Pincushion challenge

In a eureka moment I had it! A slice! So here is what I came up with for boogaj's pincushion challenge, an apple slice, and of course plain pins seemed, so... well... plain.



So I got out my fimo and made a little worm, who promptly slithered up a pin to get a look at his new surroundings.

Pin

No school today - rotating strikes.

Lina is with me at work today. She is busying herself in our Boardroom working on finishing her package for her new penpal. We got an email yesterday and her pal's package will be on the way shortly. I can't spend the whole day here, Lina won't last that long, but I have quite a few things I can only do here so I am here for the morning.

I put together a package of craft materials and so far she has made about 8 artist trading cards and is packaging some blank cards up for her friend to draw on so they can trade.

As usual (it seems to be the usual situation), I have not been able to work very much on my things. The house, the bicycle riding, the family take up my time while at home. But the weekend is on the way and I have hopes that now that I can see the floor of my craftroom, that I will be able to get in there and get some work done.

A nice surprise for Lina.

Hubby surprised Lina last night with a 14 foot trampoline. I think Lina would have bounced until dark if I hadn't called it quits for the night. When she went to bed, she asked me to tell Daddy, if she was asleep when he got home, to tell him that she wanted to smother him with kissess and tell him, "thank you, thank you, thank you!" well she was asleep when he got home but I had a video to show him of her first jumps and he had the joy of hearing her ask if she could go out and jump this morning before breakfast.

Proud Momma - You show 'em girl!

I was so proud of Lina last night. She started Gymnastics about 6 weeks ago and is insisting that she want's to be in the "keener" class. That is the class where they streamline the "kids with potential" into the competitive classes. The recreational was 1 hour a week. The Keener is 2 hours a week. The competitive would be 4 hours a day, 3 days a week. That sounds just icky if you ask me. I definately have some issues with the whole body image stuff that can accompany gymnastics. Lina takes after me, I am not overweight so much as I am what people call big boned. Lina is too, she is definately NOT one of those slim little girls that weigh 20 lbs wet. No, she is a 63 lb healthy kid. Anyway... back to being proud. Lina has been tying out for the Keener class and for the last three weeks and I had lots of talks about building strength and what her goals were and prepared her for whatever decision the coaches made. So as of last night it looks like she will be in the recreational class for now. I don't mind really, I like her coach in that class and she has promised me that she will help Lina with her technique and strength. But Lina has been doing sit ups and push ups at home along with practicing hand stands, splits and cartwheels. I really don't want her to get discouraged, I would like to show her that if she has a goal then there are steps that she can take to get there and not to let anyone else tell her she's not good enough (yes I know that there are limits to this but I think this one is attainable for her) so I am going to ask the owner of the gym to give me and Lina some concrete steps that Lina would have to take to get back into that class. We as parents are supposed to help our kids get to where they want right?

So last night I had prepared her that she may be in the recreational class for a while so this was the last time she would be in the Keener group. Man did she try her hardest. All those sit ups really paid off and she was able to keep up with the other girls in almost everything. Not to mention the fact that she was eager and attentive the whole 2 hours. You show 'em girl what they'll be missing! She was sweating pretty good when she was done. I give her a really big hug and told her that I (even if no one else noticed) saw how much effort she had put in.

On the craft front I started fooling around with fabrics and designs for a pincushion this morning. Starting on something just before you leave the house is almost never a good idea. So of course I don't like the design I tried. I will more than likely work on it this weekend, tomorow I have my annual financial audit to take care of and Brownies tomorrow night. My mom and her new boyfriend are coming up on Friday - we haven't met yet. I will try my hardest to at least get the foundation made so I can work on embellishment next week. I am crossing my fingers.

More Pincushion Ideas

Today I searched out some free patterns for pincushions, just to get an idea of the mechanics of making some of these neat designs. I am sure there are many more out there, but these caught my eye.

These I love and I think I will be making these as gifts at some point. Pretty crochet flower pincushions. Find the pattern at Granny's Garret



Crochet Pincushion

Here is a pattern for a Seminole Patchwork pincushion from Michaels.


This one is pretty cool because it is so packable. A flat pincushion - the pins are inserted in the sides and not pocked into the top. The directions are here at Fiber Arts on the Plains.

Flat Pincushion

And finally here is a beautiful violet pincushion I found at Violet Patch. This one is beautiful and I really think the tutorial is well done.

Violet Pincushion

Please, if you use these patterns, consider dropping by a word of thanks to the individuals for posting the patterns.

I didn't get anywhere on mine last night. As it turns out, I did plunk my butt onto my roadbike and peddled about 25-30km with my hubby and our friend Jody. My shoulder pain (fibro) has still not receded, so last night about half way into the ride I was pretty stiff and sore and had some difficulty with standing up to pull up some of those hills. Anyway, I made it home, proud I had gotten through it, but even after my very hot shower, I had little ability to do anything other than crawl onto the couch, with a warm blanket, and read a book. But, I haven't stopped "thinking" about pincushions, so when I actually sit down, you'd think it would be a breeze.

Back in the saddle / Pincushion Inspiration

I'm giving Booga_J's Pincushion Challenge a try. Since I am trying to get back into the swing of things, I searched out some nifty pincushions for inspiration.

These I found on a japanese site here. I like them because the look so cosy in theirlittle cases, and because I think if they were stuffed with sand they would sit so nicely. Kinda look like little cat beds.


Japanese Pincushion

This one was intesting in that it fits this months challenge theme "fruit". However, I don't have any tools for needle felting so something like this is out of the question for me. They are found here at My Favourite Thimble

Watermelon Pincushion

This one is my favourite and I am wondering how to work it into a "fruit" pincusion. You can find it here at New Pathways into Quilt History

Fabric Pincushion

This velvet pincushion is sooo appealing too. I love so many things about it. I found it at Beardeaux Bears and Friends.

Velvet Pincushion

This Korean embroidered turtle is wonderful too. Oh so much inspiration. I wonder what I should do? I found it at Arts and Crafts Korea.

Embroidered Turtle Pincushion

Lina and I didn't quite finish her pen pal project yesterday. We ended up going with my dad to his woodlot a few miles south of us and taking Lina for her first real dirtbiking excursion. She was so tired when we got back that she needed a little down time. Not to mention the fact that we ended up with company for dinner.

Tonight, I am forcing my butt back onto my road bike and going out to peddle for an hour. I am starting to develop a spare tire around my midsection. If I am going to look all buff (yah right!) on my motorcycle then I better get back into shape. You know it's spring when....

Will post some pics of my pincusion progress tomorrow.