Homemade Ornaments

I've made a few ornaments over the years.  We just got our tree up, so I thought I'd share some of them with you.

Some are from kits. I can't believe I stitched this entire ornament! 

Some we all sat down and made together. This is my favorite bread dough ornie.

 The all time favorites are the ones that I give each year to my boys. Sometimes I buy them, but they really look forward to the homemade ones. When my son went into Northwestern I did this little guy. See his little Ipod. He also has a backpack on.

This is his art work that I copied. and stitched.

I try to remember something important that happened during the year.This was a poster drawn by son number 1. Love that birdcage.

This one is my other sons CD cover back and front that he designed. I copied his artwork.

Number 2 son is a pie maker so this will be his this year. It's in a little metal pie tin.I always put the year on each one.

This tradition has become rally important to the boys. They like to put their own ornies up on the tree.
  I hope you all had a nice Thanksgiving. We sure did-ate too much though. I've been decorating for Christmas this weekend and will start showing my decor. I found these 2 scrappy quilt tops at an estate sale last weekend. Not sure what I'll be doing with them yet. Aren't they happy looking?

I have a Santas workshop going in my craftroom. Making recipe scrapbooks and ornaments.I hope you have a fun and creative week.
Leslie

Laundry Room Fix Up

My laundry room really isn't a room, but a walk through to the garage from the house. It's where we come in from the car and leave from. What I mean is -it's pretty small. I did some tweaks to hide some uglies and make the shelf reachable. Before, I had to keep my detergent on top of the dryer, because I can't reach the high shelf.

  You can see what a jumble of stuff was on that high shelf. I also hate looking at the water thingies behind the washer. Hubby added a simple shelf and what a difference in function. Now I have space to keep the things I use all the time.

I added a little ruffle (like under a farmhouse sink) to hide the plugs, but still you can access the water shutoffs easily.Here's the before of the metal piesafes. I had one and bought another on Etsy to have enough storage for the stuff I don't use very often.

I painted and added the cute cherry decals.

I have plenty of space to keep the cleaning supplies I don't use as often. The enamelware dishpan on the high shelf holds all my rags.

The red shelf was made by Hubby a long time ago-now it holds aprons and the small embroidered one in the front was my Grandma's.

I had the lamp and made the little shade cover. A lamp makes it a cozy space. The little water sprinkler was my Mom's.

 Here, you can see how you have to walk through the space to the garage.

See my Laundry sign I showed a few weeks ago? The little metal case holds dryer sheets. The jars hold Biz and Oxy Clean.

This niche opposite the washer, is supposed to be for an extra fridge. We got rid of ours when we down sized, so I put a Craigs list hutch in here to extra store quilts, cleaning stuff below, batteries in the tackle box.

I found a neutral bottle to hold my detergent. 

This is my first embroidery-I was probably about 9 or 10 when I made this. 

The only thing we bought was the wood for the shelf and the second pie safe. Adding the second shelf doubled  the shelf space, made the room more functional and so much prettier on a tight budget. I'm linking on to Cozy Little House for Tweak It Tuesday. Check out some other ideas and tweaks.

I'm having a 20% off sale in my Etsy Shop. this week. Just add the code Sale2 when you check out. I've added a few new items.

This is my Great Aunt Ruth and Uncle Ernie. I sure wish I knew when this pic was taken. . I hope you all have a wonderful time with your families and a Happy Thanksgiving Day!

Leslie

Autumn has Arrived

Fall weather has finally hit Texas. It's cool and dreary out side, perfect for a nesting kind of day. Here's my  fall decorations. I love the chipmunk salt and peppers.

I love to mix in vintage figurines.

Simple wool fall leaf banner over the hutch.

A few pillows I made a while back.

Here's a fall leaf  and acorn penny rug that I've shown before. 

After doing up the Halloween mantle , I thought I'd keep it simple for fall this year.

Thank you, Dorothy from Dorothy Prudie Vintage !  I was the lucky winner of this great magazine and cute little extras too. Check out Dorothy's Etsy shop, she has a wonderful selection of great fabrics.

I'm making  chile and cornbread for dinner tonight. We ran all our errands this morning, so we can stay in and watch some football, and maybe I'll do some sewing later. I'm loving this weather and the feeling that autumn has finally arrived! I hope you are having nice weather and it's not too cold yet.

Leslie

New Projects and Finds

First of all, son is fine, made it through  Sandy and will be home Monday. Brooklyn, where he was staying didn't even lose power. He was very lucky. My heart goes out to everyone that was affected by Sandy. Hopefully recovery will go faster then expected.
  I've been a busy bee. Here's what I've been working on. These are my favorites zipper bags so far.

These will be in the shop as soon as I can get them listed. I keep getting more ideas and it's fun to use up some of my vintage trims and buttons.

  I been thrifting and garage saling  and we went to best estate sale yesterday. Here's some of  my booty.

I can't wait to use this pretty Christmas table cloth.

I am so addicted to kids books.  A belated Thank you to Tammy from Tammy's in Love. She sent me some Autumn in a bag from her beautiful tree. What a nice surprise. Thanks, Tammy.

It was about 88 degrees yesterday- a record breaker. What happened to fall here in Texas? I have done  a little decorating and will share later this week.Hope you all have  wonderful week!

Leslie