This is why we save every button that ever came off anything.

Plus, since I save lengths of ribbon and scraps of fabric I can probably make like five more of these before I run out of buttons.

For the baby's room, which did not need another piece of decor (shrug), I stretched scrap of grey herringbone over some foamcore and added black ribbon before gluing on the buttons.

It will sit on the highest shelf of his bookcase until the day I disassemble it because it is without a doubt the most dangerous thing in the room - what with the chewable foam, sharp pins, toxic glue, and throat-sized buttons.

For when you lose one mitten.

Aaaand when you don't care what your baby's mittens look like ...

Cut the sleeves off an old baby outfit that has cuffs and sew the top shut. Add a little fleece liner if you want to be fancy about it.

Cat-dog gets a new bed.

So about 15 years ago, my mom had this grand scheme to teach me how to sew by helping me make a tshirt quilt. We got a large piece of fleece for the backing and cut out rectangles from all the tshirts I had acquired in junior and senior high school (summer camps, school spirit events, badminton team - that kind of thing). Then we threw all these pieces into plastic bags to save for when we'd have more time to work on the project.

I *may* still have the tshirt scraps in the bag stashed under the basement stairs. Stupid depression-era rationale all running in the family and ruining any chance any of us has at ever being tidy, normal people. 

But wait! I knew I saved that stuff for a reason (other than my mom never letting me forget it if I had done something drastic and recycled it all).

 I took a cheapo pillow and used some of the fleece to make Penny a bed for the living room. My hope was that she'd take the reasonable opportunities to get in my lap (i.e. when it's empty) and STOP trying to take non-opportunities (i.e. when I'm on the laptop while feeding the baby). I mean, a nice cozy pillow bed is way better than someone constantly shoving you aside so your ears, eyes, and fur don't get scratched, gouged, or yanked.

What will I do with the rest of the fleece? I'll recycle it. There was a problem with that whole "measure twice, cut once" thing.