Springtime is here!

The weather has been SO beautiful the last few weeks! I was looking on facebook today and saw some people's posts from Pennsylvania who woke up to snow today! I'm so thankful we live in Statesboro where it's so warm a majority of the year. My allergies have been super bad this year from all the pollen, but I just can't resist being outside in this wonderful weather!

The ovulation kit worked great; however, no news to report. My cycle started Monday and surprisingly I wasn't too sad about it. Of course I was a little, but I think it helped a lot to get a better idea of what my body was doing. It started exactly around when I expected it to because I knew exactly when I had ovulated this time. We are just going to continue to use one every month until we get pregnant. In the mean time, I have plenty of things going on to keep me busy.

We are leaving for our cruise in 1 1/2 weeks! We'll be driving down to Fort Lauderdale next Friday April 1st and our boat leaves on Saturday! We are taking Princess Cruises this time because we found a great deal. Our boat is going to the Cayman Islands, Cozumel, Roaton, Honduras, and the Bahamas. Our last cruise went to the Eastern Caribbean so we're excited to see the Western side this time. I've been busy working on sewing projects for the cruise: altering a few tanks tops, dresses, and sewing a bathing suit skirt.

This is the bathing suit skirt. It looks weird in this picture but its really cute on! I couldn't try it on with the suit because Michelle has it right now. I'm sure I'll have plenty of pictures from the cruise!

I've also been taking full advantage of this beautiful weather and started a garden! I'm SO excited about growing things this year! We have these three little circles of dirt in our driveway that are close to our house, get full sun most of the day, and are perfect for vegetables. Well, one is square. :)

I think when the house was built there were trees there, so they laid the concrete around the trees. Well those are long gone now, and I've had these three dirt holes in my driveway just sitting there for 2 years accumulating weeds. So, I planted spinach, carrots, green peppers, and sunflowers in them.

Sunflowers

A few days later. Growing so fast!

Carrots, spinach, and green peppers. Not much to look at right now. There are tiny sprouts but you can't really see them here.

Carrots and spinach. Hopefully soon these will be full of growth!

I've also started seeds inside to see how well they would do. I have broccoli, green peppers, cantaloupe, parsley, and basil. Everything so far has sprouted but the parsley. The parsley is taking forever!

Tons of broccoli sprouts

Big pot: cantaloupe, medium pot: basil, small pot: broccoli

Little green pepper sprouts

Green pepper

I planted some basil, parsley, and cilantro outside and they are sprouting too! I also have a tomato plant outside. Brice is going to build a box for me so I can plant my green bean seeds this weekend. I'll probably put the cantaloupe on the other side of the box. It's so exciting to walk outside everyday and see new growth! I can't wait until they get bigger and I start to see fruit and vegetables growing!

Tomato and herbs

Tomato plant

Cilantro sprouts

Basil sprouts

I've also been preparing for when I stay home with Braxton. I start watching him in a few weeks so I've been looking around for great deals on baby stuff. I found a changing table at a yard sale for $7!

She was asking for $10, so I offered $5 because the bottom shelf is broken. Then she went to $7 and I said ok. The shelf is very easily fixable with some wood glue. She said one of her kids tried to climb underneath it and they broke it. Overall the entire thing was in very good shape and very sturdy. We went to another yard sale and saw the same exact one in a different color for $35! So, great yard sale deal and now I have a cute changing table for Braxton! We are also getting a crib from our church building that the church no longer uses. That way it will be easier to just have something here instead of Michelle having to worry about dragging the pack n play around. It'll be great when we have kids too because we'll already have everything we need for just $7! The changing table came with a pad but no cover so I made a cover for it.

So I've been pretty busy the last few weeks. I cleaned out the flower beds in the front yard on Friday but didn't get to finish. I picked the first very hot day to do major yard work and got very sunburnt and worn out. Now I have a bunch of leaf piles all around the yard the need to be picked up. I'll probably finish all of that this weekend and enjoy this awesome weather!

Event Filled Saturday

Yesterday was a very eventful day. We spent most of the day with Zach and Michelle, and Phil and Danielle. We went to the Farmer's market and then we walked over to the Habitat for Humanity Restore. We found this awesome coffee table and some really nice lamps.

The candle and holder on the coffee table were on there at the store, so we went ahead and bought that for $1. We thought it looked great and went with the look of the table. I love going consignment shopping and finding stuff that is super unique. I've never seen a coffee table like that before.

New lamps!

Close up of one of them.

We got the coffee table for $20 and both lamps for $10. After we bought the table, lamps, and candle with the candle holder, we walked back to our house... with all the stuff. We live pretty close to downtown where the market and the restore are located, but its a good 15 minute walk. So Brice, Phil, and Zach took turns carrying the coffee table while me, Michelle, and Danielle each carried the lamps and candle. It was definitely entertaining for people driving through town. Multiple people stared, turning completely around as the drove by just to get a good look at us.

When we got home and situated, Brice and I decided to finally re-cover the "new" ottoman. We purchased a glider ottoman to go with our glider for $.50 at the annual attic sale at the beginning of the year. The fabric on it was cream colored and covered in brown stains from use. So I placed a piece of fabric over it that I was planning on covering it with. We finally did it this weekend and it turned out great! Sadly, I never took a before picture of it.

I only had a small piece of the fabric leftover from when I recovered the glider. So I had to cut it in half, and then cut one of the halves in quarters and sew the strips to all four of the sides of the other half of the square. That way it would be big enough to stretch over the sides and onto the bottom enough for it to be attached. It ended up having seams on all the sides, but I don't think it looks too bad. Brice did a great job stapling it down!

Someone gave us the glider and it had really dirty, ripped up, cat hair covered cushions on it. I took the covers off of them and used them as patterns to re-cover the cushions. I did it about 2 years ago when I had little to no knowledge on sewing, so it took me about 48 hours total to do it. It taught me a lot about sewing though and it was pretty fun! Here is the ottoman with the chair (please excuse the pillow, I didn't fluff it back up and straighten it after someone sat on it):

After we re-covered the ottoman, we went to Tybee Island with Zach and Michelle. Right now it's a full moon, and the moon looks amazing over the ocean during this time of the month. So we drove to Tybee, walked on the pier for a little while, then went to Spanky's and got some awesome potato spuds. Then when it got dark, we took some blankets back to the beach and laid down to look at the stars. Brice pulled out his Ipod Touch to look at his planets app so we could see where all the constellations were. We were all looking at this really bright star pretty close to the moon, so he wanted to see what it was. So he looks at his Ipod and said, "Hey, that bright star is Jupiter!" Michelle goes, "Really?! Why can't you see the rings?" We all start laughing and changing the subject because we sort of thought she was kidding but she kept asking, why you can't see the rings!? She finally says, "Will someone please tell me why you can't see the rings?!" It was so funny, we were all laughing so hard! Poor Michelle! We finally told her that Jupiter doesn't have any visible rings, and even if they were visible, there is no way you would be able to see them from Earth. After that we laughed and joked the whole time, and even got to the point of crying because we were laughing so hard.

Yesterday was a very event filled day, but it was an awesome day spent with great friends!

Consignment Shopping

I love going shopping at consignment shops because you can always find the best deals! We went to the farmer's market this morning and there is this cute little children's consignment shop right next to it. They are a children's shop, but they also have tons of juniors clothes and purses. I can almost always find shoes there because I can fit into kids 3 1/2, and they sell for $2.50-$3.00 a pair! You can't beat that! We stopped in there today after going to the market and I bought the cutest purse and wallet set for $5!

The inside is cute too! It has lots of pockets and I love all the different fabrics on this purse.

Well anyways, I loved the bag and bought it. Then I decided to make a checkbook cover to match it. So I bought some fabric that matched the ribbon, and made one! I've never made one before, but it turned out great and only took about 20 minutes!

Now I have a cute little purse set, all for about $7 total with the cost of the extra fabric plus tax! I've been needing to get a smaller bag since my old rag purse is really worn out. I've been meaning to make a new one, I just haven't had time to get fabric for it yet. So I'll carry this around for now!

We also saw these awesome bags at the consignment store made out of dog, cat, and chicken food bags! That's right, dog food bags, crazy! What a great way to recycle though! They were super cute and would be so easy to make, and they were selling them for $15! I'm going to make one out of Leo's food bag once he eats it all. They are great to take to the farmer's market and to the grocery store. Sadly I didn't get a picture of it, but I'll definitely take some once I make one!

Sunday Sewing

This past Sunday I was finally able to sew a little bit! Brice bought an Ipod touch a few weeks ago, and when he puts it in his pocket his phone and Ipod scratch each other. He can't put it in his other pocket because there he carries his keys. That would make the scratching even worse!

So we went in search of a cover for the front his new Ipod touch. Surprisingly, they have nothing on the market for that! The only thing we could find was one or two leather ones that had the flap open cover. It would be perfect if it didn't make the Ipod 5 times bigger in your pocket and cost $30. It was at this point that Brice turned to me and said, you can make one of these! I agreed, and Sunday afternoon I whipped one up for him really quick. Well, not really quick, it took longer than it would have had I not stopped sewing 9 months ago. My sewing machine kept jamming and giving me problems. I also had a very hard time getting the velcro straight across from each other. You can tell I did not succeed very well in the end. The right side is higher up than the left. It took about 45 minutes, and it's probably the simplest thing I've ever made. However, I think it still turned out quite cute!

Open with the Ipod Touch Inside (You can see the all the scratches on it)

Open without the Ipod Touch

The Front

The Back

I used some leftover fleece I had sitting around. He wanted something thicker than cotton so nothing in his pocket would poke through. It's also very soft. I thought about making some and selling them. I would definitely use something stronger on the outside, such as vinyl, and then sew a cotton, fleece, or flannel layer on the inside for a soft layer to protect it. This would also hide the velcro seams on the outside of the case. I also thought about using snaps, but pushing it closed all the time might ruin the Ipod screen from the pressure. Just an idea, I don't know how well they would actually sell. But there is nothing on the market like it.

So that's it! Not too exciting, but it was fun to sew a little something after not doing anything in a long time. It's really exciting to turn a flat square piece of fabric into something useful!

I scheduled my HSG yesterday for next Tuesday morning. I have to be at the hospital at 7:50am. Brice is going to have a sub for the morning so he can come with me. I looking forward to seeing what this test will tell us.

Custom Orders

Here are a few of the custom orders I have done. If you would like something in a certain fabric, send me an email and I'd be happy to work with you!

Michelle's Custom Rag Bags

Makeup Bag

Makeup Bag

Makeup Bag

Makeup Bag

Rag Purse

Rag Purse

Sherri's Custom Unpaper Towels

Ruth's Custom Unpaper Towels

New Items!

Check out my new in stock items! I have a new LARGE blue/green rag bag that can be used as either a diaper bag or tote bag. It comes with a matching changing pad!

I also have a rag makeup bag in stock!

Please click HERE for additional pictures and product information!

Makeup Bag

Diaper or Tote Bag

Side of Bag

Other Side of Bag

Front of Bag with Changing Pad