Punkin Time!!!

It is certainly harvest time around here. This year we got a few nice pumpkins from our garden. And Noah is determined to tote ALL of them wherever he goes. It is pretty funny watching him move them from room to room so that he can gaze at them while he is doing whatever he is doing! My only request to him was "please do not roll them down the stairs" I really do not want mashed pumpkin at the bottom of the stairs.

Well, bedtime came tonight and he insisted he sleep with ALL of them! But since there is simply not enough room in his crib for them, he settled for having them within reach, so he could pet them.

Stacking them just right is the key of course!
And does not his eyes say everything!!! I just Love Fall-hurry up and get here already!!

Fallen Tree..A Pair of Mittens a Day

Here are the mittens for day 6 of the pair of mittens a day.

They are called Fallen Tree...with the season in mind that fast approaching.
These mittens were made from a bundle of reclaimed wool sweaters that have been machine felted. They were appliqued with an almost barren tree and it's last remaining lovely leaves.
They are a women's large or men's small.

FABRIC SALE TODAY ONLY....

FABRIC SALE TODAY ONLY...25% OFF ALL FABRIC PURCHASES-SEE SHOP FOR DETAILS.

Our Very First Portraits Ever as a Family!!!!

Well, we have been a family for over 14 years and today I just received in the mail, our first ever-- portraits!!! Our church is putting together a new photo directory and they have a portrait company come in to take all of the family's photos. During the sitting you can choose to have portraits done to purchase for your family, so this year we decided to do just that. When we look at Cole and the very few years we have left with him, we just felt it important to have this done at least once. I would love to do this regularly, but, life just has other choices for our finances most of the time;). One of the most important things to us was purchasing the rights to the portraits so that we could reprint them as the budget allowed months down the road or make alterations to them. I have been playing with them just a bit to get the right colors and enhancements. So here are some of our family's portraits. I am just so very tickled to have these-thank you Jesus!!!

Our Girls...
Our boys...Noah was such a "ham" during the sitting, we actually laughed through the entire time-much better than tears!!
And all the kiddos!

How About A Give Away....It has been too Long!

It has been awhile since I have done a give away here, and with the school year ready to begin around here, and fall fast approaching, it just seems to time to reconnect with many of you!

I have been snuggling up to my wool in the studio this past week and have some newly designed coffee cozies. The give away will be for this grape Jelly coffee cozy.

To enter to win this cozy, it is simple...simply stop in and leave a comment for this post. I will be picking a random winner on Friday! Have a great day!

Day Five...Grape Jelly Anyone?

Day 5 of the pair a day.....Grape Jelly anyone?
The mittens are lined with a fun vintage purple dot knit....
Isn't the contrast funny? Winter mittens snuggling up to summer's flowers....
The mittens have wool pennies appliqued to the front using my stippling foot. The are complimented with some cozy gray wools on the palm and cuff.

Number 4 and I'm on a Roll....

Here is day number 4.... Love Me Mittens

Made from 4 felted wool sweaters....and lined with a polka dot knit...
perfect for teens to a small handed woman...

Pair Number Three...

Number three is in the shop....

These were made with 4 different sweaters....
They are a grade school aged child size. The fleece lining is in a fun green polka dot...

Day three is done-so far so good!!

Today's Shop Update

Here are the mittens of the day. It has been a good morning, visited some friends at the hospital who just had their baby and came home ready to conquer the day and my mitten quota;) So, I am off to a good start. The kids and I are enjoying our last few summer days before we hit the books.

The weekend is here once again and with that brings the weekend sale in the shop. All purchases are 25% off. You can see the shop announcement for more details.

A Pair A Day...

The planning and prep is now done, fall is fast approaching and I am actually very much anticipating winter which I love. So -my goal is to have one pair of felted wool mittens made a day!! (maybe every 3 or 4 days would be more realistic) but hey, I gotta have goals;)

I make the mittens from recycled wool sweaters that I have felted. The only part that is not wool is the lining in which I try to use recycled fleece for comfort. Here is one that is designed and cut, ready to sew up.

I keep wool pennies in cookies jars. I love these little things! They come in handy for so many projects! And hey, they look cute in the jars too!

Here is the first official pair in the shop! It is called Ruby and Tangerine garden.
Warm reds and oranges. They are a teen or small handed woman's size. So-there it is-1 down!

They are Finished...

Just wanted to share that I finished those sweet Strawberry Shortcake Pillows! I had mentioned them earlier in a post of my summer projects. I used a fun vintage bed sheet with Strawberry Shortcake and her friends. The sheets colors went beautifully with so many of those pretty vintage linen prints! I quilted each of the pillow tops before making them into slip covers. Here is the new collection of 4 in the shop.

Today was a Sad Day...

Today was one of those heartache days especially for my girls. Our girls are the happy caretakers of a farm of 6 guinee pigs and one bunny. They have been the perfect little pets for them to love on and learn to care for. The pigs have such personality and each one has been unique and special to them which is exactly why we ended up with 6! Every time we would have a litter of new little piggies, it would be heart wrenching for the girls to give them away. Yesterday, Madison noticed that Snowball was having a very difficult time walking and would not eat or drink. She watched over snowball carefully and worked hard to give her water and nibbles of food, but today brought the unfortunate reassurance that her time was near. So Madison wrapped her up in a towel to keep her as warm and comfortable as she could and sat with her for quite a few hours, with tears here and there. But just before dinner, Snowball started gasping for breath, which is horrible to watch. Seeing an animal in pain is so sad. We agreed that instead of allowing this to go on for any longer(which we have experienced before), we would gently wrap her in a towel, lay her in a box and set her in the deep freeze to simply fall asleep and put her out of pain quickly. But thankfully, as I took her from Madison, she breathed her last breath. So, all of us gathered out at the apple tree to bury her. Dad and Cole dug the hole, and we thanked Jesus for these little animals that bring us joy and laughter.

A few years ago when my birthday came around, I received a little bit of money and thought it would be fun to take the kids out that day to have them pick out a guinee pig. But they let me pick her out for them, she was just such a cutie and we knew we wanted a mama so we could have a litter. So it is a bit sad that she is gone. But even in the death of an animal, these little creatures teach our kids. And we are thankful for a God who is so creative and loves us enough to bless us with animals to love and care for.

Madison painted a rock to remember Snowball and it sits nestled under the apple tree.

ALL HANDMADE ITEMS -SALE...

TODAY'S SALE IN THE SHOP ARE ON HANDMADE ITEMS....THEY ARE 25% OFF.

SALE TODAY ON BED LINENS...

20% OFF OF RECLAIMED BED LINENS IN THE SHOP TODAY. HAPPY SHOPPING MY CREATIVE FRIENDS!

The Before....

Cole and I are just about to head out the door for haircuts. It has been months for me but for Cole it seems about every few weeks now that he cut his hair shorter. I know-"shorter" but for Cole, compared to just over a year ago, this is short! However, that relative statement is about to really change! He wants to buzz his head-ahh! I do not think I have seen him with hair that short since he was Noah's age! I will post after pictures later! Joslyn was sweet enough to take the before pics for us. We had a good time laughing-and i actually got some real smiles out of Cole instead of the pose for a picture smile.

A New "Pack Pack" for Noah

My little Noah gets so excited now when he gets to run errands with mama or daddy or when we are going somewhere as a family. It is heartbreaking to say no to him when one of us has to leave him behind, he just stands at the door with those big tears running down his cheeks-ouch. So, as he has entered this new stage of "adventure" outside the house, he has become quite attached to his little tote that I have used for his diaper bag the past year or so. He would rather me load it up with his trains than the necessary extras for running errands and the "oops" events of a toddler. But the tote bag, even though it is not very big, is a bit difficult for him to carry. He tries and tries to keep it on his shoulder, but he just ends up comically wrestling with it and of course turns down any offer for me to help because he is "big" now. Well the tote would eventually end up strapped on him like a back pack and worked alright even though that is not how it is intended to work. But, it did not take a whole lot of seeing this to "inspire" a new design for him. Hum??, I guess I need to make Noah a new bag;) Or should I say "pack pack" as Noah calls it!

Sunday night I was really not feeling well, but just could not sleep unfortunately. Matt had already headed off to bed early after getting back from running a camp for the Jr High this weekend. I had worked on the design for a new bag earlier but still had some figuring out to do on how I wanted it to work for Noah, so I decided to spend some of that restlessness on finishing the bag. Here is what I came up with.

He is pretty happy with the new "pack pack"

I added some fun pockets to the outside for those extra little treasures. I actually made the back pack in the shape of a regular tote bag to keep it simple for little hands. It simply folds over and a rubber band was used to loop over the button.
I was able to make the entire bag out of thrifted materials. The stars came for a pair of PJ pants, the stripes came from a thick shower curtain, and the polka dots came from a vintage piece of fabric.
The button has got to be my most favorite part of the tote. I love covering buttons! They just add such a one of a kind element to any project.

I am hoping to get some of these made for the shop in time for Christmas gifts. Perfect size for wee ones!

Stocking Up on Scrap Packs...

Forgive me, I have been terrible about keeping the store stocked with scrap packs of the day. Such a simple task that eludes my attention all too often. But I am cracking down again and getting them tackled in bunches. At this point, I have scrap packs listed through Aug 17th. You can find them easily by typing in "scrap pack" when you are in the the shop. That should pull them up without you having to weed through everything else. The daily special still applies, if you purchase the scrap pack on the date in it's title-you receive it at 50% off. For example, if you purchase the August 7th scrap pack, today on the 7th, it will be 2.50 instead of 5.00. So, for you scrap lovers-it is a great thing. They are 1 pound of fabric, left overs from my cutting table and projects and come in eclectic little bundles of joy.