Doggie Backpack

So my Jack Russel, Chase, is one of those dogs inbetween sizes. If i get a large, I have to redo it smaller, and vis versa with mediums. And since we take him to the park a lot, and do a lot of hiking, I figured he could use a back pack, and after gawking at the $20-$50 price tags, I decided it would be waaayyy easier, and a heck lot cheaper to just make him a back pack. Did I not mention I don't owna sewing machine? Or that I have corpal tunnel in both wrists? This easy project turned into a month-long event. But I did it! and for under $5! ( I had a few old leashes, bc my other dog went through this "I will eat you, leash" phase...) And, I don't measure, I flop the material over whatever I'm making it for and wing it. Did I mention Chase doesn't know he's a JRT? He's very mellow, doesn't even bark!

Ignore the mess on my dinning room table, the epiphany hit me during my morning coffee...
Anyways, thats the foundation of the backpack: a big oval. You need to cut 2, and sew them together.




These are the pockets.



sew the pockets on, add adorable little buttons that really have no purpose, except to hide the mess I made sewing in the snaps...


Add straps, and Tah-Dah!

Mason Jar Candle Holders

So tea lights look great in all Mason Jars, especially when jars are adorned with ribbon or twine. But with Hurricane Irene threatening my home, and electricity, I need more candle holders for all my emergency candles. Well good thing I have so many half-burned candles, and 1 cup mason jars! I used Drip candles to make the ones below, but I've also used a candle warmer to (safely) melt the wax and then  pour it into jars and insert the emergency candle. (hold it in place with toothpick, advocado-seed style)

I realized as I was taking the pictures that one is crooked, and shorter. My bf hasn't learned yet to burn a set of tapers at the same time, and I have no idea why its crooked, I'll be fixin that now! :)


Advocado seed style:

Photo found here

Toilet paper rescue, thank you.

So we've all had it happen: it's late at night, you walk into the bathroom to use the lou, and you see the TP roll is empty, you goto change it...and theres no more rolls of toilet paper! Oh, no! It's too late to go to the store, you're out of tissues, (or only have the vicks ones, eek), what to do? Well this is one of the rare occasions I'm thankful I live in an apartment complex. (I love even more that my cousin lives a few buildings down!). So, when someone saves your life like this, how in the world do you thank them? Of course you go buy them a brand new roll the next day, but that doesn't truely express your extreme graditude.

Yeah, that ought to do the trick!

Felt-flower arrangement

So I'm a plant-giver. What better gift? It goes with all decor, and houseplants are very healthy to have around! So when my black-thumbed live-in boyfriend's mother's birthday came up....what to do? Give her a bunch of dead sticks I pick up around the farm everyday, and tie them together with twice that wraps our haybales? Sounds perfect! Cute-it-up with felt flowers, and were good to go!

Start by cutting out your petals. I followed Mrs. Priss' tutorial, but only used one layer of petals.

Mix it up with a few different kinds of flowers and colors, or keep it all uniform.