Handmade wood signs

All summer I have been wanting to make some wood signs for an upcoming craft show I am in. Yesterday I was finally able to make some! I had painted all if them back in June, now it was time for words and the fun stuff!  

I tried my hand at mixed media art and love the result! 

I love adding in the elements of burlap, cotton, tin, wire and chipboard! So fun! 

I made a few little bird options so I have some variety at the show. 

I also did some that are all paint. I made stencils using my silhouette machine. 

The hardest part is deciding what they should say! This is one of my faves! 

One more combo sign, burlap heart and stenciled letters. 

What I love is I used mainly recycled items from the wood to the burlap. Even the tin for the birds is recycled. I will show you how to make those in an upcoming post!! 

I will leave you with one more for today! 

Thanks for stopping by! Have a great Monday! 

Missy

Diy chocolate syrup

I am a coffee lover, more importantly mocha lover! Once I read the ingredients in the back of my bottle of Hershey's syrup and could not pronounce many of them, I took to Pinterest to find a way to make my own! 

I found this great recipe! So I thought I would share today! It's easy to make and you can use it right away!

You need 

1 cup unsweetened baking cocoa

1 cup water

1/2 cup Splenda/sugar blend. (If you want all sugar use 1 cup of sugar) I like to cut calories! 

1/2 t sea salt

1 t vanilla

Mix water, sugar, salt and cocoa with wish over med heat. Bring to a boil, stir constantly for 3-4 min. 

Remove from heat and add vanilla. 

Pour into an airtight jar, store in the refrigerator for up to 2 weeks. 

That's it! 

Less sugar, no chemicals and it's delicious!! So much better than Hershey's!! 

Enjoy your mochas, or use it on ice cream. That's delicious too!! 

Vacation mode

Summer is so quickly coming to an end! We have been on vacation all week at a cabin in northern Mn. 

It has been such a great week with my family! We have been fishing, swimming, kayaking and lots of playing! 

This is my 29th year coming to this same resort!! I love that we can now bring our children here, they have so much fun! 

I was able to get some projects done while on vacation for my shop. But only at times when the kids were gone fishing with dad or playing with friends!!

I am not a good relaxer! I can't just sit!! My mind goes crazy thinking about stuff I want to be working on! So I bring a little bit for those times when I can squeeze in even 30 min. Fall and Christmas are so busy for me, so I need to prepare when I can. Some people think I am crazy to bring "work" on vacation with me. But when I am sewing and making items for my shop, it doesn't feel like work at all. 

Next week it's back to the 40 hr day job, meal planning, and thinking about back to school for the kids! 

So on this last day of vacation I'm going to soak it all in and relax and play with my boys! 

I'm still here..

Yes, I am still here. I find myself thinking I should add this or that to my blog, and then I loose track of time and it's been a week, month, 6 months and I still have not blogged. So thank you for sticking around and checking this page to see if I have posted. I have great intentions and then I have to go to work, take care of the house, the kids, the bills and then I have my shop! Which this year, it has kept me very, very busy! Which I am so thankful for! So that's really it, life is busy and it's going by way to fast! I will try to post more, I really will! Thank you again for sticking around!

Here is what I have been working on most recently! Fall pumpkins! Its almost that time and recent orders are telling me to get it in gear! So I did!

I added new colors and prints this year! I love the blue pumpkins! It makes me want to grow blue pumpkins next year! 

Create with recycled burlap!

Burlap is my favorite fabric to sew with! I love the texture and since most of the burlap I use are from recycled coffee bean bags, most of them have some great unique prints on them!

 Besides burlap, I love to add fun printed cottons and duck fabrics to the bags to give them even more character! Sometimes its on the out side, other times its inside!

 This one is one of my favorite bags! I used burlap ribbon from Hobby Lobby! That's the other great part about burlap is you can find it everywhere and there are some great prints and ribbons out there!

 There is something about this design that I just love, I just wish I knew what it said! That's one of the great things about these coffee mean bags, they come from all over the world and are so unique!

What have you made with burlap lately? 

Decorate with Old Windows

I love to decorate with old windows! This weekend I spent some time cleaning and decided to pull this one out of the garage. I finally had the perfect spot!

 It works perfectly about my fireplace! Now my spring and Easter decor is all set! Too bad we are supposed to get per a foot of snow tomorrow. This has been the longest winter ever!

But if I get a SEW day out of it, it will be worth it! Then I can make more of these cuties!

I made a new owl yesterday using 2 recycled sweaters. One for the body and another for the wings. This is the softest owl ever!

I just may have to make a few more if we get to stay home tomorrow! 

Wishful Thinking! It's a good thing I love my job! 

Happy Monday!

Burlap Easter!

Well it appears that I forgot to blog all winter. The burlap tree skirt season took over and I am still recovering! What a great season it was! Recently I have been having some fun creating burlap Easter decor!
 You may recall these bunnies I made a couple of years back, I made more last week!

I also made some new Easter items

Chocolate Bunny Pennant Banner

Burlap Carrots

And fianlly my favorite, this adorable burlap bunny wreath!

The wreath is wrapped in burlap, along with some burlap carrots and a bunny! 

I hope to be back here much more often. Leave me some comments of things you would like to see on the blog!