...Birthday Thank You's...

...this is Scout's sketch for his Birthday Thank You Cards...I love it...a lot...

...I scanned it in order to print multiple copies for his cards...but our printer wouldn't print on the cards without jamming...arghh...

...not (ever) to be deterred in my purpose though...I fashioned a carrier of sorts by simply taping each card to a sheet of 8.5 x 11 paper...I ran it through multiple times - so the carrier is looking a bit ragged at this point...it was not too bad for the dozen cards that we needed but I'd probably print any more than that on standard card stock and then cut them to size...

...then we centered and glued each print on a piece of blue paper...

...added a piece of white for writing the thank you part on the inside...

...and we put the rest together 'assembly line' style...

...they're all done and on their way now...with Scout's heart felt thanks for all the birthday goodness...

...Frual Slipper Makeover...

...y'all know that it's still pretty chilly in ND...

...and you also probably know that I wear slippers almost all the time to keep my trotters warm...

...the boys had given me these Old Navy slippers for Christmas - not last year but the year before...I love them - they're easy-on/easy-off and pretty much non-slip...and they have great knitted detail on the top...

...they had some sort of faux suede soles that I wore out...but instead of trashing them - I thought I'd get some more wear out of them by simply replacing the soles...

...I had gotten the scrap of rust coloured vinyl (about 1/4 of a yard) at the same Church Basement Sale that I got the yarn for 5 - I also used a tiny bit of this vinyl for 5's eye patch...I just traced around the soles and cut two new ones...

...then I just lined it up with the bottom of the slipper and 'stitched in the ditch' all the way around...

...my machine didn't like sewing the vinyl - too sticky I guess - bad for sewing but good for traction...so I just put a piece of newspaper from the recycle bin underneath...

...then I just peeled the paper off...

...to reveal my brand new soles...

...easie peasie - only cost a quarter for the vinyl and about 5 minutes...I have them on right now and hopefully I'll get another year's wear out of them...

...so what have you refurbished lately?...

the new door...day 2...

...another whole day spent on the new door...

...and it's still not quite right...

...it's still binding a little bit...and you know...it has to be completely perfect...or the Man won't screw it into place...

...so...although it is screwed into the joists and attached at the bottom...it's still not completely in...I think a few shims are called for now...

...an outside view...

...that siding is persnickedy to re-do as well...

...the new door...day 1

...remember this post...

...with the deck almost finished giving us a place to stand...we've started a new home improvement project...

...a door onto the new deck...although we've already managed to use the deck...by just passing things through the window...

...so...we got started by removing the window...and by we...I mostly mean the Man and some volunteer helpers from the Church...

...taking out the wall...

...actually took a lot longer than I expected...

...but then there was a big hole in the wall...yikes...

...test fitting the door...

...Yay!...it fits...we had ordered the door with the side-light especially to fit in the opening left by the window...

...the end of day one...it's temporarily held in place by some boards screwed to the wall...a lot of dusting and vacuuming still to be done...taking out a wall is a messy business...

...an outside view...

...do you ever wonder...

...do you ever go to download your photos and find videos that you didn't take...

...and wonder...what on earth is that...

...oh...I see...it's just Scout trying to master a front standing aerial sommersault...

...funny...

Our Friendly...Neighborhood...Goose...

...this appears to be an unmated male goose...

...he has taken up residence in our yard...

...he comes quite close to the house...and sleeps in the yard behind the swing set...all of the other geese are in pairs and most have their little ones hatched now...so this solitary goose seems sort of sad...we have some cracked corn left over from feeding the deer over the winter...maybe that will cheer him up...

...have a lovely weekend...

...the ole rag bag...

My sweet sister picked up a bunch of cotton for our quilts at her local recycle center...

...boxed them up and sent them to me...

...these 70s dresses were my favorites...

...I love these bright floral prints...

...and this orange one with the little tab at the neck...so cute...I wonder who kept these for so long...

...My Mom made us matching (bright) yellow Easter dresses with a pleat in front almost exactly like these...I loved that dress too...I'll have a hard time cutting into these...

...just another crazy interesing fabric from the box...

...and a sweet sleeping tiger print...I always like to put something like this on the quilt...as I always imagine a little baby or toddler lying on it and gazing at the prints...

Thanks Karen...we'll put these to good use!

...5...

...Scout loved the movie 9...

...but his favorite character in the movie was not 9...but 5...

...so for his 13th Birthday I set out to recreate 5 for him...and I found this vintage tan yarn at a Church Basement Sale...for a quarter...

...I loved the graphics on the label...showing the vats...the spinning...the delivery trucks...and finally the yarn store...called Super Yarn Mart...love that...

...and believe it or not...I did a quick search online and found a pattern...for 9...not 5...but pretty easily adaptable...

...pretty much all single crochet...so easie-peasie...I started crocheting...in secret...

...I crocheted the head directly onto the body (it's separate in the pattern)...and of course only one eye socket...

...before I did any seams - or finished the head...I made a little skeleton out of pipe cleaners to slip inside the figure before stuffing or stitching...

...I bought a new thimble and drilled a couple of holes in the back...

...and I had a piece of stretchy lycra from an old swimsuit lining in my stash...I used it to make a little pouch for the rice to give the figure some weight...

...I just stitched up a little bottom-shaped piece and stuffed it with rice...

...this is 5's bottom...

...I slipped a piece of pipe cleaner through the holes in the thimble...

...and attached it to the right side of his skeleton...

...I attached his rice-filled bottom to his pipe-cleaner-skeleton...

...then I slipped his skeleton into his body...

...adjusted his thimble-eye...and stuffed his head...

...then finished crocheting the top of his head...

...next...I stuffed his body...

...and sewed up his bottom...

...then I went searching for the perfect button...or two as the case may be...and I found only one...the khaki one at the top...

...but wait...I'm sure I've seen a button like that somewhere before...oh yes...on my raincoat...so I snipped off one of the little extras that they give you in case you lose one...

...a pretty close match...

...now for some...tarnish...I did a base coat of gold...

...followed by a black glaze...

...next I glued his eyeball into his thimble socket...

...and stitched his two buttons on...

...I did the other top stitching to resemble the stitching in the poster...and realized that the buttons needed to be stitched with the brown thread...so I redid those...

...stitched on his vinyl eye patch...

...and twisted on some fingers and feet...

...crocheted his little shoes...

...and wrapped yarn around his little fingers...

...embroidered his number 5 on his back...

...and finally touched up the ends of his little fingers with some brown paint...if I'd had any brown pipe cleaners this probably wouldn't have been necessary...

...and he was finished...meet 5...