some projects I want to try

Everyday I log onto my Google Reader and start through the new craft blog entries and find tons of projects I'd like to try, so I thought I'd share a few here. But first, here's a few of my favorite blogs to read...One Pretty Thing, CRAFT, and Craft Gossip.

Now on to the projects I'd like to attempt! Here are just a few from a very long list...
Market tote - I already have fabric picked out to make 4, I just need to get up the guts to try it out!
Little Girl's Purse - I just love this cute little purse, I'd like to try a larger sized one too, because even Big Girl's need cute purses!
Knitted Mug Cozy - Mostly I just want to learn to knit cables, and this seems like a quick and easy summer project, something I can knit in the car while my hubby and I are commuting to work!
Fun Wall Pocket - because everyone's got junk that needs a home and what a cute one this is!

One long week...

All week, I've been at church doing Vacation Bible School and I'm exhausted! I spent the week with ten 4 and 5 year olds, we learned 5 new Bible stories, a bunch of new songs and rules and manners and we did a ton of craft projects and served other people! It was a fabulously tiring week, but I'm so glad I was there. It was hot here, but VBS was a great way to spend some time outside! Hoping it's nice enough over the weekend to get out on the boat!

No pictures today because I gave my memory card to one of the other leaders so they could make a slide show for worship on Sunday morning!

Oh How I've missed you...

Sewing machine! I've been away from my sewing machine for several days and I've really missed sewing. I threw together a project last night, but I wanted to tell you about where I've been and what I've been doing, that's not sewing. Hubby and I took a road trip to South Dakota last weekend with his sister Kim. We visited White, SD to attend their brother's wedding. So a big congrats to Lori and Adriel! It was a fabulously sweet wedding. Adriel is an excellent singer and he took the opportunity to sing to his bride and it was beautiful - had everyone in the room crying! I also finally got to meet my nephew, Jayson - who is a doll and my new favorite nephew...Ok, he's my only nephew :-) Here's a couple of pictures from the wedding, my camera batteries died right after the ceremony, so no pictures from the reception - not even any pictures of Jon and I.

I love tutorials!

I am not a girly girl at all, but being a (mostly) working woman requires that I slap on some make up once and a while. But since I don't wear it everyday, I keep my small stash of make up in a small make up bag in my purse (then I always have it for quick needs) But I was having trouble finding a make up bad that was long enough for the eye shadow brush I use. The bristles of the brush were always bent and hard to use. The solution to my problem came thanks to One Pretty Thing and their Daily DIY posts full of great tutorials for fun projects. I found this great tutorial for a Little Pouch on Uber Crafter. I made several of my own, perfect for make up, sunglasses, even business cards! Here's a few pictures of my make up bag. It's a little floppy, I think if I make more I'll use a little interfacing to give the bag some umph to stand up on it's own. For the ones I already made I plan to iron them with some starch and see if that helps. Sorry for the weird pictures, I took them in the car this morning after I put on my make-up. Thanks to my hubby for driving the carpool everyday so I can apply make up in the car :-)

A favorite project

At my house, we frequently get our glassware confused...well, mostly my dad just swipes the closest glass and claims it's his, leaving the rest of us wonder which glass really is ours. We pondered this for a while, trying to decide what would be the best way to distinguish our glassware...and finally decided on the glass cozy, similar to the coffee cozy. Using this tutorial from the Object Project, I created the glass cozy. I chose a distinctive fabric for each person in the family...the ones you see pictured to the right are mine (purple), Mom's (yellow) and my sisters (pink). And while Mom threatens to steal my purple one, they are working out great so far. Not pictures are the ones that belong to my Dad (hunter orange) and my hubby (red with cowboy stuff). I also have fabric picked out for my brother (camo). With all the fabric in my stash you'd think I could come up with something for my sister in law, but I'm just not sure yet. I also need something for Laura's boyfriend. I'm sure that I will find just the thing for each of them in time.

Thanks to The Object Project for the great tutorial! In case you are interested in making your own glass cozies, here are some modifications I made to the tutorial from The Object Project. I used quilter's cotton, and I did not line it. After a trip to Caribou Coffee, I made a copy of the paper coffee sleeve, enlarging it to 125%. I had to trim the ends of the copy to about 1/2 and inch longer than the original sleeve as the enlargement made the sleeve much longer than needed. I used this copy as my pattern to get the shape of the cozy correct. Also instead of using velcro, I pinned and stitched my cozies together, as we needed to slide them up the glass to get them tight enough to stay on. I used my machine to stich them together and it was quite difficult because the circle is smaller on one side than the other, but I dispise hand sewing :-) Also, as you can tell, I skipped the photo frame. I think they turned out great! And we are all excited to be able to identify our drinking glasses!

crafty girl sucess!

After much frustration, some choice words and several pin pricks, I have sucessfully completed a wonderful array of sewing projects that I'm excited to announce! Thanks to Betz White at Betz White, I completed two tank tops for my sister, inspired by her pillow case tank. My sister is quite a fashionista and her wardrobe does not include vintage anything, so I made the tanks with some cute fabric I found on sale at Joann Fabrics. I thought they turned out quite well. However I was in such a rush to finish them before we went out for supper for Laura's birthday, I completely forgot to take pictures.

I also completed the Martha Stewart Terry Cloth Caddy as seen in the post below. This project was the cause of most of my frustration! Sewing the towel was just not going well, my thread kept breaking, my towel kept getting stuck in the sewing machine feed, it was awful! But a surprise phone call from a friend and fellow youth worker led to a solution - adjusting the tension of the thread. Once I adjusted the tension, all was well and I completed my projected almost immediately.

So sorry for another post with no pictures - I'll do better next time!
Keep Crafting!

started some sewing projects!

I am on a mission to only make gifts for my sister's upcoming birthday. She is turning twenty and just moved into a house near her college campus, so I've got tons of potential projects!

Starting with a shower curtain, remember those bed sheet I mentioned buying in my last post? I'm turning the flat sheet into a shower curtain for her new house. So far it's taken me two days to get it cut down to size, ironed and to get the first hem folded and ironed into place. Of course about an hour yesterday was spent, getting mom's sewing machine out and finding a place to set it up, which required clearing a space. Got everything clean, machine set up and then started ironing. Finished ironing in just enough time to realize that the needle on the sewing machine is broken :-( And we didn't have any extras :-(

So I ironed 5 more projects, maybe I'll get to start sewing tomorrow.

For fun, here's a picture of one of the projects I'm working on, courtesy of Martha Stewart