House Tour: The Nursery

On the heels of yesterday's post about the gallery wall in babygirl's nursery, I thought I'd follow-up today with a tour of her nursery.  I've gotten more grief* from the hubs about this room than any other room in the house, and probably more than any project I've done!  I think that's because, to date, it's the most finished room, and getting there didn't happen overnight.  The hubs likes to call a project done and move on, never looking back. I like to constantly tweak, letting the space evolve and making changes as needs change, and I like spending time on details.  In my mind a space is never finished!  But shhhh, we won't tell the hubs that. ;)

As you saw yesterday, the room began as a guest room with yellow-ish brown walls (most of the walls in our house were painted in this color when we moved in, I'm working on changing that!), lots of nice moulding & trim (unfortunately painted cream instead of white, ugh!), a white ceiling, neutral light brown carpet, and a ridiculously small ceiling-mounted light as the only source of light in the room.  Our house had never been lived in before we moved in, and I like to think of most of the finishes as "builder's specials".  Not because they're special, but because the builder likely got them at a good discount!  Ugh.  Not the worst finishes, by any means, which sometimes makes it hard to justify changing them out after less than 3 years of wear.  But that's another post!

So we left the room as-is for about a year & a half, with the exception of adding some chocolate brown velvet curtains we'd used in a previous home.  When we found out we were having a baby girl, it didn't take me long to decide I wanted to use one of my favorite color combos of chocolate brown, pink & orange to decorate her nursery.  The chocolate brown curtains would stay, but I wanted to make the window treatments a little more special.  That's where I decided to start because I find fabrics to be such an inspiring beginning for a project!  As I mentioned in this post, I went fabric shopping and came away with those three fabrics that I just loved!! The fabric store had an amazing crib display with a custom sewn canopy over the crib, and I instantly fell in love.  It used 3 coordinating fabrics, so my initial plan in picking out 3 fabric samples was to use them to sew the canopy, as well as valances and pillows etc.  The canopy never quite happened, but that's okay, something better did!

We got started by painting the walls in a beautiful neutral taupe shade, and the ceiling in a raspberry pink.  Since I was pregnant the hubs was mostly on his own, and he was NOT happy.  Especially with the ceiling.  But he knocked it out, and it looks awesome!  I made valances for both windows with one of my inspiration fabrics, and was very pleased with how they came out.  Next we installed a new ceiling light** and a closet organizer, both from Ikea.  The ceiling light was easy, the closet organizer almost caused a divorce.  LOL.  But we got through it!  We also picked up a dresser/changing table from Ikea.  I was pretty adamant that I didn't want a changing table because I hate furniture with only one specific and short-lived function.  So far this has been a great decision!!  The last big purchase for the room was a glider & ottoman, and we actually found it on Craigslist.  I was also adamant that I didn't want one of those cheesy gliders you always see in nurseries, again, I don't like single-function furniture!  You never see those cheesy gliders move from the nursery into the family room, because they aren't stylish!!  But I digress... (and apologies if you have one of those gliders and love it, just not my style!).  I also knew that since I planned to breastfeed I'd be spending lots of time in that chair.  I kept an eye on Craigslist daily, and ended up finding an amazing deal on a barely used glider in chocolate brown- Score!  The best part is the ottoman is a storage ottoman!  It's our stash spot for blankets, but it can always be used for toys or other items in the future.

The rest of the furniture and many of the accessories were re-purposed from other rooms.  The daybed & pillows used to be in my office, I just added a cute little elephant.  Eventually I'd like to change out the linen & pillowcovers on the daybed, but for now they work just fine.  The bookcase had been in the room when it was a guestroom.  When we first brought babygirl home I had wire baskets on each shelf full of all her essentials.  But once she began pulling up, her favorite thing to do was to pull those baskets down!  So I found the 2 chevron stripe bins at Target for her books, and moved the large woven basket out of her closet & filled it with toys.  Now she can pull them down to her heart's content!

The wire baskets were moved into her closet and fit perfectly on a sweater organizer which just attaches to the closet bar.  They hold miscellaneous baby care items, burp cloths, bibs, hats, socks & shoes.  I left one basket on the bookshelf for diapers.  The colorful striped box in the top part of her closet is an empty diaper box I covered in pretty wrapping paper.  It's wonderful for storage that also looks nice!  (As you could see in the previous picture there is another empty diaper box on the floor that I intend to cover as well.  Ooops, forgot to move it out of the shot!)  The baskets in her closet hold diapers & wipes, the black & white box is her "baby box" with various mementos, and the clear containers on the bottom shelf hold clothes we've been given that are too big for her just yet.  To the left there is a small bit of storage that holds her pack & play, play tent and a few various other items.

The uppermost shelf of the bookshelf is out of her reach and holds a couple special items- an angel  souvenir brought back from Ireland from my parents, and a beautiful angel sculpture my mom purchased from an artist while I was pregnant.  The top of the shelf holds her headband organizer, a pink pot that still needs a plant, and a cute modern rocking horse.  On the wall I hung little pink buckets I found at Target which hold q-tips, cotton balls & diaper rash cream.  I picked up the abstract art at Homegoods, and the shadow boxes were recycled from another room in our home.  They contain a few special items- a first tea-cup brought back from Ireland from my sister, a treasured photo of my gran & grandad, another (empty!) pink pot, a wooden R, an adorable sock monkey, and a soccer ball!  The autographed soccer ball was won by the hubs at a community event the day after we brought babygirl home from the hospital.  When he got home from the event I was nursing babygirl in the glider and he showed it to me, then popped it in the, then empty, shadowbox, and it's just kind of stuck!

The crib was a gift from my parents, and we didn't bring it in the room until babygirl was almost 6 months old!  Prior to that she slept in a bassinet and then her pack & play.  The crib is just a simple, modern one from Ikea, and I love it!  The curtain hanging behind it was recycled from our previous home where I used it to hide our washer & dryer.  It's a Jonathan Adler print, and was originally a king-sized duvet cover!!  I just took out the seams to create one long panel, and then hemmed up the sides and created a pocket at the top.  I have it hanging on a curtain rod, and think it's a super-fun & dramatic detail!  I made a simple crib-skirt from the same fabric to tie it all together.  The mobile over the crib was made by me. 

Rounding out the room is this little corner with one of my favorite pieces of furniture- an old cigar humidor owned by my great-grandparents!  When I was growing up it was always in my gran & grandad's kitchen and was full of sweets & cookies- probably why I have such fond memories of it!!  It has a hole in the top where an ashtray once was, so I just covered it with a simple marble tile.  Atop it sits another piece from my gran & grandad's home- a vintage orange mushroom lamp.  On this table (though difficult to see) also sit the baby monitor base station, and the white noise sound machine which is a must for babygirl to sleep soundly!

The blanket on the back of the glider was handmade by my sister just for the nursery- such talent!  And behind the glider is the gallery wall, with details in this post.  On the back wall is a cute modern clock I picked up at Big Lots, of all places.  I also have a mirror propped against the day bed so babygirl can watch herself- she loves it!  In the middle of the room is one of the best gifts we received- a wooden activity toy.  It keeps babygirl occupied for ages.  I also popped a couple cute straw hats on the curtain tie-backs just for fun.

So that's the nursery tour!  Below are links for the items I could find links for.

Wall Paint: Natural Twine MSL217, Martha Stewart for Home Depot
Ceiling Paint: Eros Pink SW6880, Sherwin Williams
Valance Fabric: unsure of name, Forsyth Fabrics
Daybed, Crib, Dresser, Ceiling light,: Ikea

I'd love to do tours of all the rooms in our home, that could be lots of fun!!

*The hubs gives me grief about the room, but I can justify it because we actually won a Most Colorful Nursery contest sponsored by the What to Expect When You're Expecting website.  So when he gives me grief, I have to remind him the room is "Award Winning".  Ah, that certainly feels good!!

**Funny note about that ceiling light, I wasn't so crazy about it when Ikea first came out with it.  Then, last summer when we were getting started on the nursery I spotted it in the As-Is section at Ikea for a good bit off the original price.  I thought it could be whimsical & sweet in the nursery, so we got it.  Once installed, the hubs had reservations because it cast pretty cool shadows that he thought would scare babygirl since they looked like spiders.  I had to remind him she wouldn't know what spiders are!!  It's turned out to be a wonderful choice for the nursery because of those shadows, and the light fixture itself- she is captivated by it!! 

Evolution of a Gallery Wall

We've lived in our home nearly three years.  In that time, the room that is now babygirl's nursery has gone through many incarnations.  The picture above is the room shortly after we moved in, when it was a guest room.

A few months later I had added curtains and a few random things, but it was still pretty sparse.  I'd always had it ear-marked as the eventual nursery, so while I wanted it to be a cozy place for guests, I wasn't going to go overboard to decorate it as a guest room.

And here it is almost exactly one year ago, thanks to a date-stamp I didn't know how to take off of my camera setting.  Good thing I figured that out!  I'll do a full tour of the nursery soon, but for now I thought I'd focus on that back wall, which I decided to make a "gallery wall", and it's evolution over the past year.  Above is how it started, the centerpiece being a needlepoint made by my grandad in 1979.  I thought it was a perfect place for a piece of his art, and the colors worked nicely with what was going on in the room.  It just makes me happy to know a piece of art he lovingly made and hung in his home for years is now in babygirl's room.  Lots of good energy there, I just know it!  The pink item is a (heavy!) floral iron sculpture I found at a local junk shop, already painted the awesome pink color.  The other small piece is a painting done by my nephew many Christmases ago, when he was maybe 3 or 4, with the three main colors of the nursery: brown, pink & orange.  That combo has been a fave of mine for ages!

This picture is from my first blog post at the end of December.  I've added a few more items- the white frame on the right side is a picture of our family from Thanksgiving 2011- babygirl's first Thanksgiving.  The frame in the lower middle is an artpiece I made in that same blog post.  The frame on the left with the wide white mat is another piece I made from some scrapbook paper and adhesive letters, which spells out babygirl's name.  The melted crayon art above it was a gift from a great friend who made it herself (with some Pinterest inspiration).  It's so cool!

Now here it is this past week!  I added a family picture taken in the hospital when babygirl was 1 (ONE!) day old.  I'd had no sleep in nearly three days, and you can tell from my puffy eyes, but it just melts my heart.  I also added a stork the hospital hung outside our door- the artwork is actually really cool!  On the lower right, I made another small artpiece from scrapbook paper and a cool bicycle graphic.  And in the upper middle, I framed a square of heavy paper from a graphic gift bag I received- art can be found anywhere!  The two black frames in the upper left are cool ceramic pieces that I just glued (with semi-permanent glue dots) cards I'd used as thank you's for baby gifts.  I loved the artwork from the cards, and thought they'd make pretty additions.  Plus they fit perfectly on the ceramic frames.  Here are a few closeups of the wall:

The thing I love about this wall is that most items are entirely homemade, and many done cheaply, or free.  There are special pieces in there too, but the cheap ones can easily be changed out/updated/evolved as babygirl grows and develops her own (great) taste.  For now it's fun to find or make art for the wall and continue to grow it organically.  I can't wait to see what it will look like next year at this time!!

A Tutorial: DIY Headband Holder

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I came across the image above on Pinterest* a while back, and utterly fell in love.  It may have been the burlap, because I have a definite soft spot for the nubby texture, or it may have been the clever up-cycling of an oatmeal container.  Either way, I quickly pinned it and started thinking about how to make it my own.

We eat a LOT of oatmeal in this house, and those oatmeal containers are very sturdy!  Every time I toss one I feel a little bad, so I was excited about putting it to good use.  Now, I will admit I made this before I was blogging, so there aren't step-by-step photos, but I think you'll easily get the idea.

My humble materials- an oatmeal container & an old pillar candle holder I picked up at Goodwill for the purposes of this project, to use as a base.  Notice the price- $1.91- you can't beat that!!  At $1.99 for the oatmeal, the project total is a whopping $3.90, though I'm not sure you'd even count the cost of the oatmeal!

I quickly got to painting the pillar candle holder in my favorite glossy black acrylic paint.  Then I looked through my fabric stash for the most neutral fabric I had.  I ended up using a scrap of fabric that was actually from a sample book, and was FREE at my favorite fabric store. (It's awesome, they usually have free bins by the registers that are filled with small scraps of fabric, pieces from sample books, and little bits of trim.  I always scour them for cool things to save for future projects.)  This fabric had more color to it, but I used the reverse side of the fabric because I loved the more neutral tones.

I used spray adhesive to coat the oatmeal container & fabric, allowed them to get a bit tacky, and then adhered the fabric to the container.  I also cut a circle of fabric and adhered it to the top of the lid.  The sides of the lid were still a little tacky, so I took the opportunity to add a little satin ribbon trim in a matching chocolate brown color.  And then being the perfectionist I am, I also added a little of the same ribbon around the top of the oatmeal container and along the back seam so you couldn't see the edges & seams of the fabric. 

Now came the only tricky part- how to attach the container to its base.  I ended up using an additional oatmeal container lid (I told you we eat a lot of oatmeal!) and used spray adhesive to secure it to the base, set my oatmeal container on top of it, and then hot-glued all around to make sure it was secure.  Hmmm, I bet you're thinking a photo of that process would be really helpful- Sorry!!!  Any future project tutorials will come with lots of step-by-step pics, I promise!!  For fun, I hot-glued some of the leftover trim from babygirl's valances to tie in a bit of pink, and that's it!

This couldn't have been a simpler project.  It was made wholly with things I had around the house, apart from the base which was a steal at Goodwill, and only took about 1 hour to complete while babygirl was napping- that's my kind of project!  

Here is the finished product adorned with headbands.  There's also lots of storage inside for the not-so-cute bands, elastics, etc.

Next, I have plans to make a holder for all of babygirl's hair barrettes.  They are currently clipped to a length of ribbon which is hanging from the closet door knob, but I have a much cuter idea in mind.  Stay tuned!!

*If you want to follow me on Pinterest, I'm over there with the username: mamacarriet.  Though I have to admit I don't pin that often, I prefer to pin-surf other people's pins!!  And if you need an invite to join, just let me know, I'm happy to send you one.

Brainstorming: DIY Pull-Down Map

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I saw this picture a few weeks ago, and it's been on my mind ever since.  I've always loved vintage maps, in fact I found one many years ago at Goodwill, of all places!  It was a prized possession, until movers lost it in my move from Phoenix.  (I knew I had blogged about that awesome map many years ago, and dug through the vaults to find this post.  Ha!  Good times!  Man, I miss that map.)

Anyhow, I love vintage maps, especially those of the pull-down school variety, and I love the clever use of the map above to conceal a TV, because if there is one thing I DON'T love in home decor, it's a glaringly huge TV.  The hubs would of course disagree.  We have a flat screen TV that we're hoping to wall mount in the next couple months, so I decided to start my search for a vintage pull-down map to conceal the TV once it's mounted.  Lemme tell you, the search was short-lived.  Unless I happen across a cheap one at Goodwill again, the cool ones are way out of my price-range!!  (I checked eBay, just do a search for vintage pull down maps and you'll see what I'm talking about.)

As I was browsing eBay for the pull-down maps, a few pull-down educational charts popped up.  I also adore their weird quirkiness, but unfortunately the cool ones are also out of my price-range.  But, it got my wheels turning...

A few months ago we installed cheapy roller shades in babygirl's nursery in an attempt to make it darker and cooler.  It didn't make a huge improvement, but it does create a really beautiful diffused light during the day.  But, I digress.  The point I was going to make is that those roller shades are DIRT CHEAP.  So I started thinking: what if I had a roller shade cut down to my exact measurement, found a cool pdf of a map or educational chart, had it blown up & printed at an office store, mounted it onto the roller shade, attached a dowel to the bottom and built a simple shelf to mount it to, and then hung it on the wall above the TV to make my own version of a vintage pull-down map/chart?!?

I'm soooo excited!  I'll keep you posted, and will be sure to post a tutorial!

A Tutorial: DIY Mobile

I was blog-browsing one day when I came across these beautiful watercolor birds. They're free to print, and I thought they'd make the perfect start to a DIY mobile for babygirl's nursery.  The hubs thinks I'm crazy, but I just wasn't crazy about any of the zillions of mobiles out there in the baby stores.  So I set out to make my own.

First, I wanted to print the birds onto a heavier paper, but didn't have anything fancy, so I just tore a few sheets out of my sketchpad, cut off the scraggly edges, and voila- fancy paper! I printed two of each set of birds, for a total of 24 birds.  Next, I cut around the dotted lines and glued the birds onto a thin cardboard (I used gift boxes left-over from Christmas gifts).

I then went back to this place, which is one of my favorite shops for inspiration & awesome fabric, and cut a TON of "samples".  I suppose that was kind of cheating, but they do allow you to cut samples no larger than a dollar bill, and none of mine were larger than that- I may just have had 30 or so samples!!!

I cut the birds out of the cardboard once the glue had dried, and then set out to match the coloring of each bird to similar colors in the fabric.  It goes without saying that I only cut samples of fabrics that I felt would look good in the nursery, and were visually appealing to newborn eyes!!  Here's me playing around with matching birds to fabric:

I used Mod-Podge to glue the birds to the fabric, and then stacked books on top to keep the birds nice & flat.  (They may have stuck to the dining table in the process, but the excess Mod-Podge washed right off!).  I cut out the birds, and then Mod-Podged the fronts of the birds so they were nice & shiny and sealed.  Here they are drying, and this time I've wised-up and put a layer of foil down to prevent sticking:

From here I used a tiny brad nail to poke (hammer!) a hole through the lacquered birds & hardened fabric.  That required some trial & error, but using a hammer to tap the brad into the pre-printed hole turned out to work the best!  At this point I became a crazy-lady obsessed with finding the perfect branch while the hubs and I were on our neighborhood walks, in order to hang the birds from.  I went through quite a few versions of the perfect branch before I settled on THE perfect one!!  I was initially going to leave it in it's natural state, but then the idea to paint it a glossy black seemed perfect for the modern-ish nursery.

So I painted (with acrylic craft paint in glossy black), cut varying lengths of clear nylon string, and got to work stringing the birds from the branch.  Sorry, no pics of this process, but I think you get the general idea!  I then cut 3 long lengths of string, installed 3 eye-hooks in the ceiling above the crib and attached the mobile to the ceiling.  Done!!

It may have been a labor-intensive project, but it wasn't hard, just time consuming.  I think the results were well worth the effort though!  It's not just a mobile, it's an art piece.  And the best part is that babygirl absolutely loves it.  I catch her staring at it all the time- no better sense of accomplishment for this mama!!

Amateur Seamstress

My mom is an amazing seamstress.  No, more like A-M-A-Z-I-N-G.  When we were kids she used to make outfits for us, especially fancy stuff at Easter time.  She also made clothes for Cabbage Patch dolls, back in the days when they were all the rage.  Her stuff was great.  So great, in fact, that the local McDonald's in our small town got wind of her skills and asked her to stitch up mini-McDonald's uniforms for their own Cabbage Patch dolls (in retrospect, I'm not sure what the heck a McDonald's needed Cabbage Patch dolls for. I guess that just speaks to how popular they were)!!  It was awesome.  I recall her trying to show me and teach me as she worked, but I don't recall being too interested...

Fast forward a few years- Cabbage Patch dolls were lame, and "homemade" clothes were even lamer.  And a mom who likes to sew?  Kinda lame too.

Now fast forward a few more years, and sewing ain't so bad anymore.  In my early 20's I picked up an old cabinet sewing machine (I have no idea if that's what they were called- it was a sewing machine that folded out of a cabinet) in a thrift store.  It served double-duty as a table/desk and a cheap way to outfit my apartments with cute curtains & pillows.  It was at that point I first wished I'd paid more attention to my mom's sewing lessons.

After moving that super heavy sewing machine a few too many times I donated it to a thrift store myself, and began begging for a sewing machine for Christmas.  Yes, I realize I sound like a spoiled 9 year-old when I say that, but I did!  Years passed with no sewing machine under the tree, but then 2 years ago my mom relented and I once again had a machine.  She warned it wasn't a good machine, a good machine is expensive, and this one was on sale, she said- no matter, I had a sewing machine!  But once again was wishing I knew how to sew.  I even recruited her to visit for a sewing-tutorial weekend.  We may have done more gabbing than sewing.  But we made pillows.  And they were okay.  I still didn't know how to sew.

I have had a definite love/hate relationship with that machine.  I probably still do, but I'm trying to focus on the love part.  And the hate part is honestly my ignorance.  For the longest I could hardly sew a straight line without the bobbin side of the thread getting into an utterly tangled mess.  Then I realized I needed to adjust the tension.  Silly me.  I wish I knew how to sew.

So, fast forward to last week and a girlfriend & I were shopping around Hobby Lobby for her daughter's 1st birthday party.  She mentioned she was thinking of making a skirt for her daughter to wear to the party.  I was impressed!  Then she clarified that she was going to BUY a skirt and add embellishments to it.  But the seed was planted...  We continued to browse and came to the fabric section of the store.  She instantly pulled out a fabric she loved, and I blurted out she could make a dress with it!  Long story short, we left Hobby Lobby with 3/4 yard of material, a spool of ribbon and a promise that I would make a birthday dress.

Holy crap, what was I thinking??  Clearly I wasn't.  We got home, I found a pillowcase dress in babygirl's closet that I was going to use as inspiration, and I hit Google hard, scouring every tutorial I could find.  I settled on this one because I liked the idea of the sash instead of the ribbon you traditionally see on a pillowcase dress.  I also liked the option to tie in the back instead of on top of the shoulders so little fingers wouldn't continually try to unknowingly undress themselves!  So I had a plan.  But man, I wish I actually KNEW HOW TO SEW!!

I was too nervous to cut the birthday girl's fabric, so I decide to do a practice run with a scrap of fabric leftover from babygirl's valances.  Bad idea. The fabric was too heavy and not cut straight (didn't realize it at the time).  Not to mention trying to use the dress I had as a pattern without taking it apart was NOT EASY.  But I soldiered on, and ended up with a dress.

Here's a pic, just for reference:

I admit it looks okay, but if you looked closely, you'd see it is riddled with mistakes.  The hem didn't line up at the back, the armholes were poorly sewn, the casing on the back of the dress was an unfinished edge...

So I went back to Google, and found this tutorial that seemed like it would be easier, especially for the arm holes.  She calls it the "Easiest Pillowcase Dress Ever", I'm not sure that I totally agree!!  It wasn't hard, per say, but there were lots of steps when making a front & back, versus using one long piece of fabric stitched up the back, which is what I did on the practice dress.

However, the hard part came when I decided it would be a good idea to make matching bloomers!  Oh boy!  I found this tutorial, and it seemed easy enough, but I think I needed to remind myself *I didn't know what I was doing*.  The bloomers came out, and looked cute even, but they were oh so difficult, and literally took HOURS to sew!

Being the perfectionist that I am, I also made 2 hairclips, added trim & buttons to fancy the dress, bloomers & clips, and packed them sweetly on a padded hanger.  Altogether I probably only spent $10-12 on the fabric, ribbon, thread, elastic, buttons & bias tape, which isn't bad.  But the subsequent hours spent crafting the dress may have been better spent on another project, and a 10 minute drive to a big-box store to buy a perfectly made dress there!  That's not to say I'm not super proud of myself, or that my friend didn't LOVE the dress, it just seemed like a TON of effort for a little dress!!

Without further ado, here's the completed dress & accessories:

Back:

Accessories:

I did learn a lot along the way, and I do know how I would do things differently the next time (will there BE a next time?!), so I suppose that made it worth it in the long run.  I can only aspire to be an awesome seamstress like my mom someday, for now, I'd say I'm a budding amateur.

Lists, Lists, and a Goal to Motivate

I'm a born list-maker, so with babygirl's first birthday, and accompanying first birthday party, on the horizon I broke out a notebook to start making lists.  Who to invite, how many kids there will be, food, kids food, drinks...

We're not going overboard, but it will be a decent sized gathering at our house- what better motivation to also complete some of the house projects that have been bugging me!!  So I continued on with my lists and created a page for each room of the house, as well as the porches, front & backyard (hey, I said I was a list-maker!).  If you'll notice in the picture, my notebook has a wine theme, which I think is kind of hilarious because I fear I may need a lot of that wine to either bribe the hubs to help me, or to ease my mind from these dizzying lists!  I'm not aiming to complete everything, a lot of these are dreaming-down-the-road things, but it feels good to have everything (for now) on paper.

After putting lots of thought into my lists, I also realized this could be the perfect springboard to start blogging again.  I had a blog years & years ago (sometimes it feels like a LIFETIME ago) and really looked forward to, and enjoyed the creative outlet it provided.  It was before I had a husband, and a baby, but I still had a job & a life, so I'm pretty sure those first two are no excuse!!

So, I'm going to put in an honest effort.  As much time as I spend sitting in front of my laptop reading what everyone else writes, I figure I can carve out a bit of time to put my own work out there.  I'm not entirely sure what the content will look like- I know I'll write about some house projects, and I'm always looking for cheap (or free!) crafty projects to keep me busy.  Goodwill is always a source of inspiration.  And I do love to cook, though I don't do enough of it.  So we'll see.  But I'm excited!!