Chicken Obsession

Hello crafters!

Welcome to my blog.

Today I'm showing you a few of the gifts I made

for my husband, Dave, for Christmas.

This past summer, he wanted to redo the "decor" 

in our back yard.  Someone suggested chickens and he

went with it.  Several years ago we bought a 

chicken nesting box while antiquing with some

friends, but it didn't work out where we wanted it 

to go, so it's been sitting ever since.

He mounted that nesting box on the back fence,

and started collecting chickens for the box and 

the fence.

This is what the back fence looks like.

Actually all the spaces in the box have a chicken in them

now.  Next summer he will have more to add to the yard.

It's become a bit of an obsession with him now.

One day I was shopping in Micheal's and cut down the 

fabric aisle.  
(Yes, Micheal's now has fabric!  Very nice fabrics at
great prices.  Not a lot, but some really great patterns)

I happened to see this chicken fabric and had to

get a yard to make pillows for our deck in the back.

I happened to have some pillow forms that someone in 

our buy nothing group had given me and they worked out

perfect.

This chicken can't be left outside, but I knew 

he would love it.

I found the pattern on line and used

some left over yarn to crochet it.

One day, Dave and I were out shopping and he mentioned

that he should have a chicken ornament.

So of course I made him one.

Both of the crochet chickens were whipped up in no time.

They were quick and easy to make and I used

some left over yarns from my stash for both of them.

Yes, I'm feeding his chicken obsession,

but what the heck, it's something fun for both of us.

I also got him a couple more chickens for the yard to

put out once spring comes to 

Western New York.

Thanks for popping in to see what I've been up to.

I hope you will come again soon.

Until then,

find something cute to work on.

 

Loaf Cats

Hello and Happy 2025!
I will be posting a lot of gifts that I made for 

people for Christmas and here is my first for the 

new year.
Kelsie told me one day that she had seen a 

crocheted cat that looked like one of their cats, but didn't

buy it.  When she went back later, it had been sold.

I said what I often say, "I can make that."

So I found a pattern for "loaf cats" and 

crocheted 3 of them.  Each one looks like one of their cats.

These were a gift for my son in law, Brad.
Dave wrapped them in a bag, so when Brad pulled out the

tissue, he would see his cats looking out at him.

As you can see, he loved them.

This is Iris, she's their ginger,

with some white on her chest and belly.

Here are the pictures I had to work from.

Sheba is a mix of gray and browns.

with a bit of white mixed in.

Here's a picture of Sheba.

This is their "fat cat"  Cora.

She is a really good sized cat, about 20 lb. and

as they say, she has no butt.

This is Cora.

She's so ladylike!

Brad was thrilled with these cats,

he said they are prefect and I got the sizes

just right.

It was a fun gift to make and I'm so

happy that he loved them.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to.

I hope you have been inspired in some way and

will come again soon.

I'll be posting more of the gifts I made very soon.

Until next time,

create something fun.

If you are interested in making some loaf cats, 

just google "pattern for loaf cat" and you'll find many.

 

Hanging on for Dear Life

Good day crafty people!

Today I'm showing you an ornament I made for a

friend for Christmas.
She loves frogs and I've had this pattern for a long time.

I put off making it, because I just knew it was going to

be a tough one to make.

I was so wrong.
I used cotton crochet thread, rather than a yarn.

Honestly, I think it would have been really big

if I had used yarn.

I was just to visit Mary for a week and I gave her the

ornament at that time and she loves him.

It won't be going on her tree though,

she wants him out all year round.

I think he turned out pretty cute.

If you are a crocheter, give it a try and see what you think.

Using a tiny hook and finer thread isn't as hard as you

would think.

And the results are so fun.

Thanks for visiting today.

I hope you'll come again soon.

Until then,

try something you think is out of your

skill set, it may not be.

 

Growing Candy Canes

Hello my faithful followers!

Sorry I've been pretty absent lately.
I've been busy with Christmas projects

and not a lot of time for posting, but I

will get back to it soon.

Today, I'm showing you what I did with 

Marie last Christmas season.

I decided to grow some candy canes with 

Marie and Asher.
I got a container with potting soil and

we planted a few "starlight mints"

you know those pink and white swirly

peppermints.

She was very excited to see what would happen.

We put the pot on the back counter near the window.

Low and behold the next time they came over,

the candy canes had sprouted.
The kids were very excited to see them grow.

The next time they came, their elves,

Bernadette and Bernard, came along and

they found the candy canes had grown even more.

And they just kept growing.

Here are both the kids, with G-Pa checking

out how much they had grown.

Look how big they are getting!

They grew into full sized candy canes!

Harvesting the candy canes.

So excited that we grew them.
Of course, I got clean ones once she was out

of the room.  I told her I needed to clean the 

dirt off.

She was so excited to take them home and show 

Mommy and Daddy what we grew.

Thanks for stopping by today to see what

I've been up to.

I hope you will keep checking in.
I'll be posting some of my Christmas projects soon.

Until we meet again,

do something magical with some kids!

 

General Cards from Stash

Good day my crafty followers.

Today I have a couple quick and easy cards 

to show you.

I had some pages from an old planner that my 

daughter gave me, so I decided to use them

for cards.

I simply fussy cut some of the flowers and leaves

for this one and adhered them to a card base.

I stamped a sentiment on the front and was done.

For this one, I simply cut the page to size,

and adhered it to a card front.

I then used a die set to cut the hello and it's

shadow and adhered them to the front as well.

It's hard to see in these pictures, but these pieces

both have some beautiful gold foiling on them.

The vellum in the lower card is gold.

On the inside of this card, you can barely see some

trim on the inside of the card.  
I cut a piece of polkadot card stock from one of the

pages just to give it a little pop on the inside of the card.

I do love how these cards turned out.

They were quick and easy to make

and used some more of my never ending stash.

Thanks for stopping by today.

I hope you have been inspired in some way

and will come again soon.

Until then,

use some of your stash!

 

Trunk or Treat

Hello crafty loving friends!

My granddaughter's school had a "Trunk or Treat" 

and we participated.  We had so much fun.

Marie chose the theme for the trunk and she decided on

unicorn, which didn't surprise any of us.

She is obsessed with unicorns! 

Here is my creative part of the day.
I decided to do unicorn hair.
I used my Pebbles chalks and colored my hair.

Since my hair is mostly white and gray, it was simple.

Marie loved it and wants me to color it again

for her birthday party, which, of course, will

be unicorn themed.

Here are the kids with G-Pa aka Yoda

Marie was Miraculous Ladybug and

Asher was Hulk.

Sara was Sully.

We handed out some great snacks as well as

stamps and temporary tattoos.

There were over 400 kids there and we gave out all

of our goodies.
We all had a fun time and would definitely do this 

again.

Thanks for stopping by to see what I've been up to.

I hope you will come again soon.

Until then,

use your craft supplies in a different way.

Note the links are only to give a reference so you can

see what the products are.
I didn't necessarily purchase from these sites,

except where specified,

and you may find better prices elsewhere,

I am in no way promoting any particular site.

 

Arts and Crafts with Marie

Hello craft lovers!

Today I'm going to show you a few things that my 

granddaughter, Marie, has made recently.

One day she was working away on a picture and 

when she was finished she was very excited to give it to

Mommy.  When Sara arrived and Marie gave it to her, she knew

right away that it was their cat that had passed away a couple

years ago.  This is a picture of Poo Poo Kitty and I think

she did a great job.

I bought a few of these wood masks for the

kids to color, Marie, of course, had to do the 

cat.  Unfortunately I didn't get a picture of

Asher with his dog mask.

And Marie also colored a jack o lantern.

She is learning little by little how to give expression to

her drawing.  She put the V between the eyes to show that

the jack o lantern was angry and mean.

And there's the artist behind the masks!

One day when I brought Marie home after school, she got 

out of the car and found a stick, a leaf, and a petal from a 

flower.  She picked them up and said "I can make something

with these."  As soon as she finished her homework,

she got started.
She used a piece of card stock and I helped her glue

the stick onto it.  She was making a tree. 

The leaf was a little too big, so she decided to tear a piece

off to make an appropriate sized leaf and then added the

petal for a flower.  She drew more branches onto the

tree and added a few extras on top in the form of 

different shapes.

Our girl was so proud of her work.

And this is where she really takes after G-Ma!

She had a Slurpee and the top was sitting on the counter.

She pulled it over and said

"Hmmm, can't waste any garbage.  I'll just color on this."

She didn't get much coloring done on it, because it was

dinner time.  But she agrees with the saying
"Everything is a craft supply, until proven otherwise"
as said by Pam at the Paper Outpost

I have so much fun with Marie, she is my crafty girl

and has a great imagination and so many ideas.

Asher, our grandson, is 2 and he's starting to love

arts and crafts too.

Thanks for stopping in today to see what's been going on 

with me.  I hope you have enjoyed your visit

and will come again soon.

Until then,

encourage someone to craft.