Ha! I'm done!

With the semester!
All I have left for this semester is two finals.

Source: Dover

But I finished my online course today! Got all those little last assignments done!

Don't get my wrong--I love my classes, my profs are great, and classmates are super. It's just time to finish up and get on with the next adventure!

A Wreath for Easter

A little late, I know!

I wanted an Easter wreath, but didn't want to spend any money....so here's what I came up with!

Anyhow, first rustle up your trusty helper cat....

And then get your materials:

• For this el-cheapo wreath, I used the brown packing paper that came out of a box = Free!
• A wreath from the dollar store = $1.00
• Some old plastic Easter eggs from the depths of the closet = free
• Three pieces of sheet music = a few cents worth                                                 

(I had a whole bunch that I'd purchased from Knick of Time: a lovely Etsy shop and a lovely blog too!)

• ModPodge
• Glue gun
• Stapler

First, I stapled some of the brown paper around the  wreath as a base for the rest of the decorations:

                                                                           Like so--

                      Then I took another long piece of brown paper and scrunched it up, sorta like this:

                     Fastening down all the scrunched up bits with the stapler and the hot glue gun:

Straightening and fluffing as I went along:

To make the wreath!

Tearing up the sheet music into small strips and using some ModPodge, I covered

ye olde plastic Easter eggs:

And added the "musical" eggs, twine and a burlap bow to make

a rustic wreath:

Ugghh...

I'm sick...

One cat is sick...

It's sorta miserable around here!

Still Plugging Along on SWAP 2012: An Easter Dress

Believe it or not!

I'm still sewing--although plans have changed a bit!

I've just had such a run of Mega Sewing Difficulties: zippers that won't sew in properly, darts that went in all wonky, instructions that don't make sense......

Plus Texas just really didn't have a winter this year! So I've changed my mind about a couple of items that were in the initial plans.

This Butterick dress will just have to wait to next fall. It's just too warm to be thinking about long sleeves right now :)

Instead, I opted for this pattern:

I had several yards of a bright and cheery butterfly print in the ol' stash, actually more than I needed. The fabric is a pretty cotton lawn or something similar (I've had it for a while).

Havine more than I needed turned out to be a GOOD thing.

When I layed the fabric out, I realized there were fade marks along the folds. Fortunately, I managed to work around these by making a seam in the center back.

Whereupon the zipper moved to the back.

This dress fit perfectly and was easy to sew, just as promised on the pattern.  I sat down and sewed Friday and Saturday, and had a new Easter dress by Sunday church!

The zip even behaved and went in beautifully!

I also underlined both the bodice and the skirt, since the print fabric was slightly sheer and also ravelled terribly!  And I didn't make a belt.
Thanks for visiting!



A Blessed Easter!

An Eventful Week--and a Bit of Decorating!

It's been quite an eventful week down here in the Dallas area.

Tuesday was quite scary! Fortunately, despite the horrific damage to several communities, not one person was killed or even seriously injured in all the tornadoes.

Source

Our family is fine, praise the Lord--we called out middle son and found him in the bathtub, hiding from the tornadoes in the Arlington area. All we suffered was loss of electricity. Fortunately, my parents still had lights, so I could finish a research paper due Wednesday! Better still, my mom fed us!

Late last week I took a few minutes to do a bit of decorating. I've had this old bread baking pan--um, thingie!--hiding in the closet for a couple of years! It was time to get it out and do something with it!

So I took some fun things around the house to put INSIDE the bread pans.

First, a little chicken pot holder. It's a bit rough around the edges, but it's got RED trim and wings!

 Next, metal chicken cookie cutters and a candy mold. The mold was a gift from a friend, while the middle cookie cutter is new, and I found the one on the left for a few cents down in Waxahachie.

 These two were part of a sun catcher that fell down and broke. Finally, a place for momma hen and her chick!

 Yes, I know--one's a cow.  But the other is a chicken!

 This little chickie has been sitting around the house here and there--now he sits in this old blue enamel ladle hanging on the bread pans!

So easy and lots of fun! Thanks for looking!