I've written before that one of my favorite things to find at thrift stores is fabric. For the beginner sewer (like me), it's great to find lots of fabric to practice on without breaking the bank. I found this vintage curtain panel at Thrift Store USA an age ago, and bought it for 99 cents. Even though it wasn't a lot of fabric to work with, I really couldn't bear to leave the adorable floral anemone pattern behind to languish on the rack. What if nobody else appreciated it like I did? It stayed curled up in my fabric stash until Anouk noticed it one day, and told me she wanted a dress out of it.

I decided to make it work, Tim Gunn style. I used an existing bodice pattern piece, tracing it onto freezer paper and lengthening it to a tunic length, and just managed to make it fit the cloth. I lined it with some muslin, and then tacked the existing ruffle to the bottom (the ruffle is really the best part, with the yellow contrast stitching). Over pants or shorts, it really is the sweetest thing and even if it isn't perfect, I'm glad that an adorable piece of old fabric got some new life (of course its new life was quickly threatened by a handful of rogue blueberries but I managed to get the stains out without ruining anything so hooray!) It's one of my favorite thrift store finds to date. 





Now A. is all ready to visit Rhett at the Atlanta jail and ask for the money to pay taxes on Tara! I'm sure she'll get it, how could she not looking this cute?

Have you found any thrift-store gems lately?

Would you believe we are still working on getting rid of leftover cardboard boxes from Christmas? We did a ton of online shopping, plus we had gifts shipped in from family and friends, and on top of that, our recycling pickup only happens every other week. Which all leads to a little bit of a backlog when it comes to getting rid of things. When people come over to the house, I try my very best to dissuade them from going upstairs to the office lest they get lost in a sea of boxes.

In the meantime, before they go, we have been trying to put our cardboard boxes to good use. I have to admit, I love cardboard box activities. The boxes are a cheap, easy-to-work-with, forgivable material, and when the enthusiasm for the new toy wanes, you can get rid of it, guilt-free (after all...it is trash, right?)

I thought I would link to a few cardboard box crafts, in case you, too, find yourself same predicament as us. All in all, we've probably tried a dozen or more box activities, but the ones below are our tried and tested favorites.

• A. can spend hours practicing writing skills in her salt writing tray, tracing the letters and shapes I draw for her and making up a few of her own. I like this rainbow-paper option just because it's cheerful. 

• One: cut a hole in the box. Two: put your kid in that box. Three: dump some paint in the box. And throw the box away when you're done for mess-free toddler painting. 

• Hanging different-textured fabrics from the roof of a box makes an engaging sensory play tunnel.  Bonus: it gives you something to do with those lonely socks that lose their mates on the journey from the hamper to the dryer. 

• A string of Christmas lights + a large box + something sharp to make small holes with = a homemade planetarium. We made one after our visit to the Children's Museum last week. It's already gone out to the trash (thanks to an enthusiastic jumping incident), but while it lasted, it was the bomb. 

• If you've got a large, flat box (like the one James's grill grate came in), why not make a small world play scene? So far we've turned ours into a village backdrop for A.'s trains and a ball pit. In between times, it goes under the couch until we figure out what to do with it next. 

And a couple for the big kids...

• Creating an imaginary land: like our play scene idea, only with the child's own imagination let loose. I can't wait until A. is old enough for this one. 

• These cardboard box looms look really fun. (I might make one for myself.) 

• A homemade reflector can give seedlings a boost until they're ready to go out into the garden. 

We still have a few more boxes upstairs, so...what do you do with your leftover cardboard boxes? (Besides recycle them, of course?) Do you have any fun crafts or activities to share?