I made another baby Cocoon and though I am exhausted (bed at 3:30 up at 5:30...waiting for Lauren to get home from NYC in awful weather)...I did want to post a picture of it.
How fun is that? Elmo from Sesame Street! It is posted up on my Etsy shop also at www.dancinglydenise.etsy.com.
I am working on a DUCK now:) and some "Tickets" for the local high schools prom.
For right now though, I am going back to bed for a bit. See you soon!
Dancingly, Denise
Hi everyone... I celebrated my birthday this past week, along with Nate being on vacation from school. I will tell you about my birthday in a minute...but before I wanted to show you what i have been making.
They are called baby cocoons, and I am making matching hats. I unfortuneatly haven't a baby the right age to photograph in them, so i have had to use a babydoll. But she is very cooperative, although I wish I could get her to close her eyes. The Cocoons you see with the baby asleep are ADORABLE! These are mostly for photography props, but as long as you are with baby ALL the time it is a safe way to keep a baby warm. just like being wrapped in a blankie, but with a little more freedom.
My favorite is this one...it is COOKIE MONSTER...I also have Elmo, Grover,Big Bird, etc.
I have two pink ones done up:
and I have a baby blue one in the works right now...I will hopefully finish it during the Oscars tonight! Aren't the fun?
I am have an idea for them in the works with a friend of mine...I hope that we can pull it together soon to tell you about it!
My birthday...I spent the day in Augusta at lauren's school. She had a color lab that day, so I let her color my hair. It is considerably darker than it has been in years...and much closer to my natural hair color...minus the gray!
I love woopie pies and my StepMom knows it. I was lucky to get this from her for my birthday PLUS she and Nate and I ate supper out at Kosta's that night:
My mother in law makes all us girls a dishcloth each year at Christmas time. This year I was telling her that for my birthday i would like a bunch of new ones, as mine are getting really worn out...and guess what...
I was blessed first thing in the morning to have my Mom call and sing me a beautiful...albeit off key version of Happy Birthday!
All in all it was a nice...quiet birthday.
I am off to watch the Oscars! Have a great week!
Dancingly, Denise
I have never really been fond of Monday's...even while working for myself. Today has been a very busy Monday. Nate to school...I took my Mother-In-Law to the Drs. She and I went out to eat. Then I delivered lasagna,bread,salad,dessert and sparkling cider to my brother in law and wife for their 40th anniversary (they are recieving 40 items in 40 days...and I chose to do a dinner. Ruth (MIL) and I ran some errands and I am finaaly home. Ofcourse, now it is time to start supper and then take Nate into the basketball game. So you see, even when someone doesn't "work" they sure do WORK:)
Anyway, I am not complaining, I really love my life so all is good for today.
Yesterday I started making a purse out of a thrift store sweater. I have several made now...all of them need little things before they are finished though. I really like this one...it is pretty much done, just needs to dry. The sweater looked like this...too thick to felt for mittens, but great for a purse:
and now it looks like this:
(It's stuffed with plastic to help with shaping as it dries).
I love knitting and felting purse, but I really like this process too. You truly never know how the purse is going to turn out!
Dancingly, Denise
I am going to "cheat" tonight and use similar blog post for both of my blogs.
As many of you know, I started knitting and felting purses soon after my Dad passed away. I just didn't know what to do with myself and the long winter was looming ahead...sooooooo I taught myself to knit. I love the process of felting, it truly is magical...something starts out huge and gangly and after some hot-water washing it shapes into something useful, fun and fancy! This is how my business appeared: MainePURSEnalities and More www.dancinglydenise.typepad.com/mepursenalities
I haven't been knitting much lately, but I look forward to stocking up on purses during these winter months. I did finish up two purses recently and have added them to my Etsy shop tonight. Please check them out at www.dancinglydenise.etsy.com As always if you aren't familar with the Etsy process you can also purchase the purse directly through me, just by contacting me at magicalmemories2@aol.com
The first purse is Purple with a pinkish and blue yarns running through it. It is knit with double strands of yarn to make it sturdy. The water bottle is just for measurement purposes. the actually measurements are in the description on Etsy.
The second one is a little larger and is pink and brown with a tad bit of glittery yarn running through it.
I can't wait to work on more! See you tomorrow
Dancingly, Denise
I wanted to post a quick note and show you pictures from this past weekends craft show. I am happy with how I did and hope this coming weekends fair is as good if not better.
What sold the best? On Saturday it was the Fairy Jars and TUTUs and wings.
On Sunday it was Mice with A Message and TUTUs and wings. By far the best seller was the tutu's! people weren;t buying them for halloween costumes...they wanted them for DRESS UP!!! Which is always great, and gives me hope that they will keep selling through the year.
The pictures aren't great as it was in a University Field House...but:
This weekends fair is at Nakomis High School in Newport. See you there!
Dancingly, Denise
As promised I wanted to show you what I did while I was at Fiber College. I took FIVE classes. The first was the knit and Felted slipper class in which i made one slipper...which wasn't bad for a few hours of knitting:
The next day I took a punch needle class using wool rug yarn. I think this is my NEW hobby:) I really liked doing it and am just starting to get the hang of it, but I will say the supplies are a tad bit pricey. The nice thing is I also purchased the hook that I can use with regular worsted weight wool yarn, which i have alot of for my purse felting. Lot's of scraps so that will be fun to try something with them. For now, I picked this Santa:
and this is how much I have gotten done front:
And you punch from the back:
I purchased all my supplies from the great people at Attic Heirlooms Attic Heirlooms Such great fun!
In the afternoon of that day I took a wet felting class and made this:
Into this (the handle needs to be sewn on):
I had done a bit of wet felting last year and a little here and there, but nothing like this. I love this little purse. I made a pattern from clear plastic...designed the flowers onto it...added the roving...wet it, flipped it all over...set up the flowers on the other side and then began the process of wet felting. It was so much fun, a little messy and here is the cool thing...the sheep whose wool I used for the base of the purse, his name is ROMEO how cute is that? I am very excited about making some more items and have some more of Romeo's wool to use on them! Watch for them in my Etsy shop, on here and at www.dancinglydenise.typepad.com/mepursenalities
On Saturday I took a class and made this:
and this:
and guess what the organizer fits inside of the bag:
AND here is something even greater, they are both made out of PLACEMATS!!!! Placemats, can you believe it? I am excited to make more of these too, where oh where will I find the time?
On Sunday I took a class in painting on silk. I enjoyed the class, I like these two sun catchers I made, but I am not really sure it is a craft I will take up.
You know when you try something and it just doesn't feel like it is for you? Well that is how I felt.
This weekend is full of family stuff and preparing for craft shows coming up. I will be in semi hibernation mode for the next week and then in complete hibernation mode soon after. I have a great deal of items to make for orders and for my shop and the craft/art shows.
See you soon!
Dancingly,Denise
So sorry for not updating my blog, but who knew getting into the swing of fall was going to be quite so...well...CRAZY:)
Last weekend Lauren worked on pin curls AGAIN and barrel curls. She is loving school, but is very tired after the long drive there and home. Tomorrow she will stay with my niece, her husband and their two little guys...so she will have a bit of a change of pace. here is some of her work from this past weekend:
and here are the two "friends":
By the way, the chick with the nose ring now has a name...her name is FANNY and let's see if you can guess why, remember she was the one that Lauren did all those pin curls on that night;) The other pretty lady has no name yet:)
Imagine my surprise the other day when Lauren told me I couldn't use the small container of shampoo in the shower as it belongs to Fanny and her friend. Hmmmmmmm
Did you all guess what this was?:
If you guessed it was a slipper you were right, however it is not the slipper of the Jolly Green Giant's wife! I knit it with wool yarn and then felted it in hot water...it now fits my size 8.5 foot!
Now to finish the other one so I can have some nice cozy wool slippers to wear. I read on the internet that wool is healing for your feet and with the foot pain I have been having I think it will be to my benefit to finish the other.
As you know, last weekend I spent four days at Fiber College. I had so much fun, learned somethings, picked up a new hobby and was completely exhausted by Sunday afternoon! It has taken me until today to start feeling human again. I want to show you all the other things I did, besides the slippers...sooooo stay tuned!
Right now, I need to cut coupons, make a grocery list and update my other blog www.dancinglydenise.typepad.com/mepursenalities
Have a great evening!
Dancingly, Denise
Hello...This week has been an incredibly busy week and continues to be right through the weekend!
I have been at Fiber College for the past two days and am headed back there this morning. I wanted to show you what I knit my first day there:
WHAT is it? You might be asking...well read on to find out...
Nate is back in school full swing, Lauren started her journey at Capilo Institute for Cosmetolgy, Scott's been working and trying to "ungreen" the pool and I have been at Fiber College for the last few days!FiberCollege Home AND I am going back today and tomorrow!
I really kind of thought they would be easing Lauren into the whole hairdressing thing...but nope. After driving in the car 3.5 hours each day, she comes home to an incredible amount of homework. This week it has been pincurls, and this has been the scene at our kitchen table:
That's right, PIN CURLS! Two nights of them, and I have just heard the weekend will be full of them too! Since pin curls aren't widely used anymore, I am guessing it is an exercise to "separate the men from the boys" so to speak!
So have you figured out what this is yet?
You will have to go here to find out: www.dancinglydenise.typepad.com/mepursenalities
You are gonna LOVE it:)
Dancingly, denise
I am so excited, I am all signed up and ready to go for this:
I start tomorrow morning with a class to knit and felt wool slippers! I also have classes in needle felting, wet felting,rug hooking and sewing this weekend!
Thia is MY kind of fun;) I went last year and had a really good time and was worried I wouldn't make it this year (funds are small) but I sold some purses, fairy jars and such and with my money from OLD THINGS I am going!
I will let you know how it goes and all the great things I do!
Dancingly, Denise
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