Anniversary gift

Today is my 14th wedding anniversary. My how time flies!!

I took a child's board book and transformed it into a little book of reasons that I love Dax. It was fun to do and I hope he enjoys it. With a house full of kids and a looming deadline at the office we've pretty much given up the 'big' anniversary celebrations of the past. Now we're content with a little reminder of how important the other is to us and some reminiscing.

Here's the book:
(Sorry about the blurry pics. It's hard to get good ones with this little camera)

My first drop

I made a little stuffed owl for my first toy for The Toy Society.





At least an owl was my intention. I didn't have any pattern and was just playing with some scrap material and that's what I came up with. The kids said it was an owl right away so I felt better about it.


Anyway, I dropped him off at the local library this morning. I hope he finds a good home.


Of course, now the kids each want me to make one for them too.


If you haven't checked out The Toy Society's blog you really should. It's such a neat idea.

And another.....

I've made another book bag. This one is for Addison. She's crazy about bunny rabbits so I bought the tapestry piece that I used for the pocket. The green fabric is a heavy fabric used for work pants that I had in my stash. My great aunt had given it to me years ago. I'm glad I found a use for it.



I lined the bag and the pocket with frabric from a sheet that had those sweet little rose buds on it. I just love that stuff for little girls (babies especially). It just looks so sweet and innocent.

Anyway, Addison is happy with it and that makes me happy with it. And to make it even better, I only spent about $3 on it. Can't hardly beat that!!

I still need to make one for Kirsten. Hers will be cat themed. I've bought a piece of fabric for the pocket but put it away and now I can't find it anywhere. I do that so often that you'd think I would learn by now.

Recycled containers

Over the weekend I recycled these empty containers instead of throwing them away. The large one originally was full of pretzels and the two smaller ones had peach salsa.



I spray painted the tops of all of them red. Then I hot glued the ribbon around them with a smaller piece of ribbon to tie the tags to. For the tags I just used some that I had bought in the scrapbooking department awhile back.


I love the way they turned out. It's a great thing to do with containers once they are emptied. I just wish that all of my pantry could look like this. Maybe in time I can get it all organized and cute looking as we use up more jars.

Already?

I don't know if you're ready for this but it's already only 100 days until Christmas!!


Check out this site.








She's got great ideas and will help you to get started with your Holiday planning. Imagine that. Doing it (or at least part of it if you're like me) before the last minute.

Chore organizers

I've been trying for awhile to come up with some way to keep track of the kids' chores. Both for them and for myself.


We've tried lists, charts, and a handful of other things.


I finally settled on this.







I used toilet paper tubes and covered them with scrapbook paper. Then I stapled them across the bottom. They are tied together in pairs--undone and done--and hanging on the inside of the pantry door. The chores are written on wide popsicle sticks. They all go in the unfinished tube on the end.

The kids each have chores that are theirs alone (make bed, clean bathroom, etc.) and then they have to each choose 3 from the unfinished tube each week.

I had tried something similar on the back of their bedroom doors but those got a little torn up. With them in the pantry I can keep a better eye on what's going on.

Hope this is the one that works.

Quick recycle

Our dogs have both recently destroyed the nice fluffy cushions in their kennels. I hate the idea of them being in there just laying on the hard plastic bottom so I had to do something about it.

I had an old blanket that I had found on the side of the road. I used it just folded up for the dogs to lay on the floor. I cut it to fit the kennel, used a double thickness, and just stitched around the edges.





It's not beautiful, but it does the job (and it was free). And, I still have enough of the quilt left over to make two more....just in case the dogs tear these up too.

Ready for fall

I'm tired of summer and I'm ready for fall.


I finished this up yesterday which only makes me more ready.


(Sorry the picture isn't better. It was hard to get a good picture because it's long and narrow--for my camera anyway. Oh, and it hasn't been washed and ironed yet.)

I got the pattern here.


Isn't this bird the cutest?



I used some squares from a moda halloween charm pack to make the border. I'm really please with how it turned out.


I had a few strips left over so used them for a piece on the back.




Then I used brown bias tape for the binding.


It was a lot of fun to make. Dax asked what it was for and I told him 'Whatever I want.' lol

Are you ready for fall, too?