Nearly two years ago, when my daughter was growing in my belly, I thought it would be a great idea to buy some of those pre-cut wooden letters to decorate the kids’ room with.  Since the two would be sharing a room, I was trying to come up with some fun ideas that would give them each something of their own in the room.  I think I searched all over town before I finally found all the right letters for both of their names.  Unfortunately, they ended up being slightly different sizes and styles.  The letters have been sitting on a shelf now for well over a year just waiting to be painted.

A week or so ago, I finally got them out to paint.  When Zach saw what I was doing he wanted to help too.  I let him do the first coat of paint, then I did a second coat to cover up any splotches.

I had really grand ideas of how I was going to paint these. Evie’s were supposed to have flowers and butterfly designs painted on. With Zach’s I wasn’t sure, but I figured I would come up with some kind of design to decorate them with. As you can see, I did none of that. To save time, I just went with solid colors. Since I did Evie’s all in the same color, I used a little bit of ribbon to tie some bows for decoration.

They weren’t at all what I had in mind when I started out, but they’ll still spruce up the room a little.

I seriously never thought I would be the type of mom to dress my girl in frilly dresses, make her purses, and put bows in her hair.  (Of course I also never expected my daughter to have such little hair at a year old.)  Guess that just proves that motherhood really does make you a bit crazy!  I finally got a little bit of down time on Sunday and this is how I spent it.

I’ve been collecting ribbon here and there for a while now but never could find the time to sit down and make these.  It was a great way to spend my little bit of extra time.  It still surprises me how much joy I get from making things with my hands!

Everybody has their off days and when you are a creative type you are bound to have days when you just can’t find inspiration.  What do you do when you just don’t feel inspired?  I’m over at Blissfully Domestic today talking about 10 Tips To Finding Creative Inspiration when you’ve lost yours.  Go check it out and add your own tips in the comments section!

Chances are if you have a little girl you’ve seen all the adorable boutique bows available.  They’re all over Etsy.  In fact, my own cousin runs TippyToesBowtique, where she sells bows, tutus, headbands, beanies, and other cute accessories.

I’ve been waiting since Evie was born (ok, so maybe I’ve been waiting longer than that!) to have a little girl with hair that I can play with.  Seriously, I was the kid that only wanted dolls with long hair so I could style it.  I think all of my dolls and barbies had hair cuts by the time I was done with them too.

I’ve been waiting quite patiently for Evie’s hair to grow out so that I could put some adorable little bows in it and the day has finally come.  There’s not a lot of hair, but enough I can put a clip in it!

Even though we have several bows from my cousin’s shop, I decided I wanted to make a few of my own.  They look pretty simple to make and I wanted some that matched her Christmas outfits.  I picked up some cheap ribbon and alligator clips, got out the hot glue gun, and went to town.  It took me a while to figure out exactly how to put everything together, but I think my first efforts came out ok.

A couple nights later I gave it another try and came up with these:

So far my hair clips have gotten rave reviews.  I love being able to say that I made them myself when someone asks where I got them.

I think they turned out all right, but I do want to make some changes the next time around. For starters, I’m thinking using fabric glue instead of hot glue for some parts might reduce a little of the bulk. If anyone has any expert tips, feel free to share!

As you might have noticed, I’ve been missing for a while over here. It has a lot to do with a trip out of town, in-laws visiting, and a very cranky little girl who feels the need to be held by Mommy every second they are together but you can read more about that over at my personal blog.

Fortunately, Christmas is coming and it has got me in the crafting mood.  I have several projects lined up for the next couple of weeks so hopefully I’ll be posting a bit more frequently.  The one that brought me out of my crafting slump was the need for new Christmas stockings.  Since money is tight, I decided to go cheap…$1.99 cheap.  I picked up four cheapo Christmas stockings and a package of glitter glue and went to town.  These may be more appropriate to post over at Craftastrophe, but here they are in all their glory.

As you can see, drawing with glitter glue isn’t exactly my specialty.  But, the stockings are done for this year.  Apparently my cats weren’t impressed either so they decided to walk all over them and spread the glitter around a bit.  Maybe they just wanted sparkly paws?  Fortunately I took the picture before the cats got to them.  It looks like we’ll be getting new ones again next year.  Maybe if I save up I can afford some of these.

Here I am again feeling the need to apologize for not updating. I’m not sure why I feel that way really. It’s my blog, I should be able to update (or not update as the case may be) when I please. That said, I’m going to make an effort to catch up on what I’ve done the last couple of months.

As far as knitting goes, I seem to have lost my drive a bit. I want to knit. It just feels so time consuming these days. I suppose that’s why I have about five unfinished projects going. I’ll start something and then lose the drive to finish it. I guess that’s why I prefer hats, scarfs, and other quick projects as opposed to knitting sweaters.

Just before Christmas, I decided I wanted to give some handmade gifts. I was a little too ambitious with my plans and didn’t get them all finished, but I did actually complete a couple of knitted items. Hubby’s mom had requested a pink scarf a while back when she saw me knitting the pink Grace Beanie last summer. So, I pulled out my leftover yarn and knitted her up a quick scarf. Then, for lack of any better ideas, I found some camo colored Red Heart yarn at Michael’s and decided to knit my father-in-law a hat to keep his noggin warm. He’s big on hunting so I thought the camo colors would be perfect for him. (Yes, I’m aware the picture quality totally sucks and you can’t really make out the colors.)

With all of the holiday rush, I barely finished those items in time to get them mailed out. Instead of fooling myself into thinking I could actually get anything else knitted in time, I decided to do a little sewing for the third gift.

My sister-in-law was due to give birth to my niece about a week after Christmas, so I wanted to make her a nice tote bag for all that baby stuff she would soon be carrying around.  With my procrastinating, I ended up staying up until about 4:00 Christmas morning finishing the bag up.  The pattern was actually very easy, but apparently sleep deprivation is not very helpful when you are trying to follow even an easy pattern.  I love how the bag turned out am hoping to find the time to make myself one soon.

Projects that I will hopefully finish soon:
Baby blanket started nearly a year ago! (um, baby will be here hopefully in 7 weeks or less!)
Baby bib started last summer sometime (not really sure what the holdup is on this one, just bored with it)
Baby hat (should seriously have finished this one already)
Birthday gift for a birthday that has already passed (started, um, yesterday)
Scarf for myself (not yet started)

And if I can ever get all of those done, I picked up some really cute chunky yarn (Yarn Bee Mosaic in Sunrise – for $.99 a skein!) last night at Hobby Lobby that I’m just dying to play with.  I’m thinking it would make some cute hats and/or ponchos for my baby girl and my two new nieces.

This blog seems to be dying a very slow excruciating death at the moment, so even though this isn’t knitting related, I’m posting it anyway. Hopefully I’ll get back to some regular knitting soon and will have something interesting to post.

A very, very long time ago I followed a link somewhere that led to another link somewhere that led to another link and eventually I found a pattern for this super cute little tote bag. I would link to it but I have no idea where it originally came from now. At the time, I had just gotten a new sewing machine and was really wanting to learn to sew so I copied the pattern and had grand plans of giving the tote bag a shot.

As usually happens with my big plans, I never got around to starting it. You see, it required me going to a fabric store and actually purchasing the fabric and supplies needed to make the bag and I never managed to find my way there until last week. I decided Thursday during my lunch break to check out one of the local fabric stores. I was on a search for some cute Halloween fabric so that I could make Zach a Trick or Treat bag that he wouldn’t drag on the ground. I was apparently a little too late to find Halloween fabric, but along the way I fell in love with some coordinating flannels and decided they would make the perfect little tote bag.

I couldn’t wait to get started on my project and started cutting the fabric that night. By the time I got all the pieces cut and the interfacing ironed on I had to quit and go to bed. I couldn’t wait to get home and start sewing on Friday. I didn’t actually get started until about 9:30 that night, but after many toddler interruptions and a couple of sewing machine difficulties, I finally finished it. My seams are far from perfect and I could have possibly measured a little more carefully, but I absolutely love my little bag. Plus, I’m very impressed that I made the whole thing from start to finish. It is my first “real” sewing project and it actually turned out okay!

I also bought enough material that I can make a second one (because I figured I would manage to screw up the first somehow) so I’m thinking of trying again and possibly doing some experimenting with the size. We’ll see how it goes!