mats for Uganda

November 21, 2011 – 8:13 am

Sorry for the radio silence around here. I have been spending my time over at another blog. I know, shame on me for cheating on my blog! But really, I think you guys will be excited once you see what I’ve been up to.

I’ve always struggled with figuring out how to use my crafting for good causes, to help people. I’ve felt repeatedly called to do this and have participated in things like Craft Hope for Haiti, making new born caps and several other things that never got blogged. Well, a friend of mine contacted me about an effort to provide birthing mats for a missionary family from Texas that is going as a doctor and midwife to serve the people of Uganda. I think it’s safe to say I have a bit of a soft spot for Uganda after my good friends brought home their son from there. :) These 4′x6′, ultra portable birthing mats are made from plastic grocery bags and provide an easy to sanitize place for the women in Uganda to have their babies. Not only is this a way for me to use my love of crocheting to bless women, it’s a upcycling project, it will be a way to bring women together to craft together (even if you don’t crochet, someone has to make the ‘plarn’ – plastic yarn) and it helps keep babies safe. So cool.

How does this involve my cheating on my own blog? I made a blog to help support their efforts. All of the information is in one place! That’s where I’ve been the past week. So please, go check it out and see if it’s something you’re interested in helping with. We are looking for people to make plarn, donate their plastic bag stash, be coordinators in their area to coordinate craft days, etc. Please feel free to contact me if you are interested in any way!

By Elizabeth | Posted in Crafts, Faith, Social Justice, Yarn | Tagged , , | Comments (1)

from too big to ‘skinny’

November 11, 2011 – 6:45 am

OK, a couple confessions. I hate going to stores to shop. I like to shop online. And even then I don’t like spending money. Lately, I have been refashioning more and more clothing that I already have in my closet. My most recent update has been very satisfying because it’s become such a staple in my closet.

First off, I started off with a pair of jeans that a friend gave me. They were too big. Like, if you gave them a good tug, they were coming down. Not wearable.

From too big . . .

But that just means I had plenty to work with to make them fit me perfectly. I didn’t take any photos of how I made this happen, but it’s easy enough. I turned them inside out, put them back on and pinned up the sides. Then I just followed the pins and sewed them right up. If you attempt this yourself, make sure you adjust the seam that is not finished with a flat seam and the pretty stitching. You can’t replicate that on your machine. Most of my jeans have the regular seam on the outside of the legs.

Ta-da, skinny jeans!

. . . to skinny . . .

Even better with my new boots!

. . . boot jeans!

I have a couple other pants that I am refashioning this way. Love getting a new look from clothes I already have that are not being used!

By Elizabeth | Posted in Clothes, Crafts, Sewing | Comments (4)

phone photos

November 10, 2011 – 7:17 am

If I didn’t tell you, I bet you wouldn’t know that these were all taken and edited on our iPhone 4s. It’s a little ridiculous how much you can do with this phone. We use big lens and camera+ apps the most, but also have hipstamatic and instagram. Here’s a little taste (and more proof that our kid is ridiculously photogenic – jeez he’s cute):

so happy

reeeach for the bubble

eat the bubble

dirt biking

family portrait on a train

biking

sliding

Ohmygoodness, he’s so cute I can hardly stand it. Love this kid.

By Elizabeth | Posted in Random, Toddler | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (2)

sometimes, you just get lucky

November 9, 2011 – 2:07 pm

I saved $195 on these items. And I didn’t use a single coupon. Everything was 75% off or more and everything was a natural brand! All natural shampoos, traditional medicinal teas, sunblocks, lotions, local soaps, toothpastes for adults and kids, essential oils, homeopathic medicine, Dr. Bronner’s. The total was just about $75. We are now stocked on toiletries for awhile!

what a score!

What has your best deal find been?

By Elizabeth | Posted in Bargains | Tagged , , , , , , | Comments (3)

Toddler Tuesday

November 8, 2011 – 9:51 am

I’m pretty behind on posting what Jude and I have been up to, so get ready for a bunch of fun activities! And every single one of these pictures is from my phone. Pretty awesome.

We went on a hunt for all things blue. We took a freezer bag and collected everything that would fit. And yes, those are raccoon pjs. I love them so much.

Hunting for blue

I whipped up some quick bean bags (really they are rice bags) so we could do some tossing. . .

Bean (rice) bags

in the back yard! We threw the bean bags into the holes in a giant cardboard box. We talked about the shapes while we were throwing, but really, throwing was the star in this activity.

Bean bag toss

I took six straws and taped them together (as seen on pinterest) and we blew lots of little bubbles!

Straw bubbles

Painting with spaghetti. . . So. Much. Fun. (Again, found on pinterest.)

Painting spaghetti

And check out this awesome mess.

Spaghetti mess

We couldn’t really get leaf pressing down, so we colored on the leaves. That’s just as fun for a fall activity, right?

Coloring leaves

And of course, the ever fun play dough. Always a winner.

Play dough

And finally, we worked on our spoon skills, spooning pom poms from one bowl to the other. I was surprised at how much Jude liked doing this one!

Spooning Pom poms

Any fun ideas that you’ve been doing with your littles? I’m trying brainstorm some cute holiday activities for us to do in the upcoming weeks. Any ideas?

 

By Elizabeth | Posted in Random, Toddler | Tagged , | Comments (1)

a little late, ‘ween Monkey

November 7, 2011 – 1:44 pm

A week late, but still cute nonetheless. My craftiness did not make an appearance this Halloween. Turns out motivation is low when you already have a costume hanging in the closet, and a very appropriate one at that.

Halloween Monkey

My mom gave us this monkey costume last Christmas and thankfully it still fit. It was a bit toasty for such a warm day but we made it work. Jude may or may not have been shirtless until the sun went down. . .

Halloween Monkey

Jude and his little pirate friend. They were pretty hilarious going to the doors together. Jude would say ‘trick or treat, please’ and then try to eat the candy as it was being handed to him and his friend would say ‘Happy ‘ween!’ and run off. Who can resist?

Pirate and Monkey

But even more fun than trick or treating is riding your bike. We can’t keep him off of it these days!

Halloween Monkey Bike Ride

Belated happy bike riding ‘ween, y’all.

Halloween Monkey Bike Ride

By Elizabeth | Posted in Random, Toddler | Tagged , , , | Comments (0)

bit by the yarn bug

November 7, 2011 – 9:51 am

I can’t seem to get enough crochet these days. I guess it’s because the weather is finally cooling down and I can tote these projects with me wherever I go.

I finished my scarf! I love the crocodile stitch. It looks so complicated! And how funny that it kinda looks like fall in this picture. The red leaves behind me are actually dead red tipped photinia. We’ll just pretend that we get fall color in Austin, right? Right.

crocodile scarf

I even love the way the back looks. Very interesting.

crocodile scarf

It ended up a little too wide and a bit too short, but that’s why I’m keeping this guy for myself. I added tassels but I think I might take them off. Not sure I’m feeling it.

crocodile scarf

In fact, I loved this stitch so much, I crocheted up another one as a birthday gift for a scarf-loving friend. I skinnied it up and made it longer. I used the Stitch Nation yarn by Debbie Stoller once more in ‘full ‘o sheep’ in Thyme, ‘bamboo ewe’ in sprout and ‘washable ewe’ in kitten. Love that grey kitten color with practically any other colors.

green crocodile scarf

It’s so cute bundled up and ready to be given away! I did toy with the idea of making these to sell but they just take too long to make. I would have to charge over $100 per scarf which seems so silly to me (although Anthropologie doesn’t seem to have a problem doing that . . . hmm . . ).

green crocodile scarf

And because my fingers were still itching to crochet, I made this little newborn cluster hat for a friend that is having a little girl in December. I am so not good at girly colors but I do love yellow and grey (there’s that kitten color again and I had just enough honeycomb to make a four petaled flower), and the flower makes it girly, right? I love this cluster stitch and I can’t believe that a simple slip stitch makes that awesome ribbing on the bottom of the hat. It only took about an hour to make! I am going to have to make an adult sized one of these for myself!

newborn cluster hat

Got a couple other yarny project planned in the next couple of weeks. Anyone have any good patterns they think I should know about? What are you crafting lately?

By Elizabeth | Posted in Crafts, Yarn | Tagged , , , , , , , , | Comments (6)