A Little Bit of Happiness

I love polka dots! To me polka dots equal a little bit of happiness. When I see polka dots I can't help but smile.  :)  Black with white or red with white polka dots are my favorite but I like all polka dots. A few weeks ago, I was visiting my mom when she handed me a bag and said this just looked like you. I opened it to find a polka dot tea pot and matching butter dish. I LOVE them! I have them on my counter and it makes me smile when I walk by.

See . . . polka dots equal happiness!

Fruits and Vegetables

I spent last weekend creating felt fruits and vegetables for school. I created farm stand visuals this summer but when I was gathering my materials to bring to school realized I needed more fruits and vegetables for my farm stand.  Play fruits and veggies can be expensive so I found some felt food tutorials and went to work creating. I created pears, apples, bananas, oranges, tomatoes, broccoli, carrots, corn and pumpkins. It took me a long time but I was so happy with the results. I brought my finished felt foods and farm stand visuals to school on Wednesday. My paraprofessionals helped me build our farm stand. I was so pleased, it turned out just like I envisioned. The best part was the reaction from the students, they loved it! One of my three year olds exclaimed, "This is amazing!" That totally made the hours of sewing, turning and stuffing worth it. The farm stand visuals are in my TPT shop here.

New Artwork

Look who started middle school this year!

My girl loves to draw, doodle and create. She amazes me with her talent! This is a drawing of her new sneakers. 

We visited a diner that has coffee mug drawings on napkins displayed around the whole place. This is what my daughter created. I love her creativity and her ability to show a story in her art work.

This year she's in middle school so she is taking Spanish for the first time. She loves it and it's coming out in her art. Here's a Spanish speaking kangaroo wearing springy shoes and jumping on a trampoline. I love the worm in the apple on the tree.

Zombie Dolls

It's October so that means it's time for zombie dolls. This year the theme for Val's zombie doll swap was primitive zombies. See what everyone made here. (Seriously go look - Kerry made an awesome creepy zombie.) My partner has young children and likes cute zombies not scary ones. This is my style so I knew exactly what I wanted to make this year. Then I was sick with a cold for a week so I didn't get started on my creation. My original idea was going to require more time so I went back to the drawing board and created something different. Do you ever have a time when your creative mojo disappears and you can't create what you want? I had to fight this little zombie into existence. 

A bit of zombie soup, anyone?  I tea stained my whole zombie instead of tea staining the fabric before I started creating. It looked so funny!

Actually I fought with two zombies. I used my machine to freeform stitch on colored wounds and a heart. Once I finished I hated him, so I threw him aside and made a new zombie with a combination of machine stitched and painted wounds. The hardest part was dressing a wonky looking little zombie. I’ve determined that I’m not a seamstress. If ever there is a zombie apocalypse and I have to make our clothing, my family will be the one wearing the wonky clothes. Actually I’m pretty sure we’d look like zombies if I had to make our clothing.

In the end I created a pair of jeans and a tee shirt for the zombie. Then I chopped them up a bit to show off the wounds. I named him Robbie and sent him on the way to my partner iara. He arrived safely at his new home this week.

After finishing the zombie for my partner I went back to the first one I’d thrown aside and tried to salvage him. I made the same clothes for him. They look like a set of brothers, Robby and Ricky. I’m not sure what their story is. The silver linings part of me thinks they were just cute little zombies that were adopted because “Zombies are people too.” Of course if you’re a cynic you might think they were zombie activists, protesting for zombie rights, who met a bad ending. I think I’ll stick with the silver lining version.

Now that Ricky’s been hanging out at my house for a week he’s grown on me and I’ve decided to add him to my zombie horde. I think it’s time to set up the zombie horde on the mantle again.  :)

Conceding Defeat!

Do you remember when I posted about my furniture refinishing challenge?  I posted it here. I bought this buffet at a thrift store for $40 with the intention of refinishing it myself.

My husband didn't think I could do it and I was sure I could. My husband challenged me to refinish this piece all by myself. I accepted the challenge and got right to work sanding it all down. Then I got nervous about trying to stain it myself. I was afraid I'd ruin it, so I didn't touch it for a year and a half. My husband and daughter complained that it was taking up room in the garage. This month my husband stained it and applied polyurethane for me.

The buffet fits perfectly in our dining room. Here's the finished project and my concession of defeat. "You were right honey, and I was wrong. I didn't finish it all by my self." And just for good measure "Honey, you are way better at refinishing furniture than I am. Thank you for finishing this piece, it looks great!"
I'd like to say this defeat will mean I won't drag home any additional pieces of furniture, but I know that's not true. Instead I'll say, next time I drag home an awesome piece of furniture let's work on it together.

I Have Great Friends!

I got home from school today to find happy mail. My friend Kerry sent me this happy package.

I love polkadots so this package made my day.

 Then I opened the package to find 5 aprons that Kerry had sewn. She gave them to me to use in my preschool classroom. I'm so excited, they are already packed in my bag to take to school tomorrow.

Kerry also made the most amazing cloth notebook for me. Guess what? (squeals of happiness) It's got a red and white polkadot fabric on the inside.  I just love it!!!!! I can't wait to start filling it with notes. Once I fill the notebook, the cover is removable so I can move it to another notebook and start again.

Here's a belated look at the birthday goodies Kerry sent me. A zombie pearler bead coaster, an altered notepad and pen, a sewing thread catcher and pincushion(this is my constant companion when I'm sewing) and this amazing little zombie.

Don't you just love this little prim zombie?!  I'm totally in LOVE with him!! He makes me smile everytime I see him. Kerry is a crafting genious! Not only do I have great friends, I have super talented, crafty friends that make my day!  Thanks Kerry!!! You are too kind to me!

New Tutorial: Plastic Lined Car Trash Bag

A few years ago I started seeing DIY car garbage bags or as I call them carbage bags popping up on blogs. I knew I needed to make some. As a mom my car seems to fill up with straw wrappers and trash so a carbage bag is a must. I've made a few over the years but I found that the fabric got wet or yucky after awhile. I thought there had to be a better way to make carbage bags, then I discovered a roll of black plastic sheeting in the paint aisle at Home Depot. I started sewing a layer of the black plastic sheeting into the carbage bag and the problem was solved.
Last week I was showing some friends how to make plastic lined carbage bags. I decided to write out directions so I created a quick tutorial. It takes me about 15 minutes to make a carbage bag so they're quick and easy to make. Here's a link for the tutorial.