works.


I found this dancer on a clipart cd and thought she'd be cute on a thank you card. This is one of my favorite Basic Grey color schemes- an oldie but a goodie. Do you think she needs something in her hand?


I am thinking of using this angel over one of the winter note-block stamps, but for now she's over the POD music background with another POD sentiment. I got this lace in a vintage trims grab-bag at the stamp show last month.

Fits of Fairy Fluttering

I did end up adding a blue card back to the third card here- I guess I didn't re-scan it, but it's cute either way. I love to color the ECG stamps, and I am convinced that I neeeeeed those new fairies from a recent supplement ECG put out. I don't have enough fairies, I am absolutely sure I need more. I must express myself through darling sparkle-winged fairies and that's all there is to it!!!

I am glad that our power is back on- not that I am even going to complain about being without it for around 24 hours. Those in the areas where hurricanes came ashore are much worse off than we were with the 70-80 mph winds. Ohio doesn't tend to see wide-spread winds like this since we are land-locked. When we get high winds it tends to be in the form of a tornado which has a devestating, yet narrow, path of destruction. We have less damage than many of our neighbors- we have no mature trees on our lot, so no down limbs. Several neighbors with the rubbermaid cabinets and sheds had them blown over, trash cans and patio furniture blew around. A few shingles in need of repair, and our grill and chairs flew around the deck. We were out to eat at our favorite Mexican place when the storm hit- they have a large canopy that was ripped from the building and landed in a big mud puddle in the construction site next door. Thankfully no people or cars were hurt. Many parts of our area are still without power- it's patchy. My husband's workplace never lost power, and mine is back online today, so I'm back to work tomorrow. At the end of it all we are thankful to be safe and home!

This is not the card I just made... but I thought I'd show it to you anyway since I seem to not have posted it anywhere yet. More cute Eat Cake Graphics stamps and Purple Onion Designs stamps here. Colored with my trusty prismacolor pencils.

Lots of Birthdays!!!

September is so full of birthdays that I am not sure if I can get all the cards done! I'll post them as I go over the next couple days. This one was going to be for my sister, but I haven't seen her in a couple weeks- so I'll make a belated one for her and am gong to recycle this one for a friend- shhh... don't tell!!

It's about time

that Annie got a blog! You don't know how much bitching I had to put up with about how she would never do it. Check out Annie's Ponderings.

This Old Man is 80!

 

My dad turned 80 on Memorial Day this year and my brother Gary had a fantastic cookout at his house. We picked up the cake, and decided to do the skinny candles so we could fit all 80 of them. Well, it was windy, so Dad only had to blow out one candle because we couldn't get them to stay lit, but it still counts!

 

 

 

Legacy

 

Over the July 4th weekend we went to my family reunion in Port Austin, Michigan. The Schwanitz farm has been in the family since the late 1800s and remains in the family due to the love and care of my cousin Matt and his wife Monica. They have spent a lot of time and money on improvements and restoration and they have really brought it back to life. I can't imagine how it feels for Dad and my uncles to be able to revisit their childhood home and see things put back to the way they were back then. We had a fantastic time, and even though I took about 300 photos, I wish I had taken more! Blogger only wants to let me show you 4 of them, so here are some of my favorites. I really like the picture of the three nails- not sure why, maybe it's the antique spider web ;)

 

 

 

For Mom

Still not much time to work on anything crafty, but I had to take a break from my school work to make a couple cards for Mothers's day. Nothing fancy here, just two Hero Arts stamps and some rhinestones. The tiny ones are from a snowflake-shaped rhinestone sticker that I cut apart. Happy Mothers's Day to all the Moms out there!

Puppy Tricks

Trixie got her first haircut and I took a little video of her tricks.

I swear this will not become a dog-blog, I just have no crafts to show!

Happy St. Patty's Day!

Trixie O'Puppy wanted to take a moment out of her busy schedule to wish you a fantastic day for the wearin 'o the green. I haven't managed to make any St. Pat's cards or Easter cards this year, so this pic is all I've got to show.

Welcome Home Trixie

Here she is- Beatrix "Trixie" the new puppy in the family. I'm working on some new puppy photos that have to be touched up- it sure is tough to photograph a black dog! Anyway- here is one straight off the camera from last Thursday, the day we brought her home. I'm amazed at how much she's grown and changed in just a week! Sweet little fuzz-butt, she's been such a joy to have around the house.

Just a couple more weeks of school, we're having some winter weather, so I'm going to stay indoors and have a homework-fest! I went to my advisor to be sure I'm close to graduation- just one more quarter at full-time, then ONE math class is all that stands between me and graduation! :D

The Language of Love

Our Valentine gifts to each other got me thinking of this book that I read before Jeff and I got married called The Five Love Languages. I was given the book as a wedding shower gift, and it's a fast and worthwhile read. Dr. Gary Chapman outlines the five different ways that people show and feel love. Once you have figured out which language you and the people around you prefer, you can show your love in the lanugage they understand. There is a quick quiz you can take to find out your language, and if your spouse hasn't taken the quiz you can figure out their language by watching how they express love to you. Usually the way a person expresses him/herself when they show love is the way they understand best.

So, since Jeff knows I like a little something to show he was thinking of me, I got a beautiful card and a darling little bear as my valentine and Jeff got acts of service, aka a cleaned up house. I hope your Valentine's day was as lovely as mine! :)