wardrobe refashion: pj pants to nightshirt

When I was at my craft weekend away, one of my friends was serging a nightshirt for her daughter. Another friend was making dresses out of t-shirt scraps. I blame them for this crazy idea: a nightshirt out of a pajama top and bottom scraps.

This was a lot cuter in my head and my sketches [...]

a weekend of sweater unraveling

I’ve been thinking about white lately. Not bright white, but ivory, soft white and ecru. I’ve been keeping my eye out at the thrift stores, but all I could seem to find was that yellowish cream. Yuck. I even strolled down the yarn aisles at craft stores, which I haven’t done in a long time. [...]

gift bag resolution

After my daughter was born, we had a huge supply of gift bags. Most of them were pink, but we had our fair share of gender neutral and holiday bags, too. It’s been over three years, but I’m almost finished using them for gifts.
Honestly, it felt like my stash would never be gone. When [...]

how to make microwave crayon shapes
in 3 easy steps

Maybe I should call these Really Lazy Crayon Shapes. I’d been thinking of making them for awhile, but all of the tutorials I found online suggested baking in the oven, melting over a double boiler or melting into cups and pouring into molds. Those were just too many steps for me.
I found a silicone mold [...]

how to: recycled holiday card gift tags

Last year I saved a few of my favorite holiday cards for crafting. I planned to reuse the artwork to make new cards, but when I realized I didn’t have any cute gift tags in my stash, I started cutting! I began with 5 cards and ended with almost 30 gift tags in all shapes [...]

reuse-or-recycle package labels

Usually I just handwrite this message on my packages, but sometimes I forget when I’m rushing to get things in the mail. Now I have labels! I printed them on the back of already used paper and just slip them under the packing tape. I suppose you could print stickers, but that’s too involved for [...]

how to sew a remote control pillow
in five easy steps

I’m not sure why I’ve had pillows on my mind. Maybe because the sun has been hiding behind the clouds for too many days to count? Maybe it’s because I’ve been feeling under the weather? Maybe it’s because the holidays are fast approaching and I need some gift ideas for the guys in my life? [...]

reuse: plastic sea shell container

I am just in love with the shape of Archer Farm’s almond containers. They’re nice and durable and have this great silver/gray lid. I held a few back from the recycle bin because I thought I’d be able to make something cute with them.
When we came back from the beach, my daughter had lots of [...]

pretty, plastic granny squares

I try hard to limit our impact on the earth. When I’m at the grocery store, I look for items with recyclable packaging. Sometimes, it isn’t always possible, though. For example, we eat a lot of frozen peas, I don’t always have time to make our bread, and I don’t have any time at all [...]

mixing bread bags and wool with crochet

A long time ago I started to crochet a tote out of plastic grocery bags. I thought it would be a good way to keep the bags out of the landfill. It wasn’t fun. The plastic was sticky and it hurt my wrists. Then my recycle guy started accepting the bags for curbside pick up. [...]