Read to your Kidlet

Today Joel learned how to pull books off of the bookshelf. Yay. There's no turning back now. Awhile ago I thrifted a new-in-the-package pair of straps to secure said bookshelf to the studs in the wall. Looks like we'll be needing to install that this week!

While we were scattering the books all over the floor, I mean reading, I got the idea to share with you the Christmas/ Wintry books we own. I very rarely pay full price for books (though I did get Joel two books at Barnes & Noble last weekend because a percentage of the purchase price went back to the band program at my school). Most of these books were thrifted, though some were Jason's when he was little, and a few were gifts. Here we go.


Elf Help by Margie Palatini is one of my favs. It's about a cyber-geeky elf who royally screws up everyone's Christmas lists when his computer crashes. Luckily, the kids end up liking the gifts they mistakenly received, and the elf gets to keep his job as cyber-geek. My copy is personally signed by the author!


The Little Engine that Could and the Snowy, Blowy Christmas by Watty Piper. Santa's reindeer come down with an illness just as he's finishing up delivering all the toys. Uh-oh! There's one toy left to deliver but the reindeer are too sick to fly! Who will come to the rescue? I'll let you figure that one out.

Memories of the Present is by William N. Fullington. It's a tale of a grandfather telling his grandson about this metal wagon that he really wanted for Christmas. In the end, his parents couldn't afford the metal wagon and make him a wooden one instead. He overcomes his disappointment and realizes that the wooden wagon is super special because it was homemade. Can I get a hell yeah?



The Mitten is a Ukrainian folktale told by Jan Brett. In this tale, a little boy loses his white mitten in the snow. One by one, animals begin to snuggle themselves into the mitten to keep warm. Finally a bear squeezes into the mitten, sneezes, and all the animals go flying. The little boy sees his mitten, picks it up, and takes it home. It's a good thing too because his grandmother was going to rip him a new one if he lost his mittens.


Silent Night, A Mouse Tale by Betsy Hernandez and Donny Monk is a cute story about how the church mice nearly ruined Christmas were instrumental in the writing of Franz Gruber's beloved Christmas carol, Silent Night.



Rudolph's Second Christmas by Robert L. May is about two children whose dad works for a lousy circus. No one buys tickets for their circus, and they go from town to town, only staying in each town for one day. Because of this vagabond lifestyle, Santa missed them last year! The children were very upset. Rudolph saves the day by introducing a bunch of misfit animals to the circus. The circus suddenly is very popular, and so the family can stay in one town for months on end now. Santa doesn't miss them this year, and all is well.



The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg is a classic. I thrifted this one today for 50c! Woot, woot!


The Fattest, Tallest, Biggest Snowman Ever by Bettina Ling is a book that first and second graders should be able to read. It cleverly incorporates math into the story!



The Hat by Jan Brett is about a hedgehog who gets a hat stuck on his prickly things (what are those things called?). He feels ridiculous and when questioned by the other animals, he tells them that it's winter for pete's sake! Everyone should wear a hat! The other animals then go steal clothes from a nearby clothesline so that they can cover their heads too. And here the hedgehog thought the other animals were making fun of him!


We own three different copies of "The Nutcracker." You can't go wrong there. We also own three different versions of the Baby Jesus story. Baby Jesus by Lori Froeb is toddler friendly. The Christmas Story is a Little Golden Book, and I think it was my husband's so it's pretty old. Finally, we have The Nativity by Juliana Bragg, copyright 1982. It's as old as my brother!

There you have it folks! What's your favorite Christmas book to read to the kiddos?

Thrifted Ornament Wreath

Here's something I made several years ago. I used all thrifted materials. Wreath forms which I wrapped in a green and white gingham garage sale ribbon served as the base to which I hot-glued thrifted ornaments. Did I ever mention that my hot glue gun is my BFF? Well, my trusty BFF probably wasn't the best choice for this project. At first, the glue held well but every year when I retrieve these wreaths from storage, ornaments are falling off. Perhaps a different adhesive would work better!

Dealing with Cashier Error

Today I ventured out into the damp greyness and went thrifting despite the freezing cold temps. I'm not sure why I was thinking that today was their monthly half off sale, when I know darn well it's the last Tuesday of the month. Fiddlesticks.

I bought a piece of fabric with very realistic money printed all over it (I thought this would make a nice something-or-other for St Patty's Day), six children's books at 50c a pop, and nine articles of clothing for Joel, all for either 50c or 25c. There were several items that were 1.99 however all were pink tags and 75% off. Woot, woot! I won't spend more than 50c for a piece of clothing for Joel unless it's super special. Herein lies my problem. Today the cashier forgot to ring up one of my items 75% off like it was supposed to be. That means I paid two dollars for one of his shirts. Gasp! She almost missed another one, however I caught that one and reminded her that yellow tags are 50% off. I'm not very happy about it, but I keep telling myself that the extra buck fifty I was charged is a donation to the thrift store. The little devil on my shoulder keeps reminding me that with a buck fifty, I could have bought three more articles of clothing for Joel, but his angelic counterpart reminds me that in the big scheme of things, this is not a big deal!

Now off to the sewing machine I go. I want to sew up another shopping-cart-kiddie- cover-germ-keeper-awayer. I keep one in my car, however it seems like every time we're out and about and need it, we're in my husband's car. This way, we'll each have one. Toodles!

A Brand New Used Stocking

Yep. That's right. I thrifted a blue stocking with tags still attached for the mere price of $2.92. I then purchased some silver glitter glue specifically designed for personalizing stockings, which set me back another $2. I was very excited to come home and put Joel's name on his stocking. Unfortunately, the silver glitter did not turn out at all. It wasn't silver. It wasn't glittery. It looked like crap.

Luckily, I had a bunch of leftover white felt in the basement, so I cut out letter's and glued them onto the stocking with regular old Elmer's glue. Thankfully, I was able to cover up the not silver, not glittery debacle with the felt letters. I am bummed that I wasted $2 however am very glad with the way it turned out!

Bad Blogger, Very Bad!

Sorry for the hiatus.... I went back to work and haven't stopped to breathe for the past three months!

Earlier this month, our school levy failed (again), and the superintendent told me that my job would be eliminated (again) although it wouldn't be officially voted on until January, and would be effective at the end of the school year. Last year when the levy failed, they eliminated music K-6. Since I had seniority, I got shifted from teaching fifth and sixth grade band to teaching seventh and eighth grade band. Twelve music teachers out of nineteen were laid off. I was the lucky number seven (and the last one) that was kept. Now they will be eliminating probably all but three music teachers, and so I'll be gone for real this time. That is, unless the levy passes in May.

I of course don't want to lose my job (I feel so bad for the kids who are missing their art, music, and P.E.) however the thought of getting to stay home with my little rugrat is very appealing! I would love to be able to stay home and do crafts with my son (like these wonderful Christmas crafts from No Time for Flashcards)

I haven't been very crafty lately due to a lack of time. My friend T-3 and I did find the time the other day to pump out four of these chef hats for some of my students. We're doing a piece called Christmas in the Kitchen in which four percussionists are playing water glasses and pots and pans. We made them chef's hats and I thrifted some aprons for them to wear. It will be so cute!

I did make a blue baby quilt for my husband's cousin's new baby, Jacob. It was my first attempt at actually quilting. (I usually just use yarn and tie the layers together). Here are some photos of his cousin opening her gift:




I have been out on many thrifting and garage sale trips this fall and have found lots of good deals. My favorite item from my last trip was a Santa Claus suit for Joel. The outfit cost $5 which is 10x more than I usually spend (since my limit is 50c), however I figure the photos we take of him in it will be priceless and so it was worth it! I also found a tiger Halloween costume for Joel for $3:





My last thrifting trip also yielded a $9 black peacoat for myself and a wooden dollhouse (which I am so excited about!) for under $2. I took it home, cleaned it up, used some wallpaper samples to the walls, and painted a light blue over the old bright red paint job, and voila, a wonderful masterpiece for Joel when he's a little older!

The only other (somewhat) interesting thing I've done lately is clean out my closet, set aside many t-shirts that are past their prime downright ratty, and either place them in a dusting-rag pile or a make-a-tee-shirt-quilt-someday pile. I did start to make my aunt a lap quilt from my four Breast Cancer Walk t-shirts, however I don't know if I'll have the time to finish it before Christmas. I also intended on making a baby quilt for a pregnant friend, but as her shower was a week ago, and I didn't finish anything more than cutting out some squares, I ended up buying her some gifts instead. (I'm so ashamed!)

Hopefully it won't take me three more months before I post again!

Ask and Ye Shall Receive

A friend of mine paid to have her son's third birthday photos taken, and in one of them, the photographer had him hold a little number "3." It was a really cute idea, and I told her that I would have to find a number "1" for Joel to hold when he turns one.

Well guess what! I went thrifting a few hours later, and lo and behold, there was a wooden number one for 19c !!!

I got some other things too, including a LeBron James jersey for Joel for 90c and a floral painting for $1.91 that will fit in nicely in the sunroom. I'm on the lookout for some Robeez shoes however I haven't found any (yet). I did, however, find some size 2M (does that stand for "medium" ??) brown Gerber shoes with little Jeeps on the side. They don't fit him yet but will in the future. They sure are cute! I exceeded my fifty cent limit ($3.60, yikes!) but I figure shoes and coats don't count, right?

At the checkout, I learned that Salvation Army gives teachers a 10% discount. Woot, woot!! Why has none of the cashiers ever told me this before?!?!!

And one more nice thing happened today: T-3 emailed me a recipe for an upside down cake using plums and blueberries. I had just been thinking to myself that I needed to use up the plums in the fridge, and BAM! Along came that email. I will omit the blueberries and go heavy on the plums. Hopefully I will make that tomorrow.

It's like the stars were in alignment today. I hope your day was a good one too!

Garage Saling and Thrifting

I just love community yard sales, don’t you? My husband sleeps until about noon every day since he works until 3 AM, so I loaded Joel up and we headed out Saturday morning. We walked around for almost two hours and made quite a haul. I got two books about daddies and father’s day, as well as several other children’s books, all for 25c apiece or less. Joel presented his daddy with the books, and he was thrilled. (Well either that or he sat aside the books without even looking at them, but it makes a better story to say he was thrilled).

At one of the first garage sales of the morning, I met a wonderful lady whose daughter is into sewing. She said she owns a company called “Sew What?” I came home and tried to look it up, however do you know how many companies out there that are called “Sew What?” Here a link to a “Sew What” boutique that sells some cool stuff, although I’m pretty sure it’s not her daughter’s shop. She and I got to talking about how toys just don’t leave anything to the imagination anymore. That’s exactly how I feel! Amen, sister! Kids today have to have the latest fifty dollar Transformer toys, etc… whatever happened to just playing with regular toy cars? Playing dress-up? I remember making cities in our basement out of blocks, Lincoln Logs, and basic ole Legos, then we’d add in our matchbox cars and plastic Cowboys and Indians (sorry, I know that’s not PC), and we’d have a good ole time.

I was happy to find these toys for Joel for when he’s a little bit bigger, as well as a pair of cute, barely worn Stride Rite shoes. I hope these toys will spark some good old fashioned imaginative play!

A whole bag of magnet letters and numbers for 25c... there's even a plus sign for practicing math problems!

I was so excited to find this little fire extinguisher. There's a crank you turn, and it even makes sounds. *Squeals with excitement* Now I will have to sew some firefighter dress up clothes. I also found this little treasure chest which will be wonderful for stuffing full of Mardi Gras beads. When Joel outgrows it, I can use it at school because it's our school colors, and our mascot is a pirate :) Both toys were 50c apiece.

Probably my favorite find of the day. I actually found this at a thrift store, hence the odd 90c pricetag. You can't really tell from the photo, but the blue part is wood. Yay, a vintage toy! Now I will have to sew a mailman outfit. Does anyone want to go postal with me?

A box of little boy fabric for 2 dollars. I need to get started on another baby quilt. We just had another pregnancy announced in the family... there's going to be ANOTHER baby boy born this year. That makes three baby boys all born within 10 months of each other! Isn't that going to be fun when they're two or three years old?!

A 25c binkie clip which will probably become a gift for Little One Number Three, an unopened birthday candle for 30c, and a close second for my favorite find of the week... a Wilton Christmas Tree pan, still new in the packaging for 90c. I have been dying to melt down some crayons, and now I finally have the pan to do it with! I was taking the paper off crayons for about an hour last night, and I think I got a paper-cut under my thumb nail. Ouch. There has got to be a better way...

And last but not least, a little something-something for me. Two bags full of sewing notions, mostly vintage and still in the original packaging. This came from the thrift store; each bag was 90c. I was especially stoked to see all the velcro. I love velcro. I'd like to give a big smoochy-smoochy to the man who invented it. *Muah!*

Recycled Patio and Garage Sale Finds

Check this out, my peeps! This is the ultimate in reusing and repurposing. Katie has created a patio out of stones from an old barn foundation. She had to carry them barefoot, uphill both ways, and through the snow! Great job Katie ;)

She also make a planter out of an old treestump (how creative!) and furnished her beautiful patio with lots of garage sale finds.

Speaking of garage sales... boy did I ever hit the mother lode. I went out garage saling on Friday morning. I had mapped out all the garage sales I wanted to hit and when you add in the others I just happened upon, I hit about twelve to fifteen. Most of my luck was at the first few though. Then on Saturday, we went to my mother-in-law's fiftieth birthday party, but stopped at a couple garage sales near their house.

When we were a few blocks from the party, that's when I saw it. It was surrounded by a golden glow and angels were sounding their trumpets, beckoning me to come in closer for a look. It was a church flea market. I dropped off hubby and baby and headed straight back to the flea market. (And then I saw another garage sale so I had to stop there afterwards). Pfew. I made quite the haul this weekend.

At the flea market, they had clothes for ten cents apiece. Yes, for a mere fifty cents, I got five things for Joel. None of them will fit him now, however, how could I pass up ten-cent clothes? And they weren't nasty either; they were completely hole and stain free!

Other things I got include

• a kiddie construction hat for a dime
  
• four children's books for a dollar
  
• a baby carrier, new in the box for five dollars (the Sears $35 price tag still attached)
  
• two wool sweaters for felting for 50c each
  
• some red and black fabric like T-3 has been coveting lately (yes, girl, I found some too!)
  
• a chrome over-the-door rack in it's original box for five dollars (I actually just bought one of these online for Joel's room, and was excited to see this one for our bedroom door)
  
• a small enamelware pan just like I got last week, but this one only cost 50c. I am so addicted to enamelware. I wonder if Enamelware Anonymous exists for people like me who hoard the stuff.
  
• one of those red and blue toys with the yellow shapes that push down through the matching hole. I had one when I was little, so I had to get it for Joel. Who can pass up such an educational toy for 50c?
  
• a short sleeved polo for 25c
  
• a baby girl's binky set and receiving blanket, still brand new and unopened for 50c each
  
• several toys, all still brand new in the package which I'm hoarding for gifts over the next few years, including a jumprope, sidewalk chalk, action figures, rattle/teether set, wateringcan and sand scoop, and bathtub boats, for a total of $3.60. I hope Joel never stumbles upon my stash of gifts in the laundry room. Meh. He probably won't. Why would he ever go in the laundry room? That's a room kids avoid like the plague... the perfect place to store gifts!
  
• unopened birthday napkins, 25c
  
• an OSU longsleeved onesie, 12 months, for a dollar

One dollar. Geesh. I'm feeling guilty about that. I had previously set my limit at fifty cents for any article of clothing for Joel (except coats). I'm thinking of lowering my limit to a quarter. If I do that, though, thrift store shopping is pretty much out of the question. It's hard enough to find stuff at thrift stores for fifty cents. It's nearly impossible to find stuff for a quarter, at least around here. Prices at thrift stores are getting outrageous. Even at some garage sales, prices are getting outrageous.

For example, yesterday someone wanted twenty dollars for a beat-up plastic riding firetruck. If it was metal and an antique, twenty dollars, sure. But plastic? Um, no thanks. Five dollars, maybe. Three dollars, sure. But twenty? She must have been on crack.

What is your limit? Where do you draw the line? Talk to me, people!

Super Secondhand Saturday

I just love alliterations, don’t you? (okay, so I’m a grammar nerd…)

T-3 and I hit the big one this weekend. We went down to Victorian Village and spent all day at the community garage sales there. We didn’t even get to finish because they closed before we got all the way through. Actually, we didn’t even come close to finishing because not only did Victorian Village participate, but so did the Short North, Italian Village, and Harrison West.

We walked around for awhile and found some great stuff (more on that later), and then we went back to the car to grab our picnic lunch (we parked near Goodale Park). Hubby came and picked up the little one because he was severely slowing down our garage saling, plus I think it was just too hot for him. After some delicious egg salad sandwiches and tomato-cucumber-and-bean salad, we hit the streets once again. Our day finally concluded at about 3 pm. To say my feet hurt would be an understatement.

My favorite stop each year is the church. I wish I could be more specific but I don’t remember its name nor do I remember the street it’s on. They have the best stuff down in the basement for awesome prices (and it’s air conditioned, woot, woot!) This year I just bought baby clothes. All clothes were 3/ $1. I got seven pairs of 6-9 month baby pants and two 6-9 sweatshirts. I remember last year scoring some bunny Christmas cards (unused of course), and that’s what I sent out this past Christmas.

(Cue the techno music). Are you ready for this? Here’s what else I got:

• A sunburn, free of charge.
  
• Two small baby toys, also free of charge
  
• A very cool bluish-green necklace for 75c.
  
• A small metallic pendant for a nickel. Yes, you read that right, folks!
  
• A pair of sunglasses for yours truly, 50c
  
• A bread pan for a quarter, and a metallic soap dispenser for 50c. I found the soap dispenser in the bottom of a large box of crap. The lady didn't have any of it priced, and when I asked her how much it was, she said it was a couple bucks. What?! Are you insane, woman? Stuff from boxes o' crap should cost a quarter or something. T-3 said fifty cents and the lady agreed. (More on these items later).
  
• Some blue fabric with black polka dots for 50c
  
• A bag of kid tools, including a hammer, and also a toy circular saw for $1.25
  
• Yellow no-scratch mittens (we can’t have enough of these) for 50c
  
• A 12-month Christmas sleeper for 50c
  
• And drumroll please…. An upholstered rocking chair for a mere $20. Can I get a “hell yeah?!”

I have a strict Do-Not-Bring-Home-Any-Chairs-or-I’m-Going-to-Divorce-You policy. But when my husband came to pick up Joel, I was able to convince him that we needed this rocker. We do have one upstairs that my parents got me for my birthday. It’s an oak one from Amish country. But our house has three levels, so we need one per level, right? Hubby reluctantly agreed to purchase this rocker as long as I agreed to get rid of one chair around here. And he said it has to be of comparable size. I can’t get rid of a kitchen chair in order to keep the rocker. Ouch. I can’t stand to part with any of my chairs. Click here to read more about my love affair with all things sit-uponable.

Here are the photos of some of my finds.
The blue fabric is from yesterday. The pepper fabric is from a thrifting outing last week. I thought it would make a nice apron or something.

Here's my stash o' necklaces. The big blue one is the one I got yesterday.

As promised, more on why I bought this nasty loaf pan and this metallic soap dispenser. I've decided to make a kid stove and sink, and these two items are going to make the sink. I'll just jigsaw out the holes on the top of this small cabinet we already have and drop these bad boys in. What I'm really excited about is that the soap dispenser just might be able to actually have water flow out of it because there's the reservoir underneath. How cool will that be if Joel can actually pump water from the "spigot" into the sink?! Also pictured here are two tiny enamelware pieces I thrifted last week for the kiddie stove. I'm addicted to enamelware. Some day I'll have to show you the mounds of enamelware that I've amassed. But not today, because I still have not shown you ... drumroll please....

The Chair! Jason thinks it's ugly. He wants me to recover it to hide the current upholstery job, but quite frankly I love it as is! What do you guys think? Slipcover or floral print?

Repurposing Stuff from School

My personal items from my classroom are now completely boxed up and sitting here at home. I had accumulated a lot of stuff in the eight years I taught there. I brought home over ten boxes of stuff. I realized there are several things I can reuse or repurpose, such as

• index cards: use for my brother's birthday next month. I bought him different brands of bbq sauce (when it was on clearance), and to each bottle I am going to attach a recipe which uses bbq sauce. I think this will be a nice frugal gift because my brother and his girlfriend will be moving in together soon. Hopefully she'll cook and be able to use the bbq sauce.
  
• four different fabrics (three of them very large pieces that covered eight feet tall bulletin boards, and one was window treatments). Perhaps I'll make this tension rod puppet theatre
  
• dowel rod previously used to hang the window treatments- surely can be used for something
  
• small stickers- can be used on a chart to reward Joel for doing chores, etc. when he gets older. Originally I used these small stickers to mark flute keys so the students could remember where their fingers are supposed to go. I thrifted these years ago; I think these originally were a dime per package of 440 stickers. I bought twenty packs. You do the math. I have enough stickers to reward an entire daycare center.
  
• a small garage-sale four-drawer cabinet that I previously decoupaged with pieces of sheet music. I can sand the cabinet down to eliminate the sheet music, and then it will match the other cabinet that I kept at home and painted white. I can repaint the two matching cabinets and have my dad turn one into a kid stove and the other into a kid sink.
  
• wallpaper that I used to line a bulletin board- can be used for some craft project down the road
  
• Happy Birthday wrapping paper, laminated, used to line a birthday bulletin board. Since it's laminated, it can be taped together with clear tape and placed on the floor under Joel to keep the floor safe from pieces of falling smashed birthday cake. After his first birthday, it can be cut to fit the table and turned into a festive birthday tablecloth.
  
• Lots and lots of children's books that will now be Joel's.
  
• Wallpaper samples for crafting: first craft I'd like to do is cover large formula cans and turn them into pretty storage
  
• Various holiday wall-hangings. When I was little, I loved hanging up Halloween and Easter decorations in the windows and doors of our house. I have lots of stuff that I used in my classroom on bulletin boards that we can now use at home instead.
  
• an el cheapo $3 garage sale office chair. I found a tute that shows us how to recover a boring black office chair to add some pizzaz. Joel can use this chair when he's older.
  
• A thrifted Little Tikes basketball hoop used to play "band basketball" with my students. Now it will bring endless hours of entertainment to my own offspring.
  
• Broken up Crayons. I've been dying to make this project for the past week or two. There's now lots of people out there who have made these darling Crayon initial shadowboxes. I even thrifted a shadow box on Wed. for 90c just so I could make this project. It just needs a coat of paint and a back for the frame.
  
• Probably lots more that I can't think of right now!
  

The gray and blue fabrics would make nice skirts. The brown fabric has already been cut up and is being used in the growth chart.

The Spice Girls

If you could be a Spice Girl, what would your name be? I think I would be Baby Spice. Or maybe Crafting-for-Baby Spice. Breastfeeding Spice has a nice ring to it too, don't you think? Diaper-Changing Spice and Baby-Always-Spits-Up-on-Me-But-Never-on-Daddy Spice are also contenders.

Speaking of spices...


I've had this thrifted spice rack* and some milk glass spice jars that I've collected on various thrift outings. I recently washed them, removed their old labels, and began the hunt for new labels. I was thinking I'd buy some sticker labels at Office Max, until Tiffany over at songbirdtiff said some regular paper and mod podge works just dandy.

Paper? Check. Mod Podge? Check. Sweet, a no-cost project!

Our good buddy Stock-Trading-Scandal Spice** (aliases include Jailbird Spice or Kmart Spice) has a pdf file of some awesome blue and cream spice labels. She even leaves some blank so you can add your own spices; the only problem is that I could not figure out how to add text to the pdf file. Instead, I created a jpeg file which I will gladly share with y'all because I'm nice like that. (A small version is below; click on it to make it large).

Here you can see the font I've chosen.


Here I've squeezed more on one page in case you have way more spice jars than me. Don't want to waste paper, you know!


If you want to do this project like I did, you'll want to use Microsoft Picture it9 aka Digital Image Pro. Open up the file, click on the little "A" button (that's the font button), and a text box will appear. You can move, shrink, or enlarge the text box so that it's directly over the spice label. Add your text in any size and font that your little heart desires.

* I thought about naming this post, "I've Got a Great Rack" (a spice rack that is), however I thought that might be a little too risque for this blog. It would go along nice with Breastfeeding Spice though.

** Just kidding, Martha. You know you're my homegirl.

Sewing up a Storm as it storms

Rain, rain, go away. Come back another day.

I can't stain the deck because it keeps raining. At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it...

I stayed in today and sewed, sewed, sewed. T-3 came over, and we disassembled our bridesmaid dresses (T-2 got married, congrats!!) and turned them into, drumroll please....

Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr....

Tree skirts :)

We tried to follow this tutorial, however it just didn't turn out large enough, so we started to improvise. T-3 recommended that I use the shawl, cut it in half, and create a ruffle out of it. Superb idea, T-3 :) And then I decided to make a bias tape and use it to cover the unhemmed edge of the center circle. Here's how it turned out:


After T-3 went home, I worked on a few other things. Here's a long sleeve shirt of Joel's that I turned into a short sleeve shirt for summer:


Last but not least I started making a chef hat and apron for my little one. I realize he's not even four months old yet, but I like to plan ahead ;) One day all too soon I'll have a little tyke helping me in the kitchen as I bake homemade brownies, fish sticks, and macaroni and cheese. Yum. Except for the fish stick part.

Kathy, the author of the tutorials, did an A. W. E. S. O. M. E. job. They are so easy to follow. I actually followed a tutorial correctly for once. I shouldn't say that quite yet since I'm not finished. There's still plenty of time to do something wrong, er I mean different.

Here's the hat


And here's the first step of the apron

Notice the red fabric- it's the lining to the bridesmaid dress. I'm getting a lot of mileage out of that fifty dollar dress! I also cut out all the tulle fabric and kept it for some future project, kept the zipper, and am giving all the boning to T-3 because she wants to make a corset. The truck fabric were curtains thrifted a couple months ago. There's tons of it left.

Here's the apron almost complete. I'm on the final couple steps. I don't have any D rings, and so I had to stop for the night. All I have to do is attach the short strap to the upper left, and attach the front of the apron to the red backing.


I'd love to stay and chat but I have a breast pump that is calling my name ...

Projects One, Two, Three

Here's what I was up to yesterday and the day before, in case y'all are interested!

Feed the baby. Burp the baby. Change the baby. Pump breastmilk. Repeat. Repeat.
Put baby down for a nap. Get some me time. Yay!

Work on the kid stove:


Feed the baby. Burp the baby. Change the baby. Pump breastmilk. Repeat. Go to CVS and Walgreens and get some amazing deals like free-after-catalinas Colgate toothpaste (savings of $4.50). Hit a couple thrift stores looking for Hawaiian shirts for a themed wedding this weekend. (Found one for hubby and a dress for me though I spent ten bucks... a little more than I like to spend at a thrift store)

Baby fell asleep in the car so I get some more me time. Make a kid tool belt (Why am I having such a hard time finding a toy hammer? I saw one the other day at a thrift store but it was too babyish and didn't fit in with the other tools I had already thrifted). I altered the instructions... more on that at a later date.

Not quite finished- still have to attach the strap to wrap it around the waist. Aren't all the thrifted tools cool? Each one was about 50c.

Baby wakes up hungry. Feed, burp, diaper, pump. Put dinner on. Watch Life After People with hubby. (That show is fascinating). Hubby watches the rugrat while I have some more me time.

Do a wardrobe refashion. Take a beach coverup that doesn't fit, cut out the middle, and sew the hip part back on underneath the bust to make a tank top for this still-fat-after-pregnancy belly.

I know it's hard to tell, but this is not quite knee length.

The finished product! It hides the chubby belly pretty good. Good as can be expected, anyway.

I'm BA-ACK

I finally did it tonight. I dragged the beast back out and did some sewing. The other day I thrifted a few things of clothing for Joel (the winter clothing), and one of the pieces I bought was a 3-6 month long sleeve onesie that I knew would fit him this summer. I figured it would be an easy fix to cut off the sleeves and make it a short sleeve onesie. Here it is:

Yes, it's the Cleveland Browns. Yes, I know they suck. But hey, how about those CAVS?! (Just a side note, my brother's girlfriend went to high school with LeBron James. He also lives a few minutes from my parents' house. That's my claim to fame. Okay it's my six-degrees-of-separation claim to fame).

After I finished the onesie I decided to get started on these undercover crates. Go check out Laura's blog. She's one heck of a crafter!

It was hard to get anything done because Joel didn't want to take a nap. I discovered that he is fascinated with long, skinny pieces of fabric when dangled in front of him. It gave him about twenty minutes of pleasure as I wore my arm out waving it around like a madwoman.



I've got two crate slipcovers done; one to go. I think I'm done for the night though. I'll probably work on it next week, possibly for "Tackle it Tuesday."

Here's some pics!


I really hate sewing sometimes.


The finished product. Toy storage for Joel! The orange fabric I acquired years ago when my then-boyfriend's uncle got sent to prison (true story). The sports fabric was a thrifted find. It's a jersey knit sheet and was in excellent condition!

I Brake for Garage Sales and Thrift Stores

Since I spent the weekend at my parents' house, I got to do some out-of-town thrifting. It all started when I saw Rite Aid had a sale going on: 10 photos for 99c. I decided to get some of the pictures we took last weekend at Joel's baptism developed. On the way home, I ran across three garage sales. Yep, the first ones of the season for me! Nothing at the first or last ones tickled my fancy, however at the second one I picked up a thing of unused elastic and a frame for a quarter apiece. My dad had just said that he needed a frame so that he could take the pictures I was getting developed to work. Ask and ye shall receive!

I also saw the local thrift store has 50c sales every Monday. I told my husband we would just have to stay an extra day so I could check out the sale in the morning, so that's what we did. We slept in pretty late, and so we didn't get there until a little after noon and it was pretty picked over by then. All orange tags were 50c, and blue tags were 50% off. I got seven orange tags and one blue tag. All the summer clothes were nabbed by the early birds, so I had to settle for winter clothes. That's okay though because Joel will wear winter clothes too in about five months.

He's starting to fuss, so I better go and give him some milk!

Back in the Saddle, err the Sewing Machine

I actually got a chance to sew today! No, the grouting isn't finished (though it is close, and we'll finish it tonight). Instead of grouting this afternoon, I decided to make a poodle skirt for my friend's upcoming 1950s-themed bridal shower.



It was really easy! And the best part is, I didn't buy a thing for this project. That's right folks, you should be very proud of me. I used things already in my stash! The purple felt was free several years ago from a friend. The elastic was from an old pair of shorts that had long since been scrapped (but of course the packrat in me cut off the elastic and kept it). The white felt was from an after-Christmas clearance sale from Michaels. I've had the glitter for years and years; it was attached with Elmer's spray adhesive from the closet. The buttons were in one of my several mason jars of vintage buttons, and the ribbon was already in my ribbon bag. And last but not least... the fuzzy "fur" was thrifted several years ago. Can you guess what it really is?

It's okay. Go ahead and guess. I'll wait.

*Twiddles thumbs and whistles the Jeopardy theme*

Give up?

It's actually faux spider webbing for Halloween! I bought several bags of it for a quarter each to use as stuffing for pillows, softies, etc.

Here's a close-up of my furry friend. She's glued on with hot glue. Have I mentioned before that I *heart* my glue gun?



The only thing that isn't on the skirt that I would like to add is the leash. I would like to use some sequinny ribbon, but I don' t have any. If I were to buy some, then I can't say that the skirt was made entirely from things I already have, so I probably will just leave it as is. Oh well. I'm pretty pleased with it anyway!

I promise to throw a Green Bridal Shower

Howdy folks. I've been reading this blog, and I must admit that I am feeling pretty bad about myself right now. I am such a consumer hog. I could do such a better job at reducing the amount of trash I create if I just tried a little harder.

The wonderful people at cleanbin.wordpress.com make their own laundry soap, pasta sauce and pasta (tried it before but it's so time consuming... I even own the pasta maker attachment for my kitchenaid mixer but it makes such a mess and takes forever), and practically anything else that you could think of so that they don't have to buy it with all the packaging that comes with it.

I've done some things in this department, but I must admit that I could do so much more. I've sewn bag after bag to take with me to Aldi's when I go grocery shopping, however I need to do a better job of bringing them with me to other stores too. If I just have a couple things, I always tell the clerk I don't want a bag, but if I brought my own bags with me wherever I went, I would feel better. Yes, I recycle the bags that don't end up as wastebin liners but still, I feel bad.

The cleanbin people don't buy store-bought cakes because of the plastic packaging and were saddened when someone brought them one. I'm sure they don't even buy cake mixes because that comes with packaging too. Get this: they even take reusable containers with them when they go out to eat (which they don't do often anyway) so they don't get their Whopper or Big Mac wrapped in plastic which would be promptly thrown out anyway.

I'm feeling the major guilt: we stopped at McDonalds last night when we were on the road, still over an hour from home and dead tired. If I was going to stay awake I needed some caffeine, so I got a McCafe latte and a McChicken sandwich. Trash, trash, trash. At least what the hubby got was recycled (an energy drink in a can from a gas station). I wish I had thought ahead and we could have brought our thermoses (is that the plural form of thermos?) and made some coffee at my grandma's before we left. That would have been a heck of a lot cheaper too.

I did, however, buy reusable plastic spoons and forks for our wedding shower instead of my maid-of-honor buying the throw away kind. I wrote a cute little poem that went along with them so people would know not to throw them away.


But then I think about all the stuff that we did throw away, and I am sickened. The cake came in a throw-away container, as did the big Subway subs. Many of the decorations were one-time-use only, such as the balloons, tablecloths, and the kissy-lips tablerunners (which was actually a thrifted wallpaper border).

I am throwing my friend, T-2, a shower next month, so right here, right now, I am announcing to the world that I will make her shower green. I will dig out those reusable forks and spoons. We'll use real glasses instead of styrofoam. (We'll be using my collection of Coke glasses since this is going to be a fifties themed party). I already bought reusable fifties-styled burger baskets for our burgers and fries, so hasta la vista paper products! I will most likely have to use paper napkins though, to line the burger baskets. *sigh*

The decorations will be reusable. I am going to get some thrifted records and make record bowls with them. My friend, T-3, already made two which she gave me. One can hold the cards. Another can hold the games. If I make a few more, they can hold things such as chips, candy, etc. as long as I clean them very, very well. I'm also planning on having us watch the old fifties version of "The Father of the Bride," and I can use those red and white reusable popcorn containers that my nephew gave us for Christmas.

I could make another bunting (T-3 really thinks I should) using material I already have. I think it would be cool to make one that looks like records, but I don't think I already have any suitable black fabric that would do the job.

I probably won't buy a cake, as she is having two other showers where I'm sure there will be cakes. We can do ice cream malts instead for our dessert, in true fifties fashion. Of course, those will be in glasses that I already own, so no plastic there.

Now for the gifts: I can't really tell people not to wrap her gifts in wrapping paper because it's bad for the environment. Oh well. At least I know I'll be using a reusable gift bag.

If you have any other ideas on how to make her shower greener, please let me know!

Wearing o' the Green, Scarlet, and Gray

Happy St. Patty's Day (there's ten minutes left until March 18... I barely got this post in on time!)

So did you wear your green today? Here's my fam toting our glorious green garments:


I should have sewed something green today, but I ran across an OSU towel at a thrift store for 59c, and you guessed it, it's becoming a toddler bib. I'm on a roll with these towel bibs. They're so quick and easy to make. I'm a lazy sewer. I like short projects that I can get done in under an hour. It's something about the instant gratification...

Below is the bib all finished minus the trim. The gray fabric was a polo shirt of my hubby's that made it to my fabric pile. Thank goodness for pit stains! I get lots of shirts that way :) The fabric on the back was a thrifted skirt awhile back. I love polka dots. They make me happy.





And once again, I can't decide which trim to use so I'll put it to a vote. My husband voted for the white rick rack, but I don't think I like that one. I think I like the red polka dot ribbon the best.

All the trims... aren't they purdy? I like the packaging for the black rick-rack-esque stuff. Below are the four options. Leave me a comment and let me know which one looks the best.