that's it!

all right, i cry uncle...i'm moving. flat hill farms is now at wordpress, so if you're interested, go here:

www.mrtweeds.wordpress.com

sorry, blogger, it was fun while it lasted!

mr. tweeds

pleased

who am i pleased with, you may ask? why myself, of course. not only have i completed christmas shopping for four (count them FOUR) people on my list, i am absurdly pleased with how my crafting came out.

when it comes to gifts for my father and brother i am usually at a loss...until this year. i found some "yukon king" adventure trading cards in the house when we moved in, and not only are they hysterical, i have multiples of almost all of them. they are apparently from an old 1950's tv show about a mountie named sgt preston and his trusty companion, a husky named "yukon king". while i myself have never seen this show, apparently he got into quite a few adventures up there in the yukon territory and they were recorded on these trading cards....which somehow ended up in my house. i decided to frame some for my father and brother and they came out wonderfully.

the first is for my father. i went for a mountie theme.

here's a close up of one of the cards:


and this is the text from the back:

ah, sgt. preston. what will you get into next?

the second is for my brother. since he's an outdoorsy type of guy i went for the rough living dangers of the yukon:


this frame has a card about vicious grizzlies and the dangers of going to the butchers. you can't make this stuff up.

i mounted the cards with the 3-d mounting tape so they actually pop off of the background. the background is a deep burgandy mat board, which actually sets the reds in the cards of nicely. i'm glad i did it that way because the cards really look nice with that bit of shadow behind them.

sweet...2 (usually difficult) christmas presents down. i am now ready for a cup of tea.

you say tomato....

since this summer was relatively busy with other things (such as giving birth, etc, etc, etc) i only had a small garden that was put in relatively late. it consisted of tomatoes, tomatoes, a pepper plant, herbs, basil,and tomatoes. but luckily, since i love tomatoes, it worked out well.

we were pretty much overrun by nice big, red fruits at the beginning of september, and here are some proof of my labor, lined up prettily on the kitchen windowsill:

still here...

and still been busy.

since i posted all about the sunroom project last year, i'll start with an update of that. we put in a new floor this weekend, and i also took the opportunity to reorganize and clean out some of baby girl's lesser used toys from the space. we've still got the exercise equipment out there, but hey, what are you going to do?

behold: shiny new floor!
isn't it pretty and shiny and nice looking? i still can't get used to it (and neither can the dog...he keeps slipping around on it since it's so much slicker than the old pine).

and this is my new(ish) craft cabinet, which is actually able to house the majority of my things. i never got around to putting shelves etc in the old one (which i'm not sure it could have handled in the first place) but i love love love my new one. it holds all my paints, craft books, sewing machine, fabric, beads, and various other odds and ends. sawheet.
and it also holds part of my sweet birthday present from aj, kristi and olive bean:aren't organized craft supplies pretty?

and now on to some of my projects in mind/in progress:

this is the fabric which will eventually turn itself (magically) into a blanket for finn. i copped out and bought the pre-quilted fabric, but hey, i'm willing to accept my limitations. but since i am totally in love with my new sewing machine, who knows? maybe the next project will be an actual quilt. but i also hate measuring things, so maybe not.


and i've had this project in the works for an embarrassingly long time. it's my hope that by posting it on here i'll shame myself into doing more work on it. it's eventually going to be a mini children's book. as you can see, it's about a little orphan kitten, and he's looking for a family (spoiler alert: he finds one). but i've gotten a grand total of one and a half pages done, so, you know, i'm whipping through that.
and i do have a couple of other painting projects that i'm in the middle of and a couple more on order, but i'm not going to post about them yet because they deserve their very own entry. it may take me another year to get it on here, but hopefully not.

and another

since i totallycopped out on making molly's halloween costume this year, i had to make SOMETHING....so i made her udders in which to carry her delicious, delicious candy (or bert).

i bought a $4 fleece baby blanket from kmart for the fabric, winged the pattern and voila! i had four cute little vintage buttons that i used as an accent on the handles, which totally make the entire thing:

and here we are in action at the parade. it was FREEZING and for some reason she wanted to be carried the whole way, but she got lots of "oohs" and "aaaws"! (i was a farmer, in case you can't tell.

o, it's been SO LONG!

i'm actually embarrassed that it's been so ridiculously long since i posted anything. i have been busy (i always say that) the problem is i've been too busy to post!

anyway, here are some of the things i've been working on:

molly's blanket: finally done. it was a debacle. i sewed the layers wrong, ripped it out, the lining fabric caused problems, ripped it out. FINALLY, with a warm middle layer of flannel (courtesy of an old sheet) it was finished.


i quilted random bugs and hearts throughout the entire blanket. it turned out really well. eventually i want to quilt more, but i ran out of red thread on my bobbin and then molly woke up from her nap, so work time was over for me.

another project i did was this yummy scarf. i have a thing for scarves. i grabbed 2 balls of this yarn awhile ago and then sat around wondering what i was going to do with it. when all else fails...knit a scarf!

i usually make absurdly long scarves, but since i knew i didn't have enough yarn for that this time around i decided to wing it. i like how it came out, and it keeps it nice and snug around my neck. (it's actually more neatly done than it looks in the picture.

that's all for this post!!

and this is what i WILL be working on

i just recieved my order from repotdepot and i am sooo excited. i have been browsing their site for years and finally just went ahead and ordered some of that very cute fabric that i'm always drooling over...adn i'm so glad i did. the bees were even on sale! it's going to be a cozy (aka blanket) for molly. i generally am afraid to order fabric on line because i'm convinced that the colors will be completely wrong and/or it will end in disaster...but not this time!

the bee fabric (and ladybug too, mind you) will be the top and the red and white the underside. i figure i'll fill it with some flannel to make it extra cozy (because you all know you like that) and it will be a perfect little snuggle cozy for her. i'm sure she won't be as excited about it as i already am, but hey, at least one of us is all giggly! aw, who am i kidding? she's always giggly.


i can't wait to put it all together. it's going to be very simple because i got just enough fabric to do it (no margin of error here, people) but i'm hoping to do some cute quilting with it to make it a bit more impressive. i'll be sure to post the finished product!

i love fall!

it's by far my favorite time of year. as much as i love the fresh fruit and veggies of the summer (and being able to swim and dig in the garden!), i love it when the trees all decide to change colors and it becomes sweater (and scarf) weather.

so here's what i've been up to:

this is the scarf i mentioned in the last post. it's the first rib i've done and i'm very happy with how it came out. the gradiation in the yarn is very pretty, too, and i'm thinking that it will match my winter coat quite nicely. i know it matches one of my favorite sweaters, so we're all set there, at least!

and this is how i decorated the front door of our house. it makes me happy (and please note the scary black cat...i made him last year and decided that he needed to be by the hitching post with his own little pumpkin this year):
and i just realized that it would have been a much prettier picture had i rolled up the blinds on the front door, but o well, you get the idea.

yes, i'm still around

and i have been making things, i just haven't had the chance to post about them!

my most exciting creation lately is a new hat for molly. i wanted to make her a hat, couldn't really find any patterns that really fit the freakish image in my head, but found some felting yarn on sale and decided what the heck, i'll wing it! and behold, my (and molly's) first felted hat!

considering i made it without any sort of pattern, it turned out pretty much the way i wanted, although it was (initially) much too large. the only thing i used from a pattern was the # of cast on stitches and as soon as i started i realized that there was no way. it worked out for the best though, because then i ended up making it into a ruffled edge instead of frogging it.

i wasn't sure how much it would (or wouldn't) shrink when it felted, so i left it larger than i needed to, but then i just shaped it, let it dry a bit, then cut it and sewed a curvy seam and felted that spot. i must say, felting is sooo cool. i couldn't believe how it changed after just a few minutes in the washer! i'm hooked. and yes, i should have taken before pics, but i was too excited. i'll do it next time, i promise. in the meantime, molly likes her hat very much and (i'm told) it keeps her head nice and warm. and i LOVE the little pointy top. that's just what i wanted.

in other news, i recieved an unfinished box for my birthday and knew immediately what i wanted to do with it...this:

the red isn't as bright in real life (it's really an oxblood color), but i painted and antiqued it and it pretty much looks like it's 100 years old. but it's not 100 years old, it's new. you see how that works? clever, eh? i still have no idea what i'm going to put in it (most likely more teensy, relatively useless stuff like everything else i collect) but i really love the way it turned out.

i'm also working on a ribbed scarf which is coming along nicely, but i haven't taken any pictures of that yet. but i will, so come back soon!