Felt Dollhouse!

I *finally* finished the dollhouse for the little girl I nanny for. Only 6 months late! *grins*

And in case I haven't mentioned, it was based off of this tutorial. I just handstitched all of mine out of felt. I think I may have lost my mind!




Kitchen in progress (the handles aren't really that wonky. They're buttonhole stitches, so they stand out from the fridge and stove!)


Dining room in progress:


Living room in progress:


Side/back view:


All opened up:


Closeup: Vintage button


Closeup: Front of the house:


Closeup: Another vintage button (aren't they the cutest???) and little birdies on the side of the house


Another front of the house shot (but look! mushrooms!):


So, yeah...it's finished! I'm sure the neighbors loved watching me laying and crawling in the front yard to get pictures. What can I say? I am my father's child (he's also known for doing such things!)

Chair progress...

I finished the cushion. Still not perfectly happy with it, but I managed to break every needle I have trying to get through it. Ohhh well. It will do for now! Now I just need to get the sides, back and bottom stapled on. Almost there!!

Felt Book Complete! :)f

Elliot's book is finished!!



Close ups:



















I think I'm in love with it :)

My chair remodel: continued

I hand stitched the front piece on (in green, bottom front of the chair) and then sewed the piping onto the floral pieces and stitched the arm covers to that and stapled it all in place. Also, I washed up the old fabric and reused some of the nicer looking pieces to make piping for the chair. I hadn't originally intended to do that, but it matches, and yay for reusing the old, right?


I added some padding to the arms and back and wrapped the back piece around and stapled it:


Now I'm struggling with getting the side panels on. I just can't seem to line them up straight enough for my liking. I studied my pictures of the original though and I think I've figured out how to fix it.


When I got frustrated with the side pieces, I started working on the seat cushion. Bit by bit, it's coming together!


This isn't the original vision I had for the chair, but this is stuff I found for 70-80% off, so I think I only spent around $11 on fabric for the chair. Go me :)

Edit: Shoot. I just realized that I forgot to put the gray panel on the back of the chair. I wonder if I can figure out how to get it back on there without having to rip the back apart and start over. *sigh*

My chair remodel!

I don't think I've posted my pictures of the chair progress...

Here's what it looked like when I got it. I cleaned it as much as I could, but the old fabric was just worn out:





First step, taking off the old fabric. This involves a lot of pulling and prying to get the staples out.





There are a LOT of staples in this chair!!



Here are some "gutted" shots.
Front:


And back:


Once I got all of the fabric off, I used it as pattern pieces on my new fabric. Snip! Snip!



I need to get some pictures of the next steps in the process. It's coming right along!

Super Nermal!!

So, the trip to the vet started with this:



The stupid cat scratched herself and then obsessively licked it until she rubbed a huge bald spot on her chest (It looks puffy in the pictures for some reason. It wasn't...just hairless! :P)

So, the vet gave her a shot and some cortisone cream. I needed to make something to keep her from licking it off though...and thus was born...the Super Nermal cape/bib!!



She was pretty good about it at first...




But then she tore off and tried to wriggle out of it. She only got it down to her belly though, so she pouted



She seems to be doing a lot better now, so all is well. Hopefully the fur grows back quickly so that she doesn't look so pitiful!

Felt Book Progress

Yes, I'm STILL working on the kids' Christmas presents. I'm the worst nanny. *sigh*

Anyway, here's the progress on Elliot's book:

Pages in progress. I still need to finish the detail work on these:


Finished pages:


Here are some closeups:







And just a reminder, here are the other pages:

Much belated Christmas post

(Sorry this is so late...my camera hasn't been cooperating!)
Here the food spread from our Christmas party:



I think there were about 5 different kinds of cookies, peanut brittle, chocolate covered pretzels, chips and dip, chips and salsa...I *may* have gone a little overboard, but I'm in love with the new mixer.

I don't remember if I posted or not, but I made Kris Kringle cookies for the party and they were really good!

I also made some peanut butter/snickers cookies before we left town, but I can't seem to find the recipe. I'll keep looking!

Also, here's our tree (you know, the one that set off the house alarm...twice?):


You might also notice my Christmas craft across the window there. I made a little snowstorm for the window. Jeff thought I was nuts, but I kind of liked how it would flutter when the heat kicked on. Maybe I just have too much free time on my hands ;)

Cuteness.

I think I may have to hunt and see if I can find the ingredients for these.

Jingle Mouse Ornament

I just may need to go browse through this book. Just look at this cute little bunny sock! I'm in love!!


Just for fun, I LOVE these little plush monsters. Don't they look like a cross between Candyland and Where the Wild Things Are?

And finally, DIY Elf Bowling. If Pyper wasn't so into throwing her toys right now (ouch!), I would totally make a set.


Also, on a completely different note, I've been working on my snowflake ornaments and had been thinking about calling that section of our store the "Snuggle Shoppe", but another idea came to me....Snugglebug Memories. Thoughts? Either could encompass just about anything I wanted to do, yet still tie in with the main website.

Happy Halloween, everyone! :)

Here's a project I did with the kiddos that I nanny for today. Isn't it cuuute?

Halloween party, part 4: Dining room decorations!

And last, but not least, the dining room!


Shhh...don't pay attention to the fact that I made two left hands. Oops!



I didn't have time to paint these, but I thought they looked ok as they were. Closeups of completed skeleton sconces:






There were also mice hiding on the stairs leading up to my sewing room (though they were a bit hard to capture in pictures):


And my favorite, bats in the greenhouse! (Unfortunately, we didn't think about the fact that there aren't lights in the greenhouse, so once the sun went down, no one could see them. Oops!)