gnome diorama

great day at the beach here! I smell like burned flesh. I sat under the umbrella, but had to walk from the car park. The very far away car park. The beach was a popular place today. More tomorrow perhaps.

Here is a diorama that DS made from a Q-Tip box. I love his mushrooms and trees.

So we moved a few guys in.

And for a few home decor items, I made a pink needle felted mushroom. The crochet flower is actually a necklace. On 3 different colour strands of crochet chain. I couldn't get my finicky model to wear it. Another time.


Have a great day!
thanks for looking,
Amanda

more WIP and busted machine!!

It's been days since I've been on here! I've been working on several things, but nothing is getting completed. Mostly due to a tempermental machine. BITES!
So here is the 2nd edition of Works in Progress:
Princess and the Pea play set for my son's classmate. Her party is on Sunday and I need to find the book and finish it. It comes from the More Softies book.


Another Everywhere Tote from Weekend Sewing that was this close to being done, but I took the handles off, now the machine is busted and I wanted to give it to my friend for her bday tomorrow. NOT. Sorry girlfriend. it's on the way.


And I've been working on more crochet flower clips. Colourful for Spring!!


I actually played around this time. Did I come up with a new flower pattern? Or have you seen this one before?


Spring has come early this year. DH is already dreaming of his veggie garden and the kids were having fun looking for worms. Rafael is talking to nanny long distance on the phone, giving a play by play.

Here's a line from DH: " you reap what you sow, plant some vegetables" They taste much better, that's for sure.

Hopefully I'll be back soon,
thanks for looking,
Amanda

felt hair clips

I LOVE felt!!!! I can't do what's in my brain fast enough! I LOVE it!
Here are some hair clips I whipped up. Still experimenting the last one I did was the blue/yellow combo. It is closer to where I want it to be.




Nite,
thanks for looking,
Amanda

been busy

Sorry I've been absent all week.. here's why:



EDITED: the tree is from IKEA. I bought a black one on sale ages ago and thought they were discontinued, but found this green and other colours a few months ago. So they may still carry them.

I'm doing a yard sale, festival tomorrow in Cabbage town. My friend's mother in law lives there, so we're setting up shop on the front lawn.
Some girlie flowers

These tooth fairy bags are from http://www.purlbee.com


I used my own tooth from a wooden tooth fairy box I have. I also used it in the past for my other tooth fairy kits on the shrink art. The paper tooth is from Quickutz.
here
And more take out hot beverage sleeves. Here is the boy line. Was so excited about some of the prints I got in Dartmouth, NS at Atlantic Fabric. Awesome fabrics. Click image for a larger view.

I think this one is my favorite


So wish me well. Singing for a wedding in the morning, then off to stand and chat. And hopefully sell.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

Checkin' in!

I'm blowing away here in the Algarve, sitting under a shady tree with free wi-fi blowin' in the wind. Here is some craft related pictures for you.




My computer battery died earlier, so i couldn't post. it is now the end of the day. We finally found a beach with not so much wind. it was very big cliffs to climb down. Amazing! Of course, we didn't think we'd spend any time there, so the kids had the most fun and got their street clothes soaked. Fun though and mama always comes prepared with extra clothes. Will post pics tomorrow.

oh, and pics of my son and DH land sailing. Yes, really! I mean, why not. there is no shortage of winds here. may as well play with it.

off to eat the leftovers from the last few days.only 1 day left here and 1 day in carcavelos.

later....
AP

Three pretty maids in arow

If you came for a card, look away, look away!!!!! NOW. If not, read on....

my cousin's daughter is in town and it's her birthday today, so I wanted to make her a cell phone/mp3/ipod, whatever holder. This is what I came up with....


It took me 2 days of thinking and a day of trying things out. My vision wasn't working, so I compromised. I saw a cell ophone holder using this type of clip here
http://www.etsy.com/shop.php?user_id=5934264
and wanted to try it.


I wanted to line the bag, but was having trouble and tried many combinations to get the ribbons sewn in afterwards. Finally, I abandoned the lining and serged everything. Oh,How I love my mini serger (except when I have to rethread it. You need a degree for that. Thankfully, I have 2.) The black one with orange was taking a long time, so I tried the new way and added a pocket on the other 2. Love it. So fun! NOw I just have to get more clips. They are not cheap!


Thanks for looking, Off to take my son to piano lessons.
Amanda

crochet pins

Are ya tired of the crochet flowers yet? I have 2 cards done, just need to take a pic of them. It's rainy here today, so I'll wait until tomorrow. Until then... more flowers. I've had this design for awhile, but didn't want to make them into zipper pulls. One of the moms in my group came in with a floppy hatted kid. It just screamed, "pin me! pin me!" Attached a pin, as you can see in the yellow flower above, and voila, another project.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

button tree and crochet flowers

i did it! I got to create today. And what a rainy day it is here! Sorry for the dull pics. there is no happy light here today.


papertrey ink had a challenge to use buttons this week. I LOVED Maggie Holmes' scrap page with buttons on the tree and the white and black outlines. http://maggieholmes.typepad.com/my_weblog/2009/03/vintage-button-basics.html
I used it as a starting point. And I love her style. She packs a whole bunch in a little space.

The sentiment on the photo is from Creative memories. I just painted some white under it. The orange butterfly is a new one from Quickutz. The blue one on the bottom is Martha Stewart punch. i punched it on vellum also and used my cropadile to make the holes in it to mimic the QK one. Oh yes, the grass. LOVE this package of goodies also. Michael's- K&Company. It has a bout 6 different borders- bubbles, waves, alphabet, train with cute animals in it, gumdrops.... I could see myself using all of it, but really liking the grass one at present. i added the white to it.



Buttons are from my stash from Walmart and Zellers. The flowers are my own. So nice to just pick 'em out when I need them. I sewed the stems.


I forgot to take a pic of the text bock on top. It says...
" I don't recall what the issue was, but you weren't very happy with me. In this pensive looking picture, you were ignoring me! Exploring the world beneath your feet."




Hoping I stay awake tonight to do the page of Miss Neve. I have 2 frames on my wall that help get me creating new scrap pages to change up the scenery.

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

flowers and granny squares

howdy!!
more crocheting for you. I thought I had done myself out with the flowers and had put the crochet bag away for a bit. But then my friend, Barb, of the online, eco-friendly toy store, www.littlefootprintstoys.com (sorry Barb, I can't get my hotlink to work. Cut and paste people) requested a long zipper pull for her son. That's all it took. A simple little request. I immediately thought of the granny squares. A new challenge? Sure. I imagined 2 together as the blue and brown one is. I also made a few more, but they sold quickly. Then I decided to try multi-coloured ones and fell in love. I can't stop doing them. they are so fun!!! I have a few other ideas, but can't bring myself to try them until I use up all my multi coloured ideas. So stay tuned, there will be more!

Oh yes, I these are the last lot of flower designs I did. Haven't found a purpose for these yet. Did you see them on the front page of the Papercrafts mag this past month? Lovely.


thanks for looking,
Amanda

crochet zipper pulls

Happy St. Pat's day! Where's the Irish in ya?

I've been working on a few things, but haven't been able to get them completed. And a few ideas in my head.
So here is a shot of some more crochet flower zipper pulls. These all went to my family down home.



Put a huge dent into decluttering this place yesterday. Well, the front room of our basement. it was the dumping zone! Now it's organized and stuff ready for a yard sale in warmer days. Yeah.

hope your day is swell. we're off for a bike ride int he park. it's lovely out there today.
Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Sea Maiden

We took these pictures last summer on our visit to Shelbourne, Nova Scotia. It was a great sailing event and a lovely little town. hoping to make it an annual thing.


The title and the embellishments are not really coordinating. I have birds all over the place and then slap a nautical title. Oh well, I couldn't think of anything to call it.


The flowers are ones that I made, the green felt frame is from a flower coaster at Michael's, Red bird-Quickutz, acrylic bird-May road? I also bought a few houses. I added the buttons in that odd place as there is a hole there from the ball and chain it was on. Why do they do that? Do you have any of those chipboard outline people? They have a hole on the top of their head! What do you do with that? But I digress....The white writing is from Quickutz also. Paper- bought at the 2nd hand sale last week. Will find out the name later. They totally dictated and changed my plan for these pictures. I wanted to do a spread of my crochet flowers, but when I saw this paper, i just had to use it. it went with the colours in the photo.

It was a lovely day at my LSS, Scrapbook By Design. I attended a crop. Went late, as my printer ran out of ink and I had to get them printed at the grocery store. thank goodness for the instant digital prints eh? I left a little early, as i was feeling guilty, imagining my family home without me. You feel that too sometimes? Jokes on me, they weren't here when I got home! They were still out and about. They went to a maple sugar bush and had some fun. I think I'll make a little book out of the pics DH took.

K, thanks for looking,
AManda

Crochet promises

I finally got a bunch of crochet things together without selling them first. Seemed I was selling them before they were made, but now I'm caught up.

Here are a few zipper pulls. They are a little smaller than I was hoping, but there you go. you can only do so much with that size thread and the hook.


Here are some flowers on hair clips. They are so cute in the hair. My daughter prefers to wear hers on her sleeve. New trend maybe?


And here are some flowers ordered for a red beret. Looks really nice on there. I decided to put some beads in the centre instead of the button. Adds a nice touch.


Thanks for looking,
Amanda

crochet hearts

It's snowing like crazy outside! big movie snowflakes. My daughter and I came home after dropping my son off at school and have been playing in my stamp room. All cosy. Now we have to trudge out to pick him up. ack.

I finally got the pattern down for the crochet hearts. I love 'em. So easy to do and I can get one done with minimal interruption!

Another clean layout and no Designer paper! lol
Swiss dot cuddlebug folder and a few pop dots doubled up for height. I'm finding lately that I want my popped up layers pumped up! so that's how I do it. Anyone have a better tip for popping things up higher?

Here is the inside. The Valentine stamp is from Michael's, the swirl is from Garden Whimsy--stampin' up and the heart is from Quickutz.





K, off to pack a lunch and convince my son to stay at the play centre to eat it!

Thanks for looking,
Amanda

Happy New Year! and some crochet flowers

HOwdy! Howdy!! Happy New Year! Bon annee!

We're having a lovely time at my sister in law's place in Laval, Quebec. My french is very high school 18 years ago, but I love trying to remember the words. i think I actually made a sentence today. lol

here is the table setting for the New year's party. We had fondue. i've never experienced a Quebec fondue. they had all kinds of game: deer, elk, goose, lamb, bison, shrimp, salmon, beef, chicken. My son stayed up past midnight and tried almost all of the meats. So like his dad, not mama. i stick to pigs, chicken and cows. thank you very much.


This is the yule log a neighbour brought over. I LOVE LOVE LOVE the decoration on top. It's like it hasn't changed since the 60s or 70s. isn't it great>>!!!!


I've been busy here, learning how to make crochet flowers. My sister in law was taught by her late mother. So she brought out all of her mother's supplies and we found some lovely threads. We went to the scrapbook store and found some flowers for sale. 8 flowers for 9.99!!!!! Crazy. So we've been experimenting with different styles. What fun. I love the productivity of it. Sit for a few minutes and you have a flower. And it's very portable. you'll be seeing more of these in future. i have a picture of my daughter that I want to scrap using them.


We're off to brunch with a friend from my Acadia days, then off to Ottawa for a night to see another great Acadia friend. then back to Toronto to the real world. bleck.

Hope you had a great end to your 2008 and look forward to many new things in 2009.

thanks for looking,
Amanda

Crochet flowers

When I was in Portugal, I couldn't watch tv or go on the net at night. I was in creative withdrawal, so I bought some crochet thread and a hook and set off to make some flowers. But I couldn't remember how to do it, nor how to read a pattern for one.
This past week, DH's aunt came over and we had some time to make some. See how nice they are? She's good. Me, not so much. I forget how to start already. I really need to write it down, but don't know the terminology.
Anyhow, here are a few flowers she did. I watercoloured the background and added half self-stick pearls from Stamping Bella. Sentiment is a Michael's stamp from a few years ago.

And of course, I must let you see the 1st day of school pic. We went in the afternoon, but were expected in the morning. They sent me the wrong info. He's registered as morning. Took me the whole summer to think as a kid going to school in the pm, now, he's in the am. Oh well. I had to be out of town for the next day, but my uncle said he got up, got dressed and was ready to go to school 45 minutes before the time. Eager beaver.

And here is a pic of my daughter's 1st day at the learning centre. She made one blue swipe on the paper behind her and I think she fell in. She was also not too impressed. lol


thanks for looking,
Amanda