I made this — one of my first recycled sweater projects — for The Boy last year. I can attest that he totally loves it still. All the details are at the Instructable embedded above, or click here.

I know, we’re trying to buy handmade and make things, and that’s great! But sometimes we also need to buy other stuff too. And I like Amazon (they’re doing a great thing with their new Frustration Free Packaging program to reduce packaging and waste). So if you’re going to shop anyway, buy online!

I figured I’d spice up your Black Friday with a few gift recommendations (plus I love playing with Amazon Widgets).. Here’s a few for those hard to buy for people:
Amazon.com Widgets

Also, gift ideas for preschoolers! My 3 year old being my source of expertise for this.
Amazon.com Widgets
(Gifts for 3 yr olds)

Finally, for the crafty woman (or man!) on your list. Crafty Books that I either have read or are in my plan…
Amazon.com Widgets

This is “Highlights from Proto-Dabbled.  Before I started this blog, I had a Live Journal, and these are some of the projects I posted there:

I seem to need a deadline, and christmas was the one for this one. I had the idea of doing these rollup chalkboard placemats months in advance for kid xmas gifts, but of course it was the last minute before they were finished. Details and original post here.

From Proto-Dabbled:

Behold my crafty-ness
For those who have been paying attention, i was lamenting my lack of ability for my ideas to fully translate into reality. Anyway, since the presents have now been given, i saw reveal the gift. I had the idea of making ‘placemat/blackboards’. I took oilcloth on one side, and chalkboard cloth on the other, sewed on some little cute shapes and a pocket to hold chalk, to make a little portable drawing pad. This was the prototype placemat blackboard – this one was given to Sarah. I made one for Erin too (i think it’s actually a little better done. my big concern is that they aren’t as sturdy as i’d hoped, so i hope they stay together!