The Sweater Purse

Please forgive me, but I have forgotten where I first found this idea. I thought it was so awesome and couldn't wait to try it out with all the old sweaters I had waiting to be given away. I'm really into re-purposing items I already have (if I can) and this is one of the most perfect ways I have come across.

Two sweaters to become purses!

I give you: The Sweater Purse.

First, cut the sweater at the armpits all the way across so you end up with a nice square like this:

Since the bottom of the sweater is already "pretty" in one way or another, 

turn it inside out and sew up the side you cut.

Then, return to the top part of your sweater and cut some strips. Make one cut as close to the neckline as possible and another cut as close to the start of the arm as possible. These will be come the straps.

You want these to be wide so that they are easier to sew and turn inside out. 

Once you have your strips, make sure the "wrong" side is facing out and begin sewing them together lengthwise, to form a long tube.

Yes, I took this picture on my stove.

Once you sew up the long sides, turn them inside out so you will have two lovely straps that look like this.

Then, you'll need to attach them to the body of the purse. I did not do any measuring or anything, just eyeballed where I wanted to put them. As long as they are in line with one another, it's OK, right?

Obviously, you want to attach them to the open end of the purse :). They will serve a much better purpose there. But once you do that...

Voila!!

There are infinite possibilities with this idea, as I'm sure you can imagine. Try it out! It makes a great gift!

The Gratitude Post

If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, "thank you," that would suffice. ~Meister Eckhart

I've come to a point in my life where being thankful is not simply a habit, it is a need. It is because of this demand, I have decided to hold myself accountable to being grateful via a weekly, public post detailing what I was thinking about that week. I hope that this will help me become more thankful in my daily activities and I hope to inspire others to feel the same. If you would like to join me, think of a mere five things for the week (or more!), write them up, post them and add to the link-up below. Thank you for helping me bring back genuine gratitude.

 
This week I am thankful for:

• The health of my children and their amazing immune systems always at work.

• All of the men and women who work to bring natural gas and electric into my townhouse so that I might have central air conditioning and the means to feed my family.

• Steve's job and his willingness to go to work every day to support our family.

• My garden, because though it may be small and confined to containers, it has still brought me food. 

• Every ounce of food I have eaten. I know countless man hours, labor and dedication went into its production and the process of bringing it into my home.

Wordless Wednesday: Sisters

Review and Giveaway: Mama's Felt Cafe {6.26; US/Canada} CLOSED

This Giveaway is now closed.  Please stay tuned for the announcement of our winner.  Thank you all for entering!

This is a joint giveaway cross-posted on Let's Take the Metro and Natural Parents Network. You may enter at one site only. Please find the section marked “Win it!” for the mandatory main entry and optional bonus entries.

I was so excited when I was given the opportunity to review a product from Mama's Felt Cafe. I came across her blog during the Carnival of Natural Parenting and was hooked instantly. Seeing her ideas was like an 'Ah-ha' moment, and I realized I could take responsibility for the toys my children play with by making them myself. Of course since I do not have infinite time on my hands, getting a few felt originals to start my collection was like a dream come true.

Brittany, owner of Mama's Felt Cafe, sent me a "Support Local Growers" basket for my daughters to man-handle. The package contained: two carrots, two attached cherries, an eggplant, two pea pods (one that jingles and one that does not), a potato, a watermelon slice and of course the basket that says "Support Local Growers." As I took out each piece and inspected it, I noticed how fine the stitching is and how every little detail of the real food is present in the replica. For instance, the potato actually has tiny "eyes" all over both sides and the watermelon rind is two-toned and striped to mimic the real fruit.

Digging in to the basket.

I am someone who sews, though admittedly not that well, but I can tell that the quality of Brittany's work is very high. One of the first things my almost 2 1/2 year old tried to do was pull off the "seeds" on the watermelon. She was completely unsuccessful and I think she will continue to be. As far as everything else is concerned, both my daughter's love to jingle the musical pea pod, carry different pieces around all the time, and even use the carrots as "phones." This set is so versatile because every piece can be used in an infinite number of scenarios, and even the basket itself has tremendous possibilities. It is sure to inspire the cook or vegetable eater in every child.

I would certainly recommend this package to anyone who wants good quality, soft, yet durable play food for his or her children. You can feel confident that if your children want to chew on their felt food, they will not be swallowing a boatload of chemicals, nor will you need to be concerned if your child wants to take these huggable pieces to bed with them. You can definitely put this basket on your child's next wish list.

Interested in making some fruit for yourself? Mama's Felt Cafe has put together a watermelon tutorial specifically for this giveaway! Visit Natural Parents Network this Monday, June 6 for her tutorial.

Photo Credits: Author

BUY IT!

You can purchase a 'Support Local Growers' basket for $30 at Mama's Felt Cafe on Etsy. You will have the option to choose which fruits or vegetables you'd like in your basket - how cool is that?!

WIN IT!

For your own chance to win a $25 gift certificate to Mama's Felt Cafe on Etsy, enter in the comments below! Contest is open to US and Canada.

MAIN ENTRY: Visit Mama's Felt Cafe on Etsy and tell us what your favorite product is in her shop.

Leave a valid email address in your comments (the line where it says “email address”) so we can contact you if you win. Email addresses are not made publicly visible.

BONUS ENTRIES, to increase your chance of winning (leave a separate comment for each so we can count them all):

• Heart Mama's Felt Cafe on Etsy and leave your Etsy user name in the comment.
• Tell us who you would give felt food to.
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• Follow @MamasFeltCafe on Twitter and leave your Twitter name in the comment.
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• Follow Let's Take the Metro on Networked Blogs.
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• Like Mama's Felt Cafe on Facebook.
• Leave a relevant comment on a non-giveaway article at Natural Parents Network and tell us which post (comment on separate posts for up to 3 entries total).
• Leave a relevant comment on a non-review article at Let's Take the Metro and tell us which post (comment on separate posts for up to 3 entries total).
• Leave a relevant comment on a non-review article at Mama's Felt Cafe and tell us which post (comment on separate posts for up to 3 entries total).
• Tweet about this giveaway (up to 5 times total, at least 24 hours apart). You can use the tweet button at the top of the post or tweet this text: #Win a gift certificate to @MamasFeltCafe! http://bit.ly/jmLPN9 @NatParNet #giveaway {6.26 Can/US}
• Post this giveaway on your Facebook page or wall and leave the link (1 entry). You can use this status update: Win a $25 gift certificate to @Mama's Felt Cafe from @Natural Parents Network. Contest ends June 26 and is open to US/CANADA.
  Be sure to attach the contest URL to your update! (This is not part of the status text!)
  http://naturalparentsnetwork.com/review-mamas-felt-cafe/
• Enter another of the giveaways on Natural Parents Network.
• Put the Natural Parents Network badge on your website or add http://NaturalParentsNetwork.com to your text blogroll for 2 extra entries each. The HTML code for the badge is on the front page of NaturalParentsNetwork.com. Leave your site URL in the comment.

RULES:

• Contest open to United States and Canadian mailing addresses only.
• Leave each entry as a separate comment so we can count them all.
• For actions like following and subscribing, if you already follow or subscribe, just let us know in your comment.
• For tasks that garner you multiple entries, you can copy and paste the comment with a #1, #2, etc.
• You don’t have to do any of the bonus entries, but you do have to complete the first mandatory one.
• We will pick the winner through Random.org after the contest closes and send an email notification. Leave a valid email address as you comment so we can contact you if you win. If we can’t reach a winner or don’t hear back within a couple days, we’ll draw a new name.
• Any questions, email: ShannonR {at} NaturalParentsNetwork.com

Contest closes June 26 at 11:59 p.m. PST

Disclosure: Mama's Felt Cafe sent our reviewer
a free Support Local Growers set for review.
We try to seek out only products we think you would find
relevant and useful to your life as a natural parent.
If we don’t like a product, we won’t be recommending it to you.
See our full disclosure policy here.

Our reviewer, Amanda, mothers two beautifully intelligent girls who are fifteen months apart and never cease to keep life interesting. She loves to garden, cook, sew and research everything green. Since the birth of her first daughter, she has been systematically growing greener and has no plans to stop any time soon. She writes about as many different things as she can think of at Let’s Take the Metro.

100th Post

On the beach in New Haven, CT

This is my 100th post!

I was inspired by my Versatile Blogger Award to write a bit more about myself (if you'd like to know) for this momentous post. So here are a few other random facts about me.

- Currently, my favorite word is 'Ahem.' I have also been known to use "Bam!" quite frequently and no, I didn't steal it from Emeril; He took it from me.

My college graduation.

- I have a Bachelor's degree in Clinical Psychology with a minor in Writing ( I still regret not double-majoring in Psych and English) and a Master of Arts degree in Community Psychology with a concentration in Program Development. I have not done anything with it because I chose to spend time with my child(ren) instead of pursuing a full-time job.

- There are a lot of things I don't like: cheese (except on pizza, chicken parm, macaroni and cheese and sometimes mozzarella sticks - basically I only like mozzarella cheese and only if it's melted :) ), zucchini (except zucchini bread), any other squash thing (except pumpkin pie), eggplant (except I recently forced myself to like eggplant parm), lima beans, avocado, chick peas, cottage cheese, plantains, coconut (but I am using coconut oil!), rye, pumpernickel...this makes it difficult for me to be a full vegetarian :)

- Contrary to my own palate, I strive to give my children the foods I don't like because I do not want them to have the same pickiness that I do. I'm pretty passionate about it.

- I love Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. Like mad. If they were people, I'd marry them. Well, one or the other, whichever became a person first.

At the Holocaust Memorial in Boston.

- I'm obsessed with the Holocaust. In recent years, I've been better about letting all the feelings I have had for it go, but I still want to visit a concentration camp before I die (or two or three). I literally feel pulled to go to one.

- I have been to Canada, Australia, Panama, Puerto Rico, Haiti, St. Martin, and St. Thomas (the last four on a cruise). I have longed to go on a cruise ever since because I think it was the most amazing thing ever (even though I was terribly sea sick the first day) and I can't wait to go on another one.

- I've been to Disney World three times (never Disney Land) and I am so antsy to take Heidi and Piper, but I refuse to take them before they're old enough to remember.

- I love rain. I mean, I really, really love it. When it rains, I feel like I've been energized and I often get the inspiration or bursts of energy I need to do things I've been putting off. When I was younger, and even now, I used to imagine the rain as being cleansing to my body as I stood out in it, as if the Earth herself was rejuvenating me. It's for this reason, and this reason only, that I always thought about moving to Washington. Now I know a bunch of people in that direction so if I had the opportunity, I might take it. Ahem.

- I started school in one school district, moved to a different one, and finally ended in the same district I started in. Totally unplanned.

Steve took this picture.

- I love ghosts, ghost stories, hauntings, and anything else related to haunted ghostly places. I've been to Gettysburg and loved it. I would absolutely visit every single supposedly haunted place on the planet if I could. LOVE IT.

- I love books like I love breathing. If I could, I would probably read for most of the day every day. Some of my favorite books are Wicked, The Tao of Pooh, Man's Search for Meaning, Night and The Stranger. There are a lot of others though.

Well, I think that's enough for now, wouldn't you say so? Maybe I'll magically become more exciting in the coming months and have some new facts for you. Ahem.

Guest Post at Becoming Crunchy

Today I have a guest post over at Becoming Crunchy. I wrote this specifically for her (not that I don't do that for other guest posts, but this one is very different) so if you're in the mood for a chuckle, feel free to check it out. I hope you find yourself in an area where you can laugh out loud or pee your pants in comfort.

Monthly Meal Plan

Inspired by Jennifer at Hybrid Rasta Mama, I decided to take the plunge and make a meal plan for the entire month of June (with the exception of weekends because they're always weird). Thanks to this handy list, I can look at a week ahead of time and know what I need to shop for based on what I've already decided we're having. Yeah, well, we'll see how well this works out...

June 1: Oven fried cod, baked potatoes, steamed broccoli
June 2: Pasta and bean salad (I made that up.)
June 3: Chicken Pot Pie
June 4: Wings (I know this because we'll have company.)
June 6: Spanish Beef and Rice, salad
June 7: Koushari
June 8: Curry with rice (in some form)
June 9: Fish, baked potatoes, vegetable (Hey, it makes sense.)
June 10: Pasta, salad, garlic bread
June 13: Homemade veggie burgers (never made them before), homemade french fries, kale chips, salad
June 14: Stir fry over noodles
June 15: Spanish rice, Homemade tortillas, "Mexican" black bean mixture
June 16: Shrimp scampi
June 17: Hot dogs, Sauerkraut, Mashed Potatoes, Salad
June 20: Rotisserie Chicken, Rice Pilaf, Green Beans (On Monday's Whole Foods has a fantastic a.k.a. antibiotic/hormone free chicken for $7!)
June 21: Roasted Veggies, which may include potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, garlic, onions, brussel sprouts, asparagus
June 22: Bean sautee over rice
June 23: Meatloaf, baked potatoes, salad
June 24: Salmon, Barley Pilaf, Artichokes?
June 27: Pasta, salad
June 28: Steak, asparagus, homemade french fries
June 29: Oven rice and lentil pilaf, salad
June 30: Curry over rice (in another form.)

Of course this is subject to change, but it is a nice thought to think I won't have to think about dinner for a while, yes?