colorful craftiness...

 Found some craft supplies at Dakers today...

 

and I made a couple of tie-backs for the dining room window...

I'm looking forward to playing around with the rest of these letters!

Just crocheting leaves...

Tom's been sick this week and today it was my turn not feeling up to par.  I've been in bed all day and was getting bored so to help pass time I decided to get started on my Easter tree.  My crocheted leaves are almost done!

I wonder if I'll be able to find floral wire here in Belize so I can attach them to the tree branch I'm using?  Oh well...I'll be sure to post pictures of whatever I come up with!

Toilet paper roll Christmas wreath

I am not sure how many people save these

but we do...
cuz that's how we roll!  

The idea for this wreath came from Pinterest.  

The original post is here .  

The instructions are in Hungarian, however, when I put the site through a translator not all of the words were translated.  Here is a short tutorial on how we made our wreath.  I don't really have detailed notes on each step.  We were winging it just from the pictures.

I found that if you flatten the roll first it is easier to work with...

Divide the roll into four sections...

cut into strips...

We painted the insides a darker green...

Then we painted the outsides a lighter green...

 Hot glue five petals together to form a flower

Before you glue the flowers together that you have created...you can work on your layout.  

I chose to do 12 flowers on the bottom layer and six and the top layer.

In the original she used 10 on the bottom and 7 on the top.

Once you decide how large you want yours then hot glue the flowers in a circle.

I couldn't find red beads here in Belize so we cut circles out of red foam and hot glued those on 

Now it's hanging on our front door!

We have a few more crafts to finish as we continue to decorate for Christmas.
This was a fun and easy project to start off with!

My cross broke

Now, I realize that there may be a great spiritual application to the title of this post... but today... it really is about a craft item and not about my walk with the Lord. 

It is a simple styrofoam form covered with twine and embellished with a charm from an old necklace.  But, I made it...so it was special to me.  I had it on my dresser because I was still deciding where the best place would be to display my creation.  One morning I knocked it over.  And it broke.  

At first I couldn't decide how to make the needed repairs..   I mean, I didn't have a lot of experience with styrofoam.  My first thought was to heat up my glue gun and see what I could do.

 

Tom suggested using toothpicks to reinforce the area before I glued it back together.


and it worked out perfectly!
 

I am so glad to have him on my team!

I made something from Pinterest!

So, I saw this on Pinterest...

A recycled tshirt scarf.

and I noticed that one of my blogging friends made one

so I decided to give it a try in yellow

If you would like to make one the tutorial is here.

All you need is an old t-shirt and a pair of scissors...no sewing required!

Getting Crafty in Belize

Discovering Pinterest has led to a desire to do a few craft projects that I might not have attempted otherwise.  A fun one that I was inspired to take on is making a Plastic Tote bag from grocery bags.

First you have to make "plarn".  And you can find  instructions illustrated here or in done in photos here.  The number of plastic bags needed depends on the size of the tote you want to make.  I cannot remember how many grocery bags I used.  Tom remembers we had to go shopping a few times before I could finish.  Getting the white bags here was hard.  Most of the ones in our local shops here in Belmopan are various shades of black with blue lettering on them.  The white bags came from our trip to Spanish Lookout and from Tom's trip to the hardware store.

I didn't use a pattern I just made a chain for how wide I wanted my tote to be and then began crocheting in rounds until I had the length I wanted and finished with the handles.  You can find a pattern here if you need one.

I love my little tote bag and if we ever collect enough bags in a different color I will make another one!

There are over a hundred different projects over at The Artsy Girl Connection.  

Go over and check them out if you are interested.

Has Pinterest inspired you?!

Counting the days until our 30th...

"Coming together is a beginning,

 staying together is progress, 

and working together is success."

 ~Henry Ford

As our 30th wedding anniversary draws closer we are looking at different ways to commemorate the day.  I even started a board on Pinterest to keep track of some of the craft ideas and places to go that I have found.

We have already booked our hotel:

Maya Beach Hotel

And here is my favorite craft idea:

Love Map Source

  You can find the tutorial for how to make this map here. 

We are thinking of incorporating Wichita,Kansas, Costa Mesa, California, Krasnodar, Russia and Belmopan, Belize into our love map.  I have been looking for different maps online and my favorite for Wichita (which is where we met, married and had our first child) is this one:

Every love story is beautiful...but ours is my favorite!


So, tell me, where have you gone?

 And what special craft projects have you done to celebrate a special occasion?

Dirt Cake with Gummy worms!!

Layer the ingredients in this order:

Start with brownies on the bottom of the bucket...



















add the chocolate frosting



















cover with crushed chocolate cookies



















And there you have it... Dirt Cake with Gummy worms!!















Tom and I are going to baby sit for some friends of ours today and this is my little treat for the kids!!

using up odds and ends

We put together a gift bag for one of our MOPS moms... this baby blanket was my contribution. Since it was made from leftover yarn from other projects all it cost me was time. I did most of the work while Tom and I watched the DVD's that Dad sent!

The mom who received it was so thrilled to have something handmade. I was thrilled to be able to shop for new yarn again... you know, as a reward for using up part of my stash!