Flannel's Not Just for your Husband's Shirts!

A few weeks ago, I was digging through my Google Reader and found a fabulous tutorial by Eddie Ross. You can see Eddie's original tutorial here. I bookmarked it, and yesterday was the day to actually give it a try!

I've been looking for some cute things to jazz up my house for winter, since the Christmas twinkle is gone. These adorable little flannel-covered guys seem to do the trick!

So here's what you do. Start with some flannel shirts. I got mine at Goodwill for a few dollars a piece. Seems like it's better if they're 100% cotton; Eddie says you get fewer loose threads that way. I also bought some Styrofoam balls at Michael's. Mine are 3 inches in diameter, but you can go bigger or smaller, whatever floats your boat. The last thing you need are regular old straight pins.

Sit yourself down with a good movie and start cutting strips of the flannel. For my project, I ended up with strips about 9-10 inches long and about 1-1.5 inches wide. Just play around with them until you get the size you need, then use that one as a template.

Grab a few straight pins and anchor the material to the ball. Two pins oughtta do it.

Wrap the material around tightly. Then take two more straight pins and anchor it down again. I tried to cover first set of pins with the material as I did this, so I didn't have pins hanging out all over the place by the end.

Now start again and wrap another strip of material cross-wise. Anchor it again with more pins.

You can probably see from my photo above that I eventually needed four strips of material per ball. This, of course, will vary depending on the size of the ball and the width of the material.

But when you're done, you have these cute little things that look kind of wintery without being all Christmasy.

I have mine sitting in a little bowl in my front room. Next Christmas I could see myself using these in my holiday decorating (adding hooks to make ornaments to hang on a little rustic-looking Christmas tree, for example?). Or I may just save them as something fun to take out when I am packing away all the nutcrackers. Either way, I love them!

Thank You!

OK, hold on.

Nope, that's not it. Let me get this thing in focus.

Oh crap. Where's my head?

Alright, well, you get the idea.

Seriously, thank you so much for your comments regarding my last post. It was so helpful to hear where you all are coming from. If any of you have ever wrestled with some of these blogging issues (and from your comments, I know you do!), I highly recommend reading everyone's responses to me! So gracious, so kind, and so honest. Just what I needed!

So here's my takeaway from all this: I am still going to blog about my home and decorating and crafting, with a splash of my "real" life thrown in there so you know I have dirty dishes on the counter, most likely just pushed out of the way for a photo of something I've spray painted. I am going to let myself off the hook for feeling like I have to respond to every comment and generally be "super-blogger." I am going to be happy that I get to share my ideas with you all, and that you enjoy coming here and tweaking my ideas to fit your own home.

And most of all I am going to communicate how much I appreciate that you do come here, and that you share your day with me. As I read your comments all weekend, I felt a growing sense of freedom and excitement in sharing more of my projects with you, so watch out! It's amazing what a little grace can do, huh? Good life lesson for me, too, actually...

So thank you, thank you, thank you...from the bottom of my crafty little heart.

Interrupting Myself for Some Advice

I interrupt my usual house ramblings for this post!

I don't know enough about the blogging world to answer this question for myself. When I started "Buzzings of a Queen Bee" in August of 2008, I had lots of ideas and house projects to share. (I still do, don't worry!) But I always believed that an important part of blogging was not just the posts I write, but what I contribute to the community as a whole: read other bloggers' posts, leave comments generously, build relationships (strange as that sounds since few of us have met each other, but you know what I mean!).

However, since August of 2008, I have had Baby #2, and the somewhat predictable life I once led has gotten chopped up into lots of tiny moments of my day. This leaves little time for projects and even less time to be the commenting, responsive blogger I once was.

I blame these cute little people:

And sometimes I blame this, undeniably less cute, mountain of laundry:

And I find myself, when I do have free time, being drawn to the very projects that drive this blog:
Problem is, that leaves very little time to give to you, my reader, in terms of visiting your blogs when you visit mine, leaving comments so you know I care enough to be there, etc.

So my question is this: Which is more important? To be an on-the-ball blogger with lots of time to visit and reciprocate to all of you? Or spend my time doing the things that you like to read about when you come here? Which is more important to you as my readers? To have that personal connection with me? Or to be able to come here and maybe get a new, fun idea for your own house? Is it enough for you to just get the house ideas and inspiration? What really draws you to someone's blog to begin with?

OK, now that I have laid that question out there, I ask you to be kind to me! This has been on my mind for awhile now, because in a perfect world, I would have enough time for everything: my family, my responsibilities, my projects, my real-life friends and my blogging-friends. It really bothers me when I read your sweet comments (and I really do read each one) and I know I just don't have the time to be able to respond to you all. So I worry I am hurting and offending people and that's the last thing I want to do. (Yep, I also over-think things, in case you can't tell!)

Have a great weekend, and if you've gotten to the end of this post and you still have the energy to share your thoughts with me, I applaud you! :)

Remodeling Progress

Some of you have asked how our home improvement project is going...

If you remember, we are converting our upstairs loft into a bedroom. Here's the view as of yesterday.

(What? You don't keep power tools and a shop vac in your guest room?)

At least we no longer have a trash can in our hallway.

Remember this table that kept the Christmas tree from baby Henry's little grasp?

It now sits upstairs and I love it! We still have lots to do in the guest room, including trim, paint, and decorating. But, thank God, the drywall dust is gone and I have one cute area that I can tweak. It's starting to feel like home again! Hopefully I will have more to show you soon!

If I can just find the time in between caring for two little kids, I will have a finished guest room to show you soon. :) Wishful thinking, right?

Bedding Bling on a Shoestring!

Happy New Year!

Now that the holidays are over, I find myself wanting to spruce up my "non-holiday" decor. But, alas, my budget is decidedly "non-holiday" as well. Here's a few little things I've managed to do in the master bedroom on a shoestring budget!

First of all, I headed to Goodwill. Before you get all grossed out and think I am sleeping on Goodwill-sheets, take a look at my new dust ruffle! Our bed has an 18-inch drop, which is more expensive to buy in a dust ruffle. Add to that a strange configuration under the bed that means I would have to take scissors to my brand-spankin'-new dust ruffle to make it fit around the posts. I don't think so.

Instead I went to Goodwill and found a queen-sized flat sheet in a chocolate brown. I have no fear about taking my scissors to something I spend $3 on. I just cut the whole sheet in half and then smushed the raw edge up underneath the mattress. Instant dust ruffle!

I also had some extra material left over from when I made these curtains. A little time in front of the sewing machine was all I needed to come up with new cases for my Euro pillows.

When it came to sealing the pillowcases, I was way over the idea of putting in a zipper. Instead I just hand-sewed a little grosgrain ribbon to each side and then tied a pretty bow. I love it!

So if your budget is like mine these days (read: nonexistent), maybe one of these ideas could help you out!

Merry Christmas!

I am sorry the posts have been so few and far between this month. Blame it on the holidays! (And the home improvement project that we foolishly decided to take on three weeks before Christmas...) But I promise I will be back in January with some good stuff!

In the meantime, have a wonderful holiday. I will see you back here after the New Year!

My New Favorite Christmas CD

The day after Thanksgiving we love to drive up to the little town of Estes Park, Colorado, where they hold an annual Christmas parade just after sunset. The lights of the parade, the pretty floats and Christmas characters, and the music is just magical!

We all bundle up, as you can see!

This year we wandered into a little shop and discovered Peregrin Road, a local acoustic band. They were just sitting there, live, playing music from their Christmas CD, which I bought on the spot! It's a beautiful mix of guitar, Irish whistle (my favorite) and other things this non-musical person cannot identify.

All I can tell you is that I've been listening to this CD non-stop. Although Frank, Bing, Tony and the rest of the crew will always have top billing at my house, sometimes you just need a little variety in your Christmas music! I love to play this during my (few) moments of peace, or at night when the kids are in bed.

I promise I don't know these guys, and they are not paying me to say this! I just found something that brings me a little calmness and peace during the Christmas season, and wanted to share. Their CD sells on Amazon, or you can go to their website directly to listen and download. If you have a few minutes, I highly recommend it!

Have a great weekend!