Haiti Relief Fundraiser Update

WOW!

So far, we have raised around $500 to donate to Haiti!!! That is so exciting :) I think I will continue do this for a few more weeks. Thank you to everyone who has purchased a necklace or passed my name on to someone else.

I was up really late on Saturday night making a whole pile of necklaces and my wonderful mother & aunts bought a whole bunch of them.

Here are some of the latest that I have to sell if you are still looking for one :)

Not the best photo as I took it with my cell phone, but hopefully you can get the idea. These also come with an 18" or 24" chain necklace.

Thanks Again!!

Fun in the Sun

Here is how we spent last week when we were in sunny Arizona:

Spending time with our BFF

(that's what Sophia told grandma last week)
Swimming in a outdoor pool

Eating on outdoor patios
(this one is next to the London Bridge)

Riding the Ferris Wheel

Driving through mountains.

We did a lot more, including driving to Phoenix to hang with my cousin and his family for the day, but I still need to get that photo from my mother. We also ate at the best place EVER when we were there. Joe's Farm Grill. I highly recommend it.

Carnival of Fictional Amusement

You can find Mr. Nine(and many others) at Pirate Gallery in Denver. The Opening is February 19th and the show runs until the 28th. You can purchase the riders and have Corn Dogs and Jelly Beans!! You should really check it out if you are in the area. Matt and his Wife Shawnna are the nicest people I have ever met, you will feel like you have known them forever!

More info: Pirate Gallery

You can read a review in the Westword: Here

Mr. Nine

I am still doing the HATI RELIEFFUNDRAISER, click Here to find it

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My friend Matt is having a Gallery show this coming weekend over at Pirate Contemporary Art in Colorado. They are having a "Carnival of Fictional Amusement" and invited some people to create a "rider"

Mr. Nine is what we came up with.

He is made out of upholstery fabrics and has vintage Ric Rac for his mouth.

We also made him a "9" necklace(one of the fundraiser ones) that matched the color of his arms.

Sophia drew a picture of him on the outside of the box so Matt knew he was coming. She was really quite sad to put him in a box and ship him away.

Valetine's Pancakes

Steve was sweet enough to make us these heart shaped pancakes on Sunday and they even tasted better than they looked!

Valentines Cards

****HAITI RELIEF FUNDRAISER info posted below*****

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These are the Valentine's that we made up for Sophia's class this year.

We matched the topper color with the same colored heart sticker inside.
She also helped to fold over the tops, staple them together and then helped to stamp the "you rock my world" stamp at the top.

Haiti Relief Fundraiser - Scrabble Tile Pendants

OK so here is the fun part!!

I decided instead of just donating my $10, $20 or $50 to help Haiti I figured that if I make something crafty & fun with that money and sell it instead, that my money could go a lot further.

So I have created a whole lot of these awesome Scrabble Tile Necklaces, made from reclaimed scrabble tiles(see the back photo below) and have listed them on my Esty site. See the side bar on the right for the link to my etsy site and there is also a tab on my Facebook page.

***I AM DONATING 100% OF THE PROCEEDS TO THE HAITI FUND RELIEF***

-see the post below for where the money is going-

This is sample of one of them close up, they are all different(but most of them can be reproduced if it has already sold).

Here is the back view

This is a thumbnail collage of a sample of them, click to see it larger. There are many more available, if you are looking for something specific just let me know.


Every order comes with the scrabble tile charm and a chain necklace, either 18" or 24"- see below photo for the difference in lengths.

There are also kids necklaces and any of them can be made into a key chain style.

**IF YOU ARE LOCAL TO MINNEAPOLIS**

*If you do not already have and do not want to set up an Esty account(it's super easy & safe) and would like to meet me instead, then I can discount the normal shipping charges or you can donate that amount to the Haiti Fund.
*Or I can include the cute little round silver container shown above.
*Another payment option is that I can send you a bill through Paypal.


THANK YOU FOR TAKING THE TIME TO CONSIDER MY FUNDRAISER

Just in time for Valentine's day :)

*please see my post below*

Haiti Relief Fundraiser

I really want to help and my way of doing that is doing a fundraiser, but giving something in return. Stay tuned for the plan to come....

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Haiti

What does it mean to you? I'm pretty sure it means something different to all of us at this point. Some of us feel sad for them, but Haiti seems so far away and it's easy to forget about it after a few weeks. Some of us appreciate our safety, our families and our homes a little more than we used to. I bet a lot of us are thankful to be in a safe and secure nation such as ours.

I wondered what I could do to help, to make it a little more personal, to know where my help would be going.

Our church has worked with Pastor Dio in Port-au-Prince for the past 20 years and they typically do mission trips there multiple times a year. We have helped them to build and continue to support a special needs home called The Mephibosheth House. In fact we had a church team down in Port-au-Prince when the earthquake hit. At this time Pastor Dio has moved most of the special needs children to a safe place in Tricotte and have moved in 35 families who have lost their homes and basically everything they have ever owned in the earthquake.

Open Door has set up a Haiti Relief Fund to be distributed by Pastor Dio where help is needed the most. He is a real, trusted, honest person living in this everyday and seeing where the needs are the greatest. He is down there doing what he can to help those around him.

For more information about this you can go to this link at Church of the Open Door.

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Not everyone belongs to a church, not everyone believes in God, but most of us WANT to help somehow and with every one's extra funds a little low these days, it's nice to know that the money will go directly to HELP the people.

Scrabble Tile Pendants

I have picked up another new hobby!! Scrabble Tile Pendant necklaces. I bought one at a craft sale we did last November & really thought they were cool. I figured that I already had most of the items to make a few for myself and the kiddos.

So we have made some of them necklaces and some of them key chains for the kids backpacks or wherever they want to clip them on to.

I am thinking about using these for a **Haiti Relief Fundraiser** Stay tuned for more info!

Bee Mine Tea Holder

I saw this cute tea bag holder on Lollychops blog and thought it might be fun to make these with my daughter. I found this stamp in the $ section at Michael's and thought it would be easy for my daughter to color for her valentines for her kindergarten class.

Lollychops version had a lot more detail, but I wanted to keep it simple so we could repeat it 25 times.

You can find the pattern and directions over at Lollychops

Blast Off

I recently purchased this awesome Space/Rocket stamp set at Michael's and I think it's by Recollections. The paper is some co-ordinating stuff that they have out right now too.

I stamped some of the stars on the envelope to add a little more fun to it all.
I frayed the edges of the burgundy and the cream colored papers by using my X-Acto knife on the edges.

I stamped the Happy Birthday(I think they are K.I. clear stamps) and then colored it in with colored pencils. I stamped some random stars around on the card for balance and colored them also.

I stamped the rocket and then colored it with colored pencils and added Diamond Glaze to the window and the very tip to make them shine.

Here is the weekend sketch challenge that I based my card upon. It is a pretty literal version of the layout, but I think it will work good for a fun boys birthday card.

Valentine's Heart Craft

Here is an easy & fun craft to do with kids. I found the directions on Martha Stewart's website.

Start with a sheet of waxed paper folded in half the long way and put crayon shavings in the middle of it. We found out after the next step that this was not enough shavings. It works better with thicker shavings and in multiple shades. But be careful not to make too many shavings or they will ooze out the sides.

Then I cut a paper bag in half and put one half under the wax paper and the other on top of it and then ironed on top to melt the crayons underneath of it. They melt pretty quickly so check it often.
This is how one of ours turned out. Then the kids traced hearts on the wax paper and cut them out.

We are going to take down the snowflakes that we made and hang up the new hearts in the window instead. My nephew wants to cover his whole bedroom door with them!

Close up pic.

Part Way Done

Here is the project that I started and still need to "save".

Here is the part that I embroidered for my buddy GoldyLocks. I traced the guitar off of the fabric in a funky matching green color and then I traced her logo font around the guitar and embroidered that.

I could really use a light box, because I held this brown fabric up to my lamp shade and tried to trace it that way...
I want to make this into a pillow with the guitar fabric on the sides, but I cut it a little too small trying to master the Rotary Cutter/Ruler thing. I will try to find some other fabric that matches and make it work. I just hope it doesn't look too county, as she is a total rock chick!

New Phone Holder

I'm not even sure how I came across this tutorial, but when I saw it, I just knew I had to make it.

My husband went out to get me a new phone the other day & it's one of those really nice touch screen phones. I have to say that I really do enjoy having a phone that works, plus has talking GPS, Internet, email, Pandora, Facebook etc... Then he(and other family members) decided that I really needed a Bluetooth for talking and driving. Only now I needed a place to put them both together in one place so that I didn't misplace that crazy small earpiece.

Then I found this tutorial and directions for making a phone/camera holder & decided I needed to make it! I found it over at Sew Mama Sew's website: Sew Mama Sew Tutorial

It is really quite simple and you can even use scraps! The fabric I used(by Alexander Henry) was leftover from the other project I am still working on. I even improvised because I didn't have any batting to use for the lining but I did have a scrap of fleece I found in my "Pile of Scraps That I Will Use One Day".

The photo is turned for some reason but you get the idea. I just sewed along the edge of the fleece instead of trimming it afterwards. Now, I come from an upholstery background and we just make it up as we go & then steam the heck out it at the end :) haha
Here is the final product! I also have an industrial sewing machine that really doesn't do too well on light weight fabrics and it's nearly impossible to sew along the very edge of something because the machine will "eat" the edge. But this is for my own personal use & not to give or sell and I am pleased with how it turned out. My fancy phone peaking out. Perfect fit.

Holly Jolly Towel

This is a sweet towel that I embroidered for my sister-in-law's aunt. She wanted three towels with simple holly patterns and this is what I came up with.

In the Works

This is a sneak peak of something that I am working on for my friend Goldy who sings. It's a part of her Christmas presents that I am sending down to her. She is so busy I am sure she doesn't read this blog so she will still be surprised when she gets it.

I cut a part of it smaller than I wanted to so I will have to see how I can "save" it and then I will show you what it's become.