April YOE - Bird's Nests

April's YOE theme was bird's nests. When I read the theme announcement, I knew right away what I wanted to make. This month I signed up to swap and was partnered with the fabulous Melinda C. Melinda is super talented and creative!

This is the marvelous package Melinda sent to me. The bird's nest is on a clothes pin so it can clip to the tree. She also sent these amazing tags she made and this bird pendant. Not only did she create these amazing goodies but she did it all while moving into a new house this month and having to search through packed boxes for craft supplies! Thank you Melinda for the extra effort!! I love my goodies!!!

Here are the bird's nest goodies I sent to Melinda. As you can see I couldn't resist making another felted wool bird but I made a nest for it this time. I love this little guy. Remember my birds in a tree doodle? I used it to create some greeting cards for Melinda and found these cute bird salt and pepper shakers. As I mentioned before, Melinda just moved so I thought they'd be a good housewarming gift. I made a wire birds nest that could be a pendent or a key chain but my absolute favorite is the green tree ornament I made.

I few months ago I was looking around ETSY and found a valentine tree pendent. I fell in love with it. When I heard the theme I knew that I was going to try making one. So I gathered up some brass wire and a brass ring I had, then set to work. I just love how it turned out. I made it specifically for Melinda but loved it so much that I was a little sad to think of sending it off. Over spring break I remedied this problem. I made myself a wire tree ornament.

I wanted an ornament that felt like spring. Cherry blossoms came to mind immediately. Many years ago my husband and I lived on a street lined with cherry trees. I loved driving down the street in the spring looking at all of the beautiful cherry trees in bloom. So my tree ornament is a cherry blossom tree. I love it!

Wondering about YOE? You can check here to see the items everyone else has been making at YOE. Here's a little YOE little preview. May's theme is flower fairies. I've already started thinking and searching for some inspiration. I have an idea to try in a new media. Let's see if I can pull it off.

Cinnamon Buns

Over spring break we met a friend at a local restaurant for breakfast. This was lots of fun as we enjoyed the company and had never been to this restaurant before. Nature Girl loved this pig chef. He's holding a gigantic cinnamon bun.

After we finished eating Nature Girl broke out the creamers and created breakfast sculptures while the grown-ups chatted. Then we ordered a big cinnamon bun to go for breakfast the following day and headed on our way.

The next morning we heated up our big cinnamon bun for breakfast. As we were sharing it, Nature Girl says to me, "Why do they call it a cinnamon bun? It doesn't look like a butt." I cracked up! I told her I wasn't exactly sure, but maybe it's because if you eat to many it will make your butt big. Then we had a good laugh!

Spring Flirty Apron Sent & Received

This is a bit of a picture of the apron I made for my partner. I mailed it off today but forgot to have my husband or Nature Girl take a proper picture of it. This was my one handed self snap shot of it. I really need to get a dress model so I can photograph the aprons I make. The funny thing about this apron is that for once I actually followed the pattern to the letter and didn't deviate or do my own thing. That's hard for me, I suffer from creative-itis! Creative-itis is a disorder where you think you can tweak things a bit to make them work better for you. It often results in extra time using your seam ripper, lots of curse words, frustration and learning things the hard way.

For the Spring Flirty Apron Swap we had to include three tuck-ins with your apron. The challenge was to match the items with your partner's initials. I used fabric scraps from the apron to make a few of the tuck-ins. I made my partner a rug mug, a wire bird's nest pendant/keychain, a quilted kite and I sent along the Sunday Dinner apron pattern. It's the pattern I used to make her apron. I had a hard time sending off the kite as I love it and so wanted to keep it to hang in our craft room/office. But I sent it on it's way today. I hope she'll like the package I sent.

But don't feel too bad for me because we got apron swap mail yesterday! Isn't the wrapping beautiful! It's funny how pretty wrapping makes it even more exciting to open the package to see what's inside!

Deidrea sent two aprons, one for Nature Girl and one for me! I love Nature Girl's expression here as she opened a box with a sweet treat shaped like a diamond ring. She's already wearing the apron Deidrea made for her.

Spring is finally in the air here. The new aprons and the spring weather lead to dancing and horsing around in our front yard and this upside down moment. The neighbors probably wondered what we were up to! Thank you to Deidrea who sent us this wonderful apron package! Nature Girl and I loved the package! The aprons are unique and beautiful!! Thank you!!!!

Happy Easter!

Happy Easter from us to you! May you have hoppy, I mean HAPPY day surrounded by your friends and family!

Preparing for Easter

We're preparing for Easter and our spring break. Isn't this bunny bag sweet? My teaching roommate brought it back from California. It's filled with sweet treats and Easter goodies.

I found this cookie at our local bakery. It's a shortbread cookie with candy coating and a marshmallow bunny. It's called a Little Bunny Foo Foo cookie. I bought one for Nature Girl and I ate one too. Yum!

Our spring break starts tomorrow night. We're excited! Nature Girl and I made a list of things to do over vacation. Nature Girl thought of the title for our list - Our Awesome Vacation List. I made a to do list for myself too. She aptly named that one the Boring List and said it had to be kept separate from Our Awesome Vacation List. Too Funny! She added 7 activities to the Awesome list, since we have a week off and a week has 7 days. Really we have 9 days off but I didn't tell her that. With our lists ready I'm sure we'll have an awesome vacation!

We hope you have a great Easter!

Girls Night

Nature Girl and I had a girls night last week. We had dinner together, stopped off a thrift store to look around and then went home to relax. We had a good time!

We ate at Panera bread. Nature Girl claims this was the best tomato soup and bread ever. She sheepishly told me it was even better than my tomato soup. This is funny since I make her tomato soup from a can.

After dinner, thrifting and a bit of grocery shopping we headed home to relax. Here we are taking a self portrait. We had accidentally zoomed the camera in too far, but I like how this picture turned out.

This is another self portrait. Nature Girl gave us makeovers by fixing our hair. I was looking very pretty with over 25 barrettes in my hair. I really enjoyed girls night. It was nice to spend the time together and just have a night of fun without the regular interruptions of life. I think we need to schedule more girls nights and maybe a few nights that include the daddy too!

April Friday Night Sew In

I participated in the April Friday Night Sew In (FNSI) this week. It's was fun though admittedly I started late Friday night so it became a Friday night and Saturday night sew in for me. Nevertheless I have finished my project. I made this ruffled scarf from a pattern I found awhile ago over at the Sewing Republic. It's meant to be a thank you gift for someone who wears a lot of white and cream. I'm a bit worried that the green & white gingham looks like a kitchen curtain around my neck. I asked my husband. He said now that I pointed it out, yes. What do you think? I bought some more fabric, not gingham, so I can make a few more of these. Nature Girl has requested a pink one to go with her pink sequins hat and I want to make a black and white one for myself.

Want to know more about the FNSI? Click here to go to Heidi's blog and see a list of people who participated. It's kind of fun to see what everyone made.