Aprons and More

I've got a bit of merchandise left from the last craft show I did. I don't plan on doing any more this year, so I'm trying to sell it at a discounted rate. I have one or more of each of the following aprons. If you or anyone you know needs a great Christmas gift, please let me know!

The aprons all have removable dishtowels at the bottom. The original price was $25, but they're on sale for $20 each. If you buy 2 or more, I'll go down to $15 each.


















I've also got some hostess aprons available:





And don't forget the pillowcases:








If you are interested in any of these, or have a great idea for a custom gift, please send me an email!!!

Back to School Teacher Gift!

Ok, my last post was a while ago...right at the end of the school year. And now it's Back-to-School time...so I guess I took the summer off from blogging as well as from school!

Now that it's time to go back to school, I wanted to make a little gift for the two ladies that are in my department. We're on a bit of a budget, so I wanted to do something that was cute but not too expensive. This is what I came up with:

The jars are pickle jars that I had lying around the house. I always save the glass jars when we're done with them..you never know when they might come in handy! Just put a little hot glue on the jar, add the crayons and that's it! I was worried the hot glue would melt the crayons, but it worked out fine.

For about $12, I was able to buy 3 boxes of crayons from the Dollar Tree plus I bought pencils, pens, highlighters, erasers, hand sanitizer and a few other things.

I've got a few more things I want to add...some snacks or candy bars..something like that. One of the women I work with always forgets her fork at lunch, so I bought her a package of plastic forks to put in her jar.

Not too bad...3 jars for about $12. I've got enough "ugly" crayons leftover to make one more...I told my husband I would make one for him. He said he'd use it, but I think he was just being nice!

End of the Year Gifts

I work with a super awesome lady named Juli. Juli has a daughter, Molly, that is graduating from high school this year and she was looking for a unique gift to give all her friends. I had made a personalized pillowcase for a mutual student a while back, so Juli asked if I would be interested in making pillowcases for Molly's friends. We worked out the details and a few days later Juli brought me a large bag full of beautiful, fun fabrics. I got to work and made 14 pillowcases.

I took a regular pillowcase I own and measured the length and width and used that as my guide. The pillows were easy to make, but the embroidery took a long time...and a lot of thread! I don't know how many times I had to rewind the bobbin!! BUT, they turned out GREAT!!!!!

With almost every project I do, I can always find room for improvement. But these were pretty perfect! I love them...gonna have to make a few for Henry and Sam. Maybe in Cars 2 fabric?!

I had a little fabric left over from every pillowcase, so I cut 3 inch strips and sewed them together to make Molly (the gift giver) a totally unique pillowcase that had all her friends' fabric in it. I hope she loves it!

All stacked up and ready to go!!!!

TWINS! (not mine!)

I set up shop at a local Garage Sale/Craft Show/Church Fundraiser a few weeks ago. I worked so hard for several weeks to get everything ready. Got up at 5:30 on a Saturday, set up by 6:30 and was ready to go at 7:00 am.

Sadly, it looked pretty much the exact same 8 hours later when we closed up. Apparently the garage sale portion did great, but the craft people...not so much! The only thing that kept me from getting totally depressed was that none of the crafters were selling anything. The organizer came by and apologizes and offered me an invitation to the Fall on the Mound Craft Show that the church has every year. So, at least it was something!!

The only other good thing was I handed out lots of business cards and a nice lady emailed me a few days later about creating a set of boy/girl onesies for a friend that was about to have twins. I'm an expert at the boy clothes, but haven't had to make a lot of girl onesies. We emailed back and forth and came up with a concept and design. I have to say, they came out SUPER CUTE! I love them!










And the best part...ruffles!!! As the mom of two boys, ruffles are not a big part of my life. So it was a lot of fun to make this little ruffle butt!



Since I've already got a ton of inventory for the fall craft show, maybe I'll branch out and try some girl clothes. And who knows what else!! :)

Remotes Under Control!

As a teacher, I have remotes for many, many things: projector, slide advancer, DVD player, TV, etc. They used to be in my desk drawer, floating around with sharpies, bandaids and other necessities. One day, I couldn't take it anymore. I threw together this 'Remote Holder' and I think it's pretty fabulous!!






I didn't do much measuring...just layed each object down to make sure the pocket was big enough. I think it turned out pretty well for an hour of work!

Spring Break: Thrift Stores and Bags

Hey there! Well, spring break is over. We didn't do too much--just hung around the house, went to the parks and had fun not being in school!!

I was able to grab a few hours here and there to go to my favorite thrift store. I am currently into vintage (or maybe just old!) pillow cases. At Thrift City (my favorite thrift store), I came across a lot of great stuff!!



I love all the pillowcases. I love how so many of them have sweet details on them.



And this is my favorite piece I found. I have no idea what it's original purpose is. And I have no idea what I'm going to do with it--but I'm really loving all things yellow right now, so I had to get it. For $2.99, how could I pass it up!! I really love the scalloped edge at the bottom.

I don't know what I'm going to do with that, but I've been making cute bags out of the pillowcases. They're really simple. No pockets, no frills really. I'm making them as a children's tote bag, similiar to this one I made Sam.



Sam and Henry LOVE putting stuff in bags. We take them outside and they get filled with leaves, rocks, acorns and other treasures we find walking around the block. I think they'll also be great to take to the library this summer, to carry our books home.

Hopefully other moms will like them too! I'm going to be a vendor at the Trade Days Event hosted by my in-laws church at the end of April. Should be fun!! I'll have tons of bags, aprons and other great stuff in a booth.

More soon! I made the CUTEST apron ever last night...can't wait to show you!

Sam I am

Poor Sam. He did NOT like the Cat in the Hat. One of the directors at his school dressed up for Dr. Seuss' birthday last week and poor Sam-I-am was so scared. He closed his eyes the entire time she was in the room. His teacher said he would peek out of one eye, then close them quickly when he saw she was still in the room.

At least he didn't cry? I guess that's a good thing!