Love Rocks!

Happy Valentine's Day!  I made these little rocks for the girls at work.  Pretty simple, but fun- paper hearts Modge Podged on to smooth rocks I bought at the dollar store.

Plastic Grocery Bag Crocheted Tote

This project took what felt like eternity and a million plastic bags! About 1/2 way through I said I would never, ever make one of these again, but now that it is finished I might do more, just not nearly as large.

I cut up plastic grocery bags into rings and looped them together to make plastic yarn, or "plarn" as the tutorial I was inspired by referred to it. I have no clue how many plastic bags this actually took. My best guess is at least 100?

The only other good use for the plastic grocery bags is as small trash bags since they don't recycle them around here, so I guess I make more? I think next time I might make a lunch bag sized one. I might also branch out to using a wider variety of colored bags or make a more complex patten than just the one stripe.

Etched Glass Mugs

A girlfriend needed a gift for the seniors on her son's bowling team but was on a budget.  Trying to think of something that works for both boys and girls and something that they might actually keep and use, we came up with etched, glass mugs!  This is a super easy process that has a great outcome.  I use a Cricut to make my stencil, but you can use an exacto knife to cut out your design and it works just as well- just takes a bit more time.

As luck would have it, the Dollar Tree had just gotten in these glass mugs.  I cut the stencils out of vinyl, put on the etching cream, and voila!  A functional keepsake that looks pretty cool.  She is going to fill them with candy and wrap them up in school colored cellophane. 

Now I Crochet?!

I guess I need another craft to get involved with?!  A gal from work peaked my interest to try crocheting again when she brought in some cute hats she had made her grandkids.  I had done a little bit as a camp counselor about 15 years ago.  Since then, the hooks and 1/2 finished projects have been traveling around in my craft supplies. 

I started with a basic scarf and it turned out "ok" but it is a cheap gray yarn that I would never expect anyone to wear.  I branched out yesterday and bought pink camo yarn.  Searching for a manageable project, I thought my tea mug needed a sweater.  It turned out better than I thought on a first try without a pattern, although it really isn't a complicated project.  

Now I am looking for more things to crochet for practice.  So if you need something small and basic, let me know.... Who else wants a MUG SWEATER?

Lucy's Polka Dot Room

We have been hemming and hawing about what room to put Henry in before he was even born, which means he has been living in our room for over 8 months- much longer than ever intended.  This week we finally bit the bullet and made the decision.  We have moved Lucy to the spare room and Henry will get Lucy's old room.  It has the perfect set-up with a built in changing table and the spare room has a larger closet and we all know girls somehow accumulate more clothes than boys.

The spare room lacked any sort of decoration.  Just boring beige walls.  We are limited on what we can do to the walls because we rent, but I knew we needed to add some color.  After weighing several options, I elected for using adhesive vinyl.

I used my Cricut and cut 3" circles out of four different colors (Navy,Pink, Lilac, and Green), in addition to her name in Lilac.  Once all my stickers were cut, I went to laying it out.  It was really a very quick process and in total, I probably only invested about 3 hours between cutting an applying.


I also bought window sheers to coordinate.  In total, the room make-over only cost about $25 because everything used just happened to be on sale and I already had the cartridge to cut the circles.  And it was money well spent.  Lucy LOVES it!  She especially loves the green sheer.  Every time she goes into the room she points and lights up!  It certainly made transitioning to a new room a little bit easier.

And for our friends and family that frequently use the spare room in our house, don't worry.  The wonderful air mattress still fits in the room great and we will figure out somewhere to put her when you visit!

Up-cycled Dress-up Wardrobe

It must have been about a year ago that I reached a breaking point of dealing with Lucy's 1/2 broken dresser.  The bottoms of the drawers always seemed to know the absolute worst time to crash through.  I had seen so many up-cycled kids furniture projects on Pinterest and showed this one to Rudy.  He embraced the idea and did this project 100% by himself! 

He haggled for the pink drawer knobs a few months earlier at a flea market, bought butterfly fabric for the inside, found butterfly stickers and mirrors for the outside, painted it obnoxious pink, reenforced the "floor" of the closet, fixed the bottom drawer, and added the clothes rod. 

We filled it with dress-up clothes and gave it to Lucy for Christmas.  I'm not sure that as a 2 year old, she can fully appreciate it, but she certainly is enjoying all the dress-up things and I appreciate that it contains them all and that it is so freakin' cute!

Advent Books

I feel like it is still way too early to start thinking about Christmas, but it seems like everywhere I turn, decorations are going up.  So let the preparations begin... 

My parents always got me an Advent calendar each year to count down to Christmas.  Sometimes it had chocolate, sometimes toys, and one time, my favorite- little wooden ornaments.  I knew this was something I wanted to do with my kids but was trying to think of a fun, unique variation.   I realize this year Lucy probably won't grasp the concept of counting down to Christmas and Henry is still way too little, but I thought it would be a fun regardless.

 Well, Lucy LOVES books! This summer I started collecting Christmas books at yard sales, library sales, and thrift stores.  With the help of some friends, I finally found the last few I needed to hit 24. I wrapped each one and labeled it with a number so we open one each day.  Now I just need a basket for them!

On December 1, I will pull them out and let Lucy open the first one.  I don't know what order they are in, so I'll be surprised by each one also!  I hope she has fun with it and I know I'm in store for a lot of bedtime book reading now...