Well, last time I told you the story of my first crafty project, which I now have thumb tacks for! The next project I tackled was one that Olivia was in desperate need of; a barrette/bow holder. Olivia has many of these and, as any Mom can tell you, they are awfully hard to keep track of. My first thought was to make a barrette/bow holder like one I had growing up. It was a round mirror that had yellow yarn on it that made bangs and braided pigtails and you would clip things to the pigtails. I have no idea what happened to it but I wish I had kept it. I have good memories of it. Anyway, what I settled on was a picture frame holder, simply because I had a frame with the glass broken out of it that I was going to throw away. These are the kind of projects I love best. They keep items that still have use out of the landfill and allow them to have a new life. There was nothing wrong with the frame so why throw it out? So I bought some ribbon, buttons and other decorations, and got out the hot glue gun. I glued strips of ribbon on the back of the frame. Then I glued these cute buttons I got on the front. (And I have a few left over for other crafty uses.) The
O's were in the
scrap booking section of a hobby store on clearance but I thought it was a great way to personalize it and it was cheap. I hung it in her closet and immediately filled it with barrettes. Like it's full full. I think she needs another one! :) All in all, I must say that I'm very happy with how this project turned out and with the ease and speed at which it was accomplished. I may have to do this again for Christmas or birthday presents.
The other crafty ideas I've had lately are knitting and bow/barrette making. I found some knitting needles recently on clearance for $.80. Yep, less than a dollar and they are normally about $5. I should have bought every single one they had left! (Once again, me in the clearance section. I love awesome finds for really cheap. My mother taught me well. ) But, I got some yarn and a little pattern book and set about teaching myself to knit. The book was no help so I turned to You Tube and found a video that I thought was incredibly helpful. So far, I have a few rows going and haven't gotten back to it but I intend to. I have a goal of a blanket. It may take me all year but I will get there!
The barrette/bow idea was born out of frustration at the price of little girl hair
accessories. I find it ridiculous to pay $5 for a big flower or bow on a clip. I also have problems finding colors to go with Olivia's outfits. My daughter doesn't wear hot pink everyday, thank you very much. So, back to You Tube to find some informational videos on how to do it. Actually, it's pretty easy. I bought some alligator clips and ribbon and decided to try it out. First I used fabric glue as
suggested by the video and it just did not work for me. I must have the wrong glue or something. I switched to hot glue instead and had more luck. Considering it cost me $2 for the bag of clips (25 count) and $2 for a thing of ribbon (3 yards at least) it's very cheap and therefor very motivating to give it a go. So far I've just covered the clips with ribbon for barrettes but I plan on trying making bows. It'll take a little practice to get them perfect but the hardest part so far is not burning my fingers. Once again, I can see this being a useful skill to have around holiday time.
My current project that is consuming my time at the moment is the antique dresser I bought about a month ago. After we painted the stairway and entryway I decided that the dresser would need to be painted and not
restained after all. Honestly I'm a little relieved it worked out this way. Striping it and
restaining it would have taken a lot of work. This will be much easier and I'm hoping it will look prefect in it's chosen spot. I have the drawers
primered now and I
hope to finish priming in general shortly. I will make sure to put up pictures when I'm done.
I pulled the fabric tight but not too tight. You don't want it to stretch too much but you don't want it to sag when you hang it either. After the glue was dry, I cut a piece of cardboard to mount the squares on. The reason I did this and not attach them directly to the wall was for a couple reasons; one reason was I didn't want a bunch of holes in my freshly painted wall. Another reason was I was sure at some point I would want to rearrange how these were hung. Right now they are in a big square, alternating patterns. But I could see me wanting to hang them all horizontally in a line. If I attach them to the cardboard then it would be easy to do this, without messing up my wall.
And the cardboard was another instance of me saving something because I knew it would be useful in another way. It had come with a picture frame I had bought and had tips on the back on how to arrange frames on the wall. I found the info useful so I decided to keep it. Now it serves two uses. Anyway, I used Velcro to attach each square to the cardboard backing and then used Command picture hangers on the cardboard. (Not only to keep the wall nice but it seemed to be the easiest way to hang it.) 
So it's now on the wall in the playroom. Someday I will get thumb tacks and actually use it. :) (Guess what I forget every time I'm at the store?) Next post I'll show you Olivia's new bow/barrette holder!
