New Faucet

This is not really a craft, BUT it was done during nap time, and I need to post something! I miss my camera so much. (Sigh, Anyway!)

A few weeks ago we had a leaky faucet. More like, if you turn it on the kitchen will be soaked, faucet. After my handsome husband tried to fix it, and then my father-in-law, we had this.



Just getting the faucet off was tricky. We ended up getting an entire new faucet. It was a blessing in disguise, because this one is soooo much better. It has a pullout spray, and soap dispenser. I love it.
(I really want to change up behind the sink area, any ideas?)


I won't go into the troubles of the faucet, but I will tell you what we learned.

- New home builders are very cheap. Everything we encountered in this process was cheap and would have to be replaced eventually.

- Home repair, even plumbing can be done yourself. Try something first before calling a professional. It may be harder, but you will learn a ton, and next time it will be so much easier.

-Some people at Lowe's and Home Depot know what they are talking about.

-If you can not figure it out, ask your entire family to come over and help. It can't hurt to have lots of opinions.

That is the story of our new faucet. I can't help but look around the house now and wonder what else we can replace. Oh well, we are sticking to the "if it isn't broken don't fix it" motto.

Bear Pants

*First off, my posts are going to be very spread out for the next few weeks.
Unfortunately in the 5 seconds that Brady grabbed the camera yesterday, he managed to break it. :( This is the 3rd camera in a year!)
The first one, broke on it's own, a lens problem. Then we bought a cheap replacement. Shortly after Jeremy received a nice camera as a reward from work. I really liked that one. Because it was a prize it did not come with a receipt. So it was very frustrating when something on it broke, which causes it to take blurry pictures, and we could not get it fixed with a warranty. We would have to pay to get it fixed, so we set that one aside, and used the cheaper one. Now Brady has broken the cheaper one. So my plan is to send in the nice one and have it fixed, and hopefully have a camera back soon.
Long story short, we will be without a camera for a while so my posts will be boring. Sorry :(*

Brady got a new Bear, read about it here, on my family blog. We went to build a bear, but those little clothes are so expensive! Four dollars for a tiny bear shirt, are they serious?!?

So I made some little pants on my own. I was going to use an old onesie as a shirt, but Brady thought the bear did not like it, so it is a shirtless bear.
Fabric cut and ready to sew.

Make sure his pants have a tail hole.

Bearemy is all ready to play!

nesting

Yesterday, my friend Becky and her son came over to have a play date. Her little boy, Josiah, is only 14 hours older than Brady, so they are perfect play mates.

While the boys played we were nesting. Not that kind of nesting, well maybe Becky, she is 8 months preggo, but not me. We made nest necklaces. Becky saw an idea online and we tried to copy. Here is one tutorial we found.

Becky concentrating on her nest

Becky's finished nest

My finished nest

Do they look like nests? We haven't found what necklace our little nests will go on yet, but craft play date was a success, and we will have to have more.

slacker

You might think that I have been craft slacking lately because my posts have been a little weak. Well actually I have been craftier than ever, BUT I can't show you because they are for a baby shower I am hosting on March 6th. Because my friend Becky, the mom to be, is one of my few faithful blog readers(thanks), I can't blog about them yet.

So look forward to baby shower week on/after March 6th and see what I have been up to. I have been busy, but until then enjoy the quick posts.

St. Patty's Wreath

Since V-day is over, I had to change my wreath. Read about the wreath here, and how I decorated it for valentines, here. To change it up, I did a St. Patricks day wreath.

It was so fast and easy. I was able to quickly do it during Murray goes to school on sesame street. If you don't know what that is, you might be lucky, if you do know what that is, you probably watch too much sesame street like me!

I took a dollar bunch of fake flowers, took them apart, used green felt, and sewed in a ribbon. With the ribbon I was able to easily attach the flowers to the wreath.


And that is the extent of my St. Patricks day decorating, is it too early to decorate for Easter?

new-old sweater

Before I get to my latest project, I wanted to show you what I got Jerm for Valentines day. I didn't take pictures, but I got him a little shower caddy with bath crayons. You might be thinking I got Brady and Jerm mixed up, but nope I got Jerm crayons. These are for love notes in the shower to one another. I hope Jerm gets into it, but regardless I look forward to encouraging him each day. I got the idea on how does she, she really has some awesome ideas.

Now back to my sweater. I was reading a blog that my fabulous friend Michelle suggested to me, and fell in love. I was reading and I noticed this sweater re-do that she did, and I had that same sweater! I couldn't stand that sweater, and I never wore it, so I decided to try what she did.

It was really easy. Here is everything set out ready to sew.

It turned out okay, but I still don't really like it. I think it would be cute if I was pregnant, so I will save it, just in case :).

Here is a pic of me in the sweater with Brady, he is being difficult with pictures, as usual!

Heart Crayons

So this will be my last valentines post, promise, well maybe. :)

I have seen ideas for making your own crayon shapes everywhere, so when I saw a silicon heart mold at the dollar spot at Target, I knew Brady needed some heart shaped crayons for Valentines day. (Ha, ha, like that kid needs ANYTHING!) This might be a dangerous present because Brady recently has been coloring on the floor any chance he gets, and I did not get the washable crayons, thank goodness for magic eraser!

This would be a fun thing to do with older kids, and a great way to use all those broken crayons.

On how does she, she shows her method of doing it. Great Blog by the way, I even used an idea of hers for Jerm's v-day present too. Maybe I will share after Sunday, but a hint is it also has to do with crayons :).

You just break up your crayons and put them in the tray.

Bake at 325 for 15 min and then let them set. Pop them out and you have heart shaped crayons.

The first time I set the mold on a pan in a slight water bath. The second time, I just set it on a pan and look what happened!

Ahhh! I did not try again, but I suggest maybe the water bath.

I made a little love envelope for Brady's crayons and also some candy, out of felt.


Hope he likes his little Valentines day present, and I really hope he doesn't try these on the floor!

My favorite tween

Yesterday was my most favorite tween, my nephew Shawn's birthday. He turned 11, which is crazy! How did that happen so fast? This age seems to be so difficult to buy for, especially boys.
He got and ipod touch for his birthday, which I am slightly jealous of, and I made him a cover for it. He also loves the Denver Broncos, so that is the fabric I used.
We also gave him an itunes gift card.
I think it turned out to be the perfect present.

Valentine's shirt

I normally would not do this, but because Valentine's day is on a Sunday this year, I made Brady a shirt. He has to look cute for all of his little girlfriends at church.

Have you seen all those cute little tie onezies? I think they are so cute, and I knew I could make one so I did!

It was easy, except the fact that I did not buy the correct thing! I thought I was buying a fusible webbing, or fabric iron transfer. But with the helpfulness of my little 19 month old shopping buddy, I grabbed iron-on interfacing. Because I am impatient, I went ahead anyway. I did well, but of course my little tie is crooked. Oh well, Jerm says it adds to the craftiness. Haha!

My finished shirt

My pant less, always moving model.

On Saturday we had family pictures, with my husbands entire family, and we got a good pic of Brady in the shirt, so I will have to post those when I get them.

We will probably have a very low key Valentine's day. What about you anyone have any good plans?

My little Lion

Brady is getting so big now, (he is 19 months) and he is growing out of many things, including his hooded towels. I really like the hooded part of baby towels, but they are too small. Kid hooded towels, like the amazing ones at Pottery Barn, are too expensive.

So I cut up an old, regular, mis-colored towel we already had, (why do they get like that?) and made a hooded towel. Brady couldn't just have any hooded towel, he needed something speacial, so I made him a lion.
Here are all my pieces, cut and layed out, ready to sew. I made brown triangles sewn together, for the mane. I also added some ears.

The finished product

And of course, every lion needs a tail.

Isn't my little lion sweet, he loves to roar in his new towel. He is only still because Nana is holding him down, Thanks Nana! Also, he had a cold, and his poor little nose was wiped so much, that it was red and so sore. :( Don't worry he is all better now, and he never slowed down!

Crochet bag

With all my new crochet and knitting projects stuff is everywhere. Because I crochet and knit while watching tv, I was storing everything in plastic bags, in between the couch and the end table. Though you could not see the stuff, I knew it was there, unorganized, and driving me crazy.

So I decided to make a tote bag, to store everything in, and keep it organized. I really love this tote. If I made another one, there would be so many things I would change. I did not have a pattern, and the construction is very poor, but it works.

On the inside I added a pocket for knitting and crochet needles, and on the other side pockets for markers, circular knitting needles, and other stuff.

I also added a pocket on the outside for all of those free patterns I get from Hobby Lobby.

So much better!

Now I am ready to crochet and knit in style!

crochet baby blanket

One of my second crochet projects was a baby blanket. It was nice and easy. I just double crocheted throughout, and did a ruffle double crochet around the outside. It was so nice to sit on the couch at night, and crochet while talking with the hubby, or watching some tv.
This blog has cute stuff, and great crochet ideas/ tutorials. I am really trying to make you all crochet, ha ha!
I made my blanket slightly too skinny and long, but it is still nice and cute.
I used this yarn, super soft.

And the finished blanket