She's a white mouse.
She's also camera shy.
In preparation for winter she cracked open an ornament and crawled in...
...then hung up her scarf and mittens to dry.
Soon after that she decided to pack up a bunch of vintage Christmas colored sewing notions and gum then flew the coop down to Utah where she will spend the rest of her wintery days. Maybe she was a pack rat. Hhmm???
My "Angel Snail" from YOE!! I mention it way back here, but I forgot to post about it because I received it during the hectic month of August (at least it was for me), so here it all is...
There's more bath salt, seashells, flower seeds, a bookmark, a little box sign and a lavender sachet. THANK YOU VAL for being my angel. I LOVE my little burlap snail! He's PERFECT!
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.
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!
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 made five or six of these little guys (after some internet inspiration) only to have ALL but TWO BREAK! Darn air dry clay....maybe I didn't use enough water to attach the pieces. I don't know...
Here's how the only two that made it finished up with a bit of acrylic paint and a glaze that said it would take up to ten days to dry! Well, I only waited two until I mailed them. :) Here's the rest of what I sent...
...the two gnomes with three gummy army men, several teas, many perty pieces of paper (my swap partner is participating in a dress a month crafty-along here) and a yard of red and white check fabric for her Tumbleweed (here). In return, here's what I got...
VERY SIMILAR GNOMES!! There's a funny story behind these guys. I got her package before I even sent her my package. I was a few days behind because of playing with clay AND painting AND glazing...so there was some unexpected dry time that took quite a bit of time in between each task....well, I was approaching day two out of the ten days of drying for the glazing and decided that I was going to mail them anyways because they felt dry. Once I came back from the post office, I ripped open my package to find all those goodies and three gnomes and a gnome home with a baby in it and I cracked up laughing!! I title my other post Great Minds Think Alike cuz we were inspired (I'm pretty sure) by the exact same internet source!! 
Okay, okay....should I reveal our secret source?? FIRST...I have to say that I AM NOT reproducing this Etsy sellers creations for profit. I created the gnomes for a crafty swap giveaway. One time, that's all. IF YOU would like a cute little gnome of your own, and they're custom made, go visit HumbleBea's Etsy shop and you can find some of these adorable gnomes for yourself.
In my new pixie pouch, I got a fairy fireplace, a fairy carpet, a fairy walking stick, a butterfly wand, a glittery lollipop, a jar of unicorn dust, a felted mushroom, a strawberry lavender sashe, a felted acorn and a lovely booklet explaining it all!! Speaking of strawberry lavender...have you ever had that combination in a jelly?? I have!! It's actually pretty good. :) Especially on a cracker...mmm-MM!
Here is my fairy enjoying her goodies. She doesn't like to smile for the camera, so she turned her head away at the last minute...naughty little fairy!
Over at Phat Fiber Sample Box I won a skein of yarn from one of her weekly drawings! YAY!! I LOVE YARN!! That was the second item I received in the mail this week. And the third one was...
My March ornament for A Year of Enchantment hosted by YarniGras!! Sherry sent me two felted mushrooms, eight paper mushrooms, some mushroom tags, a chicken with her chick and hidden Easter egg and two energy bars. So fun! I also blogged about my ornament at the SwapperSpot here...it shows more pics.
My orange fairy prototype! It took a few days to figure out the wings, I played with several different ideas, wired ribbon, plastic printed butterfly wings, different fabric. Nothing seemed as good as the white tulle. So I played with a few different shapes. I still don't think it's my favorite idea for wings, but with a deadline, I went with them anyways. She also features a silk flower skirt, ribbon trimmed waist (or in prototype fairy's case, ric-rac trim, the rest will be ribbon), yarn hair, acorn hat, and a green beaded necklace with the center beades matching her skirt. A few more colors will be coming to my Etsy shop soon, so be on the look out.
Here's the yellow fairy talking to her dragonfly friends on top of the purple and green wonky log cabin quilt block that I created for Robin. There was a GREAT online tutorial for the wonky log cabin quilt block here. I haven't created a quilt block since I was a teenager, it was a lot of fun! I've been wanting to get into quilting FOREVER! I just need a better rotary cutter and board. I was using my cutting mat from college for exacto knives and matte board (you know, for building models of your design if you're an architect or interior design major)...yeah...that's what I had, so apparently that type of cutting mat is not as self healing the way a quilting one is. :) Note to self, need new cutting matte, old one has many cuts through it now. Here's a larger pic of the quilt block and other goodies I sent to Robin:
I also added some Leavenworth postcards and a package of chocolate covered red vines from the Rocky Mountain Chocolate Factory that's in Leavenworth. Mmmm-MM! This months challenge was to use glitter...hee-hee...here's where the glitter went...
That's some fancy pair of underpants Miss Yellow Fairy!!
Well, we're off to another craft retreat weekend with my mom, aunt and grandma (and of course my two boys). This is what we'll see tomorrow and all weekend, at least when we look outside our room. I wonder what I'll create this time?? Here is what I created last time. 
Yep, that's right...this was my super creative, awesome idea I came up with ALL on my own... only to research it (after I made some prototypes) and learn that they've been thought of already. :( However, the ones I found on Etsy are not two pieces sewn together like mine. There were all sorts of different kinds using real acorn caps. I like mine the best though. :)
I just COULDN'T RESIST making a couple of cloth diaper covers for her 10 month old. My mom gave me a pattern and instructions, but I didn't like how they were put together, so I changed it. So, Natalie, if there are any issues with these diaper covers, please, PLEASE let me know. I would like to try to perfect how I make them so that I can make a WHOLE BUNCH! I also sent her a few of my favorite teas and a cute little set of notecards I just happened upon while browsing Pier 1.
I made SO MANY of the acorns, in the end I decided to send her the most "Christmas-y" ones. I think the rest will go on Etsy...I'm just debating if I should add the little holly berries and leaves to all of them or just the "Christmas-y" ones. I ended up with several shapes and sizes, I was trying to achieve the pointy tip like the real ones had (in lower left of the photo). Sewing that small was pretty easy, but to get a point like that was a little difficult. Fabric doesn't want to get that pointy when it's that small.
There were three ribbon pinecone ornaments, eight felt leaves for decoration (my three year old can't get enough of them, he's constantly wanting to play with them), a pinecone bracelet and one HUGE bar of dark chocolate (my favorite!! and my toddlers favorite too!). We couldn't wait to try the chocolate, I think we opened it before we opened the rest of the tissue covered packages. heehee! It's got a good flavor to it, I can tell it has a different type of sugar than our American chocolates.
I LOVE the colors of the ribbon she used! The green one is AWESOME...She's very good with selecting colors I would say. :)
Isn't this bracelet cool?? I've never seen a bead so pine-coney! It's really neat!
Other than my constant dropping stitches, it's fun to work on! And I think I beaded the beads to create a spiral pattern among the colors. Yippee!
