Me & Mimi's Crafting Nook

Cakes loves our shop Maybe more than we do, but she loves to move stuff everywhere. So we found some projects that we thought would be right up her ally.

First we found a little zebra. It was a kit and had everything in it all she had to do was “sew” it together. This was such a hit, she was begging every day to do another one.

We found another little kit, this one was a little doll. This little kit is perfect for the beginner, there are precut holes to make it easy for the plastic sewing needle and embroidery thread to “sew” together. Before I show you the cute pictures (in my opinion, of course) I want to give you a little back ground on the naming of the doll. She loves Marsha and the Bear. This little cartoon Marsha is exactly just little her (its kinda scary to be honest ha ha). So every doll she owns is named Marsha. Below is our newest Marsha doll and the process of making her.

We all have that special person or persons in our lives that we have lost due to a tragedy, old age, or sickness.
We were asked to make a memory bear. She lost her brother that was a nurse, and wanted a memory bear to put on her bed. We took a nurses uniform and made the bear. Then we took wire, black tubing, and a bottle cap to make a thesascope. Finally we made a lab coat. For the final special touch, we took his signature and hand embroidered his name on the coat.

We since then have made small ones to the larger sizes. Here is a picture with the sizes we have made.

Boo is in that teenager stage where all he likes to do is games games and games. Ha Ha Ha . This drives me and Mimi up the walls….. But anyway, he gets inspired by some of these games shows and etc. If he gets something in his head, well everyone has to stop what they are doing and take part. He loves taking cardboard and making it into whatever he is thinking of. These are from Splatoon 2 and they are dualies I am going to post a picture of the actual dualies and then Boo’s.

Also, Boo draws pictures and Mimi makes the little plushies. This one is a bug(he called it a fly).

This is only a few of the things Boo comes up with I am going to try to keep up with him and share his creations with y’all too. I have a lot to catch up on because he has alot of things he has already done. Of course, I am behind but hopefully I can post some more later on..

Let lil man know how y’all feel about his awesome talent God has given him.

Summer time has come and gone so quickly. Punkin loves playing kitchen so Mimi decided to make her a surprise. Punkin is always playing Tea Party with imaginary tea and cakes. Mimi made the watermelons, strawberries, blue berries, raspberries,strawberry cakes, lemon pie, blueberry pie, even the patchwork quilt under the sweet treats.

Mimi has been wanting to do the kids a weighted blankets. So for Christmas, she did it, only she missed one person (ME).  I guess I’ll make one after Christmas (finger’s crossed).  The kids love their blankets.

As I mentioned before Mimi has crafted my entire life, and this time I want to share with you Russian Punch or Needle Punch.

I have several things Mimi has made for me through the years. Here are just a few of them.

So I asked her to show me.

We found a picture that we wanted to make or in this case we drew a  heart

then the fun began  finding the colors you want to use and then starting on the shape

I outlined mine in black then filled it with red.

The finished heart.

I started a new project which is a magnolia flower.  This is still a work in progress I hope to finish it soon, then I will post the finished product.

After making Addie’s Isabelle, we decided to make some different dolls.  These would make perfect Christmas gifts.

Here are some of what we have so far. Get your order in early.

Little Red Ridinghood

Wolf

Wolf and Little Red Ridinghood

Deer

Fox

Baby girl was at Mimi’s after a rain one day, playing in the mud. She told Mimi she found a fairy and put it in a bug cage. Baby girl had to take her fairy everywhere with her and named her Isabelle.  This was right before her birthday so Mimi decided to make her a doll fairy and name it Isabelle.  Mimi asked baby girl what color hair Isabelle had 1st it was yellow she then changed it to “rainbow hair”.  About a day before her birthday, baby girl told Mimi she had to have shoes and big girl underwear. Ha Ha Ha ( She doesn’t like shoes and we are in the process of potty training where we tell her she is a big girl.)  Needless to say Isabelle had shoes for Addie’s party. Ha Ha Ha

And this is Isabelle.

In the kids rooms I wanted to do something different with their curtains. I have been thinking about it for a while when me and Mimi went to a shop that was going out of business.  I found the cutest upholstery fabric for the kids room.  Then I was looking on Pinterest ( one of my favorite things to do) and found diy roman blinds.   I went to walmart and found  the wood faux blinds.  The set I got was the cordless blinds, to let up the blind just push up and to let it down just pull.  I was a little nervous because the blinds were $29.99 and I was afraid that I would mess them up.  However, I took a deep deep breathe and jumped right in.

The following is how I made them

Lay out the blinds and cut all the strings EXCEPT the string that lifts and lowers the blind

This is what it will look like after you finish cutting the strings

Now what you do is take the length of the window and divide it by 7 (the 7 comes in because you are going to leave 7 inches between the slats).  Now is the fun part, break off the slats that you don’t need leaving only the slats needed to make the folds.

below is what the blind will look like after taking out the extra slats.

After picking out the upholstery fabric you want to use. Cut the fabric 4 inches more than the length of the window.

Measure 7 inches apart and glue the slats, top and bottom to the fabric.

I was very please at how they looked afterwards.

Growing up we got Easter baskets each year from Paw-Paw John until he wasn’t able to make them any longer.  Paw-Paw John made white oak baskets after he retired from Georgia Pacific.  His grandpa started showing him when he was about 4 years old.  He made Easter baskets for Mimi and Auntie when they were little.  It wasn’t til after he retired that he really made baskets up until then it was for family.  People saw them and asked him to make them one.  Paw-Paw had several people come down to watch him one even videoed him.  He also taught several people to make them.

He would go in the woods and find about a 6-7 inches diameter white oak tree. All that he was able to use is the truck up to where the 1st limbs would start(past the limbs the wood would be knotty and unable to use). Once he got it home he would take a froe and split the trunk in half length wise, after that he would quarter it.  Next he would cut out the heart of the tree because it was too brittle to use for baskets.  Depending on the size of the quarters he might split it again to make the width smaller.  A drawer knife would then shave off the bark.   Once he had that completed and the splits like he wanted he would take a spoke shave shaving them til they were completely smooth.  At this point he was ready to start weaving his baskets.  He could make anything anyone wanted from small baskets(fit 1 egg) to large baskets(bushel baskets).  All you would have to do is show him a picture or tell him how you wanted it and he could do it.  Maw-Maw Versie (his wife) would sew a liner in some of the sewing baskets.

He had a basket donated to the Ag museum in the General store in the late 1980’s early 1990’s.

In 1998 he passed away but by that time he had at least one of this baskets in almost every state.  If he would have still been living he would be 105 as of this March.  I miss him very much!!!!!!!