The Winner!

Thanks to all who commented on my giveaway post. Wow! 73 comments. Usually I get about 1 or 2. To get to the point, today is the day that I randomly choose the winner! Drumroll please... and the winner is

Michele from Nostalgic Cafe

Congratulations! I have already emailed you, so please respond within 48 hours. As I said before, I wish everyone could win, but I'm only giving away 1 puppy!

Giveaway Day!

The Sew, Mama, Sew! blog is hosting a Giveaway! Every blog participating is giving away a handmade item. Here's my little creation...



























Entering - If you are interested in receiving this little 1-inch puppy, simply comment on this post. I will leave it open for comments from December 2nd to December 6th.

Winning (the best part) - The winner will be chosen at random from the list of comments. I will be posting the name of the winner on my blog, as well as contacting them at their email address.

*Important notes:
1.This is NOT a TOY. This a decorative item and is very delicate. It should not be given to children under 6 years of age.

2. Sorry. This item will not be shipped Internationally.

I wish everyone could win, but I'm only giving away 1 puppy!

Sculpting - Part 2: A Taste of Christmas

Now that Thanksgiving is past (hope everyone had a great one, by the way,) we go onto... Christmas! Here are a few Chocolate Labs I made for the Holidays...














3 drooling dogs
1 candy cane (pre-licked)
1 candy cane (half eaten)
1 slimy dog bone

Won't their master be thrilled with these generous gifts!

Make sure to stay tuned for a giveaway!

Sculpting - Part 1

I love to make crafts, especially small ones. A while back, I had started making some 1 inch tall, miniature clay puppies for a board game. After a while it morphed into simply making them for fun. My favorite type of dog is a Westie (West Highland White Terrier.) Here are the four that I made...














pink bandanna puppy...














blue bandanna puppy from the back...














green bandanna puppy (my personal favorite) ...














yellow bandanna puppy (so you can see the size.)

I'm hoping to try to sell a few of them, but I have to figure out all the specifics.

Color #7 - The Mystery Color!

Today's color... the mystery color!

Drum roll please... and the color is... Silver!














the flash dish (if that's what it's called) attached to one of the many old cameras of my mom's collection...














a small pair of scissors...




















the top of little flashlight...

*Note - though the photographs in today's post were converted to black and white, all of the items were silver.

Here we come to the close of color week. I hope you have enjoyed it!

Color #6

Today's color... Purple!




















more doodling...




















some dye from when I made Tie-Dye T-shirts in the summer...















this was a photograph that I took of a butterfly in a blossoming tree. I edited it in Photoshop Elements so that it would look like a print...

one more color... the mystery color is soon to be revealed!

Color #5

Today's color... Blue!














the double chocolate cake that my friend made for me, mmmm...















some interesting cafe chairs...












sewing...

Two more colors in color week!

Color #4

Today's color... Green!














coloring...














a tiny glass frog which belonged to my Great Grandmother...











some bright chairs outside a little store...

tomorrow... my favorite color!

Color #3

Today's Color... Yellow!
















a summer memory...














a texture photo...















one of the many fish in its so called 'habitat' where he is watched almost every day...

Tomorrow's color still to come!

Three Cake Birthday/ Color #2

I had an unusual birthday this week... Three Cakes! First of all, my considerate father, who is not exactly a whiz in the kitchen, (no offense dad), toiled away to make me a lemon cake. Thanks Dad!

Secondly, a friend of mine from church heard that it was my birthday, and made be a chocolate cake with mnm's. I was really surprised. She is so sweet. Thanks Shelly!

And last, but not least, another friend of mine, this time from my homeschool co-op made me a cake. It was more like a bar, with tons of chocolate chips! Actually I think her mom made it. So, thanks also to Julie and her family!


And now... Today's Color... Orange!














a pumpkin from a local farm...















an interesting angle...














the intricate veins of a leaf...

Stay tuned for color #3!

Color Week/ Today's color - #1

Welcome to a little sparc's... color week! Each day, I will put up a new post with three photos. Every day will be a different color.

Sunday - Red
Monday - Orange
Tuesday - Yellow
Wednesday - Green
Thursday - Blue
Friday - Purple
Saturday - Mystery Color!

Today's Color... Red!














an old stamp from a collection at a tag sale...














some gorgeous fall leaves...














more leaves!

Hope you visit this week!

Systematically methodical... semi-organized... utterly confused?

When you enter a corn maze, you start out with the map. You mark off the paths you have already covered, and circle the areas where you need to go. Fifteen minutes later... you are bit confused, yet still on track. After an hour... you are utterly lost. Aimlessly you wander through the monotonous rows of corn stalks desperately searching for an exit. Suddenly, when all hope seems lost, you turn the corner and see... the end! You are finally out!
























(this may not look very tall, but it was more than twice my height!)

Maybe I exagerated just a litttttle teensy bit. OK, a lot. I really did have a good time. I even took a gorgeous leaf home to press.

A longgggggg time ago in a land far away ...

Hello out there to all of those who read my blog! As you can see from my last post, which was in August, I have not posted for a while. (A long while.) Anyways, in August my family and I went to the east coast to...

The Beach!


















the crashing waves... (this was the first time I had ever been to the beach in the summer, so I actually got to 'swim' in the ocean. It was the first time I ever tried boogie boarding too!















footprints in the sand...















don't forget the birds...















intricate seashore buildings...
















and at the end of the day, a scenic walk at sunset.
























Of course there were countless other things to see and do there, but if I mentioned all of them I could be writing all day!

Deja - vu

I just unpacked from camp, and I'm already packing for vacation! I've also been making a lot of crafts too. Just like my last post. Weird. Anyways, I've had a few crafting successes, and a few crafting mishaps. Here is one of the mishaps.















For this craft, I used a circular hole punch to cut circles out of paint chips from several different home improvement stores. Long story short - Two years ago when I re-did my room, I wanted it to be teal. (It used to be a little boy's room- with yellow on the top half of the wall, blue on the bottom half, and a thin line of teddy bear wall paper in the middle. Yuck!) So we went to the store and got a whole bunch of teal paint chips, (which may not have been the best idea, considering I am usually indecisive.) After I had re-done my room, I still had all the paint chips, so I decided to make something with them. I was planning on sewing a few chains of circles together and hanging them over my door. It didn't work out because my sewing machine, doesn't work very well. The back kept getting knotted, making big loops everywhere. Now onto the crafts that worked out better.
























The next thing I made was an i-Pod case. Actually more like a purse. It looks like a case for an i-Pod nano, but I actually made it for an i-Pod shuffle, which is smaller. It would need to be longer for a nano. The idea for the straps came from Amy Karol's book Bend the Rules of Sewing.















Everything is slightly different than in the book, (the size obviously being one thing.) I made it 3 in. by 2 1/2 in, but I wish I had made it a little bit bigger. The ear buds don't fit in it very well.















I did have to hand stitch the top edge, which was kind of a pain, but overall it is a very easy project. I am definitely not an experienced sewer. I could even mess up a straight line! Here is one other project a little bit like this one, which I actually did a long time ago.
























The blue and green tie dyed fabric that you see in the picture above actually continues in the back, down to the bottom. What is seen a flap that goes over the bag.







(This is the back.)







In the photograph below, I used another piece of fabric in the middle of the strap because it wasn't quite long enough.















The i-Pod case that I made is just two rectangles sewed up at the sides. This bag has sides and a bottom, even though it may not look like it does in the photographs.

Packing and Crafting

Three days till camp! Just one problem. I have barely packed anything! As you can see from my suitcase, I'm not very organized when it comes to trips.















I have also been making a lot of crafts this week. A few days ago, I made sun printed bandannas.




For my birthday several years ago, I received a Sun Print Kit. I have not used it for a long time, so I pulled it out this week. What you do is paint a piece of fabric with special sun paint. Next, you take the fabric outside, lay it down in a sunny place, and place your objects. You could use really anything as long as it is able to make a shape. (For food, it is good to only use hard things: pretzels, uncooked pasta, etc. I used leaves for one, and buttons for the other. First I decided where to place them.

After everything was dry, I took off the shapes. They didn't quite turn out how I had wanted. Some of the prints were barely visible. It works better when the paint is darker, but the paint I was using was a bit old. My next project was tie dye T-shirts.















Yesterday a tie dyed 5 T-shirts before lunch! That may not seem very amazing to many, but for me it was a record. (I often start projects, and never finish them.) It was a pretty messy project too, so there was a lot to clean up. (I have also been known to make things, and not clean up the mess after.) I'm glad I wore rubber gloves when handling the dye because last year when my family and I made tie dye T-shirts we didn't wear gloves. Our hands looked like rainbows!
















Notice the sticks in the photograph next to the dye. My mom wouldn't let me use kitchen spoons, so I found some sticks to stir with. The only problem was that several sticks broke and some pieces fell into the dye. Here are the T-shirts I made:







(Sunshine Orange.)









(Kelly Green. This is against a window, so it looks like it's glowing.)













(Royal blue.)











(Sunshine Orange and Fuchsia - Swirled.)








(Kelly Green and Royal Blue - Swirled. This was also against a window.)









So all of these I made before lunch! It took a long time, and a lot of work, but now I have five new colorful T-shirts.