suspended animation

Darkness greets us morning after morning, the earth lays dormant and I wait and wait to hear about a job. My whole life feels suspended, not moving, like we're treading, going nowhere. Then, suddenly everything changes. A streak of pink in the early morning sky, buds on our lilac bush and, good news, a great job! All of these gifts were there, under the surface, waiting for their time. It's the waiting part that threatens to suck the life right out of me.


Because of my boys, I pulled out our traditional valentine decorations this weekend. For a few years now we have suspended construction paper hearts all over our living room and dining room. I wasn't in the mood to put them up, but now that they are there they make me smile. In a fallow time it works to just go through the motions. Do something that brought you joy before and see where you end up. It certainly helped when we were decorating that Elliott kept trying to reach the ceiling and would look up awestruck, saying, "Wow, that's pretty! Wow, that's cool!" (Those chubby cheeks help, too.)


I also had an urge to sew over the weekend. Nothing complicated. I just found some red and white fabric in my stash and cut out some hearts and some squares for pockets and stitched them on bias tape.


The banner of love hangs over my kitchen sink to remind me to smile and look up and be thankful for the simple things. Some days that small task is easier than others. Yesterday, very difficult. Tonight, the gratitude overwhelms me.


And then, there are valentines. Glue and stamps, stickers and tape. Little paper gifts for friends and for each other. Our table has been left as an unending art project. If I don't clean it up, they go back to it and dream up new ways to cut paper to say I love you. And on the dark days, come what may, love is the gift that keeps us going.

gifts we made

Between two handmade shows (which I completely failed to photograph) and a slew of handmade gifts, my Bernina saw a lot of thread this holiday. Although I scheme and cut and piece weeks in advance, I never seem to be able to sit down at my machine until midnight before the item is needed. But somehow it all gets done and, hmmm, now I guess I know why I slept almost the entire Christmas Day. Here's what I've been doing in the wee hours of the morning:

:: A couple of days before Christmas Eve, when we planned to exchange stocking gifts with my siblings, I saw this modern take on the coaster and pulled out my stash of felt. Each sister received a custom color palette and, for perhaps the first time in my handmade career, I kept a set for myself.
:: Homemade bread is a familiar smell in this home, particularly when gifts are in order. Our everyday oatmeal bread sees the oven most often, and flies out of here. I have a hard time deviating. This month I've been flattening out the dough after the first rise, spreading it with cinnamon, brown sugar and raisins, and rolling it back up. The cinnamon-raisin trick would probably work great with our flax seed bread, too.
:: Over the last two months, I have made more than two dozen sweater texting gloves and sold and gifted nearly all of them. So, if you wonder who is snatching up all the wool and cashmere sweaters at Goodwill, now you know. And if you want a pair, let me know. I'm working on a new stash.
:: What does a girl do with all the leftover thrifted wool and cashmere sweaters? Why, make a fabulous sweater blanket, of course. Piecing 12" squares, this two-sided upcycled blanket became a gift for my brother and his wife. It was kind of hard to part with, but since I sewed the blanket together 12 hours before I gave it to them, I didn't have a lot of time to covet it. Plus, I think they liked it.
:: Finally, to satisfy my desire to be a bootlegger, I concocted a little limoncello. I warn anyone who receives this potent beverage, it goes down easy. Take it like medicine: Do not drink (other) alcohol. Do not operate heavy machinery. It may cause extreme drowsiness or personality changes. Hopefully good ones.

We also made a lot of these Chocolate Peppermint Bark Cookies, which were delicious, and Chewy Chocolate Gingerbread Cookies. And although I'd love to make the Chocolate Nutella Cookies my cousin posted about this week, I may have to wait until next December. Quite frankly, I am cookied out.

If you made any gifts this Christmas, please share. New ideas always welcome.

what if we knew we were beloved in every fiber of our being?

Recently I was approached about contributing an artwork to an exhibit at church. The exhibit was focusing on persecution and artists were being asked to respond. My first thought was that I am not an artist. In the traditional sense, it's true. I don't draw or paint or sculpt. But the woman coordinating the exhibit warmly suggested I use my sewing machine to create something. I told her I'd think about it.

I sat on it for weeks. I am not well acquainted with persecution. Although we have our struggles, we live a pretty cushy life. Occasionally the awful realities of life outside will pop up on my computer screen and I'll be moved to sign a petition, engage others or say a quick prayer. But in order to maintain the freedom and safety of my family, I don't have to do much. I can exercise my beliefs, use my voice and show my face everywhere I go. Living in the western suburbs of Chicago has its perks.

I figured I would not be participating in this exhibit.

A couple of days before the contributions were due, I remembered a conversation I had had years ago with the director of Youth for Christ in Lebanon. He shared about the difficult situations he and his family had experienced over the past months: death threats, bomb scares, etc.

“It must be really hard to be a Christian in Lebanon right now,” I said to him.

He gave me a funny look and shook his head.

“Not really,” he responded. “I imagine the most difficult place in the world to be a Christian would be in America.”

I'm not sure I said anything after that. I was stunned, but I knew he was right. We are self-sufficient in America. We really don't know anything about persecution. Most of us don’t have an urgent daily need to cling to God or his Word.

Thinking about my friend in Lebanon reminded me of the story of Corrie Ten Boom surviving the Nazi concentration camps. The efforts she went through to hide her little Bible on her person so she wouldn’t have to give it up impressed me greatly as a child.

A few seasons of life have led me to open my Bible on a daily basis. But never with the urgency of a desperate person clinging to every word.

What would it look like if the Bible were that important to us? If it were—worn and tattered—all that we clung to? If we gave up our debates and arguments about the finer points of theology and inerrancy? If we stopped looking at the Bible as a book of rules and judgment, or a weapon of persecution in itself?

What if, instead, we simply clung to its promises? What if we wore the truth of who we are—beloved children of God—like our lives depended on it?

And, so, I cut out pages of those promises from a little Bible and made something for the exhibit after all.

No matter what happens to us in this life, I am certain that there is a greater purpose and a God of love we can cling to. A God who doesn't demand retribution but who encourages forgiveness. A God who doesn't promise prosperity but who asks for sacrifice. A God who doesn't leave anyone out but who loves lavishly and unconditionally.

Persecuted believers know it with every fiber of their being. May we as well.


For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Romans 8:38-39

earth day sewing

For ages I have wanted to make bags using this great tutorial on my friend Emily's blog. At 10 p.m. Thursday night I finally got around to it - and finished four adorable bags by 1 a.m. Just in time for Earth Day.


I got inspired to do this after finding a brand new Crate & Barrel dishtowel at our church Rummage Sale a couple weeks ago. The towel was too cute to actually use for dishes, so I started imagining what else I could do with it. I remembered the tutorial and headed over to C&B to see about getting another towel to match so I could make a bag. Since the dish towels were on sale, I figured I'd just make a bunch and give them away as gifts. The tutorial is so easy and the result so satisfying, I'll be making these as gifts for a while.


Since I had gone to all that trouble dust off my machine, I figured I should make something else. So I dug out a nice old tablecloth I never use and cut off the end to make this book holder for Liam's new top bunk. In the week the bunk bed has been up, Liam has been happily going to bed, reading with his little book light. It makes me so happy to see him snuggled up there reading. Trouble is, he has no where to put the book when he's done and throwing it down would surely wake up the lower bunk inhabitant. So I decided to try this idea for a bunk bed book holder.


So I hemmed up the raw edge of the tablecloth and then folded lengthwise to make a long pocket. At book-length intervals I sewed vertical lines, then sewed on bias tape in a couple spots so we could tie the pocket to the bed. There's a pocket for his book light and his books and his journal and pen. (Even if you just sew a very little bit, this was super easy to do. And it took less than an hour to make it.) Liam was giddy about his book holder last night and stayed up later than usual, reading and writing in his journal.


When should a mom stop reading her son's journal? At this age, I can't resist. Last night he drew a picture of his stuffed animal, a list of "Elliott's New Words" and this sweet note about Wisconsin. Papa and Gigi should pay special attention: Don't let up on the dessert.

because Ann came to visit and Josie had a dinner party

This is my new sweater thing. I don't know what to call it because I've never seen one before. I just made it up in the 30 minutes I had planned to clean up and shower before joining my cousin for dinner. But inspiration and cute, free clothing supersede clean hair. (Thank goodness for headbands.)

Two days earlier I had spent 24 wonderful hours with my dear friend Ann who drove herself and her kids to town for a visit. After weeks of nothing but work and fighting a cold, I was feeling pretty worn down and uninspired. There's nothing like hanging out with a beautiful artist to turn me around.

Usually the inspiration comes on Ann's turf, surrounded by her quilts and artwork and books and recipes. This time it came on mine, in non-stop conversation about faith and parenting and books and cooking and sewing. Oh, yes, sewing. I forgot how much I love talking and dreaming about sewing. And how lit up I get when I actually do it.

I brought out my sewing books for her to flip through (after I sheepishly showed her my totally trashed "sewing room"), like The Sweater Chop Shop, Born-Again Vintage and Betz White's Sewing Green. I love to look at these books (although I hadn't in a while) but I get bogged down in deciding what I could tackle. I get paralyzed by the possibilities and then get distracted by the paying work and leave the sewing machine untouched. It takes a birthday or a baby shower to get me in there, ignoring the disaster surrounding me, whipping something up. Turns out a dinner party works too.

Saturday night my cousin Josie had a fancy dinner prepared for her and a small group of friends by her two daughters and three nieces. Her mom Ruth, the girls' grandma, had the girls give the dinner party to Josie as a Christmas gift and then Ruth made it happen. And what an amazing gift it was! The food was fabulous and the girls were adorable, serving us like caterers.

That afternoon I had an idea for something to make and I was itching to do it. I wasn't sure if it would work, but with the idea that there would be an event that night to wear it to, I figured it was worth a try.


In one of the many piles in my "sewing room," I located a soft Merino wool turtleneck sweater I had thrifted (and already washed and dried - shrunk a bit). I cut off the bottom of the sweater just below the arms. Then I cut straight down the front of this piece (Note: If you try this, be sure to mark the front of the sweater before you cut off the arms!). I found some wide lace I bought for nearly nothing at an estate sale and cut a piece a little longer than each side. I pinned and sewed on the lace, then topstitched around the top of the whole piece. The lucky part (as I had no idea while sewing this thing as fast as possible how I was going to fasten it) was digging up the cool vintage broach, also thrifted, I've held onto, unworn, for years.

It may look like I simply ended up with a silly sweater thing. But that's not the whole story. Barbara Brown Taylor sums it up beautifully in her book An Altar in the World when she writes,

"What is saving my life now is the conviction that there is no spiritual treasure to be found apart from the bodily experiences of human life on earth. My life depends on engaging the most ordinary physical activities with the most exquisite attention I can give them. My life depends on ignoring all touted distinctions between the secular and the sacred, the physical and the spiritual, the body and the soul. What is saving my life now is becoming more fully human, trusting that there is no way to God apart from real life in the real world."

Whether I'm slicing an apple while deep in conversation about potty training, Japanese quilts and a dear friend's pentecostal childhood, or I'm drooling over a bite of perfectly cooked beef tenderloin while listening to a new friend laugh about her life as a stepmother, or I'm keeping a line of stitches straight in a small bubble of stolen time, something holy is happening. I don't understand it, and I sure can't explain it. But even now, when I look at my silly sweater thing, I tear up, just to know it's true.

::

Thank to Tara at Go West Young Mom for reprinting my post about struggling with keeping a clean house and to all the wonderful commenters. Evidence, I'd say, that it's good and right to leave the dishes in the sink in order to sew for 30 minutes.

old sweater gifts

Last spring I collected and cut up more than a dozen sweaters to make a patchwork sweater blanket. This month I gathered up the remaining scraps and, voila, teacher gifts! Between my two sons, we had 15 - oh, yes, 15! - teachers and therapists to show some Christmas love. And we had zero dollars to spend.


Almost all of our gifts were sweater coffee cozies. I used a fancy stitch on my grandma's wonderful Bernina and guesstimated how to creatively sew some scraps together to fit a to-go cup. Each then got a button or two. If spending had been an option, we would have tossed a coffee shop gift card in the cup. Instead, we got creative and mixed up our favorite cocoa, bagged an individual serving and attached the recipe and a little candy cane.


For Liam's wonderful, special teacher (who he has blessedly been with for two years), I made fingerless gloves from the sleeves of a beautiful white sweater. She has a lot of style and loves stores like Ruche and Anthropologie, so the mismatched buttons were the perfect finishing touch.

I see a lot of sweater scrap sewing in my future. Maybe even an Etsy store. Stay tuned!

trash to treasure

Friday night I spent five hours around beautiful, creative people and a whole room of handmade items that were dreamed up in the mind of their makers and fashioned out of old, found stuff. In other words, upcycled, useable and wearable art. I was giddy the entire time. I made half a dozen recycled jean skirts for the event and a bunch of coffee cozies made from the left-over denim and other vintage fabrics and buttons.


One of the first people in the door bought a jean skirt, which was a thrill. But the real fun was all the dreaming I did that night. Of making fingerless gloves from the sleeves of old sweaters, sweet ornaments from fabric scraps and strands of discarded fake pearls, and beautiful gift bags from leftover white house paint, salvaged ribbon and empty cereal boxes. Nothing new but the ideas.


My friend Liita can do the most incredible things with garbage. Things you would be pleased to own. Things people would want to receive. Things that look like they cost big bucks at Anthropologie (like her necklace - the type that costs $130 at Anthro). Real-life trash to treasure. It costs nothing to make these amazing things but a little time and creativity.

Not only does this kind of "making" help conserve resources and feed the creative soul, it breeds bigger ideas about ways to be kind to the planet, to ourselves and to one another. The sales at this gallery night raised enough money to buy two sewing machines for an outreach program Liita and her business partner Rose are putting into place at the Ronald McDonald Children's Hospital. They are sharing this creative, restorative kind of craft with terminally ill children and their parents, giving them the tools to pour their hearts into making something beautiful out of something that - on the surface - is not. It's transformative. It's rewarding. It's life giving.

I'm really not exaggerating. Before you toss that old sweater, take a second look. Hat, gloves, blanket, garland, stocking...there are so many things it could be. Spend an afternoon at the Little Bits Workshop and be inspired. Be giddy. Be Anthropologie.

Only 12 upcycling days til Christmas.

december 10

My crafty artist friend Liita, owner of Little Bits Workshop in River Forest, has a dream to work with youth and moms in transition and get them on the right path by training them to create and start their own cottage industries. Small-scale, local microfinance of sorts. Funded in part by sales from a trunk show of handmade items crafted by her artsy friends. Her blog post explains it best. I'm just thrilled to be along for the ride, to help make this wonderful dream come true! Here are the details:

Trunk Show Fundraiser
December 10, 2010
4-9 p.m.
American Artworks Gallery
in downtown Forest Park

A significant portion of the sales at this show go to support both the Little Bits Scholarships for teens at risk and also workshops for kids at Ronald McDonald Children's Hospital in Maywood. Liita will work with these terminally ill kids to make altered journals and other special keepsake items. A beautiful thing.

I have ten days to get down to business sewing recycled jean skirts and whatever else I can scrap together from salvaged fabric. Since this sounds way more exciting than any paying job I've had in the last 13 years, I'm thinking it may be the start of a new career...or just a fun new outlet.

If you're in the area, shop green. Shop for a great cause. Shop to encourage a few retail newbies. Or just come by and say hi and tell Liita she's doing a really awesome thing.

a little girl and some pj pants

When I was young and single, I spent many a weekend with my cousin Kathryn. Since I lived in a flat in her town, with two kittens and a closet full of extremely cool dress-up clothes (or so she thought), and she lived with three older brothers and zero kittens, she happily came for sleepovers whenever she could. Being that I am the eldest of 20 cousins and she is the youngest, one might imagine that I could have given birth to this girl. And one would be right. There were days when I wished I had. In fact, I loved to take Kathryn out to eat or to the video store and imagine that people thought she was my daughter. She was adorable and funny and I was quite sure that I must have been the absolute coolest mom in town.

Now, incredibly, 12 years later, I have a six year old of my own and little Kathryn has graduated high school and is off on grand grown-up adventures. This weekend she leaves for a 9-month stint working with street kids in Cape Town, South Africa, getting a way broader view of the world and God's love in action. In addition to adorable and funny, she is now incredibly awesome. I am very proud of my pseudo-daughter.

For Kathryn's high school graduation I wanted to make her something special that she could take with her on her trip. Earlier this year when our grandma died - the grandma that she and I both spent countless hours with, including many nights of sleepovers - I took a small pile of sheets when my aunts and I cleaned out her closet. Instead of using the sheets for their intended purpose, I had an idea of a couple ways I could remake them. One was as pajama pants.


I found a pattern with a wide-bottom leg (McCall's 5989) and cut into the pair that we granddaughters remember so well from our cherished nights in the guest room. I left the groovy wide, white top edge of these funky blue sheets as the bottom of the legs, which made them extra cute. I've already duplicated the idea with two other top sheets for another special cousin and my sister. Someday maybe I'll make some for myself.

For the next nine months, though, I'll be thinking about the little girl with the blue pj pants. I'll be praying that she always remembers where she came from, how much love goes with her and what a cool thing it is to be original. Although I'd still find it amazing to be her mom, I feel lucky just to be her friend. Sweet dreams, Kathryn. We'll miss you!

call me crazy, but I'm going to...

:: Turn 20 pounds of these into this yummy soup and this slow-roasted heaven


:: Turn a shopping bag of these into the world's greatest applesauce


:: Turn a pile of old clothes into some very cute skirts


Voila! One down. And I haven't even taken a picture of all the yarn.

Disclaimer: If you are a client who happens to be reading my blog, I'll be doing your work first, of course. I am not distracted by the season. Nope, not one bit.

jean skirts 3 and 4

These skirts are on hangers because, alas, they can't all be for me. Sadly, the altered jeans are no longer in my possession, or I'd take different photographs. It's a little hard to tell with the blur and the white backdrop, but they are definitely the coolest thing I've whipped up so far.

Both pairs of jeans were from my sister in law. They were worn out in some hard-to-patch places and she thought I could use the denim for something else. I don't think she was expecting to get a pair back as a skirt. For hers, I reworked a sheer purplish top that had a ruffle down the front. I had to use the sleeves on the sides as the shirt was too narrow. But it worked out perfectly. Underneath, I layered a remnant of pretty white embroidered fabric. Unfortunately, the girl won't be modeling this little bit country little bit rock 'n roll number for a while as she's incubating baby number 3. But at least she's got some something to look forward to.

For the other pair of jeans I layered a yellow t-shirt and a silky top. I love the fancy-casual combo with the denim. This skirt became a birthday gift for a friend who dresses up in Tevas. Just adding a little zing to her regular rotation.

I'm thinking of making this jean doctor thing into a side business - or, at least, my new go-to gift. If you have a favorite pair of jeans that have worn out in all the wrong places, send them over. I'll make you a skirt. I'm serious.

new summer dos and jean skirt number two

At the 4th of July parade last Sunday we scored two free coupons to Sports Clips. Think these boys need a haircut? For years - actually, Elliott's entire life - they have only had their mother and a pair of scissors. It's worked okay. But we couldn't pass up a free haircut could we?



Two coupons. Three haircuts. Dad surprised us all by sneaking out after he saw his boys' new dos and chopping his 8-inch ponytail. He says he can still play guitar as well as ever and he's not hot and scruffy all the time. He's a man of mystery, and cute as ever. But, the rock star and short hair? I'm still getting used to it.



My hair is shorter and redder this summer, too, but I don't have a good photo and since this is my blog, I'm showing the most recent recreated skirt I've made. These were really old, worn-out jeans with two blown knees. But they were comfy and I wanted to salvage them. At our most recent neighborhood clothes swap, I brought a linen dress that was too long, too shapeless and too see-through. No one else wanted it either. I loved the embroidery at the bottom, though, and my friend Heather suggested I keep it and made something else out of the fabric. She's a smart girl, that Heather. It was the exact perfect fit for this new skirt and I like the funky old-jean, flowery-linen combo.


And to solve the see-through issue, I sewed a t-shirt lining. Another clothes swap find and already hemmed. Too much fun with scissors over here.

is it wrong for a kindergartener to give his teacher a bottle of wine?

Probably. Until this morning, however, I never even thought this would be the gift. But it's the last day of school and all my other ideas fizzled. For months I was planning to make Liam's teacher and classroom helper purses but over the last couple weeks I have been second guessing this idea. Then at 11 p.m. the night before the day before the last day of school I had a brainstorm. It was ingenious. It was eco-saavy. It was creative. Liam could even help me. But by 11 p.m. last night I realized it was impossible. A girl has to sleep after all. At least a little.

So it was back to the drawing board and I found myself going to my happy place. Sewing coasters. Lately I have been on a coaster craze. They are relatively quick to make, and so satisfying. And they are pretty darn cute. The coasters led to the wine. And wine glass charms made with some help from Liam, in the minutes before we need to be walking out the door to school, of course. Nothing ever gets done early around here, but that's part of the excitement.

Actually I have been trying to figure out why I do this to myself - wait until the very last second to bring my brainstorms to life. First, I am indecisive. Ask my husband. I need a deadline licking at my heels to finally commit. Second, I am scrappy. I've never liked a detailed plan. I don't use patterns. I like to dream stuff up and then dig through piles and pull things off shelves in a weird random rush to see if I can actually bring my vision to life. And sometimes, when I'm down to the wire, that method doesn't go so well. And other times, it does. Finally, I have far too many things on my mind. How can a working mom sit down for a leisurely sewing session when she's stressing over preschool plans, which doctor her son needs to see next, if the big summer project is going to come through, where the lost library book might be, how mulching the yard can possibly happen in the next two weeks? As much as I try to simplify, declutter, relax, I am always here, skipping from one deadline to the next.

Andrew, at least, is starting to get me. Tuesday I was feeling the pressure more than usual: breathing shallowly, sighing loudly, feeling down. Liam was at school and Elliott was napping and I had just emailed off a project that had been hanging over my head. The counter clutter, the weedy yard, the overloaded inbox - so much I could do in the 50 minutes before school ended but, as I mentioned, I'm indecisive and so I sat at the counter in a huff.

"Why don't you go upstairs and sew something," Andrew said. "That always makes you happy."

So, reluctantly (after all, there was so much I should be doing), I waded through the piles crowding out the floor of my studio and picked up a piece of fabric. And I made a coaster. Because coasters don't take any planning and the sound of the machine bearing down on the fabric in tidy straight lines makes me happy. And, needless to say, they go great with a glass of wine.

Right or wrong, that was our gift to Mrs. McCloud. After more than nine months with 50 kindergarteners, I'm guessing she can use them.

jean skirt number one

I was thinking of titling this blog post "midnight sewing" because that's when I made this skirt - after 11 p.m. last night. Tight work deadlines and summer weather are encroaching on my sleep. I am too wound up to go to bed at night and the birds chirp me awake before dawn. Mostly I've been working during these long waking hours, but what I've really wanted to do is sew.

So late last night I dug through a pile of clothes I've saved to "do something creative with" and found a pair of jeans I got at a neighborhood clothing exchange and decided to try and turn them into a skirt. I loved how soft and faded the jean were, with little rhinestones on the back pockets and a nice low waist, but I hardly ever wore them because were just a little too short and a little too tight. In about an hour I altered the jeans into a comfy skirt. I didn't follow a pattern. I just cut the legs apart and figured out what to do from there, using the bottom part of the leg for the middle panels since they were already hemmed and all.

I think this skirt is going to see a lot more daylight than the jeans did. I'm already imagining jean skirt number two.

mom's new blankie

This weekend I sewed up my patchwork sweater blanket and it's already been hijacked. Who can blame him? It's soft and cuddly and just right for cool mornings on the sun porch.

Most of the sweaters were collected at Good Will and rummage sales. A couple were mine, nibbled on by moths, but too special to toss. All of them were washed and cut into 12" squares. It was so rewarding - and quick - to put this blanket together. For anyone wanting to try this, here are a couple of things I learned while doing:

:: All sweaters have a right side and a wrong side. One square accidentally was sewn on wrong side out. Although, I'll probably be the only one who ever notices.

:: Choose sweaters that have at least some wool or cashmere in them.

:: When sewing a seam, put the shorter square on top so you can stretch it a little to match the longer square. (Technically all squares should be equal, but my measuring was kind of lax, I guess.) All sides being equal, sew the seam with the stretchier sweater fabric on the bottom.

:: Sew squares into rows. Then, when sewing rows together, align and pin the cross seams so they will match up.

I'm still not sure how to back this blanket. Any suggestions? In the meantime, we'll just be enjoying it without one.

a little gift for a big giver

The coffee cozy (free tutorial at House on Hill Road) has been my go-to gift lately. It's quick to make, plus it's cute, practical, and environmentally friendly. And who doesn't love a grande latte every once in a while?

This particular cozy is going in a care package to my dear friend Lauren who donated her kidney to a co-worker yesterday. Lauren didn't think it was a big deal. But that's kind of how she is. If someone needs something you have, you just give it to them. Now that's the way to live. Someone get that girl a cup of coffee.