Last Day of Giveaways over at the Plum Shop!

Check it out here!

Check out the Plum Shop on facebook!

My friend Bethany is making a sweet assortment of handmade items for the kiddos this holiday season. Everyday this week she is giving away one of her lovely items.  Head on over to the Plum Shop to see what she is giving away today!

sorry for the loooong break I took over the summer

Sorry to those of you who keep checking my blog to see if I have any new posts...  :(  I have been lazy about posting anything over the summer.  With buying a new house, feeling crummy from pregnancy, and lot of sewing, this blogging thing became a last priority.  However, we are pretty settled in and I'm feeling a LOT better now.  Hopefully I will get back to it!  I've done a lot of sewing over the summer and maybe I will share some of it with you!

First attempt at making a cloth diaper...

Last week I made my first cloth diaper to try out on miss K.  I wanted to start with an overnight kind of diaper.  Mostly because I am a little nervous about what to do with poo!  For the outer part of the diaper I used the ugliest PUL I could find at my local JoAnn's, which happened to be the only PUL available, and I used diaper flannel for the inner lining. and I left a slot in the back to add what I thought would be plenty of layers for soaking.  Actually, only 1 prefold insert would fit inside the slot and I figured that would be plenty.  It seemed so bulky!  Forgive me.  I am new to this cloth diapering thing!  Clearly, it wasn't enough soaking power.  When I woke the little lady up this morning, she was soaked from neck to knee.  Even her pillow was wet!  Yuck!  I am not sure how she slept in that!  Perhaps this diaper will work fine in the daytime, but it certainly isn't soaky enough for night time!  I will have to try again.

starting my first garden

Because we are buying a house, we are trying to live as frugally as possible.  So, my husband said I could only spend $20 on my garden supplies.  Yikes!  So I have had to be a bit creative in coming up with my supplies.  Here is what I have done so far.

I bought and planted my seeds the last week of April.  Seems a bit late coming from Missouri, but here in the Northeast we can still get below freezing well into May.  I spent my $20 on organic seed starting mix, organic soil and organic tomato, eggplant, zucchini, pumpkin, chives, and cilantro seeds.  I really wanted to buy several other types of seed, but since I am on a tight budget I will just have to hold off until next year!

I started the seeds in cardboard boxes.  It will still be about 6 weeks before we move to the new place, and my sprouts will certainly outgrown their cardboard boxes.  So I needed something that I could put the the plants in that I could just pop right into the garden without having to disturbing them again.  So, I made some pots out of newspaper and replanted each sprout as it got bigger.  The newspaper is perfect.  It is free and biodegradable.  Double bonus!

 

I honestly wasn't sure it was going to work, but they are really growing.  I hope I can keep them going long enough to get them planted in the garden.

sad sewing day... :(

I have been feeling the urge to sew something, anything!  But I haven't been able to come up with any inspiration until this afternoon.  I saw a lovely petticoat tutorial and remembered that I had a pile of linen  and a few rolls of lace laying around that would make a wonderful springy ruffle skirt.  In the process of putting it together, I broke my ruler, a needle, and my favorite presser foot that I use for overcasting.  To top it off, I got a wad of thread stuck in my feed dogs that won't budge!  So, now I can't sew anything until I take it in to get that wad removed.  But at least the sun is finally shining, yay.  Perhaps, I was meant to spend this afternoon outside.

flowers make girls of all ages smile!

Lovely Mother's Day flowers for me!

Daddy didn't forget miss K.

Although she couldn't verbalize it,she was super excited that daddy gave her her very own bouquet!

Don't forget to water!

Glass Tile Necklace for Mother's Day

This year for Mother's Day I made glass tile necklaces for the grandmas.  The middle tile says, "My greastest blessings call me Grandma."  I gave it a long chain in case there are many more tile to add... ;)

working on the etsy shop

banner
Originally uploaded by OneLovelyCrafternoon

For my banner, a lovely photo my husband took while we were in Jamaica.

miss K's owl backpack

I get really tired of carrying so many bags around, so I decided to make little miss K here own little backpack to carry her sippy cup and some entertainment when we are out and about.  She loves carrying her own little bag.  Mostly, she loves reaching in and pulling out whatever she finds in there.  Her very own bag of surprises.

I made it out of a pair of thrifted brown pants and of scraps of felt I had laying around.

first blog!

I started crafting as a child not because I really wanted to, but because I had to. My family didn't have money to spend on frivolous trends, and I grew up with a grandmother who was a seamstress from the original era of DIYers. Every time I saw something I wanted, she would ALWAYS look it over thoroughly and then say, "I can make this cheaper and better." And she did. Unfortunately, as a junior higher wanting to "fit in", I didn't really appreciate this. But now that I am an adult, I find myself doing the very same thing. I am thankful that I grew up without everything I thought I wanted to suppress my creativity.