Matt's Car Caddy

Here is a little car caddy I made for Matt, my nephew. My friend Chantal just asked in the crayon roll post if I have tried making one yet. Yep, here it is. A little more time consuming than the crayon roll but very similar idea. This has been on my to do list since I saw it on SYTYC. I of course used Jill's tutorial from Homemade by Jill. Thanks Jill for sharing all your great ideas!

Crayon Rolls

Be aware that making crayon rolls are addicting. If you are like me you might end up making 5 at one time. They are fast, simple and easy.

My favorite tutorial is from The Pleated Poppy.

I used ribbon to tie it up for a few and then hair elastics for the rest. These would make great stocking stuffers for Christmas. If you are way ahead of the game.

Long Time No See

My sewing machine has made residence on my kitchen table again after months of being stuffed in the closet.

And what was my first project? Just some burp cloths I whipped up for a friend's new baby boy.

There is a lot more coming. I have been working on birthday presents and a pirate party is in the works. My crafty to do list is getting out of hand.

A Girl Can Dream

Can you tell that my life goes in cycles. Some weeks I am super woman, my house is clean, we do lot of fun things, I somehow find time to craft and blog about it all.

Other weeks I struggle to keep my house remotely clean, keep my sanity and I can't even manage to get dinner on the table. During those weeks once the kids are in bed all I can think about is taking a HOT shower and going to bed myself.

Life has been busy. As I get closer to my due date (April) the time goes faster and the to do list gets longer. Our family has been living at the doctor's office the last couple of months. I have driven to the doctors at least 2 times a week for the past 2 months and we are not even sick (okay, maybe a little off the norm)! OB's, Pediatricians, Neurologist, extra Ultrasounds, and the Gastroenterologist. Luckily we have good insurance and are all looking healthy.

But on the crafty side I saw this and I want it. BAD!

I love, love, love it!

Here is the link to V and Co and her tutorial at moda bake shop. I don't think I have it in me to make it or even put it on my to do list. So if anyone wants to make it for me, please do. I will be watching the mail. I want that exact fabric, even if I have a boy.

A girl can dream.

Polka Dot Heart Pillow

I am just loving this polka dot fabric. Especially for Valentine's Day. This pillow was very simple to make.

*** I have had this ready to post for almost a week. This week has been much busier than anticipated. If you want directions on how I made this pillow let me know. I typed it out but when I saved it the format got messed up so I deleted it. I am hoping life will slow down next week.

Have a Happy Valentine's Day!

Lily's LOVE Shirt

I found this turtleneck at Target for $2. There was a huge rack of them. I guess San Diegans don't want white turtlenecks. I appliqued LOVE on it for Valentine's Day. Super Easy!

Birthday Crown

I have been wanting to make this birthday crown for over a year. I was going to make it for Lily's first birthday but ran out of time. I finally got around to making it just in time for her second birthday. I used the tutorial over at Juicy bits.

To tell you the truth, after making it, I am not a fan. It looked cute in the pictures but I really don't love it. I told Justin my only goal for this crown is for Lily to wear it for 3 seconds so I can get a picture. That has yet to happen. I think I will just toss it in her dress up box and try to forget it ever happened.

Baby Boys

I made up some onesies and burp cloths for two of my friend's baby boys. Everyone I know is having a boy right now.

This scooter was cut out of some baby flannel I had.

When I make these onesies I use a double stick fusible web to attach the fabric. To secure the fabric I hand stitched around the design. I was worried about the inside stitching and knots being too rough on the newborn's skin so I covered it up by attaching a white piece of fabric using the fusible webbing.

Above is the inside of the onesie, showing off my messy stitching. Below is showing it covered up with the white piece of fabric to protect the baby's skin. (Do you like how huge these pictures are? Oh well.)

In my opinion (and my husband's) cloth diapers are by far the BEST burp cloths. They are absorbent, soft and have minimal runoff. I dressed some up with a strip of baby flannel.

Reversible Baby Hat

In December I checked Lotta Jansdotter's Simple Sewing for Baby from my local library. Due to the busy Christmas season I didn't get the time I wanted with the book but asked Santa for my very own copy. Lucky for me I got two sewing books Simple Sewing for Baby and InStitches by Amy Butler.

Nothing in Simple Sewing for Baby is super unique or hard. They are just a bunch of simple projects for baby. This book is for someone like me who is just getting into sewing and likes to have a pattern, even for small projects.

This Baby hat was the first thing to catch my eye, where I thought, "I have to make one of those." I made one and was so happy about how fast and easy it was that I made another. One side is a cute pink flannel and the other is a cream fleece material.

4 Giveaways down, 1 to Go. It has almost been an entire year. yikes!

P.S. If you are one of my friends and are wondering why you didn't get a Christmas gift (mentioned here) this year. It is because I ran out of time, got too stressed and am saving all my grand plans for next year. So sorry, no presents this year, except that I survived Christmas, that should be present enough (maybe).

Lily's Kitchen

Last Summer we picked up this Pottery Barn Kids Kitchen at DownEast Home. It needed a little bit of love so it sat in Lily's closet for the last couple of months as a shoe/ toy rack. For Christmas, Santa's elves fixed it up. Justin did all the handy work and I did all the sewing.

Before: No Doors, Loose Knobs, No Curtains, No Accessories

After: Fold down oven door, Cabinet Door, Curtains, Hot Pads, Pots and Pans (Ikea) and tight knobs.

No Pattern Apron

A couple of weeks ago I dreamt up this apron in my head. I knew exactly what I wanted it to look like. I used my William Sonoma apron to estimate the measurements and went to work. I actually finished it in one day. Which is a miracle for me. It usually takes me weeks to do a project like this. There are a couple of things I might change for next time, but not too bad for not having a pattern.
My friend Kim was kind enough to be my model. When I tried it on me it looked all wrong with my baby bump hitting it in the wrong spot.

Lily's 1st Purse

Lily has become interested in everything girly in the last couple of weeks. She steals my purse everyday. I made her her very own purse for Christmas. I had in my head what I wanted it to look like and made it up as I went. I was excited to see how fast I whipped this up. I might make one for myself. Lily's measures about 7.5 inches wide and 4.5 inches tall. After I made this I realized that it looks just like the one on make it and love it. Maybe sub-consciously that is where I got the idea of what I wanted it to look like. I was thinking of making a tutorial if anyone was interested.

Little Red Riding Hood

For some reason I had my heart set on Lily being Little Red Riding Hood for Halloween. I also had the goal to make Lily a dress by the end of the year. I combined the two and made Lily her Halloween costume. It was my first time making a dress and following a pattern. It turned out far from perfect but I am still proud of my accomplishment.

I bought the pattern at Walmart. It was not the Halloween costume pattern. I wanted to make her a real dress. That she could maybe wear to church. I used the New Look 6448 pattern. I made a size 2 and it turned out pretty big so she might be Little Red Riding Hood next year too.

She was not fond of the cape and kept taking it off. I didn't have a pattern for that but just looked at some tutorials online and made it up as I went.

Kim's Halloween Placemats

A year ago I went to visit my family in Colorado. My sister and I thought it would be fun to have a craft day. We went to Joannes, picked out Halloween fabric to make a Halloween throw. We got back to my mom's house and while all the kids were watching a movie and running around she finished her quilt top. I however did not. I sewed and unpicked, sewed and unpicked, sewed and unpicked. Then my mom and sister felt sorry for me and my sewing abilities. I ended up with nothing by the end of the day. I brought the fabric home and tried again, determined to do it. I sewed some more and unpicked even more until I threw the fabric into my stash. I didn't want to touch the cursed fabric for a year.

So I didn't!

But all year I tried to think of something I wanted to make out of the fabric. Definitely NOT a Halloween throw. I borrowed Amy Butler's In Stitches from the library. I loved it. I wanted to make everything in there. But didn't. I just need to own it. I picked one of the easiest projects in there, the placemats. I finally used up my cursed Halloween fabric and I love how they turned out. I made 4 and gave them to my friend Kim. 3 people down 2 to go for my little giveaway.

Happy Late Halloween!

The Little House is DONE!!!

I have to say that I am having trouble finding the energy to be crafty. I am 13 weeks pregnant and I am tired. If I do have a second to do anything I usually lay down, watch tv or read a book. I have been going to bed early, so I haven't been too crafty the last couple of weeks. This week I have started to feel the holiday deadlines looming. I have a long list of crafts that I want to get done before Halloween and Christmas, so I pulled out my sewing machine again and have been working on some Halloween placemats.

This past weekend I finished the Little House. It is not perfect by any means but the kids haven't noticed. It was the perfect weekend to debut it because of General Conference. It keep the kids busy for hours. Justin was kind enough to snap these pictures for me (because I was too tired to even think about it). To see what all the sides look like click on the "Little House" label (on the left side bar) to pull up previous posts.

I was a little hesitant to post my house because I saw one on Homemade by Jill here and here. Geez, she is talented. And have you seen her quiet books. I am tempted to make one, but know it will take me 20 years. Afterall, look how long it took me to finish this house (only 5 months is all). Maybe I will start making one for my grand kids.



PS I hope I didn't sound like I was complaining about being tired. I was just giving excuses to why I haven't been crafty.

Modest-fying my Swim Suit

Before:

I went to the pool a couple of weeks ago and realized when I moved my arms from the stationary position (at my sides) the cups of my swim suit would open up like a cover of a book, offering everyone a full view of my (ahem) well, the tiny results of nursing two kids. I am way too lazy to go modest swim suit shopping in the fall. With all of the repurposing going on all over blog world I felt inspired just to fix my swim suit. I cut the ring off and sewed the two pieces that used to hold the ring together. Ta Da non-revealing swimming suit. It is a little more boring without the ring. But I rather have it that way than show off what exactly I am lacking on top.

After:

Little House Garden

I am getting sick of this little house. I want to move on to other projects. My attention span is too short for such a big project. I had a couple more ideas but I think I am just going to keep it to this. I am in the process of sewing it all together and then I will post the final product.

And of course the inspiration for this garden is from Make it and Love it's fort. That is where I got the whole "little house" idea from anyway. The middle flower is inspired by Meg's flowers over at whatever. FYI: whatever is my favorite blog. I just love all of her pictures and I want to live in her house. Or have a house exactly like it for my little family.

More Chalkboard Placemats

I made 4 more chalkboard placemats. I was planning on keeping 2 and then giving 2 away. But now I am feeling greedy, and I think I am going to keep them all to myself. Last time I made them I kind of just guessed around the corners. The final product was not that great. This time I adapted this make it and love it tutorial to sewing the bias tape on the placemats. Same idea as the door just reversed. I cut 4 pieces for the 4 sides, sewed them together and then attached them to the chalkboard and oilcloth. The corners look way better this time. Now I feel bad that Hilary got the bad placemats. We might have to trade some how.

Little House Photo Wall

Today I finished the photo wall for the little house. Only one more wall to go! The photos will hang inside the house when it is finished. When I hung it up to take pictures the kids went crazy. They were crawling underneath it and checking out all the photos. It was impossible to get pictures without the kiddies in them.

Please ignore Lily's sunscreen, swimming, bed head.I made 4 frames with some scrap baby fabric. There are two boy frames and two girl frames. I used some leftover vinyl from the window to make the "glass" for the frames.

I printed off 9 photos of family and friends and laminated them for safe keeping. The pictures slide in and out of the frames so the kids can change the pictures whenever their little hearts desire.

This photo was not staged the kids were loving it. It gives me hope that they will like the final product.

Little House Door

I finally finished the door and mailbox for my little house today. One of my friends asked me how I was holding up the walls for the pictures. I am just temporarily holding them up with masking tape for the pictures. Once I finish each side I plan to sew them all to the roof piece. The house will hang over our card table, just like the fort on Make it and Love it. I have not finished the bottoms of the walls because I am not sure how I am going to finish them yet.



I have had these postcards since I was 13 years old. I wrote little notes to the kids and laminated them so that they will last more than one day of play. I received a Xyron 510 years ago for my birthday. I got it for all my scrapbooking but had never used it because I stopped scrapbooking shortly after receiving it. Today was the first time I used it. I bought a laminating cartridge so I could laminate the postcards. It was amazing. I can't believe I have never used it. I want to laminate everything now.

You are welcome to send the kiddies a postcard and I will laminate it and put it in their little house mail box.

I was trying to find an inexpensive way to finish the door and window without buying premade bias tape (I don't know how to make my own). I found this twill ribbon (I don't know what it is really called) sold by the yard at Beverly's. All I did was iron it in half and use it like bias tape. I love how it looks. It turns out it is not all that much cheaper than the pre-made packaged bias tape but I think I prefer it for this project anyway.