Oh Baby! My fingers are tired...

For the past several weeks, I have been busily working on a particularly challenging special order.  I enjoyed it, and look forward to doing more, but I found that I was behind on other projects in the mean time.

I decided to start my list of projects with this delicate baby blanket for a brand new baby girl.

This may look familiar, I've done a similar pattern before.  I changed it a little bit, and I actually prefer this one to the first one that I made.

I've had several orders for my flower bracelets lately and decided that I wanted to try something a little different. I tweaked my pattern here and there and made matching bracelets for baby and mommy.

I've never actually met the woman who will be receiving this gift, but I hope that she will be as pleased with it as I am.

As soon as that was done, I remembered that my sister had ordered a baby girl blanket for August.... which was right around the corner. I chose the easy but lacy look of open shells and got started. Luckily my husband encouraged me to keep at it even though I wanted something more fancy and detailed.  

A few delicate touches added to the edges and the corners really set off this "plain jane" blanket pattern. Sometimes simple really is best.

What will I do next? Let me check my list!!! Maybe another transformation project... hmmm.



Milk carton transformation

The next project for my transformation series was more just for fun than anything.  I was playing around with some fabric scraps and decided to try this out. I've made fabric scrap wreaths before and just love how they look, messy yet pretty all at the same time.

 You may have noticed that the title of this post mentioned milk cartons.  Can you guess where the milk carton came into play? It's not where you might think.

It's not the butterfly, which I am in love with, by the way. No, this sweet little butterfly is actually made of a 2 liter soda bottle, cut, painted and glued together, then embellished.  Actually, the milk carton is inside of the wreath. I used some of the bottom half of the milk carton for the actual wreath form. Once the fabric strips are tied on, you can't even tell. Granted, this isn't the strongest form, but as I said, I was just playing around. Still, it turned out so sweet that I decided that, logical or not, it still belonged in the transformation series. Not all of my projects turn out as I'd hope, but the journey  was still fun!

Another pillow transformation

You may remember that I am working on updating my throw pillows in my living room using the existing pillows. Why buy new when the original ones are still in such good shape? Still, it was time.

 From boring, plain and yellow....

To new polka-dotty fun! Half a yard of material and a simple sewing job and I have all new throw pillows! I was happy to see this transformation complete!

Fireworks Flowers

When I realized that I was in charge of planning last weeks' Achievement Days activity, I felt that it was the perfect opportunity to discuss patriotism.  I had a lot of fun planning a lesson and learned an awful lot about our flag and all of its' symbols.  I wanted to give each of the girls something red white and blue to take home with them, but needed to use something I had on hand.  That's when I decided to make some flowers out of paper. There are so many cute paper flower ideas out there, but I finally settled on these:

 It wasn't until I had made several of them and fluffed them out that I realized how much they look like fireworks! An honest to goodness accident that couldn't have served its' purpose better.

Luckily this isn't a difficult pattern since we have 18 girls in our group. Ironically enough, only one girl showed up. Lucky me, I have a bouquet of fireworks in my living room!! Still, I wish more girls had come. I had lots of fun activities and a game planned. I made these for helping me split the girls up into groups:

 I was going to give each girl one of these sweet little star bobbi pins as she came in.

The color on each would determine which team she was on.  I thought this would be a fun way to gently  force each girl into a group that she may not have chosen herself. I think it would have worked too. Still, the one girl who came loved her pretty little star, though she never did understand what it was for.

Regardless, I enjoyed making these and am sure I will find another use for them!

4th of July transformations

I love the 4th of July and have a lot of great memories that coincide with this awesome day!  I have a 4th of July wreath, but needed something a little more sturdy. I had been playing around with some ideas when I decided to combine several old project ideas to make this one.

My new wreath is anything but typical- which is why I love it so much! I combined some of my soda can flowers with some stars cut out of soda cans and painted. Add those to a spare picture frame and you have a unique and unusual patriotic wreath. I deliberately curled the edges of the stars to mimic the waving flag. This particular project took well over a week, a lot of trial and error, some help from my husband, and a bit of frustration,  but I love the finished product. Now to hang it outside... where I won't be able to see it... Hmmm, maybe it will be an indoor wreath!

Transforming my garden

My husband decided that he wanted to try a little garden this year. I have a bit of a purple thumb and so was hesitant.

 Under my constant love and care, I can kill nearly any plant! Poor garden, never stood a chance!

Don't get excited about the little red tomatoes. They've been hanging there for over a month, never changing. No, these aren't cherry tomatoes.

Something tells me that a jalapeno plant isn't supossed to look like this...

The squash plant didn't last long enough to be photographed a second time. So, when it comes to plants, I tend to lean towards things that can't die. That's why I decided to make my own garden.

Once I got started, I was having so much fun, I couldn't stop!

This sturdy plant will last year round. It requires no water or food, but will enjoy some attention nonetheless!

Upon closer inspection, you may be able to see that the body of the flower is a soda can and the center is the bottom of a water bottle. The stems are painted barbecue skewers and the bow is part of a soda can. You can't see it here, but the flowers hang by the existing tab on the top of soda cans.

I made these flowers over a month ago and they are still as vibrant as the day they were made. This is my kind of garden!

On the wings of transformation

One thing we didn't love about our townhouse was this fabulous brick wall. It isn't exactly pretty and it really shows the age of the place. However, I decided to use it to my advantage. 

Because we are just renting, I am always hesitant to put holes in walls. Brick, though, is already full of holes. Perfect for my next transformation.

I love butterflies. To me, they have always signified freedom and beauty.

 Can you guess what these are made of?

Who knew that soda cans could be so pretty? I cut these butterflies out free hand, glued thumb tacks to the back and used the holes in the brick to dress up this blah wall. This is truly just the beginning! I can't wait to try out other shapes and designs!