A Bow Holder

A little while ago I found this fabulous crafting blog, and saw a cute idea for a bow holder. Sweet Pea has lots of bows, which I have usually kept in a little box on her changing table. Lately she's taken to grabbing the box and dumping out all the bows every time I change her though, so I thought it was time to give this project a try. I didn't think to take pictures as I was making it, but here's the final result!


I picked up some pink and green ribbon at JoAnn Fabrics the other day, and for the backing I used a leftover scrap of white cloth that I had used for Sweet Pea's baby quilt. The frame is an extra picture frame that I had laying around the house. I hot glued the fabric to the picture frame backing, then glued on the strips of ribbon, and Voila! A bow holder. Sweet Pea was very fascinated to see all of her bows on display on the wall. I'm really happy with how it turned out, and it makes picking out a bow that much simpler!

My Afternoon Project

My handyman and I use the cash envelope system for our groceries, eating out, and clothes. Each month we put the budgeted amount in the appropriate envelope, and when the money is gone, we stop spending money in that category. It works really well for us and helps us stay on budget.

Several months ago I stumbled upon a link to a free envelope template on this blog, and have been itching to make some for myself.

Today I finally got around to buying some pretty paper so I could make my own envelopes. I had so much fun!

Here is the paper I picked out.


I cut the paper down to 8 1/2" so it would fit in the printer,
and then printed the template and cut it out.


And repeated times 6, and used a thin bead of glue to hold them together.


They fit perfectly in my envelope system from Dave Ramsey.


I "stitched" the envelopes together with some pretty silver ribbon.
Now that will make paying with cash more fun!

Dreams really DO come true!

I have dreamt of having a garden ever since I got married. Living in an apartment in the city has not allowed me to do much toward this goal, however. I've tried my hand at growing herbs on my window sill, and even tried some potted tomato plants one year, but I haven't had much luck.

The neighbors in the home just in back our building have a beautiful garden area all fenced off. It has gone untended for several years, and my Handyman and I have eyed it longing, wishing we could put it to use. Well, a couple of nights ago we were outside with Sweet Pea. My Handyman noticed the neighbors out on their back deck and got up the courage to ask them if they would be willing to let us plant some things, and offered to possibly rent it from them. We'd never actually met these people before, but they are so nice!! They were thrilled to have us care for the garden - they actually said that we would be doing them a favor. Can you believe it?!

In the densely populated metropolis we live in, land is like gold. I think we hit the mother load!! The space is about 20' x 30', with a lovely picket fence all around it. It's seriously as big as some people's entire backyard! Oh, the possibilities!!

We're planning to plant tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, squash, zucchini, green beans, and several herbs. Maybe some other things, too. I'm afraid we're a little late in getting things started, so we'll see how we do.

The wilderness of our garden

It's just across the alley from our apartment

The weeds were tall and thick!

The work begins...

Progress!

We uncovered a small patch of rhubarb!

My Handyman did a lot of the work - Sweet Pea was not thrilled with gardening...

She did let us get a cute picture, though!

After 5 hours of work, we'd prepared about 1/2 of the space.

There's still a ways to go...

The robins are thrilled with the feast we uncovered!

The pile of weeds we pulled out was enormous!


The transformation is amazing!