Well I wanted to go to Good Will to find sweaters to felt but my daughter had a different idea.  She wanted to decompose (as she called it) a sweater to look cool.  So off we went and then we unkinit various parts of the sweaters, looked very cute.  She left wearing one this morning.  Isn't it great when you actually want to wear the finished project!! Whoop whoop. Will try to catch a pic of her after school and post it!

Good to be back...

The start of my sweater hunt...Woolly Owls.

Good morning everyone.  I am hoping to become a regular on here since it has been almost a year and a half since I last posted.  I apologize to my few sweet followers that have probably dropped off the earth.  Thought I would add a few pics of my creations.  My biggest creation and biggest reason for not being on here was the opening of my new boutique in Lititz, PA at 37 East Main St.  Many of my goodies make it to the shelves up there and many just lay around on the various surfaces within my home waiting for finishing touches....oh the wait.  Today I plan to play with some felted sweaters that I have collected and work up some owl mittens. Will post pics of those soon. Enjoy the pics!

My logo for my store, it's an owl thing..

I love this time of year and all things it brings with it..

It got windy but one of my favs.

Just a pretty crack,

DIY Kits for Embellished Cuffs

I must apologize for not getting the cuff kits to the shop window yet.  I have just been having so much fun finding goodies to put in all of them.  As much fun as I had in planning mine.  Each one will make two cuffs and I am sure you will still have left over fibers, fabric, buttons, charms, and other wonderful cuff ephemera.  Trust me they will be worth the wait! So be sure and check my shop thirty2ndstreet.etsy.com towards the end of next week.  Worked up a lot of cool bracelets for the shop window too.  Will try to post pictures soon.  sorry but spring seems to be coming and that means I now have 2 Lacrosse players, 2 soccer players, 1 baseball player, and 1 rugby player's games to catch.  I need to get a practice taxi so I can still have fun crafting.  Now go make something!

Monkey see, Monkey do!

It's funny where inspiration can come from.  I had a circus theme charm swap last year for the charm group Charms2007swap@yahoogroups.com and I kept thinking curious George.  Not sure why, well he did go to the circus with the man in the yellow hat or maybe the man wasn't aware that George had gone.  Seems the man in the yellow hat was never quite sure where George was.  I think I am the woman in the yellow hat when it comes to my teenagers.  Heck with all the cell phones they can be standing in Instanbul with some really cute Istanbul boys in some really hot Istanbul car drinking Istanbul beer and say "yes mom I am with Katie now and we are headed to the Up movie!" And they think I'm stupid. Oh well that's for a whole 'nother blog topic.  Anyways  I couldn't get monkey's off my brain. That night we went out for pizza and my youngest (who thank goodness is too young for Istanbul boys or tricky cell phones and would choose her mom and a quarter over any cute boy) of course begged me for a quarter for the gumball machine and twoila! The monkey in the capsule she came back with.  I loved them and each one was doing something different.  So 14 quarters later (and my 8 year old grinning like mom has gone mad!) we had enough for my charm swap.  So needless to say I spent half my evening drilling and wiring and gluing these little guys to their lids.  The other half of my evening was spent explaining to my 8 year old that she got to keep one monkey and the rest were going to have a wonderful journey out in to the world.  I was losing that battle but luckily my daughter over in Instanbul called and I didn't have to finish explaining before Dad put her to bed! 

Aren't those milk caps charming!

Been saving milk caps for quite some time, OK who am I kidding, I've been saving everything that could possibly be art for many years.  My studio is often called my junk room by my kids.  Anyways one of my charm groups did a green exchange so I had to re-use and that I did.  I took my milk caps/any kind of drink caps and put some pretty paper in the lids from all those catalogs I get.  (Must say I loved the cool back drops in the Anthropologie catalog.  I love everything in that catalog and now I'm storing the catalogs for collages!  Same applies to the Sundance catalog, good collage material.)  Anyways I sealed the circles with mod podge before I put them in there so the resin wouldn't bleed into them and then glued them in the lids.  
I then laid in some plastic flowers I found in my "junk" room.  I also did some with some glitzy stuff from an old costume jewelry bracelet that I had but forgot to take pics of those.  Sorry I'm new at this.
Then I mixed the resin and should have mixed it even more cause some did not set up and stayed a little tacky.  Anyways, just poured it in and placed my flower in the goop and let them sit up over night!  Must say the milk caps are better for pendants because of the size.  But I think they are fun and pretty and my girls are gathering junk from my room to make their own so I guess mom's "junk room has it's perks!
Altered T-shirts with my girls over the weekend-will post soon.  We had so much fun.  The salvation army store is our favorite now. That'll save me money over Abercrombie, hope it sticks!

Got My Oil Changed Today

Well it was an interesting morning, I finally took a bikram yoga class that I've been wanting to try.  I had done yoga once before and it didn't sit well with me.  I kept wondering when it was going to get over and when would my heart start really beating like it does when I run.  Well in this type of yoga class you are in a room that is heated to 105 degrees and 40% humidity.  I went in early thinking I should get acclimated to my new environment and boy was it stifling.  I had to do some deep breathing just to adjust.  You then are led thru 26 poses and two breathing exercises.  At one point I did think I might puke right there on my sweaty mat, and how would I clean it up since my full sized bath towel was laying in a soggy mess.  Yes I said full-sized bath towel, not a dry spot on it!  I then proceeded to remove as much of my clothes as possible without looking like I belonged in a nudist colony. Even considered asking "Does anyone ever do this in their underwear?" but you don't really talk.  I was so hot I would have taken my capris off.  Hell I think I would have stood there naked.  Anyways at the end of class we all layed down on our backs and just breathed and then she gave the greatest gift of all.  A little round rock chilled in a refrigerator and gently placed it on my forehead.  I'm not sure I have had anything that good, seriously I think I cried.  So I waited til my little rock warmed up and got out of there.  The air was very refreshing but even more refreshing was the energy I felt.  I felt like I had tuned my machine.  I think I will be incorporating this into my schedule of fitness.  My quad which was killing me on the way to class had no pain in the end.  So check it out in your area, pretty cool, just dress lightly, very lightly.   


As an update to my Brownie day with my youngest daughter, all went pretty well.  I did determine though that just because it tells you an experiment will work in the girl scout manual it doesn't actually mean it.  Our try-it was on science and one of the things it said we should do was with coffee filters and a black felt tip marker.  You would draw the marker down the center of the filter and then place it in cold water and watch the different colored chemicals bleed out to make a beautiful rainbow.  Well our rainbow was like tar, now I don't know where the girl scout people live but when I read rainbow I think Roy G Biv.  I'm pretty sure the little girls did too, cause they looked at me like this is lame! Sophia pulled me down to whisper in my ear that "mom, this really isn't working".  Now it said a black felt tip marker and I grabbed five different black markers from home, each one a different brand and none permanent and I'm telling you none of them worked.  So of course we explained that as scientist experiments didn't always work out and I know 90% of those girls thought "Mrs. Herman didn't try this at home", oh well sometimes the glass is half empty and they were troopers.  The rest went very well and it is amazing how excited your kids are to have you be involved in their things and their world.  Sophia felt like a queen for the whole hour.  Cute.

One of those Mornings

Today was one of those mornings.  The alarm went off at 5:45 for my morning run and the pain I felt in my upper quad reminded me that I probably shouldn't go just yet, or maybe it was the fact that those covers felt sooo good.  Then the sound of my phone going off with a text from my Senior got me out of bed any ways.  It said she had left early for her field trip and thanks a lot for moving her purse off of the table so that she didn't have her camera.  (why is it that kids can only see what is right in front of their nose) While reading that reaming I hear my sophomore hollering that she needs me to take her to school since my other daughter has already left.  I explained that I would be down in a minute but I hadn't realized that the school had quit running buses in March, I would have to call the bus garage.  

As I'm headed down the stairs my 12 year old asks if I would please come help her pick out an outfit cause the first 20 she had on just didn't look quite right.  Also wondered if I had seen her Lacrosse goggles cause try-outs are today.  I said they were in her back pack and if she opened that nearly as often as she opened her closet she would have known that. 

While dropping my daughter off at the high school I get another text saying "well where is it?" (gee I guess the bus driver has decided to turn the 250 kids that are half way to Washington DC around to pick up my daughter's camera-how sweet.)  Her purse by the way is 1 foot away from where I moved it so she would of had to of turn her head to find that, and that is just asking too much.  Which is exactly what I texted back to her. Goodness. Mornings like these I think how I wished I had been more methodical in taking my birth control.

Upon my return to domestic bliss I see my two youngest have had their breakfast and are set for the day.  I really think these two could run the country.  My 8 year old daughter wants to be sure that I remember that I am the parent in charge for her brownies today.  She wants to be sure I am going to make the "St patty's day theme" a lot of fun, like a lot mom!  The queen Bee of 2nd grade has already been asking her what incredible plans I have for the meeting.  She so does not want to disappoint her.  I said I've done this a million times, no sweat.  Other then going out side to stand in snow covered clover and try to catch a live leprechaun, my ideas would be great.  She had that look that screamed "mom just catch the live leprechaun!"

So now that I have gotten all the supplies for our little leprechaun boxes and tons of stickers, created a treasure hunt, and figured out a little science project (because we are also working on our science Try-It badge), made 36 green rice krispie treats and bought 24 green drinks I think I may go for that run!  It can't be anymore painful then my morning.

Later today I hope to put together some DIY kits for my felted cuffs.  By the end of this week they should be in my shop. thirty2ndstreet.etsy.com !