Flaxseed Foot Warmers

I originally made some mircowaveable foot warmers about 15 years ago using flannel and feed corn.  I've been seeing them on Pinterest.com again and thought I'd make a few.  Surely my relatives who received them 15 years ago needed replacements!

I saw these owls from The Londoner and set about finding all the supplies.  Since they are going in the microwave, I wanted all cotton fabric.  All the really soft stuff at Joann Fabrics was poly so I purchased a high end soft towel at Walmart and 3lbs of flaxseed.  Since flaxseed smells sort of earthy when heated, I added a bit of my candle scent to make it smell better.  I created the face from bits of felt and hand sewed them on.

I was able to make 3 owls, a small rectangle one, and 6 hand warmers out of one towel.  Feed corn, rice or beans can be used to fill, but I really liked the feel of the flaxseed.

To make the handwarmers, I simply cut squares and adorned them with some crocheted flowers I picked up at a garage sale.  Someone had been meaning to make something but didn't quite finish.

My sister started an afghan with the multi-colored one below, but got discouraged by all the color changes.

I brought an owl to my mother who is 85 years old and always cold and she loved it.  My son grabbed one and has been carrying it around warm all weekend.  Even my husband snagged one!  So I guess they were a hit.

Garage Sale Chronicles #5 - First Estate Sale of 2012

I live an hour from Minneapolis and commute into work everyday.  So, if an estate sale is on Saturday or Sunday in Minneapolis I rarely bother to make the trip.  However, this Saturday I was flying back from an LA business trip on Saturday afternoon and checked my iphone's igarage sale app just to see if there was anything to check out.

I saw a posting for an estate sale in Wayzata, MN, an old money wealthy neighborhood west of Minneapolis on Lake Minnetonka.

When I arrived at the home it was very old and poorly kept, but it looked like there had been some nice quality purchasing done by the folks throughout the years.

Here's some pictures of my finds.

I picked up four of these American Brilliant cut glass era wine goblets.  

They are really beautiful and in flawless condition.  I am going to send these pictures into the Brilliant Cut Glass Pattern Search to see if anyone can identify the pattern. 

There's a  History of Cut Glass found at this link that is very informative and interesting.

I really love the crown like affect on the top edge.

Sweet little cameos on around the glass.

I also snagged five of these Hawkes glasses.  A nice lady attending the sale gave me a quick lesson on making sure there were no chips and how to find the Hawkes stamp on the bottom.  

It's very small and etched.

They will look beautiful at Christmas!  The pattern is 7330-4 according to collecting sites.  Replacements, Inc. has 10 listed for $89.99 each!  Nice.

I'm thinking these ones will have a nice long life in my house!

I think the little ovals hanging down look like ornaments.  Pretty.

I've been collecting up crystal salt and pepper shakers

 if they are cheap to use for storing glitter on display.  

Even if the tops are a little corroded, I think that just makes them look even cooler.

Yay, a genuine old apothecary jar.  

There's no rubber ring at the mouth of this bad boy, it's straight up frosted, etched glass.  

Hubby wants to put his granola in it on the kitchen cupboard.  

I haven't decided if I'm going to put any cool vinyl designs on it yet.  Won't hurt it because the stuff is removable, but it might make it look cheap.  

I found this under a table in the box for $1.  I suspect no one else wanted to bend over and dig through the box.

So I started focusing on what was under the tables as well as what was on top.  

I found this beautiful old frame.  I think it's epoxy finished and not any sort of enamel.

Nice little flowers.  I think I'll do some sort of vinyl saying on glass in this.  

Not sure it's a match for my house though.

Nice pair of austria marked rhinestone earrings.  

Lucky for me the back is broke off one so I can use it in a necklace design guilt-free.

My New Glitter Storage

Hubby gave me the Martha Stewart set of 34 colors of glitter for Christmas.  He's a great gift giver!

On pinterest.com I saw a cool idea for storing it using salt and pepper shakers on a pretty tray. 

 So, I put an appeal out to my family and friends to donate any unwanted crystal salt and pepper shakers and I picked up some at goodwill.   

 Ta Da.  Love it.  Now I just have to find room for it somewhere in the studio.

Angry Birds vs Sonic

The Cameo strikes again...

My son, Sam, requested some new Angry Bird vs Sonic wall art for his room.   These were pulled off internet images, converted to vector images and cut on vinyl with my Cameo Cutter.

Yes the weeding of the vinyl for these images made me dizzy.  Just kidding, but there was some pretty fine lines on these images.

Little Princess! Silhouette cut heat transfer with rhinestones

We played more with the Silhouette heat transfer and rhinestones.  

Emmy likes her new t-shirt very much.

More Miniature Journals - Etched Copper

I etched some copper disks and rectangles yesterday and made more miniature journals.  

The copper is stamped with Stays On black ink which is used as the resist.   Anything not stamped gets etched away when you put it in the etch bath.  My new silhouette cameo made the interior pages a breeze to cut with that little tab on top!  Not sure I would have attempted those without my new electronic cutter.

I love, love, love this ship stamp.  Doesn't it make the journal look like some vintage pirate ship log?

This one has more flourishes and the spine is wrapped much more simpler than the other books.

I used traditional book binding sewing to sew all the booked paper together.