Proud Grandpa

Just in time for Father's Day last year, I saw this cute picture at  "Be Different...Act Normal". I liked it, but I didn't want to cut out all the letters and try to take pictures of all the grandkids. Plus, I only have six, and the word "Grandpa" has seven letters.

A quick trip to the dollar store yielded these cute divided frames. I used recent pictures I already had on the computer, and my Scrapbook Factory program to print out the images.

My husband loved the project and hung them up in the family room. I ought to replace the 'baby' now that he has been born, but it's kind of cute with Holly's tummy.

An Outfit for Vek

I finished up an outfit for Nivek yesterday. It is very similar to Ryan's, just in different colors. He looks better in cool colors, while Ryan looks nice in warm colors. It will be fun to see him in it. When I told my son today that I had finished it, he sounded happy. I also finished the second pair of pants for Ryan. I have a few more pants to go, but this makes one complete outfit for each boy.

Christmas is over, the goose is exhausted!

I don't know how many people would call it a project, but I finally got all the Christmas stuff put away and my living room back to normal. Or almost normal; part of my doll collection is missing. I did some sorting this year and got rid of several things that were worn out or no longer part of our traditions.Anyway, now that I have finished that, I'll be able to post projects again soon.

Stickers Galore!

I love to put stickers in my journal daily and I like to collect a variety of different stickers. I still have some left over from last year's daily sticker calendar, but I get tired of riffling through pages of stickers every day.

Today I got smart and put them in sheet protectors in a binder, with tabs designating basic catergories. Hopefully this will work better for me. I can go through a few pages to find the ones I want, instead of shuffling through many different, mixed up sticker sheets.

New Projects Found

Today I was organizing the room we'll use as our office/sewing room and I found two more unfinished projects, and they reminded me of at least one more. I've got lots of fun ahead!
This project (not the one I'm doing) is called Butterfly Profusion,  Designed By Lori Turoscy, available several places, even completed on E-bay.

Train Brooch

My mom gave me this pretty pin several years ago for Christmas. It's a favorite of mine, especially when I am working with children. It used to have a string of "diamonds" like a trail of smoke.Unfortunately, I left it on a sweater one day, and the smoke trail broke in the washing machine.  Several of the stones also fell out, and most of them were missing. It sat on top of my desk for a year or two.

I bought Krazy Glue and miniature crystals and glued them in place. The big wheel stone was found, so I glued it in. The "smoke" is a bigger stone than the original, but I like it just fine.
Now I can wear my pretty brooch again, which I think my nursery children will enjoy.

I think mom would have enjoyed the whole thing, since she glued all sorts of things together. She was the queen of glue!

Tiny Treasures Pocket Pillow

For Christmas, I made each of the grandchildren between ages 2-5 a wall organizer with pockets, kind of like a hanging shoe organizer. I used the scraps to make them a matching pillow. I don't have an organizer to photograph, (They all took off with them!) but here is one of the pillows.

You can't really see it in the picture, but there is a zipper down the middle. It opens into a lining, so that he can put all sorts of things in the giant pocket inside the pillow. There is a flap to button, tie to tie, and small outer pocket as well. I stitched the tie in the middle so he can't pull it out of the eyelets.
The back is just a simple patchwork pattern.

I got used pillows at a thrift store and just stuffed them inside the covers. It's cheaper and just as easy as pillow forms. I originally intended to take off the original covers, but quickly discovered the filling was too hard to work with. If you do this, watch for plain edges (no piping, buttons, or fringe) and soft fabrics that will easily work into the new pillow cover.

It's also a good idea to get the pillow form first. Measure it and make the finished cover to fit.

New Year's Goodies

I found these cute buckets at Target. I was going to do something with them for friends for Christmas, but I was sick. A cold is not a good thing to share.

I felt better by New Year's Eve, so I made up little gift packs with a "Happy New Year" card and delivered them. After all the sweet-fest of Christmas, I put in nuts, a few hard candies, a bag of mint tea, and a packet of crackers.