greetingarts

brushing happily ever after

Tooth brushing has become even more important in our house now that everyone has at least a few permanent teeth in their mouth.  Remember the post about our bathroom redo and my fantasizing about the vanities from CSN stores?  Well, as a result of that post, I was given a gift certificate to use in any one of their 200+ online stores.

Took me a while to choose, but one thing I finally decided on was the My Prince Toothbrush Holder and Timer.  It's cute, cute, cute, and the kids love flipping the timer and watching the sand run down as we brush teeth.  3 minutes is a long time, but with all the rinsing and flossing, you really do need all those seconds, and this helps me the kids take their time and not rush.  It matches our bathroom so well, and I just love looking at it.  It's instantly cheery.  When I was a kid, I *hated* brushing my teeth.  And as an adult, brushing my kids' teeth is a chore I like less than most others.  So anything that makes it a little more pleasant gets a big thumbs up in my book!

quack quack

Hi, it's me, the lucky duck. 

 
I recently won the monthly freebie at paper-and-string, and the package quickly arrived in the mail. 

As if this custom felt box (that's a portrait of my sixteen year old kitty on the front!) wasn't awesome enough, do you wanna peek inside?

 
Jam packed full of goodies from Sarah's shop!

 
There are ribbons and buttons and cute tape and ric rac ribbon and a felt heart magnet and chocolate.  Well, no more chocolate.  That's no surprise to anyone, is it?

Absolute loveliness.  If you ever need any of these fun supplies, or want a felt box or other felt cuties for yourself, you'll know who to go to!  Thank you so much Sarah.  Every time I look at that box I can't help but smile.

chain letter, anyone?

A few (yikes, over 3!) weeks ago, I got an email that was sort of a chain letter, but with an arts and crafts twist.  Now, usually I would just ignore the letter and go on about my day, but I have a lot of trouble saying "no" to people I like, and I do like making things to give away.  And, sure, it would be fantastic to receive some fun mail from other artists instead of bills, credit card applications and supermarket advertisements.  Then, a couple weeks later, I got the same email again from Regina.  And if I can't say no to the lovely Jessica, I *certainly* can't say no to Regina!

For each email, I was supposed to make something - anything at all, it could be knit, crocheted, sewn, drawn, painted, molded from clay, cut out, whatever.  I was supposed to make it and drop it in the mail to the person listed in the #1 spot within a week.  Yeah, right, that didn't happen, but hey, at least I'm finally doing it... better late than never, right?  Anyway, then I was to move Jessica's (and Regina's) name up to the number one spot, and put my name in the second.  So three weeks later, I chose to make these two gecko buddies.  I used the Lion Brand pattern pretty much as it was written for the guy on the right, and then made it again, but this time all in one piece with nothing to join or seam together, and with a much shorter tail, for the fella on the left.  And I used mini scrapbooking brads instead of the googly eyes and some fingering weight yarn for the tongues.  These will finally be on the way to Jenny and Vesna by the end of tomorrow.  I hope they like them and that my geckos put a smile on their faces.

Now, I have a huge problem with putting other people on the spot, so instead of racking my brains and getting all stressed out about who to choose for the 12 (6 for each email I received) people I have to send this thing to, I'm just going to put it out here to anyone who wants to play along.  I've got 12 spots to fill, any takers?  Let me know... I'd be happy to pass this on!  Nothing like this has ever worked for me before, but I dunno.  I figured I'd keep it going at least on my part, didn't really take me much time and was kind of fun.  If I get anything back, wouldn't that be a neat surprise?

winner winner winner

A few weeks ago I hit a very lucky streak as far as blog giveaways go, and I have gotten such goodies brought to my doorstep that I just have to share.

First to arrive was a big package from Kelsey of Vanilla Joy. Inside was Trunki, the totally cute suitcase my kids are riding on.  They even make a ladybug (love the name and the music)!  It's just the right size for a weekend trip to Grandma's and Grandpa's, or simply to carry beloved things around the house.  I gave this to Jessie, because I figured Rebecca was too heavy for it.  But as you can see, they can *both* ride on it pretty comfortably.

Here they are using it as transportation for Tinkerbell, Silvermist and Fawn.  This Trunki is durable, I can vouch for that.  Jessie drags it around, over and into all sorts of obstacles.  Furniture, shoes, toys, people, nothing can stand in their way.  I'd wanted to buy one (or two) of these since I first saw it over at the Junior Society, but frugality took over and I refrained.  So winning this was even sweeter, since it's something I already took a liking to months ago.

Next to land in my mailbox was my copy of the Sewing: 2010 Day-to-Day Calendar that I won from Ellen of The Long Thread.  So many great, generally quick projects from all around the blogosphere compiled into one, compact, easy-to-access box.  There were some projects I'd never seen before, and many that I had bookmarked but never got around to.  So nice to have the directions printed out, in front of me, for whenever I'm ready.

Finally, the most recent goodie from my mailman is Paper Fashions Fantasy, a glittery, glitzy, glamourous pink wonder that I received from Linda of Craft Apple.  I'm sure you've seen it pop up all over the craft blogs, it's published by Klutz (we just love their stuff!) and I think the cute little wire hangers are adorable enough just on their own.  I can't wait to pull this out on a boring Saturday, or during the next school vacation when it's raining or too cold to go outside (oh, wait, that's just wishful thinking again, it was 103 degrees today).

Thanks so very much, ladies.  My girls and I are extremely lucky and we totally know and appreciate it.

dream

Looking at this makes me and my girls happy.  Night or day, dreaming is always a good thing.  Regina's artwork is so full of depth and dimension, the colors are vibrant and the quality of the print is just excellent.  Go check out her shop, it's chock full of goodies.  Thank you so much, my friend, it's a treasure.

bird treasure

My birds from Regina's swap have come home, brightening up an otherwise mostly dull, tiring, grey kind of week. 

The girls are having fun finding little places to hang these.  Not surprisingly, most are in or around their room.

Such a great variety of media was represented, and so many different skills involved.  Paper, fabric, wool, sewing, embroidery, weaving.

This one is so neat.  Love the colors, the boldness of the silhouette, the one word sentiment.

Sweet little birdie, gorgeous fabric.

This one has been woven with some kind of basketmaking material, and is hanging by the girls' window so she can see outside.  My pictures didn't come out very well, but you can check things out on Flickr for better shots of almost all of these. 

Along with the birdies came two very special gifts and the sweetest note.  Though the girls tried their best, these are still with me, and will stay in my room.  When I saw the hearts before, I already thought they were beautiful, but the photos don't do justice to the texture and detail, or the way the beads sparkle.  And the up-cycled doodle pad is brilliant, I love the way the pages have been assembled, so that both sides are usable.  Rebecca's really got her eye on this one.  Regina's cover art has her mesmerized.  After I gently but firmly pried it away from her fingers and stated it was mine, she smiled, took it back, and then generously offered to share it with me.  It's currently sitting on my nightstand, but I'm sure the negotiations have not ended.

Thanks so much to all the wonderful ladies that participated in this exchange, and most of all thanks to Regina.  I know the swap was a lot of work, and everything you sent is a treasure.

one of these things is not like the others

In between nursing sick kiddos (yeah, both are now sick, of course) doing laundry and trying not to run out of the house screaming and tearing out my hair, I managed to finish up my birdies for the swap.

As you can see, I totally changed course after I finished up the first one.  I felt like a slacker, so I decided to try my hand at doodling some of my own bird designs.

 

Heavily influenced by these adorable beauties, here's what I came up with.  Yeah, I know.  I'll leave the serious drawing to others.  It was kind of fun, but an artist, I'm not! 

You can check out the Flickr group for more birdies that are on their way to Regina.  I can't wait to see which ones get to live at my house!

delivered

Now that the package has landed, I can show you all what I've been working on for the past few months...

a colorful granny square blanket for Jhoanna to hang on the wall of her girls' bedroom.  I used an H hook and worsted weight yarn in 14 different colors.  The blanket is eight granny squares across and eight down, each square has four rounds and is then bordered with black.  I think it's about 40" x 40"?  Somewhere around there.

I tried really hard not to get too picky about my color placement, though I was very conscious of having each block be unique and not repeating any color sequences.  I didn't follow a specific pattern, just used a photo of a blanket that Jho liked for reference.  If you're interested in granny squares, Purl Bee has a very nice tutorial, and there are tons of others out there, too.  I absolutely despise seaming and weaving in ends, so I just crocheted the grannies together as I went along, crocheting right over the ends, too.  I should have taken pictures as I went along, but I did a quick search and this seems about the same as what I did.

Then I wanted to make something fun for Jhoanna's daughters, so I crocheted a BLT for them to play restaurant with. 

Bacon and lettuce closeup.

The tomatoes were hardest, believe it or not.  Of course, after this sandwich was made, my girls wanted a couple of BLTs too.  But, honestly, I don't know if I'll be able to recreate what I did here or not.  A few things I got patterns from as I was searching the net, but the links have since been removed or the sites disappeared, and then the other stuff was just made up or adapted so much that they bear no resemblance to the original instructions.  I've really got to learn to write things down...

Anyway, now that these projects are finished, I have to find something new.  Or, maybe finish up a few of the dozens of works in progress that I've already got going?

happy chibis

Just as we were getting ready to say goodbye to 2008, my girls and I received a most special delivery from Jhoanna, who makes incredibly cheerful, adorable, carefully crafted softies.  I feel fortunate enough to call her a friend, and how very lucky my girls are to be the proud mommies of two Happy Chibi Girls, custom-made especially for them.

Their names change quite frequently, and are added to so that they're alarmingly long, but I think the jist of it is that one of them is called Kiki, and the other is Kiku.

And look what this Mommy got.  I absolutely adore this book, every bit as much as the first one (which has sat at my bedside table since my cousin brought it back for me from her honeymoon), and Jhoanna also included the Australian Homespun magazine with one of her patterns in it.  Oh, and I'm supposed to share the chocolates with my husband. I guess I can handle that.

Thank you so very much, Jho.  You can find four very happy chibis in this house.

23 pairs

Not all made by me, of course.  Thanks to many of the ladies in my knitting guild who contributed to make this package so full. 

Most are knitted, some have no thumbs, one pair is crocheted, and a few were purchased.  But all have been sent to Lynne and Pastor Angel, with love.  She tells me it's 20 degrees in Buffalo.  I'm sorry, but I totally can *not* relate.