Monday, October 31, 2011

Two Contests of Halloween

I usually try to put a pretty picture on the top of my post to catch your eye. Today..... I am sorry that I put the ugliest picture up here! But it is Halloween! I bet you have some ugly eeeewwwwooohish stuff around your house as well!

This ghostly green witch is Nina's creation for entering Pumpkin decoration (without carving) contest in her school. The winner have been decided by students' vote and she didn't get a prize but we had so much fun at the annual Fall Festival at school.


Nina got this pumpkin which has a bump just looking like a nose. Then she decided to make it a scary ugly witch's face. I helped to find a hat, bloom, and yarn for hair, and spray green paint on the face.


This year, I expected Nina to be a Super Hero Girl like a Wonder Girl. I have been thinking making a super girl suits. But in the last minute, she changed her mind to become an angel. So the costume project got to be really a last minute whipping up. I just made some slits on a white square satin fabric and tied it above her both shoulders. I thought it looks kinda cheap but it seems to barely worked. Because she won the prize for the prettiest costume at the Halloween party at her grand parents' church!


Please enjoy my photo gallery of Nina's school pumpkin decoration contest entries. There were some very good ones I was impressed.

Thank you for reading and hope you all have a great Halloween and Trick or Treating!

Monday, October 24, 2011

Diamond Bag and Scrap Crochet Project

I made this crewel embroidery + reverse applique into a bag! In the same size and structure with the vintage  Nordic sweater bags.


The sides and bottom of this bag is crocheted with Worsted weight wool yarn. The yarn is mixed color of gray and white so it gives kind of tweed looking texture.


This bag is now listed in my Etsy shop.

Speaking of crochet, I would like to show you some work in progress photos of another project which I actually finished yet. I Think it will give some ideas to someone who saves lots of scrap yarns for making something someday later and didn't find a good use for them yet.

I got these pure wool yarn (actually they are for needle point) in many colors from my aunt in law. She used to make fabulous needle work pieces but now she thinks that is too much work for her eyes so she gave it away to me. I have been thinking how to use them up. Since I am not a "Needle Point" person I had to find some other good use for them.

Then, anyways I started crocheting with those yarns. I had to connect yarns every twenty inches or so. It was kind of tiring work but also changing color at random was fun to do.

This  is how it looks like when crocheting was done. I made this in a belt pouch eventually. I am going to list the finished item in my shop soon. So you will see it soon in both this blog and my shop.

I got lots of yarn excess. It will make good wool felted ball. I just can't waste anything like this. 

We had a beautiful Monday here in South Bend Indiana. I hope you had a great start of the week.

Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Need some Rainbow?

I listed this rainbow colored crocheted scarf for kids on my Etsy shop.


It is crocheted in zigzag shape which is not so common for a scarf. I think it gives you some happy feeling in your dark cold Winter days.


I know kids love Rainbows (especially my daughter. She always loves to put a rainbow in her drawing). And I am sure they will also love to play with these cute little crocheted pom poms!


Fun shape, fun colors!


Happy crocheting!

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Fall days

These are pictures of our Fall days in Michiana.

Apple picking at Lemon Creek Fruits Farm and Winery.

Pumpkins.

 Honey.
Apple orchard picnic with Nina's good friend Lily.

After apple picking,

Of course, Apple cake baking!

Big bite and smile.

I have more pretty flowers than Summer in my little patio.

Nasturtium and Morning Glory. We collected lots of seeds.

Pretty pink Begonia.

Fall colors at the University of Notre Dame campus.


I hope you are having beautiful Fall days too!

Saturday, October 15, 2011

Reverse Applique + Crewel Embroidery

Sneak peek.

Embroidered with fine wool in cool shade.

This technique is called Reverse applique.

I really love this pattern.

And Nina keeps making more and more, too. She sure is a crafty girl.

Happy crafty weekend!

Sunday, October 9, 2011

Etsy Shop Vacation is Over!

Eventually I re-opened my Etsy shop "Harujion Design".  Long vacation is finally over. There are eight items  in the shop currently, and there is more coming in a few weeks. Please take a look, and if you have any questions about the shop or items, feel free to ask by email (harujiondesign at gmail dot com) or in your comment. Thank you so much for being that patient!


There is one of items in the shop. I named it Vintage Nordic Sweater bag. I felted a sweater and made it into a Boston type hand bag. And added a hand crocheted flower corsage.  This bag is definitely one of a kind. Please click the picture below for more info.


And you can see more pics of my items and details in my Flickr pool here.

I hope you all have a great weekend!

Thursday, October 6, 2011

It is not about Halloween.




No, this is not about Halloween at all!

No, No, I am not trying to scare you even I am showing some pictures of this horrible haunted look house.

I know, I know. It is a frightful looking garage.

Actually, it was pretty much scary when we bought this big old house back in February. You probably would not believe that we bought such a nasty old house. But we did. My husband Tim has been involved in real estate business these years. He buys houses and renovates them to sell or rent. We have three houses already renovated and rented right now. There is one more small house waiting to be repaired besides this big old house. 

This house is one of the historical houses in South Bend. It is about 90 years old and has great Arts and crafts workmanship everywhere.

Tim started working on this old house in April. It was a quite big job to him. There were so many troubles and difficulties. It took whole six months, and last week, he have made it FINALLY!

I proudly show you how the house looks like right now. Here it is! Please compare to the "before" photo!

After
After

Before

The house looks beautiful now. It has got a new roof, new windows, new trim paint and new land scape! It looks so classic and welcoming.

I arranged all the plants in the front yard. I brought warm and delightful feeling with Autumn colors.


We had the first open house last Sunday. We got lots of good reviews from customers. And some people came to see the house after the open house. We are going to have another open house this Sunday afternoon again. I hope many potential buyers will be coming to see this beautiful historical home.

There are so many nice elements inside too. We asked professional interior designers to stage inside this house. There are cool furniture and decorations. I would love to show it to you soon in another post.

At last I am proud of Tim that he kept trying and eventually finished this huge project. Oh, when the house is sold, I will be more proud of you of course!! ;-p 

Thank you for reading. I will update about my Etsy shop in the next post. Happy Thursday!