Mommy, Promise me...

... that you will never show my future girlfriends the photos of me in those silly orange pants you made. What?! You posted them on the internet?!


Ah, the things we do to torture our children.


These warm pajama-like pants came from sleeves of a sweater of mine that I outgrew long, long ago. I couldn't even fit into that sweater before I got pregnant, so I'm pretty sure I'll never fit into that sweater again!

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!

Felted Wool Baby Mittens

It's gotten C.O.L.D. these past few days! So cold, in fact, that I am having second thoughts about going to tomorrow's half-off sale at the Volunteers of America. (You know it's cold if I'm thinking of passing on a 50% off thrifting trip!) With these frigid temperatures, I figured I better get my act in gear and sew Joel a pair of mittens.

This project is easy peasy. First, I chose a felted sweater that still had sleeves. I cut several inches off from the base of each sleeve. I figured I'd utilize the finished wrist section to make less work for myself.



Then I sewed a generic "U" shape onto each cuff and trimmed away the excess. You're done! It's a five minute project- woohoo!





Here's the little squirt passed out on daddy's lap while he played video games.

Your initial on a Wreath!

I saw this wreath by Living with Lindsay and I just had to make one. I had a large cardboard "R" that we used as a decoration at our wedding, and I had some evergreen garland that I used to hang outside.



Put the two together, and voila!


I think it looks a little small for the front door so I might have to hang it somewhere else.

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!

Awesome Felt Castle

I really should be sleeping since it's after midnight. When I woke up this morning to go to work, I already had massive bags under my eyes... but it's so much more fun to catch up on some much needed blog reading! I stumbled across two toy posts that I wanted to share since it's the holiday season, and we all have toys on the brain!

The first is a tutorial on how to make a castle out of felt. It definitely is the bomb diggety.

The second one is about how people these days tend to go to their local Walmart and stock up on plastic toys that leave nothing to imagination. This is not what I want for my child! For example, I want (and have been purchasing) real vintage enamleware for my son when he plays "kitchen." And she does too! This post is amazing... check it out!