Almost Wordless Wednesday

Oh please, you guys know I can't be wordless, I've always got something to say, but I'll make it quick because there's not much to it.

Hey look, I finally made one of those pretty soap dispensers out of a mason jar! I used one of the extra pretty 100th Anniversary Blue editions. FYI, $9.99 for 6 pint jars at Target!

Unbelievably easy, here's how!

1. Poke holes through the flat piece on the top of the jar.

2. Glue on pump from an existing soap dispenser.

3. Set on the patio table with some pretty flowers.

4. Take a picture, post immediately to Instagram.

Oh God, Instagram... I've had an account for a while, never used it, then my brother talked me into it with his cool pictures of Spirooli'd zucchini and gorgeous pictures of Lake Tahoe. Anyway, here's me, are you there too? Do tell, and point me to you!

oxo,

Lisa

Summer Stitching

Hi Everyone!

Well summer's just about in full swing around these parts, picnics at the river, camping, concerting, nature walks with the pooches, and as much scooting as possible, but how about something for those warm summer nights when all you want to do is sit very still in front of the air conditioner? I have just the thing for you, the Wild Olive Summer Stitching Club! Click over read all about it, it's really, really cute, here's what we've done so far...

I love the sweet little faces which are Mollie's signature, and this embroidered hexie project looked like the perfect, not-a-lot of hassle thing to do for the summer (along with a few other things, because you know I've always got several crafty pokers in the fire at once), and at the end of July, I'll have a summery little mini quilt to hang on the wall, just in time for my birthday, yay!

Here I am, all set up! I used Mollie's color choices as a reference and picked a similar, though not exactly the same pallet for myself, I like bright, bright colors.

These are the first two embroideries, I stitched them both in less than an hour, a small time commitment with big pay off at the end.

 Hello, little sunshine!

What up, shades?

See? Cute, easy & fun! Have you guys already seen this, who else is participating? Did you know there's a Flickr group in which to share your stitcheries? Yup, right here!

Hope to see you there!

oxo,

Lisa

Cushy Cushion

Hi All,

While I'm finishing up the project that I alluded to here (it's actually finished, I just haven't photographed it yet) I thought I'd share something else I made recently. A great big, felty pincushion!

I love pincushions, having them and making them, and don't think one can ever have too many. The felt ones are so fun to make, you really can't go wrong, and there are SO many adorable, inspiring felt pincushions on Pinterest. 

It all started with a little posy of flowers. Felt flowers are some of my favorite things to make, especially with a nice wool, or wool blend felt. To me, they feel like you get a lot of bang for your buck because they're really cute and making them is so much faster than embroidering a whole flower in fill stitch. But when you combine those two elements, you've got serendipity! There's tons of ideas for felt flowers on Pinterest, too! Some of these flowers I hand cut, and others I cut with a small die cutter and my Sizzix, which is brilliant and a great tool I never would have known about were it not for my friend, Paulette and her gorgeous felt  & embroidery work.

A few micro seed beads scattered here and there, a bit of meandering vine, a couple of leaves and viola, happiness.

I didn't really have a pattern for this cushion, I was just playing around. All I knew was that I wanted it to be pretty good size.

As you can see, it's a bigg'n! I like them like that, they don't get lost in piles or fall off the ironing board so easily when they're big and have a flat bottom.

I trimmed the sides with a couple of different sizes of ric-rac in pretty sage green and baby pink, easy & cute.

I am really enjoying using this pincushion, I'm as in love with the colors now as I was when I picked them out of my stash, they sort of remind me of color pallets that Cath Kidston uses in a lot of her products (which I *love* and covet with every email update I get - I want it all!), simple primary colors that feel fresh & pretty.

So yeah, pincushions. I love 'em. How 'bout you?

How's your week going? Is your summer off with a bang? Schools all over the country are letting out for the summer, do you have any big plans? Do tell!

oxo,

Lisa

Good Clean Fun

Hey guys!

Wild hairs. Sometimes it pays to go with them. This one hit me this week when I went to the store to get laundry soap and decided $14.99 was just too much, so I made my own!

Not long ago, my pal Tara posted about making her own laundry soap. I'd heard of people making their own soap, but figured it was complicated and/or time consuming, but I'd told my husband about it and we decided to give it a shot. The supplies for this project are pictured above, 1 box of Arm & Hammer WASHING Soda, $3.24 (not to be confused with baking soda), 1 box of Borax, also $3.24, and 1 bar of Zote, $1.09. Grand total: $7.57 (plus a little tax), and based on what I've read, this one batch will last us approximately 2 months, and if I'd made it all at once, a whole ONE YEAR! The recipe that I used can be found right here,  But since I love you so much, and I did make one small change, I'll write out how I made it as well. 

Powdered Laundry Soap

1 bar of Zote

2 Cups Arm & Hammer Washing Soda

2 Cups box Borax

Two bars of this Fels-Naptha soap is what the original recipe calls for, but I used Zote (pictured below)... because I like pink.  I'll use this Fels-Naptha for my next batch.

Fun Fact: If you hand your husband or significant other a little pinch of this soap, which has been run through the grader of a Cuisinart, and say "try this new cheese I picked up at Trader Joes" he will immediately put it in his mouth because he trusts you. That is a mean abuse of power. And also, funny. In my defense, I didn't think he would move that fast. Behold the power of cheese. 

Ok, so let's get to it! This is such a simple process, the whole thing only takes about 5 minutes. Like I mentioned above, the original recipe calls for 2 of the Fels-Naptha bars, but the bars are small (5.5oz.), this bar of Zote is 14.1oz., I know that's more soap than was called for, but meh...in for a penny, in for a pound. Seems ok.

In the picture above, the Zote (which I chopped into three chunks to fit into the top of the food processor)  has been run through the cheese grater of my Cuisinart.

And then the chopping blade. Kinda looks like Dippin Dots at this stage. 

I dumped the soap out on to a paper plate then added a little at a time with the other ingredients back into the food processor until it was all ground into a pretty fine powder. 

The powder ingredients really help pulverize those pieces of soap. 

Hey look, a batch of soap! It's really that simple. And here's the kicker, you use TWO TEASPOONS per load of laundry. Yes, 2 tsp.! Crazy right? I've tested this already with a large load of Sean's work clothes which can be pretty dirty, and they came out just as clean as they do with the All Free & Clear that we've used for years.

Pretty neat, aye? I'm curious to see how we like this over time, but as it stands, I'm pretty happy. Have any of you made your own soap? Do you do anything different? Do tell!

If you have any questions, I'll try to answer the best I can, and I'll answer in the comments this time around, so check back if you have a burning Q.

oxo,

Lisa

A Knotty New Stitch

Hi Everyone,

Just a quick post today, and a little peek at something I'm working on that will be finished very soon!

Since I don't crochet (I'm trying, but dang, I just can't seem to keep things square and it frustrates me), I needed to devise some kind of pretty edging for this little project. Enter Pinterest, naturally. I keep a board called Stitchy Goodness for embroidery and embroidery techniques, and that's where I found this little gem, the Knotted Buttonhole Stitch, tutorial courtesy of Purl Bee.

It's a simple modification to the standard Buttonhole Stitch, only one more step, but it makes such a difference. Because of the knot, the thread (or my case perle cotton) stands up off the edge of the fabric, and indeed looks a bit like a crocheted edging, Lisa likee! I'll get a better photo of the edging when the project is finished so you can see the detail of the stitch, this is just a fast cell phone picture.

Hopefully within a day or two (ok, maybe three, I'm making laundry soap tonight!) I'll have this pretty little project done to share with you.

I hope you're having a fabulous day, try something new!

oxo,

Lisa

p.s. Thank you for your response to my last post, my first Thrifty Thursday! It seems many of us like collecting little treasures, so from time to time, I think we'll see more Thrifty Thursday's here, yay!

Thrifty Thursday

Hi All!
So Thrifty Thursday's, those are still a thing in blogland, right? I've seen, but never participated... until today, because I just have to share this find! Last weekend, my husband and I went up to Fallon, NV to visit family and while we were there his Aunt Bev and I did a little shopping. I scored some great embroidered pieces that I thought I'd share (and something really special that I can't show yet, because it wouldn't fit in my car to bring it home!). Let's get started.

My first find was this lovely, lovely hand embroidered pillow cover. The colors are so vivid, this sham practically jumped into my hands.

The price couldn't be beat, $6.99!! Can you believe that?

The stitches are so perfect, it looks machine made, and maybe I'm wrong, but all the little knots and tails on the back look hand made to me.

It's just gorgeous!

I love it, I feel lucky to have snapped it up.

♥

The second item was a mystery at first, I wasn't sure what it was, but I knew it was pretty, crewel work. It was sort of crumbled in a ball when I found it, and turns out it's a wall hanging. Or... at least that's what I did with it.

I folded the top edge back and stitched a little pocket to put a piece of doweling through, then made a quick, braided hanger for it.

I think this was a kit, in this picture you can see where the lines of the printed linen can be seen where the stitches don't quite cover.

Whoever started this piece finished all the stitching, and did a nice job, wool isn't the easiest thing to embroider with (in my limited experience), but it looks like they never did anything with the finished piece, what a shame.

I fixed that too, it's now hanging just inside my bedroom door!

This piece cost a whopping $3.00. Yeehaw! I love a good deal. Especially considering the work that went into these, which I often wonder about when I come across these pretty treasures. Who stitched this? How'd it end up in a thrift shop? It makes me wonder about my own embroidered things, will they end up in a thrift shop someday? I hope not...

So this was fun! I've rarely ever posted anything I didn't make with my own hands, and this was a breath of fresh air. I collect all kinds of bits and bobs, much like a magpie, but I've never shown any of them here, not really, so maybe if you guys like this kind of thing, I'll show more of my favorite finds from time to time. 

Do you like thrift and antique shopping? What kinds of things do you collect? What's the best thing you've ever found? Do tell!

oxo,

Lisa

Oh, The Things I've Stitched

Hi Guys,

So here's a look back at the things I stitched for the tea towel swap over the last year that we just finished, I've blogged some of these things, but not all. It's really neat to see these images together, and funny too, such an eclectic mix. I love these people, I was happy to stitch these things for them.

Dancing Fox

.

For Jill

Vegas Show Girl

For Erin

Jack B. Nimble

For Jack

Circular Mandala

For Victoria

Corn Dog

For Bascom

Lil Pink Machine

For Becky

Sweet Gnome

For Becky

Tattoo Flash

For Jo

Shroomy Gnome

for Crystal

Stitch-a-Holic

For Pam

Dear Deer

For Tara

Good times, good people!

oxo,

Lisa 

Oh Deer!

**Eeeep! UPDATE! Eeeep!**
This embroidery has been featured on Feeling Stitchy, wahooo!
You can see the post here.

Hi All,

Who's ready for a long weekend, this girl!

Speaking of long, this, this pretty deer is the last embroidery that I completed for the tea towel swap that I participated in with some of my stitchy friends (I wrote about my completed towel here). This swap, which we thought would take about three months ended up taking just over a year. Life happens...

This last embroidery is for my pal, Tara. I knew for a long time what I wanted to stitch on her towel, but when it arrived in the mail, the pattern that I'd planned to embroider didn't fit in a symmetrically pleasing sort of way, so it was back to the drawing board. Luckily, deer & stags are pretty and there are lots of images to choose from. I picked one, then made it my own. Have a look?

(feel free to click the images for bigger pictures with a lot more stitch detail)

She/he (I still don't know, can female deer have antlers?) has such a pretty face. The eyes are what drew me to this particular animal. I think this was the first time I've done fill stitch as fur. After worrying some that I was getting it wrong, I got into the grove and enjoyed it, layering the subtle blend of browns, grays and creams and imagining the direction the fur would lay in.

 I stitched a few flowers and leaves to grace that regal neck. Bold colors, bright, but not too girly, for my Montana friend.

Here's Tara's whole towel completed, and ready to go home, get a load of all that great embroidery!

With each embroidery I do, I'm always trying to improve my skill in some small way, lately, that's been working at keeping the backs neat, not carrying threads, taking care with my knots, generally keeping things tidy. On this particular piece, I thought the back was kind of interesting so I snapped a photo. Here you can see both the front and backs of the piece.

He/she's a pretty thing, I'm glad to have stitched him/her!

In my next post, I'm planning to put all of the embroideries that I did for this swap together in one post so you can see them all at once. It'll be the first time I see them all at once, too. I'm interested to see the whole lot of them together.

Wishing you all a happy weekend!

oxo,

Lisa

Happy Hexies

Hi Everyone!

Raise your hand if you've been following along with all of Mollie Johnson's adorable hexagon projects on her blog Wild Olive. Wow, look at the hands go up! Well, I too have been pulled in by her six-sided cuties.

One night last week I had to make some hexies. Had to. I needed that quick fix, you know the one when you are compelled to put aside anything else you're already working on (sorry Tara, it's almost done, I swear!) and start something new? Yeah... guilty.

I printed out Mollie's helpful hexie download, picked a couple of pretty scraps out of my scrap basket, you really don't need much fabric, just a couple of square inches, and this super pink little towel (which was part of my swag box from winning a Craftster challenge a couple of months ago, thanks Pam!) and set to work.

The hexies come together very quickly, I made all three and stitched them to the towel in less than an hour while Sean and I were watching TV. Easy peasy, you should give it a go! Embellishing a towel or two like this is a simple, pretty gift you could whip up for a friend, or shoot, for yourself! 

I think I see more hexies in my future, but not until I finish what I'm already working on, which I'm hoping to show you in a day or two, it's so pretty, I can't wait to see it finished. A special embroidery for a special lady in the wilds of Montana. 

Ok, get your scissors out, girls, make some hexies!

oxo,

Lisa

p.s. Is it strawberry season in your neck of the woods yet? They're bursting here, I can't get enough of them, so much so that I'm probably going to sprout strawberry vines out my ears any day.

Happy Mother's Day!

Wishing all you mom's out there, a very, happy, restful & relaxing Mother's Day!

I stitched up this little card for my own mommy, fun stuff! I saw this pin and followed the link to the source because it was so pretty (happily, I also found a link to the creator, Jessica at Miniature Rhino, you can find her wonderful blog post about the card here). I've never tried stitching on paper before, but it was easy peasy, just draw your design, poke some holes and stitch away! I hope she likes it ♥

I myself will be up in the mountains with my own mother this weekend, we're kicking off the summer season a little bit early this year with a Mother's Day camping trip. Should be fun!

Have a great day, my dearies!

oxo,

Lisa