But, I just decided to take my time, pick an easy pattern, look up the steps I didn’t understand, and make a simple dress for Lily.

And, here it is!

Look at the back...a zipper!!!!

It even has interfacing!

The best thing about this is that I’ve built my confidence and feel like now I can tackle even more projects!

But, I can definitely say it was worth the wait. I love it to pieces.

I am so proud of it!

1. Do one thing, once a month, to make my house more inviting and cozy.

I made a quilt! Well, I finished my quilt. I will post separately about that with pics.
2. Exercise a minimum of 45 minutes/ 4x a week.

Oy. This one didn’t go as planned. I did get some really good sweat sessions in, and a 1.2 mile swim in (same distance I’ll need for the aqua bike race) but the consistency wasn’t there due to illness and then some laziness/tiredness issues. I’m hoping to go at it with renewed vigor in March.
3. Tackle a list I have of little home improvement/decluttering tasks like doing touch up paint, organizing drawers, etc. One thing per week.

I did really well on this front, but again, was lame about taking before/after shots. I managed to make some major headway with paper clutter and I also de-cluttered my sock, underwear and bra drawers.

4. Donate at least $1000 to Heifer International

$500, halfway to goal.

5. Attend church 1x per month, in addition to hosting a bi weekly bible study.

I did this! I went to a church called, The Experience, nearby. Funny thing is…I came up with the name. They were celebrating their 10 year anniversary and some dear friends of mine were going to be there so it seemed like the perfect church going time. It was really spiritually uplifting, and because of it, I’m praying about a mission trip to Haiti in my not too distant future.
6. Focus diet on whole, unprocessed foods. Aim to eat well 80% of the time.

I would say I was more around 70% this month. Illness makes me yearn for certain processed food, sadly enough. But, I did finally break through a plateau and I am down 21 pounds since the day after Christmas.

The other goals aren’t applicable until later.

1. Do one thing, once a month, to make my house more inviting and cozy.

I’m almost there. I am desperately trying to find time and energy to finish quilting and binding my quilt. I’m not sure if I’ll finish by the end of the month, but I am pleased that I’ve made headway on some other organizing tasks.
2. Exercise a minimum of 45 minutes/ 4x a week.

With the illnesses, this hasn’t been quite this amount, but much closer than I thought. I hope that I can kick this dumb cold so I can get to it.

3. Tackle a list I have of little home improvement/decluttering tasks like doing touch up paint, organizing drawers, etc. One thing per week.

This has been going really well! I have tackled quite a few tasks, but unfortunately, I have been remiss to document them photographically. I have redone our linen closet, decluttered our office/craft room, made a “donation station” and have been purging things as I clean, and cleaned and organized the toy corner. I will try to be better about taking before/after pics.

4. Donate at least $1000 to Heifer International

I will be donating at least $200 mid February.

5. Attend church 1x per month, in addition to hosting a bi weekly bible study.

I did host bible study, but won’t make it to church this month unless I am significantly better by Sunday.

6. Focus diet on whole, unprocessed foods. Aim to eat well 80% of the time.

I have definitely done this, and am really pleased about it. As a result, I am down 15 pounds since December 26th, 2011.

The other things are future ventures, so nothing to report there.

I feel really good about the progress I’ve made, and I’m looking forward to feeling well so that I can make even more progress!

1. Do one thing, once a month, to make my house more inviting and cozy.
2. Exercise a minimum of 45 minutes/ 4x a week.
3. Tackle a list I have of little home improvement/decluttering tasks like doing touch up paint, organizing drawers, etc. One thing per week.
4. Donate at least $1000 to Heifer International
5. Attend church 1x per month, in addition to hosting a bi weekly bible study.
6. Focus diet on whole, unprocessed foods. Aim to eat well 80% of the time.
7. Finish another sprint triathlon and the aquabike race (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike)
8. Ride my bike to and from work once a week starting in May.

This is a pretty ambitious list, but I think it is doable, for certain. I would love to hear what your goals are!

What’s a KIFFLE, you ask? It is a sugary, nut filled pastry. My grandmother also topped them with icing. (Because, we’re fat cool like that.)

Anyhow, my grandmother was a baking genius. She made all kinds of treats, but the most treasured were kiffles. No one in our family has ever successfully attempted kiffles until today. Behold…my triumph:

Flaky, sweet, delicious goodness. Booyah!!!

Anyhow….the winner, chosen at random by my handsome son is….

Kate!

Congrats, Kate!

My giftee requested an apron. I won’t lie; this made me pretty anxious. I’m not very comfortable with garment making, and certainly not figuring out something on the fly. But, in the end, I think I did ok.

The apron, modeled by my boy, who made me promise I wouldn’t include his face in the pic:

And I also made a trivet and a towel to go with:

Melissa had me, and she blew me away with her generosity! She made me a gorgeous tree on canvas, a wooden spool tree and a table runner!

This is such a fabulous quilting group to belong to!

So, I went to the thrift store and found 3, 100% wool sweaters. They were $4.99 each, which, incidentally is the same amount JoAnn’s charges for a yard of felt.

First I cut the seams out of the sweaters and removed the ribbing:

Next I threw all of the pieces in the washer and washed them with my usual amount of detergent on hot. I was less than thrilled with the results, so I did a little research and found that I needed friction to create the felting effect I was looking for. So, I added some towels, re-washed and that was perfect. I then dried the whole mess on hot, too.

Here’s my little pile o’ felt:

And the individual pieces:

(I need to clean off my cutting table!)

It is currently 0 degrees outside, so a wool hat with a pretty little flower seemed just the right thing to make. I used an existing hat I had and traced around it on the felt pieces and then surged them together. Then I used one of the ribbed waistbands to use as the cuff of the hat, and then added the flower.

Here’s Lily modeling, with glee…I might add. I’ll never get the hat back:

(Blurry because I was trying to get her without flash and she just doesn’t EVER hold still. )

And then I made this little pin:

Not the best photo, but it sure has been fun making some new things!

101 Tees: Restyle + Refashion + Revamp

by Cathie Filian

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