Toddler Chairs Make-Over and ........ I'm having surgery

 So, about a year ago ( has it been that long already?- geez!)  I set out to decorate the unfinished table and chairs we bought at Ikea for my son.  I finished the table right away, but the chairs... well let's just say I was lacking motivation.  So now, tada! I got down to it and finished the chairs- finally!

They didn't take nearly as much work as the table either.  I just used some of the elements from the table on the the chairs.  I could have done this a looooooong time ago.  I'm so glad that we now have a matching set.

Well, guys....just want to let you know I may not be posting as much for the next month or so.  I'm going in for some back surgery in two days- yikes! I really have no idea how I will feel after or how long it will take me to recover.   This has been a long time coming and I'm happy to see if this will finally be the thing that will relieve my pain.  So, wish me luck! 

A view of their world

This is a scene from Laguna Beach, CA- one of my most favorite places in the world-ya! I have been dying to paint something from the pictures I took there last July.   So I busted out my oil paints- it has been almost a year since I've used them- yikes.

The people in Laguna beach are unbelievably rich, or unbelievably in debt- who knows?  In any case, I'm glad I got to walk through their world one after noon and enjoy the beauty.  My husband and I often wonder who these people are that live on the California coast. How is it that there are so many people out there that can seemingly afford that lifestyle?  What do they do for a living?

Well, we know that we will never have that lifestyle and anyway, we don't want to.  We are content to just visit once in a while.  I think we appreciate the beauty there more that way.

Stenciled Animal Cards

Here are a few animals cards I made using watercolors and stencils.   I found this set of stencils at the dollar store and have been experimenting with them.  Brushing watercolors over them creates a really cool effect.

I added some patterned packing tape from Michaels for a border for this rhino card.   Patterned packing tape and stencils are some of the coolest inventions ever!

More Watercolor Fruit

I just love that pears and tomatoes are in season right now!  Not that I particularly love to eat them, ( they aren't too bad, but I have to eat them with something else, not alone) but I love painting them!

Shirred Shirt

Here it is... my first ever shirt sewn completely by me!  I have a shirt similar to this that I got at a yard sale and looking at it, I thought "this can't be that hard to make".  Well, coming up with it completely on my own was challenging, especially for me- a beginner.  But, it was fun coming up with the design on my own!  I'll admit I'm afraid of patterns.  It seems like I can never quite follow those instructions right.  I never know what all the terms mean.

I don't have a tutorial here for you ( I may attempt one later after I perfect the process), but I will give you the basics on how I made this.

I cut out a 42 x 22 inch piece of material and then realized that it wasn't quite wide enough to fit all around me.  So I cut out another 8 x 22 inch strip to fill in the gap. Honestly, I like this element of the shirt.  It might have been boring with just all grey material.

After sewing those two strips together, I connected the ends to make a wide tube.

Next, I sewed some shirring at the top. Shirring is a skill I acquired while trying to make a skirt, which did not turn out well, but not because of the shirring part.  Shirring itself is not so hard, but it took FOREVER to figure out how to get it to work on my Bernina.

Every tutorial I read about shirring said to wind the bobbin by hand, but that never worked for me.  I couldn't get enough tension.  I already had the tension dial turned up as high as it would go and I was using the longest stitch possible.  I wasn't going to go inside the machine and mess the the screws to tighten it up either.  I didn't want to mess up my machine for other sewing projects.  So, in the end, what worked for me was winding the bobbin with elastic thread with the machine- the exact thing everyone said not to do! Hah! I showed them! It seriously just depends on your machine.

After a few rows of shirring, I cut out two 9 x 13inch rectangles of the sleeves.  I shirred one row on each long side of each rectangle and attached them to the body of the shirt. 

Attaching the sleeves was really difficult.  I'm not sure it would be easier to attach them in the beginning instead of at the end, but I ended up hand stitching part of it.  It took forever! But, yes, now it is done and I really like how it turned out :) 

Photo of the Week

It's that time of year again..... the sunflowers are appearing everywhere!  Every time they come out I can't stop taking pictures of them.  They make me happy :)

Yep, I'm back to painting flowers.  I did the cars and trucks thing for a while, but in the end, it always comes back to flowers.  I just love them! 

P.S. I sold one of my pears paintings in my etsy shop this week! Ya! My very first sale! That is a nice feeling :)

P.P.S I know I haven't been posting much crafty stuff lately, just artsy stuff.  I'm trying to get my shop going, but I've got a sewing project in the works.  I can't wait to share that one, if it turns out ; )