What a Sweety!

I just have to show off this package I just got in the mail from Ayama-chan! I had won these cute little earrings in a giveaway of hers. Incidentally, they are incredibly difficult to photograph. The best part? She included a hand made minky ball for Eleanor’s first birthday. She’s so thoughtful, picking up not only on Eleanor’s birthday but on my mention that I lack yellow in anything other that plastic in my house. Eleanor has played with it quite a bit already. It’s squishy enough for her to grab and there’s a bell inside for when she tosses it.

Speaking of Eleanor’s birthday. I have a feeling these videos (which I’ve mentioned before) have caused a few musical birthday presents to appear from the Aunts. Thank you Aunts, she loves them.

Functional Felt Swap Deadline

Check out all this wonderful stuff coming out of the Functional Felt Swap. I’m so impressed with the variety and quality of the items being produced. To think I’m a co-host! It blows me away. Not only are these creative items coming out of 13 US states, but 7 countries! I’m amazed. See who made each of these items and check out more pics by clicking here. For those participating in the swap that haven’t posted a picture of their item please do so. It is incredibly fun to see it all. Don’t have and don’t want a flickr account? You could also email us any shots and we could post for you.

As for my item? I’m a bad, bad hostess. I’ve finished knitting my item and just need to throw it in the wash in the morning. At first I was thinking one day late, no biggy. But now I’ve realize that it may not dry in one day. I certainly don’t want to mail something that will mold in it’s postal box by the time it gets to the recipient. I hope they don’t mind that it’s a teeny bit late. I promise it’ll be worth it. I went overboard. (no surprise) We did get a camera today (an Olympus Stylus 1030 SW) so I can take some picks once we have some daylight tomorrow. Fingers crossed that something doesn’t go horribly awry in the washing machine.

What I’ve Been Up To

Still no camera here. We’ve been shopping but it’s a hard choice. The poor little camera has to wear so many hats. I want it to document our life, satiate my amateur photographer dabbling and provide the husband with a decent camera to photograph the timber frame homes he designs. I think we’re down to a couple models and will have our minds made up by the end of the week. Here’s a little run down on what else I’ve been up to:

• Clearing and planting our herb and vegetable garden. All I can say is never, ever plant garlic chives!!! Regular chives - fine. Garlic chives - NO way. They are beyond invasive and difficult to eradicate.
• Making a color wheel with frosting as suggested on Pepper Paints. Seth’s a little too young for literally mixing the colors as he didn’t quite understand how to get it to mix up. But boy, oh boy did he like watching to see what color emerged. Great tool for teaching color mixing!
• Flower printing on a t-shirt for Eleanor. I can’t wait to show you my results here. Way fun. Seth even voluntarily walked away from the tv to watch me pound away on a flowers with a hammer. He couldn’t be persuaded to take a whack himself. Maybe if I found a smaller hammer for him? You can see the sort of thing I’m talking about on Spring Thinking (with flowers) or Painted Fish Studio (with ferns!!). I’m dying to make a shirt for myself now but I’m making myself wait until I’ve washed Eleanor’s a couple times to see how well it sets.
• Still knitting away on my Functional Felt Swap piece. Only a couple days to go. Well actually I can’t really say “knitting away” as it’s more like a few minutes here and a few minutes there. I’m starting to worry that I may not be able to mail it out right on time. I’ll be close though.
• Lastly, I signed up for the Toadstool Swap. Not sure what my thinking was here. I don’t really need a toadstool softie. But it IS cute and I since I’m trying to re-jump start my sewing skills I thought it might be fun. Theoretically I wasn’t going to buy any new materials for it but I’ve gotta say I’m being lured by the Japanese fabric selection at the new and improved Crafty Planet. (Really it’s just an excuse to see their new digs.)

Wool Dyeing Party

I spent a lovely Sunday with a lovely group of women playing with wool. We learned how to card with this hand cranked gizmo:

I’ve only ever used carding paddles so this was heavenly. Next we dyed the wool:

My mom even tried her hand at spinning:

For a more detailed description of our fine day see Jen’s post or Kristin’s. A big thank you to Jen for organizing the event and to Birdie for being a fabulous host. I hope to come out and play again soon!

Why, you might ask, is Anna posting several days after events are occurring? Well, that would be because I accidentally threw my camera down the front cement stoop. I froze and watched in horror as it bounced down all 4 steps. Therefore, I’ve had to beg, borrow and steal other’s cameras and photos. A big thank you to Ellie and Kathryn for their donations! Sadly, it’ll cost almost as much to fix my camera as buy a new one. Although I’m normally all for fixing to avoid more junk in the landfills the camera is a different story. So, any camera suggestions out there? I’ve been very happy with my Canon PowerShot but am being tempted by Olympis’ Shockproof camera. Shockproof being the optimal word here. And Budget is a concern here. No SLRs for me. A good family point and shoot is what I’m looking for. Any words of wisdom?

Lastly, on a totally unrelated note - Eleanor took her first steps!!!!! I’d love to show you but apparently flickr doesn’t accept mpg videos yet. I’ll look around at converting or using another service.

Ta ta for now!

A Fortune and a Winner!

Tonight we had Chinese delivered. Eleanor couldn’t get enough of the pork fried rice and Seth really enjoyed the “chicken nuggets” (aka sweet and sour chicken). Although he thought I was absolutely disgusting for eating the cream cheese wantons. Every time I took a bite I got a big “ewwww” from him. Humorous to say the least. The best part? My fortune. I don’t know about you but most fortune cookies I get do not have actual fortunes in them. Usually they are more along the lines of a wise saying. It irritates me. Tonight, however, I got a great fortune:

“A dark haired woman will soon be giving you a gift.”

I kid you not! Do you think it’s my swap partner? It’s very exciting.

Things are really starting to heat up with the Functional Felt Swap. If you haven’t seen some of the great items being created you really should take a peek at the photo pool on flickr. I’m happy to report that 70% of the participants have commented or posted about their progress. Some haven’t started but are thinking hard and others have completed and mailed their swap items already! I haven’t made much progress since my posting last week as we’ve had family in town and my little sweetness turned one but I’m happy with were I’m at. Speaking of last week’s post and progress reports, drum roll please……….. The winner of the update giveaway is none other than Debbie! Check out Debbie’s great felt covered nature journal for the swap:

Debbie will receive my felted i-cord bracelet. I hope she likes it!

Bandana Dress

Here’s another birthday present I made for Eleanor. I basically followed the pattern from Daisy Janie except I turned it inside out giving the top a bit of a ruffle. It was my mom’s idea to turn it inside out after I complained about having to fold so much down that it seemed too bulky on the inside. Although this means the side seems are on the outside I think that just adds to the country bumpkin look. I happen to have a denim diaper cover that I think completes the ensemble nicely. The dress is still too big and would be better suited for an 18 month old but it’s fun and didn’t take much effort. I did finally break out the sewing machine in case you were wondering. After hand stitching the sides the kink in my neck told me to just go for it. I can’t believe I held off for so long. Once I remembered how to get the bobbin in it was a snap to make up.

Variations on a Theme

After figuring out my original wave bottle earlier this week I wanted to make something similar with corn syrup and thought I’d ask Seth if he wanted to help. Not only did he want to help make one for Eleanor but he almost had a breakdown because he wanted to make a wave bottle for himself. Anna had commented on my earlier post about using different oils for different effects so I tried to encourage a variation for Seth’s bottle. Well, this didn’t go over too well. He was more than willing to make other varieties for Eleanor but he wanted a blue wave bottle almost identical to his sister’s as his own. Alrighty then!

So here you have it. The bottle above was made with corn syrup a little food coloring and more of the bug buttons with the shanks cut off. Again I super glued the cap back on to avoid a spill. I left a little air at the top this time though. I’m not so happy with the color as I meant for it to be light green but accidently grabed the red at one point. The bugs do eventually float in the corn syrup but it takes them some time to slowly make their way through the goo. It’s great for little bug races. We spent quite a while turning the bottle over and waiting to see which bug would make it to the top first.

These bottle were made according to the directions in my previous post but with some variation in the ingredients. Seth’s wave bottle was filled to the brim with blue water, vegetable oil with blue glitter and seashells. We also varied the height of the water. Unfortunately, we did have to make this one twice as we found out you must mix your food coloring with the water prior to pouring in the oil or the oil gets rather cloudy. At least we think that’s what did it.

This last bottle was made with orange colored water, olive oil and a few pretty pebbles. That’s it! We filled it right up to the top and glued the cap in place. I love the color combination and the olive oil makes great bubbles when the rocks go through it.

We haven’t given these to Eleanor yet but I can tell you that a neighbors 21 month old liked them so much he tried to steal them. So I have no doubt Eleanor will find them intriguing. If nothing else it was a great project for my almost 4 yr old. He got to play with color mixing and learn about the density of certain liquids. What more could I ask for?

Swap Update & A Giveaway!

I got a bit antsy waiting to start my swap project before the partners were handed out so I started what I thought was a little something to keep me occupied.  In my normal fashion I neglected to read the directions all the way through before hand and by the time I realized I would need to knit three six foot i-cords I was already too into the project. The above headband is the result. You can see another shot here. I had to run it through the washer 6 TIMES to get it to full how I wanted it. By the time all was said and done I had left over felted i-cords. What to do? Well a Functional Felt Swap giveaway, of course! Here’s what I came up with:

A lovely (in my opinion), light as air bracelet. This giveaway is open to all Functional Felt Swap participants. (Sorry to my other wonderful readers - but don’t fear I have another giveaway planned for the nearish future.) In order to qualify for this giveaway all you need to do is comment about your progress to date on this post, Jen’s update post,  or upload a shot to our flickr group by end of day Monday, May 19th. It could even be simply about the materials you plan to use. If you take a look at the flickr group it’ll be pretty obvious that some go getters are already entered into this giveaway. But don’t let that stop you from commenting. We want to hear what you think of the swap so far. As for me, here’s my progress. I should have put a quarter in there for scale. If I had it would have been about the size of you mouse pointer.

Wave Bottle

Eleanor’s 1st birthday is this week and I’ve decided to go with homemade presents. This is the 1st of hopefully several gifts I’m attempting to make before our little party this weekend. We’ll see how productive I can be in the face of several other commitments, my day job and the fact that several family members are arriving Friday.

I’m calling this one a wave bottle for lack of a better term. I was actually thinking blue sky when I made it, hence the floating bugs. However, you could just as easily do fish in an ocean. We all know oil and water don’t mix but more fun can be had when you add other elements. The idea is that she can shake and roll this little bottle to her hearts content watching the liquids react but never mix. The blue will stay blue with bugs in it and the clear will sparkle with the glitter. Here’s the low down if you want to make your own. I think it’s enticing for babies and toddlers to play with as well as a fun experiment for preschoolers and maybe even grade schoolers to make.

Materials:

• Half full water bottle
• Food coloring
• Glitter
• Vegetable oil
• Trinkets - completely optional
• Super glue

I added a couple drops of blue food coloring to the water and a few plastic bugs. The bugs are actually buttons in which I cut off the shank.

I then added a bunch of glitter and filled the bottle to the top with vegetable oil. The glitter will stay suspended in the oil for a bit when the bottle is given a shake. Interestingly not much of the glitter will mix with the water. I then covered each and every thread on the top of the bottle with super glue and screwed on the cap. I have no desire to clean oil out of the carpet so I wanted to make sure the cap was on for good. You could also add a strong tape for good measure but I think I’ll tempt fate.

Now, on to a few more presents or I’ll end up at a toy store right before the celebration. Wish me luck!

[Update - Although this version of the waive bottle can take a lot of shaking, try not to shake too vigorously as it will cloud the oil portion. To see more variations on this project click here]

Collage for the Old and the Young

I created a travel project for Seth involving sandpaper with yarn and set it out to see if he would have any interest. After feeling the sandpaper and twirling the yarn he asked for paper & scissors, which I gave him. After cutting up a few pieces he asked for crayons and green glue (his term for a glue stick). And after a couple more minutes he had whipped up this lovely collage of his own design with his own chosen materials. He even got some tape and chose what wall to put it on. I was thrilled. I was also reminded that I really needed to work on getting his art supplies where he can reach them whenever inspirations strikes. Mind you, I also have to consider how far Eleanor can reach now, which makes this a bit more complex.

Meanwhile I’ve been working on my own collages since early December. I’ve posted on the one I made my sis earlier. I was able to finish that one because I had a deadline of a trip to see her. These other two are mine. Which means there was no motivation other than my desire to complete them. Although I really wanted them done, it’s the sort of thing I push off because the kids need caring for, the dishes need washing or any number of daily chores. “I’ll do it next weekend” was always at the tip of my tongue. Not only did life get in the way but I kept making silly mistakes. I forgot to attach hardware to the back before affixing the ephemera even though Jen had warned against this in her mini tutorial. Then I used inappropriate adhesives to put the drift wood on causing it to fall off a day later. Finally, when putting it up on the wall with 3m picture hook adhesives I neglected to take into account that the hook might be longer than the actual piece. Twice. Geeze! Could anything else go wrong? Well, after about 5 different attempts at putting it on the wall I finally realized I could use 3m’s command strips. To the close observer you’ll note that means I didn’t have to attach hardware to begin with as these little strips stick to both the wall and the art piece with no need for traditional picture hanging hardware. They’re like heavy duty removable Velcro. Yes, I realize I could have just pounded a nail in the wall but as I have old plaster walls this can be a dangerous proposition. So, even though I apparently could only take crappy pictures of these pieces I just had to post that it’s finally done!!!! They are complete AND up on my wall. Hip, hip hurray!!!

Here I give you my Duluth memory collages made from dirty 2×4 scraps, digital photos printed on plain recycled paper, gel mat medium, epoxy, beach sand, stones and drift wood. Phew, that was a rough one!