Friday Finds: Sew Much Ado

I know I'm not the only one, but I obsessively read other crafty blogs for inspiration and cute ideas. This morning, I happened upon the blog, So Much Ado.

On her sidebar, she has a bunch of great tutorials. As I flipped through them, I found a TON of cute, easy, useful things!

Here are some of my favorites:

*The Jersey Ruffle Scarf*

*The Reusable Swiffer Sweeper*

*The Ric Rac Receiving Blanket*

*The Key Holder*

I was so excited to find the ruffle scarf idea because I have a lot of jersey knit fabric that I didn't know what to do with. I also love the reusable swiffer sweeper. I have a few fuzzy socks that are taking up too much room in my drawer! The blanket and key holder are both very cute projects. I love blankets and will never be tired of seeing new ideas for them!

I hope you enjoyed looking over the fun stuff at Sew Much Ado!

Happy Friday!

DIY Love {Nursery Wall Art: Name Banner}

Here is a quick, easy, and cheap project for you:

I have wanted a name banner for my son's nursery since he was born. I have toyed with the idea of either making a banner or using the wooden letters. And, considering we are closing on our first house today, I went with the most inexpensive choice, the banner.

It was so easy. I can't say it enough.

All you need is some fun scrapbook paper and ribbon. You can also add something like cardboard to the back to make it sturdier.
I chose to draw and cut out the letters by hand, but I don't suggest it. It was very tedious, let me tell you. I then cut out squares and glued the letters to that.

To finish it off, all you have to do is punch holes and run a ribbon through each lettered square.

Ta-Da!

There you have it folks.

The easiest name banner you will ever make! When we move into our new home, I plan to put it above the crib. There will be more easy and cheap nursery decorations to come, so stay tuned!

Minty Fresh

Let's start off with a little story time:

I suppose I have gotten carried away with the fact that Ande now entertains himself pretty well. He will wander around the house and play by himself for hours if you let him. Very convenient for me, not so convenient for our house. At the end of the day, it looks like a tornado blew past.

So today, I was here on the computer while Ande began re-arranging the paper towels, plastic bags, and soaps under the kitchen sink. No biggie, I would just put it all back later. I started to send Curt an email when I got this overwhelming smell of fresh, minty, eucalyptus-ness in my nose. I looked over and Ande had somehow unscrewed the top off of our favorite eucalyptus spearmint hand soap. He then poured over half the bottle onto the carpet and proceeded to rub his hands all over the huge puddle of soap. He then proceeded to scream bloody murder as I tried to clean it up with the shop-vac. And, after all of that, I still can't get the soapiness out of the carpet.

As I try to focus on the good from this experience, I have learned that my child is either really smart, or has extremely strong grip for his age. And luckily, my house now smells minty fresh, and probably will for the rest of the week!

On to the pictures:

Ande and I went to the pool the other day. He spent more time playing with random equipment than he did in the water.

The faucet:

The trash can, the bars, and the dirt:

The lockers:

Crochet Love {Crochet Clutch}

I love to crochet. It is easy, cheap, and convenient.

I once tried to teach myself to knit. I had this great idea to knit everybody in my family a scarf for Christmas. I even started early, sometime in September. By the time December rolled around, I had only finished about 6 inches of one scarf. Knitting is not my gift.

One day, many years later, I decided to try again with crochet instead. It worked! Crochet makes sense to me! Hallelujah!

Now, putting two things I love together, I have made a crochet purse/clutch:

It's not the first one that I've made, but it turned out better than the last one.

It is a clutch style purse. The outside is crochet and the inside is a fun nautical fabric. I found this fabric at my parents house in a bag full of scraps. I'm going to just pretend that it is 'vintage' fabric because it sounds cool and because I bought it about 10 years ago in home-ec class.

I found the button at the fabric store, and thought it matched the color and style of the bag perfectly. The button is just for show. I used a magnetic metal clasp to close the bag.

The inside is simple with 2 good size pockets.

Now that this clutch is complete, I have an urge to make more. I'm thinking, flowers, ruffles, the works.

What do you think?

How do you feel about purses?

How do you feel about crochet purses?

Friday Finds

It has been a busy week with a lot of appointments and such. That is why not much crafting has been going on around here.

I don't have anything to show for myself, but luckily there are a lot of other craft bloggers out there that have been busy making amazing things this week.

Here are some of my favorite finds which will most likely become a project for me once life slows down:

*The Gathered Clutch*

*I recently stumbled upon the blog, Noodlehead. I fell in love with it right away. I fell even harder when I discovered Anna's "Gathered Clutch Tutorial." These are so stylish and fun!

*The Bean Bag Chair*

I HAVE to make one of these! When I first saw this at Stardust Shoes, I liked it, but I thought there is NO WAY I could make something this complicated! Luckily, I set aside my insecurities and read over the tutorial anyway. It is GREAT! It is very detailed with pictures and everything. She makes it look so easy. This is definitely on my "to-do" list now!

*The Bucket Hat*

I think this hat is adorable. I love when I find great ideas for little boys. I actually decided, while at the pool yesterday, to make Ande a little bucket hat like this. I am so glad I found this tutorial at U create today!

*The Baby Blanket*

I have a bunch of fleecy fabric lying around waiting for me to decide what to do with it. I pretty much decided to make a quilted/rag/crocheted blanket of some sort. Seeing this quilt sealed the deal. It is gorgeous don't you think? You can find the baby blanket tutorial over at Keepin The Castle, which is a blog that I just found today!

*The Gussy Bag*

If there is one think I love more than purses, it's ruffles. These Gussy bags have both! They are AMAZING. I don't even have words to describe how much I love them.

Earlier this week, the blog: A Lemon Squeezy Home hosted a Gussy Giveaway. I entered, and sadly, didn't win.

What do you think about my Friday Finds? What fun crafts have you found this week?

DIY Love {Spring Flower Wreath}

Flowery wreaths are really popular right now. I've seen several around bloggy land and Etsy that I love, so I decided to try my hand at making one.

I decided to use fabric flowers for the embellishment. My Aunt, who is my crafty guru, sent me a link to Sew4Home which had a great fabric flower design!

Sew4Home: Tattered Flowers

They are so cute, and super easy to make!

Here is my first try:

This is how I made my wreath:

Luckily, I already had everything I needed in my scrap pile. I'd like to eventually use a bigger wreath, but I bought this one a few years ago at the $1 Store and couldn't put it to waste. Despite what some of you may think about it, I love the $1 Store! I was also lucky to already have fabric scraps that were perfectly cut into long strips.

I cut the strips into a few different sizes so that I could have some variation among the flowers:

Now comes the ironing. I like to do all my ironing together so I can get it done and over with!

I used a blue and white gingham fabric to wrap around the wreath. I just ironed the long edges over to make it look clean, no sewing necessary!

I then took the long strips to be used for flowers and ironed them in half, as the "Tattered Flower" instructions direct.

I like to keep things simple, especially when I am just making something for my own pleasure. So, to make this wreath really simple, I got out my trusty hot glue gun!

I wrapped the gingham fabric around the wreath and then used the glue gun to secure the edges.

Now, unlike the "Tattered Flower" directions, I decided to baste stitch by hand. I didn't feel like getting my sewing machine out for something so quick and easy.

(I can't wait to move into our new house, where I will have a craft room all to myself! I won't have to worry about the sewing machine falling on my head as I try to hoist it down from the shelf in the laundry room!)

I made three "tattered flowers" and also made 4 little fans for some extra flair.

Basting stitch:

Thread pulled tight:

Running thread back through:

Finished fan:

Now, like I said, I like to keep it simple.

I hot glued all of the flowers and fans into place.

I'm sure there is a much more professional way to do it, but I am still pretty pleased with the outcome!

Ta-Da!

What do you think?

I'd love to see any spring wreaths that you have made!

Dr. Dan

Ande had his first Dentist Appointment yesterday!

I know you are probably thinking, why did I take my barely 1 year old to the dentist already? Well, I called my childhood dentist office because I thought there would be some sort of waiting list (everybody loves Dr. Dan). Luckily there wasn't, and the guy I talked to said they like to have children come in for a 'well baby' type visit once they have several teeth. Ande has 10 teeth, working on 2 more, so I thought it would be appropriate to get him checked out.

They have this great little play area. If you look behind Ande's head, you can see about 10 My Little Pony's that a little girl lined up on the ledge. The only toy Ande would play with was this little plastic hot dog bun and as I tried to fill out some paperwork, he kept trying to escape.

I guess he knew what was coming...

Let me just say, bringing a 1 year old to the dentist causes quite the spectacle.

All of the women hygienists were oo-ing and aah-ing.

Ande started crying when Dr. Dan tried to look at his teeth. Keep in mind, this wasn't even a cleaning with all the poking, scraping, sanding, etc. Just a quick little looksy...easy as pie. Yet, he still cried.

Then Dr. Dan started talking to me about how we just need to brush his teeth every night, and that we don't need to come back for another year...that was right about the time I realized Ande had the stinkiest poopy diaper of all time. So, even though we found out that Ande has a great set of teeth, I left feeling pretty embarrassed!

Quiet Time for the Little Man

While my husband was away on a 6 week business trip, I tried to stay as busy as possible at night to curb the loneliness. We have been married 2 years and had only been apart from each other for a long weekend about a year ago.

My son's first birthday was coming up, so I decided to make some of his presents. I hate to say it, but these projects ended up being more for my benefit than his. He has become quite rowdy when it comes to sitting still in church for 3 hours every Sunday. So, I came up with a few fun distractions for him:

The first is a photo album. I wanted him to have pictures of his family so that he could get to know his Grandma, Grandpa, and cousins that he doesn't see very often. This was super easy, because I already had a soft, fabric photo album on hand. I just wanted to personalize it for Ande a little bit, so I made a slip cover with some fun Dinosaur fabric.

My next project was inspired by a Quiet Book tutorial I found at Everyday Celebrations. She has several different Quiet Book's (colors, numbers, A-Z animals, etc.), all of which look much better than the one I made. However, Ande loves it, so that is all that matters!

Last but not least, is the back pack that I made for him. I used Heat n' Bond and my Cricut to cut out the letters and animals. It actually didn't work that well (anybody have any tips on cutting fabric with the Cricut?). I made up my own pattern for the bag. My pattern making skills need A LOT of work, so I was surprised with how well it turned out. Then I tried it on Ande....It's a little big, he will have to grow into it!

(I'm working on different ways to display my pictures. Unfortunately these collages came out looking a little small. Bare with me.)

Start 'Er Up!

Welcome!

I am so excited to get this blog started.

Isn't it beautiful?

You may think I'm tootin' my own horn here, but I attribute the gorgeous layout of my brand new blog to my dear friend, Mary. Her own blog, Mary's Last Chance, is so cute, I had to have her help me out! She designed these and several other blogs as well.

I decided to start this blog, like every other blogger out there, because I needed an outlet. I typically spend every moment of my son's naps working on some sort of craft. I pride myself on how quiet I can be. Early wake-ups can be devastating! (But, don't get me wrong, I really really love playing with my son, too!) Anyway, I guess I just wanted some way of documenting my crafty triumphs, along with the failures, in hopes that I can get a little encouragement and advice along the way.

I am not your typical Crafty-Stay-At-Home-Blogger, I don't know how to make tutorials and all that fancy blog stuff. Please feel free to comment, send me helpful tips, or send me links to fun ideas that you have found!

Anyway, I hope you'll stay tuned!

Gratitude

First of all... I have to thank my good friend, Mary over at Mary's Last Chance , for making our blog look so beautiful! She is so creative, especially when it comes to design. So far she has designed several blogs and they all look great! (One of which is my brand new craft blog, the quiet crafter)

THANK YOU!

I was really glad that she could help me out, and that just got me thinking about what else I was glad about lately. I think I spend too much time worrying about every little thing and not enough time showing gratitude.

So far, May has been wonderful. The weather is beautiful, the town is green as far as the eye can see. And so, as you all know by now, we love spending time at the park.

I am so thankful for spring, for green trees, and for getting to hang out with Ande everyday so I can watch him explore and discover the world.

I am so glad that I am surrounded by funny people.

They help me to remember to smile and enjoy the little things.

I am most definitely grateful for my family, near and far. For those that are near, thank you for all of your help all of the time. I love my Mom. She is always available to spend time with me and give me advice. I love my Dad...

He is so caring and would do anything for his family. Ande loves them, too.

And for those far away, we think about you and tell Ande about you all the time. We miss you and love you and can't wait to see you. I buzzed Ande's hair and now it is blonde like his Daddy. I am proud (and Curtis even more so) that Ande finally looks like a Haynie.

Ok, hopefully this isn't getting too sappy for you. But, I can't go without thanking Curtis for a lovely Mother's Day. I think he probably feels like he never does enough to make me happy. But I am, and I am so grateful for him and how he shows me love each and every day.

Now, go find somebody to THANK!