Made a Bowl of Memories

While putting away a pile of Mollie Makes magazines today (yes I am STILL working on cleaning up our room) I got a bit side tracked and started browsing through all the pages I'd previously bookmarked with sticky notes (which explains WHY I'm still working on the room!)

Anyway.....I was reminded of this great little project by Ashley Ann Campbell which can be found over at design Design Sponge. It's a rotating journal that accumulates day-specific memories over the years. The supplies were  pretty basic and so I thought it might be fun to make one up for my new desk which, arguably, could be considered working on the room.

My favorite part of the project was stamping the date on each of the index cards. I felt just like an old fashioned librarian which is what I  wanted to be when I grew up.....well that or a nurse or an oceanographer, but only one that stayed on land since I'm not too fond of the water.

The one thing I couldn't bear to do was to cut down the postcards so I kept them in their original state and think it works just as well. Finally, in place of the fruit box I substituted this old bowl.....I'd always thought it to be beautiful but now it has a use as well. Am thinking William Morris would be quite proud of me!



Made a Lily - Step 15

Step 15 - Introducing Lily!

Are you ready for some tussie mussie fun? It's quick and easy and oh so cute! 

 

 

First things first.....cut a 1.5" square from a coordinating fabric.

 

 

Fold it in half so as to create a triangle. Wrong sides should be together.

 

 

Fold it in half once again so that raw edges meet up and another triangle is formed.

 

 

Stitch along the raw edges with a 1/8th inch seam allowance and then clip the corners off.

 

 

Turn your triangle inside out to give you the cone shaped base of the tussie mussie. A pair of tweezers or some hemostats are often quite helpful to complete this maneuver.

 

 

Tuck the top overhanging piece with the raw edges over itself and into the cone.

Now for a handle! Thread your needle with a length of embroidery floss and knot one end. Draw the
needle through the cone from the inside left and out.

 

 

Repeat on the other side only this time draw the needle from the outside in. Leaving about 1" of floss for the handle, pull the rest through and knot it securely on the inside of the cone.

 

 

Clip some of the paper flowers apart and shorten the stems so they will easily fit into the tussie mussie cone.

 

 

Very carefully fill the cone almost to the top with a glue gun. . . . .

 

 

. . . . .and then quickly position the flowers in place before the glue starts to dry.


 

The handle should fit quite easily over the Lily's hand. If the flowers seem a bit in the way just squish them around a bit.


 

Have you decided on a name for your Lily yet? I've chosen Maida for this one. With a permanent pen write out your Lily's name. And by all means don't forget to include you own as well!

 

 

A quick coat of gloss and you are done!

 

 

And so, without further ado, let me introduce you to Lily Maida, the little maid of May Day!

Made An Assembly Line

Tea sandwich time.....and thanks to hubby's helping hands oodles were made up for the party! I of course told dear hubby he was welcome to come along to the celebration but he said Fancy Nancy was not his cup of tea. Poor thing didn't know what he was missing.....it was stupendous!

Made Some More Preparations.....

.....with disastrous results! I had decided to walk on the wild side and attempt some silky, shiny, ruffly accoutrements to wear to the tea tomorrow. Unfortunately, when I say I have nothing to show for my efforts I mean it quite literally! Seems I won't be too fancy after all.

Made Some Bling

It's party time!

For a Tea Party that is! Yes it's time for the second annual literary doll tea party hosted by the Nellie W. Perkins Doll and Miniature Society. Last year I was lucky enough to attend the first one which was in celebration of Hitty. This year the fabulous Fancy Nancy is the featuered doll/book and I was lucky enough to put my hands to work at some name tags for the attendees. Yippee.....time to pull out a bit of razzle dazzle from the days of my own wee girlie's fascination with all things pink, purple, and sparkly. As of now I've got 1 down.....

.....and 14 more to go!



Made Me Remember.....

. . . . .oh how much I love Forget-me-nots!

So how could I not make up a bouquet. . . . .

. . . . .or two, for my desk?



Made Dear Hubby Do The Dishes

Scrubba Dub Dub!


 

Made a Desk

Dear hubby and I had the brilliant idea to rearrange our room yesterday. Unfortunately the three hours of deconstructing we were highly motivated to initiate I now realize will probably take three weeks reset. I seriously considered showing a few pics of the disaster but didn't relish my post title for today being "Made My Mother Faint," especially considering she and my dad surprised me with an impromptu gift of a desk! And may I add it's a "real" desk...not a dresser, or an ironing board, or a coffee table. Nope it's definitely a desk.....one where you can actually sit and have your legs stretched out beneath it, and I should know..... 

.....because I'm sitting here right now!



Made a Lily - Step 14

Step 14 - Let's Put a Head On Her Shoulders

Time to plug in that glue gun again! And since you've got a few minutes to wait while it heats up why not get a head start on the kerchief?

 

From your selected fabric cut a 4x4 inch square.

 

Then cut your square in half diagonally so that.....

 

.....you end up with two triangles like this. The gun should be hot by now so set these aside and locate the lily head.

 

Take a gander at the depth of the  peg hole in the bottom.....

 

.....and fill it approximately 1/3 full of the hot glue. You don't want so much that it drips down her neck (been there done that!) or so little that the head easily pops off (ditto!)

 

And that's it...pop it on, adjust it just so, and your little pincushion is finally all in one piece.

 

Now back to that kerchief. Put the two triangles right side together and take them for a little trip to your sewing machine. Stitch 1/4" in from the edge all around leaving an opening for turning along the longest side.

 

Clip the three corner points off and turn the kerchief right side out.

 

Give a quick press making sure the opened edges are tucked in neatly.

 

Back at the machine again top stitch around all sides of the kerchief staying slightly less than 1/8" from the edge so that it looks like.....

 

.....this.

 

To give the kerchief its shape thread up a needle and draw it through the two corners at either end of the longest edge.

 

Take several stitches to keep these ends firmly together.

 

Finish up by pulling the remaining corner down to meet up with the first two.....

 

.....and stitch firmly in place as well.

 

Put a thin coat of hot glue in several spots along the inner edge.....

 

.....to the hold the kerchief in place just so.

 

Congratulations! Only one more step to go and your Lily will be done. I thought it might be fun to make her a tussie mussie to hold considering her completion will fall so close to May Day. A few fabric scraps, a length of embroidery floss, and a small bunch of little flowers will do the job.

 

Made Me Late for April 21, 2012

 I'm officially using the new blogger format. Key word here is "using" because things were not functioning at all until dear hubby had a chance to update, reset, and perform all number of strange procedures on my computer, each of which seemed to require a substantial wait period to be installed. All of this waiting of course made me late with my postings. Oh well.....at least it's working (now that it's minutes past midnight into the 22nd.) And so in the spirit of better late than never here is what was to have been posted on Friday.....

20 April 2012

Made My Fingers Happy

Finally able to pick up some sewing again and oh what fun it was!!!