Crafty Projects

Some projects I've been working on over the past several months..

A milo vest, after I ran out of limited edition yarn for the first milo I started..

A mustard yellow hat for the bird, and a new hat for the husband..

Sewing with knits (this is the flashback skinny tee by made by rae), which I need to do more of. I have some great fabrics ready.

Some projects for friends and family including the above and below..

And a few things for around the house too.

And currently there's a coiled crochet basket and a shawl in progress..

The baby bird has started a few projects of his own too..

We have started the fridge gallery of baby art. Love it! I think we are all caught up now!

A Round Shelf

Have you seen these amazing shelves by Ferm Living?

(photo from ferm living)

I absolutely love the look. I love this shelf by Bride & Wolf even more as it has an open back.

photo from bride & wolf

As much as I don't mind paying for good design and quality, and as much as I like supporting smaller businesses and do whenever I can, we are strapped for cash and there was no way to justify paying over $200 for a shelf at the moment. I had the ferm living shelf on my wishlist for months, with an exact idea of where I would put it..in the playroom with some of our smaller Ostheimer figures that Josh is not ready for yet.. but it was just not going to happen, so I started to think about how I could make my circle shelf dreams come true. I saw a few tutorials around pinterest using all types of materials, including cheese boxes, but none were as clean as I was hoping for. Finally, I came across a tutorial using embroidery hoops. Perfect!

I changed the design a bit to include three shelves, and eventually threw out the hot glue idea and used tiny finishing nails instead (pre-drilling holes so they wouldn't crack the wood). My embroidery hoops were also 20 inches in diameter instead of 14. I couldn't find embroidery hoops without wood blocks at the bottom holding them together, but I don't think they're that big of an eye sore. Of course I had to show you my wallpaper seams in the photo below. In person, they really aren't that visible.

The shelves are made with craft wood (which is flimsy, so if you want to put anything even slightly heavy on it you'll need to get thicker wood). I had planned on hot gluing the hoops together before adding the shelves, but there were only two hoops available at my local craft store and they were not even. Once the shelves were nailed in they did sit flush against each other. 

You can see the nails from the sides, but from the front they aren't visible. Basically, up close this project isn't nearly as lovely and clean as the originals, but I have a circle shelf and I love the way it looks in the space (except I may drill in that hanging loop instead of having it tied on)!

With the discount I used and the nails I had on hand, this project still ended up being about $30. Those hoops aren't cheap! Still, $30 is much more affordable for us right now.

Hello, 2015

It has been such a long while since I've shared here. Blogging seems to come in spurts for me, even though I always want to post more regularly. I don't want to say I will stick to that this year, but it is on my list of goals. 2014 had some wonderful times, but it was a difficult year for our family, with a lot of challenges, sadness, and illness, so I am very ready to say goodbye. I'd like 2015 to be better, healthier, and I'd like to work hard toward changing what we can. So far that has involved a lot of work on ourselves and career goals, more getting out of the house (I've been following hike it baby on instagram, which has been inspiring me to get out and explore like we used to each weekend), working harder at creating a wider variety of healthy meals (I tend to get stuck in a pattern with the same old staples), making wiser retail choices, and focusing on family and relationships.



Since I last posted, my baby bird has grown into a 17 month old toddler. He amazes me every day with the things he does, discovers, and learns. I am so lucky to be the mama of this amazing boy. The holidays were so much more fun this year (even though we were sick through most of it) because he was more aware of what was going on, and we were able to go to a couple fun events together. I'm still waiting for that snow since we were sick through the one good snowfall, because I cannot wait to take him out to play in his sled.





After the holidays I noticed that the bird really wasn't playing well. He was mostly pulling toys out and spreading them around the room. There was just too much. We've always tried to really think about the things we give him to play with, but we've still ended up with more than he can handle. Two thirds of the toys and about half the books were put away, to be cycled out every once in a while. When the Christmas tree was taken down, we pulled his playstands back out and instead of having a toy basket, there was a place for everything. Since there is so much less, it is not a difficult job to put it all back after play, and it has made such a huge difference in the way he plays. This has taught me an important lesson. It is not just about the materials we give them, but how we present them. I knew this from my ECE days, but forgot the true importance of it somewhere along the way. Now he easily takes a toy from the shelf and explore and play, and even better, he sometimes puts them back on his own. It is so exciting to watch him grow!



There are many projects, crafting, thrifting, and collecting adventures I'd like to share. Hopefully I will actually end up taking time to do that!