Quick and easy picnic blanket (from jeans)

I've had this big box of tired, worn out, or ill fitting jeans for a few years. Shameful I know, but they were in the garage and-out of sight, out of mind. Well 2 of our kids just started soccer season which means 2 practices a week and 2 games a week. We needed a new blanket to take with us!

I've made jean quilts before and they are  along and tedious process getting all of your pieces cut to the same size and organized. Then pieces the squares, putting a backing on and then tying it.

For this blanket I took the jeans and cut the leg off as close to the crotch as possible. Then I cut down one seam (or tore) to the bottom of the leg and cut off the bottom seam. This left me with large pieces of jean. I squared them off and set off to sew them together. I matched up right sides together and sewed together until I had a length I was happy with. Then did several more strips. With the large jean pieces it only took 3 or 4 lengths to get it long enough. Once my strips were done I sewed them together.

All done! In all it took me less than an hour and I have a free, durable picnic quilt.

Many times we get pizza and a movie on the weekends. The kids like to eat it picnic style while watching the movie (We got The Lorax this weekend). This was another great use for the jean quilt and it can easily be thrown in the wash if there are any spills!

Wooden Snowmen

After my sister and I made our Snowman Candy bars we had the idea that we should make some that we could use year after year! So I went over to Home Depot and rifled through the cheap wood bin to find some 2x4's that we could turn into snowmen! $1.50 later I had all the w We wanted to make a "family" of snowmen. I made 8 inch tall parents and 6 inch tall kids. We then sanded the wood to get any rough spots off and painted them all white.


After they were completely dry we lightly sanded the edges to make them look a little more rustic and did a coat of very, very light watered down brown & black paint and immediately wiped it off. This gave them an aged look.

Then we measured around the wood and cut pieces of fleece that length and about 10 inches wide and sewed up the side. This is to form the hat for the snowman.

After that we made the cuts for the top of the hat. Make small cuts about 2 inches long into the fleece. When done tie a piece of ribbon or yarn tightly around to form the top of the hat. Also cut a piece of fleece about 1 inch wide by 15 inches long for the scarf. Tie around the middle of the snowman and snip the ends to make the scarf.

Then glue on buttons, googly eyes and a fun foam carrot nose!!

My sister added colored buttons behind the googly eyes to match the eye color of her children. It's a fun addition to personalize the snowmen. We also talked about making a pair of glasses out of wire for her daughter that wears glasses! Neither of us chose Christmas fleece for our snowmen so we could keep them up throughout the entire winter.