I started this blog as a way to show some of my crafts.  As time would tell, having so much on my hands with three kids, lots of after school activities, church activities, etc. I just didn't have time to craft and blog about it much at all.  My kids are growing up and require a little less time but I still find it hard to find time to craft.  I still craft, just not as much. So, I am changing things up a little.  I will still blog about my crafting experiences, but I will also include things from my life, some reviews of products that I have tried, and my thoughts on things in general.  I hope you all find it entertaining and helpful.  :)

Some of My Kids' projects

While I am waiting to post more pics of my projects, I thought everyone might like to see some of the projects that my kids have done. My kids love hands on projects and they usually put a lot of time into them. I do try to help them a little, but they come up with the ideas and do most of the work. I help them with some of the sewing and gluing when they need it.

The first picture is of my Daughter's Navajo project. She built a Navajo home (Hogan) and a shade house (Ramada) and we added a weaving loom on the outside. We also made a couple miniature Navajo tools and put them into the project. The second picture is of the inside of the hogan. I loved how this turned out. We looked up lots of pictures on the internet to try to make it look right. I love the way these houses look on the inside. They are beautiful. She covered the outside of the hogan in homemade clay. She also had to show Navajo clothing. For that she actually cut shapes out of cloth and used a sticker maker to stick them to the page instead of coloing in the clothes.

The next picture is of a bank that my son made for 4-H. This project took a little time. He covered a square box with black boxes made of construction paper. We had to measure and fold the each box differently because the corners and sides needed different sized and shaped boxes. Then he cut squares from colored construction paper and pasted them onto the boxes. I was impressed with how it turned out too.

The last two pictures are of the Christmas ornaments they both made for 4-H this year. My daughter came up with her own design for an Angel. She drew it out on paper, then we found different odds and ends to make it with. The dress was made from an old lacy top, the head is a flesh colored plastic egg, and the wings were made with cardboard and Christmas rope. The body was made from a soda bottle. I thought it came together quite nicely. My son loves origami as much as I do. He decided to do an origami tree made out of a shiney green gift bag, and then he made some little gifts to go under it out of cardboard and recycled wrapping paper. He also made little ornaments out of several odds and ends to go on the tree. Both these projects were made out of all recycled materials. And both of them won in their classes, so they were displayed on the Christmas tree at our local Welcome Center. I am quite proud of them both. They are both really talented, if I do say so myself. :)

More of Dollhouse

Wow! Time has flown and I am not doing too well keeping up with this blog. My kids have been out of school because of snow so I have not had much time to do anything. I thought I would post more pictures of the dollhouse. I am still working on it and hope to get at least the first level completed soon. I have to get more yarn to finish the kitchen. But I do have the living room and the hall finished. I have been working on a couple cards lately, so I hope to get photos of those up soon. I also made a few things for Christmas and will be posting those later too. Here I have...from top the other side of the living room with the fireplace and sofa showing; the hall staircase before joining to the walls; the kitchen chairs; the left wall for the hallway with clock; and one more view of the hall staircase with hall carpet showing. Can't wait to have all this finished. :)

My daughters' dollhouse

I have not been able to work on my crafts much lately, but I have been working on one project for several years in my spare time. I am making a dollhouse out of plastic canvas for my daughters. It is a full sized dollhouse designed for a Barbie doll. I thought I would post a photo of part of what I have finished on it. This picture is of the living room and outside wall. It has a fireplace on the left, which you can't see except for the side of it and an entertainment center with TV on the right. It also has a bookshelf and a sofa in it. I will add more photos soon.

Trying something new

I am trying my hand at something I haven't done before. My sister gave me some gourds a couple years ago, and I had imagined all kinds of things to make with them. But I had not gotten around to it yet. So finally a few days ago, I decided to check a book on gourds out of the library and have started my first gourd project. So far all I have done is cut one into a little basket and cleaned it out. My next step is to hopefully come up with a design to go on it and paint it. I am reading up on what kind of paints are best for gourds and also I am looking into carving on the surface of gourds. I think it would be fun to be able to make some of these things and maybe sell them to make a little money. They would also make nifty little gifts. So far, I am enjoying this new craft. I hope to post pictures of this and some of the things I have done or am doing soon.

My Crafts

I have loved doing crafts since I was old enough to know what it was. I like doing all kinds of crafts including card making, scrapbooking, sewing, crochet, needlepoint, origami, etc. You name it, I will at least try it. There are a few things I would love to try but haven't yet. I used to sketch when I was young and it was my escape from any stressful thing that I had in my life. But I haven't had much time to sketch lately, as I have three children to take care of now. It is a little easier to take time for crafts, because I can teach them how to do crafts and do my own at the same time. It gives me that escape and valuable time with my kids. Here's to crafting!