PROJECTS

Lately, I have been dreaming up all of these projects that I want to do.  I currently have so many, that I almost don't know where to start.

The first step to all of my projects was CLEANING.  Now that that is done, I can actually start doing my projects.  Here are some projects I have been thinking about:



1)  A project for Dave and Christie's baby.  Their baby is due in October and I am SO EXCITED for them!!  I haven't exactly told Christie what the project is (she wanted to be surprised).  So if you are reading this, Christie, just scroll down really quickly without looking.  :)

2)  More banners like this one for Tegan's Bridal Shower, only without the letters.  I am going to make one for Halloween (perfect because you can hang them outside and they can get wet).  I will post pictures when I am done.  Let me know if you are interested in one of these banners.

3)  Another streamer like this one.  I have about 60 to 75 feet of a second streamer ready to be cut.  It looked really good at Tegan's Bridal Shower, so I wanted to make the second one and maybe dye it to use for different occasions.

4)  I have a couple of crocheting projects up my sleeve as well.  One is for ome friends of mine that have a 7 month old little girl.  I started this project a few months ago, just because.  I had a pattern and I wanted to see if I could make it work.  The other project is for a baby shower I am going to at the end of August (need to get going on that one).

5)  Plus I need to do an update on my Little Hate Project.  I have made quite a few little hats, but I need to make more so I can donate them.


So that is an update on that.  I am sure you were all on the edge of your seat during this post.

Love, Mrs. Janney

Laundry Soap

I am a reality show junky.  I don't watch all of it.  I can only take one show based out of New Jersey.  I can only watch a show about the Kardashians when I am in just the right mood (which isn't often).  And I don't like the Bachelorette, but I love the Bachelor.

LOVE Big Brother.  Seriously.  I think it is the best part of Summer.  The year of the writer's strike, they had 2 season of Big Brother in one year and I LOVED IT.

And I pretty much love any show on TLC which involves large families:  Quints by Surprise, Sister Wives (man that show is fascinating), 17/18/19 Kids and Counting.

So I was listening to an old episode of 17 Kids and Counting and they were discussing how they save money with such a large family.  I took notes because I am CHEAP.  And Phil and I have some large purchases in our future I think (i.e. cars since both of our are getting up there in age/miles).

So of the things, I already do like shopping at thrift stores.  I haven't gone thrifting yet because I haven't had time, but I have been shopping clearance.  Tegan and I have been shopping clearance racks for a while.  I got some pretty good deals at Old Navy a few weeks ago.  I will talk about those in another post.

But another thing they mentioned was making their own laundry soap.  They went through it on the show and it looked super easy.  AND it was super cheap.  Basically it will work out to being $2 for 640 loads of laundry.  It won't save us a TON of money, but I think it will add up. 

We just bought some laundry soap on sale a few weeks ago, so we won't be needing to making any laundry soap for a while.  But I am going to start looking for the supplies so that we can make it probably in a month or so.

I am guessing I will have a little more soap than Phil and I will need in like a year.  So if anyone is interested in trying some of the laundry soap after I make it, I will sell you some.  For the cost of the soap (aka 20 cents a gallon which is about 64 loads).

Love, Mrs. Janney

A New Project

A few years ago, Joanna taught me how to crochet. I had started an afghan and took it to England with me, but never really worked on it (I have no idea why. To this day I can't seem to remember what I did in England that occupied so much of my time). I kind of forgot about crocheting through grad school and wedding planning.

My mom actually suggested I take it up again for a take back east for Thanksgiving. She thought it would give me something to do and keep me calm (she was totally right). So I took back enough yarn to work on a couple of projects. I got back into crocheting pretty quickly and finished a scarf in a couple of days, so we went and bought some more yarn. On the way home, I started and finished a scarf for my dad and started a scarf for my sister, both in OSU Black and Orange for the Civil War Game this weekend. GO BEAVS!

In talking with my mom about how much I liked crocheting, she mentioned a women at our church who crochets hats for preemie babies and donates them to hospitals. I LOVED this idea! What an awesome way to use a skill!! Let's be honest, I only need so many scarves and afghans so I just though this was such a great idea. A way for me to crochet, get the calming affect and create something for someone in need.

So I found some easy free crochet patterns online yesterday. I am so excited to get this project going. I have a couple of other crocheting projects I would like to do before I get going on the hats, but I am so motivated to get those done so I can get started. I stayed up and basically worked on finishing the scarves for my dad and sister until 11 last night. My husband is so awesome, he knows how excited I am for this project that he even cooked dinner and cleaned it up so that I could keep working. I am hoping to finish my other projects by this weekend so I can get started! I will keep everyone (all 4 of you) updated on my progress. Now I will just have to think of a cute name for my project. :)

Love, Mrs. Janney