Donating These to the Local Art Center and More Stars

This is a painting I did for the local art center. My family and I took part last year and had so much fun seeing what each other dreamed up, we had to do it again! This needs a title. What do you think? I was trying to paint a loving couple holding the "key" to each other's heart. I'm up for suggestions. :)

So last year my sister did two so I thought I should try to do two this year. It is abstract and not what I normally paint but I was trying to branch out a bit. This also needs a title. My young niece and I call this "Shark Bubbles" but again I need suggestions.

Do stars on your Christmas tree make you happy? I don't know why I like stars on my Christmas tree so much but I have at least 5 star ornies!

Here is a Santa quilted star ornie. He's been around for several years now but I still think he is great. What's also great is that it is an "unbreakable" ornie for a house with three growing boys and a Christmas-tree-climbing-kitty.

This is my newest star ornie I won from one of Jane Says giveaways. It was made by Wordz of life from an old quilt. I just love it!

What about you? What tops your list of favorite ornaments?

Happy Friday to you!

~Heidi

My giveaway winner is...

Heather form Audrey Eclectic. You have won a hand made star from me! Your fair and non partial judge is my oldest son. He reached in the little blue bowl and picked your number! I wish I had eleven stars so I could give one to everyone who entered. Thanks for playing along.
Here is the kitty in the Christmas tree. Jasper LOVES having the tree put up. He is getting lots of exercise! Well I must be getting the boys off to school after back to back snow days!

Wishing you all a beautiful day!

~Heidi

A feel good story

Wow! It is really snowing around here today. It is sooo beautiful! It really puts me in the Christmas mood. To put you all in the christmas mood I thought I would show you one of my creations. I made this mousie from a red wool felted sweater and embroidered "laugh" on a strip of osnaburg. He then got a rusty jingle bell and safety pin to keep his warm blanket around him. I couldn't take a picture of him on my tree yet. I think we are going to be in for a snow day tomorrow so I'm going to have the boys help me do that.

Here is another picture of the stars I made for my show. Be sure to leave me a comment on either this post or my last for your chance to win one. I'll pick a winner this Friday.

So I got an email last night from a friend of mine who informed me there are 10 kids who are coming to school without a winter coat. One of the boys is coming in a coat too small to zip up and some are coming wrapped in blankets. This is a school in a poor section of my hometown and just happens to be the same elementary school my Mom attended. I passed the email along to my parents and several of my hometown friends. My Dad took up a collection from his breakfast group this morning. He asked his friends to chip in a $. Some did more and one sweet man (this man lost his only son as a child) was heading out to a department store to buy a new coat. Well my parents took the money that Dad had rasied and went to the local Salvation Army thrift store. My Mom picked out two nice, heavy winter coats, two pairs of snowpants, and some hats and gloves. The workers at the Salvation Army gave them everything for a mere $7. They still had leftover money from the collection and were at last report on their way to the Goodwill to see what else they could find. I love to hear of people knowing of a need and doing something about it.

~Blessings

Heidi

Giveaway is now closed. Thanks for all the nice comments!

Our Open House and a giveaway!

Wow! What a great open house we had at Ann's! On this table we had stuff from Dee Miller. The snowman on "ice block" and the snowman in the carrier didn't last long on the first day of our two day open house! My pictures don't do them justice.

I made up some of my new favorite things to make. I take wool sweaters and do everything your mom told you not to do. Wash in hot and then throw them in the dryer. They become "felted" and when you cut them they don't unravel. Warning note some of the sweaters get very thick and hard to sew through. Ann found this out when she tried to sew through a pink GAP cable knit that had become very thick. She broke two needles before I told her my secret to increase her stitch length. Hee hee! And by the way all four of these scarves found new homes.

This is Ann's dining room table laden down with handmade ornaments, lighted home decor, and lots of baked goods homemade from scratch from my friend Nicole. Her coconut macaroons were a big hit! She made them like merengues and added just the right amount of coconut. Delicious!
.

This doesn't show up very well in my picture but it is ADORABLE! Ann made this winter arrangement by taking an old kitchen chair, spray painting it red, added the greenery, lights and an old pair of ice skates. She then give it a generous dusting of mica flakes. This was my favorite item of the show.

This is one of Ann's wool felt ornaments. She does such beautiful quality work. I think she had $12 on this cutie.

Now on to the giveaway! This is my 50th post and so many of you have been so generous with your giveaways (I've even won a few of them) so I figure its my turn! I will be offering one of my painted stars to one of you. http://heidi-heidisjournal.blogspot.com/2009/12/jackson-santa-and-snowman-2009-and-my.htmlWhat do you have to do to have a chance to win?
Just leave me a comment! That's it. Easy peasy! Thanks to all of you who have left me a comment in the past, I get so excited when I know someone out there likes something I did! Happy day to you!

~Heidi



Giveaway is now closed.

Chocolate covered rice crispy pops

Just had to share with you my husband's contribution to tomorrow's open house. These are chocolate covered handmade rice crispy treats with Christmas sprinkles. I need these to be out of my house! They are too yummy!

Dad's Ornaments plus

My Dad has really improved his painting skills in the past year! He came over yesterday and he painted some little brown paper packages I had made up from a paper grocery sack and a cracker box. He looked at my new Santa and Snowman as models and then he painted these. I think he did and awesome job! He didn't sign his work. He told me to do it so I put his initials on the bottom. I have to admit I added the bling :)

These are the ones I made up. I used canvas ribbon, string, chenille candy canes, a rusty jingle bell and just a sprinkle of glass glitter. The snowman I used acrylics and India ink. Just thought I would show you what I have accomplished today. Now its back to work! I'm so glad that tomorrow is the open house! :) Happy day to you!

Jackson Santa and Snowman 2009 and my new stars!

I just love these two new pieces! They were presents given to me by my Mom & Dad as early Christmas gifts.

Here are my new stars I made for an upcoming open house I'm doing with my friend Ann Moody. She lives in a beautiful house in the historic district of Muscatine. She is the one who made the lovely stockings in my previous post. When I get done with the open house on Friday and Saturday I plan on helping her set up her own little shop on Etsy. She does fabulous quilts, purses, pearl button jewelry and so much more. When I get her up and running I'll post a link so you can see all her stuff. But for now I have to get back to work so I have stuff to bring to the open house. I'll try to take pictures to show you all the neat things at the open house! Have a great day!

The cutest stockings ever!

My friend Ann Moody makes these. How awesome are they? She wants to open a shop and put these on Etsy in the future. She makes each one custom. She uses very expensive wool yarns and they do take her quite a few hours to make. She is hosting a holiday open house at her lovely home on the 4th and 5th of December. She will have lots of her pearl button jewelry along with handmade wool ornaments and lots of yummy baked goods. I'll post pictures of some of the goodies I made in an upcoming post along with my new Jackson Pottery Santa and snowman.

Oh Happy Day!

This is my collection of Santas from the fabulous Illinois artists' Robert Jackson & his sweet-as- sugar wife, Sandy from Rock Island, Illinois.

This was the line to get in last year. If you want to be certain of getting a Santa you should be in this line at least an hour before the shop opens. I'm telling you this may not look like a lot of people but these ladies bring boxes to fill. My Mom being one of them, she buys 5 of everything!

Today is one of my favorite days of the year! Jackson's antiques in Rock Island is having their holiday open house from 5-8 pm. My Mom is going to wait in line for me so I can pick my son and the neighbor girl up from band. Anyway back to Jackson's, they design a different pottery Santa and snowman every year and today is the day to get one! They sell out of them in the first hour. They are made in a mold and then they are signed and stamped that they are made right here in our little part of the world! They make adorable crafts, have coffee and handmade treats, decorate their little house so festively. And did I mention the also have scrap booking type things that you can buy already done up? (They sell supplies but I like to buy the stuff already done up.) I can't wait to see what new and wonderful designs they come up with and I will post pictures of the new designs! Wishing you a beautiful, happy day too!

~Heidi

Tough times

This home was my favorite one I saw when we were designing our own home. It was my inspiration for the house we built. I didn't end up with the funds to do the faux stone (yes it is "faux"). But I did incorporate a few of the elements. Anyway I heard yesterday that the gal who was the homebuilder and designer of some fabulous homes (this one included) around my area has filed for divorce, declared corporate bankruptcy and left town. She was an incredibly hard worker. She wasn't a personal friend of mine but I do admire talent and a good work ethic of which she had ample of both. When a community loses a person with her talents it really loses a lot. She also built a public golf course with an exquisite clubhouse, townhomes, condos you name it. And she could lay tile like a pro! This is probably a familiar story in many peoples hometowns given the current economic times. Good luck to her, I will miss seeing her creativity brought to life!

Our new "Stash" and some Jedi Warriors

Oh no look what is on my kitchen counter! I think the Butterfingers are gone now so I may be a little safer. We live in an area where some towns have Trick-Or-Treat on the 30th and some have it on Halloween. We took advantage of this and went both nights! Got to get the most good out of the costumes because they are only used for this Halloween and they are already talking about what they want to be for next year.

This is the picture before the boys started off with their cousins. We do this every year with the girls and we have a blast! Dad makes a big batch of chili for when we get home. We love this tradition.

This is the sck my oldest carried around with him and I knew we had emptied out the sack so I went to grab it to put it away and.....

it was much heavier than I expected. Jasper had found his way into it and discovered a new hiding place!

My middle son thought it would be a good idea to whip a towel at me in the kitchen. The melted candle sitting on the candle warmer seemed like a good safe alternative to an open flame. It was a good thought but as you may know it melts the entire candle. I had candle wax on my kitchen cupboards, the wall, the counters and oh did I mention the dog? Yep a day late for Halloween but the poodle is sporting "Pumpkin Pie Spice" orange candle wax on his fur. Hope you had an excellent and fun Halloween weekend. We sure did!

My version of a fabric organizer

I have seen three different versions of similar organizers on etsy.com. They all were cool but I wanted to try to make a custom one for me. Here is what I came up with today. The pocket on the left hand side of the organizer offers a great way to protect my post cards from the sweet and talented Heather from Audrey Eclectic. This is her blog http://reverieart.blogspot.com/

These are the supplies needed to make one. I used a heavy interfacing and fusible fleece along with a 1/2 yard each of tan linen fabric and a pretty cotton print I found at JoAnn's. Of course you need thread and a sewing machine. I didn't have a pattern but I had a small notebook that I used to design my pattern around.

This is what it looks like closed. The ribbon came from Cris at Mommy's Midwest Mountain Folk Art Studio (visit her blog here http://mommysmidwestmountain.blogspot.com/ )when I bought an adorable kitty angel from her off ebay. I also used a vintage pearl button from my stash to loop the ribbon around for a closure.

This is so much cooler than carrying around my stuff in a grocery sack. :)

Thanks Cookie!

TDIPT Group (To Dwell in Past Times) just had their third anniversary for their group of awesome artists. They had a giveaway and look what I was fortunate enough to win! This is an amazing piece of art donated by artist Karen DeGreve aka "Cookie". This mask is made of paper mache and is just perfect for hanging on the wall. Here is a link to her blog. http://curds-and-whey.blogspot.com/Check out her latest post of Fall leaves in No. Missouri. She obviously has a wonderful creative eye with her camera as well!

Thank you so much Cookie! It is a treasure for my family to enjoy for years to come!

Pesky cat and Fireplace makeover

This is a picture of the kitty's behind. He actually climbed underneath the couch and somehow managed to climb into the bottom of the couch. This is also the reason I was woke up at least three times last night! Naughty kitty!

My fireplace just got its mantle thanks to my parents. My Mom's nagging and my Dad's handiwork. Just a little staining left to do. He had leftover pieces when he got done, should I be scared?

I found this picture to show what the fireplace used to look like. Big improvement I think!

Another picture of our craft show we did. Almost everything we put on this table sold. We bought the metal pumpkins at Goodwill and spray painted them silver. A lady came by and bought them both. The little pumpkins with the ribbons were just dollar store pumpkins spray painted with ribbons attached. One lady bought all we had! My sister had a great time using up my german glass glitter to bling several of the things she made. Almost everything on this table was done by her. She really liked the idea black, white and silver for Halloween this year.

This is a great picture of some of my kinfolk. This is for you Aunt Char!

Wishing you a beautiful time!

Heidi

Who wants to see my Hooters?

This probably wasn't the first thing that popped into your head was it? Tee hee. These are the cute little owls I made from wool sweaters that I felted in the washing machine. I love how these turned out. My sister loved them so much she now is the proud owner of five of them. Happy October birthday to you!

Who gives a hoot? I do of course. I took this set to a craft show yesterday but it didn't sell for $10. I can't tell you how many hours it took me to paint this but its okay because I will decorate my own house with it:)

This is my Halloween Annie I made from a pattern from Back Porch Pickins. I love how she turned out!

Here is a picture of the signs we made to take to the show. I think the only one that didn't sell out of this pile was the Spooky Hollow. We should have made it into a stake and then I think it would have sold.

This is a picture of some of my favorite things. My husband made these cute little treat sacks from an old Martha Stewart magazine. We sold several of these yesterday. It was crazy, we had some old burlap bags left over from the corn show and we put some weeds in the bags and they sold for $5 each. How crazy is that? My Mom joked that she finally got my Dad to cut the grass. Sorry it has been so long in between posts but my honey and I took a week to rest and relax on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale and then I worked liked crazy getting ready for that craft show. Hope all of you are enjoying these beautiful Fall days!

Fall craft shows

Original art and candy corn pieces.
Doodle Pads for Halloween

A Halloween doll I made from a pattern by Tonya of Back Porch Pickins.




Some of my recent craft projects.

Back to art! My first Halloween Painting

I love Halloween and I love cupcakes!
These are just to show how the worked progressed

Halloween is one of my favorite holidays. My childhood memories were getting to choose a costume, have a little party at school and then go trick or treating with my plastic pumpkin bucket. This painting reminds me of the Halloween cupcakes that were brought in with cute little plastic decorations on top of them. My boys are lucky enough to go to a school that lets the kids were a costume in the school's parade. They parade past each other then go back to their class for some fruit juice and treats. I know some people like to make Halloween into something more than a chance to play dress up and get treats but to me that is what Halloween represents. One day a year you can be anything you want and eat sweets. What do you like best about Halloween?

More Pics From Bishop Hill

Plants for sale in a neat old wire stand.
Swedeish Flag with begonias decorating the front of the Red Oak Inn restaurant.
The front of the old colony store. There are large groupings of beautiful zinnias on the left side of the building. My favs:)
We were told that these ornately painted horses are a good luck symbol in Sweden. I'm not even sure that I captured half of what they had on their shelves in the Colony Store. They also have moose painted like the horses (shown towards the top of the picture).

Oh how I love places with a sense of history, charm and a relaxed atmosphere. Bishop Hill not only has an art gallery in an old iron works building, a super cute restaurant with fabulous food but an old time colony store! There is really something for everyone in there; candy in jars, kitchen goodies, Christmas ornaments made in Sweden. My ten year old son got to write in his end of year book at school all of his favorites and he listed this place. Definitely like mother like son.