pregnancy body pillow

Hello there. I have enough energy to post this because the project was already done! Hurrah! It is also 7am and I tend to feel better in the mornings.

I made this body pillow during my first pregnancy because my store bought one got tossed in one of our moves. Instead of using one long pillow form, I used two regular size pillows. As it turns out, I prefer the 2 pillow method better--more comfortable and "bend-y". Added bonus, since I don't normally use a body pillow, I don't have to store the bulky thing.

I adapted the closure method. Typically there is a zipper on one of the long sides. I opted out of this for one major reason: I don't do zippers. As luck would have it, I prefer my method of closure better anyway. I did not like the zipper side touching me and with this new method, I don't have this problem. I used the same fabric and made two ties to attach to the open pocket of the body pillow cover.

Is it just me, or is really hard to sleep on your left side all during pregnancy? My left arm gets all cramped up and I need to mix it up!

And since these photos are pretty bad and boring at that, I will leave you with a photo of our child labor program. :)

taking a break

Maybe you have noticed I have not been around for a while--or maybe not. Just in case, I wanted to let all 2 of you that read this blog that I am taking a break for a while. I have not been feeling great. I have been going to sleep right after my son does and work is torture with 24 hour nausea. 

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All this because I creating a little human being. I debated announcing this on the blog. It seems such a personal event. But when I thought about it, so are the creations I make in my craft nest (although not quite as special), so I am going ahead and doing it. So when I feel up to crafting again, I will come back to this space. Thanks for sticking it out with me! 

so here goes...I'm pushing publish!

bird nest in a frame

 thrift store frame spray painted white

 + fabric cut from one of my husband's old shirts and hot glued onto cardboard cut to fit the frame

+  nest-y stuff from a gift i must have received at some point. I arranged it into a half-nest and hot glued it on the the fabric.

+ felted blue bird

= a famed bird in a nest for my gallery wall which is in progress.

blue bird with flowers

I made this one for my girl friend's baby daughter who visited from Seattle this past week. The flowers on the invisible line are from a Hawaiian lei I disassembled.

This one (and the chubby flying one from the last post) is for a nice lady who contacted me about my birdies in Michigan. Hi Tracy!

blue birds flying

in honor of the fantastic cooler beautiful gorgeous weather today (it was 90 degrees the past few days-ick!):

felted blue birds

and one more--standing blue bird

 she looks like she standing in first position-ballerina blue bird.

balance board

I have been meaning to make this balance board for a long time. I decided to cover it with fabric instead of duct tape like elsie marley since I am lazy and that is what I had handy. Yup, it's fun! On the carpet. On the tile, not so much. Thankfully I tried that out before my son did!

Even kitty cat approved.

banner cheer

I made this little banner for a little girl in the hospital who needed a little cheering. I hope it worked a little.

 I used scrap fabric, made the felt flowers with paper leaves (from an old birthday card) and some ancient seam binding still in the package that worked just great!

I really hope I took off that hot glue string before I sent it off! Fingers crossed.

If you don't mind praying for this little girl K., please pray for her health and emotional well being during this trying time. Thank you!

dyed wool

We kool-aid dyed some more wool roving! I love it! Cheap, easy and fun! I kind of wet-felted it by accident, but since I plan to needle felt with it, it's totally fine. This was the last of my first order (8 oz) of wool and I got some more in the mail yesterday! woohooo! And Licorice Tree gave me a little cute baggie of already dyed wool for free! How cool it that?

yup, that's a little kiss stamp he got from the library! no, i did not tattoo my 2 year old.



Let me tell you- my son LOVES wool! He had a blast carrying this dyed wool around after it was dry. Who knew that wool could be so much for for a 2 year old. I guess he gets it from me since I am now a HUGE wool fan now that I have discovered needle felting.

He cracked me up when he sat on his rainbow chair (yes, I let him sit on lawn furniture in the family room if he drags in in from out back) and started stacking the wool on his feet saying he was keeping his feet warm. Thankfully his feet were clean!

love those feet! and everything attached to them!

btw, all these photos are completely unedited to show their true colors.

mother's day card

'cause that's how my mama is! she makes lemonade from lemons.

towel rug

I have been keeping around some old holey bath towels for over a year in hopes of making a rug from them, but could not figure out how to accomplish a nice looking rug with a crappy looking towel. That was until Sparkle Power! came to my rescue.

Sparkle Power

 She made a rug with the towel inside of a covering! Now why did I not think of that? I love the internet and blogs (when they are not a time-suck and give me brilliant ideas, of course).

I have to admit, I love Candace's binding, but I was in too much of a hurry to learn that new skill. I needed it done in a hour,when my son would wake up from napping. Plus I had about a billion other things I needed to speed through during his nap. This is my version.

Sooooooo, I used a pillow case (we upgraded to a king mattress and therefore king pillows a while ago so this pillow case, which I love, was not to be used again on our bed. And I did not think my son would want it in his bed) to cover a double layer thickness of towel (trimmed to size).

Next, stuff it in to the pillow case. Cut off the excess of the pillow case, and sew it shut.
Then run a stitch 3 inches around the perimeter. I won't lie and say that was easy with all that towel in there. My machine struggled and I had to get it back on track a few times, but the ol' machine got through it and I gave it a pat on the back when it was done!

 done.

 A cushy place to land after getting clean.