Tip Junkie

I was featured again!! Yaay! So stupidly happy about little things like this. Check it out by clicking the "I was featured button" or click the name to take you to Tip Junkie's Blog. It was again for the water bottle cover I made a few days back. And I also wanted to share this with you... this is the epitome of what my summer will look like. (After 9:00pm and the children are sleeping soundly in their beds of course lol).

Also, I had time today to play in photoshop, and took this picture of my adorable niece, we'll call her "E". She was playing with sidewalk chalk with my kids (as mother nature finally decided to bestow a little sunshine on us), and had a little bit of chalk on her nose. She was also running around with her sunglasses and her crown on (albeit a little crooked). She's such a princess. So for the first photo I used a free action called The Big Picture, and it splits up the photo into cool little squares, like so. It is a really cool effect, although I didn't like the way it split up her eye and her nose, so I think this would be better for landscapes and such. Still...neato mosquito!

Then I re-opened the photo and played with it some more, and I liked this effect too. I added a couple overlays and some texture, played with settings that I know nothing about, and this was the result. I am seriously going to have to learn how to use this program...for real.

So tomorrow I will be cleaning house, as we are having a little bit of family over in the evening for my birthday, which is on Saturday, and then on Saturday I'll be scrapbooking for National Scrapbook Day (which I actually thought was last week as I scrapped last weekend too hehe). I started dabbling in making my own word art and I really like it! So much fun, but for the moment I really need to organize my photos and get some layouts done. My project 365 stalled out at week 4, even though I'm still trying to take pictures every day. I'd really like to get that all caught up. So many projects and so little time!

8 Things

Ginger over at Ginger's house tagged me for Eight things. So here they are if you're interested:

8 things I am looking forward to:
1. Rayna learning how to roll around the room or crawl
2. Taking our trailer and going camping May long weekend
3. Taking our vacation to see friends in southern BC this summer
4. Warm weather. Summer.
5. Getting my photos organized
6. Getting my P365 caught up and getting some digital layouts done
7. Scrapbooking on my birthday
8. The day both my kids sleep through the night, thus giving me a full night of sleep, uninterrupted.

8 things I did yesterday:
1. Went to a National Scrapbooking day with my sister and organized photos all day.
2. Went to a family BBQ on my husbands side
3. Sat by the fire pit and visited
4. Laughed
5. Laughed so hard I cried
6. Took pictures of my brother in laws standing in the fire
7. Drove my brother in law's truck home
8. Fed my baby her 2:00am feeding.

Weird that they were done in that order too!

8 things I wish I could do
1. Sleep all night
2. Scrapbook all day
3. Have enough energy to deal with the kids, do housework, AND do all the stuff I want to do
4. Free motion quilt really well
5. Finish more projects
6. Fly
7. Leave some kind of legacy for my future grandkids and great grandkids
8. See the Ellen show live

8 tv shows I watch
1. House
2. Desperate Housewives
3. Lost
4. Ugly Betty
5. The Mentalist
6. Ellen
7. Dora the Explorer (not by choice)
8. Spongebob Squarepants (sometimes by choice. That sponge is CRAZY!)

Now I need to tag 8 people so here goes:
I don't really know who to tag for this, and I posted because I was tagged, but consider yourselves all tagged! If you want to, go ahead and post your "8 Things". It's a little insight in to my day and the things I'm excited about. TTFN.

One Pretty Thing

I'm not sure if any of you are aware of this website, One Pretty Thing, but it is this fantastic site that features all kinds of different crafts (including ones for kids). I was featured on their site once before, for my Christmas Napkins tutorial. I am sad to say the first I had heard of their site was when Des from Quilt Taffy told me she submitted my napkins to be featured! I'm featured again on the Daily DIY for my water bottle cover!! So if you haven't been there before, or if you need a little creative inspiration, go check it out!!

Water Bottle Cover

I'm on a roll!! I saw one of these at the water store today when I went to get water, and thought it was an actual steel patterned bottle lol. The lady told me it was just a cover and a customer had been making them. It was made of white fabric with strawberries and I thought it looked so cool! I quickly assessed it and figured I could make it myself, so that's what I did!! I'm so proud of myself for making it from no pattern, and it turned out really well. I'm so happy with it! I came home and went through my fat quarter stash to see what I had, and decided that since my roman blind that I'm going to make for the kitchen is going to be from Farmer's Market that I would make this to match. I started by measuring the water bottle and adding in extra for my seams. I didn't want it to be one solid fabric, (since I don't have any lol) so I had to figure out how big around my bottle was and how many strips I was going to use. I used a Tupperware lid that was about 11 3/4" across to trace a circle for the top of the bottle, and then used my rotary cutter to cut it out because I am too lazy to use scissors.

Then I took seven strips 5 1/2" x 19" and sewed them together along the 19" edge using a 1/4" seam. I pressed the seams to one side. Before connecting them to make the "tube" I folded the bottom edge 1" and then folded it another 1" and pressed it. This is the pocket to insert the elastic into at the end.

Then I top stitched along both edges of the elastic pocket to give it a nice finished edge.

The I sewed the outside pieces together to form the "tube" that will fit over the bottle (right sides together). I stopped the seam before going over the elastic pocket, as we'll need to insert the elastic last.

Then I took it upstairs and the water bottle had it's final fitting. I found it waaaay easier to pin the round top piece on this way than flopping it around on my lap and trying to get it to lay right.

I started on one side, and then jumped across to the opposite side and pinned at each of the seams between the seven sections. (Getting the top piece on was the hardest part of this project).

Then I pinned the hell out of it, so I wouldn't get any bunching!!! (If you know me at all you'd know how much I hate bunching and puckering).

So once I had it pinned completely, I took it downstairs and sewed the top on, using a 3/4" seam, only because I measured the top a little big to give myself room (better too big than too small, and it's hard to measure as the bottle has a rounded top. Or bottom. Depending on which way you look at it.) You can tell by where the pins are where the seam needs to be.

This is almost done! I love how the material is so crisp, it stands on it's own! I didn't use a lining or interfacing either.

Then I took a safety pin and clipped it to a 14" length of elastic to work the elastic into the pocket at the bottom of the cover (where we left the opening earlier.) AND!! because we pressed the seams all one direction, if you pick correctly you won't have to fight the seams with the safety pin. Don't you love it when it all works out. I had thought about pressing them open but am glad I didn't because the pin slid right past all the seams this way. Then I sewed the elastic together at the end.

Then I pulled the elastic in, and it sits in the right spot to just fold that seam over and finish sewing it shut. So I started where I left off and sewed to the edge of the 1" pocket that we left open.

It looks good! I used 14" because I stretched out the elastic to the longest it would go to reach 35" around so it would go over the top of the bottle, and when the elastic was relaxed it was 14".

Kind of looks like a deflated hot air balloon now. It's totally done...are you ready?? Wait for it...wait for it...

Okay, now I forgot to take a before picture of my cooler and my bottle was almost empty so it moved a lot getting the cover on... so just pretend this plain old water bottle is sitting on my cooler. I already flipped it over for you to help with the image hehe.

So here it is!! Doesn't it look cute?? I love these colors and the cherries and apple dots are so nice for in the kitchen. My walls are yellow too so these colors all match my upstairs nicely.

This is the top view, it sewed together quite nicely with minimal puckering. I am so happy with the way it turned out!

And if I get bored I can just turn the cover, as it has seven different sections, and I can have a little different look for a while. I know I'm a total nerd for loving this so much, but I do! The only drawback is I can't see how much water is left, but I can tell from the sound of the water that it's getting empty, and I would much rather look at this pretty fabric than the water level in the ugly old water bottle.

So let me know what you think! I love this idea and may make more depending on what other fabrics I find, maybe I'll do a strawberry one like the one that inspired me in the first place! If you make it, let me know, I'd love to see the fabrics you choose :)

I'm such a crafty one

I decided to make some stuff today. The first thing I decided to whip up was a ribbon toy, which didn't turn out the way I wanted so I scrapped it and started over. The idea originally came from me wearing a hoodie with strings, and Rayna is always grabbing at my strings, which made me think there has to be some way to make her a ribbon toy with really long ribbons to keep her happy. Then the thought of her managing to wrap it around her neck popped into my head so the really long ribbon toy turned into a taggie bracelet.

I started off with a scrap of material about 6 1/2" x 2 1/2". I was originally going to "pillowcase" it, and flip it inside out, but figured I would have a hard time sewing in the ribbons, so instead I folded it up like bias tape, pressed it, and pinned the ribbons along the open edge. I topstitched down the open edge, and folded the ends under. I would suggest using a scrap maybe a little wider, say 3 1/2" even, as I found it a little narrow for my liking once all the folding up was done. The length of the ribbons I used was 7" and 4" and I shoved them into the open side so that they were touching the fold in the center. I also topstitched the other side (by the fold), which caught the ribbon a second time, to make it more secure.

Then I added a chunk of velro to each end, making sure to catch my folded ends to secure them, as well as making sure I put the velcro on the right side so it closed when wrapped around her wrist.

Ta Daaaa! It was a pretty quick little idea that popped into my head and turned out alright I think.

Cute little baby not included.

She seemed to like it anyways. The one ribbon is actually stretchy, and she really seemed to like grabbing that one and yanking on it.

The second thing I made today was the "Olivia Owl" doll. I think she turned out pretty cute, don't you? If you'd like to make one yourself you can purchase the pattern HERE. I would have taken more pictures of the process but I think that would kind of give away the pattern somewhat and it is copyrighted, so you'll just have to buy one yourself! I love this woman's patterns though and have bought quite a few already, I have made her "Lil Peanut" and "Lil Lambie" and my son loves them to death. I also purchased the baby bumblebee pattern which may be the next one I make.

The only thing I had trouble with is my fabric puckering. I hate fabric puckering. Whether it's in my quilting or my sewing or anything, I hate it. The thing is, after I attached the face and wings (with a tight zigzag stitch as instructed) the front part had shrunk up a bit, so when I sewed the front and back together, there was alot of loose fabric in the center, which I figured would be fine once I stuffed her up, and finished it off. Overall it wasn't too bad, but when I finished the bottom opening (using this Invisible Closing Seam tutorial) I did end up with one stupid pucker that I just couldn't get rid of. How annoying. Can you see it? You should be able to, it's the pucker in the middle of the red circle thingy, that I highlighted for you lol.

Maybe I'm just picky. No, not possible, not me, no way. I also need improvement on appliqueing the face and wings on, the face especially. Maybe I'll have to experiment with different stitches on my machine and see if there is one that works better than the zig zag. I think if I had craft velour for the face it wouldn't be so bad either as I'm using just plain old cotton. In the end though, Chase will probably claim her and he won't even notice, so again, unless I'm giving it as a gift, it'll do. She's pretty cute though, right?! And didn't I do a fantastic job embroidering the facial features? I think so. Okay, so until we meet again...

Ketchup

Ok, so what I meant was Catch - up. Tee hee. I promised you some Easter egg decorating pictures so I figured I better get on it, plus one of my "followers" (there has to be a better word for that) gets antsy if I don't post every other day. Must have nothing better to do hey sunshine? bahaha. But before I post those, check this one out!! Proof that spring has really sprung in my lil corner of the world. {huge smile}. This is a rhubarb plant that I planted last fall in the flower bed my husband built for me late in the season. I can't wait for it to be huge and productive! This is what my yard looked like two weeks ago...

So it's nice that it is all gone (there are a couple ice chunks that refuse to dissipate due to the sun not hitting them directly) and I can't wait for everything else to start turning green! I love the re-birth of everything in spring.

Also on another note, my headstone for my cat came in the mail last week, and I just picked it up the other day.

I purchased it from the site Always Remembered and will place it when we go bury Bud at my mom and dad's acreage later in the season. I think it turned out wonderful and the pricing was very reasonable for a pet memorial.

Ok, so this year we did a traditional egg-dipping decorating kit rather than the sponge ones or painting ones or just stickers. Chase did really well with it and we had lots of fun at Grandma's house decorating!

Chase got to do most of the eggs himself.

Then my mom came up with a neat idea to wrap elastics around the eggs to create stripes and patterns.
So we did. This is how they turned out.


I think they look neat with all the solid colored ones!
My mom also had some fun stickers to add to them after they were dry. I like these guys!

So I hope your Easter was as good as ours. The day itself was pretty relaxing, we went for brunch with my in-laws and took the kids to the park and had a big afternoon family nap. It was a nice day with family. This is a shot of the Easter lily my father in law bought for me.

And I also told you all that I had made a table runner for spring or Easter. I love the colors. The charm pack was Soiree by Moda and the pattern is called Stacked Coins, (which I originally purchased from Quilt Taffy I think, but is no longer listed there {eyebrows raised in surprise!} unless I am mistaken and picked it up elsewhere, but I've purchased a few of these charm pack patterns through them). It worked up pretty easy but I did have trouble with my rows lining up at the end, and ended up trimming it to square it up, (because I was too lazy to rip it all out) and it didn't really help because it just made the rows look crooked because of the way I trimmed it. It's not awful though and I can live with it lol. This is the second sewing project that hasn't turned out the way I wanted, I hope I'm not sensing a pattern here! Also, the edges of the table runner are a bit wavy, and I'm not sure what causes that?! If it wasn't for myself I don't know if I could give it away the way it is, but since it's only sitting on my own table and Chase will probably spill God knows what on it, it'll do. Like I said, I love the colors and overall I like the way it looks. The backing, binding and sashing material I picked up at the local fabric store.

And last but not least, here are a couple pics of my lil cutie pie children. Rayna hanging out in her bumbo chair and Chase riding his bike on the deck, he's really been enjoying the sunshine. We are so ready for this weather! I've taken the kids to the park a few times this week, maybe I can post some of the pictures later this week, since I've covered so much in this post!


So have a great week! I have a couple small projects I'd really like to do right away, so maybe I'll have some creative stuff to share as well. TTFN!

Busy, Busy, Busy

Wow, today was a fantastic day, got lots of spring cleaning done today. My hubby was home so I sprang out of bed (after my hubby got up, showered, blared the "clean the house" music and ripped the covers off my exhausted, sleeping body) and put away Rayna's basket of clean laundry so I could put the dirty laundry that had been residing on the floor into the basket. Then I took Chase's laundry downstairs to wash it. We tidied up the kids room getting everything off the floor so daddy could sweep and mop. Chase and I went downstairs to tidy up and get everything off the floor down there. I was on a roll and wasn't sure if I should stop to shower...an object in motion tends to stay in motion and all that.

So I showered, and then we cleaned out the front closet of all the jackets we no longer wear, all the bunting bags that Rayna won't fit anymore and won't use since summer is around the corner (huge screaming YAAAAY!) and had Chase try on several pairs of shoes from last summer to see if any still fit. (None do.) Chase now needs new runners and rubber boots. Thinking the Easter bunny might have rubber boots.

Tidied up the kitchen after lunch, emptied the paper and cardboard recycle bin. Counted out the cans in the other recycle bin, took down all the window clings (from Christmas, yes, that's right, Christmas) all the while fighting with Chase to slow down as he was sticking them all together in a pile and I couldn't keep up to stick them back on their original sheets for storage. Ended up throwing a bunch away as they seemed to have lost their "stick" even after windexing them a bit. Cleaned all the windows in the house on the main level, and the doors inside and out.

Dumped Rayna in her saucer outside with daddy and Chase so I could crab walk around under our crawl space and put away remaining Christmas decorations, and clean off the computer desk (the only task that DIDN'T get done today, but will get done tomorrow morning) and clean the bathroom and finish tidying the kitchen. Washed down the china cabinet and the microwave shelf (all the way underneath to the back. Can you say dust bunny? No, not Easter bunny, DUST bunny.) Dusted my picture frames and minor spots I missed yesterday.

Made supper, washed children, put children to bed. Downloaded audio versions of Eclipse and Breaking Dawn so I have some more listening to do while cleaning or cooking tomorrow. Scrubbed evidence of my children off the walls. (read : grubby hand prints, scuff marks and dings.) Called a friend whose dog got run over to make sure she's ok. (She is, but I know what it's like to lose a pet after putting Bud down.)

Scrubbed mushroom soup from lunch off the table and cleaned it so I could take pictures of my new table runner (which I'm not posting tonight as it's already late and I should get to bed, so I can "spring" out of bed tomorrow.)

So that's about it. I got a lot accomplished today and my house is ready for our dinner with our parents tomorrow night. Kind of the main reason for cleaning but it all needed to be done anyways. My house has been in some state of disgusting for quite some time now. Probably since early October, since I had Rayna really.

So I'll have some pictures to post in the next few days, been taking lots of my kids in between all this cleaning! Pfew! This is SO not like me. Anyhoo, hope you all have a Happy Easter if I don't post before then! And if I do post again, well, I'll still wish you a Happy Easter lol. TTFN.

Songs of the Humpback Whale

Just to let any of you know that may be interested, I have finished reading another book and my review is on my book review blog, rants n random readings. I really just started the blog to keep track of which books I'll read in the next year, but if you're curious go have a look! You can click on the link or on the "My Last Read" book in my sidebar. Have a great day!! ;)

And Finally

Wow! Today was a great day, Chase and Rayna and I went out to my mom's to decorate Easter eggs and it was a ton of fun! Chase did awesome, and I'll post pictures later this week. I also decided to make one of the projects that I had bookmarked, for a quick (or not so quick if you're stunted like me) and easy dry erase board. I needed a board to list my daily "to-do's" and decided if it was going to have chores on it, then it should be pretty as well as functional. I also have a similar project to do with a cork board, but that will be another day. I found this idea on the Make it and Love it Blog, (you can also click her button on the sidebar to be taken to her blog), who in turn originally found it HERE.

So I started off with a plain old 8 x 10 frame, it was actually a "pop-in" frame, so you just pop the glass out from the back, put your photo, or fabric inside and then re pop the glass in. Pretty simple. Very basic. Neat.

Then I chose 4 charm squares to cover the space.

Decided I wanted to piece it instead, so started chopping up fabric. I took a 5" charm square (these are from Moda's Soiree), and I cut a 1 1/2" strip from either side, which left a larger chunk in the middle.

I then realized once I started laying it out that I had grossly underestimated my material needed for the project and added three more squares.

I then sewed them in a helter skelter pattern, whichever way suited my fancy, and pressed all the seams flat. I added a zig-zag stitch over some random seams and added a strip of ric rac across the main seam in the middle. I then squared it up (kind of).

I laid it flat on the table and placed the picture backing on top. I hot glued it around the edges, trimming the excess at the corners, and popped it back into the frame.

(In hind sight (which is always 20/20) I realize I should have maybe taken more time to make sure it was straight before I hot glued it. Once I popped it in the frame I realized I had glued it on a little off kilter. Whoops. That is going to annoy me to no end, you have no idea. Also, I noticed after I sewed the ric rac on and did the zig-zag that I got some material bubbling around the center seam, which is also very annoying. These are my own personal demons and I will deal with them in their own time lol. For now I consider it a project finished! I love the colors and at some point I will probably take it out and rip it apart and straighten it. For now it can look like I meant for it to be that way, a true Rosie original.

Then I celebrated with one of these:

I also found a use for my baby food jars, as I have been saving them and wanting to find some handy craft to use them again. I thought about modge-podging some fabric onto them and making them into trinket jars or something but I haven't figured anything else out yet, but I had all my quilting pins in the little plastic bubble they came in, loose in my sewing drawer, and they fit perfectly in my little jar! Don't ya just love recycling??

So that's it, I got a craft done, recycled a bit and had a fantastic day. Hope your week started as good as mine! Tomorrow I have to take Rayna in for her shots so I imagine the next couple days won't go so great for me as she was terribly cranky after her last ones. Have a great week and stay tuned for our Easter egg fun!