Look ma, I made it all by myself!!!

Here is what I came up with for Kay's first Mother's Day as a grandma. Truth be told, she owns a store-bought "brag book" a friend gave to her after Wee One's birth, but come on, this has so much more personality!

I'll show you how I made it, but feel free to make it your own.

INGREDIENTS:

-two pieces fabric cut 9"x 12"

-two pieces fabric cut 8"x 11"

-two page protectors

-thread

-Scotch tape

-pen or pencil

-sewing machine

-iron

*The version I made has room for six 4"x 6" photos. If you want to add more photos, you can add another "page" which will require two more 8"x 11" pieces of fabric and one more page protector.

**This is a good project for some leftover pieces of fabric; they can all be different prints or colors.

STEP ONE: Cut and press fabric flat. Cut two rectangles 7"x 5" throug BOTH layers of one page protector and a third from the other page protector, giving you a total of six rectangles.

STEP TWO: Place two rectangles on the right side of each of the 8"x 11" fabric pieces, one centered above center and one centered below center. Be sure to leave space at center without any plastic as you want this to be the fold or "binding" area of your book. Tape the pieces along one short end to help them stay in place; you will leave this end open to insert your photo.
STEP THREE: Sew around the three sides of each page protector rectangle without tape, allowing for a 1/4" seam. This ensures your photo will fit inside and will let more of the fabric peek through as a border. Remove the tape and trim any excess page protector to 1/4" or so.

STEP FOUR: Place the two 8"x 11" fabric sheets right sides together and pin in place. Try to line up the center of each piece where the binding will fall to ensure no plastic page protector will be caught in the binding. Sew a 1/2" seam around three sides, leaving the fourth (the one that will be the bottom) open for turning. Trim corners and turn. Fold the raw edges of the bottom edge inwards and sew as close to edge as possible. Set aside.

STEP FIVE: Place your 9"x 12" inner lining piece right side up. Take the last two 7"x 5" page protector pieces and center them on the fabric. This fabric piece is larger and you will want the extra space to occur around the outer edges and want the same distance around the center "binding" as the 8"x 11" pieces you just sewed, so when your book is closed the sheet protector pieces are all in the same general place and the center is free of any plastic, ensuring it will close flat. Tape the sheet protector pieces in place and sew a seam 1/4" along the other three sides for each sheet protector piece. Remove the tape and trim the plastic.

STEP SIX: Place the 9"x 12" outer fabric piece and 9"x 12" inner lining piece with right sides together. Pin and sew 1/2" from edge along three sides, leaving the bottom open for turning. Trim corners and turn. Fold bottom raw edges inwards about 1/2", then sew 1/4" from edge and continue this top stitching along the other three sides as well.

STEP SEVEN: Center your smaller "page" into your "cover"; I did not make sure all my photo openings went the same way so they don't; you may want to do this. Once centered together, sew the "page" onto the "cover" down the center across the width along it's "spine."

STEP EIGHT: Slip some photos in and give to someone you love!

Happy Mother's Day Crafting to ALL (and to all a good night....)

A Quickie...

...while the baby is napping.

Get your mind out of the gutter--I'm talking a quick blog post here!

Wanted to show some of the wonderful gifts that made their way to me, some by post, some in person.


This one came via post from one of my sweet sisters--a pewter bracelet in my birth month flower, the narcissus. Yeah, I got older again in December, hard to believe right? You can see a better pic here if you like.

Another gift from yet another sweet sis--recycled glass earrings! I love these but have to wait to wear until the Wee One is past his pulling/chewing of all things attached to mommy stage. This includes hair and noses, in case you were wondering.


Another gift via post from Hawaii! A very handsome handmade photo album from natural materials; can't wait to fill it with some Wee One at the Beach shots this summer!


My favorite gift of them all came from Nature Boy.

A beautiful deer and fawn necklace from Figs & Ginger. He told me the artist informed if needed, another fawn could be added at a later date; was that some sort of hint? My photos don't do this necklace justice, you can see a much better pic of it here. You can also read about how recylced silver is used, making this a green-friendly gift as well.

Ok, and then the Knitting Update. Here is the Red Sweater for Wee One:

Note front and back are completed and the sleeves are on the needles. Which I hope to mean a finished pic will soon grace this blog.

Status: Baby still napping. Which means time for....KNITTING! What did you think I meant?

WHEW!

Finally able to take a breather here at Knitsburgh. A quick update on the craftiness follows:
1. Nature Boy's niece liked her interchangeable hat! Others liked it too, so much that more have been requested for other little heads...I better get knitting as we will likely see them over the Russian Christmas Extravaganza...
2. Here are some sea glass pendants I made for some special folk out there: Different view which makes the colors stand out more:

They were made with some of the stock pile of sea glass found on the North Carolina shore when we lived on the Outer Banks. I made some little sachet bags to house some of them for gifting out of some fabric scraps but sadly, the pics I took cannot be located at this time. If I stumble upon such pics I will show you sometime.
3. My vegan Yule log cake.
It was really yummy and didn't come out half bad. I did not have a jelly roll pan, so I just used my largest cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. I made my fave vegan chocolate cake recipe and baked it for about 15 minutes, let it cool about 5 minutes, then rolled it from short end to short end and left it cool completely all rolled up. I then iced it with my fave vegan chocolate icing and stuck a piece of the cake cut off the side before rolling it up on it for a branch, gluing it with icing and covering it too. I wish I had more time to make it and venture outside for some greenery to properly decorate it but I had to pick up Kay at the train station and time was short. Maybe next year I will only make the cake and not all the cookies too. We are still eating our way through a ton of sugar.
4. Some silly magnets for Wee One's auntie. I really went cheap and quick here, printing out pics on regular copy paper, then gluing them onto some magnets that come in the mail for free as fake "credit cards" trying to sucker you into getting a credit card...if they only knew what I did with mine! I then put some packing tape over it to help seal in the photo, trimmed around the edges and voila, some silly magnets for your abode or cubicle. Hopefully for your abode.
5. Some things (Wee One's Red Sweater among others) did not get completed. I was sad but I think it will be ok. I did not stay up all night on the Eve of Christmas to complete things this year. I chose sanity instead. I think my family appreciated this too.

We traveled from Knitsburgh to my parents' to Nature Boy's parents across the state on Christmas Day. We woke at 6AM that morning and did not reach Nature Boy's kin's homestead until after 9PM that night. We drove back yesterday and I am finally recovered from the unpacking and such. We had so much fun! This is one holiday season I won't soon forget, so many firsts. I only hope the Wee learns to love the madness as much as Nature Boy and I do. Happy Holidays to everyone out there!

Craft Abandoned...

Oh no! Nature Boy is slacking on his end of the ornament completion:
I'm trying not to nag him but it's been a week now since he has returned to them. Mine are finished and ready to mail to the Special Folk; once they are gone I'll post some pics.

Here is some inspiration for another gift:
I hope to knit a hat for a young niece, then craft up some interchangeable do-dads she can attach to it to give her some sass. I'm thinking buttons, fabric or knitted roses and bows will all work (plus eat up some of my leftover craft stash). "Hope" is the operative word here...

I leave you with an elvin friend. He was crocheted by Onie, or Ona, who lived next door to us when I was myself a wee. She made all sorts of beautiful cakes and this is what she made all three of us for Christmas one year; his arms and legs had rolls of lifesavers in them. I wonder where that vintage pattern could be found and what he was called? I miss you Ona and would you believe after all these years your little elf is still making me smile?

Gifted

Look what Kay made for me!

It came in the mail last week. She crocheted this lovely vegan ruffle for me and sent it to me out of the blue. I love suprises like that!

This weekend I made it out to the Handmade Arcade. It was busy so at times was hard to see all of the wares for sale. I bought a necklace, by Ursula and Olive:

I guess my hand is not that steady! It says, Wonder Twin Powers Activate! I also bought a vegan choco chip bar from My Goodies but of course, ate it before the photo shoot.

There were so many beautiful things there but with me being on a budget right now due to my being unemployed, I really couldn't do any more than admire. Plus I had to get back home to watch the Steelers game, which unfortunately, did not end in the way the Steeler Nation would have liked.

Today I went to another interview with a temp agency. I now type 51 wpm, up from 49. At least there is improvement. Honestly, I haven't knit in about 2 weeks now and I need to just jump back on that horse already. Maybe today. Maybe...

I'll leave you with my List of Things I Believe:

1. Karma will find you, you know who you are!


2. Sometimes seemingly bad things happen as a way to protect us from further harm.


3. Chocolate improves mental health.


4. Cats that are sleeping are one of the cutest things on this earth.


5. Cats that are awake and bad are one of the cutest things on this earth.


6. Sunshine is medicine.


7. Obama is going to change things for the better.


8. Thanksgiving Dinner will taste so good this year and I won't be working--yay!


9. Sometimes if you tell yourself not to throw up inside your head over and over, you won't throw up.


10. Your mom won't know if you don't make your bed every day once you grow up and move out on your own.