A Little Girl Present

One of the things I love most about making what I give is that I feel like it's very real and true to ponder my friend and then to form for this friend something that costs my time and feeling and effort. My daughter has caught this way of thinking from me as she tends to catch almost all my ways of thinking. My husband laughs when we finish each others' sentences or know exactly what the other is thinking. It's too hard to surprise each other because we're always a step ahead of the other when plotting a gift. Anyway, when she wanted to make something for her friends' birthday she enlisted me though she is always careful to do much of the thinking and as much of the work as she can, so that she feels like, "it's really from me."

This particular friend loves our cats and doesn't have one of her own and is delightfully imaginative with stuffed animals and dolls and such. I thought one of the cats I crochet would be fun. So Drew stuffed animal parts and donated the flower button while I crocheted. She thought of a doll blanket and pillow and I supplied a vintage embroidered linen placemat and a matching napkin for the fabric. These have been sitting in my scrap fabric bin for a while waiting for the right inspiration to strike. She took another scrap of fabric and made flower petals out of them that we appliqued onto each. It was a very simple and quick project but very cute also.

To make the pillow we cut out the center of the cloth napkin and folded it in half (right sides together.) Drew used my sewing machine to sew up the remaining 3 sides of the pillow, leaving a hole for turning and stuffing. Then she turned it inside out. We appliqued the flower petals on, stuffed it, and sewed up the little hole. The placemat was easier still. We only had to applique matching flower petals in place.

There's something wonderful about a heartfelt gift and I almost think it can bless the giver more to give than the receiver to receive.

With S's dolly, just for the picture

dolly blanket and pillow from vintage placemat and napkin

sewing up the pillow

crochet sitting kitty

Footstool From a Sweater

You might recall that I like to make new things from old sweaters. I've shown you how to unravel sweaters to up-cycle yarn, make them into wool cloth diaper covers, convert them into dresses, and sew them into skirts. One of my favorite thrift store finds is huge sweaters because up-cycling a knit fabric from clothes makes it much easier for me to get that beautiful knit look... without doing all that knitting myself! The sweater I turned into this footstool was $4 (half off) from a thrift store and is a lovely charcoal gray 100% wool. I had everything else I needed so my total cost was $4!

If you've not seen, there are some really awesome knit "pouf" footstools going around on design tv and online. I have wanted to make one of these for myself for a long time. But, as usual, I put a twist to it that made it easy, quick, and doable with what I had.

For the stuffing I used a down pillow top mattress topper we didn't want to use on our bed anymore. Old duvets or comforters would work for this too. I bunched it up and to keep it in the shape I wanted I wrapped it in a big ikea bag, taped this with packing tape, and then wrapped it in a blanket. I know, unconventional. But in other instructions online people just said they bunched up duvets. This really did not work out well for me so I improvised.

mattress toppper in ikea bag taped up and about to be wrapped in blanket

wrapping and pinning blanket

It looked a bit like a franken-something at this stage but, hang with me, it turned out awesome. I used safety pins to temporarily hold the blanket folds where I wanted them then handstitched it together.

pinned

It may sound like a lot of work but I used a large curved needle and made big sloppy stitches just weaving along. It went pretty fast.

sewing

Franken-footstool

Next I grabbed my huge sweater (a size XXL men's) and pulled it over the puff.

I wove a strong cotton cord around the sweater just above the hem. (In the picture it's yarn but the yarn broke shortly after the pic and I switched to the cord.)

When I got all the way around I pulled it tight like a drawstring, tied a strong knot in it and tucked the knot, loose ends, and any extra fabric inside the hole.

I'd pictured being able to cut right below the arms but my sweater wasn't quite tall enough for this. So next I took off the arms of the sweater and sewed up the openings. I cut through the threads holding the arms onto the body of the sweater, then pinched both ends of the fabric right sides together and crocheted through them using matching yarn. This was just to match the nice looking side seams of the sweater but if you chopped and sewed it would save on time.

detaching arm from sweater body

closing up arm hole...

...by crocheting through both thicknesses

Next I took a hair tie and gathered the sweater at the top to see how much I did need to cut off.

I left a little extra for "just in case" and snipped and unraveled it across in a straight line, putting each loop on a knitting needle.

unraveling it, putting each loop on a knitting needle

Half of the sweater (side seam to side seam) unraveled

When I got to the end of half the sweater (side seam to side seam) I cast off to give it a nice finished edge. I repeated this on the other side. I was in a very meticulous mood, but just in case you aren't or don't know how to knit, or don't want to spend the time, you can easily cut the sweater across and sew it to finish the ends. I recommend a zigzag stitch if you don't have a serger.

casting off

2nd half unraveled, ready to be cast off

top edges finished

The last step was to weave the cord through, pull it tight, knot securely, and stuff ends and extras into the inside.

cord woven through

pull tight and tie

ends and edges tucked inside

I love my new footstool and want to go looking for a more colorful sweater and make another! This also works as a low side table/stand with a tray on it for my morning tea and read. Lots of feet will be put up here while board books are read to babes and teas and coffees are sipped and crocheting done... and who am I kidding? Ok, a bit of tv will likely be watched too. ;)

reading with the baby

Mud fun

It was time to empty the new swimming pool... for the first time. This was the swimming pool I bought to occupy the children while their dad was out of town on business. They were a bit emotionally vulnerable with Daddy gone. Any small thing could set them off. I just didn't want to scrape them off the floor and deal with all the hassle of it. On most days I bravely tell my children, "No." I firmly believe that nos build character and patience and destroy selfishness. I'm a big fan of no and I'm not at all ashamed of that. But sometimes I just get creative instead. Emptying the pool can be something awesome.

Besides, I've always wanted to play in mud. I think it's more my dream than theirs. Though they do really love to play in dirt. I had to practically egg them on to get muddy. It was so fun! When I saw how neatly they were creating, I told Israel to come to me and smacked my muddy hand right in the front center of his shirt. They were so shocked. But then the mud smudging on faces and appendages began. Though we never really rolled in the mud, they had loads of fun and I think I had even more than them.

We got a huge bucket of dirt and poured it near the pool and built a mud fort, decorating it with rocks and weed flowers. We gushed mud between our toes and fingers and smeared it on each other. We poured water into the fort and poked a little hole through a wall it to let the water out. We had fun plugging the hole with rocks and then unplugging it. We mixed dried weeds with the mud to strengthen it and let it bake in the sun. Then we flooded our fort by emptying the pool.

It just goes to show that some good summer fun doesn't have to be elegant or expensive! There is absolutely hours of fun in mixing dirt and water and rocks and weeds! I love it when my kids get outside and into nature and when they get to be creative. It gives them so much confidence and awareness. Maybe next time I'll get them to roll in the mud.

Free Backsplash Makeover

We were never sold on this house for its kitchen! Let's just say that tuscan fruit bowls and dark red and oak cabinets don't do it for me! We prefer a modern look. While I was quick to take down the offending wallpaper border the kitchen project halted there for a while. Later we took down most of the top cabinet doors to try out an open shelving look and just decrease the amount of oak. We are still mid-transformation as we're still procrastinating and weighing whether or not we'll get new more modern slab cabinet doors or paint the current ones. What do you think?

A little while ago though I came up with an idea for a free way to make-over the accent tiles on the backsplash and I thought I'd share the results. I can't believe the difference and I hope it will help someone else who's not quite prepared to replace an entire backsplash! It only took scrapbook paper, mod podge, a bit of paint, and a polyurethane to waterproof and make it completely washable.

I love a sweet dandelion with seeds being blown in the wind of a child's breath. Yeah, I've got a bit of whimsy in me too. I thought it was fun to make one of these modern circles on the paper into a flower and send seeds flying across the rest.

Here's a couple before pictures. I'm really glad to not see this anymore all day long, in my kitchen.

Do you like my messy before picture? I'm beginning to fall for the idea that it might be legit to have messy before pictures and bright clean after pictures. Because the moment my new backsplash was done, I was instantly motivated to straighten, organize, and clean the rest of the kitchen. Maybe those wrinkle product before and after pics are for real? You know, the one where the lady has frizzy hair and no makeup and tucks her chin down to form a double chin and grimaces in the before picture but in the after picture holds her head high, has a smile, her hair done, and air brushed make up? Of course all that primping in the last picture is BECAUSE she lost a couple wrinkles with said miracle product. ;)

But here's a more honest true before picture with wallpaper border and all. Notice my so subtle failed attempt to cover as much of the fruit bowl back splash as possible with a real fruit bowl (the only kind of fruit bowl I like...).

The previous owners of this house must have LOVED off-white tones. Nothing is a crisp white... it was all "biscuit" or "ivory" or some of those other design names for not quite white. The tiling, sink, and kitchen appliances were no exception. The first step of this project was to tone down the darkest colors in the back splash accent tiles so that those colors wouldn't show through the scrapbook paper or at the edges. So I mixed up this "biscuit" color with a bit of craft paint. I just used what I had. A puddle of white, about half a little blob of pink, and two blobs of yellow. Scientific measurements I know. I globbed it on and smoothed it out and re-coated a few times until I was satisfied. I'm sure some paint intended for ceramics would have covered it in less coats but I was happy with my results.

And I was happy with mixing paint. I don't think anything is more fun than painting and mixing paint. Happiness for me is frequently putting color where I want it with a brush.

I'd chosen the scrapbook paper I wanted to use for the back splash and a design I wanted to paint on it. So I cut 12" by 12" sheets of paper to 6" by 6" squares to match the size of my tiles.

And sketched out my picture with a pencil and painted away. Awesome looking paint brushes make it more fun...

Next, I put down a layer of mod podge, spritzed the back of each paper with water from a spray bottle (to decrease bubbles and wrinkles), and put the paper in place. I rolled out bubbles with a little rolling pin I borrowed from the kids play doh kit and 15 minutes later coated the top with more mod podge. I added two more coats with time between to let thoroughly dry, then polyurethane as a last coat to make it washable and waterproof.

My first time using mod podge has been declared an absolute success! I'm so happy with my free and easy make-over! Now I should just get a bit more motivated to go at those cabinets. :)