Hanging Pocket Organizer

I have been struggling with having too much junk laying on my desk for a long while now. I decided to remedy that problem recently and set about looking for storage and organization methods I could use. While I was at my favorite Dollar Tree the other day I saw a long bamboo rod and I started thinking. I then found some ribbon not far away from the bamboo and when I came across the place mats I figured it all out. I realized that I could make a modular organizer with this stuff pretty easily. I got everything  at the dollar store except for the hooks that the rod is held up by. I used one bamboo rod, one roll of satin ribbon, 4 place mats and a two pack of large wall hooks.

Two of the pockets are just one place mat folded in half and sewn up on either side. The middle one with the pockets is two place mats. I took the backing off of one and ironed in a half inch seam on the top and bottom of each pocket which my mom then sewed for me (I'm still not trusted with sewing machines lol.) Then she sewed the ribbons on with a strong box stitch. She also sewed two loops of ribbons for hanging things like my husbands ginormous headphones onto the rod with. To do that you just sew a loop then sew a strip across the middle. Easy peasy and I spent eight dollars total for it.

This Is The Afghan That Never Ends..........

I found this afghan kit at the good will one day in February just browsing around. I thought it was pretty and that it would make a great project to play around with. I came to hate this afghan eventually. I started it on February 20th and just finished it thirty minutes before midnight on June 12th. It was maddening. I have never had a project take so long. I have in fact made afghans similar in size to this one in just a few days. The problem with this was the size of the yarn. It was thin two ply yarn. It took me half an hour to finish just one row. I will never make anything this size with yarn this thin ever again. I will make more chevron afghans though because the pattern is so easy but so pretty. Anyway thought I would share my finished project and announce that I am finally free of that thing yay :D

Chalk Board T-shirt.

Remember the fad a few years ago with shirts that had velcro strips on them that you could attach velcro letters to so that you could personalize your shirt? I remembered it and was thinking my nieces would enjoy those shirts. Then I remembered how just about everyone lost the letters and how the velcro started looking a little manky after a few wears and washes. So I put that on the shelf and started thinking of different ways of making shirts that can be personalized and re-personalized. I came up with a shirt that you could write on, then erase and write on it again. I used a plain ole cotton t-shirt (I actually bought it at the Dollar Tree) a foam brush, a piece of cardboard that fits inside the shirt, blue painters tape and some chalk board paint from the craft store. I dunno if the paint in the hardware section is the same as the paint in crafts but the one I got said it would work on most porous surfaces.

Anywhoodles to get started you need to wash your t-shirt on a regular cycle then dry it. Next you'll want to put the cardboard inside the shirt and tape out a rectangle on the front of the shirt with the painters tape. I eye balled it but you can measure if you want. Make sure the tape is pressed down really well also because if it isn't the paint will bleed under it and you won't have clear lines. You can see in the pic that I had a spot where that happened. Now you just need to paint the chalkboard on evenly over the rectangle. Let it dry then do a second even coat and let that dry for 24 hours. Now get a piece of chalk and go over the whole rectangle covering it with chalk and then wash the shirt again on your gentlest cycle. After that you can write any message you want on the shirt. I wrote an ode to my favorite blog for this picture.