It's Harvest Time!!!!

Well, the family went out to the Pumpkin Patch yesterday and they found these lovelies. Too kool. They are going to carve them and bake pumpkin seeds. yummy!!!!

When they got home, Becca and I made squares and decorated them with Sharpies and then sewed them together with fabric scraps. We had a lot of fun making, this whatever it is. It was supposed to be a blankie at first, but then we added  some more squares and, she wanted to make it a pillow or purse. I don't know, it's her choice. I think it's cute. I made the top four panels, of my name,  flower scene, house scene and my water scene.

Becca did the same, we had a good time doing that. We also added some things that she had made in the past on the purse and some of her treasures. We added two beads, which she had made from polymer clay and an old bow and bracelet that she didn't want to give up on. Funny thing, what our treasures are. Well, that's what we did yesterday, another fun day.

Let's try this again...

Okay class let's review, yesterday, I  made a couple of items, a bracelet and a necklace. The pictures didn't come so good, so I retook the pictures today and they are a little clearer. so here we go again.....lol

I really enjoyed making these items. I don't usually design things like this, but, I was working my way out of a pit. I was still not feeling good, although my kneee was feeling much better, my spirit was still deflated.  So after looking on Pinterest, I got inspired to fabriciate these thing.

I also made some bead from fabric beads and other items. I'll design something out of them later this week, I hope. I hope to make moreof these type beaded sections today, but we will see. Here's a picture of these beads:

It's a gloomy day here in Chicago. I wish there was a little bit of sunshine to perk things up. I don't like winter too much, because of the dark days. I love sunshiny days. I'm more cre8tive when the sun is shining, don't know why but I just am.

Ice, Ice baby!!!

The ice is my new best friend for this crazy knee thingy!!! It really helped the swelling to go down. I feel better, much better. I didn't even feel like making anything at all. I lost my desire to fabriciate. I was in a low place, a real low place. I'm glad that my ortho-surgeon appointment is for next Tuesday. I hope to have the first of the two knee replacements within the next to weeks.It didn't help to learn that a high school classmate died suddenly, the other evening and while, someone was relaying that news, I discovered that several other people had also died. I was like shocked to say the least. But, late this evening, I pulled out my trusty Asus transformer tablet and pulled up Pinterest and browsed on there for a couple of hours. I watched television for a couple of hours and then went back into my bedroom and started making a couple of items. when I finished, I had ths bracelet that I really like, but, which didn't photograph well at all.

Then I got out my leftover odd and ends bag of turquoise goodies and when I finished I had this necklace, that I really love. I'm so happy that I tried to make another style of jewelry tonight. I'm very happy about the outcome of this days work or shall I say this days playtime. Here is the necklace that I finished:

It didn't photograph well either, oh well. Well, I'm glad that I finished something today, I was a struggle, but, I dug my way through it and even finished a coupe of pieces. I still got dirt in my nails from clawing my way out of that hole that I was in. Thank you God, it's good to see daylight again!!!!

Rough weekend, full of challenges

Well, as you can tell, its been a rough weekend. If you read my New beginnings blog at blessedraw.blogspot.com, that I've had trouble walking this weekend. So because of that, I've not been able to cre8te anything. I keep looking at some of the things that I'm preparing to cre8te and just drool. Well, lts hope that I get to making stuff on tomorrow. These are going to be bracelets. Here a picture of some samples of what's going to be cre8ted next week....

I also want to start working on the loomed scarf, that I mentioned in an earlier post. Here are some pictures t refresh your memory:

Thee images are courtesy of Sunnysideupmama.com, where complete directions for loom and scarf making can be found.

Who has this much trouble making a purse?? only me!

Well, this is a picture of the almost finished 9 plus hour reversible purse I tried to make yesterday. For some reason, I just couldn't get the hang of it, so I kinda stumbled through the making of it. It will be fine, when I finish stitching the handles and top-stitching it. Man, who would have thought when I begin with such expectation and finished with, Are we finished yet???

I got the wonderful idea for this bag from the sewfinefabric.wordpress.com and verypurpleperson.com sites. Their bags were so cute and so simple, they said. The instructions were simple and if I had looked at the pictures more closely, I would have been finished in an hour, like they said.

This is me deciding to attach a pocket on the front of the purse. Came out kinda nice, I'd say. Then came this, the constant, ripping out seams,you see, I kept sewing all of the four pieces together, over and over and over again. I kept reading the instructions wrong, wrong, wrong...brain fog, I guess, what can I say?

So finally, I saw that they only sewed two of the bags and handles together, not all four!!! then they set one bag inside of the other. why I couldn't see that, I don't know. I had to go to youtube and watch a Martha Stewart video on making an reversible bag to get it right. Thanks Martha!!! As soon, as I finish stitching it (sometime tonight), I'll post the final picture. Whew...glad that's over. Here's the final picture of the finished purse. Nice!!!

Glenda Harris/Matthew Hoffman.Admin.

Blue Jean purses for the Sunday School girls!!!

Wow... what a day. I had plenty of fun with Becca. We went to Jo-Anns and got the circular loom. So she taught me how to knit on it, it was fun and easy. But I discovered that the loom that I purchased is will only make a baby whatever,hat,scarf, purse, etc. So, I have to take it back,and get a big one like Becca's, which is the large orange loom. Oh well, we'll try this again.When we do, I'll have pictures to show, I guess. Then my friend Lulu came over and we did some things on the tablet, for her class at church which, requires a presentation. So, we finished that and then we made the 5 foot loom. This loom is to make the scarf which was featured on the webside:sunnysideupmama.comdated:Nov.18,2011.

Becca and I will work on making a scarf tomorrow, Columbus Day, since she will be out of school. I can't wait. Last night, after Lulu left, I started working on another project, that I found on Pinterest: Blue Jean Purses. There are plenty of instructions on the Pinterest site, just choose one ad get started.I told Becca that I wanted her to help me make the purses and she got all excited, so we made hers first. For the bow, I used Double fold bias tape quilt binding .875 inch wide, it came 3 yards to the package. I made the strap by cutting 2 inch strips and just folding it over on itself and stitching down the middle and attaching, them to the purse. I used 45 inches of the bias tape for the bows and then sewed button, beads and other things to the outside. The purses came out so nice.This is Beccas'. She made the clay bead herself.

I made two more pursed last night, for two little tweens in my Suday school class. Here's how they came out.

I took them to church and the girls loved them. I did made one mistake on one of the purses, since I was up until almost 1 am, making the purses.her mother said, she would make the repair for me...Thank God. Well, tomorrow, is another day and Becca and I will try to thread the 5 foot loom and thread the shuttles(?) and then make a scarf. We are so excited. I also posted some of my older jewelry cre8tions on Pinterest,on my "Things made by me Board.I am so glad to focus on this blog again, after neglecting it for so long. I feel so good, since I'm making things daily. I'm so excited. I plan to continue to fabricate things daily until November 1st. Then I'm going to take my things to a shop here in the city to make some holiday sales. I have about 30+ items made so far I hope to have about 80-100 items to sell. Especially the blue jean purses, since they were so a big, big hit at church. Well, it's almost my bedtime, so tomorrow is really another day...God willing. Nite,nite !!! Glenda Harris.Artist/Matthew Hoffman.Admin.

I forgot to explain why I was M.I.A. for the summer

Okay,okay, I forgot to tell you why I was missing action for 5 months....I did mention that we were moving on June 1st. Well, that move didn't take place until Sept.4th. I was in limbo during those months. I had to relocated outside of the city and man,I was so isolated in the burbs. I was able to assist a friend, wile i was out there. I just basically watched tv all day, since there was no internet. I was sorry that I would not be there to hep my friend, but, glad to get back to my beads and other craft stuff. I couldn't wait to get my stuff unpacked. I've made something almost daily since then. I'm making a lot of things found on Pinterest and other web or blogsites, which I give credit to, when I make things and take pictures of the end product. I'm so excited to be back creating things again. I'm mostly focusing on making things with all of the fabric scraps that I was blessed with. The cuff pictured below, is one of my own creations, decorated with beads and shells, I really love it. It had a velcro closure.

So folks, I'm back in a big way. I hope to fabricate a lot of things and then take them all out to leave on consignment at some stores, who are seeking artists to sell in their stores. Well,it's my bedtime and tomorrow is another day. Nite, nite........... Glenda Harris.Artist/Matthew Hoffman.Admn

Okay back to the crafts!!!!

These pretties are what I made this week. I found the instructions on a pin on Pinterest. The sources is style.diaries.com. It's a great site and I like a lot of things  that I saw on there. These pretties really caught my attention, so I decided  to try to make them.
You can go to the style.diaries.com site to get the correct instructions. The instructions which follow are my made up instructions:

I cut the material into 1-3 inch pieces. Then I ran stitched the individual pieces from top to bottom.

Then I made a button hole loop on one end and started to decorate each strip with beads, lace, strip and whatever else I found to use.

So, I had a ball, decorated these fabric scraps. Here are the finished products: These things are so cute and easy tomake. You gotta try it!!

I have so may scraps laying around that I am planning on making a lot of these and selling them.I'm so excited. Have a great creativ weeknd People!!! Glenda Harris.Artist/Matthew Hoffman.Admin.

These beautiful hands of mine

These are my hands, I love these cre8tive hands, 61 1/2 years old. I love these hads that God gave me. They fabricate all kinds of things, like, jewelry, pillows,cowls, hats, cuffs, purses, earrings, fingerless gloves, scarves and other things too numerous to name. These hands also are used to eat too much, gesture too much when talking, cover my eyes during scary movies (which I hate), dry my tears when the pain in my body becomes too much to bear, comfort my friends when times are tough, hug little child and big kids too!!! I hated when they started to look older, I wanted my hands  to stay soft and supple, since I got so many compliments on their softness.
 I thank God that the blood still runs warm in them and the rest of my body. Sometimes, we don't appreciate our body parts, but as I'm now getting older, I'm learning to appreciate all of me. I'm so glad too be alive with my  only problems being two knees, which need to be replaced.  My type 2 diabetes is gone, how?  By changing my lifestyle to eating almost 90% clean  raw foods. I exercise every other day and use resistance weights. I drink green juice daily. I'm falling deeply in love... with Vietnamese (?) vegetarian Pho soup. I'm even teaching myself to make spring rolls from scratch. I purchased the ingredients at my neighborhood Korean grocer. I'm so excited. I just wanted to take time out and reflect on something other than what  craft I made today. I wanted to tell you how grateful I am to be alive. I will live and not die and declare to all what God has done for me!!!!

Glenda Harris.Artist/Matthew Hoffman.Admin