Baby's box

As I'm counting down the final weeks of my pregnancy, it's no surprise that I've got baby crafts on the brain. This weekend I noticed a memory box that I made for my son shortly after he was born. It sits on a shelf in his room and I see it everyday, but for some reason it caught my eye, so I thought I'd share it with you. It's so simple, yet very sweet and functional.

All this project takes is a wooden box (found at a craft store), acrylic paint, some decorative paper, Modge Podge (decoupage medium), and a couple of sponge brushes.


The first step is to paint your box, inside and out. Easy! Then you get to decide what will go on the box. I chose to decorate the top and sides with various cute animals cut from scrapbooking paper, but this is really where you could let your imagination run wild. Decorate with anything you find appealing- don't limit yourself to what immediately comes to mind when you think "baby".

I took some inspiration from a onesie my son had and duplicated a couple of the animals it had on it. The other animals came from somewhere online, though now I'm not sure where.

Cut out your paper images (if that's what you decide to do) and "paint" the area you'll be adhering them to with some of the Modge Podge using a sponge brush. Apply the paper pieces, carefully working out any air bubbles as you go. Then put on another coat or two of Modge Podge all over so everything is sealed and has a uniform sheen. I used a tiny hole punch and black paper to make the eyes on each animal and also chose to outline everything with a very fine Sharpie marker (this proved trickier than I expected, so go slow and try to be very steady if you do this). For his name on top I just used a die cut machine at my local craft store to punch them out for me.

Now for the fun part- filling it! I can't stand to throw away things that are from my children's earliest days, so this box became the safe and pretty way for me to store all of Hakan's little newborn treasures.
Inside you'll find a card I made of his footprints on his one week birthday, our hospital bracelets, his hospital crib cards, the newspaper clipping announcing his birth, onesie-shaped congratulations card from the ladies at church, sweet socks that he wore for his blessing, first and last binkies, one of the first pairs of felt shoes I attempted to make... ...teeny tiny hospital cap and another made by great-grandma, his hospital shirt, the tiniest newborn diaper, sonogram prints, bib from the university Hubby and I attended, and one of the birth announcements that I made.
This box contains items that I'll treasure forever, and maybe someday (if I can stand to part with it) will be able to give to Hakan when he's grown.

I really want to make another of these boxes for our newest addition. This time I'm thinking I'll go with a woodland animals theme... owl, hedgehog, squirrel, bird, deer...

Can't wait to get started!

(P.S. Even if you don't have a baby in your house to make one of these for, it would make an awesome gift for someone who's expecting or recently given birth!)

Valentine's Day projects

My 5-year-old daughter loves to do "projects", and it's usually up to me to come up with them for her. She's very much an artist and loves to draw, write, color and paint. Recently, though, when she came to me for a project, I decided to see how she'd do with stitching. So I grabbed a scrap of canvas, a 5" embroidery hoop and some red floss. I drew a heart in the middle and then showed her how to do a basic running stitch. And off she went! She really loved it. She even woke up early from her nap that day because she was so excited to keep working on her "stitching". She only poked herself once or twice, and once she'd finished with the red outer heart she decided she wanted to add another heart inside that... and then another... and then a button! It took her a few days to finish, but once she was done she gave it to me and said I could do whatever I wanted with it.




This morning I decided to turn it into a doorknob hanger. I cut the canvas into a circle, then another from some scrap polka dot fabric. I stitched some jumbo ric rac to the edge of the canvas then sandwiched that between the two circles and sewed them together, leaving a hole for turning. After stuffing some poly fill and a little dried lavender inside I added a scrap of ribbon that matched beautifully and sewed it closed by hand. It would've been nice if I could've thought of something useful to turn her first project into, but she's pleased with what I came up with, and so am I.



This next project was done in a hurry Saturday evening before we had to go out of town at the last minute for 4 days. I was to host a preschool Valentine's Day party on Thursday but we wouldn't be getting home until Wednesday afternoon, leaving me very little time for decorating. I'd seen this idea and thought it was lovely, but didn't want to take the time to paint. So out came the felt and in an hour or so I'd made several garlands of hearts to hang around my dining room. Super duper easy, just a little time consuming with the cutting. But even that went pretty quick because all I did was cut 4" strips of felt, iron them in half and then cut half-heart shapes along the fold all along the length of the strip. I then had to iron the hearts flat, but sewing them together was a breeze. You just want to try and keep some tension on the thread when you're between hearts by pulling it gently up and away behind your machine until you've fed the next heart in to be stitched. (Did that make any sense?) Anyway, I like the effect and it didn't cost me a thing. (Too bad the photos are awful. Sorry.)

If you do this project, try different positions of the hearts along the string- all right side up; all sideways; alternating right side up and upside down; etc. I also think using white or cream would be really pretty.

Have fun and have a great Valentine's Day!

Some things I've been doing

It's been a while since my last post, so I feel I should explain myself. My absence is mostly due to my recent lack of access to a camera lately. Mine quit on me a few weeks ago, so lately I've been depending on my husband's work camera being around and handy when I need it. More often than not, though, it's at work. Go figure.

Anyway, here are a few little projects that I've done recently and wanted to share.

These two pieces of embroidery were basically copied from a pattern found in one of my old McCall's Needleworks & Crafts magazines. Remember this post? I customized the designs a bit to suit my taste, but I basically just free handed the images onto my fabric with a water soluble marker, then went to town. The fabric I used was actually some thrifted napkins that I'd picked up but wasn't sure how I was going to use them. Turns out they were the perfect size and shape to cover some pillows for our guest room daybed.
I just sewed two of the napkins together very close to the edges, then added some twill tape for ties to keep them closed. I was disappointed to realize when I got home from buying the twill tape that it was polyester, not cotton, but decided to use it anyway. After all, how could I possibly wait to make another trip to the fabric store to see my pillow covers complete??
I love the combination of cream, linen and white on these covers. It makes them look so fresh.

I stitched up this little birdy one night while I was watching TV. I think I'll hang him in the guest room, too.
Another good TV watching stitchery for Baby. This is from Andrea Zuill's blog and is her Free Embroidery Pattern for February. Isn't it super cute? (I really gotta figure out how to press my finished pieces better. How on earth do I get those darn wrinkles out??)
And this little dude is a door stopper made using this tutorial. It's not the cutest fabric, but I wanted something that would be sturdy and not too noticeable sitting on my floor. This should come in handy, though. The door leading to our garage has self-closing hinges, so bringing in groceries is kind of a pain when the door constantly shuts itself, and I'm always a little worried that it might slam on little fingers. I wish I'd made this a bit bigger because I have to kind of wedge it under the door to keep it open, but it's better than nothing!

All done!

Yesterday was a day filled with feelings of "I don't want to" for me. There are shoes to be made, but I don't want to. Laundry and dishes to be done, but I don't want to. The house is a disaster and I really should do something about it but... well, you get the idea. Instead I did some things that I sort of wanted to do, like finishing up this chair. I wasn't dying to work on it, but figured that since it was so close to being done I might as well.

I'd already cut the leather strips for the back so all that I needed to do was give the raw wood parts a couple of coats of spray varnish then staple on the strips. So, what 'd ya think?

My plan is to keep it in our guest room, along with a wood daybed that's being delivered this evening to help make it cozy and inviting in there, for us and for guests. My computer currently resides in the closet, so I do spend a considerable portion of my day in that room. I can't wait to make it lovely and welcoming, ready for a visit from my Mom when the Baby comes in a couple of months.

New look for an old chair

I awoke yesterday morning with the realization that I probably had strep throat. A trip to the clinic confirmed it, so I was confined to my house for the weekend. While Daddy & the kids were away at a soccer game, I got back to work on my newest upholstery project. Here's the before photo again:

Last week I set the chair on my living room floor and proceeded to pull off the upholstery, one staple and tack at a time. Here are some photos of that process:

The back had this burlap stapled to it, with a piece of cotton padding on top of that. The cotton was in good shape so I kept that, as well as the fabric. The burlap on the seat was in shreds, which explains why the seat stuffing itself was in such a state.

I had to junk all the seat stuffing. The only piece I kept was the actual fabric to use as a template for my new upholstery.

All stripped and ready to be cleaned.


Next I rubbed it down with some furniture cleaner. When I came back to it yesterday I just used my fingers to fill in the tiny tack and staple holes with some stainable wood filler. After that I gave the unfinished parts a good sanding and the whole thing another good wipe down.

I had decided against re-doing the upholstery and instead wanted to try a woven leather technique I'd seen a while ago. I had some really heavy embossed leather sitting around that I thought would be perfect for this. My only worry was that I didn't have enough. I measured the dimensions of the seat, adding in the height of the sides to determine how much leather I'd need. I did the same for the back and determined that, if I cut it carefully, I'd have just enough. Here's what I got done yesterday:


Something else I decided to do was remove the curves on the two back pieces (you'll notice in these last photos that they're straight across on top and bottom). I figured this would make it easier to apply the leather strips if I didn't have those bumps to deal with. I used a straight edge to draw my cutting line, then got out the jig saw and cut them off. The power sander smoothed things out and corrected some of my sawing mistakes.

Now, before I can wrap the back I'll need to do something to the unfinished wood to make it look similar to the rest of the chair. I'll only wrap the leather between the two rungs, so there will be some exposed wood below the arms. The whole chair looks weathered and worn, so I'm not worried about getting it to match perfectly. I'm thinking all I'll do is give it a couple coats of gloss polyurethane and call it good. I wish I'd thought to do this to the seat before I wrapped it, but luckily not much of the wood shows through the leather.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to seeing this thing finished. It should be pretty cute.

Weekend distractions

I thought I'd share a couple of projects that I got to work on this past weekend, even though I had plenty of shoes that I could have spent my time on. It's nice to have something else to do for a couple of days, though, so I ignored the shoe pile and made these instead.

The sweetest gal on the planet (named Sara, coincidentally) contacted me a couple of weeks ago via the most flattering email EVER, politely asking if I might be able to make her coming bundle some "sleep sacks", as I call them. Apparently the ones currently on the market are rather generic looking, especially for boys. I agreed to give it a try and immediately had to make a practice one from some knit fabric I had on hand with a pattern I already owned. It turned out great and didn't take forever, so I was hopeful I could make something similar for her that she'd be happy with. Then she came up with the brilliant idea to send me some of her husband's old tee shirts to use so I wouldn't have to purchase fabric. Awesome!

She sent me five to choose from, 3 of which had collars and one was a graphic tee. All of them were big enough, so I chose the ones that I thought would look cutest on a baby. Here's what resulted:

The blue & brown striped one is my favorite, mostly because that color combo is just so dang cute. I cut off the collar and used it to lengthen the sleeves because the sleeves of the original tee weren't quite long enough. The buttons at the neck of that one and the beige striped one were kept in tact, all I did was carefully snip off the collars. The orange striped one was also a collared shirt, but it was longer than the others so I was able to make a plain-collar sack with it.

Another nice thing that worked out well with these is that I was able to use the tee's hem for the elastic casing for most of them (hemming is my LEAST favorite part of sewing), and the hems from the original sleeves as well (except the blue one). I have to say, though, that if I didn't have a serger these wouldn't have turned out quite as nice. All the inside seams are tidy and overlocked, though I did sew everything together with my standard machine, so it can definitely still be done without using a serger.

Anyway, I heard from Sara today and she seems really pleased with her son's new sacks. He'll need to do a little growing before these will fit well, but I'm sure he'll be filling them out in no time!

My other weekend project was a spur of the moment idea that actually turned out pretty well also. I grew up in a household where we used fabric "bags" of corn kernels or rice heated in the microwave to soothe sore muscles, aching legs, upset tummies, etc. If anyone asked, "Where's the corn?", we all knew what they were after. Recently my son woke up in the night crying, complaining of hurting legs, so I stitched up a very quick rice bag for him to sleep with. It worked like a charm, but it was u.g.l.y. So, I decided it was time to make a nice one. Out came the wool felted sweaters and I went to town. Here's a great tutorial if you want to make a simple one of your own. And here is another for a more decorative one with a removeable cover (SUPER good idea, in my opinion. This tutorial also has a lovely idea for a flax-filled eye pillow to throw in the fridge or freezer. How great would that be?). I used my own dimensions for the bags and just filled the inside bag with rice until it felt right. *Remember to only use natural fabrics for this project (as mentioned in the tutorial) because these will be going into the microwave and you don't want anything to melt. I used 100% wool felted sweaters for the outer bag and bird, and cotton for the inside bag.

I did add some scented oil to my rice as well, though it wasn't essential oil like the second tutorial suggests. I wasn't sure where to find essential oil around here, and being the impatient crafter that I am, didn't want to have to wait by ordering it online. Instead I found some fragrance oil in Wal-Mart near where the potpourri is (in the home dec section, kind of near the candles). A few sprinkles into the rice, smoosh around in a zip-top freezer bag and voila! Vanilla-scented rice!

I decided to catch the edge of the inside bag in the seam of the outside bag when I sewed it shut in order to keep it from moving around inside the case. Then I stitched the corners of the inside bag to the outside as well for good measure. The bird applique was just to jazz it up a bit. You may recognize him from this little project. (The bird was added before inserting the rice bag and sewing the outer bag closed, by the way- don't leave it 'til last!)

As soon as I'm done typing I'll be giving this guy a whirl. I took a spill yesterday and today I feel like I've been in a car accident. Aches EVERYWHERE. I'm confident this will provide some much needed, if temporary, relief until I can get to the chiropractor.

Yeah, falling at seven months pregnant is a bad, bad idea. Avoid it if at all possible.

Where's the rice...?

Thrift store awesomeness

Last night, for some inexplicable reason, I was in a bit of a gloomy mood. (I blame pregnancy.) So as I'm carrying an armful of boxed up shoe orders to set by the front door, my husband stops me at the top of the stairs and says, "Tomorrow I want you to go to the thrift store and spend $50." While at the time this didn't generate the sort of gleeful reaction that it normally would, I woke up this morning in a much better mood, excited to go hunting. I wasn't entirely sure what I'd be hunting for, but the most fun part of thrifting (to me) is just seeing what there is to find.

At Savers I scored an entire collection of rocking horses. There were about a dozen to choose from, so I tried to grab the most interesting and diverse mix that I could. Here's what I ended up with.

The tall, skinny iron one is weirdly cool. Not your typical rocking horse. The wooden one has kind of a rough-looking tail, but I liked it because its legs move when it rocks. I got two of the brass ones, the one in front and another just like it but smaller.
This fabric horse has a wooden bead for an eye and some sort of organic fiber for its mane and tail. It sits on just one rail, making it hard to stand up, but a couple of pieces of ticky-tack underneath help a lot.
I think this one is my favorite. I'm not sure, but I think the tail might be real horse hair, and all that hand painting is just sweet. This one also swings back and forth on gliders. These will probably find a home on a very high shelf in my son's room, perhaps to be added to in the future.

Today I visited a used furniture store that I'd never been to before and came across this old rocker. Yes, I now have yet another old rocking chair project. I studied the chair carefully, especially the upholstery, to make sure that it was something I could handle. The fabric itself is very dirty and worn, and the seat needs some restructuring as well. I had the salesman tighten up one of the arms for me before I left with it, but overall I think it's in good enough condition to make over- especially for $18! (It was marked $19.50 but was 10% off.)


We're in the process of turning our computer/junk room into a computer/guest room, and that's probably where this will end up. Now I just need to find a nice futon to put in there. Is there even such thing?? Anyway, I'm excited to get to work on it. If I'm on the ball enough I may even take pictures of my progress. Maybe a little upholstery tutorial? I just hope it's as easy as I expect it to be.