Garden Monday

Spring is coming! Spring is coming!

Punxsutawney Phil, the famous groundhog that decides whether spring is early, on-time, or late has made his verdict.  He did not see his shadow.  What does this mean?  Spring is EARLY!  Which means that we will have warmer days upon us and that we can plant a little earlier for summer crops.  

This is one of my favorite times of year in the garden because it's when my flowers come out to bloom that have been hiding all the rest of the year.  This image above is of a plant that hides, a bulb, underground all year except for a couple months in spring.  We all but forget that it is there until it starts to put up it's green leaves.  This year it happened to be where we chose to put our newest footpath.  It is such a pretty blossom that I believe I will have to find it a new home after it is finished gracing us with its beauty.  That way I can continue to enjoy it in the years to come.

Well, I hope you too are enjoying this season and I'd love to see your blooms!  guerrakristen@rocketmail.com is where you can send them and I'll post them for everyone to see.

Purely Pinspirational!

Many of you know about Pinterest and how wonderful the site is for keeping all the wonderfully inspirational things we find organized and easy to find.  I love it so much that I've decided to share with you a bit of my love for it so you too can enjoy pinning your favorite ideas and inspirations.

There are many who use Pinterest for food, crafts, fashion and much more.  There are many who use it to keep a collection of photos they've seen and love.  I've seen boards of color where they keep pinks, blues, whites, etc. organized and easy to go back to for inspiration.  That is the truly wonderful part of this excellent site; that you can keep all your favorite things on the internet in one place.  No more confusing bookmarks to keep straight and remember.

Did you know you can create your own pins and that it's a great idea to do so?  Why you ask?  Why to keep Pinterest fresh and interesting.  If no one ever pinned anything besides what is already there, we'd see the same pins, over and over and over again.  I'm sure many of you have noticed that you do see this occur.  Also I get this silly jealousy feeling when I see a friend has pinned something I have pinned but they didn't find it from me.  That's why they have the follow and being followed options.  So that you can look at your friends boards and see what they are pinning.  Your friends who have already searched and organized the best pins there are for a specific category.  That's also why you can follow someone's particular board.

Here are my favorite ways to avoid stagnant pins.  

1. Look first at your friend's boards.  They will have organized them already into neat categories.

2. Find boards that you love and follow that particular board.  

3. When you find a pin that you want to save to your own board, once you've pinned it, there is a reference to where it came from.  Click on the link and look at the whole board.  Say you find a decorating idea for Christmas and the link for their Christmas board is referenced.  Go to that board and take a look at their favorites.  If they have great taste, follow the board and pin your favorites that they have already pinned.

4. If you have a great idea and make or do something that you feel worthy of sharing; make a pin!

Hopefully this has revved you up and you feel compelled to start implementing these ideas and strategies.  Also, don't forget to review your own boards and delete repeat pins, organize your boards and use the recipes, craft ideas, fashion inspiration that you have found.  Otherwise, why pin right?

Happy Pinning!         

Garden Monday

 

 

I realize I'm a day late with this post but I hope you can bear with me and still enjoy the update.  My garden thanks you!

This week marks the 8th week since these beauties were planted.  This is my first winter season growing Sugar Snap Peas and oh how excited I am!  These wonderfully crunchy pea pods are one of my favorite snacks.  I like to eat these in place of potato chips or other salty and unhealthy snacks that my stomach would prefer I eat. 

My carrots are also starting to come up.  I planted them and then waited and waited and waited and just about when I was ready to give up waiting, they popped up.  They are so tiny and cute!

Thrifty Headboard

So for a while now hubby and I have been bothered by a big empty blue wall space behind our bed.  Recently, I set myself to solving this sore spot for the eyes and came up with the idea for a headboard.  I searched online and found several examples of headboards and several tutorials on making them yourself.  I wanted it to be cheap, but sturdy.  So I bought some foam (the most expensive part of the project, however, I've since found a cheaper way of getting the foam), found a scrap piece of wood in our sign shop, bought some buttons and fabric from the clearance scrap bin that would match the wall color well.  I put them all together and here is the result:

Along with the quilt my mom gave me for my birthday last year, the pillow in front that I made recently from a thrift store t-shirt, and Raffi the Giraffe (upper left corner), I am quite pleased with the result. 

I've also added a curtain to the open doorway to the bathroom and a handmade photo display in the short wall between the open doorway and our bedroom door.  When the door is closed this space was a blank canvas.  However, when the door is open, it covers the space and makes it a dead corner of the room; bare and naked.  Below are photos of the whole space.

I still have a big open space above the headboard to deal with, but hubby is planning to paint big navy and light blue leaves to match our normal bedspread behind the headboard, filling the whole wall.  I think this will fill it in perfectly.  Then the next task will be tackling the horrid closet doors that we never use.  They are always open and sticking out into the room.  Taking them off will open the left side of the bed nicely.  We are thinking of putting another curtain matching the one going to the bathroom.  Then this half of the room will be perfect and complete.

Many Wonderful Things

I've made so many things these past few weeks and have yet to share any of them.  I've been so busy, but luckily not to busy to fit in a project here and there.

I went through a couple week phase of creating stuffed animals, which I like to call stuffies.

 Then I've made some clothing items that I'm rather excited about.  One is a remake of a wrap I bought at a store.  I used the article of clothing I already had as my pattern and the result was close to my desired creation.  I will be making more of them and adjusting the sizes to make the fit a little more relaxed.  I think I will be trying some different materials as well.  The other item I made recently is my very first piece of baby attire.  Please do let me know what you think.

Another thing I've made recently, one of the most needed and practical things I've ever made is this book cover made specifically for my bible.

Bird Stuffies

Birds, birds, birds.  I've been sewing bird stuffies.  These I made specifically for a friend's baby shower.  It's a little big to be a mobile, but it will make a nice room decoration.  I've also been sewing birds in blues and a set in browns.  The blue set will go to another mobile, one of an appropriate size this time (I have a different hanging system in mind) and the brown set will be for my own bedroom. 

Summer is Coming

As I start crafting again like crazy, it comes to mind that I haven't posted anything in quite a while.  Easter was a whirlwind of craft projects ranging from easy to insane.  My church was most gracious in asking me to help them decorate for permanence.  It was so much fun designing, budgeting, shopping and creating.  But, I'm glad it is now over and I am full of gratitude for the many women that helped me make it happen.  We made many silk flower arrangements and that was one amazing craft day.  I made masters and my church friends copied them beautifully.  We also made around 300 bird ornaments to decorate the trees with.  That craft project was immense and very time consuming.  We are all glad that it is over and that we can now sit back and enjoy the fruits of our labor.

Now on to personal crafting.  New projects, new ideas (with some help from my trusty friend, the internet).  There are many things to come this summer and I for one am very excited for this.  My design studio is now up and operational, which helps so much in the flow of creativity.



My first project after Easter is this headband.  I saw the idea online.  Quick and very sturdy.  I broke a sewing machine needle trying to do it that way and so I resorted to just sewing it by hand, then hot gluing the trinkets/flowers on afterward.  Let me know what you think.