I dropped Eamonn off at preschool this morning and decided to take action and do something about my desperate hair situation.  My bangs were down past the tip of my nose and I’ve been grousing for a month.  I went someplace different than my usual, and on the way home I passed the Salvation Army Store.  Well, technically, I didn’t pass it.  I pulled into the parking lot, took a space, got out of the car, and went shopping.  Why?  Beats me.  I just gave 5 bags of clothes to this very store, and the last thing I need is more stuff.  Still, in I went.

I had forgotten Wednesday is half-price day, and it turns out it was also my lucky day.  I came home with a hooded cardigan sweater (something I’d been wanting) and a pair of black boots (something I’d really been wanting).  And each of them only cost me $3.  Wow.  I also picked up a pillowcase for 50 cents.

I remembered seeing somewhere online that you could make skirts from pillowcases, and a google search turned up this post. I wish I had a pillowcase as spectacular as the one she used, and now that I know that I didn’t pork-up so much this summer that I can’t fit into a pillowcase, I will have to be on the lookout for more interesting ones.

So here’s my new outfit.  The whole thing (minus the t-shirt that I’ve had forever) cost me $6.50 and about 1/2-hour of sewing.  Woo hoo!

I still felt like sewing after I finished the skirt, so I made a table thingy I’ve been thinking about for the living room coffee table.  I guess it’s a table runner, but it feels weird to call it a “runner” when it doesn’t actually run the length of the table.  Is there another name for this?  Anyway, it’s reversible.  This side is for the fall, with its leaves and pumpkins, and on the other side, I just used dots that coordinate with the walls of the room.  That will be appropriate for all other times of the year.  On both sides I used fabrics left over from my fall napkin-making.  Wait, I don’t think I actually showed you my fall napkins, did I??

Well, here they are.  Eamonn loved watching me make these, and I enjoyed having a little groupie who could help with folding and setting up the photo shoot.  I still have one set of napkins in me - I need a Christmas set!  Once I find a kitschy Christmas fabric collection that will do, I’ll try to score some of it cheaply and get to work on them.  Then I’ll be done.  I’ll have made a set for summer, fall, Christmas, and every other time of year.  I just love using these - they’re so soft, fun, and ecologically sound.  I can’t imagine wanting to buy paper napkins ever again.  Which is a good thing because all of these napkins I’m making won’t pay for themselves until about 2011

It was nice to take the afternoon “off” from processing orders and catching up on email, but I’m going to have to put my nose back to the grindstone this evening.  After I take Aidan to his religious ed class, start dinner, pick Aidan up, complete dinner, eat dinner, clean up dinner, get everybody’s stuff ready for tomorrow morning, and get myself into my comfy pj’s, that is.  Oh, and of course there will have to be pre-bedtime snuggles, stories, and songs with my little men.  A mother’s work is never done

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Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.

But I found something cool and needed somewhere to post it

You can print your own photo cube here.   I think that’s pretty cool - I had wanted to do something similar for ages, using pictures on wooden blocks.  I know the boys would love to play with something like that.  But, I never got around to it.  This would be a lot less permanent and less sturdy, but so much easier to make.  And if they get messed up, you just print out another one!  (I found the link on How About Orange.)

As long as I’m posting anyway, I might as well chat about my day. Son #2 and I spent the morning shopping.  One of the places we ended up was the Salvation Army store.  For the first time ever, I wandered into the back of the store where they keep the linens and I picked out some things that I thought I might be able to sew with.  I’m thinking more aprons, a few stuffed bunnies for the boys, and a skirt for me, but we’ll see what actually develops.

Tonight on a whim I took a pillowcase I’d bought last year and never used, and I cut it up and turned it into a tank top.  It’s not the most elegant bit of sewing in the world, and it doesn’t drape quite right, but I’m proud of it nonetheless.  I think it’s great for a first effort.  It’s a bit stiff, since I didn’t wash the pillowcase first.  I’ll take some pictures to share after I’ve laundered it and it’s (hopefully) softened up a bit.  If it looks decent, I may use that top pillowcase in the image to make another one.  That pillowcase is so soft and nice - I bet it drapes very flatteringly (if that’s a word…)

I rebaked the Ultralight pins I made yesterday, and they’re much sturdier today.  I sacrificed one of the pins and one of the rings to the testing gods and threw them forcefully onto several types of floors in my house.  Not a chip or a scratch on them.  I think they’re ok for selling 

Lisa

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Originally published at Polka Dot Creations. Please leave any comments there.