Crayon Roll

This crayon roll is a gift for my niece. Pattern found here. I was thinking it would be good for nights out when she needs some entertaining at a restaurant. She is also receiving many little blank books that I sewed together for her. To sew the books together I used embroidery thread (couldn't find my waxed linen - craft area is chaos). Poking three holes in the fold, the sewed the book together using this method.

Rooster Love

My grandma used to always have these dishes (above) in her fridge filled with butter. I love them and the rooster design so I have them safely stored away.

But I love the design SO much I wanted some similar dishes I could use, so I found these bowls on e-bay (much to my sister's horror-used dishes!). There are actually three to this set, but the largest is in the fridge with mustard seeds soaking in beer and vinegar

Well, I really love this design, so I photocopied the rooster and goccoed it on thank you cards.

Dog Numero Uno

This is dog numero uno, Casey. We have been together for 8 years, through apartments, jobs, etc.
His loves are barking at other dogs or anything that looks like a dog (a grocery bag or purse will do), getting his nails trimmed (any attention is good), and he loves his little dog sister Annie. She keeps him young.
His dislikes are baths and when I play the guitar (he howls)
He had several homes before mine and is quite a handful but as sweet as can be. One time, while visiting our family farm, he found a tiny little mouse that he played with...Gently holding the mouse in his mouth and then throwing it in the air a bit to let it go, and then pouncing on it, over and over. The mouse got away unharmed.
My best guess is that he is a Border Collie, Golden Retriever mix. My sister believes he is all wolf.

Felted balls

This is a felted bead necklace I made ... with a magnetic closure so my niece can wear it.
I found instructions here on the Martha Stewart website I started with just red/orange wool roving (which was difficult to find) but then decided it wasn't colorful enough, so I took apart some thick blue/green/purple wool yarn to make more beads. To string it onto a necklace I just used a needle and thread and tied a knot on either side of each bead.
uhh.... Martha has a blog?

Freezer Paper

In the interest of taking a break from obsessing over the fact that I can crochet, I remembered these freezer paper shirts that I made a year ago. There is a fun flickr pool dedicated to freezer paper stencils
and a freezer paper tutorial
The Swedish Stamp shirt is for my very Swedish father The "Farm Girl" shirt is for my little niece when she visits the grandparents farm.

Uno Dos Tres...

I am scarf happy this winter now that my crochet skills are reasonable.
However, my bad habit of only working on something until it's 3/5 of the way finished, and then quitting, is catching up with me. I have started 3 scarfs for family members and am struggling to keep working on them. It's not that I don't want to work on them, I just want to start a fourth one!...ok I already started a 4th one.



Actually, all I really want to do is sew on one of those labels from the last post.

Labels are Great

I was so excited to get TWO fun things in the mail today (in addition to all the bills). I got an ornament from the ornament swap I am participating in and it is so very cool. I will post pictures of all the ornaments soon (only two have arrived so far).

And I also got my very first fabric labels. I love them. I think I may snuggle with them tonight in bed. I am sure they officially make me crafty.