Failure and Finds

I am a middle school Language Arts teacher. I teach kids to read, however I often find I am a skimmer and it gets me into lots of trouble. Yesterday my son and I headed out to an estate sale that was about fifteen miles from home. I plugged the address in my phone and off we went.We parked and ran to the sale drenched from the deluge. Once inside I found a ton of treasures BUT what I failed to read was the sale only accepted cash and I had none. Back to the car we went in search of cash. I looked on the trees, but found none.We came back twenty minutes later, and of course one of my finds was gone. Sigh. Here is what I did score for all of $11.30.

You can't see the plastic bag, but inside is some fabu lace. Lots of bias tape and such for my projects. The fabric is two yards of pristine cream wool and two yards of this fun stuff. I am sure I will find some terrific things to make soon.

I wrapped up a few projects today and had an EPIC failure. Beverly at http://www.flamingotoes.com/ sent me some awesome downloads to make LO VE pillows. Now, I have never had luck with iron on transfers. I admit I am impatient and don't READ directions. Soooo this time around I took a deep breath and read them carefully. The end result? Failure. No matter what I just can't seem to figure out those suckers. I need someone to help me. Maybe it is my iron. I admit our iron is cheap (and if you read my last post you know we never use it). Anyone? Anyone?

Here are the projects that were somewhat more successful...

 This is a yarn wrapped wreath with chenille rosettes. I glued vintage black buttons in the center and wrapped some muslin "ribbon" I bought off of Etsy a few years ago. I have to say I am really  not in love with this piece. I think it is the color of red yarn I used. It is just a little too...clown red? Primary red? Not sure what you would call it, but I'm just not into it.

I also finished two LOVE banners. I may throw them up on Etsy, but it is really hard to get a good picture. I would love to take an outdoor one but, we are expecting nothing but torrential downpours for the next week. These pictures also put me over the edge in terms of my kitchen wall color. I painted it six years ago and it needs a new color bad. We are in the beginning stages of a kitchen remodel, but I don't think I can wait until summer because I am almost throwing up in my mouth over the color in the pictures.

I made this a few years ago, but I still like her. I made it with felt and stitched the letters with embroidery thread then glued everything on foam core board.

Other than the LOVE pillows I still may attempt, I think I am all crafted out on Valentines. I may lay down the glue gun for a few weeks and begin planning the kitchen remodel and my daughter's bedroom in earnest. Or I can plan the shed, the storage-room-to-bedroom transformation, or the bike shed, or...maybe I should just read.