January Pinterest Club

January Pinterest Club was definately well attended. These are some of the examples of the Valentine's Board we did. My niece, Shelby, did the light gray above, & I really like the way it turned out!

I like this dark gray one as well. I am making mine very similar to this one above. The stencils were cut with the Silhouette Cameo. I really like the versatility of the machine. I like that I can cut any font, any size that I might have on my computer. I also like that they made it Apple compatible, since the first version was not. I do think that the Silhouette is fairly easy to use, and cuts a little better than the Cricut machine that I have. 

One of the other projects that we did were these frames. They are 15" x 15" square, with an 8" x 8" opening. The stencils, again, were cut using the Silhouette Cameo, using binder cover for the stencil material. I would say that it did very well, holding up wonderfully project after project. We only had a couple minor problems.  One, on a few, some of the sticky tape used to connect the binder covers together making it large enough, would come apart. The second thing, was actually with the person doing the stenciling, and it was in using too much paint on their brush, or using a sponge stencil applicator instead of an actual stencil brush. 

I love this chevron look!

I have to say, the stencil brush does do a significantly better job than that of a stencil applicator sponge. This frame above, in the blue and periwinkle, was done by my daughter, Haylee. Some of the trim was hand cut, and it did give it a very cute look. She did a great job. 

The black and white frames are also a favorite! I haven't actually done mine yet, and I don't know exactly what color I am going to choose! 

The third project we did was a burlap pillow with a stitched ribbon heart. It was so cute, but I neglected to get a pic of it before my friend who did it went home. There was definately a giant amount of work for Pinterest Club this time. If I had to do it again, I think I would limit the amount of frames that could be ordered, as most people weren't able to finish theirs anyway, and it just was a little too much! 

However, they all turned out amazing! They even looked great in a solid color only!

Happy crafting!

The Craftermath of Pinterest Club Prep

Pinterest Club for January is happening this Thursday. That is in 2 days, and the 58 frames are finally done. I think next time there will be a limit on how many people can order. These beauties are 15" x 15" with an 8" x 8" opening. They cost about 6 dollars to make, and although they don't have them now, each will be dressed up with some paint, stencil work and a bit of trim. So excited for mine to be done. Loved the ones we saw on Pinterest, although they were a bit smaller.

My husband says that "this" (meaning the picture above) is the craftermath. Craftermath is whatever is left after you make stuff from Pinterest. Funny honey!

Happy crafting!

Project Life Week #3

So, after showing the kids, Project Life: Week 3, this is what I got. "Hey, there aren't any pictures of me!" - from Alyssa. Apparently they need to be in every week's worth of pictures. Nobody told me that. :)

With the new 2013 YW Curriculum, we have been really trying to find ways to improve our teaching. The LDS church offers so much on their site, www.lds.org, for the new curriculum, "Come Follow Me", but we also were looking at some additional types of helps. The CES system, for institute and seminary, lets you log in with your church login that you use for lds.org. With that, there is so much more that is available if that's what you want. That is where the above flyer came from. I especially loved all the tips on how to ask pertinent questions...how to come up with them, and the suggestions they give for doing so. LOVE it! So, I thought I would share it with you as well. To print the above flyer, click HERE.

Hope you have a fab day!

Project Life Week #2

Here is my Project Life Week #2. I am a bit late posting this, as we are now in week #3, but here goes anyway! I am finding it a lot easier to get the "little stuff" written down, and it certainly makes me conscious of how many pictures of my kids I am not taking. So, on the whole, I think I am liking this Project Life thing.

Craft Room Organization, Pinterest Craft With a Little Gardening Thrown In

Check it out! I love it! This was a pinterest craft find...from Little Birdie Secrets. So easy. She even has a short tutorial. That's the best.

This is what has taken up most of the time since Christmas...the dreaded workroom clean out! I have been purging through every craft item and finding ways to make the space I have more useable, since, as everyone knows, a craft person will fill every nook and cranny and then need even more space. I think I probably could have gone through everything a second time as well, but this is as good as it gets for now.

As you can see, I have a space for the sewing machines so that they are easily reachable to use, but still are not continuously sitting on my work table. That has been pretty great. I do have cases for them, but then I never seem to want to put them back in...it's so much hassle. And they do get used on a weekly basis, so it's not like they are just sitting there gathering dust.

I put a piece of glass on this table due to make it easier to scrape paint off it, and also due to the soldering irons that I use sometimes for jewelry. I had one out on the table and the heat caused the paint to bubble slightly. That was when I knew I had to invest in a glass top. Pier1 has them for a good price, which was where this one came from.

In the corner of the room, you can just see the new ribbon organizer I found at Joann's for 40 percent off (around $13). These are, by far, the best way to organize ribbon that I have seen. And, as you can see, I already need one more. (grimace)

This little tomato starts are doing pretty well, considering one of the grow light bulbs is burned out, and I am needing to rotate the trays around to make sure each plant gets enough light. Supposedly the replacement bulbs have shipped. (wink, wink) We shall see. Be that as it may, from the picture above, you can see that they are just getting their 2nd set of leaves. This is about the time that they can start receiving some liquid plant food. As these little guys will grow, those larger leaves, their first ones, will actually start to turn yellow and fall off. They have those so they can get enough nutrients to get their true leaves and then when they have them, these first ones aren't needed anymore. So don't be alarmed it you see that happening. It's perfectly normal.

Well, Pinterest Club has been rescheduled to next Thursday, January 24th. We had a little trouble finding enough wood at the surrounding stores to make the frames from. What is up with that? Additionally, there were people requesting frames up to last night, and it is just a little difficult to make 43 frames overnight. It's not like we are getting paid for it, either.

So, that's all for today. Happy crafting, and gardening!

Icicles & Cold Weather in Arizona

I'm not sure if you can see it well or not, but there are actually icicles on our fountain in the back yard. It was 25 degrees fahrenheit for the last couple of nights. That is unheard of here in Gilbert, AZ. However, even though I was a little worried about the chickens, of course, they were totally fine.

However, this was what the ficus tree across the street, in the neighbor's yard looked like Sunday morning (yesterday am). Apparently, someone at a nearby nursery told him that if he ran an oscillating sprinkler all night on his plants, the water would freeze and then the frozen water would not allow the tree to drop below 32 degrees fahrenheit. Not sure if that is correct info or not, but it sure made a memorable tree. As I was talking to the neighbor about his tree, some of the giant icicles you can see, on the bottom right of the tree, fell and crashed on the ground in a loud noise. I laughed all the way to church! So funny!

They (the weather people on TV) say it hasn't been this cold since 1988, & I believe it! Tonite it is supposed to reach freezing temperatures by 10:00pm. We actually had to break down and buy a blanket for my daughter's horse. It is just too cold. Tonite all the baby chicks and the silkie are locked in the enclosed section of the coop with a lamp on them in there. The rest are roosting up at the top of the coop, next to a heat lamp. They will all be fine. I think I might just not go anywhere tomorrow. Good thing we don't live in the midwest! (chuckle).

AZ Cold Weather & Chickens

Oh my gosh!! It is supposed to get into the mid 20's tonite & that is a rare occurrence here in Arizona. My littlest chickens that are a few months old are under a heat lamp, with plenty of deep bedding. I think they should be fine. The other 3 are roosting up at the top of the coop near the eaves next to another heat lamp and I am pretty sure they should be fine. We have a white silkie bantam, and the silkies cannot fly. Their wings are just too short. This one, her name is Bambi, usually burrows down into a little hole she has dug out. I am worried she won't be fine. I tried to move her in with the little chickens, but she just wants to peck at them, which isn't good. I finally ended up moving her into an enclosable section of the coop where there won't be a draft and there is plenty of deep bedding. I won't like it much if I go out there and find chicken popsicle in the am! (JK...kind of terrible I know...all I can say is my husband's humor must be rubbing off after 22 years.) Can you tell I obsess, just a little?