Birthdays are fun at school.

Fun little gifts I made for the great kids I work with everyday. For the girls, little hair clips in fun colors. For the boys, crayons made from a bucket full of old crayons I used growing up. (They enjoyed the unique little gifts.) And a huge thank you to the wonderful mom's that came in to help celebrate an already blessed day.

KitchenAid Mixer Cover

Rob had given my a gift certificate for Christmas to a fabric shop in town. I wanted to make one thing out with that money, so I looked and looked, and this is what I found. I used an idea from homemade by jill (a great blog I found recently). She has a link to about.com that shows how to create a mixer cover. Like here, I added a lining and a pocket. It was so easy and only took me part of an afternoon. I love this bright splash of color on my kitchen counter.

Here's an idea....

I have been wanting to make a quilt for our bed for a while now, but haven't gotten enough guts to pick out a patter, fabric, or even start for that matter. All I do is look online at all the beautiful pieces other people create and try to get inspired. Well, that isn't how things get done. But I found this great blog called thelongthread.com. She is an amazing quilter, seamstress, and over-all idea collector. And from her, I finally got an idea! She started doing something like this...



Using a bunch of scraps, she sewed a long piece of lines. Now she is making this...





I am now inspired! She said "sew now... figure out if you like it later." I think I will do that. We will see where it leads me.

Yikes!

Thanks Becky!

My Sister-in-law Becky is so talented! She made Kris a hat like this recently and she asked if I wanted one too.... Of course! She picked gray for the hat and a burnt orange for the flower. It fits perfectly and the flower is on a pin so I can wear it with other things too. *so smart*

Support Handmade

Somethings found from Etsy.com



iviemade



unExpectedParTie



baileydoesntbark



ginelleirene



spreadthelove

Fabric and Frames

I am not sure if I quite like the placement of these. I also have an oval one filled with a beautiful fabric by Amy Butler. Anyway, I found these frames at a garage sale this summer. I spray painted them black and set them aside because I was not sure what I wanted to do with them. Finally, I decided to fill them with fabric pieces I had in my stock. I attached the pieces with hot glue. After I had taken down the wonderful Christmas cards that we had received, I decided that wall seemed bare. They are only temporarily attached to the wall, so if I find I don't like them, it will be easy to move. Any suggestions?

A giveaway....

One of the blogs I follow is having a giveaway just in time for some Christmas shopping! (Oh a little something for yourself) Go over to brownpaper--packages.blogspot.com. She has a lot of cute ideas for crafting and decorating.

The giveaway is from The Pleated Poppy. It is a little shop that sells handmade checkbook covers, little pouches, and hair pieces. Here are some examples.

Cold days mean...

the crafting is in full swing.

Yesterday, I went shopping to snag a new winter jacket. I found a cute black Columbia jacket that doesn't look like you are a ski junkie, some really warm black mittens, and this hat!



I also found a short scarf that buttoned in the front. I thought... I could make that. So... I am going to try.



But first I will make this until I find the right yarn.

I'm so in...

I am so excited for this!

One of the blogs I follow (freshlyblended) puts on a homemade ornament exchange, where you make 8-10 handmade ornaments and send them to a list of people you are assigned to. They could be from all over the country. In return, you get 8-10 unique handmade ornaments too! I think I have an idea for mine, but need to finalized the details yet. But what a cool way to share with people the things you make!

My tree is going to look fabulous!

I think the registration is open until tomorrow (Sunday, November 7) go here if you want to check it out!

I will post pictures of my project and of the ornaments as they come in.

Here are some pumpkins carving ideas that I would love to try. I really like the faux wood grain pumpkin.




Pictures and ideas from marthstewart.com

Now on Etsy

I am trying something new. I have items left from the craft show I did in June, so I thought I would try and sell them on etsy.com. I am not done putting items up, but you can check it out now if you like. If you haven't been on Etsy before it is a place where people can sell their handmade items. It is great place!

Here is the link to me: meganhaan.etsy.com

I hope you enjoy!

American Jane

This is my new favorite fabric. It is made by designer Sandy Klop. Moda prints her designs, so you can go to their website to purchase it. I want to make this quilt sometime. I just have to start collecting the fabric.

Here is her website.

Art Festival

Saturday, June 5 from 9-4 at the Centre Mall I will be selling earings and pouches at the Art Festival. Stop by to see my products and me!

Spare time = Creative time

Procrastination

Rob is now in Sioux Center. We drove half way yesterday to do a hand off with his sister. He has taken Ollie with him, so now it is just me and Neko here, which means it is very quiet. I have been delaying as much as possible to continue the never-ending task of packing (for those of you who don't know, Rob and I are moving back to nw Iowa because he is now working for Alpha Omega in Rock Rapids).

In my procrastination, I was looking at old Threadbanger Podcasts and found a T-Shirt recon that I wanted to try. It only took about 5 min.

If the video doesn't work, you can try to link:

http://www.threadbanger.com/tb-projects/episode/THR_20090811

Projects

I have been experimenting with a lot of different things lately and taking the time to make handmade things. Here are a couple things I have done that were really fun.

For Christmas I made homemade chocolate-covered marshmallows. You can make them plain or chocolate-covered, whichever you like. I made both, and they were really good.

Every day when I have to go to work, I drive through an alleyway which is usually loaded with thing people have thrown out. One day I saw this white wicker lamp shade and thought it would look great in our living room. We had to cut a small piece of metal on the inside so that we could get the cord through, but it turned out great! We hung it up last night above our table. Now we can see!