Graduation earrings and "un-paper towels"

I haven't been working on my Monster Book of Monsters.  I just haven't felt like it.  But that does not mean I haven't been doing anything at all.

My daughter asked me if I could make her some earrings to go with her necklace for graduation.  This is what I came up with.  I used up almost all of the green/blue beads leftover from the necklace.  I used seven in each earring.  (For anyone who is a Harry Potter fan, the number seven was totally intentional because 7 is the most powerful magical number.  My daughter is a huge  Harry Potter fan.)  I also included one pink bead since there is pink in her necklace and to break up all that green/blue.   She loves them.  I will get to see everything all put together tomorrow night when she graduates.

I have also made myself some "unpaper towels" after being inspired by Jill from One Good Thing by Jillee .  Mine aren't as pretty as hers are, but I have no intention of leaving them on the counter and I think white would be horribly stained in no time.  I found some absolutely beautiful  all cotton dishcloths at the grocery store.  I'm pretty sure I paid $3 for the pack of 10.  So they will have paid for themselves in about three rolls of the paper towel I buy.  I am still using paper towels for gross messes (like animal messes and raw meat juice messes) but my plan is to use these for pretty much everything else. 

So far I have used one. 

My youngest knows all about my plan and we are going to do this ourselves and gently recruit my oldest daughter and husband.

So, I started out with 10 ugly, square dishcloths (hey, they were cheap and stains won't be as noticable!).

I cut them in half and sewed up the edge I just cut.  Jill had problems with hers fraying because she left her edges raw, so I learned from her and took the time to sew mine up.  After they were all sewn, I tossed them in the laundry.  Wow!  Did they ever shrink!  They are still a great size though.

Then, I folded all twenty of them in half and put them under the kitchen sink.   Maybe we won't go through as many paper towels now. 

Thanks for the idea Jill! Pin It