Pin It/Do It: Week 3

I had another successful week of Pinning/Doing.  The final sewing project on my list was journal covers.  My daughter and I are paper/pen freaks.  We get giddy in the back-to-school aisle.  This is a fun way to use up fabric scraps and create a custom journal from an inexpensive notebook.  The tutorial from Rachael at Stitched in Color, uses a 9 3/4" x 7 1/2" composition book, but it could easily be adjusted to fit any size notebook with a hard cover.  

My adjustments: In the tutorial, Rachel uses a structured quilt block pattern to create her cover, but I went more with the "crazy quilt" look.  I just kept grabbing pieces from the scrap box and adding them on until I had a large enough piece of fabric - then trimmed it to the exact dimensions.  All of the seams in the quilted piece made for a kind of bumpy feel against the notebook, so I cut a piece of quilt batting and laid it inside the cover before inserting the notebook.  It's not attached but is held firmly in place by the cover.  I was very happy with the results, so I'm sure I'll be making lots of these.

               Original pin                        My version

The rest of the pins on this week's list are things we're trying while the kids are home over the weekend.  I'll report on the results next week.  

Because we have one family member with gluten issues, we'll be trying Banana Oat Breakfast Cookies from Watching What I Eat and Skinny Monkey Cookies from Once A Month Mom.  Both are flour-free and start with a base of bananas, applesauce and oats.

For lower-calorie snacks, we're trying homemade, low-fat Ranch Dressing from Caffeinated Chronicles of a Supermom and fruit dipped in Pumpkin Pie Dip courtesy of Six Sisters Stuff.

This week's final pin will be a Nature Scavanger Hunt, based on an idea from The Taylor House.  Our version will require the family to divide up into teams - each with a designated cell-phone photographer.  Rather than collecting the items and carrying them back to the house, teams will snap photos of their finds.  This will allow for broader categories such as "Something you think is beautiful", where the answer might be an entire tree in fall color.  Teams will have a set amount of time to collect their photos and the winning team will be determined by a panel of unbiased judges - Grandma and Grandad.

Next week:  Paper Craft Pins