Monday Mini Project!

I am always misplacing my big-eyed plastic needles and my mini scissors! This is half the reason a lot of my crochet projects sit unfinished. I decided once in a while to do something about it. The solution: a sort of 'chatelaine'!

You need:

Ribbon--18 to 20 inches or so.
A sewing machine, needle and thread or glue
Your big plastic needles and a mini scissors.

This is so easy! Just fold up one end of the ribbon to make a pocket for the needles. Sew or glue it (keep your glue line very thin if you do it that way. I used a machine.) and tuck in the needles.

Tie the other end of the ribbon around the scissors.

I don't have a picture, but I folded the ribbon in half and put a knot a little bit from the top to make a 'loop' for hanging.

All I have to do now is always remember to hang it up.

Editing to link to:
http://www.thegirlcreative.com/2011/04/just-something-i-whipped-up_24.html

Check it out: over 300 creative links!

Easter Grass Cheat

I completely forgot to buy Easter grass. It is not an appreciated thing around here, anyway. The plastic stuff gets caught up in the vacuum cleaner rollers and the paper stuff is expensive.

Tissue paper to the rescue! Not just any green paper, but Christmas tissue! Yeah, you know, the kind that also comes with red and cost 20 cents a package after New Year's.

If I was ambitious (I'm not) I'd cut the edges to look more grassy. You can even fold it up and cut strips. Again, not that ambitious.

Just a quick idea, in case anyone stops by today.

HAPPY EASTER TO ALL!!!!

A little shopping

I met a good friend of mine for lunch today. The restaurant is right next door to Michael's, so we always go there after we eat. I picked up some new sock yarn, mostly because it was on clearance. It might be a while before I use it, though. I'm finishing up my latest pair and would like to work on finishing a few other projects before I start something new. With that in mind I bought myself some of those big-eyed plastic needles. I'm always losing them for some reason! I have a few things I can finish now that I have the means of sewing in the yarn. One is a cute seal pup I started forever ago and the other is a little whale. Pictures soon, I promise! And links, if I still have them.

My other shopping news (a little bragging here) is that today I got $64.11 in groceries for $28.99. Total savings: $35.12! Yep, better than 50%. I love being 'creative' with sales and coupons. My best deal today was my coffee creamer. It's usually 2.99, but after double coupons and sales I got it for 40 cents! (So I bought 4 of them--I go through one a week, I'd say.)

Not only that, but you know that machine that spits out coupons at the register? Someone left a '$2 off your next shopping order' one behind. So I got another $2 off. Cool, huh?

Even though this is pretty much a crafting blog, I feel that we need to be 'creative' with our money in this day and age. So...has anyone seen that show on TLC, "Extreme Couponers"? I'm a little stunned and have asked when stockpiling becomes hoarding. Does anyone really need a ten year supply of toothpaste?????

Bunnies!

A Bunny Couple ready for the Spring Dance.
The Group.
Isn't she pretty? See the flower on her head?
Girls in the works.

These were so much fun to make. I might paint some clothespins white just to have them to play with next year. At this point I have other Easter projects to work on, as well as my 'regular' ones.

I did notice my girls have longer ears than my boys, LOL!

Spring Blouse

Here is my latest sewing project, a new blouse for spring. It is McCall's M6035. Of course I paid about 1.99 for it, not the 17.95 suggested retail price! Who pays almost $18 for a frickin' pattern??????

Oh, and the fabric was on sale, too. I usually go for the quilting cottons. There are so many nice prints to choose!

This is what I've gotten done so far. The sleeves will be the shortest ones, but I might just let them hang loose instead of making them puffed.

I only have the collar half-sewn in and need to iron it up a bit. I had to fudge the neckline just a little bit after increasing the width of the front. I want a blouse that buttons easily and patterns never fit me like that.

I really like the shirred sleeves on the blue blouse and plan to use them in the next incarnation of this pattern.


On the crochet front, I finished a doll blanket today that I started a while back. I also did several more rounds on a new pair of socks and am past the 'turning the heel' part.

The girl clothespin bunnies have skirts and tails, but no ears yet. Soon!

Pics of all to come in future posts.

Boy Bunnies

Bunnies on parade! (Or they're off looking for girl bunnies!)

I have them clipped on a lampshade here. They are so easy to make. The faces are done with permanent marker (luckily, I happened to have pink as well as black!) and the ears are cut from felt. I just used pink marker to color them although if you want to work with impossibly tiny pieces of felt you can certainly cut pink felt inner ears. The tails are very, very small puff balls.

Obviously, the arms are pipe cleaners.

I might add a little embellishment to these, like bow ties or belts.

There are instructions for clothespin bunnies all over the net, but I don't think you need any. Just paint some clothespins white (or keep them brown. Bunnies, after all, come in brown, too.) Then paint the lower half to make 'pants' and add your embellishments.

Came back to edit: Pom Poms! Not puff balls! I couldn't remember what they were called!

Easter crafting

I'm going to be making some Easter bunnies out of clothespins to give to the kids at work. I like doing things like this. My non-altruistic reason is that it's a good excuse to do crafts I wouldn't have reason to do otherwise.

I have 3 boys made and will show them in a post or two.

As you can see, there are some blocks being painted, too. Someone brought them into work. They were supposed to go together to make pictures, but the set was short one block. So I brought them home to play with them. I like those block sets that spell words out, like "PEACE" or "SPRING."

The main reason I painted the blocks is that I squeezed out too much paint and did not want to waste it. Whenever that happens, look around your crafty things. Chances are you've got something to add a coat to!

PS--I tried spray-painting these but it worked out much easier to use acrylic paint and a brush.

Easter Pillows

Here are some pillows I made to put on my couch this month. Actually, the one with the lace is a pillow case. I just put it over a rectangular pillow that has cardinals on it. Last month it was covered with a shamrock pillow case.

The other pillow is made from two different prints, as you can see. As you can also see, Shadow has taken it over. I'm glad he finds my pillow comfy!

The fabric on the right (sans dog) is from an Etsy shop, "Jane Says Vintage." Here's the link:

http://www.etsy.com/shop/JaneSaysVintage?ref=pr_shop

I try to buy as many of my supplies as I can from Etsy shops. I love to support 'real' people like you and me! The lace is vintage, from my late grandmother's collection. She died almost 30 years ago and was certainly not sewing for at least 10 or so years before that, so the lace is at least 35 years old. I probably mentioned it before but it's cool to me to have anything that is truly 'vintage.'

Toy Stove Top Template

I saw this idea on some site or other but could not download it, so I made my own. I'm not sure you can use this, but try right-clicking it and doing a 'save picture as.'

Basically, you just keep making circles in black and red and pile them on top of each other to make 'burners.' The dials are simply black circles with a white rectangle.

I printed this on photo paper because I don't have any cardstock handy. I will cut everything out and laminate it. You could cover the pieces with sticky vinyl, too. Or you could just print it right onto sticker paper.

Then what I'll do is find a box for the 'stove.' I'll glue the pieces on accordingly. I think a big shoebox would do. Then I'll pick up an inexpensive cooking set at the dollar store. The pieces can go right in the box! I think the kids at work will love this. I even have some plastic food bought on clearance a while back to 'cook.'

Just a simple little idea. I hope you like it! Makes me want to look around and see what other household appliances I can make out of little boxes!