Racetrack Car Carrier - version 2

A few months back I made a couple of racetrack car carriers for my boys using Creation Corner's great tutorial. We have a birthday party coming up soon for my husband's nephew's little boy. I've been trying to think of some of the cute boy things I could make for our little cousin. This was one of the first things that came to my mind. Of course I had to find just the perfect fabric - loving me some Riley Blake fabric lately!I added a new touch of the road lines using some crochet thread - wish I had thought of this addition for my boy's racetracks. I have another idea in mind to add to this one for the present. We'll see how the week goes but it's something I've had on my to-do-list for awhile. I'm excited to give it a whirl! Check back later this week.

Anthropologie Necklace Knock-Off

One of the blogs I read regularly (Flamingo Toes) is hosting an "Anthro Necklace Week" this week. My jewelry tastes tend to be fairly bland and very symmetrical. It's been fun to see her take on various necklaces from Anthropologie this week. Her first necklace on Monday was the Pernilla Necklace which runs $198. Here is the original from their website. Flamingo Toes posted an excellent knock-off tutorial and I decided to try it out. I LOVE it!
I decided to wander through the bead section of a few stores to gather some new beads - and I went cheap - not sterling silver which is my usual metal of choice. I found some really pretty turquoise colored stones with some matching U-shaped chips that I used in place of the flat shells (which I couldn't find anywhere for some reason). They worked out great - and I really like how it turned out. The hardest part was the lighting in my kitchen - I was making it really late the other night and my lighting is horrible in that room. I had everything laid out there and was too lazy to haul it downstairs where I have better lighting. The detail work on the silver beads and U-shaped cluster was very difficult in poor lighting, but overall it was very do-able!I really do LOVE it!
My total cost was $28 and I probably could have done it even cheaper using a few supplies that I already had on hand but bought anyway (just to make sure that I had what I needed). Fun project!

Toy Bags

I'm just a giant copycat . . . but I whole-heartedly believe in giving credit to those I copy . . . so does that make it ok?

I have been following the Celebration of Boys over at Made and they recently highlighted a great idea from Zaaberry for some toy bags. I finally sat down and made a few. Super easy and really cute. You can find her tutorial here.

I made a couple just for fun and then increased the size on number three to accommodate some dinosaur lacing cards that I brought home from a trip for the boys.

I like them because they are clear and you can see what is stored inside. I even made my own bias tape for the third one and think I will definitely do that from now on. Of course, my wonderful bias tape making tool is hiding somewhere is my extremely unorganized craft room. But it worked out anyway.

Ok - I'm off to copy another idea I saw out in blogland. Thank goodness very creative people create tutorials for me to learn from.

Baby Stuff

Have I mentioned how much I love looking at my new blog design?

I really do but aside from that, I've been busy making little gifts for little babies. I seem to know lots of families who are adding new little ones right now. So I've started back in on ric rac blankets and some new super cute, super easy burp clothes.

A friend of mine had sent me some burp cloths like these when son #2 was born and I finally came across a great tutorial over at Just Another Hang Up and whipped up a few of my own. These are for my cousin's twin girls that were born recently. I still have a few things to add in for the final gift but I still have a few weeks before I will see them.

Then I whipped up another set of burp cloths for another cousin's pending baby boy. I had this ric rac blanket setting around waiting for a boy to be born and luckily I was able to find some coordinating Riley Blake fabric at the store still for the burpies.

Here is the ric rac blanket made a few months back - it finally gets to come out of the quilt/blanket pile to be used. Here is the link from Sew Much Ado - just to keep it close to the top of current posts so I don't have to hunt back through to find it.

Finally a new blog design!

I know this blog is pretty much just for me, although I love to see readers from outside my own house show up on my blog feed. But even if it is just for me, I figured that I might as well like looking at my own blog. So I've been working with the absolutely nicest person in the whole world to help redesign my blog - Jennisa from Once Upon a Blog.

Talk about patient and creative! Thanks so much for a great blog that I will enjoy looking at forever and ever!

Train Playmat

Yay - another project finished. Am I the only one who has a very large stash of fabric and craft supplies laying around waiting to be worked on? Hopefully not. But now that I've confessed, here is one project to check off the "already purchased, cut, pinned, and laying around waiting to be finished" pile.

One of my local fabric stores always has the best playmat panels. I've purchased my fair share over the years. This one was different - instead of a car playmat, this one is all about trains. And my boys LOVE trains.

This one is now stashed away in the storage closet waiting for son #2's birthday. Son #1 will want it and think it belongs to him, but son #2 doesn't have his own train mat yet so it only seems fair.

Now off to the next project.

Even More New Quiet Book Pages

I present three more new, just finished, quiet book pages.

Pattern Caterpillar: This page is copied straight from The Crafty Chicks. The boys can work on colors, shapes, and patterns.Spaceship - This is a page I dreamed up. Let's just say that it sure looked better in my head than it does in real life. But the boys like the aliens (they're my favorite part too). The bottom of the spaceship velcros closed to hold the aliens inside when they not at play.Tool Box - This is another of my new favorites. This is an idea from Serving Pink Lemonade's felt toy section. I took that idea and turned it into a quiet book page. Son #1 built us a new house with this page during church today. For some reason I dreaded making the tools, but they were actually very quick and easy!

Now that I have eight new pages finished in the last week, maybe I'll move on to something new. Don't get me wrong, there are still some new quiet book pages brewing in my brain . . . . but I'm ready to craft something other than pages for a few days.

I'm on a personal mission to use up items from my more than generous "stash" of crafting supplies and fabric this year. What will it be?