Sticking in there

Glad to see you are sticking in there for another episode of my branching out projects.

Today I'm making a star

All you need are 5 sticks roughly the same length

I first glued the sticks together then wrapped the ends in jute twine. I had a berry and pine pick in my stash that I wrapped around the twigs and finished it off with a jute loop on the back for hanging it. I really liked how this one turned out and I have more sticks ready to do a few more

Stick with me

You're going to want to stick with me for the next few days while I show you how I've branched out into some fun new projects.

These all started by me walking through the front and back yard and picking up all the sticks laying in the yard under the trees. After I got them all I started working on some projects. I'm only going to show you one a day so that I have a few days worth of posts.

This first one is a pretty simple one that I saw while browsing through Pinterest.  The idea came from a blog called Fellow Fellow and you'll find the tutorial for them there. You'll also find a much better picture of them and see that she used them as gift decorations.

I started off with 3 3" sticks and one was cut smaller for the bottom and the tree trunk. Then I just wrapped them in different directions with embroidery floss.

Come back tomorrow for another stick project

Angels among us

Who couldn't use a little angel on their shoulder or maybe just adorning the lapel of your jacket.

These were made out of things I found in my stash.

The wings are little woodsie shapes that I bought years ago for some reason and never used them. I don't know if you can tell but they have tiny beads for their hair. The body is a fabric yo yo adorned with a button and the head is a wood furniture button

A dollar store hauntingly easy craft project

On a recent trip to the dollar store I was perusing the isles and came across some plastic bowls and cups that were 50% off the original price of $1.00. I was in a bit of a Halloween mood and liked the purple color of the pieces and knew they would make a good project.
I also grabbed a package of 2 big ugly spiders and headed home

I glued the bottoms of the cup and bowl together and then glued on the spiders. Now all this needs is some Halloween treats and it's ready to go. Not bad for a $2.00 project

Got my craft on

I've got quite a few new craft projects to show you and I had a hard time deciding where to start. I decided to go with a little crochet project.
I bought a new purse and even though I like the purse it doesn't have a cell phone pocket on it. Or at least not one that I found convenient. After browsing through pinterest I decided I would just pull out the crochet hooks and yarn and make one up.
This is actually the second one I made. The first attempt was way too wide for my cell phone so I gave that one to Amanda. I wonder why the last time I saw her I didn't see her cell phone in it's handy dandy new cell phone cozy.

Any way, here's the one I made

I crocheted the entire thing in 1/2 double crochet creating a tube. I sewed the tube up at the bottom the crochet a flap for the top and added that chunky gold bead for a button. I just used the green clip to attach it to my purse and I can either let it hang on the outside or I can slip it inside my purse.

WARNING

Attention everyone.

I think she's going to start up with crafty stuff again tomorrow.

Don't say I didn't warn you

Cat dog

He may not be the original cat dog but he's the cutest.

He's also a good sport for holding still long enough for me to get the picture even though he wanted that thing off bad.

Muffin tops

Not all muffin tops are bad.

I made these a few weeks ago after I saw the recipe in a magazine. I would tell you which magazine it was if I could remember but I ripped the recipe out and threw away the rest of it. I would also give you the recipe but I kind of sort of lost it.

I can tell you that these were called chocolate banana bran muffins and that they are all gone.

It was bound to happen

I have lived in my house for over 25 years. My road has always had two stop signs one at each end with none in between. That is until a couple months ago. The put a stop sign up right at the corner by my house. I hate it being there. I ran it twice after it went up because I couldn't get used to it being there. I've seen other people run it too most likely for the same reason.

Well an accident was bound to happen sooner or later. One evening at the end of August I heard a loud bang and then Duke started barking like crazy. I went outside and sure enough there was a car sitting at the stop sign with the front end smashed in.

There was a pick up truck parked on the side of the road past the stop sign. I'm assuming that the truck was at the stop sign, possibly just pulling away when the car came up behind it and not paying attention slammed into the back of the truck.  I don't think anyone was hurt but for one little accident they sure had enough emergency vehicles there.

Pears

We have a pear tree in the back yard. We hate the pear tree in the back  yard but yet it still stands.

The pears are small and taste terrible. All they do is fall to the ground and you either have to pick them all up or mow over them and walk through mushy pear goop.

Wade keeps threatening to cut it down and I keep tell him to go right ahead. Maybe I'll have to go out there with an ax one of these days and see what he says

The only thing this tree is good for is the pretty blossoms in the spring.

Dirt road detours

When roads close you have to take a detour. The thing is, the official detours are always way out of the way. It helps to know the back roads.

While the scenery on those dirt roads can be nice...

...It's kind of rough on the car.

I had my boss yell at me one day about how dirty the car was. I told him as soon as the road opened back up I would wash it.

Everybody loves a parade

Last week was fair week in our little town. If you know me, you know that's a busy week for me at work. It also means that last Saturday I sitting in the front yard watching the fair parade go by.
I sat out there snapping away and took way too many pictures to show in one post.
What would a parade be without marching bands.

Duke seemed to be impressed with this one

Whoa doggie, those are some big pups

While we were watching the parade, the parade was watching Duke

A breather

Rest easy everyone.

I think she's done with the crafty stuff for now.

Craft fail

This is a bit of a humbling post. When I get crafty I don't always get it right. Sometimes I fail in a big way. Recently I purchased some embroidery designs from Embroidery Library. One of the things I purchased was Light and Lacy Snowflakes. They are freestanding lace snowflakes that can be used as ornaments.
Well I downloaded the design and read the instructions for how to make these. Ignoring the recommendation to use Ultra Solvy stabilizer I proceeded with what I had.

FAIL!

 That will teach me to be impatient and cheap. I thought what I had would work just as well and I didn't want to spend the money on the stabilizer they said to use.

I almost ordered the right stabilizer online but thought I would just make a trip to Joanne and see if they had it there. I got it quicker by buying it in the store but it would have been about $8.00 cheaper if I had bought it online.

I set the machine up using the recommended stabilizer and hit the start button while I held my breath.

Here's the completed one next to the first attempt.

These are just amazing but I don't know how many of them I'll actually make. They use quite a lot of thread and they take forever to finish. Or maybe they don't take all that long and I'm just impatient.

Lets talk turkey

Quite a while ago I showed the start of a crochet project. It was a crocheted turkey. I had no problem with the front and the back pieces but when it came to putting it together I had the worst time. Crocheting the two pieces together around the outside was easy enough but then there was supposed to be a line of crochet separating the tail feathers.
I finally gave up and called it done

I did the eyes on mine a little different, I used burlap instead of white felt. If you want to see the original and the pattern I used you can find it at Craft Passion

In the can

Everyone's a critic. Duke is such a drama king with that closing his eyes thing. Maybe I should give him the can.
Instead I'll use the can for more craft projects.

Just like the ones before, the cans were first painted then decorated with assorted materials. The one I printed out a vintage label and glued it on to the can. All were finished off with fall sprays from the dollar store.

Here we go again

I'm keeping my eyes closed. Do you know why?

She's going to do it again, that's why. Tomorrow she's going to start showing more craft projects. If I were you, I would close my eyes now before she gets the next post in.

Profile

I've often thought about changing my profile. First I need a new picture because the one I've had up there is ancient. Second the profile (or about me)whatever you want to call it, just doesn't fit my blog any more. So what's the problem? I suck at writing and saying things about myself. I asked Duke for some help.

He said he has the perfect profile and I should just copy him

Sunshine

It's kind of nice to save a little sunshine for a cloudy day. Since this is a scheduled post I have no idea what the weather will actually be like today but who couldn't use a little extra sunshine.

I hope you have a sunshiney blue sky kind of day.

Creepy Candle mat

I love Pinterest. I may love it a little too much sometimes but it stores all the wonderful ideas I collect and occasionally I even make one of those things.

This project was inspired by Creepy Cobweb coasters made by Country Quilts. I thought these were very cool but I wanted something bigger than coaster size. I wasn't as precise as she was when I made my web template but that's because I have the attention span of a gnat sometimes.

Mine is approximately 9" and the perfect size to use as a candle mat.

The other thing I did different on mine was that I only put the cheesecloth on one side. Partly because I'm cheap, partly because I didn't have a whole lot left and partly because I was afraid that it would get caught in my machine.
Can you see the one little spot where I went just a little too far before stopping and changing direction. I thought about fixing it but opted not to.

Sunflower inspired thrifty craft

Yes, I'll say it again. I love sunflowers. When I can't have real sunflowers there's always fake ones. On a recent trip to Dollar Tree I picked up some fake flowers to use in a few craft projects.

I dug into the craft stash and found a tin can that I painted with brown textured paint, some scraps of burlap and homespun fabric and a rusty safety pin and bell. After decorating the can a bit I added the sunflowers, cat tails and a bit of excelsior to finish it off.

Crafting certainly doesn't have to be expensive and this project proves it

Sunflowers

Sunflowers just make me happy. I love the look, I love the color. It made me really happy when I finally got Wade to stop mowing down the ones that were trying to grow under the bird feeder. He's even liking them and said that next year he'll know not to mow them over and maybe we'll have even bigger ones.

Just a little playing I did with a close up of one of them.

Before and After

Last week I posted a picture that I decided I would do some more playing around with.
Remember this one? Well I liked the picture but I wished the water would have been a prettier color and I wanted to lighten some of the picture up just a little.

I ended up doing a blur overlay on it as well as a canvas texture and this is what I ended up with

and here is the side by side comparison. I liked it.

playing with paper

Last weekend I was in a bit of a crafty mood. One of the things I did was make a couple Halloween cards.

Nothing fancy, nothing planned. They just sort of came together spur of the moment.

Hopefully I can get that crafty mood going again this weekend

The look of nobility

You guys are going to get spoiled with another Duke picture.

With a name like Duke you have to be able to look the part and I think his noble look is quite convincing.

Something to crow about

Back to crafting today. This project was inspired (more like almost completely copied) from a project done by Alyssabeth's Vintage

Her version was made from an empty oatmeal container and I used a deli soup container.

I brought home the soup containers from work. Since the tops were black I didn't have to do anything with that. The lids also have convenient little markings on the top where I poked holes to put the wire in the crows feet through to attach it to the lid. The crows were found at Dollar Tree. That store is awesome for craft supplies.
The container bottom was covered with ripped book pages then grunged up with brown shoe polish.

Contemplation

I was trying to decide what to post about. I'm thinking that my posts are getting rather boring. Since I know that everyone loves Duke I'll show you his contemplative look.

I'll be back to boring tomorrow.

Getting old

It's back to the daily grind today. This whole working for a living is getting old.

This is a building I pass every day and one morning when I wasn't in a rush I stopped to take a picture of it

Because I wondered

After showing you the picture of the red barn I replied to several comments about how many barns around here are built on a hill but I didn't know why. Now I do.

According to Nostalgiaville this is referred to as a bank barn.
The following is taken from the Nostalgiaville website

The bank barn gets its name from a simple but clever construction technique: the barn is built into the side of a hill, thus permitting two levels to be entered from the ground. The lower level housed animals, the upper levels served as threshing floor and storage. The hillside entrance gave easy access to wagons bearing wheat or hay. (Fodder could also be dropped through openings in the floor to the stabling floor below.) The general form of the bank barn remained the same whether it was built into a hillside or not. Where a hill was lacking, a "bank" was often created by building up an earthen ramp to the second level.Bank barns were ordinarily constructed with their long side, or axis, parallel to the hill, and on the south side of it. This placement gave animals a sunny spot in which to gather during the winter. To take further advantage of the protection its location afforded, the second floor was extended, or cantilevered, over the first. The overhang sheltered animals from inclement weather. The extended fore bay thus created is one of the most characteristic features of these barns. In some bank barns, the projecting beams were not large enough to bear the entire weight of the barn above. In these cases, columns or posts were added beneath the overhang for structural support. In the earliest examples of bank barns narrow-end side walls are frequently stone or brick, with openings for ventilation. (Since "curing" green hay can generate enough heat to start a fire through spontaneous combustion, adequate ventilation in barns is vital.)

Comments are off today. Happy Labor Day