3 Ways to Be a Super-Hero

My daughter is in LOVE with the Hippie Tote I made last week, and even though I have lots of requests for more from my other daughters and their friends, I have been trying to make some headway in my house - it's a wreck and I can't even set up for Christmas!

Oh! Did I tell you that I am going to have another Give-Away this week?

However, it takes me forever to get anything done, because I get so EASILY DISTRACTED (see above, lol).

In fact, recently I have been enlisted to be the newest super hero...Easily-Distracted Woman!

How did I do that?  Nice of you to ask!  By doing a few things...

#1.  Making MORE cookies... (recipe adapted from HERE)

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Craisin Cookies adapted from Smitten Kitchen

#2.  Making some pretty scarves...

 #3.  And I have ALSO been ignoring my cleaning and decorating because I've been using digital scrapbooking software, which I will be posting about here in the next few days.  I started playing around with digital scrap-booking after I went to that "crop" in the spring, because I just loved that I could create beautiful images and vignettes using my photos that I have in my computer.  I can't wait to show off what I'm working on!

So stayed tuned for THAT, and my next GIVE-AWAY!!

 

Hobo Bag (or Hippie Tote)

Using the reversible tote instructions that I used on my first tote-bag, I created this reversible Hobo Bag:

I have wanted a bag like this forever! I plan to take it to the farmer's market, to fit into my fantasy scenario that has me wandering the stalls every weekend.  Unfortunately I don't go to the farmer's market too often, since it means driving out of my way (thus I have my own lovely garden). But I can and will take this bag there on my occasional trips, AND to the grocery store.

You can see I was playing around on picnik.com with these two photos, because I took them with my daughter's i-phone and the lighting was awful (insert i-phone lust <here>, she is paying for it herself but do you think her PARENTS could get one?  nope, lol).

Okay, not this bag, because Beesha (said i-phone holder) just claimed it for her school books.

Here is all the pinning I had to do:

Then the sewing.  What you see here is me adding a length to the bags because I didn't measure the width of the bag handles to the width of the bag itself. No, you won't see many, if any, pictures of that debacle!

But actually I'm not thrilled with it because I didn't take into account that with the fix the handle would be SUPER long!!

I'm such a newbie at sewing but I have so much fun doing it. I will be making a few more of these bags and I'll post a tutorial, since they are a little different than the original tote.

I hope you get the chance to be creative today! 

Sharing my craftiness today with:

Bedside Book & Magazine Caddy

 Supplies Needed: 

One Funky Discount Table Runner from the Dollar Store for $3.50

 

 Here it is on my kitchen table... which is NOT what I bought it for!

 Can you imagine the book & magazine caddy?  I just accordion folded the runner to make pockets, and I sewed up both sides, creating the pockets.  Done!  How simple!

 Place the runner between the 2 mattresses on your bed, and the weight of the mattress will hold the Caddy in place.

 Here you can see I've put the top mattress down.  This is the room of my youngest, so I'm not completely free to show you her mess - I mean, room. 

 Here is the Caddy with the bed made...

 

This project took barely 10 minutes, and it was so satisfying!  However, you can see that the stripes run into each other a bit, so I think I'd like to add some ribbon to differentiate the pockets.  I'm considering black, but my daughter also likes lime green, so I might go with that.  I don't have any ribbon in green right now, so I'm going to have to go out to get some before this project is complete!  
 

I hope you get the chance to be creative today! 

A Flowy Skirt

Amidst the graduation party planning, the college graduation ceremonies, and the general hulabalu within our family of 6, I snuck in some time to sew a skirt for myself.  

It was my first time sewing with a very fine, flowing fabric.  This was a challenge! 

The fabric was so thin that I decided to NOT use a pattern but to cut from my own measurements.  I first measured my waist then I added 3 inches.  I knew I wanted this to be full - mostly because it makes it an easier sewing project!  I didn't want to have to had buttons, ties, zippers, or anything but an elastic.   

I then cut across the length I wanted, and I cut down from the waist out about 3 inches to the length, making an "A" line.  After I cut out the pieces, I sewed them together, making a french seam.  

Here is a good tutorial for a french seam.  

After that, I sewed a casing for the elasic at the waist, zig-zag stitched the bottom and folded it up to make the hem.  

I have a blue shirt and a brown shirt I will wear this with.  What do you think?

 I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

...from Lori @Kitchenfunk 

Key Chains!

 

The other day I had the chance to read this post on Infarrantly Creative.

~If you haven't read Beckie's blog, you are missing out.  She has great posts full of fun and beautiful ways to add creativity to life. For some reason I am unable to post her blog link, but make sure to check it out HERE.~

But on her post from April 28th she had a blogging buddy post a tutorial for these gorgeous and simple key chains.  The buddy was Amy at The Idea Room.

So, I fell in love with them and went to town.  I didn't have the exact purse clip Amy showed, but I had "D" rings and I used those.  Here is my first one.  You can see that I had a little trouble with my stitching on the black ribbon, but I couldn't find my seam ripper and my daughter wanted to use it as it was... Here it is:

And here is my second one:

And this is my third:

And finally, my most recent:

I'm still not done making them!  I am having such fun.  My kids love them, and since I'm planning to make some zippered change purses, I'm making plans to make some change purses that match or coordinate with the key chains.  Fun!  

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!

...from Lori@Kitchenfunk

 

and finally, I'm also linking here: Today's Creative Blog

Quilt Squares with Birds

Though I love to bird watch, I hadn't realized how much I enjoyed birds and bird silhouettes in home decor until recently, when several bloggers were posting things they made which highlighted birds, and I noticed many others had blog logo's with birds in them. Then I realized I have bird figurines in my house, too. I didn't know I had an "almost" theme!


I made these quilt squares, sans quilting yet, last weekend. I visited my sister-in-law for Easter, and she is an amazing crafter and seamstress who has recently taken up quilting. She was showing me some of her out-of-this-world beautiful quilt tops, and I was inspired to put these simple squares together. I only wish I had more of these fabrics. I would love to see an entire quilt done in these colors.

I'm sorry for this awful photo. 

I just could NOT get a good photo tonight.  

I'm blaming the camera and that's all I'm saying.

Making these, sewing skirts like crazy (made another one tonight!), and playing with my blog design, are things I've been doing when I should have been sleeping this week (not kidding, I think I got a total of 20 hours in the past 7 days, lol).

I hope you get the chance to be creative today! 

...but don't forget to sleep!

* * * * * * * *

from Lori@Kitchenfunk

Skirts and more skirts!

Saturday I made some skirts using THIS PATTERN from Dana at MADE

I love this site and all of her tutorials. This tutorial made these skirts so easy!

 

My youngest niece, 

wearing her new skirt on Easter, 

over her pink shorts!

Dana says to make sure you iron your seams...

 

And she also recommends a double stitch for a professional look...

I LOVE it!  I think it makes me look as if I know what I'm doing!!!  Woo-hoo!!

I ended up making 4, yes FOUR, skirts on Saturday.  Three of them using this same fabric, fun and funky, and a fourth using a soft silky poly blend (handling that fabric was a challenge, let me tell you!). 

But boy did I have fun, and wow I feel so great!!

Check out Dana's site, and also, check out the links below 

where I am partying this week with my skirts!

I hope you get the chance to be creative today!