tshirt magic

I'm in love with smocking, and finding re-uses for old clothes, so when I saw this tshirt made into a toddler's dress on my craftzine facebook friend, I was wowed.

to make yourself

100 things you can make yourself, a title that jumped out at me from my daily newsletter, The Everyday Cheapskate (too much sneaky product placement for me to recommend this newsletter, but I like to credit my source anyway). From ice-cream, to socks to an entire house, it's inspiring.

Clara's song

It's the baby's first birthday coming up soon (when does she stop being a baby I wonder). Anyway, I'm busy compiling a photo album book for her (will post more about that later) and scanned in the cover art of her personal cd, which I thought I would share. Dad bought her her own song (at age 1 week or so) and with the cd art it came to a mere $15. A bargain. I just checked out the website and it seems the service is no longer offered (it seemed like slave labour) because the artist is working on the new Computerization album.

hot! hot! hot!

I feel strange saying "hot sack" but really have no idea what to call these marvellous things. So easy to make. Put in the microwave for 2-3 mins and lie down and relax while your aches and pains are eased.

Buy some long grain rice.
Optional: collect some dried herbs
Find 2 rectangular scraps of fabric
Sew all but 1 side of the rectangle closed right sides together and then turn inside out.
Sew a couple lines (I did three) down the breadth - but stop about 5 cms away from the edge on the one side - this makes pockets in the bag so the rice doesn't bunch.
Fill with rice, turn the raw edges of the fabric in (on the open side) and top stitch across to close the sack.

A question

Monday was a public holiday here in South Africa and I went off to a baby shower. I had diligently made some denim shoes and a cute baby sheet (with a cartoon frog print) - unfortunately I forgot to take photos.

Anyway, I was super curious to know how my presents would go down... I am acutely aware of making stuff that looks homemade (it reminds me of the hideous tracksuits my dear mom used to make us), so I didn't know how my stuff would shape up to expensive shop bought items.

But before I could gauge a true reaction, a well meaning friend blurted out it was all handmade.... boom ... then the conversation was all about how clever I was (if only they knew I don't over challenge myself sewing wise).

My question is, how do you separate the wow-you-made-it factor from the wow-it-is-cool?

Throw out vs buying

A lot of my eco friendliness comes from my frugalista nature. For instance, we are buying formula milk for baby and every week we use up a metal container. At the same time we are stocking our cupboards and don't have containers to store flour, pasta, etc. Two and Two makes three, so I am using the left over formula tins for storage. It's not as handy as our old glass jars (left behind) because you can't see what's happening inside so my brain has been festering...
Anyway, to cut a long story short, I just washed a yoghurt tub which looked handy, and then I saw this sweet idea for making yoghurt luggage tags (on my igoogle 'craft' page of course).
A lot has been happening in my life at the moment (negotiating buying and selling a car, putting a cheeky offer in on an awesome house with a salt water swimming pool - we were too cheap/poor unfortunately, and organising an extension on baby's tourist visa. Oh don't forget about first week back at the office). Whew! See you on the other side...