Festive Feelings

 It's beginning to look like Christmas . . . 

I'm curious about what that means exactly; is it the lights, the decorations, the UPS, FedEx, USPS, and Amazon trucks speeding around? Whatever it is, I'm feeling a little bit of festive especially since I finished writing in and addressing Christmas cards to our friends and family and dropped them at the Post Office.

It was fun to make these cards once I got my mojo! I even decorated the envelopes. Fortunately, I had gotten some inspiration (and materials) from my lovely Stampin'Up! demonstrator. The only downside to getting over 20 cards out was that my writing got progressively worse because of arthritis pain in my hands; ah, well! Old age manifests in odd and sometimes inconvenient ways! Speaking of old age, my 71st birthday was December 7th, and although I'm not wild about heading into my 70's, my day was happily passed with greetings from friends and family . . . all the love reminds me that life is something to treasure. 

I've not done much on the sewing/quilting projects the last few weeks which needs to be remedied. There was the interruption of shopping for and wrapping gifts, decorating the tree, making cards, and just generally being lazy! Thing is, I've found that I can manage doing one, maybe two, tasks (besides getting meals on the table and doing the laundry) in a day and then I'm done and have to sit and, well, read or knit or stare into space . . . !! 

We purchased Emergency Roadside kits to give to kids and grandkids and I wrapped all of those (ten) and shipped three off to faraway grandkids (Texas and Arizona). I am pretty pleased with the little tags I made for each of them:

I made two of the top tags for two of our single grandsons, seven of the middle tags for married couples, and the bottom tag for our cowboy grandson who has a truck (couldn't fit a horse trailer on!) and two dogs.

I have such a huge assortment of stamps and colored pencils which I was able to put to good use on these. I still have three gift tags to make for three of our great grandchildren's gifts. Really, I should think about making stuff like this in January or at least earlier than a day before gifts have to be distributed! Maybe next year . . . haha!

Speaking of next year, there is hope on the horizon for a little more stability here in the US of A. And, the prospect of vaccinating the population for COVID-19 is heartening too. We have personally weathered the pandemic storm so far without any ill effects but are saddened by the deaths of a few friends and of course all of the thousands of people who have died leaving families grieving their loss. Our prayer is that 2021 will be kinder and that everyone will cherish each other and live each day to the fullest.

Ordinary days still here on Vine and looking forward to many more. Happy Christmas and blessings in the new year!

Hazel

Furtling First

Archie the Wonder Dog has made my day . . . and possibly my year! I came across this fabulous idea just yesterday (the 3rd of Feb here in the USA) and am going to join in. I'm one of those mentioned that has neglected my blog and, like Archie, I love the idea of more in-depth looks at crafty projects than can be seen over at Instagram.

So, without further ado, a words and photos compendium of my January 2019 crafty projects:

First off, we received some lovely Christmas gifts that called for a show of gratitude and so I pulled out my stamps and inks and made thank you cards. Since around October, I haven't done too much paper crafting (card making), and so it was kind of a fun switch to play with the inks. The card design is CASE'd from Susanne Netz at Sunn Stampin. I pulled out my StampinUp! inks, an old doily stamp from Close to My Heart, and a sentiment stamp from Simon Says Stamp. Thanks, Susanne, for the color combination!

(My kitchen counter, background, sure looks PINK! It's really not.)

These notes got posted by the 7th of January and I was on to sewing projects. 

I do love Pinterest and probably (definitely actually!) spend entirely too much time there. At any rate, I've "pinned" many inspiring things and, wonder of wonders, have managed to DO some of them. Warming bowls of soup in the microwave often results in burnt fingers and when I saw a tutorial for the very clever microwave bowl cozies, I had to try one out. It took a bit longer than I expected but now that I've made one, I think it'll go faster and my plan is to make more for gifts (next Christmas?).

Used some lovely batik from my stash.

By the way, it works beautifully and my husband even uses it to heat up his bowl of instant oatmeal.

Two of our six great grandchildren had birthdays in January and having spotted this tutorial for a child-sized beanbag chair, I lost my marbles and decided to make one for the six-year-old. Yes, what was I thinking?? However, once I got it finished, I was pleased with the results and put in the back of my mind that I'd make a couple more (for March and June birthdays). I had to ship it and finding a box that would accommodate its bulk was a trick - and then there was the postage . . . 

Once it arrived at the destination and our granddaughter sent a photo of the happy boy, I was satisfied with my efforts!

Top left: Interior bag; Top right: Outside removable cover; Bottom: Detail of top

The happy birthday boy.

Our other January birthday child was going to be one-year-old on the 19th; a birthday party was planned for the 27th and so that gave me a bit more time to craft her gift. We went into the city one afternoon and stopped at Cracker Barrel Old Country Store for a meal. While there we purchased a child-sized rocking chair for the birthday girl. I had the perfect fabric in mind to make cushions for it and by the 25th the chair was dressed and ready. This tutorial from DIY Candy (that yes, was a Pinterest find) I adapted for the seat and back cushions . . . easy peasy. 

The fabric is Sage Glen Paper Dolls The Alexander Henry Fabrics Collection from 2003 and was purchased for a quilt class I took back in 2004. I never made the quilt (had fun with my friends though) and, in fact, sent the class instructions and fabric to my sister in New Zealand. She never made the quilt either and this last October she sent it back to me! 

Turns out I was very, very ill on the day of the party; my husband took the little chair though and reported back that perhaps the birthday girl was too young to know what it was. However, our granddaughter (baby girl's mommy) was pleased.

Speaking of being ill - January started out pleasantly enough health wise but Monday, the 14th, I woke up and couldn't make a squeak! Laryngitis! That whole week and even into the next, I was barely able to whisper (which my husband thought was very pleasant indeed. Haha!) and then it morphed into a head cold and by the 27th stomach flu (I guess). I took many naps over the duration; thank goodness I'm retired and didn't have to get up and go. I did miss out on quilt meeting and a couple Sunday worship services but managed to cook meals and do laundry (oh joy!). 

On January 14th Emily Dennis at Quilty Love kicked off a quilt along using her new pattern Quilty Hearts. I grabbed the pattern and by the 24th had my fabric picked, pieces cut, and a few blocks sewn. This, I thought, would make a fun project to use up some of my fabric stash and get back into my [unwritten] to do list of making a quilt a month . . . ACK! I'm already behind!  Anyhow, this completed quilt will show up for February's Furtle (fingers crossed). As of today, the first four rows and corner units are sewn together. Here's how it looked on the 24th:

I'm making a throw size which requires 50 heart blocks.

I chose these navy and teal fabrics from two fat quarter bundles I'd gotten back in 2014 - RJR Rotary Club and Moda Sunday Supper.

Our next door neighbor's daughter is going to be mommy to a baby girl any minute and I wanted to make up something for her. I had some minky fabric leftover from the wedding quilt (blog post here) and while at Joann's getting fabric for the beanbag chair, found an pre-patched fabric that would match perfectly and give me the opportunity to try Jenny Doan of Missouri Star Quilt Company's "even easier" self-binding baby blanket. Just a note - Minky is very hard to cut into a square! Anyway, it was for me. I made it work, though, and here are the results:

The soon-to-be grandma loves it.

So, that's it for my January Furtle. Hope I get this up in time!

Fresh Spring Color

The colors for Color Throwdown #488 are so beautifully fresh and I decided to go with a clean and simple take. Funny how CAS can take almost as long as something more complicated! ;)

Supplies used: 

Paper: SU Whisper White thick and regular

Ink: SU Daffodil Delight, Pool Party, Cool Cucumber; Versafine black

Stamp: SSS Thankful Hearts sentiment

Miscellaneous: SU Pattern Party Decorative Mask; SU Lovely Words Thinlits Die; Big Shot

Since Spring is still struggling here in the Rockies (see photo at the end of this post), I was inspired to do some more with the CTD 488 colors with this lighthearted card:

I had the Stampin'Up Pattern Party Decorative masks out anyway, so I stenciled the clouds on a piece of Pool Party cardstock, made up the sentiment in Silhouette (using Bodoni MT font), then stamped and cut kites and bows from SU Swirly Bird. This was lots of fun to do and I might just keep it around for my own enjoyment! haha!

Can't wait to see this next week's colors . . . this challenge has helped me get my mojo back! 8)

Spring in Northern Utah

Thanks for stopping by!

Something New

Just a quick post to declare my intent to participate in the weekly Color Throwdown Challenge. I've been wanting to do this for quite some time and just haven't gotten up the gumption but one of my goals this year is to ignore my fear-of-failure voice and dive in! I am also signed up for Lynn Palermo's Family History Writing Challenge 2018 but that is for another post.

Anyway, my cousin's birthday is coming up and I've had this idea floating around in my head to make a "little gray HARE" card. So, here's what I came up with:

CTD 477 - blue, orange, grey 

Inside - my handwriting since I couldn't find this humor among my stamps. LOL.

I used Distress Ink on Canson XL Watercolor paper for the image, StampinUp! Basket Bunch and Balloon Celebration stamps. Had some fun with this and am looking forward to next week's colors!

I did a card for CTD 476 which featured blue, khaki (beige), and white but didn't get it entered in time. Here it is:

Sent to my granddaughter who is going to college in a Arctic-like location!

Bye for now.