My washer/dryer pedestal

Our new house came with some interesting challenges in the laundry room. First off, we couldn't bring our set because our dryer was gas, so we had to sell it. Secondly, if we had brought it, it wouldn't have fit in the space with the pedestals on. We decided to save money the second time around and bought a washer/dryer set without the pedestals with the idea that we would make our own. Here is my inspiration:

source:theidearoom.net
However, I decided I didn't need a beautiful piece of furniture, I just needed a sturdy platform so I didn't have to bend in half to get my clothes out. This is starting to get in the way:

Not to mention that most of our tools and equipment got left behind when we moved. So I set my expectations low and we headed to Lowes. My husband was not excited about this project, but Lowes helped out by cutting all the wood to our exact specifications. All we had to do was put the thing together. I hadn't even planned on painting it, but our handy helper at the store made me realize it would need to be protected from water. Luckily, I had this beautiful orange paint on hand (I ordered it free from Glidden about 3 years ago and never used it. It is a little bright for most projects). For a boring laundry room it is the perfect color and it makes me happy. The walls look a little green in this picture, but they are just cream.

TA-DA! This raises the washer and dryer up about 12 inches and now they are the perfect height. You can see I didn't add any decorative trim/molding-I didn't even try to hide the screws. Other than that we followed the tutorial on how to put this together and I am super happy with the result!

A lunch sack for Logan

 My son is starting a new preschool tomorrow and it goes through lunch time. (11-1:) So, he has to take a lunch. Being the budget savvy mom that I am (read: always looking for a project) I decided he needed a lunch bag instead of buying paper bags. Luckily I had everything on hand. I loosely used this tutorial, except I made it 13x10, added stabilizer and a lining, and a Velcro closure. I cut his name using my Silhouette. It was my first time cutting fabric and it worked perfectly! I ironed fusible webbing on first, then set the machine to cut fabric and two minutes later, perfect letters!

If I did it again, I would sew the velcro tab into the seam between the lining and outside, as well as adding the velcro on the outside before sewing it together.

A quilt

 I went shopping with my sister one day and we found these cute jelly rolls. She bought one and I suggested a few ideas for her to make a quilt. But then I got the itch and decided I had to have the same jelly roll so I could make a quilt. I went back to Joann's and begged a poor lady to look in the back to find me a second roll (Joann's are only half of a "real" jelly roll). Luckily she found one and I went home happy. For a while. Before I could come up with an idea for my find my sewing machine went into the shop (AGAIN!) and of course inspiration struck when I was machine-less. I remembered this quilt and decided to figure it out with my mother-in-laws trusty machine. I tried to go slow, but I had about half the squares done before my machine was finished. Actually that took 4 months so my timeline could be off, but I did get it back in time to finish this beauty. I found the border at a local quilt shop and the backing at another. I decided to bind it with the leftover strips.

For some reason I had trouble with the border stretching when I sewed it on. It was a pain and I can't remember how to make sure it doesn't happen next time, but it was worth it. I love this quilt so much! I am not sure what to do with it, it is baby quilt sized, but I love it. I have already used the leftovers to make a table runner and two hot pads ( I just decided to decorate my  kitchen in these colors-I am loving aqua lately). It is machine quilted on a diagonal next to the middle strips.

Tee shirt refashions

 I accidentally got some fusible webbing on the shirt :( otherwise it would have been really fun

 I sent this one to Theron's sister for her new baby last August

 Look closely at the next one-I wrote on Logan's shirt with washable markers. It was really cute for 1 day.