IN SHOP- Go Hawks!

Come check out the headbands I have been making over at The Happy Scrap. All made with recycled t-shirts, just in time for football season!! Go Hawks!...and I supposed that I could make other color combos as well if you prefer. :)

Check out these fun cuffs too! 

Stay tuned for more bright and fun colors. You didn't think I could get by with out doing a rainbow one now did you?!  :)

Love to Paint!

For those of you who did not know, one of my biggest passions in life is painting! There is something about the process that just makes me breathe a little better. It is relaxing, I feel like I am contributing creatively to this world, and it is so satisfying. I found a cool idea on pinterest to use vinyl adhesive letters; to paint over them and then remove them to show a quote/saying/verse.  So I put together these quick and simple paintings in an hour or so. I can not tell you how great it is when both kids nap at the same time and I am given a good hour or more to myself. This was a great day! I have wanted to put this verse above our door for sometime now. I thankfully had the perfect canvas upstairs to use. We are loving this!

And when Will woke up he shared my pallet. :)

NEW!- in shop...Back to School

It is just about back to school time and my shop is full of fun colorful accessories to jump start the year. Above is Will's "special new snack bag," as he calls it. :) We carry it everywhere!...and it is so much better, and more fun of course, then going through so many plastic baggies. I have a variety of different patterns to choose from and some fun sandwich wraps as seen below.

...and some felt crayon rolls!

There is nothing more exciting for my 2 year old than to whip this cool roll out while traveling or at a restaurant, etc...to keep him busy. He also just has fun organizing the crayons in the little pouches. :) You can check it all out over at my shop!

NEW!- in shop.

Just wanted to let you in on a couple new items in the shop! Banners, heart garland, and paper bunting...and there will be many more added soon. :) Hope you all have a splendid weekend!

The Happy Scrap...NOW OPENNED!

I have started a new Etsy store!! My goal for this shop is to use up as many of my scraps as possible and see how many beautiful things I can make with them to sell and go toward paying off some debt. I will be using up any and everything that I have including fabric, paper, wool, and really whatever has been hiding in my closets and drawers forever. :) So far I have some festive paper garland, yummy smelling lavender sachets, mini sketchbook sets, confetti, and a few bundles of scrap fabric for those of you who want to be creative yourself. I have also been working on some reusable snack bags, banners, crayon rolls, and other goodies that I will have to keep you posted about. Come check it out! Heart me if your an etsian. :)...and if you want to make a custom order or have any cool scrap ideas for me please let me know. I have been having fun with these little short projects and would also like to keep most of the costs pretty low. So far I don't think I even have anything over $4.00! Definitely worth a look. :)

I love my SERGER!

Just a few projects I have been working on this week....

fun reusable snack bags for on the go

...and some super soft cloth wipes and prefolds for the new babe. (I used an old sheet for the prefolds)

Oh boy, no one told me that serging rounded corners took some practice. Making wipes was the best thing to practice on. Each one got a little bit better than the last, but I still wouldn't look to close. :)

Colorful Scrap Pillows

A couple weeks ago I decided that I needed to sew something really colorful and fun and bright for our new place...did I mention that we are moving in a couple months? Well, we are!...Thad will be done with classes finally and we will be back in the Des Moines area. So sad to leave our good friends in the QC, but always good to be close to family and old friends! :)

I get so excited about decorating new spaces...and always with lots of color of course! We are renting again before we know for sure the area Thad will be practicing in and with most rental places they don't allow you to paint the walls. Well in this place we can! I am so excited! Contemplating a bright cheerful yellow in the living room and maybe a bright aqua blue in the kitchen...humm. I don't know yet, but I do know it will be colorful! So I decided to make some fun new pillows with scraps I had lying around. Two of the pillows I used material from old sweaters, and the other two are scraps of cotton fabric from the stash. Making it cozy for the winter to come. New pillows are always a good way to change and lighten up a room with out spending a lot of money. In fact I spend $0! Covered old pillows and used left over stuffing from the craft closet. Well enough blab...here are the pillows!

Finger Painting

Ok, well it started as finger painting and then it led to full out fist painting. I think he enjoyed being able to just discover the texture of the paint and what he could do. I am glad I took his shirt off, but I think next time I will be doing this outside. It is pretty funny looking over the pictures and seeing the messiness progress. It started with colorful dots and lines and ended in a big blob of brownish every color mixed together black. He now asks to paint all the time...I think he is going to be just like his mommy. :)

Check it out!!!!

I have been working really hard to finally get my Etsy Store up and running again. I have changed the look...I have changed the items, and it is bursting with colorful energy! As of now I have for sale prints of my most recent paintings. I have only listed about half of them for now, so be sure to keep checking back for what is new in the next week or so. I have just been so anxious to finally get these up for sale! I will eventually be putting up some of the originals as well. If you are interested in buying something, but want a different size, multiples of, or printed on a specific paper or canvas please let me know and I would be happy to get you more information on price and other details. So go check it out here...and tell me what you think. :)

Spring 2010 Blogger Quilt Festival!!!

I love Moda! This specific fabric is the Hello Betty series which I fell in love with and decided that I loved the fabric so much I didn't even want to cut it! I made it with simple large squares so that I could see more of the beautiful pattern. Parts of the series reminds me of the 60's and then other parts especially the colors remind me of the 50's. Love it! I made this quilt for simply nothing else but the love of the fabric and it's cuddliness in the winter. :) Next up will be my new Moda Frolic fabric my mom bought for me. (shown below) I can't wait! I might have to get creative and challenge myself to actually using a more complicated pattern. Any ideas? Ok, now go visit all the rest of the beautiful quilts here at the Spring 2010 Blogger Quilt Festival...there are prizes... :)

I Heart You Crayons

Yes, I have started to use my creative juices again. I had some old crayons and decided to make them into new crayons!...but only funner. :) I found silicone heart molds in the dollar section at target and decided to give it a whirl. I tore off the wrapping of the crayons (some of them were not too fun), pre-heated the oven at 200 degrees, broke the crayons up into smaller pieces, placed alike colors in each of the heart molds and put them in the oven. After about 10-15 minutes I added more broken crayon to each one and waited another 10 minutes or whenever completely melted. I then took them out and waited for them to dry, removed from the pan, and I have new crayons! They are a great size for creative little fingers...I am so excited to let Will try these out. I have a few for sale in my store, but I also wanted to let you all know that right now I am offering free shipping with any two items! I have plans of changing the look of my store soon, and would like to sell what I have. Go check it out.

Have a super Monday!

Handmade Home

I have absolutely loved my copy of "Handmade Home" by Amanda Blake Soule! (a.k.a Soulemama) I learned a lot about how to find vintage and thrifted materials and how to repurpose them into new treasures. I have always been interested in and sort of found my own way to be creative repurposing materials, but she has so many helpful hints and very simple projects that I was so impressed with...including this sweater hat that I made for Will. It was so simple it only took me literally 2-3 minutes to make from an old sweater that we already had.

what we have been up to...

We have been super busy around here! Traveling, enjoying the great outdoors in this beautiful fall weather, visiting my new nephew Hunter!, helping out at church, getting my store stocked for the holidays, and starting on Christmas gifts. I know, I thought it seemed super early to start thinking about Christmas gifts until I realized...Ahhh!...it's almost the middle of November already! I have a lot to do! As many of you know I am making this year a Handmade Christmas. Every gift that I give will be handmade with love. Most of them I am making myself, and others are handmade by others. I have been having so much fun starting to search and create everyones gift, and I am starting to feel like I have a lot to do in the next month in a half on top of putting enough stuff up in my shop for those other handmade holiday shoppers. :) so yes...I have been keeping myself busy.

Some really exciting news is that I was featured in the Nov./Dec. issue of QC Magazine! They did an article featuring local artists and crafters for handmade holiday gift ideas. You can check it out here.

...and I seemed too busy to share with you some of Will's ONE YEAR PICTURES!... by the amazing Ryan Towe Photography. We were amazed with how these turned out and are having a hard time deciding which ones to get! Any suggestions? Ryan posted a few on his blog. You can see those here and here.

And of course, I recently told you all about my new nephew Hunter who was born on Oct. 8th and I have not even put up a picture yet! What kind of aunt am I? So here is a few from our visit in Cedar Falls on Monday. Isn't he the cutest little thing. He is such a content little guy; for he has a mom and dad who are really good with him.

Here is the handsome fella! :)

...and the proud new mama!

Me and Hunter...oh he was sooo cuddly!

It was hard to get one of the two cousins because Will would not sit still!...but I think they liked each other. :)

Will has been obsessed with giving hugs this week.

Kristin, Will, Hunter and a proud Grammers.