Our Lovies

My Felting Creations

These are my fun, mindless creations!
I just sit and knit until I think the dimensions are okay. Then I stitch up the sides, leave a flap and felt it in my washing machine. I have a front loader washing machine and they do not felt well at all. However, it works find for these smaller pieces because I can let them spin. NOTHING spins like a top loader!!! I can also further SHOCK my felt by dumping boiling water on it, with a wee bit of laundry soap, agitating it and hitting it with a potato masher and then rinse it in COLD, COLD water. After I shape it and let it dry for a few days I make a design on the front with dry needle felting.
Confession time: The top one was SO ugly after I felted. I thought, "How can I send this to someone??" I added the green because that was her favorite color. I didn't have the green when I started the pouch. So my mind went crazy thinking how I could make it more appealing. I added more green with overhand stitching on the sides and then tried different needle felting designs. Nothing was looking good so I ripped them out. I turned to beads for some sparkle on the sides, Rissy picked out the orange button and that is what inspired me to add the sun. Then came the sparkled spirals. The bead work took a bit of time, but it was relaxing to sit and hand sew during American Idol. :-0
It is the pouch I get the MOST compliments on. Isn't that funny! Just like an ugly duckling story.

These were my first coin purses:

I love the two tone blue one and how nice the flap curved. The ribbing in the taupe one is cool, but I don't recall if I did that on purpose or not.

Purse Swap

This is the purse I sent for the Swapbot Purse Swap. She likes Asian things and for some reason this purse looked Asian to me, maybe it is the tiger paw. It is a high quality purse and well-made; I think it is classy looking in a hip sort of way. The recipient is a doula and when I saw this bag it also reminded me a wee bit of the black medical bags of old, so it seemed doubly fitting.

These are the goodies I put in her purse.



This is the purse and goodies I received for the purse swap. I think this purse is SO cute! Rissy tried to take it from me!
Purse swaps are hard for me to resist. Probably because it is so laborious to shop for purses. Additionally I get to try style I might not pick out for myself.

Birthday Flowers

I received these lovely flowers for my birthday.

My sweet Mom sent these to me. Carnations are one of my favorites and purple carnations are even better! I love it when Fed Ex comes to the door! :-)

Flowers in my yard

Here are some of the flowering delights in my otherwise mangy yard.



I LOVE lilacs. I wish they bloomed longer.

birdies hanging out

hanging out
Originally uploaded by drewzel.

Birdie Brooch

Pregadeira Pássaro Diva
Originally uploaded by Carla M. (Birra de Sono).

This little birdie would look nice on my purse.

Miss Lemoncello

Miss Lemoncello
Originally uploaded by Alicia Paulson.

Maybe someone who loves me can make me a
sweet birdie in a cage....
I'll put it in my upcoming inspiration room.

little spring birdy (sent)

little spring birdy (sent)
Originally uploaded by drewzel.

This is the first little birdie I came across, the one that made me love these crafty bird creations.

bird purse

bird purse
Originally uploaded by Handpicked.

Have you ever seen a bird purse before? Isn't she lovely?
Make me think SPRING!!!

flock of birds

flock of birds closeup
Originally uploaded by wishfactory.

Here is another set of bird beauties I found!

Easter Tree Hangers

Easter Tree Hangers
Originally uploaded by Vintage Pleasure.

Isn't this just BEAUTIFUL?!
I am really liking birdies lately, which all started with a lovely, simple bird embroidery I saw.

Prospective MiniVan

I test drove this van twice and love it! It is smooth and handles like a car. It doesn't have a whole lot of leg room in the back seat or sotrage room in the cargo area.
The color is a soft silvery green.
Husband is still holding out for an Astro van.

My swap from FunToScrap

My swap from FunToScrap
Originally uploaded by sylviascreation.

I sent this package to Denmark for the Fat Quarter Swap.
I chose the fabric because many of the bags she makes have a nautical look to them., I also liked the various nations on the flags. The red furry trim is so soft and I thought it might make a great addition to one of her purses.

ugly friends

This was a very fun package I received in the Round Robin talent swap. We each made 2 somethings, one to send to our partner and then we sent another to the person that sent to us.
YaYa has been carrying them around for days.

Knitting Sheep Schwap

Norah was so excited when I opened this box.
She gasped with excitement. So which is cuter? This adorable toddler?

Or this wonderful package of yarn and sheep?

Norah claimed the lambs and sheep and rocked them all like babies.

And not only did I get a great package, but I got a nice note too.

I just love it when swaps turn out this wonderful! :-)

Jar of Whimsy for April

Somewhere on this blog I posted about the jar of whimsy I received. I think I was the first one in the swap to get one. I love my jar and use it to hole my candy that I get from swaps.
I had a hard time making the pincushion on the top for mine. I tried a few methods and looked online for ideas, but I just didn't get a nice poof on the top. Maybe I used the wrong batting. My partner loves the colors of autumn so I picked things with that in mind. I gave her the lamb and some yarn because she is a knitter.

Flat Goodies Swap

These are two flat goodie packages I just sent out. One goes to Stafforshire in the UK and one goes to Malaysia.
They each like Hello Kitty so I actually bought Hello Kitty stuff just for them. The gal in the UK uses Kool Aid to dye wool and stated it is hard to come by in the UK; so I sent her some.
The gal in Malaysia likes stickers so I gathered some from my plethora of scrapbooking stickers. Even with the smaller swaps like this I check my partner's profile and try to send things they like. That is my favorite part of swapping!
I was hesitant to do another flat goodies swap because the last time I got a lot of magazine pages and calendar pages.
I was disappointed.
In yet another flat goodies I received items that I couldn't use.
Although I have received a few wonderful packages, like this one. So I decided to try again.
Well, today I received both of MY flat goodies packages and they are delightful. Very diverse and fun. I will upload pictures later.

Handmade Bag Swap

You've seen the handmade bags I have sent out on my other posts, here, here, here, and here.

This is a bag I received.

The quality and workmanship are wonderful. The fabric is a delightful combination of colors. Notice in the upper right she put a fabric covered button in the center of one of the designs. It is a nice touch. She also made a matching coin/card purse which is lined with felt.
The center picture shows some goodies she put in the bag for me.

Here are two of my sweet girls.
Oh, how my heart is full of love and hope for them.
I thank the Lord for the gift of being their mother.
Lord, grant me wisdom in being their mom,
help me to make the right decisions - rooted and grounded in love.