Halloween

Hope everyone had a happy Halloween!

My friend and I took our kids, Leo & Prudence around to show off their costumes.

Pru was a punk ballerina and an adorable one at that. Leo was a sweet Pea.

To make Leo's costume I simply made a sweatshirt (out of old sweatpants) and straight stitched two half pea pod shapes on top of each other to the top. One pea pod I split open and put peas, which are just balls made from another pair of sweatpants, into the pod. I tacked the peas in, but they eventually came un-stitched with all of his wiggling around. This morning I caught him dismembering his costume, he wants the peas.

Leo's is scared of Pru, as well as all other dogs, but they got a lot of attention and pictures taken.





Here is Pru's blog- http://dearprudie.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/happy-howl-o-ween/

Leo was also on The Loyal Biscuit blog- http://loyalbiscuit.wordpress.com/2009/10/31/leo-is-a-sugar-snap-pea/



Josie (Leo's aunt, my mother's cat) also got into the action by sporting some homemade bat wings. She liked them so much we had to fight with her to get them off. I made them from 2 layers of black felt with heavy jewelry wire running through the length of them. I made a harness type thing out of lingerie elastic and sewed it to the underside middle.

Bunnies, Bunnies, Bunnies

In celebration of upcoming spring, which in my opinion can’t come soon enough, I made bunnies!!

Most of them are made from vintage materials and trims. They’re kind of flat with one ear and no tails.




I’m working on more tops and bags for the shop too. I’ll be putting some things in my Dawanda shop too.

Made some sweet new earrings :)

I got some one part resin or craft lacquer. Anyway last night I made a bunch of earrings with it. They came out so great. I've been scared of using real resin and I really just wanted it to do some little things. This stuff works great. I dreamt all night of things I could do with it. Is that sad?



A few pairs are up in the shop now, the rest will be up later today. :)

The bathroom is finished!

Well, the bathroom is finished, but that's it. I did it almost all myself, had a little help from my father. Only took me 1/2 hour to figure out how to put the molding in. Notice how my lovely water stained my new white bathtub already? Guess we'll have to spend a lot of $$ on a fancy water filtration system. Oh and the walls are supposed to look like old plaster and the wall with the window is crooked because the house it round.

I need a picture or photo though. I was going to put up a small oil painting I did a few years ago, but it's a little too small I think. I do have a painting I hate that I may gesso over and figure something out that would go well in the bathroom.

Next up is what I call my hallway or as close to a hallway as you can get in a dome. I bought orangey yellow paint for the walls and orangey cream paint for the ceiling. Sounds hideous, but it'll work. No one thought my ideas for the bathroom would work, but it all came together. Then comes the kitchen. I'm thinking red cupboards, but I don't know what other colors yet. I'm using recycled cupboards so they require a lot of sanding, patching and painting. Being more makes you creative!

Hopefully this link will work-
Bathroom Video

Bathroom

Bathroom
Originally uploaded by the_smiling_frog

Work in progress. I know the pictures aren't too exciting. I'm about finished now with the bathtub. I was 3 tiles short on the outside. Right now I'm painting, then I'll grout.

Never buy Lowe's Velspar paint! It's crap! It doesn't cover, it's streaky and the eggshell is very shiny. Not to mention the paint guy has no idea what he's talking about. He tried to tell me eggshell was shiny and satin wasn't. What? I have painted and bought paint before. I painted one coat of paint, which ended up being way to dark for the room (that was my bad). I think it would take about 5 coats to truly cover the wall though. The paint is shiny and still tacky! I painted it at 4pm yesterday. So if and when it ever dries I have some Sherwin Williams paint in a light blue to go over it with. 2x as much $$, but far less of a headache. I just hope it covers it and sticks to that crap. I am a little annoyed.

I will post pics when I do more. I have a lot more to do, but it's getting there.

Pouches & More! :)

pouches
Originally uploaded by the_smiling_frog

Matryoshka Pouch

This was my first attempt at this style pouch and it came out perfect. My first attempt at this machine embroidered applique too. I will change the colors next time. I running pretty low on rayon thread colors though, so that doesn't help.


This one is made from a curtain weight fabric that I think I got from Goodwill. It's so vintage looking, not sure if it is though. I lined this one with a floral print and added a bunch of vintage buttons to one side.


I added awesome vintage embroidered ribbon to this one and a birdie applique. I love the background fabric. I've had it for years and haven't wanted to cut into it. I think the birds a little dark, but I still like it.


This is more fabric that I think I got from Goodwill. I will cry when this is gone. It has birds on it. I added some vintage twill tape. I think this is my fave.


Here's the inside. I'll be nice and share where I found the instructions to make these. It's such an easy method and looks so professional.

http://www.splityarn.com/split_yarn/2007/06/sew_a_zippered_.html

I have a bizilion 8" zippers so mine are sized a little different. Just adjust it to whatever size zipper you have.

Oh, and here is a hat with some super awesome vintage, printed, Goodwill corduroy.



And Leo sporting some too big leg warmers :)


The pouches will eventually be in the shop. Putting everything on sale now to clean out :)

My House Update

My creation
Originally uploaded by the_smiling_frog

Well, I haven't posted any pics of my house in a long time. Mainly because it's been 5 years working on it and I'm a little ashamed I don't live in it yet. Everyone is discouraged and no one has been working on it. It doesn't help that we never seem to agree on things. So if anyone wants to provide me with some encouragement, please do so. I need a kick in the butt! Obviously Adam isn't going to work on it anymore so I'll have to finish it.

Anyway here are some pictures. I need to find pictures of the radiant heat in the cellar floor before the cement was re-poured. It's really amazing to see.

The Key To The Secret Garden

The Key To The Secret Garden
Originally uploaded by the_smiling_frog

We're adding a whole lot more to the shop this week. Check out some of the vintage goodies we found!

There's more than you see here too.

I found some sweet vintage fabric I plan to make at least 1 hat out of too and hopefully some grocery bags. :)







The Smiling Frog

Been making rings like mad~ take a look!

Anastasia Ring
Originally uploaded by the_smiling_frog

The first one has a lot of faux pearls and vintage looking beads. My mother said it looks like old clip on earrings her great grandmother had.



This one has some vintages looking coin charms and flower beads.
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This one has a lot of wooden beads, some glass beads and charms. I had to add filigree bead caps to most of the wooden beads because the holes were so big headping slid right through.

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Lots of glass flowers, leaves and some charms.

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This one ended up looking like a little mini wedding bouquet. Silver charms glass flowers and leaves and a few faux pearls with pretty silver bead caps.

I'll post more as a make them. I loaded up on the ring bases. I'll take a picture of the ring base so you can see what it looks like.

All in the Etsy shop!