Homebody Accents Review and Giveaway!

i recently had the opportunity to review an item from HomeBody Accents. Homebody Accents is a family owned and operated business. They started the business in 2007 in Fort Worth, Texas and each piece is handmade in the USA. They create each sign by baking an enamelized image into a tough, proprietary coating on a thick steel blank.

 The result is amazing durability, rich color, and fine detail. These are not like those thin, cheap tins other companies make. When you hold this sign in your hand, you will definitely feel and see the Homebody Accents difference. Homebody Accents' value-added, optional features include framing on rustic, one of a kind, reclaimed wood; and the application of a sun protective film to protect those pieces you wish to display outdoors.

Homebody Accents has an amazing selection of designs to choose from. They have everything from vintage farm signs, to inspirational quotes to holiday themed and so much more! 

i had a very hard time choosing a sign, because i loved them all! The vintage farm signs are my favorite. i was orginially planning to get one of the vintage Fresh egg signs to put on my chicken coop, but decided to get the wood frame so i could display it inside instead.  i'm so glad i did!

The wooden frame is made from reclaimed wood and looks like it's made from an old barn, it even has rusty nails to really give it an authentic vintage look! The attention to detail on the sign is fantastic. It is a really a very neat piece.

 i really love that they use recycled materials and that each piece is handmade in the USA. The signs range in price from around $18.98 up to $79.89.  Most of the signs are available with the reclaimed wood frame for around $39.98.

Homebody Accents have a special coupon that will give you 15% off and Free shipping on any order of 3 or more items. Just enter WINE15 in the checkout.

Connect with Homebody Accents! 

Homebody Accents on Facebook
Homebody Accents on Instagram
Homebody Accents on Etsy
Homebody Accents on Pinterest

Now for the Giveaway!!

The generous folks at Homebody Accents were kind enough to offer one of their metal signs to a lucky reader. The winner will recieve a gift code that will allow them to pick out any one sign under $50 with free shipping included!

 Please enter below using the rafflecopter form, you may have to wait a minutes for it to load! This giveaway is open to US only. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*i received a product in exchange for my honest review. i was not compensated, my opinions are my own. 

Milkweed and Pinecone Bunnies

These simple little bunnies are a perfect  spring crafts for kids. Made from natural materials that can be gathered outside, and a few extras like craft pom-poms and googly eyes. 

We collect natural materials all year, and always have jars of dried milkweed pods, pinecones, acorn caps, seeds, flower pods etc.  Perfect for crafting on rainy days. 

For this project you'll need

 a pinecone

 two milkweed pods,

 4 acorn caps, 

pine needles. 

seeds or googly eyes for the eyes. 

craft pom poms or natural materials for the nose and tail. 

tacky glue 

Start with a medium size pinecone and 4 acorn caps.

Put a dot of glue on the tops of the acorn caps and set the pinecone in place.   Give it a few minutes to dry before attaching the ears. 

Decide where you want the ears, and then tuck the milkweed pods into the pinecone and add a bit of glue to hold them in place. 

Decide what type of face you want your bunny to have, and then attach them to the pinecone with a dot of glue.

We used googly eyes and a pom pom nose for this one.

Don't forget to add your tail. :)

This one was made using all natural materials. i used dried black beans for eyes, a small acorn cap for the nose and a flower seed head as the tail. My daughter prefers them with the googly eyes and pompoms, but i like them all natural too. 

These are very easy to make, and a great project for any age. 

The Sitting Tree- Artist Feature and Giveaway!

i have been a fan of the beautiful works found at the Sitting Tree for a very long time. 

 Liz and her husband Mike, the talented artists behind The Sitting Tree,  live with a trio of wildly creative and beautiful unschooled boys, an English Setter called Bailey, and a reclusive black cat.  They had a dream to raise a family. To live and work off the land, connected to the earth and each other. 

This last spring  they bought 10 acres of land on a dead end road, nestled into the woods of Northern Wisconsin and are working hard to make their dream a reality!  They are building it all from scratch  and using as many recycled materials as possible. They are  also paying for everything in cash, so the process is slow going.  You can follow along on their journey at The Sitting Tree blog.   

Liz has a deep love of fiber and knitting. She offers beautiful hand dyed yarns and knitting patterns in The Sitting Tree  Etsy Shop. Her husband recently  joined in to help  crafting handmade soaps and creates natural buttons and ornaments out of recycled wood.

 In the Etsy shop you’ll find a wonderful variety of natural, sustainable products including  homemade soaps, tree branch buttons and ornaments, upcycled clothing, knitting patterns and hand dyed yarns. The knitting patterns come as a PDF file that can be downloaded upon payment.  

The handmade soaps are all natural castile soap. They come in a variety of scents like pumpkin spice, wild mint, lavender baby and more.  Each soap is neatly packaged in a 100% recyclable boxes. These make great stocking stuffers!  At The Sitting Tree they make each of their products slowly, naturally, and with sustainability in mind. 

These tree branch ornaments are one of my favorite items! Each design is original and drawn free hand with a wood burning tool. They are made from birch wood that is sustainably harvested from their homestead.  They only use trees and branches that have fallen naturally. Each piece is finished with a homemade non-toxic beeswax polish. These beautiful ornaments are heirloom quality and would be especially perfect decorating a woodland or rustic themed tree. 

At the Sitting Tree, they are inspired by everything nature and try to make sure that every product reflects the love and respect they have for mother earth. Every purchase you make helps them along the path to their dreams.

You can connect with The Sitting Tree at any of the link below.

Blog: http://www.thesittingtree.net

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/The-Sitting-Tree/101116458946

Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/thesittingtree

Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/designers/elizabeth-murphy

Etsy: http://www.etsy.com/shop/thesittingtree

Buy it!

 Like what you see? Found something you can't live without?  Head over to The Sitting Tree shop where you can purchase some of her wonderful products!

Win it!!

Liz has generously offered  a set of 5 Tree Branch Ornaments to one lucky winner!

To enter, please use the rafflecopter form below!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Last minute Teacher gifts

One of our favorite teacher gifts is decorated flower pots.They are a nice simple gift, inexpensive and easy to make, and the kids have so much fun decorating and personalizing them. We fill them with  a variety of flowers or herbs.  Our flower pot gifts have come a long way. The first year that we made them, i just grabbed some markers and let my boy color all over the pots.  Turns out they were washable markers, and the minute we watered the plants, the drawings turned into an unrecognizable water color mess. 

Now we make our pots using (non-washable) acrylic paints, mod podge and stickers.

We start with a plain terracotta pot. Using acrylic paints my daughter added some green along the bottom for grass and painted the top rim.  We let the pain the dry, and then coated the entire thing in mod podge.

We found the awesome sticker books at Micheal's craft store.  

 After the mod podge dried my daughter decorated the pots with stickers. She had such a great time creating different scenes on the posts. We had a variety of gardening and fairy princess stickers. :)

Once she was finished creating her design, we coated it all in mod podge again.  This will seal the stickers on.  We just used a sharpie to write her  teacher's name on the pot, and i had her sign and date the bottom. 

After the mod podge dried, we filled the pots with potting soil and added our plants.  We made herb pots that contain parsley, thyme, basil, chives and dwarf lavender. i had also intended to add some mint and marjoram which i have have at our property, but forgot to dig it. They still look pretty good, and the herbs will fill in more as they grow.

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i tried to get a quick picture this morning but the lighting wasn't great so it's a bit blurry.  My daughter made the herb pots for her teacher and teacher's assistant.

My boy is technically in junior high now, so he has 4 teachers through out the day.  He wasn't as interested in decorating pots, so we put together these simple mug/flower sets.  i let him pick out the mugs for his teachers, and then he picked out a pack of flowers.  The flowers came in a 4 pack, so we transplanted them into disposable cups that fit perfectly inside each mug.  Then we cut squares of tissue paper to put in the mug, and placed the cup with the flower inside it. That way the flowers are easy to remove, by just lifting up the tissue paper and the teachers will be able to use the mugs if they want.

These would be neat with mint plants or chamomile or another favorite herb used for tea. Our gifts were pretty last minute...i always seem to run out of time, but you could create some neat themes with them.

The kids enjoyed putting them together and loved handing them to each of their teachers!

We have an end of the year field trip today, awards day/half day tomorrow...then school is out!  Still trying to get my garden in and be moved into the RV this weekend.  We now have working electricity, still working on the water though... :)

Sage's Birthday Doll & Outfits.

Last week i shared a few photos of the doll that i'm making Sage for her Birthday.


One of my biggest struggles with these dolls is making the clothing for them. It's not the actual sewing of the clothing that i have hard time with...it's the picking out of fabrics. Matching colors and create a complete outfit. i tend to get image in my head of 'the perfect doll' and then i get frustrated when i can not find the materials to make it happen.
Although i have a couple of Sage's baby dresses that will fit the doll i really wanted to make some outfits.


The first one i completed is this princess dress. This dress is made using fabrics i already had on hand. i would have done it a bit differently if i had gone out and purchased all new fabrics, but i'm quite pleased with the way it turned out. The crown still needs to be sewn, and i'm planning to make a matching one for my daughter. :)

Of course i HAD to make a mermaid tail . If you've followed my blog at all...you know how much we love mermaids. :) The top has elastic encased in matching fabric, and the shells are made from felt. i'm planning to also make a freshwater pearl necklace and some kind of headband/ hair ornament with shells and pearls on it.

Yesterday i whip up this tie-dye dress. i'm really pleased how well it turned out. i tend to have a bit of trouble sizing the dresses, since i never use patterns. This one turned out perfectly, and has a snap on the back to make it easy to take on and off. This was made out a t-shirt i had picked up a the thrift store. i've been finding a lot of these gorgeous tie-dye shirts that look brand new there. They usually have some kind of emblem or screen print on the front, but i can get enough fabric off the back to make several items.

Today i'm working on just one more outfit (i think!!). i'd like to make her a pair of pants, top and a matching sweater. Then i just need to come up with a bag or suitcase to store all the clothing in...and maybe another pair of shoes. :)

i'll post pictures of the completed doll/outfits next week. i'm so excited to give this doll to my daughter on her birthday. i know she's going to absolutely love her. :)


ps. i'll be posting the tutorial for elf ears and the quiver in the next day or two. :)

Handmade and Local Gifts.

The holidaze always seem to be a time of overwhelming commercialism. Although we are not entirely immune to it, we still like to try and support handmade and local businesses as much as possible.


Many of the gifts we gave and received this year were made here in Floyd county. i put together a gift basket similar to this for my folks, i found the basket at the Goodwill. Some of the items given and received this year were coffee from Red Rooster, local honey, local apple butter, homemade blackberry jam, homemade laundry powder, hand crocheted dish clothes, local handmade soap, locally made wooden utensils (including the honey dippers, apple butter spreaders etc). We also gave lots of homemade cookies, chocolate covered pretzels and glass icicle ornaments. :)


The honey is so good! It's just called Papa and Tara's and is raw honey from Check, which is at the other end of Floyd County. We can purchase it at both the Dugpur and Willis mini-marts (our closest gas stations). The honey dippers, apple butter spreaders and other utensils were hand made by local woodworkers and can also be purchased at Willis mini-mart. :)


The crocheted wash clothes were made by me. The soap is locally made and was purchased at the Floyd County Store.



Although my kids do get there share of store bought gifts, both my husband and i always hand make them something special for our Yule celebration. This year my husband made each of us our own glass loopity loop straw. i've seen the ones from Dharma Glass, and had asked him a while ago if he'd make us a set. My girls straw has an etched dichro butterfly marble embellishing it.


My boy ended up with yoda. :)



i got the mother of all loopity loop straws!! :) It has a beautiful etched dichro goddess marble.



i've been so busy this month with custom orders, i didn't know if i'd get anything made for my kids. However, one afternoon i got inspired to make my girl a Ruby Gloom doll. Ruby gloom is a cute show we recently started watching on netflix. She's just so cute, i had to make one! She came together so quickly that i made a Doom kitty to go with her. My daughter was thrilled with them. They are made using eco-fi felt and clean carded wool. i just used the basic blanket stick to sew them together. Doom kitty has a pipe cleaner in his tail so that it is posable.



After making the Ruby Gloom doll for my girl, i needed something for my boy. i thought a Harry Potter Lego mini-figure would be fun and slightly challenging. :) Here are the pieces before it was all stitched together. i wasn't happy with a couple of things after i stitched it together and stuffed it, and will be changing it a bit before posting pictures of the completed doll. My boy was still thrilled with it. Both kids have slept with their handmade dolls every night since they received them. :)

We were really, really blessed this year, and were able to give the kids a pretty amazing surprise (which i'll post about soon). It's still these simple handmade items that really make me feel the love and spirit of the season.

Reminder, the Tiemeyer Glass Pendant giveaway is ending on the 30th! i'll pick and post winners to all 4 of the giveaways on the 31st!!

Yep, more bendy dolls and some progress on gifts.

Here is a few more bendy dolls i recently finished. i need to figure out how to get some clearer pictures that are not so washed out and then i'll be putting them up on Etsy and my website. This little lady has Auburn hair and an embroidered apron. She is $10 shipped first class.

i have been having lots of fun painting tiny cupcakes, loaves of bread and cakes. This is my first double layer cake. i need to work on my painting skills, but i still think it turned out rather cute. Accessories are available with each doll for an additional charge. Just let me know what your interested in and i can put together a package/price.

Another little mermaid. $10 shipped first class.

i posted this little gnome girl last week, but i made a boy and a baby bendy and wanted to put together an example of a family. i don't like the gnome boys shorts, and will be replacing them with longer pants. i haven't yet made a 'child' bendy, but you can expect to see them soon. Then i'll be offer custom family slots. i can do elves, gnomes, fairy and mermaid families. Families will start at $25.

This is the second boy gnome i made, and i really love the way he turned out. i made him a tiny messenger bag, and walking stick. He also has an embroidered leaf on his hat. i'm asking $15 shipped for him. His messenger bag has a bead/loop closure and actually opens and closes.

Pink and Purple Fairy with over sized wings. $10 shipped first class.


Here is an example of custom bendies. These were requested by my kiddoes. Custom doll pricing will depend on details and accessories. If interested just send me a personal.

My son adores the Wizard i made him, and requested a set of knights, King Aurthur, a castle and a dragon. :) That gave me some ideas for Yule gifts for him. My girl is easy, but my boy is getting a bit too old for many of my homemade gifts..or so i thought. i searched around for some examples of felt or crocheted dragons. i found some amazing examples at Crafter.org. i'm really tempted to try a crocheted dragon, but i really am not good at reading patterns.


i stopped at Michael's craft store again, to pick up a few things and was thrilled to find this castle bird house (on sale for $3.99) and this paint-your-own dragon. i think they'll go really well with the bendy dolls. i'll need to make the door a bit bigger and that could be challenging, but i'm not too worried. i'm going to paint the castle and have it decorated. i haven't decided whether to paint the dragon or leave it as it, and let him paint it himself. i may still attempt a felt or crocheted dragon, but i can already see this set coming together and it's going to be pretty cool. :)
Also, for a quick update on my daughter's fairy tea party playset, i finally found the flower stickers i wanted for the inside of the box. i need to do a bit more painting, a then it should be done. i was excited about actually having a head start on their gifts, but i have a feeling once i finish these i will start something else.

All Things Simple artist feature

All Things Simple is a little shop in northern Vermont. They are a homeschooling family of five who believes in living a simple and natural lifestyle and strives to create a gentle and embracing environment for their children. They specialize in all handmade items made from 100% natural materials,paints or fibers. Their passion for crafting is inspired by their children and Waldorf lifestyle.

All of the crafts and toys are made in the Waldorf tradition, using natural materials and leaving much to the child's imagination.

All Things Simple offers handmade wooden blocks, play foods, stackers and beautiful dyed playsilks...all the things you need to awaken your child's imagination. i especially love the wooden eggs and acorns!
You can view their Etsy shop here to purchase any of these fabulous items, and be sure to follow their blog for a sneak peek at their newest creations and watch for their Fabulous Friday giveaways.

My girl absolutely loves the rainbow stacker. She has taken it apart and put it back together again and again. She made new shapes lining up the pieces, and created bridges and tunnels for her faeries and gnomes.

Head over to Monster Bites for a chance to win a Rainbow Stacker of your own! i believe their giveaways run for a week. So this one will close around August 5th!