Bandana Bracelet DIY

A little over a year ago, our little pomeranian named Sugar had to be put down because of her many health issues. She was 7 years old and we were very sad to have to let our sweet princess go to dog heaven.

Yep, she was pretty adorable. 

Whenever Sugar went to the groomer, she would always come back with a cute bandana around her neck. We threw away most of them after they got worn out, but a few of them were in pretty good shape. We had about 4 left after she died, and it wasn't until today that I decided to do something with them. I already had the idea to make bracelets, so that's what I did!

I took three of them and decided to braid them together. I lined them up and used a ruler to draw a straight line across them.

Then cut...

Then I tied them together at the top and taped them to my desk.

Then I started braiding...

I braided pretty loosely because I wanted the patterns to still sort of be seen. I estimated about how long I'd need it to be for my wrist and then tied it off. 

At this point I wasn't completely sure how to tie it into the bracelet form, but I ended up taking a scrap piece of fabric and using it to tie the ends together. Then I cut off some of what was left, leaving some hanging off and looking a bit like a bow.

And tada!

I personally like how it looks! And the fabric is somewhat stretchy so I was able to just slip it over my hand and onto my arm. 

Here's Sugar wearing two of the bandanas I used in this project:

She stuck her tongue out a lot.

So now I have a cute little bracelet to keep a memory of her with me. 

Tomorrow I'll post a step-by-step of making a headband out of one of these bandanas with the help of my seamstress sister. 

Bunnies and Birds and Chipmunks, Oh My!

It's been so nice outside the past few days and I've enjoyed eating my lunch on our back patio. The best thing about this is how entertaining our back yard is. It's so full of life and nature. We have butterflies, bunnies, chipmunks, birds, woodpeckers, and hummingbirds. Oh yeah, and squirrels, but we don't like them as much.

On Wednesday I sat outside to eat and watched a little bunny hop all around, eat some grass, chase a chipmunk, and plop down on her side in the dirt. I read somewhere that bunnies only lay on their sides when they're comfortable in their environment. We do have a beagle, but she's twelve years old and going deaf and blind, so she's not much of a threat except to the newborns. I also watched some hummingbirds dive bomb each other, fighting over the feeders. 

Yesderday I sat outside again. No bunnies were out to play, but I was wearing a red shirt and a couple hummingbirds came very close to check me out. One of them buzzed all around my head. Another got about three feet away from me to look at me in between her trips to the feeder. 

I'm sitting outside again now, and so far I've encountered a bunny cleaning her face and then disappearing the next time I looked up, a huge flock of little birds that flew away at the same time when I moved my arm, three mourning doves that went to land on the patio until they noticed me and flew away, a red belly woodpecker that just flew by and landed in a tree, and some really loud dive bombing hummingbirds. They're so cute when they chirp! So yeah, we have a really active back yard. 

Mom and I are really happy that the hummingbirds finally showed up this summer. (Hello, titmouse!) We were worried the cold winter might have wiped them out. But now we have at least three that come and go. 

Titmouse enjoying the feeder:

The coolest thing ever just happened while I was out there! A bunny was literally in petting range. I heard a rustling behind me, and I turned around and there was a bunny just a couple feet away!

I couldn't get a picture of her so close, but she casually hopped across the patio until I turned the camera towards her and she got spooked and ran off. 

This is where she sat until I stood up and she ran further away. Sorry for scaring you, bun! That was crazy though, I'd never been so close to a wild bunny.

It's so ironic that it happened in the process of writing this post! 

I tried to get a picture of the hummingbirds, but they were too fast.