Oh-So-Handy Kindle Cover

Forgive me bloggers, for I have sinned...it has been four months since my last post...

Truly, the last post about crocheting hats was fully accurate and I did no crafting, besides crocheting hats, until school let out for Christmas break. We had a wonderful break from school, during which time I spent some quality time loving on my prince and princess, playing the Wii, and completing some projects for my house that I'd been wanting to do but could not due to my demanding crochet schedule ;)

The kids got waaaaaaay too many presents, of course, and they have enjoyed them tremendously. As have I. None more so, however, than my daughter's Kindle Fire. The only problem I found with it is, that like my phone, I feel it needs some protection from the elements {and by elements I mean my kids}. I found a great tutorial on Pinterest {it's changed my life}, and gathered the supplies to create a nice little home for my new favorite toy. Here is a link to the tutorial.

My best friend-turned future sister-in-law and I went treasure hunting at a few thrift stores and I got a hard back book the perfect size for the Kindle. I paid $0.50 for it. I tore the pages out, which I will save for another project.

I layed the book face down on a piece of paper and traced a pattern, and then gave it another inch on two sides to allow for a hem. 

I cut a piece of coordinating fabric and ironed a 1/2 inch hem on all sides.

Then cut a piece of quilt batting about 1/2 inch smaller than that to glue into the book cover to give it a little padding. The tutorial calls for quilted fabric, but I didn't have any, so this worked for me.

 I skipped a couple pictures and steps here, but I glued down the batting with a hot glue gun, then glued down the piece of fabric over the batting. I made a pocket of the same fabric and glued it down, using the Kindle to make sure the pocket is the right size. Then I used the Kindle to attach four pieces of elastic to the other side of the book.

 The elastic holds the Kindle in place while you're using it, and when you're not, you put it back in the pocket :)

 This is a picture of the Kindle cover closed. It looks like any other hard back book, but will serve to better protect the Kindle. I intend to make the outside adorable too, but that will have to wait.

We {heart} Yankees

Meet my prince.

Adorable, right?

By the way, that awesome picture was taken by the lovely Ashley D. Check out her site http://www.ashleydphotos.com/

Anyway...back to my prince. My husband and I both love Yankees baseball. So when we found out we were expecting a boy, we knew we wanted a Yankees themed nursery. I googled 'Yankees nursery' and found this. I love it. Being the DIYer that I am, I thought that I could probably do something similar. And so the quest began.

The small town we live in has exactly one thrift store. It's open on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 8 -11 am. That's it. You have to really plan for a visit to our thrift store. It's not very big either, so the variety is not great, but I always go in with an open mind. On this trip, I walked in and went right to the picture frames (like I usually do). There's always a lot of cheap plastic frames or poorly made wood frames. Rarely do I find a decent wood frame with the glass in tact. This day, I found two!

I know what you're thinking. The tacky, sun-faded mailbox print is a real head-turner. I would tend to agree with you. The nice lady at the thrift store let me leave the building with these for $5. I could have hugged her.

During the same visit, I came across this book:

I wanted this, if for no other reason, to have on a shelf in the prince's room. I realize our son will grow up knowing only of the new Yankee Stadium, and I'd like to be able to show him what it used to look like. The book had pictures of all the other MLB ballparks as well, but I don't really care about that. There was a great panoramic picture of Yankee Stadium. I was sold. And so was the book. For $3.

I primed and painted the frames black, pulled the panoramic pictures from the book, and handed it all over to a photographer and good friend of mine, that wheels and deals in matting and framing all the time. I had to trade a lifetime of servitude (actually just have to crochet a few new photo props for him), but he matted the pictures in the frames for me. He is awesome. No, really...go look.

This is not a very good picture of the finished product. I promise to take better photos for the complete nursery reveal, but this is what my thrift store treasures morphed into.

They are going to look amazing in the prince's room. I can't wait to get it all put together. Stay tuned :)

Mr & Mrs Throw Pillows

Last week I visited one of my favorite places EVER...the thrift store! I'm not sure what it is about thrifting that makes me so happy. It might be the quest to find something someone discarded and make it adorable, or it might be the 'saving money' part that I find so intriguing. Either way, I get super excited about the gems I find at these treasure troves.

On this particular trip, I came across four throw pillows. The covers were burlap {but kind of soft}, and they had zippers! YESSSSSS!

How great are those? No damage at all, I can throw the covers in the wash, AND they're $1.49? Yes, please. So they came home with me.

I added a little WonderUnder, a little felt and fabric, and a regular ol' sewing machine, and VOILA!

 I {heart} them muy mucho.

This is what they look like on our bed <3