Latest Lace

I love fan lace edgings. I have spent a lot of time and effort collecting patterns for fan laces. And so, when I saw Piecework Magazine's latest issue with a recreated vintage version, I had to try it:

I love this pattern, but it is written out in a manner that makes it difficult to follow, and to pick it up again once you put it down. I simply cannot see being stuck to the magazine page the whole time I am making this. So I will be charting it in symbols--I think it will be worth it, I love the resulting lace!

gotta get ready for work. Sigh. Happy T-day everyone!

Aim

I LOVE THEM

Hee hee, this is what I watched on Thursday morning getting ready for work, it's an edited version as they were waiting on that bridge for a LONG TIME:



I. LOVE. THESE. GUYS. Who wants to watch stuffy old dorks report the news when you can have WGN Morning News in Chicago?! You can watch them across the country too, on cable or satellite....I wouldn't miss this show! This and Bears football are the only things I watch.

WGN News. Keepin' it real.

S'mother Posts

On the path at Yellowstone Nat'l Park,
or, my current state of mind

Green, peaceful, but scattered. Heh.

Get ready for a whirlwind of great ideas from other bloggers:

THE. COOLEST. REUSABLE. SHOPPING. BAG. EVAH. This is the best bag idea I've ever seen! What a great use for an old shirt and a nice recycling job!

And it's likely lead-free :b

This same blogger has a cool quick poncho sewing pattern to make with upscale knit fabric--great idea, again!

And, squeeeeeee! She has a couple of wire-hanger decorating ideas! I was just lamenting in my last post about the ugliness of wire coathangers....these hanger-makeovers are amazing.

I love the SewMamaSew blog, they list such great ideas that are put out there by other bloggers(like this child's chef hat pattern), and they have free book giveaways this month! This blog is great for crafters and foodies like me, heh.

Wow, look at all the free pdf labels and gift tags lollychops offers for download. Love the owls...

These storage containers would also be fun to customize! I love her checkbook cover tutorial, also. Really want to make one for myself that is unique.

Look at these felt gnome-home ornaments you could make! Too sweet!

I bought myself two wonderful bird vases from Three Potato Four in 2008. What a nice shop! I love their style. They're on my shopping sidebar....

Here's a Christmas wreath of fabrics that is not sewn, but glued (I would probably tack the flowers with stitches if I wanted it to last a number of seasons.)


Happy Crafting,
Cya--



.

I wanna do that...

Mi coche.

My wanna-do list gets bigger whenever I surf my favorite blogs:

Making homemade soap is so compelling to me. I want to do that someday, especially this homemade laundry soap! I LOVE that idea--


though I have to admit, my favorite ever laundry soap is now sold at Super Target!! Woo hoooooooo!

This stuff actually gets my clothing clean, where Cheer no longer did, and it is cheap as heck! You use one tiny little scoop of this to each load, and one box of this at $8 or $11 (whatever it was) has now lasted me 3 months and I'm only halfway through it! I LOVE THIS STUFF so much that making my own laundry soap sounds like a cool thing to do once for the experience, but I plan to use this Watkins product 4-evah! It's all natural!

Back to the Wanna-Do List:
there's metal stamping!!! I just ordered my first set of metal stamps from Etsy and am so excited. My fav thing to [think about doing] is recycling old silverware. And there are some really cool examples of this on Etsy, I'm loving all of it. I bought old silverware at a garage sale once, and intended to make wind chimes of them--what could be better than wind chimes with words stamped on?! Such a great idea to stamp words....I'm loving the whole thing. Maybe I should take a jewelry making class at my local community college.....

I think these rockin' baby bibs from tee-shirts are a great idea! Squee!!! I would'a been the geekiest SAHM if this blogging world was available to me back then, heh! I guess I'll have to settle for being the geekiest working gramma someday...

Look at this lovely mosaic wall-art, made to copy a Pottery Barn item. What a gorgeous piece of art in the finished room!

And lastly, pretty lace tape. Great idea for gift wrapping, etc!

(Oh, look at the turkey placemats....)

Wish I had a million years of free time. Happy Crafty Holiday Season everyone!

Aim

Foody

See the little crescent moon?!


I AM A FOODY! I LOVE to cook. Of course there are times when a quick casserole or fix-it-fast type recipe is needed. But I really like to cook good, healthy, unique food from scratch.

YUM! Here's a great-looking recipe for Creme Fraiche Ice Cream! And a different DIY version of Creme Fraiche. I have used CF a couple of times before and fell completely in love with it's richness. A dollop of that on top of a robust autumn pureed soup, and you will feel like royalty!

I was visiting one of my fav food blogs yesterday, and saw they are publishing a cookbook. I LOVE the trend wherein fantastic bloggers end up with a book contract, that is such fun! You go, Mennonite Girls!

I got the Pioneer Woman Cooks book when it came out, that is from one of my most favorite blogs....and several of the sewing and crafting blogs I have visited have recently published also. This is a great time for book publishing!

Now for some fun posts: love this next idea to salvage embroidered bits! I'm forever cutting off the embroidery from old pillowcases that are ruined, but I have stagnated on ideas to use them. This is great!

And here are instructions for the cutest crocheted clothes hangers.....looks like a fast project. What I never understood though, is why people choose to cover beautiful wood hangers with crochet....I want to cover the ugly wire or plastic hangers. I figure that the wire hangers you can squeeze into the overall shape of the wood ones, and just proceed with the directions as written. This is great for the free wire hangers you get from the dry-cleaners, but I'd really like to see someone dress up plastic hangers.

I have dressed up my own plastic hangers for years by salvaging old sheets/pillowcases embroidered bits, and creating a hanger 'slipcover':

These are good to keep the clothes from slipping off,

but they are kinda fussy to put the clothing on the hanger....maybe some buttons to keep them in place? Anyway....

Hope y'all had a lovely weekend.

To finish, here's a pic of my finished doily, I'm so happy it's done, but it has been done for about a month, and blocked for a few weeks. I'm just distracted from posting!



Aim