Week 10

Still catching up...

Our dear friends from the UK came by for the night. Every time Gwen and I get together, we inevitably make something. This time, I showed her an ipod stand that I saw on Etsy. We batted around ideas on how it was made. Gwen was ready to go home and make a pattern from a PG Tips tea bag. Then it came to her. My machine was set up and ready to go, so we made a few prototypes and eventually came up with what we wanted. Check it out. Super simple!

Week 9

The Brown family going away gift was pretty special, if you ask me. I took pictures of letters that are in different places around our village. The B is from the local backerei (bakery), R from our favorite restaurant.....you get the drift. I would hope that our friends look back on the places they have driven past or been to these past couple of years with fond memories. We sure will miss them!

A Rough Week

I am a little behind in the crafting department. Last week was one of the hardest weeks of my life.

Tuesday, our dear friends moved back to the States. How I will miss Claudia's laugh and our easy conversations. She has a wicked sense of humor and is the life of any party!

Thursday, by far, the hardest day of my life, thus far. Our dear Gracie girl died. I am still grieving for my first baby. It sounds ridiculous, but she was my Gracie Girl. She died peacefully that afternoon. I don't wish this situation on my worst enemy. My heart hurts and I miss her dearly. She was an old girl, and just slept most of the day, but I miss the jingling of her tags, her velvet ears, her chestnut brown eyes, her purring noise when she stretched and a million other things. A coworker gave me "Dog Heaven" by Cynthia Rowland to read to Henry. It was a sweet book. A part of the book mentioned that Angel Children walk the Angel Dogs back to earth so they can check up on their families. Mark made me feel good the other day. He said he sometimes sees her in the corner or basking in the ray of sun that comes in through the front window. An Angel Child must be walking our girl. She is checking up on us to make sure we are ok. I like to think that- it comforts me.

And to finish the horrible week, Mark had shoulder surgery. He was a star patient and is now comfortably recovering at home.

So forgive me if I am a few weeks behind. Life is throwing some curve balls and I'm not a good ball player.

Gracie Woodbury Stowe
October 14, 1996- March 4, 2010

Week 8

Baby gift 2. Another coworker had a baby at the beginning of January. I finally got my act together and finished up her baby gift. I was under a deadline, as this week was the first time I saw her since her maternity leave. Here is the final product. These canvases are about 5x7 and they spell her daughter's name. I don't like how the ribbon came out when they are flat; kind of arched. But, once they are hung (I figured on a peg or even a white, round drawer pull) they come to a point and look better. I printed a font that I liked, then transferred it onto the canvas (which was already primed). In acrylic paint, the background is pastel colors of the nursery, the letters brown and the stuff on the letters is in cream. I was pleased with how they eventually turned out.

Fasching 2010

O's Kindergarten celebrated Fasching (Mardi Gras) on Thursday. Each classroom had a theme. O's was Snow White and the 7 Dwarfs. (I am not going to attempt to translate that into German. I do know that dwarf is zwerge, since I have been hearing O say it. Alot!) My first question was how do I made my 3 foot child look like a dwarf? Seems redundant to me. I went to the Thrift Shop and bought a pair of pants, shirt and belt figuring I could do something with that. I cut the pants, he wore strumpfhosen underneath them (sweater type tights that every German child wears, I believe), belted the shirt, crafted a hat out of the material I bought for H's Yoda Halloween costume and finally, made a beard and mustache. I just hot glued cotton balls onto pipe cleaners for the facial hair. O loved it, but was camera shy when it came to showing off the outfit. He even kept it on at home. Not bad for my $3.50 'custoon' as O calls it.

Owen not happy about showing his zwerge self....


And the only men in the house with facial hair at this time (at least for a few hours)...

Week 7

I am heading out to Berlin for a Girls Weekend, so thought I would add Week 7's project.

I am diligently working on a project for a teacher friend. She wanted seat back pockets. They are tricky to figure out. So, the next week will be spend perfecting them. (They may count for a few weeks. My brain is quivering with all the math I've been doing!)

Anyway, the fabulous Cristina told me about these little beauties that she is creating from her stash of yarn. They are so easy! I whipped a few up to give to H's teacher for Valentines Day. We had off today (yahoo!), and the kids don't head back until Wednesday because of a Teacher Workday. So she won't get them for a bit. I made them into pins and thought it would be sweet to pin them to a card with the saying, "Thank you for helping me blossom." The yarn that I used came from England. When I worked there, I set up a visiting artist that came and showed the students all about fiber art. She got the wool from a farmer in Scotland, I believe. Then she washed, carded, dyed it. All by hand. I find that amazing! She had extra that she passed along. The yarn is variegated and just beautiful to touch. The only down side is that Cristina came over today and saw the blossoms. (She was proud of her student, I hope!) She tried on the blue on and it is simply too heavy to wear. I think that I will have to take the pin back off and keep the flower for a bag or something else that I can actually sew it to. It just droops as a pin. But the pink ones are darling on! I just finished a greenish one too. They are quick, easy and fun. Though the weather is snowy, I may be coming back from my very long train ride with alot of flowers!

Week 6

I needed to add to the baby shower gift for a colleague. I decided to make some burp cloths. I had to improvise and buy regular flannel receiving blankets as backing. I cut them and doubled them up, then added some lovely Kaffe Fassett fabric on the opposite side. Sewed all 3 (2 layers flannel and fabric) together, turned right side out, then zig-zag stitched around the outside. I think they turned out great. They are long and thin, so in a pinch, could even be used as a changing pad. The colors didn't turn out as great as in person. The flannel is lilac and pink. They look pretty washed out in the pictures. But you get the idea, right?