I've got no pictures for this, but my kicking out the clutter initiative has kicked into high gear in the past few weeks.  My family has been cleaning out an old storage building that's falling in behind my grandmother's house, and my husband and I are moving to another city.  (Closer to "home" home and his work; I will be commuting for his last year of school.)  The sacking of the storage building has been wild.  Since the ceiling is slowly but surely collapsing, most of the things that were in there have ruined.  We filled up one dump truck already, burned about another dump truck load of old cardboard boxes and beautiful but utterly ruined vintage fabric, and we've managed to save a few 'treasures'.  Some old family pictures that somehow escaped unscathed.  Some old toys of my mother's.  Countless old glass bottles and vases.  Some of the not-so-treasures?  Snake skins.  Rat nests.  Wasps.  Bees.  More bees.  Moldy pillows that crumble at the touch.  The previously mentioned vintage fabric that was filled with moth and rat holes and covered in mildew.  My grandmother didn't realize how bad the state of the building was, and it's really been a learning experience for all of us about what to save and what not to save.  (And when to throw it out.)
 
My husband's and my move is going to be a slow thing.  We're not going to be out of our current place until the end of May, so I'm going to stay there during the week while he's at the new place.  It isn't the greatest set-up, but it's easier on gas and our sleep schedules.  He's got a bed, a table, and some chairs at the new place, and I'm bringing a load of stuff in my van each time I drive there.  The whole process is forcing me to clean up and clean out, and since we've got two months, I can do it at my own pace while making time for work, school, and state of mind.  I'm tackling a dresser in our bedroom tonight.
 
Oh, and I'm getting a baby niece today.  :)  Happy thoughts and prayers to my sister-in-law!

Madeline

Jay's sister is having a little girl this spring, and I wanted to give his sister and the new baby, Madeline, a great baby gift, not just another pack of onesies.  Unfortunately, she already had many of the things she wanted and needed, and the things she still needed were a little out of our price range.  (Hey, we're still students after all.)  So I decided I'd try to make something for her.  Jay's aunt cross-stitched his sister's name onto a large piece of fabric and had it framed for her when she was a little girl.  The hanging is still on the wall at my in-laws' house today, and I thought, "Hey, it'd be neat to do the same thing for her little girl!"  Unfortunately for all of us, I can't cross stitch.  Let's be honest:  I can barely straight stitch with my sewing machine.  But the idea had been planted, and I could find nothing in a store that I liked so well as the idea of stitching Madeline's name, and having it framed. 

Then, inspiration struck.  I remembered this framed picture of appliqued fabric flower cutouts that I'd seen at Anthropologie last summer, and I decided that my sewing machine and I, distant friends though we were, could band together and do this for my soon-to-be niece.  I took a trip to my local Hobby Lobby, also known as my dealer, found some cute fabric that I thought might match Madeline's bedroom decor, and went home to start cutting.  I opened Microsoft word, typed Madeline's name in all caps, and changed the font and font size to match my project.  I printed out the letters, and then used my rotary cutter to cut the fabric to match. 

I didn't want to use a satin stitch (very close zig zag stitches) to applique the letters because I didn't want a nice 'finished' look to the project.  I wanted the edges to fray a little, giving it a more childish, crafty look, so I just used a straight stitch and sewed the edges of the letters onto a piece of off-white cotton.  It was not a perfect job, but I was happy with the result because it was my first real sewing project in ten years.  (And I thought it was kind of cute.)  I had it framed at, you guessed it, Hobby Lobby, and this was the final result:

(Pardon the smudges and glare on the glass...I'm not a professional photographer, though it is something I'd like to learn!)

Now the worry was that my sister-in-law wouldn't like it, either because it looked so homemade or didn't match Madeline's room or she didn't have space for it or...something.  I was just very unsure of myself and my work.  However, my worries were unfounded.  She loved it, and it matched Madeline's decor so well!

This is a picture of it hanging above Madeline's bed, courtesy of Elizabeth Duvall and cropped by me.

The point of my little (or not-so-little) story is this: don't let what you can't do stop you from creating something.  You can always learn a new skill, or you can take the ones you already have to do something else that's just as good.  Happy crafting!