Wednesday, December 10, 2014

Back after a long break... and so are my Elf Skirts & Doll Scarves.

It has been a busy year for our family which has left my blog posts quite behind. I've been on a bit of a hiatus to focus on our family, life, health & fitness, and working toward simplifying & reducing clutter all while adjusting to a new routine of preschool four days in the week. Over the spring and summer I was busy with preparing/planning and then tending to our garden as well as tending to preserving the harvests. I am thankful to be done with canning for several months.

There have been a lot of personal projects I've been working on such as some autumn-ish table runners (hosted Thanksgiving this year), a Pinterest inspired Advent calendar, likely some other things I've forgotten as well as inventory of my handmade doll scarves for fashion dolls or Christmas Elves such as the popular Elf that is often sitting on a shelf or up to mischief while its family is sleeping.





http://www.ebay.com/itm/331330902614?var=&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649


http://www.ebay.com/itm/331330823901?var=&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

http://www.ebay.com/itm/331330823901?var=&ssPageName=STRK:MESELX:IT&_trksid=p3984.m1555.l2649

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

My Eco-Friendly Reusable Swiffer Covers Project

What happens when you run out of Swiffer cloths and some members of your household (including yourself) are not fans of the repurposed cloth baby wipes?  This is what happened in our house… I decided I would finally make some reusable Swiffer cloths using some of the abundant amount of fleece that I have in my fabric stash, starting with a cream color remnant that I had picked up for doll pants project that ended up a fail & determining factor that doll clothes is not something I enjoy making. So why not use the cream fleece for Swiffer covers since I have no other use for it.

Now first, I will say there is nothing really wrong with my repurposed flannel “Swiffer cloths” except they don’t like to stay put in the little "holder things” and they are not as cute or fun looking. That has been one thing I didn’t like so much and wanted to do differently this time around. Six cream color covers later I was ready to make more, and found a cheerful spring green fleece remnant that had been a bargain and happened to be the perfect size for my reusable Swiffer cover project. While I would absolutely love to had some super fun fleece prints for this project – I did not have any fleece prints left in my fabric stash to use for this project. 

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The first evening I worked on this I finished six cream and one green plain covers. The second evening I felt I wanted to have them be more fun.  So after digging around in my scraps drawer (aka fat quarters that hope to become a quilt someday and other miscellaneous scraps that could be used for something drawer), I found some fleece scraps that I could cut cute shapes out of.  First I was going to try dots but in the end that was more effort than I wanted to put into floor sweeper covers (as if what I ended up doing wasn’t already a little OCD anyway) – hearts it is.  P2260833

Now we have a stash of 16 reusable Swiffer covers. Pretty sure I know which covers my girl will want to use on her “Swiffer”.   May have to go back with some other cute idea to embellish the plain ones without having to rip out stitching to do the heart appliqué idea. Now I’m optimistic and hoping that those in our household that had not been fans of the previous reusable Swiffer cloths we had will like these.

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I was on a mission and did not take any tutorial photos or notes as I had not really thought or planned on a tutorial for these. If that is something you’d like to see, comment on this post & I’ll work on one for the future. :-)

I am still toying with the idea of making “unpaper towels” but we do like our paper towels in this house with a precocious pre-schooler. The main hang-up is that I know some members of our household will not be a fan but I may get around to that project eventually.

Thursday, February 13, 2014

Been a little quiet & busy working on some personal projects

I know it’s been a bit quiet on the Crafty Obsessions front and for good reason as I was taking a much needed break to spend quality time with family, enjoy the Holidays and a bit of a break as I regroup a bit here and there. 

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I’ve been able to tackle my mending pile which to be honest had gotten out of control and was in dire need of some downsizing.  It’s not completely done but it is much smaller (and usually that means it will soon grow again as it always seems to do so when I put a good dent in it).  I’ve also enjoyed taking the time to work on some personal creative and crafty projects that have been ‘nagging’ at me.

One project in particular was my beach jar which has been a project in the works for years but finally came to life with the perfect find – a vintage blue Ball Mason jar (there will likely be a post about this project eventually). We have had fun baking our own mini donuts for the first time with a pan I’ve had for far too long & was still in its original package. We are now addicted to homemade tortillas & love making them knowing just what is in them – so long store-bought tortillas, ours are better & easier to make than one would’ve thought.

Organization is the never-ending project on my list of projects which has taken to the closets – in the form of purging & parting with things. It has been great to part with things that are now too big for me, as I continue my quest to get fit and healthier (more emphasis on the fitness side which maintains and improves the health side which is good). So with that purging has come some selling of items on Ebay which I enjoy, especially when it generates some money. So life in general and my various projects have been keeping me busy and things quiet on my Crafty Obsessions pages.

Today’s project was to make a second pair of fleece fingerless gloves since I cannot find the first pair that I made which were a little snug but worked to keep my hands from freezing while working in my basement creative space. I found this tutorial via Pinterest. The first pair I made were the small size adult pattern and I followed her instructions for modifying the pattern to a size medium glove. I used the same fleece remnant I had for the first pair. I like the fit of the medium size better for my hands & while they are a little ‘loose’ at the wrist & forearm – it is nice for slipping over long sleeves.  My hands have been toasty warm as I’ve been writing this post wearing my new medium sized fingerless gloves. I do have a wonderful knit pair my mother-in-law gave me for my birthday that I Love – but some crafty projects are not as friendly with them & I want to keep them nice.

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Stay tuned for future posts. I’m sure I’ll have something fun to share – it maybe food related, crafty or something in between!