Things Thanksgiving Part II

Owl YoYo Card



Thanksgiving Postcard Card



Whew!  I barely finished my cards on time to get them in the mail on Friday.  Actually I fixed up a couple of goodies and put them inside one of the USPS flat rate boxes and then added the cards to the box. For me it is as much fun to send goody boxes as it is to receive them.  My mom always use to send me fun little items in the mail (she still does, just not as frequently as she used to). She always wraps whatever it is in wrapping paper or tissue paper and adds a pretty bow or sticker. I never knew what would be waiting for me inside the box but I was always excited to get one as I knew it would be fun. I'm hoping when she receives the box from me that she feels in a small way that I have come to visit her.

The card I made for my mom this month is of an owl using an old sweater vest that I have been waiting to repurpose, some felt and of course a couple of yoyo's. My inspiration for the card came when Don and I went out to breakfast at the Cracker Barrel restaurant and I saw this cute cutlery holder in the shape of an owl.  It's eyes were made using gathered ribbon and my husband remarked that it would look good with yoyo eyes - and that was it - I knew I had to try it. 

You may also remember from last week I was concerned that I didn't have enough time to finish the Thanksgiving postcards, well, inspiration struck and I used some double-stick fusible web to add the postcard fabric to a card.  I love the way it turned out and think I am going to make a few more this way too.

Things I am thankful for today: my husband and family, friends, the spectacular colors of the fall leaves, the little chipmunk that visits my backyard and the fun I get from being creative.  What are you thankful for today?

Things Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving Fabric Postcards

It always seems that no matter how much I try to be prepared for the holidays they always catch me unawares.  A couple of years ago I found this great fabric panel with these wonderful pictures and sayings for Thanksgiving.  I was so excited as I thought wow these will be so easy to embellishment with either hand or machine stitching and then send out to my family.  And here we are today (a couple of years later) and I have only managed to complete two of them. I was so tempted the other day to donate or toss out the others that still need to be embellished and put together but something inside me said "someday, someday you'll have time to finish these", so I put them back in my box for another some day.

2006 Turkey Fruit Carving

As you may be aware I like to be organized with my pictures, crafts, cabinets, etc but I find that sometimes my organization will just "explode" in all directions - probably a result of over thinking it.  Anyways, this happened recently to my digital photos as I got a new computer this year and transferred them over from my old computer into new file folders labeled by year and then activity. What I didn't take into account, but remembered later, was Don had some pictures on his computer too and when I went to check to see what I was missing I came across the Turkey Fruit Carving he had made in 2006.  I was so excited to find it as I wanted to put the picture in the same file folder as his sailboat fruit carving. I still have photos I am looking for and I also would like to scan my hard copy photos to my computer plus save them to a disk or USB drive but that will have to wait for a while.  For now I am still trying to finish up my UFO's.

My YoYo Bowl

YoYo Bowl

I don't know where the idea came from or what the inspiration might have been but a few months ago I decided to sew lots of yoyos in a variety of batik fabrics using the extra small Clover yoyo maker to make a fabric yoyo bowl. The batik fabrics are a joy to work with especially in the smaller yoyos as they do not "bulk up" at the part where they turn under, and the fabric is very soft to the touch. Originally I had the bowl sitting flat without any legs, then I thought I might make it "feet" using my extra yoyos (I always have extra yoyos as they are great to have around just waiting for the next inspiration). The feet looked good but it was just a little bit too much the same and seemed to all blend together.  Then as I was in the midst of de-cluttering I came across this stand I had purchased years ago, its original purpose was to hold a seashell but as you can see it is very versatile and made the perfect stand for my yoyo bowl.