Spring Break

Howdy! I don't have any crafts to post this week as I am in the middle of a couple of projects. So I will be taking a (spring) break from craft sharing to show you some of the blooming things in our yard.


We planted some forsythia bushes last year on the side of our garage. They didn't grow very much over the past year, but we got a variety that's not supposed to grow super fast. Here they are sporting their lovely yellow blooms:

We also planted six green-flowered Hellebores. I love green flowers...they're my favorite :) One of them has kicked the bucket, but we were able to return it to Lowe's and get our money back. Yes, it was only one day before the 1 year warranty was up, but that was because we kept putting off digging it up. Here is a pic of some flowers on one of the 5 remaining plants:

I planted some bulbs in a couple places in our yard last October. Let's see...there were daffodils, hyacinths, tulips, crocus, and grape hyacinths. Here's what the bed looked like a week ago:

Not a whole lot going on, but there's some green poking through the mulch. Here's what the bed looks like today:

Last year, a groundhog decided to take up residence under our cement front steps. He (or she) prepared a tunnel with a hole on each side of the steps. Several people recommended we just shoot the digger, but living adjacent to an elementary school really doesn't make that an acceptable practice. Plus, I wouldn't really be comfortable doing that anyway even though I really don't like Mr. (or Miss) Groundhog at this point. I called a wildlife removal service, and they wanted lots of money and would exterminate him/her after trapping. The Gnome called a couple of wildlife agencies and found out that we could treat the area with fox urine (which is bottled for some application in hunting) to scare him/her off. We obtained said fox urine, sprayed a couple of treatments, and filled in the holes about 24 hours after so the bugger had time to vacate. Then, we rejoiced when there was no more evidence of digging, in or out. After we came home from dinner yesterday, we saw this next to our steps:

The groundhog has returned and has both holes all nice and dug out. Curses. This had to have just happened yesterday because I've been checking out the area every day to look at the pretty flowers. So I'm off to buy more fox urine (and some sort of wire to keep this from happening yet again). Wish me luck.


Leaf out.


P.S. Next week, I think I'll finally post pics from my parents' 45th anniversary from last July. Yes, it's almost July again. 

Hoops!

No, I'm not referring to March Madness (although I am currently leading my NCAA bracket group). I'm talking about embroidery hoops! I bought 3 sizes of unfinished hoops at Michael's and painted them with some Folk Art Plaid paint in dark brown.

I bought some fabrics in coordinating colors and laundered them.

Then, I simply ordered the fabric to jump into the hoops. Fabric and hoops, assemble!

After putting the fabric in the hoops, I just trimmed the edges on the back as close as possible to the hoops so it wouldn't show on the front. They are all ready to hang! If I could just figure out a way for things to hang themselves...perhaps if I wiggle my nose... The Gnome doesn't like to hang things. 

We are painting Baby G's room this weekend. I want to go ahead and get that step done because then we can start putting the crib and changing table together. 

In related crafts, I had some fabric left over from this project so I whipped up some burp cloths using a pack of cloth diapers and this tutorial. Here's the first one:

That's all for this week!

Leaf out.

Leafy

Happy Friday!

Remember this?

And this?

Well, I finally decided how to finish this project off. So here it is!

(Thanks for the suggestions EG!)

I didn't have a scalloped edge die so I cut the yellow strip of felt using a scalloped rotary fabric cutter (I have the white Martha Stewart one with interchangeable blades). I cut the letters out using my Cricut Expression and SCAL (Sure Cuts A Lot software).


Here's a close-up of the tree top so you can see the dimension:

The tree was put together using two tree cutouts. I attached some of the leaves to the bottom tree cutout and some to the top to add some dimension.


As in my previous posts about this project, I'd like to give a shout-out to LollyChops for the original inspiration and tree .svg. Thanks Lolly!!!


Now, that this project is done, I can move onto working on a mobile. I'm also taking a baby hoodie knitting class at my local yarn shop (pattern here). The yarn I'm using is Berroco Weekend in Matcha.


In personal news, I've spent most of this week on my couch due to the lovely stomach bug I have. We were supposed to go out of town yesterday, but that didn't happen. Lots of Gatorade is being consumed, but not a whole lot else. I'm hoping I'll start feeling better soon.


Have a great weekend!


Leaf out.

Presenting...

OWLIVER!

And here's his perch:

I haven't hung him up yet because we haven't painted the room (partly because we are still deciding on a color and partly because we're lazy ;) ). 


To make Owliver, I just drew an owl body outline and used it as a felt cutting guide. I hand-stitched the front and back together leaving a hole for stuffing and then flipped it inside out. Turning the pointy parts was difficult because the felt was thick and wrinkly. That was also the most difficult place to stuff some stuffing, but I think I managed to get some in there. Then, I stitched up the hole, which is hidden at his bottom. For the wings, feet, and beak, I just drew shapes on paper and used them as pattern pieces. I stuffed the wings with polyfil as I was sewing them up with pale yellow embroidery floss. I cut the "feathers" and eye circles out with my Sizzix dies and Cuttlebug. And presto! Owliver was born.


The wreath perch is a 14" styrofoam wreath I got from Michael's. I used Homespun yarn to double crochet a long skinny strip (like LollyChops did here). I wrapped and pinned the strip in place on the wreath form until it was all covered. At the end, I just used the yarn end to stitch the two ends of the long strip together. I'm going to hang the wreath with the 2-inch wide ribbon you can see in the picture. I don't know whether to tie a bow at the top or do something else to hide the nail. I sure hope our little one likes owls and woodland creatures in general :)


Have a great weekend!


Leaf out.