Gingerbread Christmas Holiday Craft Show

I've spent the last several weeks getting ready for the annual Gingerbread Christmas holiday craft show this coming Saturday, December 3, at Plainfield High School in Plainfield, Indiana.

I've been cutting and stitching felted wool flower brooches.

Making a variety of my recycled sweater wool handbags.

These cute zip pouches make great gifts!

And I have lots of colorful wool mittens for both adults and kids.

I'm looking forward to the show - there's always a great crowd. And I love to be a shopper, too!

And I'll be listing everything left after the show in my Etsy shop next week.

Just Peachey!

A summer favorite. . . peach pie made from fresh, ripe peaches.

This pie is just out of the oven and still warm.
I wanted to share this simple and delicious recipe with you.

Peach Pie
You'll need a single pastry crust.
To save time, I used a Pillsbury refrigerated pie crust from my grocer's dairy case.
6 peaches, peeled and sliced
Filling:
1/3 cup melted butter
1 1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1/4 cup flour
2 teaspoons vanilla
Mix these five ingredients together and pour over the peaches.
Bake at 350 degrees for an hour.

When cooled, serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and enjoy one of summer's best treats!

In the Garden

Today's weather forecast is for lots of heat and humidity. It's already a very humid morning. My camera lens fogged up when I left my air conditioned house causing this halo effect from the early morning sun. Pretty!

Little water droplets look like clear beads on this lady's mantle leaf.

A new pink variegated water lily bloomed for the first time this morning.

And the goldfish in the pond are waiting for their morning feeding.

In the Garden

This week in the garden. . . the perenials are in full bloom.

Hummelo attracts the bees.

Pink astilbe in the shade garden.

Milkweeds in the vegetable garden will hopefully attract Monarchs.

This cute little toad is a garden visitor.

A close-up of a hygrandea bloom.

This bright magenta monarda, or bee balm, is a favorite of both bees and hummingbirds.

It's Summer!

Happy first day of Summer!

In the Garden

This week in the garden. . . the water lilies are blooming!

A cluster of white flowers with yellow centers.

A big pale yellow flower.

These smaller flowers are bright magneta with yellow centers.


They are all hardy water lilies that live in our small garden ponds year round in Indiana. As long as the roots don't feeze in the winter, they provide these gorgeous blooms all summer long!

Happy Easter!

Get Your Craft On!

March is National Craft Month. Whether you like to craft with paper and glue, needle and thread, or wax, or clay, you can always find inspiration from other artists and crafters on Etsy. And just in time for your Easter crafting projects, I found these wonderful, Easter inspired DIY patterns, kits and tutorials all from fellow Etsy artists.

Make your own fabric Easter eggs with Retromama's Retro Ruler Easter Eggs Sewing Kit.

This Felt Food Easter Basket PDF pattern includes instructions for the dark chocolate bunny, colorful marshmallow bunnies, woven Easter basket and more! All from GulfCoastCottagePDF.


Here comes the Easter bunny! This sweet Bunny Rabbit Needle Felting Kit is from Bear Creek Design.


Try your hand at making a molded Sugar Easter Egg with Fondant Flowers from this silicone mold. Half egg and flower mold with intructions from Whysper Fairy.


Learn how to make a Pine Needle Basket. Pattern and instructions for this wide raffia style basket offered by Make A Basket.

Happy Crafting!

Discoveries - Favorite Midwest Finds

Thank you to Midwest Living magazine for including some of my FeltSewGood wool flower brooches in the March/April 2011 issue. What a great Spring issue full of gardening tips, delicious recipes and retro road trips!

And a tribute to peonies, my favorite flower and inspiration for many of my flower brooches.

My flower brooches are part of the Discoveries page, along with five other lovely giftable items, all made from vintage or recycled materials.

Thank you Midwest Living for helping to support HandMade!

Warm Woolen Mittens

With so much cold weather and snow falling across the country, we all could use a fun, stylish way to keep our hands warm. How about a pair of these cute wool mittens?

I've made a new batch of my recycled sweater wool mittens. I choose coordinating patterns and colors, add some wool sweater ribbing for cuffs around the wrist for a warm, snug fit and many are trimmed with buttons on the cuffs.

They come in two sizes - for kids and adults. Each pair is unique and one-of-a-kind.
These and more are available in my Etsy shop, FeltSewGood.

And there are a few wool scarves, too!
I'll be adding more mittens and scarves over the next week. Just in time for Valentine's Day gifting!

Soft Wool Flowers

I've been working on a new batch of felted wool flower brooches. These are all made from recycled wool sweaters, felted in my washing machine. I then cut layers of flower shapes from colorful wool and hand stitch the layers together. Some flowers are accented with buttons or trimmed with leaves. The leaves are also made from recycled wool sweaters.

You can see my real floral inspiration in this post. These flowers and more will all be avilable in my Etsy shop, FeltSewGood!