Bloggy Giveaways Winter '08 Edition

Come join the Carnival! Shannon, at Rocks In My Dryer, is hosting another Bloggy Giveaway. This is the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival Winter '08 Edition. And this carnival is quite a spectacle! The number of participants is nearing 700. That is an unbelievable amount of generosity floating around out there in blogland.

Shannon suggested that each giveaway should reflect the individual blogger. Well, I like to sew, I like to thrift and I like to cook (among other things). So, my giveaway includes a handmade Pillowcase Tote (made from a thrifted pillowcase) and a Brownies In A Jar cookbook.

To enter, please leave a comment on THIS POST, by Friday, February 1st at midnight (Pacific Time). I'll choose a winner on Saturday morning. Please leave only one comment. This giveaway is open to bloggers and non-bloggers, but please make sure I have a way to contact you if you should win. Comments from international readers are welcome too!

Now, get on over to the Bloggy Giveaway Carnival and check out some of those blogs!

A use for those gluey buttons

mama Part of this weekend's homework was to create a project for the 100th day of school. We had to collect 100 of something and make a display. Enter those gluey buttons.

Nathan chose his favorite buttons and glued them onto a shallow cardboard box. Then he "decorated" the outside of the box using a variety of markers.

All of the projects were displayed in the classroom today while they had their 100th Day Party. They each counted 100 Cheerios, 100 marshmallows, 100 pretzel sticks, 100 chocolate ships, 100 pieces of popcorn and a few other things. The food stuffs were dumped into a baggie to become a "snack mix".

Hmmmm.....wonder how many tummy aches there were tonight.

A Valentine softie

I've been trying to think of something witty to write, but it's just not happening. So, you'll have to settle for this cute little guy. He'll be winging his way to a new friend soon.

Thrifty Thursday

This was one of those days when I LOVE the Goodwill Clearance Center. I definetly had some good thrifting mojo goin' on today!

A pack of ner paint sponges in various shapes, track for one of Nathan's trains, and a plastic treasure box.

Four paperbacks and two sets of brand new Hallmark Photo holiday cards.

(I've been looking for The Favored Child, by Phillipa Gregory for about a year!)

New bag of Cluster Stuff stuffing, vintage pattern, messenger bag pattern, 10 skeins of embroidery floss and 30+ skeins of tapestry wool


Shirt for Nathan, shirt and scarf for me. (Yes, I actually got something for myself!)

Grand total: $3.89!

Did I mention that I LOVE the Goodwill Clearance Center?

On a cold, foggy day....

take one bored 5 year old, a magazine, a pari of scissors and a glue stick.

Add a pinch of supervision and....

Ta da! Collage - Nathan style.

Me vs. Hot Glue

I admit defeat. The Hot Glue wins.

I tried ironing, freezing and hot water.

I'm sure these methods work on some items. Just not on plastic buttons.

Ironing was messy. It left puddles of hot hot glue on the fabric and the buttons. I couldn't touch the button backs until the glue cooled a bit, which defeated the purpose of using the iron.

Freezing did harden the glue, which made it easy to pop the button off the fabric. Unfortunately, the frozen glue seemed to cling more fiercely to the buttons.

And the hot water? Didn't seem to do much at all. Each button is attached to the fabric with a large blob of hot glue. I don't think the water could penetrate enough to be effective.

Back to Goodwill they go.

A little help, please.

A while back, I thrifted 3 valances, covered with buttons.

I'm always happy to find buttons, and who could pass up this many (around 400) for just $2? I was so excited by this find that I didn't notice that the buttons are hot glued to the fabric. Every last one of 'em.

I only bought these because I wanted the buttons, as buttons, not as curtain decorations. I can easily pull the buttons off the fabric. The problem is that the hardened hot glue sticks to the buttons.

Here's where you come in......how do I get the @#$% glue off the buttons? I've tried peeling it off, which is time consuming and will destroy my fingernails. I've read suggestions for ironing the back side of the fabric (still leaves glue on the buttons) and freezing (haven't tried that yet).

There are some nice buttons. Nothing too spectacular though. Can't decide if I should invest the time to do this, or just re-donate them.

Ugh!

School assignment

The assignment: Make a snowman. Be creative.

Well, we can do that.

Start with two terra cotta pots and a cowboy hat. (Yes, a cowboy hat!)

Let the kiddo raid the craft boxes for anything that looks interesting. Pom poms. Ribbon. Buttons. Chenille stems. Star sequins. Glitter glue. Jewelry wire. Foam beads. Twine. Paint. Glue.

And voila'!

A Rodeo clown-Rock star-Cowboy Flowerpot Snowman. (Check out the lasso. And the foam bead necklace.)

Mr. Snowman and his creator.

Virtual Thrifting

Today's the day!

Cindy, of Cindy Is Crafty, is hosting a Virtual Thrift Shopping day. And let me tell you, for me, this is the perfect day for doing things virtually.

At 10:00 am, here in "sunny" California, it looked like this:

It is f.o.g.g.y.! Tule Fog is thick and wet. And causes all kinds of trouble. Including school fog delays. Yep, 3 hour school delays, if they have school at all today. That was definitely not in my plans. Oh well, we are safe and warm at home for now.

On to my recent thrifting finds:

(Sorry for the indoor photography. It's the weather, you know.)

Buttons (carded and loose), vintage zipper, vintage "Rim-it" buttons

Kid's Room magazine (Nathan's got to outgrow his Thomas room at some point, right?), kids craft activity book, Christmas craft book, gardening book, cute vintage (?) postcard, and a newish vintage looking Christmas tin

A full case of brand new, quart size Ball jar. They'll either be used for canning veg from the garden I hope to put in this spring, or be filled with yummy snach mixes to give as gifts.


An unfinished, handmade table runner. A few of the seams are coming apart and it's missing a tassle at one end. It's a bit short for my table, so I think I'll make it into a set of Fall napkins.


More fabric. The yellow furry piece isn't very wide, but should be enough for a ducky stuffie or two.


And finally....my favorite recent find. A pile of scraps. Someone had obviously started on a quilt and not gotten very far before giving all the bits away. Most of these are 2" strips of varying lengths. There are some gorgeous fabrics. I have hopes of using these for a Mile-a-Minute quilt.

That's it for me. What treasures have you found lately?

Now, head over to Cindy's to check out the list of links to other Virtual Thrifting posts.

Past crafting and a new friend in Blogland

Back in November, I thrifted a set of pink gingham pillowcases with cherries on them. Cindy saw them and suggested that I use them to make Martha's "Sleeper of a Bag".


The bag was super easy and came out pretty cute. I did a couple things differently than Martha. I ripped out the stitching on the open end of the pillowcase and cut off the excess. I didn't want the extra bulk that the double layer of fabric would create in the finished bag. (I used this piece to make the tissue holder.) The other thing I did differently was to ignore the instrucitons to hem the cut edges before putting the two pieces together. I turned under 1/4" (twice), ironed and pinned. Then put the two pieces together and stitched it all together.

I made the bag and tissue holder (before Christmas) for my new buddy, Yard Sale Princess, who was one of the winners of my 100th post giveaway. Now, the Princess has officially graces us with her presence in blogland. So go check out her new blog, Digging For Treasures, and give her a big welcome to the community.

Nothing too exciting...

Just a shopping bag for my Grandpa. I actually made two for him, but I could only hang one of them from the nubby bit on the tree. The other one is identical to this one. I hope he doesn't mind my fabric choice. It is really the most masculine thing I could find in my stash.



Oh well, at least it's a finished project! Now on to some shopping bags for my Mom.

Hummer High Jinks

I finally sat down at the sewing machine today. For about 5 minutes.

I'm making cloth shopping bags for my Mom and Grandpa. I managed to sew two sets of handles. No bags. Just handles. Not exactly photo worthy, especially with the excessive grayness today.

And besides, who wants to see bag handles when you can see my Little Terror in action!

At five and a half, Nathan is now an expert at driving his Hummer. He's laughing his socks off, being chased by a little red RC truck (controlled by Hubby).

Look out. Here he comes!

Taking a break to make a Sand Angel in the hole he dug. (Yes, a fair amount of sand made it's way home with us.)


Who says it's a playground? Looks like an obstacle course to me!


See ya' later, alligator!

January 1st?

I know that the calendar says January 1st, but it felt more like Fall here today.

We had lovely sunshine. Temperatures in the low 60's. And plenty of yardwork to catch up on.

Even Nathan pitched in, dragging branches using his "Hummer". I was amazed at how well he can shift gears, steer and reverse. The kid can even make a 3-point turn!

And then he had to take a break to turn on his radio and take a call on his cell phone.

See....I'm telling you, it felt like Fall! There were plenty of leaves to rake.

Which of course meant piles of leaves to jump into......

And throw all over the yard again.

Who is that masked man?

It's Super Nathan!