Monday, July 14, 2014

One Last Confession

Well, it's been a pleasant 4 years blogging away via blogger. But now I am moving on to bigger things. I'm still blogging about the same things and still working away at projects. Confessions of a thriftaholic will still be here for your reading pleasure, but I will not. I will now be HERE
I hope that those of you who have been faithfully following my blog will continue to follow me to this new place. You will find links there to this old blog if you ever want to take a look here again. I probably will too for memory sake. I already have several things that I plan to blog about and projects to share with you. So hopefully you will join me there!
See you there!

Jelma Louw,
Simply Yellouw

Thursday, March 27, 2014

So I saw this thing on Pinterest...

Oops this is unlike me. I haven't blogged for 2 months! But I have been busy, as a new mom other things and a little person take priority.
We recently discovered mold in our  bathroom, yuck! So for the last month we have been renovating  a room thatwe first had other plans for, but with the mold, we vetoed those plans and just did a simple gut and renovate. It's not quite done yet but I will post pics after. All I can say is I can't wait to have a working and proper sized bathtub back. The old shallow tub was useless!
We have also been renovating our bedroom. Not big renos, just putting in a walk in closet and some paint to freshen up the room. again, it's not quite complete yet because we were using free skid wood for the wall and because of the ridiculous snow, the wood has been to wet and we need to wait for dryer weather to get more wood to finish the project.


So what have I been doing to be thrifty these past 2 or 3 months?

1. I made a new k'tan style carrier for myself.  My previous k'tan worked fine, but the material was thicker and it will probably be very hot if I wanted to use it for the summer, so I made anew one out of athletic mesh.  I'm pretty sure I'm going to have to make myself a Moby style wrap as Hans get's heavier and bigger.

2. I saw a pinterest project online on how to make your own cardigan onsie. It was quite simple to do.
I bought a simple onsie fromthe thrift store of course, cut the front in have and cut out av-neck. The I sewed on some stretchy, ribbed knit and added some buttons. Pinterest told meto replace the cuffs to match the edging but I don't think it's necessary. I then made a little tiny bow tie which can be snapped onto the onsie underneath (rather than an around-the-neck elastic) I also sewed some fake suspenders onto the white onsie. And of course I HAD to make amatching


3. I have a pantry in my kitchen with a really bland door. The door is too solid looking. I had a menu board on it but it didn't help. Plus menu boards, as fun as they are to make (I have a post about it somewhere) are really annoying to use. I don't have a fancy glass door in my pantry but I need something to break up the colour on this door. So I created along chalk board. Now I didn't just purchase chalk paint and slap it on the door because chalk board paint is a rip off! it costs at least $22 for a small can. Instead I bought the cheapest can of paint at Lowes that I could find, it was $11 and a box of plaster of paris, about $4. So I only spent a little less, but this amount stretches a lot further. I mixed according to instructions : 2/3 C PoP mixed with 3 T water, add to 2 C paint and voila, calk board paint. Ad a border and  now I can write a menu on my door, groceries, to do lists etc. No more frantically looking for paper when I need to write down a message or number,I can just scribble it on the door.




I think a lot of things are going to get labeled with chalk....lets hope I don't go too crazy with this!

Tuesday, January 7, 2014

SYD diapers and a kid who farts... a lot.

Many of you know that I have my little basement run business, Simply Yellouw Designs, where I make baby gear.. mostly nursing shawls and diapers, the occasional carrier and an attempt a booties. Over the holidays I finally made a diaper cover ( which could also be made as a pocket, I'm just a littler preferential towards covers). I also make upcycled inserts to go with my covers.

Recently on my facebook site, I posted a video showing how my diapers work. What I did was combine the features of existing designs that work well for my little guy.

if you are interested in my diapers, or nursing shawls, or if you have a request to have something made, I love to up cycle materials and maybe I can help you out!