Nana

My Beautiful Nana passed away Tuesday May 13, 2014.

She was 94 years old.

She was an amazingly smart and beautiful woman. 

I would like to honor her by sharing some photos of her and her life.

 This was the photo from the last time I saw Nana at my cousins wedding June 1st 2014

 One of the many sleep overs I had with Nana, we painted our nails and took bubble baths and watched Dick Van Dyke, Golden Girls and Bewitched, she always made apple slices before bed. 1988?

This is us at our lake house. She loved being out side. 1990?

 Nana's College graduation as a public health nurse from Mercy College in Ann Arbor MI 1944. 

 This is the spray of flowers my mother sent for the funeral. She loved spring and loved flowers. 

May 16th 2014

Her casket with the flowers laid by the family. May 16th 2014

 Dorthy "Nana" Gove was the youngest of 3 children born in Clinton, MI January 5th, 1921

 She and her siblings at the age of 3 1923

 She and her sister Mary Eleanor 1945

 Such a beauty 1946

1945 

 She became and a Navy Nurse stationed in Chicago and met my Grandfather Clarence Glover at the officers club. He quickly married her  and whisked her away from the mid-west and took her to his home of Orangeburg South Carolina. 1946

 She, in black, and my Grandfathers sisters in South Carolina 1948

 They loved the beach and getting tan. 1949

 She raised her three children in Georgia. That is my father holding my aunt's hand. 1957

 Nana is in the black dress bending down in the front of my grandfather's 7 sisters. 1970?

 This is her and her beautiful home in Charlotte, NC where her children spent most of their lives. 1960?

 She loved holidays and having the family together to make sure they were getting enough to eat. 1981

 Christmas 1979

She also loved her grandchildren and spoiled us so. These are my cousins Carson and baby John 1984

Fabric Shopping

Well, Santa knows what I want. At my age, with no kiddos, I get cash. Cash is my favorite, though it is not very Christmasy. Also, I didn't travel for the holidays and checks are easier to mail. I instead stayed home to clean closets, cook yummy meals, plan spring and summer vacations/ projects and participate in some sale shopping.

My favorite sale shopping is done at the fabric stores. The worst is that there is a lovely quilting store store is walking distance from my house and it hasn't been raining much. Ive gotten some great deals from Jo-Ann's as well. So, I started piling the fabric up on the table so I could take an awesome photo. I felt like a bride after getting all my gifts on my wedding day.

I decided it was a good time to try to visit some of the other quilting stores in near by towns.

I ended up going to three different/new to me stores and ordering stuff online. My Kaffe stash on top is my favorite.

I started immediately stitching on a piece that I intend on incorporating into a bag.

Peace Crochet Wreath

I made this quick wreath from a wire coat hanger, floral wire and left over yarn.

I currently live in a home with huge front bay window. The door is on the side of the house so I wanted a re-useable wreath I could hang in the front window. This is what created. I think the peace part is a bit thin. I intend on adding another color of green, but this is all I got done to it for this holiday season.

Wrapping up All the Elf Duties

I made these hearts from a T-Shirt of my husband's grandfather. He passed over a year ago, and I felt like I could finally bring myself to cut it up and it would be appreciated.

Here are the super cute snowmen  I made. I love the faces, I am so glad I found the carrot noses.

Everyone on my gift list will be getting some form of these super cute fabric baskets. I am not entirely sure what folks will use them for, I guess I envision bread or crackers or wrapped candy.

Here are my awesome cards, I love how they turned out. I enjoy writing cards, especially to the family I don't talk to normally. I also take so much pride in the process of coming up with an idea and then the creativity that comes after that. In this case I was able to carve stamps and get my hands dirty mixing inks which is always a blast for me!

I also whipped up a few more of these super duper cute and re-usable gift bags. I know you can re-use the paper ones but, I intend on using these for many years!

So for this year my elf duties are all wrapped up. Happy Holidays to you and yours!

Prep Work Makes All the Difference

These are the two chairs we picked up on our recycling adventure at bring the other day. I chose the red color because it was what was in the garage from when the house and deck (pictured) we painted back in September. The rusty red is a super thick tough paint that will work well in my living room. I already have some rusty red upholstered club chairs, I think these will coordinate well once finished. I chose this color over the two carolina blue's and I am very pleased with my choice.

I started prepping these chairs yesterday with a really good sanding. I used three grades of grit. I highly recommend this especially if you are painting over old paint or stain. I have no idea what lied beneath the poorly painted tan. I quickly discovered it was only one layer of paint on top of bare wood. The tan paint came off really well in some areas and in others it was more stubborn. I wasn't really trying to strip or totally remove the paint but, I wanted to start with at smooth surface. One coat of red paint clearly wasn't going to cut it. I was hoping to get away with two coats.

I am not terribly satisfied with the coverage of two coats. I have decided to do a third coat tomorrow baring any crazy weather. It is very nice to have a covered deck area to paint on. Even though it gets wet when it rains. I do feel they are protected from the elements in order to dry. 

I have thought of adding some gold embellishments like gold stripes or gold tipped legs.

Today, I also finished up this little guy. I started them awhile back and debated over the type of nose and hat to use to make the snowman look finished. I determined buttons down the body as well for eyes would be lovely. I couldn't see a embroidered nose or mouth on these guys. I flipped out in the button isle in Jo-Ann's when I found the carrot buttons, clearly these are made for projects just like these. I have decided to make four of these guys and give them to my family for gifts.  I adore these cuties.

Crochet Christmas Gift Ideas

Can you guess?

I think they'll be super cute.  

Another hint, these scrappy strips will help them from melting.

Stamp Layering

I was rather sick to my stomach this morn so I stayed home from work today and made soup. I got a bit bored of my cycle of pintrest, TV and books.   I recently admired Genine's stamps and had wanted to carve some up for my Christmas cards this year. Last year, I did the water colored scene. I loved those, but wanted to change it up a bit.

I started by sketching designs on to a larger index card since that would be the general size of the overall image. I ended up wanting to make a scene that only could be achieved by making multiple stamps to layer to create depth. I went for a mountain scene with moon and trees. I decided on simple designs that I can use at later times, other than for Christmas cards.

I made the simple triangles stamp first. I free handed the triangles onto the master carve based off the earlier sketches I did. I am not a skilled carver so I started with the basic exact-o knife to cut straight lines into the master carve, trying not to go too deep. I took thin layers of the background off in small sections. I tested it out many times. Cleaning it up as I went along. As seen above, on my test scrap I sketched in the mountains and moon onto the opposite side of the master block from the trees. This master carve block is so thick and expensive ($35 for a 8x11 thick sheet).  It helps me get more stamps and I know it will be the same size to match up the images.  

I used a rollerball carver on the mountain side, trying to do continuous cuts in order to keep the lines smooth. As you can see I don't always keep true to the ball point line. The extra bump in the middle mountain felt natural when I carved and looked great when I tested it. The fine tip helped make the fine valleys. I started clearing the sky with wide curve tip with the intention to take it all out. I kept with the line of the mountain I had cut first and created these great curves. I did a test and loved the effect it left in the sky. Cleaning out high spots until I liked it.

I started layering it up with the triangles. I love the placement. I will say that working with double sided stamp is messy and I now have ink all over. It would be best to have a similar size of cardboard to sandwich between your hand. The ball point ink will come off in the first few stamps but, will soon fade. Also, working with exact-o knives and rollerballs is tricky, always point away from yourself and go slow. The top middle one in the image above was the final stamp.

I am known to mix inks which eventually dirtys the lighter colors. I always lay the stamp face up on the table and apply the ink pad with my hand. I think most people do it the opposite way. This helps me mix colors on the triangles to look like trees in the above image. Also, I could make the moon or half the triangles a diffrent color or achieve shading in the right spots.

Here are some awesome triangles by themselves will make nice wrapping paper. I ended up switching colors and getting kind of purple trees. This can be avoided by stamping off all the ink on scraps. I like when there traces and it creates variation. It also allowed me to see that the triangles in a  non-Christmas color are an awesome pattern to have as a stamp.

Scrappy Christmas Trees

I made these last year as gifts. There were about 20, but now I only have about 5 left. I think this was one of the easiest gifts to make. I found the strips in my stash bag. Made a few color schemes and cut out triangles. I used upholstery fabric for the trunks and fleece scraps for the backs. Small ribbons were sewn in to create hangers. Some had jingle bells and some had buttons. on the top like a star. I liked these especially for homes with small kids and animals who like to attack the tree.
I like that each one is different and unique. I think I would put the cost at a roll of ribbon and a bag of poly fill, so about 5 bucks for 20 gifts. The scraps were all from quilting projects that I had made my money off of prior. So to me that was free. I love using up the items that I hold onto forever.

Beaded Snowflakes

I have been making these beaded snowflakes for years. I got a small kit when I was 13 or so that had directions, wire and beads. I used the beads and wire up years ago, but always seem to have the supplies to make more. I never get tired of making them. No matter the size of beads the patterns always work. It is nice to have a pair of jewelry pliers to help pull and wrap the wire at the end. I think they make rather nice looking ornaments. I have given them as sets or just singles tied to gifts.

This year, I used vintage beads from broken necklaces along with small silver beads from Michael's. In about 30 minutes and very little money I can make one snowflake. I usually put on a Christmas movie and make a few.  I love how these turned out. I decided to keep these for myself. I live how they twinkle with lights and stand out against the green tree.
I put them on this wire tree I made to display items. I made the tree put of a heavy iron plate and green floral wire. I just wrapped and twisted away as I saw fit until the branches seemed strong enough to hold up the items. It has been a nice accessory for Christmas display as well. Wire is fun to work with and has limitless creativity.

Watercolor Christmas Cards

I found these plain newsprint cards I was hoarding. I decided to make Christmas cards. I love watercolor and felt the paper would soak up colors well and not ripple.
I love how the turned out. I made 20 of them. It took me two evenings after dinner to paint them. It is basically what I see around me, well when it's not raining. So, basically what I saw this summer. Oregon sure is beautiful.
I started with dark heavy on the paint outlines of mountains and then hills. Then I soaked the brush and pulled the paint out and created a bit more depth and color wash.
Then I let them dry a few moments before the trees were added. They were more of a thick paint and would run into the hills if they were too wet.
Each one was slightly different,I didn't really try to make each one the same. I simply tried to keep with the same layout. Who will know anyway. I think they are amazing and show our friends and family back east what is around us. It is from the heart and not that expensive. The cards were probably under $10, I've had the water color set forever, and high quality brush dosen't hurt Also, water color painting is very very therapeutic.
Merry Christmas and Peace on Earth!

Gingerbread!

 I saw on The Daily What where someone had made a gingerbread house that looked like The Weasley's home from HP, The Deathly Hallows. It is dang impressive. It made me think of this huge one we saw in Texas at The Gaylord in Dallas over Thanksgiving. This bad boy in Texas had over 40,000 pieces of candy stuck to it. 

 They had Shrek in Ice on the other side of the hotel and this was in the giant atrium with "gingy" on it!
It had a candy store inside where a single lollipop cost 5 bucks! We'll I am sure it was an expensive house to build on prime real estate.

I love how children have pulled off pieces of candy. I cant imagine myself doing that even as a child, nor would my parents allow it! I made one once out of graham crackers when I was in girl scouts. Its just not the same as these masterpieces! I must say it is rather folksy and crafty and it crys out to my creative side saying oh you know you want to make one!