Showing some School Spirit!!!

One of my dear friends from the school I substitute at left our school this year.  Her husband has been transferred to South Africa!!  Boo Hoo Hoo, I miss her so much. 
As a going away gift I wanted to give her something to help her remember all her friends from her time here in Northern Va. 
I found one of my daughter's old t-shirts

and carefully cut out just the school mascot. 
Next I made a cute little bag out of the cute little dragon.  My friend needed something she could easily take with her, and it was easy to fold up to put in her purse if needed. 

Love it.  I bought the green matching fabric from Joann's Fabric.

The inside is just white fabric.  This is actually a white cotton sheet that I bought at Goodwill!!!  Works perfectly for so many of my projects. 

My friend loved the bag and said she had many uses for it. 

Thanks for looking.
Cathy

Repurposing a Man's Neck Tie

I have a new fascination with zippers!!  Not sure how this happened but I've been looking on Pinterest and YouTube for any ideas that use zippers.  One that I came up with was to re-purpose a man's neck tie to something else. 

I started out with this Virginia Tech tie I bought at Goodwill.  It was about $3.00

Next I opened up the tie from the back.  I forgot to take a picture of this part, but it opens up to a rather wide piece of fabric.  Iron it flat and added some interfacing to make it a little stronger.

The end product was a small wallet that is almost big enough to hold my husband's iPhone 6.  I forgot to add some extra length in the zipper end so it didn't open up wide enough for the phone.

This is the inside, added some orange fabric that I had in a stash!

Tadaaaaa the final product!! It turned out pretty cute.

Thanks for looking
Have a great day.
Cathy

Wedding GIfts

A lady that I work with is getting married this summer and moving away.  So sad, she is such a sweet person.  I will miss her dearly. 

Unfortunately I don't know any colors in her house, made it hard to make personalized gifts that will match her house, so I made up my own colors for her!! Hope she likes them.  

First I made (what I call) a DRINK PILLOW.  I saw something like this in a store and thought "I can make that myself!". So I did.  Right now I don't have any directions on how to make it, but that is my next project.  
I use my pillow when relaxing in front of the TV and don't have a table near me to put my drink on.  

 This is the top of it, you can see the "holder part" right in the middle.










This is the back side, I used a contrasting color.

And, this is what it looks like with a refreshing drink being kept safe and cold on the couch.  

 Cute!!

Next I made some BOWL COZIES for her microwave safe bowls.  This is the bowl heat protectors idea I used.  It was very helpful.  I didn't use the batting to make it stronger and heat safe. My idea was to use a 100% cotton dish towel and the protector.  I just cut up an old towel to fit the bottom of the bowl.  I found that there was too much bulk when sewing the 2 sides together.  I tested them in the microwave to make sure they didn't catch on fire or ruin my microwave.  Works perfectly. 

Cute!!!

Next, I went to my friend's FaceBook page and saved a couple of her engagement pictures to my computer and made a few coasters.  In the past I printed out on tissue paper then Mod Podged them on to the coasters, but my printer has been giving my problems.  So I thought - hmmm wonder if I could use the pictures.  It worked!! 

Again, Cute! 

Next I used one of the pictures to make a personalized clock.  I'll post directions for this one - I promise!

She is so adorable! 

Finally, I found this AWESOME tutorial on how to make fabric bowls.  I thought it would be neat to have a couple to use throughout the year.  And, once I made one I couldn't stop!!  Started with a Valentine's Day bowl.

Next was a Memorial Day/ July 4th bowl. 

A couple different styles for Halloween, she has to be able to put the candy in something cute!

The tall Halloween one is almost the same as the Memorial Day one.  The Crafty Gemini has a basket tutorial I used, just didn't add the handle.  She shows how to make the basket with the corners inside. 

Finally a Christmas bowl.  Also made some TEENY TINY bowls with scraps.  You can see how small they are next to the thimble.  

Sorry but I can't get that middle picture to turn the right way!! Frustrating. 

Then I made a couple extra-cute baskets just because I was on a roll and couldn't stop.  

The pink and yellow one has a cardboard square on the bottom to make it a little stronger.  

I hope she likes everything.  

Thanks so much for looking. 
Cathy

Where does the time GO??

I never would have thought that it has been well over a year since my last post!!! So much has been happening, and unfortunately my crafting and blogging has been put on the back burner!  Hate it when that happens.
My most recent INJURY has really kicked my butt!!  This past February I was walking my dogs before work and tripped in a small pot hole.  I don't remember falling but do remember the EXTREME pain.  It was a crazy fall because there wasn't any ice that day, just freezing cold.  Had to call for backup - my sister came to the rescue to get the dogs (she lives in the same neighborhood), call an ambulance - I couldn't get up off the icy cold street, and husband met us at the hospital. 

Long (gross) story short - this is what the surgeon added to my left shoulder.  I dislocated, fractured in 3 spots and broke off the top of the humorous - big OUCH!!!  Those little oval looking things are the staples before he took them out, there were a total of 38.  That is a long metal plate and some screws holding me together.  Was out of work for 2.5 months and couldn't drive that entire time.  I hated it! 

Anyway, I'm on the mend now.  Saw the surgeon last week and he said possible 2nd surgery because physical therapy isn't going as well as expected, have to get a CT to check on everything then back to see Dr.. Hoping he has good news for me - like he can sprinkle some magic fairy glitter on my arm and it will be back to normal soon.  I won't hold my breath for that though. 

Thanks for letting my catch up a little. 
Thanks for stopping by,
Have a great day.
Cathy