Favorite Finds Friday

I have seen so many amazing things this week, it was so hard just to pick a few! I'm trying not to pull from the big crafty competitions, since I'm sure you guys will see them all over. I've found a lot of inspiration from the blogs I follow in my Reader and from hopping around my favorite linky parties. Here are my Favorite Finds from this week:

Kimbo from A Girl and A Glue Gun made this adorable necklace from nylon knee highs and beads. I never would have thought of it.

The lovely ladies of eighteen25 used a bowl and a candlestick to make this cute Valentine Candy Dish.

Robyn over at Craft With Me had my favorite idea all week! She made a little love notes booklet to pass back and forth with her hubby. She has some super cute digiscrap freebies on her blog and hosts a linky on Fridays called Friday Finish It that you should totally link up to! I normally do, but didn't have anything finished to add this week. 

I'm kind of in love with this throw pillow from Amy of Diary of a Quilter. I think it's so classy and simple. Love it!

I also love love love (!) this gift idea for the man in your life. Suesan of Frou-FruGal came up with Man Candy. You have to head over there and see what she put inside. I'm a fan of all things Duct Tape. Just sayin'.

I'm amazed by all the crafty people out there. 

Thanks for stopping by!

P.S. There will very likely be a part 2 of this post sometime this weekend.

Feeling Crafty

I'm still not done with my super crafty craft, so I made a printable for you guys instead. Let me know if you like it and I may be encouraged to do more in the future. (Also, if you'd like a different background that can probably be arranged.) I like decorations and sayings that are a nontraditional, and this is one of my favorite love quotes: "Nothing takes the taste out of peanut butter quite like unrequited love."-Charlie Brown. So, here goes:

If I did it right, all you should have to do is click it to make it bigger and right click to save. It's free to use, not to sell and if you take it, please follow me!

I'm going to have 3 different posts today, so bear with me. I have a surprise for you guys in my last post today.

Thanks for stopping by,

Want to win a $25 CSN Stores gift card? Go to this post and enter to win!

I'm Feeling Crafty

I'm feeling very crafty. I have several projects that I'm working on, but I'm not ready to share them yet. Next week I'll have a tutorial for you, but this week I'm going to share this table runner that I made last year.

My version

The Original by Phyllis Dobbs for Quilter's World Magazine

It's really the only Valentine's Day craft that I've made since I was little.  I found this table runner pattern and got to work. It was the first time that I had worked from a pattern and turned out way better than I expected. I only used outline quilting and I flipped one of the hearts so they would face the same direction. It was going to sit on top of our buffet, up against a wall, so I thought it would look better that way. I loved how it turned out. Here is a close-up of one of the hearts on the sides:

This was only the second table runner I ever made and only the third quilted item. I made it as part of an ongoing gift for my moms. I'll share the other table runners I made in that gift throughout the year. I like to look through and see how much better I am now and see all of the new techniques I've learned.

Have you made an amazing VDay decoration? Leave a link in the comments below. I'd love to check it out!

Thanks for stopping by!

More Showing Off

Hello! I want to welcome my new followers to SVH! Thank you so much for stopping by! Starting next year (hehe) I will be posting on more of a regular schedule. I'm still working it out, and I'm looking for suggestions, so if there is anything that you would like to see here at Sew Very Happy, please leave a comment! Now, to the main event:

A Wreath I have seen beautiful ornament wreaths all over the blogosphere lately, and decided to take a crack at it myself. It cost me under $3 to make. Yay! Thank you Dollar Tree! This one adorns our front door. 

You can't really see it in the pic, but one ornament in each group was completely covered in glitter. (Those were my favorites!)

Tablerunners My step-mom asked me to make tablerunners for her sisters. Originally, she wanted this one to be 12' long. It ended up being around 80" and I saved the remaining blocks to be used on something else...in the future...far away. The second tablerunner is just like this one, but green and only 50" long.

(Please excuse the mess.)

Scarlett was 'helping'.

Here's a close-up. The snowflakes are made of felt. I used Wonder Under, then stitched down the center of each arm.

 Quilts Here are some pictures of the quilts that I made for my siblings. I will very likely be killed for posting this one of Becky. Mickey was half asleep when I made him hold his quilt up. It looks kind of funny since he's holding it from the side.

Pay no attention to that girl behind the quilt!

Mickey wasn't tired or anything, can you tell?

All in all, I think I did pretty good, considering I procrastinated got a late start on everything. I've learned my lesson though, I think next year I will start my Cday crafting in July.Let's hope I don't forget...or put it off...

Now that I'm done showing off, let's talk, ok? I am so excited for tomorrow. One of my favorite people in the world is getting married and I'm so happy for him. My friend Steve is like my little brother. I truly believe that you do not have to be blood related to be family, and he is most definitely family. I met Steve in the youth group at church and we became fast friends. I used to drag him around with me everywhere, not that he minded!  He's an Infantry Soldier in the U.S. Army, stationed in TX so I don't get to see him but look forward to his calls every other week. He's one of the kindest, most caring people you will ever meet! He's grown up into an amazing man and I am so proud of him. I hope he and Megan have the best day tomorrow and I hope that their life together is full of love and laughter!

It looks like it's past my bed time, so I'll go. Thanks for reading and, since I won't be on here tomorrow:

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Showing Off

I'm so glad that Christmas is over. This was a great one, don't get me wrong, but it's such a relief to be over and done with it. My daughter received so many wonderful gifts this year. My favorite: the Goodnight Moon board game. We haven't played it yet, but that is Scarlett's favorite story, so I'm sure she will love it. In order to finish the gifts that we were giving to our family, I ended up staying up all night on Christmas Eve. A certain person kept adding things to my to do list and I got farther and farther behind... Anyhow, I thought that I'd be kind of a show off (forgive me!) and let you have a look at some of the things I was working on this month. Here goes:

For my stepmom, a wallet:

See! My first zipper! and a tag!

I ended up using this fantastic tutorial: Wallet Tutorial over at Confessions of a Fabricaholic I had to read the tutorial several times before my little brain could wrap around it, but it turned out sooo good!


For my sister and brother: Throw quilts

In progress. I'll post completed pics sometime this week.

For my mother: I tried and failed to make her a pair of slippers. I should have taken a picture, but my camera was in the other room and I didn't want to wake up the Princess going to get it. Instead, I will be making my mother a crafty item of her choice in whatever medium she chooses. I'll post about that when she makes up her mind. Aside from that, I made her 30 felt holly and berry pins to give to her coworkers and 2 rug mugs for her bosses. Everyone in the house helped cut out the felt shapes, but I ended up pulling an all nighter 2 nights before Cday to put the pins together and make the (extremely last minute) mug rugs. Here is the little card I made up for her to stick the pins to.

This is completely open source. I got the tree from openclipart.org and the font from kevinandamanda.com. It was created in Inkscape.

Here's a cute story for you. I always ask my daughter what she wants to wear in the morning. She's 2 and a half now and old enough to choose her own clothes. Most of the time she matches, though we do enjoy the occasional eclectic outfit. :) Anyhow, the day before Christmas Eve, I asked her what she wanted to wear and she insisted that she wear a Christmas tree shirt. Scarlett doesn't have a Christmas tree shirt. When I told her this, she looked super sad and said, "Mommy, I NEED a Christmas tree shirt. Pweeezzz." It was so cute that I grabbed an old onesie, some Wonder Under and some felt scraps and this is what I made for her while she ate breakfast. It was completely no-sew and after she went to bed that night, I peeled off the felt shapes and she has her plain onesie back. It was so easy to do that I am sure I'll be using this method in the future. The best part was the price: FREE!!!

Lucky for me, I was able to complete all but the one thing on my to do list, and I've learned that I definitely need to start way earlier next year. It was fun, but exhausting! Alright, there is more that I'd love love love to show you, but I'm saving for my next post. I hope you had a great holiday! Come back soon! :)

I'm hanging out at these parties this week:

Busy, busy

One of 2 last minute Rug Mugs I made for my stepmom to give away.

I'm sure I'm not the only one with a long list of gifts to make for Christmas. Lucky for me, there are several that don't have to be completed until January, since I won't be seeing some of the recipients until then. Still, it's starting to seem as if I may have been too ambitious this year. It doesn't help that certain people in my house keep on adding gifts to my list and I can't seem to say no... Pretty funny for someone who doesn't even celebrate Christmas herself, eh? Here's a little rundown of what I'm working on now-you should be seeing pics in the very near future. :)

• 2 Throw-sized quilts
• A 12 foot long snowflake tablerunner
• An assortment of tissue paper Christmas trees (as seen over at Spunky Junky)
• About 50 poinsettia and holly pins (inspired by this post during Gwenny Penny's Haul Out the Holly event)
• A ladies' tri-fold wallet (this may end up as a tutorial)
• Cloth alphabet blocks for my cousin's infant
• I'm decorating 15 headbands (By far the easiest task, using this tutorial from Simply Handmade by Paige)
• Lastly, a bunch of cat toys for the newest addition to the household, Captain Bamboozles aka Freeloader. 

I have 12 days left and I've started on 4 of the projects. Let's all pray that I have enough time to finish all of the above and still get some sleep. :)

I hope you aren't as rushed as I am, but if you are, good luck!

Thanks for reading!

I'm linking up:

Thanksgiving

I'm a very lucky woman. I have an amazing man and a beautiful daughter. Ralphie is the best. He works so hard to take care of us girls. He goes through so much, deals with so much stress and it's all for us. I am thankful for him.  My Scarlett, she's amazing. She's been through so much in her 2 short years, and has a long way ahead of her, but you'd never know it. She's so independent and strong.I"m so proud to be her mother and thankful to have every miraculous moment with her.  I have a very supportive family. They've been there for us in so many ways and I'm thankful. I have wonderful friends-they are family too. I'm thankful to all my friends who are in the armed forces. I love and support you and am thankful for your bravery.

Blessed Be,