It's Going to Be Sweater Weather Soon

I don't currently have a lot of sweaters in my wardrobe because most of the ones that I own either aren't quite what I want to wear now, or don't fit right anymore. Therefore, the majority are in a "to get rid of" pile. But, with some inspiration from Emily, and a lot of inspiration from Amy, I pulled this one out of the pile:

The body was waaay too short on me, the sleeves were too long, and the whole thing was too tight over all. Didn't look so good on me.

The first thing that I did was cut it straight down the middle to make it more like a cardigan than a pull-over. Then I cut the wrists off. There was even a convenient cutting place, because it was ribbed for about two inches, and then went flat. That detail is hard to see in this photo, though. [And on a thrifty side-note, I even saved the wrist pieces and turned them into wrist warmer-type things. Photos to follow].

I already had these buttons at home. One of my favorite antique stores sells buttons in various ways - by the button, by the jar, and also in small packs. These four happened to be in a pack together, and I loved them so much they had to come home with me. But one of the things I loved the most was the combination of all of them together, so they have been waiting for the perfect project. I decided this was the one, and they got sewn on the sweater together.

I took some ribbon from my stash and sewed it on so that I could fasten the cardigan.

As a final step, I took out the old label and put in my own.

And voilà! A brand new sweater made entirely of things I already had at hand, put together in one evening. The sleeves are shorter, the length of the body looks good over a cami, and cutting it open loosened the whole thing up. Problems solved!

I think I may go pull a few more sweaters from that pile, and see what I can do...

Etsy Favorites: doe-c-doe

I love Etsy! It is wonderful to have such a vast number of talented artists and their handmade creations so readily available. I have been meaning to share some of my Etsy favorites with you, so here's the first of many: doe-c-doe.

I have bought several of her beautiful pieces of art as part of a decorating project I'm working on. [I'm hoping to be done with that project soon so I can share the whole thing with you].

You may notice a theme with the pieces I have here...

One of the things I love about many of the Etsy sellers is the sweet little things they add to packages,

and the attention to detail.

[I do love them, G, I really do!]

If you're not already familiar with doe-c-doe, go check her wonderful shop out! You can also read her blog.

And stay tuned here for more Etsy favorites!

Brownie-licious

Thank you, Emily, for the delicious (and really, really easy) brownie recipe.

I love recipes where every ingredient is something that you always have in the house. I can make these brownies whenever I want to! (Which could be sort of dangerous, come to think of it...)

[Sorry. I couldn't help that second photo. My big guy is just such a handsome kitty].

Ah, Summer!

Baseball and knitting.

It just doesn't get much better than that! 

This Time Last Year

A baby shower! She's turning one now, so I thought I'd share some photos of the shower my mom and I put together.

A close-up of the invitation I made...with cupcakes to match it!

And more cupcakes.

Cause you can really never have enough cupcakes, now can you?

Her parents are Italian, but are living here in Minnesota for now, so I made her a little onesie to remind her of where she was born:

I traced my MN cookie cutter onto fabric, then appliquéd it onto the onesie.

Among the games played, we did a matching game where you had to match up the name of a mama animal in English with the baby name in Italian (ex. 'dog' and 'cucciolo' or 'cat' and 'gattino').

Another matching game: every guest brought a photo, and we had to guess who each baby photo belonged to.

Everyone had their name on a paper diaper:

The mom-to-be selected names throughout the shower, and when your name was called you had to tell a story about you as a child or about your own children (the good, the bad, and the funny!).

Happy birthday, Baby S!

Snaketie

As I was writing my last post, I couldn't find the link I needed for the card. So I was looking through the Crafty Crow to find the link, when I came across a link to this awesome necktie snake.

I happened to have a number of ties on hand because the last time I fixed up a tie, I thought it was so fun that I got a bunch more at the thrift store. I hadn't gotten around to doing anything with them yet, but here was my chance! First, I picked my tie:

Next, I sewed buttons on for eyes:

Then I stuffed the "head" with just a little bit of cotton filling:

After that, I sewed the back up and added a tongue:

Done! This was one of those great projects where I already had all the supplies that I needed. I even had the googly eyes it calls for, but I thought that they would stay on better if I sewed buttons on rather than use glue. That is also why I only stuffed the head, rather than the whole body. I wanted to give it a little dimension, but still be wearable as a tie.

From seeing this tie online, to gathering the supplies and making it was approximately 10 minutes. Awesome!

Here it is in its new home (and can you spot the two other ties I've blogged about?):

Birthday Boy

This spring, the son of a friend of mine turned six. Six is big, and needs to be celebrated accordingly!

Here's his card. (I got the idea from Inchmark, which I found through the Crafty Crow.) "One" is a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, "two" is packages of Pez, "three" is 'Cars' stickers, "four" is whatever the name is for those things that are sponges in very small packages, and when you put them in water they grow into something big (in this case, dinosaurs), "five" is Starbursts, and "six" is quarters.

For his present, I made a shirt. He likes to loudly draw out his goodbye when he leaves somewhere, so that it sounds something like this:

A friend drew the picture, and I transferred it to a shirt using a freezer paper stencil. [And it just occurred to me that even though I have made a ton of shirts this way, I don't think I have posted a single one before now. I have to get on that. In the meantime, you can go here for the tutorial I used. At this point I've made enough of them that I don't need to look at the tutorial anymore, but if you've never done it before they lay it out really well for you.]

This little package was for his sister, cause it's hard to watch your big brother get all the presents!

And here's the birthday boy, wearing his present. :)

A Little Sun in My Day

It's been rainy and dark the past few days, so when I was at the Farmers' Market yesterday I decided to take matters into my own hands a bring a little sun home.

And what do you know, the sunflowers even look good with my new yarn!

Someone else is enjoying the sun in our house...

I Should Be Able to Share This With You Soon