Oh, vermicomposting looks very tempting and I think I will try to build my own worm farm now!

One question though: you don't seem to have drilled holes in the bottom of your worm hotel. Most commercial worm farms have a drain or something of that sort on the bottom to regulate the fluids that can accumulate in worm farms. What's your strategy when the bin gets too wet? Or, for that matter, how do you counteract your worms drowning in muck?

It looks great!

One thing I noticed though: I'm not an expert on plants, but I'm fairly sure that the blossoms need to be fructified by bees or other animals carrying pollen from plant to plant in order for the plant to carry fruits eventually. As your planter is completely covered, how do you plan to fructify your plants?

If I'm totally off about this pollen thing, never mind me

This used to be an unfinished object at the back of my closet for months. I finally got around to finishing it! I made a measuring mistake early on, thus turning the jacket into a coat. The cuffs can be let out though, so the jacket will fit him this year as a coat and next year as a jacket. The yellow and polka-dot lining used to be a pillow case and a sheet which I scored at the local flea market for a buck (I also got the buttons there). The blue outer fabric is corduroy, which makes it perfect for a light spring/fall jacket (yes I know, it's now summer.... as I said, unfinished object...)

On to pictures:

Front of the coat. I even managed to (almost) line up the stripe that hides a seam in the corduroy (had to piece the material a bit, as I had so little of the corduroy)


Back of the coat. The kid really likes the huge hood, and so do I.


Aaaand, the lining. It's really not perfect and I cheated a lot (this was the first jacket I made), but I think it's okay over all.


The buttonholes are a bit stretched, as the buttons are pretty thick and the corduroy is stretchier than I thought. Oh, and I did use a pattern, at least initially. But then, measuring mistakes, the added hood and this and that led to winging the thing in the end.

What do you think? Spotting any mistakes I could avoid in the future?

I made my first bookshelf! We needed something to put all the childrens' books into that keep amassing in our apartment. I planned this one for weeks, since I could only work on it when both the kid and the husband were out of the house (the kid doesn't like power tools and the husband doesn't like home improvement).

We had this old IKEA bedframe sitting in our attic. Really cheap, soft wood, on the heavy side but useless. We also had a broken chair that I wasn't comfortable fixing (sitting on something that I know is held together with screws and glue makes me nervous - I'd rather not know how my chairs are kept together).

So I combined these two and voila: New shelf! Onto the pictures:

Before: You can see the chair in two pieces and the wood already sawed into pieces (hence the crummy edges - I'm really no hero with a jigsaw). The stuff is lying on the kid's dirty paint/craft mat.


This is after, with all the books, the box with the musical instruments and the drawing materials already put into it:


And another shot of the whole reading nook with bookshelf, great fleamarket-find lamp (I made the lampshade!) and comfy chair:


Before, we had to get up from the chair in order to select books to look at. Now, we really enjoy picking out books from the chair and then reading them one after the other.

Next step is painting it. White with blue dots, maybe?

Comments appreciated.

I came across a no-frill, easy-sew free user created pattern on BurdaStyle: http://www.burdastyle.com/patterns/show/3621 I consider myself a beginner, and these were the first sleeves I ever attached. The pattern is really simple and the instructions are good to follow.

It had raglan-style sleeves, so I used contrasting fabric for them. I took old shirts of mine that didn't fit anymore and recycled them for my two-year old. Great for the economy, great for my purse. One adult long-sleeve shirt yields about one body and one pair of sleeves for the kid's shirt.

Here are some pics:

I've got a chair much like these below, only varnished dark brown - how on earth would I sand it? By hand with a piece of sanding paper? I have a Dremel tool, could I use that or would that be unsuitable? If I sand it by hand, it's going to take *ages* to finish, especially the part on the back of the chair...

Please help!!

http://www.kotschenreuther.info/produkte/schreinerarbeiten/image/stuhl-gedrechselt.jpg

I have structured wallpaper throughout my apartment, and although I'm allowed to paint, I won't be able to remove the paper. Do you think it's possible to paint one of the walls with the iron-particled paint that will make magnets stick to it, or would the little bumps in the wallpaper prevent the magnets from sticking properly to the wall, iron particles or not?

I don't want to waste the money for the paint, so if any of you have experience with 'magnetic' paint and uneven walls, please tell me about it Thanks!

My son recently started daycare and needed a bag for his lunch. Since he's into fire engines, I made him a red firetruck bag. I embroidered the fire engine and I even made the shoulder strap adjustible, so he can still use it when he grows. It's fully lined with funny blue cotton. Here are pictures:







He likes it a lot and so do I!

We received from Superhooker! The package had been opened by customs, but everything seems to be still in there and intact. She made the most gorgeous floppy ear hat you've ever seen! It's a spaniel! It's so cute, thank you so much! She also sent two kinds of car magnets (magnets made out of actual toy cars - such an ingenious idea!) and a shirt with a little red car on it. The son kept saying "Auto!" all day

On to pictures:








The kid kept shaking his head to make the ears flop

Thanks again, Superhooker! We'll cherish what you made us.

summertimerolls: I'm glad everything got there alright! I should've known the chocolate would melt, but didn't think about wrapping it all in plastic! D'oh.  Thankfully it didn't leak.

Funny though that the packet from Germany was apparently the first one to arrive *g*