Fall Wreath

Last year, T had a thing with wreaths.

She has spells where she is into "decorating" the house.

I guess that's a good thing. 

And I should be glad that she transitioned out from
her decorations being something she drew, colored with crayon,
cut up and taped to the walls.  ;)

So when she said, "Mommy, I want a wreath..."

I told her we will make it out of what we have instead of buying something new.

So in the attic, we found old strands of berry that we had used to decorate for Christmas.

I showed her how to take two strands and wrap them around each other while creating a circle.

It was already pretty with just the entwined strands.  

We found some  loose leaves in the bottom of a box and tucked them in the twigs of the strand.

This time around, after unearthing the wreath from the attic,
I scrounged for something orange and maybe some fall-ish items.

Tuck one here....

Tuck one there...

I also wanted to make a banner sign.

so I went in my scrap quilting pile and picked out a fabric.

I cut them up into small triangles.

Since I was working on some of my pillows, I had some fabric already with iron on fusible interface.

I  cut out the letters free style then ironed them to the fabric.

The plan was to then hot glue gun the triangles to the jute but
I could not find where I put the glue sticks and I ran out of patience.
Soooo....  Duck tape to the rescue.  ;)

On to the next problem.
Our front doors are 10 foot doors and most standard doors are only 8.
So it is extremely difficult in my part of the world to find wreath hooks for tall doors.
So I bought a piece of bendable metal.
 (I have no idea what it is used for or what it is called.  I just looked for thin bendable metal.)
And bent it on both ends to form 2 hooks.

My front door is in espresso/black finish and so I took the metal and
painted it with Rust-oleum dark bronze in a hammered finish.

Once painted and dried, I hung it on the door and followed by the wreath.

TA-DA!

I like it!  now I gotta make another one!  O_O

Yeah, my holiday wreath from last year is still up... don't judge me.  ;oP


I'm linking at Get Your DIY on Week 2 by 
Confessions of a DIYer
Just a Girl and her Blog
The Hankful House
The Happy House
House by Hoff

For Tabatha?

I've just never had any luck in photographing the color purple....

It just doesn't seem to matter whatever angle and in what ever light.  :(

Something Blue

There's a design challenge going on by several bloggers that I follow

 and I wanted to get in on the action.

For this week, we had to design something blue.
Here's what I came up with.

It's been a while since I've put some of my handmade pillows in my Etsy.

It has got to be my cutest pillow yet!  ;)

I love the rose with the bead detail.

What do you think?

I'm linking at
Get your Fall DIY Party Challenge by Confessions of a Serial DIYer
 for the Blue Challenge
Sew Cute Tuesday by Better Off Thread

Playing with Wire

It's a long weekend!  Yeay!  It's especially long for me since I got today off!

We just checked into the hotel here in Sarasota since S2 has a soccer tournament  here this weekend.

As usual, I brought my To-Go craft bag.  ;)

It is so full because I shoved my beading blanket in there.

On this trip, I decided that I am going to bead and make some jewelry.

So are you curious as to what I made on the 2 hour trip?

First let me show you the road so you know I'm for real.

I can't remember now if this was before or after the I-4 exit.  

That intersection was crazy.  Heavy backed up traffic.  Good thing we pass right by it.  

Soooo.......here's what I pulled outta the bag.

Its copper colored wire... Probably 20 gauge.

I cut a piece approximately a foot long.

Then I wound it around very loosely around my ring finger leaving enough wire on each end of the loop.

I wound it around 4 times to the thickness that I wanted.

(You will want to make sure that it is loose enough on your finger that it does not get too tight once you start wrapping.)

You then take one of the ends and bring it around the wire as if you are tying a ribbon.

Then keep looping it through, winding around the wires to hold them together and in place.

Its up to you how much you want to keep wrapping around.  

I stopped after a couple of wraps and clipped the wire to stop at the top of the wire.
This will keep it from snagging on things too much.
Make sure to pinch the wire down too so it is not sticking up.
(Again, this is to control the snagging)

With the other end, I strung a bead (a large seed bead) and then looped it around.  

Strung another bead and looped it around. 

I kept doing this creating a design.

(Sorry for the blurry picture....don't forget that I was in the car!)

After adding enough beads and wrapping the wire and looping it through in between the beads and wire, this is the result.

It actually only took me about half an hour to do this including the time it took me to find the beads that kept falling into the bag and car.

What do you think?

This is the very first ring I have ever made.

I think it's a keeper!  ;)

Therapy On a Rainy Day

Remember this?

You can find the write-up about it here in my old blog.

Well, since it's raining and since it's not so hot outside, I thought I'd work on it.

I've put it on hold and try to work on it a little at a time whenever I can stand the heat.  

It gets excruciatingly hot where it is even with the fans overhead.

As you can see, I started painting it.
It's the brightest furniture....brightest anything that I've ever had except for fabrics.

These are my inspiration.

(http://www.flickr.com/photos/sduarte/5200311620/ 
 http://luniversdines.blogspot.com/2012/08/mediterranean-style.html
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq4LAdTi5h4Ust01hqO0yvY7V8obdA5azl9mQfqaC_rqk55C7d3xlNpwfQvPuvJXQMfxjR6I35GP13VVggI9R7zKz4BAKhq4g_6SCjLnNa5FkwIHy1cWlDV_Qexwl0UMB_dReEkRaGZg-h/s1600/door_read.jpg

I've also discovered the cull wood pieces at Home Depot and Lowes so I only buy wood from there now
unless I have to otherwise.

So it's a work in progress.

I've had these tiles for forever since I've always wanted to do a mosaic project.

So what better than this outdoor armoire.

Especially since I will be putting some of my plants on it and it will take the splashes of water perfectly when I water.

I decided to just tile it randomly without a design
since I didn't know how much of what color tile I have.

It's quite therapeutic.

Zeta Pillow

A friend of mine asked me yesterday if I can save one of her projects.

This is what she gave me.

She had designed and stitched it herself but the project wasn't quite working out for her.

So she asked me if I can save it.

Here's what I came up with.

What do you think?


I linked this at
Wicked Awesome Wednesday by Handy Man, Crafty Woman
Look What I Made! #162 by Creations by Kara

UFO progress

So I am trying to motivate myself to complete tasks.

I have several UFOs (unfinished objects).

Here's one that I've made progress on.

It's part of a wedding quilt that is long overdue.

(Buggy Barn quilt pattern)

I mean reeeeeal long overdue.

They invited me to their beeeeeeautiful wedding in Peru!

(photographer:  Koki Villanueva and team)

They also invited me again to their beautiful wedding/reception in Pennsylvania.

(Fanny Caceres Photography)

Normally I don't show my quilts until they are finished.

But this really is late....like super late.

So I want them to know that they are not forgotten.

Of course, there are ECK elements in this quilt...
Like my ECK appliqued monograms... ;)

There are a couple more elements that is unique just to them but THAT is the surprise!  ;)
Sooooo.....  I am hoping that the piecing will be finished soon so that I can start on the actual quilting.

Gosh..... Between my blogging and UFOs, there isn't a whole lot of time in a day!