1 out of 3 Things

All of these items were made ages ago but only 1 of the 3 I  liked so I never blogged them.  

Heather Bailey turtle. Not a favorite at all. It came out all bulbous on the stomach. What did I do wrong??

 Wednesday doll from this store, a little too big-headed for my tastes. Still cute but .... I don't know..the head is gi-normous. I guess I didn't see her big head when I bought the pattern:) Both the Heather Bailey and Wednesday patterns were great , it's me that is the problem:) It's me not you....

This hippo heating pad is the favorite of the 3. He's perfect. He is  made from towel fabric and is filled with I think lavender pellets; meant to be heated in the microwave. All supplies I got back in Stuttgart at the Craft Messe.

Nursing Pillow Cover Redo (a snake)

Before my German friend Connie moved she gave me this long nursing pillow (in case I had another baby). This kind of long nursing pillow is very common in Germany where as in America we mostly see the Boppy. But the cover on it was HIDEOUS (see below). Just horrible. Doesn't match anything and so devoid of all personality. So after seeing this snake I knew exactly what I had to do! I started out wanting the whole thing striped but then decided the majority of it might look better in the cotton/linen fabric I had used on the bolsters since this snake lives mostly on my bed (picture with Frank). I love it. He turned out perfect in my eyes and so much better than the yellow cover below! If he should migrate to the couch which he did via Ava while typing this then he won't look so out of place. The fabric is the same on both sides so if you flip it he has stripes on the other side.

To make the pillow cover I turned the old cover inside out, ironed it flat, traced it into 3 parts (middle, and the two ends) just like the original cover had. I then took my paper pattern and made the new one. I inserted a long zipper where the outer arch is just like the original.

Ode to Bavaria

My ode to Bavaria is a big giant Bretzel (as they call it in German). I LOVE pretzels but who doesn't? And over here they are delicious. So different than American pretzels. And Germans make all kinds of versions: sticks, croissants, rolls, etc. All out of pretzel. The pretzel symbol is one of my favorite things here. You see it everywhere. At Oktoberfest it was on earrings, phone charms, necklaces (which I had to get me one!) and so many other things. I had been looking for a unique something to put on my front door when one day we passed a Bavarian shop full of Bavarian things and they had huge giant pretzels in the window hanging by the easily recognizable Bavaria/Oktoberfest ribbon (see here). I had to have them! The shop owner said they were not for sale but I could have the baker two doors down make them for me. So I did and at only 4 euro each! And now a few days later of them drying out and me shellacking the crap out of them with spray varnish, they are ready to hang! I just need to get some blue and white check ribbon and I'm set. I had two made just in case one breaks or doesn't preserve well.

The chalk board banner has been up since before Christmas (posted about it here). And a couple of weeks ago I decided to make it look nicer by printing out parrishplatz and some stars on printer paper, taping it to the banner and shading it in with regular chalk. Then I took off the template and filled it in with a Chalk pen. It's still looks really messy and not curved and just overall bad but so much better than me free-handing it! I will continue to perfect it but it's ok for right now. I do hate the seem in the middle of the banner but I don't know yet how to make projects bigger than 12".

I love it!

Miniature party hats and a polka dot elephant

 Ava's is turning 5 tomorrow! We are preparing the house! 

The theme is Shaun the Sheep (again).

All sheeps made on the silhouette by manipulating bought designs and Timmy is done by tracing a coloring page within the silhouette software. All very tedious but soooooo cute! And if I do say so myself, they look just like the sheep from the show! I'm very proud of myself. I keep looking at them wanting to pat myself on the back:) I will post the photos of the party/cake when it happens. She is receiving lots of Shaun the Sheep toys!

I made party hats for the dinosaurs and painted an elephant with polka dots. I am so in love with the elephant I want to paint all their animals!

Party hats made by cutting out a template on a post it then on the special paper. 

Love this photo and had to share. Ava is very affectionate and Emily not so much.

Pom Pom Wreath

14" Styrofoam pom pom wreath. This took about 70 pom poms and I did it over a couple of nights while watching T.V. Inspiration was from here but then I searched pinterest for them and was sooooo in awe of all the pom pom wreaths and the different colors. Technically I started this when Jon's mom had been 1st diagnosed and we went home on emergency leave (April 2011). I bought the Clover pom pom makers and took the inspiration picture and yarn to the hospital as something to do while we sat there for hours. I made a bunch of dark red ones then didn't touch it again till a month ago! 

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Below is a bunch of instagram photos. Have I mentioned how much I love my phone (Samsung galaxy s3) and Instagram? I LOVE Instagram. I wanted to make all of these photos XL but thought that would be pushing it:) 

 Need to blog two quilts if I can ever get the binding on them!

Bolster

Bolsters recovered ages and ages ago and finally photographed when I made this quilt for Jenny B. Then never blogged. The bolsters are from Ikea. I took apart the cover that came with it (or did I buy it separately? Think I bought one to use as a pattern) and used it as a pattern. This linen is a little stretchy due to it's weave so it got a little warped when sewing it. I do love them though and they go perfectly with my Heather Ross Mendocino quilt normally on the bed. I used a make-your-own-zipper.

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Here's some photos of my babies. Our area flooded pretty bad last week. It was fascinating to see that the stream near us had over flowed and the rains flooded the fields and roads. The girls love running through the huge deep puddles. The old buildings below seem to be storage sheds of some sort. Owned by different people or rented? Some have horses or tractors or boats. 

Happy New Year!