Unfinished business....

Thats where I've been....taking care of unfinished handmades for the most part.....that and Farmville on facebook...OMG-let me kill the person who started me on that stupid game (hehehehe...she knows who she is...) Don't ever started playing that game- it is addictive and sucks you right in. lol. It's even sucked Craig in....does Facebook have Farmers Anonymous meetings?? Hello...my name is Jody and I'm a Farmville addict......lol. Ok, back to business.... I had started these stitcheries from one of Jenny's designs a while back for myself and decided I needed to get them finished now or I never would. Feels kinda good to keep some of the things I make now and then... :0)

I made these for me, too. I bought the stencils a while back from Stencil Me In and Homestead Stencil Co., I just love them- not sure where I'll be putting them yet, but they'll look good anywhere....

I've had this old paned window for quite a while and it's been hanging out in storage waiting for me to do something with it. I'm always looking through my old copies of Country Sampler for ideas- I saw something similar in an old issue (except theirs was done with an old quilt piece) and since I already had a flag I think it turned out pretty neat. It's a 3x5 flag- I just folded it to fit and tacked it to the back of the frame. It hangs above the peg rack in the entryway....

Another unfinished project done! I started this wool felt penny rug over a year ago and it sat 10% finished until now. It sits under the lamp on my nightstand now... I used a tutorial Colleen has on her blog and one of her patterns to put it together. I know my stitches aren't perfect but hey, I thought I did good for my first rug. It has three pennies per circle on the front and a fourth penny per circle to finish the backing....so what's that...170-some pennies? I knew there was a reason I kept putting off finishing it...lol.

Remember this guy? He is sure growing.....I mean he's still a shrimp, but he is outgrowing the puppy look and heading into adolescence now. He's my little sidekick and follows me everywhere. He lays at my feet when I sew and stitch. :0)

Me and Craig have also been helping my mom out- helping her with some work on her property and such which has kept us busy on Craigs days off. I haven't made anything to sell, but if you see something you like, give me a shout- I could make you one just like it. (Except for the penny rug- I don't see myself making another one for while...lol). I should get going- Craig just came home off graveyards and I want to see him before he goes to bed. Until next time.....~Jody

What I've been up to lately....

Maybe it would be easier to say what HAVEN"T I been up to lately. LOL. Sage stayed home from school on Wednesday with a tummy ache, and that night I noticed her eyes looked a little red, but she said they felt fine. Last week I already had an appt set up Thursday morning for the pains in her leg (which turned out to be just a bad case of growing pains- thank goodness nothing serious), he thought it (the eyes) was allergy related because at the time she had also been getting itchy little welts on her skin which went away with Benadryl. I took her to school on Friday and thank goodness her teacher told me while Sage had been gone from school quite a few other kids had pink eye. So I called the Dr and he went ahead and called in some eye drops. At the store Chad kept telling me his tummy hurt. When we got home, I was taking him out of his carseat and he got sick all over himself, the carseat and me. He feels a little better now, but we're laying pretty low this weekend. If he isn't better by Monday, we're going back to the Doctor's, or sooner if he starts running a fever.......Well, for the last week -up until a few days ago anyway- I have been up to my neck in naked- and mostly headless- doll bodies and parts as you can see a few in the works. A few in the pic are already done and going to a local prim shoppe in town. Right now I'm actually working on 4 more dolls- 3 are surprise gifts for someone (I can't say who because they might read my blog and I don't want to spoil it) and the 4th is another dolly for ebay.
You might remember this one I finished a while back- in January I think, but then it seemed like we had all sorts of stuff going on and I never got to list her on ebay since then. Well, I'm ready to list her, but I need to swap her "Americana Spring" tag out and make another that says "Americana Summer". I'm gonna wait until the other doll is done, too before she goes on ebay, but sorry no sneaky peeks of the new one. Hee hee! :0)

A few weeks ago, we needed to get away for a few days, so we took the kids and went on a spur of the moment type of trip to visit Craig's sister, Heidi in Denver. We had such a blast! We took the kids to the Denver Zoo and the Downtown Aquarium which was just as much fun for me as it was for the kids cuz I had never ever been to a zoo before, either. I ended up taking like 400+ pictures, so I need to get them loaded and edited on the computer before I can share a few with all of you! :0) I did get to meet Kathy of Kittredge Mercantile and see her shop in person as she is just outside of Denver. All I can say is WOW! Tons and tons of eye candy! Every room in her shop is filled to the brim with her wonderful handmades, antiques and vintage finds and collectibles as well as one room dedicated to reproduction iron pieces. Kathy is a hoot! I could have spent hours in there just to see everything and I did leave with a few little things, although I could have left with tons more if we weren't all crammed in Heide's little car. :0) Hee hee! I got the crow make-do, and old quilt pillow with a heart and a little quilt pinkeep.That crow make-do is BIG! I just love him! I put him on the shelf on that big wall in the front room and he is perfect there! I was sad I didn't get to meet Joleen on the way down- she was visiting her sister that weekend, but it was my fault- I didn't give her much notice because it was a last minute decision trip. Sorry Joleen! We'll be down again soon! :0)

I did promise a pic of our finished bathroom, so here it is. We went from pretty much gutting it like this:

and thisto this!It turned out so great! Well, it still has a few things missing- the piece of oak trim above the wainscoting by the toilet and a bit of wainscoting right next to the vanity there, but its minor and we'll get to it on Craig's next days off. The original vanity was really long with double sinks, which for us was a huge waste of counter space- so we opted for a shorter one which we bought unfinished,then stained and finished ourselves and cut the countertop longer to allow for a laundry hamper to be concealed behind the homespun curtain. And here is the view from the doorway in. That is actually an antique china cabinet of my moms which I am keeping for her- she's going though a really miserable divorce with the possibility of moving again and right now she doesn't have room for it at her place. So instead of putting it in storage, I'm using it to store our bathtowels. It's empty right now cuz we just moved it in here yesterday. The wall on that side is bare, I was waiting to decorate the walls until I got the cabinet in there. Hope you like our bathroom! Well, I should go and get some stuff done. I'll try to post some of our Denver pics this week sometime. :0)

Springtime remodeling pics...

Geez..it has already been a month since my last post. Well, so much for my best laid plans! LOL! Well, this post should be good and lengthy with lots of pics to share, so hopefully that will make up for it. Tee Hee! It seems I have been busier than ever since mid- Feb, though- and not craft related, darn it! We moved into our house 4 years ago this spring and the main bathroom and our front living room have been an ongoing remodeling project ever since- it was either lack of time, money, or the combination of both that kept us from getting more done on it. So Craig took some extra vacation time off work and we decided to use our tax return money and worked our tails off and it finally turned out so great! Lots of color! But I can't tell you how much fun it is trying to paint and stain and do all this with a 5 yr old and 2yr old trying to "help" and getting into everything! LOL! (I couldn't figure out how to make each pic "clickable" so you could see it bigger- only the first and last in this post will do that for some reason-if anyone knows how to change that-let me know!)Here are a few "before" pics of the front living room:
We took out all the baseboard heaters (there were originally five just in this room alone, can you believe it!) and replaced them with an energy efficient one with a fan under the bay window........about the area above the fireplace- there used to be a fake roof thingie that came down from the ceiling and jutted out from the wall- it even had rough wood shingles on it- yuck!

I never took any pics of it, but there used to be a wood burning stove insert with harvest gold tile that was falling off in pieces and a ledge that jutted out from the wall to sit on. Our house was built in 1980, so I'm sure it was all original to the house- as was the lovely popcorn texture on the ceilings which went bye-bye, too. We just opened up the whole area and put a coal stove in- which heats our house SO much better! There used to be 2 matching wood shelves on both sides which were nailed to the wall.....and now some "after" pics:
I am thrilled how it came out! The walls are a lot darker and look more textured in person- the camera flash tends to brighten everything. I did a basecoat of pale cream and then did a tea stain glaze wash over the top- I wanted kind of a light venetian plaster texture look and thought I did pretty good for my first time! Thanks so much to my new blogging friend Stacey, for all her help when I was getting started last month! Your help and emails were tremendously appreciated!
The big Americana doll hanging from the old ladder was one I made last year from a Crabby Gabby pattern- she didn't sell on eBay and I kept her for me- she's my very favorite doll I got to keep!
She sure is a big doll and this was the best place to display her I think. The other big doll on the pie safe is my second fav- another pattern of Heidi's (Crabby Gabby) .....she was another that didn't find a home on eBay and after the longest time, I finally found a place big enough to display her. The quilt bear in the chair and the one on the bench in the bay window I bought from Kathy at Kittredge Mercantile- she also painted the old scale on the pie safe and the tool carrier on the stove- which is not being used at the moment, so don't worry! LOL.
I guess I can't really say the job in this room is 100% finished, though- more like 99.9%..tee hee...we ran out of chair rail trim above the wainscoting and had to get more, so there is a tiny piece missing between the two windows in the pics- we just keep forgetting it. LOL.
I found an awesome early stencil design (thank you so much for your info Linda!) and stenciled with a dark khaki all around above the chair rail. I love it! We also replaced the sconces on both sides of the opening between the front room and dining room with candelabra fixtures that were approved for up to 60 watts. They look so much better than the original fixtures!
Hmmm...Not sure if I like the barn star on the big wall above the shelf....it looks too empty- I'm looking for a pretty antique quilt to hang but haven't found one that "speaks" to me yet. When I was posting this pic I just realized I had some miscellaneous stuff/junk on the bench of my little childs desk- oopsie! LOL. Too late to retake the pic today- I'll replace it later.
We are just finishing the bathroom still, so no peeks at it yet-hopefully I'll have pics to share in my next post. The entryway area is not quite finished yet- here is a "before" pic:
And an "in between" pic:Not really much different except the trim is off the doorway and I just started painting the walls a bit....I promise some pics when it is done....that'll be good for my next post...

I had meant to share this little punchneedle before, but the camera I had before would not have taken as good of a pic. (Another tax return goodie-I finally got my new camera! A Canon Rebel XSi- I LOVE it!!) I bought the pattern last spring from Country Stitches and started on it and got busy doing other things- I finally got it done this fall and I really love it! It was my very first punchneedle and I was surprised how easy and fun it actually was- really easy to do in the living room watching TV with the family. It's a lot like rug hooking from what I've heard and I would just love to give rug hooking a try-like I need more hobbies! LOL! Speaking of getting things done, I need to get off this computer! I just barely got to step foot in my craft room again and I have some local orders for some dolls I need to finish up- plus I'm helping my mom out again with some tough personal stuff going on again in her world so I should get going and get some stuff done. :0)

Americana Spring Doll...

Just got this gal all finished up yesterday, but won't be listing her quite yet. I made her using a pattern from Two Dancing Crows. I am hoping to get another doll done or something else to list for each of my three groups. Seems like I haven't had anything on ebay forever....I looked and its been since like November...eek! LOL. I really wanted to do something for Valentines Day, but with my local orders here time has run out now- so I will probably make some St. Patty's Day stuff or Easter stuff....so anyhoo, back to this gal! She is somewhat of a make-do--She is free standing and secured to a distressed wood candlestick and stands 16 inches. She has a full head of wool hair and as you can see, she is finished all the way around, which would make her perfect as a centerpiece or whatever. Her skinny arms are wired so she can pose and hold onto things. Like I said, I'm not sure when I'll be listing her, but I will surely post here when I do. :0).