A Little Easter Project and a Give-Away!

Tomorrow night is when my friends are coming over for a girl's night. Originally, I had planned to teach them "arm knitting." But, when I tried to teach myself, I found it a bit too confusing for some of my "non" crafty friends. Plus, I did not like the finished results. I decided to scrap that idea.

This week, I came up with something else. I decided to make an Easter banner. I had a picture in my mind of bunnies frolicking. The first thing I did was to go to my Gypsy to see if I had an image of a bunny on one of my Cricut cartridges. I didn't.

Next, I went to the internet and typed in: "bunny images." Thousands popped up---many had a charge associated with them. I changed my search to "free bunny images." I still had pages to go through. I finally found this one and sized it the way I wanted.

I printed it out and made a pattern. I headed off to JoAnn's to find fabric.

Now keep in mind, I do not sew. I have a sewing machine that I bought specifically for my scrapbooking. I used it and enjoyed it until the bobbin thread ran out. It was like that for a year because I knew I needed to get the book out to figure out how to fill the bobbin. I just never seemed to get around to it. Last December, a friend was here browsing around my scrapbook room. She's a major "sewer" so she asked about my machine. I told her about my thread-less bobbin. She sat down---and WITHOUT the book---she filled my bobbin! I'm good to go for another year.

Anyway, back to the story. I went to JoAnn's and picked out fabrics.  I carried them up to the counter and started with, "I know nothing about sewing and fabrics. This is what I want to do and I need you to tell me how to accomplish that." Turns out, I picked out all the right stuff. The sewing department lady did the math for me and sent me on my way.

When I got home, I made another pattern for the pennant part of the banner. I traced all of the bunnies---50 of them and 50 of the pennants. I enlisted the help of my friend, Karolyn to help with the cutting out. Some of the friends coming are not crafters, so I plan to have everything ready so they can just assemble.

 I cut all the ribbons and tied all the bows.

I decided that the bunnies needed a little more dimension, so I outlined them with a fine-tip black Sharpie. Of course, sewing would have been better, but given my lack of sewing skills, I knew it would take me way too long to stitch them.

 I added a button for the eye and a little bow at the neck. I used Tacky glue to attach it to the banner.

Not the greatest picture, but you get the idea. It turned out pretty darn cute.

And now, I have an extra to give away. Leave a comment below and I'll draw a name on Sunday. I'll send it out next week!! (Sorry, this give-away happened already!)

I Love Surprises!

And this one came from Melissa---one of my blog friends. I follow her blog: Daily Life Bits and Pieces. She made this wreath from old sweaters. I was intrigued by that and asked her some questions which she was gracious enough to answer. Then, lo and behold, she said I "won" the extra wreath she'd made. She had a little raffle and drew my name from the people that had commented on her blog. See for yourself how cute this is:

 The texture is fabulous! I can just see this with old Christmas sweaters. If I recall correctly, I think Melissa said she used 3 or 4 sweaters and got 2 wreaths.

That yellow looks like sunshine, doesn't it?

And now, for a recipe I made at the farm. I'm still doing well with my new recipe resolution---and low fat at that. Enjoy!

Tomato Basil Dip
8 oz. fat free cream cheese (I used low-fat)
2 tomatoes, chopped
2 T. balsamic vinegar
1 T. fresh basil, finely chopped
2 T. parmesan cheese

Mix tomatoes, vinegar and basil. Pour over the top of the cream cheese. Sprinkle with parmesan. I served it with low fat wheat thins.