Felt Flowers from Material Girls Blog!

Felt Flower Tutorial (pictures didn't come through)
My name is Somer of Rainy Day Wren and I am a long time customer of Material Girls. And, well, I kind of hijacked things here.

Like I said, I have been shopping at the Material Girls for a long time and I often get butterflies when I see a new fabric line. But today I went in for some felt and my heart skipped a beat when I saw all the beautiful colors. "Nadine," I said, "these colors are amazing! I think I'm in love." To which she said, "I know, but I haven't advertised it much." So I took the challenge to find some fun projects for the amazing array of colors.
As I drove home, my mind was reeling with ideas. Just trust me when I say these colors are edible, but I couldn't settle on just one idea.
So, first up we have a flower brooch/hair clip.
To start you need: a glue gun, scissors, headband/hair clip/pin back of your choice, felt, and a button or bell, if desired, for the center. You will also need a piece of scrap paper and pencil for making a template.
You need two circle templates, one about 3" diameter and one 2" diameter. I used a drinking glass and a cookie cutter to make my circle template.
Pin template to felt and cut out 8 0r 9 large circles and two small circles. (You need 9 if you want a rose and 8 if you want a peony with a button or bell center.)
If you want to put your flower on a headband, cut two slits in the middle of one of the small circles. Now, place a small bead of hot glue in the middle of a large circle and...
fold it in half. Hold it there for about thirty seconds.
Place a bead of glue on folded circle, where shown, and...
fold again. Hold in place until it is secure and glue is dry.
Repeat with the other seven circles (if you are using nine, leave the ninth alone for now.)
Put hot glue on small circle without slits and place two folded circles with folds facing on the circle.
Repeat with two more folded circles, matching similar folds. (Two folds by two folds, double thickness folds by double thickness fold.)
This is what it should look like from the back. Flip it back over and repeat with four more circles, centering them over the first to hide the folds. (You can see what I mean in the next photo.)
If you want a jingle bell or button center glue that in place now. A fabric covered button would be darling.
For rose center, fold circle in half but don't glue it. Then, place glue up about 1/4" from fold and...
pinch through one layer at glue bead.
Put a dollop of glue in center of flower and press point of circle in place.
Glue pin back and top edge of hair clip to small circle with slits. Open clip to make sure you don't glue it shut and make sure you glue the top and not the bottom of the clip. (I placed the headband through the slits to show how that works. The teeth of the headband will keep the flower from sliding.)
Put glue on circle, being careful not to glue between slits.
Attach your circle to the back of your flower.
If you want a leaf, cut a 1" square from green felt and fold and glue like a cone.
Glue it to your flower and you're done. Slide headband through slits when you want to wear it that way.
Pin, clip, wear your flower anyway you want.

All Together Now-Shawneen's Family

Here are Shawneens pictures that she sent to me from Idaho. They had their jammies ready for me to add to our family pictures!! My grandbabies may be far away, but at least I have pictures. Love you guys!

Hannah and her rodent!

Okay, so its not really a "live" rodent! Her and Lexi got these hamster things that go along the floor and squeak and stuff! Well, on the bottom of this thing, in bright yellow, a warning... Don't put by your hair. And I'am sure Dana told the girls not to do this. So, of course, while Dana and Marshall are at the hospital getting Emme, Hannah has gotten her hair tangled in the hamster's wheels! Its was way too funny and between Jamie and Lauren, they were able to untangle the miss without cutting it out! So here's a picture of that and her on the counter with Grampy as he's getting my pomegranites out for the salad!
And here's also extra pictures on Christmas. :)

Somemore CHRISTMAS!

We also had Grampy and Lorraine over and I wanted to mention Christmas Day. Dana and Marshall came over to open presents with us and then we got our turkey in the oven and got the rest of the fixin's ready for an early supper! I think we have eaten so much these last couple of days. Dana and Marshall brought home Baby Emma and we were so happy for that! She is such a cute little thing. To me, she lookes alot like her sisters and Payton, well, he looks like a Smith at the moment. Can't wait for him to come home too. Heres a few more pictures...

Christmas Was Here!

Heres a few pictures of our annual traditions of New Jammies for everyone! Red for the girls, spouses and black for me and dad! Shawneen and Ben have theres that match ours so at least, they are with us in spirit!. We also had a little program, we had Jessie in charge this year. Lauren and Phil sang for us, Lorraine played the piano for us, dad told a story, and then everyone mentioned they're favorite Christmas's! We had pizza and my green chile and tamales! We like traditional things around here! :)