did you see...

... this fabulous piece of vintage sunshine?

 photo by linaloo

Lina @ Linaloo made it using entirely thrifted vintage bed linens- the front, back, batting, everything! You can find the details of the Not Mellow Yellow here....

pincushion swap sent...

 ...which included this pincushion and needle book.

I really like how they turned out and am very proud of myself for several reasons...

First, with inspiration from sew ritzy-titzy's daisy chatelaine tutorial, I created my own crochet pattern for the pincushion. I'm a chronic pattern-follower but decided it was time to break out! My thread colors were dictated by my second proud moment...

 I actually got up the courage to cut into one of my vintage feedsacks! (You can do it too, Courtney :D ) I used the feedsack as the inside cover of the pincushion, for the pocket on the back cover of the needle book and the closure on the book. The closure leads me to my other proud moment...

I finally found the nerve to use that intimidating piece of metal, the Crop-a-dile, to set the snap for the closure on the needle book! It really is a wonderful piece of machinery but I'm sure it will take me five years to figure out all of its multi-tool potential.

I really had fun making these and I hope the recipient -who lives in a far-away land- likes them. even just a little bit...

And of course, Kate @ Foxs Lane deserves a very big 'THANK YOU' for putting this swap together! I'm so grateful I had a chance to participate!

mail call...

I just received these beautiful merino wool yarns from Shivaya Naturals. Shivaya Naturals is a shop owned by Heather, who organized the fabulous vintage swap I participated in a couple of months back, and all of her profits are donated to charity. She also has a wonderful blog full of recipes, creativity and community.

The colors are Black Cherry and Sunshine... aren't these hand-dyed yarns gorgeous? They feel wonderful too! Now I need to find just the right projects to use them... they seem more suited to something knitted, which means I will need to re-teach myself the use of the two pointed needles. Suggestions for projects, anyone?

i hope...

...your weekend is full of color and sunshine!

  photos by Michelle Dillman

flickr favorites...

 

1. a green apple on my bed, 2. transmission of power, 3. purple alarm clock, 4. Crochet flowers

If I ate healthier and got more sleep

I would have more energy,

Making my non-craft time more productive, which would then give me more time

To create beautiful things


Come over to ArtMind and play Flickr Favorites too!

what i've been up to...

The weather is wonderful! 

The boys and I have started golf lessons... Golf = Summer around here!

On Friday evening, Mr Dill and I spent what seemed like hours unwrapping all the loveliness sent by Cathe @ JSIM. I still can't believe I won her giveaway! I was mentally creating projects for the items as they were coming out of the box! I spent the rest of the evening organizing it all, using mostly the containers included in the package. Thanks again, Cathe!!

I spent a lot of time Sunday cleaning off my three season porch. Actually it's really more of a two season porch- in Spring and Fall it is totally usable but not so much in summer or winter since there is no heat or air conditioning out there. If we leave the doors from the main part of the house open, we can cool or heat the area but only to certain low or high temps. Last summer, I set up the porch as my Etsy space, where I keep the vintage stuff I've listed and the kazillion things I have not listed yet [and wouldn't you know it that garage sale/flea market/auction season is here and so my pile to list is growing already!] I'm really hoping to get the porch set up so it's easier to take pics [windows on all three sides make for wonderful natural light out there] and list items as well as have some crafting space for work and/or storage. We'll see how it goes and how quickly the weather gets really hot!

And here is a bracelet I finished up last week...

It is six joined granny squares with a loop and vintage mustard yellow button. I really love how it turned out and was the brain child of the random crocheted shapes I mentioned in a previous post.

So what have you all been up to?

mail call...

...some lovely things have been delivered to me recently.

Vintage linens from Evelyn @ Use the Loot [in a special addressed envelope by someone not an adult- love it!]

I asked for my linens to be mainly green and put in a special request for the 'gingham' print specifically, and boy did she deliver!

I had ideas on how to use these before they even arrived!


I also received very lovely packaging from Nice Package. Unfortunately, Ez had to close the online store due to a move halfway across the country, but stop by her lovely blog Creature Comforts- you won't be sorry...

 
And the last item I received in the past week, but not through the mail, are these pillow cases embroidered by my maternal great-grandmother. 

My great-aunt had them stored in her cedar chest where they have been living for at least 30 years and I don't believe they have ever been used. My great-aunt wanted to make sure we (the great-granddaughters) all had something our great-grandma had made. 

Little Grandma Smith did a lot of embroidery. When I was a young girl, I had a pillow case that she embroidered that looked like Cinderella. It was my favorite and ended up with some tears and holes after all of the use and eventually my aunt sewed it into a doll. Hmmm...I know that doll is around here somewhere. And I'm hoping my mom can find the baby blanket she made for me too... 

I just can't believe how lucky I am to now have these! So, do you think this proves that craftiness is in the genes? :D

paint-by-number tree...

... I was scanning my 'starred' items in Google Reader and ran across again the wonderful paint-by-number mural on a Before & After segment on Design*Sponge.

 photo via design*sponge

 And I was reminded of pictures I took of a tree early last winter while waiting for my son to come out of school. This is the trunk...

 and here are the upper branches...

 and here a couple of shots in black&white.

I

Isn't the bark wonderful?! My pictures don't quite do it justice, but every time I pass the paint-by-number tree, I'm reminded how much I really love all trees! Are you a tree lover?

flickr favorites...

...the rain today reminded me that I need to make sure I have an umbrella in my car since Spring appears to be here. At that point I decided that 'umbrella' would be my flickr favorite topic for this week. In searching for photos, I realized that umbrellas are used for rain, sun and even snow...

1. ...umbrellas, 2. UMBRELLA, 3. Beach umbrellas, 4. Umbrella Land, 5. Snow Walking, 6. Orange umbrella, Central Park, NYC

So, why don't I carry an umbrella in my car year round? Hmmm, I may need to rethink my strategy on weather preparedness...

And don't forget to stop by ArtMind to play along or take a look at the other mosaics!

[easter] ballet bunnies....

...made for two of my nieces...

These little cuties were created using the easy-to-follow Ballet Bunny tutorial from the generous Jo @ Chubby Hobby with a few of my own modifications:

-Instead of making the bodies rectangular, I made them more in an A-line shape

-I added embroidery to the ears

-I added strips to the bottom of the 'skirts' for a little extra somethin'-somethin'

These were a lot of fun to make! (Did I mention that I decided at 9pm Saturday night to make these?) I think I can see how one could get hooked on making stuffed dolls/animals/toys!

weekend wrap-up: happy easter and button love...

... I hope your Easter weekend was wonderful! 

The weather here was in the 60's and our flowers are starting to really bloom.

We had a very nice dinner with hubby's side of the family with the usual Easter fare... ham, green bean casserole, twice-baked potatoes, rolls and fruit.

The second part of this post is to send out a huge THANK YOU! for all of the blog love I have been getting for my embroidered buttons I created for the FS Swap!

The full set was included on yesterday's Flickr Friend Roundup @ One Pretty Thing (if you have not seen Rachel's daily postings of some of the greatest tutorials and DIY projects on the internet, you really need to check out her blog!)

The rain cloud with lightning has been tumbling around on Tumblr, with it all starting with adaiha's Tumblr page, Neat Stuff. (To be perfectly honest, I hadn't even heard of Tumblr prior to this... I'm really out of touch!)

And finally, the robin's egg nest was included in a post on Feeling Stitchy about some of the many beautiful buttons sent and received through the swap.




I really appreciate everyone's kinds comments and adding my buttons as favorites on the blogs mentioned above and on Flickr!! It's very humbling, exciting and a boost to my crafting confidence to have my work enjoyed by others!


Have a wonderful week everybody!!

holy cow!

...which isn't what I actually said, but look, look at the box of goodies I won from Cathe @ Just Something I Made!!

photo by Cathe

When I got up this morning, I had an email from Cathe letting me know I had won the Mystery Box Giveway and asking for address. So, after yelling 'holy ----!' and jumping up and down, I immediately replied with said address and then headed straight to JSIM to find out what the mystery was. I was shocked to see all of the wonderful things that are headed my way! [Heck, I would have been happy with empty boxes wrapped in all of that Divine Twine!] You can check out all the beauty here.

If you are unfamiliar with Just Something I Made, you really should check out Cathe's blog. She is truly inspiring, creative and generous and has wonderful tutorials!

Thanks sooooo much, Cathe!! 

color inspiration...

...from one of my vintage feedsacks. I was looking for color inspiration for all the cotton yarn I have and decided to use this

to determine my colors for these

 I really love the gray and yellow... who am I kidding? I love just about any color with gray :D

Would it be sacrilegious to make a tea towel out of part of a vintage feedsack? It would make for a really cute dish set, no?

my creative space...

...is usually on my dining room table. It's where you'll find the yarn currently in use, my Mac, my watchful German Shepherd figurine and other odds and ends [and obviously horrible lighting- sorry!]. More on what the yarn is being used for later...

You can share your creative space and visit other fabulous spaces @ kootoyou... stop over and check it out!