By the Dozen Egg Exchange

Christine from A Work in Progress hosts the best swaps!  This is my second swap of hers' that I have participated in and they are always so much fun.  If you haven't stopped by her blog, be sure and do so.  I'm sure she'll host another swap soon.

I'm a little late on getting this posted.  Just getting caught up after my hospital stay. 

My swap partner was Kathleen.  Unfortunately, she does not have a blog, but I'm going to go ahead and post the pics of our swap.

Oh, the details of the swap were as follows.... Decorate an empty carton of eggs for your partner and fill it with spring goodies.  How fun!

Here are the pics of my sweet gifts from Kathleen.

I'll also post pics of what I made for Kathleen since she doesn't have a blog to link back here.

Here is what I made....

This was SO much fun to make.  I modge podged scrapbook paper onto the egg carton after spray painting it Krylon's Ballet Slipper Pink.  Embellished it with black ball fringe and lined the inside with batting and ticking fabric.

Filing it was the fun part.  I filled it with ribbon, magnets, rubber stamp, keychain, antique hanky.....

easter bracelet, vintage buttons, paper clips, and beads.

Thank you Kathleen for being my swap partner!  Also, thanks to Christine for hosting another great swap!

Easter and Turtleneck to T-shirt

Wow!  What a week we've had!  Easter was not the perfect Easter for us this year.  I woke up at 2am on Sunday morning and was not able to get back to sleep due to my stomach hurting and chest pains.  Not good.  After dealing with this all day, we finally decided that I needed to go to the ER.  My friend Kristin came over to watch Elizabeth while we went. 

We got there and found out that my heart was in perfect working condition.  The EKG was clear.  The doctor's guess was a gall stone.  They did a ultrasound on my gall bladder and found a large stone lodged in the neck of my gall bladder, so surgery was necessary.  I was admitted and surgery was performed Monday morning.  Was discharged Tuesday afternoon and was able to finally shower today!  That is the longest I've gone with no shower in YEARS!  My husband will assure you that a day is not started until I have my shower.

The doctor has limited my activities for a week.  No lifting (even my daughter).  No driving until after my follow up appointment.  No strenuous activity.  I am so blessed to have wonderful friends who immediately stepped up to help.  Daniel has to return to work tomorrow and someone will be here while he is at work to make sure Elizabeth is well taken care of.  I am so thankful for the friends that God has blessed me with.

I was not feeling well enough to attend church on Sunday, but I was tired of laying in bed.  I got up and finished a project that I started a few weeks ago.  This was the easiest thing!  And SO cute!

Turtleneck to T-shirt

1.  Start by cutting off the turtleneck with a seam ripper. 

2.  Next cut the sleeves to the length that you would like them.
3.  With the scraps from the neck and sleeves cut into strips and lay them on the shirt where you would like them to go.  I chose to make ruffled pleats to the neck and sleeves. 
4.  No need to pin or gather.  Just line up the shirt and scrap where you would like it to go and begin folding to make pleats as you sew.  If your scrap is not long enough, just grab another one and continue sewing. 
5.  Voila!  You're done. 

This project took me all of about 20 minutes.  It looks SO much cuter now.  Once again, I was able to extend the life of another piece of Elizabeth's wardrobe.  I have another one that I will work on later this week.

I also love this project because there are so many options you can do with the same technique.  Think flowers, tuxedo style lines, mix n match scraps.  The possibilities are endless.









 

 

Easter Basket Swap

I recently participated in Miss Rhea's Easter Basket Swap hosted by Miss Rhea.  It was so much fun!  She asked us to decorate 2 yogurt cups to make them look like miniature easter baskets, then fill each with 5 goodies to send to our partners.

This basket I received from Dolly.  She filled a bag with notecards, ribbon, a hankie, and paper tags.  So cute!

This is the second basket I recieved.  Vivian filled this beautiful basket with handmade felted animals and easter eggs.  I was amazed at the detail with these animals!  Wow!

Here are the baskets that I sent out....

Thank you Miss Rhea for hosting this fun swap and thank you Vivian and Dolly for the wonderful baskets you made for me!