Tolentreasures

Crafter's ADD has kicked in again! When I work on a penny rug, it seems as though I always cut too many pennies. I have been putting them in this box in my sewing room for a couple of years and finally decided to get them out and use them up. I think that I am just going to make pillows out of all of these, sometime this winter when I finally finish them. Oh and of course, while I had all the wool out and laying all over my sewing room, I had to cut a new one out also. This is the start of the boys bedspreads. This will be the middle of them and then I plan to piece around this. This one needs all the machine applique done on it yet. Imagine my surprise when I ran to Walmart last night for stitch witchery and all the yard goods were gone! I asked one lady where the yard goods were and she had no idea what that was. I translated that to fabric and she said, "Oh we got rid of that stuff" I knew that they were planning that in a lot of Walmarts but I would have th...

Shelby found the pattern online for these nursing bibs. I hope I don't get in any trademark trouble for the name, but that is what they are called. She had seen them ready made and searched for a pattern and found it. If anyone is interested, email me and I will find the link for you. They are simple to make and really seem as though they would be so much more functional than a receiving blanket. There is a set of D-rings to adjust the strap and there was supposed to be boning in between the straps that would hold the material out so that the mother could still look down and see the baby, however I could not find boning at the two fabric stores closest to me and I did not know when I would be getting to the "city" soon. (doesn't that just sound all Little House on the Prairie?) So, this idea passed through my mind finally. I cut up a Glad container and cut it into a 1/4" strip. It worked perfect! It has the perfect curve to it and stiffness. I must get...

Or the title could be What Was I Thinking? Friday before work I started cleaning my kitchen, Friday after work, I worked on it some more and Saturday AM, I finished cleaning my kitchen, ran the sweeper the 5K miles through my house and dusted. Wow, did it look nice! Probably it looked so nice because it had been so long since I had done it. Well, between grubbying candles and little boys making blueberry muffins, my kitchen needs cleaned again and with little boys eating blueberry muffins all over the house, it needs vacuumed again! Now you might not think this looks sanitary and it doesn't, but really the floor was just cleaned and a little dirt doesn't hurt anyone, right? You might also be wondering about the bisquick muffin recipe? Tyler wanted to "spill" the milk into the bowl. I said, "Don't you mean "pour" the milk?" He agreed and then proceeded with some three year old combination of spilling and pouring WAY too much milk in the...

A few weeks ago at the flea market, I bought these clothespins and in my mind I saw them painted and tied with homespun. I had a nice visit this week from a new friend that I had never met face to face before. Kim suggested, when she saw the bags of them to "grubby" them. I had forgotten all about that process, so to the basement I went this morning to dig for my wax from the last time I did this and amazingly enough I walked right to it and picked it up. As I finished cleaning the house, I started the melting process. Just old candles melted together. And then began the dipping. I had no sticks of cinnamon so ground cinnamon and then some fresh ground coffee and nutmeg, some old allspice from the back of the cupboard and some pumpkin pie spice and it smelled yummy in the kitchen. All lined up and cooling. This was no quick process. Found some tags, some little wood pieces and some tealights. Let me tell you, if you have never done this before, you will be digging...

Angela Marie was the winner of the giveaway. I have tried to contact you via your blog and have not heard anything back yet. Please contact me if you read this and let me know what prize that you want and where you want it shipped. I will hold this until Sunday evening and if I don't hear anything by then I will have a second drawing for the giveaway.

Jennifer and Dianna were in a fender bender in the parking lot of the local Sheetz store yesterday. It was completely the other woman's fault and she was nasty and yelled at Jennifer and Jenn in her kind, shy, nice way said it was Ok and let the woman go. The grill from her vehicle was laying in the parking lot! John is mostly the same way. He will let anyone go, a truck hit him on the motorcycle in a convenience store parking lot as he was sitting on the bike drinking coffee and he told him, "That's alright buddy, I should not have been sitting there." After she got back and we realized the damage on the vehicle we had this interrogation with Dianna. John: What kind of vehicle was it? Di: Jeep John: What color was the vehicle? Di: Gray or blue, not sure John: Did you get a license plate number? Di: No John: Did you get a picture of the vehicle with your cell phone: Di: No John: Did you know anyone in the Sheetz at the time? Di: No John: Did you get the guy's ...

Thanks so much for all the ideas. I can't wait to get these started now! All of the ideas were so interesting and they really inspired me! The winner of the giveaway is Angela Marie! Please contact me and let me know what prize that you would like to have sent to you!

Yesterday we planned a trip to the Pittsburgh Zoo. It was to be Shelby, Ryan, Kendall, Shelby's friend, Tori, Shawnee, Gracelyn and I. Unfortunately, in the summer of drought conditions that we have been having, this was the day the drought was to end. It was pouring! A quick check with Channel 4 said that it was going to continue to RAIN! We cancelled the trip to the zoo and the rest of the group was going to go to Pittsburgh Mills to the mall. I was going to save my day off to go to the zoo. As they proceeded to the mall the skies cleared and they called me at work when they were halfway to Pittsburgh and said there was a re-decision and that they were going to the zoo. So many highs and lows. One of the benefits of self-employment, I told them to order a meal for me at the restaurant they were stopping at and I would meet them there. A time line would have been a good thing...or maybe not. Maybe it is a GOOD thing for me that the state police are not getting paid rig...

What a varied weekend that we had! Friday night we rested...we both needed that. I am working on another t-shirt rug, this one to go in my entryway and I have enough t-shirt yarn cut to do a bathroom rug for our bathroom....which would lead into the 5K story of the post. John has lost close to 70 pound since the first of the year. He has really worked hard at it and has been so diligent with it. He has exercised and eaten right and done it the right way. He has had this thought to run the local 5k in his mind for at least 10 years. He started to train for it this spring ( I trained with him for about 1 mile and realized it was not for me) and after having some knee problems did not keep up the training the last month, however, Friday night as I noticed he was loading up on carbs, I kind of figured that he was going to try it. Saturday AM he was up and circling and ready to go. I think he arrived at the site ahead of the organizers of the event. I had big plans to stay at hom...

C'mon, this could make person have a complex! Every giveaway that I enter has at least 40 thousand people enter it and of course I NEVER win! This giveaway that I am offering has 11 entries...count them ELEVEN!!!!! So I am going to try one more time....These are the items that you can pick from if you win. There are five items....1. The silver pitcher, 2. Teapot, 3. Lunchbox, 4. Train case, 5. Suitcase. You pick if you are the winner and I will ship it off to you pronto! Now maybe this was the catching point...you have to WORK for this giveaway, you have to tax your brain and think for just a little bit. Hey, it's not that hard. I am making growth charts for my grandchildren and need thoughts on what to paint on them for each age....read the previous post, so all you have to do is post one item for each age group....try not to duplicate, but if you do, you will still be entered. Just post with three items. 1. 1-5 years 2. 6-10 years and 3. 11 and up. There have to ...

Now you might be scrambling to sign up for this one, ready to make your comment BUT...this one has conditions and you have to work for it! First of all the item to be given away will be one of the items that I have finished in the last week or so...or something that I might be finishing in the next few days or so...you get to pick what you want if you should happen to be the lucky winner! The little train case, the silver pitcher, the snowman teapot, there is even a nice suitcase that I should be finishing in the next day or so....you get to pick! Now for the work part of it, after all it should be somewhat challenging! I am making these cupboard doors into growth charts for my grandchildren. I have to find something else to paint on also because Jenn would like one for the boys, here is where you come in. In the center of these, I would like to start at the bottom and paint a collage type thing of items that would pertain to the kids at the age they are that height...or close but...

Finished this yesterday. It had been sitting on my kitchen counter waiting for inspiration for over two weeks. I think that John was getting tired of cleaning around it (yes, he does clean the kitchen AFTER he cooks, how spoiled am I?) I was going to get silver polish and clean it and then on second thought if I did that it would have to stay cleaned so I painted it as is and sprayed it and it should stay this way. It is going in the For Sale pile because it really does not match in my house. This was the bug box that I painted last year for the boys to catch and capture fireflies. I "found" it again this year and we have not had a chance to use it. Hopefully soon although there do not seem to be as many fireflies this year. These are the "next" project waiting for inspiration. The two on the left are hopefully going to be growth charts for the little girls, Gracelyn and Kendall and the one on the right is still waiting on some type of thought of what to do...

As you might have read in a previous post, my dear husband was a little "grouchy" the other morning and that is being polite. Well, it turns out that he actually did have some kind of bug or flu or something. He spent all day yesterday on the couch and in the recliner with a fever, alternating sweating and freezing and not a very happy camper. We were supposed to have all the kids to our house for a cook-out that I cancelled early in the morning. Trying very hard to keep my distance and not bother him, after church I holed up in my painting room and the paintbrushes were flying. These two ginger items just need some homespun tied on the handles and they will be finished. The book was an experiment...not sure if I like it. This is the train case that I bought at Hazen last week. I still have to make a tag for it and tie homespun on the handle and find a little key to hang on it. I love finding these little train cases, they are always so much fun to paint. I had a cl...

I bought this picture last week at the flea market. Something about the colors that I just could not resist. It was $8.00 and more than I normally pay for something at a flea market because I am normally cheap and would expect to get this for about..let's say one dollar. This was a big purchase for me. It sat right there for a week until this morning when I had to get it done and hung up. A little paint should do it. As you can see the frame was all chipping and cracked. Not one for the LONG and tedious right way to fix it, I painted it first with Burnt Umber craft acrylic paint. Then I drybrushed it with first Jo Sonja's Copper and then Rich Gold. These are the best metallic paints I have ever used and I don't think that you can buy them retail any longer, not sure about on-line. They just make things look so rich and have so much pigment in them. Here it is, done and hanging in my house. I think that the colors are perfect! Glad that I didn't pass this one...