Project: Back Porch

Living in a hot climate, I sure do love having a back porch.  It's just too hot to go out in the sun for at least two months of the year.  My kids love to play out there, and in the spring and fall, I especially love to entertain outdoors.  However, I've been wanting to make our back porch more of a cozy living space rather than a boring place to sit in the shade.  I've also wanted to add something for privacy, without adding curtains or blinds on the inside of our house.  So i'm starting a DIY project to spruce up our back porch on a very strict budget:  keeping it around $100.
Here's the before pictures:

Latest Baby Items

Lots of my friends are having babies, so I'm staying pretty busy just making gifts for them right now!  Here are a few of the latest baby items I've made in the past few weeks:

This last burp cloth, for Grace, I added "taggie"-type ribbon at the bottom to double as spit-up-catcher as well as entertainment for baby. :)

Taggie Blanket

This blanket is minky on one side and soft flannel on the other with plenty of ribbon "tags" to keep Baby busy!

Diaper Bags

Since Lil Man was born this past winter, I've slowly been working my way back into sewing.  The biggest challenge is finding the time to do it...Lil Man is sleeping in the master bedroom currently, and that's where my machines are.  We hope to get him into his own room soon!  It's also taken some getting used to caring for two kids rather than one during the day.  It doesn't leave much time for anything else!

But here are a few diaper bags I've completed over the past couple of months...