Throw Pillows & Tissue Toppers – internet issues

I recycled our old throw pillows by making some new cases and transferring the old freshly washed & dried stuffing into them. I wanted a different print other than plaid or floral patterns. These critter prints are 100% cotton and are definitely different. I like the way they turned out. My husband really likes them too.

I made a couple of plastic canvas tissue box covers. The blue one is a simple pattern I designed and made.
The pink/cream one is basically made by an old pattern book I’ve had for several decades. The original pattern fits boxes a bit too tight. I made the canvas a bit wider and had to rework the design a bit. I redesigned the top to more my liking. I shortened the bottom by one row (by accident).

I’m still working on my needlepoint and my crochet temperature blanket. I’m also working on a diamond dot painting. I’ll post more on these later.

I enjoy having several projects going at once. I especially enjoy when I get some of them finished. 😀

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.
Happy Crafting!

The reason that I haven’t been blogging much, is we’re experiencing a lot of internet issues. Our provider is in the process of upgrading their system. It will be a long while before it runs smoothly. :/
So bare with me, I’ll be visiting and blogging when I’m able too.


Old cedar chest, Rain Lilies, chives & dogwood blooms

We recycled a cedar chest this past weekend. It made a nice planter addition to our flower bed.One of my all time favorite flowers are rain lilies. When we moved here in 2001, I had oodles of rain lily bulbs and miniature grape hyacinth bulbs that I’d raised for many years. I planted them in the back part of the property to give them room to grow and reproduce. I had delusions of looking out and seeing an acre of them blooming in years to come. Well, it didn’t work out that way. The moles and other critters have eaten and moved/scattered the bulbs over a few acres. There’s very few of them that bloom each year now and I never know where they’ll show up. The critters keep moving them.To my delight, I discovered a few rain lilies growing where our garden usually is. I had my husband help me dig them up. I planted them in the corner of my flower bed. They look rough now, but I have hopes they’ll come back strong next year. The bulbs had oodles of tiny bulbs, so hopefully there’ll be a thick patch of them. I may move them somewhere else. I haven’t decided. I just know if we have a garden these would be tilled up and lost until next year or forever.My onion chives are blooming. They’re quite pretty blooms.I’m happy to tell you that the dogwoods are finally blooming. There’s only wild ones growing in the woodlands around here. For some reason, it seems to take them longer to bloom than the ones used in landscaping. But none-the-less, the dogwoods are finally blooming.

I hope you all have a terrific Tuesday!

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Bottle Cap Containers


One of the first uses I was aware of for ‘Bottle Cap Containers’ was for hides for geo-caching,  but they’re handy for other little things like jewelry findings or beads or buttons or little stuff.

My Grandson tested these in water and
discovered they are ‘NOT WATERPROOF ‘

They’re fairly easy to make.
Here’s a photo of the way I make them

 

Happy crafting!

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Hanging Around Watching Movies

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One of the things I enjoy most about the Kindlefires and tablets is being able to watch movies pretty much anywhere. However, in the kitchen, watching the movie gets a little tough trying to cook or clean with it sitting on the counter or table.
I’ve been thinking about how to make my recipe holder hanger be able to hold a tablet too, but all my thoughts were too complicated and involved sewing and stuff. Then the other day, I came across a pant suit hanger in my closet. You know those cartoons where a lightbulb comes on over a person’s head when they have an epiphany… well, that was me.
joyideaBy hanging the tablet up with a hanger, it frees up counter space.
I can cook, clean or prepare food while enjoying a movie without having a tablet sitting in my way.

I made this post about the hanger-idea in case some other folks might like to use it.
If you use this idea or have thoughts on how to improve it or know of another way to hang a tablet, let me know I enjoy learning helpful things.
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You can use a regular wire hanger for this, but I decided to use a pant suit hanger.
If the hooked part of the hanger is metal, you may want to wrap it in tape so it won’t scuff your door handles. Or you could make a pretty cover for it.
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If your case for your tablet is made to fold over, open it and fold it through the hanger.
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Since my hanger has clips on it, I decided to show it being double helpful by holding a recipe and my tablet both at the same time.
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My Nextbook Ares 7 works great with this too.
I took my Kindlefire 8.9 in my utility room and hung it up and watched part of a movie while I did some laundry, then I carried it back into the kitchen to watch the rest of the movie while I cooked supper and washed dishes.

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Recycle a plastic cola bottle – scouring pad bowl & bell jar

IMG_5517-1bottlebottomsI originally was going to make a post about using the scalloped shaped bottoms of plastic bottles as a holder for a scouring pad. I discovered that the scalloped design helped the scouring pad dry better.
It’s not 100% fool proof, occasionally I’ll find a bit of rust in the bowl from steel wool scouring pads.
It’s only a temporary holder for the yarn scrubbies because they’re so thick they won’t dry out before souring.
None-the-less this is something I wanted to share on my blog.
The other day when I was washing out a plastic bottle, it occurred to me that I should also post something to recycle the upper portion of the cut off bottle.
A bell-jar was my first choice because it’s simple and useful,but I needed to think of something handy to use as a base. After thinking on it awhile I decided to use a bowl lid, cardboard and contact paper to make a base.
So, now, this post is about more than a scouring pad bowl, it’s also about recycling a bottle and a couple other things as well.

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend.spring-017

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Click on photo to open a larger image

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