Nursing Necklace

Since I already posted the link to the tutorial I followed to crochet each bead, I figured I'd post a short blurb to show off the finished product. I added some glass pearls and some moss agate beads to jazz it up a bit. Here's my beauty:

I'm really happy I was able to complete a crochet project for once. Each bead took less than five minutes, so it's not like it was taxing at all, but I'm still proud. It's so pretty! Hope you like it!

Creation Frenzy!

I have apparently been busier than a honey badger! It actually surprised me how much I'd gotten done when I gathered all the pictures together. Next post will be a nifty tutorial on how to make deep mattresses make friends with shallow fitted sheets, but this time around all I have is pictures of finished projects. Hope you enjoy them!

I've been [slowly] learning how to crochet, bit by frustrating bit. So, I found this scarf crochet pattern and figured I'd give it a try. It's surprisingly easy, but I think next time I'll use a lighter weight yarn, because you can't really see the detail very well. It's also a little hard to pick out separate stitches. Nevertheless, here is the scarf I've been working on:

I think it's coming along pretty well. Of course, I don't have a lot of patience for continuous crocheting, so though the tutorial says you can knock this out in an evening, it's taking me quite a bit longer.

I've seen a lot of versions of nursing necklaces, such as this one, but I'll be the first to admit I'm a bit cheap. The price listed is quite fair based on the cost of yarn and of course, the cost of the creator's time, so don't think I'm undermining the value of the crafstmanship here. I just thought it looked like a fun project, so I found this tutorial and found that it was very fun and easy. I've only made two so far, but once I make a few more I'll string them up and have something (other than scratching my skin off) to entertain Audrey while she eats.

Continuing the theme of my cheapness, I created my first knock-off jewelry! I saw this lovely necklace at Target, but I couldn't bring myself to pay $34.00 for it. It's only $29.99 online, but I'd still have to contend with shipping.

So I made my own! The beads were about $6.00 and the leather cord was $2.00. Much better for my budget. I like mine better, actually.

These bracelets are really popular right now, and I adore them. So I made one! This tutorial was very helpful.

I posted before about the crib skirt I made for a friend. She liked it so much she asked me to make some curtains for her, so I've been painstakingly working on those. I don't have any pictures yet, but I will once they're finished. In the meantime, I used the excess fabric from the crib skirt to make coordinating pillows for the nursing chair!

Lastly, I am so excited to share our bathroom makeover-in-progress. As long as we've lived together we've had a rubber ducky theme in the master bath. Now that we have a kid, I figured maybe it was time to have a slightly more grown-up theme for our own bathroom. We're keeping the bright, fun, kid-friendly frog theme in the other bathroom.

After a lot of online window shopping and browsing several local stores, we finally found the perfect shower curtain and towels at Bed Bath and Beyond - a place I'm not afraid to say I don't usually like. Their prices are much higher than I'm typically comfortable with, but I just couldn't find the colors I was dreaming of anywhere else. Unsurprisingly, the prices were a bit high, but to be fair I have never felt such a luxuriously soft shower curtain before.

Anyway, here is our bathroom right now. We have more work to do, but I couldn't wait to show it off!

The little ducky hooks aren't staying - I just haven't found hooks that I like yet.

We picked out the flowers and the mini-planter at Michael's, and they magically match the curtain really well. We filled the jars with some rocks my hubby tumbled. I love it!

Well, thanks for looking (and for sticking with me through all these pictures!) Maybe now I can slow down a bit!

Journal Upgrade!

I am so in love with my new (old) journal!

First of all, I must certainly give credit where it's due, so this is where I found the idea to dress up my old journal. I love the journaling ideas she has, and adding fabric to a paper journal is just one of them. So here is the original journal, which was given to me by a friend on my eighteenth birthday. We won't talk about how long ago that was. Sorry for not getting a picture of the whole thing; I guess I was too eager to take out the giant spiral binding.

After taking out the spiral, I pulled out some green eyelet fabric that I'd purchased a while ago without a project in mind. I didn't want the colors on the cover to show through, so I grabbed some white fabric scraps too.

Though I knew I was going to do a post about this project, I still haven't quite gotten used to taking a picture of every step of the process. So, I forgot to capture the covering process. Basically, I used a foam brush to paint some decoupage glue onto the cover, then put on the white fabric. I wrapped the edges around to the inside of the cover and glued them down. Once the glue had dried a bit, on went more glue and the green fabric. I wrapped and glued those edges too. Next, I chose some fun scrapbooking paper and glued it to the inside covers to hide the edges of the fabric.

To put the journal back together, I pulled some pink yarn through the binding holes, then tied it off in back. It's much less bulky and I think much prettier than the big spiral.

Here's the inside, with that pretty pink yarn showing. Much more fun than boring metal.

I then sewed up some leftover burlap-style cotton fabric into a clean rectangle. This is before it's finished, but I did hem that last side too. I made sure to measure it against the journal so it wouldn't be too short or overlap.

This fabric was to hide the binding on the outside and give the whole journal a more finished look. Here, I used Aleen's Fabric Fusion to glue it on instead of decoupage glue, because it will give it a better hold.

I was just going to glue on some buttons, but I noticed some scrap fabric from a necklace I'd made previously and decided I liked the idea of a flower. I cut out some circles of the white fabric and the colorful fabric. These don't have to be perfect, and I actually like them better if they're not.

To make the petals, I folded the circle over on itself and dabbed a bit of tacky glue in the folds.

I added a few more petals, gluing them in the center.

Then I glued a cute button in the middle of the flower. Don't mind the glue; it dried clear. I was just impatient to take a picture.

I added another button at the bottom.

And there you have it! A whole new look for an old journal!