Pre-Valentine's Day

My grandmother was a florist for years, so was my aunt, my older sister, and I was a florist for years.  So yes you can guess correctly in that Valentine's is like one of my least favorite holidays because it always meant lots of work and not seeing those you loved.  It also meant customers coming into my work because they felt guilty not because they wanted to make their loved ones feel loved.

My grandmother is in heaven and this is now one of those holidays I think of her.  Which does make the holiday a little better to me as I remember working with her side by side when I was a little girl.  When I think of her I think of the little guardian angles she passed out I have two types from her.  My Aunt Virgie actually started this tradition but my Vavo carried it on.  I have saved many of these tokens over the years I plan on giving them to my grandchildren on their 8th birthdays at their baptisms as a gift from their great great grandmother in heaven.  I think it will be special or at least I hope so many generations tied together in a little token.  I have 12 tokens so I have saved 4 per child of mine if some have less than four I will save them for those who may have more than 4 kids.  Yes there are two types of angles that are different the silver colored ones are the more prized ones as that is the type most people in my family remember but she did pass out two types of angles.  Most probably do not remember the rest (the goldish coins) but they are all still from my Vavo.

The photo in this post is of my beautiful  Vavo and two of my three children when they were little people.  The picture in the picture on the right of two of my children they are wearing two dresses that I made them for Easter one year one is sewn and one is crocheted I made the headband too that the younger is wearing.

Hope you have a lovely Valentine's with loved ones and remember the day is about love for all not for guilt.

Origami Helmet

My oldest daughter has been working on this project on and off for a while.  At times it drove me nuts with little bits of paper all over the place.  But she was being creative.  She designed the helmet herself.  Yes it does fit her head. The design is that of a Phoenix  interesting that she sort of made it an ice Phoenix (which does not exist except in her head)instead of a fire one.

Over Thanksgiving break she finished it.  The reason she decided to finish it was so that she could enter it into an art show the same on the fairy house was entered into.  At the time I am writing this post i have been notified that she got best of show for this but I am not able to tell her.  So this is set to post several days after I have written it so that she can be notified in front of her entire school.  The people that judge the show noticed our last name on several entries and stated it must be a very talented family.  The part i love about this is that my children this year two out of three are not in art classes but doing their own things and these are the items they came up with.

This is a video tutorial that shows the way she folded these little bits of paper to make this item.  This technique if you Google it usually called a 3d fold in origami.

My children have made me easter eggs in the past using this technique with lots of different colored pieces of paper.  sometimes they use the computer mishaps when printing if you do that just make sure the ink part is on the inside when folded if you want a clean look.

Happy Easter

I hope everyone has a lovely Easter. I am thinking of my mother-in-law and my Vavo this day and salvation.  Just sort of odd without them I guess this is the starting point of new traditions with my children.

Knit Easter Eggs/Teaching middle daughter to knit

My middle daughter has been fighting me for about 2 years on learning to knit.   She always says she wants the stuff I knit and I keep telling her she can make it herself if she learns to knit, I do give her stuff but i was trying to get her to learn something new.   Which of course  she says she will never do, knit that is.   Well this very same daughter loves amigurumi....I had an idea brewing for a while on this...

Brown Easter eggs for dyeing

If you use brown eggs instead of white with your traditional Easter egg dyes you will get richer colored eggs.  Here I will show both white and brown eggs dyed with the same dye I have let my eggs set in the dye bath for 10 mins.

 

Supplies and how too

• Easter egg dying kit (just the basic from the grocery store) use as described on package
• Brown and white eggs boiled as usual
• Let eggs set in dye for 5 to 10 mins.

 

If you like the speckled look of the eggs pull out after only 3 mins.  Other wise leave in longer for a jewel tone look to your eggs.  Here are my eggs that I dyed in alternating rows of brown eggs and white with the colors used above each other so you can compare the colors for your self and see the difference the color of the starting egg makes on the finished item.

How-To silk tie colored Easter eggs

Supplies

• lots of  raw eggs
• Glass or enamel pot
• colored and patterned scrapes (big enough to cover egg)from any thing (Silk ties, blouses) (someone suggested silk boxers (ewww not going there))
• Scraps of clean white cotton cloth can be old tee shirts  or muslin (cut big enough to cover egg once it is covered with silk)
• Rubber bands or Twist ties to secure fabric on egg
• 3 tablespoons of white vinegar (to place in water with raw eggs)
• Warm water (to boil eggs)
• Vegetable oil (to make eggs shine)
• Paper towels (to use with oil)
• Tongs or spoon (to remove eggs from water)

Instructions

1. Cut silk into a piece large enough to wrap around a raw egg doesn't have to bee neatly cut but you can if you want cut nice squares but not needed

2. Wrap a raw egg with a piece of silk, the printed side of the fabrice should be touching the eggs surface meaning right side of fabric touching the egg wrong side out.  This isn't a science experiment if the piece you cut isn't exactly right still use it

3. Place the silk-wrapped egg in a piece of clean white cloth and secure tightly with rubber bands or  twist-ties which ever you have

Dying and cooking

• In pot place all the wrapped eggs
• cover eggs completely with water
• add three tablespoons of white vinegar to the water
• Bring water to a boil, turn heat down, and simmer for 20 -30 minutes go with the longer time if you want to eat the eggs and not just have a decoration.
• Remove eggs from water with tongs or spoon
• Set a side to let cool
• after eggs are completely cooled remove all fabric  (the white cotton and colored silk)

For Shiny eggs add this step

• add oil to paper towel and rub all over egg  making sure to wipe off excess this is just a hint of oil

If you are not going to eat the eggs and just let them sit out to dry ( yes this can be done with the boiled egg  than you can use a clear acrylic finish on it but not if you plan on eating these)
You can find lots of silk shirts and ties and such a t thrift stores and places that sell second hand items

The  silk can be used several times to dye the eggs just gets a little lighter with each use.

gloves to bow

I started to make a pair of lace gloves Sunday made out of size 40 thread and a size 14 steel crochet hook.  It just kept not being right but I kept working at it  thinking it is my imagination It is a pattern I have not done before so I just don't know where it is going yet right.  Once I got the front of 3 fingers done on both hands.  I just kept looking at them thinking these still look a little big and even if it has a mesh that goes around the back of the fingers that will pull them tighter and shorter it is still not going to be right.  So debating if I wanted to frog 8 hours of work  and start over  well I decided I would start over.  I couldn't bring myself to frog what I had done to much time with such small thread.  So then I debated on putting it in my sampler book as just an oh well learning experience sort of memory.  Then I was playing with it and decided that it would make an OK bow for my kids hair.  So I got out an elastic for the hair and stated crocheting it too it and pulling the back of the hands parts in  and left the finger parts dangling for ribbon tails for the bow.  This is probably the most expensive hair item I have ever made on accident.  I have made things much more elaborate for the hair that I meant to make and so it was expected.  But when I thought I was making me new fine lace gloves for Easter and I end up with a little girls hair bow something just seems missing.  I will go back to making those gloves again.  But probably not till Saturday or Sunday when I sit down to watch the LDS General conference meetings with my family.  In the end I get happy children as they get a new item to wear that mom made so all is good with hugs and kisses from three little girls who get something new.  Wish I had taken a picture of it before I turned it into the bow so you could see from where to where it went.  When I make the next set I will stop at the point that I was at and post what these looked like before it became a bow.  Images from Beetlejuice keep going through my head now.  If you have seen the movie you might know why.

update:

here are the photos of what the fingers of the glove looked like before becoming the hair bow.

 

peter cotton tail progress

peter cotton tail progress, originally uploaded by sunshine's creations.

Haven't shown any thing on this in a little while. Thought a few of you might be interested in Peter's progress towards completion.

My sister's flowers

My sister had some very lovely flowers in her yard over Easter.

The above photo was taken by my husband all the rest in this post are taken by me.

What we had in our yard over Easter was snow.

Amazing what driving 5 to 6 hours south does for the climate.

Happy Easter

Hope your day is filled with family and friends!

14+ yards of garland

I had tons of green yoyos sitting around and about 1 year ago I made short garlands out of them. Well yesterday I decided that they are not very useful in short lengths so I joined them all together to make this one very long garland that is over 14 yards in length. Now to figure out where to hang it for the holidays and hey it would work for St. Patricks day too.

Here is a cute Christmas tree made out of yoyos and some Easter eggs too.

Easter bunny house

I know Easter is over, but I for got to show the cookie house my kids made. Figured I better take a photo today because the kids are aching to eat it now that Easter is over. My kids love making these things; you can usually find a kit at Easter, Halloween and Christmas at most grocery stores. It is a no brainier for the mom; the frosting is all made and the candies come with it, too.

The very top photo is of the box front, the other two are what my kids did. It may not be as fancy as the one in the picture, but who wants to eat a cookie house after you take a photo of it sitting in the grass with strategically placed freesia (the yellow flower in the photo on the box)? So I think this is better, no bugs have crawled on it for a pretty photo and the kids still want to eat it.

Easter Dresses

Well, all the dresses and pantaloons are finished and they got to wear them on Easter. The middle daughter decided to share her lace, so all three dresses have hand-crocheted lace around their bodice that the middle daughter made. I snapped the photos before they got done getting ready to go to grandma's on Monday (we had a delayed Easter because of weather).

Youngest:

Youngest showing off pantaloons:

Middle:

Oldest:

All three:

I also made an apron for me to wear with a pocket to put the eggs in, but the girls required me to make a skirt for me to match them. I have never matched them before, so this is a first. I will have to get someone to take a picture of me later and add it. Ok, here is the photo; not the best picture, but an 11 year old took it. My apron hem is crooked. I will probably never wear the skirt again, but I will the apron. I will make the skirt into something else, maybe another apron.

Home repairs in the works

This is what my husband, my brother-in-law (Seth), and I did on the Saturday before Easter. The colors of these primers in the photos are a half tint, so the rooms will be much darker when finished. My husband grew up in a house painted all white. The one exception was his bedroom; it was the only room painted a color (blue, about the shade of blue the bathroom is in these photos). I grew up in houses with wall paper, meaning lots of color and designs on the walls. It has always bothered me that we have lived in homes that are all one color. So, since we have to re-do our old home, we decided we would add color to the house. My husband still isn't fond of wall paper, so we compromised; lots of color in paint. We will have white trim in all of these rooms. We have already painted the ceilings ultra pure white, much better than the dirty eggshell color that was there before. (By the way, the color you do see on the walls in the masking photos is what our tenant put up, and I hate the colors -- very dirty, muddy colors.)

Masking up the house:

Kitchen.

View from front room to kitchen.

Girls' room.

Master bedroom

Upstairs bath.

Front room (gotta love the make-do painter's stilts. My husband wanted to buy some real ones but couldn't find anyone who had them in stock locally).

Oops, it broke!

Kitchen.

Once again the colors on the walls right now are the primer which is a 1/2 tint to the real color. This is not the final colors of these rooms; they will be much brighter and deeper colors except the girls' room; I don't think dusty periwinkle will ever be very dark.

Kitchen hall washroom= sunshine yellow (gotta love the colors name). I picked this color.

Girls room = periwinkle; youngest daughter picked this color.

Master bedroom = hunter green; husband picked this color.

Upstairs bathroom = china blue; husband picked this color.

Front room = crimson red; I picked this color.

This room isn't primed yet because it and the kitchen over lap walls because of bull nose corners, so we have to have the kitchen completely painted and masked before we can even start to paint this room. The primer for this room is gray because you do not use pink as a half tint for such a dark red color.

It looks like the Easter bunny attacked my husband's head. It is round, like an egg, but much scarier painted.

I asked, but he said his neck didn't hurt from where the face mask strap hit his neck. Sure looks like it hurt a ton.