Keeping Time With Gnomes

Wait for it....

This is the current centerpiece for our table.  Kinda cute right?  Tiny pumpkins, a tree block, beeswax candle, a sea shell (from our honeymoon a million years ago), and the sweetest little perpetual calendar I ever did make.  Well, the only one anyway.  

A few weeks ago I was browsing around Rhythm of the Home Magazine (an online magazine found here ) and their Fall 2011 edition and loving it all.  I came across Mama Roots and her story tables which have inspired quite a lot of my current crafting.  Her blog is wonderful but I really loved this.  Her little calendars are so cute. 

Now, I inherited a healthy dose of "I can probably make that" from both my parents.  Naturally that's what I thought.  I can make it - but different.  So I rounded up some scrap wood, a peg person, a couple wooden cubes, and some wool felt.  Oh and I grabbed the wood burner.  I think she turned out pretty cute. 

I made 4 different hats, one for each season.  Orange for fall, an icy blue for winter, a leafy green for spring, and a bright blue for summer. 

Then I wood burned the little leaf pattern, months, and days.  I finished it off with a homemade olive oil beeswax polish to protect her.  I love her!  Really. 

I'm linking this to Happily Home Sewn and her Peek of the Week.  Her "peeks" are always adorable so go check it out!



   

Just Do It.

That's what I decided.  To just do it.  Just start this little crafty blog.  I have so many completed projects to share with you all and I didn't want them to overwhelm The Fipper Show.  And so...another blog is born. 

I imagine we'll be fairly sporadic for a while.  I do have some seriously cute stuff going on.  Mostly sewing but there will be the occasional kid craft or chicken house remodel or cardboard Halloween costume or what have you in the mix.  (Maybe even a recipe or two.)  Let's get started, shall we?  I give you....

Snack Mats

A while back I was apparently falling down crafty blog rabbit holes and I came across these adorable toadstool snack mats.  I can not, for the life of me, remember where I saw these.  If anyone knows, (or they are yours) please leave it in the comments.  I decided to change it up a bit and we did four different ones. 

Now these are perfect for smallish pieces of wool felt and plain ol' muslin.  Mine are approximately 9" X 7".  Give or take.  I used scraps of batting leftover from other projects and even hand quilted them.  (but you sure could use the machine for the whole thing) This project didn't cost me a dime.

I specifically remember the instructions I read saying to go around the wool "patch" twice to give it a really nice homespun sort of look on the back side too.  Those I did with the sewing machine.

They were a pretty big hit.  I LOVE them.  And they have all kinds of useful applications.  Place mats for play kitchens, candle mats, one of my sons friends was even using them as play kitchen pot holders.  (which you could totally make by squaring the design up and adding a little bias tape around the edge and a loop) 

It's the perfect size for a cup of coffee and a muffin.  Or a bowl of soup.  Or a handful of crackers.

These were really very simple to do but if anyone would like a tutorial for it just let me know.  Snack away my friends, snack away.