Eddie the Elf

This year I decided that Caleb is now old enough to understand the concept of the Elf on the Shelf, so I purchased him one. I have been waiting a very long time to start this tradition and I am so happy that the time is finally here. In my house, we start decorating and celebrating Christmas the day after Thanksgiving. My boyfriend, Casey, had to work the day after so we decided to put the tree up and decorate it when we finished Thanksgiving dinner with his family. It was fun making those memories with 2 guys I really love (Casey and Caleb). Caleb being 3, has really gotten into the whole Christmas spirit. He loved decorating, he helped hang the Christmas lights on the house (even requested some be hung in his room), traded in his favorite blanket for a snowman blanket and has been wearing his Santa hat EVERY!!

I could go on and on about how excited he is, but this blog isn't about that... it is about how his momma, Krafty Karen, has teamed up with Eddie the Elf to make this Christmas a magical one.

Day 1: Eddie showed up at the house, we read the book, watched the movie and then I explained to him how important Eddie is. Caleb really understood, it was a proud Momma moment!

Day 2: Caleb woke up and found Eddie zip-lining through the house. His exact words were "Eddie is JUST like Buzz Lightyear!"

Day 3: Caleb looked all over the house and couldn't find Eddie, then he said "Maybe he is taking a bath" and went to the bathroom to find Eddie had pulled out his old training potty and had "pooped" M&M's... which Caleb LOVED eating.

Day 4: Caleb was in a BAD mood this morning, so much that I had to carry him to the living room and lay him on the couch. BUT when he noticed Eddie had put toilet paper all over the tree, he began to cheer up. Thanks Eddie, you saved this Momma a headache!!

I will continue to post pictures of how silly Eddie is over the next couple weeks, so stay tuned! Oh and if you have any cute ideas, leave me some comments and I will pass them on to Eddie!

Toodles,

Krafty Karen

Bulk Trash Day - Rolling Chair

I think bulk trash day is my new favorite day of the month. Every 1st Monday of the month, my city has bulk trash day. This is where you can leave out ANYTHING and the city will come around and pick it up for you. The city will or I will...

I have turned Casey (my loving boyfriend) into a fan of this day as well... My brother in law also found some treasures this past Monday. People throw out anything, I mean anything! You just have to have a Krafty Karen eye to see the potential in the "trash". Some of the things we found, we didn't have to do a thing to other than wipe down and then post to sell. We have made about $20 so far off what Casey has picked up. Plus we have potential to make more as I get around to flipping some of the items.

Today I am going to share a chair with you. This chair was hideous, broken, dirty and Casey wanted to leave it on the side of the road. BUT, I made him pick it up. I have since changed his mind about this chair. I used things I had at home (fabric and paint) and flipped it from a piece of trash to something someone will buy. I have to say, I am very proud of this chair.

To begin, I took the chair apart as much as I could. I threw away the right arm of the chair because the left one was missing a piece. I then took the cushion and took the old fabric off. I found a pretty blue/turquoise piece of fabric in my Kraft room that was perfect size. I recovered it (using a staple gun). Then I went to town sanding down the chair. This actually didn't take to long, I usually make Casey sand everything down but he wasn't at the house that night and I didn't want to wait. After I sanded it down, I went on a hunt in my house to find paint. I found a black can and a brown can of paint... which the black had more paint in it so the black won. I have to say, I am pretty darn proud of my trashy chair!!!

Lo's Race Blanket

A few weeks ago I started a race blanket for myself out of all my old 5k & 10k t-shirts. I still have to finish the binding on my blanket but I put that on hold to bless my wonderful trainer with a blanket for her!

To start I asked her to dig out 16 of her favorite race shirts (this included 2 shirts that she has run in honor of her son, 1 shirt that represents her business and 1 shirt that represents her trainer). I went to Hobby Lobby to find the backing and a zebra material caught my eye, it was so Lo! I had some pink material at home that I was going to use for the binding... well to fast forward a little bit, I didn't buy enough zebra material so I had to cut it into squares and sow them together and place 4 pink squares on the corners of the blanket. This left me with no binding on a Sunday (when Hobby Lobby was closed). I had to go to Wal-Mart and get creative. I ended up buying 2 spools of white 2 inch ribbon to use for the binding.

Okay with that being said, here is how I put the blanket together!!!

1. Find 16 shirts and cut them into 12 inch X 12 inch squares. Then sow 4 rows of 4 shirts together. After I sowed 2 rows of shirts together, I then sowed the rows together. I kept doing this until all 4 rows were sowed together. This makes up the front of your blanket

2. Cut the backing to the same size of the front of the blanket. If you like how this one looks, all I did was cut out 12 inch X 12 inch squares and sowed them together just like I did the front.

3. Place the front of the blanket on the ground face down, then place the batting down (I used the batting from Hobby Lobby that can be ironed on because this made it easier when I went to sow). Then place the back of the blanket onto of the batting and iron together.

4. Sow the 4 edges of the blanket together

5. Binding! This was actually easier than I though. You just fold the ribbon in half and then outline the blanket and sow it shut as close to the edge of the ribbon that you can.

6. Stand back and enjoy your master piece!

This took me 2 days to complete... about 3-4 hours each day! Its time consuming but really worth it when you see the outcome.