Whimsical or Shabby Chic Decor for a Little One's Birthday Party

I made this whimsical decoration for my beautiful little granddaughter for her one-year birthday party at a park. The banners, including the one with her name, was made using Sizzix dies.

After, I brought this home to keep in my yard for a while.

Yoga Accessories: Small & Long Yoga Pads

In an earlier post, I made my own yoga mat, I originally insert a very thin yoga mat. Well, I took it out, so that my yoga mat could be less bulky. Since I have very sensitive knees and soles on my feet, I needed to come up with something that would be small enough to fit inside my yoga bag. Well, here they are.

I made an envelope style cover approx. 5" x 6" (Cotton outer fabric with flannel lining)

Worn old yoga mat - size 24" x 36" x 1/8"

Cut yoga mat lengthwise approx. 5.5" wide. (This will be the finished width of the yoga pad.)
 x 30" long. (Folded, this will be the finished length.)

Fold cut yoga mat in half lengthwise, then try-fold.

Inserted folded cut yoga mat inside envelope cover with flap turned inside out.

Flip the flap right side out, and here is what you get. It is very comfortable for those of us with sensitive heels and the palms of hands.



Here is a longer one, keeping the width of the original old  yoga mat.

 

My Own Homemade Yoga Mat

This fabric--from Jo-Ann's, the store--is so beautiful, that I had to purchase at least ten yards! Since I go through so many yoga mats, I decided to make my own. I wanted to make it soft and fluffy. It was very simple to make. It is the size of a regular yoga mat. All I did was take the measurements of a yoga mat. The inside is double-layered with natural cotton batting from my nearest Jo-Ann's store. The outside green thingy is that non-slippery cupboard shelf lining. And yes, it does work, meaning that the my homemade mat isn't slippery. It is sewn onto the bottom side of the outside fabric.

This is the front of my homemade yoga mat.

This is the other side that has a rubberized
shelf lining attached so it won't slip while
on the floor.

Heat/Cold Packs

Another wonderful person who was the assistant at my spinal surgeon's office was Melyssa. She was very busy, but ever so helpful, not only to me, but to everyone who was there to see Dr. Rowshan. So, I made her one of these heat/cold packs.  It has a removable cotton cover. Inside, the heat/cold pack is made of unbleached muslin that is filled with flax seed and lavender with essential lavender oil.

To make the filler. I sewed rows lengthwise. Then filled the bottom with the ingredients mentioned above. I put something like a ruler against the filling and stitched across widthwise. I repeated until I reached the top.

Thank You Basket Filled With Various Chocolate Candy + Chocolate Wine and Handmade Infinity Scarf

This is a thank you gift for the wonderfully amazing Dr. Kasra Rowshan who recently performed my spinal surgery. He has to be one of the most compassionate, caring doctor I have ever come across!

This ChocoVine chocolate wine is sweet and very smooth--simply delicious! I wanted to tell my Doctor that if he didn't like it, to give it back. I think he'll like it, as I heard he is  a "choco-holic."

I love this chocolate wine!

I wanted to make something for him, so I thought why not a infinity scarf. It seamed easy enough. I  purchased one yard of 100% 45" wide cotton flannel shirting. I cut in half length-wise. I then sewed the two halves together to make one long one. I then folded the sewn halves length-wise again, with right sides together. I sewed a straight stitch down the length of the scarf. Since I did not take pictures of how I was making it, I found it hard to explain the rest of the tutorial. For complete video instructions, here is a very easy to follow video tutorial. This one, I found to be the easiest for me to understand. My wonderful orthopedic  surgeon said he really liked it. He didn't know I made it. He said  he will use it for when he goes to the ski resort.

I also made these "criss-cross" coasters. I found a cute, colorful, very easy tutorial at Allsorts.

Front of coasters

Back of coasters

Yummy assorted chocolate found at Trader Joe's! (Thanks dear daughter for buying them for me!)

Yummy!