Whaddya know?

I'm making my way through the laundry. I actually do have pictures of my house all clean from another time, but not the master bedroom. Maybe I'll post those. I'm done pressuring myself about getting the home clean in one fell swoop. It'll happen. Some time. I'm chipping away at it, little by little.

In the meantime, I've discovered that there are two things I'm actually okay at--and these are two things I thought I should just stop attempting! First: I thought I had the Black Thumb of Death. Turns out, I can grow plants in tiny pots on my windowsill. So we'll say that maybe I have a pale green thumb. :) Second: I thought I was horrible at crafts. But now I think that I do fine if the craft is something I'm excited about. Read further for evidence:

Remember Reed's ill-fated clementine seed? Well, my mom sent some parsley seeds after reading that post. So I went and got a couple of other pots, as well as mint seeds and lavender seeds. We planted them in the small pots and put them in the windowsill, and every day, Reed and I water them and talk sweetly to them. (Reed: "You can do it, Parsley! Don't be shy! Come out to see your friends!") The parsley has four sprouts, the mint has nothing, and the lavender is like a little field in the pot. I think it may be Reed's soft touch that's making these plants grow! It makes it easier for me to endure the winter when I have a tiny bit of un-frozen green in my windowsill. When I saw what Marie did to attractively store her earrings, I thought it was really creative and cute, and wished that I had more dangly-ish earrings to store that way. I left it at that. But that was before the boys discovered the incredible fun of my jewelry box on the dresser. And before Carlisle decided that a necklace would make a very good cat toy. Eventually, after picking up beads from the carpet two many times, and worrying that Savvy would eat them, I decided I needed some way to store my necklaces up and away from the boys. I googled something like "necklace storage", and was not really impressed by what I saw. So, along the lines of what Marie made, I started to think about how I could do something myself. Here's what I came up with:If you were to use a frame you have around the house, this project is $4. I bought my frame because I liked having one that matches our bedroom furniture so well. My cut edge looks a little rough on the right, doesn't it? Oh, well! It looks great hanging up!! Anyway, I bought a placemat that was on clearance, cut it to fit right inside the 11x14 frame, sewed the buttons on and glued the whole thing to the inside of the frame--to the glass. I think the only thing I would change (and only if I were to do the whole thing over) would be to use bigger buttons. (The necklaces hang around the buttons, and some necklaces are thicker and would do better with more edge.) I bought the buttons for 88 cents (for a pack of 200), and the placemat was $3.00. I'm sure any fabric would work, although I liked that the placemat was thick. (That makes it fit in the frame more snugly). I imagine if you were to use regular fabric, you might want to glue it to foam board or cardboard after you'd sewn on the buttons. Oh, and I chose buttons because I thought they'd be more aesthetically pleasing than hooks, and I didn't know how well the hooks would stay in, if I had used cardboard or foam. So....ta-da! :)