What's Up Wednesday

Happy November, everyone!  Did you all have a fun and spooky Halloween?  Mine was ok, certainly not the greatest, but also not bad.  It was soooo cold here that, for the first time ever, we decided to stay in the house and open the door to pass out candy, rather than sitting out on our porch.  It was like 30 degrees!  YUCK!  Most of the kids were wearing jackets and scarves over their costumes.  There was one teenage girl that had a lot of guts, though.  She was wearing a tiny little spaghetti strap dress and fishnet stockings.  She said she wasn't cold, but I bet she was just trying to prove how tough she was! One must suffer for beauty, I guess!

It's been a long week for me, and unfortunately not exactly a good one.  I spent all of last week getting my yard and garden ready for winter, and then I spent an entire day picking up and cleaning my house because I'd neglected it all week!  The good news is that almost everything is done for my winter prep.  Hubby even got the snow blowers ready so as soon as the snow starts flying, we're ready to go! 

This week has been hard too because my recurring vertigo has come back.  Once in a while, maybe twice a year, I get severe vertigo to the point where I can't walk around much without getting so dizzy that I get nauseated.  And to top it off, hubby woke up with a severe migraine today.  Thankfully he can work from home (he's a computer programmer and does everything on the internet), so he's just chilling at home.  I'm also lucky that I can be home when I'm sick, since I'm a homemaker.  So even though I'm not feeling the best, I am grateful.

Since I'm not feeling so great today, I'll be quick with the pictures so I can get back to resting on the couch.

I've been working on some Christmas box patterns to sell in my shop, and I'm really happy with how they're turning out so far!  I should be able to get them up for sale by next week.

I've almost got my canning cabinet all filled with home canned food.  I'm going to make some chili sometime, and I have some jam and pickles yet to make, and that should fill it right up.  I try to get it all full every season.  Some years I'm able to fill it up and sometimes I'm not.  It depends on how busy I am.

I have a window next to the stairs leading down to my basement, and next to the window grows some lily of the valleys.  They get so pretty this time of year, with their yellow leaves and their bright red berries, so I had to get a picture of them.

By garden is looking pretty sad these days.  I'm almost done putting it to bed for the year.  I just need to spread some compost and plant my garlic for next year.

I got around to putting my all flannel quilt together.  I need to put the binding on yet, and then I need to go get some more flannel for the back.  It'll be easy to finish though since I'm just going to tie it rather than quilt it. 

That's all for this week, everyone.  I'm sorry my updates have been so brief lately because I've been sick so often.  I seem to get sick all at once, and then for 6 months I'm great!  So hopefully this will be the last of it, and when my vertigo goes away I can get back to work!

Free Friday: Apple Coaster

Happy Friday, everyone!  I hope you all had a pretty good week.  Mine has been busy, but I'm getting stuff done and that always feels good, right?  I just have a few more things to do and I'll be all done with my fall clean up.  I also need to go over and help my mom with her clean up, too, but that should be pretty quick and easy.  Then I can start focusing on my designs and getting ready for Christmas!

So today's pattern is one I've been promising for about a month now, lol.  It's a pretty little apple coaster that looks good all year long, but is especially appropriate this time of year!  You can also make it in green and yellow and make your table look really festive.

Apple Coaster

Skill Level:

Beginner

Materials:

• 7-count plastic canvas
• Red Heart Super Saver yarn in colors listed in key
• Craft felt
• Craft glue

Instructions:

1. Cut and stitch plastic canvas according to graphs.
2. Overcast edges using colors of nearby stitches (use the picture above as a guide).
3. Using coasters as a template, cut out one piece of felt for each coaster. Trim off 1/8th of an inch. Glue to wrong side of coasters using craft or hot glue.♥

Click the image above to see it larger.  You may share this pattern however you please as long as you don't alter it or claim it as your own.  Please link back if you share this pattern.  You may sell items made from this pattern.  However, you may not sell this pattern.

Well that's all for this week.  I hope you all have a lovely weekend!

What's Up Wednesday

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I'm sorry that I've been so quite lately.  I was sick last week and could hardly get out of bed :(  and then this week I've been so busy with household chores!  We finally repainted the hallway and I got around to making and canning applesauce, and I just started getting my fall clean up stuff done.  Phew!  Do you guys every have so much work that you feel like running away?  'Cause I sure do right now!

Because I've been so busy, I haven't had a chance to work on my plastic canvas designs :(  Once the fall clean up is all done, hopefully I can get back to making  patterns more frequently!  I have lots of Christmas ideas I want to make before it's too late! 

Here are some pictures of what's been going on in my house lately!

I recently went out and picked the rest of my carrots and peppers.  I got a pretty nice harvest!  About 8 pounds of carrots and 3.5 pounds of peppers.

Of course the best part about carrots is seeing what kind of crazy shapes you get.  That one with three long legs is ridiculous.

We went to a local farm to pick up some apples, and they were also selling cabbage.  HUGE cabbage!  Like 25 pound, bigger than your head cabbage. This should last me all winter.

We've gotten lots and lots of apples from the local farm, mostly for eating, but I made sure to pick up a bushel of Macintosh apples for our apple sauce.  I like to make it all up once a year and can it.  It's so good!  The Macs this year were especially sweet and yummy.

 This is my 11 quart corn pot full almost to the brim.  That's only half of the apples!  It's easy to make though because I use a Victorio food mill.

I ended up getting 15 quarts of apple sauce, and made half plain and half cinnamon.  Mmm!

I got some new catnip for my kitties, and it's high powered stuff.  Sunshine literally sat in the spot where I had put the nip all day long.  He yawned just as I took his picture, but I like to think that he's saying "thanks for the catnip!", hehe.

And here's princess Spices in a big, warm, fluffy basket of clean sheets.  Aren't cats great?

Welp, I hope you're all doing well!  And hopefully not as busy as I have been lately!  I'll try to get a new free pattern out this Friday.  Hopefully things will be a little calmer by then.  Have a great week, everyone!

Fall Boxes

Good Monday morning, everyone!  I hope you all had a lovely weekend!  Mine was busy but fun.  Hubby's brother came to visit from Atlanta for the weekend, so we spent a lot of time out eating and laughing and having lots of fun.  It's nice to have family visit, but you know what's even better?  Getting back to normal life!

And that's what I did this morning!  I finally got around to finishing my Fall Boxes pattern!

Fall boxes pattern, $4 on Etsy

I like these boxes!  They're really cute and also functional.  They would make pretty gifts, filled with shelled nuts or candy.  My next project is to make some Christmas boxes!

Ok, I guess I'd better get going on my housework.  Have a great day, everyone!

Free Friday: Ghost Windsock

Happy Friday, everyone!  I'm in a bit of a rush today because my hubby's brother is flying in from Atlanta this afternoon and I need to take a shower and vacuum the house yet!  So I'll get right to the pattern.

Ghost Windsock

Skill Level:

Beginner

Size:

4x24 inches

Materials:

• 7-count plastic canvas
• Black and white yarn
• Hot Glue
• Size #1 Barrel Swivel (found in fishing supplies)
• ¼ yard white fabric torn into 1x15 inch strips
• Black craft cord
• #16 plastic canvas needle

Instructions:

1. Cut plastic canvas according to graphs. Stitch leaves according to graphs. Leaving red section unfinished, stitch windsock according to graph. Once finished, hold the two narrow ends together, overlapping red sections, and finish stitching.
2. Overcast unfinished edges of windsock with white, and eyes and mouth with black.
3. Use hot glue to attach strips of white fabric to open end of the wind sock, slightly overlapping.
4. Cut two 12” lengths of cord. Working on the end of the windsock without the fabric, attach one end of the first piece of cord anywhere to the inside of the windsock. Slide the other end through the loop on the barrel swivel, and attach it directly across from the first end. Repeat with the second piece of cord so that when you're done, the four ends are attached at all four corners.
5. Use hot glue to attach eyes and mouth onto front and back of windsock.♥

Click the image above to see it larger.  You may share this pattern however you please as long as you don't alter it or claim it as your own.  Please link back if you share this pattern.  You may sell items made from this pattern.  However, you may not sell this pattern.

See you all next week, everyone!

What's Up Wednesday

Happy Wednesday, everyone!  I hope you're all having a great week!  It's been absolutely lovely here.  The leaves are at their very peak right now; the beauty of fall never fail to amaze me and thank God for the chance to experience it.  Falling leaves, the smell of a forest, a big juicy apple, pumpkins sitting on the porch!  Life is amazing, isn't it? 

Which brings me to one of the best parts of my week!

What's up with nature

My poor hubs was feeling pretty down in the dumps a couple of weeks ago.  I don't know about you guys, but when someone I love is feeling blue, I want to do everything I can to make them feel better.  I decided for my hubs, the best thing for him was to make sure we got outside and walked/hiked/biked every day, especially now that nature is is so lovely.  And you know, it's worked so well for him!  He's like a brand new man, happy and lighthearted (just a thought for anyone else feeling blue this time of year).

So what we decided to do last weekend was to take our bikes to Allegheny State Park.  They have amazing bike trails all through the park, which is humongous!  We spent at least three hours exploring the place.  It was so nice.

The park is in what the county calls the Enchanted Mountains.  It certainly seemed enchanted last weekend.

It was pretty cloudy at first, but the sky turned blue for our ride back to the car.

We got to ride through this cool bridge on the way out, but on the way back, it was closed because someone was getting their wedding pictures on it.

And there we are!

I also had to stop to take a picture of this cute woolly bear.  I've never seen one like that.  It only had black on its head!  Hubs said that the other ones he saw were mostly red too.  Does everyone around the country try to predict the winter with woolly bears, or are we the only crazy ones?

What's up with plastic canvas

Well, I had planned on posting the apple coaster as the free pattern this week, but I decided I needed to make a ghost wind sock!

So keep your eye out for the pattern for this cutie!

What's up with sewing

So I said I want to keep working on my shirts and get them all sewn before cold weather really gets here.  But... actually, I'm easily distracted!  So instead, I decided to start sewing together a cool flannel quilt kit I got at the Erie quilt show.

It's really simple, just squares, so I figured it would be a great way to get to know my new sewing machine.

What's up with everything else

One way that I knew my hubs is feeling better is that he actually got motivated and started on working on a home improvement project by himself!  Our upstairs hall has been unfinished for a long while now.  It needs to be painted, and then we're going to replace the floor.  And he got up and started painting on Sunday!  How cool!

We got the trim primed and the linen closet door taken off and painted.  Now I need to do the caulking (of small holes and cracks near the ceiling), and we can start painting.

Today is actually the first really October day.  I realize it's the 11th of October, but today is the first REAL Octobery day.  It's gray, the colored leaves are decorating the lawn, it's drizzly, and there's a nice crispness to the air.  It's beautiful.  I tried to capture its wild beauty, but of course a camera can't do it justice.

Doesn't it just break your heart with how lovely it is?  Sigh.  I love fall!

At this point, my kitty Spices decided she wanted to come out on the porch with me.  So I put her leash on and took her out.  Immediately she's like, Mom, No

Mom, this isn't what I signed up for.  It's WET.

Ok Mom, I'm ready to go in now.

So she and I went in and started looking at my collection of Taste of Home magazines from the 90s.

I don't know why, but I love pawing through them this time of year.  It's comforting.  I also have a huge stack of 90s Country Woman, which I love.  They just aren't as nice today, I don't think.  They seem to be all ads and full page photos of tomatoes.  What I like about the ones from the 90s is that they have stories about real women and their lives and their families.  That's nice.

Well, I guess that's all for today everyone.  I hope you have a great rest of the week!  Make sure to go out and enjoy the season!

Free Friday: Gravestone Magnet

Happy Friday, everyone!  Are you all having a good week?  Mine has been kind of chill.  I'm feeling really lazy lately and I'm not quite sure why.  My mom always told me it was the change in weather that made people sleepy in October, but it's been in the high 70s all week!  So I can't use that as an excuse.

Are you getting ready for Halloween yet?  I just LOVE Halloween!  I have all of my decorations out already and we have our candy bought and ready for when the trick-or-treaters come.  Oh I'm so excited!

So in honor of the ghoulish season, I decided to post one of my gravestone magnet patterns!  If you like this one, there is a full set in my Etsy shop selling for $3!  Check them out!

Gravestone Magnet

Skill Level:

Beginner

Materials:

• One sheet 7-count plastic canvas
• Red Heart yarns in key
• ½ inch Flexible magnetic tape
• Craft glue

Instructions:

1. Cut plastic canvas according to graphs.
2. Use graphs as a guide to stitch gravestones using Red Heart yarn in colors indicated on graph.
3. Overcast each gravestone in Putty yarn.
4. Cut several pieces of magnetic tape to fit on the back of gravestones. Remove paper from magnets and apply glue to sticky side before attaching to gravestones. This may seem like overkill, but it makes for a very secure bond.

 
Click the image above to see it larger.  You may share this pattern however you please as long as you don't alter it or claim it as your own.  Please link back if you share this pattern.  You may sell items made from this pattern.  However, you may not sell this pattern.

Have a great weekend everyone!  I'll be out biking while the weather is still nice!