A Rose for you (RAK #2)

Hello everyone!!!  Hope you're all having a great Tuesday. 

If you've read my blog before then you know that I've been letting my oldest son do a RAK to teach him important lessons that all of us should know.  Yesterday he went with me to run some errands and decided he wanted to give a rose to another lady that we ran into while we were out.  Needless to say he learned more that just one lesson this time.  It was an older lady that he chose on his own, she seemed less than inthused to be getting anything from a little boy.  The look on his face when we got back to the car was more than devastating, he asked me why she didn't say thank you.  I had to explain to him that sometimes people have bad days and that maybe she didn't realize what he was trying to do, but I'm sure she would smile when she got to thinking about it later when she got home.  And to remember that even if not everyone seemed grateful that he needed to keep doing it because someday someone would really need one of the roses he gave them and it would make their day. 

So I guess my point for this blog is to remember that no matter what rocks life throws in our faces we should keep smiling at other people even if they don't smile back.  That may be just the smile they need to keep them going that day.

I hope you all smiled today and learned some lesson that you will keep with you forever. 

Happy Crafting!!

Opinions please

Ok so as you can tell I did some editing to my blog.  What do y'all think?  Does the header and the background look ok?  It took me forever to figure out how to make my own header.  Now I need to figure out how to make my own button and add it to my page.  That's next on my list we'll see how long that takes me (ha ha).

P.S. My favorite colors are Orange, Turquoise (any shade of blue really), Green and Yellow.  Can you tell?

Morning world

I hope everyone had a great weekend.  We did, it was a long weekend this time which was a really nice end to the first week of school.  Now it's time to get back in the school groove.  We did have lots of fun this weekend though, we were able to take the boys to the park and I was able to make a new owl to add to my collection.  I'm learning that I really like owls and as long as I'm makeing them everytime I get a chance, I'm going to end up with a pretty large collection.  ( That's all I need is one more thing to collect I'm sure my honey is going to love that. ha ha) 

I just wanted to share some photos from our weekend, my boys at the park and of ourse our new addition to the owl family.  This owl is my Autum owl he has leaves for wings and he is such a pretty shade of orange with a little brown mixed in.  I love him he is so cute and will be the perfect Autum decoration.  I think now I need to make owls for all of the seasons.  What do you think?  I guess we'll see what I can come up with for the other seasons.

Hopefully I will do better with my posts this week and actually get more in instead of one every couple of days. 

Oh and if you commented about my recycled wreath and would like to give it it's new home then leave me a comment and I'll get back to you to get your address and I will be happy to get it in the mail to you.  

One more thing and then I'll be done for now.  I know it's a little early, but we're going to have a home-made Christmas this year so I need to start as soon as I can.  So if any of you have any great ideas for Christmas presents please let me know.  I have a few ideas for my boys, but I could always use more and some for other family members as well. 

Hope you all have a great Monday and a wonderful week.  Til next time........

Happy Crafting!!!

A few for you

I figured since I haven't posted any tutorials in a few days I would go ahead and do that tonight while everyone's asleep.

I love flowers, you can do pretty much anything with flowers from embelishing scrapbooks to making cute accessories for clothes and so much more.  I was blog hopping the other day and came across a great blog called 17 tutles and she has some really cool stuff over there and these flowers were among all that great stuff. You should go and check her out and make some of these flowers for yourself.

Now, I'm not the biggest recycler there is, but I try to do as much as I can and not to mention it helps to save money on crafting supplies.  This project is awesome it would be great to put presents in or just to have around for everyday use for jewelry or craft supplies.

Ok, one more and then I'm off for the night.  I posted a no-sew flower tutorial awhile back and while searching for more tutorials to post for you all I came across this one.  These are so easy and so cute I hope you all enjoy. 

Happy Crafting!!

P.S. Did you all notice that I learned how to link the tutorials to certain words instead of having to post the whole www.... thing?  I'm so proud of myself :)

Recycled wreath

Well we made it through the first week of school, YAY!!!  No school tomorrow because he's in the afternoon Pre-K class and they have early dismisall due to football season, so we get to relax early this week.  It's been a busy week because of school so you'll have to excuse the lack of posts this week.

Today I was going through my little stash of cardshock and I noticed that I really didn't like any of the colors for what I had in mind and I remebered something I read awhile back about dying with coffee.  Soooo...... that's what I did.  I love anything vintage and when I say anything I really do mean anything.  Since I haven't had much time in the last week to do much of anything creative I decided today would be a good time.  Landon finished off a box of crackers today and when I was getting ready to throw the empty box in the trash it dawned on me that this was the perfect opportunity to recycle (yes, yes go me ha ha).  So I started with a pile of dyed card stock, saltine cracker box and some ivory colored felt and ended up with a pretty wreath.  I haven't decided if it needs something else or if I like it the way it is, I don't want it to be too busy.  What do you think?  If anyone is interested in giving this wreath a new home let me know.  The pictures aren't the best so I'll take some more tomorrow and get them posted soon.

Happy Crafting!!


                                 Edited to add better photos and an up close of the roses

Aren't they so pretty? 
I love the colors!!

Monday, Monday, Monday

Well, I would like to start off by saying my baby started Pre-School today!!! :(  You will have to excuse the crappy crappy picture of him I had to take it with my phone since we weren't able to bring the camera this afternoon.  Ohhhh I was so bummed too, I wanted a better picture of him on his first day but I suppose we will settle for this one for now.  I have to say in my books he didn't have a very good day and if I were him I would be done with school forever!!!  I won't go into details because when he gets older if it ever dawns on him that I've wrote anyting about him in my blog he would be so embarassed (ha ha).  But he's a little trooper and he said he had a great day and is ready to go back tomorrow.

So now onto a different note.  Who doesn't love getting great things in their mail box?  I know I love it and today I got 2 great packages in the mail.  Thanks to swap-bot (oh I love that place).  The first package was for the newbie niceties swap I was in and it had some great things in it from Dee!!!  A beautiful card, a wonderful recipe, some great stickers, brown paper bags (my mind is going crazy trying to think of great things I can do with them), glue stick, gummies for my kiddos and some beautiful little papers!! 

The second package was from a mystery pouch tag in one of the groups I'm in.  Thank you Christopherpines!!!  First of all it came in a shiny silver puch that was overflowing with blanket binding, rubber stamps, stickers, buttons, tattoos and stickers for my boys and the best of all a vintage garter for me to wear in our up and coming wedding!!! 

And to end my rambling I did manage to get a little crafty today and made a scrap fabric pomander.  It's so pretty and so colorful I absolutely love it.  Oh and did I mention it's out of scraps, so I also managed to recycle and keep those little scraps out of the trash and put them to good use.  A pat on the back for me today :)

I hope you all had a great Monday and continue to have a great week!!!

Happy Crafting!!!!

P.S. Please excuse the bad lighting in these photos, my batteries were dying and I couldn't find anymore so I had to just take the photos as is.

Sunday Update

Well, not quite as promised but I have a few things to show you.  I was pretty busy yesterday between cleaning and sewing.  I managed to make a few things one of them still needs his wings but other than that he's complete.

First I will start off with this vintage bird cage I bought at a Goodwill a little while back for only $2.00.  It needs a little bit of TLC, but I love it anyways.  I figured since it was going to be on display in my home it needed some little birds to go in it, and what better little birds than homemade ones.  The colors of the material that I made them out of are so bright and refreshing I love them.  The one with the blue back with touches of pink and white is the male bird (I know I know I sound like a little girl with a new baby doll) and his name is Max.  The one with the pink and yellow and blue back is the female and her name is Molly.  They are going to look so great when I get them perched in that cage I can hardly wait.

Next is this little flower pin I made out of material with squares and rectangles printed on it.  It reminds me of something from my childhood I just can't put my finger on what yet.  No I just need to find the perfect thing to pin it to. I also made a rose out of the left over petals that I had already sewed up and didn't need for my pin, but I forgot to take a better photo of it.

And finally I found a great tutorial while surffing the web yesterday for a little owl stuffed toy and decided I had to make one to sit on my desk.  He still needs his wings, I will be finishing him up this afternoon.  This is my version of him, but you can see her version when you follow the link below. 

http://melsownplace.blogspot.com/2009/05/owl-tutorial.html

I hope you've enjoyed all of these photos and projects and I hope you can make your own owl to sit on your desk or to even cuddle up with.

Happy Crafting!!

Slow Saturday

On a recent trip to our local everything store, I came across the mother load (lol).  They were having a sale on all of their material including their fat quarters.  .89 for a fat quarter and I stocked up.  There were so many colors and paterns to choose from I almost bought the whole box, but the reasonable side of me decided to just buy about $10 worth so today will be a very crafty day as I decide what to do with all of this great material.  I will be posting some photos this evening of some finished projects. 

I have several things that I need to finish so who knows maybe today will be the day for those too, I guess we'll have to wait and see.

A few days ago I made some stuffed toys for my boys out of felt and some buttons I had laying around that hadn't found their way to the button drawers yet.  I enjoyed making them so much that I think I may start making more toys, they could be great presents and stocking stuffers.  Oh I'm so excited now I can't wait to get started.  I also discovered that using plastic backs as stuffing is a great way to recycle and save some money.  I just shredded it into smaller pieces to make it softer as I stuffed the toys and it also helped to clear out my bag closet, and no money spent on fiber-fil which is a big plus in my book!!!

I'll be back this evening to post some photos and share some cool tutorials with you!!

A few finished projects

Sorry it's been a few days, I've had several things going on from having a very sore back to trying to finish a few things I started so I could get them out of the way.  I'm still not ready to make any tutorials yet, but when I'm ready I will be sure to post them.  I've been working on pin cushions and stuffed toys mostly among a few other things that I still haven't finished yet. 

Some of the things I've made are for a few recent swaps I'm in, but I can't give out any details until they've been mailed to my swap parnters. 

Most of the things I've made recently are out of felt.  I love felt it's so soft and so much fun to work with.  There are so many things you can do with it.  For alot of projects I use regular craft store felt because it's cheap and it holds up really well.  There are a few things I wouldn't use craft felt for because it's doesn't hold up as well after many washes but for the most part it gets the job done.

The pin cushions I made are out of scrap fabric that was just taking up space in my closet, so now I don't have the pieces of fabric laying around but I have more than enough pin cushions (ha).  Not sure if it did me any good to make the pin cushions to conserve space, but it was a good idea at the time.  And if I do say so myself they are really cute!!!  Once I started making them I just couldn't stop myself until there were 7.

I suppose I will call it quits for now, but I may be back to post some tutorials I find from some of the many great blogs out there.  Enjoy your day and happy crafting to everyone!!

Saturday Morning

I've been working on several projects this week and I should probably use today to get some of them done.  Maybe soon I'll show you some of my very own tutorials, but until I can gather my nerves I'll post a few of my favorites off of the web.  When I finish my many projects I'll be sure to share them whith you all.

I'm gonna start off today with this tutorial.  I have a bunch of old spools of thread that belonged to my grandmother and I can't bring myself to throw them away because they were hers.  So I think I'm gonna have to do this when I actually find room for them.  http://www.designspongeonline.com/2010/06/diy-project-haylies-spool-hooks.html

We've all come across an ugly fram or mirror at one point that we thought there had to be something we could do with it.  Well this is a pretty good solution I think, and I have the perfect mirror that I think I'll use.  I need to add some inspiration to my craft area anyways. 

http://www.craftynest.com/2009/05/ugly-plastic-mirror-bulletin-board/

This is the perfect project to make before a road trip. You could use different scraps to make it more fun or even use it as inspiration for another project.    http://mygratitudeattitudes.blogspot.com/2010/05/fabric-tic-tac-toe-game-tutorial.html

Tutorials

These can be used at anytime of the year for any holiday or party, and it's a great way to get rid of some or your scraps that are just taking up space.  Love Love Love them!!!!

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/fabric-scrap-favor-packs

A perfect way to recycle old t-shirts, and really pretty too!!!

http://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/t-shirt-flower-wedding-bouquet

A Rose for you (RAK)

This is the front view of the rose.
there is a note on the back
to remind the reciever
to make someone else smile

   Well today I had to make a trip to the post office to send something out to a swap partner and I figured what better time than now to start our RAK!!!  This morning we made a felt rose and attatched it to a piece of card stock that said "A rose for you because You are Important!!!".  I'm using this as a way to teach Landon to be kind to others and put a smile on someone elses face. 

  

On our way to the
Post Office

He was very excited to be going with me to the Post office to begin with, but when he realized that he was going to be giving something to someone he didn't even know the questions began.  He didn't quite understand at first until he saw the smile on the very nice woman's face that he gave the rose to.  She was very pleased to recieve the rose.  I think Landon made an impression and I think it made an impression on him as well!!!  I think as parents we depend too much on teachers and other people to teach our children these valuable lessons and this is one lesson I want my children to learn at a very early age and to follow them throughout their lives.  I remember donating toys when I was little and taking them to the fire station for other children that didn't have the things I did.  I hope that this can be a memorable experience for Landon as he grows into a young man.  We will post photos from each RAK that Landon does.  We will also be talking with Landon to see what he is learning as we go along. If you have done, or plan on doing something like this please share.  It would be great to see what other people have done!!  If this is not something that you are really that interested in remember that you can donate things to your local Goodwill, Salvation Army or Thrift stores.  These are also ways to help others and clean out your closets at the same time.  I hope everyone has a great Monday and a wonderful week ahead!! 

RAK (random act of kindness)

If you've ever seen the movie pay it forward (who hasn't), then you've probably been inspired to do something similar.  Well I was reading a blog earlier and I saw that they had free inspiration type printables and I was curiouse so I started reading further.  This idea of RAK (random acts of kindness) is a great idea, wouldn't it be great if everyone did something like this.  You could change someones outlook on their day, week, month or even year.  I think I would like to start doing this I'm not sure yet what I will do, but I'm definetly going to start brain storming.  If you've done anything like this please leave a comment it would be cool to read what other people have done and how it affected others.  Go to the link I've added and it will take you to the site I was telling you about.
http://www.sowonderfulsomarvelous.com/2010/04/random-acts-of-kindness-cards-free.html

A few tutorials for today

I've made some of these before myself, (and seeing as how I'm not quite ready to make any tutorials myself) I figured I would post this full tutorial.  These are photos of her flowers.  The link below is to the full tutorial.

http://www.ohmyhandmade.com/2010/what-we-know/tutorial-felt-flower-embellishments/

Aren't these the cutest things ever, I can think of so many things to do with these!! I'm going to have to give this a try and see how they turn out.  The photo belongs to the tutorial, here is the link. http://easymakesmehappy.blogspot.com/2010/07/6-petal-puff-stitch-flower.html

Sticking with the theme I seem to have started today, I figured I would link to this cute tutorial.  I remember when I was little we use to play with pipe cleaners.  I don't think we ever made anything this cute out of them though.

 http://www.makeandtakes.com/crafty-flowers-for-mothers-day 

Our Fall wreath (still in progress)

    Well now that August has arrived and fall is approaching, I figured it was time to start preparing for fall.  I love the reds, oranges and bright yellow colors that acompany this season, so I decided to start off with a wreath. 

I love felt and just recently started learning how to embroider so I figured I would mix the 2 together for my Fall wreath.  I'll update the photos when I finally get it completed.  I'm trying really hard to stick to one project at a time, but sometimes an idea just pops in my head and I have to start on it before I forget. 

I have to make a wreath for a friend of mine's mom soon so maybe I'll make another one just like this one if it turns out nice.

No-sew-flowers with link to full tutorial

I really hope that this works because this will be my first attempt at linking something that I really like to my blog.  These are great no-sew-flowers from dana-made-it.com.  These are so cute and so easy to make, I made some to put in a cute little Milk Glass vase for my desk.  They make me smile everytime I look at them.  I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!!  The photo is part of her tutorial, aren't they cute?

http://www.dana-made-it.com/2008/07/tutorial-no-sew-flowers.html

First Post

Hello Everyone, I'm new to the blogging world.  There are several blogs that I follow and I've been wanting to start a blog of my own for awhile, so here goes nothing.  I will probably blog mostly about crafts and family and I hope to keep this going. 

       I'd like to start out by introducing myself and my family.  My name is Allison, I live in a small town in West Texas.  I'm a 25 year old SAHM with 2 little boys.  The oldest is Landon he just recently turned 4 and will soon be starting Pre-K.  The youngest is Justin he recently turned 2 and will be staying home with me while his brother starts school.  I will be marrying the love of my life William (aka Will) in May of 2011.  We have been together now for 5 years.  We've had our ups and downs but manage to stay strong.

      I hope to show links to some of my favorite things I've found online soon, as soon as I figure out how to do that (ha ha).