Monarch Post

winner, winner, pancake dinner

 
 My new sock monkey helped draw the winning name.... Congrats to Cindy @ Yapping Cat Studio. Yay! Email me your address and I'll get the giveaway goods in the mail for you!

 
Of course, she couldn't read the winning ticket herself, since she's still needing her eyeballs sewn on:)

I think I'll take her, and her eyeballs with me to the skate park this afternoon, I'll stitch while the kids are skate. Then we'll get to designing a wardrobe with that stack of wool and cotton tomorrow.

 It's early out all week at our school for parent/teacher conferences. Yesterday, Sophey and Jesse had their conferences, and they had amazing grades-- so we're heading out for some fun at the local skate park to reward those good grades today!

Last night to celebrate, I made the kids something sweet and new: Gingerbread pancakes and apple compote. Sounds fancy, but it was really simple. I found the recipe at messycook. It was sooo good! We all loved it. Jesse's friend ate over last night with us and said, "Everything your Mom makes is so good." Jesse replied, "Well, you haven't eaten everything she makes-- you shoulda been here when she made potato barf soup last month!" That's my kids-- always keeping it real, and me humble.  xoxoKelly

tales and a giveaway

Okay, here we go... I've been making more ornaments, and duplicates of these are here for you. Yes, that over-hyped giveaway is finally here folks...

So four handmade recylced, upcycled, sweet, sweater ornies could be yours-- for a comment:) How about your favorite or worst holiday story if you've got one too-- please do tell. Inquiring minds want to know;) Or just stop and say "hi!"

*****

So here's my Christmas tree decorating horror story: Christmas 1992. We had just moved back to Utah from a three-year Air Force stint in England. Mike had decided to take the Air Force early out option available at this time, and so we were able to settle down and buy our first home that October. We were excited to celebrate the holidays in our hew home as civilians. We had also promised the kids a dog after the move and house-buying. And so we did. We found a darling, young, spotted black and white shitzu mix at the pound. Ainsley instantly named her Spotley: in honor of herself-- Ains-ley, Spot-ley. (Because we are narcissistic like that sometimes.) Cute dog, cute house, cute kids. Christmas time. Life was sweet.

There was only one problem in the happy holiday homecoming story... I needed to have a painful, heel/bone spur removed before our military benefits ran out. Two days before Thanksgiving, I went in for the surgery. Two hours later, I woke up with a full cast (just below the knee) on my right leg. No one had told me any casts would be involved. No one?!! I was then told I would be in that cast for six weeks. I was an angry woman when I left the hospital... It was Christmas time, I had a seven-year old and an eighteen-month old baby, a new dog, and shopping to do. I couldn't drive. I couldn't walk. I had crutches. (There was no Amazon computer shopping back then.) It was icy outside. I had two pairs of sweat pants to wear for six weeks; jeans wouldn't go over my cast. I became an angrier woman in a hot pink sweatsuit. I looked ridiculous. Poor Mike.

Three weeks into cast wearing, it was time to get a new cast. The orthopedic tech asked if I wanted a colored cast this time. I somewhat sarcastically replied: ya, why don't you alternate the red and white cloth strips and make it look like a candy cane for Christmas... He did. Now I was an angry woman in a hot pink sweat suit with a candy cane cast on my right leg. And crutches. And Christmas fast approaching...

I think I'm making a long story longer here... Okay, onto tree decorating... Before my surgery, I made sure to bake dozens of our traditional gingerbread ornaments for the Christmas tree.  Four weeks in a cast had also made me a determined woman on crutches. I hobbled and hopped around the tree decorating the night away. I meticulously hung all those tucked-away gingerbread ornaments too. The tree was beautiful, and it was midnight. I hobbled to bed.

In the morning, I did my skip/hop/hobble downstairs to find a COMPLETELY DEMOLISHED Christmas tree. Almost every single ribbon hanger was empty of gingerbread ornaments. THE DOG HAD EATEN THE CHRISTMAS TREE!!! I learned that the cute new dog was apparantly part kangaroo, and could jump really high; while simultaneously eating gingerbread cookies. It never crossed my mind that I had made a tree bakery for the dog! (I grew up without a dog in the house.) I sat on the stairs and cried. After a really good feel-sorry-for-myself cry, I pulled everything off the tree and started over, minus gingerbread ornaments. I have never baked gingerbread cookies for a tree since, and I probably never will. As long as we have a dog in the house, anyways. Sheesh.

******* 

So tell us your stories-- good or bad about the holidays! And since you've stayed with me to the end of a post that was preeetty long, here's a little something extra.

 I've been making wreath brooches for my charity boutique this week.

They remind me of my grandmothers' and great aunts' pretty Christmas brooches. 

 
  

They're super simple to make. I'll post how-to's for sure next time:) 

And I'll leave this post up till Tuesday, Nov. 10th. Then we'll do a random draw. So pretty please... leave a comment or a story, I'd love to hear the tales!! xoxoKelly

P.S. If you are a local-- the MOTHERS WITHOUT BORDERS charity bazaar is this Friday and Saturday In Layton and Lehi, Utah. See above for details, and come if you can! 

a walking exercise in creativity

 
After dropping the kids off at school this week; I drove to the old area of our little town, and took some long walks.  I needed a change of scenery from my neighborhood walkabout. And what glorious scenery there was to see right now!

I think my favorite things about fall are the brilliant colors, front porches decorated for Halloween; how excited my kids are for trick-or-treating, and their endless costume planning. And candy corn, of course.

 
Love the old Grandma houses in this neighborhood... 

And all the pumpkin decorated porches.

 
The methodically decorated houses.

 
The sparsely decorated houses.

And the porches which seem to suggest lots of children living there...

 
I'll bet the Rodgers family lives here, what do you think?;)

 

And so with all that delicious, autumness inspiring me-- I got busy. I've wanted to try and make a fall garland out of recycled wools and fabrics for a long time, so I did. (I know I said I'd do the ornament how to's this week, but ornaments can wait a week, right?) Fall is wonderful right now...I'll do a giveaway too, we haven't done that in ages. Next week for sure!

I thought it would be really cool to make chains from the wool. I was really wrong. After ten chains; my eyes glazed over. After twelve chains; my eyes rolled back into my head. I nearly had a seizure. Ridiculously TEDIOUS, I tell you! 

 
I then had a much better idea: strips of garland. Yes, strips are good, and a garland happens in no time. But I still didn't want to sew all those strips together.

Best idea so far: garage sale scrapbook brads! I had a whole tin of them sitting by me, just waiting for a new purpose in life:)

 

  
 
  Strips now mixed together with those tedious chains. Much better...

 

Leaves brad-tacked on, and mantel draped. I think it makes my dated family room mantle really perk up, and say fall la la la la! (Sorry.)

Well, we're off to buy our pumpkins at our favorite patch-- our porch is currently pathetic. And I'm stopping at the fabric store to buy one of those quilty template things to use with my cool, new rotary cutter. I have strips to cut, and more garlands to make!

Have a great weekend. xoKelly

autumn stuff

Slow newsweek here, guys. I've been a crafting robot the last few days, hurrying to get as much stuff made as I could for the charity bazaar-- Mothers Without Borders. Mission accomplished, and a deadline met-- ornaments, red ribbons, twenty-seven bracelets, and a few random goodies delivered today. Yay!

The bracelets sold out last time almost before the boutique began. So I wanted to make as many as I could yesterday.

My favorite bracelets, the two Jesse made with the leftover findings.

 
On the home front, Sophey entered the school art/photography contest today. These are the photos she took around our house. It's gorgeous here right now. Nice work, sweetie.

***

  
 
And last Saturday, Ainsley, Sophey, and myself made our annual treck to "Witches Night Out". It's west of SLC, in a place called Gardner Village. It's a village of pioneer homes, now turned into fun shops.

 
We ran into some witch friends of ours.

 
This festival has grown so large, it really was wall-to-wall witches. So packed it was hard to get good photos. I'll bet there was a cool thousand witches strolling, shopping, dining, and literally dancing in the moonlight last Saturday. We unanimously decided it was kinda creepy hearing "Thriller", this year.

Snapped a blurry Glenda the Good Witch, while caught in the crowd.

 Shoot. Shoulda asked her if she coulda waved her magic wand, and turned a few piles of beads into bracelets...

 Always thinking of things like that a little too late. Dangit. xoxoKelly

And a big THANK YOU to Maria at GREEN EARTH ORIGINALS for donating her some of her beautiful beaded gracelets! Thanks again!

inspired ornaments

I found a box of perfectly preserved ornaments at the thrift store last week. Vintage 1970's stryrofoam, silk thread wrapped, red ornaments. Do you remember those? They frayed so easily, I was surprised to find a box of eighteen looking like new, maybe they never got used.

Anyway, I had plans to add trim and redo those ornaments; then I looked at the new pile of red and creamy, yummy wools I found that same thrift store day, and I got inspired... I made up a pattern and started decorating my own versions of vintage ornaments. So far, I've finished a dozen, with piles and piles of cut out ornaments to go... I've discovered it's a great way to use up odds and ends of trims, buttons, and beads.  

I especially like how the "tin" ornament caps turned out!

 

Next week I'll do a tutorial for you, if you're interested in making your own. Although they're so easy, I'm sure you could wing it and do just fine!

Hope you don't mind Christmas ornaments in October. I've always been one of those people who doesn't want to see Christmas in the shops until until Dec1! But the deadline for the charity boutique I'm working on is next week. So it's going to look like Christmas here for a bit!

I'm planning on filling my Etsy shop with my ornaments soon. I'm afraid if I don't do it now, the holidays will pass me by.

 Anyhoo, it's ornament-making time for a charity, Etsy, and my tree!  xoxo~Kelly

so far, so good

 
Back to working on crafting ideas and projects for the Mothers Without Borders charity boutiqe today. I've suddenly depleted my fab vintage earring and button stash! Tomorrow, I'll need to hit the thrift stores and hunt for more.

Anyways, I decided some stylish AIDS Awareness Day (Dec. 1st) red ribbons would be a perfect place to start crafting for this charity. They could even double as Christmas tree ornaments after wearing on Dec. 1st! :)

 

After a few fancy ribbons, I moved onto felted wool ribbon making. One felted red sweater back made about thirty ribbons! Not bad, for an old castoff. Plain and classic red wooly ribbons for the Land's End crowd, I'm thinkin.

Gotta run! Take care and happy Monday to you:) xoxo~Kelly

loving it

 
Like about Tuesday, I realized my kids were out of school this Thursday and Friday. My crafting plans shifted into low-priority gear, while having fun with kids shifted into high-priority gear. Fall is really here now, the temperatures are apple-crispy. So refreshing. Yesterday, all I wanted to do was play with kids, bake, and hand sew things-- exactly what I managed to do:) (Don't you love it when your day  becomes your to-do list?!) 

I was also the spectator for a tough "boys vs. dogs" soccer match. I don't know who had more fun, or who won :) But they were all in seventh heaven for the afternoon...

 

And so was Miss Sophey. Haunted house painting and fall baking with Mom-- this girls' seventh heaven. She learned to bake a pumpkin pie yesterday too.

 
The finished" Haunted Henderson House". Accessorized with homemade clay flower pots. Sophey said, "It just needed a litle something more." She kills me.

And being the apple that didn't fall far from the tree...

 
she decorated the inside with old dollhouse furniture.

We decorated these little numbers too. Oh my goodness, can you say rich? Hershey's Kisses are now in candy corn flavor! (I'll post the recipe at the end for you.)

And then we decorated our favorite, old kitchen sideboard with our new art.

 
  
 
In and around and between kids, I finished a couple of cats for Etsy, and started on projects for the charity boutique. I've made about thirty Red ribbon pins so far... more handmade show and tell to follow next week!

Hope you have a wonderful weekend.  xoxo~Kelly

P.S. candy corn not included with cat-- who invented this stuff, and why do I like eating sugar-wax?

***HALLOWEEN KISSES COOKIES***

1/2 C butter, softened

1/2 C sugar

1/2 C packed brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla extract

2 C all-purpose flour

1/4 tsp salt

Additional sugar

40 Hersheys candy corn kisses,unwrapped and then frozen. They melt too quickly if they're not frozen first.

In a bowl, cream butter and sugars. Beat in egg and extract. Combine the flour, baking soda and salt; gradually add to creamed mixture.Cover and chill for 1 hour or until easy to handle.

Roll into 1-inch balls, then roll in additional sugar. Place 2 in. apart on ungreased cookie sheets. Bake at 325 for 13-15 minutes or until golden brown. Immediately press a kiss into the center of each cookie.

Press a kiss on a kid-- oh wait, that's my recipe ;)

make new friends, but keep the old

She's on her way to CRAFT HOPE charity headquarters. Mademoiselle Emilie, (Sophey picked her name) the sock monkey is this week's extra fun, extracurriculur craft project. Why didn't anyone tell me sooner how much fun sock monkeys are to make? ;) The pattern is so simple; the body only took about an hour to sew and stuff.

 

Dressing her was another matter... It's was way fun to feel like my eight-year old self, who loved nothing more than dressing baby dolls all day long :)

P.S. Don't you love my estate sale vintage sewing basket I found this summer? All it needed was a fresh coat of red paint to be cute perfection ;)

Beret on (have you ever made a beret for a sock monkey? Well, the ears just needed to show, so this is what a beret looks like on a sock monkey!). Mary Jane's on. Sweater, check. Satchel for travelling, check. Love note for new playmate, (most important check) check.

Take care, sweet Emilie. Bon Voyage. Have a safe trip, and enjoy your new sunny California home. We hope your new friend loves you as much as we do :)

Speaking of friends... My Sophey is so happy this week. A week before school started, she learned her best friend (who would have been in the same class) was moving. They've been best friends since diaper days. After weeks of tears, her best buddy is back in Sophey's class.

I love Sophey's first piece of schoolwork out of the backpack:

"I treasure Love becuse it's all you need"

"I treasure life becus life's opertunities that we get to do"

"I treasure Friends becuse they help you trugh"

She's a wise little thinker for eight. I couldn't agree more.

Have a lovely weekend! xo~Kelly

crafty little locker pockets

 

Back to school time brings back lots of my own school days memories. This is one of those old, old crafts I remember from my locker door days. I thought it would be fun to update the jean locker pocket project and share it with you. And I just happened to have a newly outgrown pair of Levi's-- courtesy of Jesse's summer growth spurt ;)

These could work well on a fridge too for pencils, or maybe in my case, the cell phone I can never find ;)

 

The idea is to use up crafting odds and ends. Bits of fabric, ribbon, scrapbooking ephemera, and one vintage earring are what I used for this pocket. It takes only a few odds and ends to make a really fun pocket magnet.

Begin by cutting around the jean pocket, leaving about an inch of extra denim all the way around the pocket.

Now add all those items you've been wondering what to do with. Use your imagination! Paints or fabric crayons, stamps, beads, whatever goes. Make it YOURS! Glue, hand sew, or use iron on double-sided fusible web (like Wonder Under) to attach your goodies.

 

Turn it over, run clear craft glue along the one inch edges and fold the edges inward. Hold edges tightly together with your fingers until the glue holds.

 

Trace around a square of magnetic sheeting. (Ask the lady where it is in the craft store, I think they hide it.) Peel the back off of the magnetic sheeting and stick the pocket to the sheeting.

 

The sheets I used must have been old. The sticky came off on the peel-off sheet! I used more clear glue on the magnet, and that worked fine. So don't stress if you have sticky sheet issues too;)

 

One sheet cost $1.99, and was just enough to make two magnetic pocket pencil holders.

Makes a fun back to school project for the junior high crowd, a Girl Scout troop, or simplified with stamps and paint it would even work for a Mom and a preschooler.

Happy crafting ;)

xoxoKelly

P.S. I'm filling my Etsy shop-- and I'll add these.

jolly good

   

Hey there! I've been working away this past week-- stitching away late at night, and finding Saturday morning treasures for the Etsy shop. I've got all sorts of things half-way finished, but did manage to finish some new pincushion designs. I found the sweetest white teacups at the thrift store, but couldn't decide what to do with them, and then viola-- Union Jack flags popped into mind! Very British pincushions now for sale. Love it when that happens...

I had a hard time getting a good photo of my flag pincushions, but this shot shows the tops and gives a better idea of what they really look like--

 

So there we are... I'm calling them Hail Brittania pincushions,

 

and Wimbledon strawberry pincushions :)

When we lived in England we used to go strawberry picking in June. The strawberries on the farm we visited were ginormous! When we commented on the size of the strawberries, the farm owners proudly told us that their strawberries were the ones served (with cream) at Wimbledon. (So that explains the name.)

Well okey dokey, I'm off to the fashionable sporting event around our town... yes, that would be baseball. Went to a tournament game every night last week-- Jesse's team took a respectable third place in town. And now it's on to the All-Star games. We are the awesomest chair-unfoldin'-picnic-packin'-baseball spectators, (I must confess ;)) Except for poor bored Sophey...

     Back soon with more goodies, I'll try to get things listed (hopefully) late tonight in my Etsy shop. 

Happy summertime to you! Isn't it great?!

Love,

xoKelly