I saw somewhere these cool pocket blankets and thought I would use some of that floral flannel I had to make a few for NIN. 

First I cut three pieces about 20 inches by 20 inches square. One piece I folded into a triangle.

I stacked them with the triangle piece in the middle and the to square pieces to the outside, front sides together. 
I then sewed around, leaving a gap to turn. I turned the blanket and poked out the corners then sewed a nice top stitch around the edges. 

Here is the finished product. Looks nice! And the baby is nice and comfy in there, no feet getting chilly here. I think this will be a good size for the premmie babies too. 

I had some scraps of yellow and rainbow from when Kristina and I made some blankets for Bob before he was born. I did the same with them to make some boy blankets. Really unisex but more boyish than the flower flannel. 

Quick, simple and easy to make but sure to give pleasure to those babies and their parents. 

Thanks for reading and please go out and enjoy the day today! 

I had a request for a larger jean purse style so decided to try out what I am calling the Butt Purse!! The larger the pair of jeans, the larger the purse. 

Take the top of a pair of jeans - I used a pair of men's jeans, cut right above the crotch area, below the pockets. 

if you want your purse lined, cut out the lining about the same size as the purse. If you arrange it right and can put a fold at the bottom of the purse lining, you save some effort because you won't need to sew across the bottom of the lining!

Take a couple scraps of cloth to make pocket(s) on the lining. 

This pocket calls for one scrap to be sewn down as the flap and one piece with darts for the pocket. This makes a nice roomy pocket. Sew the flap piece down first! :)

Sew a seam along the bottom of the jeans (straight stitch) about a 1/4 inch from the ends. Run a 2nd straight stitch a little bit further in ( I think the double seam makes it tougher). 

Sew the sides and bottom (if needed) of the lining. 

I like to box seam the ends to make the bottom roomier - so sew in about 1/4 inch or so from the ends of both the jeans and the lining. 

cut 3 strips from the legs of the jeans (you may have to piece some together) to the length you want your purse straps. 

Stack the three together and run a few stitches over one end to hook the three together. Braid the three together and sew the opposite end back and forth a few times. 
Pin to the inside of the jeans at each side seam.

Pin the lining to the inside of the jeans and sew carefully around the edges. Make sure you have the ends of your straps under the lining to give it a more finished look. 

After the lining is in, go back and sew the straps down better by making an X in a square at the waistline. Hope that makes sense. basically do what you need to do to secure your straps! 

Add some cool accessories like a belt or beads and some patches or bling to make your purse personalized and all about YOU!

Finished product! By using the guy jeans you get a BIG purse with a lot of usable pockets. 

Go, grab your man's jeans and cut them up! Don't tell him I said you could do it!!

Thanks for reading, Millie

Kristina is always a willing victim ... I mean participant... when I want to try something new. So I wanted to try making blue jean skirts, she likes to wear long skirts, so we made a few.

This one we blogged on already - it was a prom dress originally that we cut off the skirt, gathered up the top edge and sewed it onto the jeans. 

Then we do a bit of top stitching along the edge of the jean/skirt to make it look pretty and there you have a lovely skirt! 

This was a cute one! Lovely pink leopard print. It ended up about an inch too long but it is a bubble skirt so no hem. We ended up folding the jean end of the print up over the jean and sewing it down there with a decorative stitch. This took up the extra and gave a cool looking little ruffle at the top end. 

This is one of my favs! We found these cool red jeans at a yard sale and we search our stash for a great matching cloth. This lovely and soft silky cotton print with vibrant fall leaves just looks awesome with the red jeans!! 

Finally this is a golden suede type cloth - not enough for bubble so we did hem it - that looks good and feels nice. 

I think I have the jean skirt down. Not sure, might have to try a few more, right Kristina? 
lol


Thanks for reading, hope you take the time to try something new today!

Kristina here: So we are working on making a passive income stream. I am jumping ahead to http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2012/07/dissolving-limiting-beliefs/ This was a very interesting article to me. Have you ever been paralyzed when about to do something? I know I have. Not just when it comes to this passive income thing but in all sorts of areas of my life. I suggest just picking one http://www.recreateyourlife.com/free of the three. They are all the same except the belief that he states. It seems silly to me to go through all of them when they are all the same. It was an eye opening video though. Its interesting to think that my beliefs are mistaken attributions from childhood. It also makes me worry that I am embedding these beliefs in my children.  It made me re-evaluate not only situations that happened in the past but to be more careful of the ones that happen in the future. 

I strongly suggest you go through the video. It only take a little while and its a real eye opener. Maybe now that I've faced these demons I'll be able to move on not just in this but in other areas of my life as well. Don't be paralyzed any more, move on. Watch whichever question moves you the most emotionally, not mentally. 

There is a lot going on with leggings and boot toppers so we wanted to give it a try. I called up my willing victim...I mean model....to give some leggings a try. Kind of silly, she always where long skirts but she was still very interested. 

These cuties are the arms of a striped cotton sweater that is very soft! Greens, black & white colors with a gold and black button, white lace and green ribbon accent. 

So had to make a few more. this was a totally cool sweater with lots of colors and again stripes...just realized this we must have a stripe thing going on lol. We added a cool pearl button, some lavender/white lace and blue ribbon. Looks awesome!!

Cute, pink and fuzzy velour type sweater made these adorable leg warmers. We added some jingle bells and a star ornament for a touch of whimsy  Looks great there Kristina! Nice legs!! 

Hope you have a chance today to add some whimsy into your life! Thanks for reading!

Another great site for diy projects related to recycling!

A ton of great ideas on all types of crafts, all kinds of recycled materials and all skill levels.  We have used this site for ideas many times. 

Here are some favorite ones.

How about a purse made from a bra!! I have a couple bras set aside to remake into little purses. 

Another cool purse made from the top of some recycled jeans. I have made several of these purses in different styles. After the first one they get progressively easier!

Awesome thing is they are totally customizable.

The ever popular, oh so cute and yet a tad scary, Sock Monkey!!

Use socks of whatever size, shape, color, designs you desire. Make one for you or for the kid in your life. Too much fun!

Use old t-shirts, towels, jeans, sheets, even blankets - any type of cloth to make your own braided rug. easy and simple instructions make this a fun project! 

And finally 21 Quick Kids craft ideas with a zillion comments and suggestions to keep any child busy and occupied on a rainy day. 


Thanks for reading! Enjoy your crafting! Millie

We went to visit Uncle Lin at his house in the middle of no where!! What a great time we had!

Bob was having fun!

Mark, Kristina and Greg at the bow table. We had some variety with Uncle Lin's crossbow, David's long bow and the compound bow we found at a yardsale for $37.00!! Unfortunately I was too weak to pull the compound bow. 

As a bit of extra fun, we have a blow dart gun there on the table somewhere. 

Here is Kristina using Uncle's crossbow. It's fun and easy to shoot but has alot of power - we both overshot the target and hit a wooden box in the back of his yard. 

Greg showing how to use the blow gun. Takes a deep breath and firm seal on the mouthpiece. The gun came with several different types of darts from blunt to razor sharp! All take a nice deep fast breath to shoot out. 

Some of our darts. Uncle Lin pulled out some Halloween decorations for us to aim for. Who doesn't dream of blowing darts at a Styrofoam skull? 

David took a time out to drive the grandbabies around on Lin's riding lawnmower. Not sure who had the most fun, him or them. 

Even Layla had a great time! She came home and slept for hours, she was so tuckered out!

Hope you have a chance to have some fun! 
Thanks for reading, Millie

St. Luke's here in Durham had an Alternative Gift Fair for two Sunday's in a row and we volunteered on part of Recyclique. 

Here is the view when you first walk into their activity building. 

Here is Recyclique's table - actually we had three tables and a stand. Katie was the head volunteer so manned the tables the whole time. Kristina, Karen and I helped out in shifts. 

Not sure what an alternative gift fair is? Well we had no idea either so were amazed when we showed up. All the tables are different non-profits and charities - you can donate funds and may receive a gift or just a card for your donation. 

There were local charities like Housing for New Hope, Coops for Cribs and Meals on Wheels. There were also national and international charities as well. You could pick a place to donate for yourself or as a gift for someone.  Pretty neat eh!?!

We donated to Heifer International (Heifer.org). You could donate any amount and they had a list of what different amounts could be used for so we donated towards a sheep. 

Their mission is to work with communities to end hunger and poverty while caring for the Earth. They do this by raising funds for farm animals and education in the care of these animals, giving the recipients a source of food and income. Pretty awesome!! 

We also donated to the Wiser Foundation - they are working to improve educational, economice and health outcome for females; create gender allies in males and promote community-wide enhancements in health and development. We thought this was also a very worthy charity and look forward to learning more about them. 

All the charities there were awesome and we appreciated the opportunity to hang out with them and the members of St. Luke. This year instead of getting caught up in the commercialism of the holidays, send a little love by donating to your favorite charity - in your name, in someone else's name or even anonymously  No matter the size of the gift, it will be appreciated! 

Thanks for reading! Millie

Some days you just feel like ripping something up! So we decided to rip up some t-shirts! best way to make t-shirt cowls is to rip up some t-shirts! After ripping and pulling the strings, add a bit of decoration and there you have a great cowl.

These not only use an upcycled t-shirt but some quilt square scraps, so double re-use!

We made several out of upcycled youth sized shirts and they turned out to work great as headbands too! Dual purpose, can't beat that!

Kristina took a couple and made a braid out of a few strands and sprinkled in wooden beads. Decorative and can double as a nursing necklace.

Of course, we had to do some tie dye....I mean really, play with shirts and not cut up one that we have dyed first? 

We added some beads and a button to decorate this one and give it some bling! 

We tried a second style, just ripping up to make a fringe but leaving the bulk of the shirt for a thicker, warmer cowl. I love the wild and funky look!

Hope you have the chance to rip something up today! Enjoy and thanks for reading!!

Sometimes fun things happen when taking pictures!! Usually the funny ones or mistakes aren't shown so I added some here for your enjoyment!  Thanks for reading! Millie