Christmas and Other Crafting!

I have been REALLY into crafting lately. I don't know if it's because I'm pregnant and so all of a sudden I have an urge to become much more domestic or if it's because I'm not in school so I don't have a constant load of homework keeping me busy...perhaps a bit of both. I saw a really cute tutorial here: http://www.bystephanielynn.com/2010/04/recycled-plastic-bag-wreath-earth-day.html at Under the Table and Dreaming. I could not find the foam wreaths anywhere, so I searched online for similar ideas to see if I could improvise somehow. I found the idea to make a wreath base out of a hanger, and I thought that was a great idea because, really, who doesn't have a million gross old hangers lying around??? This is my failed attempt at a circle:

Ughh....the thing I found online told me to cut the hanger at the bottom and loop the ends around each other (maybe to make it smaller??). After the above happened, I really didn't see the point in having a smaller wreath, so I decided to grab another hanger, bend it into a circle, and just use extra bags. I think it turned out to be the PERFECT size, and I'm way happy it worked out. I think i ended up using about 30 grocery bags...give or take ten either way...

I hung it on the front door, and since it's made with plastic bags, it can live through all sorts of weather!! This is one time I wish our door wasn't white, because it kind of blends in....but oh well. That's another day's project I suppose.

Next on my "to-do" was to fix this wall....

It has looked pretty empty since we moved in, and I've been wanting to do something there but just didn't know what. We went to Wally World the day after Thanksgiving and found packages of ten frames for $7! I bought two, and Scott didn't believe that I actually could find a use for 20 picture frames in our house. I was planning on doing some sort of collage on the wall, but I decided that I wanted to do something Christmas-y for now to make our house a bit more festive! I just printed off letters from Word to spell "Merry Christmas" and taped them to scrapbook paper to cut them out. Thank goodness I thought of doing that, because drawing bubble letters has always been a challenging experience for me...Anyway, now our house looks a little more ready for the holidays and I was able to take the two pictures we had and put them on other walls to make it look a little better all around!

I've been really into babies lately.......Ha--understatement! Obviously I can't think of anything but babies lately, so I've been looking at a lot of baby crafts. I have plans for a crib bedding set, a baby afghan, baby hats, baby mobiles, baby toys, baby shoes (maybe? I've heard that these are kind of really hard...so we'll see...), and these burp cloths that I already started on. One of the girls I'm in Young Women's with just adopted a baby boy and the President is due with a baby boy in a couple of weeks. I wanted to give them a gift that they would actually use and think was cute, and I kind of wanted to make something. So....i pulled out my sewing machine for the first time ever (thanks, Mom), bought some fabric and thread, and went to work. I bought some cloth diapers, cut fabric the same size, and sewed binding around the edges. Sounds easy, right? Ummm....have I mentioned I haven't really sewn much of anything since I was about nine years old?

Side story--when I was five I went to a quilting club with my mom. She would quilt with some cute old grandmas at a church every Wednesday, and I would go with her. Usually I would color (with my favorite glitter crayons) and find missing needles that the old ladies couldn't see. Eventually I got the idea that I wanted to make a quilt of my own. My mom let me have some fabric and probably helped me cut it, but the blocks were about 2 inches square. Imagine a five-year-old who can't even cut a straight line trying to use a sewing machine to sew a straight line. I got so frustrated when none of my strips of fabric matched up that I gave up on the quilt, but I did keep practicing on my mom's sewing machine--not that I made anything; I just thought it was a really awesome grown-up toy and couldn't believe my mom let me use it. When i was about nine or ten I decided sewing wasn't really my thing so i gave it up.

So....it took a while, but I finally got into the groove of using a sewing machine again after my 13 year interim. I finished six burp cloths (three for each friend) and put one set with a binky and a clip and the other with a package of bottles. I've got to tell you, I'm pretty proud of myself for these! I'm working on the others now for our little guy but decided to embroider "Little Fiebs" on the diaper side to make them even cuter! So they're still in the process of being finished.

I ran across a tutorial on how to make these fabric flowers a few weeks ago and decided to try it. It was really fun and sooooo easy, so I made a few. I put one on a bobby pin and the others are still sitting around waiting to be used....I was wanting to put them on a plain tee from Downeast Basics or something, but so far haven't even made it to the store to get a shirt.
I also saw a tutorial on how to make this necklace (sorry, can't remember where...) and decided to try it out. I made it with the same old tank top I made the pink fabric flowers with and an old necklace that I cut up.
I had a little problem getting it to stay turned the right way when I was wearing it, so this is the only time I put it on. I did wear it for a few hours, but I'm going to have to do something to keep it under control before I wear it again.

Incidentally, this is the night before I dyed my hair dark again! Bye blonde Brooke!