Decorate with Letters

Not long ago I came across letters made out of cardboard at my local craft store. I bought an "M" for "Molly" and decided to paint a cute design on it. Once I began painting it I realized it would be good to doing something different on each side. On one side I painted a plant like design with greens and whites and on the other side I painted white poka dots. These letters can be used in various places in your home. You can just use a single letter or even spell out something. Also you can find letters in all different materials and sizes. If you are able to decorate both sides of the letters you might consider doing a Holiday theme on one side so you can use the festive letters during the holiday season! This is a simple project and can bring a creative touch to a room in your home.

Oh Baby!!

Its hard to belive I am already to the "marriage/baby stage" where it seems like everyone is either getting married or having babies! Well, recently I had several friends get pregnant and I wanted to come up with a meaningful and useful gift for them and their child. I had seen a lot of moms either in the grocery store or out shopping carrying their babies in a sling type carrier. I thought it seemed like a great way to carry your baby with out having to bring a stroller or carrier in and out of the car and keep your baby quietly sleeping close to mommy while getting all her shopping done. I decided to go to my local craft store and find a pattern so I could make one for a friend and her baby, John Sterling. The first pattern I found was a little complicated, with snaps and straps. I had to do some modifications to the pattern but it turned out ok.  My friend said it was very useful and her baby loved being in it. Being in the "marriage/baby stage" of course their was another friend who was also expecting a baby girl, Laura Katherine. I decided to give the sling another try but was able to find a more simple pattern. This pattern only used about 2 1/2 yards of fabric and was really only two peices of material. It was much easier to follow and I was much more please with the results. I used a printed cordiroy peice of fabric and then a cotton peice that had a little strechy feel to it. Hopefully Laura Katherine and her mommy will love their new sling! As you can see from the pictures I did not have a baby to model the sling but I used the next best thing...wine bottles!

Learning To Knit

I recently went on a cruise with my boyfriend Keith and his parents. On the car ride from Mobile to Daytona and back his mom, Cei Cei, taught me how to kint. It was a little tricky to catch on to at first but she was a good teacher.  I am actually left-handed and she is right-handed so that made it all the more difficult.  It was hard for her to explain it backwards and hard for me to learn it backwards. Once we figured it out, she gave me some yarn that was easy to work with and I practiced. Row after row I got better. I picked up on keeping it tight and making sure you have the right number of loops on your needle at the end of each row. For my first project I wanted to make a scarf but I ended up running out of yarn so I turned it into a purse. I was proud of my purse but I was still determined to make a scarf. On my mom's side of the family we draw names for Christmas and I got my cousin Meg, So, I decided I would make her a scarf and a matching one for her American Girl doll! She loved it and hopefully it will keep her and her doll warm for the few cold winter days we have in Alabama!

Stay tuned for more knitting projects! Not sure what I will make next but I really enjoyed learning to knit and seeing the finished project. Maybe I can also share with you a few of mamma Cei Cei's projects too!

Another Man's Trash Is Another Man's Treasure

A while back ago my co-worker and I were coming back to Mobile from a work event and found some chairs someone had put out on the side of the road to be picked up and trashed. We each took two and thought we could do something with them. The cloth covering was torn and dirty, the wheels on the bottom were broken, but the frame was in pretty good condition. So, I decided to pop off the wheels and recover the chairs. I called in reinforcement, my friend Katie. She had experience in recovering a headboard and she had a staple gun! They actually turned out really cute. I used the remaining fabric to make matching pillows. They now warm up my living room in my apartment and create more sitting room in a small space!