My Favorite Things - Part 2

Sue Bleiweiss creates the most amazing journals and books.  I bought one of her journals before our move to South Korea and filled it with memories. 


I found Rae's jewelry while living in South Korea in 2007.  She also was living in Korea at the time and I love her style.  She is now living in the States just like myself.


Have you ever heard of fairy doors?  I have one of Kim's in my craftroom to the delight of Noah, my grandson.  They truly are magical.


Ginny makes the cutest polymer clay figurines.  Years ago, I bought a bichon frise pen which reminded me of our bichon, Daisy.  I still have the pen although sweet Daisy crossed the rainbow bridge in 2007.

Love, love, love this.  Lucie also makes gorgeous jewelry.


Can you believe this is made from paper?  Simply amazing by Matthew Ross

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I just want to cuddle him.  I love Bijoukitty!


I bought one of these for our grandson, Ezra.  Soooo cute!  You can buy them in all sorts of colors here.

                                                I want this so badly!


                                        and ANYTHING from here. 

My Favorite Things - Part 1

I thought I would share some of my favorite Etsy vendors. I LOVE Etsy!
These beads are made by Humblebeads.  Heather works in polymer clay and I have bought from her countless times over the years.  Her work is gorgeous.


These were just too cute to pass up.  They are so lightweight and I can't wait to wear them. You can find her Etsy site here.


Another place I've done a lot of shopping through the years, Joan Miller Porcelain.  I adore her!


Even though I'm a knitter, I couldn't pass up these darling gloves.  The color and the price was all it took.  I love them.  You can find them here.


I love this and it's perfect for a child's room.  You can find it here.


I love this bracelet holder. Now to fill mine up with bracelets!  You can find it here

I bought this for our grandson, Noah.  I thought it was the coolest thing I had seen in a long time.  You can find them here.



I love the candles of Woodcrafts and Candles!!  I've bought lots of the votive sets and they are fantastic.  The fragrances and how long they last plus the price keeps me coming back again and again.


The polymer clay pendants of Heather Wynn Millican just make me smile!



Handpainted and soooo cute, I love these.  Steph's Keepsakes has the cutest ornaments along with other items. 

Kid's Art Hankerchief Wall Quilt

This was such a fun project to do with my grandson, Noah.  I hope you enjoy it as much as we did making it.  You could also just use one hankerchief and make a pillow.  I Love To Create provided the fabric markers and I bought the hankerchiefs from Walmart.  I used fabric from my stash.

 

Materials:
Tulip Fabric Markers
6 hankerchiefs
2 1/2 yds. white fabric
2 yards fabric for sashing
1 5/8 yards for the border
Sewing machine, needles, thread, and ruler
Foamboard and masking tape - optional

1. Prewash the hankerchiefs and fabric before you begin.
2. The hankerchiefs are very thin so to prevent bleeding onto your surface I used a piece of foam board, cut slightly larger than the hankerchief.  Then use the masking tape to tape the hankerchief to the foamboard.

3. Next the fun part, coloring the hankerchiefs.  Noah worked really hard and did a great job.  Try to color at least 1/2 inch from the borders.

 4.  After all six hankerchiefs are colored, use the white fabric to cut out six squares the size of the hankerchiefs.  This will reinforce the hankerchiefs because of how thin they are.
5. Pin wrong sides together and baste a 1/4" seam around the entire hankerchief.
6.  Remove pins and repeat for all six hankerchiefs.

 7. Lay out the hankerchiefs to determine how you want them to look.

 8.  I used a 2" sashing and a 1" border.  You can do whatever you wish.  I used cotton batting and my walking foot on my sewing machine to quilt.  I sewed around each hankerchief and around the entire border to quilt.

9.  I also used this method to make tabs at the top of the quilt to make it easy to hang.

And Noah for all his incredible hard work was able to pick out a Legos set of his choice within reason.

                                This is what he chose and we had a great time putting it together.

Riveting Metal Class

I thoroughly enjoyed my second metal class.  We learned how to rivet and I am hooked!  I had so much fun and learned a lot.  My friend Denise let me know about beaducation where I placed an order for more supples.  Even Rocketman was impressed with what I had made.

I also stopped by a local gift shop that features local crafters, The Farmer's Daughter.  It was started by the mother of one of my daughter's high school friends.  I hadn't stopped by in years and I'm so glad I did.  I picked up a few ornaments, my guilty pleasure.

A Night of Korean Goodness!

 Rocketman and I were invited to the Korean Heritage House for dinner Friday night.  I was thrilled to go not only to get a night off of cooking but to enjoy some Korean cooking.  I couldn't wait to get there!  Don't you love the decorations?

There was cooking going on all over the place and I took special care to pay attention to what they were doing.  I enjoyed it so much.

           Then they needed someone to make mandu and next thing I know, I was making mandu.

                               This is Brooke checking on the rice in the rice cooker.

                                                                   Busy, busy me.

I wish Rocketman had taken some video of the chopping going on.  It was amazing watching them julienne the carrots along with the other vegetables. They were precise and quick.  I'm not sure a professional chef could have done a better job.

                                                    The food all ready for us to eat!

My plate.  I didn't realize how much rice I was given until I mixed everything up.  It was a ton of food.  We sat by the preparers of most of the food and heard shared some wonderful stories.  We really felt like we were back in Korea.  It was such a wonderful time.

Dear Rocketman:

 Dear Rocketman:  Have you noticed a difference in your clothes since our return from South Korea? 

 Every time I put the clothes on the bed to iron, I find Louie making a home in the midst of the pile.

                            Caught you!  I pick him up and move him to another part of the bed.

Only to turn around from my ironing to find this again and again.  I give up and hope you don't mind the added cat hair to your work clothes.

Metal Stamping Class

Last week I took a metal stamping class at my local bead store.  I was intrigued by the craft and wanted to learn more.  The class was full with ten of us.  There was a little mix up with my registration.  I had signed up online for two classes and they had only given me credit for the second class.  It was easily corrected.

We started with this brass square and we were told to practice hammering letters into it.  It takes practice to do it well.  She also told us not to stamp in the center.

Next we got to choose blanks from the store's stock.  For the amount of people in the class plus how quickly you could stamp and complete a blank, there was little stock to choose from.  I left the class happy with what I made but feeling let down by what I learned which was very little.  I'm also a big fan of handouts which include the teacher's name and email or phone number.  The teacher offered little information during the class and I left knowing just slightly more about metal stamping than when I arrived.

I also realized when I got home that she never told us why we needed to keep the center of our first brass practice piece blank. 

Last Saturday, we took advantage of Donatelli's "Spin & Win." From now until December 24th, if you buy a $100 gift card, you get to spin the wheel and get a prize.  We eat there every Saturday so Rocketman thought it was a great idea to buy a gift card.

                                        Here is Rocketman getting ready to spin the wheel.

                                        We won a free t-shirt and we took one in Noah's size.

        Last week they also had my beloved Prime Rib Sandwich as a special.  I was in heaven!!!