2 1/2 recent crafts

1.  Little Tike's toddler car

It's not really a craft, it's more of a fixer-upper. I bought this faded little car for $5 from a yard sale.  New, they cost something like $50-$60.  I bought Krylon spray paint for plastic, took it apart and painted it.

It doesn't look perfect but looks a lot better than it did!  Ellie loves it.  I let her pick out the colors. Now I'm tempted to buy a john deere sticker for the back.  I admit, I didn't think of this renovation on my own--Ellie's babysitter painted one for her son and it looked great.


2. Jewelry organizer

Usually, I throw all of my necklaces and dangle-y earring into a big basket on my dresser.  I can never find what I want to wear and they get all tangled.  This is a $1 mirror frame from a garage sale (I popped the mirror off of the frame--it was incredibly ugly), spray painted it, and used a staple gun to line the back with chicken wire.     


2 1/2.  Cross-stitch project

I haven't finished this project yet, but I wanted to brag and show off how far I've gotten.  This is how far I was in March of 2010. 

This is what it looks like now.  I've been working on it at least three nights a week for the last five months. 

Just to give you an idea of how small the stitching is:

Oh, and this is what it will hopefully look like when it's done.

As I said before, this isn't a craft project, it's a commitment. I don't even want to think of how old Mo-mo will be when I finally finish.

My first quilt blocks

I've finished 3 out of the 9 blocks for my first quilt.  I only have 2 more to do of this particular star pattern, then I switch to doing ones with a bunch of squares and rectangles. 

See my progress?  The first block I made turned out wonky.  By the third one, it's almost pretty.

I'm enjoying it so far. Strangely enough, I thought I'd be doing it with my sewing machine, but I wanted to be able to do something when I "watch" TV (I use that word very loosely as I tend to just listen to it).  So this small quilt is going to be entirely hand-pieced.

As I've mentioned, I'm learning this from a book.  I'm good up until the point where all of the pieces are put together and somehow, magically, it gets batting and backing...yeah, I have no idea how to do that.  The book wasn't quite clear enough for me.  I'm going to have to track down an expert or go to a quilt store and try and find a kindly person to help me out.

Taggie Toys again

Since I'm 99.9% sure that my cousin does not read my blog, I'm sharing the surprise that I made for her twin baby boys. They are taggie monsters:



I made my daughter a cat version of these. And here is the tutorial that inspired me.

New background.

Very pretty, no?

Yet another update

I've accomplished some more of my goals.

10. Breastfeed until Ellie is at least six months old.
Formula feeding is okay. Not great, not wonderful.

31. Finish the cross stitch cats for Carol
I deserve HUGE kudos for this one. I started this without realizing how big of a project it would be. I think I began working on it over two years ago.
Here are the finished products:


And because this lone photo can't begin to describe how awesome they turned out, here are some close-ups. For any person who does not know what cross stitch is, it's making an image out of tiny little stitched "X"s. Yes, every single one of these "pixels" is a hand-stitched X.

They are throw pillows with my stepmom's three cats: Bounce, Feather, and Marigold. I had the pattern created online from photos.




32. Learn to make an excellent crab bisque
Lobster bisque totally counts.

I've made progress towards:
70. Collect five more Painted Ponies (2/5)
Whoo-hoo for accomplishing goals!

Boredom makes the blog better.

Almost done with all my finals. I'm fiddling around with the blog right now, trying to think of how I want to organize it. Presumably this will result in some eventual changes for the better.