e&g creations: None other than (drum roll please)... "My first post!"

Hello Blog World!! I am really saying hello to myself, as no one evens knows of this blog yet. I have been contemplating for while to begin a blog. My reason for wanting to start to blog is really pretty selfish - for myself. I *think* that this might be a good way to track the projects that I have done and also a way for me to prioritize the projects that I want to complete. I also have found some really amazing blogs and would love to share my excitement for those blogs with others!

I first stumbled upon blogs about a year ago (I know, I know...I am behind the times). My son was going to start kindgergarten and he needed a nap mat. I could have bought the traditional plastic version, but I just couldn't bare the thought of spending my money on something so unoriginal. I searched the stores for patterns and could not find any...so I turned to the Net. I stumbled upon Jenny Garland's site with a Nap Mat Tutorial . While I did not precisely follow her pattern, I immediately feel in love with her site and all of the projects that she had documented. I found it very inspiring to look at her projects - and then think of projects that I could complete. I now have several blogs that I look at on a regular (okay - daily) basis.

Below are pics of that first project via a blog. I started this project the afternoon before my son started a week-long kindergarten summer school. I, of course (crazy lady that I am), wanted to get the project done before summer school started. Jenny's pattern calls for using foam for the nap mat. If I were making this again, I would definitely go that route. However, I did not have any foam on hand - but I did have quite a bit of batting on hand (from another project that I don't recall now). So I decided to use several layers of batting for the "body" of the mat. I also did not have any velcro so opted for buttons for keep the map together once rolled. The batting was a nightmare to get through my machine (because it was soo thick), however, I was satisfied with the end result (not perfect and lots of room for improvement, but satisfied none the less). My son used this mat every day of kindergarten and it still has lots of life left. Too bad that his little sister probably won't appreciate the Cars motif when it is her turn for kindergarten!

The finished product - all rolled up!