Sew a Fabric Grocery Bag Holder - Day 314 of 365, Tutorial Tuesday

Grocery sacks.

I remember when everything was paper. Then it was a choice of paper or plastic. Then it became all plastic. Now there are communities banning plastic bags. But I still use those plastic bags.

On Day 20 I got this bright idea to stop with the plastic bags. I cut up and sewed some old t-shirts to make reusable grocery sacks. Those t-shirt bags didn't last long. Actually, they did last a long time. They sat - unused - in a chair in the den month after month after month. Finally I put them in the donation box and sent them on their way. I guess those plastic sacks aren't going away for us.

So I made a plastic grocery sack holder. My  husband took the wine bottle one for out in the garage (he asked permission first) and now my daughter has requested one in blue for her new apartment. (I'll be snapping some fabric pictures on my cell phone and sending them her way for her approval.)

Today's tutorial features a bright looking-forward-to-spring one.

Now available as a digital PDF download pattern in my Etsy shop with step by step written directions and color photos. Click to find out more!

Looking for something else? Check out some of my other kitchen sewing and crafting projects!

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Click below for the step-by-step how to tutorial and learn how to make your own homemade plastic grocery bag holder:

Day 313 of 365

I have to fess up. I started a new project even though my unfinished project basket is still overflowing.

The first Saturday of every February our community has a "Disaster Auction". They help families cover costs associated with hospital or large medical bills, funerals, or fire damage to their homes. In 1961 they raised $6,000 and last year the auction raised over $95,000.

For years I've said I would make a quilt for the auction and for years I haven't followed through. With all my donation/charity work this year I decided this absolutely would be the year I'd make one. But then I looked at some of the pictures of the previous years' quilts and I chickened out. Chickened out because I didn't think my work was impressive enough to join the quilts auctioned off. Chickened out because I didn't want my quilt to be the one fetching the least amount of money.

My husband wasn't happy with me backing out again and expressed his disapproval. I was willing to live with that disapproval, but then I saw a pattern that changed my mind. After I redid my cardboard magazine holders on Day 311, I went through all the magazines. Looked at every page of every magazine and came across a quilt that tickled my fancy.

I'm still working on getting the right colors together, but at least it's a start.

Day 312 of 365

Our cat is just darn weird.

It's not that she bawls at weird times of the day and night. It's not that she still comes running every time I use the can opener. (Her cans of food haven't needed a can opener in years.) It's not that she runs in front of my car every time I pull in the driveway. And it's not because she thinks my ironing board is the best way to jump down from the sewing room window.

It's because of the ponytail situation.

When my daughter was younger she always left those rubber-band-y, elastic-y, scrunchy type of ponytail holders around. She left them around and the cat would find them. Find them and play with them. Find them, play with them, and lose them. In the past we've found them under the couch, the refrigerator, and the stove. We thought those days were long gone, but they have started up again.

My daughter comes home ever so often and occasionally she'll take one of those ponytail holders out of her hair and toss it to the cat. The cat absolutely loves it. She particularly likes the black ones and the red ones. She'll toss it with her paw. She'll fetch it. She'll throw it with her mouth. She jump, she'll leap, she'll pounce. She'll hide it under the rug and dig it back out. She'll run into the bedroom, drop it on the bed, and cry for us to play with her. She'll lose it under the chair and bawl for us to get it out. Every morning and every evening it sounds like things being thrown around the house. It's just the cat wrestling around the floor, tables, and furniture with that doggone ponytail holder. Eventually she'll tire out and fall asleep somewhere.

Today's sleeping spot was a small corner of the bed. Today I washed our bedding, all the way to the mattress pad. The cat likes these sheet-changing days because it presents an opportunity to hide in the blankets. Knowing that, as I was waiting for everything to dry, I made sure I piled the linens high enough that she'd keep off of them. Wouldn't you know she found that one small little space that was left open.

Day 311 of 365

I use my daughter's old bedroom with lavender colored walls for my sewing room. I'm not too fond of the color and am contemplating painting over them. As I've been doing some research on craft rooms (not research actually - I've just been looking at pictures of organized craft rooms on the internet) it seems that I like looking at pictures of organized things just about as much as organizing them myself.

In my search for pretty and organized craft rooms I came across a website that featured pictures of organized drawers and shelves and containers and just about anything else you could think of. It was there that I ran across some directions on how to decorate magazine holders.

I have lots of magazine holders, both black plastic ones and primary colored cardboard ones. Black plastic and bright primary colors won't fit with the color scheme I'm thinking of using, so I followed the directions at iheartorganizing to update my cardboard magazine holders.

And what a surprise - I didn't use fabric for a project this time.

Day 310 of 365

I'm not a breakfast person, but my husband is. I'm just fine and dandy if I have a bowl of Chex, Rice Krispies, Special K, or Cheerios. Occasionally I might go for a breakfast burrito or a muffin. For him, cereal is more like something you have if you're still hungry after dinner. Big breakfasts are his thing. Biscuits and gravy. French toast. Omelets. Some kind of egg dish with everything but the kitchen sink thrown in (including some hash browns), then smothered with gravy would probably be his number one choice. But with his higher cholesterol he's been sticking to oatmeal, berries, and walnuts in the mornings.

Once in a while, the idea of breakfast for dinner strikes his fancy. For some reason, I can tolerate breakfast-type meals better in the evening than I can in the morning.

Tonight's end-of-the week breakfast-for-dinner meal was omelets and hash browns. Onions, peppers, and those Little Smokies sausages. Not the best for the calorie watching, but I was more careful today and had some calories to spare.

Day 309 of 365

It ended. The last day of my Christmas break was yesterday and I started back to work today.

After having a horrible last week of school in December, I was in desperate need of a break. The pain I was in during December was the worst pain I could recall since post-surgery pain. I don't know if stress or overworking or what contributed to it, but it was bad. I have pain-filled days every single day, but this was excruciating pain-filled. I don't know how I made it through. But I did.

I made it right into Christmas Break. My plans were to start popping those pain pills again to get some relief. And I did pop those pain pills for a couple days in a row. Yes, they provided relief, but the side effects were again not something I wanted to deal with.

But now, two weeks out - and no pain pills in my system - I'm feeling a bit better than I did. How can one day be so excruciatingly painful and another not? I don't get it.

I just know I'm working on taking better care of myself. I started tracking my food intake for the last few days. Even with being out of town I was still able to keep my calorie count down. Until today.

Going back to work from vacation threw my calorie-counting out of whack. Having cookies sitting on my desk when I showed up today started the downward spiral. It continued with me coming home from work after dark. Being too tired to cook led me to dinner at the local Mexican restaurant where I made poor food choices. I'm afraid to even track the calories I consumed today, but I will. Ugh.

And I had such hope for a great day. With such a pretty sunrise practically rising from the south, how could a day turn out so rotten?

Day 308 of 365

I'm done gambling. Not just done because I'm home from my mom's birthday trip to the casino, but done done. Done for a very long time.

I'm not a very good gambler. I love the thrill of winning - even the anticipation of winning - but the low of losing is just as powerful a feeling. I love having something that I can get so immersed in that I forget about everything else. But the losing times are miserable and I'm not interested in experiencing them anymore. So I'll do what is right.

I'm going to become one of those people who don't like to gamble. A couple of people I met at the casino helped me make that decision.

One gal I've met before. Every time I've been to the casino in the last year I've seen the same lady at the same particular penny machine. Last time I went I struck up a conversation with her and heard her "story". She's on disability and comes to the casino every other week and spends a few days each time. Each trip she plays hour after hour every day on that same slot machine. If I'm heading to the casino, she'll be there - and she was again this trip. I don't want to be that person whose life revolves around the casino, or even the person who is recognized as a regular.

The other gal I met last night. She was sitting at a penny slot machine next to me and kept repeating, "This is stupid." I didn't pay too much attention to her, but saw she had about three dollars in the machine. Then she told me she had put $100 in the machine and hadn't won anything yet. When she got down to a dollar left in the machine, she put in another $20 bill. She still was muttering about it being stupid. (I got the impression she was talking just as much about herself as she was the machine). $120 lost in a penny machine. I don't want to be that person who loses that much on one machine, particularly in pennies.

Knowing myself and my all or nothing way of being, I  made a conscious decision before I left the casino not to return. (At least anytime in the near future.) I have a full life here at home. I have activities that I can immerse in and forget about everything else.

When I got home, a package in the mail confirmed I was making a good decision. My two books ordered from Snapfish. One of all my donation projects for the year and one of my rose garden from this year.

I love the books and am proud of the work I've done and the pictures I've taken. The ten dollars I spent on the books is a much better use of my money than trying my luck with a slot machine.