Life is Busy!

Seems like I only post to the blog one or twice a week, what happened?              LIFE! 

We have been so busy with the ministry and home that I haven't spent time in my craft room. This must change...I need to make 20 vests for kids club. Once I have these done, I have a dear friend who will be making them to keep up, that will take some stress off (not that sewing is stress!!). I had to take the pattern off one of our children's vests from many moons ago, buy meters and meters of fabric, bias binding, velcro, and thread, and make sure I knew the patches I need. 

Now to get started!

We are also starting a homestay business in our home. We will be like a bed and breakfast resort type of thing. God has given us an amazing property and we need to be good stewards of it. I am excited to help my husband in this venture. We are Paradise Homestay. We will be catering to those fishermen and their families who want a nice holiday in paradise, fishing, crafting, and eating local foods. 

www.paradisehomestay.co.nz.

Hope you are not so busy and have time to be in your happy place this week. Talk again really soon!

Thanks!!

Debi

 

Hump Day

I think Wednesday is traditionally called "hump day" as it is dead center of the work week, 2 days done and 2 days to go. For me, it isn't a hump day as I don't work outside the home. We work 7 days a week. We make sure to get our work done first, then the rest of the day is ours to do with as we choose. I ALWAYS choose to play with my free time. I consider playing to be: sewing, designing, baking, reading a magazine, quilting, playing on my iPad, and having a cuppa tea! 

I hope your hump day is a good one and if you work, the rest of your week is great. If you don't work, enjoy everyday and play! My play time today will be sewing and hand-stitching on a bear, I hope!! I need to finish up some UFOs (UnFinished Objects), some people call them WIPs (Work In Progress), no matter what they are called, I need to finish some up. I usually don't start a new project until the one I am working on is finished. I had too many great ideas to stick to my rule this time!

Guess I should get my chores finished so I can work on these projects. Have a fantastic day! Thanks for stopping by!

Happy Hump Day,

Debi

 

Cleaning Out...

It seems that no matter how often you think you have had a clean out, it is never enough. We have been working in the "catch all" room in the garage. Everything we didn't know what to do with when we moved in (end of June, 2016) went into this room. We have now cut the stack of boxes in half out there and we feel a lot better about ourselves, although the rubbish men may not like us so much!! We have thrown away, put away, washed blankets and clothes, and organized that room. One more room to tick off my "someday" list!

 

Other than that, I have been working through my bullet journal list as well. Things like going through toys and dishes, deep cleaning tile grout, airing rooms, trying to bake things I have never baked before, and keeping organized. I find I have tons more hours each day than I used to. I love that I have the free time to go pick blackberries with my husband or take a walk when he wants to, and still have all my "chores" done.

I am still working on the cloth bear, which takes painting shoes on, filling to certain points and sewing "joints", and re-designing the face as it was WRONG three times in a row :-(

I am also cutting on the new teddy bear I recently designed, and stitching on the fluff ball (a time consuming project as the fur is so dense and I need to keep it out of the seams). I have a pile on my cutting table now to take care of, fortunately it is relatively easy things to deal with: clothes for bears and dolls, shoes for dolls, mending a skirt, sorting through some scrapbook material to be put away, and organizing the next project.

Have a profitable day!

Debi

 

A Little Different

I decided to try something a bit different Tuesday. I decided to design a bent leg teddy bear. I am hoping I got the proportions correct as it is a bit harder with a bent leg....measuring length and bulkiness of the leg compared to the body and arms. This one has big ears and pretty big feet...we will see! The pattern is laying on my light mat, which I love. I enjoy being able to see through the paper to the part I have designed underneath. It makes it very easy to picture the finished product. I will get started on this when I finish the fluff ball. I haven't had much time to sew with designing, tea staining, and taking care of the house and our mini-farm (trying to use eggs everyday...the baking keeps me busy!).

Speaking of baking, I made my fourth Angel Food Cake today with those eggs and WOW! I got it. It takes patience with a bit of trial and error, but I finally did it. It raised so much it dropped onto the oven racks. It tastes so good. I got the recipe down and (if you can't already tell) I am pretty pleased with myself! 

I can't believe it is February already. Seems it was just Christmas and we were planning food and making gifts for our family and friends. Valentines Day is right around the corner and then St. Pats! Easter will be here before we know it! Always a good reason to make cards, specialty bears, holiday quilts as table runners and wall hangings, and scrapbook pages. There is so much fun to be had! I hope you are having fun with whatever it is that makes you happy. I got to spend time in my happy place today, hope you do too.

Have an awesome day!

Debi

New Things Old...

I have been having fun this week finding new things to try. I have always wanted to make a cloth doll. Not liking the actual look of most cloth dolls, I decided to try a cloth bear that looks like a traditional cloth doll.  I looked at several cloth dolls before I tried my hand at designing. My first step was to tea stain my new muslin (calico) fabric to make it look old. I love the way it turned out. It has several lighter spots with a couple of dark areas, just like it would look if it were very old. I brewed tea in a very large bowl as I had a meter of fabric that needed staining. You can see my tea bags floating away in there. I just hand wrung it and hung it out in the warm sun to dry. I didn't rinse it as I liked the color. I did rinse in warm water before I started to get the manufacturer's starch out.

While it was drying, I sat down and drew my cloth bear pattern. It didn't take long to dry, so I could cut right after I designed. I still have about 2/3 meter left, so I will make another bear dress or something of the sort. I also designed wings for this one, I will probably use the tea stained fabric to make those as well. I need to find some antique buttons for decorations. YAY! What fun!

I will keep you posted on the progress. I truly can't wait to see how it goes. I know we live and learn, I always learn from my mistakes. I haven't seen a bear like this before, so there could be several re-works in my near future. 

I have been using my bullet journal now since the middle of December, I find I get more things done and stay more organized. It has helped me to record things and have a central place where all my notes and scribbles are. It sure beats a million post it notes all over my craft room and kitchen!

Hope your day is fantastic. Enjoy the rest of your week, try to get time to do something you love. Share it with us!

It must be cuppa tea time!

Debi