My First Award & A Little Hint

My first award! I feel like I've finally arrived! Thanks to Erynne from Heartfelt Originals for stopping by, checking out my blog, and liking it enough to send some sunshine my way!

The rules of this award are as follows:

Put the logo on your blog or within your post.
Pass the award to 12 bloggers.
Link the nominees within your post.
Let them know they received this award by commenting on their blog.
Share the love and link to the person from whom you received the award.

It was virtually impossible to pick just 12 blogs. But I did my best:

Be Colorful

How About Orange

Lulu's Tiles

Martha Shmartha

Ruffles and Stuff

Someday Crafts

Somewhat Simple

I am Momma, Hear Me Roar

Just A Girl

My Craft Discovery

Miss Crafty Pants

Fireflies and Jellybeans

And here's a little hint of something I'll show more of in my next post...

Felt House-A-Long DONE (Pt. 1)

OK, I have a confession. This is Pt. 1 of DONE (much like I have documents at work that are final, final-final, final3, etc) because there are a few other things I need to do to the house before it's really done, but it's done enough for now. Some things it needs are grass. And fruit in the tree. And greenery in the planter boxes. But right now Lincoln's young enough that he could care less, so I'm putting the finishing touches on hold for right now. I'm burned out on felt, and I have several other projects I'm itching to start.

So, let's take a little tour. Starting with the front, I decided to simplify and not try to put a window on the front. But I did think it looked kind of plain, so I added a planter on the "front porch." One of these days, it will be abloom with greenery.
Also, I'm still working on the doorknob. For those interested, it involves felt, hot glue, hand stitching (which I hate), a washer, a blank button back, and the cap from a can of spray adhesive. That's all I'll say for now. ;)

Moving to the left side, it's fairly plain. It has a window with an empty planter box, and a chimney. The cool thing (to me) about this chimney is that some of the bricks are velcroed on, so Lincoln can be a brick-mason like this great-uncle when he's in the mood. :) Also, notice that it sticks up past the "roof." You can kind of see in the picture of the front that it's visible from all sides. :)


The right side has another window (with empty window box) and one side of the tree. It's tough to see the detail from here, but I free-motion quilted the greenery on the tree, and I'm really pleased with the effect close-up. This side will be a lot more exciting with fruit, grass, and maybe some flowers.


Finally, the back. It has the other side of the tree, a "sliding glass door," light fixture, and the awesome hose I blogged about earlier. Notice though that I added the knob where he can "turn the water on and off."


So that's my house! It took a little while (but not too long) for Lincoln to decide he loved it. I'm not sure if there is a better reward than a grin like this:


I'll be linking to the parties on the left.

**Edited to add that I'm also linking to:

Whatever Goes Wednesday @
Someday Crafts

Felt House-A-Long Weeks 3 and 4

I'm slowly getting caught up with this felt playhouse, and I am really loving the potential I'm seeing. If you remember from my Week 2 post, I chose to work with two panels rather than 4. I didn't want to try to do half of a tree. I'm not sure I would suggest that, but so far I've managed to make it work. I also decided not to put the grass along the bottom until I've sewed everything together (the roof and all four sides), so I can use it to even up the bottom as necessary. This might come as a surprise to some of you, but I'm a little CDO (it's like OCD, but in alphabetical order, the way it's supposed to be).

So, here's the left side of my house. Yes, I put a picture behind the window so you could tell that it's see-through. Otherwise you just see the grey that's on the back of the adjacent side. :) And don't mind the huge bare spots in the brick chimney, those are where I've sewed velcro so that the bricks can be taken off and replaced.


Like so:


So for now, that about finishes up side 2. I'll add the grass at the end, and greenery in the window box eventually. I'm mostly trying to get the "structure" up and running right now.

The back of the house has the right half of the tree, a "sliding glass" door, a light, and a hose. Notice that the tree looks a little less wonky when you're just looking at half of it.


And let's get a close-up of that hose.


It's not QUITE finished. I'm going to add a knob that can be used to turn the "water" on and off, and I still need to finish off the end, but isn't it gorgeous? And all the credit goes to our babysitter. While she was here watching Lincoln, I told her that is she got bored she could use this doohickey (I picked one up at Hobby Lobby with only the vaguest idea of how it worked, but fairly certain it could do what I wanted) to knit my playhouse hose for me. WHAT a trooper! She took it and ran with it, and I am SO grateful. I'm fairly confident I never would have gotten the hose done otherwise, and it turned out JUST how I had hoped. Thanks, Savannah!!

So, still a little more to do on those sides, and the front is just barely getting going, but there's a little update for everyone.

**Edited to add that I'm linking to the parties on the left and:

Picture Clock

Does anyone else get Real Simple? I LOVE it. I've had a subscription off and on for the past few years, and I'm so glad I got a new one for this year because I LOVE the cover idea on the Anniversary issue this month!


I think using different images for the numbers is so clever and whimsical! It allows for you to change the images as a new fancy strikes without having to spend tons of money on a whole new clock. Plus it allows for a BIG clock that doesn't look so big. I'm already on the hunt for images. I might have to use this one for the 1:


...even though you can hardly see the 1 on that cupcake 'cause you're laughing so hard at the look of determination on my cute baby. Maybe a little selective coloring in photoshop... Any thoughts?

Easter Wreath

Remember my St. Patrick's Day wreath?


In this post, I'll show you my super-quick costume change from that St. Patrick's Day wreath to this Easter Wreath!

First, gather your supplies. I got a bag of cheapo plastic Easter eggs from Target, though you can find them pretty much anywhere. I also needed some quilting pins.


Now, if you're lucky (like me), your Easter eggs will already have these handy little holes at each end and therefore on each half of the egg. If you're not as lucky, I can think of a number of easy ways to make similar holes. My first stop would involve a candle, a nail, and a pair of rubber-handled pliers. :)


So, pop the egg in half and notice how the pin slides nicely into that handy hole.


Place the half where you'd like the egg to be and just slide the needle all the way in. Your egg will now look something like this.

Pop the top half on, et Voila! An Easter egg which is VERY easily removable.


Now repeat the previous steps for as many eggs as you want to use. I varied pinning the bottom or top half for my karma (also known as OCD), but however you prefer to do it is great. I opted not to use the green eggs because I didn't think they would show up very well against all the other greenery. Finally, the finished product!


I admit, they kind of look like Christmas lights to me in this picture, but they're VERY Easter-y in person. Trust me. ;)

I'll be linking to the parties on the left.

**Edited to add I'm also linking to:

Whatever Goes Wednesday
@ Someday Crafts

Easter Decor Roundup
@ Growing Our Own Garden