100th Post! Christmas Ornaments with Wedding Flowers

Hooray, it's taken me about 18 months or so but I've made it to 100 posts!  100 projects, probably not but for sure 100 posts!  That's kinda cool.

Well anyways onto today's craft.  I've been in two weddings over the last year and a half and I dried the flower bouquets.  Since I was already in the mood to make ornaments it fit for my next project.

One of the bouquets had tons of different flowers so I wanted to make sure to get all the color and texture.  I slowly took the ribbon off, found out a lot on how professional bouquets are made, and cut it apart.  I discovered quickly that I would not be able to get the leaves in without breaking them.  I suppose if I did it with fresh flowers they would go in whole.

 Once all the pieces were inside I took the ribbon from the stem and made a bow on the top.

 I did the same with the baby's breath bouquet.  These went in a bit easier.  I kept the baby's breath on their stems as well as I could.  I cut off stems that had many blooms still on them.  They seemed to float inside the blub.

Both brides really loved them.  

And I made some for me too.  They are a part of my life too and a nice reminder every holiday season.  Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year.  And Festivus for the rest of us.

Origami Cranes ornament

Continuing with the Christmas cranes projects.  Last year I made glass bulb ornaments with Disneyland Maps curled inside.

This year my ornaments have origami cranes inside.  I made all the cranes in high school and they have been sitting in a Lord of the Rings tin for many years.  Now that The Hobbit is out in theaters it was time to open my Two Towers tin.  I made tons of them over the years.  There were about 10,000 inside so I had plenty of cranes to choose from.  

I picked out many different papers and put them inside the ornaments.  I decided to put cranes in the ornament from the same paper inside.  Some were green, some were pink, some white, some were made from wrapping paper, some from Andies mint wrappers.  I kept one with a music score.

I'm glad I kept all those cranes over they years.  Now to figure out what to do with the 9,000 cranes left.  

Make 9 wishes?

Christmas Crane Garland

So over the years I have made thousands of paper cranes.  I've made probably 15,000 and I don't think that it much if at all of an exaggeration.  I made most of them in high school and since them they have been sitting in tins in our basement.  And this year I had a couple ideas of what to do with them.

Again please forgive me for the bad photos.  I almost always work on/finish my projects at night and need a flash to take photos.

I started with an idea.  What about using my Starburst cranes to make garland for my Christmas tree.  I started pulling the colors out that I wanted and started to notice it was going to be a very difficult and long process unless I divided up my entire stash.

Like many of my other projects I got in a bit too deep!  I had so many different red ones that were almost impossible to tell apart.

 I took about 2 1/2 hours to divide up all of the cranes.  It was worth it.  So much simpler to find all the different colors!

Once separated I split into small colored piles.  I used 6-10 of each color.  I had 18 different colors.  Who even knew that there were even 18 different flavors of Starburst!  

From there I used a needle and hand quilting thread to string them together.

 I'm very happy with the result.  It adds a lot of extra color to my Christmas tree.  And I hope that those who receive them for Christmas gifts like them too.

So all that time in class during high school that I was making these instead of holding my complete attention was well worth my effort.  It only took me about 10 years to figure out what to do with them!

I'm back for the holidays - Day 9 Sweater Island with no sheep

Sorry for the time since my last post.  I've been catching up on many projects that I've been putting off for a long time, over a year for some.  As I've been working on all those projects I've also been looking for a job here in Kansas City.  So if anyone know of any openings that you think I would be a good fit into let me know!

Well anyways I'll be adding all those projects soon.  Some might have to wait until next Halloween as 3 of them were finishing off Halloween projects.  Last year at this time I was already done with my Christmas projects and this year I'm only just finishing my Halloween ones!  Oh well. 

Now for today I'm going back to my travel log.  I hope you are enjoying them!

Our full day in Galway I spent by going over to the Aran islands.  There are 3 islands on the chain.  We visited that main island where most of the tourists go.  They are known for the sweaters made from the island.  Think Cosby but only one color.  But there were no sheep to be found.

And I can say with confidence that I don't understand why anyone would go over there at all.  And people stay on the island too. I felt bad for those who did that.  I deemed it the most depressing place that I have ever visited on a vacation.  I don't think that Ness City counts as a vacation but if it did it would come in a close second.  

We left Galway on a double Decker bus filled to the brim with people and a stinky bus driver.  We drove an hour to get to the ferry.  We ended up seeing that same scenery on the drive that was on the island.  The ferry ride took a little less than an hour.  It took in total two hours to get onto the island.  When you arrive on the dock there is a slew of vendors, bus tours, horse tours and bile hires all asking you if you would like their service.  In hindsight I would have gotten a bike to ride around the island.  There is not much there if you are there for a short day. 

They are known for their sweaters but I didn't see any sheep on the island at all.  They probably swam across the ocean for something exciting to do.

We walked along the east side of the island.  There are very few homes along the road and even then some of them were abandoned.  There were many animal paddocks made from the rocks from the island.  There were tons of paddocks but barely any animals.  Maybe 1 in 300 was occupied and that number might be a bit high.  Mostly cattle were around with a couple horses and 2 goats.  Lots of wind and rocks but not much else.  

Most of our group that went to the island ate lunch at one of the few places that you could eat for a slightly overpriced meal.  Everyone was checking their facebook accounts after I finished my meal I headed off on my own.  I can say that there was not much else to see.  The one bit of inspiration was a neglected and broken down church that had two trees growing inside of it.  Because of the wind trees mist don't survive there so at least they can thrive someplace.

I'll have to say that I was very disappointed.  It took about 2 hours to get back.  The country side along the road was the same that was on the island.  Again why do people go to that crappy island?  There has to be one bad thing on the vacation that makes everything better by comparison.  The only nice part of the trip was on the boat back I saw about 20 red sail boats.  Apparently they are only seen in Galway so that was a nice treat coming back from the island.

We got back to Galway around 6 on Sunday night so most of the stores were closed but 6 of us went to a bar/restaurant in the heart of downtown.  The food was expensive so I ordered a starter.  And since I saved money on my meal I bought an Irish coffee in Ireland!  The meal was ok but the coffee was great.  That made up a bit for the crappy day.

On the way out a couple of the other girls and I stopped at a sweet shop.  It was like walking into Honeydukes in Hogsmeade.  So many Harry Potter references.

We also stopped a place for Gelato because when I think Ireland I think Gelato.

Christmas Presents for all

So over my many different vacations of late I've been collecting a lot of paper.  Maps, guides, pamphlets etc...  I decided to finally put them to good use.  Christmas Presents for everyone!

These were made from Disneyland Maps.

Each bouquet has 8 flowers with 3 different flower sizes. Each one took about 3 hours to make or so.  I made 5 bouquets all at the same time to it is hard to say how much time it took to make them individually.

They are wrapped and ready to go!
I love being ready for Christmas.  I hope that everyone likes their holiday gifts.  I always love making things for others for the holidays, but really anytime is good too!  

Day 8 Into the Republic of Ireland

After a very informational and fun evening in Belfast it was time to head south into Ireland proper.  

The first stop was along the Irish coast.  A place called Giant's Causeway.  

The story goes that there once was a giant named Fynn McCool.  The causeway used to connect Ireland to Scotland.  Fynn was a smaller giant with a wife and they had heard that a huge giant was on his way to challenge Fynn. So Flynn’s wife dressed him up like a baby and painted a rock like a steak and a steak like a rock.  She gave the steak that looked like a rock to Fynn and when the other giant came across she introduced that giant to Fynn's baby.  Fynn ate his steak while the other giant tried to eat his own and could not.  So after seeing the size of the baby and how easily it at the steak when he could not he decided against meeting Fynn himself and ram back to Scotland destroying the causeway as he went.  A Great story and an amazing place. 

All of the stones that are scattered around are hexagonal.  Volcanic eruptions created the size and shapes of the stones.  The stones even create natural staircases around the entire area.  Truly amazing to walk around and again take too many photos.

Our next stop was our Northern Ireland in a town called Londonderry.  Like Belfast there is still a lot of religious tension.  Around the interior of the city is another wall.  But compared to Belfast's relatively young wall Londonderry's looked to be about at least 300 years old.  

Cannons were along all the city walls.  These days the walls look like they are protecting the stores, restaurants, and shopping malls.  The city is also known as Derry.  There are more Catholic Irish leaning people in town that don't want the city connected to the UK.  On our way out of town there were more Union Jacks than in town representing the Protestants in the area.  

After our lunch stop in Londonderry we drove south to the border into the Republic of Ireland.  Again there was nothing really showing the change of country outside of a sculpture in a round about.  My poor passport feels so unused. 

We arrived into our next city for the next two nights of Galway.  The hotel we stayed at was on the outskirts of town.  Very sketchy area with missing letters from buildings and abandoned buildings.  A little off-putting when your sheets have holes in them, you go to the front desk to request a sheet change and they just give you the sheet to change yourself.  Or as one other person on the tour thought that someone was constructing the world’s largest ransom sign.

So after changing my sheet we went into town for dinner. Being at another port city I decided on a seafood pasta dish.  The price was a little steep and but so was the portion size, way to big.  So after a long day I headed in early to get a good night sleep for another day in Ireland the next day.

Day 7 The Walls of Northern Ireland

We left Glasgow to ferry across the sea to Belfast.  After a little drive to the port we drove our bus onto the barge.  We were not allowed to stay on our coach when we were moving across the seat but thankfully the barge was state of the art.  

There were dining halls, restaurants, shops, seats all around, and decks to wonder around. I got a refillable hot drink cup for free because the credit card reader was on the fritz.  Score!  The journey only took a little bit more than 2 hours and we landed easily on Northern Ireland.

Our next stop was Belfast.  Belfast has a very checkered past. I was a little hesitant to visit the city because of the problems they had had in the recent past.  We started our visit with a black cab tour.  We had four drivers from both religions that took our group around the city to both the protestant and catholic areas.  1969 to 1998 were the real battle years.  Like most conflicts of the past only a few people made the lives of those around them hell.  The protestants believe that the country of Northern Ireland should stay a part of the UK.  In their area the Union Jack flag flew from every home, street lamp, and between the streets.  There were paintings along the walls of most of the buildings that depicted those who lost their lives during the conflict.  But the paintings in the Protestant areas they were primarily what the rest of the world would probably consider war lords.  

A few of them were killed after the official conflict ended in 2000.  The stories we were told is that many of the leaders were killed by other factions on their own side because of in fighting.  There was one painting depicting a lone sniper that was painted in a way that the rifle barrel seemed to follow you wherever you went that they call the protector.  Very creepy.  

Our next stop was to the Belfast wall.  Around the wall here are 10 gates and all of them are still on use.  It is what you imagine that the Berlin wall should look like.  The wall stands 45 feet tall.  People to this day still try to throw things over the wall.  There was a clearly patched area from a Molotov cocktail that didn't make it over.  Many people have signed the wall hoping that their signature and the wall will be a thing of the past. 

We signed the wall and headed into the Catholic area.  The Catholics want to be a part of Ireland rather than staying with the UK.  Our stop inside the walls was at a memorial.  The most recent troubles started in 1969 on Bombay drive where the memorial was with the wall only about 10 feet away.  The homes that border the wall have cages protecting the back of their homes from stuff being thrown over still to this day.  Many people lost their lives including a few children as young as 4.  Photos of those lost and their names were placed around he memorial.  

Our final stop was next to a memorial wall that memorialized both sides of he conflict and spoke to current issues.  We took a group picture here.  All said and done that during the conflict 3800 lives were lost, more Catholics than Protestants, and about half of those lives lost were bystanders.  Such a silly thing to fight about and there is truly still no end in sight but at least it is better.

The other thing that Belfast is known for is their port and specifically the building of the Titanic.  All around the city there were stuff to buy, a new museum to visit (if i ever come back I'll to there but there was not enough time), and items from it all around.  Our restaurant had quite a few decorations around including the placemats.  

I ordered a leek soup, which was very good, and fish and chips that was too greasy.  It was a bit disappointing not to get the best fish and chips but I suppose you can't always win.  After dinner a group of the girls went downstairs to a karaoke bar.  When we first got there it was pretty much dead in there but that meant that a lot of us could get up to sing.  I had never sang in a karaoke bar before so it was a new experience for me.  The problem was when more locals started coming to the bar they were ignoring our song requests so after about 15 minutes of listening to Irish people singing sad country songs it was time to go and get a decent nights sleep for he next days adventure.  

If I ever get a chance to come back to Ireland I would defiantly come back to Belfast.

Projects that need finishing

There are many projects of mine that are sitting unfinished around the house.  I suppose it might be high time to get them out and start on them again.  

Most of the time my projects are practically done when I pull them out again.  To find and finish all of them will be a long process but it needs to be done.
My brother's wedding quilt.  I finished the top yesterday.  So now all that is left is putting together the back and quilting it.  Should take me a couple days but it needs to be done.  And will be by Christmas, I swear!

Kaleidoscopic quilt - The top is complete.  I will need to figure out how to quilt it.  I'm again in a queen size bed so it needs a queen size quilt.

 Patriotic quilt - This quilt is meant to be a decorative piece.  I had two of these.  Now I only have one as  I gave one to my mom, but she has to finish it!

 Another diamond quilt - I have enough queen size quilts already that I don't need another.  This quilt was also claimed by my mom to use in the guest bedroom at my parents house.  It looks great in the room, brings a lot of life inside.

Diamond baby quilt #1 - The top is complete and the batting and backing are attached.  All that needs to be done is quilting the pieces together. 

 Diamond baby quilt #2 - same as above!

 Diamond baby quilt #3 - triple that!

And some of them are complete.  I'll show them off on future posts!