Keeping Busy

The best piece of advice I have to give to anyone whose husband may leave for any length of time, be it for a weekend or a year, is to find something fun to do. For me this has meant completing a few projects and picking up a new hobby. Here are a few of the things I've done this year:

I wanted some pictures of Ben that were durable and portable, so Paige would be able to see him wherever we went. My mom helped me to come up with these:We refer to these as our "daddy books", they are simply photos pasted to both sides of chipboard with mod podge. Papa helped by drilling holes through the corners so we could put them on rings. Paige loves them.

This spring while flipping through a pottery barn kids catalog, I fell in love with this, but not with the $279 price tag. So I decided to make it myself. Here is my version:It was so easy and fun that I plan to round out my collection and do Rapunzel and Cinderella (they're for Paige's room).

A couple of times a year my friend Melinda organizes a card exchange. This is where everyone who participates makes a certain amount of cards and then you all get together to exchange them and you end up with the same amount of cards you made, but they're all different. My mom came up with the design and actually did most of the work, but we made these to exchange:The best part about these cards is that we didn't have to buy any new paper. We just used scraps left over from other projects.

I've wanted to learn how to sew from a pattern for awhile, so when I found a cute apron pattern at the Quilt Festival this year, I bought it. With my mom's guidance I made this (using Heather Bailey fabics): It's called a "Friday Night Apron". Oh, la, la.

While at the quilt show we were inspired by these ladies. My sisters, cousins, aunt, mother, niece and I made spiders with felt and glass beads for Halloween. These are the ones I made:Very cute versions of something I HATE in real life.

And then the new hobby I've picked up this year is beading. I've made bracelets,

and more bracelets: The top bracelet is supposed to look like a pumpkin vine, and the bottom bracelet has dangling cherries (I made both of these for my mom and similar ones for my aunt).

A pretty floral bracelet for me:

And several bracelets for Paige:

I've made beaded binkie clips like these for quite a few babies:
And my latest beading project has been interchangeable watch bands:

As you can see, having your husband deploy leaves you with a little extra time on your hands. Especially if you live with your parents and they like your kid :)