Playing Catch-Up

As promised, here are some of the crafty items I've recently made. I guess the best way to do this is start with the newest and work my way back. That nephew of mine that got married in March is going to be a Daddy come December. So, a baby shower gift was planned as soon as I knew it was going to be a boy. I found the adorable, vintagey, little boy print and knew a quilt would be just perfect.

I love pinwheel blocks! I finally finished this up less than 12 hours before the baby shower, but everyone loved it.


Here's the back.

Next up is a Trick-or-Treat swap I sent out last week. I've been hoarding Halloween fabric (mostly Fat Quarters) and I knew it was time to cut into some of them...

so I made this tiny owl ornament








 and then this Trick-or-Treat bag. I had a bit of trouble sending that bag away.

I love making Button Fairies and yet I had never made one in a Halloween theme. So here she is...

And lastly for this swap I made a SPOOKY banner. It's difficult to photograph the whole banner,

So here it is, 2 bits at a time.

And here's the whole swap package with a handmade card and a few more treats tucked in. I tend to get carried away with holiday swaps. My swap partner was thrilled. And that makes me happy.

Have you seen enough yet?
No?
Okay, you asked for it....

I did one other swap this fall and it was for an Autumn theme, handmade, or decorated tea towel. When I think of tea towels, I think of redwork style embroidery. I found an embroidery design (shared by one of many generous people on FlickR) with cornstalks and pumpkins. Just the thing for fall.

My swap partner loves chickens, so I added this pair from a different embroidery design. I thought it all worked out nicely. And here's the whole swap, including the required Autumn recipe and a bonus hand knit dishcloth.

Here's a few more dishcloths I knitted over the summer.

And some more knitting....
Slippers, tagged up for my craft show.

And a bow knot scarf in Autumn colors.

Well, that's all I have time for right now. I know I have a 4th of July banner that I haven't shown yet. Also a couple of new aprons were sewn up. I'll try to find those pics to share real soon. Thanks for visiting.

Back to School

After homeschooling my son for the past 7 years, he has begun his Freshman year at our Regional Technical Vocational high school. This is such a huge change for both of us. My natural born Night Owl is not cheerful when I wake him at 6:15 A.M. but he doesn't give me a hard time. He doesn't complain about PB&J for lunch every day. He is fighting to keep up with Algebra 1, but is making good grades. He doesn't like carrying 25 pounds of backpack to and from school during acedemic weeks. And the first two days were completely overwhelming in every respect. But...
He has loved U.S. History and Technology class since day one. He enjoys the small classes and is getting to know his classmates and teachers. And most afternoons when I pick him up, he has a smile on his face and tells me about his day. He likes school and is doing well with all his classes. He is doing so much better than I dared to hope for.
A quote from Winnie-the-Pooh keeps rattling in my head, "You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we're apart.. I'll always be with you.”



Now, how am I coping? Well... After almost 8 weeks, I still think about him many times a day, hoping he's having a good day. I'm learning that he is more mature, sensible, responsible and resiliant than I give him credit for. I am so very proud of him.
To keep myself busy, I am back to Flylady.net, trying to get some routine in my day and bless my family by slowly clearing out the clutter and keeping up with the chores. I have also been crafting and sewing. I hope to soon load in pictures so I can share all my recent creations.
Also, I've begun Crochet School with Dana over at her blog, Crafty Minx. Right now, I am a few lessons behind but I'm so excited to have someone show me the basics of crochet. If you've always wanted to learn to crochet, check out the step-by-step lessons that Dana is sharing with the world for FREE!

By the Sea

It's just not Summer without my family's annual day trip to Rockport, Massachusetts. My favorite part of the day is the little bit of time we get to spend at the beach.










I was mad at myself that I brought my handbag along when I meant to leave it in the car. But as it turned out, I wouldn't have had my camera or any pictures if I had done that.













My nieces and nephews are all grown up and in college (except the oldest who is away in the Army). I was glad they all joined my son and I at Front Beach.










Well, they didn't exactly 'join' us: we just happened to be in the same place at the same time. It was more like they didn't mind that I was there as long as I didn't do anything embarassing. All the other adults had headed for the park or more shopping.












Not me! I get this one chance a year to be at the ocean and I need to get my feet wet. There's nothing like the sand, salty water and sun.

Hey, Hey...

It's the Monkees!

We had a great time June 10th at Mohegan Sun Arena seeing 3/4 of the original Monkees. Davy, Mickey and Peter put on a great show with nearly all the seats filled.
In this first picture you can see Mickey playing drums and Peter to the right while Davy is on the front of the stage, to the left of the guitar player.

They played, sang, joked and Davy danced. I was impressed with their energy since they are a couple of years older than I am.
Here's Peter and Mickey. Since Mike wasn't there, Peter sang most of his songs. Sorry it's so blurry but they really didn't stay still for a moment.

I do apologize for the quality of my 'contraband' pictures but as you can tell from this last picture, we were hitting our heads on the ceiling up in the next to the top row.

Tornadoes in Massachusetts

This amazing NASA image of the track of the tornado that ripped through Massachusetts on June 1, 2011. I've put a small red dot approximately where I was that day.











Because we had been watching TV, we saw the warnings about an hour ahead of time. This is Massachusetts, we don't have tornado sirens. After seeing a lot of the damage, it is truly amazing that only 3 people were killed.
We were skirted by the tornado, blessed to have no real damage. The hail was golf ball size at our house. Just a block away, they saw tennis ball size hail. The hood of our van was left with a few indentations and the tarp we have up to shade our deck was absolutely shredded.













Parts of our yard looked as if it had snowed. These pictures are nearly half an hour after the storm went through.


















I couldn't believe that my garden gazing ball survived those balls of ice that flew out of the sky.







The following pictures were taken by my sweet hubby on June 2.
This is the grocery store in the neighboring town of Monson.








The house in this photo was shifted right off of its foundation.




This building lost the roof and many sections of the walls.
















These photos were taken in the neighboring town of Brimfield.











A young woman driving home to Monson from college heard the tornado warnings on the radio. Hearing that the path of the storm was following I-90, the highway she was on, she decided to exit the highway and take Rt. 20 the rest of the way home. Unfortunately she ended up right in the tornado as she drove through Brimfield. Traffic had stopped ahead of her and power lines fell onto her car, setting it on fire. She reluctantly got out of the car and ran to a woman in a nearby vehicle. This woman took her back into Monson but the main road was impassable. The young woman walked through the damage until a family member picked her up and brought her home. I saw her story on the morning news the following day. When hubby showed me this picture of a burned out car on Rt. 20 I knew it must be hers.

Have a Memorable Holiday

Here's hoping that my American blogging friends will enjoy Memorial Day with family and friends. I know it's the first holiday of Summer, time for picnics and fun. But don't forget the reason for the holiday and take time to remember and honor those gone before us.

New Pincushion

After months away from swap-bot, I was checking my messages and found a swap I couldn't resist. It was for a quick 'tomato' style pincushion. I really enjoy getting creative with something as small and simple as this. So, I picked out a bit of fabric from my scraps, a little bit of embroidery, a little bit of crazy quilt, and here it is. I started with a 6" circle and it turned out larger than I intended. I'll use a 5" circle and see how that works. I've already embroidered a little Scottie dog and started on a kitten for my next ones. I've got lovely bits of '30s repro fabric to use for these. I hope to show more soon and maybe get some things into my Etsy shop. Thanks for stopping by.

Happy Mother's Day!

Enjoy your special day.

Happy Easter!

Wishing each of you a blessed Easter and a joyous Spring.

Sandy's Easter Tag Swap

I had such fun making a special Easter swap for my partner Lisa. I fell in love with the little girl image I used for the front of my tag. But it was the chicks hatching out of Easter eggs that became the theme for this swap. I highlighted the doily, chicks, eggs and girl's hair with Twinkling H2O's. Click to enlarge the picture and see how it sparkles. I added detail to each layer as I went. The bottom layer is stitched with yarn tied in a bitty bow. The next layer is embellished with tiny buttons. I hadn't put away my paper doilies since I had them out for Valentine's Day crafting. It worked out to be the perfect element to set off the sweet girl image. And lastly I added the wonderful chunky glitter that looks like Easter grass.















The scrapbook paper I used on the tag back is something I've had since I first began scrap booking. I just couldn't believe how it matched the chicks on the front. More Twinkling H2O's here and a repeat of the chicks from the front image added at the bottom to cover the bulk of tying off the yarn. Added my swap info and a blue gingham ribbon to finish it off.















Now onto the Easter goodies. I had the idea that I wanted to make a Spring/Easter potholder since my partner likes to bake. I was undecided about what fabric to use until I spotted a yard of new fabric at the Flea Market for a great price. It had similar colors to the papers used for the tag and it had Easter eggs on it! Now I had a theme. It seemed a shame to me to cut into a yard of fabric just for a potholder or two. I have quite a few apron patterns that only take a yard and you know I love to make aprons, so.....















I hope my partner will post a pic on her blog modeling her apron. The potholder is backed with the apron fabric and I used four colors of gingham for the front.










I found this adorable felt chick basket at Target and filled it up with goodies. I wrapped everything in Easter egg tissue paper I found at K-Mart and mailed it off to Lisa.









And here's the wonderful swap I received from Lisa.




This adorable, glittery pail was a perfect Easter basket. And it was filled to overflowing with so many goodies.


This pink chick inside the music note egg is just the cutest little bit of Easter joy.
For inspiring my paper crafts, Lisa sent cute Spring stickers, itty-bitty alphabet stamps and a stamp pad, and pink flower glitter, so fun!


My boys were quick to get their hands on the chocolate. I had to get the carrot bag of Reese's Pieces from my hubby to take this picture. My son did share a chocolate bunny with me. Yum!














And Lisa crafted this adorable tag for me. The 'Happy Easter' is on shrink plastic and adds great dimension and shine. I love the chick in her Easter bonnet. She hand painted the scalloped border. Just perfect! Lisa topped it off with Spring green cheesecloth. So sweet!





Thank you Lisa @ A Peaceful Place To Be for sending such a lovely Easter swap. And thanks again to Sandy @ 521 Lake Street for hostessing such a fun swap.