These kids are crafty!

Dear Me! I just love these kids....they sure know how to make me laugh. I have so much fun going over to my sisters house and just hanging out. Now usually we are all holding cards and placing bids, but even when we're just sitting around and doing nothing I wouldn't wish to be anywhere else in the world.

Crafts in India!

The crafts have gone global! My dearest friend had told me about a couple she knew from Tx that moved to India to start an orphanage for girls. I had always thought about supporting a child but was skeptical of the big organizations. Since Tami knew the couple personally I trusted her judgement and what a joy it has been! There are currently 14 girls and some are still needing sponsors so if you have a heart to do this you can look it up at www.hhinternational.org.

I had made clipboards for my nieces and nephews over the holidays and so decided to do the same for the girls. No, it isn't practical...but who always wants a practical gift? I wanted something fun that they could use for school. So I packed up 16 (14 for the girls and 2 for the daughters of the couple running it) clipboards with baggies of hairbows etc. Ruby just sent me pics of them all plus one of my "niece" Chinthamani...isn't she adorable? Anyway, just wanted to share...

Upholstering

I so wish I had the Before pic of the 2nd chair. I got it at a Model Home Auction for $25...it was black with Asian fabric. Not exactly my decorating style. This is something anyone, yes even you Katherine, can do. Painted it cream, and then found fabric that I liked and staple gunned it to the chair. Here is a pic also of the cording...all you do is wrap the fabric around cording and sew it down the middle. Hot glue that to the chair. I didn't need to do the cording but it gives it a finished look. It has become my favorite chair in the house - to look at, not sit in...that leads me to my favorite chair to veg in...

The first pic was my first attempt at upholstering/slipcovering. Dear Me! Never knew how long it would take...which was a full weekend of doing nothing else. I got this fabric for around 50 cents a yard and thought it was cheap enough for me to experiment with. I took the chair completely apart and thought I'd just staple the material to the base...not so easy. And I've only ever had 4 sewing lessons and it never quite covered how to slipcover an overstuffed chair. I think next time I'll just pay the $250 and have someone do it for me.

Biggest Craft Project of All

So I'm finally putting a pic up of my house...aka The Hut. When I first moved in, it hadn't been lived in for over a year. Foreclosure. There was no grass, no landscaping and the inside needed an update from the 70's. It's been my biggest craft project of all. It's been alot of work, yet it has been great fun too. I've loved painting all the rooms (don't look too closely at the trim please), tiling the kitchen & learning how to take a toilet apart (apparently putting a toilet together is the tricky part).

The house is in what I like to call a "hubcaps optional" neighborhood. Neighbors are great and I feel very safe there...however I'm the only English speaking one there is. Korean? check. Mexican? check. Chinese? check. Indian? check. We've got it all! Gotta love it when I'm taking a bike ride and in one house I see a hamock hanging on a living room wall (shout out to the Mexicans) and the house right next to it is a woman in a burka. Good times.

Neighbor across the street has binoculars on my house at all times. I'm not joking. He knows everything that goes on and when I see him on my walks he asks me about things I thought he never would've noticed. Through his window he'll see me carry in a box from my car and then later say "so how do you like your new DVD player?" What? Some may find that freakish, ok, maybe alot of you will. But I find it assuring. If someone was to break into my house, he would be all over it. And God help the workmen I hire...he lets me know how long my landscapers lunch was and how many phone calls he took while doing the job. I LOVE IT. For me, he's the greatest selling feature my house has to offer.

More Bags

Here are the last couple bags that were made...

Diaper Bags

When I lived in Tulsa I was poor. Cried at night because I didn't know how I was going to pay my bills poor. So it was a problem when I was supposed to go to a baby shower and I had no money to get her a gift. So I was rummaging around on the internet and saw some diaper bags. I had fabric left over and decided to give it a try. It ended up being a cute little bag, and Katie was so gracious when she opened up the gift and didn't comment at all at the small mistakes that were made. I'm not a very detail oriented person. But there were a couple people at the shower who requested a bag and a small (very small) business started from there.

Hawaiian Bag

Here is one of the first bags I made. Just loved it; but I was still a newbie and didn't make the bottom of the purse sturdy enough...so it just kind of sags. Now I use it as a catch-all bag for sewing stuff. (but I still like the look of it)