Fun Freebies!

Here I am again, in front of the computer finding tons of cute free crafts, mostly printables today. Here are some things I found so far:


http://www.etsy.com/storque/search/tags/How-Tuesday/ This link takes you to a bunch of free tutorials on etsy. I'll share some of my favorites... (click on the picture for the pdf file of link)





If you click on that picture it will take you to a long list of really cute Valentine cards to print by all different people.

http://www.livinglocurto.com/?page_id=132 Tons of neat printables at this site too.


Christmas gift tags
Weekly meal planning sheet with grocery list


http://www.cakejournal.com/ Really neat cake making site.

http://purlbeehive.squarespace.com/busy-bees/ A site with tons of crafting blogs. I could spend hours on here!!



Canon has tons of cute printables including calendars here: cp.c-ij.com

Cute memory game and other printables here: http://del4yo.squarespace.com/non-dairy-avant/category/paper-toys

Good and Sad News

The sad news... Ichiban Kan is closing their online store! I made two (large) orders from there so far and planned to order more in the future.... They are one of my favorite online stores! They have the cutest bento products and are cheap! And the only online store I found like that. If I lived in CA or Japan, I wouldn't mind so much. But since there are no stores on the mid- or eastern side of the USA I am rather disappointed....!

The good news isn't quite as exciting, but there's a cool website that has lots and lots of free stuff. Actually, they just list all the free things and you go to the actual websites to sign up if you'd like. I've gotten many awesome free things by using this site: http://freethingy.com
It's good to check every few days so you don't miss anything. Warning- whoever types the words doesn't always use proper grammar... but hey- it's free!

Sewing

I sewed a bib the other day and finished a few today:
This one has a pocket and a nylon back. The rest have a terrycloth back.

I made a fleece sleep sack. It seems pretty big... it was a medium. I should add a cute applique in the corner.

This is the first time I sewed a zipper, which will be good practice for when I make my diaper bag. I am still waiting on the fabric to come from Japan. The lady said it should be here any day now....

Painting

We painted the baby's room! It was hard finding a place to put all the stuff we had in that room. Our TV and computer are now in the living room. We are going to keep the futon in the baby's room. I have to find places for all my yarn and craft supplies. But the room is pretty much empty now and we painted the ceiling "Nightfall"- a light blue for a sky, and "Northern Pear Tree"- a light green for the walls. We are thinking of painting designs on the ceiling and maybe walls. I can't wait to start setting up the crib and changing table!!Painting the ceiling...

What the wall color was before the green...


Finished! Except for a few touch ups.

Eustace is so glad to be allowed in the room. He hates having any door closed. While we were painting he was pulling the newspaper out from under the door and scratching at the door (he got in trouble for the scratching).

Patterns to make

Here are three more things I want to sew!

A super cute fabric dollhouse! UK lass in US has great tutorial.

Another neat bib from Nested. Here is the pdf.

A diaper changing pad from sewtakeahike.

thelongthread.com has a list of great baby sewing projects, with more projects on the side links. Now I need to get off the internet and start sewing! Except I need to finish taping the baby's room so we can paint. And figure out where to put all the stuff we took out of that room... I really shouldn't be sewing (or looking at projects online) much at all today....

Sewing and Buying

It's hard when I don't post every couple of days because then I have too much to write about. I sewed a few more bibs. Some were the same and one was based on a pattern from Martha Stewart but with nylon backing.

I also made a drawstring bag for some baby toys based on the tutorials from happythings. I had to change it slightly because of the shape of my fabric.

We went to the doctor today and I had to take my glucose test. Everything seems fine! We also went to Kroger- saved about $87 and spent about $67 on groceries. I am ready to eat a second bowl of cocoa krispies... yum! It was nice- on the door of the store I saw a sign as we walked in asking if we remembered our reusable bags. I always have 3 small ones in my purse but the sign reminded me to run back to the car to get a bigger bag we have. I'm glad they put the sign there! We also bought paint and rollers to paint the baby's room at Home Depot! The paint has no chemical odors so I will be able to paint too!
Last week we went to Babies R Us and got our crib! It would not fit in our tiny car so we had to take out each piece and then it just barely fit. While we were there we saw that the stroller set we liked was on sale, so we got that too. We had to take it out of the box and stuff some in the trunk and some in the middle on top of the crib pieces. Then we went to Target and Joann's and I got more sewing things. Then we went to IKEA and got some really cute baby things. They have some really neat items there for cheaper than other stores and made out of more natural materials. Everything there is reusable or recyclable. In fact, they don't even have disposable bags as an option. And the cafe uses all washable dishes and cups and silverware. There were a few more baby things I would have liked to get but they are for older babies so I guess I can wait a year or two and then go back. After IKEA we went to see mewithoutYou.
Here are some baby things we got at IKEA:
A hot air balloon mobile, frog lamp for the wall, soft rattles, little toys, bibs, and one of those things they always have at doctor's offices with the beads and metal loopty-loops.

You can kinda see what the mobile looks like. There are animals in the basket and they look over the edge at the baby.

The dish set has a cute penguin cup.The blue is a rubbery piece that comes off so the baby can drink. There are hangers, cloths, wooden rings to stack, and a toy on a stick to push around.

Here are some pictures of the stroller set after we put it together:
Joel put Ants in the stroller to try it out and he liked it!

Ants got in the carrier by himself this time.

I had to take a big state test on Saturday. I graduated with my master's in TESOL but can't Teach English as a Second Language until I have it on my certificate, meaning I have to pass the GACE test. I had to drive over an hour. I had 4 hours to take both tests, and then drive over an hour home. I felt pretty good about it... I think I passed. I won't know until July 13 when the scores are released. At least now I don't have that in the back of mind anymore. My summer is free to sew and crochet and relax!
Joel moved the cats' apartment into our bedroom. Ants LOVES his apartment. He's a good house cat. Eustace likes going in the second story. They don't sleep on our bed as much anymore because they sleep on the apartment at night now.

Ahh... a nice Sunday afternoon family nap...

Finally, some good crafty blogs or sites:
http://thelongthread.com/
http://www.sewmamasew.com/blog2/
http://www.freekidcrafts.com/
http://www.youcanmakethis.com/index.htm
http://indiefixx.com/Feed_your_soul/index.html
http://retro-mama.blogspot.com/

So many neat ideas out there- not enough time to make everything!

Sewing and New Fabric and Stationary!

I just posted yesterday and by the evening had enough to post again. Then today I had enough to make another post- so this will be two days worth if I have enough time. Joel and his band are playing tonight and we leave pretty soon.

Yesterday I sewed a bunny from Wee Wonderfuls. I really liked how it turned out! I just need to add the pom pom and hand stitch it closed (my least favorite part). I also made a baby block in similar colors (that also needs to be hand stitched closed). I used some foam cushion inserts I got at Walmart for the inside. I used cotton fabric and fleece for the outside.



Also yesterday, my order from starlit nest came! With kawaii Japanese fabric pieces!
These are 6" squares perfect for quilting.

Here are 7 fat quarters. I plan on making bibs, triangles for the banner, and quilt pieces.


Here are some bibs already cut and ready to sew. I am going to have a lot of bibs! The terry cloth on the back is from a pack of Walmart washcloths that I got for a really good deal. I hope they are quality enough....


I was so excited! I went to Walmart today and decided to look around the craft section (I almost always look around for something on sale or sale fabric). I knew they sold quilting squares, but I never really looked at them. Well, instead of regular price ($1.47), the fat quarters were on sale for only $1.00, and there were prints I really liked!! So I had to get several....

Here are some close ups of the fabric:
Now I will be able to make tons of banners, quilt squares, bibs, blocks, bunnies, and other cute small crafts!

And last but definitely not least, my order from shopkawaii.com came today!!
I got a mini notepad and mini-mini calander (it's 2008, I got it for the cute pictures):

I also got a letter set, mini stickers, and two bigger notepads. These notepads have 8 different designs each. They will be so cute to decoupage something in the baby's room!
I tore out one page from each design and laid them all out here. There are so many things I could cut out for papr crafts! I think I will also scan them and then I can blow them up and print the designs for projects too.
Here is a close up of some cute pages:


I finished writing this just in time! It's time for us to go. I'm sure I'll have some more finished projects to write about tomorrow (but hopefully no more purchases for a while..)