By Lisa Gutierrez on 02/02/2011 
I’m one of those ladies that picks up doilies at the thrift store for 80 cents and thinks “Are you kidding me?! Those take forever to make!” and I carry them around like store like little treasures. Well, they are!
I also tend to buy groups of embroidery hoops. They’re usually really cheap and I’ve had great luck in finding them at even greater reduced cost. I don’t embroider much, so it’s pretty ridiculous that I have as many as I do. I’m always keeping an eye out on things to do with my hoops. I’ve made a few little projects here and there, like this photo hoop, but yesterday I decided to put a doily in one.
I married a few more doilies and hoops and liked the look, but it’s winter and I am in hopeless love with COLOR. I wanted it; I needed it; I had to have it. So, I grabbed my ever-growing jar of scrap yarn. I keep anything that’s about 12″ or longer. I wind tiny little scraps around my finger and put them in the jar. I chose a few colors and used a regular yarn needle to weave in and out of the holes of my doilies.
I covered most of the circular doily, but left a lot of the big open spaces in the pineapple doily…well, open. The pineapple turned into a leaf! I was really loving the effect and want to make moremoremore. This is the perfect sit-on-the-couch-with-a-movie project. Like granny squares, these would be absolutely perfect to use even the tiniest scraps of yarn on. Waste not, want not!
love&love
By Lisa Gutierrez on 12/13/2010
I finally made a felt tree. I don’t remember how I ended up at this tutorial on Thompson Family-Life, but when I found myself in front of a foam tree at the thrift store on Saturday, I knew EXACTLY what I wanted to do with it.
-I bought the foam for 75 cents.
-I had 2 sheets of craft felt with no intended purpose. I bought it a few weeks ago; it was on sale and I was drawn to the colors!
-I had these amazing red buttons that I bought a few weeks ago at the same thrift store. They were in a bag with some other old buttons and I knew that one day they’d be called to the altar of pretty-craftiness. That day was Saturday.
And it wasn’t even a day, it was an evening. My oldest was spending the weekend with his grandma and my youngest, bored and alone, fell asleep all on his own in the living room. BEFORE DINNER! What’s a girl to do with so much free time? Make an adorable little tree, of course.
I knew the general steps for the tree, but I was far too lazy to run up the stairs and double check when I was trying to cut the shapes, but foam is so forgiving and I used pins to attach my felt, so I was able to trim, try it on, trim, try it on, and so forth. I think that’s what the directions in the tutorial say to do anyway! It was kind of nerve-wracking, because I only had 1 sheet of felt in each color, but everything turned out ok!
I attached the buttons with floral wire. I just threaded it through the back of the buttons and stabbed the tree with ’em. Again, foam is forgiving, so it was easy to figure out placement. I could NOT remember how the top went, nor did I even THINK of the bell, so I quickly crocheted a little star, stuck a button with floral wire through the center, and jabbed it into the top. Voila! Tree topper!
You should really, really, reeeally, go check out her post. The trees are SO gorgeous. They’re colorful and trimmed with beautiful vintage findings. I adore them.
By Lisa Gutierrez on 11/30/2010 
SO! Our television has been a pain in the butt the past few months. It’s only 4 years old and is one of dem fancy LCD thingamabobs. Alas. There must be some crossed wires or loose….thingies inside. It WORKS, but sometimes it takes a lot of switch-pushing for it to come on. It’s like it doesn’t want to make a power connection? ANYWAY. It’s been out for about two days, now and you sure can tell. I finished up a custom order zippidy-doo fast and started in on decking these mighty halls.
I don’t know what’s up with all the adjectives and adverbs I’m throwing in, tonight, but I’m just gonna keep on keepin’ on…
My son went back to school on Monday after a whole NINE days off. GAH! Since then, I have:
-made about 30 of these
-completed and hung our advent garland
wrapping paper, washi tape, a scallop punch, number stamps, and the cuuutest mini clothespins!
-cleared my craft explosion from the dining room table and transferred it to the breakfast room table
-put up the tree! well, technically, my dad did that. BUT! I strung the lights on it and hung a few ornaments. in time, it’ll all get done.
-snapped a Christmas card photo & settled on a design. (I’m most excited about this one.)
-did some Photoshop cross-stitching. I’m going to call it shop-stitching, from now on. Little X’s where the stitches go.
and what have you done?
By Lisa Gutierrez on 10/19/2010
I made this little ghost with a scrap from a vintage sheet, some ribbon + felt for a headband, and some yarn as a little bow.
You can find the most adorable ghost tutorial at merry may handmade!
Isn’t this the scariest little ghostie you ever did see?!
p.s. We’re only 2 away from 200 followers via Google Friend Connect! Join! Let’s be friends. :)
By Lisa Gutierrez on 10/15/2010 
How about some flossy love? I guess I’m kind of hung up on golds, olives, and teals. I lined up this floss, today, and realized they’re pretty similar to the Gütermann colors. I can’t be the only one who enjoys this mash-up, right? They’re just so complimentary of each other.
Are there any color combos your brain just ends up defaulting to?
the lensbaby close-up
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