The Crochet Bucket and the Other Things I Made for a Friends Easter Basket

I crocheted this cute Minnie purse and lined it with fabric . 

It also has a button closure on the back.

 

I also crocheted these cute cupcakes for playtime fun.

 



Next I made this Travel Car Case.

I had never sewn on vinyl before and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be.

Tissue Paper, Tissue Paper, Tissue Paper is a most on sewing on vinyl!

I machine quilted 2 pieces of flannel to the front and 2 onto the back so the mat is nice and thick to play cars on. (6 layers of fabric altogether)

I also added little garage door holders so the cars won't keep sliding out on their own.

I just used some little strips of fabric and Velcro.

Finally I added a piece of black ribbon for the road and a strap for closing the garage.

A machine quilted basketball bookmark for the reader.

 



I crocheted this Goosey Goose for the baby of the family.

 



 

Next I made this neat Card Holder for a boy that has several decks of cards.

I decided to use vinyl so he could see which decks are stored in each pocket.

The traffic sign fabric goes with his bedroom and again I machine quilted the fabric so it would be a little sturdier to hold the cards.

I just drew around a hanger for the shape and then added the length I wanted.

I just added some binding around the edges and I think it made a cute hanging holder.

 



 

 

 

and now for the entire Easter surprise for my friends kids.

 

 

I'm glad I got to help make the kids Easter fun!

The best part is that everything is machine washable,

even the bucket! 



A Big Box of Goodies

Earl's niece, Shyra, was so sweet and dropped this big box off goodies off to me last week.

It is packed full of scrapbook supplies, ribbons, fabric, fabric scraps, thread, stickers, etc......

THANK YOU SHYRA!

Here are some baskets that I made out of some of the fabric scraps

and some cute little carrots too.

I've had so much fun playing with all the goodies!

Thanks Shyra so much for sharing with me and for a nice visit!

Miss Rhea's Easter Basket Swap

I participated in Miss Rhea's Easter Basket Swap this year.

We were suppose to make 2 Easter Baskets out of a yogurt container. Miss Rhea gave us an excellent tutorial which really helped me out a lot. Be sure and go to her blog to see the list of everyone who participated and how creative everyone was with their yogurt containers.

One of my partners was Vanessa from Stitches-N-Stuff.

She sent me this beautiful package. She made a really pretty basket. There is a lot of detail work that doesn't show up in the picture. Vanessa also made me a bunny, bunny pin, a little bird, an Easter hat, cross and a little pink pretty with a chick on top.

Everything is so beautiful!

Thank you Vanessa!

You are so creative and very talented!

My other partner was Michelle from The Tattered Quilt Cottage.

Michelle sent me a really beautiful package too. The Easter Basket has a beaded handle and pretty lavender fabric. My photo doesn't show how pretty it really is. Michelle also sent a little pinchushion that she made, a purple bracelet, a cookie cutter, socks, address labels (What a wonderful idea!!) a notepad, tags, a cookie cutter, and hand sanitizer, bath fizzies, sprinkles and the cutest little tin.

Here is what I sent to Vanessa.

I made her basket, a bird, a bunny egg cover, a couple of crocheted egg covers, candies, a butterfly, a little crocheted bird nest and a fabric banner for spring.

and for Michelle I made a her basket, a crocheted birds nest filled with eggs, candies, notecards, a butterfly, a little funky duck, a spring fabric banner and I crocheted a funky little chicken egg cover but I forgot to put it in the picture.

I loved my packages and I hope Vanessa and Michelle liked what I sent to them.
Thank you Miss Rhea for a really fun swap
and for such a great idea on recycling yogurt containers.

Easter Egg Hunt with the Family & an Easter Egg Swap

Yesterday for Easter all 8 of the my kids, the five spouses and partners, and all 8 of the grandkids came over for Easter dinner and an egg hunt. It was so nice having everyone here!! We had an egg hunt in the playground for the kids. It was the perfect place to have one except it was so cold!! Here are a few of the pictures of some of the kids.

Daniel and one of the twins are in the background and Chad and Olivia are in the front.

Tedi and the other twin as he's finding an egg.

Sabrina my oldest grand daughter and another grand daughter, Olivia, checking out their bags.

Jeremy my oldest son and Jace my youngest son.

Lexie, Vivianna and Ezie looking for eggs

Trying to take a picture of all 8 grandkids wasn't easy. On the couch we have

Vivianna (11) holding Anthony (22 months)

then Sabrina (11) holding Austin (5 months)

and then Olivia (6) holding Chad, Jr. (3 months)
and then on the floor are the twins Jordan & T.J. (18 months).

Stephanie had an Easter Egg Surprise Swap and my partner was Rebekah. Rebekah sent a great swap package to me. There was so much stuff! The kids ate some of the candies before I could get pictures of everything. Here are some of the pictures of the things she sent.

This is what I sent to Rebekah.

I hope everyone else had a Wonderful Easter!

Happy Easter!!

Here's the kids after dying their eggs yesterday. They had fun and did a good job. Ezie had the idea to get a paint brush for Jace and he laid his egg down and then painted it with the dyes. It worked out really well and he didn't end up spilling a bowl of dye over.

I hope everyone has a fun day!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

We have had so many rainy days lately and we're suppose to keep having them.....but at least it's still in the 40-50's and not freezing!!! Since we haven't lived here to long I don't know what kind of flowers for sure that I have coming up. I think I know, but it is like little surprises coming out of the ground! I'm so glad that there are some flowers already here and coming up so beautifully. I haven't raked yet because it still isn't that warm and I figure the plants could use a few more weeks of a little bit of coverage. I can't wait to get out there and rake and plant and have a beautiful flower garden again!!

After the Viv's Easter Egg Hunt yesterday Earl painted some branches for me so I could have a little Easter Tree. We have the old kind of radiators and I like to put something in front of these pipes to kind of pull the attention away from them.

Viv's Easter Egg Hunt

It's finally time for Viv's Easter Egg Hunt. A month or so ago all of the swap participants sent Viv two decorated eggs and then she mixed them up and we all got two eggs back. I didn't actually decorate my egg, but I made the chicken egg covers based off of the ones my Grandma made for us on Easter when I was younger. They hold a special place in my heart so I really hope whoever rec'd my little chickens likes them. Okay, I found out who rec'd my little chickens. One Viv kept and the other one went to Debb.

Today we are all suppose to blog hop and go on a hunt to find out who made the eggs we rec'd.

Here are the two beautiful eggs I rec'd and then the middle one with a few little goodies from Viv. I rec'd a beautiful glittery egg with a bunny inside and then a gorgeous egg made with felt, sequins and a pretty big bow on top. They are both so pretty and I can't wait to show them off when the kids all come over next week for Easter Dinner.

So, now off to hunt to find out who made my beautiful eggs. This was a fun swap Viv! Thank you so much! After a wonderful time blog hopping I finally found out who my eggs came from. The cute little Bunny Egg came from April at The Art Chick and the beautiful white egg came from Julie at ShabbyWears. Thanks to both of you for such beautiful eggs!!! Earl made me a little tree today to hand my eggs on. It looks so pretty in the living room!

New Things for My Etsy Shops

I haven't been blogging very well lately, but I have been swapping and finally putting some things in my much neglected Etsy Shops. Here is what I've made for my sewing shop

These carrots can either be basket fillers or used as treat bags.
This is a fairy ornament that I embroideryed and embellished
and then machine stitched a backing to it.

Then I made a some tags to put in my Paper Craft shop

Then I had a special order for some of my chicken egg covers.

It feels nice to get some things back in my shop!! I mailed out a couple of swap packages today so I can post those in a couple of days. I'm so excited to show off a couple of the things I made for those. I've still got a couple more swaps to finish up and then I've got to start working on baby shower stuff for my newest grandson. I've got invitations to make and then party favors and decorations. I'm excited though and can't wait to get started on those. I love the pattern we picked out and I think everything will turn out cute!

Have a great day everyone!!!

I have to go finish up a swap that I'm late on

and then CLEAN my much neglected house!!

Easter When I Was Little

My Dad, Mom, 2 Brothers and Me!

This is what our family looked like in 1964 (I think that is the right year?) Eventually Mom and Dad added 3 more little sisters for me. Every Easter my mom would make all of us girls a new Easter dress. She might have stayed up till 5:00 in the morning on Easter morning, but we all went to Mass in a new handmade dress along with our new socks, shoes, little purses and gloves. A very happy memory Mom. Thank you! Oh, I can't leave out my 2 brothers, aren't they handsome! (They both still are!) We always had wonderful Easters. The egg dying, dressing up, Easter morning, Mass, going to Grandma's and Nana's. Very Happy Memories Indeed! You did a great job Mom and Dad!! I love you both so much!!

Happy Easter Picture!

I love this picture! Floating along the river in an eggshell boat with your sweetheart!

How Romantic!

Cute Picture for Easter

Isn't This Just The Cutest Picture?

Easter Swap

I participated in an Easter Basket Swap hosted by Genevieve Olsen of

http://www.bella-enchanted.blogspot.com/

Thank you Genvieve for hosting a wonderful Swap and for all of your hard work organizing this event for us!!

Items I received from my Swap Partner Rebecca

Two green and two yellow hanging eggs, a Dove chocolate Bunny and 2 tins with cookies in them, some speckle eggs and a bunny tin with playing cards in it

The cutest little duck and bunny bowl, a hanging banner, a tag with ducks on it and 2 dainty hankies

A Beautiful basket showing the front and back and a stunning egg (the back of the egg is in the basket with the sheet music on it.)

I received the nicest package yesterday! It was from my Easter Basket swap partner, Rebecca, from http://ourbackporch.blogspot.com/ . I had to borrow a couple of Rebecca's photo's because my camera doesn't take the best pictures. Anyway, Rebecca made the basket and the egg. My 17 year old daughter, Alexis, loves the basket! (I think that was a hint for me to give it to her) The egg is so pretty! Mallory, my 7 year old daughter couldn't wait to get into the Dove chocolate bunny and the 2 girls both stole the cookies from me.

The Hanging Heart Banner came from http://www.saturdayfinds.etsy.com/ which is one of my favorite shops! Yellow was so perfect since that is my favorite color. Then Rebecca also included the dainty yellow and white hankies. So pretty just to sit and look at! Also the blue tag with chicks on it is from www.sweetnshabbyroses.etsy.com . Unfortunately, I had never seen her shop before, until now. Oh my gosh, Rhea has some absolutely gorgeous items! Here blog has lots of amazing pictures of her work http://sweetnshabbyroses.blogspot.com/.

Rebecca also included a cute yellow duck that has the tiniest bit of glitter on it and a cute rabbit bowl. There were also some yellow and green hanging Easter Eggs and the cutest box of speckled eggs from Piper Classics and a deck of Easter Bunny cards. (I'm waiting for my 9 year old son, Ezie, to claim those)

So, Rebecca thank you so much for a fun Easter Swap and my whole family appreciates everything you sent!! Your wonderful!