stitched felt barrette

hi all!

yea so it has been snowing ALL DAY here - WTF?  i mean i love snow but wow - before halloween?  i don't even have pezza's winter coat and snowpants yet!

i did my usual grocery trip yesterday thank goodness.  and let's talk about extreme couponing for a minute.  now i will freely admit that i totally don't get it but i WANT to.  so i decided i was going to be really smart this trip and search for coupons and look at sales ads on the web.  i already had my list.  so i spent a couple hours on this.  i managed to find a number of coupons to take with me.  i also looked up sales but the bottom line is - i am not going to drive around to three different places just for a sale - waste of time and gas money.  i am also not going to buy something i don't need - i really only have the money to buy what i need right now.

BUT i did have several coupons so i was feeling quite smug with myself as i began shopping, carefully looking for the exact whatever the coupon specified.  i would say a third of the items i had a coupon for were not in the store.  so strike those off.  several items i could get cheaper by buying a different brand and the few coupons i had left that i could use - well i forgot all about them while checking out.  big giant FAIL on that one.

luckily we had nowhere to go so we have been laze-ing around the house all day. i got around to doing some stitching i have really been wanting to do.  pezza picked out a pink sweater dress for xmas so i made her a matching barrette:

i used some gorgeous felt from Janet over at Felt On the Fly in pink, green and ivory (be sure to check out her bookmark kits as featured in Through the Craft Room Door's holiday issue).  I cut the felt using spellbinders dies - cuts like a dream.

I used pink & iridescent white floss, iridescent beads and some pink buttons.

i added beads to the large circle while doing the blanket stitch around it and i love the effect!  i also used a mix of straight stitches, french knots and a few star stitches.  I did each piece individually and then stitched them onto the base piece.  I used hot glue to further secure the pieces and to glue a barrette blank to the back.  i see yet another hobby in my life - this was a fun project and a great thing to keep near the tv in the evenings.  i think i may try a crocheted edge on my next piece!  my inspiration comes partially from pinterest of course!