Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Yesterday I was in a crafting mood!

I love to browse Pinterest, and I get really inspired by the crafts I see there.

Someone had designed an Altoid tin box, so I used what I had on hand and copied it.

I found the images on Pinterest and printed them on paper.

I used dimensional sticky tape underneath them.

I used fabric and lace and ribbon and shamrock embellishments I already had on hand.

I think it turned out cute!

My box is a vintage Sucrets cough candy box made in the USA from my parent's collection.

The other week I created shamrock "candy" using the shamrock bead embellishments.

I cut lollipop sticks in half, and lined them up under the shamrock, layered on top of packing tape. Then I carefully placed another layer of tape on top, and I used a bit of the cardboard stapled to the end, which had been on the bead bag. Cool, eh?

Here is a closeup of the candy. I saw an idea online using heart beads for Valentine's so I decided to try it with the shamrock beads, which I found at Dollarama.

I put these photos on my doll blog too, but thought I'd also add them here.

HAPPY ST PATRICK'S DAY!

By Loretta Houben

My latest crafting project

Ah...now don't you wish you were here, in a jungle hut?

I had such fun creating this today!

I woke with a migraine at 4 am so I had to take it easy today.

Yes, crafting is taking it easy! It's such fun and so relaxing.

I got this idea from Doll Diaries online. Karen Owen came up with the idea of using a Dollarama store basket.

I found the same basket and so I started with the same idea, but added different things.

I made the loft using bamboo skewers, and added a felt layer and made felt pillows sewed together and stuffed with cotton puffs. I cut out felt flowers without using a pattern and used quick drying glue to attach them.

The hammock was made with a piece of burlap tied with string to two posts which I wedged underneath the skewers. I think it turned out really cute.

The rug is also felt.

The table and stool are simply a paper towel roll covered in felt. I added the tops using a piece of cut out cardboard.

Lea fits nicely in the loft or the hammock. With frogs and fresh fruit at hand, she will have lots of fun in the jungle. She just has to watch out for snakes!

By Loretta Houben

The last day of 2015.

It's hard to believe, as usual. But this year really whizzed past.

For me it was a difficult year for personal reasons which I won't go into.

I tried my best, yet could still try harder.

It was also a good year in other aspects. The 6 month drought in BC was phenomenal as it gave us many hot and sunny days. I felt sorrow for the dying trees, but other than that, I truly enjoyed all the sun and the glorious times spent outdoors in our little garden, and on our lovely back deck whenever the shade came round.

I seem to have collected a fair amount of new dolls this year.

I bought Grace Thomas on the right back in January.

Here she is enjoying a new pink dress which I got on sale a few weeks ago.

Grace was an extremely popular doll and her collection has sold out.

I took time this morning to dress and pose some of my dolls.

Raine is the newest doll, (2nd from left) bought a few weeks ago on sale at Sears.

She is Sears 18" doll version, and is the Newberry brand.

She is very cute and well made, and for only $32 Cdn is a very good price compared to $140 Cdn for an AG doll! 

I even made two party hats.

They were easy to do. I printed the free pattern from AmericanGirlIdeas.com

This is a fantastic site for free printables and ideas.

It was fun to end the year with some dolly play time and photos.

The little star ornament is from Dollarama, and the little black hats are from another dollar store.

Did I ever mention I frequent them constantly?

I hope you and yours have a blessed New Year in 2016 filled with God's richest blessings.

May love increase, may cares all cease;
And all the world rejoice in peace!

(from an online card)

By Loretta Houben

My new hobby.

Recently I've discovered a new hobby!

Digital scrap-booking. It was always a mystery to me, until a friend introduced me to a free program online called "Picmonkey.com". It's a strange name, but a marvelous program. Last month they advertised a special, so I bought a year's membership which works out to $3.00 per month.
I've also discovered free scrap book images to work with online. I simply type "free images" in Google search engine, and voila, magic happens. For the above image I used a square shape to begin with, then I added a lace image, a poem by Emily Dickinson, a rose border and the sweet old-fashioned little girl.

The above image was one of the first ones I created for a doll group I'm in.

I love "png" images as they can be layered on top of other things, without any white; they have clear borders. 

A few weeks ago I participated in a contest in one of my online doll groups for Chatty Cathy, and I created a series of collages which I'll share here. I had great fun making these! All the photos are taken by me, using my Chatty Cathy doll collection and their cute props.
The above Chatty is a soft face glassine eye pig tail brunette, which I sold in 2014 to a friend.

The little washing machine is vintage, re-painted by a friend, Patricia Jean Floyd, who passed away in 2011 at the age of 58. She was very talented. 

This is my childhood Chatty Cathy. I got her in 1964 so we've been together a while!

She is wearing a dress I bought, with an apron by "Gloria's Goodies", a mother daughter sewing team on eBay. The hutch and chair were purchased in Fife WA last month. The little vintage iron was purchased in Vancouver for only $2.00! The background is a scene from American Girl's Molly character, no longer made. I love to iron, too!

Here is my childhood doll again, wearing a dress made by me. The child's sewing machine was made in the USA zone of Germany, after WWII. I paid $30 for it years ago, and bought it here in Vancouver. 

I had fun creating this one, as I LOVE to shop! Especially for fabric!

Or dolls and their props! I bought this buggy (that's what we call them in Canada) a long time ago. They used to be popular for holding fresh fruit on your kitchen counter.

I'm afraid that's never happened! The "Picmonkey" program has the darling typewriter style font.

This is a prototype Chatty Cathy; she is the first one produced by Mattel in 1960.

Here is my childhood Chatty at work again.

The vintage toy fridge was also painted by Patricia. I'm glad I bought her cute items when I had the chance. 

I had fun creating this collage too! There are a few talented artists who share their cute designs for FREE online! Here is my childhood doll on the right, with a visiting Chatty doll. I made their hair ties and aprons.

Ah...the day of rest. It seems not many people stop and relax from all work on Sunday these days, but in our home we sure do! We still attend church in the morning, have a quiet lunch, and read or nap in the afternoon. We also go for long walks with our dog. This Chatty is a pigtail glassine eyed Canadian doll. She is one of my favourites. My husband bought her cute violin as a surprise for me a few years ago. I gave the piano to Jackie, a friend in Bellingham, WA.

I hope you enjoyed viewing my collages.

By Loretta Houben

Days of the week T-towels.

A long time ago, way back in 1981 when I was engaged to Robert on November 1st, my mom Susie began to plan for my wedding shower. She had saved a set of 1940's flour sack fabric for T-towels (from Amity Oregon and which were really used for flour sacks) and she picked out a design and began to embroider while I was at work. She had 5 months to complete them in her busy schedule.

She chose a darling duck pattern and I just love her tiny exquisite stitches and the pretty colour scheme which she chose. I used the T-towels for many years, as that's what one did in the 1980's!

But then I came to my senses and realized that if I kept on using them they would wear out.

Now they are carefully kept in a dark cupboard.

For Christmas in 1972 my mom gave me a lovely yellow sewing basket complete with needles and embroidery thread, and a set of T-towel fabric so I could sew my own. I chose an iron on pattern from Harvey's store on Kingsway and Earles. I picked little Dutch girls, and set to. It was hard work. 

I finally completed the set years later as an older teenager.

I think it's interesting that I married a man of Dutch descent, don't you?

By Loretta Houben

Christmas pictures

I've discovered neat Christmas FaceBook pages with wonderful photos.

Most of these are from "Believe in the Magic of Christmas". 

I put some of my favourites here. I love Christmas!

It's only 5 weeks from today.

Mmm...there's nothing like a hot drink on a cold winter's night.

March...a new month!

I snapped this photo today, March 3.

The sun has burst forth in all his glory.

It's a marvelous and stunning sight.

The Vancouverites have utterly forgotten 

what it looked like!

This is part of my crocus garden. I love crocuses! 

Yesterday it poured like it had never poured before.

The beginning of the day wasn't too bad, except I woke up with another migraine.

I still decided to travel out to Chilliwack and meet up with my sisters in law, Sylvia and Margaret.

They came down from Merritt to go to a women's expo at heritage park.

Robert kindly drove me and we 

had lunch together at Ricky's.

I gave Sylvia a birthday gift of 2 magazines; one a new sewing magazine she hadn't seen before.

Me and Robert on the left; Sylvia and Margaret on the right.

The lunch was scrumptious. It was so nice to meet like this!

Sylvia made her gorgeous dress; she inherited her lovely seamstress capabilities from her Mum!

You can just about see the heritage park place in the thickening rain clouds.

It was $6 each to get in; Robert stayed in the car and read a thick technical book.

We browsed around the crowded aisles. I didn't find much to buy; the only thing I got was a neat little burlap "bag" for my Mom and some Easter bags which were handmade. Everything was out of my price range but it was fun to roam around with Sylvia and Margaret.

We parted ways at 3 pm.

Robert and I backtracked to Alexander Ave to visit Classics, a paper store Sylvia told me about.

Here is a selection of cards I really liked!

Classics cards was right beside Dicken's Sweet shop, the same place we visited last April with my parents and some friends. It was just the same, and we tried out a pot of Yorkshire tea and a scone. It was delicious as always. It's a really neat place to visit.

I look a little startled. By this time I was ready for a long nap. The tea really helped.

It rained so hard on the way back I couldn't sleep at all.

This is the onramp to the new Port Mann bridge which connects Surrey to the mainland. The sun was shining in this part of the world. It was like another country.

I was really impressed with the new bridge. We flew over! It's the widest bridge in the world.

These are the cables which are quite infamous now. In January 2013 great lobs of ice fell off them during a winter storm, onto cars below, crashing into the windows and causing chaos. Something is terribly wrong in the engineering of the design of this beautiful bridge. In some ways man hasn't evolved very far at all. In another incident the street crew didn't think it was necessary to salt and sand the bridge deck during a winter storm, so there was a massive pile up of many vehicles in an early morning rush hour.

It was a really interesting way to spend a Saturday.

I hope we will visit with my sister-in-laws more often like this.

Maybe the next time it will be sunny all day!

By Loretta Houben

Pink/Green Saturday...a completed project & the Gothard Sisters!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

Notice the GREEN FABRIC in the background of this shadow box.

I bought the box around fifteen years ago. Sad to say, I left it in a drawer all this time, intending to finish it one day. Well, that day finally arrived on March 14, and I made myself sit down and put it together.

The picture in the box was taken in 1926, and is of my Grandma Helen Brutke, my Mom's mother, holding her baby daughter Frieda. This is the only picture I have of my Grandma at a fairly young age in her 30's. I don't think she liked having her picture taken!

The fabric represents this era, at least as close as I can come. It sort of looks like a feedsack.

The lace behind the picture is vintage and belonged to my Grandma as did the vintage buttons on the bottom of the box. I took them from my Grandma's sewing basket in 1973, when the White sewing machine and cabinet were still in her bedroom. My Grandma died in 1960 when I was only 10 days old so I never met her. She lived in Amity, Oregon.

The lace on top and bottom was bought at Greenbaum's fabric store in Salem, OR. That was the store where my Grandma always purchased her fabric and sewing notions.

I'm so happy to have finally assembled this memory box!

The Gothard Sisters from Seattle, WA, were here in Vancouver BC last Saturday.

They gave a wonderful 45 minute performance.

I had a chance to meet them again. The first time was in Dec 2010, and they remembered my name!

They also have a lovely doll website: OUR DOLLS

That's how I originally met them years ago; on their website. I love their doll photos.

Now they are talented young ladies who do shows all over the USA; celtic dance, singing, and instrumental music.

Here is their show website: Gothard Sisters

Here I am with the beautiful Solana, Willow and Greta.

It was so nice to meet them again!

To enjoy other pink/green posts, please click on the Pink Saturday link in my sidebar!

Happy Pink/Green St Patrick's Day!

By Loretta Houben

Friday Freebie

Here is a lovely vintage picture for you to use in your crafts, whether it's Christmas cards or any other idea.

I'm basically finished my cards. I only have a few more special ones to make for our Bible study group.

It's only one month until Christmas Day!

A fantastic weekend with Margaret!

Margaret, Robert's youngest sister, arrived by Greyhound bus on Thursday afternoon, October 13.

You will notice she brought the sunshine with her!

Kelsie was in raptures to see her, as Margaret is a doggie lover, and she hasn't been to visit for a while.

We promptly sat down and had a cup of hot tea.

Crockpot chilli chicken had been simmering all afternoon.

The house smelled scrumptious.

I had set up a Halloween display in the kitchen.

Halloween has taken Vancouver by storm; many people have decorated their yards with Halloween things, even though it's still 2 weeks away.

Never one to let the grass grow underneath her feet, Margaret began to make Christmas cards that very evening, the purpose of her visit.

Never one to be left in the dust, I followed suit.

Here's what the kitchen looked like with two tables set up for our card making.

Hard at work.

All day Friday we made cards, and in the evening we went to Matthew's apartment where we enjoyed a cheese fondue supper. Yummy!

Margaret with ALL her cards, a total of 39!

(some are laying down)

My cards. I made 34!

I was very pleased with the result of two days and one evening of crafting.