Author Archives: mbajane

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,102 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,722 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Stitching and Crafting/Homespun Christmas Expert Level Merit Badge (Part II), I lovingly wrapped up the triplets’ homemade holiday gifts, and got to work on the grownup people of my life. There are so many friends I want to shower with presents, it’s hard to know where to start. Thank goodness for large cookie recipes, am I right? It never hurts to have extras lying around the kitchen during the month of December for those drop-ins you might have forgotten to shop for (I mean, craft for). And it never hurts to eat them.

The cookies, I mean.

Ideas …

Heat Therapy Packs for Gramma Barbie
• 1 pillowcase (will make three heat packs)
• Rice
• Essential oils or dried herbs

Cut pillowcase into three even rectangles. Sew bottom(s) closed. Stuff. Hand-stitch opening. Personalize with applique or ribbon/lace, if desired. Include directions to microwave for two minutes.

Photo, http://creativecaincabin.com/2014/07/august-felt-patterns/

Porcupine Pincushion for the sewers in your life
• Felt
• Needle and thread
• Stuffing
• Collection of pins

Cut out the shape of your porcupine, using free Internet downloadable patterns or freestyle your own. It doesn’t have to be a porcupine, of course, but they look adorable with pins … instead of disturbing.

Photo Coasters for family
• 4×4″ tiles (they’re about .16 each at home-improvement stores, such as Lowes, but I see them offered for free on Craigslist.com quite often. Or you might have a stack left over from your last tiling project)
• Mod Podge
• Sponge brush
• Felt
• Photos
• Clear acrylic spray

Trim your photo and felt to exactly match the size of your tiles. Glue felt to the bottom of the tile with regular glue, and the photo to the top with the Mod Podge and your sponge brush. Mod Podge the top of your photo as well. It will dry clear, so just use a nice, thin coat. After it dries, waterproof your masterpiece with the clear acrylic spray. Adorbs!

Coffee/Tea Hot Cup Sleeves for your warm beverage drinkers
• A coffee sleeve from your friendly neighborhood barista to use as a pattern
• Felt
• A cute button
• A small piece of grosgrain ribbon
• Hot glue, or needle and thread

Using your cardboard sleeve as a pattern, cut your felt to size. (If you’re a knitter, you could skip the felt and knit your coffee sleeve instead). Glue or sew your button on one side and your ribbon on the other. Mmm! Did somebody suggest a Candy Cane Mocha with whip?

Photo by MarissaHuber via Flickr.com

Leg Warmers/Boot Socks for the Fashion Divas in your life
• A sweater
• A bit of lace

Remove the arms of your sweater for the legs of your warmers. Attach lace to the top. (An alternative adornment to lace would be a couple large buttons.) Hem edges to prevent fraying (depending on fabric).

What’s more fun: making these gifts, giving them, or getting them? Let me know!

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,102 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,722 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Stitching and Crafting/Homespun Christmas Expert Level Merit Badge, I had really exercised some patience. I had to wait a whole year after earning my Beginning and Intermediate Level badges!

Luckily, Christmas comes each year, on the dot, lickety-split, ready or not, and I was prepared. (Not like a few holidays past, when I kinda forgot to be prepared and had to do my shopping at the Quick-E Mart on Christmas Eve. Nothing says Happy Holidays like a can of soda and an air freshener, am I right?)

Having made a whole tree-full of ornaments already, I only needed to add to my collection. Because, let’s be honest, when it comes to Christmas and merry making, more is more, right, girls? You know it’s true.

In addition to strictly decorating my Blue Spruce with handmade adorableness, I was also making all my gifts. Yep. These two hands of mine were going to be busy this season—and happy, too. You know the old expression, Idle hands are the devil’s handiwork Busy hands are jolly hands. That’s a saying, right? Hello?

To focus and share a few favorites of my handmade goodies this year, I concentrated first on the little rugrats of my life: Midge’s triplets. Three different homemade presents for three different kiddos. Here’s what I came up with:

A Fort Kit

• A queen- or king-sized sheet (Okay, okay, you got me. I didn’t exactly make the sheet, but I was fresh out of silkworms, all right?)

• A headlamp (These are inexpensive at around $5. I thought of going more old-school and using a candle, but I was fairly certain Midge would have my head. Right after the firemen left.)

• A stack of art supplies or books

• A pillow

• Clothespins and thumbtacks (for anchoring the sheet)

• Snacks (homemade, naturally)

The fun part of these Fort Kits is customizing them. You can use a gingham or calico sheet, a lace pillow, and a stack of Little House books for the little girl in your life, or you could use a Star Wars sheet and a glow-in-the-dark LightSabor instead of a lamp for your little men. A striped blanket, some Circus coloring books, and a box of Animal Crackers would be totally adorable … how cute are these?

Spy Kit

In a homemade bag similar to one you would use for keeping knitting needles (you know the kind—folds flat, has seams for sliding in needles), put:

• A makeup brush
• A stamp pad
• Scotch tape
• String
• A magnifying glass
• A small penlight
• A collection of disguises (cut-out mustaches, masks, a pair of old glasses, etc.)

Homemade Christmas Playdough

• 1 cup flour
• 1/2 cup salt
• 2 t cream of tartar
• 2 T coconut oil
• 1 cup water

In a medium saucepan, whisk together dry ingredients. Next, mix in the water and oil and stir until a thick batter is formed. Cook the mixture over low/medium heat until a thick dough forms. Turn out onto parchment paper and knead until smooth. Makes about 2 cups of dough.

Christmas customizations:

• Gingerbread Playdough: Add cinnamon, cloves, ginger, and nutmeg to your ingredients.
• Peppermint Playdough: Add peppermint extract and red food coloring (optional, they do make an organic version) to your ingredients.
• Pumpkin Pie Playdough: Add pumpkin pie spice and orange food coloring (optional, they do make an organic version) to your ingredients (the more, the better when it comes to your spices)
• Glitter Playdough: Add one bottle of glitter to each batch and knead in.
• Snickerdoodle Playdough: Add lots of cinnamon to your ingredients.
• Chocolate Playdough: Use half cocoa powder and half flour.

Now that the littlest minions were taken care of, it was time to make some more grown-up gifts … stay tuned!

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,102 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,722 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Stitching and Crafting/Nellie Will-Do Intermediate Level Merit Badge, I was excited to kill two birds with one stone, figuratively speaking, naturally. The first bird: earning a new Merit Badge with my crafty, sewing skillz. The second bird: bulking up my fashionista closet.

Eva Rinaldi Photography via Wikimedia Commons

Now those are two things I can get behind. Can I get an Amen?

I’d been hearing a lot about re-fashion. Like up-cycling, and re-cycling, you might say, but this type of doing good for your planet makes US look good, too. Win, win! How can you, too, earn this badge and look at clothing differently? I’m so glad you asked.

• At garage sales, thrift shops, or whenever you get some hand-me-downs from your friends, look at the pieces with new eyes. Use your imagination. Do you love the color, but the size is wrong? Maybe the fabric is fabulous, but the shorts are too short? Or the dress is great, except for the outdated Peter Pan collar? Perhaps the blouse has a stain on one sleeve? All is not lost, farmgirls! RE-FASHION!
• Now that your imagination is sparked, get out the ol’ sewing machine. Start small, like a skirt that’s way too long for your petite stature. Hemming is easy-peasy, lemon-squeasy. What if it’s the opposite problem, though? Shorts that are far too short? They can be saved, chickadee. A ruffle of lace at the bottom, and voila! Denim and lace are uber-adorable together (and totally in fashion this year, too). Don’t stop there with your jeans and lace combo—peekaboo lace patches in holey Levis are the bee’s knees.
• Once you’ve started to get the hang of it, try something a bit more difficult. Say, a huge dress that was in style 20 years ago (no judgments!). Start by taking it in. Maybe remove the sleeves altogether. Add a chunky belt. Saweet!

Photo by Ricardo peralta solis via Wikimedia Commons

• Know what you can do with a cable-knit sweater that doesn’t fit? The arms become leg warmers (so cute poking out the top of boots) and the torso part becomes a matching skirt. Didn’t see that one comin’, did ya?
• A man’s button-up shirt is a timeless lady’s dress. Take in slightly, or simply belt: this one doesn’t even really need sewing!
• Baggy pajama pants with a favorite pattern can be taken in and tightened to be your very own patterned skinny pants—so in vogue.
• Boring T-shirts can be jazzed up with a big bow in the back, lace down the sides, or re-fashioned into a halter tank. You can even stencil your favorite quote and have a one-of-a-kind “statement T.”
• Adding elbow patches in a heart or moon shape is a charming way to add style to a plain, long-sleeve shirt or jacket.
• Women’s cardigans can easily be transformed into a little girl’s sweater dress, and small ladies’ blouses can be reworked into toddler dresses.

Who knew, am I right? The possibilities are fantastic, and so is the fashion!

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,065 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,688 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Stitching and Crafting/Scrapbooking Expert Level Merit Badge, I was on a roll, still basking in the warm glow of earning my Intermediate Level Badge. I tend to be a bit on the obsessive side when it comes to hobbies. They’re kinda like cookies: I collect one flavor and binge eat them until I get a little bored, then I move on. So lately it’s been my scrapbooking hobby obsession, and I’m all about something super nifty I wanted to share with you Chiclets:

Potato Stamps!

Why yes siree, girls. How much more farmgirl can it get: combining good ol’ salt o’ the earth spuds with a little creative artwork? I know, right?

So here’s what you do to really up the ante and customize your Expert Level scrapbook …

Homemade ‘Tater Stamps

Supplies needed: potatoes (regular or sweet will do just fine), an Exacto knife, your imagination (don’t leave home without it. Wait. You are home. Just have it with you at all times, ok?)

Slice your potato in half. You want a nice smooth surface, so this is not the time to use your dullest knife (save that for spreading frosting or something). Decide what kind(s) of shapes and designs you want your stamp to be. If you’re feeling a bit nervous, just go through your cookie-cutter drawer and use one of those. If you’re feeling a little more adventurous, you can Google silhouette shapes and stencils, print one out, and trace it on your spud. If you’re feeling super devil-may-care-throw-caution-to-the-wind-we-only-live-once-take-the-bull-by-the-horns, then freestyle your own design right atop your potato. You little rebel, you.

Cut out your masterpiece with your Exacto knife.

Dip into the paint of your choice, or color with watercolor markers or Sharpies. Press onto your scrapbooking pages in a highly sophisticated and organized pattern. (Or just go willy-nilly nuts like I did. I enjoy a good crazy-quilt effect, so sue me.)

Photo by Jimmie via Flickr

That’s it. You now have a truly one-of-a-kind stamp that can also be used to do other things (though I can’t guarantee you it will earn you a merit badge):

Stamp with fabric paint onto tablecloths, lightweight baby blankets, cloth napkins or placemats, hand towels, personalized gift wrap or gift tags, stationary …

I’m a mad stamper.

Somebody stop me.

Is there a 12-step program for stamp addicts?

My name is Jane and I am a stampaholic. Oh well. As they say, pot-AY-to, po-TOT-o.

P.S. Another benefit to using potato stamps as opposed to buying all those expensive, factory-made ones: you can toss ’em (or eat ’em, ha! note to self: use organic paints) when you’re finished. No fuss, no storing, no cost, no dusty collection that you’re embarrassed to find when you’re rummaging through drawers looking for cookie cutters … win, win!

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,065 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,688 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Cleaning Up/Going Green Expert Level Merit Badge, I burrowed myself into my abode for a couple weeks and buckled down in some serious green projects. See, there’s a nasty piece of carpeting in my bedroom I’d been ignoring for quite some time, and I’d been feeling guilty each time I ran my dryer when there’s perfectly excellent sunshine right outside, and, well, suffice to say, I needed to spruce up my green living a bit to earn this badge.

I rolled up my proverbial sleeves (and the literal ones, too), donned my cutest and hardest-working apron, and got to work.

Here’s what I accomplished with a couple of afternoons, some know-how, a little grit and determination, and several slices of Gluten-free Apple Cake:

• I yanked and pulled, tore and ripped, pushed and shoved, rolled and kicked, and in all other ways, completely and utterly abused the poor carpet. No, I wasn’t beating it clean; I was removing it altogether. I could have gone the cleaning and out-gassing route, but let’s be honest, I’m more of a dismantler than a … uh, mantler. You know what I mean. And also I wanted an excuse to buy an adorable little shag rug for right beneath my bed to squish my tootsies into each morning. Call me shallow.
• I bought a length of clothesline and squinted my eyes at my backyard. To be honest, the front yard would have been slightly more perfect in my quest for line-drying clothes, but I kind of figured my neighbors didn’t want to stare at my unmentionables fluttering in the breeze. I’m selfless like that.

Short of waving my magic wand and making two trees line up perfectly in my backyard, I was stumped. I stood, feeling dejected, in my wide-open space, with my coil of rope in my sad hands. Then it came to me. The laundry room window lined up perfectly with my one lonely pear tree! Voilà! I was back in action. I rigged it up just like they do in all the old-fashioned movies with shots of the cities. You know the ones that go from apartment to apartment, sometimes slung right over the streets? With my clever pulley system, I am feeling several shades of grand. I even feel a little like a Disney princess somehow, and I must confess to singing to the squirrels and chipmunks and birds as I line up my yummy-smelling laundry to dry. Another point for the backyard and the neighbors, as my singing voice is … well, unique.

• I also needed a new coat of paint in my pantry (holiday baking is here, my pretties), and so I took advantage of my green streak to purchase a couple of small tins of non-toxic paint. My cinnamon-colored pantry with ginger-colored trim is begging for a batch of Christmas cookies right now.

• I arranged my best go-to books about greening up your life in alphabetical order, and then let my friends and neighbors know they were available for borrowing. My books, not my friends and neighbors. Rent-A-Friend? Ha! I may be onto something there. But in all seriousness, have you seen this?

The next part of this badge (hey, it’s the Expert Level, dahlinks—it takes time) was to donate six hours to a friend in need of greening up. But first, let me bask in the glory that is my shaggy rug, munch another piece of cake, and finish crooning to the woodland critters.

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,065 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,688 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Farm Kitchen/Know Your Food Intermediate Level Merit Badge, I channeled my despair over my non-producing cucumber plants, my acorn squashes (the bugs found them delicious), and my frostbitten cherry tomatoes, into something less sorrowful: realizing I could use a CSA for some of my veggie needs.

What’s a CSA, you may ask? Is it like CSI, Miami? Uh, no. Not so much. Less violence, more arugula. Less drama, more kale. Less movie stars, and more low-profile stars (like the oh-so-humble potato).

CSA stands for Community Supported Agriculture, and it’s positively dreamy for beginning gardeners, such as Yours Truly. You support your local farmer by giving her a set amount at the beginning of the growing season, and she gives you a hand-picked bag of produce every week. While I may have grandiose dreams of perfectly flourishing gardens, they don’t always come to fruition (get it? Fruition? Fruit? Gardening? hah), and I might need some professional help.

No, not that kind. Well, maybe that kind …

While I’m working on the hue of my thumbs (while not green, they are a shade up from the black they used to be … a nice gray, if you will), I will pledge to support my friendly, local professionals. I mean, how can you possibly go wrong with homegrown, local, fresh, organic, produce? Um, yeah. You can’t.

Did you know that most supermarket produce—besides being coated in toxic chemicals and bizarre waxes—lingers in trucks and boxes for up to a year in cold storage? Whaa? By that time, those brightly colored apples you’re so happy to find for 98¢ a pound have almost no antioxidants left in them at all. And your orange juice (that sneakily doesn’t really taste like oranges anymore) has probably been sitting in a vat for months and months, only to have some orange “flavor packs” stirred in. Aged wine? Yum. Aged OJ? Ick.

Yikes, yikes, and double yikes. Here’s where changing where you get your produce comes into play. The challenge for a lot of us is we really, really like “one-stop shopping.” I mean, come on, who wants to (and who has the time to) go to several different stores for different items? Can’t we all just grab a cart and get it all at once at McWalShop?

Well, make a small change, says I. Support your local farmers, who would love to cut you off a slice of their Golden Delicious, and who would happy to assure you it came fresh from a tree only a few hours before. You’ll taste the difference, by golly, and you’ll also bask in the warm glow that’s the feeling you get when you do something beneficial for the community.

Once you’ve picked out your very own CSA, snuggle down with a bowl of fruit and a copy of The Omnivore’s Dilemma by Michael Pollan. Your brain, your heart, and your tummy will thank you.

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,065 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,688 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

Wondering who I am? I’m Merit Badge Awardee Jane (MBA Jane for short). In my former life …   

For this week’s Garden Gate/Grow Where You’re Planted Intermediate Level Merit Badge, I took a good, hard look at my lawn. I narrowed my baby blues and really considered and contemplated. And then I marinated in the knowledge of what I learned …

Photo by EliOrni via Wikimedia Commons

That manicured, square shaped piece of grass in the front of your house? The one that—may I venture to guess—is not getting much use, takes up a lot of water to keep green, needs mowing at inopportune times, and doesn’t seem to have a point in life. Am I being impudent? (Look who’s been brushing up on her grammar. Over here! Pick me!) Perhaps you’re not as bad as I am at neglecting the space out your front window, but if you are, let’s chat.

Front lawns are pretty enough, I suppose. But they’re a surprising amount of work for a little patch of green. All that watering and mowing and removing of crabgrass or dandelions (although I like to let ‘em live if I ‘fess up. I’m a closet dandelion lover).

Lawn Mower Girl via Wikimedia Commons

But, Jane, you say, I need a place for the kids to play! Can’t roughhouse in a garden, can they? Well, says I, let’s be honest. Half of us are guilty of spraying our patches of lawn with toxic chemicals just to keep it pretty and green (and keep the homeowner’s association from frowning at us). Did you know that 100 million pounds of pesticides are used on lawns and gardens each year, many of them highly toxic to humans and pets? The CDC studied over 9,000 people nationwide and found pesticides in ALL of them; the average person tested for 13 of the 23 pesticides tested.

Do we really want the rugrats playing on all that nastiness?

There are lots of alternatives to just plain grass. Let’s explore some, shall we, my little chickadees?

• Raised beds for veggies

Photo by B. Blechmann via Wikimedia Commons

• Rock garden
• Wildflower patch

Photo, Bureau of Land Management via Wikimedia Commons

• Shrubberies (go all Edward Scissorhands)

Photo by Mat Fascione via Wikimedia Commons

• Cobblestones in a pathway or even a mini labyrinth maze
• Fruit trees
• Lawn art (doesn’t have to be kitschy … although it could be!)

Photo by April222 via Wikimedia Commons

• Move some of your backyard life into the front. If your chickens have a pretty fabulous coop and they like to visit with the wandering pedestrians, move them out front. Have nice patio furniture? Don’t hide it in the back; be sociable and put it in the front. Kids have a swingset? I bet it would do your senior citizens heart’s good to watch them play from across the street.
• Herb plants, such as thyme, rosemary, mint, oregano, basil, etc. They smell a-MAY-zing when it rains! (And—helpful hint—they are perennials. Yay!)

Photo by vizpix via Flickr

• Groundcovers such as: Irish Moss, Creeping Jenny (gosh, just the name alone makes me want some), Pretty Lamium, Blue Star Creeper, Green Carpet, Stone Crop, Creeping Wire Vine, Viola, Fleur de Lawn, Black Scallop Bugleweed, Chamomile, Pink Chintz, Elfin Thyme, Snow-in-Summer, Hardy Ice Plant, and Clover. Check to see which ones are native to your area and go crazy.

One of the neatest things about ground covers? A lot of them can really stand up to traffic! This isn’t your granddaddy’s lawn, with your stereotypical elderly person shouting at the neighborhood whippersnappers to get off his lawn! No way, my peeps. This is my lawn, with your stereotypical well-dressed doll shouting at the neighborhood whippersnappers to come on over! I have tea!

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,035 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,663 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 6,035 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,663 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Each Other/Connecting Growers and Eaters Beginning Level Merit Badge, I volunteered to take over the gardening duties of my neighbor, Mr. Midgely. Recently, he had taken a tumble down his porch and his shiny new cast wasn’t compatible with getting down in the dirt, weeding, and foraging for vegetables. I said to myself, “Self, you can be neighborly and earn a new merit badge while doing so.”

What could be better?

That was before I knew of Mr. Midgely’s obsession preoccupation with zucchini.

Now I love a grilled zucchini as much as the next farmgirl. They’re a tasty veg, and we’re close friends.

But I never want to see another zucchini again.

Mr. Midgely evidently was preparing for alien takeovers, the zombie apocalypse, or a simple famine, because the dear man planted enough of the giant green vegetable to feed our entire town. And the next one over. Plus, most of Rhode Island and maybe Texas.

Before I knew what I had gotten myself into, I was knee deep in squash. Everywhere I looked, every time I turned around, I found myself surrounded. At first, they seemed a friendly enough sort of veggie, but after a couple of hours in the hot sun, my baskets laden with what felt like hundreds of pounds, they began to form menacing faces.

Remember the singing violets and roses in Alice In Wonderland?

Photo via Wikimedia Commons

Like that. Only more creepy. And less singing.

I seemed to be making no progress. Zucchinis were pressing in on me from each side. As soon as I picked one, I swore three more grew up instantly in its place! Like amorous bunnies, they were procreating right before my stunned eyes!

I had to get out of there. I lugged my two tons of squash with me as far as the porch, then left them behind when I started to hear them chuckling maniacally at me. It had to have been sunstroke, but I wasn’t taking any chances. When the produce starts guffawing, it’s time to take a break.

Mr. Midgely was watching his soap operas when I burst into the house. He seemed to understand my panicked look … after all, it wasn’t his first garden. But I didn’t appreciate the twinkle in his eye, all the same.

After a quick cookie and tea break, I went back to work. I wasn’t going to be licked by a Curcurbita pepo! (You’re welcome for that little bit of knowledge.) I hunkered back down in the dirt and threatened my enemy with all sorts of graphic promises:

• to be sautéed in butter, and sprinkled with garlic salt
• grated and used in muffins and quick breads
• diced into a summer squash salad
• sliced thinly and added to pasta
• sliced thickly, battered, and fried
• puréed into baby food

Or how about …

• filled, for Stuffed Zucchini with Spinach and Bacon
• pickled (Overnight Zucchini Pickles)
• made into delicious Baked Zucchini Chips
• or used as wraps for Sweet & Smoky Salmon Zucchini Rolls

After my chilling guarantees, the zucchinis started to seem less intimidating and even began behaving themselves. I got each and every one picked, by Zeus, and wrestled into the house to be washed. Mr. Midgely’s kitchen looked like a Zucchinis R Us store when I was done.

Photo by USDA via Wikimedia Commons

He watched me from his recliner, munching on cookies.

I’m getting skeptical about that leg.

The adorable, always humorous MBA Jane is my way of honoring our Sisterhood Merit Badge program, now with 5,965 dues-paying members who have earned an amazing number of merit badges so far—8,526 total! Take it away, MBA Jane!!! MJ 

For this week’s Cleaning Up/Shopping Green Expert Level Merit Badge, I graduated (with honors) from the whole I-own-lots-of-cute-reusable-shopping-bags-but-I-always-leave-them-at-home thing, to the not-only-do-I-own-lots-of-cute-reusuable-shopping-bags-but-I-nearly-always-remember-to-take-them-shopping thing. This graduation deserved three cheers, a toss of my figurative hat in the air, and several slices of cake. You know. To celebrate.

But this was not enough for me. Nay. Never let it be so. My love for reusable shopping totes was not going to stop there. I was off to convert someone. Share the love. Spark some interest.

And also:

party.

A bag party! A swap meet of sorts. An evening with my fellow farmgirls, chatting, sewing, trading, admiring, and re-gifting our collection of shopping bags. What could be more fun than never having to hear the condemning words from our friendly local cashiers again,

Would you like paper or plastic?

Shudder, gasp, PSHAW! As if!

Since I was hosting, I figured I should have the most bags to begin with. I mean … okay, it’s not a contest, and it’s not like I’m greedy or anything, it’s just that I wanted everyone to go home with plenty. So I stocked up. I learned how to make the cutest totes from old T-shirts, and since I kinda got on a roll and made approximately eleventy-seven of them in one afternoon, I thought I’d share a little tutorial with you all.

1.) Raid your husband/father/friend/Aunt Sally’s closet for vintage Ts, or better yet, tank tops. Do they have to be vintage? Nope. But they turn out awfully cute. P.S. Make sure the fabric is somewhat heavyweight. We don’t want your container of organic mango sherbet crashing to its tragic death on the way out of the garage. Been there. Done that. Have the T-shirt. Hah!

2.) Flip inside out. Sew the bottom shut (using a sewing machine or serger, this will take like two nano-seconds). Using a large bowl, or just eyeballing it, draw a semi-circle along where the original neck hole is. (You’re just enlarging it is all. You know, so you can fit in the family-size cheddar-and-sour-cream potato chips without squishing them.) Cut. Hem (or skip the hemming and just use pinking shears if the fabric isn’t the fraying kind; I won’t tell).

3.)  Remove the sleeves. Hem. (Step #3 not necessary if using tanks).

4.) Voila!

Other ideas to get your creativity juices flowing:

• Use sheets instead of Ts. You’ll get plenty of bags out of an old flat sheet!
• Add a pocket in the front. Good for tiny items, and also for rolling up your bag when it’s not in use.
• Use thicker fabric for your cold items.
• Make several sizes! Sometimes all you’re picking up is a carton of tea, a pack of gum, and a jar of honey.
• Take apart a paper bag to use as a pattern if you like the bags that have flat bottoms for standing up straight while you’re bagging.
• Add a zipper or button for closing. This privacy is nice if you’re like me and you like to stock up on panties and brassieres once a year and don’t want them going the way of the mango sherbet … embarrassing to leave a trail of satin hi-cut briefs in the driveway. Not that I’ve ever done that:)

Once you have a nice collection going and you’re basking in the warm glow of all the compliments you receive when out shopping, share the love. Have a bag swap. (And invite me).