Busy crafting

 This month the craft along theme over at Yarnigras Swapper Spot is independence or in other words, doing something you've wanted to do. My list of projects that I want to do is massive and my collection of projects I have started but have not completed . . . well that is way to long to talk about! Since it's summer my craft room and I have been spending some time together getting reaquainted. I seem to forget how much I enjoy time spent in my craft room until I start crafting again. Now I'm back in my craft room creating and finishing up some projects. Just look at what I've made.

 A few years ago I went to a workshop in Boston, one of the other workshop participants had an amazing scarf made from neckties. I loved it! I found the designer through a little research online but at $70 the scarves were too expensive for me. (I should have bought one, I looked them up again today, they're $150 now.) Granted they are unique and beautiful creations but I just couldn't bring myself to buy one for that price so I found a couple scarves at a thrift shop and thought I'd see what I could create.

Creating necktie scarves was harder than I thought it would be. I created the black one but I wasn't totally happy with it. I had pinned together a second necktie scarf but gave up on it after I didn't like the first. I stuck them in a drawer, pins and all, and forgot about them. I pulled the yellow and blue one out of my craft stash earlier this week determined to pull all of the pins out of it. On a whim I decided to take a few minutes to sew it together before removing the pins. I also re-finished the end of the black tie that I didn't like. Here's the finished product. They're nothing like the amazing creations the orignial designer makes but I like how they turned out and I completed an unfinished project that sat in a drawer for two years. . . yay for me!

I also pulled out a stitchery that I had finished a couple of years but hadn't done anything with. I loved the stitchery but couldn't decide what to do with it so it sat forgotten for years. Not any more, using some scrap fabric I sewed it into a little pillow.  Another unfinished project done.  :)  I feel so accomplished!

This is my favorite bag pattern, it's reversible. I have several of these bags and often give them as gifts. I even use one as my school bag, it's the perfect size. I decided to cut out a few of these bags using fabrics from my stash. I finished this one and another one this week and I have a crafting date with a friend next week to sew up the rest.

Lastly, I made a carbage bag for my neighbor. As moms, we always end up with trash and wrappers in the car when we're transporting kids around, so a carbabge bag is a necessity. I started lining these with some black plastic sheeting I found at Home Depot. It works perfectly to keep the fabric from getting wet or stained from the trash.

Recycled Tin Cans & Zentangle Tags

Last week was teacher appreciation week. As a special education preschool teacher I work with an amazing group of paraprofessionals.  I wanted to express my appreciation to these women, so I planted herbs in recycled tin cans as my way of saying "Thanks for all you do!"  What better way to express your appreciation than through a craft that involves recycling?!  It's good for the environment and functional since the herbs can last long into the summer. Not to mention the finished cans are pretty.

For this project, I saved the tin cans from my crushed and diced tomatoes.  After washing and drying the cans I transplanted parsley, basil or thyme into the cans. Then I went to my craft room where I pulled out my fabric scraps, burlap, jute rope and my glue gun. I cut my fabric scraps to fit the cans, then used my glue gun to glue the fabric and the burlap to the can. Next I tied some jute rope around the can and attached some of my zentangle tags. You can find my free zentangle tags here. I'm biased because I drew the tags, but I love them and use them on gifts throughout the year.

Doodles and Bits of Wool

We've had birds on the brain here. The April YOE theme is bird's nests. This combined with my habit of drawing and sewing little red birds has made for lots of bird crafts. As a result I can finally take this note off my desk.

Nature Girl asked me, back in January when I sewed this red wool bird for Gin, if I would make her a bird too. I gave her some paper and asked her to write me a note so I wouldn't forget. This is the note she wrote. I quickly scrawled a few extra details and put it on my desk to look at later.

I haven't had time to work on it but could you disappoint this sweet little face? No, of course not! She's the biggest supporter and fan of my crafts. She always seems to think I'm capable of far more than I think I'm capable of. She frequently checks on me when I'm crafting to provide her opinion and request that I make things for her. Often with the activity of everyday life these projects get put on hold, so when I had a few extra minutes this past weekend I decided to try to sew her a bird. It took me two months to get to it but I'm finally finished and can remove the note from my desk.

This little green bird was made from a recycled wool sweater. She thought it needed a nest and some eggs so I figured out a way to make a nest from another felted sweater. We added a few little green pom-poms to look like eggs in the nest.

As I worked on the bird she found the cuff of the sweater on the craftroom floor and claimed it. She wore it on her wrist before coming back to tell me it was almost like the fingerless gloves she saw made on a craft show. I had cut the cuffs of the green sweater too short so we pulled out another sweater then cut and stitched those cuffs into fingerless gloves.

See, she loves them! She's been wearing them all week. I think she might be sad now that spring is on it's way and she won't need to wear wool gloves anymore! We've certainly have had fun with our bits of wool!

With the arrival of spring a bird doodle seemed like a good idea. I had a bunch of meetings this morning at school so I doodled this tree as I listened. The drawing needed some color so I took it home. I find coloring to be very relaxing so a spent some time coloring tonight. I really enjoy doodling and coloring!

Spring Clean Up & Recycling

Looking proud of her work.

This weekend we spent some time outside enjoying a day of 60 degree weather. Since it was so nice, we went for a family walk in our neighborhood. As we walked we saw lots of trash, aluminum cans and bottles strewn along the side of the road. Nature Girl was upset that people would throw trash on the ground. She has always been conscientious about putting trash where it belongs and taking care of the Earth. We discussed cleaning up the trash another time when we had bags with us. She agreed that we should clean it up but was worried about getting her hands dirty. Dirty hands, not a problem! We have a box of disposable gloves left over from a tie-dye project.

Monday after school Nature Girl and I set out on another walk wearing our disposable gloves and carrying a few trash bags. We didn't get very far down the road before encountering a new and unfriendly looking dog in our neighborhood. There is a leash law in our town but apparently his family doesn't know about it. We opted to turn around and clean up the other side of the street instead of facing this unfriendly fellow. We filled a bag about a third full with trash and collected half a bag of cans, glass and plastic bottles.

Nature Girl thought we needed a staged photo of the clean up. Here she is picking up a beer can. She crushed and recycled the cans, then sorted the plastic and glass. We took it all out to the the curb where it was recycled the next morning. We'd like to keep working on our neighborhood spring clean up and recycling effort but we have to wait for it to stop raining. It's been raining for days. I just checked the weather and it looks like the rain is supposed to continue through the weekend, so maybe next week.

Warm Woolen Mittens

From itchy ugly wool sweaters to warm woolen mittens is a snap. I've been collecting wool sweaters from thrift stores and family members this past year. I've washed and felted them and finally started turning them into warm woolen mittens over vacation. My photos are a little dark but I think you can still see what I've been up to.


I've made a couple of pairs so far. I used this tutorial and pattern here and my husband sent me a link for another video and pattern here. This video is kind of long but she shows you how to ensure that you end up with a right and a left mitten. Seems obvious but it's easy to end up with two left handed mittens so the videos are helpful. Before I watched the second video I ended up with two left handed mittens. Not to worry I used the same sweater to make the right handed mittens for my two lefties but I'm sad to say I now have four left handed mittens instead of two. Ha, ha! Thankfully it was an ugly sweater that my brother in law gave me. He's living in Hawaii and doesn't need the sweater or the mittens so nothing lost.


I made this pair of mittens for myself. I'd like to try making a matching hat for my mittens. Or maybe I could create some slippers or something else with my left over felted sweaters. I've spent some time looking around Etsy for some inspiration. Looking for some cute felt slippers? Check out these rabbit slippers on Etsy, aren't they amazing?!!

Lastly I wrapped a pair of my homemade warm woolen mittens for my mom. I thought the packaging was ingenious but when I asked my husband if he got it he said "What, is it packaging for poor people?" I explained that it was warm woolen mittens in brown paper packages tied up with string . . . these are a few of my favorite things. I told him my mom would get it as we watched the Sound of Music together lots of times when I was a child. He laughed when she opened it and I asked if she got the packaging. It turns out it wasn't as ingenious as I thought, I had to explain it to her too. She did love the mittens though!

A Recycled Apron For Nature Girl

Today I was folding a mountain of clean laundry when I came across a pair of Nature Girl's jeans that are a size to small and have a hole in the knee. Nature Girl loved my swap apron so I decided to cut up her old jeans and create a recycled apron. Yesterday I saw Val's apron made with Lucy's apron tutorial so I was inspired to give it a try. I adjusted the tutorial a bit since I was working with a pair of 3T pants. I used both legs and sewed them together to create a bigger apron. I gathered it at the waist, lined the back and added a band of fabric for the waist and ties. To cover the hole in the knee I sewed three circles cut from the jeans. I think they will fray in the wash and look more like flowers in time - you can see the circles at the top on the right and left sides since I feel the need to make things symmetrical. I also cut the pockets off the back of the jeans and sewed them on the front of the apron. Nature Girl immediately stuffed a plastic inch worm(a treasure we found in the parking lot at the park) in one pocket. The jeans already had some nice embroidered trim and a flower with butterfly on the side so it didn't need any extra embellishment. Nature Girl is pleased with it. She wore it for about 10 minutes before she came to me and said " You made something with my old pants!"


We headed out to the craft store to pick up scrapbooking supplies for an end of the year gift for Nature Girl's teacher. While we were there we came across the flamingo fabric Barb used for the tissue cover and card wallet I won in her blog give away. Since Nature Girl was a little sad about sharing our goodies from Barb, I had promised her that we would look for Flamingo fabric for her. So today we stumbled across two flamingo fabrics. In the end Nature Girl picked out this fun one. Now we just have to decide what to do with it. Nature Girl has had a few ideas but hasn't decided yet. So far her ideas are a new napkin set for her school snack box or a pouch for her treasures. She's leaning toward the pouch idea.

Yard Work

We had a gorgeous weekend filled with sunshine and yard work. Spending hours raking the yard really wasn't bad, since we had extra helpers. Now the yard has been raked and fertilized so we should see green grass soon. Nature Girl happily played around the yard as the grown ups raked away. She discovered a perfectly round rock, three dandelions, a blue jay feather, wild violets in bloom and a small grasshopper named "Grassy."
We took a break from yard work and painted the round rock with red spray paint. Yes I even let her help with the spray paint. Once it dried Nature Girl added black dots to create a ladybug. We put the rocks in her garden. She was thrilled to see her lambs ear plants from last year are already growing and she has three purple hyacinths that are preparing to bloom.


We still haven't started our marigold seeds but once they're ready we plan to add those to her garden too. Marigolds are hardy and should do fine is a 4 year olds garden. Really we need hardy plants to make up for my lack of gardening ability. I'd like to extend her garden all the way around the tree this year so we better get planting. I saw a neat video where you can use old newspapers for planting seedlings instead of buying peat pots. You can check out the simple how to video from Dave's Garden. It's a great way to recycle and garden at the same time. Perfect for Earth Day!

Saving Trees

Today we headed off to dance class as usual. We had to stop and wait for traffic to pass while a tree crew worked along the side of the road Nature Girl asked from the back seat of the car why we were stopping. I explained that their were men working to take down some trees and we had to wait for the other cars to pass. Her response was "Don't they know that they can use fabric for napkins instead of cutting down trees?" Well I had to laugh! I just made her a fabric napkin and a reusable snack bag for her preschool snack bag. Now she's trying to get everyone to save trees. So I'll do my part to help the trees. I've almost completed tutorials for the reusable snack bag and cloth napkin I made. I will post them tomorrow. So stop by to see my first ever tutorials.