The Bryan Family Sampler: A busy day in the Craft Corner

Thunder, Lightning and Rain have been the main characters on our sky stage this morning.

I've been in heaven. As far as I'm concerned, this is the best kind of weather.

Yesterday I spent a good few hours in my craft corner.

Let me show you what I came up with.

I had a baby shower to go to last night and so I was going to try and whip up one of these...

donswife.blogspot.com (Apostrophe Designs)

Aren't they cute?

It looked like a pretty slick method to do a baby blanket.

I was about 45 minutes into it before I realized what I so often do...my measurements had needed to be more exact. My mom always teases me about how I cook because I don't always measure everything. Sometimes you just don't have to right? Well, I know it's really important to be more exact in sewing but I thought I could get away with hurrying through this one. Not so much. So, when I realized it wasn't going to work I went to plan B and ended up with these.

Burp cloths are kind of my go to when I want to make a gift but don't have a whole lot of time.

I think I've mentioned before on here that I like to pair them with a package of diapers and this time I even went so far as to put in a cute bottle of baby lotion as well.

I love this big fat bee...

On to project #2...

I spray painted these a long time ago...back when I made these, but they've just been sitting on my counter downstairs since then.

They are just dollar store silver serving trays. I saw the cute idea on Pinterest to use trays as magnet boards.

I bent up a paper clip and hot glued it to the back of each tray

and then hung them from small Command Strips on the wall.

I love my little magnet boards...so simple and fun.

I printed off a bunch of my favorite quotes (once again Pinterest)

to put on the boards.

I also thought they would be fun to use when I'm sewing from a pattern and I can have it hanging up in front of me instead of lost in the clutter of fabric on my counter.

At the same time I spray painted the trays, I also did these...

I bought a bunch of odd sized/shaped pitchers from the D.I. and made them mine. I love what a can of spray paint can do :)

They sit on my bathroom counter downstairs.

Finally, the project that I am most proud of from yesterday...
I have this friend who is such a sweet heart and I love her to death. I've known her since I was in high school where I met her twin sisters that are my age (they are also treasured friends). Through the years we have stayed close. She invited me to attend her book group a few years ago and I met some lovely ladies there. It was such a fun evening to look forward to each month. The book group has been discontinued since then so I don't see her as often any more but it's always worth it when I am able to drive out and visit.
Yesterday was her birthday. I wanted to do something special.
I hopped on Pinterest for inspiration and saw this...

This is from an adorable Etsy shop called "Nellie and Elsie" by Jess Sharp. Go check it out...she has some gorgeous things!

Anyway...I thought it was a way fun idea for my book loving friend. I decided I wanted to put her name on it and really dress it up with all kinds of old fashioned embellishments. I went to town...literally...and bought a ton of fun things at a local book/toy/scrapbook store. They had just the things. I also bought paperback editions of Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility. To be completely honest, it was rather difficult for me to cut into those beautiful books and ruin them...I got over it though. This is funny but I didn't even notice that the picture above was a "Pride and Prejudice Bunting" until I went to the site to get the picture.

I had such fun making this and just hoped my friend would enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

It didn't take too long and I was very pleased with the final product...

As I was cutting out the triangles I enjoyed reading the random pages I had selected and imagining the scene from the classic (really long version) movie.