Holiday Crafts

Hear is a sneak peak at a crafty project I have up my sleeve. These will be much more exciting and hopefully an enjoyable holiday present for the recipients. I love the colors available at the craft store and they are made in India (rather than cheapo Made in China stuff they mostly have). Hopefully I have all the embroidery floss colors I'll need, though I usually never do have all the right stuff.

Happy Crafting!

Cerise : )

My Photo of the Week

Meet the goat at Blueberry Meadows.

A shy guy who was enjoying the blueberries tossed in his pen.

I think I have a thing for taking pictures of goats, sheep, and llamas.

More Projects on the Needles!

Here's what else are on the needles:

I am hoping to have this sock done by the time I drive back to Oregon next weekend. These are a Christmas present for some lady I know. I used WAY more yarn that I thought I would on the first one and had to wait to get another skein in to start the second sock. I LOVE this yarn. It's Knit Picks Shine Sport in Grasshopper green. I could live in this stuff! I also really like the sock pattern (Meida's Socks, Nancy Bush, Interweave Knits). The pattern texture is wonderful and I really like the heal flap. Overall, this is definitely one of my favorite projects!

Happy Knitting,

Cerise : )

Garden Beautiful

Okay, this really isn't crafting but I thought I'd share the beautiful sunflowers in the garden. These were random additions to the garden thanks to the birds. They are so amazing!

Happy Gardening!

Cerise : )

On the Needles

Here's what's on the needles for this week

(along with many other UFOs!):

A sweater shell based on the Ninebark Cowl pattern from Knitscene, Winter/Spring 2010 issue. I hate the cowl so I'm leaving that out and I'm trying to make it more custom to my torso. I also want some poofy-ish sleeves that will be added hopefully on my "long" airplane ride today. Overall I don't think it will really end up much like the Ninebark Cowl at all but that was definitely an inspiration.

Happy Crafting!

Cerise : )

Feature Artist Friday: Song and Branch

It's Friday and time for another feature artist! This week our feature artist is Karen Dorweiler of Song and Branch from Seattle, Washington.

Karen makes cute and creative porcelain miniatures and sculptures. The subtle detail in her works gives her creations so much life and personality. Each critter is made individually by hand without molds and tools are only used to bring out little details. The porcelain is bisque fired and glazed with wonderful colors. There is definitely something you will fall in love with in Song and Branch's shop. And it's not too early to think Christmas!

You can fan Song and Branch on Facebook and shop Karen's wonderful creations on Song and Branch's Etsy page.

Lady's Craft Night

Last week I hosted a lady's craft night at my house. We made sushi, drank saki, and ate mochi ice cream. To go along with the japanese theme we made origami paper lanterns to put on light strings. Them came out so great! It's hard to see just how pretty them look glowing in a dark room. This was a really easy and fun project. The lights don't get hot so they can be left on a long time with the paper lanterns on them and not catch on fire (at least they haven't so far). I'm going to attempt making a million of these little lanterns and string lights on patio to add a wonderful glow for hot summer evenings. I can't wait for our next craft party!

Happy Crafting!

Cerise : )

Watch out for Vikings!

My neighbor Nicole and I decided to start getting together to do some sewing projects. She had some really great pictures of cute viking plush pillow people and we decided to make some similar guys. We set out to the fabric stores to find some viking inspiring prints and textures. This was a surprisingly difficult task. Corduroy was a definite and some checks and plaid prints were chosen. Nicole had some great red and orange toned fabrics for the cheeks and noses already in her stash. We set off to making patterns for our people. We have made some good progress the past two days but now are a bit stuck at the beards. The fur fabric just isn't cutting it so we are going to experiment with alpaca roving and wool felt to see what we can make. I think they are awesome so far! They will definitely be very viking with their horns and rugged beards!

Happy Crafting!
Cerise : )

Cozy Cosy

Even though our little Singer sewing machines are portable and come with cases, I like to leave mine on top of my work table. Sad to say, I do not use it everyday so it gathers some dust. My friend Michelle wrapped a present to me in some wonderful fabric and let me keep it. I have been contemplating what to use it for and here it is: a cosy for my sewing machine! I first made one for Cerise out of dinosaur material (from the now closed NHM) then made mine out of this wonderful sewing machine material. Thanks Michelle!
Theresa, OmMama

Painting Ceramics

My mum's little sister (a.k.a. my aunt!) and her two kids and boyfriend came out for a visit last week and we decided to do some ceramics painting at the Pottery Place here in Corvallis. We all found something fun to paint and had a great time! It's fun to see how different the ceramics look after being fired. It's almost a surprise since you don't quite know what colors are going to come out!

Happy Crafting!
Cerise : )