A "New" Bike for Our Big Girl

Anja has quickly outgrown her first bike. It was a hand-me-down from Eli. Eli has also recently outgrown his bike and it's now a good size for Anja. She actually didn't complain when we told her she was getting her big brother's bike again, but I felt a little bad that she's getting another hand-me-down. So I did my best to spruce it up for her. It could use a paint job ...but I'm not sure I'll get around to that.

Old bike:

New...ish bike:
I peeled off the "Pirate" decal and recovered the bars with a fun laminated fabric that just velcros on. I think it would look super cute spray painted teal blue, but that seems like a lot of work!

*On a side note, do the shorts look familiar? I'm making good use out of Elegance & Elephants Bubble Pocket Shorts pattern! For these ones I added a lace overlay to the pockets. I think I'd prefer them without the lace, but I wasn't sure if Anja would wear them if they were just plain brown. She calls these her "skirt shorts" because she thinks the lace makes them look like a skirt.

Mother's Day DIY Gift

Mother's Day is coming up in a few days ...I wanted to make something for her this year, so I went to Pinterest for inspiration. I found a great tutorial for "dressing up" reusable bags. My mom is a practical person and I know she uses reusable bags all the time, so this is something I'm hoping she'll appreciate. I found the tutorial on Thirty Handmade Days.

My version is slightly different from the one on Thirty Handmade Days. Their tutorial says to paint "Joy" on the banner, but I found some pretty vintage sheets at the thrift store and wanted to use them. So, instead of painting the word I made an applique with my vintage fabric.

The little bag made out of my vintage fabric holds 4 magents. I made these magnets by printing off pictures of me and my siblings and then I used modge podge to secure them to the back of little glass stones. I used a hot glue gun to attach a magnet to the back.

...that's me holding the cat. :)