Thompson Family-Life

Butterfly Cross-Stitch Pattern Freebie

Remember this pendant I stitched? I used some super cool wooden cross-stitch blanks that I bought here, but it looks like they're sold out. (boo!) The same size but with a scalloped border is available here. I can't seem to find them sold anywhere else.

Anyhoo... I have a free pattern for you in the same motif that I came up with for the pendant above! You can download it here. (for Personal Use Only, no Commercial Use. Thank-you!)

Unfortunately I don't know what DMC colors of floss I used (I'm not very organized with my floss), but you could of course use any palette you prefer.

You could also use the design for any number of items. I think I'm going to stitch it up on a thrifted throw pillow I found, large scale, maybe with yarn.

Hope you enjoy it!

P.S. Thank-you so much for your words of encouragement on my last post. Means a lot to me! I love hearing your experiences with a similar situation. Thank-you so much for sharing.

reuse those leftover plastic Easter eggs & an update

photo source

Ok, so you might not have large "L'eggs" eggs, but you definitely have small plastic Easter eggs hanging around the house, right? I know we do. Our boys are still working their way through their candy. I came up with this tutorial last year and thought I'd share it with you again in case you were looking for a creative way to reuse those eggs instead of tossing them (it's a shame that most of these eggs can't be recycled! I always look for that little triangle with a number inside).

These vintage-style Bullet Planters are perfect for your child's dollhouse (or YOUR dollhouse, ahem. That is how I've used mine!) They are easy to make and just super fun.

So, wow! I'm sorry I've been MIA this week. I'd like to just write this week off and start new on Monday, 'kay? It has been one of those weeks. All of us have been sick (minus Campbell, knock on wood) with horrible sinus problems and I think a virus because Ethan and I were having the same non-allergy symptoms like cold-sweats, etc. (fun, I know). Luckily Ethan is between jobs (he starts his new one April 30th) so we could take turns being utterly pathetic and taking naps while the other could watch the boys. This week has been a sinus-induced-foggy-blur.

We've also been deep in the house-hunt. We looked at 6 houses yesterday and will be looking at more on Monday. Again, it's great that Ethan has this time off so we can look together. The fact that he got this other job is a big reason we're moving (we want to be closer to his new job) and we just need more space desperately. 

It's been 14 years since we bought this house (our first and only!) so things have changed quite a lot. I have to admit it's super-exciting, the idea of having a new space. Now we just need to survive this whole house-looking-buying process. It can be grueling and hopefully there won't be any heartsickness if we lose out on something we love (you home-owners know what I mean.)

photo source

Ethan's new job is really exciting and could open up some other opportunities for us in the future, in the next few years. There's a lot of overseas work to be done, and it's always been on our wish list to live in Europe one day (for a few years at least) and this job could open some doors. Needless to say, we're focused on the here and now, but the idea that this opportunity could possibly be made a reality one day is an incredibly exciting one.

The group that Ethan is working with is based out of Vancouver so he will be traveling there a lot. Our hope is to possibly spend 4-6 consecutive weeks up there (all 4 of us) during the Summers, so that is super exciting as well! I've heard nothing but amazing things about Vancouver so I'm beyond thrilled to get to spend some time up there. (we won't make it up there this Summer since we're planning on moving!)

I'm also working very hard on a big project behind the scenes that I hope will go live, end of May sometime. It's a lot of work but very exciting as well. I hope to give you guys some sneak peeks in May sometime and get the buzz going. ; )

This year is already proving to be a year full of changes. Good changes. We're following through with a lot of things that have sat on the "to-do shelf" for a long time. 2011 was a year of - not much in regards to accomplishing goals. It was kind of a dissapointing year, honestly, so it's nice to feel like we're making a lot of really good, healthy changes for our family. When you've been in the same space for 14 years (that is a long time!), it's just time for a change of scenery, physically and emotionally.

So that's an update on the homefront. If you read through it, I appreciate it and you are to be commended. ; )

Are you doing any house-hunting of your own?

Have a lovely weekend!

Vintage-Style Needlepoint Purse Pattern & How-to on CRAFT

That needlepoint project I was telling you about is up on CRAFT today! There's a free needlepoint pattern and also a how-to for constructing the bag!

They asked me to contribute an idea that uses yarn and I narrowed it down to needlepoint (because, really, yarn is such a fun material to work with, there are so many ideas!). The plan is that I'll be contributing more original how-to's on CRAFT in the future and I'm really excited about that. They have been fabulous to work with so far.

If you haven't tried needlepoint, this is a great get-your-feet-wet project. In fact the needlepoint was the easiest part. I finished this purse from start to finish in about a week or so. The two stitches I used in the design are very easy for beginners.

The color palette I used for this bag is very springy, but you could choose a palette that's appropriate for all the seasons. The sky's the limit on color. This project is also a great yarn stash buster.

This purse turned into quite the complex project! But no fear, I put together a very thorough step-by-step on how to construct the bag from beginning to end. This was one of the most fun projects I've worked on in a while. I can't wait to come up with some more ways to use needlepoint.

I put together some tips on starting and ending your yarn when you're stitching your needlepoint panel. (these are not included in the CRAFT post) 

Here's an example of what to do when you need to start a new color in the middle of your design:

I'm pretty wary of carelessly starting or ending threads. I'm so paranoid that threads are going to come loose, so that is why I make sure to pull the thread through those previous stitches 3 or 4 times before I start stitching. This will ensure that your project will last many, many years (decades!) without having stitches come loose.

Here's an example of ending a length of yarn. When you're doing those large "Crossed Corners Cushion Stitches" it can be tricky when you have to end a thread with no previously created stitches nearby. The long diagonal stitches of these Cushion Stitches are a bit loose since they're traveling over many "threads" of your plastic canvas. Here's what I do when I only have those diagonal stitches to anchor my yarn (and this will happen often, because these Cushion Stitches use LOTS of yarn... your length of yarn will end in the middle of this motif often, no matter how long it is):

Again, I would go back through 3 or 4 times to make sure it's secure.

A book I used as a resource (no I was not paid to say this!) is Stitch Step by Step. I highly recommend this book if you'd like to try needlepoint. Half the book is also about surface embroidery, so if you've been wanting to try that, too, this is a double whammy. ; )

Remember, you can find the free needlepoint pattern and purse construction how-to here on CRAFT!

Craft Ideas of Valentine's Days Past

I've been seeing lots of Valentine's Day Inspiration all over the interwebs.. I can't believe it's almost that time again! I wanted to share with you some DIY's and freebies I've featured here on the blog over the past few years in case you missed them.

Above is a Valentine's Card Printable Freebie you can download here. There are two envelope options - one for mailing and one for not. Read more about this printable here.

I came up with this idea when I was heavily into taking Instax photos. If you have one of these cameras, you know it's inevitable that you will have photos that don't come out well. Here's a way to upcycle them as cute little Valentines! Super fun. For the full how-to, click here.

Here's a little craft DIY I put together last year. You can find it on Apartment Therapy here. You can find the pattern for those little crochet hearts / garland here.

And the always awesome Heidi from MyPaperCrane guest posted on my blog last year and offered this SWEET cupid paper doll printable freebie! How doggone cute is he? eek. Be sure to check out her Kitschy Valentines Wreath DIY that she posted this year.

Have you seen any cute Valentines ideas this year? Please link me up! :D

the curtain trick

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas! We're still in holiday mode around here since Ethan has the whole week off, so that explains my blogging break. I still have holiday-brain, but I do have some posts that I took photos for over the past few weeks, so I thought I'd share a few of those. Today I wanted to share an easy trick I've used around the house lately for our IKEA Expedit shelves. I think we all have one or two of these, and although I'm sooo weary of them, they are great to store kids stuff like books and toys.

This is the boys' book shelf (above) and although books can be a pretty accent themselves, most of the books the boys have are paperback and just not that pretty to look at on the shelf. So I came up with an easy way to cover them up to get rid of the visual clutter.

You can use any fabric of your choice. Heavy upholstery fabric is nice because it doesn't get as wrinkley, like this curtain I used on the boys' toy shelf. I made this curtain from a vintage curtain I found on Ebay. From what I remember it fit the width perfectly and all I had to do was cut off some length and sew that hem.

I hung the curtains with sew-on velcro. I used my sewing machine to sew on one side of the velcro to the curtain, and then I used a staple gun to attach the other side of the velcro to the top of the cabinet. For the toy and book shelf, the curtains don't actually need to come off (I have another method for those that I'll share in a minute), but the ones I created for our "formal" living room entertainment shelf - one of those curtains actually comes off because it hides our TV (the top curtain). This is the great thing about the velcro - just pull it right off when you need to use the TV and then easily attach it back when you're done.

The other two curtains hide our electronics like DVD player, video game players, cords, etc. The remote controls actually work right through those, so we don't even have to take them off. It's SO nice to be able to hide all of that ugly stuff! Technically if you ever wanted to use your shelves again, you could just remove the staples from your velcro strip and fill in the holes with caulk or something. 

Ok, back to the other shelves. For the boys to easily use those shelves, I hand-sewed some little loops with embroidery thread onto the front of the curtain. I then attached some little plastic hooks to the top of the Expedit shelf. You can find these at hardware stores or even Target or the craft store. Since the hooks are on the top of the shelf, you can't see them which is nice. We just keep the curtains up most of the time so the boys have easy access to their toys and books. 

Below is the center hook for the bookshelf. Since there are two curtains for this shelf, they both hook in the middle. And then there is a hook on the far left of the cabinet and the far right of the cabinet for the ends of the curtains (as seen above).

Since you add the loops about two-thirds down on the front, when you pull up the curtain, you can still see the fabric pattern which is nice (not the ugly back side of the curtain). And it only covers up the top shelf which is mostly just decorative items that the boys don't need access to. And when you have company over and want to hide the clutter, you just pull the curtains down. So easy.

As you can see on the photo below, just add your loops at the X's on the front of your curtain. This shelf is set up with two curtains to make it easier for pulling up and down. I used some vintage curtains on these as well, but they were kind of see-through, so I added a layer of fabric interfacing on the back to make them more opaque and not so flimsy. When you pull them up, just hook the loops around those hooks on top of the shelf.

These curtains are a great way to add color and pattern to a room as well.

I also wanted to share some of those Alain Gree prints I have above these shelves! I actually scanned these illustrations from a couple of Alain Gree illustrated books I have. I had them enlarged and printed at Staples. They came out great! I used this book and this book. I would looove to have a whole collection of Alain Gree books. sigh. He's one of my favs. I added the "Lights, Camera, Action" on the below illustration myself. The orange cat is from this vintage craft book.

This one is above a different cabinet in the same room.

And somehow many months ago, I become obsessed with finding vintage inflatable toys on Ebay! The giraffe and Sinclair dino are two that I found. They make such cute decorative pieces! I also have a Pan-Am airplane that I need to blow up and put in my studio.

Do you have one (or two or three?) of these Expedit IKEA shelves? They're pretty handy to have and even more fun to hack. ; )