Binkie Clips and Kiddie Wallet Finished!

Joel spent a lot of time sleeping today, which afforded me the opportunity to sew, sew, sew! There was two tutorials that I was just dying to make: these binkie clips and this wallet for Joel. I thought the wallet would be cute in brown so that Joel's wallet would match daddy's. I didn't make Joel's out of leather, of course, but I did have a nice, sturdy brown fabric that worked out well.

Like always, I strayed from the tutorial. I opted to use steam-n-seam to close the hole after turning the wallet right-side-out rather than topstitching around the perimeter of the wallet. I also left out the button in favor of a sewn snap. I think it turned out very cute, especially after I put in those fake credit cards that come in the mail.
Cost: absolutely F.R.E.E.


These binkie clips were super easy to make, and the tutorial was very thorough and easy to understand :) I decided to use hot glue to attach the velcro to the ribbon because I could not find my liquid stitch, but other than that I followed the tutorial (I think). Unfortunately though, I realized that out the three pacifers that we have, none of them will work with these binkie clips because there's no way to attach them! *Sigh* I guess we'll have to go buy some more binkies!

You know what's really awesome about these clips? I didn't even have to buy the ribbons! They came free on gifts we received, so of course I saved them. I just knew there would be a project on down the line when these little lovelies would come in handy. I was right!

Ribbon: free.
Metal clips: two dollars.
Not having to bend over and pick up dropped pacifiers one million times a day: priceless.

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss!

Today we're celebrating Dr. Suess's 105th birthday! My husband's cousin's wife told me about his upcoming birthday a few days ago; she said that _____ (I forget which store she said... Babies R Us maybe??) was having a half off sale on all Dr. Suess books, so she picked one up for her little tot who was turning one. Well I think I did one better - I thrifted a Dr. Seuss book yesterday at Goodwill for a quarter :)



Originally I ran out to the Pickerington Goodwill to look for two white sheets. We had done a photo shoot at T-3's place earlier in the day for her portfolio, and tacking up a sheet to the ceiling yielded very professional looking results. We also took a couple shots of the hubby, little man, and me, however we weren't really dressed for the occasion, so I'd like a do-over. The only problem: I don't own a single plain white sheet.

Easy solution: go get a couple at a thrift store! The P'town Goodwill only had two solid color sheets, one in a light green, and the other a light blue. I really need two sheets to match (one to hang on the ceiling, and the other to lay on the floor), and since they only had one of each, I passed.

I did, however, find several things for Joel. I was stoked to find a whole stack of Halloween iron-on transfers, new in the packaging. Each package contained two transfers; there was a total of six different designs, however I just purchased one package (79c). I was also very excited to find a very large, furry "3" applique for 99c; it will look smashing on a shirt for his third birthday. I also picked up three kiddie holiday VHS tapes for a buck each (Christmas, Valentines Day, and Easter), so they will make nice gifts for him when he's a toddler (VHS?! Am I living in the 20th century or what?! Hey, they were only a dollar so give me a break!) Last but not least, three books for a quarter apiece, including the one by Dr. Seuss.

I would also be remiss if I failed to mention that T-3 gave me some goodies yesterday! She found two darling iron-on cowboy appliques on clearance for 75c apiece, and she gave me a bunch of bobbins. The funny thing is, the day before she told me about the bobbins, I was at Joanns staring at the bobbins, kicking myself for forgetting to check and see what kind my sewing machine took. There are two types of the clear plastic kind that look the same to me, and I wasn't sure which ones to get, so I left empty handed (well not completely empty handed... I used my 40% off coupon to purchase clips so that I can make these binkie clips. I also found a cross cake topper for Joel's baptism; it was on clearance for a dollar). By the way, T-3 if you're reading this, I discovered that some of the bobbins work but some jam my machine. At least I got a few new bobbins out of it! :)

Birthday Bunting and Sunday Stash

I finished the bunting today. Since there are so many different fabrics in it (14), I decided that it could double as my Sunday Stash post.

H: a thrifted cherry print skirt
A: a curtain that was in the house when I bought it
P: a remnant from a shower curtain I bought at Walmart to use in the basement


P: a bandana that was my grandpa's
Y: a shower curtain sample that I got when I worked at Kohls
hearts: purchased new at Joanns


The next three fabrics were part of my great-grandma's stash. My great-aunt gave me her stash after she passed away.


T: a remnant left over from a project for a friend
H: a sample given to me by my ex's mother
D: part of great-grandma's stash


A: a remnant I purchased second hand
Y: part of great-grandma's stash

And now... the Rest of the Story

The radio legend Paul Harvey passed away today :( He was 90 years old. I will greatly miss your 6 o'clock biographical/historical chat, Mr. Harvey. No one can do pauses like you!

In other news, we went to my husband's cousin's daughter's first birthday party today. So when I got home, I did what any mother of a 2-week-old would do... I started to make a birthday bunting for my son! Yes, I have fifty weeks until he turns one. So?

There's lots of blog entries out there dedicated to creating birthday buntings; I liked this one, although I'm not exactly following it. I did use it as a jumping off point, though.

I liked that she sewed the fronts and backs with right sides together and then turned them right side out so that the seams are on the inside. Many of the buntings out there are made with a single piece of fabric with the edges trimmed with pinking shears. That look is nice too, however I'd be afraid that it would fray over time. Since I plan on using this bunting forever, I just can't have frayed edges. Joel will be in his sixties, and I in my nineties, and I'll still be dragging the darn thing out...

I can't free hand letters very well, as evidenced by the baby blocks that I made. So instead of freehanding the letters, I found a font I liked in Microsoft Word, made it large enough, and then traced around the letters onto paper right off the computer screen. I then pinned the letters onto the felt and cut them out. Voila! Much better looking!

I haven't sewed the fronts to the backs yet, nor have I sewed the felt letters onto the fabric, however I decided to photograph a few of the little flags for your viewing pleasure. Notice the word that the chosen flags spell out... "DIRTY." That was a total coincidence! They even came out in that exact order! I think the sewing gods are trying to tell me something. Tear yourself away from your sewing machine for a little while so you can clean your house, damnit!




I had to use some heart fabric since my son was born on Valentine's Day!
Here's the same fabric I used for the the NY Rangers bib the other day.

Update: I finished the bunting today. Let me just say that bias tape is the devil. I thrifted a whole bag of it several weeks ago, so I figured now would be a nice time to use some of it. I planned on folding it over the top edge and sewing it down, however that wasn't working out for me. Instead, I ripped out the seam I had begun and started over with steam-a-seam. I decided to not fold the bias tape over, and instead used two strips of bias tape, one for the front and one for the back, held in place with steam-a-seam. I then stitched the top to keep the bias tapes connected together. That probably made no sense ... sorry. If you want to know more, I can try to explain it better. Right now I am sleep deprived from having a 15-day-old!

And now you know ... the rest of the story! Update: here's the bunting in use at his first birthday party :)

Relaxation Sounds

I totally love this website. It's a site that lets you choose up to five different relaxation sounds to play simultaneously. My favorite combination is wind chimes, flute song, creek, and bird sounds. Try it! I'm trying it out on my son right now. It doesn't seem to be working.

Greeting Card Mathematics

Well I haven't been thrifting for several days since my mom has been here. I'm starting to get the itch. We did, however, go to the mall yesterday, discovered and was saddened that my coveted Chick-fil-A went out of business, figured out how to use the stroller, and scored some awesome greeting cards for 90% off from a soon-to-be-out-of-business Carlton Cards. I got over thirty dollars worth of cards for a mere $3-something! I got a rabbit thank you card for my mom for all the help that she's been this past week, birthday cards for tons of family members... the list goes on and on! I now have two years worth of birthday cards for my parents, husband, brother, sister-in-law, nephew, and husband's cousin's daughter, and am covered for 2009 for just about everyone else. Does anyone else do that? I like to buy up cards when they're really cheap and save them in a little drawer so I don't have to run out and spend full price when the time comes. If you do the math, the amount I'm saving is quite staggering. Now if I could just get my husband to think ahead and buy my cards cheaply. Or maybe I should just start buying my own cards to give to him to give to me...

My husband comes from a big family. There's two parents, a sister, brother-in-law, two nephews, a grandma, two aunts, two uncles, three cousins, a cousin's spouse, and a cousin's child, plus my husband and our son. And that's just his mom's side of the family. We're not very close to his dad's side, so we don't send cards or gifts to them.

Then for my side of the family, I send cards to my parents, brother, aunt, and grandma. That's 23 birthdays I have to buy for. That's not to mention the three friends I send birthday cards too, so now we're up to 26. There's also graduations, weddings, showers, get-well-soons, thank-yous, sympathies, etc. for which I keep cards on hand, but since the number of those fluctuate each year, I will leave them out of my count. Plus there's mother's day and father's day, for a grand total of at least 31 cards I buy each year. If you figure that most cards cost somewhere between 2.99 and 3.99, we'll take the average and multiply times 31, and we get $77.50. In actuality, however, I usually spend 50c on greeting cards (and my haul at Carlton Cards yielded cards for even less than that!). If you multiply 31 by 50 cents, we see that I'm spending only about $15.50 on cards per year. Yay :)

My favorite place to get greeting cards is The Book Loft in German Village. For those of you who live in Columbus, you should totally check it out. It's 32 rooms of book-buying wonderment. Down in the basement of one of the wings is the 50c card room. They have greeting cards throughout the store in many of the 32 rooms, but when they get new inventory and have to pull older cards off the shelves, they get priced with a dot-sticker and then go to the basement. I can spend F.O.R.E.V.E.R in that little room, looking at each card, filling up my basket with cards for cheap. I feel sad for these cards that have been banished to the basement... a greeting card graveyard of sorts. But it makes me happy that I am able to purchase them and give them a good home!

Now I know that dollar stores sell cards two for a dollar, so why is buying from The Book Loft better? Well first of all because it's not a chain. The Book Loft is an independent book store, owned and operated here in Columbus. Second, the cards at the Book Loft are not the same kind of cards you would get at the Dollar Store. They're not Hallmark or American Greetings either... they're unique and unusual! No offense if you buy Dollar Store cards... truth be told, we do sometimes too!

Speaking of greeting cards, does anyone else recycle them to extend their life? I have a large basket full of cards that sits upon my Hoosier Cabinet. I am getting into scrapbooking, so I have been dismantling my old cards to use in a scrapbook for my son. I also cut up Christmas cards and make tags for Christmas gifts with them. I have a stamp somewhere that says "to" and "from" which I will place on the back of these little recycled goodies. I'll leave you with some pics.

Potty Like a Rock Star Iron-on Transfer

'Nuff said!