Handmade Goodness

I've been wondering about posting stuff that I've made on this blog... I feel like Blogville is inundated with craftiness and my stuff isn't really all that cool so why should I clutter up an already craft heavy place with more mediocre crafts? However, sometimes I get lots of comments on stuff I've made which makes me think people may actually be interested... Anyway, all that blah blah blah aside, I had a request to post the following on my blog so here you go.

For Christmas I made a few little things for Wesley, namely a new snuggly blankie and a hooded towel. I don't have a picture of the blanket, but here are the towels. Obviously, the girly one is for the new baby. Having 2 matching kid things makes me realize I'm going to have 2 kids, which is still pretty trippy for me.

Wesley's "big" present was a Toy Story 3 Mr. Potato Head set. I wonder about toys that advertise "52 pieces!" "184 tiny detachable pieces!" What they might as well say is "Good luck keeping these all together, not strewn all over your house, and not lost in less than a month Sucker Mom!"

We were very excited to introduce Wesley to Mr. Potato Head, but I was hesitant about how to keep from losing the plethora of accessory body parts and keeping them from just landing in the back of the toy chest, never to be played with. So I made them a home. Nothing too fancy really, just a drawstring bag out of a remnant of burlap. For the drawstring I used the hem of a t-shirt leftover from a quilt I made and then I stenciled Mr. and Mrs. Potato Head on the front with a Sharpie.

As it turns out, Wesley LOVES his sack of potatoes. He particularly loves dumping all the pieces out and putting them back in the bag. Over and over. He did this 12 times in a row once and I'm not exaggerating. I was amazed that he was still at it after 3 so then I kept counting.

If you too find yourself vexed by toys that have a billion detachable parts, whip up one of these little beauties. The nice thing is, Wesley can't un-cinch the drawstring by himself so he must bring the bag-o-mess to me first. I like to be able to control the chaos sometimes...

I used a combination of this tutorial from Purl Bee and this one from YarnGeek. Well and a little from Dana too.

As for the hooded towels, I love it! My boss made one for me right before Wesley was born and it was small and cone-heady and wonderful for a really long time. I knew I wanted to make one for the baby too so I started looking for a good tutorial and I found this one from Obsessively Stitching and I really really like it. I was skeptical at first, but it turned out marvelously.

So there you go. Another crafty post to the blogosphere. Maybe now you feel inspired to organize your kid's toys or make them a hooded towel for a Valentine's gift. :)