cottage and vine: A Giveaway With Online Fabric Store!!!

I love a giveaway, especially when it involves fabric!  Check this one out.  This is my favorite new source for fabric and supplies.  cottage and vine: A Giveaway With Online Fabric Store!!!: My friends at Online Fabric Store contacted me a couple of weeks ago to see if I would be interested in hosting a giveaway.  Are you fa...

Jane of all Trades



The Before "Blues"



We recently replaced our laminate counters with granite.  I'm very excited and inspired by this change.  Sooo, I decided to tackle a do it yourself project.  A mosaic tile backsplash rose to the top of my "to do" list.   Our kitchen was an awful light blue wall paper....even the ceiling was light blue, counters were blue, backsplash blue.   Definitely a bit dated.  We have gradually done some minor things here and there to ease out of the blues.  But the grand finale was the counter top.  A worthy investment indeed.  Hopefully I can find a before picture. 

The ending result is lovely!  And really, considering the before picture, it was a major upgrade for a minor investment.



Work in Progress - The easy part



I have never tiled before so this was a new adventure for me.  It was kind of like putting a puzzle together with glue and a little muscle.  I watched a bunch of how to videos on U-Tube.  Very helpful!  I was amazed at how quickly the tile actually went up.  Only took a few hours to get in place.  Then....wait till tomorrow to grout.  Grouting was a bit more difficult and took a bit longer and a lot more muscle.  I am sore and my hands ache but I am sooooo please with the results!  



Some tools of the trade



Biggest obstacles in this project....time and the fear factor.  My recommendations if you would like to try this type of project is to just go for it.  Watch videos, educate yourself and put the fear aside because tiling is totally doable.

I loved working with this mosaic tile.  It was very forgiving.  Comes on sheets and you just cut off tiles around outlets, etc.  Had to clip just a few with tile nippers.  Scroll down for the finished product.

The WoW Factor!  Enjoying my afternoon tea admiring my new counter and backsplash!  



Tada!  Finished Project!











Yes....I really do love my dogs this much!

I bought this fabric as a remnant!  Can you imagine my excitement....these are my dogs!  And they totally sit just like this!  So I bought it...actually a few years ago.  I have been chastised by my non dog lover friends for my purchase..."you can only make a dog bed out of this!" or "what can you even do with it?"  But alas...the dog lover/crafter in me rises to the occasion!  It's decorator quality fabric for pete's sake....not a dog bed!  So....I am making a cushion for my fireside sitting area to keep our butts warmer while sitting on the flagstone next to the fire and perhaps a few pillows to match.   Cutting tonight...pix to follow shortly.  However, This fabric not only had adorable Cavalier King Charles Spaniels on it, but has cute little Pugs and Westies too.  Can't toss their sweet little faces in the trash!  Sooo....to the thinking chair!   I've got some great ideas.  I'll be posting some cute dog stuff on my ESTY shop soon....stay tuned!



Fabulous!

 


To further my reign of the Queen of Dog-Nut-Dom (is that a word?)...a friend of mine gave me a 911Home Goods emergency call with these great canvas's of "my dogs".   I mean....what are the odds!?   I said "O my Gosh!  Grab Them!  Presented them to my husband who is the King of Dog-Nut-Dom for Christmas and....we live happily ever after!  : ) 

(Really...they are great dogs....we aren't crazy!)

And here is the real thing...they are so lovable!  



Dog babies but...still so lovable!

Let Them Eat Cake!

I love making and decorating cake.  This one though not decorated was quite tasty.  I got the recipe from one of my favorite books "The Cake Doctor".  If your not familiar, it includes doctored up recipes for traditional store bought cake mixes.  I love it...so easy peasy!  When I don't need decorating, this is my go to book for yummy cakes.  Most always include added pudding mix.  Pudding makes a super moist cake for sure!  This particular cake was to celebrate my mothers birthday.  KAHLU'A Cake!  You can never go wrong combining a coffee flavor with chocolate.  Yummo!  Made it yesterday....Gone today!  Happy Birthday Mom!  Love you!

Sew Many Snowmen!

I was looking for a "service" type project to do with my 9 year old daughters class and found these easy snowmen hats in Family Fun Magazine.  I have a notebook that I have compiled over many years of my favorite project for kids from this magazine and pulled this out of the archives.  Jennies teacher was very excited about it and graciously agreed to extend our project time over the course of two days.  She and some other moms help me cut them out, I sewed and the kids did the decorating.  We made a total of 65 hats...one to keep, one to give away and of course 3 for the principal's kids.    I had our church's Girls Club make scarves to match, we packaged them up real pretty and delivered them to a local shelter.  It was a complete success!  The kids made a fantastic hat for themselves while experiencing the joy of giving to others.

Making Progress

I love accomplishing things!  Finally getting around to my Christmas projects.  I loved working with these charm pack and have completed two table runners.  They go together quite quick once you get going.  I love being back at my machine again.  Also playing around with some yarn.  Made some granny stars out of Vanna Choice yarn.  They are a bit hokey but I love them.  I'm going to string them together to make a bunting and hang somewhere in my kitchen.  I'm copying my sister.  The colors match perfectly with my Longaberger pottery and assessories.  I think Vanna must be into Longaberger.

Been very busy with my two younger daughters birthdays.  We celebrated Jennie's 9th and Kristen's 4th with a Spa Party for girls.  What a blast.....manicures, pedicures, facials and Sushi cupcakes. 

A New Beginning

Yes, the beginning of a new project.  My sister recently visited from Florida and we spent a day craft store hopping.  Such a blessing to spend time with both my mom and my sister.  As different as we each are we are that much or more the same.  Our adventures for this particular day was lunching at the Tea Hive in Newton and then searching for the far and few between fabric and craft stores in northern New Jersey.  I was very inspired while Denise was here to start some new projects.   We spent a lot of time together sewing.  We are collectively making a quilt for my mother.  Great fun putting our heads together to work on this very special project.  More pictures on this later.  I haven't visited a really good fabric store in a long time because there just are not many in New Jersey anymore.  However we stumbled on the great little shop in Vernon called Bits and Pieces (i think).  I picked up a charm pack to start a table runner for Christmas.  This is the first charm pack I've ever bought.  They are just 5" squares of coordinated fabric.  Really cuts down on waste fabric and they are just so fun to flip through in the store.  They really are "charms".  I'm really excited about it.  Hope to make several as gifts.  My photos don't do the colors and patterns justice.    They are all by Moda Fabrics and the pattern is from Anka's Treasures.  Stay tuned for finished product.  Cutting tonight!  

Next new project is this blog.  My sister Denise also has this fabulous blog and inspired me to start my own.  She includes her works in progress as well as personal success and even hardships.  I just love it!She helped me to set it mine up.  Not sure quite yet where I'm going with it.  But it is also a new beginning!   Bear with my while I work out the bugs!  ; )

Here is a link to my sisters blog...check it out!
http://dbriese.blogspot.com