Candy Garland

I'm back!!! Autumn is my favorite season. I took some time off to be with our new puppy and to just enjoy the crisp air and crunching leaves; but I'm back now. Actually I'm playing hookie tonight from Puppy training school. Bear took her so that I can have an evening devoted to crafts. Today's craft is a simple candy garland shown here on my mantel. It turned out so well that I think I will make another one in red and green for Christmas.1. You will need yarn, scissors, ribbon or thread, tape, tissue paper in the color of your choice, and cardboard tubes. You can use any size or shape.

2. Cut the ribbon to the length that you want your garland to be and then slide on the cardboard tubes.

3. Cut the tissue paper to be at least twice the length of the cardboard tube. These pieces are two and a half times the size of the tube.

4. Using tape, secure the tissue paper to the cardboard tube.

5. Tie the ends of the tissue paper down using the thread or ribbon.

6. Continue adding tissue paper of your color choice and pattern till you have completed the garland. Paperclips attached to either end are helpful with hanging the garland.
I used some extra tubes and tissue paper to make a matching grapevine wreath. I made the wreath in an earlier post. I hope that you enjoyed this fast, easy, and fun tutorial. Have a safe, blessed and fun Autumn!

Autumn Nature Table

It's Autumn, my favorite time of year. It's time for hot apple cider, bonfires in the cool brisk evenings, apple crisp, strolling through the crunching leaves, apple butter, fall colors, apple bread, and changing out the nature table (and putting an apple on it *wink*)
The deer family is getting ready for winter. I sure hope there aren't any late fawns around. The Gnomes are making apple cider outside their stone cottage, and even my corn husk mother and child have come out for a fall stroll.
It's time for the harvest and this side of the nature table has a bountiful harvest. The needle felted pumpkin is made my Marie from Softearth's World. I love her felt sculptures so very much. This pumpkin was a wonderful surprise she tucked in to a package with some of her winter snow birds I bought from her Etsy store. It is incredibly well hand crafted, but then again, everything she does is. Thank you so much Marie. I will put the birds up once I have settled on the wreath I am making with them.This is Bear's favorite part of the table. The pumpkin patch. Would it really be an Autumn table without one? These pumpkins are about the size of a quarter. I had so much fun making them. Wherever you are, heading into the flowers of spring or turning to the crisp air of fall we wish you a wonderful season filled with all the blessings and bounty this earth may hold. Take care and Have fun.

Sweetie Pie and Teeny Wee

Sweetie Pie arrived in the mail at the beginning of the weekend. She is the one on the left with the blue hat. Teeny Wee I bought a few months ago, she is the one with the orange hat. They are both made by Beth Curtin from Acorn Pies. She makes the sweetest Waldorf dolls. The are exquisitely made and have love and warmth stitched into every inch of them. Recently she announced that she will no longer be making dolls. She wants to pursue her other arts and we wish her the best. However, I wanted very much to have another of her patchy dolls for my future child so I snatched up Sweetie Pie. There were a few dolls left in her etsy store last time I looked. If you want one you will have to act fast. These dolls are so beautifully made that I doubt they will be without homes for very long.

The two dolls were so happy to meet each other. Beth Warned me that Sweetie Pie can be mischievous. I should have listened to her warning, but she looked so sweet reading to her new little sister Teeny Wee..... Until.....Sweetie Pie closed the book on Teeny Wee!!!Oh! It looks like they were just teasing me after all. Sweetie Pie gave Teeny Wee a big hug. Sweetie Pie loves having a partner in mischief and Teeny Wee loves having a big sister. They are so happy to have each other to play with until our little baby comes... Whenever that may be. Thank you Beth for these little girls. I'm so glad that Teeny Wee has a friend to keep her company in the baby hope chest. Hopefully our wait will only be another 2 years. While we are waiting our new puppy came home. There is a link in the side bar if you would like to see her. Have fun and take care!

How to make Grapevine Wreaths

This past weekend I made grapevine wreaths with vines from my parent's yard. When they are dry I will decorate them like this one. This wreath I made for Mum's birthday.
First you must collect the vines. It's a lot of hard work to untangle them and pull them free. Then you take the leaves off, but leave the little squiggly vines. Once the leaves are all off you can start. You can leave them a few days and then soak them in water or you can make the wreaths while the vines are still green. I like to make them right away. If a vine bends or brakes I think it gives the wreaths a tiny bit of character.
Twist the vine into a circle. I let the vines tell me what size the wreath should be. Keep twisting and weaving the vine till you have a complete circle. The little squiggly vines become invaluable during this part. Once you have a circle you can keep adding more vines to it to fill it out. This time I was able to make 8 wreaths. I made them using all of the vines you saw in that first pile. Wreaths are fairly simple but they take a lot of vines, a lot of time, and a lot of patience to make. Have fun!

How to Crochet in a Circle

Click on the picture for a short cut to a tutorial I did on how to crochet in a circle round.

The world is full of circles. From beginning to end. Tomorrow I am going in for emergency oral surgery and it's hard for me to keep reminding myself that this is just part of my path and circle. You, my friends where ever you may be this day are also part of my circle and I am part of yours. Today I ask for a little bit of your strength. I am very scared for tomorrow. I have an infection three inches away from my brain that is worse than we had previously thought... To keep my cool tonight I am blogging and asking you all to be with me in spirit, warmth, and prayer tomorrow. I will keep you all posted but I will be unable to respond tomorrow. Now on to the tutorial. This is something that I had a hard time finding easy instructions on how to do when I first started crocheting. I am no master at this by any means but I do find it enjoyable and hope that it is useful to someone out here in blog land. Hopefully I will be able to start making more elaborate doilies at some time but a simple circle can be used for many things such as; a pot holder, mug rugs, tea cozy, and doll wigs. As you progress you can used it to make balls, hats and bowls. I hope this helps. Have fun and please keep me in your thoughts. Appleshoe-
Update: I am home and recovering. More is posted on my Teacup Blog. Thank you for keeping me in your thoughts.

Winter Birds Art Swap

Starting from the top left: Chickadee , Cardinal, Titmouse (the one with a blue background in an ornamental crab apple tree), Nuthatch, and Blue Jay.
I joined an art swap hosted by Jillayne @ http://quiltingfabrications.blogspot.com/ I have been spending every spare moment between working on a garage sale with Mum, a vacation, and getting the house ready for a puppy, trying to finish these squares. At last they are Done! The theme was Winter or Christmas related. I chose to make Winter Birds of Minnesota. They are made with beads, embroidery floss, felt, and wool rovings. The squares measure 5"x5". Each square will go to a different person, and five squares from five different people will be sent back. There are metal eyelets in each of their four corners. These will be used to string them together to make a wall hanging. It has been a lot of fun to participate in this art swap. I do hope whoever gets one of my squares likes them. I've had to get them back from my Mum a few times now. Maybe I will make her a set for Christmas. They were a lot of fun to make and I want to try to make other pictures in this style. Now I'm off to the post office. Where ever you are and what ever you are doing today have fun!

A special congratulations (long over due) to Beth for winning my first give away. I hope she enjoys them. She asked me to wait a week before sending them and I accidentally waited two. They are in the mail and hopefully will arrive before this weekend. Take care.

Cork Dolls

Soon Bear and I will be going to a family reunion at the beach. Last year Beth from http://acornpies.blogspot.com/ did a fabulous blog on how to make acorn people for the beach. If you have not visited her Blog before you may just want to pop in. She is a wonderful artist with a heart of gold especially when it comes to the little ones. I'm so happy to call her a friend. I fell in love with the acorn people she made and wanted to take them to the beach for the kids to play with this year. Acorns, however, are out of season right now. Here is my variation on how to make cork people. They are incredibly fast and easy to make. Because of their size they can still present a choking hazard, so I would not recommend giving them to anyone under the age of 4.

1. The supplies needed for this craft include, little straw hats, wooden beads for heads (Michael's sells pre-painted faces on wood beads in the doll making section). Screws that are long enough to go through the head and most of the body, but not long enough to go all the way through the body and leave a sharp point, high temp hot glue or waterproof wood glue, and a cork. I was able to get everything here at Michael's Craft Store except the screws (well and the corks, but you can buy corks at Michael's).

2. Screw the head and cork together. Right before the screw is all the way in put a dab of hot glue under the head to make it a little harder for little fingers to unscrew. Though it will be pretty tight without the glue.

3. Glue the straw hat on.

4. You are done! Wasn't that cheep, fast, and fun? They float face up. Bear and I put one in a bowl of water and had a blast poking it and watching it bob along. I can't wait to hand these out to the littles at the beach and see what wonderful games they have with these dolls. From sandcastles to shell tea parties whatever you are doing this week Have fun!