Creative Licensing

Our little February budget looks so pititful. We had to slash and burn since Brad has $2,000 in licensure and board test stuff we have to pay for. Mad money, which is how I feed my craft habit, was one of the victims. But this is good. It will force me to get creative. Just following a pattern doesn't leave room for much creativity, unless you embelish or purposely change it in some way. So embelishments, here I come.

Funny how no money coincides with all the unfinished projects I have. I've made a list, so hopefully, I can get parts of this list done in the next 29 days.

1. Blue jean purse. A few weeks ago, Brad donated a pair of his ratty old jeans to my cause, so I decided to make a purse out of them. More for Caroline, since I would feel kind of dopey carrying it around. I have the legs sewn together, and the lining pinned, but I need to make straps before I put it together. I have some ideas for some embelishments, so we'll see how it turns out.

2. Cookies. I made some craft felt cookies a while back and have the materials to make 5 or 6 more. They are for Caro's kitchen at Nana's.

3. That purse. Ugh, I've been working on this thing since June. I'm so ready to actually use it. This one will actually take a little bit of money (and probably all that I have budgeted for myself! Doh!) since I don't have interfacing or fabric for the lining. I can't wait to actually get it out of my system, though.

4. Caroline's Easter shirt. My mom would always buy us little trinkets for each holiday. I carried on the tradition and try to have a shirt for Caroline for each little holiday that comes up. You may remember her Love shirt a while back. I found a cheap-o white t-shirt (with little puffing at the sleeves, so cute) at Wal-Mart and have a ton of sweet Eastery colors. Wal-Mart is no longer selling DMC floss, so they were selling their stash for $.10 a skein. I bought about $8 worth of floss. We'll see what comes out of that.

5. Doll clothes for Caro. I'm kind of iffy about this one. She loses things so easily in the abyss that is her nylon tent and wicker trunk where she stores her toys. But, she also has about three naked baby dolls hanging around the house.

6. Bedding for her doll cradle. Someone in my life passed on to me a tiny cradle for my dolls. Caro uses it for her newborn Cabbage Patch. It just has a large blanket in it at the moment. I really want to make a pillow and a blanket for it. I'd love to make a pillow for a "mattress" for it, but we'll see.

7. Burp cloths. I have several burp cloths I need to make for friends of mine. I have some fabric, but I can get enough for what I need in fat quarters at Quilt Arts.

8. Valentine's cards. I really want to make my loved ones' cards this year. I totally need to get a move on that one if it's gonna happen.

9. Another koozie. I need to make one with a bottom and with no velcro.