The Kira Nichols Etsy Shop

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Bluebird Baby Cap

Actually, this project turned out WAY tinier than I had planned, so its only hope would be to fit on a babydoll's head or a teeny premature baby. Ack, that's what I get for not working with a pattern. I could have turned it into a stuffie, but didn't. Meh.
I used felt and fleece stitched on with embroidery floss for the eyes and beak.
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Amphibians, Oh MY!

I thought I'd just throw in a non-craft-related post for the heck of it. Right now, I'm up in Edmonds, Washington at my in-laws house, but last week I was in Oregon staying with my parents. They live in a reasonably rural area on a hill that overlooks a big old pond. I saw 2 different kinds of amphibians... The first, I think, was a salamander or newt. He had a bright orange belly!
This little frog was eating worms by the garage door. He was surprisingly very fast and hoppy even though it was freezing outside.
Here's me, my sister, my mom, and my niece out front. You can see the big pond in the background. No wonder there are tons of frogs and junk. Moisture.
Annnnd this is just a little bonus frog. I have this picture from when Bobby and I went to a lake in Alabama and found a hundred tiny frogs. Isn't it so eeny-weeny?! Anyways, I hope you liked this amphibious blogpost... Enjoy the rest of your day~
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Beaded Butterfly Ornaments

Here's the other teaser revealed! A hand-beaded butterfly ornament. Well, two, actually, but I didn't get a picture of the other one once it was all put together. Oops. But you get the idea.
I sewed on all the beads and sequins to a printed butterfly on cotton with a needle and thread, then used hot glue to stick it onto a couple layers of felt to make a firm backing. The process of sewing on all the beads is so dang tedious, but I love the end results... I just can't resist sparkly.
Here is the other piece I did a while ago before I cut it out and applied the firm backing and loop... It's about twice the size of the other one.

So I'm still out on vacation and I've been given a BUTTLOAD of new crafting materials by my family! I can hardly wait to get back home and start making some awesome stuff. Okay, get this. My mom got me 9 new colorbox inkpad queues. N-I-N-E. And that's six colors per queue. Holy crap. Papercrafting heaven. I also found some awesome fleece remnants at Joann (it sucks there's no Joann near me in Alabama. BOOOOO). They were 75% off, so I got about 4 yards at $2.00 each. Cool huh?! I can't wait to start making stuffies when I get back. Not to mention, my MIL gave me a ton of fabric scraps and different colors of thread... which is amazing. I think I might just have to do a whole post on my new supplies just to brag about them :D Looks like 201o will be another crafty year!
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Crocheted Kitty Cat Hat

Who doesn't love a little kitty cat hat?! I actually made this for my niece this summer and have actually sat on it and not blogged it for THIS LONG!
I almost can't believe I waited until after Christmas. I used caron simply soft yarn and fleece for the eyes....
Tada! Happy Sunday everyone.
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Mixed Media Owl Painting

TEASER REVEALED! This is the painting/drawing I did for my brother this Christmas. I used watercolors to create a texture for the background (I totally just typed "texture for the bathroom," durrrr). Then I used a micron drawing pen to draw and detail the owl.
I like to draw the main subjects first on a separate sheet of paper and then cut them out to paste onto a pre-made background. I was trying to use the same sheet and just use a masking liquid, but cutting out is just simpler and I like the end result better.
Here it is with my materials!
I framed it in a plain black frame and created a matteboard by cutting one out of a cereal box and glue-sticking on shredded bits of handmade paper... It's a pretty neat skill, so maybe I'll do a tutorial sometime soon.

It's Christmas Eve! :D
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Coiled Fabric Trivets/Potholders!

My family had our Christmas morning today so my sis could do official Christmas Day at her in-laws! So now the posting of Christmas goodies I've made can begin!!! Here are a set of trivets/potholders I made my mom using the same method I used for all those fabric bowls.
This one is my fave. All the blues worked out really nicely...
This one is cute, but I didn't think the colors were as good.
I used the same fabric for this whole thing. :D I've gotta go, now! We're playing games!
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Shades of Green Paint Chip Doodles

Today we're driving out to McMinnville to the Air and Space Museum. I guess there's the "Spruce Goose" there. I don't know much about it, but I'm told it's the biggest wooden airplane EVAR.

Anyways, I was going through my picasa and realized I never posted this set of paintchip doodling. I'm pretty sure my favorite part is the little spiders.

o, btw, CHRISTMASSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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Homegrown Apples in a Fabric Bowl!

One of the things I miss about the northwest are the delicious homegrown apples... They're little and so crispy and fresh and always taste better! These ones grew on my mom's tree and are flippin' delicious.
I had time to make a fabric bowl today, for a friend back in Alabama who is sooo kindly watching our dog while we're away. The decor in her kitchen is red apples, so I thought this red/mustard fabric would be a good material to use.
I'm trying to think of things I can load into the bowl as kind of a gift basket. I haven't ever really put together a gift basket, so I'm kinda stumped. I'll probably throw some fresh apples in there and maybe some Tim's Cascade Chips..... Mmmm, my favorite.... It sucks they don't sell them in Alabama. Anybody have any ideas for stuff they'd think would be good in a gift basket?
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Various Bird Pen Drawings

Ah, visiting family for Christmas is so nice, but so much busier than normal life :) So far, I've been doing a lot of hanging out, lots of shopping in Hillsboro, and I even got to drive up to Washington to hang out with some of my pals!
I had some time this evening to work on some drawings for my Pa... It's kind of risky posting them here, but I don't think he will be checking my blog so soon, or at least I hope so...
Anyways, my hubby flies in TOMORROW! I can't wait. Good night!
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Old Swan Acrylic Paintings

Here's an old project I can post! I painted this for my parent's anniversary last February. Their property overlooks a big pond and sometimes they see swans fly by. It's acrylic on canvas and it lives on the wall at my parent's house...
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Awesome Vintage Owl Fabric

Hey everyone! I know, it's been a while since my last post... Posts are still going to be pretty sparse this month until after Christmas. I'm visiting my family in Oregon! I got here yesterday evening and am already having fun.
We went for a little shopping today and I scored some AWESOME vintage fabric at the Goodwill. At least I think it's vintage. (It smells vintage :P) I got 3 yards for $1.99!
The pattern is little owls. How flippin' cute is that? I'm not sure yet what I'm going to make out of it, but I just really couldn't pass it up.
Hopefully I can post some projects soon. My sister brought some stuff I made for my nieces a while ago that I never blogged. They'll have to model and I can share! I hope everyone's December is going great so far. Mine is going pretty great :D
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Busy, and craving exercise!


Did I even spell exercise right? That's always been one of those tough words like 'vacuum' and 'their' which I still don't know if I'm spelling correctly. Oh well, there are more important things than spelling right now. My plan today is to clean and vacuum (?!) downstairs and try to keep it clean at least until I head out on Sunday. Yeah, wish me luck. Maybe I'll try to do a load of laundry or two... I'm sure that running the dryer will bring up the temperature in my house at least one degree. I'm frozen here.

So, Audrey said that the teaser I posted yesterday was killing her, so I decided to be mean and post another. I guess it's better than nothing to look at, right? But at any rate, I'm trying to decide on which arts or crafts I can bring for my travels. I'm thinking perhaps a drawing pen and a stack of ATC bases, maybe some yarn and a crochet hook. I am SO EXCITED to go back to the northwest!
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Beads and other sparkle...

Happy Monday.
I know I said I'd be updating often, and I had hoped to post at least every other day.... But preparing for a trip is tedious and oh so time-consuming. Not to mention, the stuff I've been crafting is all presents and stuff that I can't post quite yet. So here's a little teaser. Now you know that someone somewhere will be receiving something hand-beaded/sequined. I've got some stuff I'll be pretty proud of to show off post-Christmas.

So, in my spare internet time I've been surfing other craft blogs and have come across some pretty wonderful ones. They put this humble blog to shame and make me a teensy bit jealous. That being said, I think I'm going to try to make some changes to my blog to make it a little cooler, perhaps a but more navigable. Changes will probably happen come January... I hope. Anyways, thanks again for reading! Merry Christmas!
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Recycle Last Year's Christmas Cards into Gift Tags!

It's 62 degrees inside my house and I am c-c-c-cold! We're trying to see how much we can save on our electric bill by not running the heat, but I'm questioning whether or not it's worth it! I'm wearing several layers of clothing, and I'm still kinda shivery... Oh well, here's to experimenting. Well, in our box of Christmas decorations I found last year's Christmas cards and immediately thought: HANG TAGS!
So if you've got some old cards laying around and you hate to toss 'em in the bin, here's an easy way to get one more use out of those cute pictures. Since I use all my old cereal/cracker/whatever boxes for ATC bases, inchies, 6x6 pages, etc, I always have a few little pieces left over that are a bit too small and in odd sizes. I save them to make my hangtags!
So what I did was cut out pictures from the Christmas cards and glued them to the printed side of the pieces, so that the backs are plain brown for writing the "to/from" messages on. If some pictures were too small, I filled in the rest with other paper. You could get all fancy with stickers and inkpads and glitter or all other sorts of embellishments, but I kept it pretty basic. I figure they'll get chucked out with the old torn-up wrapping paper, so I didn't want to put too much work into them. Speaking of wrapping paper, you could make matching tags by taking the pictures from a bit of the same wrapping paper and making these tags for 'em!
To finish them off, I punched a little hole in a corner of each and looped through a color-coordinated bit of string from my stash of little bits of embroidery thread that were too short to use for embroidering (see, I knew I kept those for a reason).

Whoot! Now I'll have tags for all my gifts, and I no longer have that stack of Christmas cards lying about. I guess this is a good idea to apply to all those other cards I've saved for other occasions... Birthdays, weddings, etc. Ah, for another day.