My friend is having a baby girl!

I've passed along many a cute outfit to friends who have younger little guys than my Jack. I love seeing Jack's old duds given new life on other cuties.  I found out a close was expecting a little girl...I thought I was out of luck on passing-clothes-along front. Her son had looked so cute in some of Jack's hand-me-downs, that I was disappointed I couldn't do the same for her daughter.                                         

When I found a cute pair of red pants for the little one, I decided this old shirt of Jack's had potential.

I added some lace to the front. Cut off the collar and used some bias tape  to give it a rounded neck. In a last little tweak, I decided to make the sleeves cuter by running a bit of elastic through the sleeve hem to gather them a little. I made a pair of matching shoes using this great tutorial by Prudent Baby.

 It's not the typical baby-girl pink, but it's girly all the same.



HAPPY JULY 4th

May God Bless You

And

May God Bless America!

Well, that project spiraled out of control...

We live in the city, where lots are small, so I use every inch I can for gardening. The most usable space is actually along our driveway, but since our dogs and my son like to hang out in the backyard, that leads to a lot of lifting Jack, 4, over our gate because I don't want to risk the dogs getting out. Frankly, he was just getting too heavy.

My solution was making a movable fence. It's not perfect and not exactly what I had in mind, but this hodgepodge is my creation and believe or not, it's working...well it's working for our little dogs...a visiting foster, recently jumped our backyard fence and then made quick work of this "little obstacle."

When I need to move it, I can simple pick it up and put it too the side. My son has enjoyed going from the backyard to helping mom with your garden without having to rely on me lifting him over the fence and my back has been very happy.

This may look like a random picture, but it's actually the table I used to create my fence. It was really too big for our family room, but I really loved it and didn't want to get ride of it. I started disassembling it with the idea of using the components in the future, when I realized that the frame, cut in half would work for my movable fence.

This was definitely a trail and error project and it shows, but it's made my life easier. I think it has some charm to it...I'm sure there will be some tweaking in its future...I was trying to do it without having to buy much...like pickets (which would have been my first, but too pricey, choice.)