end of year teacher gifts

I have been so busy, but I always enjoy giving my kids' teachers a handmade gift to show my appreciation at the end of the year. Since we only have 3 in elementary school now, it's not quite as difficult to accomplish. The older kids have several teachers, so they just get a very heartfelt thank you!

See if you can guess what's inside these packages...



Did you guess this?



I hope their teachers enjoy using them as much as I enjoyed creating them. They have played an important part in our children's lives and are so special to us! It's only a small gift in comparison to all they mean to us!

on robots and knitting...

Can you guess what I got in the mail today? I'll give you a hint...








It came all the way from Canada...








From a very talented children's book illustrator...
Claire's work is beautiful!







She even added a few little hang tags, and the sweetest little kitty gift tag!







It's a cute knitting robot watercolor print!











For my cute little knitting robot!

stencil fun!

Okay, I have to admit it...THIS IS FUN! I am having a ball with this. I have to get some more blank tee shirts because my girls now want shirts, too. I have stenciled before, but not using this method, and let me tell you, this is much neater and easier. And it looks professionally screenprinted!

You cut out an object out of freezer paper, iron it on your shirt or whatever you want the stencil on, stencil it with fabric paint (I used Jaquard textile paint), peel off the freezer paper, let it dry, heat set it and wear it. I made these three shirts yesterday afternoon in less than an hour.

The penguin and owl are for my younger son, and the karate guy is for my older son, who is testing for his green belt tonight! I plan on surprising him with it after he gets his belt!

she's all grown up!

Today is my "baby" girl's birthday!
She's 19!
Happy Birthday, Lauren!!

thrifted goodness!!

I love to go thrift shopping! Aside from all the wonderful bargains you can get in the way of kids' clothing and such, I love looking for fabric! You can find such unique vintage linens, clothing, books, etc. Here are just a few of my finds from Saturday's outing!


This is a wonderful gold and black batik fabric. I'm not sure, but it may become a skirt or a very large bag.








This is a vintage bedsheet. I love the colors and just might make a skirt out of it as well. On second thought, it would make a lovely apron, don't you think?







And, yet another bedsheet. This one was still in its original packaging. It reminds me of the sheets we had when we were growing up!






And this was a skirt! I love the "japanese" butterfly print. If one of my girls will wear it, it will have a home. If not, I'll make it a home!







Definitely not least, is this cute, cute straw bag! I'll use this a lot at the pool this summer. I love these flowers!

More of my fun thrifted treasures to come soon!

tomorrow is the day...

that my new camera arrives! My fuji finepix s3100 died - and I mean completely died after about a year and 3 months. Of course, that was 3 months after the extended warranty expired! So, I ordered a fuji finepix s9000 and can't wait to learn how to use it. I know my pictures will be better than the ones I have been posting recently, because they were taken with a 2 megapixel camera which belongs to my daughter. I have lots to take pictures of, too, because I have flowers blooming, and window treatments I just installed! Yippee!