Baby crochet...

Here is a little project I'm working on.  I'm making a granny square, crocheted blanket for our little girl who will be born in September!  I used Instagram on my phone, so the colors are not accurate but I love how they look.  The orange color is actually a dark pink.

A Little Happiness in the Day Goes a Long Way...

Today has been a little bit of a rough day.  My oldest daughter busted her mouth and nose, chipped her front tooth, and knocked her two front teeth loose.  I won't tell you how she did it, because you won't believe me.  My youngest shattered a glass snowglobe which strewed very tiny pieces of glass shards all over the living room carpet, all wet and glittery and SHARP!  In the middle of all this the HVAC guy comes to give us a quote for a new heat pump system for our house.  Ugghhh!  (Oh yeah, did I tell you that our heat pump went out?  Don't worry, it's working, but it's hanging by a thread.)  Soooooo, in the middle of this very crazy day (during nap time), what do I do de-stress?  I make an owl ornament and read my new most favorite magazine in the whole wide world: Country Living British Edition!  I found this lovely and perfect magazine at our local grocery store, of all places!  I was elated when I saw it!  I've posted a few pictures of it so you can start drooling and go buy yourself one too.  No, I don't work for the sales department of Country Living Magazine, I just love it that much.  So much inspiration!  I could die!

Here's my owlie.  I think I've decided to name him Oliver.  I saw so many cute felt owls and mushrooms that other people have made on Flickr.  I got inspired to come up with one of my own.  :)

Just look at these pictures and try not to drool...  

I LOVE the heart appliqué pillow on the bench below...

 ...drooling...

Our day did not start out so bad.  I made my first gluten-free blueberry muffins this morning and they were delish!  In case I haven't said before, I have a gluten sensitivity.  Even my husband (who is completely against "weird food") liked them!  My girls gobbled them up and I was relieved to have something other than yogurt and corn chex for breakfast.  YUM!

Yes, it's as good as it looks!

Hope you are having a joyful Christmas season...  :)

Free Colonial Glitterhouse Pattern...

Ok, so here it is!  My pattern for my colonial style glitterhouse!

It's a little rough but I tried to make all the measurements perfect.  The lines do go to the edge of the paper, so you might have to fill that part in after you print it out if your printer won't print all the way to the edge.  Here are the instructions:

1. Cut out all the pieces from chipboard with an exacto knife and a sturdy ruler

2. Score the folds with the exacto knife (you are only cutting halfway through)

3. Fold along the folds and glue it together with white craft glue, using the tabs.

4. Give the whole house a coating of some kind of primer or sealer.  I used wood sealer found at my craft store. (This step keeps the house from bowing when you paint it.)  Let it dry.

5. Choose your colors and paint her up!  Let it dry.

6. Use a glue for glitter and cover one section at a time.  Shake fine glitter over each section until you've done the whole house.  Let it dry.

7. Cut out several squares of chipboard that are bigger than the windows.  Paint them yellow, add glue to the edges, and place them inside the house gluing them to the backs of the windows.

8. Make wreaths out of green pipe cleaners and tiny ribbon.  Hot glue them together and then onto the house. Your done!

Here is the pattern for the house: Free Colonial Glitterhouse Pattern

I would LOVE to see the houses you make from my pattern!  Send me pictures!

Enjoy!

The Glitterhouses Are Finished!!

This morning we woke up to snow!  I couldn't believe it!  The first of December welcomes us with a beautiful snow shower.  Actually, it's still snowing now almost two hours later!  My oldest wanted to go outside immediately, but she hadn't had breakfast yet and I was/am having a hard time moving due to waking up with a pinched nerve in my back.  Ugghh.  I hope it gets better fast because I am supposed to have an afternoon out with my sister-in-law of which I have been really looking forward to.  Driving in the snow and not being able to turn my head is probably not a great combination.  Pray for me!

The day after Thanksgiving I frantically finished the glitterhouses to get them up right in time for the Christmas season.  I even bought some of the finishing detail supplies on Black Friday at great prices!  So here is the finished display complete with tissue paper snowflakes!  Kinda pretty, huh?  I am very pleased with how it turned out.  I tried putting lights under the fake snow, but we only have LED lights and they looked too "pointy" under the snow, so I took them out.  I might just drape a string of lights along the edge of the mantle.

The houses are sitting at random heights on books positioned under the fake snow.  I pulled up the back of the snow behind the houses to make it look like they are nestled on the side a mountain.

I bought the bottle brush trees at Michael's Crafts in the christmas village section.  On top of the whole scene I sprinkled some glittery snow, although it doesn't really stand out that much. 

I made the wreaths from pipe cleaners and little bows I made from tiny wired ribbon.  It's all put together with a hot glue gun.  Here is the template I used for the church:  Template #1

Here is the template I used for this house:  Template #2

Here is the template I used for this house:  Template #3 (bay window version)

This house is my own design.  I actually do have the template that I can scan in, so if you are interested in it just let me know either through email or in the comments.  I tried to make it more of a colonial design.  

I am very excited about my christmas village!  It turned out better than I had expected!

Glitterhouse progress...

So here are my first two finished glitterhouses!  Two down, three to go.  I am so proud of them.  They are taking a lot more work than I had originally thought but I am really enjoying making them!  My husband says they don't look like they are made of cardboard at all.  It took me forever to decide on the colors I wanted and even after I chose them I wasn't sure I liked it.  Now I am convinced it will look pretty good.  I settled on a vintage Christmas color scheme of pale pink, magenta pink, light teal, medium grey, white, and buttercream.  The other three should be done soon and all will be ready to adorn my mantle with vintage Christmas awesomeness!  (As soon as Thanksgiving is over, of course.)  ;)

Betsy McCall Paper Dolls...

I had the idea yesterday to look online for some paper dolls I could cut out for Katie.  I just wanted free printouts because I didn't want to spend money on something she wouldn't enjoy.  Anyway, I looked online for about two hours and I found these!  Betsy McCall paper dolls!  They are so CUTE!  They were printed monthly in McCall's Magazine from 1951 through the 1990s.  There are literally hundreds of dresses and dolls to cut out.  The design changed several times but I am in love with the first designs from the 50s.  On the website above you can print them all out for free!

I printed the first one out for my daughter, Katie, yesterday and she just loves it!  I am so excited she does!  She wants me to make her a bed and a closet to hang all of her clothes in.  I'm not sure about the closet but I might make a "dresser" out of shoe box for her.  

She has never heard of or seen paper dolls before as far as I know and she couldn't believe there was such a thing!  I love introducing her to new things.  All the searching online was worth finding these!

My New Obsession... glitterhouses!

Ok, so I know that Christmas is two months away, but I can't help myself.  I am completely obsessed with glitter houses!  I actually just discovered them.  Apparently, they are a once common vintage Christmas decoration originally called putz houses, I think.  Here is a link if you would like to read more about them.  I found an awesome blog this week called A Field Journal and I love the glitter house village she made last Christmas.  So, so, so pretty!  I love the pinks and aquas and creams!  So romantic and dreamy.  Anyway, I am totally copying her.  I am not going to beat around the bush about that. She just did a perfect job and can't change anything about it.  I don't know, maybe I'll change a couple things but my village is going to be very similar.  I might play up the aquas a little more and soften the pinks a little.  My projects never turn out the way I originally invision them.  Sometimes they come out better and sometimes they come out worse.  Like, a month ago I decided to make big fabric pumpkins out of different textured whitish fabrics and put them on my mantel along with some tall glass candlesticks I have.  Horrible.  It looked horrible.  So I wasted two hours of time (but not much money I'm relieved to say) and was left with an undecorated mantel.  In the end I just threw up a fake fall leaf garland with my glass candlesticks and a few faux mercury glass votive holders and it looks great!  Who knew?  Oh, well.  At least it was an easy fix.  Ok, back to the glitter houses...  Here is a picture of the original glitter house village I fell in love with (blogged here).  Isn't it just lovely?

...and here is a picture of my first glitter house although it's unadorned right now.  I LOVE it!  I decided to start with the church and I used the pattern on Martha Stewart's website here.  The chipboard (which is dang hard to find) is a little rough due to my putting on too much glue on the template.  But it will be covered by many layers of prettiness, so I'm not worried about it.

I'll post more pics as my village undergoes construction.  I'm hoping to have it all finished by the end of November so I can put it up on the mantel just in time for the Christmas season.  So excited!  I can't stop holding it, it's so cute!  My oldest daughter, Katie, loves it too.  She keeps asking me when she can paint it.  I think I might have to make her one of her own.  :)

Free Embroidery Pattern!

Here she is! I have, available for free, the pattern to my "Girl With Bird" embroidery. For the original one I used just a basic brown for her body and a basic red for her dress and the flowers. Download the pattern, print it out, and use some good ol' fashioned carbon paper to transfer it onto whatever fabric you want to stitch her on. My only request is that you send me a picture of your finished project with her in it. I would love that!

Click here to Download


Speaking of her, I have another project she is making an appearance in! Here is a picture of it in the works. I think I might try to sell this one.

Hope you all are having a great week! We are for sure, as we are all finally getting over being sick for such a long time.

Rachel