Needlebook Part 1

Talk about inspiration! Wandering through Sharon's blog at in a minute ago isn't safe for anyone with things to do...grin! I just had to try the heart wreath and I loved the needlebooks, so I just combined the two and this is what I am coming up with. Still in the makings... more to come..

Tie One On..Mini Me.. August 2005

This is the first apron I've made since I was very young and many thanks go to Amy of Tie One On for the inspiration.

The little doll is what I call my "German Baby" since she reminds me so much of the little German round face of the old cartoon strip "The Katzenjammer Kids". (loved that strip!)

Tomomi

I have to admit to being a little prejudiced here (Tomomi is my daughter- in- law!) but I think her work is exquisite. Her web page is called Black Cat (after their cat named Sarge) and shows all the many facets of her handiwork. It is written in Japanese, but the links to her pages and her pictures are all in English and it is very easy to navigate.

The wall hanging was done for me 2 years ago. I requested a spring theme to use on my living room wall. I love it. You can see from the close-up of the corner how the colors were chosen.. I also have another one for the fall season. The large quilt is completely hand sewn and took her 3 years to complete. It won Best in Show at the Wichita Falls Quilt Fair.

Vintage Hankies -- Flea Market Finds

Hubby and I stopped at one of our favorite little flea markets today on our way home from breakfast...(later I will add some pics of Nick's.. we love the place!) ... and I found some hankies all neatly ironed and folded, then placed inside a small wooden box. When I saw the handmade one shown on the bottom, I had to have them. When we got home and I opened them all up, these are some of the ones I found. I thought perhaps someone who is more up on textiles than I am, could give me an idea how old they are. I had never seen any with the "iron on" of Thumper. The colors and fabric of the floral ones make me think they are from the late '40s or maybe '50s. I bought them especially for use on my denim bag or perhaps on my apron, but now that I have them I'm not sure I have the strength of will to cut them up!

Bags of Fun... Pic 4

I went to Goodwill yesterday and found a huge bag of crewel embroidery yarn for $1.00... just had to get it. Then when I stared to work on my bag, just had to use it! I'm not sure where I am going with this bag (it's just evolving) but I found that the yarn seems a little drab against the denim, so I am scattering beads through it to give it a little more umphh. It's hard to see the beads in the pic because of the flash of my camera. This small area took all evening for me to do, so I'm finding that I am really glad that the deadline is November!

Tie One On ... Vintage Aprons!

I've found a new site through the links at Chloe's Place ...It's called Tie One On and I love the vintage aprons and patterns on this site. There is also a group who make and embellish aprons. The Flickr Group with all the pictures is here. Reminds me too much of "old" days..grin I have joined this group and will soon be working on my own apron..!! Hubby is excited because he wants a bar-b-que apron!

Bags of Fun... Pic 2

I made a few changes last night.. The large area of cream that went up to the waistband just seemed a little overwhelming, so I took some of it out and added the row of beading. I think I will try some embroidery netting to finish the top area. The flowers that I had down the fold also seemed a little much, so changed them also. My flash makes it a little difficult to see the coloring very well, maybe will be better in the next one.

Bags of fun layout

Finally had a chance to do some real layout work on my bag. Not sure if I will stick with the circle where it is or not, or the small flower border, but will continue to work with it.

Latest Hall's Acquisition

My husband has become almost as avid a Hall's collector as I am and can smell out almost anything made by Hall's just by standing in the door of a shop. (grin) This Drip-O-Lator produced by Hall's in approx. the 1940's is our lastest find. I have researched the pattern and can't put a name on it yet, but will continue to search. The belly of the pot is made up of a brick pattern with ivy vines winding through it. It is especially lovely and I fell in love with it.

Bags of Fun Update

Well, what can I say?!! I've started 3 different times on my purse and each time I have ripped it all out and started over. So, today I will see if I can make some progress. This is my work room. It seldom gets any neater than this and most often is much worse.

Body Powder

I find myself constantly running out of my favorite powder... sooo when I ran out last night, I whipped some up today. Here's how:

Into a ziploc bag, place :

• 2 c. corn starch
• 1/2 cup rice flower (optional, but makes it smoother)
• 1 to 2 tbsp. of you favorite talc (for scent)
• or
• 1 to 2 drops of your favorite essential oil on a piece of cotton ball. (I used Melissa Essential Oil to give it a fresh, clean fragrance.)

Zip up the bag and gently shake (turning it upside down several times) and then let it set for 2 or 3 hours. Remove the scent puff (if you used the essential oil and cotton ball) and Voila' !! More of your favorite powder. If the powder clumps onto your powder puff, cut a piece of netting the exact size of the powder container, lay it on the powder and the puff will load evenly.

Knitting Nonni

Mariella, from California, has a knitting blog called Knitting Nonni . Here she chronicles her crafts with pics (including adorable grandchildren!) and every time I go there I wish even more for more time in the day. I do a reasonable garter and stockinette stitch, but have to say can't do much more than that. Have a new great-grandchild coming up and would love to be able to knit a blanket or booties. I love to crochet and usually crochet for baby, but would like to be able to knit also. Waving "Hi", Mariella.

Victoria Sampler

The Victoria Sampler website has some wonderful free patterns on it. They have printer friendly pages and the patterns are small enough to be used in conjuction with crazy quilting. For those of us who are either new at this or very rusty, there is a wonderful animated stitch page that makes all those beautiful stitches everyone else does easier since it shows the actual movement of the needle and thread. This page covers everything from basic surface stitches to hardanger and pulled thread embroidery. Great page, very understandable.

Ideas and things

Karen Foster Design is a site that is really for scrapbooking, but there are many designs on the pages that make for great inspiration. She also has a great selection of mini charms that would look great on almost any fiber art.

Body Butter

Majestic Mountain Sage is a website that carries all kinds of supplies for making your own cosmetics, creams, lotions, perfumes, etc. There are recipes that can be used as is, or you can change them a bit and make them your own. When we tried and tried to find some foot cream for Hubby, and were always left less than delighted, I decided to try to make my own. For my first batch, I used the recipe as it was and had my son (who makes different soaps) come over and assist. What fun we had that day! The butter came out a little oily and a lot strong because of the tea tree oil, but it didn't last long since it worked really well at softening the skin.

Last week I made my second batch of body butter for Hubby and myself. With this batch, I decided not to use the tea tree oil because of the strong fragrance and included two additives to help reduce the oily feeling and to improve the absorption into the skin. I also added allantoin to protect the skin and have been very pleased with the result.

Vintage Sewing Books

Cindy, at Sewing Chronicles, has a link on her site for vintage sewing books, called (appropriately), Vintage Sewing. These are books that are completely online, so can be read in their entirety or simply by the chapters one is interested in researching. If you are interested in how-to sewing before the age of the sewing machine, this is a great site. The books begin prior to the 1900's and continue to the 1950's.

Finding Time.. O Woe is Me!

We are finally putting this issue of the newsletter for Hubby's Vietnam Ranger Association to bed. This one has been a long one... double the usual pages since we are covering the 2005 reunion in Forida and also the induction of two of our members into the Ranger Hall of Fame.

Sooo... hopefully as soon as this is done, I will be able to post some progress on my "bags of fun" project!

Soldiers Helmet Liners

I was browsing through some of my links on my Yahoo page and went on a cyberspace journey .. you know how it is. I came across a page that has patterns for helmet liners that are being made and sent to the soldiers in Iraq. Since our son has been stationed in Iraq twice and is due to go again in February, I think this will be another project that I will have to do. If you would like have a look, the link is: www.geocities.com/helmetliner

I have pics of Chuck using his helmet liner to protect his face during the huge sand storm they endured during the initial push into Baghdad. Certainly wish he had had one of these instead of the Marine issue.

December 2004 Chicago Trip

In December of last year, we took our first trip by train to visit our son in Michigan. I have uploaded a couple of the pics from that trip into Flicker. I still have not figured out how to upload to the bags of fun page, but will continue to work on it... I have faith..grin Must go. Very busy day today.

Beginnings

Here is the pair of jeans I have cut off for this project. I have several silk and acrylic scarves that have been sitting in my closet since the early '90s. I think they will work wonderfully for some cut-out background pieces. Will just have to see how this works out. It's been a long time since I have been so excited over trying something new.

First Try With Papier Mache

This is a papier mache fish that I made in 1999, but did not get it painted until 2003..

Introducing "Brigit"

This is Brigit. She now belongs to our son, but we are still considered her Grandma and Grandpa... and she will be coming to visit in a few minutes, sooo.. must make this quick.
Will be having a new entertainment center delivered in a few minutes (thus the help of sons and grandsons!) so must be brief. Will continue later...

Sharon B.'s "Bags of Fun"

Hello. Since I am a newbie on the blogger block, I will apologize in advance for all the mistakes I will probably make...grin.

I have to credit the inspiration for beginning this blog to sharonb at inaminuteago.com . She is unaware that I have been lurking about her site for a couple of months and now find it an integral part of my early morning coffee ritual. With the advent of the "bags of fun challenge", I decided that if I didn't join in this now, I would kick myself later.

So here we go!