Made this firewood carrier as a birthday present for a friend a while back.  It’s made out of cotton duck (made in the USA – a rare thing for fabrics these days) and an old 1″ dowel rod. And check out those lovely little labels! 

I’m a big fan of Dave Ramsey and the cash envelope system.  Using cash the last few years has really helped me to cut down on unnecessary spending.  You really don’t feel that money leaving your pocket with a debit or credit card like you do with cold, hard cash.

However, I also LOVE me a good Kate Spade wristlet – easily transitions from my work bag to a larger purse, or carry alone for a quick errand or evening out.  But I was getting a little tired of my change and multiple paper envelopes, or stacks of bills paper clipped together, shuffling around in there, and wanted a cash organizer to fit inside.  Many of the cash envelope wallets on Etsy were a bit large for my taste and wouldn’t have fit anyway…so I got to work and came up with my own!
Rather than label the slots, I used different accent colors on the front and back.  Shouldn’t be too hard to remember as I only use 4 categories: gas, groceries, eating out, and shopping (clothes, home decor, garden, etc.). I put the fun stuff, eating out and shopping, on the pink side and gas and groceries on the light blue side.  See…not too hard!  And the whole thing fits neatly inside a wristlet: Also made some tasty things to eat this weekend.  Picked 12 lbs of Strawberries plus rhubarb on Friday, and spent Saturday making lots of homemade desert…strawberry shortcake, a strawberry rhubarb pie, strawberry Danishes, and still had lots left to freeze for the year.   This next one was totally random, but turned out to be delicious.  My second to last butternut squash from last fall, fresh kale from the garden, Vidalia onions, and garlic sautéed in olive oil with a little bit of salt and pepper, and served on top of quinoa.  Also added Braggs nutritional yeast and liquid aminos.  East peasy, delicious and healthy!   

My mom has started getting into knitting and I want to make her something for her new found hobby for Mother’s Day.  After browsing several stores and Etsy for knitting needle case ideas, I must say I was sorely disappointed.  Was wanting something that would hold a variety of needle types (straights, dpns, and circular), was well made, and had a handmade, timeless look.  So…I just came up with my own!  Made a few small mistakes and learned a some new things along the way, but overall I’m quite pleased! 

For comparison, much better than my old, cheapo Michaels version that I bought back in college.  May have to upgrade soon. 

Even better…it’s made entirely of stash fabric, which forced me to actually organize  years worth of scraps in the process.

Made my mom one of my packable beach totes for mother’s day since we were on vacay down in Alabama that week.

Spent the past weekend finishing up a few gifts & projects to take on vacation. I have been wanting to make a new beach bag, but need something light weight and easy to pack. After searching the internet and usual craft blogs, I came up empty handed in terms of a pattern, but did come up with a few features that I liked. So I combined these with a few ideas of my own and came up with this lovely little bag!

So I bought an iPad this weekend…since the iPad 3 is just coming out, I got a great deal on the iPad 2. Even though it’s the previous version, I think this is the most technologically up to date I have ever been, with my iphone 4s and now iPad. Trust me, I was the one still walking around with a flip phone during the blackberry and iPhone 1&2 days. But I love it, so of course I had to make a case for my new toy.