Joining Up

So I'm adding one more BIG project to my summer to-do list - - - I'm going to join up with Sew Take A Hike's Yo-Yo Along. I've always liked Yo-Yo's but never had a reason to make any. I'm really late in joining up but better late than never. We are just getting home from a wonderful week-long vacation at Bear Lake and I am wishing that I had prepped for this project before we left. But I'm headed to pick up a Yo-Yo maker tomorrow and plan to cut lots of scraps so that I always have a pile ready to work on. I'm excited!

Summer Projects to Do - Someday Soon

This is my incredibly busy time at work . . . . no time for crafting. But along with checking off work projects that need to be finished up and taken care of, I'm also keeping up with my craft project list of things to do. For the beginning of July, I have these three projects at the top of said list:

1. Pillowcases - cute and totally simple! Little Birdie Secrets has this great tutorial that I really want to try. I need to pick up some Thomas the Train cottons for son #1 and then something fun for son #2. They will love them!2. Chick-sicles - seriously, how cute are these! Suzanne at Just Another Hangup has the pattern and a tutorial for a rice-filled cooling pad for the kiddos. Heck, I'd like one for myself too. Gotta get a few of these made to keep in the frig/freezer.3. Love Birds - and to go with the chick-sicle, Suzanne also has these rice-filled owl heating pads over at Just Another Hangup. For some reason, little boy monster heating pads seem to be running through my head . . . but even if I don't get that creative, these little owls will find a home with my boys. Ok - off to memorize some new laws and sign a stack of papers I forgot to sign on Friday so people can get paid. Work is never done . . . at least this time of year!

My New Summer Tote Bag

Here's another item from my to-do-craft-project-list. Noodlehead recently posted her new summer tote bag tutorial . . . and I originally planned on using up some cute black/white damask print canvas scraps that I had leftover from my hair clipper bag. But a trip to the fabric store to find just the right fabric for the lining caused me to come across these incredibly adorable bright flowery and polka dot canvas fabrics. These fabrics screamed "New Tote Bag" to me and so they came home, along with some cute red pom pom trim. This was an amazingly fast bag to sew up. I added the pom poms on the front pockets along with a couple of super-sized pockets on the inside to hold whatever (crap) necessity finds its way inside. This was an easy 1/2 yard project (1/2 yard of outside fabric, 1/2 yard of lining fabric, 1/2 yard of canvas for "batting" plus an additional 1/4 yard of the contrasting inside pocket fabric. I sized up the measurements just a touch to use up pretty much all of the yardage. And I bought 1 1/2 yards of webbing for the handles and just used the whole length (cut in half obviously) for handles. Nothing like a super giant new tote bag. I can't quite decide how to use it first.

LOVE IT!

Card Holders . . . Check

I saw these cute (and totally simple) card holders over at Crafty Cupboard not too long ago and put them on my list. I definitely had a few scraps laying around for this project plus it called for "mass production" - gotta love that. I have a nice leather business card holder for work but I foresee using these when I don't want to carry a full sized wallet around - on a bike ride (stored in my bike pouch) for id.
Or in a pocket for a credit card (when I don't need the whole purse - you know . . . the gigantic kid-sized purse I've now officially adopted).
My favorites are the black/red and the polka dot. The polka dot matches another project I'll have ready to show in just a few days.Really easy - and a good reason to buy some fusible fleece to add to my sewing closet for future needs.

Life is CrAzY!

My list of craft projects to work on is almost as long as my housework/yardwork list and my work-work list of things to do. Unfortunately, sometimes those lists come before crafting. So in the meantime . . . I continue to add to my crafting list.

This Summer Picnic Blanket is from She Wears Flowers guest posting over at The Crafting Chicks. Love it - it is officially on my crafting list!In other news, we just got back from a wonderful long weekend up in Jackson, Wy. Fabulous, relaxing, and fun! And a new record . . . six bears in one day. A perfect time of year to be in Wy.

Check . . . and Check!

I'm a list girl - always have been . . . always will be. But for me it's a good thing. I love to make a list and check things off as I accomplish them. So for this week, call it check and check!

1. Fabric bookmarks - these are still my favorite fabric bookmark pattern. I've made a few already and whipped these up yesterday for teacher gifts for the end of school. Little Birdie Secrets has a great tutorial for these on her blog. Fast . . . easy . . . and very cute!

2. Charm pack baby quilt - And the top is finally finished. Cluck Cluck Sew made hers a little while back and I wanted to whip one up. Now that I finally got over not having every little intersection perfectly aligned, I think it looks great.The flower was fun to work up and create. I think I'm going to try machine quilting this one on my own. I've been working on piecing the back this afternoon. More to come!

Here is the next project I have in mind for this week . . . a new summer tote bag from Noodlehead. Here is her version. I have some perfect scraps waiting to be used for just this bag. And for some reason I feel some pom-poms coming on for this one - we'll see.

Projects in Progress

Well its been one of those weeks where life just took over from my "best-laid crafting plans". Work, family, yard work, and a Sunday nap have kept me busy. I do have a few projects in progress . . . I hope to get a few of them checked off on my list of projects to finish soon.

#1 - Fabric bookmarks: I want to have a couple of cute but relatively inexpensive teacher gifts on hand for the end of school in the next few weeks. Being a teacher myself . . . and being married to one . . . I know that practical gifts are THE right gift for teachers. We have a kitchen full of mugs and a counter full of candy that I don't need to each at the end of every school year. So "we" voted and I will be making some more fabric bookmarks to be given along with a gift card to either Amazon or Barnes & Noble (where ever I manage to get gift cards purchased) for each of son #1's teachers.

This is my current favorite bookmark tutorial - from Little Birdie Secrets. I've made a couple already but given them away before I remembered to take pictures.And then I found this fabric bookmark over at Creation Corner. Cute and easy!And another similar variation from Funky Polkadot Giraffe.

Finally a cute version from The Small Stuff - simple and easy.

And then there is my continued love-hate relationship with this charm pack baby quilt. I have about half of my rows sewn together . . . and I've just not had time to go sit back down at the sewing machine to finish it up. This is the inspiration quilt from Cluck Cluck Sew. I didn't want to lose the link so I'm linking here since I still need to hurry and make the applique flower.In big news though - my flower containers, flower beds, and garden are all turned, composted, AND planted! Ya hoo!

Above and beyond my typical craft projects - I am up to my neck in getting caught up on digital photo books for my boys. I do one for each of them documenting their year in pictures - from birthday to birthday. I got behind this year and am playing catchup. I'm not going to finish son #2's in time to use the big coupon that MyPublisher.com is advertising right now. But I'm sure they'll have another sale soon. I'm about half way through. Then I'll play catch up for son #1's book and then . . . . maybe I'll take another nap next week!