Crafty children

My children were around a lot of crafts and do it yourself projects growing up. We had some really lean years after Jeff was discharged from the Marines before he found a decent paying job in our town. The kids say they don't remember ever knowing we were just about poor. They say they thought we were the same as Martha Stewart because we were always making something or fixing something or cooking something,

just like Martha.

not really,

but I am glad they have good memories.........

Here are some of their recent crafty projects.

Nina bought this set of hot pink bathtowels in the back to school section at Walmart. She also got a spool of black and white polka-dot ribbon there. We sewed the trim on the towels and she will put these in their guest room.

I don't think the picture really shows how "stinking cute" these towels really are. That is Nina's adjective, not mine.

If you want to make some too, the towel sets are about $9 and one spool of 9 feet of ribbon is just exactly the right amount for these towels.

You can't really see Nina's shirt in the above picture so I made her pose again. Her brother Bobby does these T-shirts and sells them when his wife is singing with their rock band "Siva"

I think the shirts are very cool.

Bobby used some stencils and some kind of bleaching product for the design.

My Creative Space....

I've got a plan to swap around our 3 extra bedrooms. Right now one is a guest room and son Jimmy is staying there this summer. One is a craft room and the other has the computer and junk in it.

My plan is to make the biggest bedroom hold my craft stuff and the computer. Then, the other 2 can both be guest rooms with one also having baby Gavin's things.
So far, I have been cleaning out closets, cabinets and drawers trying to get rid of all the junk.

Then when Jimmy goes back to law school, I will switch everything.

My craft projects right now are

postage stamp quilt - so far I've sewn together 100 squares, that leaves about 2500 to go!

Sewing together and making yo-yos.


This is a re-do project for daughter Nina.
She got this old cross stitch pillow from her mother in law.
I cut it apart, cleaned and pressed it.


Then, I put it in a little thrift store frame that I painted black and covered the mat with blue paper.
I don't have a before picture, but it was a gold frame with flowers for the print, really awful.
The eggs are for Nina too, they are plastic Easter eggs decoupaged with leftover RSVP envelopes from her wedding.
She says she has several apothecary jars that need to be filled.

This is linked to Kootoyoo. Go there to visit other bloggers creative spaces.

Also linked to Kimba's DIY day at Soft Place to Land.

The Sewing Son In Law Part 2

This is our son in law John.

He and Nina are celebrating their second wedding anniversary.

The traditional gift for 2nd year is cotton so John wanted to sew something for Nina.

He picked out a pattern for wrap pants that Nina will wear as a beach cover-up on their upcoming trip to Top Sail N.C.

At Christmas, you may remember he sewed some potholders for Nina.

He used Simplicity pattern # 4192.
This pattern was easy to sew even with the darts and turning the ties.
I've helped lots of people learn to sew and John is just about the easiest student I've ever had. He is a math teacher so the numbers and measuring don't bother him and and he is also a football coach so he is just about fearless.

John is also a shrinking son-in-law. He has lost about 100 pounds since they got married.

Here are some pictures from their wedding.
the wedding
the reception
more at the reception

patchwork potholders

8 new potholders
the inspiration potholder on the right, it still looks pretty good even after 2 years of use.

my potholder drawer - cleaned out and neatly stacked - all ready for baking


2 years ago, I found the cutest patchwork potholder for a dime at a garage sale. I've been using this potholder ever since and finally got around to sewing a stack of similar ones.

When I finished sewing the king size quilt in June, it was such a big project and I was tired! I told my mom that the biggest thing I was going to sew from now on is potholders. She told me not to be silly, that I was young and had many more quilts left to sew.
Well, she is right, I already am planning the future quilts I will be starting soon.
But I did enjoy making some simple potholders.

Tuesday doings

I re-did 2 lamps and now have matching lamps in our bedroom.

For the shades, I used 2 shades that I bought on clearance at Hobby Lobby. They are sticky and came with the pattern for the fabric -they were very easy to cover! I used fabric glue to turn under the edges and for the ball trim.

The fabric has robins on it and I think it is so cute. I found it at my Mom's and I think the ball fringe is from her too.

I went to Walgreens and was happy that they had everything I wanted. I spent just under $19, checked out in 2 transactions and earned $8 more in register rewards. To learn about future Walgreens deals, I like to read the forums at SlickDeals.Net.
For current deals, Mercedes has a great site at http://www.commonsensewithmoney.com/

And baby Gavin - just because he is so sweet!
His mom took this picture this morning and sent it out on her I-phone.

what I've been working on

Nina and John both have June birthdays. They both love quilts and have asked me several times to make a king size quilt for their bed. I started on May 1 and with a little help from Jeff and Jimmy, somehow I finished this 9 feet by 9 feet blue and brown quilt in time for their birthdays.
They look pretty happy, don't they?

Visiting my parents house is kind of like going on a shopping trip where you don't need money. My mom has lots and lots of fabric, craft books, craft supplies, beads, yarn, crochet thread, etc. She always encourages me take whatever I want. When I was there, I bought back quite a few beads - just a fraction of what she has - I made these 2 necklaces and bracelets for you, Mom. I think they will both look really pretty with your green eyes.

I've had the beads all spread out on the craft table and Jimmy and Nina both said they just wanted to sit down and string some. Well, Jimmy had more time and....

He made this pretty blue one.

Mom, these necklaces are on their way to you along with some Aldi's bags and your green splatterware pan. Bert is going to deliver them to you.

Cheap and ugly to start with

These frames and plaques were bought at garage sales last summer - very cheap. They've been collecting dust in the back room closet ever since. I dug them out and re-did them and am so glad I did.

To start, they all got a coat of black spray paint.

That is the rectangle frame. I used my Cricut to cut out the letters from a favorite Bible verse.

The long mirror belonged to my grandparents and hung in their bedroom - I am not sure how I ended up with it, but isn't it pretty?

I'm not sure if I will keep the crown and fleur di lis, I have to think about things for a while before I decide.

That part of the big, blank wall looks much better with some art now.

I thought the plaques looked like toile and would work in the breakfast room.

Close-up

but they don't photograph as pretty as they really look.


I didn't re-do that big oval frame yet, I actually have 2 of them. But there is another big, blank wall in our bedroom so that might be my next project.

Almost anything can be updated with a little paint and new designs.

Bunch of Bibs

Baby Gavin spits up, I guess most all babies do, so to keep his clothes a little cleaner, I thought he needed some bibs. I had an assortment of soft childrens prints flannel scraps. I used this PDF pattern at Nested for the basic shape.

Mine are all just 2 layers of flannel, no batting for the filling, I think the flannel will be absorbent enough.

I ended up making 9 in all, they really sewed up fast!


All of them have Velcro for the fasteners.

what I'm doing today

Taking care of baby Gavin - check out his socks, they look like Converse high tops but are just socks. Gavin is 11 weeks old today.
I got this gold R at a rummage sale for 10 cents - sorry my pictures are out of order but look below to see it's makeover.


My daughter gives me boxes of randomness every so often - it is her no longer needed or wanted junk but I usually find very nice and useful stuff in her junk. I got this assortment from here last year.
Today I will be going through this current batch. Some of it is really junk but I 've washed the 3 glass jars, they will look great in my pantry. The pink Maggie B makeup bag and glasses case will be going in my purse. I think the napkin holder will be great in the breakfast nook.

The R after it's makeover.

I spray painted it black, cut an R from a sheet of damask print scrapbook paper and adhered it with Mod Podge.

Laundry drying on my new clothesline. I've been wanting one for quite a while. My lawyer-to-be son asked if I had the checked with the restrictions of our homeowners association, and, No, I have not, but I don't think it will be a problem. It is in the backyard inside a privacy fence.

I probably won't dry all our laundry outside but according to Gayle, you can really reduce your energy bills if you switch to line drying.

Update - Valerie asked where I got my clothesline. I could not find one sold locally so I ordered this one from Amazon. Jeff installed it with one bag of cement. I'm very happy with its quality and design.

decopaged eggs

I saw the cutest Easter eggs at Inspireco Her's are glittered and tied with ribbons. I planned to make mine just like hers.
I started with old plastic eggs in various sizes. Then I used pages from an old dictionary and encyclopaedia and some scrapbook paper that looks old.
For glue, at first I used the last of some Mod Podge thinned with a bit of water. When that ran out, I switched to Elmers School Glue, also watered down.
Both glues work great, I like the mod podge ones because they have a bit of a shine but the Elmers glue is much easier to wash off your hands.

This batch of 2 dozen eggs won't be for Easter though. I really like they way look just plain and in a black egg basket in our dining room all year.

Tracey at Frugal Luxuries by the Seasons also made some very pretty decopaged eggs. She used real eggs.

These would be a great craft for children and youth to make. You just have a way for them to wash their hands afterward, my hands were pretty much covered with glue.

Organizing Cash

I think the biggest key for me to keep our spending in check and our budget balanced is planning ahead. If I just look in the checkbook and see how much money is there, I might think I should not spend in one area or I may think I can spend more than I should in another area.
So now, I pretty much plan out all my spending. Bills get paid online. But I use cash for other spending. Putting a stack of cash in my billfold did not seem organized. Then I tried paper envelopes but they wear out very quickly.
I saw several cloth billfold systems on Etsy, and after a few attempts and using fabric I already had, I sewed up this system. I've been using it over a month and so far it is great.
I made 5 pockets that all can be removed and moved as needed. Mine are labeled
Gas - this is just for my car
Home -household, grocery items
Personal - stuff for me
Fun - eating out, movies, plays - whatever Jeff and I want to do
Gifts
I also made another pouch with a zipper to hold change.
Jeff gets a separate amount of cash that he uses for his gas and personal spending but he does not use a cute fabric billfold for his like I do
The labels are just scraps of seam tape and I used rubber stamps for the letters.

So once a month, I pay bills on line and then figure out how much cash I need to put in each envelope. Then as the month goes on, I just spend from each envelope. I don't try to divide the change back out exactly, it all goes into the zippered pocket.

Last month, I spent most all the of the home, gas and personal funds. But the fun and gifts envelopes were still pretty full.

Jeff looked in the fun envelope this week and was surprised to see so much money in there. I think he is planning some fun activities for us this weekend - I am such a homebody, I rarely plan an outing so having the funds set aside should keep us more active.

And our budget is not so tight that if I do spend all my cash and still need things, I can write a check. This planning ahead is helping us save though. Even though I have not been employed for almost 2 months now, our checking and savings accounts balances are higher now than when I got my last paycheck.

Stick a fork in it.........

It's done!

One of my goals this week was to finish this quilt. I am very happy that is only Tuesday and it is done!

This quilt is big and was a big project. It is queen size - 96 by 108 inches. It looks even bigger because I spread it out on the full size bed in the guest room for the picture.
Thank you to everyone who voted when I asked if this quilt should be sewn together with the black lines forming X's or zig zags. By a big majority, you voted for the X's.

No, there are no more big quilts being planned. For now, I will be having fun with small projects. And I will be moving on to Christmas decorating too.

Pretty trash cans

I applied some Mod-Podge and wrapping paper to 2 trash cans. Both took just about 15 minutes to do. And I think they look much nicer now. The brown one is in the master bath room.

Before - just a plain plastic trash can

After - covered in quilt print paper, this one is in the guest room.

New Clothes Pin Bag

Debbie at Homemaking Dreams has been making and selling some very cute clothes pin bags. She has a tutorial for how to make them too.
I have been wanting one so I just dug through my fabric and found these Debbie Mumm retro homemaker fabrics, I think I bought them in 2002.
I don't have an outdoor clothes line but I do use clothes pins to hang skirts and pants from regular clothes hangers. My bag will be hanging inside just above the clothes dryer in the laundry room

Debbie, thanks for your tutorial!

Paper organizer for the kitchen

I belong to a few discussion - friendship groups on Yahoogroups.com. On one of the lists geared toward homemaking, we talked about recycling trash into useful home items. I told them about this organizer I made years ago and Tracey want to see pictures. It is a very low-cost craft. Start with a large flat style Priority Mail carton. Cut it diagonally through the middle and seal the ends. Glue the 2 box pieces together and that will be the base.
Side view
Cover the outside (I used fabric)

Cover the inside (I used scrap book paper)

Put 4 feet on the bottom (I used wood door handles)

Now, you are ready to organize your papers!

New hand towels for the bathrooms

Both of the bathrooms needed new hand towels. I like white towels because I can wash them in hot water with bleach to disinfect them but they don't change color.
I found packages of hand towels at Big Lots, just $5 for a package of 5. For the hall bathroom, I sewed polka dot ribbon on them - it matches the shower curtain in that bathroom.
I used fabric scraps for the master bath room, scraps left from the rugs I made last month.

I decorated all 10 towels - 4 for the hall bath and 6 for the master bath.