Egg #2-Rovi

Tonight’s egg is named Rovi.  I named it after one of my fav phone games.  The game is made by Rovio, and I think you can see why I picked that game.  (Angry Birds)

Rovi has some “battle wounds.”  After all, an empty eggshell is easy to break.  But she is still solid enough to last until Easter.

If you want to know why she is so angry, it is because little eggy, green pigs destroyed her egg babies!  (The nest above was destroyed by the wind and the 5 eggs that were in it came crashing down.)

So after that, she followed the 3 little pigs example and left her straw home for a wooden one.

But that home was taken over by a wasps nest (from last year.)

Now, Rovi flies in-between the living room and dining room of a brick home.  (A home with evil cats that are keeping their eyes on her.)  I wonder where she’ll fly off to next?!

Of course, inside her are seeds that birds love…sunflower seeds!

If only you could see how silly I look with her!  The feathers flap in the wind.  So when I brought her in, I was running around the house like a little kid helping her fly!  LOL

The feathers came from a boa I used to wrap golf clubs to make pink flamingos for my un-birthday party.  The eyes were from the pack I bought to put eyes on silk flowers for the same party.

Good News and Crafty Goodness-Egg #1

Let me start out by saying typing that NONE of this is an April Fool’s Day prank… Shall I continue?

Ok so maybe by “was going thru an emotional time”  I should have said “was, AND STILL AM…”

Since my experimental, self-medication to stop my hemorrhaging, and further self-med to give me a more regulated cycle, I have ovulated 3 times!!!  I am so excited! (and scared!)  So let’s celebrate: (I hope I’m not premature in my celebrations…)

So as a celebratory act, I decided to make a dozen “Easter” eggs!  Doesn’t sound like much, huh?  Well, I’m not simply dying them.  I’m giving them a more creative wardrobe!  I got the idea from a project in Family Fun Magazine. They had a project similar to today’s egg. (Which I named “Scuba Steve!”)

Of course, as usual for me, I didn’t follow the tutorial.  I just looked at the end result and made it my way.  In the end, the only real difference is that I gave mine a swim cap, more colorful goggles, and mine is filled with California Giant Zinnia seeds that were handed out at a local event!

Yup!  Ya see—I’m not Christian, therefore, to me, “Easter” is more a day of celebrating spring with a planting frenzy!  But half of our family is Christian, so I end up doing the fabulous egg hunt with them.  So here’s my mix of the two.

BTW—I am not affiliated in any way with Family Fun Magazine!  I just really like it!  If you DO decide to subscribe, here’s some words of advice:

DO NOT PRE-PAY!!!

I liked their mag so much I bought both of my sisters gift subscriptions for Christmas last year.  For the first time ever, I pre-paid!  Neither ever got a single issue!  And when I emailed them, they sent me a robot message stating that in order to help me, I had to give them the blah, blah, blah number from the back of my sisters’ magazines!  How can I get a number from a magazine that they never got?

Valentine Theme Week-Day 4

Today’s project is another classic Valentine gift.  Well, technically, it is a classic gift for most occasions.  After all, who doesn’t like a darling little teddy bear?

He was originally going to be bigger and somewhat different, but he kinda morphed himself into what he wanted to be. 

He is made from stretchy velvety material that used to be a shirt!

I was, also, going to make him like the Mad Hatter, but then Travis mentioned how much he looks like a mouse, so instead I made him into the inebriated mouse from the tea party.

Tea Party Mouse VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

What a big mistake!  He has gotten completely out of hand!  He’s been partying to all hours!  I tried to have a talk with him about it, but he just scurried off in a spiral, and passed out! 

Valentine Theme Week-Day 3

Well, my ADD took over again!  LOL  I did finish 2 projects for days 2 & 3, but one of them is not what I started yesterday!  Let’s start with the one I did start yesterday:

Valen-time Capsule VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

I am limited on time for me to work on surprises for Travis.  It is hard to hide works in progress from Travis and our destructive cat at the same time!  Technically, it wasn’t finished by the time I took the photo.  I am waiting for the development of old photos that we hadn’t seen in a while.  Once they are in, There will be a ribbon around the top.  Not everything in it was photographed.  Most of the stuff wouldn’t make sense to anyone but us.  To everyone else these things are senseless trash, but for us, these things are treasures from different points of time in our history together.  I have:

• a dated broken pool stick tip
• a dated red-orange golf ball
• a fuse
• a paper football
• an old car key to a car we don’t even have anymore
• a little plastic pirate coin
• old tickets and wristbands
• and lots more priceless, crazy treasures!

Also included is the second thing I finished today:

What better for a bass guitar player that works in construction/restoration, than a trio of guitar picks made from a sample of Formica?!

Since he plays bass guitar, I should have known that the sushi guitar picks would be too thin for the thicker strings.  He played til he broke them!  LOL  So now these are thicker, stronger, and less feminine.

If you are wondering how the picks fit the theme:  They are handmade Valentine’s gifts that were made with love!

PS:  Most of the graphics can be found on the Graphics Fairy blog!

Valentine Theme Week-Day 2

As I said I would make something every day this week;  I have in fact been a busy bee today.  Two halves do make one whole, right?

I won’t give away too much, but I will give a sneak peek into “day 2’s” & “day 3’s” projects that were both started on day 2, and will both be finished on day 3.

You may be asking yourself why I started the second project before finishing the first, today.  I started with the sewing project and my back got sore from all the hunching over while sewing, so I had to stop.  Well, half a project wasn’t good enough for me.  So I figured:  two halves make a whole! 

 

 

To be honest, much of my problems today revolved around poor time management.  That seems to be an ongoing problem with me. 

 

 

I don’t regret all of it, but I do feel really bad that I caused my best friend to miss a lecture he really wanted to attend.  We bought him dinner to say sorry, tho.

 

 

However, we wouldn’t have found these cool masks or paper valentine’s dresses if we were on target. 

Week 2: Couch Potato

I’m a little later than I wanted to be in posting this week’s refashion tonight.  Travis’ pdaNet quit working.  So we had to go find Wi-Fi to post.

This week has been pretty chaotic, and yet, I bit off a huge chunk of a challenge!  (Almost too ambitious for this week!)

And here it is:

My new leather jacket!  And it was refashioned from this:

Forgive the crappy jacket picture.  The pile was photographed in the daylight, and the jacket was at night.  I don’t know why part is absorbing the light and part is reflecting it.  Maybe it is the way I have my arms.  I saw a jacket in a magazine that was one of those “not supposed to close” kinds, and I loved it.  However, I’m not as excited about my version.  I have more leather left, so I will probably be RE-refashioning this one.  I think I like how the cuffs tie.  I might keep that.

Overall:  Not bad for an experimental pattern used on leather that used to be a COUCH!  (The title makes more sense now, huh?  LOL)

The leather cost me nothing since it was given to me some time ago by a friend of mine whom repairs furniture.  Therefore, my $260 for the year has remained untouched! 

Week 1: Comfort the Sickies

Here we are.  At the start of a 52 week long project of refashioning frenzy.  Thank you to anyone who has joined my support team.  And thank you to those that have helped me thru this rocky start despite my being extremely sick!  Now on with the show!

Some of you may have guessed what I was making by the theme.  Other’s may have guessed based on Wednesday’s sneak peek.  Here’s a refresher:



The starting material for this project was a dark grey blanket.  I, also, used some “barberry red” bias tape that my MIL passed to me in a treasure trove of Great Grand’s old crafting supplies.  I had the thread for it.  So all together, this week cost me $0 of my project budget!  Such a spender, huh?  LOL

And here are the PJ’s:

Yup!  You guessed it!  PJ’s!  I didn’t make a top to go with it, because I knew I wouldn’t wear it.  I always wear Travis’ t-shirts with my PJ pants.  For the waist, I used the same bias tape to match the mask.  There is elastic hidden inside to keep them up.

Not bad for week #1, huh?

As of this morning, I am on antibiotics.  So as soon as I feel better, you’ll see me “hit it like a hurricane!”  (And return to my beloved kitchen!)  Keep coming back Friday nights for more of the 52 Week Wardrobe!  And catch bonus refashions as well as other randomness along the way!

I snuggle up in my PJ’s to some classic rock (old rock) as I leave you with a project that I found online that I really felt matched the theme.  It would be a great project to try next time I am robbing my bean bag toys for beans for hacky sacks!  LOL

Click here to check out Stuffed With Love Animal Scarves at Crafty Schemes.

<a href="http://henthornehandmade.blogspot.com" title="52 Week Wardrobe at Henthorne Handmade Button"><img src="http://i.picasion.com/pic37/ae663dc3a56197b17112bdceb6665903.gif" width="150" height="150" border="0" alt="52 Week Wardrobe-Fridays at Henthorne Handmade" /></a>

ERROR FIXED! :)

New Project Intro and Sneak Peek

I wanted to post the introduction to this year’s major project sooner, but I’m off to a rough start due to being struck with the PLAGUE!  Everyone in our household is sick!  I’ve been struck with the worst of it.  Travis started having symptoms on the 4th.  And the fur-babies even have it!

But sickness or no sickness, I was determined to not launch this new project on a bad note!

I’m calling it my 52 Week Wardrobe.

In the 52 weeks of 2011, I will be replacing my wardrobe one refashioned outfit at a time.  I will even be making some shoes, purses, jewelry, and other accessories along the way as bonuses!  I am giving myself a total budget of $260 for the year.  (That comes out to $5 per week.  Yep!  That’s right…an entire outfit for $5!)  By the end of 2011, any remaining money in the budget will be donated to charity.  (The exact charity is to be voted on by you in December!)

Every Friday, I will be revealing the refashioned outfit of the week.  And look for bonus refashions throughout the remaining week days.

The first week’s theme:  Comfort the Sickies!

And here’s your sneak peek:

Not much, yet.  Just an eye mask.  Come back Friday to see the rest and what it was refashioned from! 

Random Goals for 2011

Happy New Year!

Here is a very short list of random goals for 2011.  Think I can stick to them?  LOL

~Refashion more stylish clothes~

I can’t say that I will keep up with the trends and styles that will be popular, but I do want to dress in ways that make me happier and feel more confident.  What I wear definitely affects my mood.  What woman doesn’t want to feel like she looks nice?  I do want to make rather than buy them.  (Keep an eye out!  A new project for this year will be announced soon!)  Plus, that will leave me more money to put towards this next one!

~Wear more shoes that make me happy!~

At risk of sounding commercial-ish, I must say this anyways.  I found this fabulous online shoe store.  I’m hoping to drop some hints to Travis for my birthday.  I’m not 100% sure how it works, yet.  But I get the impression that you take a quiz (which I have already taken), and their stylists send you shoe pics based on your preferences which you can buy for $40 a pair with free shipping.  You are able to rate styles to help the stylist better pick out shoes for you, too!  (Or you can just buy the ones you pick out yourself…)

~Become Healthier~

Travis got me (for Christmas) a Jack LaLanne juicer that I’ve had my eye on for a couple years.  I am so excited.  I am hoping that juicing will help me include more natural vitamins and minerals into my diet.  Hopefully even enough to correct the deficiencies that an American diet is prone to.  I plan to use juicing as one step towards trying to fix my body and become more baby-ready.  I’ve long given up the sodas, but bottled juices are often not really juice at all.
Do keep an eye on Henthorne Handmade for future recipes for juices as well as the pulp. (Why waste those vitamins, right?)
This includes working out.  An adequate work out plan is yet to be made, tho.
I know I’ll be adding to this list, but for now I wanted to try to limit myself to a small list so it doesn’t seem so overwhelming.
If you make a post about your 2011 goals, I would love to check it out! 

Time Capsule Ornament

Time to put away the holiday decorations!

This post is actually way over due, but hopefully you’ll forgive me anyways! 

Every year, Travis and I write a little holiday love letter to each other.  However, the love letters are not to be read for a whole year!
These letters will more than just profess love, they may also mention how grateful we are to have each other, and clues as to what stage of life we were in at the time we wrote them.  Perhaps even mention of a holiday memory that we don’t want to lose.
These letters are put into a handmade ornament to wait out the year with the holiday decorations in storage;  just to be found when it comes time to redecorate.  (The picture was taken on the day the ornament was made.  Not all of the final contents are shown.)

This year’s ornament was made from all recycled components except the label.  We used:

• Mentos gum container (If you scrape the surface of the sticker with a blade, the painted surface comes off like a lotto ticket, leaving behind a glittery, holographic-looking background!)
  
• A ribbon scrap to hang by (saved from making bows for presents)
  
• Foam letter stickers left over from Halloween to make the snowman
  
• Gift tag label the March of Dimes sent me

It hangs on our tree, slowly collecting random embellishments, stickers, ideas, recipes, and such to be used next year.  It will be packed up in the first week of January with all the other holiday decorations.  Then it will sit in storage until Black Friday when we decorate again.  At that time, we will read the letters (and scrapbook them), use the ideas to come up with a theme, use the embellishments to make gift tags, ribbons to make bows, and so on.  Just to start the whole process over again for the following year!
This year’s favorite throw in is a little heard of organization called Christmas Commandos.  We found out about it too late to participate this year, but we would like to see into it next year.  Christmas Commandos are escorted by police at midnight, Christmas Eve, to the homes of children spending their first Christmas after the loss of a parent.  While Santa is stuffing the stockings, the Christmas Commandos hang presents from a tree in their front yard (or in case of no trees, places them on the porch.)  Isn’t that neat?
If you do this project, I would love to see it and hear about what you filled it with! 

Kitchen Fluff

Ok, so this is a mix on the last project.

Instead of using 2 sponges, I used only one small, thin sponge.  It was used to keep kitty toys straight in the packaging.  Instead of throwing it away, I made a mini bath time fluff with it, and used waterproof glue and part of the ribbon to attach it to the end of a thick chopstick.  Now it can clean where my hand can’t fit!

The picture was taken while the glue was still drying.  The ribbons will be removed after the glue is dry.  Isn’t it nifty?!

Bath Time Fluff

How was your holiday?  Mine was nice.  A little more stressful than usual since we had to celebrate with both families on the same day this time.  Travis and I have decided that will not happen again.  Next year, if the Henthorne’s celebrate on Christmas Day again, then we’ll just celebrate with them the following year.

So anyways…

I told my mom about my favorite lotion.  (Actually, I told everyone about it!  I was determined to drop hints until I got a refill!  LOL)  So one of my Christmas gifts this year was a hand arranged basket, from Mom, with the complete Vanilla Lace collection from Victoria’s Secret!  AHHH!!!!!  Lotion? Check!  Hand cream? Check! Body spray and perfume?  Check and check!  Body wash?  Oh so fabulous!

So now, all I needed was a fluff of fabulousness!  So here’s what I did:

  I picked 2 new sponges out of my cleaning supply drawer. (I bought a bag of mixed sponges and scrubbers when we moved.)  One is very dense, and would likely be great at polishing my skin.  The other was very porous and fluffy, so I thought it would create a great lather.

  I used my straight edge pocket knife to cut the dense sponge into 4 equal pieces, lengthwise, and the porous sponge into 5 equal pieces, crosswise.  Then arranged them in a checker board pattern with the mid-section of every piece lined up together (like in the picture.)

  Then I wrapped a scrap piece of ribbon around the middle, tied half of a square knot, and pulled tightly before completing the knot.  As a last touch, I tied the ends of the ribbon together for it to hang by in the shower.

  And, yes, it is just as fabulous as I hoped it would be!  YAY!!!

Santingo-Free Christmas Game

This is my first post using a new blogging method called Windows Live Writer.  I am hoping it will allow me to create my posts offline, and then post the finished work at a later time when I have internet access.  If anyone has any hints, tips, or tricks for offline blogging, please do share them with me!
Ok, on with the show!
I created a game that I thought I would share.  I named it Santingo.  Ya know…a mix between the names Santa and Bingo.  I don’t know if anyone else has thought it up, too.  It is so simple, I wouldn’t doubt it.  The cool part is that it is really 2 activities!  The first activity is having each child assemble his/her own game card.  The second activity is actually getting to play them!

Directions (Activity One):
1. Print a Santingo game card and clipart set for each child.
2. Supervise each child as they cut out his/her game card and clipart blocks. (Or cut it out for them.)
3. Provide glue sticks for each child to glue the blocks in the order they want them on their card.
4. Allow to dry, and the game is ready to play!
How to play (Activity Two):
· Ride around a neighborhood with lighted decorations.
· When you see a present decoration, mark out the present icon on the game card. Do so for each icon as you see them.
· The goal is to be the first to get a straight line up and down, left and right, diagonally, or each of the 4 corners. Then call out “SANTINGO.”
· To mark out the icons, you can use a crayon.
· If you laminate the card, you can use stickers to mark the icons. The stickers can be removed after the game is over, and the cards can be reused!
 
This game would be great to play if you have a local Festival of Lights like we do.  It would also be fun to play in a different town than your family is used to, but it can be fun in your own town, too.
We will be playing on Christmas Eve with Travis’ parents and little sister.  What better way to tire us out in time for Santa to come, huh?  LOL
Please do let me know if there are any problems printing this game!
Happy Holidays!

Recycled Halloween Craft Challenge! Will you win?

I have decided to host a Halloween Craft Challenge!!!

What do you get if you win?

• Bronze Winner-  Your blog/site will be featured on the Henthorne Handmade blog, and have a "bronze medal" for your blog/site!

• Silver Winner-  Your blog/site will be featured on the Henthorne Handmade blog, have a "silver medal" for your blog/site, and you will receive your choice of a Henthorne Handmade trick-or-treat bag or a Henthorne Handmade Halloween-style clutch!

• Gold Winner-  Your blog/site will be featured on the Henthorne Handmade blog, have a "gold medal" for your blog/site, and you will receive your choice of a Henthorne Handmade trick-or-treat bag or a Henthorne Handmade  Halloween-style clutch plus a grab-bag assortment of Halloween goodies!  (Think stickers, scrapbooking paper, mini craft kits, and various other surprises!)

Sounds fun, doesn't it?!

How do you participate?

Use the linky-link at the bottom of this post to add a link to your tutorial page. (Not to your blog itself, but to the actual blog page that your tutorial is on.)  The posting period ends September 24, 2010. 

How will the winner be determined?

You will be rated on:

• Originality
• Execution
• How well you photographed your craft (Quality NOT Quantity!)
• How well you explained the process of creating your craft
• How well you did in the public poll
• Recycled content of your craft 

On September 25, 2010, A poll will be posted, please come back and rate!  Participants and non-participants may rate in the poll!

On October 1, 2010, the rating period will end and the winners will be posted soon thereafter!

Rules:

1. The tutorial must be yours!  It is ok if it is inspired by something else, but include a link to your inspiration.  (Even if it is difficult to see how you were inspired!)
2. It must be a Halloween craft.
3. You must have a means of me contacting you in case you win.  (I doubt this will be a problem, but just in case...)
4. You must be willing to provide me with a mailing address if/when you win.  (Privately, of course!  Only for Silver and Gold winners!)
5. Choose carefully...Only up to 3 tutorials per entrant. (One person can only win once, tho!)
6. You must post the button (or a link) on your blog!
7. Last, but certainly not least:  Your craft must involve recycling to some degree!

In the event that the winner cannot be contacted or is found to be in breach of the rules, the runner up will receive gold status! (and so on)

Good Luck!!!
And don't forget to grab the button for your page!  Only one button is required!  There are 2 to choose from to the top of the right side bar!

Link up to join here: