UFOs

Sometimes the best thing I can do to make myself feel better is pull out some UFOs and get some things done!  Today's project of choice is baby bibs. I have had these sitting around for months just waiting for velcro. 

But since I took so long to get my machine in for service, these have languished. About an hour of YouTube while crafting and...

19 bibs are now in my finished pile and in need of a home. If any of you are pregnant or would like a gift for a friend, let me know. I'll be happy to share some. No charge because I love babies. US only please.

Ribbons and Blessings

I am a terrible procrastinator. I seems to always be caught at the last minute when it comes to gifts. But I am also very good at coming up with something at the last minute and on a budget. With the extended unemployment this year, the budget was very low to almost non-existent and I got a last minute notice that friends were adopting twins and their church was throwing a shower. I absolutely love and adore the couple and I had to do something for them. They have been wanting children for years and this was just such an extreme blessing that I couldn’t miss out on it. I want to cry just writing about it now.

So, what do you do when you want to make an impactful contribution but you have absolutely no money? Here is how I did it.

During the Spring/Summer, I did some cleaning out around the house and took a lot of movies, books and my Kindle Fire to my local used book/movie/music seller and came out with a ton of credit.

You can check out that post here

. What better way to welcome little ones than with books? Actually, just about every gift I give includes a book.

I had no idea what kind of book to get and I thought about getting a couple of movies as well, but kids are so picky about movies once they get to a certain age. These boys are two and starting to recognize what they like so I’ll let the happy parents deal with that. But books are a little different in my opinion. Books are more universal and as long as the pictures are super pretty, the story could be about anything.

Well, if you want pretty pictures, you can’t go wrong with Doctor Seuss. I combed the Doctor Seuss section and picked no only titles that I know and love but some that I had never heard of. I didn’t know about the body part books.

And since these are all used, the prices are super affordable. But just to spread the reading love a little more and allow for some movie shopping as well, I asked the store to split my credit so I could give the boys credit to come back. I think I was able to give $50 and still have plenty of credit left over for myself.

So, that takes care of the gift. What about wrapping? For that, I went into my supply closet and pulled out my bucket-o-ribbon.

A gift bag would have been a little too impersonal so I pulled out a mix of ribbons in lengths long enough to wrap around the stack of book a couple of times. I mixed different fabrics, textures and colors. I wanted something that was fun to look at and fun to get in to.

I was thrilled with the result and mommy was too.

So what do you think? Any fast thinking gift giving you want to brag about?

Happy Mother's Day

I’m a day late but I hope all you mothers had a great day yesterday. I put together a fiber care package for my mother. She lives in a small city in Mississippi and is stuck with whatever the local Wal-Mart decides to sell. I don’t know if they sell felt-able yarns so I decided that’s what I should get her. I went to my local Michael’s and picked up at least one of each color of Paton’s Classic Wool. There were two colors (white and green) that were on clearance so I picked up three of each of those. I pretty much cleaned them out on this brand of yarn. They have signs posted that say they have a new yarn section coming this spring, but those signs have been up for a while and spring is almost over. I hope they restock soon--not that I need any more yarn.

My mother’s package also includes felted purse patterns from Pipp’s purses. I can’t wait to see what she does with them. I purposely put together one ball of each color to encourage her to stripe her bags. I threw in a couple of needles and a set of notions.

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I was on the phone with her as she opened the box and she was absolutely thrilled. Maybe she’ll have cast on a bag by the time I go to Mississippi next week.

Enjoy all the gifts that you have received, especially the gift of family.