Made It: Lampshade Baby Mobile

A while back I took out this book from the library.  Anna Maria's beautiful fabrics caught my eye, as well as the sweet baby patterns.  I made the little booties for a baby niece, and wanted for so long to try the mobile.

A friend of mine will be having a baby imminently, and this friend is one I forever admire for her funky sense of style and art.  She is so thoughtful about her art, both in the selfless-giving sense of the word and also contemplative.  And she is careful to put herself and her personality into everything that surrounds her.  Picky about what she likes.  I like that.

 Anyway, as soon as I heard she was having a baby and doing up an awesome nursery, I knew she was the one to have the lampshade mobile.

These pictures are obviously not of the shade as a mobile, and I didn't get a photo of the little birds hanging down.  But rest assured, they're there, and they're the cutest part of the whole thing!  Maybe once it arrives, my friend will be able to take a picture for us to share.  That is, if she has time for pictures with a brand new baby to take care of...

Birthday Cake for a Man Who likes Zombies

What do you make?

ZOMBIE CUPCAKES!

He had originally been telling me about how he wanted something choco-rrific, but I thought that the gory mouths would not show up nearly so well on a chocolate cupcake.  Then he told me I was being racist, because black people can be zombies too.

HOWEVER, the cupcakes are delicious - lemon with raspberry jam - and Dave thought they were awesome.

glimpse

The months of May and June for most people are very busy, and it's no different for us.  Dave usually works a ton, and since it's nice out, I make it a priority to take Charlie out and about to play every day.  Also, I've been busy on my own volunteering at a school as well as a new business venture.   To top it all off, June is filled with special celebratory events.  Dave's birthday the first week, Charlie's the second, and Father's Day following that.  And I like to throw in a bunch of family visits to make things exciting.  

This is all a long winded way of saying we've been busy.  And I haven't done much on the blog.  Also, I have to stick this in the mail before I can show you all the rest, but it's a bit unwieldy to mail, which is why I procrastinate that particular task.  Hopefully there's no mail strike and this arrives before a certain other special package does!  Until then, you get a sneak peek:

Made It (sort of): Wool Dryer Ball

I cannot BELIEVE I'm writing this now, as I have a ton of stuff to do tomorrow and should really go to bed, but I've been totally neglecting the blog, and and and and AND.

Several months ago I was given the suggestion to make some felted wool dryer balls.  I've never been one for fancy washing routine, and since I haven't ever used something like dryer sheets, I figured a dryer ball would be just as unnecessary.  Who cares about static?  However, I have since learned that dryer balls do not just reduce static in your laundry, they bounce around in there with your clothes and loosen everything up, helping to shorten the time needed to dry your clothes.

SO.  I decided to try to make one of my own.  I know that wool yarn can be expensive in stores - heck, even a nice poly blend can be expensive.  I sure as shootin' wasn't going to go to a fancy yarn store to get my supplies for this project.  So I combed the thrift shops to the best of my ability.  The funny thing about yarn though, is that people often call any kind of yarn "wool."  Even if it's polyester.  And since thrift store yarn is often wrapped and you can't feel it, it's hard to tell just exactly what it's made of.  However, I did remember that Dave's Christmas present was made of awfully scratchy cream coloured yarn - most likely wool - and I had quite a bit left over.

So I followed the instructions (basically just wind your wool into a tight ball about 1.5 " then wash inside a sock, then add more to be about 3 " in diameter, wash in a sock again until it's felted).

I generally don't wash in hot water and dry in the dryer, especially as the weather is getting nicer for outdoor drying, so I may have cut the last couple steps short.  When I washed my diapers this afternoon (a grey and rainy day) I rejoiced at the chance to use my wonderful new dryer ball!  But this is what came out of the washing machine:

I believe I uttered the words "laundry disaster."

Lesson learned.  Follow the instructions until the project is finished.  Luckily, this was only the outer layer, so I may still be able to salvage my dryer ball .