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Friday, April 29, 2011

Some Old Creations and Others To Share

Hello my dear friends,

I haven't been able to create anything new yesterday or today really since my chores needed my attention first this time (taxes ~ yuck). I also have to finish off a few of my 'old creations' tonight which I need to take to a lady that sells them for me at an indoor market here in town. I used to and still do love primitives, but just not as much as I did a year ago, so I am selling off some of my 'old stuff '. I will try and take some pictures tomorrow at the market and post them. I am also going to make the attempt to go back to  'THE' antique store and see what the owner is doing with all her things. I get really annoyed thinking about all the beautiful items she has thrown in this store just rotting away almost and then she has the nerve to tell me she loves every single one of them. OK and I really do (not) believe that. I will also post about this again. My other tasks for tomorrow are a few church sales and a few estate sales looking for new treasures and hopefully a few new ideas to go with them.


This is one of my 'old' creations ~ a make-do bird.


This mouse was my first mouse pattern I made.

On the other hand I did manage to find some new photos I would like to share with you. These images are not your usual pictures of lovely dressed little girls and boys but of working children in the early 1900's. I don't know why but I am captured by the Victorian/Edwardian Era especially the working class.


A young girl crocheting lace.


Young girls working in a millinery.


I am not even sure what kind of work this young girl is doing.

Photos like these make me think about the person in the picture. Who are they and how did they live? Sometimes I wish I could travel back in time, and meet these people. To see what their life was like, what they were like...


Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Thursday, April 28, 2011

Bring Out Your Doilies - A New Birds Nest Tutorial

Hello my dear friends,

whilst working with my little coconut fibre pot on Tuesday and waiting for the tea stained eggs to dry I thought it would be nice to come up with a new little tutorial for you!

After my Easter basket which was made from a stiffened doily my thoughts went with a nest made the same way.
 
 
And this it what you will need:

- An old doily
- Wooden egg/eggs
- Fabric stiffener
- Teabags and hot water
- A bowl for tea staining/a bowl for stiffening the doily
- A small tin to mold your nest with
- Book pages
- Plastic wrap
- Scissors ( I used decorative scissors but you can use plain if you wish)
- Aluminium foil
- a piece of cake or pie ( not a necessity just yummy)
 

Boil your water and throw 3 tea bags into your bowl and add your eggs (wooden eggs that is my fellow bloggers - I don't want anyone accidentally cracking a couple of real eggs in there! No baking today) and doily. The doily won't take as long as the eggs. Once you have the right color for your doily, take it out and let it dry. Your eggs will take about 2 hours in the mixture. Yet again once you like the look, take the eggs out and let them dry over night. Note, the shade of color will dry lighter than when wet.
 
 
When your doily is dry the next step is to get your things to stiffen your doily.
 
 
Place a piece of foil down and cover your tart tin with plastic wrap. Both of these items will help your doily from getting stuck whilst drying.
 
 
Place your doily into the bowl and pore some fabric stiffener onto it. You are best not to use too much at first, you don't want it dripping with the stiffener and you can always add more if needed.
 
 
Work the stiffener into the doily. Once the doily is saturated, wring it out a bit so you don't have too much excess liquid otherwise it will dry as a plastic like texture which you don't really want.
 
 
Place your doily over the tart tin stretch it out.
 
 
You don't want it too neat, because you are trying it make it look a bit natural. This is yet again the time when the yummy stuff comes into thought.  (I have a thing for oatmeal muffins when I sit and wait.) Now you have to let your doily dry. I tend to leave mine over night to do so.

The following day ...
 
 
Your doily should be dry now. Peel it carefully
from the tart tin.
 
 
Now is the time you can decorate your nest. I decided to go with Scrabble pieces and use the word 'nest' which I glued to the rim of the nest. Use a good glue that has instant stick so the pieces stay put right away if you want to do the same. 
 
 
You can make the the 'stuffing' for the nest. Cut thin strips of book pages either with plain or decorative scissors, which ever you prefer. Use about 1 - 2 pages not more. If you don't like book pages why not try music sheets?
 
 
Scrunch the strips up and place into the nest and the last thing to do now is to place your eggs into the nest.
 
 
Finished!!
With this creation I think less is more but you can decorate as much or as little as you wish.
 
 
I hope you have enjoyed this tutorial today.
 
Have a peaceful and creative day,
 
Karen B.

A Beautiful Mother's Day Giveaway And Good News

Hello my dear friends,

I would just like to let you know that Tiffany from "The Cranky Queen" is having a Mother's Day giveaway!!!

And this is the gift she will be giving to one lucky person!


Isn't it just beautiful?!

So don't miss out on this giveaway and head over to Tiffany's blog for the chance to win!



And last but not least ...

The good news is that Sonya's little dog Sissie is much better and back home now!!! I'm so happy that she is doing well.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Rainy Day = Time To Create

Hello my dear friends,

it is raining outside and that means my garden won't be seeing me today ... again! On the other hand that means I do have time to create!!! Let  me see .... I have a few things in mind but I'm not sure if  I am going to be doing one or two yet.

Excuse me while I go and see what I can find in my craft room...



These are the things I found for my project. There is an idea in my head, but I am not sure if it will turn out the way I would like it to.




The basket is made from a little coconut fibre plant pot and which is very delicate. I had  to add a peat pot to the inside for strength.


I actually started this post yesterday afternoon and couldn't finish it until today, because I tea stained the wooden eggs for several hours and they then had to dry over night.






At last - here is the finished creation - a sweet wee nest for spring time!!!

What I thought would be a small and quick project turned out not to be after all. Sometimes things tend to be like that in life.

Come back tomorrow and see what else I have been working on.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Tuesday, April 26, 2011

I Just Can't Help Myself

Hello my dear friends,

I just can't help myself when it comes to making pincushions. I am sure it is some sort of an addiction! (I just laughed out loud at myself).


Here is another one of my newest types of pincushion - the hidden treasure pincushion - sounds nice!


It is again a shaker which is big enough inside to hold and hide a little pincushion.



 I am lucky enough to actually have a set of these, so I am sure another one is to follow this one. I have a lot of dark yellow pansies in my flower box, so I think that will be the next color theme.



These are the 'other halves' of my shakers. I thought you might like to see the 'before'. Unfortunately the shaker on the right is completely fused together and I don't know if I will be able to use it other than as a decoration of some sort.


And last but not least ...

I actually went to the 'antique store' yesterday and didn't come back happy. As a true hoarder, the lady that owns the 'store' is asking for a fortune for anything that is inside. It really seems that she doesn't want to sell anything and therefore asks for a lot of money to have a reason to keep everything. Please don't get me wrong, I don't want anything for free but I do not like being overcharged either. I will try and go back at a later date and see what happens and I will sure to keep you posted.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Monday, April 25, 2011

It Doesn't Take Much

Hello my dear friends,

I am sure it must be all the lovely sunshine that makes me want to create. Yesterday was such a nice day with blooming spring flowers, singing frogs in the local pond and time for a nice walk. The best way to end such a lovely day is to create something and this is the result...



I had found these little shoes last fall and played with the thought of turning them into pincushions. In the end I decided not to do so but to make them into a decorative item. Remember my little baby dresses I made earlier this year? - they would go so well together!


So out came my loved crochet flowers and pearls.


Of course I just couldn't leave the inside as it was. Vintage music sheets were the ideal choice to embellish the inner sole of the shoes.


It really doesn't have to take a lot of work to change something everyday into something special.
I can see these shoes standing on the dresser of a little girl and looking so pretty.




The scuff marks are one of the things that made me buy these shoes. The look of them now reminds me of being a little girl and running through fields of spring flowers, carefree with no worries.

And last but not least ...

please, keep your fingers crossed for me! Why you ask - well, there is a little old lady in our city who owns a big building and it is full to the top of antiques and I mean FULL. It's not so much a store but more like a storage facility - she is a hoarder. She buys the most beautiful things and then literally throws them into this run down and leaking building of hers and lets them rot, which makes me sad! Anyway ... she has sold this building and has to clear it out by the end of this week!!!!! I spoke to her and she is hoping to open it for a huge sale this week ( for the first time in 4 years!) and I am going to try and do my best to go and take a look!! OK, when I say look I really mean buy some new treasures!!!  I will keep you up to date and let you know what happens and if I can I will try and take photos to show you what it looks like.

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Sunday, April 24, 2011

Spring Time Creating

Hello my dear friends,

you all know how much I love making pincushions and here is the latest one I have created. It is made from an old salt or pepper shaker that I picked up in a thrift store some time ago and then it just sat on my shelf waiting until the day before yesterday.  I am trying to keep to Dawn's advise - create something every day! I am trying to do so it doesn't matter how small the something is.



What used to be a tarnished shaker is now a precious and lovely pincushion.


Pearls and crochet pansies must be one of my favourite ways to embellish something old and tarnished.
( Sounds familiar?! I am sure I have said this before!)
 I am always on the hunt for more of these.


I like that you can take off the lid, and inside there is the actual pincushion hiding away waiting to be found.


I love that I was able to decorate the inside and outside to match one another.



I think so far this must be one of my favourite pincushions that  I have created.
And now back to the 'drawing board' hopefully with more new ideas for new creations that I can share with you!!!


Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Happy Easter To All Of You

Hello again my dear friends,

so here is my second post of the day. As I said earlier I have been a little busy with my creating and this is one of the things I made yesterday. It's an Easter basket made from an old doily.


I used fabric stiffener to turn the doily into a basket shape and with a piece of wire it was almost finished.


I have so many wooden geese eggs in my home, so the perfect Easter egg was found. You all know of my love of crochet flowers - especially pansies embellished with pearls -  so they had to become a part of this too. The pip berries were a leftover from a primitive project some time ago. A little dried grass, ribbon and an old brooch and it was done!

 

 It was a bit hard trying to take a good picture outside because it was quite windy and the basket almost flew away at one point but I hope you can see everything OK.



I really like the look of this egg now, so I'm not too unhappy about loosing one of my goose eggs. ( They are part of my kitchen display and they are in a Victorian wire egg basket)

And last but not least ...

more of Diane's lovely feathers!!! She did say she was going to make more of them and she did them so wonderfully!



Go and check out her blog again to see more of her beautiful creations!

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.

Prayers Needed And Something That Makes Me Happy

Hello my dear friends,

today I would like to ask you to pray for Sonya's dog Sissie. Poor Sissie is very, very sick and needs thoughts and prayers to help make her hopefully get better.



This is Sissie.

It would be really nice if you would pop over to Sonya's blog and leave her some encouraging words. I am sure she would really appreciate them right now.



And on a not so sad note something else I would like to share with you today is a photo of Diane's newest feathers, well they were the newest one's yesterday. She just told me she has made even more now.



Why not drop by Diane's blog and take a look at all her beautiful creations!

I really didn't think my feather tutorial would be such a success and that people would really like the feathers I had created, but I am SO HAPPY that all of you do!!
Thank you all so much for making my day!!!!

I have been a bit busy myself, but I haven't taken any photos of my new makings just yet. I will do so later and for the first time so far maybe post a second post today - well, I will try. I have a lot of chores today outside of the house and ... it's raining now. Oh well, things need to be done. So, I hope I will be back on here later and if not ...

Have a peaceful and creative day,

Karen B.