Family Trees and Free Templates

I hope you all enjoyed a fun 4th! We actually went to see 'Knight and Day'; which I thought was a lot of fun! Today I have #13 of my Project 52. This was inspired by Coleen Sohn's 'Making Roots' in Sew magazine. You can visit her blog here. Don't you just want to walk up the cobbled path and visit?

Basically, you cut out the shapes onto watercolor paper and stitch them onto stabilizer. Then glue the pieces together and paint and embellish them. They are then stuffed and the bottoms closed. I assembled mine a bit differently than Coleen and have included the templates that I made at the end of this post.

I thought you might like to see a few close ups of the details(I always like looking at those on other people's projects!). The trees sport the names of myself, my son, and my fiance on their trunks.

I popped up one of the windows and added some lace.

Quotes were added to each side of the house.

Each tree was embellished slightly differently to reflect the personalities. For instance, this one has flowers to be more feminine(me).

Rather than have the pieces stand alone where they would surely be knocked over by a breeze or fan, I chose to create a 'yard' for them and glued them on.

Here are the templates if you would like to create your own 'family trees'. Have a great day! You could just print different sizes of trees for wee ones etc. Just right click on them to save them to your computer and print in whatever size you like.

It's All About Color and Light and Giveaway Winners

First my giveaway winners. Birgit and Lori. Congratulations and thank you so much for visiting my blog!

Next, clear the air. Well, needless to say, I have been remiss in posting for a few weeks. I am suffering from overwhelming BLOGGERS GUILT; which then makes me feel less like posting. It seems that I like the IDEA of posting but not the actual sitting down and doing it. I guess it's the sitting part--I'm not good at that--never have been. I start and then get side-tracked. Today I'm throwing the guilt out. It is what it is and I am what I am.

Next, part of the reason for my absence that I have mentioned earlier. Spring cleaning and redecorating. Primarily, I had an overwhelming need for color and light in my home. Mainly, (in the interest of not spending loads of $) I've been making throw pillows, lap blankets and linens. To the family room/kitchen/dining area I have added these colors(see above also).

 More importantly, I took the shaker blinds out of the family room. They are very nice, for sure, BUT, I need more light! Before:

And I put in curtains, leaving the frame behind which is covered by the window treatments.

To the living room, I added yellow to the already existing red accents.

I can't emphasize how much adding light and color has done around here! I feel more energized and Don seems to love to come home to a happy atmosphere!

And now, a sneak peek at a project that I was hoping to post today but is not ready. I'm shooting for tomorrow now but I'm off to see the new Twilight movie. Did I mention that I keep getting side-tracked?

"See you when I see you". Have a great day!