I need more tutoring students.

I have been tutoring math students ever since Tyler was a few months old.  And I love it.  One year I had about 8-10 appointments a week, but lately it was more like 3-5.  And right now I am down to one.

Apparently it is not enough.

Last week I noticed that some fabric in Wal-mart I had been debating on making a church bag out of went on clearance.  So I got some.  And made a church bag on a Sunday afternoon.  My old bag was a bit awkward to carry, very non-descript, and bigger than it needs to be right now.  Right now I just need my little manual, a couple of small toys for the kids, and my ipod (which has my scriptures on it).  I was especially happy that the ipod will now have its own pocket, rather than floating around with my keys and books.  I used a free pattern online - well, actually, I spent an hour and made that pattern bigger so that it would fit the books I needed it to fit.  And changed the pleats a bit.

But as I admired my new, awesome bag, I realized that I don't wear brown that often.  A majority of my church outfits are worn with black shoes.  Which would make this bag not quite as awesome.  So I took another afternoon, and made another bag.  That's what any sane person would do, right?

I think the total cost for both was under $10.  You can see I even dug into my leather stash for the black one.

Then, I had a few friends over to make hairbows.  You'd think that would get the crafting out of my system, but no.

Made by Rae does a month long event every year called "Celebrate the Boy", and they feature some really awesome ideas.  I saw the car cosy and debated on making one for Tyler, but then in church yesterday Tyler sealed the deal.  He loves running little matchbox cars on everything in sight - it is kinda his security thing.  And he was doing that yesterday when I gave him the small doodle pad to play with.  He happily took the doodle pad, drew a dashed line down the middle, and then ran his car along his new "road".

Yup, time to make the kid a real road.  Once again, I altered the tutorial a lot.  I didn't see any reason to pack along 6 matchbox cars.  That's just more toys to get lost.  Two would do, and that gives more room for road.  I also made the pockets a little bigger so that the construction-y vehicles would fit, not just the streamlined sportscars.  This is what it looks like all rolled up.  I went with a truck that has button wheels, and put the velcro off to the side.  And added a handle so Tyler can carry it.

And then it unrolls to this.  The best part of this project, to me, is that it was free.  The fabric was all from my scrap bin - the black suit material from the vests a couple weeks ago, flannel from pajamas I made in college, a handle leftover from the Digibags, etc.  It might not be super-cute car fabric, but I think it works just fine.

But most importantly, Tyler loves it!  This will be great to stick in my purse and pull out when we get somewhere.  He loves running the cars on the road, and even seems to like how they have a "garage" to park in too.

I would try and tell you I am going off crafts for a while, but my next project is even bigger.  It is high time I tackled a quilt that I have had the fabric kicking around in my basement for over the past couple of years.  I've never done a quilt before, so I guess we'll see how this goes!