Carly Makes Things

A'maze'ing Demolition

2012-01-21T17:14:00.000-08:00

It is amazing how easy it is to tear down something that you worked so hard to build. The one exception is unpicking a seam. The sewing machine works much faster than me.

For the girls birthdays we combined the party this year. I got this funny idea in my head and because of my brilliance and Shannon's back-breaking dedication to me (thanks for your help also, Papa and Michael) this idea came to life.

It took 4 days, 300 feet of construction plastic and 51 poles to create 'The Maze'. That is 51 holes each having to be dug a minimum of 1 foot. When I was doing the designing I thought that we should have the poles around 2 feet deep. It only took one hole to convince me that one foot was enough.

Well, this maze survived through 3 separate kid events, 2 wind storms and just over 2 months.

Today, we decided that it would be best if in the interest of presenting a nice house, it would be a good idea to get rid of the black plastic monstrosity in the front yard. Four days got demolished in less than a half hour.

Z

2012-01-17T09:48:00.000-08:00

Z is for zipper and zebra.

I bet you had a hard time guessing what was going to be on this page. Or not. It isn't original but I love it's simplicity.

I don't know why, probably just not thinking, but I got the kind of zippers that you find on blue jeans. The nice thing about them is that they have a great strong zipper look. The bad thing about them is they have a great strong zipper hold, the kind of hold that makes things difficult for toddlers. Oh well, it's a good thing that there is stuff to do on 24 other pages.

THE END

Y

2012-01-15T10:29:00.000-08:00

Y is for yellow, yo-yo and yarn.

The yo-you goes up and down in the same way that the elevator in E does. Except on the yo-yo it also can go round and round.

In all honesty this is my least favorite letter. I don't know if it is the yo-yo (it doesn't work very smoothly) or it it is all the yellow. I don't really like yellow, even though it is my mom and Claire's favorite color.

Claire's favorite color can change by the minute and it is a topic she really likes to discuss. She asks everyone in ear shot what their favorite colors are and then she demands of someone, "Now you say, what's my favorite color." When she first started doing this I used to tell her a color that I thought was her favorite and she would get angry until I realized she needed me to say, "What's your favorite color, Claire?"

When she answers it can be any color but yellow is the one that occurs the most often and with the most conviction.

Really the only thing I like about this page is the cute little yarn ball I made. See, isn't it cute:

X

2012-01-13T09:42:00.000-08:00

X is for x-ray and that is about it. There is still a surprise.

Open up the skeleton and you will meet...

this guy. He is currently nameless. Maybe you could give me suggestions for a name for him.

W

2012-01-11T10:30:00.000-08:00

W is for wings, wheels, and waves.

The wings can waver.

The wheels on the W go round and round, round and round, round and round.

V

2012-01-09T08:53:00.000-08:00

V is for volcano, vines (a bit of a stretch but it was the best material I had) and...

velcro.

I thought that this would be a good idea until I had it all made and realized for a 'quiet' book velcro is really noisy ripping off.

You can't see it it in the photos but even the V is attached to the page with a thin ribbon. It goes from the top corner of the right side to the bottom of the same side. I was really paranoid about pieces of the book going missing.

U

2012-01-07T09:06:00.000-08:00

U is for umbrella but...

before I let you know what else U stand for I need to give you a warning. The following picture includes graphic scenes that may be disturbing to some viewers. Before you scroll down you may wish to make sure that you are sitting down.

and udder.

I truly am sorry about U but I just couldn't think of anything better.

I love guys reactions when they are flipping through the book and then they are all the sudden confronted with the udder. Typically, they give the teats a gentle squeeze and then try milking them.

T

2012-01-05T09:16:00.000-08:00

T is for train, tiger, trees and turtles.

The turtles drive the train or you could drive the train.

I really don't have anything else to say about T.

S

2012-01-03T08:14:00.000-08:00

S is for snake, stars, stripes and...

snap.

I am not sure how long this little snake is going to stay sewn on to this page. You see that gap between the snap on the tip of the tail and the next snap up the body? That is where it is sewn on. Don't ask me why I separated 2 snaps with and area of sewing because I wouldn't be able to answer you. I just don't know what I was thinking when I did that. What I do know is that it really encourages toddlers to pull very hard when they get to that bit of resistance and can't get to the last snap.

R

2012-01-01T22:07:00.000-08:00

R is for red, road, rainbow and race car.

The race car can race around the road.

I can't believe I haven't told this story before R but what started this whole letter experience was a trip to Costco. Costco was selling kids books that were soft with thick foam covers. They snapped shut and made a pillow when not being read.

I thought that it was really clever and I could make my girls one. I would have been cheaper if I had just bought the books when I first saw them.

I made each of the girls a book where each page was a letter of their name. The letter was an object of some sort. In Claire's book her R was a road just like this one. I will have to show you them some time. Anyway, I thought that I couldn't improve on it so I just made another road.

I found the jeweled ribbon in WalMart and it works so perfect for a yellow line. I even used the same black print for the road.

Q

2011-09-01T08:06:00.000-07:00

Q is for queen...

and quilt.

Yes, I made a mini quilt. My father-in-law thinks quilting is silly because, "You have a perfectly good big bit of material, then you cut it all up into little pieces, just to sew it all back together again." There are some fabric patterns in WalMart that agree with him and have a 'quilted' pattern printed on the material. This to me is the ultimate in cheap. I couldn't do that even in a small scale, things have to be done right.

I bought the little crown for the queen and at first the thought was just to perch it on top of the Q but then it just looked like a crown and not a queen. So I had to paint this little lady. This is a fabric paint. I tried to make this book washable. I don't imagine that I will even stick it into the washing machine and dryer but at least it can be spot cleaned and hand-washed.

P

2011-07-24T08:18:00.000-07:00

P is for piggy bank, purple, pink paisley and...

pennies.

Australia went to dollars and cents on Valentines Day 1966. Before this they had the English standard of pounds, shillings and pence. Shannon is a bit of a coin collector and he made me some buttons out of these two pennies he had doubles of. They are both from the year 1951, which really means nothing. However, the US pennies are from 2009 (the year I finished this book) and 1980 (my birth year). I considered having a penny from 2006 and one from 2007 (the years the girls were born) but I figure there is a good chance there will be more babies and I didn't want anyone left out just because they might be born late.

O

2011-07-22T10:35:00.000-07:00

O is for octopus...

overalls...

and owls.

I am a tiny bit of an impulse buyer, unless you talk to Shannon he might say more of compulsive buyer and not just a little bit. In all honesty, we are probably both wrong and I am somewhere between the two. The tiny overall buttons on this owl were one of those purchases without a plan. The funny thing was that I had been working on O got stuck and moved on to another letter. When I came back to O I had purchased the buttons and re-discovered them during an idea search of my stashes, and personally, I think they work perfectly and I can't believe I didn't think of it sooner and spend a lot less time thinking about what to do with O.

I had all manner of ideas and I even bought the ribbon that I used on the jellyfish to use as octopus legs. I was going to have all the legs have little magnets that would connect to the main part of the octopus and I was going to stretch things by saying the legs 'Opened' and really the Magnets had nothing to do with it and we didn't have to mention an M word in O.

Back to the impulsive/compulsive buying, after I used these buttons on the octopus I went back to the store and bought another pair (in my defense they were on sale) and again without a plan. I guess I just really felt I needed to have them on hand for something.

You should see the enormous bag of buttons I got for the golf club on G because you never know if, in the future, I might need a button shaped like a dog house or ballerina slippers as well.

N

2011-04-13T06:08:00.000-07:00

N is for numbers, nails and...

nest.

I had a hard time finding a number material that didn't also include abc on it. This is a print from an Eric Carle illustration line. The same line that I got the bear and bird from in B, there are a lot of cute prints if you enjoy Eric Carle. Beverly's carries them.

The nails I made. I had some silver fabric paint that I thinly painted onto some black material. I had to paint thinly because I was running out but really it probably turned out better this way. The tiny bit of black material showing through makes it look more like a cheap nail.

M

2010-12-22T04:57:00.000-08:00

M is for mountain, mailbox, music, and...

monkey.

I think that M is my favorite. I love the little monkey and his cute little smile. I love that the mailbox works including the flag.

I love the snow capped mountains and the music in the sky. "The hills are alive, with the sound of music, la la la la..."

L

2010-12-21T07:13:00.000-08:00

L is for leopard, lady bug, leaf and laces.

The laces do come undone but this book has only been through one church service and already that last blue rivet on the bottom of the L has come off. I think that I need to go invest in some larger, quality rivets.

Personally, form a design standpoint, I find L tacky. I really think that it is the leopard print. I am just not that into the jungle scene. However, overall, I am still congratulating myself on my cleverness of the laces down the L.

I made the leaf applique and if memory serves I even had it on the pages before I remembered that I had the leaf buttons. So I went for the over-kill and put them both on.

The more that I blog about this, the more that I want to actually put it all together in a pattern book. That would probably involve making another one so that I can do illustrative pictures of the process. I'm not sure Shannon could handle that.

K

2010-11-14T06:56:00.000-08:00

K is for knit, key, khaki, and...

keyhole.

I have everything that can be moved tied down in ribbons. I thought that with little kids pieces that can go missing, will. This little key is something that I have had for so long that I don't even clearly remember where I got it. I think that it might have something to do with collecting things from the neighbors perpetual garage sale with the Fitzpatrick twins. The other keys I found in the scrap-booking isle, another one of those great finds in the paper section.

I knit the K without a pattern or really knowing how large it might turn out. So of course with this experimental way of doing things I did it twice. I gave the first and larger K to my cousin Katie. I have the pattern all written up for one of those days I get my act together.

J

2010-11-01T08:21:00.000-07:00

J is for jalapeno, jellyfish and...

jumping!

Sometimes I had to let go of the fact that some of my ideas where cheesy and just do them with a smile. J is one of these. I am not a big fan of these jellyfish or the way that they jump, but they work. On my next version of this book (grandchildren one day?) I will do it better.

The jump was made by sewing an elastic in a small tube of the background fabric.

I

2010-10-24T06:29:00.000-07:00

I is for icecream, iguana, and ivy.

You smart ones out there might recognize that there is nothing interactive about this page. This is because I was my nemesis. Of all the 'hard' letters I really wasn't expecting to get stumped by I. J, K, X or even Q but I?

This one was the last page I did. It sat on my desk for weeks and I attempted so many different things, ice-skates, ivy that you hook on, ivy with paint, pen and ribbon.

I then decided to do hand-stitching of the vines. A bit time consuming but so much faster than doing nothing.

The ivy leaves were buttons that I cut the loop off the back so they would lie flat. I hot glued them down and then stitched them down around the stem. You can't be too careful if kiddies are going to be playing with it.

H

2010-10-10T06:28:00.000-07:00

H is for hearts...

hangers...

and horses.

So sorry for the blurry photo with the hanger and the lens shading on the horse, but I was in a hurry when I took these.

This page was one that I wasted a lot of material and time on, had to set it aside and do other pages and return with a clear head. The plan was always the same - a H on a hanger but at first I was trying to get the horse print on the H. Also I was having a hard time working out how to sew the H with the 'arm' holes but still have it neat with no fraying.

In the end I used iron on seam tape around the 'arm' holes and sewed the rest together. The H was actually 2 H's on top of each other and folded in half and sewed/ironed.

The hanger I had to draw a hanger shape on a piece of paper and then bend the wire while aligning it on the piece of paper.

G

2010-10-06T06:20:00.000-07:00

G is for gate...

giraffe, golf, and...

grape.

I love that little giraffe. I think he is cute and his name shall be Garry.

The gate is made from white satin ribbon sew onto clear vinyl. I went a little hardcore on my gate and put ribbon on both sides so it looks nice from the back as well. I tack glued them down before I sewed so that they wouldn't shift during stitching.

I hope you noticed the cool hinges. Remember me talking about them on D?

Story goes: I went to JoAnne's and got these really cool hinges in a package of 6. When I got ready to use them and opened them up, there were only 5 hinges and the missing one was the one I wanted most.

I went back to the store, without a receipt, because it had been some time since I had purchased them. I didn't think that this would be a problem because they were store brand hinges and I wanted a straight exchange. I don't understand their store policy because they started rattling things off to me about only being able to give me the lowest sale price (who cares when you want an exchange?) and crap about sales tax. I paid sales tax when I first bought them. However, they made me pay the sales tax again in order to exchange a product that was faulty.

Let me say that I was a little bit pissed off until the trip that I went with my sister and they only charged me for 1 yard of material instead of the 2 that was cut. I say we are even now.

E

2010-09-29T05:37:00.000-07:00

E is for elephants, eagle and...

elevator.

E was actually the first letter I did. I got this grand idea of making an elevator, because if you haven't figured it out yet, something on each page had to be interactive (there is one exception that will be explained when it makes its appearance). I like my elevator and I think it worked out nicely.

Now, that I am looking back at the work I did on my first page, as opposed to the last one, I can't believe the stupid little details I was adding. It really isn't much but I actually two-toned the inside of the elevator to show the floor and the wall. I should have been chanting, 25 more, 25 more, 25 more....

The elevator is just a loop of ribbon through two button holes. Super simple.

D

2010-09-24T07:54:00.000-07:00

D is for door, dots...

...dragon and dog (a dalmatian).

Yesterday, I was talking about finding fun things in the scrap-booking isle and among those things I found the hinges for the door (the hinges on G are better, just you wait). Of course, I found these hinges after I had already sewed on the door, by hand. So I had to cut that out and then attach the hinges. Of all the redos in this book, it wasn't so bad.

I have had this happy little mutt, sitting in a collection of patches, for years. He was just waiting for a proper application and I do believe he has found his spot in this world.

Shannon and I both collect things. I have to work fairly hard to keep uncluttered and fail repeatedly. I am always happy when an item in my collections come to good use.

The dragon was actually an afterthought and so I didn't actually get it ironed on. The problem with this is that it is actually sitting behind me on the shelf and no longer in the book. Everything else I tried really hard to make sure that it would stay were it was meant to. My shelf isn't big enough for everything in the book.

It is hard to tell from the pictures but the door is made by cutting a piece of clear vinyl then covered in the brown fabric with a window hole cut in it. Once the fabric is over the vinyl I did a zig zag stitch around the window hole to finish the edges and hold it in place. It creates a stiffer door and also a nice little clear window.

C

2010-09-21T06:43:00.000-07:00

C is for chicken, cherry and clock.

I thought that the clock would be a good add to help the girls start to learn how to tell time. Sor far it looks as if I am right. Claire always asks me what time it is and wants me to make her clock the same as the clock in the living room.

I searched all through the buttons and sewing notions. Then one day, during a miraculous event called shopping without children, I was able to cruise the store more slowly. During this adventure I found that there are a lot of good ideas in the scrap-booking isles. You will another of these great notions next in D.

The numbers were drawn on with a laundry pen. This is a better option than regular permanent markers as they don't bleed much.

B

2010-09-18T07:25:00.000-07:00

B is for blue, button...

book..

bear and bird.

B has a lot of possibilities but knowing how limited some of the pages were going to be, (how many items can you think of for X?) I decided to keep all the pages rather simple.

Simple does not mean easy. I was not following patterns. This means that I glued and sewed each and every one of those buttons twice because I didn't get the front of the book the right size the first time. That is a lot of gluing and sewing. Try it sometime I think you might agree.

Let me give you this little tip. When gluing down all those tiny little buttons have a pair of tweezers that have a very pointy tip that fit into the button holes. I think my tweezers saved my sanity. I have fat fingers (the proof of this is in the above photo, check out those sausages), and without the tweezers my fat little digits would have been pushing around the buttons I just glued down while trying to place the next button.

I think that B might be one of my favorite pages. Except maybe for M or G or maybe even P or Q, oh I don't know!

A

2010-09-16T07:34:00.000-07:00

For all you smart people who knew it was an alphabet book (thanks to the clues of the ABC's on the cover material and the hint of 26 days) here is a look at the material on the inside cover.

I found this toward the end of the constant searching of Walmart, JoAnne's, Beverly's and any other store that dared carry material or notions. I had to have it, rationalizing to myself that it would help my girls learn how to write in cursive. The truth being they would probably get in trouble when it came time to do cursive in school, as it seems every teacher teaches a different method of writing specific characters.

I am going to go through the book in order of the alphabet but I will have you know that that is not the way it was created. If I remember correctly I started with E and I definitely remember that I was last.

So with no further ado here is the broad look at A:

A is for apron, airplane, apple and...

acorn!

I love this airplane material. It reminds me of an old painting we used to have hanging in our house and now sits forlornly in the closet. Rejected by the fact that there are no little boy rooms to decorate.

What's In The Bag?

2010-09-09T07:35:00.000-07:00

Here in lies a surprise for all. This small little package has taken months, but every stitch was made by me.

Over the next 26 posts (is that a clue?) I will be showing you what is in it, bit by bit. I don't have patterns for all of it but I will try to guide you through how I made everything so that you can use your own creativity to make your own with your own flair if you so choose.

This is the beginning of it all. The accumulation of me making things.

Annabelle Doll

2010-08-28T05:57:00.000-07:00

This is Annabelle. She's a good sort.

She waited for the train with me. We were having issues with trains that day.

Annabelle has a belly button and is cute as a button too.

This pattern is worked on the round

Tips
Working in the round goes up in spirals. So your beginning point of each round will actually move around the body. E.g. if it starts on the hips on round 8 by round 12 it will be on the back.

I have a couple examples at the bottom of the page if you need help doing either the popcorn stitch or sc2tog

HEAD

1	Ch 2, 5 sc in 2^nd ch from hook (5)
2	[2 sc in same sc] repeat around (10)
3	[2 sc in same sc, 2 sc] repeat around (15)
4	[2 sc in same sc, 3 sc] repeat around (20)
5	[2 sc in same sc, 4 sc] repeat around (25)
6-11	25 sc (25) at this step you can just sc until you get to a count of 150 and then you have done all rows required.
12	[sc2tog, 4 sc] repeat around (20)
13	[sc2tog, 3 sc] repeat around (15)
14	[sc2tog, 2 sc] repeat around (10) Add stuffing here, stuff tightly
15	[sc2tog] repeat around (5) fasten off and leave a long tail to use to sew the head on the body later.

ARMS (x2)

1	Ch 2, 5 sc in 2^nd ch (5)
2	[2 sc in same sc] repeat around (10)
3	10 sc
4	Sc2tog, 8 sc (9)
5	Sc2tog, 7 sc (8)
6-17	8 sc (8) at this step you can just sc until you get to a count of 80 and then you know you have completed all rows required. Fasten off

LEGS (x2)

1	Ch 2, 5 sc in 2^nd ch (5)
2	[2 sc in same sc] repeat around (10)
3	[2 sc in same sc, 2 sc] repeat around (15)
4,5	15 sc (15)
6	2 sc2tog, 11 sc (13)
7	2 sc2tog, 9 sc (11)
8-18	11 sc (11) at this step you can just sc until you get to a count of 110 and then you know you have completed all rows required. Fasten off first leg, second leg go straight into body part of pattern

BODY

1	7 sc, join with sc in 2^nd sc 10 sc, sc in same sc as the join, sc in 7^th sc (same as join), 4 sc
2-4	23 sc (23)
5	10 sc, popcorn stitch, 12 sc (22)
6-10	22 sc (22), at this step you can just sc until you get to a count of 110 and then you know you have completed all rows required.
11	6 sc, 7^th sc is a join 14^th is a join in the same sc as the first join, 10 sc, join with sc, 7 sc, sc in same stitch as first join, 4 sc (36)
12	36 sc (36)
13	8 sc, sc2tog, sc2tog, 14 sc, sc2tog, sc2tog, 6 sc (32)
14	6, 3 sc2tog, 10 sc, 3 sc2tog, 4 sc (26)
15	13 sc2tog (13)
16	7 sc2tog, this technically goes into a new round, but whatever.

	Sew on head.

POPCORN STITCH

2 dc in same sc,

remove hook from loop put hook through last sc,

pull loop through

SC2TOG (single crochet two together)

Pull loop through like a regular sc (2 looks on hook)

Pull another loop through the next sc (3 loops on hook)

Loop over and pull through all 3 loops on hook

Bead Math

2010-08-24T07:36:00.000-07:00

I had to go shopping tonight for my sister-in-law's birthday present. Shannon was tired and didn't want to meet me so I had hours all by myself. Poor me.

So during my searching I found this:

No, it's not for Desiree. I got her something else and I am not telling in case she reads my blog.

The beads are mine but the chain is new. It is a cute little silver chain that you can string your own beads on. I thought that it was an excellent idea and easy way to change your jewelry. Just change the beads and you have a whole different look. Add a bead, take away a bead, multiply them...

I am especially excited because years ago I got a bead that my mom made and I have always loved it, mostly because my mom made it and then let me have it and now I can wear it.

Spring Shrug

2010-08-17T07:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the not so great photos but my husband has an old lady's hobby (like I don't) and was at an orchid society meeting and wasn't home to help.

This is just a rectangle with the ends sewn together to make sleeves. Hopefully, you can see the back a bit in the mirror to get the idea of it. It looks pretty cute over a singlet top as well, it's just too cold here to pose for those pictures tonight.

This is a very adaptable pattern. You can change the length of the sleeves to whatever amount of yarn you have. The reason my sleeves are their length is because I only had 2 skeins of this:

Chain in multiples of 4 to desired length. In this case I did a chain of 52. Basically, here you just have to chain until it is long enough to wrap around your upper arm.

Dc in 5th chain from hook

[Chain 3, skip 3, dc in next chain] repeat to end of chain

chain 4 turn [dc in chain of 3, chain 3] repeat to end, chain 4 turn...

easy peasy.

Now depending on how long you make your rectangle is how long you need to sew up the sleeves. This is all I had to sew up the ends on my short sleeves.

The other thing with this is, if you don't want to wear it as a shrug you can still just wrap it around for a scarf.

Giant Snowflake

2010-08-16T07:04:00.000-07:00

I did this a small while back. You wouldn't believe how much energy it can take to get up off my butt and take a simple photograph so that I can then post it. It takes so much energy that I was only able to muster enough tonight because I didn't have to walk home from work.

One of my co-workers takes the same train as me and we share a trip when we share a shift. Tonight she got off at my stop to meet her partner and they both insisted that I take a ride from them.

I had to laugh when he told me, "you are in Australia now, this isn't America." Yes, because America is known for being such a safe place to be.

Anyway back to my project.

Giant Snowflake

The above link is the pattern that I followed. This is why I love the internet, free patterns and help for when I get in trouble.

On row 12 of this pattern I could not figure out what it was talking about. I tried and I unravelled, again and again. Then I saw that people had left comments about similar problems and triumphs. I was actually able to email a nice lady who helped me over this hump. Just because she was nice, she helped me, a stranger, because the internet is a wonderful place.

I love the pictures of this pattern but mine actually turned out a bit small. I think one day I might try it again with a bigger needle. Anyone want a smallish giant snowflake?

White Trash

2010-08-11T04:59:00.000-07:00

Over here in the land of Oz they have a peculiar custom. Every now and then the council sends a suburb a notice saying that the home dwellers can put all there large trash on the curb and the council will come clean it up. People are allowed to put out the trash somewhere around 1 to 2 weeks before council comes to pick it up.

Why I say this is peculiar is that for a short time it transforms nice looking suburbs into more of a trash heap. However, many people go around armed with trucks and trailers scouring the trash on the curb to find 'another man's treasure'.

It just so happened that we were driving through one of these areas and I spied what looked like a nice chair. Shannon flipped around and we went looking for it. When I got up close it was a nice chair except for the fact that one leg had come off but nice considerate previous owners had left the leg with it. So we packed it home and in about a half hour flat Shannon and I had the legs all screwed on and sturdy. God bless the hopeless handy man.

Really the only problem with this chair is that it is white and I have toddlers. During the fixing I found an Ikea sticker so I thought that I could buy a new non-white cover for it. Come to find out that this chair retails for $420 and the covers are around $160. Since it is a free chair to me I didn't want to invest in a cover and I wasn't very fond of any of their other covers. So we decided to go with option number 2.

See the pretty colors that make grey?

Oh no! What have we done?

Oh good, it gets darker.

It does have some inconsistencies in the shades of grey. You can see a bit along the bottom, how the arm on the right side of the picture isn't the same shade as the front and other arm. Overall, it is better than white and we might try again later.

Shamira's Quilt

2010-08-08T07:24:00.000-07:00

I have a niece who is legally blind and also just turned 6. I made this quilt for her. The idea behind it was that she could have lots of things that she could touch, with many different textures. It has flannel, cotton, ribbon, buttons, minky, quilting, and satin.

This is a quilt that could have gotten quite addicting into making all sorts of different touches. I decided for my sanity and timeframe to keep it simple.

I started with the flannel backing as inspiration for the whole project.

Not only is it just so cute it is also so very soft. Basically, it set my colors and helped limit me to flowers.

These buttons look tricky but they are actually pretty simple. The tip is fabric glue and pointy ended tweezers. Once the glue dries you can sew them down. Sewing them down is important because the glue isn't a certainty and with kids you want certainty for choking objects. Plus buttons without the typical thread cross just don't look right.

They feel a lot of fun.

Trapunto quilting. A bit hard to see in this picture but if you don't know trapunto is just sewing 2 parallel close set lines on two pieces of fabric sandwiched together. You then get a large blunt needle with yarn and sew the yarn between the two sewn lines and the sandwiched fabric. The yard creates the texture of whatever you have sewn. Subtle fun.

Looped ribbon segments. 'Nough said.

This is just a yo-yo out of satin with a great big button holding it down.

Cables

2010-08-07T17:49:00.000-07:00

I love this hat. I made this hat. I am proud of this hat.

Let me explain something. I love to crochet. I don't like the look of crochet. I hate to knit. I love the look of knit.

This has always plagued me. I have spent sleepless afternoons debating over my new skein of yarn, 'to knit or to crochet?' No longer do I have to agonize over this issue. I feel freed. I feel alive again. I feel like I should alert the news stations.

Tonight however, you are my only audience and I must share with you.

If you crochet this is an invaluable website with links to hundreds of free patterns, including my very own pattern of the scarf I made. I feel famous.

Free Crochet Patterns

And this is the link to the incredible woman's website who opened my eyes to the possibilities open to me now I know how to crochet cables.

Cable Hat

Train Drawing 2

2010-08-05T05:48:00.000-07:00

Spoon Me

2010-07-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

I have recently started picking up spoons. I thought that I would just pick up 6 cute little spoons to have with my beautiful cups and saucers, but so far I have 19. Whoops.

Antique shopping with Q last weekend not only got me spoons but stories.

The first store we walked in the proprieter indicated that some people believe that the dolls for sale in the store would get up and play at night. We laughed at this one because some of the dolls were especially creepy so he then said, "that's nothing the next store over has a ghost of a little girl." Yikes.

At the next store when we asked the lady behind the counter if there was more upstairs she told us to help ourselves but to keep our eyes open. She had a strange look on her face and upstairs had a bad feel to it.

I am not big on ghost stories. I do not believe in ghosts in the sense of them being the souls of our dearly departed. However, I do believe in spirits and forces of both good and evil. So these stories can really creep me out.

So when we walked into the last store that day and after chatting with the guy there and hearing his story I was so glad that it was the last store before EVERYTHING closed at 5PM. There I go ranting about shopping hours in Perth again. You may ask yourself, "when is she going to get over that?" The answer is simple - when there are reasonable shopping hours for people who work full time!

So one morning when Bob (I don't know his real name but I thought it would be a better story if he had a better name than 'that guy') was opening up the shop by himself he went to turn the lights on in a small upstairs room. Bob told us that they have since closed off this room and do not display things in there anymore because stuff just wouldn't sell from in there. I don't know, could it be the weird freaky vibe? To get to the light switch Bob had to walk through the regular sized doorway. After he turned on the light and went to walk back out he had to stop because there was a chair RIGHT IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DOORWAY. He could not have possibly walked in and missed the chair.

When he started his story I was expecting him to say that he saw a person or a white mist or another form of a ghost. For him to say what he did about the chair just really gave me the heebie geebies. Shiver.

Ghost stories aside, back to the spoons.

I have been googling spoons a lot tonight and I thought that the one on the far left was an absinthe spoon and that I would then have to give it to my mother. But on further study I think that it is just a spoon for sugar sifting or getting olive or maraschino cherries out of the juice like I first thought. So no, Mom, you can't have it.

I did find 7 spoons all the same and thought they would make a nice tea set. They have very nice detailing.

But after cleaning them there is too much corrosion on a few of the bowls.

I found another apostle spoon. So now I have 2 of the 12 apostles. Now I just need 10 more plus the Master larger spoon. I don't care if they are a match set.

I found out tonight that you can tell who each of the apostles are by what they are holding. I haven't figured out who these two are or if I even have two different apostles. I will keep working on that one.

But my best find so far.

It is a Gerber spoon. You can still order these for your baby. This one is from somewhere between 1900-1940. The stamp on the back is McG.C.Co which apparently makes it rare and better than the Winthrop stamp of some other silver plate Gerber spoons.

I think I paid $1 for this (I bought it in a lot and don't know exactly what she charged me individually) but what they are going for on Ebay is closer to $15-18 depending on who's dollar you are using. I am quite proud of my buy. Except now I want more. Oops.

Train Drawing

2010-05-28T04:27:00.000-07:00

Art or...?

2010-02-02T16:28:00.000-08:00

On our travels this weekend we went to a house where my friend Bear was house-sitting. Part of the directions to the house were, "if you don't see a bunch of strange sculptures in the driveway you are in the wrong driveway."

When we got there we knew immediately we were in the right place. They were fantastic. Life sized elephants and giraffes.

Crocodiles guarding the fish pond.

My favorite was this large cat on a branch bolted to a tree. The day was ending and I couldn't get a good shot even though I think I tired at least a dozen times.

Being an art teacher I was very impressed with this private collection. I must admit, however, I am used to having to treat artworks with a degree of respect. I found, winding up the driveway, that the owner of these pieces must not feel quite the same way. His sense of humor not what I am used to in terms of artwork display.

His rhinoceros was chewing on a pair of panties. That made me giggle. The belly laughs came from the other side of the street.

One Million Giraffes

2010-01-23T11:43:00.000-08:00

This is my giraffe.

Where is yours?

onemilliongiraffes.com

Desmond Tutu

2010-01-22T10:32:00.000-08:00

This is a very easy tutuorial (wah ha ha ha, I so funny).

Get some elastic from the easiest source you can. WalMart, JoAnnes, Spotlight, those old sweat pants that don't fit anymore. Measure the elastic for the right size of the desired tutu recipient (I won't judge you if you want to make this for yourself).

Sew the elastic together. I decided to use a zig-zag stitch but any stitch will do. You could even hand stitch this if you don't have a sewing machine. If you are really lazy, I suppose even a stapler would do the trick here. Just don't blame me if it doesn't last as long.

Get a large pile of tulle. I got this in the remnants bin at WalMart for under a dollar. I think it was just under a yard. If you would like your tutus longer than what mine turned out you will need to buy more tulle, I used every last scrap of this pile. It really is cheap so it won't break the bank.

Cut it up into a pile of strips. They don't have to be perfect or even close to perfect, they just have to be strips.

Fold the tulle in half, loop it around the elastic and make a half hitch.

I found it worked much better if I tightened the half hitch around my thumb, instead of the elastic alone.

Work the half hitches closely together.

In no time you will have a cute little tutu like this. In the picture above you can see the loops of the half hitches. If you turn the tutu inside out at this point you get a nice finish like the picture below.

At this point it could be finished but...

if you want it to be a little more secure or add some nice ribbons you can sew the entire band with a loose zig-zag stitch.

The zig-zag stitch ensures that you will still be able to stretch the elastic without breaking the thread. So, please don't use a straight stitch here.

All done. Find a cute little bum (yours even, still not judging) and dance...

dance...

dance.

The crazy thing here is like the kids at Christmas who get an expensive toy and end up playing in the box. The girls love these tutus and overall they took less than two hours to make, with interruptions. However, those capes that I made, that took an entire day, still sit unused.

Go figure.

How To Be An Amateur Seamstress

2010-01-12T07:44:00.000-08:00

Just to show you what a fraud that I am.

1. Pick a pattern that you are not going to follow. Even though I didn't follow the directions or even use the pattern pieces that they wanted me too it was loads easier than doing it all myself.

2. Lay pattern on your material, in this case a dress that I loved when I was just barely a teen. I absolutely adore this dress print pattern.

3. Pin the pattern and the material to the carpet in much the same way you might put it on cork-board

4. Trace around it in permanent marker pen. It will all hide in the seam allowance anyway and it is so much easier to see when doing the next step.

5. Cut out the pieces.

6. Admire your first pile of pattern pieces.

7. Repeat for the lining.

Remember that ironing is for sissies and who cares if the material has wrinkles, it only has a small chance of making the pattern pieces irregular. Any clothes in my wardrobe that require ironing sit unused for a few years until being donated to charity.

Sometimes I don't act like an amateur and actually use the right tools. One great one is this blue pen.

Unlike the permanent marker in the previous photos, this pen is water-soluble and will wash out in the laundry or if you can't wait that long you can spray it with a spray bottle.

Also, one very very important step is to pin pin pin. Please pin your work. Right, Courtney?

9. Sew

10. And sew.

Until you get these happy kids.

This has got to be my favorite photo of Suzie to date. I am considering having it framed. At least I am going to put it as my wallpaper on my computer.

They have better clasps now. After a trip to JoAnne's I was able to replace the alligator clips with something a little more classy. If the kids actually wore the capes I could get another picture, but alas.

Fish Scale Scarf

2010-01-08T09:25:00.000-08:00

Claire is modeling for me today. She is wearing a scarf that I crocheted and every time that I have worn it I have received compliments on it. So I decided to share what is very quick to make if you know how.

If you don't know how and are trying to make it without a pattern (no patterns seem to be my pattern) then it might take you an entire night of crocheting and pulling out. The second night, however, your scarf will grow quickly.

Let me save you some time so that you can do this in one evening instead of two.

If you have never crocheted but have wanted to learn, YouTube has some great videos that demonstrate the basics and this pattern is super simple to start with. If you live in Perth we can trade services. I need a housekeeper.

I used a H/8 or 5.00mm needle and worsted weight %100 cotton yarn.

1. Chain to your desired width as long as you have multiples of four, 8, 12,16, 20, 24, etc plus 2. The rest of the pictures are done on a chain of 24.

2. Single crochet in 3rd chain from hook.

3. Chain 3

4. Single crochet in 4th chain from the last single crochet.

5. Continue steps 3 and 4 until you get to the end of the chain.

6. At the end of the row, after the last single crochet, chain 2.

7. Turn

8. Single crochet in the hole made by the chain 3.

9. Chain 3.

10. Single crochet in the hole of the next chain 3 on the bottom row.

Lather, rinse, repeat.

Just remember that at the end of the row only chain 2 before the turn. It leaves 1/2 sized holes on the end for the net/staggered look.

This pattern has not been tested and if anyone is brave enough to attempt it and finds an error, please let me know so that I may correct it.

F

2009-12-21T10:05:00.000-08:00

F is for flag and lots of fish. Oh, and the F is actually fuzzy.

Fishing pole fishing fish out of a fish bowl.

Now I realize the flags are not the same size. I was worried that Shannon would give me crap because the US flag is bigger than the Aus flag. I could not find a smaller US flag, and the Aus flag I had in that same collection with the doggie from D for years as well. It is very hard to find any flags besides US and state flags while in the US. I know, Shannon, it is those ego-centric Americans again, thinking they are the only country in the world.

So my solution was to put the Aus flag higher on the page than the US flag. Then it got me worried about being disrespectful to the US flag while we were still in the US. Since Australians do not have the same respect for their flag that Americans have for theirs, then Australians shouldn't worry about being lower.

I thought a lot of things but basically what I learned is that politics don't mix with anything, even crafts. So, damn you politics, I don't care I will do what I want. Suck it.

I still look at them and think that I should rip them both off and just have a fishing page. Ugh.

The fishing pole is just a coat hanger that is bent to have a small circle just where it attaches to with the button reel. Sew on the button through the small circle and viola you have a pivoting fishing rod. The fish bowl is made with small scraps of clear vinyl, zig- zagged on with 'invisible' thread that is used by quilters.