My gift

I just told you about Linda at Craftaholics Anonymous and her great gift exchange, so I thought I would share my beautiful gifts that Katrina sent me. She made the cutest banner out of paper bags. It is adorable! I never would've thought brown paper bags could look so cute! Even better she made it to match a wreath I had made. How thoughtful is that? She also included 3 cutie cute headbands that she had made. For some reason I only took a pic of the one my daughter tried on first, but they were all equally cute. There were two matching brown ones (one for me one for Courtni, my daughter). I love it all! Thanks again Katrina!

Homemade Gift Exchange

I love participating in the Homemade Gift Exchange over at Craftaholics Anonymous.  Linda does such a good job every time, despite the hard work it must be!  She does them twice a year, in the summer and the winter.  This time was a little different, we received a name, but the person that got our name was different.  I think I liked it this way!  I got Aimee.  She has a blog here. 
I have the hardest time coming up with gifts for these! I come up with great, elaborate and beautiful ideas, and then procrastinate run out of time to do as much as I want. I really wanted to make something with my Silhouette, but I also had some cute fabric that was calling my name. I would've combined the two, but nothing came to mind.
Aimee is a librarian, so I assumed that she liked books as much as I did, that seemed to be the recurring theme I kept going back to for her.

I ended up making a fabric bookmark I found here.  Then came up with my own using the Silhouette and a quote I love about reading that I put on the back.  I had some left over book pages I had used for other crafts that I cut and mod podged on to some clothespins.  I wasn't so sure about that last one, I was worried with her being a librarian that may be offensive!  I was also going to put a magnet on the back of them, but opted out so she could use them in other ways too.  I hope she enjoyed them as much as I enjoyed getting to do a little crafting!

No more looking for a towel!

I get so tired of never being able to find a towel! Anyone with me on this one? I hang them on my oven door, and find them on the floor (which sicks me out bad) or else my neverending source of energy -otherwise known as a 3 year old- walks off with them. It never fails! I wanted to make some towels like the old crocheted ones my mom used to have that just buttoned right on. Well, I wanted them, but I can't crochet and they are a little outdated for my taste. You will never guess where I found an idea... oh, were you going to say Pinterest? Ok, maybe you will guess! ;)

Source: kleiosbelly.wordpress.com via Tami on Pinterest

So simple, yet so smart! I copied her pattern, and created my own towels. I changed a few things, I didn't put anything in between my layers of fabric, I was lazy in a hurry and thought I would give this a go first. Also, I have never sewn button holes before. I am sure they are super simple, but since I have three kiddos, I thought I had a better chance of getting the towels reattached if they were as easy as possible. I used velcro. I have the hardest time sewing straight lines! So don't look too closely, but they are done, functional and pretty cute so the uneven lines really don't bother me too much!

Baby Gift

I don't know what it is, but I have the hardest time picking baby gifts!  Is it just me?  Well, my cute, little, sister in law just had a baby, and I was so excited!  I knew I wouldn't have a whole lot of time (the nine months I had to prepare wasn't sufficent apparently) to get something really great done because I was also trying to get ready for surgery. (I had my thyroid removed, but good news, it wasn't cancer!) and besides that, this girl is perfect.  She can make anything, do anything, so I really didn't want to make something that she would laugh at   not like.  Thank goodness for Pinterest!  I mentioned before my obsession with that site, and it did not disappoint!  I found this little lovely.  I can't get it to show the picture, so here is the link Love sweet love.  Sorry, I am new to this! I also have seen these travel wipe cases everywhere, honestly I don't even know where to link it because I have seen so many. 

 Anyway, I am addicted to pink and black, and thought that my sil would like something a little more edgy, a little less baby.  So I went to Joann's got some fabric, came home and whipped these babies up in an afternoon. The green wipe case was mine, I was mailing just the band without the wipes (she is a couponer and I am sure she had plenty) so I just wanted to show what it was for. So easy, and so cute! She told me she hadn't seen the wipe band before so it was def a gift that she didn't get from anyone else, and that I like.  

Christmas Coasters

These were so easy, and surprisingly turned out really pretty!  I participated in a homemade giftexchange at craftaholics anonymous and it seemed like everything I tried to make was a total flop.  I had done my Christmas pillow and loved the material so much, that I wanted to create something with it to send to my exchangee.  These took so little time I couldn't believe it!
  I cut the material in 5 inch squares and cut some scrap material for the insides to give them a little bit of thickness.  After a little sewing and ironing they were all ready to go!  I hope she likes them

Beautiful Christmas pillow

There really aren't many times in my life where I can make something and actually say it it beautiful.  Really, I am not that good, but I fell in love with this pillow and now I need to make her a few friends!  I won some fabric on a giveaway at the creative crate.  I never win anything so I was so excited!  Some of the fabric I picked was this adorable Christmas set.  It was called the 12 days of Christmas, how cute is that?!  Anyway, I didn't know I was going to start this blog so I didnt record pictures of my how to, but I cut the middle square and then cut strips of the outer and sewed it all together.  I had some plain cream colored material that I sewed to the back red fabric in a ruffly design.  Then, I sewed them together.  I ironed everything as I went giving me a nice straight edge, which I am sad to say, is something I just learned you have to do recently.  In my defense I have only had a sewing machine for 9 years :)!  Anyway, I L.O.V.E IT!
I am linking up here




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