DIY: Felt Board

I'm exhausted. I just spent the last 12.5 hours cooking, entertaining, then cleaning up after my son's second birthday party, yet I'm still blogging tonight. Glutton for punishment, I guess.

Well, today's post is a quickie on a DIY felt board. 

I've had this 16" x 20"  canvas board for so long, it's developed holes and tears from storage. I also had this blank wall that was itching for something to be hung for a certain MonkeyBoy entertainment area in the kitchen. I purchased this board about 10 or 11 years ago, but they are about $3-$4 at our local Job Lot stores.

Joann Fabrics had a pretty good sale this Thanksgiving weekend, so I took advantaged and bought one yard of green felt for about $2.00, and a couple sheets of pre-cut felt for another $1.00.

I cut a piece to cover the canvas, and used a staple gun to adhere it to the frame.

Next, I just cut out shapes to "stick" to the board. I opted for a farm seen with a blue tractor for the first board, since we just had a tractor party for my son. I thought the kids would have fun with it.

A little bit of fabric glue to make some embellishments to the cow and barn, and voilá!

As long as there is a tractor, or anything else with wheels, I think we have a winner for MonkeyBoy.

Yankee Doodle Dandy,

–TYG

To Etsy, or Not To Etsy...

I LOVE LOVE LOVE crocheting, making adorable toys and clothes, and creating new patterns while learning from new ones I find on the web and Ravelry.  The yarn community is HUGE, whether it be hook or needles.

When I had my son, I was so thrilled that my old company was allowing me to work at home nights and weekends (and some days) in order to stay home with my little MonkeyBoy. I was adament about nursing.  And although, at the time, I was unhappy he wouldn't take bottles, in retrospect, I am so super proud of myself that I solely nursed my son for six months, then continued for another year after that...no bottles needed. I was utterly attached to my child for a year and a half; no babysitters, no nights off, no days off; but now that it's stopped, I realized how priviledged I was to have the ability to do this and to create an indelible bond between me and my son.

Well, the economy hit my company, which in turn, hit my job position. I, of course, needed to have a creative and adult outlet of my own and not just be the role of mommy. I felt like nothing was my own. My son had all-consumed me bodily (literally) and soul.

I started to pick up my hooks again.

Pinterest reintroduced me to the world of crocheting and to the world of Ravelry. I found so many patterns...for FREE...and I started to get my hooking-hands back in order. I started with creating playfood for my son, and it exploded from there. I've created animated dolls from his favorite shows, beanie hats, clothes, blankets, scarves; I've been going crazy. I would make things for my mom-friends for their child's birthday and gifts for my family for the holidays.

"You should sell these!" "You should start an Etsy site."I would hear that over and over.

However, my biggest strife is valuing my work in order to share it with the world.  After doing my research and pricing similiar items of mine out on  the world wide web, I feel I would have to undersell my items in order to compete. So much goes into creating my pieces: materials, time, love. How do you value you that?

Let's take my Pizza Play Set as an example.

I created this piece for a two-year-old birthday gift. I got the idea from several sites online, but the pattern was created solely by me.

It took me a full week to make this in between mothering and housewifing, so I averaged it at about 15 hours (which may be generous). Now, the materials aren't that much. I use Red Heart acrylic yarns (Made in the USA!), and at Walmart, they are about $2.77 a skein, which translates into $0.42 per ounce. The stuffing I use (also Made in the USA!) works out to be $0.19 per ounce.

The material breakdowns are very easy to calculate. It was about $9 to $10 in materials to make the pizza set.

But what about my time? That's 15 hours of my life I don't get back. Housework had to be sacrificed and a child had to be "ignored" occasionally in order for me to meet the deadline of a birthday party. And let's not forget the time spent photographing and posting it on my company site on Facebook.

The only thing I could think of was the minimum wage in my state, which is currently at $7.40 per hour.  So between materials ($10) and time ($111), this adorable Pizza Play Set just turned into a $120 item! Plus I feel I'm worth a little more than just minimum wage.

NONE of my friends would pay that for this. Oh, they would ooo and ahhh and love it, but Lord! Even I wouldn't drop $111 for this set even though I KNOW the time and effort and sweat that went into creating it. I had to sew all the individual toppings on top of crocheting them! This was a lot of work, but well worth it because it rocks, quite frankly.

I tagged a price of $40. Yes, this is completely undervalued, in my opinion, but I wouldn't be able to sell it otherwise. Yes, there may be a richy-rich market out there for people that appreciate this kind of thing, but with so many sites like Etsy, where is my niche in order to snag that market? Completely organic and green yarns would be a great sell, but let's quadruple the price just for the materials alone. Organic ain't cheap.

So, I guess the only thing I could do is sell the pattern. Since there are so many crafty people out there that love doing what I'm doing, but lack the knowledge in order to create a pattern on their own. I, myself, like to follow a pattern, too...no thinking involved, just lovely, mindless crocheting. And patterns are around $4-$8 dollars. Now people will pay that price, that is for sure.

Now, if I can only make heads or tails of my notes.

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG

PS: Please visit my company's site www.DavishireCrafts.com and be sure to like us on Facebook!

Been Making BLT's Wrong My Whole Life

Weave that bacon, then bake in the oven.

This has been floating around the web. I've seen at on so many sites, that I just don't want to link them all. Google "weave bacon" and you'll see what I mean.  

I am SO happy I finally got around to making this. When you weave the bacon, you have a gorgeous bacon blanket completely covering the sandwich. For a regular-sized sandwich, six slices (three across/three down) worked perfectly. Every bite had a delicious mouthful of bacon, and the bacon didn't slip out.

375℉ for about 10-15 minutes for 9 pieces of baking on a drip pan

Mmmmm...bacon.
My house has smelled like bacon for two days.
Mmmmm...bacon.

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG

DIY: Cloud Dough

For the past year, I've been scouring the web looking for fabulous indoor sensory and learning activities to "homeschool" my toddler. It was about this time last year that I discovered the joys of Pinterest, which ended up making my search that much easier (and stealing any free time I had in the evenings!).

I ended up coming across a Pin to make Cloud Dough a few months back.  It was a super easy recipe based on the Juggling With Kids' post.  However, I was hesitant to do this because my son has tons of Play Doh® already, and this just seemed like more of the same. I was completely mistaken! 

The cast of characters are 8 cups of all purpose flour, 1 cup of baby oil, a measuring cup, and a tub preferably with a lid.











It only took about 3 minutes to combine all of the dough with the oil. MonkeyBoy was right in there with his cars and sand molds before I could even finish mixing.

He absolutely loved the feel of the dough.

The consistency acted like wet beach stand, so you could mold it, but it felt like silk. What a great combination. Plus the smell of the baby oil made it all the more appealing to mama.

If you follow the link above to the original post, a few of the commenters had tried other flours and oils with huge success, so I encourage you to go there.

 I think I'll go with just a diaper next time, since "keeping it in the box" is still a major challenge and a very hard concept for a little toddler to grasp :)

He was determined to get himself right in that box.

So, my overall impression of this sensory exercise was a huge success. My son was able to watch me mix two things together to create something new, the smell of the baby oil was so relaxing, the silky-smooth texture felt so good when squished in our hands, plus you could mold shapes out of it. I also found that the cleanup was very easy.  I just sealed the lid on the Sterilite container* and stashed away for another day. The consistency of the oil and flour just swept right up off the floor in a matter of seconds. His clothes may need wringing out before they hit the washing machine, however.

It'll get to the point in a couple months when playing outside in the sandbox will require chisels. I think this little experiment just enabled us to have a sandbox in the house for the winter.

Plus, I think the smile on this little monkey's face says it all.








Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG


*NOTE: the link to the Sterilite box is to show the image of what I purchased at Walmart. I purchased just one of these totes for about $6 or $7 dollars. Why their website says it costs $38 is beyond my capacity for rational thought.

DIY: Driftwood Photo Frames

My fifth wedding anniversary is this weekend, and I've been racking my brain trying to figure out what to get my husband.

Over the summer, we spent a long weekend up in New Hampshire, and on one of those days, we had a fabulous time at Ellacoya State Park on Lake Winnipesauki. While my boys were playing on the beach, I took a walk and collected a pile of drift wood that I thought would be awesome for a craft.

Between the fantastic shots I got that day and this pile of wood, I finally came to the conclusion to make a framed photo to commemorate that wonderful weekend.

On top of this, my husband's office had just gotten remodeled, and it was itching for some personal touches. Hopefully these pictures will fit the bill.

We tend to not throw ANYTHING away these days, and upon rummaging through the garage, I found two planks of plywood 7" x 16" each.

I started to go through all the photos from that day, and cropped a couple that I thought would work. I was limited by time and what my local CVS same-day printer could handle, which meant I could only go as wide as 10".

I took some textured poster board, cut pieces to fully cover the front, then Mod Podged it. I put a top coat of Mod Podge over the poster board, and then added the photo.

Once that was dry, I began applying the drift wood pieces around the plywood. I didn't have any rhyme or reason, just what was pleasing in terms of texture and composition.

With all that wood, the photo became pretty heavy, so I opted to screw in two eye hooks and frame wire to the back for hanging.

The way the wood worked around the frame on this one, it left a pretty obvious space.

So I printed the locale and date on craft paper; then outlined it in twine to maintain that "by the sea" feel.

I ended up having plenty of drift wood to make two frames. The wood pieces I chose for this one filled in the empty space without me having to add a placard. And if the two photos are hung together, there really is no need for two placards.

I'm pretty thrilled with the results and the natural, organic quality.

Plus, as an added bonus, I had no idea that the traditional five-year wedding anniversary gift was wood. So major win for me!









So, all the supplies I had on hand were already in my craft stash from eons ago, or were free on a beach. I only had to pay $7 for the two photo prints. Handmade with meaning...that's what I love!!!

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG

A Dollar Store Spooky Village DIY

Another Pinterest find from 36th Ave totally worth doing:  a DIY Dollar Store Spooky Village. This village, as shown, cost me $8 for supplies at the Dollar Tree, and left over spray paint I had in the garage.

Well, I  guess it's too much to ask for the Halloween stuff to be put out in the stores in August, I guess I shouldn't be surprised about the Christmas items already in stores now. Well, for this project, it turns out to be a plus. The Dollar Tree has started to put out their Christmas Village ceramic pieces. I purchased four houses, the gate, and a pack of three villagers ($6).

I then used a matte black spray paint that was leftover from refinishing our fire pit and gave all the pieces two light coats. I assume that I will never be setting the village on fire to test the High Heat resistant paint. However, it was the only matte black I had; everything else was a high gloss, and I agree with the source website that the matte really makes the village look old and spooky.

I used candle sticks that I already had to put the houses at different levels. I purchased a piece of creepy cloth ($1) to drape under the village, and purchased a bag of spooky, plastic rings that had bats to have them fly around the village ($1).

I'm really happy with the results, and I can see this little village growing year after year. I would love to add some trees, cars, coffins...Oh, the ideas are endless!




I hope you have a Spooktacular Halloween Season!

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG

I Love FREE!

My husband is having his classic 1962, lab/science office remodeled. One item I was super excited about out of the many things now crowding our garage, was this chalkboard. With the installation of SmartBoards in all his classrooms, these old relics were up for grabs.

It was orignally set up as a vertical board that was doubling as a door to a cabinet. I had to take the chalk ledge and move it to the horizontal, fill in the holes, and give it a fresh coat of paint so it matched the walls and woodwork.

I hung it in the hallway as a temporary place. It's permanant home will eventually be the wall that MonkeyBoy's crib is now up against in his bedroom.

I know, I know; he's 22 months; why not a big boy bed already? Well, he's showing no signs of wanting to learn how to climb out of his crib, he's controlled in the crib, so no worries of him running around the house getting hurt, and my philosphy is if it ain't broke, don't fix it.




So anyway, I'm loving this new addition, and so is MonkeyBoy. Now, dust is a concern, but I'm finding that baby wipes work beautifully in controlling the chalk dust rather than the classic erasers.

Although, cleaning the erasers could make a good ol' school disciplinary tool when MonkeyBoy acts up. Then again, he'd probably think swimming in a dust cloud would be awesome.

Yankee Doodle Dandy,
–TYG