Custom Order–Hat with Daisy with pink center

At my booth at Byron Days a couple weeks ago I had an order for a custom hat.  Instead of the yellow centered daisy that was originally on the hat my customer wanted a pink centered flower.  Since I wanted to deliver the completed item to her as soon as possible I ended up replacing the flower on the hat instead of creating an entirely new one.  I delivered it a couple of days after the event and now I have an extra daisy that I’ll probably end up putting on a headband instead.

Homemade Laundry Soap

A couple weeks ago we made homemade laundry soap at Relief Society.  I'd done this a couple of years ago but had been overwhelmed by the process since we made it outside in huge pots and I couldn't fathom how I could accomplish this task on my own.  This time we made it in a way that was more manageable to me and I'm actually anxious to try it out myself.  Since I've told a few people about it and they wanted me to share the recipe with them I thought the easiest way to do this was to post it on my blog.  I even picked up the ingredients for it the other night since I was able to catch a ride to Wal-Mart.  Even though they shared many recipes with us I'm just going to post one here that is the one we made and seems the easiest.

Homemade Laundry Soap

1/3 bar Fels Naptha Soap

1/2 cup Arm & Hammer Washing Soda 

1/2 cup Borax

Start heating 6 cups of water in a large pan.  Grate the soap and then add it to the water.  Wait till the soap melts and then add the washing soda and the borax.  Stir until everything is dissolved.

Pour 4 cups of hot water into a 2 gallon bucket.  Add your soap mixture and stir.  All 1 gallon plus 6 cups of water and stir.  Let soap sit for about 24 hours and it will gel.  Use 1/2 cup per load.

These were the prices at the Cody WalMart Tues. evening when I purchases my supplies:

fels naptha 97 cents

washing soda 2.77

borax 3.36

Total $7.10

So for the price of less than one container of detergent I was able to buy the ingredients to make many batches of detergent.  According to the calculations that were shared with us the price works out to be about 1 cent a load.  Pretty good!

Red, White & Blue Hairclips

I made these hairclips to send to a girl I used to babysit in AZ for her b'day which is on Independence Day.  I had such good intentions back in May when I made them but then somehow June slipped past me and here they are.  hopefully I'll get a chance to mail them off tomorrow.  They'll be late but worth they wait right?  They are completely handsewn.  I just used some felt that I had on hand and cut 6 circles.  One circle lays flat.  The other circle are folded in fourths and sewn around with one sticking up in the middle.  I'm sure you've seen tons of these all over the place and they are quite easy to make and so cute.

Linking up to this party.

Trade - Rosette Brooch for Bloomies

A couple weeks ago I traded this brooch I made

for this hairclip:

Isn't it so cute?!?  My friend in CA has this amazing business called Bloomies.  I secretly wish I was her next door neighbor and that we could craft together everyday.  We seem to have a lot in common.  Both of us move from one project to the next and can't wait to try out new things.  She frequently sells over her facebook page, has an etsy shop and also showcases her products in a shop in Newport Beach.

She also has a very talented mother who sews prolifically and is an amazing baker.

I was so delighted to receive the hariclip in my mailbox last Tues. on our way to Billings to celebrate our 3rd anniversary.  It went with what I was wearing so I immediately put it in my hair.  I received several compliments on it throughout the day.  Everyone needs their own Bloomies!

Elastic Headbands

I snapped this picture as I was packing up for the boutique on Saturday.  A couple of these sold but I still have some available.  I listed all the elastic headbands I currently have in stock in my artfire shop. 

Here is one of my happy customers from Saturday.  The headbands were the best sellers followed by flannel burp rags.  I'll post my remaining inventory of those soon.

Lucky Me!

Friday night as I was hand sewing yet another headband for my booth on Saturday I was thinking that I really needed to get a handy dandy needle threader like my mom has.  Usually I don't have much trouble with threading needles but in dim light and after re-threading my needle so many times a day I thought it would be convenient to have one.  As luck would have it the event that my craft booth was at on Saturday was also a garage sale and one of the booths near me had a needle threader for sale and it was only 50 cents.  I was thrilled to find it as I rummaged through her bins of treasures.  I put it together as soon as we got back to the house Sat. evening and it has proved most useful.

Another item that I've been wanting is a straw wreath but of course kept forgetting to look for one on the rare occasions I've been at a store that might happen to carry one.  I've long admired the ever popular yarn wreaths and have been wanting to make one.   I happened to see one on another table near mine and rushed over to claim it.  Once again it was on sale for just 50 cents.  I can't wait to decorate it.  I'll be sure to share pictures once I'm done with it.

Baseball Crayon Roll

I usually don’t craft on Sunday unless it’s for a gift and in this case it is a gift for a party we are going to in a couple of hours.  Luckily I’d already had this started.  It was all cut out and the crayon pockets were even marked.  I’d gotten that far with it when I sewed up several of these over the holidays for Christmas presents.  I didn’t know exactly who I was giving this for so I wasn’t sure how to decorate it so that’s why it’d been left unfinished.
When my sister in law came to my craft booth last month she said she wanted a crayon roll for her son so I said I’d make one for his birthday.  He’s really into sports so I put a baseball on it.  I’m never completely satisfied with how my sewing projects turn out but I guess it’ll do.  Even though my sewing machine has lots of fancy stitches I haven’t used many of them so I was happy with how the baseball decorative stitching turned out.
I had intended to make a couple of felt rolls for colored pencils and markers as well.  Since I finally finished up this crayon roll maybe I’ll eventually get to those projects as well.
I hope he likes it and that he’ll get a lot of use out of it (and that it will help keep him entertained in church!)