We received a gourmet gift basket for the holidays this year. It included fancy cheese, salami, fruit, chocolates and wine, but the thing that I liked most was the mini cutting board. I use it in the craft room for small projects like hammering snaps and rivets and cutting with an Exacto knife.

T-Shirt Wipey

I thought of making wipeys out of my husband's old t-shirts because my iPod touch always looked like a CSI's dream come true with fingerprints galore. Who knew my fingertips were so greasy?!?!?!

These logo t-shirts that were past their prime, but still had sentimental value. Now every time I clean my screen I think of the day I met my husband at MacWorld distributing this t-shirt!

T-shirt Hoodies

My son's favorite shirt is a hoodie with a pass through pocket in the front that I'd found on a discount rack over a year ago. Of course, I haven't been able to find another one like it anywhere.

So, I made a template out of the fav shirt and took three of my husband's old t-shirts to make a hoodie.

I made another out of an old sweatshirt using some extra t-shirt material to make the hood.

Trip to the snow, before you go...

...take a pair of these True blue household gloves with you:

These gloves will keep your hands warm and dry while playing in the snow for hours. I was able to make this toddler sized snowman and still feel my fingers. I also brought my gardening knee pads. I wasn't pretty, but I was warm and comfy.

Useful Ohashi

I often use my trusty ohashi (chopstick) when I'm crafting. I've used it as a straight edge, a bookmark, a tool to get something from the other side of the table, but most times I use it to poke things.

I poke things inside out (making straps, or parts of angry birds):

I poke the corner of a sewing project to make it nice and neat:

My mom uses ohashis in her garden to hold up plants and my hubbie used it with a piece of gum to get a Lego bit from a crevice in my car.

T-Shirt Scarf

I immediately loved the look of a scarf made from an old T-shirt that I saw on one of my fav sites, Dollar Store Crafts. Unfortunately, the link to the tut didn't work, but with a little creative sense I was able to figure out how it make it.

I took and old T-shirt and cut it into 5 x 5" squares (20). Then I overlapped the center diagonals and sewed straight up the center. I did mine in two strips (10 squares each strip) and fastened them together in the middle so that the ends would "hang" in the same direction.

Next time I might try to cut circles...

DVD-R Container

In my craft room, I'm always looking for a place to put little scraps of fabric, thread, paper, etc... I turned a few empty DVD-R containers into mini trash dispensers and strategically placed them around the room.

Bookmarks!

Up until now, I've been using scrap pieces of paper as a bookmark. They serve their purpose and are free, but not very creative. Nikki, over at WhiMSy love, has tut on how to make fast, easy and cute bookmarks.

I even made one with an Angry Bird!

Mad About Angry Bird

I'll be the first to admit, I am obsessed with Angry Birds, a very challenging video puzzle game where a player uses a slingshot to hurl birds at pigs that have stolen their eggs.

Not only have I been playing Angry Birds, but I've been making them, too! I found an awesome tut on Obsessively Stitching . I used felt that I had on hand (rather than fleece), and they turned out great!

Of course, my son likes to play the real life version even better than the video game.

Mom's Baking A Pie!

I get a lot of inspiration from my mother; yesterday she baked an apple pie.

My grandmother taught her to roll out pie crust dough between two pieces of wax paper, and generously flour, to keep everything from sticking together. I would add one more step and outline the pie pan on the top sheet of wax paper, to get the basic shape.

The lattice topping didn't turn out quite the way mom wanted it to, but it was delicious all the same!

Down to the Last Drop

A few years ago, my Aunty Carole gave me a really cool spoon rest. Normally, I use it to hold a spoon above a pot on the stove, but today I'm using it to drain the last drops of oil out of a measuring cup.

Thank You Cards

Thank you cards can be made more personal with a photo of the recipient with the gift and a hand written note.

Velcro Protector

I got a cute rain jacket over the holidays. It has everything I was looking for: hoodie, media pocket and lightweight. It also has velcro patches to hold the zipper flap shut, which was a great thing until I put a scarf on (the scarf kept getting stuck in the velcro). I cut rectangles out of craft felt and covered the hard side of the velcro. I think it might also be cute to use felt colored shapes.