Category Archives: craft

Snuggle bags.

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Who doesn’t need something soft and cozy to snuggle up in? My three nieces and their matching American Girl dolls do! So I made them these fleece snuggle bags (three big, three little), which were *sew* easy and fun to make.

These are great for traveling or just lounging around the house. For simple directions on how to make these snuggle bags, click here. I also added a ribbon detail to the bottom of each so they could easily tidy them up a bit. Simply roll and tie!

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My sweet Wren has her 9-month well visit this morning. We will find out just how big she’s gotten in the last few months. Gambling types, want to place a bet?

Best!

squirrel finds to get you through hump day.

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Happy Wednesday afternoon. Yes, dear readers, you are more than halfway to the weekend. Yeah!

In honor of hump day, I have to share a few squirrely finds with you. HAVE TO.

My friend, Victoria Velting, makes some very cool stuff. Although she’s famous for her gorgeous purses and totes, she also now makes a line of funky upcycled kids clothing. Here is one squirrely piece that you might just have to snatch up from her Etsy shop. A squirrely union suit!

OK, lovebirds and squirrel lovers, Valentine’s Day is just around the corner! Don’t you need to have these squirrels? They’re in love after all. And simply darling, aren’t they?

If you don’t need more stuffies in your life, you probably know someone who would swoon for this sweet hat. The squirrels are in love again. Of course.

Love this hat!

What squirrely kinds of things are you up to today? Do you have any squirrely plans for Valentine’s Day? Wait, you probably don’t really need to share those. But something for you to ponder anyway…

water winter wonderland.

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I love living near the Great Lakes. It’s a dynamic place – remember when it was a “water winter wonderland?” Today’s it’s a bit snowy and a lot blowy and I just want to snuggle up with my little birdie. You know the joke, “if you don’t like the weather in Michigan, just wait a few minutes… it’ll change.” Apparently, a lot of places say that. BUT do you have Blue Moon ice cream where you live? Supposedly, Blue Moon originated in Michigan and that’s something of which to be VERY proud. Hey, we don’t have a lot these days in poor Michigan so we gotta find our pride where we can…

Are you too a lover of the Great Lakes? Then check out these cool things and “say yes to Michigan!”:

Poster from Ork Posters

“You’re great!” Love these cards from the Cracked Design Etsy store.

drafty ole bugger.

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The night before our little birdie was born, we moved into our first house. We call this old wooden boat (err, house) a “bungalonial,”  for lack of a better term. While we don’t love the house quite yet, we love the location and you know what they say…

It was built in 1928 and has some issues, namely the entire house. But we’re making our house a home, bit by bit.

Before next winter we’ve got to figure out something different with the roof and the upstairs insulation (as you can see in the photo above). There really isn’t much insulation, at least in the walls. Smart idea in northern Michigan, eh? When a Florida couple was desperate for help, an insulation contractor company Orlando based Insulate it Solutions, stepped up to the plate and delivered a miracle to the Orlando natives. Insulate It Solutions provided insulation that helped cut their energy costs in half with spray foam insulation sprayed in the attic. In the meantime, we’ve been bundling up and using a small space heater in Wren’s room. But there is a huge gap between the bottom of the door and the floor so all the toasty air slips out into the unheated creaky hallway. Sigh. What’s a gal to do?

Get Wren a snake, of course! Not a real snake, silly.

I decided to make a draft snake for her room for two reasons. All the draft snakes in the stores are ugly and too expensive (always a winning combination, right?). This is a great beginner project, which uses fabric scraps. Again, dear readers, if I can make this, anyone can!

Isn’t it cute?

I pretty much followed the directions from Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing with a few of my own tweaks. As you can see, it’s basically just a tube that you fill with dried beans. It’s difficult to use a draft snake when you aren’t in the room to snuggle it up next to the door. So I added these cute orange ribbons that serve as little handles to pull the snake snug as I close her door at night. I’m not sure that it makes a huge difference, but it makes me sleep a bit more soundly and that’s worth the work right there. This didn’t take me more than an hour to do, yahoo!

Happy crafting!

felt finds.

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Just had to share a few felted things with you this afternoon that I think are really cool (err, warm). Felted items are so cozy – and inspiring! Perfect for today, gloomy gloom gloom.

Scarf by Super Maggie. LOVE their stuff. Isn’t this funky?

… and then there’s Edgar the Squirrel – an Etsy find. Awwww. Click on him for more pics – I just really loved his tail. Don’t you just want to snuggle up with him?

new year=new babies=new projects

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DIY Tag Blankies!

Two friends just had babies in the last month – a girl and a boy. How fun! Bliss. Happiness. And a bit of sleeplessness…

As you might know, I’m really not into pastel colors for babies (although Wren looks really pretty in pink) so I decided to make some funky tag blankies for the brand spankin’ new babes using lots of bright colors and patterns. And babies love tags, right? Give a baby a beautiful, earth-friendly, educational, ergonomic, expensive toy and they immediately grab for the tag and start chewing. Sigh. Might as well indulge their infantile interests…

One can easily walk into a store (or click over to Amazon) and buy one of these for about $20, but they are so much fun to make and of course, lots more meaningful. Plus the ones in the stores are always light green, light blue, light yellow or light pink. blech. And remember, lovely readers, I have been actively sewing now for about six weeks so this is a BEGINNER project that doesn’t require a lot of skill or super special materials, yahoo!

Simple Instructions

You’ll need about a 1/2 yard of fabric and sixteen pieces of ribbon in different lengths and colors. This is the fun part – be creative with your fabric and ribbons!

1. Measure and mark two 13-16″ square pieces (depending on how big you want your finished blankie) directly onto the wrong sides of the fabric and then cut these pieces out.

2. Place the two fabric pieces right sides together and fold the ribbon pieces in half. Pick a side, any side. Sandwich the ribbons between the two fabric pieces with the folded (finished) edge inside the fabric and yucky edges aligned with the yucky edges of the fabric. Space them out evenly (or not – be creative) and pin the various ribbons through both sides of fabric as you make your way around the square. Repeat on other sides. Leave a bit more of an opening (about 3-4 inches) on one side.

3. Time to stitch! Machine-stitch (or by hand if you’re into that kind of thing…) around the entire square, which then secures the ribbons in place as you go. Continue to leave that same 3-4 inches open.

4. Turn the blankie right side out – getting close here! Press about a 1/2 inch seam allowance on the top and bottom of the opening and press then press the whole blankie. Looking good now.

5. Machine stitch a 1/4 inch or so seam around the entire edge of the blankie (why not use a fun color thread here?) and make sure to close that opening. Voila!

Adapted from Lotta Jansdotter’s Simple Sewing for Baby.

Confessions.

  • The real indicator of when it’s time to put the holiday decorations away is when you can’t find peppermint stick ice cream in the grocery store anymore.
  • Orange is my favorite color today. Yep, still is.
  • I have a weakness for frozen Cokes.
  • Spelling is really important to me, but I am too proud (stubborn?) to use spell-check. If I spell something incorrectly, please alert me ASAP!

Best!

button up.

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About a month ago something very special happened. Are you ready for this, dear readers? Are you sitting down?

I sewed on my first button. Gasp!

I’m not sure how I made it almost 33 years without sewing a button, but I seem to have fared pretty well. Then why start now? Don’t you have anything better to do? Thanks for asking. Do you know a Domestic Goddess who can’t sew on a button? I didn’t think so. When you’re a bit of a people-pleasing over-achiever in the 9-5 cubicle world and then you decide you’ll stay home and start a new journey as a mamma, some of those same annoying tendencies might just follow you. (Thankfully without the donut trays, potlucks and mini candy bar jars.) I’m a goal-setter. I don’t usually reach all of them, but I sure like to set them. My new goal now that I’m out of the office: Domestic Goddess. Not like “I make my marshmallows from scratch” Martha Stewart and not too crunchy either (I will NOT be sewing my own maxi pads), but somebody in between. Maybe like the imagined love child of Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver?

Mission: Cook with the seasons, craft for a creative outlet and hope people like the stuff, try not to kill our house plants and have a big organic vegetable garden that isn’t eaten by the bunny rabbits…

Clean? Still waiting for that bug to bite me… NOTE: I actually took a break while writing this post to Swiffer the floors, fold a load of laundry and clean a toilet… the guilt was too much. But I digress.

To my knowledge, my first button is still attached. Here it is on the drink sleeve that I made for Chris. Before the fancy new sleeve, he used a paper towel to protect his hand from his steaming hot jar of tea, but not anymore!

I was so excited with my new skill that I made a bunch of coffee sleeves for other people too. Please don’t tell me if your buttons have fallen off. Let me live out my fantasy a bit longer…

I’m showing this project to you because if I can learn how to sew on a button, which is still attached a month later–seriously–anyone can! What skills do you want to master this year? What creative outlets do you have? Whose imagined love child do you aspire to be?

Confessions.

  • I don’t think I could live without my Burt’s Bees lip shimmer – Fig.
  • Orange is my favorite color today. Yep, still is.
  • I ate in a TGI Fridays in Prague one time and am completely embarrassed about it. The potato skins were god-awful. Go figure.
  • Generally speaking, I like dogs more than people most of the time.

Best!