Tag Archives: handmade

Crocheted Sweater for Sheli

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Shelibean is a nudist. He hates wearing store-bought clothes and sweaters. Since we rarely take him outside in the winter-time, it’s not an issue. However, I still want him to have a sweater when we do take him outside. And it’d be a big bonus if he is content in it.
It occured to me that he enjoys my crocheted collars and blankets that I make for him, so maybe, just maybe, he’d might be more content in a sweater I crocheted.
Starting early this morning, I set about crocheting him a sweater. It went together easier than I thought it would. I can’t believe I actually got it finished.I don’t have a pattern, so for the length and the width I kind of went by a store bought sweater. The store bought sweater just has slits where his front legs go,  but I decided to put sleeves in it to try and keep him a bit warmer.
I think the sweater turned out pretty good.
I think Sheli looks adorable in his new sweater.
He seems to like it quite well.
He strutted around the house in it and acted happy.

Sending out warm thoughts and snuggles to your pets.

Have a wonderful weekend.

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Handmade Easel

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p1080430In order to do my painting for my mix-medium project, I felt I needed an easel. I shopped around online and found the table top ones to be fairly reasonable in price. However, I’m not sure how much painting I’m going to be doing, so I decided to make one.

It took me no time at all, to decide to make an easel out of empty paper towel tubes. I can make more easels anytime I need to.

I realize there’s probably standard regulation on the manufactured easels, but this one works quite well for me.

p1080446My easel is light weight and moves too easily, so I wired it to a cardboard tray that comes with our bottles of water. This worked out better than I planned because I can hold the cardboard steady or move it into better angles to paint the canvas. I can easily change it when it gets too messy.

And there you have it. Another invention from the crafty mind of me. 🙂

Wishing you all much success with your crafty creations.

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Homemade Potato Bin

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1aRecently I decided we needed a new potato bin for our kitchen. I wanted a small one to set on the counter. I shopped online but couldn’t find one made the way I wanted. I talked it over with my husband and he suggested we build our own potato bin. Together we designed the new potato bin. We gathered the supplies over a couple weeks, but it took my husband only a few hours to make the bin. I’m pleased with our new potato bin. It looks a lot better in reality than in the photo, it has a rustic charm sitting on our counter.

Wishing you all a successful week.

 

Edited in:
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*My potato bin is large enough to hold 10 pounds of potatoes.
*My husband didn’t use any stain on the wood inside the bin. We worried that the potatoes might pick up chemicals from the stain. I wiped the inside of the bin out with bleach water to hopefully deter any molds or mildew on the wood and then I let it air out over night.
*I added an open top plastic box as a drawer to keep the potatoes off of the wood. My main reason for this is that potatoes don’t all age at the same speed and sometimes one may go bad and ooze a stench of nastiness. I can’t imagine ever being fully successful at cleaning the stench out of the wood.

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Windy Wednesday (windsocks)

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There’s been some super windy days here lately. The winds reminded me of a windsock project I’ve been thinking about since last year when we bought a couple of windsocks for the garden. I was surprised at how little there is to a windsock. It occurred to me that a windsock could be made out of plastic soda pop bottle or a plastic milk jug and plastic grocery bags.

The above photo is the result of my attempts. Not bad, they fly pretty well. I wish I had of had some more different colors of plastic bags. I can imagine a windsock made out of a rainbow of colors blowing in the wind.

I think the windsocks are kind of a neat way to recycle a little bit of trash into something a bit fun.

You’re welcome to click on either of the images below to get an idea of how I created the windsocks.
These aren’t tutorials, so if you want more info, just ask and I’ll try and explain how or what I did.
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Here’s wishing for all your winds to be warm & to my snowed
in frozen friends I wish for your winds to be warm & thawing.

🙂

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March Wreath

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Happy March 1st!  Goodness the first couple months of 2014 went by swiftly. Now on into the new month we go and you know what that means… it’s time for my new Wreath-of-the-Month.

I wanted to make something in honor of St. Patrick’s Day, but couldn’t get into the leprechaun theme for a wreath. Not that I have anything against leprechauns, matters-a-fact I could talk a blue-streak about them and other nature folks if the situation arises.
However, since leprechauns are just one of the many symbols of the celebration, I chose a simpler theme. After weeks of thinking about it, yesterday it all came together in my mind and on my kitchen table. The main trouble was all the greens seemed to clash. My final wreath is the fourth try and fourth style I’ve tried. Yep, my wits were almost at end before I finally got a handle on how I wanted to make it.

Okay, here’s the highlights…
I apologize for the photo. I tried 3 different cameras and 2 different editing programs but couldn’t get a good photo of it, The greens of the shamrocks wanted to dark out and the green stripe in the fabric would come out blue. This was the best version I could get. It’s not perfect, but maybe you’ll appreciate that I tried really hard to get a good photo. 😉

Since it’s March and Spring-cleaning comes to mind, that means throwing out old papers, magazines, newspapers and such as that. I decided to share my favorite wreath making secret with you to help make some use of them instead of trashing them or wasting gas taking them to a recycling center.
Use the papers to make wreath forms. It takes some work to get a nice firm wreath base, but it’s worth it.
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I discovered this wreath base making trick a few years ago. I wanted to make some wreaths, but I didn’t have a desire to spend a lot of money on wreath bases. So I put on my thinking cap, went into my craft room and didn’t come out until I discovered a way to make a wreath base inexpensively and more eco friendly too.
IMG_7768It takes lots of old paper to make a wreath base and it’s a good way to recycle paper too.

After this month’s base was made, I added a layer of paper towels and lastly a fabric covering. The fabric is some I had from over a decade ago.

Feel free to physically laugh-out-loud at my wonky shamrocks. My husband tried to get me to go to the store and buy some decorating accents like ribbons and plants for my wreath. I thanked him and told him no. I wanted to use stuff I have on hand like I did with the wreath base and could recycle if possible.
I had crocheted some shamrocks last month, but they didn’t look right on the wreath. So, I went in my craft room and thought and thought until my thinker was sore and then I sat and thought some more. Upon going through buttons and bows and ribbons and lace and boxes of things I’d forgotten I had, I came across some old silk ivy. Mmm, I wished it were shamrocks instead of ivy… and then it occurred to me that in fact I could try and make the ivy leaves into shamrocks. My first few tries were not a great success and then I remembered that some folks draw 3 hearts together for shamrocks, so I started cutting the ivy leaves into triple leaf heart-like shapes. They’re far from perfect and wouldn’t win any prizes, but they are recycled silk ivy and that’s a good thing.  Plus in real life they look quite well on my March wreath. All-in-all I’m fairly satisfied with them.
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I sculpted the lady bugs out of polymer clay. I thought the wreath needed a splash of color.

And that’s all there is to this months wreaths and my wreathy thoughts.
Now I must go and start planning on how I want to make April’s wreath… wish me luck. 🙂

Wishing you all a month of good luck,
good friends & good weather.

🙂

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Here’s why I’m making a ‘Wreath of the Month’ for every month of 2014.
~*~
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