Thursday, September 14, 2017

Felt On The Fly 100% wool felt kits available for Twelve Days Ornaments!

Images courtesy of Felt On The Fly

If you read the Resources section of my patterns or my blog FAQ you'll know that Janet at Felt On The Fly is one of my recommended wool felt vendors on Etsy. She sells lovely, 100% wool felts and I can personally recommend the quality and excellent customer service! The colors are just beautiful.

She recently contacted me to ask about putting together kits that complement my Twelve Days Ornament series that include:

  • Pre-selected 100% wool felt color schemes (the colors are shown in the photos above)
  • Sulky Stick 'n Stitch stabilizer
  • Wool stuffing
  • Metallic thread for hanging loop
  • Cotton pipe cleaners (as necessary)
  • Wood beads (as necessary)

So I said, Um, yes please! Her customers are very excited about these kits* so I wanted to help spread the word! There are four kits available in her shop right now, and she plans on adding more. There's a three ornament kit that covers the first three patterns in the series and then there's a kit for the first three individual ornaments*.

*The kits do not include the sewing patterns, which are available for purchase here.

The tool kit add-on from Felt On The Fly

And you can also customize your basic kit with these handy add-ons:

  • matching embroidery flosses
  • a lovely hand sewing tool kit in a box (shown above), an especially useful add-on if you are just getting started or need a travel sized tool set.

Please visit Janet's shop to check out the available options if you are looking for 100% wool felts!

Thursday, September 7, 2017

birthday mixtapes for my two goofballs


It's been a while since I updated about my darling daughters. They continue to be awesome. I feel pretty amazed we somehow lucked into being their parents even though they consistently foil my attempts at any normal photos. Case in point, the first day of school photo from a few days ago above. The taller looking one giving me the piercing squinch eye is actually the youngest, and she is in fact still half in inch shorter than her older sister but it's a weird perspective thing I guess. Or her personality magically makes her look bigger in images. Anyway. Thing 1 (R) is a sophomore this year and Thing 2 (L) is in 8th grade. I need to look into how this happened so quickly. Clearly there is some kind of teen space wormhole to blame.


^ Last year's school portraits, evidence they can smile on cue for other people. We continue to homeschool and love it. They both attend a few classes a week with a private academy. I feel this is the best of both schooling worlds for us and such a great fit for our family. (So happy to live in a state that supports homeschooling and a country where this is a free choice! Never take that for granted, y'all.)


So Thing 2's birthday comes round in May at exactly the most manic time possible with end of the school year craziness, standardized testing, our anniversary, Mother's Day and this year, as a special bonus, kidney surgery for my husband and moving to another house. Bless her heart. So I probably didn't observe the occasion as well as I might have normally, being up to my ears in boxes. But by golly she got her mixtape!


THING 2 TURNS 13

I usually choose a few songs I just think they'll like but some have greater significance. Turning officially into a teenager inspired the Big Girls Don't Cry choice. By tradition on the morning of their birthday I crank the stereo as loud as possible with this mixtape before they are awake, so the first song should preferably have a nerve jangling beginning. The drums and Frankie's abrupt falsetto on this one does the job pretty nicely!

Gangnam Style...if you guys only knew how much grief my youngest gives me over watching Korean dramas. This song was a deliberate jab, although she actually digs it a lot.

Pressure... this is my child who sweats any decision like it will result in nuclear annihilation if she chooses wrongly. Like which taco to have. Bless her. She's always struggled with anxiety so this seemed appropriate.

I Know...what a triumph to have a great song titled with the same phrase I hear at least 20 times a day from my youngest. Another jab that she took good humoredly. I really wanted to print a Tshirt with that phrase but she said she wouldn't wear it. ha.

And of course the seagulls song. If you haven't watched Bad Lip Reading's rendition of Star Wars scenes you are missing out on some pretty good laughs. Both daughters routinely break into a duet of this song and it's a little scary how accurately they can sing it, down to the voice of R2D2.


Thing 1's birthday was in August so we were fairly settled into the new house by then. I used the occasion to make them both a cake (understandable cake fail on the youngest one's birthday) and have a party. Banana cake with cream cheese frosting for T1 and T2 chose Bob Andy pie, a strange name for a custard pie that tastes like a cinnamon bun. 

THING 1 TURNS 15


I have to say Drive My Car was pretty awesome at full volume on her birthday morning. Because now she can. Drive my car I mean. As soon as she passes her test. Which she hasn't. We've been a little relaxed about the whole driver's education thing. She's driven the van around a deserted parking lot, but we really must delve into that.

I'm Alright because we live in a neighborhood that has a very golfy theme.  It's just an awesome song too, long time love of mine. Have you noticed the weird glitch in the middle that sounds like they made a mistake in the recording studio and didn't bother to fix it?

Mother Knows Best is not only hilarious it is probably the running theme of my interaction with her these days on any subject. Me insisting I know things. She insisting I don't really actually know things. It's precious. I'll get smarter as she gets older maybe.

In the House of Tom Bombadil because this kid is all about anything JRR Tolkien. Born to Run because she debuted on the Cross Country team this year. Spaceman because of her intense new love for the X-Files.

And no one can see the classic Sea Bear episode of Spongebob (one of my favorites) without singing the infectious Campfire Song Song, which both girls do regularly, one singing as Spongebob and the other spluttering through it as Patrick.

They both keep us laughing. Love these girls! Here's a link to all mixtape posts if you are curious.

Aaaand, I feel I cannot close this Holland update post without mentioning the tallest member of our family, he who occupies the driver's seat on our Family Road Trip Of Life, who wields the Remote of Power with a firm hand and makes all the other zany, schooly, crafty everyday stuff in our lives possible because he works so hard every single day:





My sweet Schmoopie, from whom the girls genetically get their Calvin-like talent to sabotage family photos. (That last photo: me saying smile, he rolling the car window up and down to keep me from getting the shot while wearing his best The Shining expression.) Love you, Cuppy Cake.

Tuesday, September 5, 2017

curated felt color collection/felt & floss guide for Drummer Drumming


And now for the Drummer ornament colors by Benzie Design felts! The three samples above were all made using the Benzie Bundle #3, which is the same collection I curated for French Hen:



A note about this color collection: Bronze (second from bottom in the photo above) has unfortunately been discontinued. Benzie felt color Castle is being used as a substitute for the bundles going forward, which is the closest color/value available. It's more tan and less gold:


So the colors in the #3 Bundle are:
Chartreuse
Julep
Blue Spruce
Aqua
Coral
Swan
Orange
Mustard
Castle (Substitute for former color, Bronze)
Copper


So to make this^ copper/yellow/pink ornament:

FELTS:
Orange: Hat and cuffs
Copper: Body and tunic
Coral: Sleeves and pants
Mustard: Sash, belt, drum and pom pom
Bronze (discontinued) or Castle or Copper: Drum top

DMC FLOSS for the decorative embroidery:
White
814 maroon
3716 light pink
892 bright coral pink
783 gold
947 bright orange


So to make this^ mint/pink/orange ornament:

FELTS:
Julep: Hat and sleeves
Blue Spruce: Cuffs and tunic
Coral: Belt/sash and drum top
Orange: Drum
Chartreuse: Pants and pom pom
Copper: Body

DMC FLOSS for the decorative embroidery:
White
3716 light pink
892 bright coral pink
919 copper
3371 dark brown
935 dark green
166 acid green
943 teal green


And lastly, to make this^ yellow/copper/blue ornament:

FELTS:
Mustard: Hat and tunic: Mustard
Bronze (discontinued) or Copper or Blue Spruce: Cuffs
Copper: Belt/sash: Copper
Blue Spruce: Body and drum: Blue Spruce
Swan: Drum top, sleeves, pom pom and pants: Swan

DMC FLOSS for the decorative embroidery:
White
783 gold
919 copper
3808 dark blue
3846 bright light blue
807 medium blue
832 dark gold

I hope that is helpful for you! The Drummer Drumming PDF sewing pattern (and the other Twelve Days ornament patterns) can be purchased at my Etsy shop or Craftsy store. Happy sewing!