Not Crafty, Just Resourceful

Since moving, I’ve had (and still have) a list of projects to keep me busy. Among them have been some “crafts.” I’m really not crafty, but instead I try to use what is around me to my advantage.

My first project was Jack’s room. While pregnant I would hear about everyone getting their nurseries ready for when their babies come, but we couldn’t do that since Jack was going to be in our living room. Now that we’re in a two bedroom I could finally do a kid’s room. I made the name decoration and the boarder from junk mail and a lot of double stick tape. It took a long time to do all the shapes but it was fun and I’m pleased with how it turned out.

I also wanted a wreath on our front door to make it a little more homey. Since we have plenty of trees and fallen branches, I hot-glued a bunch of sticks together and made a wreath for $0. The fabric will rotate with the seasons and holidays, made from little tablecloths my mom gave me, which I converted to sashes for the wreath.

Jack finally outgrew the weight limit on his infant car seat so I had to find him a bigger one. We ended up with this sweet little thing. Seriously. 

I was not going to pay an extra $20 for a more “manly” color scheme, I figured I could take care of that myself and keep the money. We have a bunch of t-shirts that are someday going to be made into a quilt and so I stole some of the blank squares to come up with this cover. I sewed the squares together and then hand sewed them to the car seat. It works.

The last project doesn’t really qualify as resourceful, but it took up a lot of time and effort so I can’t not mention it. Originally I had a plan to sew a couch cover to make our couch match the décor of our living room better. All too quickly I decided I didn’t want to do that much work and so I just sewed the fabric directly onto the couch, kind of like I re-upholstered it.

Before (best picture I have, Jack was such a wee little baby!):

After:

It's like a brand new couch. Thanks again to my aunt who gave it to us when we got married, hopefully it will continue to last us long after we move.

My current project involves scraping 70 years worth of paint off our door jams so the doors will actually close. Hooray for lead paint exposure!