August Y.o.E. Ornament Update

Right before I left town last week, I sent my package off to my swap partner, Little Messy Missy in Utah. While I was away, I received hers and got to open it yesterday! What a neat package it turned out to be...
Along with the orni, there was a skein of red eyelash yarn, a pair of knitting needles that she made with an octopus pic on the ball end, an octo-chic bookmark, an octo sun catcher and THREE Utah chocolate truffles. YUM! Just LOOK at this octo ornie....it's knitting! And all the different pics, beads and sand are layered in what I think is clear resin (or something like that). I just GOTTA get me some of this stuff and play with it. It's such a creative ornament!
Thank you Missy for the goodies AND inspiring me to try something new! Below is a pic of what I sent to her...
My two ornies, an octo magnet, a slice of pretty rock, two power bars (she's a runner) and a bag of some of my Idaho garnet gravel that my mom brought me. In her blog she mentioned that she was a rockhound. Well, that kinda stuck in my head and I ran with it. But Missy loved it, so it all worked out great!
Once again I was inspired by this Etsy item to create my octopus ornament. I didn't have a laser cutter and a sheet of acrylic to make such a feller...so I attempted shrinky dink shrink art paper first with black sharpie (left), then with black acrylic paint before shrinking (middle) then with black acrylic paint after shrinking (right), then I was frustrated and bought the colored shrink stuff (top). Yeah, the best solution to getting a black octopus is to paint him black after he shrinks. Then I gave him a clear coat to seal it.

The challenge this month was to make tentacles...so...I found a tentacle pic online here and again played with the shrink art paper to get the right size tentacle to glue rhinestones to as the suckers.
I think both turned out all right...more color would have been nice, but I think I got stuck on the whole black octo idea. Oh well...
Stay tuned for more stories of crafty fun, our travels and some new friends!

Busy Busy!

Whew! Am I glad the past two weeks are over! They've been jam packed with birthday's, traveling and crafting. Here's a sneak peek.Stories to come...stay tuned!

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye....people floating the river. Must be nice. I bet that lady was wondering who I was taking a pic of...haha....if only she knew I was wishing to be on that floating raft in the distance instead of standing outside a park restroom for hubby and toddler.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...wild turkeys in the tree, all nestled into bed for the night. There are at least three visible in this pic.

WANT!!

Marfy pattern F-1961. I've been getting back issues of Tauntan's Threads magazine at the library to read sewing articles, techniques and stuff. My favorite part of the magazine is there pattern reviews. I don't' remember which issue it was, but they review this Marfy coat pattern. LOVE IT!! The thing that always gets me is when they show an actual pic of what the staff or pattern tester created. That's what sold me!! Someday soon....I'll have enough mad skills to create this for myself. :)

Snail mail...

For July's Year of Enchantment, the theme was "snail." Here's what I created for my swap partner...I looked up paper quilling and snails and thought I'd play with some metal again. When my January swap partner, Natalie (from down under!) created a paper quilled mermaid, my first thought was that it would be a good idea for a snail, so I stored it away for future reference...just in case. And what do ya know.....July was the snail! I found a couple of good idea generators for quilled snails here and more quilled snails here....and I found this awesome snail iron-on applique on Etsy that inspired me to try my own. Again...JUST for this swap, not for sale. As you can see (if you clicked on those links), I leaned towards the first paper quilled snail for my metal snails.
Here's the whole package...metal snail ornaments, snail iron-on appliques and some vintage lace, edgings, hankies and a baby top out of a recent stash I recieved. Even one of the laces had a snail spiral in it...funny!
My swap partner is going through a difficult time right now, therefore the hostess, Valerie at Yarni-Gras, was my "angel." My package is on it's way!!

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...a spoon in a grease water, or two? I swear I do my dishes. Somebody threw a spoon in and apparently it left it's shape on the surface....I'm just not sure how that is possible.

Route of the Hiawatha Bike Trail

Fun, Fun, FUN!! If you ever get a chance to ride the Route of the Hiawatha Bike Trail, do so. It's ALL downhill, all 14 miles of it. Here's the first tunnel, 1.7 miles long. You need lights...good lights. We packed every possible light up toy, glow stick, flashlight we could find for the boys in the bike trailer. They were a-glowin!
The first trestle...
The tallest trestle at 220 feet. There was a moose down in that creek, but she quickly went into the trees once people started gathering and got a little noisy. Viewing the trees from this perspective really tricked my eyes. It was weird.
One of the shorter tunnels, didn't need our lights on for this one.
There's also lots and LOTS of wild flowers in bloom right now. There was red, yellow, white, some blue and purple flowers, all along the trail. Very pretty!
It was a very fun and beautiful day in nature. The whole bike ride smelled forest fresh, the chipmunks were extra friendly and we didn't have to ride back uphill! They have a shuttle waiting for you at the bottom, except it drops you off on the south side of the long tunnel, so we began and ended our bike ride with a 1.7 mile dark tunnel ride.

I spy Friday...

I spy with my little eye...a big bird on the Columbia River...possibly a pelican?? Don't know...do you??