All The Quiet Things: March 2013

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Happy Easter!

I am so grateful for the Savior, and for His atonement.

May you all have a wonderful Easter!

Thursday, March 21, 2013

As you all know by now, we have been working on the fireplace wall in our family room. For a looong time (way too long) we have had our tv in the corner. You couldn't even see it unless you were in the coveted seat right in front of it. Sadly, I don't have a picture of how it was. However, I do have a picture of the basic setup.

This was after we got our new tv - before the bookshelves. Our old chunky tv sat on the top shelf, over in the corner. (Yes, we are watching Bubble Guppies.) haha :) The other side was just empty - so it looked off balance and was kind of a waste of space.

We wanted to do some built-ins, but our main problem was the shelves had to be deep enough for our dvd player, dvr, etc. Here is a picture of how the left side turned out.

This side was the trickiest because the edge of the bay window is really narrow. Luckily, that was almost exactly the depth we needed. I wish they could have been set back further from the fireplace, but oh-well, what can ya do?

Here they are finished.

I think they turned out pretty great! (My husband doesn't agree, and wants to rip them out and have a professional build some.)

Obvioulsy, they are still very much un-decorated. I need to find some more things to go on them - they look so bare. We also need to find a better place for the all the speakers. Ugh!

Anyway, there it is! I have soooo much extra space now to put things. Love it!

Thanks for stopping by!

Wednesday, March 6, 2013

Quiet Book - Girls

Here is the quiet book I made for my daughter. Luckily, I found the pictures I had taken before I gave it to her. Let's just say she has loved this book! haha

In case you missed it, here is my Boy Quiet Book.

This is obviously the title page. I wanted to make a cute little mirror to go opposite, but couldn't find those plastic-y fake ones anywhere! Oh-well.

I LOVE this ladybug page! This was so hard for me - it was the first time I had ever sewn a zipper!! I am so proud of myself for that! It turned out okay, don't you think? :)

Here is another picture after it was in her book.

I had so much fun with this one! I think my next project will be a whole set of felt food. (I might have to learn to sew first. *sigh*)

I never took a picture of just the food, and when I got them out of my daughter's book, the corn had faded. I couldn't remember how it looked - so I guessed. Yeah, not so good huh? The first one was better.

I love these ballet slippers for the 'tie page'. This page was my nemesis, I swear. Grrrr!

Here is the original sketch - it's reversed though because of the Wonder Under. :)

Here is the dress-up page. My sister drew the doll body from a mix of a couple different shapes we found online. The dresser is a little pocket to ~~stuff~~ put all the clothes in.

These clothes are so stylish, don't you think? haha

Here is her complete wardrobe. I wanted to make soooo many more - like pajamas and a swimsuit! But I didn't want the book to be any thicker than it already was. I think doing just dolls would be fun, too! :)

Button-up flowers - so sweet. The buttons are the biggest I could find, and they are wooden, so I painted them and scruffed them up a bit.

This is the same clock I made for the boy book. I made this one first though, and thought it looked a little too Mickey Mouse for my taste, so I changed it to burgandy and grey. (It totally looks like Mickey Mouse, huh?) haha

This is probably my least favorite page. I don't know why - my daughter loves it, but to me it's just...eh.

The last page is a tree with snap-on apples. I sewed every.one.by.hand. Ugh! Since then, I realized that my Crop-A-Dile does snaps - what!? I guess that's what I get for not paying attention to the instructions. The little tire swing actually dangles from the tree branch. (Very securely, I might add.)

Here are a few of the templates if you want them:

Well, that's it! I had sooo many cute ideas for things to make with felt. From puppets, playmats, and a nativity scene, to seasons and alphabet quiet books. It was the whole reason I named my blog "All The Quiet Things". Ahhh well...now maybe I can go finish some other projects. ;)

Thanks for stopping by!

Monday, March 4, 2013

Quiet Book - Boys

About a year and a half ago, I was looking around at quiet books for my daughter. I wasn't really thrilled with any of the ones you can buy, and the homemade ones looked - well, homemade.

Then, I came across these quiet books at serving-pink-lemonade and decided I wanted to try making some of my own. Check them out, they're very cute!

I decided I wanted all my own original pages (well, the artwork anyway) because I thought maybe I would sell them someday. Okaaaaay.... nice thought. Ha! Have any of you ever tried making one of these? They take a LOT of work. Seriously. A LOT. And I quickly remembered that I am sewing impaired - can't even sew a straight line, as you will soon see. :)

However, if you are just making one, I say go for it! They are actually kind of fun. It's also nice to look at it and think, "I made that!"

So anyway, here are the pages I came up with for a boy quiet book. I never even got around to binding it together. Haha :)

Tools. Not a new concept, however very necessary for little boys. My youngest son would have absolutely LOVED this.

I made the tools out of extra stiff felt, because I didn't think tools should flop around. :) They are also double-sided, so they can go either way and look more like real tools.

Traffic Light. This is a snap-on page.

I think this is my favorite of all the pages. It was soooo hard to draw and make look right. My oldest son, who is a soccer player suggested the lovely lime green color and also the stripes.

It was really hard to find small shoe laces, so I cut them and then fused the ends together with a lighter. :) Just make sure you attach the shoe to the page before you add the laces, or the shoe will be all lumpy.

Every quiet book needs a clock page, right? The hands are made from stiff felt and attached with a brad. Remember to cut your letters out backwards - trust me. :)

My girl quiet book has a dress up page, so I really wanted one for the boy book, too. These turned out so cute! I intentionally left off the mouth, but you could easily stitch one on.

These glasses were made of stiff felt, also.

I looove this Viking!! His beard is the best! I know the eyes are a little creepy, huh? haha :)

There are sooo many different things you can make for this page. I just did a few.

Dump truck with button up tires - love!

I lightened this picture up a little too much, but the black just doesn't show up enough. Oh-well, you get the idea. :)

I really wanted to do a finger puppet page, and so I decided to do the monkeys jumping on the bed. I know, there's only three, but you could always do more. Not me though, three's good.

This was one where the idea was much better in my head. It is supposed to be a jar, but I had a hard time sewing the vinyl. I think a cute little mesh net might be better.