Crocheting

When my grandmother was visiting a few weeks ago, we started some crocheting. She crocheted a bath puff/loofah. I wanted to use cotton/acrylic yarn, so once I had a few Swagbucks saved up, I got my yarn on Amazon (for free!). Cotton is very absorbent, so it takes longer to dry. So I'm hoping the cotton acrylic blend will work well. I started this last night. It's still tiny, so I guess I have a long way to go. It's a really easy pattern though. This is the one I'm using: here.

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Finishing stuff

I decided to make this the year for finishing things instead of starting more, as much as would like to make some pillows like this or start another quilt like this. Pinterest has given me so many projects to work on! So today I got a few things done that I've avoided, put off, or got tired of looking at in the closet, and just did it.

I found this pink thing at an estate sale and it was exactly what I've been wanting to use for a few old books. Some of them are my old books, and some vintage books I've picked up. I'm kind of proud that I eyeballed this and got it centered and level, no tools! :)

And I saw this a while back when I first started hunting for vintage sheets, and I've been wanting to do this ever since. I pulled out a few of my favorite sheets and some embroidery hoops. . . easy, thrifty wall hangings! I want to get a couple more up there, but I need to get some more hoops.

We also cleaned out part of our basement and set up the bed. Also on my list are a couple of painting projects, selling some stuff on ebay, and hanging a shelf in our bathroom. Stephen hates it when I put more holes in the wall.

Homemade gifts 2011

Now that all Christmas gifts have been given, I can post this. I didn't make as many gifts this past year for Christmas, but I made quite a few. I made several of these lotion baskets. I really liked doing them and found a couple of things I want to continue making for myself. I made a lemon scrub that is great for hands, feet, and face. It's just lemon juice, olive oil, and sugar. Some of the jars of lemon scrubs started to separate after a few days. They just need to be stirred up and they're fine. The lotion was easier to make than I thought. The first few jars I did, I made the mistake of multiplying the recipe and heating up the ingredients all at once and that messed up the temperature. It turns out much better to make one jar at a time. I found that when I made one jar at a time, followed the directions, and didn't worry about the temperatures, they came out perfectly. I got emulsifying wax on ebay. You can also get it on etsy or from Mountain Rose Herbs. I LOVE the lotion! Really, really love it! Normally my hands start getting dry in October and my knuckles stay cracked and even bleed at times until April. Even washing my hands hurt. I've used this lotion since October, and my hands haven't been dry at all yet! I don't think I'll ever buy lotion again! This is better than anything else I've tried, and I've used a lot of different lotions! The hardest part of these gifts was pouring the chapstick into the tubes. And even that wasn't that bad. I put the lotions and scrubs in mason jars and printed labels for them and also for the chapstick. I found all of these recipes last year (before Pinterest, believe it or not), but I had already made other gifts. It was pretty neat making them. I never thought I'd make my own lotion! So here's the recipes:

Lemon Scrub - works great, I use it about once a week
Chapstick - pretty good
Lotion - seriously the best lotion ever, I use it several times a day!



I've also followed these directions for a DIY mask/pore strips. It worked great! And I've been using this oil cleansing method for my face for about a month and have really liked the results. I love saving money/do it yourself/using less/simplifying! I also want to make this hair detangler for Rebecca. And for my hair I want to give this all natural hair care a try: Baking Soda Hair Cleansing. Please, don't think I'm crazy.

I also mostly finished the baby clothes quilt for Joy. We haven't worked on it in a while, so a few monthes ago I decided to finish it for her. I didn't get it quilted or tied off, so I decided to leave it up to Joy to decide what she wants to do with it, then I'll do the binding and finish it up.

I made a family version of the Guess Who game for the boys (which I saw on Pinterest). I got the game at a yard sale and just printed out pictures of relatives. I can't seem to get the pictures off my camera, but it was something like this one.

I made some sugar free brownies for Uncle Ken. I got some Splenda from a diabetic lady at church (that stuff isn't cheap!). I printed a couple of blank family trees for her to give as presents (like the ones I did last year), and she gave me Splenda. :)

I love doing homemade gifts, and I'm already coming up with some for next year!

Camera strap

I made a couple of camera strap covers for Christmas presents last year. I used a vintage sheet to make myself one.

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Ruffle apron

This is the apron I made for the ladies conference at our church. It's made from vintage sheets. I kind of like it.

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Dorothy costume

Rebecca's Dorothy costume is almost finished. It does look pretty good if I do say so myself. :) And I only spent $1 on the pattern and blue gingham sheet to make it!

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Father's day shadow box

I made this for my dad. It has a bunch of things that were my Grandpa Brickey's. A wrench (he was a carpenter), a key, buttons, his glasses, a business card, a letter from my Grandma, all things that were his. I like how it turned out. Happy Father's Day!

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Fathers Day cookies

Rebecca & I made cookies yesterday. I decorated this box that formerly held beanie babies using a pattern from Martha.

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Wall art

I've seen lots of vintage dress patterns as wall art lately. (I'm still kicking myself for not buying that box of vintage patterns a few months ago!) I found these images and printed them. I had 3 matching wood frames, and painted them blue. That's the color spray paint I had, so that's what I used. Now they hang in my closet. :)

Quiet book (finally!)

I started a quiet book for Rebecca in the fall. I didn't really buy much for this except for a few pieces of felt in colors I didn't have and some eyelets. I had everything else already. I've had the first pages of the quiet book done, but I just needed to get eyelets in to hold the pages together. I finally did that yesterday, so here's the first pages.

This is the cover:

The flowers button on and off and are double-sided, so they can be switched around and flipped over.

The gumballs are have velcro and come off and have matching stitching on the globe.

The mailbox flag goes up and down and the cover has velcro, so it can close.

The barn doors open and have a pocket inside for the animals.

The clock hands move around.

These are the animal finger puppets, which Rebecca loves!

And the back cover. I stitched our last name on the back in case we take it to church and leave it or something.

It's a fun project, but takes a lot of time! I have a couple more pages done, but they need a page to attach to the back before I'll add it to the book.

Blue mason jars

These were clear jars, and I made them blue with Mod Podge and food coloring. I used too much food coloring though, so they're darker than I wanted them to be. But I was a little amazed that this actually worked. Tutorial here. The tutorial says to add water to the Mod Podge, but I found I really didn't need to, it was already thin enough.

Pinterest

My friend Paula introduced me to Pinterest. I looooooove Pinterest now! It's like an online bulletin board you can pin stuff too. I used to bookmark stuff, but it's so much nicer to have the pictures to go with it. And I can follow my friends and anyone else I want to and see their pins too. You can see what I have pinned here. I have sooo many projects I want to work on now!. You need an invite to join, so let me know if you want one.

Some of you may have gotten an invite from me already. I need more people to follow, so join please. :)

2010 handmade gifts

Since all Christmas presents have been distributed to out of town relatives, I can post pictures of some of the things I made last year.

I made three family trees. I wanted to use a family tree that didn't look computer generated. The only one I found that I really liked was one from this scrapbook idea book, and drawn by hand by Amanda Probst. I scanned it, edited the names out. I like how they turned out.


I made six rice bags, and attached a tag on how to use them. They can be heated in the microwave and used as a hot pad for aches and pains, or put in the freezer to use as a cold pack. For the blue ones, I used scrap pieces of denim, and the pink ones are flannel. So soft! I kind of followed this tutorial to make them.

I had a bunch of fabric scraps and old linen calendars, so I used them to make pot holders/hot pads. I made about 20 of these! I made a couple for me, and I really like them. I was inspired by these. I didn't knit the bottom for mine. I'm a slow knitter.

I also made two aprons for my two sweet sisters in-law. I didn't think about taking pictures until I had wrapped them. I liked them, I want to make one for me with some vintage sheets. :)

I hope everyone enjoys their gifts as much as I enjoyed making them!

Growth Chart

Finally done with Rebecca's growth chart. I made it for her birthday, and just hadn't hung it up yet. I finally got a little picture hanging thingy to nail to the back and hung it this weekend. I got the wood from Lowe's and had Steve cut it to size for me. I painted it pink with regular craft paint. Then I used regular masking tape to paint the stripes. I just used the same color, and added some white to it. I used a regular felt tip pen for the lines and numbers. Maybe not the best way to do that part, but I knew there was no way I'd be able to paint numbers and lines. Right now she comes to the very bottom of the chart at 30 1/2 inches.

Now Joy and I are working on Justin's baby clothes quilt.

Party decorations

The birthday party went really well. We had a packed house, but it was a lot of fun. And almost everyone in Steve's family was together for the first time in a long long time.

Naomi made a great looking (and great tasting) cake. I made cupcakes, and Naomi came early to decorate them.


I didn't want to buy a lot of decorations for Rebecca's party. I bought balloons, and I spent $1 on the cupcake banner hanging over the high chair. I made everything else with supplies I had at home.

I used scrapbook papers and supplies to make the birthday banner.

The curly ribbon is a couple of gift bows from Rebecca's baby gifts. The paper rosettes were made from a story book I bought at a yard sale for .25 cents. I didn't like it and was just going to get rid of it. I had found instructions somewhere on the internet for paper rosettes, which I can't find now. They were pretty easy though. I tore out the pages, and folded them like a fan. I used the folded pages on most of mine and cut the ends to look a little more interesting.

I found a bunch of containers, cans, and jars I had around the house to use for chips, pretzels, forks, toothpicks, etc. I used a small mailbox decorated with green ribbon and a number "1" and put Rebecca's pictures in it for guests to take.

I bought this flag at a yard sale for .50 cents, and plan on using it again.

Another converted story book. This was really really easy. I just tore out the pages, which were perfect squares. Cut it in diagonals (four triangle pieces), folded one corner and stapled it, and used my hot glue gun to attach buttons and wooden dowels. I put them in a jar with some buttons and put it on the table as a centerpiece.

Now I start planning for next year. . .

Baby clothes quilt #1

Joy and I started working on a quilt of Justin's baby clothes a few months ago. Then holiday and birthdays came up and we didn't have much time to work on it. I took it back out last week and we've been finishing up cutting squares and piecing a few things together. This is #1 because we'll also do one of Jackson's clothes, and then Rebecca's. Here it is all laid out on the guest bed. I had to take it up this morning and put it all away, and I wanted a couple of pictures in case I can't get it all back just like this. It's looking pretty cute, I think. Justin is having his tonsils taken out next week, so we may not get back to the quilt for a couple of weeks. Justin had a ton of baby clothes, and I thought they were going to make a huge quilt! But it turns out, it's going to be a full size. Most of the squares are 6 inches, and there are a few odd sizes that had to be cut different. It will also have a 4 inch border all around it from his receiving blankets.

Hairbow holder

I bought a hairbow holder at a yard sale Saturday. It was plain white and said 'Gretchen and Sydney' and had pink polka dots. I could have just painted over the names and repainted Rebecca, but the polka dots were not perfectly round. I couldn't stand for that. So I started from scratch. I found one online I like, and used it as inspiration to paint this one. It looks okay I guess. I'm not sure I like my owl. But I only spent $1, and it will do the job. Can you believe these customized holders are $59.95!!! At that price, I'm sure they paint better than I do.

Cubes!

On our recent trip to Florida, while visiting our friends the Hazelwoods, Amanda introduced me to these fabulous cubes. I thought they were really nice, then she told me what she paid for them. ONE dollar!!! A DOLLAR!!! Then I thought they were fantastic! My mind was reeling with the possibilities. I had to find a way to get some of these! Unfortunately the store she got them at, Solomon's, was closed the entire week we were there. But Amanda was willing to pick some up for me when they were open. So then I just had to get them back to Arkansas somehow. My sweet mother in-law was willing to store them for me for a little while. But I was hoping she wouldn't need to and that I could get started on using them. Enter my sister Joy. It just so happened that Joy was going to Disney World two weeks after our Jacksonville trip, and she offered to pick them up. Of course, I had also promised her some cubes, so she may have been hoping to claim them all as her own. . . . :) Anyway, I got my 10 cubes and gave six to Joy.

I put one together Tuesday since I'll leave some of them plain. They are solid wood and can be painted, stained, etc. There are doors that go with them, but Solomon's didn't have any. Each cube has one open side and three sides that have a panel that is the perfect size for a 12x12 sheet of paper. I'll put paper in some, pictures in some. I know they're designed mainly for storage, but I think they'll be great night stands, end tables, etc.

Here's what some of Lisa Bearnson and Becky Higgin's cubes look like.

More pictures to come on my finished cubes.

Homemade gift bows

I came across instructions on how to make gift bows. Friday I was feeling under the weather, so I pretty much stayed in bed most of the day. But I did make some bows while snuggled up under my flannel sheets. I used paper from magazines and brads from my scrapbooking supplies. I could only get 8 strips from my magazine pages, and I cut them about 3/4 of an inch. I tried to pick the pages that had a dominant color. I found that making the first loops kind of big would fill in the middle more and cover the brad. Sometimes. I guess I need a little more practice. I don't think mine turned out as good as the ones in the instructions, but it was still fun. And almost free!

Etsy Shop

I put my first items up for sale on Etsy to see how they do. I plan on doing more cards and scrapbook kits. There's just a few cards on there so far. I have a few more I will add maybe tomorrow. For now, you can see what I have here: my Etsy shop