My latest project: Gingerbread Garland. Tiny ric-rac, brown and red felt, red cording and buttons! I doulbled up the felt for stability.

First I have to share with you the owl cake I made for thanksgiving. It's not made of owls, it's actually yellow cake with buttercream icing and he was delicious. June named him "owly" and she ate one of his feet in one bite. mmmm.....fondant.

My first Christmas craft was making this tree shirt for June. It is a reverse applique were you sew a piece of fabric on the inside of the shirt and then cut it out from the front and then i added some button "ornaments". There is a great tutorial for reverse applique on lilblueboo.blogspot.com. it's one of my favorite blogs.

So I got these shirts at the Bargin Barn for less than a dollar for BOTH!!!

And then I morphed them into one awesome shirt. June refused to take a picture without her soccer ball so that's why it's there.

P.S. check out this incredibly ginormous maple leaf june found in the front yard last week. She wore it as a hat later, but of course, i didn't get a picture of that. we had moe's for lunch. that's a sticker on her shirt.

Last night i finished my 2nd Sienna Dress for June. I found the Cali shirt for 50 cents at Goodwill and the sleeves are from an old shirt of mine that was worn completely out. I love recycled t-shirt projects.

So, my friend kristi always goes with me to the retreat and i just had to make her a water cozy tote. don't they make a cute couple???

i've been neglecting my blog but i have a few projects i am ready to share with the world. first of all, the next little vacation in store for me is the yoga retreat i go to in Howenwald, TN every November. We have to take waterbottles with us everywhere b/c it's all about cleansing and detox with sauna's and whatnot, so the idea just came to me to make a water-bottle tote. i've been quilting lately so that inspired me to make it quilty.









The big project has been June's Halloween costume. "I want to be a carebear!" june exclaimed. Of course i couldn't find a store-bought costume so i just made a pink furry bear. june picked out the fabric. i can only hope that june doesn't have a heat stroke b/c it's pretty thick. she looks so freakin cute in it!!

I did another painting to hang in the bathroom at Eston. By the way, i sold the one of the poppies so this little tree will be replacing it.

June has been playing playdoh alot lately. we had some black playdoh for halloween and I asked june what i could make that is black and she said sunny our dog. i had to show the incredible resemblance of dog and tiny dog.hehe!!!

Last week June and I went and got a couple pumpkins from Lowes. I decided it was best to paint them b/c when i was younger i was digging the guts out of a pumpkin and my hands swole up and turned blue and i haven't bought a pumpkin since then. I found out i'm not allergic to painting pumkins thank goodness. I took June's picture with her pumpkin and then she took one of me with mine.

Here is a painting i did this week. i just felt like poppies for some reason. I'm going to hang it up at the salon and it will be for sell in the restroom.....LOL.

I haven't updated in a while b/c i've been super busy with a mural i'm doing for a client friend of mine. her daughter loves horses and i painted this for her in four 4 hour days. i know, sometimes i amaze myself. i couldn't really get a great picture b/c the wall was pretty big so i just took pictures in little spots i liked. sarah picked out each horse which was a little intimidating since horses have so much personality in their faces, but she loves it, so i'm thrilled. i'd like to thank the guy at walmart that mixed my paint b/c the machine jammed like 5 times but he hung in there. thanks Loyd. (that sounds like a walmart paint guy name, right?)

this horse was my favorite, i'm not sure why, he's just a beauty.

last weekend june and nanna went to nashville. june pronounces 'hotel' with such an adorable southern accent. muffins in bed, yum.

The lady that i did the mermaid painting for requested two little canvases to go with it for her daughter's bathroom.

This a dress I made for June with an old man's collared shirt I got a thrift store for 1.50$. Go me. I made it from a tutorial I followed on http://www.dana-made-it.com/. It was pretty easy to make and it hardly took any time to do as well. Thanks dana for the idea.

custom mermaids

this is painting i did for a lady in arlington. I have some artwork for sale at a little boutique in Arlington called the Happy Heart. it is such a cutesy little store on the square. A customer came in and saw my painting and asked for a custom piece and provided me with the canvas.

I've let things pile up on me again. i have have tons of stuff going on, all in the midst of potty training. several people in my life have asked me the question, "Is there anything you can't do?". I now have an answer: potty train a 3 year old. Nonetheless, i am going to focus on my recent successful accomplishments in order to boost my self-esteem.

For the last few weeks i have been working on my friend Diana's nursery. Her baby is due in a couple months and she is having a boy. We decorated the nursery in pirate theme. The bedding came from target. I did the painting (Diana did the taping and the cutting in). I got the idea for the waves on http://www.lilblueboo.blogspot.com/. They used it in a sailboat themed room but it works for the pirates. Diana bought these awesome rustic accessories from Hobby Lobby. We also decoupaged a dresser that i failed to take a picture of, with old maps. Here's a few shots of the nursery.

what is the deal with the name?

so, i'm sure you are wondering why i call myself the craft lady of steel. there used to be a game show on style network a few years ago that was like a crafting Iron Chef. Contestants were given a secret ingredient (like a ton of pipe cleaners or a big pile of feathers) and they had a limited time to make something out of the supplies. Whoever won that round would go up against the craft lady of steel. She was this uberbiatch that Never smiled and was a very serious crafter. nobody hardly ever beat her b/c i'm sure she knew the "secret" ingredient. I KNOW if i ever went up against her i would be crowned the new Craft lady of steel. i think i might possibly have been the only person to ever watch that show and i think it nearly lasted a season but i really liked it.

I did not make this cake but i did find it on google

images and hey, it's an owl and it's so freakin cute.

and last but certainly not least is a mixed media canvas i sold to the Happy Heart in collierville. it's a combo of acrylic paint, fabric and buttons,.....oh my. i had a hard time letting him go. i hope he finds a very happy home and is loved. i call him owly. i'd like to thank my dad again for helping me build a frame for the canvas. he is a table saw beast and never fails me when i come to him blueprints and measurements in hand.

i've been neglecting my blog and i appoligize to my one avid reader...hehe...you know who you are. the first thing i want to share is a garden tote i made from a tutorial on http://www.sewmamasew.blogspot.com/. it turned out really cute. i'd like to thank my dad for letting me print the 17 pages of directions on his work computer.

the next thing i want to share is a shirt i bought june at the children's sale at the agricenter for $1. it was just a plain shirt so of course i had to slap on applique on that beast. i have had an abnormal addiction to owls lately. they make for the cutest little cartoons plus they remind me of my girl scout leader from when i was a kid. she used to collect owls and she had like a 1oo of them in her house. i would love to find a cruel embroidery kit with a very 70s owl to create.

i also help my friend diana nicholas decorate cake for her little cake business she runs out of her house. one of my friends shannon's little boy turned one and she wanted a bathtub cake with ducks. i made the ducks and the faucets and the bubbles out of fondant. it's really fun to work with b/c it's like sculpting with yummy clay.

my favorite thing i've made lately has been this fleece hoodie i made for june. she tried it on the first time for my husband matt. "you look so cute junebug" he said. to which june threw off the hood and said " it's just me, it was me the whole time" i'm guessing she thought it was an owl costume. i have to confess that i have a button obsession and the buttons really tickled my fancy. i have such a love of the 70s and these remind me of the bakelite buttons that were so popular at that time.

my first post

so i'm addicted to looking at crafty blogs. i am always hungry for ideas to create and decorate and embellish and applique and you get the idea. if you know me you might feel the tendency to ask me, WHat are you working on right now and i usually have about five or six projects going and a novel halfway read. don't ask how i do it, it just works for me. right now i have a dress i need to hem for my mom's neighbor, a pair of cowboy pajamas for junebug, and a shirt dress, skirt and handbag (all separate) items. I have about 50 pages left on my last sookie stackhouse novel (1of 9) and i think that's about it. i hope to be able to post pictures on here of things i am working on and what the finished project is. We'll see how this blogging thing goes. i was so jealous of my friend Jen's blog i just had to have one.