Fabric Baskets

I took a stab at making some fabric baskets today.  I used Jesse's pattern from over at her JezzePrints blog. 

Here's how my first one turned out:

This is a really nice pattern.  It didn't make near as much sense while I was reading through it as it did once I started making it.  My next few will hopefully look a lot better with neater, straighter edges.  This was my first time making one of the baskets, but I plan on making  a lot more. 

I used basic card stock inside the folded edges and it was plenty stiff enough to hold the edges straight.  As a matter of fact, if you look very closely, you can see it trying to pop out of the bottom just a bit. 

As usual, this took me way longer that it should have due to dumb sewing mistakes.  Sewing is not my forte.  However, if sewing is not my forte, then seam ripping must be.  I'm getting really good at that.  I'm hoping that one day when I'm all grown up that I'll be able to follow directions.   The fabric used was leftover from one of these skirts that I made last summer.

Here it is in action in a cubby above my desk:

It just fits which was totally not planned.  What you can't see in the pic is all the crap that I took out of the cubbies to make it look like I"m a minimalist neat freak.  In fact, I'm the exact opposite, less minimalist, more   Clutter 'R Us.

I'm off to make more baskets now.  I've got a lot more cubbies to fill if I"m ever going to hide all my sins.

Mantilla Blanket Progress

The Mantilla Blanket is coming along.  Slowly, but it's coming along.  I've slowed down a bit on all of my crafting over the past couple of weeks.  I think the kids have infected me with their school burn out. (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it.)  Nobody around here wants to do much of anything.  I think everyone's brain has gone into melt down.  I'm hoping to get fired up again once summer officially starts on Monday.

Here's how the Mantilla Doily Blanket looks now:

I'm really hoping it will stretch out a bunch more when it's blocked.  I'm still thinking that I'm going to have to add a bunch of rows to get it to the size that I want.  I'm on row 21ish and there are only 29 rows to the whole pattern.  I just have to decide where I want the repeat(s) to go.

On a completely different topic:
For those of you who are or were skeptical about the whole Swagbucks thing.  Here's how much I've earned and already posted to my Amazon account since starting Swagbucks in January:

Screen shot of my Amazon account:

Yep, 100 big ones.  That new Wii game system will definitely be making it's grand appearance on Christmas morning!  I've been earning the bucks and then using them to purchase $5 dollar Amazon gift cards.  Free money!  Now are you interested?  If so, you can join Swagbucks here and searching and earning. 

And no, I do not work for them or have anything else to do with them.  I just enjoy earning free cash.  :)

Edited To Add:  Here's a link to an Atlanta TV station (11 alive) that did a small piece on Swagbucks.

Seen Any Good Movies Lately?

Have you guys seen any good movies lately?  I took the Eldest to see Iron Man 2 yesterday.  It was such a fun movie.  I've seen reviews all over the internet saying that it wasn't as good as the first movie.  Wrong.  These people are so over-analyzing this flick.  It's exactly what I and many others were hoping for; a fun, exciting, blow things to kingdom come popcorn flick. And how could you ever go wrong with Robert Downey Jr?

Such great eye candy!


So what flick should I go see next?  Any suggestions?