Just checking in to wish you a Happy St' Patrick's Day!!!!

My 10 year old asked me, "Why does it say Lucky?"
I told her the Irish story, but then added,
"I think it is because I feel so blessed, and Lucky is a fun way to say Blessed....."

And I do feel very blessed....  
A fun family....   Nice sunny weather....
A hard-working hubby who happily hands over the whole paycheck twice a month, so I can keep pluggin' away at silly creative stuff....  And play with the kids....
....And I have so many other blessings.....
I can't count them all....
Lucky me.....!!!!!

I borrowed this "Keep Calm and Pinch On" print from Stephanie,  the Hands-on Housewife....
she was so kind as to design and share it....
Thank you!!!!


(p.s.  Disclaimer of sorts.....  Sorry the photo's aren't excellent, I am not really good with indoor photography.... And then all those reflections on the glass and mirrors.... Yow-zi!)

And this is my favorite St. Patrick's Day Item on Etsy....  from OwlCreekCeramics....
Love it!!!!



Enjoy your St.Patty's! 
I will have to think of some green food for the fam.....

Olivia was so honored to be invited to the Polka Dot Closet Dress Form Ball....
She got dressed up in her very best....
She took two of my shirts from the "to-be-donated-to-DI" pile and used them for her shirt and skirt, but added some flowers and vintage lace...
She wore her vintage lumbar support corset too....
My ten year old was wondering why she wore it on the OUTSIDE of her clothes....  I don't know either.... I guess she likes it so much, she wants to show it off....

Right before she left for the party she saw the "laugh" banner and decided to wear it as a necklace....

What  do you think of her outfit?

This summer I came upon this wonderful box of 1000 flashcards from  1964......I loved it, but...... I am NOT a mixed media artist....  or a paper artist, though I dream of being one one day....
I really hoped to see these cards made into something
fabulous,
stupendous,
breathtaking,
artistic,
exquisite .....

_So I was very much so looking forward to having these cards come into the hands of a true paper artist....
And they did..... I was soooo excited.....!!!!

Enter Bonita Rose,
          ......Life.Love.Color.Art........

Bonita is a paper artists from Fargo, North Dakota, with an eye for word art....
Her mission statement is to always remain true to herself and living her life happy, no matter what. It's a choice. She always tries to go where the peace is. Always.

Her first small canvas art is "Ethereal"
featuring the ethereal flashcard from the box.....

Her second small canvas is "Fastidious"
featuring the fastidious flashcard from the box......

Well, her Artist Trading Card word art is just strikingly fantastic; I am so excited to see them....!!!  So grateful she was willing to share....  I can't wait to see what else she comes up with!!!!
....according to my calculations, she has 998 cards to go....  :-)

Visit Bonita's website for additional astounding creativity

linking up to
The Scarlet Lime
One Lucky Day
Lara Birch
Crafts 'n Coffee
the Key to My Art
Design Memory Craft
Shabby Chic Junk

I found this terrific set of vintage school supply alphabet felt flannel board letters, A through L...
These letters are great as vintage school-teacher memorabilia or for mixed media art....

_Of course my kids and I immediately started wondering what words we could make out of these letters....

__Fun stuff!
I love doing things like this!
Kind-of like playing Boggle.
My family loves playing that game!
I'm not very good at it...  I keep thinking of Dutch words, which my family says I can't use...
Go figure!

:-)  Crystelle

What words can you come up with?
Five letter words anyone...???
You can use doubles....

Let me know in the comments!

Lo and Behold!

The current Idaho Falls Magazine has a whole article devoted to Spud Day in Shelley, Idaho.  Spud Day is an annual event celebrating the potato harvest.  This year's celebration runs from Wednesday September 14th through Saturday September 17th, 2011.

And there is a very cute picture of the adorable running Miss Russet:  Kaitlyn Anderson sporting a potato sack dress, Marilyn Monroe style, but created by.....me.....!!!!
It is fun to see my spud sack creation in a magazine, and having the lovely Miss Russet make it look incredibly fabulous.....

I made this potato sack dress last month, and I'm telling ya, it looks much better on Kaitlyn than on my dress-form.....

Miss Russet:
a real Idaho Beauty!

Her is the cover of the new Idaho Falls Magazine:  September/October 2011 issue. 
Pick up a copy today!

Making your own personalized fabric tag is not as hard as it sounds...
Really!

My logo had been designed by I.D. Grafix quite some time ago, and I really like it, so I decide to use it for my fabric tags inside handbags as well. 

I had my logo made into a custom stamp.
There are many places to have custom stamps made, and I chose foryoo from Honolulu, Hawaii.  She did a fabulous job.  I was very happy with the results:  It looks great.

Using the Staz-on ink, stamp the image onto the selected fabric.
{I have tried other inks, but the image has a tendency to run when it gets wet.}

 I often make multiple fabric tags at a time.

Feel free to make just one tag at a time.  I like using pinking sheers to cut the tags out. 
But you could cut them out straight and fold the edges under if you would like....

Let the ink dry and then heat-set the ink with a hot iron for 10 seconds or so.

And there you have it:
lotsa fabric tags, all made very easily at home

Get creative and use fun colors and prints for your fabric tags.

And who said you had to use a logo anyway?
You can use what ever stamp you have on hand.....

Spread the love with hand-sewn items for your loved ones, with hand-printed fabric tags.....

Enjoy!

Whoever thought of making a coat tree of vintage skis was a genius!  They are so adorable! 
I've always wanted to make one of these coat-racks from old wooden skis, so a few years ago I started hunting for vintage skis.
Kinda hard to come by I discovered!
But I managed and found a beautiful pair of vintage all wooden cross-country skis....
I was so happy....!!!! and kept searching for pair number two.
About a yer later I found a pair of wooden skis with a red coat on them.  Now I could make my coat rack...right....???
Well.... I am sorry to report that I have more ideas and plans than I have time and energy to do things with...
Does that sound familiar to anyone.....????
So I was cleaning out the garage this week and found my beloved skis and sorrowfully decide that I didn't have room for a coat-rack anyway, and encouraged by my husband who really likes clean garages: I am selling my skis!!!
You can find them here and here.

In the mean time I fantasize about all the things I COULD have made out of them.....

I COULD have framed a mirror or picture.
Made bench or table.
Made a shelf-rack  A coat-rack with pegs to hang on the wall...
A fence...!!!  How about a picket-fence type headboard.
Coulda-woulda-shoulda...
In the mean time, I try to move on......  My heart is ripped in two...  But....there are plenty of fun things I can make still...even without skis... (sniff...)

Just kidding, I really can't do everything I want to, unfortunately...
BUT  on the bright side:
 I have everything I need....  and much more!
I am truly blessed....!

In the mean time:  our mommy Rex Rabbit bunny had babies...
Ohhh, they are sooo adorable.  The kids are in heaven...  they will available for free to good homes and will be super tame, because they have been played with so much... :)

Mom and Dad like playing with these cute little soft hairballs too....
They steal your heart in one glance... (sigh....)

The chickens are still happily roaming around... sharing their yummy eggs with us.

Anyway, as I was cleaning out the garage, it was starting to get dark, and I thought to myself:  this would be a good time to go for a walk, because I certainly wouldn't want to go AFTER it gets dark....!!!
So off I went in the farmer's field across the street from us...
I was having a grand old time, walking briskly with my dog, and lo and behold, about halfway through, it was getting pretty dark.. In fact I couldn't see much, except what was directly in from of me....

Al of a sudden:  there, on the right, about 3 feet away from me, I see something coming toward me...  I am used to critters around the house, so I wasn't alarmed, but squinted to make out what it was....  It kept coming toward me, black with a tall black tail straight up....  And then I recognized it for what it was:  A SKUNK! 
Backing up toward me....
Boy, did I start running!
I had no idea I could runt hat fast!  A little adrenalin in your system will do that, I guess....
And the dog ran with me.  She was HAPPY to run away too.  Too many skunk encounters, I guess....
The good news is: we got away un-sprayed...  PHEW!!!

And that is my story from last night, and I'm sticking to it....!!!!!
Have a happy weekend!

I have to be totally honest and let you know that 
I got this sock wreath idea right here.
Becca made a lovely sock wreath:  it is totally cute!
I just kinda took her idea and "valentined" it...
Thanks for sharing Becca!

Do all this to all four socks.
All your socks now are straight tubes with openings on both ends.

Let mommy cut the wreath.
I used my trusty ol' serrated bread-knife:  Worked like a champ!

Slide on the tube-socks, one at a time.
Arrange and scrunch the socks how you like them.
They stay put really well, but if you'd like you could glue or pin them into place. 

It was fun and easy to make this with my kids.  we just did it one afternoon after school.  No pressure, just relaxed.... and VERY inexpensive!
I bought the socks at the dollar store and the wreath cost next to nothing at the craft store.

Happy Valentines Day....















<3
Crystelle